February 6,
Presenter: David Yarbrough
Have you met David Yarbrough? Have you heard him preach? David is a member of our congregation. You may have heard that he started preaching as a late adolescent in the Southern Baptist Church. All of us have a journey of faith. We all had an image of God and Jesus as children. David did as well. In the next three-week series, David is going to share some of his journey and also share the journey of a well-known scholar and writer, Diana Butler Bass. This is what David says about this series:
“In Matthew’s Gospel at Caesarea Philippi Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” After they share comparisons with prophets and John the Baptist, he asks pointedly, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter’s reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Peter’s words became the cornerstone for creeds and confessions from that time until now. But how does Peter’s confession resonate with your understanding of Jesus? How do you experience Jesus in your life, now?
Diana Butler Bass is not a priest, pastor, or ordained clergy. She describes herself as a historian, holds a Ph.D. from Duke University in religious studies, and is the author of eleven books. In Christianity After Religion, she writes: “Christianity did not begin with a confession. It began with an invitation into friendship, into creating a new community, into forming relationships based on love and service.” In March of last year, Diana published her latest: Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. One critic comments: “Jesus has meant various things to Christian author Diana Butler Bass throughout the 60-odd years of her life . . . and now she’s written a book about it. Titled Freeing Jesus, the volume is an interesting take on what Butler Bass calls “memoir theology,” which is a mixture of personal stories of her upbringing with the theology to mirror it. And so we learn that as a young child, Butler Bass viewed Jesus as a friend; when she was an adolescent, she saw Jesus as being like a teacher; when she was a teenager, she saw Jesus as her Savior; etc. Does it work? Maybe. Like many things, it depends on the reader.”
Because my journey of faith has many similarities with Diana’s, it works for me, and I hope it will work for you. This week we will hear Diana recall her first thoughts about God and Jesus, and how her journey of faith came to treasure Jesus as Friend and Teacher. If you liked Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity, you will likely be eager to join us for Diana’s journey!”
Join us on Zoom about 10 minutes after the morning service. If you don’t get the Sunday morning Zoom link, this is how to enter the Zoom class. Open the Zoom app on your phone or computer. The ID for this class is: 976 0612 3777. There is no passcode. We look forward to gathering this week.
