Fourth Advent Snack

As a mild pun on the book's connecting the nativity to Easter and the Last Supper, I've titled this to whet your appetite. Below are some of the questions from each of the final chapters, we'll discuss.

The remaining questions for Chapters 7-9 will be available at the 12/21 class and after the class on this blog.

Chapter 7 – Light Against the Darkness
What were Matthew's light images that the book mentioned?
What were Luke's light images that the book mentioned?
Had you ever considered Revelation as the source of the 3rd Biblical nativity?

Chapter 8 – Jesus as the Fulfillment of Prophecy
Do you see Matthew's 5 prophesies as supporting the fundamentalists or the debunkers?
Does it sound plausible that Matthew mined the Hebrew Bible to support his community with testimony, witness, & conviction?
What might be an xmas gift purchase example of testimony, witness, & conviction?
Does Luke's use of familiar phrases from the Hebrew
Bible in his 3 hymns give you the sense of Jesus as fulfillment of God's promises?
Does the law & prophets promise summary help you with expectations for the Messiah—land, descendants,justice & peace?
With the help of this book, do you see the hope aimed at this world, rather than the coming one?
How do you look at the meaning of “Jesus is prophesy fulfilled?”

Chapter 9 – Joy to the World
Can you see how the message of joy is interwoven with messages of light and fulfillment?
Have you ever wondered why the “Joy” hymn uses, “the Lord 'is' come?”
Do you see the parallelism between Lent/Easter & Advent/Christmas?
Were you familiar with the book's Hebrew Bible & New Testament definitions of repent?
Does the advent story suggest to you another way of seeing politics of our present time?
Do you like the book's defining eschatology in terms of transformation, rather than mass immigration to heaven?
Have you heard of Augustine's saying, “God w/o us will not; we w/o God can't?”

Third Advent Class

Here are the questions to start us out. As usual the remainder of the questions will be posted in the comment section after the class.

Chapter 5 – An Angel Comes to Mary
What do you make of the adultery issue that only Matthew mentions?
Are you familiar that “midrash” can be defined as four approaches to understand the Hebrew Biblical texts?
meaning types--literal or plain; deep; comparative; hidden
Does the midrash of Moses' conception help with your understanding of the Exodus verses or Matthew's “new Moses” theme?
Do you prefer the Isaiah link to the Virgin Mary or the John the Baptizer link?
Does the review of the Sarah and Hannah divine conception stories help with your view of the virgin birth?

Advent 2

As with the first class, here are some teaser questions we can discuss on the second Advent Sunday. After that class, as with the first class, I'll include in the comment part of the blog, the other questions we used, as well as some discussion highlights.

We agreed to cover two chapters a week, which means 3 & 4 next Sunday. However on the last Sunday of Advent we'll finish the book with 7-9.

Does Jesus' nativity context help you with your appreciation of the miracle of the incarnation?
What elements do you classify as nativity background? As context?
What are some of the nativity story changes that Christians made after the Holocaust?
Does the book's definition (page 58) of “kingdom” help you with other parts of the Gospels?
Have you ever used geology to discuss the Gospels before?

First Class

After the WPPC book club gave good reviews of this book by Marcus Borg & John Crossan, Wes agreed to have this as our Advent class. It helped that the October Presbyterians Today also favorably reviewed this book. As a teaser I wrote in the WPPC press that we'll cover the authors' view on the virgin birth.

Below are some discussion starters for our first class. The questions for Chapter 2 will be available at the 11/30 class and after the class on this blog.

Chapter 1

Would you prefer the Matthew pageant or the Luke pageant?
What do you think of Matthew keeping Jesus “offstage?”
Do you like his focus on Joseph?
Do you think Luke has too many verses are about John the Baptist's parents?
What do you like about the role of women in Luke?
Do you agree that Luke is more musical than Matthew?
Besides Linus, where else have you heard Luke's Augustus' registration decree?
Is it helpful to you to have Luke describe Jesus' infancy & youth?
How do debunkers use the differences?
Do the differences between Matthew & Luke enlarge the meaning for you?