Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

SOAP 9/21 - Run with Endurance (Heb 12.1-3)

 

SOAP 9/21
Run with Endurance
Hebrews 12.1-3

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT 5

For the next 21 days, let's commit to feeding yourself spiritually by reading and reflecting on a passage of Scripture each day using the S.O.A.P. method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). Keep a brief daily note of what you learn and how you might apply it, and at the end of the 21 days, share your biggest takeaway with someone else. 
Run with Endurance
Hebrews 12.1-3
The writer of Hebrews, after cataloguing the “great cloud of witnesses” in chapter 11, now exhorts believers to run the race of faith with endurance. The model is Christ Himself - who endured the agony of the cross, despising its shame, and was raised and seated at the right hand of God. This passage calls the Christian community to perseverance, fixing their eyes on Jesus as both pioneer and perfecter of their faith.

Hebrews 12.1-3 (ESV)

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Greek Word Study

  • ἀγών (agōn) – “race” (v. 1). Root of “agony”; not a sprint but a struggle, contest, or disciplined endurance.

  • ὑπομονή (hypomonē) – “endurance” (v. 1). Perseverance, patient strength, the capacity to remain under pressure without giving up.

  • ἀρχηγός (archēgos) – “founder/pioneer” (v. 2). One who goes ahead to open the way; trailblazer.

  • τελειωτής (teleiōtēs) – “perfecter” (v. 2). The one who brings faith to its intended completion.

  • καταφρονήσας (kataphronēsas) – “despising” (v. 2). To disregard as unworthy; Jesus refused to let shame define Him.

Historical Situation

Hebrews was likely written around 60–90 CE, to a community of Jewish Christians tempted to abandon their faith amid persecution and social pressure. The author presents Christ as superior to angels, Moses, and the Jewish priesthood (a great cloud of witnesses) - God's redeeming high priest and mediator of the Christian faith In chapter 12, following the “Hall of Faith” in chapter 11, the audience is exhorted to endure suffering as part of their journey. The metaphor of an athletic contest would have resonated in the Greco-Roman world, where discipline, endurance, and public honor defined victory. The passage reminds believers that Christ endured shame and hostility, setting the pattern for faithfulness under pressure.

Observation through Three Lenses

1. Traditional (Catholic / Orthodox / Protestant Mainstream)

Tradition reads this as a call to ascetic endurance and virtue formation within the Church. The “race” is the life of faith, nurtured through sacraments, discipline, and the support of the communion of saints (“cloud of witnesses”). Christ, as pioneer and perfecter, embodies the pattern of faithfulness that the Church imitates in liturgy and spiritual practice. The focus is perseverance through grace, with eyes fixed on Christ enthroned.

2. Evangelical (Conservative Protestant)

Evangelicals emphasize the personal perseverance of faith. The “race” is the individual believer’s discipleship, marked by repentance (laying aside sin), endurance, and keeping focus on Jesus alone. Christ’s endurance of the cross provides both assurance of salvation and an example for daily discipleship. Evangelicals stress that perseverance proves the genuineness of faith: if we endure, we show that we truly belong to Christ. This principle, or salvific ingredient for salvation, has been built into the church's dogma as a central tenet of the church for a "saving faith."

3. Process Theological (Relational, Whiteheadian)

Process theology sees this passage as an invitation into relational perseverance: running the race not as conquest but as faithful becoming. The “cloud of witnesses” represents the ongoing community of past and present, urging us onward in relational solidarity. Where tradition emphasizes sacramental imitation and evangelicals stress individual perseverance, process heals by reframing endurance not as stoic striving but as trusting God’s persuasive lure through each moment. Jesus “despised the shame” not by overpowering it but by refusing to let coercive powers define Him, showing that God’s relational love outlasts hostility, hate, oppression, and persecution. Jesus was the pioneer of faithful endurance, who met hostility with love, embraced suffering without retaliation, entered into death in solidarity with the broken, harmed and suffering, and now lives as the relational presence empowering his people toward love and renewal.

Application through Three Lenses

1. Traditional

Do I run the race with the saints, nourished by the sacraments and strengthened by their example? This passage reminds me that endurance is should not be a solitary journey but communal in experience, rooted in Christ’s triumph.

2. Evangelical

Am I casting off sin and fixing my eyes on Jesus daily? This passage calls me to live faithfully, endure hardship, and let Christ’s example and present enthronement give me courage so that I may not grow weary.

3. Process Theological

Do I see endurance not as grinding effort but as aligning with God’s relational indwelling presence? Where others may imagine endurance as proof of holiness or salvation, process reframes it as co-creating resilience with God, walking in solidarity with the faithful witnesses who surround us. Christ’s joy reveals that God’s love transforms shame into renewal and steadfastness towards redemptive acquiring of what God's love calls all to do - love, and be loving.

Prayer

O God of endurance and joy,

Help me to run the race with patience, casting off the weights that hinder me. Fix my eyes on Jesus, who endured hostility and shame yet revealed Your faithful love. May I draw strength from the witnesses who have gone before me, and may Your Spirit sustain me in perseverance, so that I may not grow weary but walk faithfully with You.

Amen.


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