Thanks Jose for what you write. I couldn't agree with you more. I would only add one thing to what you express. Sometimes understanding only comes after genuine actions are taken. We often don't "see" until we obey. This is the main thrust behind Jesus' approach (e.g., John 8:31)
Thanks for the post, Charles, excited about the book and the way it is broaching questions and tensions that I have been wrestling with for a while. I love the quote from Barbara Brown Taylor. The pitting of the Sermon on the Mount against something that I have struggled with most recently is the seeming tension between the Sermon on the Mount and doctrine of justification in the Protestant/Reformation understanding found in Paul's letters. As an Anabaptist, I have long been leery of the emphasis that so many evangelicals give to it. Not because I don’t believe it or because I think it unimportant, but because it has often seemed to be used as way to diminish obedience to Jesus’ teachings, in particular those found in the SoM. It is often presented as the “the Gospel” which to me seems to be a truncated Gospel and different than the Gospel Jesus announces in the gospels, particularly the synoptics. But at the same time, leaning more into this doctrine, in particular in recent study of Romans, has been a balm to the soul and given me permission to be more honest with myself and my own failings. The Sermon on the Mount, in light of Romans, seems less like commands that can be followed perfectly and more like a benchmark which reveals how much we fail in following them. So the tension I am wrestling with is how to hold obedience to the teachings of the SoM seriously, not setting them aside as so often happens or saying they are unrealistic to follow, but also seeking to follow them with greater humility and grace, both for myself and others.
The Old doesn't mix well with the New, so we think. In dismissing the Scriptures that Jesus referred to, we also dismiss his Jewishness and tend to forget that we were "grafted in" to the olive tree, rather than transplanted into new soil. When will we realize that we must not dismiss the Old Testament and the faithful Jewish remnant that God has kept for Himself? Understanding must come first so that genuine actions follow as thankful response to the Lord's grace, first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile.
Thanks Jose for what you write. I couldn't agree with you more. I would only add one thing to what you express. Sometimes understanding only comes after genuine actions are taken. We often don't "see" until we obey. This is the main thrust behind Jesus' approach (e.g., John 8:31)
Thanks for the post, Charles, excited about the book and the way it is broaching questions and tensions that I have been wrestling with for a while. I love the quote from Barbara Brown Taylor. The pitting of the Sermon on the Mount against something that I have struggled with most recently is the seeming tension between the Sermon on the Mount and doctrine of justification in the Protestant/Reformation understanding found in Paul's letters. As an Anabaptist, I have long been leery of the emphasis that so many evangelicals give to it. Not because I don’t believe it or because I think it unimportant, but because it has often seemed to be used as way to diminish obedience to Jesus’ teachings, in particular those found in the SoM. It is often presented as the “the Gospel” which to me seems to be a truncated Gospel and different than the Gospel Jesus announces in the gospels, particularly the synoptics. But at the same time, leaning more into this doctrine, in particular in recent study of Romans, has been a balm to the soul and given me permission to be more honest with myself and my own failings. The Sermon on the Mount, in light of Romans, seems less like commands that can be followed perfectly and more like a benchmark which reveals how much we fail in following them. So the tension I am wrestling with is how to hold obedience to the teachings of the SoM seriously, not setting them aside as so often happens or saying they are unrealistic to follow, but also seeking to follow them with greater humility and grace, both for myself and others.
The Old doesn't mix well with the New, so we think. In dismissing the Scriptures that Jesus referred to, we also dismiss his Jewishness and tend to forget that we were "grafted in" to the olive tree, rather than transplanted into new soil. When will we realize that we must not dismiss the Old Testament and the faithful Jewish remnant that God has kept for Himself? Understanding must come first so that genuine actions follow as thankful response to the Lord's grace, first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile.