We Were Expecting Someone More…Messiah-y – Luke, Part 17

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For 2,000 years Jesus has been confounding messianic expectations – never quite looking the part of “savior.”

I mean, shouldn’t a divinely-appointed deliverer be easily recognizable? A little radiant glory, perhaps? Or at the very least the trappings of earthly power!

And what about some judgment and wrath? It’s a sinful world after all, and isn’t it part of God’s job to be punishing evil? 

At the very least, we should see him at the standard holy sites, doing the standard holy things…praying the right prayers, and leading the psalm singing.  Right?

In this episode we look at the question that begs asking, a question posed by John the Baptist (the one sent by God to prepare Jesus’s way):  “Are you the Messiah,…or should we be looking for another?”

If love is the means by which God’s redemption is accomplished, what would it look like when it met a fallen world?

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God, Self & Other – Luke 16: Jesus and Christian Ethics (Sermon on the Plain, Part 2)

Jesus is often misunderstood as teaching a moral system – a new vision of right and wrong that will be more pleasing to God. But to hear him in this way is to miss the greater point of his message. In this episode we explore Jesus’s famous “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6) and how we are to interpret his often-puzzling instructions about turning cheeks, giving beyond theft and loving our enemies.

In addition, our hearts go out to those in Texas who are currently suffering the terrible flooding of hurricane Harvey. If you wish to get involved, one organization for which I can personally vouch is  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. If you would like to find ways to contribute or volunteer, you can find the latest information on their work in Texas HERE.

 

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God, Self & Other – Luke 15: Blessings and Woes (Sermon on the Plain, Part 1)

Reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount (in Matthew’s Gospel), in this episode we arrive at Jesus’s “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke.  Once again, Jesus opens with a series of “beatitudes” (blessings), that are difficult to interpret.

What are we to make of Jesus’s declaration that the poor and hungry are “blessed”? (Poverty and hunger are rarely seen as blessings by the sufferers!)  And what of the following “woes” concerning wealth, satisfaction and laughing?

It is tempting to try to construct an ethic out of these short pronouncements, resulting in a vague sense that – at least so far as one’s eternal fate is concerned – it would be better to be poor than rich (though few ever truly take that step!). And to do so would miss the point Jesus is trying to make.

In this episode our regular contributor, Rev. Ian Farrell, looks at the first half Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-26) in detail and the call of Jesus to examine ourselves in light of our call to discipleship.

 

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