Over the past weeks I have been recommending Michael Frost's book "Exiles." A profound call to everyone who takes our image of God seriously. This may have been one of the most substantial books I have read all year, and I plan to make a regular practice of reading it over the years.
Here are some quotes:
"I want to hear a new song, a revolutionary Christ-song that summons from me greater faith in the new world that God is forming within us. Likewise, I want to hear a spoken wordin the assembly that expresses danger, energy, possibility, an opening for newness. So much of our preaching is so overly concerned with the technical questions of getting the truth right that preachers have squeezed all the life out of the gospel. We have thought of the gospel as a fragile and precious object and have held it too tightly, rendering it shapeless and uninteresting. Much of what passes for gospel speech these days is not dramatic or artistic. It is bound by the reason of technique and overly concerned with correctness. It seems stilted and mechanical. We believers hear it presented to us week in and week out, and by virtue of the very fact that we are believers, we put up with it. Our struggle in the twenty-first century will be thet struggle to maintain our commitment to teachings of Jesus and the revelation of the gospel in the New Testament while endeavoring to rediscover a robust, poetic faith that abandons certitude and inanity."
(Pg. 24-25)
"The new fellowship transcends every limit imposed by family, class or culture. We are not winning people like ourselves to ourselves but sharing the good news that in Christ God has shattered the barriers that divide the human race and has created a new community. The new people of God has no analogy; it is a 'sociological impossibility' that has nevertheless become possible"
(quoting David Bosch, Pg. 104)
"A genuine Christian environmentalist will recognize that tending and revering the creation is part of God's divine plan for God's people. Too many Christians have spiritualized their faith to the point of marginalizing or ignoring ecology. Some people are environmentalists primarily for humanitarian or aesthetic concerns, others for economic prosperity, public attention, or political gain. Exile, however, are environmentalists precisely because they are Christians."
(Pg. 250)
If you are looking for your next read make it this book. For more overview (because I couldn't find it listed anywhere online), here are the contents:
PART I: DANGEROUS MEMORIES
CHAPTER 1 - Self Imposed Exiles
The Memory: God Will Rescue the Exiled People
CHAPTER 2 - Jesus the Exile
The Memory: Jesus Was a Radical and a Subversive
CHAPTER 3 - Following Jesus Into Exile
The Memory: Jesus Is Our Standard and Example
PART II: DANGEROUS PROMISES
CHAPTER 4 - Exiled From a Hyper-Real World
The Promise: We Will Be Authentic
CHAPTER 5 - The Exile's Espirit de Corps
The Promise: We Will Serve a Cause Greater Than Ourselves
CHAPTER 6 - Fashioning Collectives of Exiles
The Promise: We Will Create Missional Community
CHAPTER 7 - Exiles at the Table
The Promise: We Will Be Generous and Practice Hospitality
CHAPTER 8 - Working for the Host Empire
The Promise: We Will Work Righteously
PART III: DANGEROUS CRITICISM
CHAPTER 9 - Restless with Injustice
The Critique: You Have Been an Unjust Empire
CHAPTER 10 - Exiles and the Earth
The Critique: You Have Not Cared for God's Creation
CHAPTER 11 - Comforting the Oppressed
The Critique: You Have Not Protected God's Children
PART IV: DANGEROUS SONGS
CHAPTER 12 - Exiles at the Altar
The Song: To God Be the Glory
CHAPTER 13 - The Songs of Revolution
The Song: Jesus Ain't My Boyfriend



