Social Issues

Teaching Points

1. Jesus was/is not about condemning people. Jesus sets people free.
   (John 8 - misnamed story - “The woman caught in adultery”)

2. Jesus is not a means to an end. It is not Jesus “so that …”
   He is the beginning and the end (Revelation)
   He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

3. “Stand Firm” in the New Testament refers most often to standing against those who would add rule or ritual as a means or contribution to acceptability.
   Romans 14 and 15; those who are weak are the ones who seem to need the strictures of rules.

4. Jesus broke multiple social conventions of acceptability in his ministry (Sabbath, touching lepers and the “unclean”, speaking with women (as equal), welcoming outsiders).

5. Christian faith is not about protecting power and the status quo.

6. We have virtually no record of Jesus taking a stance on a moral issue of his day (no, this is not happening in the conversation with the woman at the well). If Jesus takes stances they are consistently on behalf of the ones deemed unacceptable, the marginalized (Samaritan, Tax collectors, prostitutes, etc. etc.).

7. For Christians our attempts to “make sense” of someone other than us should be guided by the love of God for the person, not by our reaction to whatever they are projecting.
   (What you know about the other is not first right/wrong, but rather that they are loved by God)

Family

Acts Chapter 5: Ananias and Saphira

Read Acts 5:1-11

How do we make sense of this text?
How has it been taught to you before?

What We Mean When We Say “Family”

1. The central place of God’s relationship with the world is with all humanity, not through a particular relational structure.

2. Family is a gift to us. It has provided a (mostly) stable unit for development and security.

3. “The family (couple) has become one of the greatest tools to sustaining the realities of oppression, economic injustice, racism, sexism, and sexual violence by becoming a citadel of ultimate concern for people.”  (Willie James Jennings – in a commentary on the Book of Acts)

4. Family can become an idol in some expressions of Christian practice.

5. No relationships are unmediated. (a concept of Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Meaning that even our relationships with our kids, our parents, our spouse are to be expressions of God’s love between people, not expressions of some hierarchical order.

6. The emphasis on family in some churches has sometimes led to (inadvertent or otherwise) second class citizens in the body of Christ.

7. Overemphasizing the place and role of family has been used to shun people who don’t fit prevailing cultural models.

8. We should be grateful for, but not worship, the concept of family.

Sanctification and Spiritual Growth

Teaching Points (Todd)

1. A person is measured by what God has done for them.
   (Justification and Sanctification are both acts of grace)

2. We are not to fall into the trap of “gradualism”
   Words so much better than “progress” in understanding sanctification, These are words such as, “thrown, launched, caught-up, discovering, etc.”

3. In Christ (not in chronology or human effort) we are a new creation.
   2 Cor 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation”
   The old and new are not describing linear time, they are describing the “in Christ”.

4. Our sanctification consists in fellowship with Jesus. Not in human effort.
   Conversion is ongoing. In waking up to love of Christ we are set in a motion.

5. We are at the same time righteous and sinner. (simul peccator et Justus)

Passages Referenced (Ken)

Mark 10:17-22 (or Luke 18:18-23) and Luke 19:1-10  

While the proximity of Luke's version of the Rich ruler ties it together with the Zacchaeus story I prefer Mark's version because Jesus adds a Commandment at it says, "Jesus looked at him and Jesus loved him". 

Worship

Ken’s Notes

Humans are made to worship, we will all worship something, there is something outside, beyond ourselves we look up to, value or aspire to. It could be the power of nature, power, wealth, freedom, independence, country, or a deity something or someone transcendent.

Scripture reveals that what we are to worship is a who: God, Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai, the creator, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Deliverer from slavery, I AM…Scripture is full of hundreds of names of God. The names can reveal God’s character, his actions, his relationship. For Christians, Jesus revealed to us God as Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus also reveals that this Triune God extends to us an invitation to intimacy with them. This means that we do not initiate worship, worship is a response we have to God’s invitation to join with Him. The early church described it as joining in the dance. Worship can be understood as falling into the arms of the Trinity and saying, “Have your way with me, lead me and I will follow”.

So the first point about worship is to consider the object of your worship….what or who do you worship?

Worship can take many forms: celebration, gratitude, eucharistic, sabbath keeping. Also many styles: liturgical or spontaneous, corporate or individual, loud and high energy or quiet and reflective, with music and words or silence and meditation, in a building, your car or by a river.

