Archive for the Theology CategoryBIBLICAL THEOLOGY,HOSPITALITY,PEACE THEOLOGYHow Does Jesus Challenge UsMost?InBiblical theology,christian hospitality,Jesus,peace theology,TheologyonJanuary 19, 2015at8:23 pmTed GrimsrudSermon preached at Oak GroveMennonite Church (Smithville, Ohio)January 18, 2015Genesis 12:1-3; Leviticus 19:33-34; Matthew 25:34-40I am happy to be with you this morning. I bring you greetings from Shalom Mennonite Congregation, from the eastern edge of Central District Conference. Also, since we are in the heart of Ohio, I assume some of you may be college football fans. As a lifelong Oregon Duck I have been in mourning this past week, but I am glad that some people I know are happy about Ohio States victory last Monday.Though the title of my sermon is How doesJesuschallenge us most? I actually plan to start with the Old Testament. Sometimes I think Christians dont appreciate enough how much Jesus was an Old Testament person. Even as he brought a message of newness and transformation, he still drew heavily on those who came before him. He did not come to abolish the Old Testament law but to fulfill it.I think about a friend of mine years ago. A Bible study group in our church had just finished the Gospel of Mark. Someone suggested we should do something from the Old Testament. Gwen, an 80-something student of the Bible known for being outspoken stated flatlyI dont want to have anything to do with that bloody book! We persuaded her at least to give it a try and we actually had a good time studying the book of Amos.Whats at the heart of the Old Testament?The Old Testament, I believe, when we read it as a whole, can be seen as a book of peace. And it is the source of most of Jesuss message. So, when we ask how does Jesus challenge us most, one answerthe one I will test this morningcomes from an old fashioned concept that is actually at the heart of the Old Testament.If we were in a smaller, more intimate setting, I would ask you to come up with one word to describe what the Old Testament presents as crucial to the life of faith. I imagine we would have several possibilities. Think for a second about what you would say. What is the one word youd use to describe whats crucial to the life of faith? Then, let me ask, how many of you would say hospitality? I am not going to insist that this is the only true answer. But I will insist that hospitality is a very important virtuesomething central for Jesus as welland something very challenging for us.Read the rest of this entry CommentPEACE THEOLOGYThe Peace Position During a Time ofWarInAnabaptism,Biblical theology,Jesus,Pacifism,TheologyonAugust 20, 2014at8:25 amTed Grimsrud[Workshop presentation at the Eastern Mennonite Seminary School for Leadership Training, Harrisonburg, VA, January 17, 2005]I grew up the child of a father who fought in World War II and a mother who also served in the U.S. military during that war. Our family definitely was not heavily militaristic, but I certainly would willingly have gone into the military myself had I been drafted when I was 19. As it turned out, the draft ended the year I turned 19 as the Vietnam War wound down. In the several years after that, I thought often and intensely about military service and my faith. When I was 22, through a kind of mystical awareness, I came to a clear conviction that I could not, at the same time, be both a follower of Jesus and a participant in or even supporter of warfare.Only at this point did I first learn of the Mennonite tradition, with its long held refusal to fight in wars. I loved what I learned and, about 25 years ago, joined the Mennonite church. I continue on the process of faith seeking understandingwhat does the peace position mean? Whats basis? How might it be put into practice?Defining pacifism, nonviolence, and nonresistanceThe most common definitions of pacifism focus on what pacifism rejects, characterizing pacifism as the in-principled rejection of participation in warfare. Some pacifists would say that all war is wrong, others more that they simply themselves will never fight.Focusing on what pacifismaffirms, I define pacifism as the conviction that nothing matters as much as love, kindness, respect, seeking wholeness. Hence,nothingthat would justify violence matters enough to override the commitment to love. In my understanding, pacifism is a worldview, a way of looking at reality; there is apacifistway of knowing, apacifistway of perceiving, of discerning, of negotiating life.The term nonviolence is recently prominent as a near-synonym for pacifism. I will use the terms interchangeably, though if we trying to be truly precise, we could find nuances that might make us want to differentiate between the two terms. One distinction would be to say that pacifism focuses more on underlying principles and values, nonviolence more on tactics and actions.Nonresistance is the more traditional term, widely used among