Faith

The Gospel: Part 1, Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA)

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I’d like to start a series of posts exploring the question, “What is the Gospel?”

What is interesting, and perhaps more so, frustrating, is that nowhere in Scripture do we get a nice, concise answer to this question. Or perhaps, more pointedly, none that explains, to our satisfaction, what precisely happened in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Most of the time, we are merely told that the gospel is simply the good news that these things happened. The gospel is that Jesus died for us and that he was raised for us. This is what we see in the most straightforward account of the gospel we have in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 15:1-7:

1 Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

The gospel here is equated with three essential events: Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. And these events are attested to by witnesses to whom the risen Christ appeared. Whether these references to Christ’s post resurrection appearances are part of “the gospel” is unclear. What is clear is that the gospel is centrally about the fact that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and then was raised on the third day; and all of this according to the scriptures, which is itself another conundrum — nowhere in the Old Testament does it plainly say the Messiah would die or be raised on the third day.

But aside from the question of how the gospel is “in accordance with the scriptures”, what many of us are looking for is why. Why did Jesus (have to) die? Why was Jesus raised? Why is any of this good news for us?

Penal Substitutionary Atonement

By far the most familiar explanation, at least in Evangelical circles, is known as penal substitutionary atonement (PSA for short).

It goes something like this: 

  1. We are all sinners.
  2. And because of our sin we are deserving of God’s wrath, which is God’s just and righteous response to sin.
  3. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus comes to take our place. Instead of God taking out his wrath on us, he takes it out on Jesus. This is why Jesus had to die. Jesus came to die as our substitute.
  4. If you believe this, that Jesus died for you, then God will count his death on your behalf and you will be reconciled to God.

This account of the gospel is “penal” because it is largely about punishment. The sinner must be punished for the sins they have committed against a holy God. The only punishment severe enough to satisfy God’s wrath is death, which leads to the substitutionary part.

It is “substitutionary” because Jesus takes our place. He dies so that we don’t have to. His death satisfies God’s wrath and substitutes for ours.

Lastly, it is “atonement” because through Jesus’ death we are made “at one” with God (this is what atonement literally means — “at-one-ment”). We no longer live under the condemnation of God’s wrath. Our sins have been paid for and we are now brought into a new relationship with God.

In short, PSA says that Christ died for us (substitutionary) to take upon himself the just punishment for our sins (penal) in order to reconcile us to God (atonement).

I imagine for many of us, this just is the gospel. There isn’t really anything to talk about.

What This Series is About

But for others, you may have questions about this particular understanding of Christ’s death. In my case, there have been things about it that have always made me uneasy. At first it had to do with the notion of God requiring (human) death as payment for sin. But later it also had to do with whether this account is “in accordance with the scriptures.” On this last point, there has been more and more debate among scholars as to whether PSA is the best way to account for the biblical witness.

This series will be my attempt to collect my scattered thoughts and findings into one place to help me (and hopefully anyone reading this) come to a better understanding of what Scripture seems to say is the good news announced to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

One final note for this introductory post: I don’t want to belittle PSA. Hopefully I have done it justice in explaining its key tenets above. My intent is not to attack PSA, but rather to explore how holding only to PSA as the entirety of the gospel can end up alienating us from other passages in Scripture that may be pointing in other directions regarding what God has done for us in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

With that, feel free to comment below about your own thoughts/observations/questions about PSA or the Gospel as you have come to know it.

Virtues

Hope: Part 3, Hope and Despair

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As we saw in our last post, hope is not to be mistaken with optimism. If this is the case, then neither is pessimism to be taken as the opposite of hope.

Both optimism and pessimism depend upon possibilities latent within us to affect the future. The optimist places more stock in human potential while the pessimist not so much.

But hope operates on a different register. It does not traffic in human possibilities, but rather in the God who is “able to accomplish far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). What this does is reconfigure our usual way of understanding how the present relates to the future.

We often envision the future as the end result of a long chain of cause and effect events. But the logic of hope does not work from past and present conditions to forecast the future. It does not build a prospectus of what will be based on what can be reasonably deduced from what is. Hope works in precisely the opposite direction. It imagines the present in light of the future. Hope trusts in a future that is received as a gift not of our own making and lives according to the expectation that that future has the power to erupt in and disrupt the present.

The Substance of Hope

Hope does not extrapolate from our current circumstances to discern a plausible future, but rather, extrapolates from what faith holds to be true to envision a future that transcends what we assume possible.

This, I think, is what is meant by the curious phrase found in the King James translation of Hebrews 11:1 — “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith is the substance. It holds the pieces that point us to the future. Through faith, we confess that God raised Jesus from the dead and before that, delivered Israel out of Egypt. These are not the result of human achievement. These are the works of a God who has possibilities beyond what we can empirically expect. As such, these are the “stuff”, the substance, of hope. They are glimpses of what God has in store for us that give us “reason” to hope. And so what we believe to be true through faith is, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, the evidence of a future we cannot yet see.

If we comeback to hope and its opposite, we could say that the proper antagonist of hope is not pessimism but despair. Despair is what happens when optimism must finally admit defeat and pessimism is followed to its utter and desperate conclusion. Despair is what results when we realize that if the only evidence we have of the future is the fruit of our past then we are, as they say, up Shit Creek without a paddle.

We despair, in part, because we have lost the ability to carry within us the very stuff that makes hope possible.

Scripture as a Work of Hope

More and more, as a culture, we are feeling the weight of this despair. Studies suggest there has been a substantial increase in mental health issues in the past decade. Deaths of despair (suicide, alcohol-related deaths, and drug overdoses) are on the rise. Some experts go so far as to suggest that this surge in despair ought to be considered a public health crisis.

Here is where I think Scripture, in its very form, has a word to speak to us. For what we find in its pages is that hope and despair are intricately entwined. Though they may be opposites, hope finds its birthplace in despair. One place we see this is in the very opening chapter of the Bible. Simply put, what God does in creation is bring order out of its opposite, disorder. God makes something out of nothing; brings light out of darkness.

At its core Genesis 1 is a story about a God who brings forth hope out of despair. Despair, like that dark and chaotic void “in the beginning,” serves as the womb from which hope is born. This then sets the stage for the rest of the biblical story.

The Bible is very much a work of hope. It is the concerted effort of a people experiencing overwhelming despair carefully collecting and curating all those glimpses of God’s past work to produce a record of evidence that is the soil from which hope springs forth.

Despair, Scripture teaches us, is the very place in which we find the God of hope.

Virtues

Hope: Part 2, Hoping Against Hope

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The title of this post comes from a verse in Paul’s letter to the Romans where he describes the faith of Abraham as “hoping against hope”, (Rom. 4:18).

It is a curious phrase. What does it mean to hope against hope?

The simplest way to understand it is that hoping against hope is “hoping for something that is most likely an impossibility.” Or we could think about it in terms of two kinds of hope. That is, what Paul has in mind is one kind of hope hoping against another kind of hope.

“Natural” Hope

The first type of hope we can describe as a “natural” hope. The kind of hope we have when January rolls around or when we enter a new stage in life. In sports, it is the hope that springs eternal at the start of every new season. We have an expectation that what lies ahead promises something better than what we have today. Hope is born when we marry this expectation with the belief that we have what it takes to bring about that better future.

This kind of hope is largely about reaching a desired outcome and having the grit to overcome any obstacles that come our way. It is tied up with our capacity to attain what we set out to accomplish and our fortitude to persevere through adversity. When the chips are down, hope names our persistence to believe we can still achieve our goals.

Really, this is akin to how we usually think about optimism.

And so optimism, we might say, is the kind of hope we are called to hope against.

“Unnatural” Hope

This second kind of hope is not like optimism in that it is not “natural.” The desired outcome we hope for does not naturally emerge from the character of the present. We do not hope for something that can be reasonably extrapolated from current conditions. Rather our hope is in a future good that only God can give to us. In this way, Christian hope is “unnatural.” Or rather, it is super natural. Super, simply meaning, “above or beyond.” The hope that hopes against hope is a hope that goes beyond or above optimism. 

