#2 of 4 - Jesus for President Bible Study by Rev. Kate McGee

1. Jesus for President:
Life

2. #JesusIsMyCandidate
• @Aleerye13: #JesusIsMyCandidate
because He did more than ANY
president did in three days then they
did in their terms.
• @Youthguy07: #JesusIsMyCandidate
because he has already won. "It is
finished." Victory has already been
claimed!

3. #JesusIsMyCandidate
• @EverydayRev: #JesusIsMyCandidate
because I really dig his foreign policy
#loveyourenemies
• @CourteneyDenise:
#JesusIsMyCandidate the LEADER that
has and will keep every promise.. His
plans always work out.

4. #JesusIsMyCandidate
• @dianabutlerbass:
#JesusIsMyCandidate because
he gave away free health care
& made sure the hungry were
fed.

5. What is Life?
• The condition that distinguishes organisms
from inorganic objects and dead organisms,
being manifested by growth through
metabolism, reproduction, and the power of
adaptation to environment through changes
originating internally.” (dictionary.com)
• A rat race.
• A box of chocolates – you never know what
you’re going to get.

6. What is Life?
• Not a shred of evidence exists in
favor of the idea that life is serious. -
Brendan Gill
• Life is what happens to you while
you're busy making other plans. -
John Lennon

7. American Virtue of Life
“We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their
creator with certain inalienable
Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
– Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

8. Not Just American…
• Also, Article 3 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
(adopted by the UN in 1948)
reads, "Everyone has the right to
life, liberty, and security of
person."

9. Modern Translation
• “that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights”
• …that God created every person equal, and He gave
each person specific unchanging rights that should
never be trampled upon…
• “… that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
pursuit of Happiness …”
• these include the right of the people to live life in
freedom without undue harm, and pursue their
dreams and goals.
(from http://thebsreport.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/the-declaration-of-independence-what-does-it-mean/)

10. Life Today
• What is our right to life today?
• Many discussions center around:
– Abortion
– Euthanasia/assisted suicide
– Capital punishment
– War
– Self-defense

11. Life in the Old Testament
• Creation Story – Genesis 2:7
• Breath/life/spirit – ruach / pneuma
• Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; 12-13
• Balance between life and death
• Almost any Jewish law can be broken to save a
life
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Life in the midst of death

12. Life in the New Testament
• James 4:14-15
• Who is in charge of our life? How would
anyone on the outside know?
• Romans 6:11
• What purpose are we living for? What are you
dead to in your life?

14. Jesus = Life
• John 14:6; John 11:25
• If Jesus is life, what does that mean about our
definition of life?
• John 10:10; John 4:7-14
• What elements stand out in this story?
• Is there a difference between life and eternal
life?
• What laws would Jesus as President enact
about life?

15. Giving Up Your Life
• Model of Jesus - John 3:16
• Our call - John 15:13
• Mark 8:34-37
• How do we lose our lives?
• What does it mean to pick up our cross?
• Does this happen in 2012? Or have we instead
given in to comfort and complacency?

16. Life Together
• When Americans speak of life and
protecting life, it is usually the individual
life – a fetus, a death row inmate, a
dying parent.
• Pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer
writes about Life Together: “So the
Christian, too, belongs not in the
seclusion of a cloistered life but in the
thick of foes.”

17. Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Life Together
“…where God has acted once and for all
for the salvation of [humanity]. We
become a part of what once took place
for our salvation. Forgetting and losing
ourselves, we, too, pass through the Red
Sea, through the desert, across the
Jordan, to the promised land…We are
torn out of our own existence and set
down in the midst of the holy history of
God on earth.”
(pg 53)

18. Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Life Together
“The life of Christians together under the
Word has reached its perfection in the
sacrament [of the Lord’s Supper].”
• Can life be lived to its fullest alone?
• Has our definition of life changed since
Bonhoeffer wrote this in 1939?

20. In Conclusion
• Life is more than living free safe from
harm.
• Life from a Christian perspective must
involve others – it must be a life lived
outwards.
• Without shared worship and share
sacraments, we aren’t living the life
together.

21. In Conclusion
• Jesus consistently put his life at risk and
ultimately gave it up so that others may
live.
• Therefore, who really owns our life? Who
do we live for – ourselves, others, or
God?
• Are the Christian ideal of life and the
American ideal of life compatible?

22. Benediction
• Have you wept at anything during the past year?
Has your heart beast faster at the sight of young
beauty?
• Have you thought seriously about the fact that
someday you are going to die?
• Is there anybody you know in whose place, if one of
you had to suffer great pain, you would volunteer
yourself?
• If your answer to all or most of these questions is no,
the chances are that you’re dead.
(Rev. Frederick Buechner)