What Jesus calls "the kingdom of God" (in NT Greek, basiliea: realm or dominion) is also referred to in Matthew's gospel as "the kingdom of the heavens." This is a realm that can be seen and entered into, according to Jesus.
What were some of our understandings of what the "kingdom of God" is?
--"us"
--"God-with-us"
--anywhere, everywhere where God is ("There is nowhere where God is not")
--everyplace where God's will is being done
--after death
--"My Father's House" (with lots of room!)
--the kin-dom
--Fulfillment
--all-encompassing
--community of God ; com (with) -unity (together)
At the outset of his ministry, Jesus announces: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe the good news." Jesus statement is not future-tense: the kingdom has already come. Those who believe that will live their lives differently.
We reflected on the substance of Jesus' interaction with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John Chapter 3. where he says that "no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Later, he says that "no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit." He adds that " the wind (of the spirit) blows where it will." It is God's initiative.
What might the kingdom of God look like to us?
--"like the Shared Table"
--neighborliness
--inclusivity (when you can see the realm you are then able to do it!)
To see and enter the kingdom profoundly impacts how we see and experience life right now.
When we see and enter God's realm we are also freed to "receive" it and offer hospitality. We begin to see and perceive others in our lives as bearers of God's gifts.
We are constantly being taught.
We meet death in different way.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Some More Salvation!
Over the course of two discussions we put together something of a list of what we understand "salvation" to be. The list has included:
--being saved/delivered
--a better life after death
--"safety net" that is always there
--never ending love
--release from the fear of death (a profound comfort!)
--peace
--grace, gift
--tender mercy
--love to share with others
--seeing others with the eyes of mercy
--that which frees us to fully become ourselves
-- realizing God's network of life and our place in it!
We discussed being "saved from sin." We talked about "sin" as manifestations of distance--separation from God's will, from each other (ruptures of human relationship and oneness), from parts of ourselves.
Salvation, then, can be:
--deliverance from loneliness and isolation
--liberation from all that would imprison us
--becoming "touchable" (including touching the neglected and exiled parts of ourselves)
--being tended to
--the experience of being loved (we are never separated from God's love)
--the "breathing of fresh air"
having our invigorated lives and relationships be the breath of fresh air!
--communion with God who exists beyond every "ending," and whose realm is greater than all of our perceptions. Here we are speaking of God's eternal nature.
What else would you add?
In revisiting the meaning of the verb sozo, "to save," we explored further how salvation is a healing power, one manifested not only in the future but in the "here-and-now." All of Jesus' saving actions were in the present-tense, even as they offered promise for transformed living in the future.
Hearkening back to Old Testament, we were reminded that in the Hebrew Scriptures salvation is communal more than individual. God's people are delivered, not just individual persons. How is the salvation we realize through Jesus communal and "in-common?"
--being saved/delivered
--a better life after death
--"safety net" that is always there
--never ending love
--release from the fear of death (a profound comfort!)
--peace
--grace, gift
--tender mercy
--love to share with others
--seeing others with the eyes of mercy
--that which frees us to fully become ourselves
-- realizing God's network of life and our place in it!
We discussed being "saved from sin." We talked about "sin" as manifestations of distance--separation from God's will, from each other (ruptures of human relationship and oneness), from parts of ourselves.
Salvation, then, can be:
--deliverance from loneliness and isolation
--liberation from all that would imprison us
--becoming "touchable" (including touching the neglected and exiled parts of ourselves)
--being tended to
--the experience of being loved (we are never separated from God's love)
--the "breathing of fresh air"
having our invigorated lives and relationships be the breath of fresh air!
--communion with God who exists beyond every "ending," and whose realm is greater than all of our perceptions. Here we are speaking of God's eternal nature.
What else would you add?
In revisiting the meaning of the verb sozo, "to save," we explored further how salvation is a healing power, one manifested not only in the future but in the "here-and-now." All of Jesus' saving actions were in the present-tense, even as they offered promise for transformed living in the future.
Hearkening back to Old Testament, we were reminded that in the Hebrew Scriptures salvation is communal more than individual. God's people are delivered, not just individual persons. How is the salvation we realize through Jesus communal and "in-common?"
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Salvation
We had shortened class, so we will continue discussing "salvation" for a second week!
In the New Testament, the verb sozo, translated "to save," can mean:
--to deliver
--to rescue
--to keep from perishing
--to make well
to heal
to restore
There were several "Jesus texts" introduced for our study and reflection:
(1) Matthew 1:21--"For he (Jesus) will save his people from their sins."
If sin is a manifestation of distance--from God, from one another, from
the image of God in ourselves--then Jesus comes to deliver us from these
debilitating distances.
(2) Matthew 9:21;Mark 5:28; Luke 9:48--"If only I touch his garment, I will
be made well." (A translation of sozo)
(3) Mark 8:35 --"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who
lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."
(4) John 3;17-- " Indeed,God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him"
In the New Testament, the verb sozo, translated "to save," can mean:
--to deliver
--to rescue
--to keep from perishing
--to make well
to heal
to restore
There were several "Jesus texts" introduced for our study and reflection:
(1) Matthew 1:21--"For he (Jesus) will save his people from their sins."
If sin is a manifestation of distance--from God, from one another, from
the image of God in ourselves--then Jesus comes to deliver us from these
debilitating distances.
(2) Matthew 9:21;Mark 5:28; Luke 9:48--"If only I touch his garment, I will
be made well." (A translation of sozo)
(3) Mark 8:35 --"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who
lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."
(4) John 3;17-- " Indeed,God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him"
Friday, February 20, 2015
The Bible
Here are some quotes to stimulate your consideration:
"The Bible is the record of God's search for humanity." --Robert McAfee Brown
"We have so much to say about the Bible that we are not prepared to hear what the Bible has to say about us." --Abraham Heschel
The Bible is not just man's word about God but also God's word about man." -- Karl Barth
"Instead of reading the Bible as orthodoxy, or morality, or history, we take the Bible as a range of imagination that provides the community around the text with narrative and story and songs and poetry and images that have the potential to move outside themselves . . . the Bible is not "user-friendly" for people who like the way the world is organized. It is inherently subversive."
--Walter Brueggemann
"There is no way you can read the entire Bible seriously and take every word literally. Contradictions start in the first two chapters of Genesis. There are two Creation stories, two stories of the making of Adam and Eve. And that is all right. The Bible is still true."--Madeleine L'Engle
Key to our thinking about a Jesus-centered approach to reading and studying the Bible:
"We need to read the Bible in principle and practice beginning with the gospel narrative of Jesus and the radically new thing he brings to the human situation. Jesus does not fit any of the current schemes of biblical interpretation, biblical literalist, literary critical, dispensationalist, which make the text more important than Jesus himself and thus neutralize the revolution of his teaching. Rather we should see that Jesus has brought a transforming possibility of nonviolence and forgiveness to our way of being human, and all biblical interpretation, including the pathways of revelation in the Old Testament." --Anthony Bartlett
"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." --Jesus in John 14:9
"The Bible is the record of God's search for humanity." --Robert McAfee Brown
"We have so much to say about the Bible that we are not prepared to hear what the Bible has to say about us." --Abraham Heschel
The Bible is not just man's word about God but also God's word about man." -- Karl Barth
"Instead of reading the Bible as orthodoxy, or morality, or history, we take the Bible as a range of imagination that provides the community around the text with narrative and story and songs and poetry and images that have the potential to move outside themselves . . . the Bible is not "user-friendly" for people who like the way the world is organized. It is inherently subversive."
--Walter Brueggemann
"There is no way you can read the entire Bible seriously and take every word literally. Contradictions start in the first two chapters of Genesis. There are two Creation stories, two stories of the making of Adam and Eve. And that is all right. The Bible is still true."--Madeleine L'Engle
Key to our thinking about a Jesus-centered approach to reading and studying the Bible:
"We need to read the Bible in principle and practice beginning with the gospel narrative of Jesus and the radically new thing he brings to the human situation. Jesus does not fit any of the current schemes of biblical interpretation, biblical literalist, literary critical, dispensationalist, which make the text more important than Jesus himself and thus neutralize the revolution of his teaching. Rather we should see that Jesus has brought a transforming possibility of nonviolence and forgiveness to our way of being human, and all biblical interpretation, including the pathways of revelation in the Old Testament." --Anthony Bartlett
"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." --Jesus in John 14:9
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Unbounded Love
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what rewards do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." --Matthew 5:43-48
A lawyer asked him a question to test him a question to test him: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets." --Matthew 22:35-40
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." --John 13:34-35
"Beloved, let love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love . . . God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, as God abides in them." --1 John 4:7-8, 16
The power of God is the power of unbounded love; in biblical language, agape love. The most common expression for this in the New Testament is the verb agapao. This is the self-giving, ever-welcoming love of God that we see and experience in Jesus. It is actively given. Unbounded love is the only power that can save us in a world where love is constantly shackled.
Jesus' self-giving was not hindered by the cross, by the threat of death, or by its reality. God's love for all (in particular, enemies) is poured out toward a future that is the promised fulfillment of God's unbounded love. We live together, in faith, toward that promise.
An insight from the first scripture above, the command to love enemies, is that the term translated "perfect" (as in "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect") is better translated as "whole" or "complete." In essence: Be whole, complete, as God is. This means being complete in love--a love that leaves no one out!
How does the revelation that God's love has no limits (in John's language, that "God is love") impact how you perceive and understand God? How does it impact how you read the Bible? What does it mean for the church in its ministry?
And here is the really good inquiry, the "acid test," if you will; Can you give me some practical examples of "loving your enemy," from your own experience?
A lawyer asked him a question to test him a question to test him: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets." --Matthew 22:35-40
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." --John 13:34-35
"Beloved, let love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love . . . God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, as God abides in them." --1 John 4:7-8, 16
The power of God is the power of unbounded love; in biblical language, agape love. The most common expression for this in the New Testament is the verb agapao. This is the self-giving, ever-welcoming love of God that we see and experience in Jesus. It is actively given. Unbounded love is the only power that can save us in a world where love is constantly shackled.
Jesus' self-giving was not hindered by the cross, by the threat of death, or by its reality. God's love for all (in particular, enemies) is poured out toward a future that is the promised fulfillment of God's unbounded love. We live together, in faith, toward that promise.
An insight from the first scripture above, the command to love enemies, is that the term translated "perfect" (as in "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect") is better translated as "whole" or "complete." In essence: Be whole, complete, as God is. This means being complete in love--a love that leaves no one out!
How does the revelation that God's love has no limits (in John's language, that "God is love") impact how you perceive and understand God? How does it impact how you read the Bible? What does it mean for the church in its ministry?
And here is the really good inquiry, the "acid test," if you will; Can you give me some practical examples of "loving your enemy," from your own experience?
Friday, February 13, 2015
Faith is a Way of Life
It is helpful to consider faith as a way of life. Faith is not a "thing" we have or need to get; it is a quality of relationship lived out each day with God and with one another.
Let these statements stimulate your thinking:
-"A life of faith is a life free to welcome the kingdom of God."
--Faith is "living in God's promises, and living toward God's envisioned future."
--Faith concerns attentive engagement in promissory relationship (Walter Brueggemann).
--"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not (yet) seen." --Hebrews 11:1
--Faith is trusting in God's surprises.
The terms in the New Testament Greek translated "faith" are pistis (noun) and pisteuo (verb). They convey: belief to the extent of complete trust and reliance; fidelity; to be entrusted. They are relational terms.
In Luke Chapter 17, the disciples respond to Jesus' teachings, which they perceive as too difficult, by demanding, "Give us more faith!" Jesus says, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you." In other words, we don't need more faith--any shred or seed of faith will be enough! The image of the tiny mustard seed, which Jesus uses elsewhere, intimates that faith is something planted within us that is nurtured and grows in healthy relationship. The disciples come to recognize that our faith comes from the Lord--it is a gift.
There is much to study n the scriptures about faith, and much fidelity, entrusting, careful attention, and fruitfulness to experience in our relationships with God. Please comment and add!