This kind of hope hopes not only when the chips are down, but even when optimism has lost all reason to hope. It is here where hope is just getting started. Hope begins where optimism ends.

In this way, hope is made possible by faith. As the Apostle Paul would have it, hope is born in the presence of the God in whom we believe, “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist,” (Rom. 4:17). So to hope against hope is to not allow our hope to be dictated by positive circumstances or limited by the promise of human progress. To hope against hope is to keep the hope even when we no longer have sufficient reasons to do so. We hope against what the present data tells us.

Hope is a Hard Ask

And this, of course, is what makes hope so hard. We live in a time where our vision of what is possible is entirely shaped by the hope that science, technology, and reason possess within themselves the capacity to make all things new (but mostly we just end up with all new things). And so, our default setting as a culture is to look askew at any hope that hopes above or beyond what can be achieved through human ingenuity and empirical know-how. We dismiss it as naive or Pollyannaish.

Even as a person of faith, it is difficult to shake the all too glaring question, “What’s the point of hoping for something you can’t accomplish or achieve by your own effort?” At best, it encourages an ineffectual passivity as we bide our time for the great by and by. At worst, it is delusional and traps us in an endless cycle of denial.

These are questions we’ll want to explore in the coming posts.

Virtues

Hope: Part 1, And the Greatest of These is Hope

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In the Christian tradition faith, hope and love are known as the three theological virtues.

To say that hope is the greatest of these may feel a bit off. If you are familiar with the Apostle Paul’s great ode to love in 1 Corinthians 13 you may know that it ends with these words: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Love is the greatest, not hope.

But the point St. Paul was making is that love can be considered the greatest because it will be the last one standing. There will come a time when faith and hope will no longer be needed. Not so with love. There will always be love. Why is that? First and foremost, because God is love. And when that day comes when God is all in all (1 Cor. 15:28) and we are welcomed home into the eternal embrace of God — the everlasting love shared between Father, Son and Holy Spirit — that is all there will be. Love.

But until that day arrives what sustains our love is faith and hope. Both traffic in the unseen and the not yet. As we wait for what we cannot yet see and yearn for what we do not yet have, faith allows us to trust in what is promised and in so doing, opens the door to hope. Hope, in turn, animates our lives toward the fulfillment of that promise.

Without faith, there is nothing to hope for. Conversely, without hope, faith is listless. Or, maybe we can put it this way: faith without hope is dead. So when hope runs dry, our faith begins to languish. But not only does our faith suffer, but also our resolve to act in love. 

A helpful way to see the relationship between these theological virtues is through the analogy of a journey. Among the many routes before us faith is what allows us to see and choose the path marked out for us in Christ; the one Jesus walked before us and continues to walk ahead of us. Love is both what infuses each step we take and the end toward which we walk. Hope is that which keeps us moving. It compels us forward as we anticpate the loving end for which we are destined.

And this, I think, is the greatness of hope. To love in the way Christ calls us to love — namely, to love even our enemies — is an act of hope. It is hope for our enemy and hope in God to vindicate us should our enemy choose to repay our love with hatred and malice. We need hope because hope enlivens us to stay the course (to keep the faith) even when (especially when) the way of love gets hard. 

All this to say, we don’t want to downplay love. Love is indeed the greatest in that it will last through eternity. But there are times in this journey we call the Christian life, where one of faith, hope and love will take on a greater role. Could it be that in our time, when the fulfillment of God’s promises seems so far off and we find it a struggle to keep on keeping on, that the greatest for us is hope?

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Shabbat Dinner Liturgy | Week 5

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This year Christ Kaleidoscope is learning about and leaning into the practice of Sabbath. During the Lenten season we are entering this practice by participating in a weekly Shabbat Dinner.

Shabbat dinner marks the event that transitions us between the everyday ordinary and the holy and sacred day of Sabbath. It is a meal, usually with others, that welcomes in this holy day of rest.

To follow along with this practice as designed, you’ll need a candle and a lighter/matches as well as a meal and ideally others to share it with. Either choose a host to read through this liturgy and prayers for you, or split the job up among those attending.

