Undertakings

Last Thursday (5th July) we had the secretary for personnel in to take us through the undertakings signed by every Salvation Army officer. Following his brief lecture we went and signed our undertakings without ceremony - all quite natural and rather understated.

It was suggested that we need to remember signing the undertakings - essentially the contract that is, of course, no contract at all as the key emphasis is that there is no legal relationship between officer and Salvation Army - the relationship is fundamentally spiritual.

Another milestone, certainly, but perhaps a lot more than that?

Evil and the Justice of God

Just completed N.T. Wright's "Evil and the Justice of God". At 109 pages this is considerably slimmer than some of Bishop Tom's other material (see http://urbanarmy.blogspot.com/2007/07/nt-wrights-resurrection-44.html and others) but no less thought-provoking.

As elsewhere, Wright argues for a broader reading of Scripture and, in particular, the gospels. Whereas we tend to reduce atonement theories to one verse (Mark 10:45) read holistically the gospels "tell the story of how the evil in the world - political, social, personal, moral, emotional - reached its height; and they tell how God's long-term plan for Israel (and for himself!) finally came to its climax." (pp47f)

"Jesus... had long realized, that as Israel's representative it was his task, and his alone, to do what... Israel's God had said that he and he alone could do... The only way of doing justice to what the gospels are trying to tell us is to grasp the picture in its entirety and swallow it whole." (p54)

Mixed metaphors, perhaps, but a treatment of the problem of evil that focuses on what God, through Jesus has graciously done about it more than the nature of evil itself has been helpful. It has been humbling to realise again the awesome mystery of all that the atonement represents - and to be reminded that I am as much as part of the problem as anyone else...
...and only God's faithfulness and grace makes anything else possible.