Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
Will Fitzgerald
In which we do a quick overview of Romans, and think about the "deliberate ambiguity" inherent in the theological word faith.
In which we examine whether the same-sex behavior Paul finds a sign of the abandonment of God has anything to do with loving, life-long mutually chosen homosexual and lesbian relationships.
In which we examine again the idea of "faith" and "faithfulness," and whether we can be faithful on our own.
In which we examine the good news of Jesus as "the representative of the whole human race."
In which we begin to trace the whole plot line of God's plan for humanity from our human origins, through Abraham and Israel, and through Jesus.
In which we spend a little time in the garden of delights of God's forgiveness and proclamation of rigtheouness.
In which we have a few sketchy outlined notes about the relationship among body, flesh and spirit in Paul.
In which we see that God's plan is to bring us to Good, and everything appears to collaborate towards this end.
In which we consider whether God's plan for us is God's "Plan B" in reaction to our failures, or whether it was part of his plan all along.
In which we consider who is In and who is Out of the "True Israel."
In which we ask, in light of all this, is it reasonable to follow God? The answer will probably not surprise you.
Simply a checkoff list, from Romans 12, of the marks of the true church. Useful for confession and self-correction.
In which we discuss a notoriously difficult passage about the relationship between church and state.
In which we consider how to deal with people who have very different ideas about what it means to be a Christian than us.
In which we bring things to a conclusion, reviewing what we've seen.
It would be wrong for me to not mention the great debt I own to N.T. Wright, the current Anglican Bishop of Durham, England, whose work on Paul in general and Romans in particular have been extraordinarily useful in preparing these teachings.