This Week in Church: Questions, Knowing, and Cruciform Righteousness

Welcome to the series wherein I share my take-aways from church. The things that, I think, are beneficial to all of us to know or think about, whether or not we believe in any church-related things.

This week in church we talked about questions.

This was a bit of a throwaway, but the pastor mentioned at the beginning of the service that pastors-in-training are taught to not raise questions in the sermon that they aren't going to answer. Then he went on to raise a bunch of questions he didn't answer.

I just want to say, HOORAY! Raising questions you can't answer is a great idea! How else are you going to learn things???

This week in church we talked about knowing God.

The quote is, "If knowing God is your intention, you have to go where God is."

It's one of those things that seems really obvious with regards to anything - if you want to know someone or something, you have to go to where it is. But then on further thought, how often do we actually do that? How often do we look at someone from a distance and think, "I would like to know them, I hope they come over where I am," and then don't actually move or put in effort or leave our comfort zone. Maybe we should do that more.

This week in church we talked about cruciform righteousness.

It's righteousness that sacrifice. We talked about it in the context of a culture of blame and victimization. I want it to be clear that I think this is an AMAZING reminder/lesson/lifestyle for those of us who are living in a comfortable place. HOWEVER, I worry that it could be a dangerous concept for those who are truly oppressed. How much are they supposed to take in? Sure, Jesus was crucified, and he's supposed to be an example to follow, but he was crucified for fulfilling his mission in life, not for mere existence.

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