Last class we had half of the group present but, as you’ve hopefully noticed, it is legitimately more fun when we have more people present. That said, this past Thursday was not a waste of time. We had a very good discussion which clarified some key ideas which, if understood correctly, have eternal significance.

Gospel means “good news.” It is also the name we have given to books in the Bible that tell the story of Jesus. The question posed on Thursday: “why is the story good news to us?” Many stories are positive stories, but not truly NEWS. In its truest form, news is unfolding information that affects us. How does the story of Jesus affect us?

Our conversation centered on the Cross. We had a sense that Jesus lived sacrificially, but it wasn’t clear how Jesus being nailed to an upright log affects us. Even the fact that He rose doesn’t necessarily have day to day impact for us. Not unless we understand what the Cross accomplished for us.

A clear way to explain it is this: 

The Blood:

Every human owes God a blood debt. Our bad choices put us in a place where the only way to fully pay God back is by dying. Jesus was sinless. When He died, He was able to pay the debt off for anyone who accepts the offer. This is why the cross is sacrificial, Jesus owed God nothing but paid the debt for all of us, bringing our accounts all back to zero.

The Body:

Becoming debt free is always good news, but it doesn’t stop there. Jesus rose from the dead! Does this ruin His sacrifice? It does NOT! Instead, this is how He is able to bring our account back up from zero into true wealth. Because Jesus rose, He now works to give us spiritual gifts or what we called “Son of God Perks.” The things that Jesus had being God’s Son, He now shares with us. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can pray directly to God the Father, we can hope to dwell with God forever, and we have unity with people who share in these perks. 

This is the good news: The spilled Blood of Christ gives us mercy as we are saved from the destructiveness of sin, the risen Body of Christ gives us grace as He unlocks for us privileges of Children of God. All that is required is Allegiance (Faith, Action-belief). If we declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romans 10:9).

There are other ways to explain this same good news: “Jesus stack-loaded humanity's sins and then died to delete them from the server. When He respawned He unlocked God-status for those who join his team.” That’s another explanation that was suggested on Thursday. However you want to look at it, the central truth remains hard to fathom Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3), and yet eternally important. Believing this will save your soul and transform you forever.

You will probably never be a true creator, at least not in the ancient sense. Last night we began with a tower building competition. Students attempted to build the tallest tower they could up from a single object. The resulting structures were impressive, but all made from objects found in the closet. No one created a tower, that is, no one brought into reality something that never was. When we say that God created the multiverse (heaven and earth), we mean that he made it all out of nothing. He was not just rearranging energy and matter, He caused it to be. 

In fact, the first verse in the Bible says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” We learn that this primordial earth was formless and chaotic and a lot of what happens next is God ordering the chaos. In what the Bible describes as a week, we see God preparing space and making life to fill it. 

On day one, He makes light and separates it from the dark. On day two, He makes sky and separates it from the sea. On day three, he makes the land rise out of the waters and covers it with plants (the first organic life). This first set of days involve sorting out spaces for the life that will fill it.

On day four, He returns to the day and night he made and fills them with Great Lights (the ancients made no distinction between stars and angels). On day five, He returns to the sea and the sky and fills them with sea creatures and birds (and sea monsters, of course). On day six, He returns to the land and fills both the woods and pastures with animals (he also makes humans). Then on day seven he rests. Owen had a great insight: for the Israelites, the Sabbath always included a fellowship feast. Did God sit down and eat with Adam and Eve on the Seventh day? What a cool image!

In all of the Bible, I don’t know of any passage that has so much room for creative reading. For example, there’s the modern science approach: “Let there be light” could well have included a BANG. Separating the waters is a pretty fair description of what happens on a molecular level when liquid water becomes vapor in an atmosphere of sky. Scientists will often tell us that before animal life could exist, photosynthesis had to occur (ie plants came first). Additionally, it is often reported that the earliest life forms seem to be aquatic (creatures of the deep). We did not discuss the fact that “the earth bringing forth animals” is a pretty good way to describe what scientists call evolution; nor that sudden changes in biodiversity (like in our fossil records) looks a lot like a creator suddenly spoke and ushered in rapid change. Point being, there’s some exciting connections to scientific exploration and this story. 

