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POWERS PLAY - from Sunday, March 25, 2018

3/25/2018

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When "the powers" become ruffled, like about kids protesting our gun laws, the vitriol comes fast and furious. Palm Sunday is when the powers-that-be in Jerusalem start getting anxious about Jesus. But our text in Mark 14 shows a host of other powers stirred, while Isaiah's "suffering servant" gives witness to the power of faith against the powers. 

Paul gives us the most memorable description of "the powers" in Ephesians 6:12: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Paul isn't using a wordy way of talking about Satan or the Devil or other nonsense. It's real world, real life powers that insinuate themselves cleverly into our lives. Paul recognized the spirituality of these powers and their ability to command our attention, loyalty, devotion, and adoration. In their exercise of power, they draw people of faith away from the good news of Jesus and into their own empty, futile, even brutal promises, a false righteousness that justifies and hallows the sinful and unrighteous.

The scene in Mark 14 is a rich exposure to the powers at work. We already know that the religious authorities in Jerusalem are plotting to remove any threat that Jesus might pose. But within the story, we see other common powers in play, particularly among the disciples.

In Isaiah 50, in a section among the "suffering servant" passages, the prophet details how sharing God's word faithfully has drawn more than rebuke, but attacks, beatings, and getting spit on. In the face of such animosity, the prophet demands that his accusers confront him. He worries not at all about the outcome, for he is faithful to the Sovereign Lord who justifies him fully.

Find out how these pieces work together in the sermon video below, noting the downloads below the video panel.

03-25-18-ff-answers.pdf
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03-25-18-powers_play.pdf
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THE TIME IS COMING - from Sunday, March 18, 2018

3/18/2018

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The time is coming - a line that can be hopeful or dreadful. How about both? Jeremiah talks about a new covenant to the broken people of God as Jesus realizes that his ministry is coming to its climactic conclusion. 

At our ages, we've heard and said many times that "the time is coming." The future of which the expression speaks is in the future, but we may not know exactly when - only that the time is coming.

Jeremiah is a witness to the run-up to the Babylonian invasion, the brutal conquest by the invaders, and the trial of enslavement as many of God's people are carted off to bondage in Babylon. Here in chapter 31, the prophet who had prophesied the national catastrophe, reaches for a hopeful future at the hand of the God who seems to have abandoned them. 

The prophet talks about a new covenant that is placed in their minds and written on their hearts. What does this mean exactly? How does this relate to what Jesus says in John 12?

Jesus seems awakened to the events that are swirling around him in Passover season in Jerusalem. The time is coming for him, too. He faces the imminent events with some anxiousness. He realizes that there is more at stake than his own preferences. The practice of faithfulness reveals his openness to the promise of God.

Find out how this works out in both passages in the sermon video below, and note the downloads below the video panel.

03-18-18-ff-answers.pdf
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03-18-18-the_time_is_coming.pdf
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SNAKES AND SALVATION - from Sunday, March 11, 2018

3/12/2018

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​SNAKES! How on earth did we get the Numbers 21 passage on the attack of the poisonous snakes on God's people at the end of the Exodus? Why does Jesus reference the snake-on-a-stick when talking to Nicodemus in John 3? We can work this out.

Every commentator on this lectionary selection from Numbers 21 calls it either bizarre, strange, weird, peculiar or the like. Just reading the account makes you scratch your head. Why the lectionary selection committee decided to include it - from all the rest of scripture it could have chosen - is equally strange. In any case, here it is.

Moses has been leading God's ornery, complaining, griping people for decades now. They're almost at the end of the journey. But the muttering starts again. They don't like the food; they don't like the water; they don't like anything.

God seems to snap. God has had it with these people. As if thinking that these people need something to really complain about, God sends swarms of poisonous snakes on them, depicted above by Agnolo Bronzino's The Adoration of the Bronze Snake. (Look closely; you'll see snakes everywhere. Ew!)


The people are getting bitten and dying. They plead with Moses to intercede, admitting that they crossed a line in their complaining. Moses prays and God answers by telling him to construct a snake image and set it on a pole. When the people get bitten, they should look at the snake-on-a-stick and be healed. Moses manages to make one from bronze, and it works.

What was that all about? You better consult the sermon video.

Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 has not been going well. Nicodemus doesn't seem to be getting it at all. Jesus seems to be reminded of Numbers 21, how the snake-on-a-stick is like the Son of God in vs. 14, and Nicodemus is as clueless as the people of God in the wilderness.

Check out the sermon video below and see how John 3:16 reveals Jesus as the snake-on-a-stick!

03-11-18-ff-answers.pdf
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03-11-18-snakes_and_salvation.pdf
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THOU SHALT BE DIFFERENT - from Sunday, March 4, 2018

3/4/2018

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​You're different; I'm different; we're all different. But there's a special difference that's supposed to characterize people of faith. The lessons can be found in the Ten Commandments, and further learning occurs with Jesus's Temple cleansing. 

Our differences help to define us and form our identity. We may find ourselves with others who share similarities, and we may find ourselves intimidated by others whose dissimilarities from ourselves (and people like us) are quite substantial. We may even have fear generated by the gulf of differentiation between sisters and brothers of the same God.

Differences produce identity. As God has spent time with God's people following the Exodus, God has learned that these people are a troublesome lot. They desperately need some direction. God gives them a "top ten list" which we call the Ten Commandments.

If we spend some time considering what these items are all about - rather than trying to memorize them (please don't; learn about them instead) - then we find the message focusing on the same theme in the first several. They insist that the faithful remain focused on God and what God wants, and not to try any nonsense like fashioning God into your preferred image, or pretending that God can manipulated to serve your narrow ends.

Then there are the minimal social behaviors expected. These are characteristics that follow from the first several, indicating how God's faithful people are to reflect God's desires and God's behaviors toward them in their interactions with others. God's people should be different from those who are not in covenant with God, governing themselves with different standards, sacred standards.

Then there's the story of the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus in John 2, an event that happens early in John's gospel compared to the synoptic gospels which have it occurring during Holy Week at the end of Jesus' ministry. Here we see a perfect reflection of what NOT to do from the commandments.

Jesus flies into a rage as he storms through the marketplace, declaring that such activity has no place in the presence of God. Of course, everything happening in the marketplace was occurring thanks to the presence of the Temple, making it a source of corruption rather than holiness.

The Temple authorities challenge Jesus' authority to act in such a manner. Jesus tries to get them to understand what's wrong, but they're inured against any sense of wrongdoing. Jesus tries to get them to see the need to be different, but they cannot hear what he's saying.

Find out what it means to be different as a person of faith as you watch the sermon video and sample the downloads below the video panel.

03-04-18-ff-answers.pdf
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03-04-18-thou_shalt_be_different.pdf
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