God as projector; Jesus as slide

Dr. Osiek had a metaphor for Jesus she uses to understand the Jesus in the Gospel of John. Slides into a projector.

At first the projector is just a white square, but putting a slide in gives the white light box color, shape and tone. The slide gives the light meaning.

God is this flood of light. And white light has all color. Light is also a mystery in that it has both properties of a wave and a particle. Light is this which can be seen but not totally understood. So as the projector shines white light, so is God. Just as white light is incomprehensible, so is God.

But as a slide is put into the projector the white light gains meaning. The light is able to be understood and comprehended but us who are not able to fully see the white light. Likewise, Jesus is that slide for God. Jesus gives us the ability to see God in a way we would otherwise not be able to understand.

Is confession needed before we come to Christ???

Prior to the UMC's communion liturgy we have these words that says, "Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another."

We then have a prayer of confession which is said as a community.

No big deal, right?

However, I was in class last week and one of the professors said there was a scholar she read who says something to this effect:

What makes Jesus different from other teachers of his day is that Jesus does not require people to repent prior to being in his presence. When someone wants to see him or be healed, Jesus does not require that person repents and then that person can eat or becomes healed.

This idea was powerful for me to consider how we "do" communion, conversion, and evangelism. We require that people first repent of their sin - the prayer in a communion liturgy to the "sinner's prayer" on a Biblical tract. Then AFTER repentance are you in communion with or move closer to Jesus.

But is this backwards?

Requiring people to repent makes the Christian life look like a religion of requirements in order to get grace. Rather than a religion which promotes grace and out of grace we repent.

When that person encountered Jesus, that is encountered grace from God, they repented out of that experience. Perhaps that repentance meant more to the person as it was a response to the overwhelming grace they experienced even as a person who is "unclean", "sinful" or "outcast".

I don't know, but what would it look like if the prayer of confession in the UMC communion liturgy came after communion rather than a prayer of thanksgiving?

What are the differences...

What are the differences in the following:

Jesus died
Jesus was killed
Jesus was murdered

What would the connotations be if you heard each of these? Would there be a difference or are these three phrases "saying" the same thing? Is there a difference at all?

I am not sure people in the pew care much about this sort of stuff but, I think the way I talk about Jesus and how he died makes a difference in how I understand Jesus' message and mission. Does this sort of distinction matter to anyone else?