what i've learned in seminary this semester: modules

so this semester started for me two and 1/2 weeks ago on january 17th. i was in a module class. a module class at nazarene theological seminary is a two week intensive course. they are just that, quite intense. my module class met every week night for 4 hours and 45 minutes. some people take two of these and so they are in class for 9 and 1/2 hours. most modules have pre course work, course work, and post course work. they are crazy.

i was in the gospel of luke. i was pretty excited for this class. the learning started right away. my favorite book before the course started (during the pre course work) was Jesus and empire by richard a. horsely. this book really gave me an in depth look at what the roman empire was like during Jesus' day. i really discovered how brutal the empire was. in fact this book helped me during my writing of a sermon that my sister Libby and i co-prought (past tense for preached) at our parents church, salt lake city first church of the nazarene, the day after christmas. it was entitled the refugee God. basically we talked about how Jesus was born into life as a refugee, for his family fled to egypt right after his birth because of the brutal killing of male babies which herod imposed on the people. maybe i will post our manuscript on here sometime.

during the class the biggest themes which we talked about were hospitality, liberation and jubilee. the liberation and jubilee themes were talked about in relation to leviticus 25 and how this chapter talked of the year of jubilee which would be practiced every 50 years by the people, where debts were forgiven, where land would lie fallow, and where basically everyone would have a new start (it's a lot more detailed than that, so you can go look it up if you like). liberation was highlighted in the fact that Jesus brought liberation to people who were oppressed, both spiritually and physically.

lastly, we talked about hospitality. i was in a group which focused on the book "the hospitality of God" by brendan byrne. this book focused on how luke highlights the fact that Jesus practiced the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers in the gospel of luke. this all started through God's gracious hospitality which he extended to his people through sending his Son Jesus to them. then we saw how Jesus extended hospitality to those he came in contact with and how some of those who came in contact with him did the same.

my friend Jared brought up a good point, that maybe as wesleyans we would refer to this as prevenient grace. i think that i tend to agree with him, because God was preceduous in his extension of his hospitality through his love, both throughout the old testament, but also through sending his son to us.

it was definitely an intense couple of weeks of study. i enjoyed learning from my peers and learning from our gracious professor as well. i'm really glad that i took the class. it's opened up my eyes to how Jesus lived his life and how we are called to replicate this.