Passage What are you drawn to about this passage?
What invites you? Challenges you? How will you respond?
How does this passage speak to the church?
Reading Sheet: Extra
JOHN – Chapter ___ 1
What/who was important to Jesus?
God the Father, whom Jesus bears witness to and the scriptures and churches are suppose to
What needs did Jesus meet?
Jesus was incarnated to show us who God really is
What did Jesus ask or require of his followers?
To bear witness to God/Him
What issues did Jesus address (relationships, work, money, character, religious practice, etc.)?
The foundation of our faith: Jesus Himself
What is compelling to you about Jesus in this section?
His closeness to God the Father, which demonstrates His divinity
How do followers respond to Jesus?
With faith from the heart, mind and soul
What in this section challenges us to respond/ imitate/obey?
That Jesus is the Word Of God and to follow the Word Of God, we must follow Jesus’ example that we discern is authentic from our bible versions, but not to blindly observe, obey the letter or follow fallible translations or clerical opinions on what the Bible says as the Pharisees did
How did Jesus change the world (for an individual or for a community)? He selflessly became a self-sacrificial Lamb
What vision of being missional do you glimpse for yourself? For the church? The church must practice selflessly the orthopraxis of self-sacrificial loving service
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John 1: 1-18---TOWARDS A TRINITARIAN INCARNATIONAL VIEW OF SCRIPTURE
If the bible is to be interpreted literally and says what it means---what separates the bible from any other book?
If the bible is to be interpreted literally and says what it means---what separates the bible from any other religious text, which claims to be the word of God and says what it means, when also interpreted literally?
If the bible is to be interpreted literally and says what it means---what role does the Holy Spirit and discernment play in biblical interpretation?
For if the bible is to be interpreted literally and says what it means then it is just one book among others and has no meaning other than literary meaning of the dry textbook kind.
For if the bible is to be interpreted literally and says what it means as a religious text then it is just one more religious text among others.
For if the bible is to be interpreted literally and says what it means then there is no use for the Holy Spirit and discernment in biblical interpretation.
A Trinitarian View: John 1:1-In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. --- The Eternal God the Father eternally spoke Jesus the True and Actual Word Of God into Being via the Holy Spirit and has always existed as a Triunity even from the beginning.
Another Trinitarian View: John 1:1- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. --- God the Eternal Father eternally speaks to us through Jesus the True and Actual Word Of God via the Holy Spirit.
An Incarnational View: John 1:14- The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. --- God the Eternal Father, His Word and His Will for all humanity was incarnated in the person and work of Jesus via the Holy Spirit.
Another Incarnational View: John 1-14- The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. --- Because Christ was God, His Word and His Will for humanity incarnated via the Holy Spirit, scripture then being both a Divine and human product is symbolically an icon of Christ’s incarnation.
---- Because Jesus is the Word Of God, we can trust scripture as long as scripture bears witness to Him--- for John 5:39 states: “Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me…”(American Standard Version)--- which makes it pretty clear that Jesus is the standard criterion for all valid biblical hermeneutics. Also, Fundamentalism/Bible Literalism is a social evil and a great sin, because it doesn’t start and proceed from Christ, but manmade inkblots and cultural biases and has been/is used to justify racism, class-ism, slavery, sexism, misogyny, bigotry, war, greed, terrorism, homophobia, genocide, crusades/jihads, fascism, anti-Semitism, totalitarianism,heterosexism, segregation, anti-intellectualism, barbarism, militarism, Capitalist Materialism, Imperialism, prejudice, thievery, rape, murder, pseudoscience, etc.---and all sorts of injustices and the list goes on. Yes, we should take the bible seriously, but not literally. (For further study---see http://www.newreformation.org/, http://www.christinyou.net/pages/Xnotbrel.html and Marcus Borg’s Reading the Bible Again For the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally). Or as this one article states: “…fundamentalism of any stripe is dangerous because it oversimplifies complex problems and because it facilitates "good" versus "evil" framing that cuts off dialog and thus tends to be profoundly anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, anti-rational -- and anti-scientific.” Fundamentalism is also dangerous for the reason that it impedes progress and good stewardship.
