Living In-Between
Lament, Justice, and the Persistence of the Gospel
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2015
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Publisher's Description
The community of faith finds itself located precariously between Jesus' first and second comings, between the promise and fulfillment, between what God has begun in the gospel and what God has yet to complete. It thus finds itself proclaiming a gospel of life, love, hope, and faith in a world more characterized by death, hate, despair, and fear. The gospel insists that Jesus' death has shut the door on the age of violence and death, even as his resurrection has opened the door on the Age of Shalom and life. But in this tensive in-between time, those conflicting ages overlap, and the church struggles against powers and experiences that mock its message. Drawing on resources from the New Testament's vision of the apocalyptic gospel, Andre Resner urges the church and its preachers to engage in the linguistic practices of lament and proclamation as well as the embodied practices of justice-making and justice-keeping as counter-testimony to those powers that have been served notice in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection that their end is near. The reflections offered here model the kind of honest speech and risk of life to which the gospel calls its adherents.
Endorsements (4)
“With an unabashed and prophetic honesty about suffering, lament, justice, and hope, Andre Resner calls the church to a faithful resistance--in both verbal and embodied protest--empowered by the theology of the apocalyptic reality of the gospel.”
“In a world where televangelists and even some mainline preachers often resemble shady used car salesmen, Resner tells us the truth--all is not well in this world--even as he reminds us to hope in God who is working all things out. Rather than spouting pious platitudes or citing complex formulas and creeds, Resner gives us what the Bible itself offers: stories and testimony. If you can't buy a used car from him, buy this book. It tells the truth.”
“This book is an honest reflection on the Christian life for those who know tear-stained hope as their food day and night. Andre Resner tells the truth and nothing but the truth about the gospel and God. It is a literary testimony to the persistence of a loving and just God amid times of sorrow and joy. There's no fluff here, just the raw faith of living in the presence of a crucified God.”
“I highly recommend this book for homileticians and preachers alike. Readers will benefit from Resner's embodiment of two modes of prophetic discourse. Moreover, they will gain a new insight by seeing how the author engages the text in each chapter from the perspective of the apocalyptic gospel and re-illuminates them with his fresh readings and interpretations.”
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