Special Episode: Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict, chapters 6-8 (A Reaction)

I recommend to my listeners the amazing documentary, Gaza Fights for Freedom. You can find it free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZSaKYmP2s

It centers on  the 21 months of nonviolent demonstrations by Gazans at the border with Israel in 2018-2019.

The story of my short sojourn in Palestine 22 years ago and what I learned from the Palestinians. This is a slightly revised sermon that I delivered at Pasadena Mennonite Church in August of 2001.

The Gospel overturns not just the order of society but our conception of God as well. When Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" we should be shocked. We should not just gloss over the implications of such a statement in this story about God revealed in a human Palestinian Jewish peasant. It may be an earth shattering revelation about what "God" is really like and where "God" is found.

This episode is a sermon that I delivered at Pasadena Mennonite Church on September 17, 2023. In this sermon I connect the dots between U.S. military and economic aggression abroad with domestic housing justice. The passages cited are:

• Matthew 12:46-50
• Mark 10:29-30
• Matthew 6:19-21

The Making Housing and Community Happen (MHCH) Podcast has launched, telling stories of social transformation and housing justice!

You can listen to the first episode here.

You can also search for "Making Housing and Community Happen" on your podcast app.

You can visit the Making Housing and Community Happen website here.

In this episode I revisit the text about Jesus' interaction with the centurion to focus more than I did in episode 16 on the "banquet" (NRSV) that Jesus refers to. What is this "banquet" of which Jesus speaks? How does it evolve in the writings of ancient Israel, and what form does it take in the Gospel of Matthew?

 Part 4 of my reaction to Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict by James Crossley and Robert Myles, chapters 9-11, plus a summary of my reaction/review.

In this episode:

• Did Jesus really predict the destruction of the temple?
• How do scholars understand the resurrection historically?
• Was the Jesus movement a failed revolution?

 Part 3 of my reaction to Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict by James Crossley and Robert Myles, chapters 6-8.

In these chapters the authors discuss:

• Was Jesus more like a playful hippy or a serious communist?
• Was the Jesus movement nonviolent?
• Was the Jesus movement obsessed with martyrdom?
• Did Jesus really predict his own death?

 Part 2 of my reaction to Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict by James Crossley and Robert Myles, chapters 4-5.

Two Marxist historical Jesus scholars talk about the Jesus movement's mission to the rich and whether the Jesus movement actually performed healings and exorcisms.

Part 1 of my reaction to Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict by James Crossley and Robert Myles, chapters 1 - 3

Was the historical Jesus a revolutionary or a millenarian prophet? Is there a difference? Did he create a movement or emerge from one? What was his relationship to John the Baptist?