The where and the how is not really important, the object and our motivation are what are important. Is worship for us? So that we get something out of it? For me to feel something or learn something? OR is it for the sake of the one we are worshiping?

We might well get something out of it, we often do, but that is always secondary to worshiping for the sake of the one we love and who first loved us.

When do you struggle to worship? 

Lamentations 3:20-24 (From Jeremiah the weeping Prophet)

My soul continually thinks of it
    and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

and Psalm 137… Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

By the rivers of Babylon—
    there we sat down and there we wept
    when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
    we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
    asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How could we sing the Lord’s song
    in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy.

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
    the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
    Down to its foundations!”

Circumstances ought not stop us from worship. They may change the form and style but not that we worship.

Worship happens whenever we intentionally cherish God and value the Trinity above all else in life. 

Why is understanding worship or having a theology of worship important? Because we become like that which we worship, what it values, what it teaches us about others and ourselves. Worship by its nature transforms us into its likeness. 

4 passages to consider: (What do they tell you about worship)

Revelation 4:11

You are worthy, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.

Matthew 4:10

Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
    and serve only him.’”

John 4:24

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Hebrews 12:28-29.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

“The heart of worship is to seek to know and love God in our own unique way.  Each one of us fulfills some part of the divine image.  Each one of us loves and glorifies God in a particular way that no one else can.”
Adele Calhoun Spiritual Disciplines Handbook

Reflection questions:

1. How did a particular style of worship—charismatic, traditional, contemporary, liturgical—shape you and your image of God?

2. How does a particular form or style of worship shape you now?

3. Who is God to you?  What names do you use for God and how does that shape how you see, understand and worship God?

4. How does worshiping alone and worshiping with others affect you?

5. What about God moves you to worship?

6. What inhibits you from worship?

7. How do you think you can grow or mature in worship?

The Word of God

Part One: The Habit of Daily Reading

A consideration of the impact and benefit of reading scripture daily.

Today’s reading (From TrinityMission.Org) Psalm 33 – read and consider how scripture speaks in life, speaks bigger truth

Examples from the Psalm –
“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”
“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans for the peoples.”
“A king is not saved by the size of his army.”
“Let your steadfast love be upon us, even as we have our hope in you.”

Old Testament: Isaiah 55

Consideration of the “Come everyone. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” Verse 12 – “You shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace.”

New Testament: 1 Corinthians 15
“Death is swallowed up in victory”

Part Two: Teaching Points (What We Mean When We Say, The Word of God)

1.  The Word of God is not “what”, but “who”
What is the Word of God? Who is the Word of God
(John 1 – The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. – Hebrews 4: The word of God is living and active)

2. The Bible is the word about the Word
It reveals Jesus.  (Jesus is the ONE TRUE WORD)

3. You can use the Bible in a way that means it is not the Word of God
- slave example (12 years a slave)
- “The Bible says…”

4. The Word of God transforms us.

Jesus, as the One Word of God does not merely instruct, but “creates and renews even as it is pronounced and received.  It does not merely instruct a man, or entangle him in discussion, but transforms him.  It decides concerning him.  It blesses him, even as it also judges.  It frees him unconditionally, yet also binds.

Sin

Ken’s Notes

 Our Primary Identity:

We are not sinners who are also loved by God. We are beloved beings who also sin. The order is key. Our primary identity is not that of sinner (i.e. original sin is not the beginning of the story), our primary identity is one made in the image of God (image bearers) out of love and desire for relationship who are blessed and without shame. This is our starting point. This allows us to remember that sin is not the ultimate thing, sin is not what our story is primarily about, sin is not the central plot. We do not begin our story with a problem (sin) otherwise Jesus becomes merely a solution to a problem, a means to an end. Sin is serious it is just not primary.

The Triune God who created the cosmos and us is primary, God is the main actor, God’s unending and unrelenting love, his blessing and desire for relationship with us is the plot.

Two primary images of the cross, under which all others fall:

Atonement: meaning that at or on the cross, for some defined wrong that was committed, some price of some sort was paid by God in Christ.

Victory: that on the Cross, Jesus is victorious over some power.

Sin-Cross-Salvation:

What do we mean by Sin?

