What a fun time we had together today! Jo Ann, Dan, Karen, Odette, Robin, Dave, Merrill, Lori Ann, and Jenny attended. It was the first time we had Lori and Jenny with us and it was delightful to have them join us. (I am not sure, but Lydia may have logged in briefly.)
After Dan led us in our opening song which is now a tradition of “Give Me That Old Time Religion” where we added a verse “If it was good enough for the Hebrew children…,” we read the introduction to 2nd Corinthians from the Jewish Annotated New Testament and then read the first chapter of 2nd Corinthians.
We came to the conclusion that Paul seemed to be in a time of confusion when he wrote this letter. Was he confident as a leader? He was very certain about his Jewish roots though although there seemed to be disagreements on whether one had to be a Jew in order to believe in the new religion Paul was spreading the news about. Was this the beginning of denominational differences?
We learned that this letter was also from Timothy who was Paul’s “sidekick” assistant.
We also found both the introduction to the chapter hard to understand and it was also hard to understand chapter one.
There was confusion on what Paul was talking about. We discussed the use of the word consolation and we talked about things that “console us” and comfort us. Paul seems to contradict himself by bragging and criticizing others for bragging. (I think Robin pointed that out.)
Jo Ann compared her interpretation to what we read in both the introduction to 2nd Corinthians and to the first chapter of 2nd Corinthians to the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In other words, do readers read this chapter and section and pretend they know what is discussed figuring that everyone else understands it? How would a pastor teach a congregation after reading chapter one?
We talked about the used on the world “consolation” in this chapter which got us to discuss that God is a consoling God to all who believe in God. For those who believe in God, God comforts and is also compassionate. Lori read something from last Saturday’s morning 5/7/22 Shabbat service at Temple Israel that talks about prayer. That led us to talk about how hearing hymns and prayers can console one’s soul no matter what he or she believes. Merrill talked about how much he enjoys hymns for that reason. Jo Ann shared that the late Chuck Smith had traditional hymns sung on Sunday morning instead of modern Jesus movement songs sang with guitar accompaniment that appealed to the young hippies. Chuck Smith believed hymns brought comfort to his congregation.
We discussed what it might be like to have met Paul. Was he easy to approach? We did come to the conclusion that Jesus was probably easy to approach, but we weren’t sure about Paul. We discussed that approachable rabbis probably vary and the same might be so regarding pastors.
At the end of our time together, we got to know Lori and Jenny a bit better. Lori called herself a “recovering Catholic” who is on her way to converting to the Jewish faith. Jenny is a friend of someone who works at Temple Israel and she has heard how great our classes and programs are. She attends a women’s study through Greg Laurie’s Harvest ministry.
Again, if anything is not included in this summary, please add to this summary in the comment section.
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