Second Sunday Of Easter
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle A
Object:
Theme For The Day
Once the glad celebration of Easter is ended, our task is to bear witness to what we have heard and seen.
First Lesson
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Peter Preaches About The Resurrection
Rather artificially, the lectionary pairs up the first line from Peter's sermon to the crowd on Pentecost with a section of that sermon dealing with Jesus and his resurrection. Jesus, he tells the people, was "attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him" (v. 22). The mightiest sign of all is his resurrection (v. 24). God is the principal actor here: Jesus was crucified "according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God," and when it comes to the resurrection, "God raised him up" (verses 23-24). Like any good sermon, this one has a biblical text. Since the New Testament documents are as yet uncollected, that text must come from the Hebrew scriptures. Citing two sections from the Greek (Septuagint) version of psalms of David (Psalm 16:8-11 and Psalm 110:1), Peter makes the point that David "both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day" (v. 29). David's descendent, Jesus, by contrast, was "raised up" by God -- and of this fact, "all of us are witnesses" (v. 32). The mission of the church of Jesus Christ is to bear witness to his resurrection.
New Testament Lesson
1 Peter 1:3-9
Faith More Precious Than Gold
This text begins a six-week series of epistle lessons from 1 Peter. We move, now, from the preaching of Peter as Luke records it in Acts, to the preaching of Peter as recorded in this first-century pseudonymous epistle -- which purports to have been dictated by Peter to Silvanus (5:12), even though the Greek is likely too sophisticated for a humble fisherman. A principal purpose of this letter is to encourage Christians who, more and more, are coming to see themselves as out of step with the larger, pagan culture. God, the author says, "has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (v. 3). Thus, the resurrection is central to Christian proclamation, and to Christian self-understanding. The resurrection is a sign of "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (v. 4). This is cause for rejoicing, "even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials" -- referring, of course, to the persecutions this community is beginning to undergo (v. 6). The author likens the faith of those being persecuted to gold -- which, while it may be melted down in a hot fire, returns to its original form once it cools down (v. 7). That, in itself, is a sort of resurrection image.
The Gospel
John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears To The Disciples, And Later To Thomas
This text occurs in all three cycles of the lectionary for this day. The first part of it also appears as the gospel lesson for Pentecost. There are two acts to this drama: Jesus' appearance to his disciples (verses 19-23), and his self-revelation to Thomas, who had missed his earlier appearance (verses 24-31). The first part of the story is the Johannine Pentecost: Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the apostles (v. 22). He also bestows on them the power that is called, elsewhere, "the power of the keys": the authority to forgive sins in his name (v. 23). The transmission of this power to Peter in Matthew 16:19 is the basis of the priestly power of absolution in Roman Catholic doctrine -- although, here, Jesus gives it to all the apostles. Beware of the anti-Semitic overtones in the phrase, "for fear of the Jews" (v. 19). Most of those who were hiding out that day were themselves Jews. What John means to say is that they were fearful of the Jewish religious authorities. The doors to the house are, literally, "closed."
The NRSV translates this word as "locked" (v. 19). Into this anxious and fearful setting, Jesus appears, bringing a message of peace (eirene -- which, in the Aramaic or Hebrew Jesus would have used conversationally, would be shalom). He shows them the wounds in his hands and his side and answering any possible objections that what the disciples are seeing is a ghost, or some other apparition (v. 20). His words, "As the father has sent me, so I send you," are an apostolic commission. The first occurrence of "sent" is apestalken, a form of apostello -- the word from which "apostle" comes (v. 21). The second episode is the well-known story of Thomas -- although he really doesn't deserve the sobriquet, "doubting," because he is only looking for the same assurance his fellow disciples have already received on Jesus' first visit. Again, there is a focus on the physical reality of Jesus' wounds indicating that his resurrection is no vision, but corporeal reality. Thomas' response of faith is instantaneous: "My Lord and my God!" (v. 28). Jesus' final blessing, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe," is intended by John for the church of his own day, most of whom have believed without having seen Jesus in the flesh (v. 29). Indeed, it is a benediction for the church in every age.
Preaching Possibilities
Why do you suppose it is that people visit cemeteries? You can see them, sometimes, if you drive into one. There, pulled to the side of the one-lane asphalt roadway, is a car... and not far from the car, a person -- standing quietly beside a grave.
Why do people visit cemeteries? What is it that they expect to find?
Some come armed with gardening gloves and trowel, horticulture on their minds. Others carry little gifts they plan to leave behind: mementos of a cherished relationship -- or maybe a grave blanket at Christmas. They're sometimes a bit self-conscious, to be seen putting these items down. They feel vaguely embarrassed by their own sentimentality.
When Jews visit the graves of loved ones, they leave a stone behind: until the stones pile up, a tangible tally of the community's caring. When the Japanese do so, they bring the whole family with them, and go through the ancient ritual of a tea ceremony, in the presence of their ancestors. Others simply wander over to the grave and sit a spell: watching, waiting, remembering... reading the names on the gravestones... and if it's a family plot, imagining their own place in the stone-carved genealogy of the headstones.
When they leave, they somehow feel closer to the dear departed: more at peace.
Why is it that Mary Magdalene visits Jesus' tomb? It's the story we and a good portion of the Christian world heard last Sunday. Unlike the other gospel writers, in John's version, the embalming's already been completed. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea performed that task the day before. So, that's not why she comes. No, as John tells it, it's for some private reason of her own.
What is it that brings us to church on the Sunday after Easter? It's not to hear a special musical extravaganza; the music today is more than likely to be simple, a faint echo of last Sunday's fanfares. It's not to see crowds of friends and neighbors; this is one of the lowest-attendance Sundays of the Christian year.
No, it's very likely there's something else bringing us to worship on the Second Sunday of Easter. Last week, we saw and heard the good news. This week, we'd like to come to terms with it. We'd like to figure out what our response is going to be.
The classic response of Christian believers, on the Sunday after Easter, is to be witnesses -- although not eyewitnesses (spelled "e-y-e"). If, here in this place, we do encounter Jesus Christ -- if, here, we do feel his presence among this company of believers who dare proclaim that together we are his body -- then we will be equipped to utter the simple, two-word sentence, "I witness" (that's with the pronoun "I," not "e-y-e"). We will go from this place as people equipped to testify, "Yes, I have seen him. He is risen -- risen indeed!"
In giving a sermon to the assembled crowd in Jerusalem, Peter says, "This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). The great celebration of Easter -- the public, official proclamation of the good news -- is over. Now, the season of witnessing -- of sharing the gospel in more informal, personal ways -- has begun.
Which sort of witnesses were the apostles as they raced back from the empty tomb with news of a missing corpse and as they traveled throughout the Mediterranean world in the years that followed, bearing good news of a risen Lord whose Spirit inflames from within? What was it about their testimony that convinced so many of their listeners: growing the Christian church from a tiny, dispirited band into the religion of a mighty empire? Was it a simple statement of the facts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection -- or was it something more?
The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead has said, "People are not persuaded by our reasoning, but caught by our enthusiasms." That's a remarkable statement, coming from a man who built his career on logic and rational argument: an honest admission, really, that what is truly convincing is not "just the facts, Ma'am" -- as officer Joe Friday used to say, on the old Dragnet television show -- but the difference those facts make in our lives.
Some years back, Newsweek magazine reported the results of a poll in which a random sample of people were asked the question, "Do you believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after dying on the cross?" It was no surprise that a very high percentage of Christians -- 88% -- said yes. But, the true surprise in the survey results was that 32% of non-Christians also said yes! That's almost one third. What should we make of that? One third of people who don't consider themselves followers of Jesus still believe the fact of his resurrection! When it comes to "just the facts, ma'am," they'd say, "Sure, Jesus rose from the dead -- so what?"
There are some who believe the Christian faith is all about facts. "If I can convince you," such a person will say, "that on a certain day 2,000 years ago, in the city of Jerusalem, a man named Jesus rose from the dead, then you'll follow him, won't you?" As the results of the Newsweek poll demonstrate, this is by no means a sure thing.
