Jesus

We began our session with a brief Ash Wednesday Lenton Service. We used ashes made from last year's Palm branches and oil to mark us with the words " Your past lays behind. God's future lies ahead."

Mark 8:27-29 was read - "Who do you say I am?", and we discussed our earliest memories of our preception of Jesus.

We broke into pairs to discuss the attibutes of Jesus. Here is a list of the attribute that we attribute to Jesus.

• Friend
• Loving
• Kindness
• Teacher
• Welcoming
• Patient with children
• Determined
• Rage
• Aloof
• Confident
• Radical
• Conduit
• Calm
• Person
• Accepting
• Critical
• Brave
• Challenging
• Comforting
• Provider
• Healer
• Human
• Divine
• Wise
  

We were introduced to various iimages of Jesus on a dvd and in pictures that Lydia brought with her to the session. We listened to Marcus Borg's views of a pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus via dvd.

Our home work is to "complete ten statements about Jesus that are true for me" or to write an Alphapoem : "Who do you say that I am?"

We ended the session with the Prayer of Jesus.

We are to read Chapter 6 for next week.


Thoughts:

Lydia reminded us that it was okay to disagree with Borg's statements or thoughts. She encouraged us not to worry too much over ideas that we might disagree with.

One question that arouse in a small group discussion was Borg's opinion that Jesus didn't die for our sins. How do we handle our shortcomings, then. Do we wallow in them?

Some of us agree with Borg's statement about Jesus not dying for our sins. Others disagree with him and others fall in between.


Question for discussion:

How do we experience forgiveness from God if we don't believe Jesus died for our sins?