There’s also a social justice and environmentalist reading: The Bible is a rare ancient text that presents men and women as equals in their origin. “Adam” is a Hebrew word for huma that can be translated as “Dirtling”. The woman was taken from the Dirtling’s side, she is literally one half of the same whole. Any inequality between the pair is a consequence of the fall and not God’s intent for humanity. In fact, all of humanity is given the same charge in the passage to rule over the Earth. They were given work as livestock farmers and gardeners. If we are leaning into God’s original will for humanity, we will care for this planet and the natural life around us. We will treat each other with dignity and respect, and seek to walk with God together.

Also common is the “what went wrong” approach: it is crucial to understand that God did not make a bad world. Just like a tower that is more impressive if it includes a delicate balance on a single point, our world includes a delicate ecological balance (the circle of life) that involves all things. Still, a tower ;like this can fall more easily than something solid and unmoving. This does not make the balanced creation any less good, but it does explain why there is so much wrong in the world - we call it: The Fall.

And so, the most important way to look at it is the Jesus Reading: When “Dirtling” and “Life-mom” eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (you guys had one job!) two very important things happen: (1)God promises Eve that one of her offspring will crush the Serpent's head but be injured in the process. (2)He kills an animal to clothe Adam and Eve (their homemade fig leaf aprons were not able to truly cover them). We are three chapters into the Bible and already we see clearly communicated two key points: Satan will be defeated by a human. Only God can cover the guilt and sin of Humanity. Jesus’ was truly human and in His resurrection He defeated Satan, but He was also fully God and by His death He is able to cover up the sins of us all. 

It is easy to get caught up on questions. What happened to the dinosaurs? Were Adam and Eve kids or adults? How could day and night exist before the sun did? Still, these chapters are not a textbook. They creatively tell a story in a way that shows us who God is, what He is like, where we came from, and why we need a Savior.

Last night our teens took a big step forward in making their Faith their own - they explained their Faith to someone else. Emily, Tobiah, and I each took two students and pretended to have no knowledge of Christianity. We then asked our students to explain the Gospel to us. Suddenly, without the scaffolding of parents and teachers saying what to believe, each student could only rely on his or her own understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. This was a serious challenge and our students faced it well. 

In one of his letters, the apostle Peter said: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15). It is a call for every Christian, to be able to explain what we believe and how this gives us hope. 

If this is something you have never thought about before it is worth doing. If Christianity is just a set of rules telling us how to live well, it may be good, but not a clear source of hope. How do we explain that Jesus has changed everything? What does it even mean to say that He sacrificed Himself on the cross for us? What do we mean when we say that He is the Son of God?

It was wonderful to hear how many answers each student had. Some things were clear to everyone - Jesus died on the cross. Jesus transforms how we live. Jesus shows us what is right and what is wrong and points us to God.

Last night’s activity also hopefully sparked some questions. My group discovered that the Holy Spirit is not easy to explain and wasn’t exactly sure why we call Jesus’ death a “Sacrifice.” The rest of you probably have your own questions. Please, make a note of what questions you have after last night and seek answers. One great opportunity will be on the retreat, where we will be having an anonymous Q&A session. 

Parents, I would love to give you a more thorough summary, but I suspect your kids will do a better job than me. I encourage you to ask them about it (you can forget as much or as little as you want). Come to think of it, what would happen if your kid played dumb and asked you about your faith? It might be a fun experiment.

It’s been said that “Confirmation bias is everywhere once you know to look for it.” Confirmation bias is what happens when you pay attention to certain results because you were expecting them. We are more likely to notice stuff that supports what we already believe than stuff that goes against it. Perhaps it is an ironic topic to discuss in a confirmation class, but it came up tonight in more ways than one. 

We discussed prophecy tonight. In the Bible, prophecies are not clear, irrevocable predictions of the future. Jesus and his disciples use the word: fulfill (literally: fill fully), to talk about prophecy that has come to pass. This is because there are very few prophecies in the Bible that make their full meaning simple or obvious. Rather, it takes an event or a new teaching to “fill it full” so that we can clearly see why God used the words He did. 

For example, Daniel saw “one who looked like a son of man” who entered heaven and sat next to God. This didn’t make any sense to anyone and the Hebrews simply had to make their best guesses. Then Jesus arrived and began calling Himself the “Son of Man.” Jesus was a human son who is also able to reign as God - the meaning is filled up. We can now make sense of it. This is true all through the New Testament. Jesus “filled full” several snippets of prophecy which nobody understood. He was born of a virgin, He came out of Egypt, He rode a donkey, He cared about the Temple, He didn’t break any bones. The list goes on and on. 