What's far more important to faith than the historical or scientific fact of the resurrection is that question, "So what? What difference does Jesus' resurrection make for my life? Does the fact of the empty tomb speak in any way to the emptiness in my heart?"
Mary experienced a solution to the emptiness in her heart that day so long ago. When she first beheld the empty tomb, her reaction was bewilderment. She ran to her friends and blurted out: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him" (John 20:2). Those were "the facts, ma'am" -- and by themselves they weren't enough for faith. It was only when she turned and saw that man she presumed to be the gardener, and heard him call her name that she truly knew.
That's what made Mary a witness to the resurrection, and the very first bearer of the good news. It was not so much the fact of resurrection she proclaimed, as the relationship with her Lord: a relationship she had feared was ended forever, but which she discovered that bright morning, was only beginning. When Mary would say, in subsequent years, "I witness," she would be testifying not so much to the facts she knew to be true as she was testifying to the living Lord she knew personally, who continued to love her and to live in her heart.
Mary saw and believed. Unlike us, she was an eyewitness to the resurrection. We can never be witnesses to the resurrection in quite the same sense. Yet, we can say, along with Mary and the other apostles, "I witness -- I witness to this truth I have come to know, this love that has filled me from within, this risen Lord with whom I am in relationship."
Prayer For The Day
Great God, we have seen.
We have heard.
We have come to know --
in one way or another,
wherever his life has touched ours --
that Christ is risen, risen indeed!
The words are in our hearts:
words of witness,
wonderful words of life.
Help us, whom you have gifted with this good news,
to know the most winsome way to share it,
and to do it, always, with love.
In the name of the risen Lord we pray. Amen.
To Illustrate
Friends,
you are the icon of God,
God's manifesto,
God's image,
God's vision.
The role of the icon
is to reveal
the one whom we cannot touch
to arouse the desire
to know God,
to transfigure reality
and to place in its midst
the marvelous light of the other.
Friends,
you are the icon of God,
you design it
with your flesh and blood,
with your sweat
and your faltering,
with your words and
your gestures,
with your refusals and
your revolts,
with your love and your kisses,
with your tenderness.
Frankly and sincerely,
you are the icon of God.
Do not hurry:
It will take your entire lifetime to paint it
because it requires
such meticulous dedication.
In order to succeed,
it is necessary to contemplate the Model often,
until God's Countenance is reflected
on your face.
-- Anonymous
***
To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God's presence in the world. What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living always leads to the right way of speaking. When we forgive our neighbours from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words. When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words, and when we are hopeful and joyful, we will speak hopeful and joyful words.
When our words come too soon and we are not yet living what we are saying, we easily give double messages. Giving double messages -- one with our words and another with our actions -- makes us hypocrites. May our lives give us the right words and may our words lead us to the right life.
-- Henri J.M. Nouwen, Bread For The Journey (New York: HarperCollins, 1997)
***
I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
and more willing than the ear,
fine counsel is confusing,
but example's always clear;
and the best of all the preachers
are the men who live their creeds,
for to see good put in action
is what everybody needs....
Though an able speaker charms me
with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon
than to hear one, any day.
-- Edgar Guest, "Sermons We See"
***
In his book The Heart of Christianity (2003) professor Marcus Borg of Oregon State University describes how his university students who grew up outside the church have a uniformly negative stereotype of Christianity. "When I ask them to write a short essay on their impression of Christianity," says Borg, "they consistently use five adjectives: Christians are literalistic, anti-intellectual, self-righteous, judgmental, and bigoted." I suspect that Borg's unscientific conclusions apply well beyond his university students to our broader culture. Why these stereotypes persist, the extent to which they are deserved, or whether they are even accurate, are all interesting and complex questions, but at least we can say this much -- the emergent community of those who had followed Jesus gained a different reputation; they "enjoyed the favor of all the people" (Acts 2:47). Why the contrast between then and now?
