Community to the Core (9/23)

As usual, we ran out of time and still had some great questions to ask...mainly...what does Jesus' telling his faith community his purpose affect us and our community today?

For a refresher, we studied Luke 4:16-21 where Jesus has just spent 40 days in the desert...deserted place...wilderness...just imagine somewhere REALLY secluded...being tempted (check out the previous blog!). Jesus came into his hometown, attended synagogue, and read the scriptures. Pretty standard...but wait...he adds the little caviat "oh by the way...I'm the one Isaiah's talking about in this passage"


So by Jesus adding this statement he's contextualized a history, a tradition, a prophecy for his community of faith just as he has been informed from the history, tradition, and community he grew up within. So, in that light:

What kinds of things can a faith community do to ensure that the Christian history and tradition are faithfully passed on to its members?

What hinders the work of a faith community?

How does our faith reflect the values and priorities Jesus initially announce in his mission statement?

How do we fail to reflect and carry them out?

The Temptation of Christ (9/16)

So, in the final minutes of the Sunday School class, I decided to bait either some of you all or my fellow "facilitators".

To recap, we were talking about the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4:1-15. (side note: look at this in several translations -- http://bible.crosswalk.com/ -- and notice the differences. What does this do for your understanding of the scripture?)

One of the main questions we wrestled with was "What is Satan really asking Jesus to do in each temptation?"

We came up with several responses that included the betrayal of Jesus' purpose and ministry ("what's the harm in changing stone to bread, isn't your ministry to feed the poor?"), challenging the identity of Jesus ("are you really the Son of God? Prove it!"), and the betrayal of Jesus' relationship with God ("If you are who you say you are, God will save you...bow down to me instead.").

The question I posed at the end was in response to the idea that if Jesus had given into temptation would it have changed God's plan? My argument was that God's plan will be accomplished no matter how badly we mess up our part in it. By doing things our way, we do not jeopardize God's plan, we jeopardize God's relationship with us.

Alta, being "the fish who took my bait", questioned me and asked, "can we jeopardize God's plan? If not, then where is our free will in the economy of God?" (loosely paraphrased from my adled memory).

And so, the cliffhanger was left out there to be continued here. I am sure that Alta will respond in kind to clarify my horrible rendition of her comments and we'll probably go at it...so please, stop the violence by posting some of your ideas about the lesson, these questions we've posed, or anything you've read here.

Also...feel free to go back to other posts and comment there as well. Comments assume conversation and faith is strengthened by conversation. So explore what this lesson, previous lessons, or anything you pick up along the way and share them here. We all learn something new when you bring your personal experience and faith journey to the conversation.