Sermon Study Guide Week of Sunday, January 29, 2006Questions from the StreetWhat about all those other religions? The quotations below are from Dr. Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity. Pick two of the following quotes based on their importance to you and discuss with one or more persons: I think God “speaks” to us. I don’t mean oral or aural revelation or diving dictation. But I think God “speaks to us-sometimes dramatically in visions, less dramatically in some of our dreams, in internal “proddings” or “leadings,” through people, and through the devotional practices of our tradition. We sometimes have a sense-I sometimes have a sense-of being addressed. P 73 Listen to your life. Listen to what happens to you because it is through what happens to you that God speaks. (Frederick Buechner) p 73 The Christian life is about a relationship with God that transforms us into more compassionate beings. P 76 God’s acceptance of us is unconditional, not dependent upon something we believe or do. But radical grace has often been too radical for most Christians. We most often put conditions on God’s grace: God accepts you if…and whenever an “if” clause is added, grace becomes conditional and ceases to be grace. P 76 Unconditional grace is not about how we get to heaven or who goes to heaven. The notion that salvation is primarily about “going to heaven” is a distortion. And when it is seen as primary, the notion of unconditional grace leads to the notion that everybody gets to heaven regardless of their life and faith. However unconditional grace is not about the afterlife, but the basis for our relationship with God in this life. P 77 The Christian life is not about believing or doing what we need to believe or do so that we can be saved. Rather it is about seeing what is already true-that God loves us already-and then beginning to live in this relationship. P 77 Because Christians find the ultimate disclosure of God in a person and not in a book, Jesus is more central than the Bible. Jesus trumps the Bible; and when they disagree, Jesus wins. P 81 The (Christian) community affirms: we have found in this person (Jesus) the light in our darkness, the way that has led us from death to life, the bread of life that nourishes us even now; we have found in this person the words and wisdom of God; we have found in this person the son of God, the promised messiah; he is one with God and we address him as “MY Lord and my God.” p 87 To paraphrase William Sloane Coffin, a contemporary author and activist, for us as Christians, God is defined by Jesus but not confined to Jesus. To paraphrase Krister Stendahl, a New Testament scholar, former dean of Harvard Divinity School and Bishop of the Church of Sweden: we as Christians can sing our songs to Jesus with wild abandon without needing to demean other religions. P 89 I do not think the church’s extravagant devotion to Jesus is a mistake, for the purpose of the church, of Christology, of the creed is to point us to Jesus. And then Jesus says, “It’s not about me.” He points beyond himself to God-to God’s character and passion. P 98 |
