“If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshiped.”
From: Evelyn Underhill
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Category Archives: Quotation
Stopping – Walter Brueggemann
Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.
From: Walter Brueggemann
Spiritual Blunders – Frederick Buechner
“The Word became flesh,” wrote John, “and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). That is what incarnation means. It is untheological. It is unsophisticated. It is undignified. But according to Christianity it is the way things are.
All religions and philosophies which deny the reality or the significance of the material, the fleshly, the earth-bound, are themselves denied. Moses at the burning bush was told to take off his shoes because the ground on which he stood was holy ground (Exodus 3:5), and incarnation means that all ground is holy ground because God not only made it but walked on it, ate and slept and worked and died on it. If we are saved anywhere, we are saved here. And what is saved is not some diaphanous distillation of our bodies and our earth but our bodies and our earth themselves. Jerusalem becomes the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven like a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2). Our bodies are sown perishable and raised imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42).
One of the blunders religious people are particularly fond of making is the attempt to be more spiritual than God.
From: Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p 55 ( www.frederickbuechner.com/content/wishful-thinking-page-55 )
A Sustained Act – A W Tozer
For the Christian, everything begins and ends in worship. Whatever interferes with one’s personal worship of God needs to be properly dealt with and dismissed. Keep in mind that above all else, worship is an attitude, a state of mind, and a sustained act … an inward act of the heart toward God.
My heavenly Father, I begin today in joyful worship. Thou hast called me, and I answer thee in praise and adoration.
From: A. W. Tozer, My Daily Pursuit: Devotions for Every Day
Invitation to Stop – Wendell Berry
Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. It asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help. It invites us to delight in the world’s beauty and abundance.
From: Wendell Berry
Manger and Kingdom – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is no longer a worldly throne and kingdom as it once was but a spiritual throne and kingdom.
Where are Jesus’ throne and kingdom?
They are where he himself is present, reigns, and governs with his word and sacrament, in the church, in the congregation….
We are called into this kingdom. We can find it, within the church, in the community of the faithful, when we receive the word and sacrament of the Lord Jesus Christ and submit to his authority, when we recognize the child in the manger as our Savior and Redeemer and let him bestow on us a new life grounded in love.
From: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Works, v 16, p 616, “Christmas Night Sermon, 25 December 1940”.
(Find a couple of questions at Disciples’ Walk.)
Delight – C S Lewis
The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.
From: C. S. Lewis
Giving Up – Marva J Dawn
A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us—not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives.
From: Marva J. Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly (see – http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2008/03/17/voice-day-sabbath )
Imperfect – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.
From: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons
Check DisciplesWalk.org for a few comments.
Joy of Advent – Jamie L. Cardinal Sin
The joy of Advent is a joy born of eager expectation and waiting: waiting for something good, in fact, something wonderful. It is waiting for something sure. And what is sure? That God, the God who once came in Jesus, will come to us again. The joy of Advent springs from expecting him who came before “to build his tent in our midst” as one of us, and who will come again and again. It is a joy that springs from hope.
From: Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila