Lenten Lunch & Learn Study program for 2025
Thursday, March 6th
- April 10th. 11:30am – 1:00 p.m.
Six sessions in the Hall/lounge on Thursdays featuring:
The Difficult Words of Jesus: A Beginner's Guide to His Most
Perplexing Teachings.
Examine the most difficult teachings of Jesus with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine.
Jesus provided his disciples teachings for how to follow Torah, God’s
word; he told them parables to help them discern questions of ethics and
of human nature; he offered them beatitudes for comfort and
encouragement.
But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found
difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families
(Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell
their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his
mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls
Jews the devil’s children (John 8:44). In The Difficult Words of Jesus,
Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded
to the people who first heard them, how have they been understood over
time, and how we might interpret them in the context of the Gospel of
love and reconciliation.
Reverend Arran also needs help with study group members to make
soup.Sign up sheets are in the Narthex.