Mennonites, for the refusal to fight back against evil. Typically, it has carried the connotation of witnessing to peace more through living as an alternative community in some sense separate from secular politics than through direct engagement.The Bibles witness to peaceMy definition of pacifism more in positive, worldview terms links more closely with the logic of the biblical story than simply defining pacifism as the rejection of warfare. The Bible, famously, does not overtly reject warfare for believers; in fact, in certain notorious cases the Bible actually commends, even commands, Gods people fighting.Read the rest of this entry View 3 CommentsPEACE THEOLOGYPacifism, God, and the punishment ofchildrenInJustice,Pacifism,Restorative justice,Salvation,Theology,UncategorizedonMay 17, 2014at10:05 amTed GrimsrudMay 18, 2014[This paper originated as a presentation at the conference, Mennonites and the Family, at Goshen College in October 1999. It will be published later this year in Ted Grimsrud,Embodying Peace: Collected Pacifist Writings, Volume 4: Historical and Ethical Essays(Harrisonburg, VA: Peace Theology Books]What difference does it make to assert thatnothingis as important for our theology as pacifism (i.e., the cluster of values which include love, peace, shalom, wholeness, kindness, mercy, restorative justice, nonviolence, and compassion)?I propose that one difference pacifism makes (or should make) is to cause pacifists to look critically atalljustifications for violence and to questionalltheological underpinnings for such justifications. In this essay, I will focus critically on one case theological underpinnings that help justify acting violently toward children (what is commonly called corporal punishment).I want to discuss six points concerning the theological problem of the justification of violence against children.(1) Human beings tend to be reluctant to act violently toward other human beings. We usually require some kind of rationale to justify such violence. We must believe some value is more important than nonviolence. For Christians, this value or conviction is usually expressed in terms of Gods will.(2) A theological framework, that I will call the logic of retribution, underlies the rationale for the use of violence against children. In the logic of retribution, God is understood most fundamentally in terms of impersonal, inflexible holiness. Gods law is seen to be the unchanging standard by which sin is measured. Human beings are inherently sinful. Gods response to sin is punitive. Jesus death on the cross is necessary as a sacrifice to provide the only basis for sinful human beings escaping their deserved punishment.(3) Consistent pacifists must raise theological concerns here. When God is understood, as with the logic of retribution, primarily in terms of impersonal holiness, legal requirements, and strict, vengeful justice, the biblical picture of God as relational, compassionate, and responsive is distorted.(4) Not only is it justified according to problematic theological assumptions, corporal punishment also has problematicpracticalconsequences. It may well intensify the dynamic of responding to violence with violence, actually educating young people into the practice of using violence. It may also contribute to a stunted experience of life for its recipients.(5) Given that all theology is humanly constructed, we may (and must) reconstruct our understanding of God in order to foster consistently pacifist theology and practice.(6) Foundational for such a theological reconstruction, the Bible may be read as providing bases for a logic ofrestoration. According to the logic of restoration, Gods holiness is personal, flexible, dynamic, and relational. Gods justice is concerned with restoring relationships and community wholeness, not with punishment, vengeance, and balancing the impersonal scales of an eye for an eye. Gods mercy is unconditional, not dependent upon human beings in any sense earning it.Read the rest of this entry View 2 CommentsPEACE THEOLOGYGood griefInBiblical theology,TheologyonApril 6, 2014at12:16 pmTed GrimsrudSermon at Shalom Mennonite CongregationApril 6, 2014John 11:35The scripture text this morning is short, in fact dont yawn or anything like that when I read it or you might miss it. But you probably know it. Its the shortest verse in the Bible. The King James Version of John 11:35 says it this way: Jesus wept. The New Revised Standard Version is a bit more expansive: Jesus began to weep. I guess those translators couldnt stand it that an entire verse had only two words.Small verse, big messageI want to take these two (or four) words, this little Bible verse, and make a big statement. At this point of Jesus weeping, of Jesus experiencing deep griefthe word translated wept could actually be translated wailed and lamented; it signifies something quite intensewhen Jesus weeps he shows us the intersection