Comments on: Authenticity Part 3b: Forgiveness and Anger http://www.jrdkirk.com/2010/01/25/authenticity-part-3b-forgiveness-and-anger/ Telling the story of the story-bound God Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:08:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: J. R. Daniel Kirk http://www.jrdkirk.com/2010/01/25/authenticity-part-3b-forgiveness-and-anger/#comment-69 J. R. Daniel Kirk Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:24:48 +0000 http://www.jrdkirk.com/?p=95#comment-69 You ask a good question, Kyle. I think that your instinct is right: I sometimes say things to be provocative. :) What do you mean that this time the center is Jesus himself? It may be that our individualistic world of worship is a defining trait of what "worship" is that I'm responding to. Seriously, would anybody in America think that they should skip Sunday morning just to go be reconciled with someone who's mad at them? You ask a good question, Kyle. I think that your instinct is right: I sometimes say things to be provocative. :)

What do you mean that this time the center is Jesus himself?

It may be that our individualistic world of worship is a defining trait of what “worship” is that I’m responding to. Seriously, would anybody in America think that they should skip Sunday morning just to go be reconciled with someone who’s mad at them?

]]> By: Kyle Fever http://www.jrdkirk.com/2010/01/25/authenticity-part-3b-forgiveness-and-anger/#comment-67 Kyle Fever Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:28:44 +0000 http://www.jrdkirk.com/?p=95#comment-67 DanIEL, (are you annyoed by this yet?) :-) Worship with God takes a "back seat." I get your main point here. I don't know you well enough yet, but I wonder if you are trying to stir your readers' minds a bit here more than anything else. But my initial thought is that I don't know if I agree with the "back seat" language. I don't know if Jesus would ever place worship of God as a back seat sort of thing. I understand that worship as understood by popular American Christianity in terms of an individual between me-and-God-thing misses what true worship is about. But, I wonder if Jesus here is simply making it clear that the worship of God is never disconnected from one's relationships and actions toward others among God's people. Could it be that one of the take-home points in this passage is not that worship of God takes a back seat to forgiveness and just relationships with others, but rather that worship of God is defined by this sort of living that Jesus is proposing? To borrow your words, is Jesus perhaps saying that true worship of God is this: participating in a community that "is living into the reconciled relationships that God himself establishes with us." Putting it this way, worship takes no back seat. Jesus just defines what worship is really all about, as did the prophets (Isaiah 1:13-18; Amos 5:21-24). But this time the center is Jesus himself. Thanks for the post. I'll be thinking about it some more.... Kyle DanIEL, (are you annyoed by this yet?) :-)

Worship with God takes a “back seat.” I get your main point here. I don’t know you well enough yet, but I wonder if you are trying to stir your readers’ minds a bit here more than anything else. But my initial thought is that I don’t know if I agree with the “back seat” language. I don’t know if Jesus would ever place worship of God as a back seat sort of thing. I understand that worship as understood by popular American Christianity in terms of an individual between me-and-God-thing misses what true worship is about. But, I wonder if Jesus here is simply making it clear that the worship of God is never disconnected from one’s relationships and actions toward others among God’s people. Could it be that one of the take-home points in this passage is not that worship of God takes a back seat to forgiveness and just relationships with others, but rather that worship of God is defined by this sort of living that Jesus is proposing? To borrow your words, is Jesus perhaps saying that true worship of God is this: participating in a community that “is living into the reconciled relationships that God himself establishes with us.” Putting it this way, worship takes no back seat. Jesus just defines what worship is really all about, as did the prophets (Isaiah 1:13-18; Amos 5:21-24). But this time the center is Jesus himself.
Thanks for the post. I’ll be thinking about it some more….

Kyle

]]> By: Brian White http://www.jrdkirk.com/2010/01/25/authenticity-part-3b-forgiveness-and-anger/#comment-65 Brian White Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:44:27 +0000 http://www.jrdkirk.com/?p=95#comment-65 I've never noticed the way worship of God takes a backseat to relation with one another. It seems most days of studying that the Christian is more difficult than I could possibly want to imagine. With this overwhelming realization, an equal hope sets in with the story of Christ and Paul's drive. It makes life difficult, but what else is there? I’ve never noticed the way worship of God takes a backseat to relation with one another. It seems most days of studying that the Christian is more difficult than I could possibly want to imagine. With this overwhelming realization, an equal hope sets in with the story of Christ and Paul’s drive. It makes life difficult, but what else is there?

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