Finally after the meal has begun, we’ve provided some discussion questions for conversation around specific parts of Sabbath, to help you consider and plan what it means to practice the Sabbath yourself.

Shabbat Dinner Liturgy

Welcome:

Host read aloud:

Today we come together to practice the act of setting aside time as sacred.  To pause and remember the goodness and provision of our Lord, and do so alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ in fellowship and community.  We eat this meal together tonight as a rehearsal of what is to come and all that we have to look forward to when the Kingdom of God is fully present.

Prayer for the time together

Light a candle and pray together:

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of time and space.

You hallow us with Your teachings and guidance and command us to kindle the lights of Shabbat.

Prayer of Blessing over the meal:

(adapted from the Jewish prayer of Birkat HaMazon)

Host read aloud:

Sovereign God of the universe, we praise You: Your goodness sustains the world. You are the God of grace, love, and compassion, the Source of bread for all who live; for Your love is everlasting. In Your great goodness we need never lack for food; You provide food enough for all. We praise You, O God, Source of food for all who live.

As it is written: When you have eaten and are satisfied, give praise to your God who has given you this good earth. We praise You, O God, for the earth and for its sustenance.

Merciful One, be our God forever.
Merciful One, heaven and earth alike are blessed by Your presence.
Merciful One, bless this house,
this table at which we will eat.
Merciful One, send us glimpses of good to come, redemption and consolation.
Merciful One, help us to see the coming of a time when all is Shabbat.

May the Source of peace grant peace to us, to all Israel, and to all the world. May the Eternal grant strength to our people. May the Eternal bless our people with peace. Amen.

Discussion Topic:

We are taking this time of Lent to learn more about Sabbath and how we can practice it.  Discuss as a group the idea of actually making a plan to spend time with God.  Here are some prompts to help with the conversation:

  • If you could set up the ideal space and time to spend with God, what would it look like? Where would it be? When would it happen? What would you do? What distractions wouldn’t be present?
  • Now take some time to talk about what would be practically possible for you to do this week.  Pick one hour this next week when you will intentionally set aside time to spend with God and choose one thing you want to do during the hour and one thing you will refrain from (for instance, I will take a walk outside to talk to God at some point during the hour and I will not use or look at my phone for the whole hour).
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Shabbat Dinner Liturgy | Week 4

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This year Christ Kaleidoscope is learning about and leaning into the practice of Sabbath. During the Lenten season we are entering this practice by participating in a weekly Shabbat Dinner.

Shabbat dinner marks the event that transitions us between the everyday ordinary and the holy and sacred day of Sabbath. It is a meal, usually with others, that welcomes in this holy day of rest.

To follow along with this practice as designed, you’ll need a candle and a lighter/matches as well as a meal and ideally others to share it with. Either choose a host to read through this liturgy and prayers for you, or split the job up among those attending.

Finally after the meal has begun, we’ve provided some discussion questions for conversation around specific parts of Sabbath, to help you consider and plan what it means to practice the Sabbath yourself.

Shabbat Dinner Liturgy

Welcome:

Host read aloud:

Today we come together to practice the act of setting aside time as sacred.  To pause and remember the goodness and provision of our Lord, and do so alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ in fellowship and community.  We eat this meal together tonight as a rehearsal of what is to come and all that we have to look forward to when the Kingdom of God is fully present.

Prayer for the time together

Light a candle and pray together:

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of time and space.

You hallow us with Your teachings and guidance and command us to kindle the lights of Shabbat.

Prayer of Blessing over the meal:

(adapted from the Jewish prayer of Birkat HaMazon)

Host read aloud:

Sovereign God of the universe, we praise You: Your goodness sustains the world. You are the God of grace, love, and compassion, the Source of bread for all who live; for Your love is everlasting. In Your great goodness we need never lack for food; You provide food enough for all. We praise You, O God, Source of food for all who live.

As it is written: When you have eaten and are satisfied, give praise to your God who has given you this good earth. We praise You, O God, for the earth and for its sustenance.