-- Daniel Clendenin, http://www.journeywithjesus.net/, April 23, 2006
Once the glad celebration of Easter is ended, our task is to bear witness to what we have heard and seen.
First Lesson
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Peter Preaches About The Resurrection
Rather artificially, the lectionary pairs up the first line from Peter's sermon to the crowd on Pentecost with a section of that sermon dealing with Jesus and his resurrection. Jesus, he tells the people, was "attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him" (v. 22). The mightiest sign of all is his resurrection (v. 24). God is the principal actor here: Jesus was crucified "according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God," and when it comes to the resurrection, "God raised him up" (verses 23-24). Like any good sermon, this one has a biblical text. Since the New Testament documents are as yet uncollected, that text must come from the Hebrew scriptures. Citing two sections from the Greek (Septuagint) version of psalms of David (Psalm 16:8-11 and Psalm 110:1), Peter makes the point that David "both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day" (v. 29). David's descendent, Jesus, by contrast, was "raised up" by God -- and of this fact, "all of us are witnesses" (v. 32). The mission of the church of Jesus Christ is to bear witness to his resurrection.
New Testament Lesson
1 Peter 1:3-9
Faith More Precious Than Gold
This text begins a six-week series of epistle lessons from 1 Peter. We move, now, from the preaching of Peter as Luke records it in Acts, to the preaching of Peter as recorded in this first-century pseudonymous epistle -- which purports to have been dictated by Peter to Silvanus (5:12), even though the Greek is likely too sophisticated for a humble fisherman. A principal purpose of this letter is to encourage Christians who, more and more, are coming to see themselves as out of step with the larger, pagan culture. God, the author says, "has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (v. 3). Thus, the resurrection is central to Christian proclamation, and to Christian self-understanding. The resurrection is a sign of "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (v. 4). This is cause for rejoicing, "even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials" -- referring, of course, to the persecutions this community is beginning to undergo (v. 6). The author likens the faith of those being persecuted to gold -- which, while it may be melted down in a hot fire, returns to its original form once it cools down (v. 7). That, in itself, is a sort of resurrection image.
The Gospel
John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears To The Disciples, And Later To Thomas
This text occurs in all three cycles of the lectionary for this day. The first part of it also appears as the gospel lesson for Pentecost. There are two acts to this drama: Jesus' appearance to his disciples (verses 19-23), and his self-revelation to Thomas, who had missed his earlier appearance (verses 24-31). The first part of the story is the Johannine Pentecost: Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the apostles (v. 22). He also bestows on them the power that is called, elsewhere, "the power of the keys": the authority to forgive sins in his name (v. 23). The transmission of this power to Peter in Matthew 16:19 is the basis of the priestly power of absolution in Roman Catholic doctrine -- although, here, Jesus gives it to all the apostles. Beware of the anti-Semitic overtones in the phrase, "for fear of the Jews" (v. 19). Most of those who were hiding out that day were themselves Jews. What John means to say is that they were fearful of the Jewish religious authorities. The doors to the house are, literally, "closed."
The NRSV translates this word as "locked" (v. 19). Into this anxious and fearful setting, Jesus appears, bringing a message of peace (eirene -- which, in the Aramaic or Hebrew Jesus would have used conversationally, would be shalom). He shows them the wounds in his hands and his side and answering any possible objections that what the disciples are seeing is a ghost, or some other apparition (v. 20). His words, "As the father has sent me, so I send you," are an apostolic commission. The first occurrence of "sent" is apestalken, a form of apostello -- the word from which "apostle" comes (v. 21). The second episode is the well-known story of Thomas -- although he really doesn't deserve the sobriquet, "doubting," because he is only looking for the same assurance his fellow disciples have already received on Jesus' first visit. Again, there is a focus on the physical reality of Jesus' wounds indicating that his resurrection is no vision, but corporeal reality. Thomas' response of faith is instantaneous: "My Lord and my God!" (v. 28). Jesus' final blessing, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe," is intended by John for the church of his own day, most of whom have believed without having seen Jesus in the flesh (v. 29). Indeed, it is a benediction for the church in every age.
