This week we look at the third affirmation from the journal: “Because of that we have abandoned the idea of an angry, violent God in order to fully embrace the good news brought forward by Jesus.” In the sermon, Bobbi explores what it is that we want to abandon and what it is that we want to embrace and the reasons for those choices.

Last week we talked about the words and the Word and how important it is to keep Jesus at the centre of our imagination. Our question for today though is how that conviction shapes how we read the Bible. Our second affirmation at Commons is this: The scriptures lead us to the realization that Jesus is the only exact representation of the divine and that God has always looked like Jesus even when we didn’t see that clearly. With Jesus being our north star for navigating the Bible, we will look at three examples of reading the Bible through Jesus.

We want to begin this year by setting the framework for how we believe together (and how we continue to become together), and that can be found on the very first page on our journal. In this sermon series we will work through those six affirmations that open our journal year year. In this first message, Jeremy addressed the first affirmation: “We are completely fascinated with this complex and beautiful collection of texts we call the Bible - but we worship Jesus.”