fed on lies about love: an old fashioned man and a new fangled girl
hey gang - welcome to the new cohort of the sermon review team!
for this week, the first in our series on hosea and gomer, i'd like us to focus our commentary on overarching series issues. remember, if you think of something you'd like to comment upon other than the questions i've posted, please feel free to do so.
#1 as we begin our story, what immediate themes popped out at you through this week's teaching? did you resonate personally with any of these themes? were there some that you feel like you've lived through?
#2 how relevant to our 21st century context do you find the story of hosea and gomer to be? was there anything i said/referenced that brought this relevance forwards - anything that made it click?
#3 were there things in the message that i didn't address that you wish i had? did you feel like there were themes/images/issues that were obvious to you, but [for one reason or another] didn't get mentioned? or, were there things that you wished i'd spent more time explaining/exploring?
#4 most importantly, what do you feel like god spoke to you and/or showed you during this week's study of hosea and gomer? was there anything "just right" about the talk/material?
#5 finally, feel free to make any additional comments about the material here.
ok - good luck everyone!
- david
for this week, the first in our series on hosea and gomer, i'd like us to focus our commentary on overarching series issues. remember, if you think of something you'd like to comment upon other than the questions i've posted, please feel free to do so.
#1 as we begin our story, what immediate themes popped out at you through this week's teaching? did you resonate personally with any of these themes? were there some that you feel like you've lived through?
#2 how relevant to our 21st century context do you find the story of hosea and gomer to be? was there anything i said/referenced that brought this relevance forwards - anything that made it click?
#3 were there things in the message that i didn't address that you wish i had? did you feel like there were themes/images/issues that were obvious to you, but [for one reason or another] didn't get mentioned? or, were there things that you wished i'd spent more time explaining/exploring?
#4 most importantly, what do you feel like god spoke to you and/or showed you during this week's study of hosea and gomer? was there anything "just right" about the talk/material?
#5 finally, feel free to make any additional comments about the material here.
ok - good luck everyone!
- david
posted by david mcdonald at 8:17 AM
5 Comments:
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Hi Everyone,
being first is always a little scary...but I guess I will take the plunge.
Let me begin by saying that I am excited about what God is and will be doing through this series, an incredibly relevant topic. The book of Hosea is one of my absolute favorites because I believe it screams about Identity and Forgiveness - two areas i believe the Western Church has failed to teach and live out well. Dave, you did a great job yesterday on a tough message - perfect blend of setting the historical context and contemporary relevance. In short, I give God thanks for you as I think you are an anointed teacher.
And on to your questions...
#1 - The themes i found blatantly emerging were love (what is it really...to be continued) and sin, sacrifice...the historical aspect took up much thematic development time, but I think that was necessary for what is forth coming.
Subtle themes were the pursuit of the holy of the unholy (who God is vs. who we are), repentance, forgiveness.
#2 - relevant to today? absolutely. I believe we live in a culture craving for belonging and Love, where people are "dying" (literally and figuratively) for Real Life. I think you, David, brought this relevance home in your beginning story (in fact we talked about your story in class this morning as an example of taking the abstract into the relevant/relatable). You again brought the relevance forward in the sharing from your own story of needing to reconcile with a former friend. This is one of the areas of teaching in which I find you to be especially strong, taking the potentially spiritually abstract and making the rubber meet the road. People need parable like examples in order to further contemplate the deeper truth. Your stories were very applicable.
#3 - Personally, I am flattened by the book of Hosea and the theme of God's pursuit of me, a sinner. This story makes me speechless every time i contemplate it. Will you be addressing further this theme of pursuit? Secondly, i wished you had had more time to develop the Jewish concept of repentance and forgiveness and allowed us to contemplate the writing of the vows - it almost seemed like an "and oh yeah" rather than a purposeful response opportunity.
#4 - As i mentioned earlier, I am excited about what God is doing here. Sunday's teaching hit me in and of itself (where am i Gomer and to whom and how am i to be Hosea?), but it also hit me in a preparatory manner, eagerly awaiting God's hand in my life as He continues to use David to teach.
#5 - because you asked...David, several times you prefaced a historical fact with something in the vain of, "if you remember." Some of these references were to former teachings at WCC (which were before my time there), others were just open ended statements as to what base knowledge we potentially should have. I wonder if this could possibly make someone overly conscience of falling short (which could either be a positive or negative depending upon their context of being there)?
Also, the written set-up on the screen for the beginning of the teaching was excellent. i don't know who penned it, but it was very well written and powerful. And just because i am a maximizer i thought i would pass along my husband's thoughts - Though I did not have trouble reading it, Lance thought the font was difficult to read.
my apologies if i have over addressed/analyzed the purpose of this forum, my answers were rather lengthy, i am afraid.
again, thank you for the opportunity.
grace and peace,
becky
thank you Becky for thoughts, I appreciate.
I found the topic to be so relatable. The "Steve & Angela" story could be a movie that we have yet to see on the big screen--I felt like Steve was the ultimate "true lover" and I am a sap for a great love story. Not an easy topic to speak on. At one point, I looked around the audience and thought "PG alert"!! Awesome story telling Dave.
For me, the bottom line was relationships and forgiveness. Where am I with both?
Do I or can I recognize how much God forgives me and loves me, over and over again??? And do I offer the same to everyone I communicate with each and every day? Will I initiate "I'm sorry" from old wounds as you did Dave?-- I fall so very short; Hosea reminds me to initiate "I'm sorry" more willingly than I do. God's continuous grace is so difficult for me to fathom. I am so grateful for His unending love.
The discussion about relationships has been very present in our home lately. In the eight years between our kids, the information that we have to share as parents with Lauren about relationships, marriage, etc.has begun so much sooner than it did with Nate. I seem to be a slow learner, but it seems that we are exposed to increased broken family relationships with Lauren's age group (13)than with Nate. Brokeness has become "personal" for us whereas before it was just somebody that we knew about.
I think you did a beautiful job Dave of teaching about God's love for us, about sin, and repentance (forgiveness). I do think we could have used more time to wrestle with our thoughts and write something down (the lights came down before we had much time to be honest in writing.)Thank you for sharing that we all sin -- I think church in general falls so short of seeing it for what it is, let alone teaching on it.
I am looking forward to hearing more. Dave,I have been amazed at how you begin your message and before you have ended you seem to pull it all together. I think, "now what does this have to do with anything", then sticking with it, I see it had "all" to do with it. Thank you for forcing us to "think" on things and not just accept them. I am grateful that God uses you to teach us.
hey gang - thanks for posting!
its fairly typical that the first week there are some folks who have trouble posting - so don't be discouraged if it feels like you're the only one to be online :)
eventually, we'll all get it.
i loved some of your comments - becky's remark about the pursuit of the unholy, jill's comment about the requirement to initiate the "i'm sorry" moments in life - i think they were insightful and represented a real willingness to wrestle with ourselves in the midst of this cohort.
i think we'll also spend some more time this week discussing sin. our comments will probably springboard off of last week [and i'll do what i can to avoid the "if you remember" phrase; sidenote: i'd love some other suggestions for recap phraseology] and talk more about choices and character, etc...
sound good?
btw, the write up from last week was adapted from the introduction to hosea written by eugene peterson, which is included in the message translation of the old testament.
talk to you soon!
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