Archive for category After Words

N.T. Wright offers some helpful after words for Sunday’s gathering:

Three questions emerge for today’s church. First have we fully appreciated the way in which God’s kingdom burst in, through the work of Jesus, bringing a whole new domain in which new creation, and true redemption, had already arrived? Jesus wasn’t just challenging one or two residual bits of ‘legalism’; he was at the cutting edge of God’s new world.

Second, are there ways in which the church today can get so blinded by its commitment to what appear necessary rules that it fails to see God’s healing and restorative work breaking through?

And third, can we in any sense recapture the true spirit of the sabbath in a world where economic forces are frequently far more dehumanizing than the abused sabbath law ever was? How can we learn again what it means to living in a rhythm of work and rest, and to help one another in our wider society to do the same, without becoming legalists in the process?

- Mark for Everyone, 31-32

How could you best practice Sabbath?

What are ways we could work for God’s justice (even if it’s against “the law”)?

In his landmark work Jesus and the Victory of God, N.T. Wright asserts,

“What Jesus was offering, in other words, was not a different religious system. It was a new world order, the end of Israel’s long desolation, the true and final ‘forgiveness of sins’, the inauguration of the kingdom of God. This, I suggest, was what was implied when Jesus announced ‘forgiveness of sins’ to particular people. The effect was the same as his eating with ‘sinners’: he was celebrating the coming of the kingdom, and those who shared this celebration with him were benefiting from this great ‘forgiveness of sins’. There is, in fact, no tension, no play-off, between the personal and the corporate at this point.”

Jesus and the Victory of God, 272

Are there ways, however, we try to squeeze Jesus into a new religious system instead of recognizing he was and is the fulfillment of all that had come before?

Could that realization change our perception of the Hebrew Scriptures?

Have we grieved the Spirit’s desire to lead us into a joy-filled Kingdom-bearing life? If so, how could we repent? By fasting? By feasting?

Last Monday night, the Bachelor (On the Wings of Love!) included no rose ceremony – where, if you don’t know, someone does not receive a rose and thus has to go home.

There was no rose ceremony because, Ali – one of those pining for the love of Jake the Pilot – is forced to decide between winning Jake’s heart and returning to her career as an Advertising Account Manager. And she chooses her job… though I’ll bet she returns to the show for some reason or another (not that I know or watch the show or anything – I just know someone who does).

Anyway, as we reflect on yesterday’s text, is Ali’s difficult decision an interesting insight into the way the world works versus the way of Jesus, who allows Levi (that guy!?) to continue living his life whilst pursuing discipleship? If so, what are some ways our jobs, neighborhoods, schools, etc. can be positively effected for the cause of the Kingdom since we don’t have to leave them to follow Jesus?

“We shouldn’t be surprised… that Jesus’ unexpected declaration of forgiveness sent shock waves running through the house, the village, the nation, and finally through the world. It wasn’t simply that he was committing a theological crime. The hole in his own roof was nothing compared with the hole he was tearing through an entire way of life. Forgiveness is the most powerful thing in the world, but because it is so costly we prefer to settle for second best. Jesus, already on his way to paying the full price, offered nothing less than the best.

Jesus’ people have to be for the world what he was for Israel. We have to find ways of bringing healing and forgiveness to our communities. It can be done – think of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa – but it is enormously costly. People will oppose it. But the new life that comes as a result is enough vindication, enough proof that the living God is at work.

Forgiveness can also, of course, change individuals. It can, as in this case, go down to the hidden roots of the personality, gently healing old, long-buried, hurts. Often people think that healing and forgiveness is impossible. They find God distant or uncaring. But true faith won’t be satisfied with that. This story is a picture of prayer. Don’t stay on the edge of the crowd. Dig through God’s roof and find yourself in his presence.

You will get more than you bargained for… Once you’ve met the living, forgiving God in Jesus, you’ll find yourself on your feet, going out into the world in the power of God’s love.”

- Mark for Everyone, 18

This past Sunday we thought together about Jesus sneaking away in the middle of the night to pray, the crowds that pressed in around Him first thing in the morning and His willingness to heal a leper (YEAH, A LEPER!).

What are some times you could “sneak away” for prayer?

Are there ways in which you recognize once being “untouchable” that have been healed? Are there still some that God is continuing to work on?

How could you reach out to the “untouchables” in your neighborhood? Workplace? School?

Sunday we thought together about how Jesus not only proclaimed but enacted the Kingdom through His healing of all sorts of ailments, both demonic possession and a common fever! N.T. Wright has said that in these events

“Jesus joined in a struggle against the forces of evil and destruction, forces that, like the dark, cruel sea pouring in on top of frightened and helpless travelers, seemed sometimes to be carrying all before them. Jesus came to be the human bridge across which people could climb to safety. And if, in the process, he himself paid with his own life the price of this saving authority, that was simply part of the integrity of his action. The demons had their final shriek at him as he hung on the cross, challenging and mocking for the last time the validity of his authority. On the cross he completed the healing work he began that day in the synagogue. When the church learns again how to speak and act with the same authority, we will find both the saving power of God unleashed once more and a similar heightened opposition from the forces of darkness.”

And yet, there is a hesitancy for us to recognize – and take part in – this Kingdom work. In fact, if you’ve given financially to a church, you may have noticed your year-end giving record necessarily reads “no goods or services have been received by the donor except intangible religious benefits.”

INTANGIBLE RELIGIOUS BENEFITS!? Somehow that doesn’t exactly jive with the Kingdom Jesus has proclaimed and enacted!

Now, we won’t report it to the IRS, but what are some ways you’ve received tangibly as a result of the Kingdom? Are there ways you’ve given tangibly?

Check out Robert Kogler’s post regarding Mark’s “in and into” language.

Sunday at [theBridge] we thought together about the imprisonment of John the Baptizer – the prophet who paved the way for Jesus by speaking truth to power. Further, we examined Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom and calling of the first four disciples.

What are some “whens” or “afters” in your life?

Are there people you find inspiring who have “spoken truth to power”? How was their message received? How was what followed them dependent upon their work?

Are there times in your life that seemed to
operate on a different timetable?

How could Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom be most effectively communicated (kerusso-ed) in your family, neighborhood, company, school, etc.? Are there ways you could further kerusso the presence of God in those places?

How does knowing that Jesus’ Kingdom is purposely composed not of religious elites but “regular folks like us” help you in thinking about kerusso-ing the good news of God’s Kingdom?

Yesterday morning we thought together about how Jesus lived into the story of Israel by His baptism in the Jordan River and following temptation in the wilderness. And because Jesus lived into the Story in this way, we are able to recognize our privledged place in God’s economy.

One of the central elements of our gathering was the truth that – as N.T. Wright says – “The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. He sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ… God looks at us, and says, ‘You are my dear, dear child; I’m delighted with you.’”

And yet, we often believe otherwise, because whether we like it or not, we absorb the comments of others.

How, then, can we find ways to instead remember what God says of – and to – us?

Are there ways we can remind one another of this beautiful reality?

Are there practical ways in which this truth we’ve “heard on the mountaintops” can comfort and guide us even “in the valleys”?