Summer 2005 at Gwynedd Meeting

   

How is my awareness and experience of the Christ Within transformed by learning about the historical Jesus?

Friends at Gwynedd are meeting each Sunday this summer to prayerfully consider this query by reading and reflecting on Marcus Borg’s book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.  Using a worship sharing format, we are guided each week by a more specific query to help us consider Borg's views of the implications of the historical Jesus in light of our own experience.

All are welcome to join the group at any time during the summer. We’ll meet every week except the 3rd Sunday of July and August at 10:45 AM in the upstairs First Day School Room. Copies of the book will be available for borrowing or purchase. For more information, contact Judy Flanigan at 215.699.4592 or jhflanigan@hotmail.com.

For those unable to join us weekly, this guide is provided for individual prayer and reflection with the hope that you gain clarity and understanding as you seek a deeper awareness and experience of the Christ Within.

 

  Week # 1       Summary       Chapter 1

  Marcus Borg describes his own experiences of leaving behind childhood images of Jesus and growing into a new understanding and experience of Jesus.  He contends that “popular” images of Jesus as savior and teacher strongly influence images of spiritual life.

  Borg provides a new framework: Pre-Easter Jesus (figure of history) and Post-Easter Jesus (the Christ, the Light, an experiential reality)

  Query: What are my own past and present images of Jesus? What experiences have influenced these images?

 

  Week # 2       Summary       Chapter 2

  Borg provides an introduction to the Pre-Easter Jesus, and some information about the Jesus Seminar. (provide copy of the Five Gospels)

  He describes 4 main characteristics of Jesus:

  Borg sees Jesus as one of many mediators of the sacred, and as one whose life was marked by a close and continuous relationship with the Spirit of God.

Query: What is my image of God? What is my experience of “knowing” and being known by God?

 

  Week # 3       Summary       Chapter 3

  Marcus Borg identifies compassion as Jesus' central understanding of God and the central moral quality of a life centered in God.  In Jesus' day, this represented an alternative, counter-cultural vision.  For Jesus, compassion was political.

  It is important, in Borg’s view, to understand the purity system of the Jewish social world in Jesus' time. His messages and teachings, when understood as attacks on the purity system, no longer seems benign and conventional.  His teachings instead point to a radical social reality marked by inclusiveness, openness and, of course, compassion.

  Query: In my life have I experienced the compassion of God? How? When?

 

Week # 4       Summary       Chapter 4

Marcus Borg further develops his understanding of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom, who used parables to invite his hearers to see in a radically new way as a provocative challenge to conventional wisdom.

Borg re-frames the gospel of Jesus'The good news of Jesus is that there is a way that moves beyond conventional wisdom , a way which leads away from a life of requirements to a life of relationship with God, or as Borg calls it, "the way less traveled."

Query: Is my own spiritual experience first hand? Where am I on the "way less traveled"? What helps me to stay centered in my relationship with God?

 

  Week # 5       Summary       Chapter 5

  Marcus Borg explores Jesus’ relationship to the Wisdom of God.  While Jesus as the Son of God is the popular image, and the most familiar, Borg describes other images.

  Wisdom, in the Jewish tradition, was personified as a woman called Sophia.  In scripture, she has qualities and functions normally attributed to God.  She is a female image for God.

  Borg reminds us that for early Christians, Jesus was the Son of the Father and the incarnation of Sophia.

  Query: Do either of these metaphors resonate with me? Does one speak more strongly to my condition?

 

Week # 6       Summary       Chapter 6

Marcus Borg describes the images of Jesus and images of the Christian life.

According to Borg, there are 3 central stories which image what the religious life is all about.  They each claim that something is wrong with our lives as we typically live them and all 3 stories speak of a solution to the problem.

The 3 stories are: Exodus (bondage and liberation, journey and destination); Exile (alienation and loss of connection and the return home); and the Priestly story (sin, guilt, forgiveness)

Query: Exodus, exile, and the priestly story: which of these three macro-stories speak to my condition? Why?

 

Week #7        Summary       Chapter 6

Borg describes how all three of the macro-stories of the Bible shaped the message of Jesus and subsequent Christian theology.

Although all the stories were important for Jesus, the priestly story has dominated the popular understanding of Jesus and the Christian life.

Query: What is my experience of the priestly story? How has it influenced my spiritual life?

 

Week # 8       Summary       Chapter 6

Marcus Borg concludes his book with the image of Christian life as a journey of transformation.

As we move from believing in Jesus to being in relationship with the Spirit of Christ, we grow and are transformed spiritually.

Query: What new light has been revealed to me as a result of meeting Jesus again for the first time?

 

  Worship Sharing Guidelines

Worship sharing is an opportunity for group meditative reflection on a query or topic. Although not necessary, one person is usually designated as the facilitator. This person will read the guidelines, if appropriate have participants introduce themselves, and read the query or topic.

Other Resources

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