Thursday, March 5, 2015

Lent Day 14

BOOK II - The Words of Private Instruction

1 Heaven and earth, spirit and flesh
2 The assertion of His messiahship and of a new way of worship
3 An admonition about greed
4 The utter primacy of devotion over any other necessities
5 His description of those for whom He came

Reflect: Though Phyllis Tickle begins her study of the words of Jesus with his words of public proclamation, she make an important point in the introduction to the book: "It is not [Jesus'] public persona that carries us closest to His center. Rather, He is most self-revelatory and open to us in His words of private instruction, or so it seems to me. Talking there with those whom He has chosen and who are to carry forth His Good News after His Ascension, He has great need to reveal who and what and why He is in human form. As a result, beginning the study of His Sayings with Book Two instead of Book One makes psychological, if not logical, sense, and I would suggest the Private Instructions as the best place to begin." Though we began reading the the Public words, pay special attention to this new section of sayings from Jesus. How does the tone change? Does he seem to present himself any differently, or focus on different things? Keep asking these questions through the next several days of readings.

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