1Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." 3At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" 4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:1-8)
3At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:1-8)
We had a small group tonight but it was a very interesting time I must say. We started off as usual with some snacking and hanging out and then we gathered in the meeting room to worship. Afterwards we had a close time of communion and then we hung out a bit more. Kevin led the discussion and he gathered us back together in the meeting room to begin saying something like, "We are going to keep it short tonight," and "we don't have a whole lot to talk about tonight."I could tell that we were in for the long haul. Our discussion really focused on some very controversial and timely subjects ranging from the Kingdom of God, the power of forgiveness given to all men and women, does healing really happen? Why? Is there more to healing than just the physical components. Needless to say there are a range of opinions in our group on this subject and we ended up going over. At around 7:20 we adjourned, but I get the sense that we will continue to broach these subjecdts as we move along in Matthew.So all in all it was a great time, even though it was a small group tonight.
Come, my child, awayCome away where we can beCome, my child, awayCome away, away with meDon't you know it?Child, I hear you when you callAll your groaning and moaning, postponing the owning of everythingWondering, is this all?But that was not the planOr I should say, it's not the dreamGreedy privatization, big fat corporations, some one Christian nationHow'd they think that's what I mean?Come, my child, awayCome away where we can beCome, my child, awayCome away, come and seeThey said eye for eyeBut I tell you cheek by cheekThey said hustle and work to be comfortable, powerfulI say blessed are the meekBut twist and turn my wordsAnd you could wage war on half the earthYou could kill all the others, the sisters and brothers, fathers and mothersMark them by place of birthCome, my child, awayCome away where we can beCome, my child, awayCome away and now be freeDon't waste your life awayWaitin' on that brighter dayYou really are the oneTo bring the healing that's begun... 'cause it's begunAnd it's all in love I sayDon't opt for a diff'rent wayStop swallowin' their clichéAs if it's the only way, it's overplayedAnd everyone's overpaidBut feel like we can't get awayA new car won't save the dayIt's not the wayI said you would be freeAnd I mean free indeedFree from that white, middle-class American DreamFree from loneliness, free from greedJust pick up and follow meTo Kingdom ComeA place where we all will runA new life that has begunRight now it has begun After listening to the song we digested the lyrics together and had a really good time doing it. We decided to continue talking about this next week. Hope to see you there.
…Happy Birthday to you. AND MANY MORE....
Yes, that’s right we celebrated our first year at the DISTILLERY tonight. It has been an awesome year at that. No, we did not have a cake, or candles for all of us to blow out. The church did not get any presents. But, we did get to get together and do our Sunday thing.
It was great as usual. I made pot stickers and I have to say that they were delicious. They went fast though. Tammy chopped up some fruit and some veggies and we all got to eat and hang out a bit. Martin was in a story-telling mode and led us in musical worship with a narrative feel to it.
Our discussion focused on the idea of Hell. It was called “For the Hell of it.” We took some of the most often quoted scriptures about Hell used by Christians while witnessing and sharing their faith to show that this is apparently where you go if you die without having Jesus “in your heart” and we read them all in context.
Through discussion and analysis, we did not find these scriptures to be helpful in describing eternal punishment for non-believers. We found that they either guaranteed punishment for people who were persecuting Christians, people who claimed to know God but did nothing for the poor, the hungry, the homeless and imprisoned, and other religious folks who weren’t pulling their weight in the Kingdom.
We found no hard evidence in scripture that the non-believer gets eternal punishment as a result of his/her non-belief. We decided that there is enough Good News in the Bible to share with folks that we need not focus on the mystery of Hell when sharing our faith with them.
Next week we will talk about exactly that. What is the Good News? Why is it Good News? How do we share it with others? Where does discipleship fit in? And other questions along those lines. Maybe we will see some of you there next week.