After a couple of weeks off Beer and Bible was back in the lounge of The Northcote Hotel. We picked up where we left off in Luke Chapter 6 but didn’t get very far.

Questions

The main questions that came up were;

  1. Who are our enemies? Do we actually have any?
  2. What does it mean; turn the other cheek? And all that.
  3. What is judging? 

Discussion

The focus of the discuss was on the very challenging verses 27-36. We talked about the context of Roman occupation into which these words were originally spoken. We agreed that the idea of having enemies is almost alien to us. The concept is normally watered down to people who are rude to you while queueing at the post office etc. 

What followed was quite a long discussion about whether or not Jesus was asking his followers to be subversion and cunning (be nice to bad people because it will make them feel bad) or if Jesus was asking us to just be nice.

Finally we talked about judging. We agreed that we make judgements all the time and that this passage isn’t suggesting that it is bad to judge right from wrong. We considered the idea of our motives being important and how we always need to keep the context of the fact that we are all the same really. We are all human beings; created in the image of God. We are not any better than anybody else.

Some rather honest discussion followed about situations we find it difficult not to be judgmental. It was a very useful exchange *smile*

It was suggested that these are some of the most difficult and challenging verses in the Bible. I guess it’s no surprise that we didn’t get much further.

Drinks consumed were: Guinness, 6x, and Carlsberg.

Good evening all round!

Next week

Reading: Luke 6: 43 - end (and maybe into seven if we are lucky)

Venue: The Northcote Hotel (lounge bar)

Time: 20:00 

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