Merciful One, be our God forever.
Merciful One, heaven and earth alike are blessed by Your presence.
Merciful One, bless this house, this table at which we will eat.
Merciful One, send us glimpses of good to come, redemption and consolation.
Merciful One, help us to see the coming of a time when all is Shabbat.

May the Source of peace grant peace to us, to all Israel, and to all the world. May the Eternal grant strength to our people. May the Eternal bless our people with peace. Amen.

Discussion Topic:

We are taking this time of Lent to learn more about Sabbath and how we can practice it.  Discuss as a group the idea of the things that distract us in life.  Here are some prompts to help with the conversation:

  • What’s the first thing you reach for when you’re bored or have a minute to spare?
  • What do you tend to pick up or do when you’re procrastinating on something, whether that’s a project, a chore, or even just going to bed?
  • When you’re trying to be intentional with what you’re doing with your time, what kinds of things tend to pop up and throw you off track? (people, activities, thoughts, etc)
  • When you have the intention to set aside some time to spend with God, what makes it hard to actually take that time, either because they take up your schedule or draw your attention away when you actually do sit down with God?
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Shabbat Dinner Liturgy | Week 3

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This year Christ Kaleidoscope is learning about and leaning into the practice of Sabbath. During the Lenten season we are entering this practice by participating in a weekly Shabbat Dinner.

Shabbat dinner marks the event that transitions us between the everyday ordinary and the holy and sacred day of Sabbath. It is a meal, usually with others, that welcomes in this holy day of rest.

To follow along with this practice as designed, you’ll need a candle and a lighter/matches as well as a meal and ideally others to share it with. Either choose a host to read through this liturgy and prayers for you, or split the job up among those attending.

Finally after the meal has begun, we’ve provided some discussion questions for conversation around specific parts of Sabbath, to help you consider and plan what it means to practice the Sabbath yourself.

Shabbat Dinner Liturgy

Welcome:

Today we come together to practice the act of setting aside time as sacred.  To pause and remember the goodness and provision of our Lord, and do so alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ in fellowship and community.  We eat this meal together tonight as a rehearsal of what is to come and all that we have to look forward to when the Kingdom of God is fully present.

Light a candle and pray together:

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of time and space.

You hallow us with Your teachings and guidance and command us to kindle the lights of Shabbat.

Prayer of Blessing over the meal:

(adapted from the Jewish prayer of Birkat HaMazon)

Sovereign God of the universe, we praise You: Your goodness sustains the world. You are the God of grace, love, and compassion, the Source of bread for all who live; for Your love is everlasting. In Your great goodness we need never lack for food; You provide food enough for all. We praise You, O God, Source of food for all who live.

As it is written: When you have eaten and are satisfied, give praise to your God who has given you this good earth. We praise You, O God, for the earth and for its sustenance.

Merciful One, be our God forever.
Merciful One, heaven and earth alike are blessed by Your presence.
Merciful One, bless this house, this table at which we will eat.
Merciful One, send us glimpses of good to come, redemption and consolation.
Merciful One, help us to see the coming of a time when all is Shabbat.

May the Source of peace grant peace to us, to all Israel, and to all the world. May the Eternal grant strength to our people. May the Eternal bless our people with peace. Amen.

Discussion Topic: Closer to God

We are taking this time of Lent to learn more about Sabbath and how we can practice it.  Discuss as a group the idea of drawing closer to God.  Here are some prompts to help with the conversation:

  • In what physical places do you feel closest to God?
  • When you feel distant from God, is there anything you have done that helped you feel closer again? What was it?
  • How do you connect with God on a regular basis?  What’s the most natural way you feel his presence?
  • Can you identify any barriers in your life between you and God? Doubts, questions, anger, indifference, overwhelm, etc. that put space between you?
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Shabbat Dinner Liturgy | Week 2

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This year Christ Kaleidoscope is learning about and leaning into the practice of Sabbath. During the Lenten season we are entering this practice by participating in a weekly Shabbat Dinner.

