No Church Answers‪!‬ Bill Cox

Is the Sermon on the Mount analogous to an MRPG strategy guide? The fellows are mischievous enough to suggest it. If our Christian mission is to work alongside God to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, Jesus give us an awful lot of information as to how to do it, beginning with your character traits (the Beatitudes), your role (to be salt and light), information about how best to follow the rules as you navigate levels (turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, surrender your tunic and your coat) right up to the counterintuitive advice of "Enter through the narrow gate," a section we discuss this week.
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Seek first the Kingdom of God and all we need will be given to us. This is hard to believe. Yet for Christians it stands as a promise from the Son of God himself and therefore demands to be taken seriously. Material wealth won't last. Worry accomplishes nothing. Judgment leads to hypocrisy. These sections of the Sermon on the Mount get to the heart of its counterculture nature. Join the fellows as they discuss the ramifications of this pointed verses.
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Jesus teaches the Christian approach to religious disciplines of charity, prayer and fasting should be practiced with humility. The fellows discuss the definition of true humility, which lies somewhere between boastful arrogance and self-erasure. We talk about the difficulty of avoiding temptation of making gifts or personal service all about oneself, and try to resolve that with the idea that recognizing the "awesome" value of someone's devotion to others point to a "light" in the darkness.
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The Sermon on the Mount, as Robert "The Professor" Cocheu notes, sits "at the intersection on faith and real life." We take on one of the chewier sections in an attempt to get to its overall countercultural point -- that in the Kingdom of God, everyone is understood to be made in God's image and no one is expendable. In this framework, does insult equal murder? Does lust equal adultery? And what about the call to love one's enemies? Certainly there must be exceptions. Are there? Would we rather try to rationalize Jesus' words with our own cultural attitudes than hear its divine call to "turn the world upside down" as the early Thessalonian Christians did? (Acts 17:6)
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The Sermon on the Mount is at once an inaugural address, a list of promises and expectations, a mission statement, and a vision for a new type of Kingdom. It seems to set impossible expectations, but suggests these expectations can be met through the power of the Holy Spirit and a spirit-driven community. This week, the fellows begin a comprehensive look at the entire sermon beginning with the well-known series of beatitudes and Jesus' command to be "salt and light" to the world.
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The Sandwich Generation describes adults from the ages of 40 to 59 who are caught between supporting minor children and aging parents. We focus on the aging parent caregiving part of this and the stress it can bring to Christian households. How do we honor the commandment to “Honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12) while at the same recognizing that we have a responsibility to handle our own family obligations well (2 Corinthians 12:14). We examine three phases: 1) When it's time for parents to give up independence, 2) when it's time to move to assisted living, 3) when it's time to move to palliative care. Each phase is different and requires different thought processes and spiritual strength.
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