the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.
Lefty Christians need to be more careful to distinguish 'the Kingdom of God' - the eschaton, the end of history, the New Creation, the undoing of the sin of Adam brought about by Christ at the end of time - and 'a Christian social order' - a society of Fallen humans who's society is drenched in the Christian virtues and built around a Christian anthropology, emphasising grace, charity and service in the face of our flaws and sins, and our consistent ways of hurting one another. Both are desireable but they're not the same, and one is decidedly more supernatural than the other (and perhaps importantly it is entirely possible to yearn for and belong to the second kind of society without yourself being a pious Christian, but in the first that is not the case)
Complicating factor - the "already-but-not-yet" state of the Kingdom as something that both IS, as you note, inherently super-nature, and ALSO IS something constantly breaking in from super-nature into nature. *Particularly* if you adopt theological positions wherein you understand the Kingdom not to be a rupture but something which slowly builds in history and time; not every Christian tradition does, but critically some do.
To be clear, I'm "Yes, and"ing here, it's a vital distinction but it's absolutely harder to do that consistently than people think it is before they begin actively watching for when they blur the line here.
So recently the mayor of my city placed a bunch of sharp stones under a bridge commonly used by homeless people to escape the harsh tropical storms we experience during the summer
A priest decided that was an utterly anti humanitarian course of action (rightfully so) and so his solution.. was to destroy those rocks with a hammer.
I'm not Catholic (in fact, I grew up Jewish and am now atheist) but I feel this is what religion is supposed to be about. Using the divine to help humans behave a little more... human.
John 14:15-18 takes place during John's version of the Last Supper, where a bunch of Jesus's teachings are rolled into one big dinner discourse. It's where Jesus promises that, once He's gone, He'll send a paraclete (a Greek word meaning "called alongside," like a helper, advocate, or counselor) to stay with and guide the new Church. As Christians, we know this paraclete to be none other than the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity.
In the Book of Acts, we see the Holy Spirit come to the disciples about 50 days after Jesus's resurrection, and about 10 days after His ascension to heaven, on the feast of Pentecost. In Acts 2:1-4, He enters the house where the twelve apostles and other disciples dwell, first as a howling wind, then as tongues of fire reaching out and granting the faithful the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Animated by the Spirit, the disciples all go out and preach, each being understood by everyone they speak to, even those who speak different dialects and languages. It's like their union with God is beginning to heal the disunity of ancient Babel.
In this cartoon, the Holy Spirit politely knocks on the door before entering. Peter notes that Whoever's at the door must be the paraclete Jesus promised to send. John admits to Peter that he originally misheard the word "paraclete" and thought Jesus was sending them a "pair o' cleats," which sounds similar. In the English-speaking United States of America circa 2003 (and culturally adjacent eras and areas), the word "cleats" was generally used to mean "sports shoes equipped with pointed grips" (even though the word "cleats" technically refers to the pointed grips themselves). This is quite a humorous twist of circumstances, for Peter and John do not live in an era NOR in and area that is culturally adjacent to the English-speaking United States of America circa 2003, so they would never use the term "cleats" to describe sports shoes, at least not the brands we're familiar with today.
Anyway, since Jesus obviously said He'd send the disciples a paraclete (the Holy Spirit), and not a pair of cleats (spiked sports shoes), Peter and John smile at the absurdity of John's misunderstanding until Peter opens the door and sees the Holy Spirit in his dove form standing outside in a fancy pair of cleats. This is funny because birds don't normally wear cleats when knocking on doors, meaning He probably had to put them on very quickly after knocking.
One of the gay wains at work a) knows he's gay (he has a crush on Legolas, apparently, and honestly what self-respecting gayboy didn't have that as a gay awakening) and b) IMMEDIATELY asked me if I had a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and when I said boyfriend he said 'Yes! I knew it!'. So I guess me having grown a beard specifically to seem more gender conforming isn't helping.
romaincrisis
stormborns
baratheonpilled
snowghoul
2087
jbbartram-illu
titsay
annaxmalina
