Church, Cake, and Conceptual Lenses.

So I got the opportunity to go to the church Waylon is interning at this last weekend. The situation was a huge shock for me. The whole weekend was a huge shock for me in general. I did have some incredible cake though...mmm...so good.

Church wasn't bad but there seemed to be something missing. I couldn't really put my finger on it. I haven't had much time to reflect on it but I wanted to write some ideas down. Dr. Zorn was preaching from Luke and was talking about how Jesus went into his home synagogue and read scripture. He then told the people sitting there that he was the answer to this prophesied message. Jesus then rolled up the scroll of scripture and sat down. Haha, like in classic form he brought people in and then allowed them to react. I was sitting there in church and I realized that if Jesus came into the place where I was at and read scripture and told us that he was the fulfillment of it the whole church would slander him and probably kick him out. I actually imagined it happening when Dr. Zorn was preaching.

Which actually is a lesson that I have been learning for a couple of weeks. Last week in my Greek class we were translating Mark 8. It's the instance when Jesus asks his disciples who do they say he is. Peter speaks up and tells him that he is the Christ, the son of the living God. But that's not where the conversation ends. A little after this holy moment Jesus starts speaking of his suffering and how he will have to die under the teachers of the law. Peter of course rebukes Jesus. He tells Jesus that this just can not be.

I was sitting in Chapel yesterday and the only thing I didn't like about the preacher was that he termed the disciples the da-sciples. He actually used this text that I translated last week. This preacher publicly scorned the way that Peter reacted to Jesus.

I sat there and got really frustrated because Peter wasn't stupid. Peter just had a different presupposition of what the Messiah was supposed to look like. Peter's conceptual lens clashed with Jesus conceptual lens. Peter's worldview clashed against Jesus' worldview. It had nothing to do with the Peter's intellect.

Peter was reflecting his culture onto Jesus. How many times do we as a church clash against Jesus and his true mission? How many times as a church do we fall short of who we are called to be?

The scariest question is; How many times as a church do we reject Jesus?