I find this thought from Wolfhart Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 290-3) about the Lord's Supper and what it says about the church a challenging one. As he sees it, the church is the
fellowship that celebrates the Lord’s Supper. I think he makes a very important
point for the church today, especially the denominations that have a long
organizational history. The supper of the Lord is a reminder that the church
has its existence outside itself, prior to its organizational forms as a
fellowship that is constituted in specific ways. By the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper, the church renews its fellowship by representing and repeating
its grounding in the supper of the Lord. For him, these are the far-reaching
implications of the constitutive significance of the supper of Jesus for the
church. To stress it again, prior to any organizational form, the church
celebrated the supper of the Lord, which is a sign of the fellowship with Jesus
Christ that each Christian receives in the form of bread and wine and unites
all Christians for fellowship with each other in the unity of the body of
Christ. To apply this thought in my own
way, the supper of the Lord is a reminder to us today that denominational
history and their distinguishing characteristics are not the heart of the
fellowship. The supper of the Lord is a reminder that fellowship with Christ as
the risen Lord and fellowship with each other is the heart of the church.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Reagan, Romney, and Obama
Krauthammer
If Obama loses, however, his presidency becomes a historical parenthesis, a passing interlude of overreaching hyper-liberalism, rejected by a center-right country that is 80 percent nonliberal.
Should they summon the skill and dexterity, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan could guide the country to the restoration of a more austere and modest government with more restrained entitlements and a more equitable and efficient tax code. Those achievements alone would mark a new trajectory — a return to what Reagan started three decades ago.
Every four years we are told that the coming election is the most important of one’s life. This time it might actually be true. At stake is the relation between citizen and state, the very nature of the American social contract.
If Obama loses, however, his presidency becomes a historical parenthesis, a passing interlude of overreaching hyper-liberalism, rejected by a center-right country that is 80 percent nonliberal.
Should they summon the skill and dexterity, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan could guide the country to the restoration of a more austere and modest government with more restrained entitlements and a more equitable and efficient tax code. Those achievements alone would mark a new trajectory — a return to what Reagan started three decades ago.
Every four years we are told that the coming election is the most important of one’s life. This time it might actually be true. At stake is the relation between citizen and state, the very nature of the American social contract.
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