Today's Sermon:

Exclusion and Embrace

First- Identity

“When God comes, God brings a whole new world. The Spirit of God breaks through the self-enclosed worlds we inhabit; the Spirit recreates us and sets us on the road to becoming…a microcosm of the eschatological new creation.”-Volf, 51

Second- Recognition

“From a distance, the world may appear neatly divided into guilty perpetrators and innocent victims. The closer we get, however, the more the line between the guilty and the innocent blurs and we see an intractable maze of small and large hatreds, dishonesties, manipulations, and brutalities, each reinforcing each other…Intertwined through the wrongdoing committed and suffered, the victim and violator are bound in the tragic and self-perpetuating solidarity of sin.”-Volf

Third- Repent

“Our brains are wired for connection, but trauma rewires them for protection. That is why healthy relationships are difficult for wounded people.”-Ryan North

“Most of us when we are victims need to repent of what the perpetrators do to our soul. Victims need to repent of the fact that all too often they mimic the behavior of the oppressors, let themselves be shaped in the mirror image of the enemy. They need to repent also of the desire to excuse their own reactive behavior either by claiming that they are not responsible for it or that such reactions are a necessary condition of liberation….Even under the onslaught of extreme brutality, an inner realm of freedom to shape one’s self must be defended as a sanctuary of a person’s humanity. Though victims may not be able to prevent hate from springing to life, for their own sake they can and must refuse to give it nourishment and strive to weed it out. If victims do not repent today they will become perpetrators tomorrow who, in their own self-deceit, will see to exculpate (excuse) their misdeed on account of their own victimization.”-Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 117

Fourth- Truth

Fifth- Forgive

Sixth- Trust

Seventh- Forget

Eighth- Embrace

“We, the others- we, the enemies- are embraced by the divine persons who love us with the same love with which they love each other and therefore make space for us within their own eternal embrace…We who have been embraced by the outstretched arms of the crucified God open our arms even for the enemies- to make space in ourselves for them and invite them in- so that together we may rejoice in the eternal embrace of the triune God”-Volf, 129, 131

Ninth- Confidence

“Without entrusting oneself to the God who judges righteously, it will hardly be possible to follow the crucified Messiah and refuse to retaliate when abused. The certainty of God’s just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it…The only way in which nonviolence and forgiveness will be possible in a world of violence is through displacement or transference of violence, not its complete relinquishment.”-Volf

Tenth- Refocus

Eleventh- Hope

Twelfth- Display