In mid-January, I received a carefully worded yet clearly justified response to our current annual theme \"EIFACH muetig - mit Jesus als Vorbild\" (EIFACH muetig - with Jesus as our role model) from a pastor whom I greatly respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Namely, the subclause \"With Jesus as a role model\" is misleading to the point of being very one-sided. The reason is that many people who take Jesus as a role model are not thrown on Jesus or the Father in heaven as the source of life, but on themselves. Then you have to do the \"what would Jesus do\" on your own, ultimately in your own strength. Or as Paul put it: \"Do you really not understand that? You have begun to live a life with the Holy Spirit. Why do you now suddenly want to try to complete it in your own strength?<\/em>\" (Galatians 3:3 NLB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The church father Augustine (354 - 430 AD) is said to have already stated that Jesus Christ is exemplum et sacrificium - example and sacrifice, i.e. model and enabler (that I do not live from myself, but from God's source). In Reformed theology since the Enlightenment, the emphasis on the example of Jesus has increased; the emphasis on the reconciling gift of life and renewal has unfortunately been pushed into the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In formulating our theme for the year, we have unconsciously and yet recognisably taken our cue from the zeitgeist. All the more reason for us to emphasise again and again in our sermons that abiding in Jesus is the secret to resisting the pressure and temptation to want to achieve in our own strength what we can ultimately only do in communion with Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pastor's courageous feedback has given me the opportunity to better differentiate and communicate the biblical statements. It will be a benefit for all of us during this year. This is a good example of the loving correction that can happen in a committed community when we have the courage to nurture, exhort, encourage, etc. one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus Christ is not only our role model, He is also the source of all life. That is why Paul says: \"I live, but I am no longer myself, Christ lives in me<\/em>\" (Galatians 2:20 NLB). This is the reason for a life of growing love and change.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","seetal_chile_poscht_ausgabe":[],"class_list":["post-10585","seetal_chile_poscht","type-seetal_chile_poscht","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seetal_chile_poscht\/10585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seetal_chile_poscht"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/seetal_chile_poscht"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seetal_chile_poscht\/10585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10586,"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seetal_chile_poscht\/10585\/revisions\/10586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"seetal_chile_poscht_ausgabe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.seetal-chile.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seetal_chile_poscht_ausgabe?post=10585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}