This past Sunday, we looked at the Last Supper.  It was in the final meal with his disciples that Jesus gave us one of His greatest gifts to the church: Communion.  It was here that Jesus modeled life around a table, with Him at the center.  And every time we participate in this meal, we share in His life, and recommit to Him and to each other.   

And while this was done in the context of a meal around a table, Communion does not look like that in the modern church.  So what happened?  How did it transform from a joyful meal to a somber moment with crackers and juice?

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Text: Mark 14.12-26

This past Sunday, we looked at the entirety of Mark 13.  Many have taken this passage to be a proof text for the end times, as if Jesus was laying out a scene by scene movie of what will happen.  This interpretation, though relatively new in the scope of church history (i.e. the 19th century), has become the dominating view of modern Evangelicalism.   And unfortunately, it's created a lot of fear and panic among Christians.  

It's led to a justification for war in the Middle East because "God is on Israel's side” and it "has to happen" for the end to come.  Or, we spend our days trying to predict the end of the world, and we live with a fearful, escapist mentality and don't see what we do now as important as a way to care for the poor and contribute to human flourishing, or we don't see the need to care for the earth because it's “going to all burn anyway”.   

But what if Jesus wasn't talking about the end times?  And what if his intention wasn't to create fear for the present, but hope for the future?  

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Text: Mark 13

In Mark 12, Jesus is being interrogated from the leaders of his day as they are trying to trap him in his words and either start a revolution against Rome, or side with the oppressor.  Jesus does neither, and instead challenges them on where their allegiance actually lies. 

It's a scathing discourse, one that challenges us in our own allegiances.  Jesus says the leaders have misunderstood the Scriptures and the power of God, and their vision of reality and the future is off.   What we think about the future informs how we live in the present.  And how we live in the present ultimately shapes the future, for better or worse. 

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Text: Mark 12

In the final week of his life, Jesus enters Jerusalem to pronounce judgement on the Jewish leaders who were supposed to shepherd God's people.  Instead, they were extorting the poor, making a mockery of the temple, and making it impossible for Jews (and Gentiles) to know the One true God.   

Jesus came as the true Shepherd; one who does not exclude the marginalized or outsiders from the presence of God, but brings the presence near.

Teacher: Will Solomon

Text: Mark 11.12-25

At Eden, we believe that how we live together matters as much as our beliefs and convictions. And so, we are shaped by an ancient practice, used by communities of Jesus followers for nearly 2000 years, called a Rule of Life.

The meaning of Rule comes from the Greek word for trellis; a tool designed to enable a grapevine to get off the ground and grow upward, to become more fruitful and productive.

In the same way, a Rule of Life is a schedule and set of practices and relational rhythms that create space for us to be with Jesus, become like Him, and do as He did.  It is how we practice the way of Jesus, together. 

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Text: John 15

There’s an ancient proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.”You can’t follow Jesus alone. Not you shouldn’t; you can’t. The way God does this work of healing is through healthy relationships, through familial love. Why? We are both hurt at the deepest level by relationships, and we are healed at the deepest level by relationships.

Teacher: Caleb SprinkleText: Various

Jesus of Nazareth once said, “In this world, you will face trouble.” (John 16v33). Suffering comes to find all of us — the loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, the breakdown of a relationship …   And over time, emotional pain accumulates in our soul.

We carry our history in our body and live our past in our present; and all too often, our unhealed emotional pain sabotages our spiritual formation into people of love. When pain and suffering come knocking on our door, what do we do?

Teaching Slides

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Texts: Various

We take a look at what Jesus said is wrong with the world: sin. Now, “sin” is an emotionally loaded word for a lot of people.  You may hear it and instantly feel a kind of inner allergic reaction. 

But sin is just the word Jesus used to name a reality that all the brightest minds agree on – ancient, modern, spiritual, scientific, Western, Eastern – pretty much everyone agrees that something is off in the human heart.

So, a key aspect of our spiritual formation is healing from sin done by us, to us, and around us.  And like any good doctor, Jesus doesn’t just want to just deal with the symptoms, but the disease itself.

Teaching Slides

Teacher: Brittni Ratliff

Text: Various

For those of us who desire to be formed to be like Jesus, we don’t start with a blank slate! We’ve already been deformed. Not into the beauty of Jesus but into the ugliness of sin and shame. Therefore, to some degree, all formation in the Way of Jesus is counter-formation.   

To be formed to be like Jesus will require an intentional, thoughtful, conscious way of life to counteract the many forces that mal-form our soul.  To organize our days around intentionally following Jesus and finding deep joy in our everyday lives with him.

Teaching Slides

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Texts: Various

Who are you following? Everybody is following somebody. Or something. Put another way, everyone is a disciple. The question isn’t, “Are you a disciple?” It’s, “Who or what are you a disciple of?”

We explore in this session what Jesus had in mind for discipleship (or apprenticeship), along with looking at the forces that work on the human soul that "conform [us] to the pattern of this world" (Romans 12:2).

Teaching Slides

Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

Text: Various