Prayer to Start the Day

"This is another day, oh, Lord. I know not what it will bring. But make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me sit quietly. If I am to be low, help me to be so patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the spirit of Jesus. Amen."

"This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen."

The Book of Common Prayer. 

Cross-Shattered Christ, Stanley Hauerwas

"Mystery" suggests that what we believe defies reason and common sense. What we believe does defy reason and common sense; but yet I believe what Christians believe is the most reasonable and commonsense account we can have of the way things are.

"Mystery" does not name a puzzle that cannot be solved. Rather, "mystery" names that which we know, but the more we know, the more we are forced to rethink everything we think we know.

It is my conviction that explanations, i.e., the attempt to make Jesus conform to our understanding of things, cannot help but domesticate and tame the wildness of the God we worship as Christians.

The hardness and difficulty (of the meditations on the words of Jesus from the cross) comes from how painful it is for us to acknowledge the reality of the Father's sacrifice of the Son on the cross.

Sentimentality is the attempt to make the gospel conform to our needs, to make Jesus Christ our "personal" savior, to make the suffering of Christ on the cross but an instant of general unavoidable suffering. (We need to) avoid our sinful temptation to make Jesus's words from the cross to be all about us.

Theology is a servant discipline in the church, that, like all such disciplines, can be used by those called to practice the discipline to acquire power over those the servant is meant to serve. As a result, what the theologian has to say about the scripture becomes more important than the scripture itself.

Theology is the delicate art necessary for the Christian community to keep its story straight. That story consists of beliefs and behavior that are actions required by the content of the story. The work of theology is, therefore, never finished. (It) can never be finished not only because we live in a world of change but, more important, because the story we tell resists any premature closure. (T)he seven words of Jesus from the cross forces us to acknowledge that the past is not the past until it has been redeemed, the present cannot be confidently known except in the light of such a redemption, and the future exists only in the hope made possible by the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

I believe with all my heart that the constant temptation to betray the gospel, a temptation amply displayed by the history of the church, cannot be resisted in our day by Christians trying to imitate the false humility of tolerance.

It is only because God is most determinatively revealed in "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" that Christians are forbidden from ever assuming they possess rather than are possessed by the God they worship.

(From the words of Jesus on the cross) I was forced to discover, how extraordinary it is that our lives have been redeemed, literally made possible, by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A Community of Character, 1981, Stanley Hauerwas

"Christians most important social task is nothing less than to be a community capable of hearing the story of God we find in the scripture and living in a manner that is faithful to that story. The only reason to be Christian is because Christian convictions are true; and the only reason for participation in the church is that it is the community that pledges to form its life by that truth."

"That the church has often failed to be such a polity (concerned with the development of virtue) is without question, but the fact that we have often been less than we were meant to be should never be used as an excuse for shirking the task of being the people of God." "...(trust) in truth and love to banish the fears that create enmity and discord. To be sure, we have often been unfaithful to his story, but that is no reason for us to think it is an unrealistic demand. Rather it means we must challenge ourselves to be the kind of community where such a story can be told and manifested by a people formed in accordance with it..."

"The mark of a truthful community is partly seen in how it enables the diversity of gifts and virtues to flourish. Therefore the church is not only a community of character but also a community of characters, since we are convinced that God rejoices in the diversity of spirits who inhabit the church."

Face the facts, don't lie

Face the facts. Don't lie and deny and the truth about yourself and the world. It'll make you a better human being.

Learning to Love the Enemy, Stanley Hauerwas on Matthew 18

"It is a sin to think that you are capable of naming your own sin. You are only able to know your sin by being told by another." Stanley Hauerwas.

"When we think our brother or sister has sinned against us, such an affront is not against us but against the whole community." 

"It is an unpleasant fact that most of our lives are governed more by our hates and dislikes than by our love. I seldom know what I really want but I know what or whom I deeply dislike or even hate."

"Jesus brings not a peace of rest but a peace of truth. Just as love without truth cannot help but be a curse, so peace without truthfulness cannot help but be deadly."

The "how" of being a Christian

"I do not put much stock in 'believing in God." (It) is a far to rationalistic account of what it means to be a Christian. I am far more interested in what a declaration of belief entails for how I live my life. ...the 'what' of Christianity is not the problem. It is the 'how.' ...we cannot understand the 'what' of Christianity without knowing the 'how' to be Christian. Yet then I worry about the how of my own life." Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child. A Theologian's Memoir, On Being Stanley Hauerwas.