(By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace blog). This posting covers the last lesson in Presbyterian Women’sHorizons Bible Study, Who is Jesus? What a Difference a LensMakes. Author, Judy Yates Siker, could have helped the reader of the whole Bible Study by placing this lesson, “According to Contemporary Cultural Interpretations,” or at least its underlying theme…
(By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace). It’s as ancient as the sin of our mother Eve and our father Adam, the desire to establish our own identity—minus the purpose of God. We would be our own gods and goddesses; deciding what is good and evil. The publishing house of the Lutheran Church in America, using Theology of…
(By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace). Judy Yates Siker, author of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible study, Who is Jesus? : What a Difference a Lens Makes., in the eighth lesson focuses on Islam and Judaism and their views about Jesus’ identity. Siker’s focuses is meant as a means of understanding and dialogue with the two…
(By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace blog). We have come to those last three lessons in the Presbyterian Women’ Bible study, “Who is Jesus?: What a Difference a Lens Makes,” where the author bypasses the biblical text. Using non canonical gospels, the perspectives of Islam and Judaism and lastly contemporary culture, Judy Yates Siker looks at…
By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace blog. There is a great deal to applaud in the sixth lesson of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible study Who is Jesus? What a Difference a Lens Makes.The author Judy Yates Siker, in this lesson, “According to Hebrews,” at the end, answers the question about Jesus’s identity in this manner:…
By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace. In the Presbyterian Women’s Bible study, Who is Jesus? What a difference a Lens Makes, in lesson five, “According to Paul,” the focus is on Paul’s theme of a crucified and risen Jesus. Yes, the cross and the resurrection are two of Paul’s important themes. As author Judy Yates…
By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace. Judy Yates Siker, in the fourth lesson, “According to John,” of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible study,Who is Jesus? What a difference a Lens Makes, seemingly gives the reader a truthful picture of Jesus. After all, she writes, “In this forth Gospel we will see a very different Jesus. It…
By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace. Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings, one finds many characters, such as Gandalf or Aragorn, who are not always who they seem. They are mysterious and multidimensional personalities, but if their whole being was not, eventually, revealed in the stories, the stories would not qualify to be…
By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace. If a biblical lesson starts off with a false assumption about the text the whole text is inadequately explained. The second lesson of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible study, Who is Jesus? What a Difference a Lens Makes, begins with a half-truth. The lesson, “According to Matthew,” written by Judy…
“… the high priest was questioning him and saying to him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed one? ‘And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’” Mark 14: 61b-62) By Viola Larson, Naming…