ReNew Ames Messages

The story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness features three temptations. It's a pretty solid narrative structure, but it also can be applied to more general situations that we find ourselves in. First temptation is to go after short-term immediate gratification rather than trusting that God will provide what we need when we need it. We can have whatever we want whenever we want it withou...

Here we are again bumping up against this theme of crossing lines and boundaries. The reason we bring it up so often here is because we see Jesus doing this all over the pages of the Bible. He's constantly crossing lines and boundaries. And this story is no different - we'll notice all the lines and boundaries that mark off territory - and Jesus is inviting us to step out and learn that our line d...

There will be no better summary of this week's message than the closing paragraph: "That, friends, is why I love what we get to do here and why I don’t give up. We get to create a community that loves. We get to create a community where our doors are wide open just like Jesus’ arms. Anyone is welcome. Everyone is welcome. And we’ll do our best to provide the right type of atmosphere where all of u...

God invites us into conversation with God and one another through God's creation. The first chapter of Genesis has been interpreted in many ways, but the one that we are examining here is great and beautiful poetry. Through the building of the world in words and patterns of rhythm, we can be carried through the beauty before us and learn a whole lot about who God is and what God wants the world to...

So we've spent a couple of weeks looking at the beginning of the Jesus story. His baptism in Mark - Jesus leaving home and calling the first disciples in Matthew. Now, back to Mark just after Jesus had sent the disciples on a local mission trip. They get back from the trip and they're so excited to tell Jesus what they had accomplished that they talk all over each other. So, Jesus says, "Come away...

Leaving Nazareth. The story of Jesus leaving home to do his thing. What would cause a young guy, 30 years old, to leave his home, his family, his business? Maybe he remembered his baptism? Maybe he remembered the voice? Maybe he sensed that God was up to something new? He was beginning to sense that God's reign wasn't passive, but active, powerful, revolutionary. So, he began to talk about it. Pre...

The baptism of Jesus. Why is this story in the Bible? He didn't have followers yet - none of his disciples were there. So how did they know this story? Well, probably because this story was important to Jesus. He had a profound experience told the story to his followers over and over again. The story is in there because Jesus was fully gripped by the power of God's love. And because he was gripped...

Starting off the New Year with a doozie of a story! Ahab and Jezebel have a dude named Naboth murdered and then steal his land. Woo hoo. So, why are stories like these even in the Bible? Well, turns out we can learn from them. In this story we see that one thing leads to another. Greed leads to lying which leads to a whole bunch of other things that lead to murder. We learn that sin gives birth to...

The Word became flesh. So why does John tell the Christmas story this way? He's trying to reach as a large an audience as possible. He gives us cosmic Christmas. John used the word "word," or "logos" in Greek. This would have been a familiar concept for John's readers. The word, or logos, is the rational principle behind the entire universe - it gives the universe its reasonableness. You could say...

This is the story of John the Baptist wondering if Jesus was the Messiah or if they should wait for another. It's a curious story because you would think that J the B would know and be clear about this. He leaped in his mother's womb when Mary came to see his mom. He was there at Jesus' baptism. But he wasn't clear, because Jesus turned out to be a messiah no one was expecting. Jesus tells the del...

"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." Paul isn't just talking about what's going on in this little church. If you read the rest of the letter, he's placing what's going on in the Philippian church within the context of God renewing, recreating, and transforming all of creation. And we get to be in on it. So, how do we get in on it? Where do we start? That's where John t...

The beginning of Advent: Mary travels to stay with Elizabeth for the remaining duration of her pregnancy. So often the materialism and stressful factors of Christmas dominate our focus during this season. It is easier to see what stresses us out, what we could gain, what we could consume. But let us not lose sight of the journey towards the birth of Jesus. Enjoyable as some of these other aspects...

Jesus goes and preaches in his hometown. They're skeptical - they think they know everything about him - so they reject him. Sometimes the ordinary, the familiar, what we think we know can blind us to the extraordinary - can blind us to what God is doing in the world. God reveals things to us through the ordinary. That's a positive thing to think about, but it probably should also make us a bit un...

1) There's something about religiosity that can make us prone to being judgmental. But maybe it's more than that. Maybe it's part of the human condition - it's just in us. 2) The religious experts set a trap for Jesus and how he gets out of it. He essentially turns the whole trap back on them. In doing so, Jesus gives us the best antidote to religious judgmentalism: we're all in the same boat - we...

This is the second of Isaiah's Servant Songs. These songs reveal some things about the nature of God's servants - people like us. First, servants are called and formed for a purpose. We aren't an accident - we were formed by God and called for a purpose. Second, if we're called and formed for a purpose as servants, then we've got work to do. What kind of work? We see themes in this passage of rest...

This is a story that definitely fits in the horror genre. Demon possession, gore, violence, possessed pigs running off a cliff...it has it all. Because it has such heavy and disturbing themes, it's sometimes difficult to approach this story. We'll start with the question Jesus asks. "What is your name? Who are you, really?" It's a loving question - Jesus is approaching the man with compassion. Wha...

We were created in the image of God, in other words, we are icons representing God. When Jesus preached in the temple, he read from the passage that declares good news for the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind. This reading of a proclamation of freedom and healing is one made by a king, and it was significant to the people listening, who would have un...

Parable of the widow and the judge. Luke tells us that this is a story about praying and never giving up. Pray always and never give up. But sometimes we don't want to pray - all we get is silence from God. Jesus' story says "keep praying, even when you get silence or inaction from God in return." Jesus teaches us this because it's something we need to be taught! Otherwise we would quit praying. T...

This is the parable of the two lost sons. A very familiar story, one that we talk about all the time in church. Typically it's called The Parable of the Lost Son, or something similar. We all know the feeling of something being lost. But this parable gives us a different perspective on that concept. The two sons are lost - but not misplaced - only hiding. The first son literally runs away - we liv...

Passionate faith - what does it look like? 1) Passionate Faith is an absolute trust in the God who loves and protects us in spite of our imperfections. 2) Passionate Faith is a sacrificial faith. 3) Passionate Faith is a forgiving faith. The forgiveness in this case is more than just "I forgive you." Stephen is actually wishing well those who are killing him. He's essentially asking that God would...

It's all about love. Jesus says that as the Father has loved him, so also has he loved us. Remain in his love. If we're going to remain in Jesus' love we ought to know what his love looks like. When you boil it down, his love brought him nothing but trouble - danger everywhere, the sick pulling on him, crowds pressing in on him, across every social barrier - and eventually it took him to the cross...

Jesus heals a woman in the middle of a worship service in the synagogue. God is large, unmanageable, and full of surprises. Then, something curious happens. The leader of the synagogue gets upset because you're not supposed to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus works on the Sabbath. He breaks the law and traditions. Something he does with regularity. Jesus rebukes the guy revealing that the leader of the...

The goodness in us isn't a light we emit all on our own - it's a derived light. We are light in the Lord. Light is seen. The writer of Ephesians is writing to a small church much like that churches we encountered in Revelation - and in fact is one of those churches. You might think that the encouragement would be to lay low so as not to draw attention to themselves. Nope - they are called light. F...

This week, Tony comes to us with a challenge to ask questions, to boldly approach the idea of uncertainty with the ability to acknowledge that we may not have answers right away, or ever. Speaker: Tony Vis

Raising of Lazarus: what a story. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" What the heck does that mean? Lazarus is still dead. What's going on here? Perhaps Jesus said those things and then John recorded them for us so that we would open up the way we thin...