John Wright, a Nazarene pastor in San Diego, has an excellent post today on the situation in the Middle East. He writes:
It was hot here and humid in the middle of the night. It woke me up, and I came down to the internet. I went to Zenit.org/english and saw that Benedict XVIth had a sermon posted from last weeks Ephesians reading. I want to cut and paste it into this post. Benedict here reads the Scriptures profoundly well; John Howard Yoder could not have said this better; it makes Stanley Hauerwas' sermons sound like George Weigel. Here is the Bishop of Rome stating clearly that the way of Jesus Christ, the way of God's response to the violence of the world is the church, called together in the Eucharist, as a oasis of peace scattered through direct action in works of love throughout the world. Our response is God's call for evangelism, to call people to the God who is Love as seen in Jesus Christ to faith in this very particular Jesus. The Pope even uses the n-word in his sermon -- nonviolence as the means by which God conquers the violence of the world.
This is an incredibly profound sermon, remarkable, moving. Benedict chose his name to promote peace in the world. He recognizes that this peace, Christian peace, can only emerge in a commitment in faith to Jesus Christ and therefore, the God of Love who has defeated death, not with retaliatory death, but through non-violent love.
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