1) We return to theme of judging others. Where are you most judgmental?
2) Paul is now self-identifying with the strong-those who have moved past strictures about food and even sacred days.Apparently, he no longer harbors even doubts about this position.
3) This then buttresses his position that his camp cannot judge the so-called weak, as he is arguing against his own position.
4) Where in church disputes have you seen mutual edification as the ethical standard?
5) Paul says that we cannot get in the way of those with "weaker" faith when their position conflicts with our own. Indeed we bend over backward to accommodate them.
6) The study guide says that this is a plea for tolerance. isn;t it more? If a dispute is getting in the way of the weak, we should permit their viewpoint without interference, no? How would this influence our work at resolving disputes on doctrine and practice in the church now?
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Oct 30 Devotions
Sunday October 30 is Reformation Sunday in many churches. The watchword of course, is the church reformed, always being reformed. I always was struck by the passive ending of it, so that it is god’s spirit reforming the church, not an act of human will. In other words, the church is a human institution, but ti is in the hands of god. God is not through with us yet. God uses this odd instrument to continue the work of redemption.
Halloween-A movement exists to make Halloween a “safe” holiday without thoughts of gore. I assume all of the candy will be sugar-free or organic. I think that by placing it within a spirit of fun and masks, it helps us to face the reality of death. Indeed, to make death an object of ridicule and humor strikes me as a proper response to the Easter people who claim resurrection at the core of our faith.Yes, death is the last enemy, but its days are numbered. One day, death will go to Hell.
Tuesday-All Saints Day is a great idea as we move toward the close of the church year. In Protestant language, we can honor all the saints, all of those who lived an died in the faith. It is a proper liturgical moment for us to consider those who have died as pioneers of the faith as they journey to the far side of the Jordan to the Promised Land beyond. do you have any prescribed rituals for honoring those who have gone on before you?
Wednesday- Do you have a bucket list, a list of things you would like to do before you leave this earth? In church recently I mentioned some with flying: as i have been in a glider and a balloon, but need to take a helicopter ride and if I get braver, fly an ultralight craft myself. Maybe it is less an action than an emotional tie that needs to be redone, or a someone whom we should forgive.
Thursday-we move from the end to happier thoughts of the here and now. “Pie in the sky, by and by is part of our culture, but it is a profound mistake to keep our lives on hold in order to wait for our beautiful heavenly reward. with it as a pledge, we are, or can be, emboldened to live a richer, fuller life here and now, despite the limitations we all face to some degree. Consider just one place where you could live more richly, more fully, maybe even just for today.
Friday-As I write this, I note that I plan to be in Urbana for a seminar on the mainline church. It seems that the older established churches are in decline and new centers are replacing them. While I applaud the newer movements to a degree, as I wish for many flowers in the church garden to bloom, I am profoundly saddened to see the older churches falling by the wayside. I do know that we are getting nowhere in playing the blame game and instead require a firm look at what to treasure, and what to let go, what to change.
Saturday-I hope to see our younger daughter in college at the end of this week, even as the actual date is still up in the air. It is a tightrope journey to be with an offspring who is at the cusp of full adulthood, yet not. She has a marvelous way of returning to precious memories of childhood through books or movies when the stress of adulthood becomes a bit much.What were your best tools in navigating different stages or passages in life? Where did faith come into play?
Halloween-A movement exists to make Halloween a “safe” holiday without thoughts of gore. I assume all of the candy will be sugar-free or organic. I think that by placing it within a spirit of fun and masks, it helps us to face the reality of death. Indeed, to make death an object of ridicule and humor strikes me as a proper response to the Easter people who claim resurrection at the core of our faith.Yes, death is the last enemy, but its days are numbered. One day, death will go to Hell.
Tuesday-All Saints Day is a great idea as we move toward the close of the church year. In Protestant language, we can honor all the saints, all of those who lived an died in the faith. It is a proper liturgical moment for us to consider those who have died as pioneers of the faith as they journey to the far side of the Jordan to the Promised Land beyond. do you have any prescribed rituals for honoring those who have gone on before you?
