Author: Timothy Tennent
Marriage, Human Sexuality, & the Body: The Meaning of Our Original Nakedness by Timothy Tennent
November 30, 2015
The utilitarian vision sees the body of a man or woman as an object which can be assessed like a car. Is it bright, new, shiny and full of power, or not? Is your body thin or fat; does it conform to the shapes we admire or not; is your hair the right texture and color or not; are your teeth shiny and straight or not? In the covenantal vision, the mystery and glory is that we have bodies, and those bodies are beautiful to God because they are living sacraments in the world, an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace, since all of the means of grace come through the physicality of the body.
Marriage, Human Sexuality, and the Body: From the Beginning It Was Not So by Timothy Tennent
October 22, 2015
For example, we often describe a “sacrament” as an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace, but then we limit ourselves by thinking of sacraments only in terms of the two which Christ established: baptism and the Eucharist. Wesley, on the other hand, prodded us to think more deeply and expansively about all the means of grace which, for Wesley, is a much larger category than baptism and Eucharist. John Paul II makes the point that Christ is not the only one who provides sacramental means of grace. There are sacraments which flow from the Father and the Spirit. We will actually explore how marriage is the primordial sacrament later in this series. But, for now, let us lay the groundwork that your physical body itself is a kind of sacrament. It is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace, because we have been created in the image of God.
Marriage, Human Sexuality, and the Body: Let’s Go Back to the Beginning by Timothy Tennent
October 7, 2015
Discussions about marriage, divorce and issues of human sexuality are not new. What is new is our unpreparedness for the current questions being asked.
What The Church Can Do During Exile by Timothy Tennent
June 11, 2015
Jeremiah reminds us that we do not respond with hatred or anger to those who have plotted our demise. We pray for the peace and prosperity of the country. We pray for the well-being of a church which celebrates false prophets (Jeremiah 28). We realize – and this is the real lesson of Jeremiah – that judgement is actually a “means of grace.” The historic churches in the western world are under God’s judgment. I do not want to add to anyone’s weariness by repeating all the signs of this. But I do think we need to remember that Jeremiah promised that in 70 years their exile would come to an end and that God would, once again, bless them.