The Power of the Emptied and Weak is the Story of the Church

“Christians today often think that the Church needs to be powerful and well-ordered to attract notice. This is nothing less than unbelief. Think of Ruth the Moabitess, who attaches herself to Naomi when Noami has nothing (Ruth 1:15-18). Naomi went out of Israel full—with husband, two sons, everything she needed. While in Moab, she loses everything.

The Lord has made her life bitter. But precisely at that moment, when Naomi has nothing and can produce nothing, when she’s reminding Ruth that she can’t possibly produce another husband—just at that moment of utter emptiness, Ruth commits herself to Naomi, and to Israel. Naomi says, God has dealt harshly with me. He’s emptied me of everything. And Ruth says, I want your God to be my God. Somehow, mysteriously, uncannily, miraculously, Ruth finds something in a woman who has nothing. Somehow she knows the God of empty Naomi is the God of salvation.

By attaching herself to the empty widow, Ruth finds a place in the family tree of David and of David’s greater Son. Clinging to the widow with nothing, she becomes an agent for the restoration of everything.

Paul was thinking not only of Jesus and the early Church when he said, ‘God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:27). That is the story of Israel, and the story of the Church.”

- Peter J. Leithart

Ten Propositions on Ecumenism & Scripture and Tradition

I have not been able to read too many blogs this week simply because my work has demandedd more of my time and energy. However, several days ago I ran into this article over at Faith and Theology and really enjoyed it. Granted, there are not too many posts by Kim Fabricius that I dislike, or that at least make me think deeper, of that I am grateful to Kim for his posts, but this article is one of his better ones, so obviously I would recommend it to anyone.

Thanks for the post Kim, and thanks go to Ben for allowing Kim to guest post. Kim should get his own blog so we can read his work on a more regular basis (hint, hint).

Another blog I now read as regular as possible belongs to a good friend of mine named Josh. His blog is called Just Musing and he recently posted an article on Scripture and Tradition. Of course this is an issue I have tackled on several occasions here at "Shadows", just look to the left hand side of my blog under the "Favorites" section. While Josh does not take a hard and fast stance in his article, it is still well worth the read. If you have a chance, go check it out.