Epinoia Café

Sunday, June 8th

Joshua Kagi — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:14:10 +0000

This is late notice for those of you who aren’t yet aware of our next gathering… but on Sunday, June 8th, at 3:30 p.m., a group of Epinoians will be meeting in the upstairs cafe’s at Fifth Street Public Market in Eugene. We will be discussing Brennan Manning’s The Wisdom of Tenderness.

The book should be available at several local bookstores, and the Eugene Library, or you can help support Epinoia Café by purchasing the book on Amazon.com by clicking here.

Even if you’re not able to read the book in time for the meeting, we’d love to have you join us.

Click here for directions.

Knowledge & Faith

Catherine Amber — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:24:53 +0000

An intern at my workplace has an interesting philosophy class at her high school. We talk about some of the questions she has to wrestle with and I thought I’d throw this one out for Epinoia consideration and ideas.

Some people say that religious beliefs can neither be justified nor refuted by reason. However while sometimes this claim is used as a reason for rejecting religious beliefs at other times it is used to conclude that these beliefs are established by faith. To what extent is faith a legitimate basis for knowledge claims in religion and the different areas of knowledge?

Dreaming

Catherine Amber — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:02:10 +0000

A book called “Unchristian” has been put out, in part by the Barna Research group. They are studying the responses of people to the notion of Christianity and Christians in general. In a nutshell, the news isn’t good. The “church” has lost credibility and strikes many as hypocritical and judgmental and specifically not a strong reflection of Jesus.

The last section has comments from many leaders with a wide range of perspectives. The last piece is by Brian McLaren and I thought it was worth sharing….

In thirty years research could tell us that when people think Christian they think things like this:-Christians are the ones who love people, whoever they are - gay or straight, Jew or Muslim, religious or atheist, capitalist or not, conservative or liberal.- Christians are the ones who have dome more than anyone in the world to stop the HIV/AIDS crisis.- Christians are the people who gravitate toward the poor and who show compassion through generous action and seek justice so that systemic causes of poverty are overcome. They call the rich to generosity, and they call on rich nations to work for the common good.- Christians are people who believe that art and creativity are important, so they consistently produce the most striking, original and enriching art.- Christians are willing to give their lives for the cause of peace. They oppose violence in all its forms. The will lay down their lives to protect the vulnerable from the violent.- Christians care for the environment. They don’t just see it as raw materials for economic gain, but they see it as the precious handiwork of their Creator.- Christians have personal integrity. They keep their marriage vows and are aware of how destructive misused sexuality can be. Yet they are compassionate toward people who make sexual mistakes and they never consider themselves superior.- Christians build harmony among races. You always know that you’ll be respected when you’re around a Christian.

McLaren concludes: perhaps I am a dreamer. But when hard realities jolt you out of denial (as the research presented here can help do), the status quo becomes less acceptable, and one is motivated to dream of better possibilities.

The Astonished Heart

Catherine Amber — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:14:01 +0000

Anybody out there ever read Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell? He quotes another author on page 32, Robert Farrar Capon. In his Endnotes, Bell says of Capon: ‘Go out and buy all of his books and read them immediately.’

I’ve got a stack of books I am going to re-read this Spring. One I began perusing is called The Astonished Heart, by Robert Farrar Capon. The sub-title is ‘reclaiming the good news from the lost-and-found of church history.’

Here is how he opens things up:

To put a finer point on it, its an argument drawn from church history designed to demonstrate what I consider the egregious mistakes the church has made as a result of turning itself into a religious institution and thus losing its grip on its catholicity (he doesn’t mean Catholicism, he means its all-inclusive scope of application to humanity). ….The problem is not that we need to get back to the truth of our religion or to get on to some better version of the ecclesiastical institution; rather, it’s that we need nothing as much as to stop acting as if we are a religion or institution at all. To begin with, Christianity is not a religion; it is the proclamation of the end of religion. Religion is a human activity dedicated to the job of reconciling God to humanity and humanity to itself. The Gospel, however – the Good News of our Lord and Savior Jesus – is the astonishing announcement that God has done the whole work of reconciliation without a scrap of human assistance. It is the bizarre proclamation that religion is over, period. All the efforts of the human race to straighten up the mess of history by plausible religious devices – all the chicken sacrifices, all the fasts, all the mysticism, all the moral exhortations, all the threats – have been canceled by God for lack of saving interest. More astonishingly still, their purpose has been fulfilled, once for all and free for nothing, by the totally non-religious death and resurrection of a Galilean nobody.

Sunday, March 30th

Anthony Doheny — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:09:47 +0000

Yes indeed we are gathering again! This time we are discussing Jim Palmer’s book “Divine Nobody’s”.

