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James K. A. Smith in chapter 5 of you are what you love (brazos press: grand rapids, MI. 2016.)

5/25/2020

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Smith says:

We love because he first loved us, but we learn how to love at home. (p. 113)

The frenetic pace of our lives means we often end up falling into routines without much reflection. We do what we think "good parents" do. And we might think the are just "things that we do" without recognizing that they may also be doing something to us. (p. 113-4)

[W]e need to relinquish our tendency to think of baptism "expressively." Baptism isn't primarily a way for us to show our faith and devotion. As with worship more generally, God is the agent here. Baptism is a sacrament precisely because it is a means of grace, a way that God's gracious initiative marks and seals us. It is the sign that God is a covenant-keeping Lord who fulfills his promises even when we don't. This is why, since the time of the early church, households have been baptized (Acts 16:33; 1 Cor. 1:16), and it is why, historically in "catholic" Christianity, believing parents present their children for baptism. As a sacrament, baptism is not a bottom-up expression of our faith but a top-down symbol of God's gracious promises. He chose us before we could believe; he loves before we even know how. (p. 114-5; amen and amen!)

Every Sunday is a marriage renewal ceremony. (p. 124)

Our households -- our "little kingdoms" -- need to be nourished by constant recentering in the body of Christ. (p. 125)

But what does it look like to parent lovers? What does it look like to curate a household as a formative space to direct our desires? How can a home be a place to (re)calibrate our hearts? (p. 127)

Children are ritual animals who absorb the gospel in practices that speak to their imaginations. (p. 129)

Creation is always more than we see. What might appear "natural" in suffused with God's grandeur. It is in worship that we learn to inhabit the world in this way, as an environment charged by the presence and activity of god. We can, therefore, look for ways to let the world's enchantment spill over into the so-called mundane spaces of our lives. We can look for ways to cultivate "enchanted households" that reflect this reality. (p. 130)

[N]ever underestimate the formative power of the family supper table. (p. 132)

The table at home is an echo of the Lord's Table; the communion of the saints is given microcosmic expression in the simple discipline of daily dinner together. (p. 136)
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    Michael Price - I am a husband, father of three, poet, and science teacher at a classical Christian school in Memphis, TN. I have four volumes of poetry. My latest volume The Shadowed Night can be purchased by clicking on the button below.

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