The Presbyterian Outlook

News and Articles from the The Presbyterian Outlook

Top Search/Contact Area

Easter still matters

by

When Leslie Newbigin served as the Bishop of Madras, India, visiting pastors, theologians and denominational leaders rang at his door for a meeting with the intellectual and pastoral star of the ecumenical movement, before catching their flight home. Newbigin’s home was conveniently on the way to the airport, which only increased traffic. He graciously invited in the unsolicited visitors for tea despite his busy schedule. Many guests inevitably asked him for his opinion on the still toddler-aged Church of South India – an ecumenical church formed in 1947 from several Protestant churches and of which Newbigin played a vital role and had been appointed as one of its first bishops (serving from 1965-1974). Some were skeptical, waiting for the seams of integration to fray in due time. He answered them, “I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and therefore the question doesn’t arise. In regard to a fact, one is not optimistic or pessimistic. One is believing or unbelieving.” I imagine … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Easter

Expecting

by

For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. - Romans 8:22   My wife has been in labor for 20 hours but the boy's not ready for his revealing What's he waiting for? I shuffle back and forth, from my wife’s bedside to the waiting room, where both mothers are wondering if they should stay put or run some quick errands, they ask, What time does the doctor say? I say, Anytime. A n y     t i m e         k e e p s             s t r e t c h i n g. Earthquakes of the womb are getting longer and frequent.   She refuses epidural and Demerol; going to go the old fashioned way, hicks breathing. How can counting counter pain? hee-hee-whoo-whoo hee-hee-whoo-whoo In the waiting room, our mothers are watching reruns of “Friends.” A child is going to rearrange your friends, a father of two told us when we told him we are expecting, every car a death machine, each window a death … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Advent

Is justification by faith justifying racism? A word from the Prophet Bonhoeffer

by

  Guest commentary by Samuel Son For five Sundays, the new worshipping community that I serve (New Life Triangle) did a series on why the gospel spells the end of racism. When I share this commitment, some share a concern that all of this social ethic is a new work-salvation – legalism dressed in the fashionable “justice” suit. The accusation comes in the cushion of a question. But I wonder if this suspicion of social justice is a symptom of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called in his most famous work, “Cost of Discipleship,” cheapening of grace that shaves the Gospel into a single doctrine, Justification by Faith. Is the idolatry of Justification by Faith actually justifying injustice? Dietrich Bonhoeffer published “The Cost of Discipleship” in 1937 when the Nazi’s consolidation of power was nearly complete. Four years earlier in 1933, Paul Von Hidenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor of Germany. When Hidenburg died on August 2, 1934, Hitler merged the offices of the … [Read more...]

Relax, seminarian: You belong to God

by

Guest Outpost blog by Samuel Son This week we asked our bloggers to share three things they would have liked to tell themselves before starting seminary. Here are their thoughts. Dear Sam of some years ago (no need to be exact in our count) ready to become a Master of Divinity, First of all: relax, you are not there to prove anything. I know, coming from a small-town Christian college, you hear anyone’s comment on college years as questioning the legitimacy of your B.A. Because who ever heard of Nyack? “Is that a college in Estonia?” “No, upstate New York. Nestled under the Tappan Zee Bridge. Nyack.” “Never heard of Kyack.” At least your B.A. is in English and not in Biblical studies. Now you are in the big leagues. Princeton Theological Seminary. Even the city, “Princeton” sounds royal. You have somehow gotten to an elite theological school, which is the only reason your father let you go to seminary – because he was set on stopping your from becoming a pauper … [Read more...]

Tagged With: pre-seminary advice • theological education

Small budgets = Sizable faith

by

When I was 10, I found a pigeon in my apartment, cooing, hiding and relieving itself behind an old behemoth speaker. I was used to roaches in our fourth floor, two-bedroom, elevator-less apartment. In our absence, the roaches threw a party and hundreds mosh-pitted. When we flipped on the light, those black marbles would disperse like drunk teenagers hearing a police siren. You get used to that scurrying mass of insects – such is the power of human adaptability. My two younger brothers and I made a game of it (such is the power of children’s creativity): Who can squash the most? But a pigeon! How did it get in? All the windows were shut. It could not have taken the route of the roaches (who probably had an immense network behind the walls giving them access to all the food in our pantry). Then the spirit of St. Francis warmed me. I was born to free that poor imprisoned pigeon. Somehow it trapped itself in our apartment and it was leaving white droplets as evidence of stress. My … [Read more...]

Tagged With: stewardship

The gospel is the end of racism

by

Guest commentary by Samuel Son “Black lives matter.” That’s how I started my sermon on July 10th, the Sunday after the withering week of the murder of two black men and five cops. A few days later, Chad Chapman, our praise leader, sent an email attached with a screenshot of a Facebook comment on the sermon from the Kiser family. It was their second visit. Nervous, I scanned the subject line for a hint, and even considered ignoring it. I expected heat. I wrestled with the sermon. From the first word, it wrote itself differently than I anticipated. My sentences are usually long with, I admit, haughty Latinates, vestiges from my seminary days. The sentences I typed were short, guttural and bare. Shorn of hesitating conditionals and conjunctions, the words felt naked, vulnerable and muscular. And I “heard” the opening sentence: “Black lives matter.” Even to the second I stood up to preach, I debated if that truth might be heard better if I worked up to it. I stood up, … [Read more...]

CONTACT US: