Ragamuffin Gospel I
So I read chapter 1 today. I want to do a post for every chapter I read, with a quote that particularly hit me. But, it is so hard to chose just one. I guess I’ll go with a quote where Manning quotes someone else :)
Any church that will not accept that it consists of sinful men and women, and exists for them, implicityly rejects the gospel of grace. As Hans Kung says “It deserves neither God’s mercy nor men’s trust. The church must constantly be aware that its faith is weak, its knowledge dim, its profession of faith halting, that there is not a single sin or failing which it has not in one way or another been guilty of. And though it is true that the church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinners at a distance. If the church remains self-righteously allof from failures, irreligious and immoral people, it cannot enter justified into God’s kingdom. But if it constantly aware of its guilt and sin, it can live in joyous awareness of forgiveness. The promise has been given to it that anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”
AMEN!