Month: February 2009

Jesus’ Moral Vision in the Parables

  1. Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
  2. Parable of the Talents
  3. The Sheep and the Goats
  4. Parable of the Mustard Seed
  5. Parable of the Good Samaritan
  6. The Rich Fool
  7. the barren fig tree
  8. Parable of the Prodigal Son
  9. The Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus
  10. the Pharisee and the tax collector

Two options for exploring these parables follow:
Option 1:
Read each parable and answer the following three questions about each parable:

  1. What has been taught by the parable?
  2. Can you think of a situation to which the parable applies today?
  3. What kind of person most needs to take this parable to heart?

Option 2:
Form a small group and select one parable from the list to produce as a short film. Try one of the following approaches

  • make up a script that closely follows the words of the gospel passage with a narrator telling what is happening.
  • make up a script that is a contemporary version of the parable or that shows the parable applied to a contemporary situation.

Society and Christian Teachings

  • What are four moral principals that are considered universal?
  • What are three examples of what could be considered violations of natural law?
  • What is a Christian approach to deciding whether to obey or disobey civil laws?
  • Detail an account of civil disobedience. Write about what prompted the civil disobedience, the rationale of the dissenters, and whether you agree or not with their action.
  • List the Beatitudes
    • What are four other moral guidelines for living the law of love from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?
  • Rewrite the Ten Commandments so that they express only positive ideals. For example, “you shall not kill” could be expressed as “protect human life.”
  • Rewrite as a contemporary story the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the good Samaritan.

A Christian Vision of Full Humanness

  • How do human beings try to make themselves more powerful, “like gods”?
  • Discuss 3-5 choices you freely made and acted on today. Describe in detail how you are responsible for each of these choices.
  • What does it mean to say the human beings are “made in God’s image”?
  • What does God’s unconditional love for us mean?
  • Write about an experience in which you were affected by another person’s acceptance or rejection of you.
  • Link to a news story that illustrates the negative effects of being deprived of human love. Write a brief commentary of the article and title it “How Could Love Have Made A Difference.”
  • List the Ten Commandments. For each, describe in a sentence or two how that commandment is include in the great commandment of love.
  • Define the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.
  • Name the four cardinal virtues.
  • Which of these seven virtues does the world today need most?

What We Hunger For

Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it … If a person lives and dies and no one notices, if the world continues as it was, was that person ever really alive? I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending, that haunts our sleep so much as the fear that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived. — Rabbi Harold Kushner

What does Kushner mean by saying we hunger to make the world “a little bit different”?

Write your own reflection entitled, “What My Soul Hungers For.” To foster a meditative spirit, embed a snippet of instrumental music (mp3) in your post.

Exploring the Meaning of Jesus and the Gospels

The focus of this project is to explore the person of Chrst and what Scriptures reveal about His unique relationship to His Father.

Your task is to explore in detail one of the four Gospel accounts. Spend some part of your evenings and weekends working on the creative part of this assignment.

  1. Read ONE gospel slowly. As you read, note passages that impressed you
  2. After you have finished your reading and notetaking, choose one of the following activities:
  3. Note how Jesus relates to the poor of His day. Draw a parallel between the times of Jesus and contemporary society
  4. choose a story and rewrite it using images and a contemporary setting
  5. podcast a paraphrase of a familiar parable

Basis of Belief

“If the thought comes to you that everything that you have thought about God is mistaken and that there is no God, do not be dismayed. It happens to many people. But do no think that the source of your disbelief is that there is no God. If you no longer believe in the God whom you believed before, …you must strive better to grasp that which you call God. When a savage ceases to believe in his wooden god, this does not mean that there is no God, but only that the true God is not made of wood.” Leo Tolstoy