Comments on: The Alphabet of Grace: W is for Weirdos

By: Ada V.

Ada V. — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 18:07:00 +0000

In reply to Michael Frost. It's easy enough to do, since it's tradition. I do too.

By: Michael Frost

Michael Frost — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 23:13:26 +0000

In reply to Ada V.. Good point, well made, Ada. I do try to avoid the masculine pronoun but I completely overlooked that on this occasion. You were right to pick me up on it.

By: Ada V.

Ada V. — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 18:27:42 +0000

Great post! Everyone has forgotten that Christianity & God are weird!
I have 1 quibble. You said:
“God is not an American. God is not middle class. God is not black. Or poor. Or rich. Or Southern Baptist. Or Pentecostal. Or Republican. Or any of the other containers we try to put him in. He’s an eccentric God, and an eccentric God is free – truly, utterly free.”
This is true & utterly mind boggling. However, there was 1 label you still claim God has to fit into –
That God is He. A Him. Masculine.
This isn’t what the Bible says.
I realize it’s easy to do this because everyone does this, but it’s not correct from a logical standpoint if you really believe what the Bible says.
Keep in mind too, how harmful claiming God is ONLY masculine to people who are not men (again, think of the logical conclusions. God is masculine, men are also masculine, women are not masculine, therefore women are not like God in the same way or as much as men are.)
She Who Is by: Elizabeth Johnson makes this painfully obvious in the 1st few chapters (though I don’t agree with her on everything.)
But in the Bible:
1st, Genesis clearly states both men & women are created in the image of God (this includes people who don’t want or aren’t easily labeled as such).
2, yes Jesus was a man & also God. But if you argue that you’d also have to say God is also Jewish, & a carpenter.
3, God is beyond comprehension, thus the Bible uses all sorts of metaphors to describe God / God uses such metaphors. Including feminine ones (such as midwife & mother bird & bear) & elements such as fire, wind, a burning bush, etc.
3, God says this when talking to Moses out of the burning bush, when Moses asks God’s name (Exodus 3:14)
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
I AM is gender neutral.
Don’t know what else to say. Sounds clear to me.

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 18:05:47 +0000

The I am.

The soul.

By: Merran Peter

Merran Peter — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 08:35:39 +0000

For some of us who have grown up in the church and followed the mainstream church life for decades, it can be a crisis when it finally dawns that we are a square peg in a round hole.
From being a youth leader, constant attendee, committee member and Elder of the UC, my faith was not healthy, for many reasons. Having gradually stopped going to church, my faith is stronger in Jesus, God and His Holy Spirit. I’m not against the church but I don’t think the church is serious in looking at people and life outside its walls and treating everyone with love. Love your writing and your heart, Mike.
Keep the faith!

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 06:16:24 +0000

When he first entered the shed, he saw a beam and looked at the luminous band of brightness filled with floating specks of dust. But when he moved over to the beam and looked along it, he gained a very different perspective. Suddenly he saw not the beam but framed in the window of the shed, green leaves moving on branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 93 million miles away, the sun. Looking at the beam and looking along the beam are quite different.

To the bystanders at Pentecost it resembled drunkenness, to scientists a hysteria or nervous disorder. How can a natural action of the vocal cords express the supernatural indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God?

By: Dave Berlach

Dave Berlach — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 03:30:38 +0000

Love this Mike – thanks for the reminder. These are some rousing and inspiring words… reads like a good manifesto!