A New Life

– 1 Corinthians 15:4-7

Last night given tickets to a play by some neighbours who could not go
- It was called “The Golden Dragon”

It was about a Vietnamese Restaurant
- 15 people’s lives intertwined
Every one of them was touched by evil
- Most of them had relationships falling apart
- There was evil and depravity
- There was corruption and drunkenness
- There was growing old and decaying
- There was betrayal and treachery
- There was physical pain and suffering
  - Starting with toothache and ending in death
All of them had one thing in common, their lives were connected by the Golden Dragon (who actually was red)
- At one point this serpent-like creature writhed malevolently across the stage
- I don’t know if it was intentional, but here was the Biblical symbol of the father of evil

“Schimmelpfennig writes characters with a brutal honesty in situations that force them to display their true colours.”

My mother was telling me on the phone yesterday about how she has fewer and fewer close friends now she’s 80
- She is still very bright and alert, but one of her best friends has been acting like her mind is going
- This is so tragic when you’ve loved someone all your life

On a global level, things don’t look good
Species are becoming extinct
Whatever you think about the environment and climate change
- The question is not if things are getting worse, but how fast
Political
Violence and cruelty

At one time it looked like the world was moving towards democracy
- Corruption
- all governments tend to attract the least suitable to rule
We like to thing there is now less world violence and cruelty
- but is there?

Religious solutions
- Extreme rituals to get into another reality
- lose yourself in rituals
- make yourself better by doing good
- leave everything behind and live in isolation

continue

What indications are there that all was not right in her world?
- 5 husbands
- Living with the sixth man
- It seems she was shunned by the other women?
In the previous chapter there is very different person (in every way)
- But he is living in fear
- Trying to obey the law to please God
Why does Jesus say such a confusing thing to her: he would give her living water
- So she would ask
- Because it was altogether outside her existence. Something from outside was needed
Jesus did the same thing to Nicodemus: he confused him
- This time is was about being born “from above”
- But the same idea is there: something totally new had to come in from outside

Jesus’ solution is the most Radical
- A new creation
- Become a new person
- Born of God