This is where the skeptic might declare confirmation bias: “You think Jesus is special because he rode a donkey?” “I’ve never broken a bone, am I the Chosen one?” “Wasn’t all of Israel called out of Egypt?” “That verse about the virgin wasn’t even talking about the messiah!” The accusation is that Jesus seems to fulfill prophecy because we are looking hard and squeezing in things that don’t belong together. The students had a taste of this themselves when they played a scavenger hunt game which was really fun, matching Bible word cards to wacky categories. Not everything that was paired truly matched, but because we were trying to make matches we found connections. How do we refute this?

I fear I explained it poorly tonight, but I’d say that such a view fails to account for the way that Jesus “fills full” the entire Old Testament. It is hard to overcome confusion when you are told from the start that prophecy is confusing (the other place we saw confirmation bias). 

Jesus is the one who makes all of the Old Testament make sense. And because of Jesus, most of the Bible is not confusing. Once we understand who he is, passages that once seemed like gibberish are clearly about Him. This is why we read Isaiah 53 together. It describes a sufferer who dies for his people like a sheep. His violent punishment that he didn’t deserve is said to be for us. Then we learn that he will live to see future generations (even though he was killed). Jesus, who died and rose to save us all, made this make sense.

When Jesus came so many questions were answered, but Confirmation Bias cannot account for answers to questions we didn’t know to ask. Maybe that’s why God made His prophecy so darn confusing!

Anyone who’s spent time looking at Christian art knows that Jesus has been depicted in a lot of very different ways. Last night, our class contributed to this diversity as I asked everyone to draw us a picture of Jesus. Almost all of them had some combination of the same iconic elements. We had a lot of long brown hair, many beards, several welcoming smiles, and a few white robes and open arms for good measure. Why are these elements so common? Jesus almost certainly had short, dark hair. His skin was likely a sun-darkened olive color, his tunic would not have gone down farther than his knees and while an itinerant preacher would have no reason to shave, a beard was by no means a cultural necessity in his time. Still, artists have slowly built up an imagined image of Jesus which we all recognize today.
The stereotypical Jesus painting has the beard of a philosopher, the robes of a prophet, the hair of a ruling Roman god, the fair features of a young demigod, and the pale skin and blue eyes of the Europeans who first painted him this way. While we can scoff at this historically inaccurate image, there’s a lot we can learn from it. Jesus is a moral teacher with prophetic wisdom; He reigns in Heaven as the Lord of creation though He has become human and walked among everyday people.

It was also fun to compare some of the unique features of each person’s drawings. Corban’s had a more historical robe and was the only one with a halo. Owen had drawn a blond Jesus preaching on a mountain and holding a rainbow, separating scenes of war and peace. Frank drew a smiling Jesus with wild hair that had to be my favorite of the night. Gabriella’s was ordered and comforting, while Carmen’s was tan and ready for action. Francesca’s drawing had dark skin, deep eyes, and looked better than she realized.

Thankfully, every single drawing we make falls short of showing us what Jesus is like. His Truth is far too big for that. And yet, pondering who He is to each of us is valuable. We meditated a little on Colossians 1:15-20 and Philippians 2:5-11. If you haven’t read these beautiful passages recently I encourage you to do so. They express Paul’s vision of who Christ is both as the Risen Lord and as the Word of God who has existed from the beginning. These claims blow past any notion of Christ as “just a great moral teacher” or “a wise role model.” He is these things, but as we come to know Him as Paul did we see that He is more.

In the coming months we hope to study the implications of this life-changing truth.

Last night we played a game called "Jesus or Sus?" Flashing on the screen were quotes and players had to guess whether or not each quote was from Jesus. Some of them were more challenging than others. To paraphrase one student: "If it sounds wise, I'm just going to assume Jesus said it." Unfortunately, it isn't so simple. Lots of people say things that are wise. What sets Jesus apart are the things he said that sound crazy.

After our game, this was what we discussed. We had everyone find a Jesus quote of their choice in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. We considered different worldly perspectives on Jesus and who He was. Then we looked at who He claimed to be. In the words of Simon Peter: "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God!"