We will be meeting in the upstairs café at 5th Street Market in downtown Eugene at 3:30 p.m. on March 30th.

Even if you haven’t read the book you are more than welcome to join us. Or you could get it done by the 30th and we’ll take your comments serious! Just kidding. Anyway, we’re looking forward to seeing you!

A More Perfect Union

Dave Cramer — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:47:24 +0000

Sen. Barack Obama gave this speech yesterday, March 18th, in Philadelphia. This was supposed to be a speech on race, meant to address comments recently made by his former pastor in Chicago, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and also to address the politics of race in this election. Race has been a dividing point in this country for centuries, even this election has provided some fuel for the fire, with inflammatory comments made by Geraldine Ferraro, and others. But Obama does with the issue of race what no politician has done (at least not in my opinion). He addresses it unequivocally, and speaks to the American people as if they were adults, with a say in their lives, and with responsibility to take action. He expects us not only to vote, but to stand behind our vote with actions that align with our hearts. He does something that we see Jesus do in the Scriptures, he turns the expected around and gives new insight. “You have heard it said… but I say to you.” We hear Jesus say those words time and again in the New Testament. In a way, Obama is saying that “Race has been a divisive issue for our country since the beginning, but I say that it can be our unifier. The time has come for us to address it, and get started on the path to unity.”

Here is the link for the whole speech, which is absolutely worth reading.

Sen. Barack Obama “A More Perfect Union”

Here is the YouTube video if you would rather watch and listen to him give the speech. It’s just under 40 minutes, so it takes a little time, but it is worth it.

YouTube of Obama’s Speech

Enjoy.

roses and alligators

Barbara Galbraith — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:36:30 +0000

My sweet 81 year old mother subscribes to just about every e-newsletter under the sun. I don’t know how she weeds through them all, but she does, and, in the course of doing so, she comes across some real gems. This is one of those gems. I found a lot (okay, everything) said here so insightful, so timely, and so appropriate that I wanted to share it here. Oh if only we (God’s children / the Church / humankind) could ~ no, make that would ~ function this way… I long to live in that world. I believe that God longs for us to live there too. I wonder if we’ll ever get there?

Roses and Alligators: Choices for Healthy Conflict Resolution

By Kerry Clarensau

Everyone fails, and even the most devoted Christ-follower makes mistakes. If you are in relationships with people made of flesh and blood, you will be disappointed and even hurt. But we shouldn’t be surprised—the Bible teaches we are all sinners and we all make mistakes. Author Dee Brestin states, “We need to mature to the point where we realize that while it is important to love and cherish our friends, our dependence should be in God alone—for only He is without sin, and only He will never let us down.”

Conflict is a part of our human existence, but we are responsible to wisely choose our response when we are hurt. The easiest and most natural reaction is to get angry, bitter and hurt back. But this cycle leads to brokenness. In The Friendships of Women Workbook, Brestin shares healthy strategies for dealing with conflict. She likens Christian women to roses—beautiful, yet not without thorns. According to Brestin, we have two healthy options when we’ve been hurt by a friend:

Overlook the offense in love—”Love covers a multitude of sins” (Proverbs 10:12, Proverbs 17:9, James 5:20, 1 Peter 4:8). Take time to look at each of these references and realize that many offenses can be simply overlooked in love. In some relationships, there is much unnecessary conflict over petty issues. Brestin says, “When a rose gardener is jabbed by a thorn, she realizes the rose had no personal animosity toward her but was simply born with thorns. We’d be wise to see people that way.” We can learn not to take offenses personally.

Confront in love—”Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15, NIV). The only pure motive for confronting during a conflict should be the desire to restore relationship and bring resolution. If the motive is to simply point out the offense or to hurt back, it is better to overlook the offense in love. If someone has to win, then someone has to lose, and this is extremely unhealthy in any relationship. The desire for restoration should always be the motive for a confrontation.

Brestin shares that while some people are roses, others are “alligators.” The scriptural illustration she uses is that of King Saul in his relationship with David (1 Samuel 15-26). Saul was full of jealousy and rage toward David. From David’s response, we learn there is only one way to handle conflict with an alligator:

Forgiveness and flight. “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered” (Proverbs 22:24, NIV). David showed us how to respond is such a situation. He never treated Saul with contempt or returned the vicious acts he received from Saul. He always responded with respect, but he didn’t keep himself in the presence of one bent on doing him harm. He forgave and fled!

