Jesus said that he came to bring life in abundance. I don't know know about you, but I don't feel like my life is especially abundant right now. I feel like I'm stuck in the belly of a giant fish like Jonah. What does it mean to have an abundance of life which isn't crushed by something like COVID-19? What does abundance look like in the midst of suffering?
Tuesday 5/5/2020 at 7pm via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/190315168?pwd=eEV1QkZ5Mi9BK25hWVE4K25DYVltQT09
What is the fundamental problem – the underlying anxiety – facing humanity in contemporary culture? That’s the question the church needs to ask, in order to see how the Resurrection of Jesus speaks deeply to us. Following J D Hall (especially in The Cross in Our Context), in this session argues that the fundamental problem confronting our culture is not the anxiety of guilt and shame so powerfully addressed by salvation theories that revolve around substitution. He argues that the real issue in our world is:
On Tuesday morning Australian Time
we woke up to shocking news. Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire. For a while it
looked as though the whole thing was about to collapse into complete ruins, or
that the amazing medieval rose windows and great organ would be destroyed.
Thousands watched, cried, and sang as the central spire came crashing down and
red fire bloomed into the night sky. Heroism, and great organisation prevented
the worst from happening, but the cold, blackened embers of the roof, and the
huge amount of damage, serve as a reminder of how fragile things are.
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus got baptised, given that he was without sin? In this presentation we explore three different levels of meaning in Baptism, which suggests an answer to that question.
The presentation draws on Rowan Williams' excellent little book Being Christian.
Salt that loses its saltiness? Cities on hills? Lamps? What on earth is Jesus talking about - and what could it possibly mean to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? A Cafechurch session from 7/2/2016
Jesus said, shockingly, "‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26.)
What are we to make of these strange, paradoxical words? One way into it is to take a look at what Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said about the three modes of life - the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
While not wanting to domesticate these strange words, we can perhaps get a better insight into what they might mean for us today.
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’
Humility - it's a funny old concept in our culture. We juxtapose Jesus' purifying the temple with his suprising claim to be humble. What does that tell us about what humility really is, and what it means for success?
This was Alister's Cafechurch session on 10/3/2015
God's love for you is the first, primary, basic fact about you. Here are three ways in which we can try to process this, on the surface, uncontroversial idea
• Theologically
– What does it mean to say this as a Christian?
•Spiritually / Experientially
– How do I come to know this at increasingly deep levels of myself?
• Transformationally
– God’s love is transformational – the best evidence is the life transformed into Christlikeness
