Bearing Witness

You can be generous. Instead of having less when you give more, we actually gain so much when we are generous in what we give away. We can be generous with grace and forgiveness because we recognize that God has been generous with grace and forgiveness for us!

Practice: rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks IN all things. Wow! Tall order....?!? When we remember that God is always with us in the good times and the bad, we can do these simple but not easy things. Joy is deeper than happiness, prayer is being aware of presence, and we don't give thanks FOR all things. Gratitude is the foundation that it is all built on. Practice gratitude and the o...

Spiritual Practices: what are they? Let's look at them in a new way. Are we awake to what is happening around us? Jacob saw things in his dream that woke him up to the fact that God is everywhere, that God was & is there, not that God all of a sudden showed up where he hadn't been before. Are we aware that God is always there, always here, always with us? Let's practice seeing God in all thing...

To the ends of the earth. We must actively participate in the Kingdom of God, here and now. Phillip followed the Holy Spirit's leading to go from Samaria to "the ends of the earth" in that time. The Ethiopian man sought God against discrimination and found that Jesus was the Good News he was looking for as he heard from Isaiah. Will we follow the Spirit too?

The story of Gideon, mighty warrior, from Judges holds some things that we miss when we jump to the end of the story. When God called Gideon, he was hiding and was first required to tear down the idols that his people had woven into their worship of Yahweh.  We too, have woven certain things so deeply into our understanding of faith and what it means to follow God that we can't even see that...

In the Meantime: Jeremiah is a prophet that speaks truth, asks God why he has to be tasked with a job that gets him disliked, but can't keep silent either. Before we get to the feel good promise of Jeremiah 29:11 - what does the warning in 1-10 say has to come first? What hard work has to be done first?

As we continue listening to the stories of every day people, we look at 2 Mother's - Mary & Elizabeth.  Both in tough situations, both of whom could have dispared but instead had hope and trust that what God said he would do through them, he would. Unwed, pregnant teenager and old barren woman. But they responded: Lord, may it be so with your servant. God loves to use broken, humble peopl...

We are like Rahab, broken, hopeful, doers of small things with bravery. Those small acts can have big results. Rahab is, after all, Jesus's great....... grandma! Will we choose to be faithful to God above all else, even country, family, ideology ......? 

A story of 2 brave women doing what they do, nothing extraordinary, just doing what they knew to be right. From Exodus and the story of the Israelites living in oppression and injustice, we can take an example from them. One simple step that we can do to live into the heritage of these witnesses is to listen and learn stories of our brothers and sisters of color.

From the Great Cloud of Witnesses we find in Scripture and from some more current witnesses, we will learn what it means to live by faith through their broken, hopeful, and very human examples. Faith goes hand in hand with action. Hebrews 11 starts us off. 

Wonder - There was lots of it on that first Easter morning. What if we had more wonder? More curiosity? What if? What new life would we find? What if the resurrected Jesus isn’t only interested in getting you into heaven but wants you to enter and live in the kingdom now?

We know the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem on the colt, palm branches waving, "Hosanna" being shouted.... Yeah, ok, we know what to expect, heard it before, we know what's coming next.  But - what if we were to try to get past our confirmation bias? The Jewish people had their expectations, their lenses. We often miss so much because we are sure we know how things are. What if we try to be...

Luke 18:31-43 - Jesus heals the Blind Beggar who cries out, regardless of those who try to quiet him. “If we are to be healed & reconciled with our brothers & sisters of color, we must allow God’s judgment & mercy to fall on us; that our eyes might be opened & we might be able to see what’s right in front of our face. And to hear the cries of our brothers & sisters for justice,...

Jesus tells some crazy stories... In a chapter, Luke 16, all about money & our relationship to it, Jesus tells a story about a rich guy who is blind to his greed and the poor man, Lazarus (which means Whom God Has Helped) and the Reversal that happens after they die. One more Great Reversal story, one more chance to see our neighbor, one more opportunity to repent and receive God's grace!

Wrapping up Galatians - Freedom is meaningless and destructive if it is not put into the service of neighbor. As we think about bearing each other's burdens, what does that mean today? Sometimes we need to carry our own junk, sometimes we need to ask for help. Why is it hard for us to know when to do which? We put on our individualism to the extreme when we should be asking for help yet sometimes...

Lost coins, lost sheep, lost sons. Jesus not only seeks after the lost but he chooses to spend time with them, regardless of what "the right people" think or say. We’re all lost and we’re all in need of that restoration that Jesus offers. That is, friends, the Good News. That is why Jesus invites us to the table. He invited us to the table and he says, Welcome to the feast.

More of Galatians: Love Your Neighbor is a main theme of everything Jesus taught & that his followers continued to teach. We are all connected and live in an intertwining of community, so what we do effects everyone and everything. Our fruit isn't just about us. Are you bearing good fruit from your beliefs or do your beliefs need some pruning? What effects does your fruit have on how you live...

Seemingly random stories, Jesus?!? Slaughter of the Galileans? Tower of Siloam falling? A Fig Tree needing manure.... We're all gonna die and need repentance. They really do make sense! (This is not a burn or die repentance sermon! LOL)

Paul changes his tone - Listen up.... What are you zealous about? A message about how God shows up for us in powerful ways - in our brokenness. Will we be authentic enough to be real? 

The NBA, the Tour de France, a guardian... The Law. Christ, the fulfillment, the completion... Grace.  The Both/& of Law & Grace. 

As we start a series on Galatians, we will look at our origin stories - any Marvel fans out there? We all have a story, a first experience of Jesus and that becomes the beginning of our new reality.

This sermon follows the killing of George Floyd. We discuss the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the importance of seeing the image of God in every person. To Jesus, there is no Other. 

This ends the 4 part series on living together in community and reflecting on what it means to serve our neighbors.

Life in community takes intentionality and love.

Jesus invites us to life with Him and into life in His Kingdom. Passage: Matthew 11:27-30