Lesson from Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Download Lesson: pdf / doc

The readings for this week all come from the book of Acts and focus most on Paul’s missionary journeys in the last two-thirds of the book.  These texts cover his first missionary journey from 46 – 48 A.D.  (Acts 13-14), second 49 – 52 A.D. (15-18), and third 53- 58 A.D. (18-21).  It begins with Saul/ Paul’s conversion.  Importantly, in Acts 9: 4 when Jesus appears to Paul on the road to Damascus he says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  This is interesting and important because Paul was actually persecuting Christians and the Church but in this statement Jesus makes the point that our identification with him is so close, that these are the same thing.  There is also a clear pattern in these chapters of the gospel being first offered to the Jews, but then also offered to the Gentiles.  By the end of the book, the church has spread well beyond Jerusalem and well beyond the first Christians who were Jewish.  In class we will focus on Paul’s engagement with those not yet of the faith, in particular in Acts 17:16 – 34, but also, if there is time, Acts 14. 

Feel called to pray? Then you’ll fit right in on Sundays at 9 a.m. in the white house with the growing group of prayer warriors who feel God’s call to blanket Riverside and its ministries in prayer. This team focuses on intensive conversation with the Father and is equipped weekly with the stated prayer needs of the staff, leadership team and ministry leaders. It’s a powerful time of intercession that pours forth in gatherings and focused prayer walks during the Discovery Hour. Questions? Contact Diane Kelley dtkelley@comcast.net or Linda Bogan lkbogan@hotmail.com. Child care is provided. Come and participate in the conversation. You’ll be greatly blessed. 

Lesson from Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Download Lesson: pdf / doc

Though this is the week following Easter, the E100 program had us reading passages from Passion Week including the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this week.  One of the aspects of this that I have found interesting, related to the Stations of Cross practiced by the Catholic Church and even the prayer stations we used at our Maundy Thursday service, are what are referred to as the seven last words of Christ.  A more accurate name would likely be the seven last statements.  In any case, here they are:

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)

I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise (Luke 23:43)

Dear woman, here is your son (John 19:26)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34)

I am thirsty (John 19:28)

It is finished (John 19:30)

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46)

Lesson from Sunday March 28th, 2010

Download Lesson: pdf / doc

The bulk of the book of Matthew is organized around five discourses or teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount is the first of these. The others are his instructions to his disciples in 10, the parables in 13, teachings on the church in 18, and the Olivet Discourse in 24-25. There is a shorter version of the SOTM in Luke 6:20-49 typically referred to as the Sermon on the Plain because that is the setting given by Luke. Most take the two to be drawn from different teaching situations when Jesus spoke the same message. This contrast is a good place to see how each of the gospel writers, drawing from their experiences and the experiences of others, compiled very similar, but not identical accounts. Still, reading both these accounts one is struck by the consistency of the sermons as recorded by the two writers.

The manner in which the SOTM has been interpreted throughout history is interesting. At the heart of the difficulty in interpretation is that Jesus’ words are quite absolute, some would say, legalistic for example “if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away,” (5:29) and “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48). We cannot cover all the interpretations here, but a few may serve to give us a sense of this. The first is that taken by dispensationalists who would see in the SOTM not a teaching to be applied today, but rather the kingdom ethic that will be applied when Christ returns and inaugurates his kingdom on this earth (Rev. 20:1ff). It is, in this way an eschatological teaching, given to Christians to help them understand where this world and era (the church age) is headed. While there are moral principles such as loving others and seeking true spirituality (instead of an external law) that believers should follow today, the full implementation is not for this time period. A second interpretive frame is that taken by the Catholic Church, which originated with St. Augustine, and divides the teachings in the SOTM to general principles and specific counsels. All believers must adhere to the first, but only priests must adhere to the specific councils. For example, based on the SOTM priests must not serve in the military but parishioners may do so. Lutherans see the SOTM as “law,” words of Jesus designed to show us our need for grace. Martin Luther famously developed a two realms view (sacred and secular) teaching that the SOTM applies in the spiritual realm but not the physical, secular realm where a person has responsibility to their country and family. Anabaptists see in Jesus’ words an ethic for both believers and non-believers and a call to renounce all violence, namely pacisfism.

Lesson from Sunday March 21th, 2010

Download Lesson: pdf / doc

This week, the passages focus on the person of Jesus including his divine and human nature, his birth, and his baptism and temptation.  John uses the Greek term logos to describe Jesus as the originator, focus, and sustainer of the universe.  This is an interesting choice because of the significance of the term logos in ancient Greek thought.  It was in ancient Greece a master term.  The world itself was the result of and currently animated by logos.  For them the term had a range of meaning from the concrete (word, speech) to the abstract (reason, rationality).  The world could be understood because it was governed by rationality and reason and human beings had the ability to understand it and speak of it, also using logos.  Thus, the universe and humans had this logos in common.