It was suggested to me that I did not make the current series clear, so I would like to do so. We will be discussing social justice issues through the lens of the ethic of love we discovered in the Gospel of John. In particular, we will be looking at how God’s love – mutual self-giving and self-revelation – deconstructs systems of power that divide, oppress, and destroy. How does love construct a just world? And how do we participate in that? Or hinder it?
The series will be six weeks: last week’s introduction, four “issue” weeks, and a conclusion which will take the form of a decision-making workshop. In looking at these select issues, we will consider how the boundaries we draw around people – race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. – construct the web of relationships in which we live. Who wins and who loses when we do?
Here’s the tentative schedule:
July 1 – Introduction
How can love deconstruct power and create justice?
July 8 – The Earth
How do we relate to the earth and how does that frame our relationship with everything else? How (and why) do we divide it up and fight over it?
July 15 – The Alien
How do we relate to the people “over there,” especially when they come “over here”?
July 22 – The Neighbor
How do we relate to the people all around us? Who do we consider to be our neighbor and why?
July 29 – The Other
How do we divide ourselves from the people closest to us, in our families and our friendships? How do we decide who is “the other”? And do we have to?
August 5 – Decisions
As a church, how and where do we direct the resources that we have to create a more just world?
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Baptism is a public reponsse to the salvation we have received from Jesus. Communion is an outpouring of thanks and worship for what God, through Jesus, has already done on our behalf. We explained to our girls that once they have asked Jesus to be their savior and once they have publicly professed that faith through baptism, they may joyfully join us in partaking in communion. I truly believe that if we look at Scripture, a public profession of faith comes first, then partaking in communion.All three of our daughters understood this, and baptism became an even more significant event because of it. Each one chose to be baptized at different stages in their life one in high school, one in 6th grade, and one in 3rd grade. We didn’t push. We just made it clear what baptism and communion meant, and it became a marker for them. If my children had been baptized as infants (our church does both adult and infant baptism!) we would have had them wait until they had gone through some sort of confirmation class before they took part in communion.Shelly @ Life on the Wild Side recently posted..