What’s the Big Picture? (2)

 

 

I. Required readings

 

Psalm 78

Micah 6:1-8

Matthew 5:1-16

Mark 1:1-15

Philippians 2:1-11

Revelation 21:1-6

 

 

Christian Biography for the Day: Mother Teresa of Calcutta
 

Chittister, Chapter 5 (“Humility: The Lost Virtue”), 51-66

 

Chris Wright, “Have We Lost the Three-Dimensional Gospel?”

 

Alden Swan, “On Grasping the Big Picture”

      (Copyrighted article through Canvas under the Files tab)

 

View 52-minute film, Something Beautiful for God, and submit film reflections by deadline noted on Film Reflection Assignment on Canvas.)

 

 

II. Quotations for the day

 

“The whole point of Christianity is that it offers a story which is the story of the whole world.”

            --N. T. Wright

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III. Journal prompts

  

1. Have you ever thought of your identity in the terms Merton suggests above?  If someone asked you to skip the Sunday School answers and to explain honestly what you are living for—and what is keeping you from living for the thing you want to live for—how would you respond?

 

2. Chris Wright suggests—among other things—that we have a tendency in our age to reduce the gospel to a “me-centered personal salvation” and reduce the church’s mission to a “you-centered personal evangelism.”  Given what he goes on to say about our call to participate in God’s cosmic mission, do you think he may be right about the way in which we have narrowed the good news of Jesus Christ? (The NT readings for today may speak to this issue as well.)

 

3. Matthew 5:3-12 is often referred to as The Beatitudes.  These verses announce who it is that from God's perspective is blessed.  Our own society and cultures have their own view of who is blessed. Write a version of The Beatitudes from the perspective of contemporary culture.  In your experience, who does the world announce is blessed?   

 

4.  Swan tells the story of his own personal epiphany, of the day he came to realize that he was part of something bigger and grander than his own narrow agenda, story, and loyalties.  In what ways do you feel yourself a part of what scripture calls the “kingdom of God” or the “reign of God”?  In what ways have you found that this reality draws you out of your own narrow world?

 

5. What connections do you see between Chittister's account of humility and the life of Mother Teresa?  What is there about the way she talks, gestures, and moves through the world that suggest humility?

 

 

IV. Links of possible interest

            

             Paul Hiebert, “The Category ‘Christian’ in the Mission Task” (Copyrighted article through Canvas under the Files tab)