Wednesday- Do you have a bucket list, a list of things you would like to do before you leave this earth? In church recently I mentioned some with flying: as i have been in a glider and a balloon, but need to take a helicopter ride and if I get braver, fly an ultralight craft myself. Maybe it is less an action than an emotional tie that needs to be redone, or a someone whom we should forgive.
Thursday-we move from the end to happier thoughts of the here and now. “Pie in the sky, by and by is part of our culture, but it is a profound mistake to keep our lives on hold in order to wait for our beautiful heavenly reward. with it as a pledge, we are, or can be, emboldened to live a richer, fuller life here and now, despite the limitations we all face to some degree. Consider just one place where you could live more richly, more fully, maybe even just for today.
Friday-As I write this, I note that I plan to be in Urbana for a seminar on the mainline church. It seems that the older established churches are in decline and new centers are replacing them. While I applaud the newer movements to a degree, as I wish for many flowers in the church garden to bloom, I am profoundly saddened to see the older churches falling by the wayside. I do know that we are getting nowhere in playing the blame game and instead require a firm look at what to treasure, and what to let go, what to change.
Saturday-I hope to see our younger daughter in college at the end of this week, even as the actual date is still up in the air. It is a tightrope journey to be with an offspring who is at the cusp of full adulthood, yet not. She has a marvelous way of returning to precious memories of childhood through books or movies when the stress of adulthood becomes a bit much.What were your best tools in navigating different stages or passages in life? Where did faith come into play?
Romans 13
1) Why do you think Paul makes a strong case for secular authority?
2) In the Reformed tradition, we may rebel against tyranny. How do we determine this?
3) Paul then moves to the commandments as examples of loving the neighbor at most, or a deterrence and mark of civil wrong at bottom.
4) How does his sense of the imminence of the end times affect his view of secular power do you think?
5)Assess the quote from Niebuhr at the top of p. 69.
2) In the Reformed tradition, we may rebel against tyranny. How do we determine this?
3) Paul then moves to the commandments as examples of loving the neighbor at most, or a deterrence and mark of civil wrong at bottom.
4) How does his sense of the imminence of the end times affect his view of secular power do you think?
5)Assess the quote from Niebuhr at the top of p. 69.
Rom. 12
1) What are some other images we can get at the interdependence of the body? Does team do the trick? A theater company?
2)v.2 is emphasized by the Amish and Christian Science. What does it mean to you? Have you experienced this transformation? What part of your life is the best offering? the worst?
3) Living offering may be better than sacrifice.
4)Do you long for the spiritual gifts or skill sets of others but then neglect the ones you have?
5)Should we read vv.9-17 at weddings? How about for new church members?
6)After all of the words on peace starting at 18, why talk about burning coals on the head? Is this a version of being cruel to be kind?
7) V.21 is difficult indeed. have you seen it work? Where is it easiest and hardes tot try to live out this verse?
2)v.2 is emphasized by the Amish and Christian Science. What does it mean to you? Have you experienced this transformation? What part of your life is the best offering? the worst?
3) Living offering may be better than sacrifice.
4)Do you long for the spiritual gifts or skill sets of others but then neglect the ones you have?
5)Should we read vv.9-17 at weddings? How about for new church members?
6)After all of the words on peace starting at 18, why talk about burning coals on the head? Is this a version of being cruel to be kind?
7) V.21 is difficult indeed. have you seen it work? Where is it easiest and hardes tot try to live out this verse?
Sermon Notes Oct 30/Reformation sunday
Joshua takes on the mantle of Moses. We have a smaller version of the crossing of the Red Sea waters again. At first from slavery to freedom, and now we move from the wilderness to the Promised Land.to me it has echoes of the ancient Baal story in a fight with Judge River. (see Slaying the Dragon) To me, it shows the immense religious confidence of Israel to appropriate other stories and fold them into their story. Its religious imagination can adapt other traditions toward the worship of God if it encounters cultural material worth considering. In religious terms, it demonstrates the power of the god of Israel over any ancient enemy to God’s creation and the special people of Israel.
