The question submitted as part of the Grab bag sermon series that forms the basis for this sermon is: If I am following Jesus, why am I
such a good insurance risk?
I get the point (I think), and I see the point in the biblical texts, but I feel like a hypocrite preaching on this topic after a week spent in my air-conditioned office, where I receive a fairly good salary, pus insurance benefits. Not much risk in following my calling, particularly in contrast to the disciples who hear Jesus' call and give up their jobs and their ordered lives to follow Jesus.
Maybe one of the reasons that international mission trips have such appeal is that deep down within us we like the idea of feeling as if we are risking something (not too much, mind you, as the trips are generally fairly safe).
If I can make the case in the sermon that we should take risks, where should I send the listeners to start taking risks? Does it trivialize the concept to mention little steps of risk-taking?
I also have this sense that believing a series of theological concepts about God is easier than following Jesus. I've been running into this idea in my sermon preparation fairly often the last year or so. In fact, last week's sermon alluded to that idea.
Can you think of times your faith has called you to take a risk?
The following are quotes/stories that I have been playing with in my sermon preparation this week. A couple of the quotes do not have sources. These are quotes I found awhile ago when I was less conscious of citing sources. In recent years, I have become much more vigilant about citing sources.
“There was a spectrum of belief about life after death in first-century Judaism. The Sadducees, the ruling elite, denied a future life of any sort. This may be because those who believe strongly in the future life were the more ready to risk death in seeking political or religious reform One can well imagine that existing rulers would not wish to encourage such attitudes. (The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, 112)
The real reason for the persistent adherence to infant baptism is quite simply the fact that without it the church would suddenly be in a remarkably embarrassing position. Every individual would then have to decide whether he wanted to be a Christian. But how many Christians would there be in that case? The whole concept of a national church (or national religion) would be shaken. That must not happen; and so one proposes argument upon argument for infant baptism and yet cannot speak convincingly because fundamentally he has a bad conscience. The introduction of adult baptism in itself would of course not reform the church which needs reforming. The adherence to infant baptism is only one — a very important one — of many symptoms that the church is not alive and bold, that it is afraid to walk on the water like Peter to meet the Lord, that it therefore does not seek a sure foundation but only deceptive props.
I get the point (I think), and I see the point in the biblical texts, but I feel like a hypocrite preaching on this topic after a week spent in my air-conditioned office, where I receive a fairly good salary, pus insurance benefits. Not much risk in following my calling, particularly in contrast to the disciples who hear Jesus' call and give up their jobs and their ordered lives to follow Jesus.
Maybe one of the reasons that international mission trips have such appeal is that deep down within us we like the idea of feeling as if we are risking something (not too much, mind you, as the trips are generally fairly safe).
If I can make the case in the sermon that we should take risks, where should I send the listeners to start taking risks? Does it trivialize the concept to mention little steps of risk-taking?
I also have this sense that believing a series of theological concepts about God is easier than following Jesus. I've been running into this idea in my sermon preparation fairly often the last year or so. In fact, last week's sermon alluded to that idea.
Can you think of times your faith has called you to take a risk?
The following are quotes/stories that I have been playing with in my sermon preparation this week. A couple of the quotes do not have sources. These are quotes I found awhile ago when I was less conscious of citing sources. In recent years, I have become much more vigilant about citing sources.
“There was a spectrum of belief about life after death in first-century Judaism. The Sadducees, the ruling elite, denied a future life of any sort. This may be because those who believe strongly in the future life were the more ready to risk death in seeking political or religious reform One can well imagine that existing rulers would not wish to encourage such attitudes. (The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, 112)
The real reason for the persistent adherence to infant baptism is quite simply the fact that without it the church would suddenly be in a remarkably embarrassing position. Every individual would then have to decide whether he wanted to be a Christian. But how many Christians would there be in that case? The whole concept of a national church (or national religion) would be shaken. That must not happen; and so one proposes argument upon argument for infant baptism and yet cannot speak convincingly because fundamentally he has a bad conscience. The introduction of adult baptism in itself would of course not reform the church which needs reforming. The adherence to infant baptism is only one — a very important one — of many symptoms that the church is not alive and bold, that it is afraid to walk on the water like Peter to meet the Lord, that it therefore does not seek a sure foundation but only deceptive props.
“Die christliche Lehre nach dem Heidelberger Katechismus,” Lectures given at the University of Bonn, Summer Semester, 1947. The Heidelberg Catechism for Today, trans. Shirley Guthrie (John Knox Press, 1964), p. 104. http://www.inhabitatiodei.com/2009/09/13/baptism-and-nationalism/
“Being a Christan is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/29333.Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
“If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.” (107)Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church
“I mean faith as a leap of hospitality, that is, an opening toward an unknown other. Faith as vulnerability risking relationship. The other might be God or it might be another human being.” Roadside Religion, Timothy Beal (213)
Instead of leaving church family members with the well-meaning wish "Take care," we should depart from each other with the urging, “Take risks.”
"the world is a very small place. if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."
“If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.” (107)Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church
“I mean faith as a leap of hospitality, that is, an opening toward an unknown other. Faith as vulnerability risking relationship. The other might be God or it might be another human being.” Roadside Religion, Timothy Beal (213)
Instead of leaving church family members with the well-meaning wish "Take care," we should depart from each other with the urging, “Take risks.”
"the world is a very small place. if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."
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