Preaching Possibilities
Why do you suppose it is that people visit cemeteries? You can see them, sometimes, if you drive into one. There, pulled to the side of the one-lane asphalt roadway, is a car... and not far from the car, a person -- standing quietly beside a grave.
Why do people visit cemeteries? What is it that they expect to find?
Some come armed with gardening gloves and trowel, horticulture on their minds. Others carry little gifts they plan to leave behind: mementos of a cherished relationship -- or maybe a grave blanket at Christmas. They're sometimes a bit self-conscious, to be seen putting these items down. They feel vaguely embarrassed by their own sentimentality.
When Jews visit the graves of loved ones, they leave a stone behind: until the stones pile up, a tangible tally of the community's caring. When the Japanese do so, they bring the whole family with them, and go through the ancient ritual of a tea ceremony, in the presence of their ancestors. Others simply wander over to the grave and sit a spell: watching, waiting, remembering... reading the names on the gravestones... and if it's a family plot, imagining their own place in the stone-carved genealogy of the headstones.
When they leave, they somehow feel closer to the dear departed: more at peace.
Why is it that Mary Magdalene visits Jesus' tomb? It's the story we and a good portion of the Christian world heard last Sunday. Unlike the other gospel writers, in John's version, the embalming's already been completed. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea performed that task the day before. So, that's not why she comes. No, as John tells it, it's for some private reason of her own.
What is it that brings us to church on the Sunday after Easter? It's not to hear a special musical extravaganza; the music today is more than likely to be simple, a faint echo of last Sunday's fanfares. It's not to see crowds of friends and neighbors; this is one of the lowest-attendance Sundays of the Christian year.
No, it's very likely there's something else bringing us to worship on the Second Sunday of Easter. Last week, we saw and heard the good news. This week, we'd like to come to terms with it. We'd like to figure out what our response is going to be.
The classic response of Christian believers, on the Sunday after Easter, is to be witnesses -- although not eyewitnesses (spelled "e-y-e"). If, here in this place, we do encounter Jesus Christ -- if, here, we do feel his presence among this company of believers who dare proclaim that together we are his body -- then we will be equipped to utter the simple, two-word sentence, "I witness" (that's with the pronoun "I," not "e-y-e"). We will go from this place as people equipped to testify, "Yes, I have seen him. He is risen -- risen indeed!"
In giving a sermon to the assembled crowd in Jerusalem, Peter says, "This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). The great celebration of Easter -- the public, official proclamation of the good news -- is over. Now, the season of witnessing -- of sharing the gospel in more informal, personal ways -- has begun.
Which sort of witnesses were the apostles as they raced back from the empty tomb with news of a missing corpse and as they traveled throughout the Mediterranean world in the years that followed, bearing good news of a risen Lord whose Spirit inflames from within? What was it about their testimony that convinced so many of their listeners: growing the Christian church from a tiny, dispirited band into the religion of a mighty empire? Was it a simple statement of the facts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection -- or was it something more?
The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead has said, "People are not persuaded by our reasoning, but caught by our enthusiasms." That's a remarkable statement, coming from a man who built his career on logic and rational argument: an honest admission, really, that what is truly convincing is not "just the facts, Ma'am" -- as officer Joe Friday used to say, on the old Dragnet television show -- but the difference those facts make in our lives.
Some years back, Newsweek magazine reported the results of a poll in which a random sample of people were asked the question, "Do you believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after dying on the cross?" It was no surprise that a very high percentage of Christians -- 88% -- said yes. But, the true surprise in the survey results was that 32% of non-Christians also said yes! That's almost one third. What should we make of that? One third of people who don't consider themselves followers of Jesus still believe the fact of his resurrection! When it comes to "just the facts, ma'am," they'd say, "Sure, Jesus rose from the dead -- so what?"
There are some who believe the Christian faith is all about facts. "If I can convince you," such a person will say, "that on a certain day 2,000 years ago, in the city of Jerusalem, a man named Jesus rose from the dead, then you'll follow him, won't you?" As the results of the Newsweek poll demonstrate, this is by no means a sure thing.
