“Something Impossible for Unaided Humanity”

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Happy MLK Day Friends,

Our online class resumes tonight at 7:00 EST. For the next five Mondays of the Epiphany season, we will be discussing Fleming Rutledge’s new book, Epiphany: The Season of Glory.

We will work our way through the book two chapters at a time.

Panelists will include the posse from previous Monday night session: Todd Littleton, Josh Munnikhuysen, Tony Robinson, Kelly Watts, and Johanna Hartelius. Fleming says she hopes to be able to join us sometime too.

You can still sign up to join us live in the Zoom webinar here.

As a supplement to our discussions, my friend Josh Retterer will be writing brief reflections for us along the way.

Here is his initial post:

The newly installed pastor tossed the copy of Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion – gifted the previous week – onto the pew beside me. The dreaded Elvis lip curl of disdain wasn’t what I was expecting as he mumbled a couple of words that may have been “thank you.” The whole encounter felt rather Lynchian; the awkward fast-walk away really selling it. Everything was red flags and sirens and flashing red lights— even the flashing lights were waving red flags. I never did find out why he returned it, what his objections were to it, or to me. If you can’t talk about The Crucifixion with your pastor…

As you can see, Rev. Rutledge can produce some strong reactions, but so can the Crackers & Grape Juice folks! Matter of fact, I found Crackers & Grape Juice because of Fleming Rutledge. I heard her interviewed on The Mockingcast about her then new book, and had to find more! I soon found Crackers & Grape Juice’s Fridays with Fleming, which were/are some of my favorite episodes. Rev. Rutledge’s clarity about the gospel is so refreshing, mainly because it’s rarely heard. She talks about Christ’s power to save so freely, with a palpable sense of both joy and awe, that you can’t help but be affected. She isn’t on the bleeding edge of experimental theology, which often feels like the process of removing the necessity of Jesus from Christianity. Rev. Rutledge unapologetically preaches and writes about the faith once delivered, of which Christ is central. She has spent a lifetime pointing the same direction. Why? There is nothing else more important. 

So, when Rev. Rutledge writes an entire book on Epiphany, and calls it, Epiphany –again, it must be important. I tend to trust where she points. From  the very first chapter, Jesus is front and center.

“The glory of the love of Jesus is not the same as human love, because his glory is something that is impossible for unaided humanity: namely, it is able to triumph over all that would destroy it. The body of Christ needs to recommit to this concept of the glory of God. It has been in semi-eclipse of late, as Jesus has been presented as a moral exemplar, social activist, and religious teacher minus his unique identity as Son of God. Perhaps the very word glory seems bombastic to some, for reasons similar to recent attempts at eliminating the idea of Jesus as “Lord.” However, the glory of God and the lordship of Christ are too central to the biblical message to be pushed to the side in the church’s witness. In particular, the glory of God needs to be recovered as a preaching theme if we are to seek a more obviously revelatory way of proclaiming Christ. The Epiphany season, with its narrative arc shaped by manifestations of Jesus’ uniquely divine identity, is well suited to this project.”

This week we will explore, in part, this recovery project, why it’s vital, and ways they attempt to do the same in their own churches and ministries. 

Thanks for joining us!  

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