Quotes from Michael Hardin

Life is not about hoarding wealth but about spreading it around. God can act to see to it that the creation is nourished, but he uses us humans to see to it that our fellow humans have their needs met. We live in a world where the poor are daily reminders that we too have an obligation to meet, not only to ourselves but also to one another. In order to do this we, like Jesus, need to eschew three things: comfort, safety and security.

It is easy to follow a generic God because you can fill the term God with any presupposition you please; it is difficult to follow Jesus, because then you have to take seriously his teachings on discipleship, on what exactly following him entails.

The reality is that love of God is expressed fully as love of both friend and enemy.  It recognizes in everyone the image of God. Love is all-inclusive. Love knows no boundaries or limits. Love God, love your neighbor, love your enemy, this is the Greatest Commandment.

Just as Hebrews 10:5-8 (Appendix A) says, this coming was not to be a sacrifice but was the opposite, it was anti-sacrificial.  Jesus did not come to fulfill the logic of the sacrificial system (either Jewish or pagan) but to expose it and put an end to its reign in our lives.

Nothing irks some folks more than losing a God who is wrathful, angry, retributive and punishing. 

The question we must ask today is "Do we get Jesus?" or have we substituted false portraits of him in our theology?

Persons are encouraged to tell a personal salvation story when they attend church. No longer does the salvation wrought by God in Jesus have corporate dimensions, no longer is it the salvation of the world. The way we tell the story of salvation is frankly narcissistic.

How then do we know Jesus?  We know Him in worship together, in study together, in reflection together and in reasoning together.

It is as if the time has come for us to play 'Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?'  It is important because it is apparent we do not all follow the same Jesus.  Why is that?  I intend to show you that certain philosophical and theological assumptions, structuring principles and interpretive grids, blind us from seeing what is right there in front of our eyes.  Or rather, who is right there. 

Death does not triumph, Life does.

The change from night to day, the battle that is fought during that change, and the transformation into Jesus, can all feel a little bit apocalyptic. No one said that discipleship was easy.

The reality is that love of God is expressed fully as love of both friend and enemy.  It

lie of scapegoating, this unconsciousness of scapegoating (to have a scapegoat is not to be aware that one has a scapegoat), therefore means that a text that openly mentions scapegoating cannot be a scapegoat text. I have confidence that this will be done and is already being done by interpreters of the Bible who use mimetic theory.

One's Christology determines one's ethics; an ethic not congruent with the life, teaching and example of Jesus cannot be called a Christian ethic no matter how many Bible verses one racks up.

A missional church does not exist in order to grow. Growth may occur but that is not the goal of ecclesial existence. Service, as proclaimers and doers/disciples of The Word, is the purpose of our being called together.

Sacrifice is repeating the event that has saved the community from its own violence, which is killing a victim.

What Jewish tradition refers to as the yetzer ha-ra. [15]

We live out in our everyday relationships what we believe about God. That is, there is a direct connection between what one believes and how one lives.

This analogy can also be found in Jon Pahl, Empire of Sacrifice (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 20. [19]