What's far more important to faith than the historical or scientific fact of the resurrection is that question, "So what? What difference does Jesus' resurrection make for my life? Does the fact of the empty tomb speak in any way to the emptiness in my heart?"
Mary experienced a solution to the emptiness in her heart that day so long ago. When she first beheld the empty tomb, her reaction was bewilderment. She ran to her friends and blurted out: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him" (John 20:2). Those were "the facts, ma'am" -- and by themselves they weren't enough for faith. It was only when she turned and saw that man she presumed to be the gardener, and heard him call her name that she truly knew.
That's what made Mary a witness to the resurrection, and the very first bearer of the good news. It was not so much the fact of resurrection she proclaimed, as the relationship with her Lord: a relationship she had feared was ended forever, but which she discovered that bright morning, was only beginning. When Mary would say, in subsequent years, "I witness," she would be testifying not so much to the facts she knew to be true as she was testifying to the living Lord she knew personally, who continued to love her and to live in her heart.
Mary saw and believed. Unlike us, she was an eyewitness to the resurrection. We can never be witnesses to the resurrection in quite the same sense. Yet, we can say, along with Mary and the other apostles, "I witness -- I witness to this truth I have come to know, this love that has filled me from within, this risen Lord with whom I am in relationship."
Prayer For The Day
Great God, we have seen.
We have heard.
We have come to know --
in one way or another,
wherever his life has touched ours --
that Christ is risen, risen indeed!
The words are in our hearts:
words of witness,
wonderful words of life.
Help us, whom you have gifted with this good news,
to know the most winsome way to share it,
and to do it, always, with love.
In the name of the risen Lord we pray. Amen.
To Illustrate
Friends,
you are the icon of God,
God's manifesto,
God's image,
God's vision.
The role of the icon
is to reveal
the one whom we cannot touch
to arouse the desire
to know God,
to transfigure reality
and to place in its midst
the marvelous light of the other.
Friends,
you are the icon of God,
you design it
with your flesh and blood,
with your sweat
and your faltering,
with your words and
your gestures,
with your refusals and
your revolts,
with your love and your kisses,
with your tenderness.
Frankly and sincerely,
you are the icon of God.
Do not hurry:
It will take your entire lifetime to paint it
because it requires
such meticulous dedication.
In order to succeed,
it is necessary to contemplate the Model often,
until God's Countenance is reflected
on your face.
-- Anonymous
***
To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God's presence in the world. What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living always leads to the right way of speaking. When we forgive our neighbours from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words. When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words, and when we are hopeful and joyful, we will speak hopeful and joyful words.
When our words come too soon and we are not yet living what we are saying, we easily give double messages. Giving double messages -- one with our words and another with our actions -- makes us hypocrites. May our lives give us the right words and may our words lead us to the right life.
-- Henri J.M. Nouwen, Bread For The Journey (New York: HarperCollins, 1997)
***
I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
and more willing than the ear,
fine counsel is confusing,
but example's always clear;
and the best of all the preachers
are the men who live their creeds,
for to see good put in action
is what everybody needs....
Though an able speaker charms me
with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon
than to hear one, any day.
-- Edgar Guest, "Sermons We See"
***
In his book The Heart of Christianity (2003) professor Marcus Borg of Oregon State University describes how his university students who grew up outside the church have a uniformly negative stereotype of Christianity. "When I ask them to write a short essay on their impression of Christianity," says Borg, "they consistently use five adjectives: Christians are literalistic, anti-intellectual, self-righteous, judgmental, and bigoted." I suspect that Borg's unscientific conclusions apply well beyond his university students to our broader culture. Why these stereotypes persist, the extent to which they are deserved, or whether they are even accurate, are all interesting and complex questions, but at least we can say this much -- the emergent community of those who had followed Jesus gained a different reputation; they "enjoyed the favor of all the people" (Acts 2:47). Why the contrast between then and now?
-- Daniel Clendenin, http://www.journeywithjesus.net/, April 23, 2006
