Earlier this month, I asked you to help me create a sermon series. Many of you participated (Thank You!), and after the race was neck-to-neck for a while, in the end it was a clear victory for "Seven Questions."
Now this means that we are starting a crowd sourcing project: I invite you, your friends, neighbhors, distant relatives to submit questions: Do dogs go to heaven? Is sin just another word for bad morals? What is good about Good Friday? Questions like that. Any questions you think the preacher should address (i.e. not the kind of questions you think any preacher should stay away from).
You can submit your questions online (there should be a box at the end of this post), via email or twitter @thomaskleinert, or via handwritten notes (in the offering plate, under the door, or in my mailbox). I will collect and post all your questions, and then you'll get to rank them. I will address the top seven of your choices as best I can. That's what I call a grassroots campaign.
Here are a few questions I have already received:
- What should be the role of the church versus the moral and ethical corruptions of modern society? Handmaiden? Critic? Gadfly? Partisan supporter? Evaluator? Other?
- Whatever happened to the concept of sin? Aren’t many of our serious social problems related to The Seven Deadly Sins (wrath, greed, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony, pride) and the lack of support for The Seven Cardinal Virtues (fortitude, justice, prudence, temperance, faith, hope, charity)?
- How can the church serve as a peacemaker in dealing with the divisive issues (other Christian traditions, other faiths, political extremes, social values) of our time?
- What happens when forgiveness does not lead to repentance?
- When does a virtue like compassion or accepting difference turn into a vice?
- Did Jesus study Buddhism between ages 12 and 30?
- The first recorded miracle of Jesus is at the wedding of Cana, where he turned water into wine. The last recorded miracle is the healing of the servant whose ear was cut off. The other miracles can be explained as changing people’s attitudes. The first and the last are magic. What’s your take on that?