Introduction
If Jesus is the redeemer of all things, how does faith reframe every aspect of our lives? How does Christianity connect to the whole of who we are? Is Jesus relevant in an increasingly complex world? These are the types of questions many of us wrestle with today.
ReFrame aims to help you live out your faith in everyday life, encouraging us to encounter Jesus afresh and allowing his story to shape our own.
This first session explores how a fragmented and complex world can tempt Christians to either withdraw from, or assimilate to, the culture around them. However, the true story of Jesus enables Christians to resist these temptations and to live integrated and faithful lives.
Episode Outline & Notes
Complexity—Modern life is getting more complex and fragmented.
Integration—We experience competing cultural messages and can find it difficult to integrate life and faith.
Assimilate or Withdraw—The complexity and challenge of living out our faith tempts Christians to assimilate or withdraw.
Example of Emmaus—Knowing the biblical story and being shaped by it helps us live integrated and authentic lives.
Jesus—The true story of Jesus makes sense of everything, bringing meaning and purpose to all of life.
1. I would love to hear your opinions on a statement that Steve Garber (white-haired bearded man in plush chair) made in this episode. To paraphrase he said, "I want a Jesus who can make sense of every square inch of reality." Do you agree with this sentiment? Do you think this yearning is a good yearning to have? If yes or no, why or why not?
ReplyDelete2. How do you all understand being in the world but not of the world? This is an important question that Erin and I wrestle with especially in light of the narrative in our culture that states more or less that unless you keep up with technology, you are becoming irrelevant in the world (i.e., not in the world). Obviously our lifestyle is atypical which some might conclude means we have extricated ourselves from the world and are therefore increasingly irrelevant. When you hear Jesus words to be in the world but not of the world what do you understand this to mean?
3. Do you all relate to episode one's expressed yearning for greater integration of the whole of your life and faith?
4. How did you find Paul Williams drawing together the disillusionment of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, with the disillusionment of Christianity in North America? The disciples thought Jesus was going to make sense of everything, but then they found themselves after his death living in a world in which the good news seemed to have lost all efficacy. We too live in a world and time where it is all too easy to look around and feel that there is no good news.
5. The account of the road to Emmaus reveals an interesting starting point for understanding scripture. The disciples were steeped in knowledge of scripture (OT) but evidently they didn't have the ability to understand it. They needed Jesus to open the scriptures to them. Something I have been thinking about a lot as of late are the lenses or starting points we have (and are often unaware of) for understanding scripture. For example if one's starting point for understanding scripture is the Fall, than it will become the interpretive lens for one's understanding of creation, of who God is, and of the whole saving work of God the Father through the Son. In this case, the Fall interprets the Incarnation, creation, who God is, what it means to bear the image of God into the world, etc. If however, one begins with Jesus Christ--the clearest revelation of who God is--as the starting point and giver of understanding of salvation history, then he becomes the lens through which the rest of Scripture is opened to us. "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" He becomes the lens through which we understand the fall, creation, who God is, the nature of salvation, etc. The question this begs, which I think is an important question, do you think these different starting points lead to substantively different understandings of the saving work of God? If so, how?
Okay, well a lot of writing...I hope it doesn't overwhelm. Thanks for reading. Love, little r