1. Sin is both individual and corporate

2. Sin is “the wrongs” we do

- Here the purpose of the cross is primarily atonement. Justice needs to be met, a price paid, a wrong righted and through that, forgiveness comes.

but SIN is also a power, something outside of us, enslaving us.

- Here then the purpose of the cross is victory.  A defeating of the powers of darkness, sin, the law and death, victory over the devil, Satan and evil. Through the cross then we are set free, healed, released.

The Eight images or motifs:

1. Sin is rebellion, disobedience, treason so the cross offers forgiveness/pardon.
   -Jesus as prosecutor and victim
   -Cross is punishment for a crime, the seriousness of sin, an offence against God/others
   -Courtroom image
   -Romans 3:21-31, Romans 5, 6

2. Sin is enslavement so the cross offers a price paid to set us free
   -Jesus as redeemer
   -Israel in Egypt, forced labour
   -Slaves to sin, to flesh, to the law…Romans 6,7
   -Jesus is the redeemer, the cross pay the price of freedom, cancels the debt, set slave free
   -Salvation is freedom, (Galatians 5:13),
   -Galatians 2:15-3:14

3. Sin is being lost, wandering from God so the cross calls us home, a beacon on a hill
   -Israel in the desert (lost but close to God because utterly dependent for survival).
   -Lost sheep, coin, son
   -I have come to seek and save the lost
   -Luke 4:18-19, and every account in the gospels where Jesus welcomes or restores the outcast, those deemed unclean, lepers, women, tax collectors
   -Israel’s lost mission to be a light to the Gentiles
   -Cross is a beacon on a hill, lighthouse guiding us home
   -Jesus is the father welcoming us back, the shepherd searching for the sheep
   -Salvation is finding our way home, returning from exile.

4. Sin is captivity so the cross offers release from captivity
   -Jesus as liberator
   -Imprisonment, Babylon
   -Jesus casting out demons (Luke 4:18-19, and every casting out account in the gospels)
   -Captive to: demons, mental health, addictions, habits, culture
   -Cross victorious over evil powers, over captives, setting free, opening the prison doors, Luke 4
   -Salvation is liberation

5. Sin is sickness and brokenness so the cross offers healing
   -Jesus is the physician, healing the sick Luke 4:18-19, and every healing account in the gospels
   -Salve…healing…salvation
   -Paralyzed man “sins are forgiven”, man born blind       
   -Sin is a disease, a virus spreading, cross is anti-virus
   -Salvation is healing but not just physical healing but also social healing/restoring/mending

6. Sin is abandoned, orphaned
   -Jesus is our brother
   -Through him we can call God Abba Father
   -Sin causes us to feel alone and disconnected
   -Salvation is adoption (Romans 8:12-17 and John 15:15, Galatians 4:1-7)

7. Sin is shattered shalom so the cross offers reconciliation
   -Jesus as reconciler
   -Destroyed relationship between man, God, self, creation…
   -Jeremiah 32:36-41, Romans 5:12-21, Romans 8:9-17, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
   -We are invited to participate in this act of the cross, to be ambassadors of reconciliation
   -Salvation is reconciliation

8. Sin is death so the cross offers new life
   -Jesus through his resurrection conquers death (1 Corinthians 15)
   -Those who sleep are awakened (1 Thess. 4:13-18)
   -Romans 5:12-21 and 6:1-14, John 11
   -Salvation is life which it truly life (life eternal)

---

Todd’s Notes

We have misunderstood sin.

I would like to walk through a few points of what we mean when we say “Sin”

Firstly, sin is not ultimate. Sin is not the big story. It is not the beginning of the story. It is not the centre of the story. Be careful about people who are more focused on sin than they are on God.

A couple of Thomas Merton quotes;

“THE devil makes many disciples by preaching against sin. He convinces them of the great evil of sin, induces a crisis of guilt by which “ God is satisfied, ” and after that he lets them spend the rest of their lives meditating on the intense sinfulness and evident reprobation of other people.”

“IT sometimes happens that people who preach most vehemently about evil and the punishment of evil, so that they seem to have practically nothing else on their minds except sin, are really unconscious haters of other people. They think the world does not appreciate them, and this is their way of getting even.”