between the divine and the human like nothing else he ever did. In his grieving, Jesus most clearly shows us what God is like.Its notable that the Gospel of John, of all the gospels, shows us that Jesus wept. Johns Jesus is the most divine of the four gospels, the mostwe could almost saysuperhuman of the four Jesuses presented in the gospels. Yet John makes the point that Jesus weeps. I want to say that this fits; the most exalted, God-manifesting Jesus is the one who weeps, the one who grieves.The godness of God is seen in Gods grief. The divine presence in humanity is seen, as much as anywhere, when we grieve. Our grief marks us as creatures made in Gods image, as creatures who possess the spark of Godeven as our grief also marks us as human, all too human, fragile creatures, all too fragile.I dont know about you, but I dont usually think of grief as all that great of a thing. I think of the few moments of deep grief that I have experience and I would be more than happy to have bypassed those moments. Though, as I reflect a bit, I realize that what I would want to bypass are the experiences that led to the grief, not the grief itselfgrief was a response on the way to healing.Lets think about how we use the word grief. But first a tangent.Read the rest of this entry CommentMENNONITES,PEACE THEOLOGYPart of the Conversation? Neo-Mennonites and MennoniteTheologyInAnabaptism,Mennonites,TheologyonMarch 2, 2014at9:02 amTed Grimsrud[This essay was written about twenty years ago while I was pastoring a small neo-Mennonite congregation in Eugene, Oregon, for afestschrifthonoring Gordon Kaufman. By the time the essay was published in 1996, I had left Eugene, co-pastored with my wife, Kathleen Temple, in a large, rural, pretty traditional Mennonite congregation in the midwest for two years, and gotten a job as theology professor at Eastern Mennonite University. I revised the essay in 2002 hoping to have it published again in a theological journal. That didnt work out. Im putting it up now mainly because I realized I hadnt posted it on myPeaceTheology.netsite yet. I also think the ideas are still relevant as Mennonites continue to struggle with the future of their tradition.][1]The early years of the 21st-century are a time of challenge for Mennonite faith. Mennonite churches are engaged in an intense conversation (not always self-consciously) concerning the meaning of Christianity in a tumultuous, rapidly changing world. One of the central issues in this conversation is simply whose voices will be heard. How will Mennonites define their faith, order their communities, prepare their young people andwhowill have voices in this defining?We face the challenges of defining major new ecclesiastical structures with the formation of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. This time of defining new structures has thus far been fraught with stress as various kinds of fault lines have been exposed and unprecedented conflicts have emerged.This essay reflects on this issue of who partakes in Mennonite conversations about the future of their faith. I believe our best approach is to affirm thatallthe voices within the current broad community of Mennonites are to be respected parts of the conversation. To make such allowance requires an awareness of the identity of these voices.I want to speak of one set of voices in particular, what I will call the voices of neo-Mennonites. I am a bit unsure of the best shorthand term for the general perspective to which I am referring. I will use neo-Mennonite as a non-value laden term[2]to refer to people who affirm at least many of the elements mentioned by Mennonite theologian Gordon Kaufman in his 1979 bookNonresistance and Responsibility:Many persons especially younger professional people, well-educated and living in settings quite far removed, at least culturally, from traditional rural Mennonite communities feel the need for an interpretation of the Mennonite perspective which breathes more freely the atmosphere of the contemporary life and culture in which they are so deeply involved. They do not wish to give up some of the basic insights and convictions of the faith in which they were raised, but the only interpretations of that faith which are readily accessible do not seem to address the questions and problems they are facing.