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DETOURING DEAD ENDS - from Sunday,. February 24, 2019

2/24/2019

Dead-ends seem like defeat. But for the faithful, we need to recognize that the paths of the Kingdom go someplace. That should encourage us to work for detours and keep advancing, like the Joseph saga in Genesis. Even Jesus can learn something about dead-ends in Matthew 15. And you?

Dead-ends are what many of my students at the prison feel like they're facing with long sentences and life sentences. My Life Mapping class is designed to help them detour from the prison mindset, and find meaning in where they are, knowing that God's promise didn't stop when they went behind the wire.

The amazing story of Joseph - sold into slavery, falsely accused of sexual assault, imprisoned, and left for dead more than once - shows how dead-ends can be detoured. He becomes the powerful right-hand man for Pharaoh in the end, able to help his weasel brothers when things turned dire for them.

In Matthew, Jesus begins by teaching people to get out of a dead-end, their concern with dietary cleanliness. Jesus teaches how the heart is most important in determining one's standing before God, not what you eat or how you eat it.

But then Jesus encounters a Syro-Phoenician woman, a Gentile, who takes Jesus's dead-end thinking and teaches him something that would change the scope of his mission.

Learn more with the sermon video below, and note the downloads below the video panel.

02-24-19-sermon.mp3
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02-24-19-ff-answers.pdf
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02-24-19-detouring_dead_ends.pdf
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IN WHAT WE TRUST - from Sunday, February 17, 2019

2/18/2019

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'In God we trust' is everywhere in the USA, but it is more sentiment than substance, a civil religious icon. Jeremiah and Jesus help us to understand what trust in God means in God's eyes.

It's on money, the seal of Florida, and after much debate, retained on the City of Ocala's seal. But the sad truth is that 'In God we trust' is an empty, token nod to pseudo-spirituality or civil religion. Our society would be much different if it was actually a guiding principle instead of a favorite slogan.

The prophet Jeremiah is given God's Word to confront and condemn God's people about their preference for trusting in human promises rather than God and God's promises. God knows like no other, reading heart and mind instead of being impressed by nice sayings and other outward displays that don't really mean much of anything good for God's people. God promises unpleasant consequences for their failure in trust.

Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Plain in Luke, that other sermon that isn't the Sermon on the Mount. Despite some broad similarities, they're quite different. However, both have Jesus teaching his disciples about the Kingdom and Kingdom values.

For Luke, the Kingdom is simply understood as a reversal or over-turning of worldly values. Therefore, Blessed are the poor, followed by Woe to the rich. At its root, Jesus is teaching trust in the ways of the Kingdom, in the way which God has been announcing for centuries, as can be seen in most of the prophets, for example. But God's people - then and now - are really most trusting of the ways of the world. Wealth, power, and technology are trusted to bring salvation and new life in today's society. The Kingdom of God? In God we trust? Seriously? Barely a blip on the radar of God's people.

The Word may make you squirm a bit, but it is supposed to do that, you know. Check out the sermon video below and the downloads below the video panel.

02-17-19-sermon.mp3
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02-17-19-ff-answers.pdf
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02-17-19-in_what_we_trust.pdf
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GET INTO DEEP WATER - from Sunday, February 10, 2019

2/10/2019

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Deep water is not a place where folks choose to venture. But God calls us out to it, to go over our heads, and discover. Isaiah's calling is way over his head, and Jesus tells Simon Peter to go deep and discover. What deep are you being called to?

It's fair to say that our nation is in the deep water these days, trying to figure out who we are and where we're going. It isn't the first time; remember the 60s and 70s? It's a process that takes time to sort out, but we don't like this place of deep water, the uncertainty, the lack of familiarity. We like our ruts and routines and are satisfied with the outcomes which they produce.

Isaiah's day in the Temple when he has this astounding vision of being confronted by God may have been like an ordinary Sunday at the church worship service, expecting the usual thing until it's (finally) time to go to brunch. Instead, God has Isaiah shaking in his boots, unsure about what's coming next, but pretty certain it isn't going to be good. He gets surprised and discovers something powerful about being in deep water with faith in God.

In Luke, we hear how Jesus is teaching, but we never learn what he is teaching. Jesus realizes that being in a boat just off-shore would be a better vantage point for communicating with the crowds. But none of that is the point - it's coming.

When he is finished, Jesus instructs Peter to go fishing in the deep water. Peter complains that he has already been fishing all night and there is nothing to be caught today. But Peter humors Jesus, gather his nets back up, and goes back to work. Out in the deep water, Peter makes a discovery similar to Isaiah.

Explore the deep water with the sermon video below and discover what it may offer you.

02-10-19-sermon.mp3
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02-10-19-ff-answers.pdf
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02-10-19-get_into_deep_water.pdf
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GOD'S DIFFICULT WORD - from February 3, 2019

2/3/2019

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Take out the parts of God's Word that are too difficult and you gut scripture, like the slave's Bible (pictured - click here for more about the slave's Bible). But you don't need to take parts out; you can simply ignore the difficult Word for you. And when you don't skip it, when you go and present God's difficult Word, watch out! Jeremiah and Jesus provide insights.

Jeremiah's call is to fulfill God's name for him: Prophet to the nations. Jeremiah knows the scope of this call is beyond him, but God pushes the call along anyway. God even puts God's Word in Jeremiah's mouth. God empowers Jeremiah with God's Word to do phenomenal, awesome things, and Jeremiah is blown away. There is also no way out.

Jesus' story resumes last week's preaching-teaching at the Nazareth synagogue. Where we left off, Jesus was drawing accolades. But he hadn't come to garner praise, but to deliver God's Word, God's difficult Word. He does it. But his rave reviews quickly turned sour as the hometown crowd became a lynch mob. What did he say? Does slamming their sense of privilege and entitlement do it? Hmmm.

View the sermon video below and find out more.