Wafting my way through a local Cracker Barrel store, floating on waves of perfumed candles and other inedibles, my eye caught this little hand painted plaque. It wasn't till I got out to my van and was about to start the engine that it registered, and I found myself wandering back in to take a picture. "My wife may be interested in this," I sorta lied to the lady behind the counter, "But I always take a picture first." Well, it wasn't technically a lie, although if I were to present this to Deb as a gift I'd be greeted by a disbelieving goggle, followed by a chuckle, followed by its being tossed into the recyclables. It is the theology behind it that intrigued me, motivating me to slog back in to the C Barrel, make my excuse, and snap the picture. Have we finally found the succinct, theological summary of neo-evangelicalism? C'mon, confessional Lutherans, expound!
Or is it just too obvious?
Come to mull on it, this plaque describes the starting point of Roman Catholicism as well, doesn't it?
5 comments:
That's... yeah, that's pretty much neo-evangelicalism in a nutshell. Though... do Roman Catholics believe in joy?
Now, now, that's just plain anti-papal.
I was taught in my very first Lutheran adult confirmation class (I've had to be remediated several times, it seems) that the "startingbpoint" of RC theology is love. God's love; our love of God. As opposed, you know, to "our" starting point, which is the doctrine of J. So love, joy? Sort of in the same ballpark. One plays center field, the other kicks field goals.
And here I would have thought it reversed ... Faith begets Joy, not Joy begets Faith.
Faith is water; Joy the sunshine; dogma is the compost. I Am the seed.
"dogma is the compost. I Am the seed."
How true ...
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