Tonight our group will conclude our discussion of Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace . I am just going to share a few select quotes from the last three chapters:
From Chapter 18 - "Serpent Wisdom"
"...a coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church."
"President Eisenhower told the nation in 1954, 'Our government makes no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith- and I don't care what it is.'"
"Religion defines evil and gives people the moral strength to resist. As 'the conscience of the state,' we help inform the world about justice and righteousness....In that civic sense, Eisenhower was right: society needs religion, and it matters little what kind."
"We dare not ... forget the last part of [the] aphorism: while a coziness between church and state may be good for the state, it is bad for the church. Herein lies the chief danger to grace: the state, which runs by the rules of ungrace, gradually drowns out the church's sublime message of grace."
"Insatiable for power, the state may well decide that the church could prove even more useful if the state controlled it."
"The cozier it gets with government, the more watered down its message becomes. The gospel itself changes as it devolves into civil religion."
"In sum, the state must always water down the absolute quality of Jesus' commands and turn them into a form of external morality - precisely the opposite of the gospel of grace."
"Read the Sermon on the Mount and try to imagine any government enacting that set of laws."
(I find it hard to imagine any church enacting that set of laws. -tony-)
"A state government can shut down stores and theaters on Sunday, but it cannot compel worship. It can arrest and punish KKK murderers, but cannot cure their hatred, much less teach them love. It can pass laws making divorce more difficult but cannot force husbands to love their wives and wives their husbands. It can give subsidies to the poor but cannot force the rich to show them compassion and justice. It can ban adultery but not lust, theft but not covetousness, cheating but not pride. It can encourage virture but not holiness."
Chapter 19 - "Patches of Green"
"Gallop polls say eighty-three percent of Americans believe the nation is in moral decline."
"Once a Christian consensus has faded, once religious faith has been snipped away from society, what happens then?"
"A renewal of spirituality in the United States will not descend from the top down; if it occurs at all, it will start at the grass roots and grow from the bottom up."
"Jesus' images portray the kingdom as a kind of secret force. Sheep among wolves, treasure hidden in a field, the tiniest seed in the garden, wheat growing among the weeds, a pinch of yeast worked into bread dough, a sprinkling of salt on meat - all these hint at a movement that workd within society, changing it from the inside out. you do not need a shovelful of salt to preserve a slab of ham; a dusting will suffice.
Jesus did not leave an organized host of followers, for he knew that a handful of salt would gradually work its way through the mightiest empire in the world. Against all odds, the great institutions of Rome - the law code, libraries, the Senate, Romand legions, roads, aqueducts, public monuments - gradually crumbles, but the little band to whom Jesus gave these images prevailed and continues on today.
Soren Kierkegaard described himself as a spy, and indeed Christians behave like spies, living in one world while our deepest allegiance belongs to another. We are resident aliens, or sojourners, to use a biblical phrase."
"All too often the church holds up a mirror reflecting back the society around it, rather than a window revealing a different way.
If the world despises a notorious sinner, the church will love her. If the world cuts off aid to the poor and the suffering, the church will offer food and healing. If the world oppresses, the church will raise up the oppressed. If the world shames a social outcast, the church will proclaim God's reconciling love. If the world seeks profit and self-fulfillment, the church seeks sacrifice and service. If the world demands retribution, the church dispenses grace. If the world splinters into factions, the church joins together in unity. If the world destroys its enemies, the church loves them."
I wonder if he sees the same church that I see. I think there should be a "should" entered after every entry for "church" in that paragraph, because while the church should do all those things, I don't believe that we can make an absolute statement that the church does in fact do those things. -tony-
"Some observers have called the United States the most religious nation on earth. If true...shouldn't a quarter pound of salt be having more effect on a pound of meat?
Surely a peculiar people should demonstrate a higher standard of personal ethics than the surrounding world."
"Far from being peculiar, modern Christians tend to look just like everyone else, only more so. Unless our personal ethics rise above the level around us, we can hardly hope to act as a moral preservative."
Chapter 20 - "Gravity and Grace"
"I escape the force of spiritual 'gravity' when I begin to see myself as a sinner who cannot please God by any method of self-improvement or self-enlargement. Only then can I turn to God for outside help - for grace - and to my amazement I learn that a holy God already loves me despite my defects. I escape the force of gravity again when I recognize my neighbors also as sinners, loved by God."
"We creatures, we jolly beggars, give glory to God by our dependence. Our wounds and defects are the very fissures through which grace might pass. It is our human destiny on earth to be imperfect, incomplete, weak, and mortal, and only by accepting that destiny can we escape the force of gravity and recieve grace. Only then can we grow close to God.
Strangely, God is closer to sinners than to 'saints'. (By saints I mean those people renowned for their piety - true saints never lose sight of their sinfulness.) As one lecturer in spirituality explains it, 'God in heaven holds each person by a string. When you sin, you cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot - and thereby bringing you a little closer to him. Again and again your sins cut the string - and with each further knot God keeps drawing you closer and closer.'"
"Church should be a haven for people who feel terrible about themselves - theologically, that is our ticket for entry. God needs humble people (which usually means humbled people) to accomplish his work. Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority, that is gravity, not grace."
"...church should exist for those who need its help, and not for those who by their own profession are so good already that it is they who help the church"
'nuff said...
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