Blog Archives

IN POSITION FOR THE COMING - from Sunday, November 27, 2016

11/29/2016

Getting positioned for success is considered a key factor. Consider how football teams carefully align themselves for each play. Scriptures regularly challenge how the faithful are positioned. As we enter the Advent season - the beginning of a new year for the church - we're challenged to be positioned for the coming promise.

The prophet Isaiah (this is "First" Isaiah, a contemporary of Micah) knows of the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom, Israel, and the Assyrians are besieging Judah and Jerusalem. God is working in this, and he begins chapter 2 articulating a vision that seeks to describe God's promise for his people. The question is whether the people will follow God's invitation into the light, or opt for the comforts of the familiar amid the darkness.

Jesus has a similar task. He depicts another occasion of God's "creative destruction," at the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age. (It seems an odd place to start the Advent-Christmas season, but the start of Advent typically makes reference to the cataclysmic events of the second coming, even as we're considering the first coming in our liturgical calendar.)

Jesus contrasts average, everyday people at their normal tasks. One gets taken up while the other remains. Why is that? The answer awaits in the sermon video below, plus the downloads below the video panel.

11-27-16-ff-answers.pdf
File Size:	20 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

11-27-16-in_position_for_the_coming.pdf
File Size:	214 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

0 Comments

HOLY EXTREME MAKEOVER! - from Sunday, November 13, 2016

11/13/2016

1 Comment

With the election over, we can now expect the Great American Makeover will begin. We aren't too clear of what the design is exactly, but we have some strong indicators. While the political vision for the nation remains a mystery beyond the cheer lines (and jeer lines) of the campaign, we know that God has a vision for his creation, and Jesus has a vision for his disciples. There are holy extreme makeovers ahead!

The soaring vision of Third Isaiah is compelling on many levels, a solid reason for it to be so familiar and so often quoted. The prophet knows clearly the suffering of most people who endure poverty and disease and exploitation. They despair about their future and may believe their God is unable or unwilling to bring about any new condition.

The prophet asserts in his vision how God will transform all that they have known into a reflection of the Kingdom, a place of peace and prosperity, of justice and community, of well being and compassion, of healing and reconciliation. The blessings will extend to generations going forward, embracing the young and the old.

The vision of community shared in Is. 65:25 - the familiar The wolf and the lamb shall feed together .... - is also rich in imagery and details which reveal a transformation of community into truly sacred space.

In Luke 21, Jesus is at the Temple with his disciples. They're awestruck by the magnificence of this great edifice, its bright white stones, its glittering gold ornaments, its imposing size over anything anywhere in this part of the world. Yet Jesus begins painting a picture of this colossal structure in complete ruins. In the disciples, it sparks discussion about the coming of the end of the age. They ask how will they know when that time has come.

Jesus indulges them with some horrific imagery, but then brings them back to the present to focus them on their faith, discipleship, and mission.

Learn more about the transformed community in Isaiah and the faithful discipleship that Jesus expects by checking out the sermon video below, and the downloads below the video panel.

11-13-16-ff-answers.pdf
File Size:	28 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

11-13-16-holy_extreme_makeover.pdf
File Size:	160 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

1 Comment

GOD'S PROMISE AWAITS - from Sunday, November 6, 2016

11/6/2016

0 Comments

While this has certainly been a dismal election season, there is no reason to think that governance or democracy is ready to resume after the election. The dysfunction of the past is likely to ramp up to new heights, regardless of the outcomes. Hopeless? Scriptures remind us that God's promise awaits just beyond our field of vision.

Hopelessness characterized God's people in the time of the prophet Haggai. Twenty years after returning from Babylonian exile, now under Persian rule, the hope found in Second Isaiah at liberation from exile has become grinding poverty and daily struggle for most "back home." The Temple, devastated by the Babylonians decades before, remains a wreck, and the city walls along with it. These are daily reminders of failure and defeat that inspire only despair.

While political and religious leaders have failed to this point in addressing the concerns of the people, the prophet Haggai steps forward with God's word. He calls out not only the leaders but also the people to renew their faithfulness and commit to the re-building of the Temple. It is no attempt to capture the departed past, but a quest to design the future, to find the fulfillment of God's ancient promise to be with his people, to bring them from the depths to new life.

In Jesus' confrontation with the Sadducees in Luke 20, he gets asked a question about marriage on a hypothetical woman who is rightfully married successively to seven brothers, and the question to whom she would be married once in heaven. Some scholars debate this like it was some serious question. Hogwash! The Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection of the dead. In fact, it's a stupid question (Jesus castigates them in the Mark version) but Jesus doesn't simply brush it aside. He uses it as an opportunity to teach about the nature of God and God's promise that they've missed altogether.

God's promise can be hard (impossible?) to visualize when endings are upon us. However, as endings open to new beginnings, we find God's promise awaits the faithful.

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

11-06-16-ff-answers.pdf
File Size:	24 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

11-06-16-gods_promise_awaits.pdf
File Size:	134 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

0 Comments

GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH - from Sunday, October 30, 2016

11/1/2016

0 Comments

Getting to the right place is a journey that involves endurance, determination, and even sacrifice. Faith leads the way, helping us to go from strength to strength, discovering that surprising blessings unfold.

The journey in Psalm 84 is the account fo a pilgrim coming over a long, hard trek to get to the Holy City, Jerusalem, and upon gaining the first sight of its glorious Temple. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! With the destination within sight, the pilgrim recounts the blessings of the house of God, the place where God is believed to reside and meet his faithful people.

The psalm transitions to prayer as the pilgrim becomes worshiper within the Temple itself. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Notice how "the wicked" dwell in "tents." Even though the wicked may in fact have mansions and palaces, those are mere "tents" compared to the humble little one of faith who dwells in the shadow of the Temple of God.

Clearly, the psalmist's journey was an arduous one. When we consider the beginning Luke 19, we find Jesus the pilgrim, making his journey toward his destiny in the Holy City of Jerusalem. His passage through Jericho was likely the cause of considerable excitement in town.

Even it's wealthy tax collector, Zacchaeus, is stirred up. He must see this Jesus of Nazareth, but being a short fellow, he can't see over the crowd. He runs ahead and climbs a tree. That not only got Jesus' attention, but also a request for Zacchaeus to host Jesus for the night. How doubly exciting!

But tax collectors for the Romans were regarded as sinners and unclean, cooperating with pagan Gentile authorities in the exploitation of the Roman subjects, his fellow Jews. The muttering and grumbling starts immediately. But Zacchaeus is prepared to change his life in a dramatic way, willing to make major sacrifices to give witness to his faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The whole story is below in the sermon video, and note the downloads below the video panel.