What great advice for dealing with conflict! Remember, conflict doesn’t mean that the relationship is broken, it simply means that human beings are involved. We always have the choice to respond in a mature, healthy way. We can simply overlook the offense in love orconfront in love to restore the relationship. Or when dealing with an “alligator,” we can forgive and flee, all the while treating the alligator with respect.

For more insight into the relationships of women, I highly recommend Dee Brestin’s workbook,The Friendships of Women. (http://womensministries.ag.org/)

Politics

Catherine Amber — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:15:29 +0000

Vote for Rick!! Just had to say that

This is actually about an excerpt from Jim Wallis’ Sojourners(Sojourners) “God’s Politics” blog:

“Do you think Jesus was a politician?”

Of course not. But he had a vision of the Kingdom of God which was spiritual, personal, relational, social, economic, and yes, political - because it talked about allegiances and loyalties and authority, and if Jesus was Lord, Caesar was not. His confrontation that he provoked in Jerusalem was with the religious and the political leaders. They saw him as a political threat. If they saw him just as a private pietist, why would they worry? [If he was] helping people get their lives together, helping their marriages, making them better parents and make them go to less Roman orgies and drunken parties, why would that have been a threat to the ruling powers? They regarded him as a threat. I remember I was at Wheaton College once and I asked this class, “Why was Jesus killed?” and they had no idea. They just couldn’t comprehend the question. And then one young student said, “Well, to save us from our sins.” And I said, “So you think Pontius Pilate was sitting there thinking, ‘How am I going to save these American evangelicals from their sins? I’m gonna kill this guy and that will do it.’” Albeit that our theological understanding of the cross and our redemption — I’m orthodox on all those questions, but he was killed because he was seen as a threat to the rulers both religious and political. In the book I talk about how Jesus confronted the major political options of his day. All four of them were there, they’re always there: One was collaborationist, one was pietist, one was withdrawn — you know, the kind of counter culture — and one was political insurrection, or revolutionary violence. He confronted them all, he rejected them all. There was a fifth option called the Kingdom of God, and that’s our option.

larry norman - rest in peace

Barbara Galbraith — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:29:38 +0000

For those of us (like me and Anthony) who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s (okay, Anthony gets the 80’s too…), we remember the artists who birthed the contemporary Christian music phenomenon - names like John Fischer, Phil Keaggy, and Larry Norman. Without these guys, and many others, the Christian music industry would not be what it is today. These dudes(the original “Jesus Freaks”) were the counter-culture to the counter-culture in the 60’s - preaching peace and love right alongside the hippies, only it was God’s peace, and God’s love and they, too, helped change the face of a nation. Larry Norman passed away on Sunday, and I wanted to share his “good-bye” message from his website, which also includes funeral service information. He was living in Salem at the time of his death and the service is local.

Larry Norman4/8/1947 - 2/24/2008

Our friend and my wonderful brother Larry passed away at 2:45 Sunday morning. My wife Kristin and I were with him, holding his hands and sitting in bed with him when his heart finally slowed to a stop. We spent this past week laughing, singing, and praying with him, and all the while he had us taking notes on new song ideas and instructions on how to continue his ministry and art.Several of his friends got to come and visit with him in the last couple of weeks and were a great source of help and friendship to Larry. Ray Sievers, Derek Robertson, Mike Makinster, Jerry Albertini, Charles Thompson, Tim and Christine Gilman, Matt and Becki Simmons, Kerry Hopkins, and a few more. Thank you, guys. Larry appreciated your visits very much. And he greatly appreciated the thoughts, wishes, support and prayers that came from all of you Solid Rock friends on a daily basis. Thank you for being part of his small circle of friends over the years. Saturday afternoon he knew he was going to go home to God very soon and he dictated the following message to you while his friend Allen Fleming typed these words into Larry’s computer:________________________________I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.My brother Charles is right, I won’t be here much longer. I can’t do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.I’d like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.Goodbye, farewell, we’ll meet againSomewhere beyond the sky.I pray that you will stay with GodGoodbye, my friends, goodbye.Larry________________________________________Thank you to all of you who were so nice to my brother over the years. There will be a public memorial ceremony for Larry at 10:00 AM on Saturday, March 1st at The Church on the Hill, 2707 Maranatha Ct., Turner, Oregon, just south of Salem. Here is a mapquest link.You can leave a message for Larry’s family at the Larry Norman Message BoardHere are some links to more info and observations on Larry:Google News WkipediaFor more information contact:Charles Norman charles@slackertone.comWe miss him beyond words. Thank you for everything.Peace to you all in Christ,Charles Norman

Submission

Catherine Amber — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:45:15 +0000

What does it mean to “submit”? Which relationships and circumstances allow for variations of the word’s meaning? What is the biblical meaning most important to you?