It seems to me to be crucial to note that this military campaign is more like a religious procession and will show itself again in a similar fashion in Jericho.this is an interesting take on the violence of the conquest that is such canard with those who stereotype the OT without bothering to read it at times.The river marks a boundary. so for me it is a liminal place, a threshold. As Dennis Olson said, it took the death of the old and the birth of the new to be able to finally shake off the slave mentality and enter into the Promised Land as a free people. The American slaves called the Ohio, the Jordan, as the marker of slave to free territory. Sometimes, we cannot go into a new place, forge a new direction until we have changed enough inside to be able to not only make but to flourish in the new situation.
Recall Joshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew (god saves/helps/delivers)What do you think it felt like for Joshua to enter this long-Promised Land? Did he think of Moses, do you wonder? What are the wonders and dangers of attaining your dream? Are you exhilarated, or could you be disappointed. do you feel a bit empty once the great quest is over?” Is it a feeling of now what, where do we go from here? Possession of a dream does not seem to have the emotional impact of moving toward it at least some of the time.Indeed sometimes the journey, not the destination, is where all of the growth occurs. (Augustana One on Onestory)
Bruce Springsteen has a song the Promised Land, and it also appears in at least one other song.. “blow away the dream that break your heart/blow away the dreams that tear you apart/blow away the lies that leave you nothing except lost and brokenhearted. In his great song, Thunder Road, he sings of “riding out tonight to case the Promised Land.” This would be a good place to consider the pluses and minuses of the dream of the Promised Land as physical reality or metaphor.(see Breuggemann’s The Land.)
On this day we recall Luther’s promotion of a religious debate that turned into a revolution. He stood at the Jordan again when he said, here I stand, I can do no other in his reliance on his reading of Scripture against an authoritarian response form the church.Reformation Sunday is a dream found and deferred. Our watchword, the church reformed, always being reformed, is one that tries to keep the horizon receding and realizing that we do not achieve perfection in this life. In that sense, our decisions place us at the Jordan, a boundary marker of the kind of person we demonstrate by dint of our actions. We all cross the Jordan into the Promised Land at the great boundary of death. That will be a Promised Land that will exceed every hope.
It seems to me to be crucial to note that this military campaign is more like a religious procession and will show itself again in a similar fashion in Jericho.this is an interesting take on the violence of the conquest that is such canard with those who stereotype the OT without bothering to read it at times.The river marks a boundary. so for me it is a liminal place, a threshold. As Dennis Olson said, it took the death of the old and the birth of the new to be able to finally shake off the slave mentality and enter into the Promised Land as a free people. The American slaves called the Ohio, the Jordan, as the marker of slave to free territory. Sometimes, we cannot go into a new place, forge a new direction until we have changed enough inside to be able to not only make but to flourish in the new situation.
Recall Joshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew (god saves/helps/delivers)What do you think it felt like for Joshua to enter this long-Promised Land? Did he think of Moses, do you wonder? What are the wonders and dangers of attaining your dream? Are you exhilarated, or could you be disappointed. do you feel a bit empty once the great quest is over?” Is it a feeling of now what, where do we go from here? Possession of a dream does not seem to have the emotional impact of moving toward it at least some of the time.Indeed sometimes the journey, not the destination, is where all of the growth occurs. (Augustana One on Onestory)
Bruce Springsteen has a song the Promised Land, and it also appears in at least one other song.. “blow away the dream that break your heart/blow away the dreams that tear you apart/blow away the lies that leave you nothing except lost and brokenhearted. In his great song, Thunder Road, he sings of “riding out tonight to case the Promised Land.” This would be a good place to consider the pluses and minuses of the dream of the Promised Land as physical reality or metaphor.(see Breuggemann’s The Land.)
On this day we recall Luther’s promotion of a religious debate that turned into a revolution. He stood at the Jordan again when he said, here I stand, I can do no other in his reliance on his reading of Scripture against an authoritarian response form the church.Reformation Sunday is a dream found and deferred. Our watchword, the church reformed, always being reformed, is one that tries to keep the horizon receding and realizing that we do not achieve perfection in this life. In that sense, our decisions place us at the Jordan, a boundary marker of the kind of person we demonstrate by dint of our actions. We all cross the Jordan into the Promised Land at the great boundary of death. That will be a Promised Land that will exceed every hope.
