The New Way - Reading 1
The Sayings of Jesus 
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These are the ancient sayings of Jesus. They provide a doorway into the real world of his original movement. Today there are many competing voices claiming to speak for Jesus. That is why it is important to go back to the first sources, to hear the first voice. The first title ever given to Jesus was 'Rabbi,' or teacher, because that is what he was. His words were originally presented as a path, a way of wisdom to be taken up and followed. And this was no conventional path. Jesus seemed determined to upset common habits of thought, to subvert personal agendas, to invert familiar assumptions. In short, these sayings of Jesus reveal him to be truly alternative. His words include hard challenges, mysteries and some surprising prophecies. His is not the voice to go to for simple and easy platitudes. He advocated risking it all on the narrow path, the new wine, the way that says you find what you’re looking for by losing everything. Different thinking. Strange words. But Jesus never asks us to go there alone—or even to go there first. He has already taken this path. He knows where it leads. Because the world itself is upside down, wisdom's way is often first a disaster. It appeared so for Jesus. But he believed it would end in mercy and joy. This is the path his teachings ask us to consider.
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