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KEEPING FAITH WITH GOD THE STRANGER - from Sunday, August 28, 2016

8/28/2016

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We treat strangers with some doubt and suspicion. Yet the greatest strangers of all are God and his Son Jesus. Faith means trusting in the unknowable. Estrangement - a broken relationship - has consequences for all.

Failing in faith can lead to estrangement, as the prophet Jeremiah declares in the scripture reading. The broken relationship between God and God's people is not God's fault. Rather, Jeremiah points to every level of community leadership for the failure; priests, scribes and scholars of the Law, political leaders, and even the palace prophets. 

Led to pursue worthless idols - Baal gods - God's people have acted as if there is no covenant. Having forsaken their God, they've chosen a poor substitute. And their prosperity will be forsaken as well.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, we gain a glimpse into the conditions of Christian community at the end of the first century, about 70 years since Jesus and the start of his post-resurrection movement at Pentecost. Time are tough for many Christian communities as those faithful to Jesus find themselves facing persecution and punishment from all sides.

Our selection is a recap of what was said earlier. The emphasis is on the strength of the community. As the NRSV aptly puts the opening of chapter 13, the writer says: "Let mutual love continue." The exhortations that follow make it clear that mutuality cannot be sacrificed under the difficult conditions being faced. In fact, mutuality must become even more pronounced.

The memorable verse, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels unawares" (13:2), recalls Abraham and Sarah's encounter in Genesis with strange visitors. It should also remind us of the faith required in trusting God the stranger, and Jesus the stranger in all circumstances.

To find out more on this, there is the sermon video below, and downloads below the video panel. 


08-28-16-ff-answers.pdf
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08-28-16-keeping_faith_with_god_the_stranger.pdf
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SABBATH FOR HEALING - from Sunday, August 21, 2016

8/23/2016

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Busy, busy, busy. Busy people are important and valued in our society. But God invites us to Sabbath, to rest, reflect, and get re-oriented to Kingdom ways as we enter sacred space to seek the presence of God in our lives and in our world. 

The scriptures bring the powerful message of Sabbath practice to us in different ways.

(Third) Isaiah 58 is all about practicing a meaningful spirituality, focusing first on a faithful fast, and then  turning attention to Sabbath. Isaiah makes it clear that such spirituality is at the heart of God's promise for God's people. The prophet contrasts their typical practice with what should be happening, reflecting on the bankruptcy and corruption of their society as indicative that their spirituality is worthless. They may feel abandoned by God once again, but in fact, they've created their own problems.

In Luke, Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath at the synagogue. He get chastized by the synagogue ruler who claims that the other six days are when helaings should be performed, condemning Jesus' "labor" on the Sabbath. Winning friends once again, Jesus calls then all "hypocrites!" He is saying that the Sabbath is the precise time when healing should be occurring. He stands against the idea that performing sacred action more scrupulously, literally, and precisely is more faithful. Jesus brings them back to the ideas of the Kingdom, of the healing and life-giving taht is central to the Kingdom, not rules and disconnected acts of devotion.

Sabbath can be transformational. But you'll have to check out the sermon video below to find out how that is. Also note the downloads below the video panel.

08-21-16-ff-answers.pdf
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08-21-16-sabbath_for_healing.pdf
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DECISION AND DIVISION - Sunday, August 14, 2016

8/16/2016

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Relationships showcase the best and worst of people. You may come to decision time and decide to break off a relationship. That's likely to spark conflict as it creates division. The Kingdom relationship can create lots of problems, too.

Isaiah uses the image of a lovingly tended vineyard to describe how God has provided all the right things to produce a wonderful harvest. Yet what gets produced are not sweet grapes, but sour grapes. God has a bit of a fit, deciding that the vineyard should be destroyed and made desolate. 

You've probably been there: you give and give in a relationship, but the reciprocity expected in such a relationship never emerges. It's a one-way street, and you're at the dead end. Time to quit. That's where God is with the people.

Getting past the vineyard and grape metaphor, what did God really expect from his people? 

Jesus' teaching has the distressing line that he has come to bring not peace, but a sword. He goes on to talk about setting family relations into conflict and division. This bothers lot of folks because we always imagine Jesus teaching differently in most other places.

Actually, Jesus is re-defining relationships as they should be in the Kingdom, and implicitly, he indicates God's expectations are a lot like what you discovered in Isaiah. 

Didn't you figure out what God was expecting from his "vineyard," his people? Then you better take a look at the sermon video below, and note the downloads below the video panel.

08-14-16-ff-answers.pdf
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08-14-16-decision_and_division.pdf
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WHAT'S WORTH WORRY - Sunday, August 7, 2016

8/9/2016

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Worry is sometimes seen as opposing faith. Truly, it has its rightful place, but the question is what we worry about. Scriptures point us in a direction that we typically don't regard as a priority concern. 

Worry has the benefit of making us think things, through and that's a good thing. We should have concern or anxiety about certain things. Worry makes us think about the situation and the options.

Continuing in Luke from last week's topic of worthy wealth, Jesus has a teaching about what's worth worry. Birds and flowers are taken care of by the Creator. 'Why are you worried about the things that you're worried about?' Jesus asks. 

Jesus continues to focus on Kingdom wealth where true wealth consists of giving, not receiving. The hard saying, Sell your possessions and give to the poor, is hard for us to hear, just as it was for his original audience. 

Faithfulness means participating in the healing work of the Kingdom, in investing in others where there is need or lack - poverty. The context is not individual - and most everything in our society and in its religion is individualized; think salvation and sinfulness. Jesus points beyond self to others for that is where God's attention is, on the whole of creation and its human community, particularly 'the least of these.'

In Isaiah, we hear God's denunciation through the prophet of God's people and their useless worship. Their offerings, their devotion, and their prayers are rejected because they ignore the sinfulness of the society in which they live, and they've accepted it as a given. For this, the prophet announces, Your hands are full of blood. Ouch!

Their worry about God continuing as their protector and defender appears to God as mocking when they care not at all about the suffering and exploitation of their brothers and sisters. What should they really be worried about?

Check out the sermon video below and the downloads below the video panel.

08-07-16-ff-answers.pdf
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08-07-16-whats_worth_worry.pdf
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WHAT'S WORTHY WEALTH - from Sunday, July 31, 2016

8/1/2016

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Got wealth? Is it worth anything? For how long? What is worthy wealth? 

The dismal "Teacher" known as Ecclesiastes reviews all of the ways of life and invokes a refrain "all is vanity and a chasing after the wind." The Teacher, whose lesson emphasizes the value of wisdom, can't see the ultimate difference between the wise and the fool since both will die and be forgotten before long. All human striving is "vanity and a chasing after the wind."

The accumulation of wealth is similarly shown to a a matter of "vanity and a chasing after the wind." 

The Teacher does point to the blessing of God: "To the one who pleases him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy." The other noteworthy instance of positive, helpful commentary comes in Eccles. 11:1-2. These statements have implicit values that reflect how wealth and meaning can be identified and understood.

Jesus gets challenged by someone in the crowd who wants Jesus to issue a legal pronouncement on an inheritance issue. Wisely, Jesus steers clear of that, but uses the occasion for a teaching about wealth. The parable of the rich fool connects nicely with the teaching in Ecclesiastes. The parable challenges the worldly, self-centered view of wealth accumulation, pushing the listener to understand how true treasure - worthy wealth - gets achieved.

Get the whole story in the sermon video below, and in the downloads below the video panel.

07-31-16-ff-answers.pdf
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07-31-16-whats_worthy_wealth.pdf
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