John 2:1-12---Jesus met people’s physical/spiritual needs by turning the ordinary, dull and mundane into the extraordinary when he turned water into wine---which was a marriage between the spiritual and physical realms. (We witness these type of miracles, everyday, when we find beauty in ordinary things. It is just like the theme of Charlotte’s Web, in which Wilbur finds beauty in a tiny spider and Charlotte found Wilbur an ordinary pig “some terrific radiant humble pig” and the human characters witnessed the extraordinary miracle of a spider’s web. () Or as Rev. Terry-Michael Newell in a Facebook note says: “For some folks, the pursuit of truth (or Truth, or absolute Truth) is seen as the highest, most honored of quests. But, I wonder, God may be saying, ‘that's none of your business.’ And God might go on to say, ‘The truth? That's my business. Why don't you all stick to finding beauty instead?’” () Perhaps then the church should spend more time concerning itself with beauty and spreading the beauty of Christ rather than poisoning wells with arrogance and self-righteous hypocrisy---for after all, the poet John Keats observed: “Beauty is Truth” and similarly, “Truth is Beauty.” ()
John 4:1-26---Reading Sheet: Extra
JOHN – Chapter ___4
What/who was important to Jesus?
Bridging all theological divides
What needs did Jesus meet?
Healing and salvation
What did Jesus ask or require of his followers?
To worship God in Spirit and Truth
What issues did Jesus address (relationships, work, money, character, religious practice, etc.)?
Cultural and Theological Divisions: God is Lord of all
What is compelling to you about Jesus in this section?
The scandal that Jesus was willing to fellowship with a Samaritan even though Judean Jews considered them heretics just like certain Christians treat others for not believing the way that they do (Jesus was willing to fellowship with others different than Him---we should, too)
How do followers respond to Jesus?
In Spirit and in Truth (Love and Beauty)
What in this section challenges us to respond/ imitate/obey?
To avoid statements of Absolute Certainty such as: "my way of thinking is the only correct one, and if you don't interpret the (Bible) the same way I do, you're going to hell."---as if mere humans possess the perfect mind of God (Jesus calls us to be humble towards others in our dealings---regardless of whether or not their beliefs are orthodox, heterodox or non-existent [atheistic] about God---similarly Dan Kimball on pg. 184 of his book, They Like Jesus But Not The Church: Insights From Emerging Generations calls “The church…” to be “…respectful of other peoples’ beliefs and faiths”)
How did Jesus change the world (for an individual or for a community)? Jesus challenged the cultural assumptions of His day about God---if He did so today, we would wake up and find that God is not a male, heterosexual, racist, black or white, American, sexist, homophobic bigot, Republican or Democrat or any other partisan label one wants to attach to the Eternal God of all (not a few as Calvinists claim)---but that God is beyond any petty manmade theological box or Book that we try to hold God captive in or that God defies all human comprehension (A god that we are comfortable with is not God but the Way Jesus lived is the Way God self-defined God’s Self)
What vision of being missional do you glimpse for yourself? For the church? Relational theology is above doctrinal purity---in other words, God calls us to relationships with everyone not to parade our denominational doctrines around as if they are badges of honor---for God is a God of people and relationships not church doctrines and God is Lord of all regardless of their beliefs (We should always challenge what we think we know and assume about God)
John 10:1-21---Jesus is our True Shepherd---He is the Guide by which we should live our life. The Abingdon Bible Commentary of 1929 states that: “…Jesus declares himself to be the only Mediator of salvation and satisfaction for men.” And in this way too, Jesus is our Guide.
John 20:1-18---The Resurrection is what makes us Christian not a belief in a literal creation and Noah’s Ark nor does Mary, the bible and the church make us Christian but as Paul says in Romans 10:8-10: “8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” And as I Corinthians 15:12-14 says: “The Resurrection of the Dead---
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (NIV) Similarly, Leonard Cohen says: “And you who were bewildered by a meaning;/Whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed –” (Alexandra Leaving)* Also, the New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition says of the Resurrection that the Gospel of John: “…illustrate(s) some of the spiritual lessons to be learnt from the event.”
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