[3]I will argue in this essay that neo-Mennonites should be seen as a legitimate part of Mennonite conversations on all levels concerning the big issues that face Mennonites in the new millennium. I will focus my concern mostly on theology, but I mean to suggest that church-wide conversations on all aspects of church life should welcome the neo-Mennonite perspective as a legitimate part of the Mennonite circle.I do not argue that the neo-Mennonite perspective should beprivileged, but simply that it be respected as part of the conversation. That is, the process of discernment Mennonites are required to enter into will be most fruitful if understood as a process in which all the appropriate voices are heard and taken into account. One of Mennonites biggest danger in facing our contemporary challenges is to ignore or silence voices from within our existing communities.The neo-Mennonite perspective exists nowwithinthe circle of the Mennonite church. Even if not well understood, or even acknowledged by many in the churches, it is part of what the Mennonite faith community has become. Rather than seen as an alien perspective, or one to be resisted, it should be seen as one voice in the Mennonite choir.Read the rest of this entry View 2 CommentsPEACE THEOLOGYNEW BOOK:Proclaiming Peaceby TedGrimsrudInBiblical theology,Jesus,Mennonites,Pacifism,TheologyonDecember 10, 2013at8:18 pm

A Mennonite pastor and blogger gathers fifty short writings that present a powerful message of world transformation and healing inspired by Jesus way of shalom.TABLE OF CONTENTSSECTION ONE: SermonsA. Introduction to PacifismB. Old TestamentC. GospelsD. New Testament WritingsSECTION TWO: Blog PostsA. PacifismB. World War IIC. TheologyPUBLICATION DATATed Grimsrud.Proclaiming Peace: Collected Pacifist Writings, Volume Two: Sermons and Blog Posts.Harrisonburg, Virginia: Peace Theology Books, 2013. ix + 226 pages.[See a preview of the book on the Amazon site.]ENDORSING BLURBI read many peace-related blogs. I am here to say that if you only read on internet site related to Christian peacemaking, read Ted GrimsrudsPeaceTheology.net. In his accompanying blog,ThinkingPacifism.net, he is thinking aloud on peace-related subjects in perceptive ways. Ted is charting what I believe to be the most hopeful post-John Howard Yoder path in Anabaptist pacifist thought.Michael Westmoreland-While,Pilgrim PathwaysPURCHASING INFORMATIONThis book may be purchased from the following e-retailers:Amazon ($13.50)Barnes and Noble ($13.68)Amazon Kindle($5)Powells Books ($15.50)It may also be purchased directly from the author for $10 (only in person, no mail orders)CommentPEACE THEOLOGYThe New Testament as a peacebookInBiblical theology,Jesus,Pacifism,TheologyonDecember 5, 2013at8:14 amTed Grimsrud[This is the second of two lectures in the Carol Grizzard-Browning Lecture Series at the University of Pikeville (Pikeville, Kentucky). It was presented November 12, 2013. The first lecture was The Old Testament as a peace book andmay be found here.]Let me start with a bold claim. The New Testament presents apoliticalphilosophy. This philosophy has at its core a commitment to pacifism (by pacifism I mean the conviction that no cause or value can override the commitment to treat each life as precious). This commitment is based on the belief that Jesus Christ as God Incarnate reveals the character of God and of Gods intention for human social life.Jesuss identity in the Gospel of LukeIn talking about the New Testament as a peace book, I will look first at how the gospels present Jesus. I will focus on the Gospel of Luke. At the very beginning, from Mary, upon her learning of the child she will bear, we hear that this child will addresssocialreality. He will challenge the power elite of his world and lift up those at the bottom of the social ladder. This child, we are told, will bring hope to those who desire the consolation of Israel. Those who seek freedom from the cultural domination of one great empire after another that had been imposed upon Jesus people for six centuries will find comfort. From the beginning, this child is perceived in social and political terms.Later, at the moment of Jesus baptism, Gods voice speaks words of affirmation, Thou art my Son (Luke 3:22). These words should be understood to name Jesussvocationmore than simply emphasizing his divine identity. Son of God was a term for kings (Psalm 2:7). It states that this person is the leader of Gods kingdom on earth, he has the task of showing the way for Gods will for Gods people to be embodied.Jesus baptism was a kind of commissioning service for this vocation. We see that in the events that following shortly afterward. Jesus retreats deeper into the wilderness and there encounters Satan, the tempter. Satan presented Jesus with temptations that all had at their core seductive appeals to his sense of messianic or kingly calling. He could rule the nations, he could gain a following as a distributor of bread to the hungry masses, he could leap from the top of the Temple and gain the support of the religious powers-that-be through his miraculous survival that would confirm his messianic status. That is, Jesus faced temptations concerning how he would beking. He did not deny that he was called to be Son of Godthat is, king or messiah. But he did reject temptations to be king in ways he knew would be ungodly.Read the rest of this entry CommentPEACE THEOLOGYThe Old Testament as a peacebookInBiblical theology,Justice,Old Testament,Pacifism,Politics,TheologyonDecember 