Rick Thyne Teaches “Jesus at Ground Level”
Continues Sunday, June 9, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Forum.
Adult Education Class on Sundays throughout June.
For five Sundays in June, we’ll explore together this person who is the center of our faith and, at the same time, the focus of so many of our questions and doubts. Does he still matter to us, or have we developed a faith that marginalizes him as we work to turn the human race into the human family? Bring your preconceptions and your open mind as we try to figure out the place Jesus holds in our beliefs and in our daily lives.
June 2nd: Who was he?
What do we know about his birth and his family? Was he educated? Was he very spiritual? How does he compare to Mohammed or the Buddha or Moses? Was he Divine?
June 9th: What did he say?
He is one of the most enduring teachers in human history; his stories and aphorisms, his parables and wise insights into people mark him as a teacher whose brilliance too often gets overshadowed by notions that he might have been Divine. What can we know about what he said, and which things that he taught still matter to us?
June 16th: What did he do?
We’re told that he healed the sick, walked on water and, on a few occasions, raised up dead people from the grave. Really? Do we believe in these miracles? If so, why? If not, why not? If he matters to us, we want to figure out as near as we can what he did.
June 23rd: Why did he die?
He was betrayed by his friends who turned him over to the religious and political leaders whom he threatened and, as they always do with revolutionaries, the authorities killed him. But is that it: is he just another martyr like so many other brave women and men? Or does his death have something to do with our sinfulness and God’s forgiveness? Martyr or Savior: do you care which, if either, is true?
June 30th: Did God raise him from the dead?
It’s the most dramatic of the beliefs in the Christian faith: God raised a dead man, and Jesus is still alive in some heavenly realm, reigning over us and all of creation. It sounds ludicrous to a contemporary person who knows this kind of thing belongs in the category of fantasy and is not an event for educated people to take seriously. It may be nearly impossible to believe. But what if . . .?
About the teacher:
Rick and Becky Thyne have been part of the All Saints community for 43 years. Becky was junior warder some years ago, was involved as a stewardship and finance committee member, and still sings in Coventry choir. She recently retired from her career as a lawyer. Rick is a psychotherapist in Pasadena, was our Associate Rector in the early nineties, and taught in our adult education program for three decades. He has a lifelong interest in Jesus of Nazareth and currently defines himself not as a Christian, with all the baggage that title holds, but as someone devoted to Jesus of Nazareth. This course about Jesus is the product of all these years of trying to answer the question German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked before he died in a Nazi prison camp: Who is Jesus Christ for us today?