When we start with sin, we start with a problem; something is wrong that needs correcting. So sin first and then Jesus.  This is less than a Christian way of seeing.

Start with a problem and then give a decisive answer. Sin is not ultimate.

We instead – seek to begin with Christology. Begin with Jesus. The knowledge of Jesus precedes the knowledge of sin.

We should first speak of God’s design and only then of humanity’s disorder.

Secondly, most sin is not Promethean.

Prometheus, in Greek mythology steals fire from the gods and gives it to humanity. Associated with pride. Often it is pride that is thought of as the central or defining sin. Pride leads me to want MY WAY, to counter you, to argue, to disobey, to steal or cheat.

 What We Mean When We Say Sin – think of SLOTH before pride.

The proverbial image (Book of Proverbs) of sloth is a person who puts their hand in a snack bowl, nuts, potato chips and is to lazy to bring it back to their mouth; they just leave their hand there – this person is referred to as a sluggard.  Slothful.

Years ago I remember hearing a Tony Campolo talk in which he said that people today (then, but now too) lack passion. He presented the image of people sitting around, slouched.

He said – “people used to know how to sin” – If you are going to sin – SIN – be like David – HE KNEW HOW TO SIN!

What Campolo as getting at; SLOTH –

“The refusal or failure to see who we are in Christ.  It is a tardiness, a failure. It is a counter movement to the elevation of God.”

In other words, God has for us to be elevated, in Christ. Sin is that which pulls us down.

It is “a life which moves and centres around itself.”

Merton again

“All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life around which everything else in the universe is ordered. Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences, for power, honour, knowledge, feeling loved, in order to clothe this false self and construct its nothingness into something objectively real. And I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible to myself and to the world, as if I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface.”

 Karl Barth to end this little teaching; describing sin/sloth:

“He turns his back on God, rolling himself up into a ball like a hedgehog with prickly spikes.”

Conversion and Repentance: Conversion not an End in Itself

Begin this study with a prayer for one another:

Dear God,

In this extraordinary time, would you bless us with a sense of your presence? Help us to know the certainty that is in you, even when all else seems uncertain. Grant that we would help one another, that we would care for one another. Bless those who are giving of their time and energy and safety to care for those in need. Open us to your Word. May we see the love of the Living Word, Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit give us power to hear, that we would live and that we would be blessing to other people. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Read Acts 1:1-19

1. How do you respond to the truth that “Saul was a killer”?

2. What do you thin of the question in verse 4, from Jesus to Saul, “Why are you hurting (persecuting) me?” What does this question say about Jesus?

3. There is a lot to think about in the question of Saul to Jesus, “Who are you, Lord?”

   Consider that Saul had been (in his mind) defending the name of the Lord by persecuting Christians.

   What does the question ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Say about Saul?

4. In what ways does Saul’s mission and direction now change?

5. Remember something very important about this scene; Saul ENCOUNTERED Jesus, he EXPERIENCED Him.

   What happens when we experience the Lord Jesus?

   How is it true that such encounter makes all that we are vulnerable? (what we think, our arguments, plans, causes and ideas)

6. How is Saul’s journey from here both private and public.

Ananias (vs 10-19)

1. What do you think Ananias’ place in this story?

2. Consider God’s direction, Ananias’ response, and God’s repeated direction in vs 13-18.

   • What was God’s initial direction?

   • What was Ananias’ response?

   • How did God reply to this?

3. What did Ananias’ do in response to God?

4. Go to verses 15 and then 17 - consider the words, “chosen instrument” and “Brother Saul”. How do these words live in the story? How are they crucially meaningful?

5. What do you make of the fact that it is when Ananias’ prays and speaks to Saul that the “scales fall off” his eyes?

Teachings Points (What We Mean When We Say Conversion)

1. Conversion is an awakening, but it is continual and ongoing. We are awakened to our need of awakening and re-awakening.

2. Conversion is of God; “None of us can supply the jolt”.

3. A rising takes place in conversion. In conversion we have a new life, not simply a reformed life.

4. Conversion becomes the movement of a whole person. There are no neutral zones.

5. Conversion is not an end in itself. It is always FOR OTHERS.

6. If we don’t believe in conversion, we don’t believe in God (as Christians). Without conversion, God becomes merely and idea. “If we believe in God we believe in an awakening to conversion.”