On September 19, the Misfits Sunday school class will begin a new 6-week study, The Difficult Words of Jesus by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University. Join with us, as we explore some very challenging texts in the Bible. The book may be purchased online from Cokesbury or from Amazon. It is available in paperback and e-version. All are welcome. We meet in the Family Life Center, in the center classroom on the left on the first floor. For more information contact Susan Anderson, cda.sra@gmail.com, or 214-450-3996.

Publisher's Description

Examine the most difficult teachings of Jesus with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine. Jesus provided his disciples teachings for how to follow Torah, God’s word; he told them parables to help them discern questions of ethics and of human nature; he offered them beatitudes for comfort and encouragement. But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil’s children (John 8:44). In The Difficult Words of Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded to the people who first heard them, how have they been understood over time, and how we might interpret them in the context of the Gospel of love and reconciliation.