Shabbat dinner marks the event that transitions us between the everyday ordinary and the holy and sacred day of Sabbath. It is a meal, usually with others, that welcomes in this holy day of rest.

To follow along with this practice as designed, you’ll need a candle and a lighter/matches as well as a meal and ideally others to share it with. Either choose a host to read through this liturgy and prayers for you, or split the job up among those attending.

Finally after the meal has begun, we’ve provided some discussion questions for conversation around specific parts of Sabbath, to help you consider and plan what it means to practice the Sabbath yourself.

Shabbat Dinner Liturgy

Welcome:

Host read aloud:

Today we come together to practice the act of setting aside time as sacred.  To pause and remember the goodness and provision of our Lord, and do so alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ in fellowship and community.  We eat this meal together tonight as a rehearsal of what is to come and all that we have to look forward to when the Kingdom of God is fully present.

Prayer for the time together

Light a candle and pray together:

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of time and space.

You hallow us with Your teachings and guidance and command us to kindle the lights of Shabbat.

Prayer of Blessing over the meal:

(adapted from the Jewish prayer of Birkat HaMazon)

Host read aloud:

Sovereign God of the universe, we praise You: Your goodness sustains the world. You are the God of grace, love, and compassion, the Source of bread for all who live; for Your love is everlasting. In Your great goodness we need never lack for food; You provide food enough for all. We praise You, O God, Source of food for all who live.

As it is written: When you have eaten and are satisfied, give praise to your God who has given you this good earth. We praise You, O God, for the earth and for its sustenance.

Merciful One, be our God forever.

Merciful One, heaven and earth alike are blessed by Your presence.

Merciful One, bless this house,

this table at which we will eat.

Merciful One, send us glimpses of good to come, redemption and consolation.

Merciful One, help us to see the coming of a time when all is Shabbat.

May the Source of peace grant peace to us, to all Israel, and to all the world. May the Eternal grant strength to our people. May the Eternal bless our people with peace. Amen.

Discussion Topic:

We are taking this time of Lent to learn more about Sabbath and how we can practice it.  Discuss as a group the idea of work.  Here are some prompts to help with the conversation:

  • What are the kinds of tasks that make up your occupation? Reading emails? Gathering or analyzing data? Making reports? 
  • What are the kinds of tasks that make up your chores at home? The things that keep your place in order and stocked up?
  • What are the things you enjoy about your work (occupationally and domestically)?
  • Why might it be good to take a break from even the things we enjoy?
  • What would you have to plan for and do to make it so that you don’t need to work for a set amount of time each week?
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Shabbat Dinner Liturgy | Week 1

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This year Christ Kaleidoscope is learning about and leaning into the practice of Sabbath. During the Lenten season we are entering this practice by participating in a weekly Shabbat Dinner.

Shabbat dinner marks the event that transitions us between the everyday ordinary and the holy and sacred day of Sabbath. It is a meal, usually with others, that welcomes in this holy day of rest.

To follow along with this practice as designed, you’ll need a candle and a lighter/matches as well as a meal and ideally others to share it with. Either choose a host to read through this liturgy and prayers for you, or split the job up among those attending.

Finally after the meal has begun, we’ve provided some discussion questions for conversation around specific parts of Sabbath, to help you consider and plan what it means to practice the Sabbath yourself.

Shabbat Dinner Liturgy

Welcome

Host read aloud:

Today we come together to practice the act of setting aside time as sacred.  To pause and remember the goodness and provision of our Lord, and do so alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ in fellowship and community.  We eat this meal together tonight as a rehearsal of what is to come and all that we have to look forward to when the Kingdom of God is fully present.

Prayer for the time together

Light a candle and pray together:

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of time and space.

You hallow us with Your teachings and guidance and command us to kindle the lights of Shabbat.

Prayer of Blessing over the meal

(adapted from the Jewish prayer of Birkat HaMazon)

Host read aloud:

Sovereign God of the universe, we praise You: Your goodness sustains the world. You are the God of grace, love, and compassion, the Source of bread for all who live; for Your love is everlasting. In Your great goodness we need never lack for food; You provide food enough for all. We praise You, O God, Source of food for all who live.

