Week III Follow Up

This week we discussed chapter three of "Jesus Interrupted" called: A Mass of Variation.




This chapter of the book talks about the different perceptions of Jesus in each of the four Gospels and in the Letters of Paul. Likewise, we talked about the different perceptions that the same person might have at different stages in one's life. So, our homework this week was to share our names for Jesus at different stages in our own lives. Here were some of the responses to the question, what was your perception of Jesus at each stage in your life?

As a Child

• Christ
• Good Shepherd
• Good Shepherd
• Good Shepherd
• All-Knowing Judge
• God
• Baby Jesus
• Baby Jesus Almighty
• Good Shepherd

As a Teenager

• Lamb of God (A Sacrifice)
• Boyfriend 
• Saviour
• Historical Figure
• Exalted
• New Way of Life in Christ
• The Trinity
• Cool

As an Adult

• Historical Figure
• Light & Wisdom Incarnate
• Faithful Partner
• Historical Figure
• A New Message of a New Way to Live
• God
• A Role Model
• Bread of Life

What were/are your names for Jesus at these stages in your life?


Just click "comment" below are share your thoughts....

Week II Follow Up

In week II of our series on the book "Jesus Interrupted," we talked about the discrepancies that exist across the four Gospels.

and as an example, we compared the four accounts of Jesus' baptism.

If we use Mark's account as our baseline, here are a few of the differences among the four Gospels in the telling of this common event:

In Matthew's version:


In Luke's version:
The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus after he is baptized by John.
Jesus is praying when the Spirit descends.


In John's version:

Week I Follow Up

Welcome again to our godly conversations about Bart Ehrman's book Jesus Interrupted!

We had a lively discussion yesterday. Chapter One of the book talks about the many discrepancies and contradictions that mark the narratives in our Holy Scripture, and implicitly asks the question: Does our faith rely on an inerrant scripture? If we agree, as Ehrman suggests, that our scripture has too many discrepancies and contradictions to be taken literally and historically, does that necessarily unground our faith as Christians? Ehrman is clear to say, not necessarily. We will spend the next several weeks answering that question for ourselves, and conversing about the implications of such a seemingly...irreconcilable narrative.

We began this conversation on Sunday by sharing some of the elements of our canonical scripture that absolutely underpin our faith. If every word of the Bible is not literally true (cannot be literally true given the explicit discrepancies in the texts) in an historical sort of way: What parts of our scripture are, in fact, necessary to support our Christian faith?

 The following were some of the responses to that question, the absolutely non-negotiable elements in our New Testament that ground our Christian faith:

• That Jesus was human.
• The birth of Jesus in a manger.
• The resurrection (in general)
• That Jesus was a teacher of godly things (slightly paraphrased)
• Jesus' tending of those who are marginalized, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, etc.
• That Jesus brought a new message
• That Jesus' death was foretold
• The conversation between Jesus and the others who were crucified with him
• Jesus' baptism and his receipt of the power of the Holy Spirit
• The words of institution (basis for our Eucharist) uttered by Jesus at the Last Supper
• Jesus' washing his disciples' feet at the Last Supper - his servant hood
• That one of Jesus' friends betrayed him
• Jesus' willingness to continue on his path despite the evident consequences                                   (his willingness to walk the walk)
• Jesus' personal recruitment of his disciples

NB: these are individual responses, and do not represent anything that the group agreed to as a whole.

What is on your list?

Please feel free to share your own thoughts about the non-negotiable messages in our Holy Scripture; i.e. those things that must be true in order for you to claim the Christian tradition as your own. Just click below to add your comment to this godly conversation.

Next week we will discuss chapter two of  Jesus Interrupted, and compare the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' baptism.

Welcome to Godly Conversations

This is the new blog for the adult ed forum at the Episcopal Parish of St. Paul in Newton Highlands, MA. Last year our overall theme was "The Year of Telling Our Stories."

This year will be "The Year of the Word."

We will take our lead from this year's Christmas reading from John's Gospel: In the beginning was the Word. And each week we will explore more of the language that helps us to speak God's kingdom into being; more of the words that are the currency of Creation and New Creation.

So please plan to join us for a year of Godly conversations. And we will begin our adult ed conversations in 2012 with a series on Bart Ehrman's New York Times Best Seller:

"Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible 

(and why we don't know about them)." 

Please feel free to read along with our congregation and contribute to the discussion on this blog.
The reading schedule can be found below, and each Sunday we will post a new set of discussion questions for the week that are open to anyone who would like to participate in the conversation.
Here is our reading schedule:

For Sunday, January 8th:       Chapter 1 - A Historical Assault on Faith
For Sunday, January 15th:     Chapter 2 - A World of Contradictions
For Sunday, January 29th:     Chapter 3 - A Mass of Variant Views
For Sunday, February 12th:   Chapter 4 - Who Wrote the Bible?
For Sunday, February 19th:   Chapter 5 - Liar, Lunatic, or Lord? Finding the Historical Jesus
For Sunday, February 19th:   Chapter 6 - How We Got the Bible
For Sunday, February 19th:   Chapters 7 & 8 - Who Invented Christianity? Is Faith Possible?

When this book was first published in 2009, the Boston Globe review said that for more than a few folks, this book would be: "a grenade tossed into their tidy living rooms of religious faith."That is to say that this book offers a very fresh look and analysis of the scripture that grounds our faith tradition.

So join us for a lively conversation, in person on Sunday morning from 9:30am until 10:15am, or online at your convenience.

Onward!