Celtic Christianity
June 14 - July 19, 2009

Sermons@Skyline

In "How the Irish Saved Civilization" Thomas Cahill tells a story of how Ireland bacame a sanctuary for a treasure trove of religious and cultural heritage that got destroyed by invasiion in Europe during the Dark Ages. The form of Christianity that flourished in Ireland not only preserved much of the written and artistic culture of the Middle Ages, it has given the church a model for discovering God beyond the walls and boundaries of the church.

Jesus often spoke about a reality he called "The Kingdom of God" from which people were "not far" and which encroached upon all of human experience - both as a now and a not yet reality. It's nearness made possible the crossing overr of repentance - a turning from a world where God did not exist, or where God was powerless to act, to a vastly different reality where people excountered God's presence in all things, not merely carefully sequestered holy places (holy means separate).

Celtic peoples - and the Druids before them - celebrated and revered "thin" places of contact between the physical and spiritual realities. Their understanding of this awareness of profound spiritual presence within human experience sheds light on Jesus' teachings about the Kingdom in ways the Roman Church had forgotten - enamored as it was with the palatial beauty of cathedrals and priests - keepers of the kingdom. When the Barbarians detroyed much of that edifice, the Celts were able to preserve the miraculous reality of God's presence among us in ways the church had not been able to comprehend.

For the next few weeks of summer, we explore the many gifts to Christianity from a Celtic (Irish) perspective, using as our guide, The Book of Creation: An Intorduction to Celtic Spirituality by J. Philip Newell.

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	June 14 Genesis 1:4-5; John 1:1-9 ( Key verse: John 1:4-5) God’s Light God’s light permeates all of creation and is the center from which all of life emanates.		June 21 Psalm 104:1-9 (Key verses: 104:2-3) God’s Wildness Like nature, we can neither control not contain the energy of God’s creative force, but we can learn to channel our own.
	June 28 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (Key verse: 9:10) God’s Fruitfulness God’s generous creativity continues and God invites us to participate in that fruitfulness by sharing goodness with others.		July 5 Psalm 19:1-20 (Key verse: 19:2) God’s Harmony In Creation we see God’s harmony—a song of “both” and not “either-or”.
	July 12 Job 12:7-13 (Key verse: 12:7-8) God’s Sense As we listen to our surroundings with all of our senses, we discover again the mystery of God’s life in all creation.		July 19 Psalm 8 (Key verse: 8:5) God’s Image At the depth of our being lies the mystery of the image of God. When we sin, we forget this treasure, but Jesus leads us back.
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