Our lives occur within a box or bubble that we've created for ourselves. It's nice and safe and predictable. It's also a trap. Lent calls us to step out from it in order to explore and discover the promise of God.
Isaiah 55 addresses the exiles in Babylon, urging them to depart their accommodation to the ways of the empire. He describes the spiritual feast that awaits in returning to faithfulness to God. Included in Isaiah's teaching is the admonition, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
Yet we sometimes imagine that we understand exactly how God works. That's what Jesus confronts in Luke 13 as he discusses a recent tragedy. He punctures the bubble of self-assurance and self-righteousness, typical of our bubble life, that seems to infect the question posed to him. Jesus urges his listeners to step outside the bubble and recognize their true status before God.
He spins the parable of the fig tree which is all about them, and you and me.
Check out the whole story in the sermon video below, and note the downloads below the video panel.
Isaiah 55 addresses the exiles in Babylon, urging them to depart their accommodation to the ways of the empire. He describes the spiritual feast that awaits in returning to faithfulness to God. Included in Isaiah's teaching is the admonition, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
Yet we sometimes imagine that we understand exactly how God works. That's what Jesus confronts in Luke 13 as he discusses a recent tragedy. He punctures the bubble of self-assurance and self-righteousness, typical of our bubble life, that seems to infect the question posed to him. Jesus urges his listeners to step outside the bubble and recognize their true status before God.
He spins the parable of the fig tree which is all about them, and you and me.
Check out the whole story in the sermon video below, and note the downloads below the video panel.
| 02-28-16-ff-answers.pdf |
| 02-28-16-popping_delusions_bubble.pdf |