New Episode of Just Talking
New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 1, Episode 13: John 14:15-21. Lectionary A, Easter 6
Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking.
If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it.
You can find the latest show on YouTube at https://youtu.be/QnXt34XGexc
Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.
Thanks in advance for watching!
May’s Recommended Reading
Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision
by John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Crossan
In this four-color illustrated journey that is part travelogue and part theological investigation, bestselling author and acclaimed Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan and his wife Sarah painstakingly travel throughout the ancient Eastern church, documenting through text and image a completely different model for understanding Easter’s resurrection story, one that provides promise and hope for us today.
Traveling the world, the Crossans noticed a surprising difference in how the Eastern Church considers Jesus’ resurrection—an event not described in the Bible. At Saint Barbara’s Church in Cairo, they found a painting in which the risen Jesus grasps the hands of other figures around him. Unlike the Western image of a solitary Jesus rising from an empty tomb that he viewed across Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the Crossans saw images of the resurrection depicting a Jesus grasping the hands of figures around him, or lifting Adam and Eve to heaven from Hades or hell, or carrying the old and sick to the afterlife. They discovered that the standard image for the Resurrection in Eastern Christianity is communal and collective, something unique from the solitary depiction of the resurrection in Western Christianity.
Fifteen years in the making, Resurrecting Easter reflects on this divide in how the Western and Eastern churches depict the resurrection and its implications. The Crossans argue that the West has gutted the heart of Christianity’s understanding of the resurrection by rejecting that once-common communal iconography in favor of an individualistic vision. As they examine the ubiquitous Eastern imagery of Jesus freeing Eve from Hades while ascending to heaven, the Crossans suggest that this iconography raises profound questions about Christian morality and forgiveness.
A fundamentally different way of understand the story of Jesus’ rebirth illustrated with 130 images, Resurrecting Easter introduces an inclusive, traditional community-based ideal that offers renewed hope and possibilities for our fractured modern society.
Last Week’s Social Jesus Posts
Articles posted each week at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/
Advocate, Part 1 of Loving What Jesus Taught
I grew up hearing Christians interpret the Advocate as an intermediary interposing between sinful humans and a holy God. Today, I reject that.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2023/05/advocate-loving-what-jesus-taught-part1/
Advocacy, Part 2 of Loving What Jesus Taught
For the original audiences of the synoptics, “advocate” would have called to mind a deep need of advocacy socially, politically, and economically.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2023/05/advocacy-loving-what-jesus-taught-part2/
Ethics and Values, Part 3 of Loving What Jesus Taught
Considering the ethics and values within the Jesus story, loving Jesus means actually loving the things he taught and following them.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2023/05/ethics-values-loving-what-jesus-taught-part3/
It’s Here!
Herb’s new book is now available through Renewed Heart Ministries.
Finding Jesus: A story of a Fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels
by Herb Montgomery
Pages: 210
Price: $14.95
Get your copy today!
To purchase click here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
May 27, 2023
Glendale City Church
Glendale, CA
(818) 244-7241
Weekly Zoom HeartGroup on Wednesday Nights
Each Wednesday evening, Glendale City Church will be hosting a Zoom-HeartGroup led by Herb Montgomery. Our discussion each week will focus on the content in Renewed Heart Ministries’ weekly eSight articles and the Jesus For Everyone podcast published each Friday. The time of each Zoom session will be on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. Pacific/10:00 p.m. Eastern.
For more information and for the link to participate each week, contact RHM here.
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