We have just started a series on the magnificent sermon on the mount.
I think there can be too much bias to Paul's work in Church teaching, and am greatly looking forward to lifting the lid once more on this lifechanging, disciplemaking, call to godliness that is the sermon on the mount.
But I did allow myself a wry smile, and a cheeky comment, when I wonder if some people's bibles look a bit like this...GENESIS 1-2Genesis 3-50
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
I Samuel
II Samuel
I Kings
II Kings
I Chronicles
II Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew 1-4
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNTMatthew 8-28
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
I Corinthians
II Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
I Thessalonians
II Thessalonians
I Timothy
II Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
I Peter
II Peter
I John
II John
III John
Jude
Revelation
Please consider this post entirely tongue in cheek. In many ways I have very strong pacifist tendencies. Although I don't struggle with the bible's use of military, or even violent imagery. Nor am I that concerned with its use, in context, in Church teaching, especially when the evidence of the life of the speaker gives a clear indication that they have embraced the sermon on the mount, such as David Wilkerson.
4 comments:
You really shouldn't rub out all of Isaiah or Joel. We preached through the first half of the sermon on the mount from october/november. Brilliant stuff.
It's hard to see why a hard core pacifist would bin off John's letters. Especially the short ones.
Plus in the sermon on the mount Jesus implies a tacit uncritical acceptance of military occupation (carrying a soldier's pack), which actually makes it a difficult text for pacifist theologians like Yoder et al. You need to read more mennonite stuff...
Did you copy and paste or type that all out???
Ironically some pacifist scholars struggle with the sermon on the mount because of it's de facto acceptance of military authority (if a soldier asks you to carry his pack etc). The Christian is duty bound to aid the oppressor and there is no comment on the morality or not of soldiering as a career.
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