November 3: Exploring God the Son

God the Son

 

In order to know someone we must spend time with that person.  After a while we can probably answer the question: What do I like about this person?  Or what are their qualities?

 

As we enter the next theme in our Catechesis, the month of November will be dedicated to God the Son.  The Outline of Faith in the back of our prayer book gives these questions and answers:

God the Son

Q.	What do we mean when we say that Jesus is the only Son of God?
A	We mean that Jesus is the only perfect image of the Father, and shows us the nature of God.
Q.	What is the nature of God revealed in Jesus?
A.	God is love.
Q.	What do we mean when we say that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and became incarnate from the Virgin Mary?
A.	We mean that by God's own act, his divine Son received our human nature from the Virgin Mary, his mother.

 

Catechism     849

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Q.	Why did he take our human nature?
A.	The divine Son became human, so that in him human beings might be adopted as children of God, and be made heirs of God's kingdom.
Q.	What is the great importance of Jesus' suffering and death?
A.	By his obedience, even to suffering and death, Jesus made the offering which we could not make; in him we are freed from the power of sin and reconciled to God.
Q.	What is the significance of Jesus' resurrection?
A.	By his resurrection, Jesus overcame death and opened for us the way of eternal life.
Q.	What do we mean when we say that he descended to the dead?
A.	We mean that he went to the departed and offered them also the benefits of redemption.
Q.	What do we mean when we say that he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father?
A.	We mean that Jesus took our human nature into heaven where he now reigns with the Father and intercedes for us.
Q.	How can we share in his victory over sin, suffering, and death?
A.	We share in his victory when we are baptized into the New Covenant and become living members of Christ.

 

This Sunday we will explore who we at St. Benedict’s answer these questions about who Jesus is?  What qualities do we most like about Jesus and how might we emulate those qualities to others?

 

Finally, being All Saints’ Sunday, we will look at how those qualities of God have been expressed in those who have gone before.  If we have time, we will get into the “official” process for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church and how we define that process in our Anglican Tradition.

 

See you Sunday at 9:15 to kick off another theme with a bagel and a cup of coffee.

 

~Brian

For October 27: Exploring the Law in the Old Testament

Come join the conversation on Sunday morning in the Forum as we look at The Law in the Old Testament. 
How do we understand The Law, the Holiness Codes....and the search for how to live righteously? 

There is a great deal to say about The Law, from the Ten Commandments down to the other 300 other commandments found in Jewish Scriptures.  More than simple rules for living, The Law, the Holiness Codes, were a framework for a righteous life. 

How do we understand them in our own context, as 21st century Christians, exploring the richness of 3,000 year-old Jewish texts? 
They are important to how we see our own practice of faith....

Come explore with us as we dive into The Law!

Sunday morning, 9:15 in the Parish Hall.

For October 20: Exploring the Hebrew Prophets

Join the conversation this Sunday at 9:15 as we explore the Hebrew prophets in the Old Testament. 

Who were the prophets?  We hear their names often in our readings:  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea, Micah...  But how do we understand them? 
The prophets were special people, raised up by God and inspired by God to speak God's truth to a particular people in a particular place and time. 

They became the conscience of the nation, of a people.   And they did not live pleasant lives!  They were often suspect, often persecuted, often resisted.  Yet, their message still speaks to us today, the message they had about our call to return to a deeper trust and reliance on God. 

The prophets sought to remind the people of who they were...and of what God's call was on their lives. 

A question for us is this:  What might the voice of the prophet sound like to us today? 

Come explore!!

For October 13: Exploring the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament

Come join the conversation this Sunday as we explore the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament. 
Many of the aspects of the OT may be unfamiliar to us as Episcopalians, but they are vitally important for understanding who we are, where we came from, and how we understand ourselves...

We'll take a stroll through the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes...and we'll have a great conversation with the Book of Job. 

We'll also share in a bit of  Hebrew lesson as we look at language and how our translation helps shape the way we understand our faith and our identity. 

So, come explore!!!
Sunday morning, 9:15 in the Parish Hall...

Sunday Forum October 6: The Old Covenant

Come join the conversation this Sunday as we enter into a new topic in our ongoing Sunday Forum.

Having explored Human Nature, Creation and God the Father/Creator, we will now build on these themes in a month-long discussion of the Old Covenant, looking at the Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures.

How do we understand the history, the founding story of Abraham as being central to the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths?  All three of our faiths share the story of this great Patriarch of the faith.

How can a deeper understanding of this pivotal story help us in our contemporary discussions of inter-faith dialogue in the midst of so much tension, warfare, and animosity?

Come join this intriguing--and vitally important--conversation.  Sunday, 9:15 in the Parish Hall.