Chad:
IT'S FAITH TIME, OUR WEEKLY
CONVERSATION
ON MATTERS OF FAITH.
JOINING US THIS MORNING IS
GEORGE
SINCLAIR, FORMERLY WITH
GOVERNMENT
STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NOW
THE
REVEREND IS RETIRED BUT HE'S
STAYING BUSY.
HIS NEW BOOK "LOOK AROUND" IS A
SERIES
OF THOUGHTFUL, ENGAGING ESSAYS
ON A
WIDE RANGE OF TOPICS IN
CHRISTIANITY AND
FAITH. EACH CHAPTER IS A
QUESTION ON A BIG
TOPIC. WHAT IS YOUR OVERARCHING
MESSAGE WITH THIS BOOK?
Guest: 1 Good Morning, Chad.
Great
to be with you and thank you for
the
question. I've tried to write a
book for people of faith who are
committed but want to go
deeper--people who are regular
church goers and members who
want a better understanding of
their
faith, its origins and more
importantly implications for
life here and now. Faith is not
reserved for Sunday morning. If
we're serious when we say we
public life. I've also tried to
write for
people who were once active in
the church but have grown
disenchanted. And I've tried to
God" cautions people to avoid
the binary traps when thinking
about or discussing the Holy
Trinity--what are some binary
traps and how can they hold us
binary traps and how can they
hold us back?
Guest: 2 I'm glad you ask
about binary
traps. How we understand God
has a
lot to do with how we understand
ourselves
and how we act in the world. The
binary
traps I mention in my book say
more about
us than God. For example, it's
a real
struggle to hold together
justice and
mercy. Jesus says to forgive
seven times
seventy. Does that mean we're
just
supposed to endure hostile or
toxic people
or to sit by when a neighbor is
unjustly
treated and do nothing? I
believe
God is at work in Christ to make
the
human family not only more just
but also
merciful. And in the particular
climate
we're in that's never been more
important--we can't simply walk
away from
one another--dividing ourselves
up into neat
little groups. Jesus died
between two
thieves and we're all thieves.
We can't
simply choose to be just or
merciful--God
makes all things, including
us--new.
ANd that means holding justice
and
mercy together.
Anchor: On the chapter on Jesus
death and resurrection--how does
that part of the Bible combat
modern nihilism?
Guest: 3. I appreciate you
asking
about nihilism. There are lots
of reasons
we're tempted to think that life
is
meaningless--that all those
stories we were
told in Sunday school or the
stories we've
picked up along the way that
make sense
of life are just that--nice
stories or
fairy tales to keep us from
being afraid of
things that go bump in the
night. And when
we look around and see religious
and
political leaders or the
institutions they
represent act badly or corruptly
or when
we're shockingly disappointed by
people we once trusted or work a
lifetime and have little to show
for it or something to show for
it but it holds no real
value or feels hollow--we're not
wrong to give in to the idea
that God is not or
is neither great or good or as
the Bible
says--there's nothing new under
the sun so
eat drink and be merry or more
darkly--get
what you can or simply give up.
The
cross and resurrection doesn't
paper over
darkness but proclaims that even
the darkness is not dark to
God--that
nothing separates us from the
love of God--not even our
despair or anger or
the darkness around us. Faith
doesn't blind us to darkness but
shines a light or opens us to
see what God is doing to make
all
things new. And that doesn't
like to say--read the book and
find out what chapter you like
best but since you asked I'll
give it a try and say the
chapter on work--Why Work? We
There is such a thing as good
work. Work doesn't have to be
toil. So, I've tried speaking
to that in what I've written but
I've also tried to place work
within a larger
framework not only by geography
but also time which is a central
theme of the whole book--an
invitation to look around not
GEORGE SINCLAIR, HIS NEW BOOK
"LOOK AROUND" IS A THOUGHT
PROVOKING COLLECTION OF THE
BIGGEST QUESTIONS IN
CHRISTIANITY, THANKS FOR
JOINING US THIS
MORNING FOR THIS EDITION OF
FAITH TIME Also the pubisher is
also offering a 40% discount to
people who want to order the
book through them. I'll
have information on this when
this story is posted on
WKRG-dot-com later this morning
AND NEWS 5 THIS MORNING WILL
CONTINUE AFTER THE BREAK.
