Blog Archives

"HAVE YOU STILL NO FAITH?" - from Sunday, June 24, 2018

6/24/2018

Stormy seas in our personal lives can make our journey rock and roll in troubling ways. How does calm and peace get restored? And why are these storms blowing up our lives anyway?

Psalm 107 is a variety of reasons for giving God thanks for actions bringing relief to those in dire straits. Those hungering and thirsting find food and drink. The imprisoned find liberation. Sinful fools find healing and forgiveness. All should give thanks to the Lord for his wonderful deeds!

Our selection focuses on one other group, mariners at sea in a fierce storm. As experienced seamen as they may be, they're "at their wit's end" with the doozy of a storm that God cooks up. They cry out for deliverance and God responds by stilling the storm, and then guiding them to safe harbor.

The storm on the water draws some parallel from Jonah's experience when his shipmates demand that he cry out to his god for salvation. Of course, Jonah has some issues with his God.

In Mark's account, Jesus and his disciples get slammed by a squall in crossing the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is asleep in the stern, oblivious to the storm (Again, see Jonah who also was sound asleep in the storm.)

You know how this is going to work out, right? But why do the disciples fear Jesus?

And still unanswered is: why does God bring these storms into our lives?

Learn more in the sermon video below, and from the downloads below the video panel.

06-24-18-ff-answers.pdf
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06-24-18-have_you_still_no_faith.pdf
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THE KINGDOM BY SEEDS - from Sunday, June 17, 2018

6/18/2018

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Neat things happen when you plant seeds, but you don't necessarily know what's going on underground that brings a shoot. Without any care in the right conditions, it can keep growing until it bears fruit.

Our scriptures talk about God's Kingdom growing from modest beginnings. Ezekiel talks about taking the "crown" from a cedar while Jesus talks about seed growing. How is this about the Kingdom? And most importantly, what's that seed?

In Ezekiel 17, an allegory about the "crown" of a cedar tree describes the recent history of what the "eagles" - Babylonian emperors - have done to God's people. Our scripture picks up the last verses that describe how God will form God's Kingdom.

In Mark 4, Jesus has been talking about the word of God and its relation to God's Kingdom. From the chapter's beginning, he has used parables, and uses two more in our selection. The parable of the growing seed focuses on the hidden and carefree nature of the seed's growth to bearing fruit.

Then the parable of the mustard focuses on the small size of the seed and its ability to grow a large plant that, just as in Ezekiel, provides shelter for all kinds of little ones in its branches.

Those questions remain - how is this about the Kingdom? And most importantly, what's that seed? Find out in the sermon video below, noting the downloads also available below the video panel.

06-17-18-ff-answers.pdf
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06-17-18-the_kingdom_by_seeds.pdf
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THE KINGDOM VERSUS THE RELIGIOUS - from Sunday, June 10, 2018

6/10/2018

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The Sabbath is sacred in Judaism - no work on this sacred day. Yet Jesus seems to flout the prohibition on work. His answers to his Pharisee accusers seem really odd. What's he doing?

Deuteronomy 5 (see also Ex 20) lays out the Ten Commandments, and the fourth commandment has to do with observing the Sabbath. It's rather long since it includes all of the kinds of people and things that are not to be employed for work - in other words, don't try anything weasel-like to try to profit from the Sabbath! Then the question is: what is work? That's where interpreters of the Torah-Law come in.

And that brings us to the end of Mark 2 when Jesus gets challenged by the Pharisees about the failure of his disciples to observe the Sabbath prohibition on work. The disciples had plucked grain from a wheat field while passing through. Jesus' response seems odd; it doesn't refer to the Sabbath at all.

It doesn't get any better in the next story when Jesus is about to heal someone on the Sabbath. Before acting, he poses his own legal question to the Pharisees. But this question also seems to have nothing to do with the Sabbath. What is Jesus' point in these tactics?

Watch the sermon video to see why Jesus is being so roundabout as he talks about the Kingdom while the Pharisees talk about religion.

06-10-18-ff-answers.pdf
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06-10-18-the_kingdom_versus_the_religious.pdf
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AUTHORITY FOR NEW TIMES - from Sunday, June 3, 2018

6/3/2018

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Things change, and who has authority in new times can change, too. The struggle for authority can teach us about true authority, God and Kingdom.

When God's people seek a king from Samuel the Judge (i.e. no more judges), their motivations are doubtful, and they're forewarned of the consequences. They don't care; they want a king.

When Jesus casts out demons, his family thinks that he's lost his mind, but the scribes from Jerusalem get there first. They call him "Prince of Demons." Jesus makes the scribes look like fools, and when his natural family arrives, he redefines what family means in the Kingdom of God.

Check out these great stories and hear the demons shriek in the sermon video below.