week 5

Here's week 5 zoom, followed by detail of what we did , plus one item (Christus Victor< which we didn.t have time for, but will help with your "Trick the devil " forum this week

 

Thanks to Mennonite pastor Mike Furches,  a grad of FPU's sister school, Tabor College in Kansas (did you know we has a sister college?) and his wonderful "Faith and Film" seminar, for the tip on this heavily-edited excerpt of South Park's "Do The Handicapped Go to Hell?" episode below.

The rest of the episode may be terribly offensive to some, I am not endorsing it all...but this section is funny and  prophetic, and is  the section Mike shows at church seminars, which is a  wonderful conversation starter on a number of important questions, including the two questions of class.  Yes, it might be as offensive as a loud fart, but lots to think about.
When I show it in class, I draw a bounded set on the board, and ask "What are the assumptions made by any of the characters about how one gets into the bounded set of heaven (or salvation, or Kingdom).
Text me a short review of the video, mentioning a part that got your attention, and one answer to the bounded set question

here it is:

 7 Google +0 

BREAKOUT ROOMS

For each passage below, create a list  below (bullet point OK)  of the characteristics/attributes/qualities of "church" (or the Christian community) that you find in the text.

You'll want to scan the texts quickly for the sake of time; focus on any   characteristics/attributes/qualities of "church" or the Christian community.

As always, use class translation (NRSV).  It may save time to paste each text into the search bar at BibleGateway.com

• Matthew 16:13-20
  
• Acts 2: 42-47
  
• Acts 4:32-37
  
• Romans 12:1-11
  
• Ephesians 4:1-14
• 1 Corinthians 12:27-31; 1 Corinthians 14:26-32
  
• Philemon

--

Jesus' Death: Christus Victor and Aslan Trick the Devil

the usual answer to "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" is "To pay the penalty for my sin."  Indeed that is a biblical answer, it has come to be called "Penal  (legal) Substitution".

But for the first 1500 years of Christianity the first answer was "To trick, trump and triumph over the devil" or "To play a practical joke on the devil, who was too dumb to realize the trick."  This has come to be called  the "Christus Victor" view.  

Did any of you answer that when I asked it in Zoom class?

I think only one student ever has!

Read this text  from Paul  in Colossians 2.  You should see both views.

 God forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross with Jesus 15 And having disarmed the evil powers and authorities of the devil, he made a public spectacle of them, tricking and triumphing over them by the cross.[

As

Ask yourself, "Why did Jesus appear on earth?  Why was he revealed? CLick this and see.

Jesus' death and what it accomplishes is called the atonement.  Notice the phrase "at-one'- ment is IN there : he makes us 'at one' with God.

Watch this from NT Wright:

Read  any three... or all... of the Christus Victor  scripture texts below, and  summarize in your mind  what CV may be about (Paste each Scripture text into the search bar in Bible gateway here, if you want to save time).  

• Matthew 12:28/ Luke 11:20
• Mark 10:45
• Luke 4: 1-21
•  John 1:4-5
• John 12:31-33
• Romans 5:15-21
• Romans 8:31-39
• Romans 16:19 
• 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 
• 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
• Galatians 4: 3-9
• Ephesians 1: 19-23
• Ephesians 3:9-10
• Ephesians 4: 7-10 
• Ephesians 6:12
• Colossians 1:13-14
• Colossians 2:8-19
• Hebrews 2:14
• 1 Peter 3:21-22 
•  1 John 3;8

 Was Christus Victor a new concept for you?  How do you feel about it? Suggest a possible answer to why this view has fallen into serious neglect.

Watch the  short section  (in three short clips) of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" film below. It's from the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S.Lewis.  Post: Who seemed to be the Jesus figure?  The devil figure?  How was the death of Jesus told in a "Christus Victor "way?

 

c)Watch this video from a former FPU guest professor, and interact with one quote

d) If the  discussion on Christus Victor (Jesus' death and resurrection were a practical joke/trick/triumph over the devil and evil)  and  the Narnia movie was interesting, consider this. The CV theology, though rarely grasped by contemporary Christians, is expressed in other films and literature. This option examines CV in a series of movies that is NOT Christian; in fact it is rated R  (LOL, are you old enough?): The Matrix, a series that defies genre (action/fantasy?), but is in many ways an allegory of Jesus/church.   In the first film, we see Neo (Keanu Reeves) as a Christ figure; and in the third movie we see a compelling representation of Jesus' (Neo's) death as a triumph over the devil (Note the devil figure even says "It 's a trick!  We watched this the last half hour of Zoom 7 (

You will watch some Matrix this week!

--

Extra credit: Text Dave a response to this. You might get a laugh out of this video below as you prepare for your church visit. Several years ago, I was interviewed about the church I pastor for the "Chaplain Chat" program. I stumped the host and left him speechless.   But the video raises important questions about the 2nd question of class: "What is church?" 

BREAKOUT ROOMS PART 2

Using  ONLY the characteristics list you created in the assignment above, create a  new contemporary church (this is called a" church plant").   You will be making an ad for your church/

Don't start your church on anything you have heard, or any churches you know.  Try to justify every decision on your characteristics list from Scripture.  Establish the following elements of your church:

1. Name of the church

2. Mission statement of the church

3. LOCATION

4. Key programs and activities of the church.

5. anything else important to include..based on your list

 Then develop an ad for the local newspaper /online announcing the opening of the church. 

N

Make sure your church is based on the characteristics from the passages above in Forum 52a.  How should these characteristics be manifested in the contemporary world?

 Discuss why you chose to construct your church in these ways. 

--This may help:

 

Three Quick questions

.DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE YOUR CHURCH AD: 

 

I am posting this forum early, before I have seen all the church ads you made in Week 5.

But if history is any record, since I started teaching this class in 2008, not once has any student in an online or physical class I have had (and I think this is true for all our Bible teachers ) EVER included in their ad the ONE THING that....ironically, tellingly... is  likely in every single church ad in the newspaper this weekend!!

Remember you were to base your church ad only on the attributes/characteristics of church you saw in the Scripture texts, and that among the things you were to include in the ad was "anything else important to include."

So when I make this announcement in class about this one thing that is never in class ads, but is almost always in real ads, it gets really quiet.  Everyone wonders what I am going to say.  And when I say it, it gets even more quiet...and controversial.  What one thing is obviously so very central and important to contemporary churches that is in all the ads, and yet it never  even crosses the mind of students to include it in their church ad??  This must be a very upside-down insight...maybe even the most important lesson from class.

Before you go any further, post your guess below as to what this one thing is . Label the title of your post as "question A"

(Once every couple years, someone guesses correctly).

Then, and only then, read the post on question  B and C below by clicking where indicated to see the shocking, subversive, downside up answer to A, and the next two questions.  Then come back here and post your answer to quick questions B and C here by a new post labeled "questions Band C".  (Don't  spoil the fun by reading  any of these until you have finished part A, and read the links for B and C.)

Ready? Click here for B and C when done with A