(DOWNLOAD) "Practice of Pastoral Concern (Essay)" by Currents in Theology and Mission " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Practice of Pastoral Concern (Essay)
- Author : Currents in Theology and Mission
- Release Date : January 01, 2011
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 232 KB
Description
The church's practice of pastoral concern originates in God's pastoral care for us: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). God enters deeply into human experience and has been revealed among us as the God who cares, "the fellow-sufferer who understands" (A.N. Whitehead). While God's primordial nature lends God constancy throughout time, God's consequent nature reveals God as the one affected by the pathos of all things. God's pastoral care for humanity and all of creation was revealed most unmistakably in the life and passion of Jesus Christ. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matt 9:36). As the good shepherd Jesus welcomed the little ones, shared good news with the poor, fed the hungry, healed the sick, cast out demons, broke bread with outcasts, wept with the grieving, and washed weary feet. Sharing pastoral concern, Jesus defied the conventions of his religious world in order to do good to the one in need: "Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?" (Matt 12:11). In the ultimate act of pastoral concern, Jesus died on the cross as the Lamb of God to reveal the immensity of divine love. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16).