4, 2013at9:01 pmTed Grimsrud[This is the first of two lectures in the Carol Grizzard-Browning Lecture Series at the University of Pikeville (Pikeville, Kentucky). It was presented November 11, 2013. The second lecture was The New Testament as a peace bookand is posted here.]What I will do in this lecture on the Old Testament and my second lecture on the New Testament is share about some things I have been passionately engaged with now for about 40 years.A journey to pacifismWhen I went to college in the mid-1970s, the Vietnam War was coming to an end. I registered for the draft, and was ready to fight if called. The draft ended, though, before I was called. That marked a turning point in my life, nonetheless.I had just become a Christian. I was taught a Christian should be patriotic and be willing to fight for ones country. However, I was also urged to read the Bible, especially to read the story of Jesus my savior in the gospels. The gospel story presented Jesus as a peacemaker. This challenged me as I struggled with the possibility of going to war. I also learned to know a number of veterans returning from Vietnam. They told horrific storiesand themselves quite often were traumatized. War didnt seem so attractive.About the time I finished college, I came to a clear conviction that I could not fight in war, that I was a pacifist. This conviction came shortly after I had deepened my commitment to live as a Christianthe two went together, as I resolved to be a serious Christian I committed myself to be a pacifist. What I meant by pacifist first was the conviction that it is never morally acceptable to fight in or support war. My current definition is more like this: The conviction that no causes or values can override the commitment to treat each life as precious. In either case, to be aChristianpacifist is to affirm these convictions due to ones understanding of Jesuss message.My task then becameandremainsone of faith seeking understanding. What does itmeanto be a Christian pacifist? How should I read the Bible in relation to these convictions? What about all the questions and problemsand the stubborn fact that just about all Christians for hundreds and hundreds of years havenotaccepted pacifism?It helped that I had some experience being a minority. I was the only boy with four sisters. I was the only University of Oregon fan in a community filled with Oregon State fans. I was used to being a bit different, so being part of the tiny pacifist minority in a religion filled with warriors was not itself enough to make me think I was wrong.Not long after my moment of clarity, I discovered a Christian tradition with a long history of pacifist belief and practiceand in time my wife Kathleen Temple and I joined with these Christians and became Mennonites. It has been crucial to not feel totally aloneto have a little bit of critical massin these strange beliefs.Read the rest of this entry CommentRevelation Notes (Chapter8)InEschatology,Revelation,TheologyonJune 8, 2013at10:52 amTed GrimsrudJune 8, 2013[See notes on Revelation 7]Revelation 57 has established several crucial things about the agenda of the book and its theological center. The One on the throne is confessed as Master of the universe, but the kind of power that best expresses this mastery is the power of persevering love. The Lamb is worshiped due to how the Lamb resists empire nonviolently even to the point of death. The Lambs resistance frees the multitude from the Powers and offers this worship, worship that finds its ultimate expression in these people following the Lamb wherever he goes.In between the vision of the Lamb in chapter five and the vision of the multitude in chapter seven, two clearly parallel visions, we have the first of three sets of seven-fold plagues described. These plagues, we have seen, are not direct acts by God to punish rebellious creation. Rather, they are a creative way to assert that though the world we live in is full of wars and rumors of war, Gods will for healing remains active, and (according to the book of Revelation as a whole) this healing will come.So, now we turn to another set of plagues, and their level of destruction expands from one-quarter to one-third destruction. Stillreinforced by the visions of healing in chapter sevenI believe we still must read the plague visions in light of the core affirmations Revelation has already made about Gods intentions, Gods power, the promise of Gods victory, andimportantlythe means by which the victory is achieved. What wedonthave here, contrary to many interpreters, is a picture of God Godself unleashing terrible destruction in order to push people to repentance. The plagues in chapter eight, though, cannot be understood apart what from what follows in chapters nine and ten. Hence, I will offer here only comments describing the plagues waiting for the following chapters to reflect more on their meanin