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Christian Life in the World and in the Body
This winter quarter (January 3 – April 4), our adult education program will offer two 12-week classes on four New Testament epistles. We want to explore these epistles from the vantage point of what they have to say about Christian life in the world and in the body of Christ.
These classes will all be introduced in a combined auditorium class on Sunday, January 3, 9:30 a.m. From January 10 – March 28, the classes will meet, one in the auditorium and one in the north overflow room. On Sunday, April 4, we will have a combined wrap-up session of both classes in the auditorium. Our two classes will be as follows:
Exiles or Citizens? A 12-week study of 1 Peter and Colossians
This class will wrestle with the tension Christians face between living as exiles on earth and simultaneously being salt and leaven in the world. The two epistles that will be presented for our reflection here will be I Peter and Colossians. We will explore and wrestle with the tensions between being an exile and a citizen as we work through their respective epistles.
• I Peter’s strategy for living in the world is a counter-cultural strategy; Christians are “resident aliens” whose ultimate citizenship belongs elsewhere. Suffering is to be expected and holy living is the norm, so as to give skeptics and detractors no grounds for dismissing Christians as inauthentic.
• Colossians offers a different strategy. The vision of Colossians is that of all things holding together in Christ, who came to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven. There is here potentially a far more positive view of culture and the role Christ (and Christians) can play in redeeming various aspects of culture.
Who’s In and Who’s Out? A 12-week study of Galatians and James.
This class will explore the tensions Christians face living as the community of God’s people that blends Jew and Gentile, male and female, rich and poor, pious and impious, blue collar and white collar, democrat and republican, as well as various ethnic backgrounds. The two epistles that will be presented here will be Galatians and James. We will explore and wrestle with the tensions between having freedom in Christ and yet being simultaneously called to live holy and selfless lives of service.
• In Galatians, Paul wrestles with the question of “How Jewish must a Gentile become in order to be a faithful follower of Jesus the Messiah? What is it that truly justifies one before God?” Paul teaches us to refuse “to submit yet again to a yoke of slavery” while at the same time urging us to “be servants of one another through love.” So how do we balance our freedom in Christ with our care and respect for one another’s sensitivities within the body?
• In James, there are smoldering tensions between the rich and the poor. James has strong words for those who trust in their own wealth and mistreat others in the process. James is not afraid to say that there are things that Christians very clearly ought to do and not to do. He challenges cheap grace by calling out those who say they have faith but do not manifest any external behaviors that align with such beliefs.
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