Chp 3 in Jacobsen and Sawatsky, Gracious Christianity, is about “hearing God’s voice.” God’s voice comes to us as summons, as a call. Here’s a great quotation: “God does not compete for our attention by trying to outyell everyone else” (52). And they believe God speaks and that we can hear God now, but “Christians are confident because we trust in God, but we are humble because we know the limits of oru own abilities” (53) — and here they are relying on the outstanding work of Lesslie Newbigin. Is this book an emerging theology?
General revelation — God’s speaking to all of us, in a variety of ways, as humans — and they delve into the sorts of things we can learn from other faiths. Graciousness means we can debate, but we do so by listening. (And I’d like to thank my readers for being so good and gracious about debatable topics.)
Jesus as God’s Word: “Jesus provides us with the purest and clearest glimpse of God’s person and character we will ever have on earth” (57). “God did not come to make the earth shake and people quake” (don’t know where they got that, but it is worth saying over and over). Knowledge of God can only be known in relationship! “Jesus provides relational knowledge of God that can never be fully translated into propositional form” (59). Is Stephen Shields reading?
Prayer: “Somehow our prayers flow together with God’s own will to impact the world” (60). I like the humility of this statement: “Somehow.”
A closing word: “Gracious Christianity is based, at least in part, on this conviction: God is present in the world ahead of us, speaking all the time, and our task is to hear and follow together” (62).
That, my friend, is what emerging is all about. Let us join together in God’s work.