Casting Hope

There are two ways to approach God. One is with our accomplishments. The other is with our need. One is the way of religious pride. The other is the way of gospel humility. Only one makes us right with God.

True prayer is vulnerable. How do you continue to appeal to God and not lose heart? Especially when prayer seems fruitless? Jesus addresses this difficult question with a story. And his answer will surprise us.

Life in the Kingdom is upside down and strange. We need guidance. In our passage this morning, Jesus gives us critical guidance: we must learn the difference between hope and hype; fascination and decision.

The Pharisees cannot see God's kingdom even though it is right in front of them. So Luke wants us to learn to see the Kingdom from an unlikely person.

On this Pentecost Sunday, we are going to focus on the gift of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean that God's love has been "poured out" into our hearts?

The life of Jesus depicted in the Gospels is a deep resource for the Christian life. So is the death and resurrection of Jesus. But how many of us are drawing upon the ascension of Jesus on a daily basis? One scholar calls the ascension of Jesus our hidden resource. Let's explore how this Sunday.

Exploring our intellectual barriers to belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

When we are desperate for change we so quickly run to "religion" (our human efforts at reaching the divine and changing our behavior). It gives us an illusion of control. And in some cases, when our religion is really hard, it provides a satisfying sense of accomplishment, not to mention attention and praise from others. The book of Colossians tells us that even Jesus followers can twist their fai...

The resurrection of Jesus is proof of our future resurrection. But there seems to be a lot of time in between! How should we live as we wait for our future resurrection? Should we expect perfection? If not, what?

The resurrection of Jesus is not just a good ending to tragic story. It changes everything. For the seven Sundays of Easter we are exploring the implications of the empty tomb. This week we will explore what the resurrection means for our daily work, our jobs, our vocations.

The resurrection of Jesus is not just an event outside of us; we are joined to Jesus. This means we can "practice resurrection" (Berry) today. We are joined to Jesus in his death and his new life. And so we can walk in new life today. Showing the world what our future resurrection will one day look like.

Life is scary. Matthew's report of the resurrection of Jesus does not erase this truth. In fact, the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection were afraid even as they worshipped the Risen Jesus. But Jesus gives us two gifts when we are afraid: 1/ a merciful response to our fear, and 2/ a purposeful mission. We will explore both this Easter Sunday.

Jesus describes what it means to follow in his Way. We practice forgiveness and humilty. Both of these practices are humanly impossible. But God gives us a mustard seed of faith.

Jesus says to the Pharisees: "you are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts." Jesus is calling us to live before an audience of one.

Jesus tells three stories to describe, and invite us into, his welcome.

Jesus looks at a large crowd of people following him around. And instead of rejoicing in his own fame, he challenges his followers to consider what it means to truly follow him. As Hans Bayer once said, following Jesus is like giving him a blank check. We surrender our life to his purposes. At first this seems impossibly bad. But it is the truest path to freedom.

Who will eat at the table with God? This is actually a question the Biblical story wants us to ask. And it is answered by Jesus while dining with the Pharisees and Bible scholars of his day. His answer very much surprised them. And it will also surprise you.

It's been said that Luke's gospel centers around eating. Jesus is either heading to a meal, at a meal, or leaving a meal. This week, Jesus is at a table and will give us new Spirit-empowered table manners that are meant to spill into all of life.

Jesus embraced rejection on our behalf. This was no accident of history. The cross was at the center of Jesus' work he set out to complete.

Jesus continues to describe his reign. Paradoxically entrance to his kingdom is very narrow; and yet once you are inside it is very spacious.

The way that Jesus describes his new Kingdom is surprising. What can we learn about what it means to be a citizen of his surprising Kingdom?

Sometimes those with the strongest commitment to godly living can miss the point and more tragically miss out on Jesus.

We all crave a confident definition of God. And so we listen to confident voices online, or in our life, for clear statements about God. But what if, instead, we meditated on the authoritative voice that says: "Here is your God!" in Isaiah 40:9?

The Lord says to comfort and speak tenderly to his people who are struggling. This Sunday we hear one of three voices who do just that. A voice cries out to prepare. What does it mean, day to day, to prepare for the Lord's coming?