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The Slow Violence of Division
Reflecting on Proverbs 6:16-19 There are things that fracture the soul.Things that unravel a people from the inside out.Not all at once.Usually slowly. Quietly. Like rot beneath the floorboards of a house that still looks beautiful from the street. And Proverbs says God hates these things. Not because God is angry in the fragile, explosive way humans are angry.Not because God is easily…
Tonight/Sunday we finish #TheWayOfJesus -- our trek through His manifesto. I'm praying I can capture the power of his concluding statements. #19weeks #SummerProject #SermonOnTheMount #matthew56and7 (at Suncrest Christian Church)
'When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.' We have no reason or right to choose another way than the way God chose in Jesus Christ. The cross is both the symbol of our salvation and the pattern of our lives.
Brennan Manning quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The WAY of JESUS QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Part of the challenge of turning to a scripture text like John 14:6 -- "I am the way" -- as a base for a sermon series are our preconceived ideas and assumptions about what it means. This danger is real both for the preacher and the audience. As an example, many of us are familiar with these words. They are, after all, some of the most famous of all of Jesus' sayings. We may have memorized this verse. We may have heard one, or many, sermons on this verse. Another danger are the theological convictions that we bring to these words. Some of us are convinced that Jesus spoke these words to convince people who were not yet his followers to become his follower. Some of us have used these words to argue with skeptics and disbelievers that Jesus is truly the way. Here is the problem with this way of interpreting these words. Jesus was not speaking to people who were not his followers when he first said these words. He was speaking to his 12 original disciples. These were people who were already convinced. If anyone was a follower of Jesus in that first century, these 12 people were. Yet Jesus said to them, people who already believed that He was the way, "I am the way." It's a real curiosity; what was Jesus driving at by saying these words to these already convinced people? To help dig into these words so you can see them fresh, as if for the first time, ask yourself some questions: 1) dig into the context surrounding these words: when did Jesus speak them? Where was he when he said them? Who was present--and who was not present? 2) what happened in the week before the time of these words being spoken? What happened within a week following the speaking of these words? 3) what did Jesus know that caused him to utter these words to his most ardent followers? Why do you think he believed these followers needed these words? 4) what kind if way is the way of Jesus? Happy digging into John 14:6! I am convinced these words are really important "way markers" about the rich kind of life that is ours if we become followers if Jesus. On Sunday, August 24, I am going to start talking about the way of Jesus, what it is, and why we should care.
