As you (hopefully by now) know, this Sunday September 1 we start a new 7-week emphasis on the spiritual DNA of The Table. We’re naming the series Living a Sacramental Life (to Disrupt the Secular Heresy), because each of the “axioms” we’ll talk about help us to live our everyday lives as if God was 1) real, 2) here, and 3) available to be encountered.
We want to talk about this because these things are all gloriously true, but we’ve been lied to. Modernity is one giant Christian heresy that has been invented to convince us that God is “out there somewhere” far away, and not really, actually present among us.
It’s hard work to undo this lie, but these axioms help us, because they function as pithy distillations of essential scriptural truths we can hold onto when it’s hard to believe the truth.
(As a reminder, there is a Sunday morning class at 9:30am and midweek DNA Groups to process what we’re learning. If you haven’t signed up for these yet, please do so using the buttons below:)
Sign up for the class Sign up for a DNA GroupHere are a few FAQs about the series, and here’s a brief introduction to each of the 7 “axioms” that help us live a sacramental life.
Week 1: It’s All About Divine Union (Sep 1)
“Serious” Christians are tempted to live as if the ultimate goal of life were being more certain about doctrines, or being more pure in our morality. Instead, we discover that the goal of life is union with God and others… essential connectedness, communion.
Week 2: God is Always Present and At Work (Sep 8)
We don’t live in a “two-storey” universe, where God inhabits the “sacred” heavenly world, and we have our “secular” world where God isn’t much involved. No, we live in a “one-storey” universe, where God is actually always present and at work, even when it doesn’t seem to be true.
Week 3: God is Just Like Jesus (Sep 15)
Jesus didn’t come to solve a problem. Jesus came to reveal what God is really like, what he’s been like this whole time. Because of Jesus we know that God is love. Full stop. No ifs, ands, or buts. No caveats. No asterisks.
Week 4: God Meets Us Right Where We Really Are (Sep 22)
Many of us fall into the trap of believing that God meets us when we’re doing “religious” things or behaving well. But actually God waits for us in our actual lives… our desires and fears and sin and darkness. When we get honest about where we’re really at, we find God waiting for us there, full of grace and truth.
Week 5: God Cares More About (All of) it Than You Do (Sep 29)
We don’t have to convince God to care about the things we care about (like the prophets of Baal). Rather, we can trust that God actually cares more about all of these things than we do. We can entrust ourselves to his lovingkindness as we pray and work for wholeness and justice.
Week 6: What God Does Through You He Also Does In You (Oct 6)
God works from the inside out. Any good work that happens through you will also be happening in you, and vice versa… any good work God is doing in you will completed and fulfilled when it also happens through you. This is how God transforms the world.
Week 7: We Learn Love Through Embodied Participation (Oct 13)
We don’t grow in divine union by stuffing more knowledge into our heads or by behaving more morally. We grow in love by simply trusting the good news God is speaking to us, and acting on that trust. Step by step, as we put Jesus’ teaching into practice, his grace flows into our lives and transforms us into his image.
We are very much looking forward to this series! Please let me or Fr. Matt know if you have any questions.
Grace and peace,
Fr. Ben
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