Christian author C. S. Lewis described a famous trilemma that everyone must face when considering the words of Jesus: liar, lunatic, or Lord. When someone claims to be God's Son or Israel's Anointed King - there are only three things that could be true about them. Either they are purposely deceiving everyone, they are downright crazy, or they are telling the truth.

Towards the end of the class we looked at Jesus' mission statements in each of the four Gospels. All four of these passages are presented as Jesus' first public teaching in their respective books.

• “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. " (Matthew 5:17 )

• "The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) 

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

• “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

In these four statements, Jesus claimed to be a Law Fulfiller, a Kingdom Builder, a Land Healer, and a World Saver. Each of these statements is extreme to say the least.

Suddenly the fact that the rest of His sayings seem so wise should give us pause - they don't sound like the words of a madman. Nor do they seem like those of an evil mastermind. Ignore these big claims and Jesus seems like one of the most sane, least evil people in history. But He claimed to be so much more and we can't ignore this. Rather, we are invited to believe these claims and trust Him.

- Jashton Gieser

Last night I was treated to a unique sight. Our confirmation crew had been tasked with sorting 66 books into seven categories without using any words. The resulting challenge felt like something off of the show Survivor and yet, it was the Bible these kids were getting excited about. 

As we discussed last night, the Bible is actually a collection of books and these different books contain different genres of writing. While the Law lays out a plan for how God’s people were supposed to live, the History books tell a story of their actual disobedience. The Prophets then respond to these events with further words from God, while the Wisdom and Poetry books give a more human perspective. These Old Testament books form a picture of God’s efforts to reach out to humanity despite our resistance. 

The New Testament is all about Jesus Christ and is composed of writing by apostles and eyewitnesses. It includes four Gospels describing the life of Jesus, one last History book describing the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and then a collection of Letters sent to churches and leaders with insights into life in Christ. The Bible ends with one final Prophecy describing how Christians should face times of persecution and doubt.

Students last night were able to explore this overview in a hands-on way, handling individual books as actual books and comparing them in their categories. 

It is our hope that every student owns a physical Bible. If you do not, please let us know so we can get you one! We also recommend downloading the YouVersion Bible App (a scripture based, Christian social media platform). 

The Bible is an odd Holy Book; it is collaborative, written by 40+ authors over a period of over a thousand years. When we say the Bible is the Word of God it is because we see the effects that these books have had on the lives of countless individuals when brought together. Faith in Christ expands the value of these writings, faith in these writings expands our faith in Christ. The Christians who have done the most for God’s Kingdom are usually ones who have also treasured the Bible. 

So I encourage you all to read it. Find a genre you like and start from there.

-Jashton Gieser

Our first Confirmation Class last night went well. I hope to get in the pattern of sending an email recap each week that we have class in order to allow parents to stay informed and to catch any of the students up to speed who were late or missed class. I will also be posting these recaps here as a blog post.

Our lesson began with an activity in which students had to rate how much they agreed with different statements (using candy), beginning with an assortment of shower thoughts and moving into a survey of the Apostle’s Creed. Overall, I saw a group that thinks deeply and believes the basics of our Faith, but is also honest enough to admit that some of the things we affirm in the creed are confusing and will need to be explored. As we mentioned last night, everything in that creed will be discussed over the course of this class.

I also praised the kids who were there because they are embarking on what I see as a step into discipleship. To use the words of Bonhoeffer, they are putting themselves in a position where faith is possible. If we try to know Jesus but live the same way we’ve always lived, the same way everyone around us lives, it is hard to ever fully believe Him. Jesus’ first followers paid a high cost to follow him (leaving behind everything to go with him), but in a sense, once they made this choice to leave their lives behind, following Jesus became simpler than ever. Now that we’ve decided to attend this class twice a month, we’re in a place where exploring belief is far easier than usual. These acts of following are what we call discipleship and it is what we will continue to explore together.

We also hope to make it the start of something lasting. Emily, my co-teacher, shared her testimony last night and reflected on how Confirmation classes can often load you up with information and then leave you on your own. When this information doesn’t match with the darkness of reality it can be soul crushing. We do not want this to be a class that has all the answers, but a class that can introduce our students into the mature life of faith which wrestles with questions together.

It is important to note that the result of this class for anyone who is seeking it is full membership at ERC. Either way, this class will culminate with all students composing personal statements of faith expressing what they believe. 

- Jashton