OT Lectionary notes for Nov. 6 First cut
1) Most see this as a covenant ceremony, a renewing or creation of a bond of god and the people, perhaps, perhaps, similar to political documents in the ancient near east of the mutual obligations of the ruler and the ruled. Shechem is a cultic site according to Gen. 12, 33, 35. this is a good place to explore bi. archaeology when it may fit biblical material and when it may well conflict with it.
The other side of the flood is literally other side of the river. Either translation could make a nice image for preaching or spiritual life on one’s boundaries.
2) why do you think we detect such a strong note of antipathy toward idolatry here? could it be a preview of apostasy?
3) How effective is the rhetorical device, for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?
4) what do you think of Joshua telling the people that they will be unable to follow god fully at 19?
5) at v. 22 how chilling do you find it to have the people be witnesses against themselves for a future divine trial? Should one generation be able to bind another?
6) I realize that I go beyond the lectionary listing here but the standing stone could be a good image, especially with the spate of public memorials we have been erecting of late.
7) why is god so jealous about rivals, real or potential?
8) Breuggemann’s considerations in the Land of in the more recent Theol. Intro to the OT (with others) is a great place to reflect on the meaning of the land as a construct, as a reality, as history, as promise and threat.
9) Listen to Springsteen in The Promised Land or his citing of it in the great Thunder Road.
The other side of the flood is literally other side of the river. Either translation could make a nice image for preaching or spiritual life on one’s boundaries.
2) why do you think we detect such a strong note of antipathy toward idolatry here? could it be a preview of apostasy?
3) How effective is the rhetorical device, for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?
4) what do you think of Joshua telling the people that they will be unable to follow god fully at 19?
5) at v. 22 how chilling do you find it to have the people be witnesses against themselves for a future divine trial? Should one generation be able to bind another?
6) I realize that I go beyond the lectionary listing here but the standing stone could be a good image, especially with the spate of public memorials we have been erecting of late.
7) why is god so jealous about rivals, real or potential?
8) Breuggemann’s considerations in the Land of in the more recent Theol. Intro to the OT (with others) is a great place to reflect on the meaning of the land as a construct, as a reality, as history, as promise and threat.
9) Listen to Springsteen in The Promised Land or his citing of it in the great Thunder Road.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Notes Rom. 9-11
1) what do you think of Paul's argument in 9:6-12 9that the progeny of Abraham is not limited to Israel since Isaac was a child of promise (apparently not of biology?)
2) What do you think of his point in 9:18? do you agree with the text at 59 first paragraph that to be happy about salvation unless everyone is happy?
3) The chapter ends with a string of citations. is this effective for you? Is it convincing now?
At pg. 59 at the bottom what do you think of the distinction made between predestined and pre-determined? Note tha tthe concluding section of our study is from the hymn god is working His Purpose Out.
4) At 10:9, 13 does that strike you as sufficient?
5) Could 10;12 be extended in different ways in our time? why or why not?
6) Again are the citations at the end of ch. ten a convincing argument for Israel not hearing the gospel to the extent Paul wishes?
7) At 11:11 what do you think of this point?
8)How does ingrafting argument temper Gentile christian arrogance?
9) How does v. 29 bake arguments about god’s rejection of Israel?
10) Why does Paul end in this doxology of Scripture citation? I share with our authors a liking for the conclusion of the chapter that the gifts of god are irrevocable. what does this do with your relationship with God?
2) What do you think of his point in 9:18? do you agree with the text at 59 first paragraph that to be happy about salvation unless everyone is happy?
3) The chapter ends with a string of citations. is this effective for you? Is it convincing now?
At pg. 59 at the bottom what do you think of the distinction made between predestined and pre-determined? Note tha tthe concluding section of our study is from the hymn god is working His Purpose Out.
4) At 10:9, 13 does that strike you as sufficient?
5) Could 10;12 be extended in different ways in our time? why or why not?
6) Again are the citations at the end of ch. ten a convincing argument for Israel not hearing the gospel to the extent Paul wishes?
7) At 11:11 what do you think of this point?
8)How does ingrafting argument temper Gentile christian arrogance?
9) How does v. 29 bake arguments about god’s rejection of Israel?
10) Why does Paul end in this doxology of Scripture citation? I share with our authors a liking for the conclusion of the chapter that the gifts of god are irrevocable. what does this do with your relationship with God?
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