Gresham Street, London EC2V 7BX
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St Anne's Lutheran Church
Gresham Street, London EC2V 7BX |
Baptized, We Live - Chapter Two: A Way Of Hearing
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Bible References and Bibliography Services at St Anne's New features: St. Anne's Cookbook is finally available! Divine Dishes: Culinary Delights from St. Anne's Communities Past
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We have affirmed that the Holy Spirit gives us
the gift of seeing - God in the infant Jesus, God in Jesus dying on the
cross, God in all creation, God in history, God in bread, wine and
water. We also teach that the same Holy Spirit bestows upon us the
gift of hearing ...
THE LIVING WORD. |
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What is the Living Word ?
First we need to understand the opposite of "Living Word", which is "Dead Word" - truth packaged in propositions with which we can argue, agree, or disagree. In contrast, Living Word is truth manifest in an event, a story or an encounter through which God addresses us and calls for repentance, revolution, a redirection of life. The New Testament word for this change is METANOIA, which means "to turn around and go in the opposite direction." |
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We teach that the Word of God is LIVING ADDRESS1 which enters our hearts2 calling for radical change.
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as confronting address rather than rational proposition is one way in
which Lutheran teaching champions Hebrew thought over Greek thought.3
Greek thought which would package truth in debatable propositions has often prevailed in the Christian church throughout the centuries. |
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1. The word "address" does not mean a "street number" or a "formal lecture" but God's passionate, invoking, calling, begging, confronting appeal to us. 2. In Luther's thought the "heart" is the willing, responding, deciding self. 3. In Chapter One we saw another example of the way Lutheran teaching champions Hebrew thinking over Greek thinking. Hebrew thought affirms the goodness of the creation, an earth filled with the glory of God, while Greek thought sees matter as evil and therefore separates God from creation, the spiritual from the physical. Thanks to Robert Goeser of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary for helping me to understand Luther's concept of Living Word. |
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