{"id":5699,"date":"2016-02-23T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T13:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=5699"},"modified":"2016-02-09T17:04:32","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T22:04:32","slug":"february-28-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/february-28-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"February 28, 2016&#8211;How Do You Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Baglyos, St. Paul, MN<\/p>\n<p><strong>Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What is the Good News when there isn\u2019t any big news?<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Do You Know?<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5728\" style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/02\/shutterstock_372616234.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5728\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5728\" class=\"wp-image-5728\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/02\/shutterstock_372616234-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"shutterstock_372616234\" width=\"227\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/02\/shutterstock_372616234-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/02\/shutterstock_372616234-250x375.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/02\/shutterstock_372616234-233x350.jpg 233w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/02\/shutterstock_372616234.jpg 667w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5728\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo: a katz \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On February 5th a construction crane collapsed in New York City, killing one person and injuring three others. The name of the person killed in the collapse was David Wichs, 38 years old.\u00a0 He was sitting in a parked car at the time.\u00a0 According to news stories Wichs was a brilliant mathematician who lived a life of giving.&#8221;\u00a0 He had no connection to the construction site and was on his way to work at the time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Besides all the accidents that might befall any of us on any given day, against which we might take some preventative precautions, what sorts of freak occurrences are theoretically possible but so unlikely that we never give them the slightest thought or concern?<\/li>\n<li>What kinds of things do you suppose people might say to David Wichs\u2019 widow in the face of her grief and loss? What would you say to her if you had the opportunity?<\/li>\n<li>If you were David Wichs\u2019 widow, what might people say to you that you would find helpful? What might people say that you would <em>not<\/em> find helpful?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Third Sunday in Lent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=322052650\">Isaiah 55:1-9<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=322052681\">1 Corinthians 10:1-13<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=322052720\">Luke 13:1-9<\/a><br \/>\n(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings<br \/>\nFor lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gospel Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In another gospel passage (Matthew 16:13-15), Jesus asks his disciples, \u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d and then, more pointedly, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d Presumably, everyone together at the right time and the right place shared the same information about Jesus. They could all see him and the things he was doing; they could all hear him and the things he was saying. But very different interpretations of Jesus abounded. Was Jesus perhaps John the Baptist somehow come back from the dead? Was he Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets in a new appearance? People interpreted the information about Jesus in many different ways. Finally Peter said, to Jesus, \u201cYou are the Messiah, the Son of the living God\u201d (Matthew 16:16).<\/p>\n<p>Religious skeptics claim that faith in God is a distortion of reality, an example of confirmation bias, which is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one&#8217;s existing beliefs or theories. Confirmation bias impairs judgment and critical thinking. People of faith often make the same claims about skeptics, thereby participating in a tired and pointless argument that only manages to perpetuate itself endlessly. People of faith might ask, for example, \u201cHow can anyone look upon the grandeur of nature and not see the existence of God?\u2019 while skeptics might ask, \u201cHow can anyone look upon the extent of suffering and not see the absence of God?\u201d Each side engages in its own form of confirmation bias to support its claims and to denounce its detractors.<\/p>\n<p>Confirmation bias, however, does not always or necessarily produce a distortion of truth and reality. The fact that our perceptions are shaped by our beliefs does not necessarily mean that our perceptions are false and unreliable. The Gospel of John deals with this matter extensively with regard to faith in Jesus. Everywhere in John (with the exception of the story about Thomas in chapter 20!) believing precedes seeing and is necessary to it. \u201cYou will see me,\u201d Jesus promises those who believe in him.<\/p>\n<p>But if belief leads to seeing, what leads to belief? Jesus answers that question in our gospel text when he talks about \u201ckeeping my commandments.\u201d Here we have to do with the behaviors and practices that pertain to the Christian community, the church. The church is called to do as Jesus does, to do as Jesus says, to do as Jesus teaches. Such doing incubates belief, and belief incubates seeing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Which Christian practices and behaviors have you found to be most supportive of your faith in Jesus?<\/li>\n<li>When have you had an experience of seeing Jesus? Describe the context of that experience.<\/li>\n<li>What is your greatest challenge or obstacle to faith? How might you best meet and seek to overcome that challenge or obstacle?<\/li>\n<li>How do you help others to see Jesus? How do or how might others see Jesus in you?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Activity Suggestions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a group, describe ways that you have seen Jesus in each person of the group or ways that each person helps others to see Jesus. What, for each person in the group, is the most surprising about what others have said?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Closing Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pray together the prayer for \u201cEnlightenment of the Holy Spirit\u201d on page 86 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Baglyos, St. Paul, MN Warm-up Question What is the Good News when there isn\u2019t any big news? How Do You Know? On February 5th a construction crane collapsed in New York City, killing one person and injuring three others. The name of the person killed in the collapse was David Wichs, 38 years old.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1400],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>February 28, 2016-How Do You Know? - Faith Lens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/february-28-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"February 28, 2016-How Do You Know? - Faith Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paul Baglyos, St. Paul, MN Warm-up Question What is the Good News when there isn\u2019t any big news? 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