Christians living in the world - something from Volf

Something really well said by Miroslav Volf.

Christians do not come into their own social world from the outside seeking either to accommodate to their new home (like second generation immigrants would), shape it in the image of the one they have left behind (like colonizers would), or establish a little haven in the strange new world reminiscent of the old (as resident aliens would). They are not outsiders who either seek to become insiders or maintain strenuously the status of outsiders. Christians are the insiders who have diverted from their culture by being born again.

(Cited by Joel Green, 1 Peter [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007], page 196-7)

The Crucified and the cross, that "eminently counter-cultural symbol"

Here are two quotes from Miroslav Volf's Exclusion and Embrace. I find them very insightful, and they serve as counter-cultural - even scandalous - statements for the 21st-century world. Something for us to meditate on.

“All sufferers can find comfort in the solidarity of the Crucified; but only those who struggle against evil by following the example of the Crucified will discover him at their side. To claim the comfort of the Crucified while rejecting his way is to advocate not only cheap grace but a deceitful ideology.”

“In a world of violence, the Cross, that eminently counter-cultural symbol that lives at the heart of the Christian faith, is a scandal.”