Thankyou for this heart-mind provoking discussion. Listening to the three of you demonstrating Christ- centred humility, love and wisdom has been a blessing. It seems the eternal mysteries of God as our Creator, Saviour and Comforter so easily become veiled by our compulsions for 'agency'. If we do not surrender in humility and contrition to these sacred mysteries in our daily practice, agency will dominate. God promises: 'A humble and contrite heart I will not spurn'. May the cultivation of such a heart be the foremost desire of every human - flawed and broken as we all are. We do not have to do this alone, or in fear. Praise be to Jesus Christ our Lord.
I have been left pondering what withdrawal from the world would look like in practice, in the context of Leaving Egypt's focus on Jeremiah 29: 7 - seek the welfare of the city. I think the need to be embedded in neighbourhood is quite right, but I wonder if, at least for those of us who are only beginning to understand how 'worldly' we have become within the (Western) church, we need first to 'regroup' and focus on the withdrawal initially. I feel that this is perhaps at odds with a lot of the grassroots experience we have heard about in previous episodes, as these are very much about engaging with the local community, but could it be that these were all Christians who had already achieved some level of withdrawal from the world? My concern, after listening to this episode, is that many of us may not yet have the spiritual resources to stand our ground in the face of cultural attitudes which we might have only just begun to question. I can absolutely see why one solution to this would be to join a denomination, such as the Orthodox church, where you would have the spiritual resources of that church to support you in this way. I'm not sure I could make that leap myself, having so much Scottish Calvinist baggage, but nor would I wish to, as one of the things I most appreciate about Leaving Egypt is its ecumenism, and I would like to see Christians within every denomination grappling with how to seek the welfare of the city while somehow being separate from it, yet not creating a distance between ourselves and our neighbours in achieving this distinctness. Can/should these intentions be acted upon simultaneously, or in sequence? Perhaps the answer will be different for each of us.
Thankyou for this heart-mind provoking discussion. Listening to the three of you demonstrating Christ- centred humility, love and wisdom has been a blessing. It seems the eternal mysteries of God as our Creator, Saviour and Comforter so easily become veiled by our compulsions for 'agency'. If we do not surrender in humility and contrition to these sacred mysteries in our daily practice, agency will dominate. God promises: 'A humble and contrite heart I will not spurn'. May the cultivation of such a heart be the foremost desire of every human - flawed and broken as we all are. We do not have to do this alone, or in fear. Praise be to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Inspiring and thought-provoking, as ever.
I have been left pondering what withdrawal from the world would look like in practice, in the context of Leaving Egypt's focus on Jeremiah 29: 7 - seek the welfare of the city. I think the need to be embedded in neighbourhood is quite right, but I wonder if, at least for those of us who are only beginning to understand how 'worldly' we have become within the (Western) church, we need first to 'regroup' and focus on the withdrawal initially. I feel that this is perhaps at odds with a lot of the grassroots experience we have heard about in previous episodes, as these are very much about engaging with the local community, but could it be that these were all Christians who had already achieved some level of withdrawal from the world? My concern, after listening to this episode, is that many of us may not yet have the spiritual resources to stand our ground in the face of cultural attitudes which we might have only just begun to question. I can absolutely see why one solution to this would be to join a denomination, such as the Orthodox church, where you would have the spiritual resources of that church to support you in this way. I'm not sure I could make that leap myself, having so much Scottish Calvinist baggage, but nor would I wish to, as one of the things I most appreciate about Leaving Egypt is its ecumenism, and I would like to see Christians within every denomination grappling with how to seek the welfare of the city while somehow being separate from it, yet not creating a distance between ourselves and our neighbours in achieving this distinctness. Can/should these intentions be acted upon simultaneously, or in sequence? Perhaps the answer will be different for each of us.