Quotes from Amos Smith

Christianity's job, in the words of George Fox, is to live in the "power, life, light, seed and wisdom, by which we may take away the occasion of wars.

Faith cannot be about absolute certainty in the letters of the Bible and wrath against those who don't comply (Ephesians 2:15). It has to be about overwhelming trust in God's love,6 which as the apostle Paul confirms, is beyond the letter of law and narrow legalistic interpretations.

God transcends and encompasses conservatism and liberalism, certainty and doubt, simplicity and complexity, Divinity and humanity, crucifixion and resurrection.

Throughout the parables the paradoxical teachings continue: Give to receive. Die to live. Lose to win.

Many came to Jesus expecting him to solve their problems. Instead he helped them to connect to their own faith and their own wisdom.

The Alexandrian Mystics taught that Jesus' divinity with a capital D and his humanity with a lower case h are always in dynamic tension and can never be separated.

The spirit of the Gospels is the all inclusive love of Jesus, which jumps off the pages.

To this day the Oriental Orthodox Church asserts that after the incarnation Jesus was "one united dynamic nature": "at once God and human . . ." Ultimately, a Divine mystery—a paradox.

We need precise words for Jesus. Otherwise, Christian theology is built on a foundation of sand.

When it comes to his Divinity, Jesus is equal with God. When it comes to his humanity, Jesus is subordinate to God.

God says to us "Some things won't get done unless you do them.

The body of Christ has no arms and feet, but ours. In other words, God needs us as much as we need God.

Jesus was contemplative and activist, mystic and prophet, Spirit and form, God and human, absolute and relative, Creator and creature, existing for eternity and existing in time.

I adore a God who is beyond words yet contained in the word Jesus.

I worship a God who is as broad as the outer limits of the expanding universe and as tiny as a mustard seed.

Another way to think about Centering Prayer is training the mind to become free from distractions so it can "rest in God.

Theology at its best doesn't seek to solve, but to behold.

The Alexandrian Mystics' emphasis on silent prayer gave their teachings interior depth missing from Western theology today.

Jesus always existed. At the same time Jesus was begotten (made human). This is the perplexing and elusive mystic core of Christian faith.

God is mystery, surpassing the senses and all knowledge, and yet God is at the core of our being.

When we take our social role too seriously the first thing we lose is our sense of humor.

When we revere our human form we respect other human beings, who are so similar to us, for their innate worth. This is the starting place for developing a social conscience.

As Bill Coffin put it, "We worship the Word made flesh, not the Word made words.

I'm not my brother's keeper" is the lie infecting our streets and our neighborhoods (Genesis 4:9). This lie alienates us from God and one another.