Let these statements stimulate your thinking:
-"A life of faith is a life free to welcome the kingdom of God."
--Faith is "living in God's promises, and living toward God's envisioned future."
--Faith concerns attentive engagement in promissory relationship (Walter Brueggemann).
--"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not (yet) seen." --Hebrews 11:1
--Faith is trusting in God's surprises.
The terms in the New Testament Greek translated "faith" are pistis (noun) and pisteuo (verb). They convey: belief to the extent of complete trust and reliance; fidelity; to be entrusted. They are relational terms.
In Luke Chapter 17, the disciples respond to Jesus' teachings, which they perceive as too difficult, by demanding, "Give us more faith!" Jesus says, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you." In other words, we don't need more faith--any shred or seed of faith will be enough! The image of the tiny mustard seed, which Jesus uses elsewhere, intimates that faith is something planted within us that is nurtured and grows in healthy relationship. The disciples come to recognize that our faith comes from the Lord--it is a gift.
There is much to study n the scriptures about faith, and much fidelity, entrusting, careful attention, and fruitfulness to experience in our relationships with God. Please comment and add!
Jesus
When we were making our list of "essentials" in Christian faith and practice, we noted that they are interdependent, rather than ranked. There is one notable exception: Jesus is always first. Our lives are shaped in response to Jesus' call: "Follow me."
So I asked our group to tell me about Jesus. Here were our responses:
--Love
--God in human form
--God revealed to us
--Lamb of God
--Prince of Peace
--Counselor (we obviously are familiar with Isaiah 9!)
--Emmanuel (God-with-us)
--Rabboni (Teacher)
--Savior
--The Son of Man ,which can be rendered as "The Human One" or "The True Human. This was how Jesus spoke of himself.
--Son of God
--Servant
--Nazorean
--mystery
--Messiah, Christ
--Shepherd
It was also noted that a good deal of his life was unscrutinized (we know little of his day-to-day existence until age 30, save for the powerful account of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple at Age twelve--in Luke 2:41-52.
This is a rich list. Allow me to add some descriptions from the last Foundations of Faith Class we had:
--Miracle-Worker
--Lover
--Brother
--Amazingly Good Listener
--Friend to the Friendless
--Toucher of the Untouchable
--Gift
--Lawbreaker and Troublemaker
--Compassionate
--Wise
--Living Word
--Merciful
--Not for Sale
There is remarkable depth and texture to these responses. Consider that your God-given life might be similarly deep and rich and expressive. The life of a disciple is our response to Jesus' invitation to follow. When we refer to a Jesus-centered faith, we are talking about our life shared and lived inseparably from him.
Jesus is our interpretive key, not only in our reading of the scriptures but in our discernment of "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
So I asked our group to tell me about Jesus. Here were our responses:
--Love
--God in human form
--God revealed to us
--Lamb of God
--Prince of Peace
--Counselor (we obviously are familiar with Isaiah 9!)
--Emmanuel (God-with-us)
--Rabboni (Teacher)
--Savior
--The Son of Man ,which can be rendered as "The Human One" or "The True Human. This was how Jesus spoke of himself.
--Son of God
--Servant
--Nazorean
--mystery
--Messiah, Christ
--Shepherd
It was also noted that a good deal of his life was unscrutinized (we know little of his day-to-day existence until age 30, save for the powerful account of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple at Age twelve--in Luke 2:41-52.
This is a rich list. Allow me to add some descriptions from the last Foundations of Faith Class we had:
--Miracle-Worker
--Lover
--Brother
--Amazingly Good Listener
--Friend to the Friendless
--Toucher of the Untouchable
--Gift
--Lawbreaker and Troublemaker
--Compassionate
--Wise
--Living Word
--Merciful
--Not for Sale
There is remarkable depth and texture to these responses. Consider that your God-given life might be similarly deep and rich and expressive. The life of a disciple is our response to Jesus' invitation to follow. When we refer to a Jesus-centered faith, we are talking about our life shared and lived inseparably from him.
Jesus is our interpretive key, not only in our reading of the scriptures but in our discernment of "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
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