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.
1 comment:
first of all, well done with the blog and especially the bit at the end about continuing the conversation.
to respond to the cliffhanger, i would have to answer the question with a question: how do you define God's plan?
if God's plan is to redeem the whole of creation to Godself, then, no, that plan cannot be thwarted. if God's plan is put more on an individual level (e.g. i think God's plan is for me to go to seminary and be a youth minister), then perhaps yes. (incidentally, i thought that was "God's plan" for me and pursued that. now i'm working on a phd in school psychology. the question then becomes, was I wrong? did God change God's mind? am i better suited for something else in light of the events of the past few years? do i need to rethink my definition of youth ministry? e. all of the above?)
but i'm the heretic who thinks that God's plan is for us to love God and love people and for the whole of creation to be reconciled at some unknown (to us) point in time. so perhaps the answer is yes and no.
of course, then there's that other related pesky, meddlesome question as to whether God changes God's mind once a "plan" has been set. check out genesis 18 (i think it is) and get back to me on that one.
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