As it is written: When you have eaten and are satisfied, give praise to your God who has given you this good earth. We praise You, O God, for the earth and for its sustenance.

Merciful One, be our God forever.

Merciful One, heaven and earth alike are blessed by Your presence.

Merciful One, bless this house,

this table at which we will eat.

Merciful One, send us glimpses of good to come, redemption and consolation.

Merciful One, help us to see the coming of a time when all is Shabbat.

May the Source of peace grant peace to us, to all Israel, and to all the world. Amen. May the Eternal grant strength to our people. May the Eternal bless our people with peace.

Discussion Topic: Rest

We are taking this time of Lent to learn more about Sabbath and how we can practice it. One very important part of the Sabbath is learning how to rest.  Discuss as a group the idea of rest.  Here are some prompts to help with the conversation:

  • Is resting hard or easy for you?  Why do you think that is? 
  • What seems restful on paper, but leaves you empty or drained instead? 
  • What helps your body rest? Your mind? Your spirit?
  • What things tend to keep you from good rest?
  • What things help you foster good rest?
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The Mind and the Good Life

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Romans 8:1-8

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 12:1-2

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  It’s a saying I learned in kindergarten that tried to teach me to not pay attention to the mean things other kids might say.

It is true that a spoken word will never break skin like a stick or stone can, but the reason the saying was created is because words actually can hurt. They can inflict invisible wounds that last longer than any cut or broken bone.  Words can have power, they can be a weapon.  And like any weapon, they can be used for evil, but they also can be used for good.

Our thoughts, what goes on in our minds, are words as well.  Unspoken, internal words, but powerful words nonetheless, and once again have deep potential for the greatest good and the darkest evil.

Thoughts don’t usually start out big or loud.  They’re echoes, small whispers, little ideas usually at first.  But the more we listen to them, and listen for them, the louder they become, the more true they sound, the more we believe them.

This works with negative thoughts, “I’m stupid,” “I’m ugly,” “I’m unlovable,” as well as with positive ones, “I am loved,” “I have gifts,” “I was made for a purpose.”

We may not believe the thoughts at first, but the more we pay attention to them, the more we repeat them, it’s like throwing one more log on that fire, and the more we feed the fire, the hotter and more consuming it will become.

I think this is much the same as what Paul talks so much about in his letters of the war between flesh and Spirit.  When we do things throughout our day, we’re metaphorically placing a log on a different fire, in this case we can call one fire “the flesh” and the other “the Spirit”.

But we’re not the only ones placing logs on our fires…the people around us, the things we listen to, can throw logs on either fire as well if we let them.  This is why we have to be thoughtful of our minds.  We have to think about what we’re thinking about.  We have to pay attention to what we’re surrounding ourselves with.

Are we being conformed to the pattern of this world?  Mindlessly absorbing what everyone around us says is good?  More money, a nicer neighborhood, escaping the world and starting a homestead?  None of these things in and of themselves are bad, but we have to ask why we want them.  Is that really where the Spirit is leading us or is that what our flesh wants?  Maybe it’s a little of both…

But how do we know God’s will?  His good, pleasing and perfect will?  Paul says, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Not the complete overhaul of our minds…we don’t need to start back at square one necessarily, but we need to be able to sift through our thoughts and ask what is really true? What is really good?  What is really from God?

How is it possible to do this?  

We ask.  We ask God to help us change, we ask God to transform our minds, we ask God to give us the strength to stop conforming to this world.  

We seek.  We seek the Spirit in everything we do, in every decision we make.  We seek wisdom in the scriptures, we seek wisdom through our elders.

We surrender.  We accept that we are made of flesh and will always struggle at some level with our fleshly desires and with the constant current of the pattern of this world, so we surrender to the Spirit and his guidance that we sought, even when it seems painful.

We set our mind on the Spirit, we try to notice every wandering thought, we ask God to help us identify what is of the world (or flesh) and what is of the Spirit, and we cast aside logs that want to build the fleshly fire and accept the ones that build the Spirit’s fire.  Paul says that is when we find life and peace.