Dostoyevsky Resonates with My Sermon

About Ivan & The Grand Inquisitor in "Brothers Karamazov": “Both of them understand the mystery of the Gospel as the mystery of divine/human freedom, yet they cannot accept it. They are in bondage. In rejecting the deliverance offered to them in the God-man they have chosen to be the man-God; the man who rules the Tower of Babel, or any tyranny in any time and in any place. . . . For the sake of his idea, he condemns Jesus who is the Word become flesh.” (The Bruderhof, The Gospel in Dostoyevsky, 7)

Galatians 5:1 “ For freedom, Christ set us free.”

"This is not just an idea invented by scholars. It is the costly action of God in his freedom. This freedom has awful consequences. We have the freedom to defy the living God who has created us. What we term the Fall is an act of freedom. It is a negative freedom, however; it is that of rebellion" (7)

This past Sunday I preached about how can we encounter the LIVING God-- and not just keep God, at a distance, as an idea............