Search This Blog

Followers

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Message of Krister Stendahl - bishop in his native Stockholm, Sweden

The Professor of Biblical studies and dean of

Harvard University's Divinity School (he passed

away April 15, 2008 a few days shy of his 87th

birthday) -- his message always emphasizing

God's greatness, human humility, and the limits

of our knowledge:

So, sisters and brothers,

we are very small but

we are small in the hands

of God. . . .To me it seems

that if God is God, I

neither care for not worry

about the hereafter; I 

celebrate the coming of

the kingdom by singing

hymns and by caressing

with words the heaven

with angels and saints

and the messianic banquet

with light and joy and glory!

And I know that I paint,

but I like to paint and I paint

out of love and hope and faith.

But when all is said and done

I pray that the evil I have put into

the world will not cause others to

suffer too much and that my little

life will fit somehow into God's

plan for the kingdom.  The rest

I leave.  May His Kingdom come!

from Jesper Svartvik's

essay in KRISTER AMONG THE JEWS AND GENTILES:

essays in appreciation of the life and work

of Krister Stendahl (a Stimulus / PAULIST PRESS

books, 2018) : page 40.

No comments: