Several people have told me that I need to read "Ragamuffin Gospel" in the last 10 years or so, but none of those recommendations were as compelling as Robin Potter acting surprised this past summer when she discovered I had not read it.I purchased the book with intentions of reading it during vacation in July but failed. A rainy afternoon in November was a good defer.
Brennan Manning sounds like a rebel that boasts of his freedom at times, but I think that is just some of his culture coming out. He has seen life on this earth being raised in a Catholic church in New Orleans. I was raised in a conservative church in the Amish territory of Northern Indiana. One might expect a few misunderstandings that can certainly be resolved by He who created both of us.
So far the words that we can agree on and the words that jump out at me and will challenge me are these:
- The institutional church has become a wounder of the healers rather than a healer of the wounded.
- The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.
1 comment:
Kevin,
The passage from Ragamuffin that most caught my attention was this: "One morning at prayer, I heard this word: 'Little brother, I witnessed a Peter who claimed that he did not know Me, a James who wanted power in return for service in the kingdom, a Philip who failed to see the Father in Me, and scores of disciples who were convinced I was finished on Calvary. The New Testament has many examples of men and women who started out well and then faltered along the way. Yet on Easter night I appeared to Peter. James is not remembered for his ambition but for the sacrifice of his life for Me. Philip did see the Father in Me when I pointed the way, and the disciples who despaired had enough courage to recognize Me when we broke bread at the end of the road to Emmaus. My point, little brother is this: I expect more failure from you than you expect from yourself.'" Manning goes on to quote Churchill: "Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts."
In Awe of Him, Tim Scott
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