09.02.23 EChurch@Wartburg A Discussion: How Should We Read Romans? – A Review of Scot McKnight’s New Book on Romans

Posted on by September 2, 2023avatar

Receive Grace- John Wesley link

O God, seeing as there is in Christ Jesus an infinite fullness of all that we can want or desire,
May we all receive from him, grace upon grace; grace to pardon our sins, and subdue our iniquities;
to justify our persons and to sanctify our souls; and to complete that holy change, that renewal of our hearts,
Which will enable us to be transformed into the blessed image in which you created us.
Oh make us all acceptable to be partakers of the inheritance of your saints in light.
Amen.

Disturb Us, Lord- Francis Drake link

Disturb us, Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord,
when With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord,
to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
Amen

Prayer for Unity: Martin Luther King Jr. link

O God,…we thank Thee for Thy Church, founded upon Thy Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray,
but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon Thee…
Help us to realize that man was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together,
and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow,
will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray.
Amen.

Special thanks to a reader who suggested this for EChurch.

Benediction link

May the strength of God sustain us; may the power of God preserve us;
May the hands of God protect us; may the way of God direct us;
May the love of God go with us this day (night) and forever.
Amen

Comments

09.02.23 EChurch@Wartburg A Discussion: How Should We Read Romans? – A Review of Scot McKnight’s New Book on Romans — 14 Comments

  1. ION: I’ve re-jigged my Wartburg email address system, as this will make my alter-egos easier to detect.

    IHTIH

  2. Helpful!?! Bah! You need all the help you can get.

    You’re all rubbish.

    Up Yours,
    Roger Bombast

  5. So far, I’ve listened to the segments entitled “Reading Romans backwards” and “Chapter 14.”
    My first impression was not about the content, but about how all these Christians from different theological backgrounds handled the discussion. IOW, the way they treated each other was its own sermon.

    But the content was also very interesting, helping the listener to take Romans off the “systematic theology” bookshelf and understand it instead in the context in which it would have been heard (read aloud) by the people Paul was sending his message too. The discussion made that context come alive. What if there was a pause after each question in Romans so that the hearers could discuss before hearing Paul’s answer? What if Phoebe actually was the one reading the letter aloud? What if she had discussed the letter with Paul and could explain the confusing parts? Scot’s thesis was also interesting, that reading from the end (which the hearers could have known about since it was there context) and that it was about the jockeying for position between the “weak” (who thought they were strong because they believed they had the Bible on their side) and the “strong” (who thought they were strong because of their status in Rome.) Very interesting perspective to as, one panelist put it, remember that you can make mistakes when reading someone else’s mail.

    Thanks, again, Dee for e-church.

  10. Eyewitness: Very interesting perspective to as, one panelist put it, remember that you can make mistakes when reading someone else’s mail.

    Good way of putting it.

  12. Almost 8 minutes of introductory blather?
    Get down to brass tacks quickly, otherwise you set-up your audience to wear out quickly.

  13. Muff Potter: Almost 8 minutes of introductory blather?
    Get down to brass tacks quickly, otherwise you set-up your audience to wear out quickly.

    Good advice.

    It’s always good for a listener to wade intermittently into a video to avoid the opening blather.

    One on the panel blathered solo in another talk recently featured here as he went on and on with his personal Covid life tidbit updates blah blah blah. Nothing special except when it’s all about someone being special cuz, well, they’re special. 5-10 minutes of blah. Off topic unless the dude is the topic. Maybe that’s the point. The tip off.

    Wear out the audience? Nope. Just tune out. And do we really need to purchase another book?

    We’re still living out Jesus basics: Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself.

    There are writers, however, IMHO, who are not living on the dole of the church, who via their book(s) actually have something important to say in our time: Kristin Kobes DuMez, Beth Allison Barr, Nina Burleigh, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and TWW’s own Dee Parsons. If not for their writing, they would not have a voice in the public square. Moreover, their message is not about them, although one of these writers apologizes in the beginning for not listening to other women until the church turned on her family. It was confessional NOT promotional.

    There were stories published, some that eventually became films, back in the day, with important Living the Christian life messages: “The Small Woman” about Gladys Aylward, “God’s Smuggler” about Brother Andrew, “The Hiding Place” abour the Ten Boom Family, “The Cross and the Switchblade” about David Wilkerson.

    Then there was George Muller, CT Studd, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hudson Taylor, and Amy Carmichael.

    Since the printing press, books have spread good news. Today, we can spread good news FREE on the internet. Dee Parsons is doing just that. God bless.

    More Gospel, less profit. More Jesus, less promotion and no platforms. The ground at the foot of the cross is level.