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 what the church is about - The church is not primarily a
place for spiritually healthy people; the church is where the sick gather to be healed
from the disease of sin . . . in the apostle’s creed the communion of saints is
theologically juxtaposed beside "forgiveness of sin." The community of Jesus is
not human sinlessness, but forgiveness, precisely because we are sick and in need of a
physician (Mark 2:17).
nib on this passage - . . . the author of 1 John sets us on a promontory [a high
peak that juts out into water] and turns us backward, to scan the expanse of the
church’s proclamation "from the beginning." Immediately, in 1:5-10, we are
carried up to the community’s life in the present, to consider the moral implications
of what the church has heard and proclaimed. Then in 2:1-6 the writer tightly knots the
congregation’s proclamation and paraenesis-its message bout Jesus Christ and its
enactment of his way of life. The church lives what it preaches. [1]
 Recall some experiences that you or someone else has had between what has been
written about someone or perhaps you’ve heard said about someone and then meeting
that person or actually hearing from that person firsthand. ("Really, he’s /
she’s the perfect date for you . . . eats tofu and doesn’t shave;" or the
difference between a glowing resume and personal interview.
In creating your map of reality which of the five sense do you most rely upon?
If John’s Christian portrait cyclical-sinning ("walking in darkness"),
confession of sin, seeking and receiving forgiveness, walking in fellowship with God
("walking in the light"), and then sinning . . . where are you at this point in
the cycle?
 For
an example of a proclamation on this passage, please see this week’s homily posted on
DPS.
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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible XII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), page
381.
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