Brewing Theology With Teer Hardy

October 14, 2018 - Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Mark 10:35-45 What Jesus said to the disciples shapes our lives as followers of Jesus, individually, and as a community. Discipleship means following Jesus with childlike reliance and living a cross-bearing life that resists the power and prestige we grasp for when our own security is in question. Jesus lived this cross-bearing life to the po...

October 7, 2018 - World Communion Sunday Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Mark 10:2-16 By quoting Genesis instead of echoing Deuteronomy Jesus told the Pharisees that the Kingdom of G-d, G-d’s disruptive reign, will empower those previously without power. Social structures designed to keep people groups in their place will be disrupted. This point is driven home further when Jesus double-down,...

September 30, 2018 Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Luke 19:1-10 Extravagant generosity is about us participating in the extravagant kingdom-building work G-d is engaged in. G-d’s act of “loving, saving, and healing” in our community and around the world. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

Mount Olivet UMC - September 23, 2018 Genesis 41 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 The culture of now tells us that we earned this and thus we deserve it, but when we read stories like Joseph we see that the plenty we enjoy is a gift from God, a generous gift placed in our lives by our Creator. Stewardship means caring for something that ultimately is not ours, which is why talking about stewardship of creatio...

Mount Olivet United Methodist Church - September 16, 2018 Proverbs 3:13-16 Luke 16:1-13 How we earn money is a clear and accurate indicator of our priorities. We might speak out in favor of honest work that others should be doing but do we follow the same prescription in our own businesses? We can earn by following the footsteps of someone else but at some point we have to begin living into the ca...

Ephesisans 4:25-5:2 So then, the new life offered to us by G-d in Christ is an invitation to claim the renaming and claiming done by G-d in our baptism. This is not a new list of things we must do to be renamed “beloved child of G-d” and claimed. It is not a list of things we must to do experience G-d’s grace. Instead, in speaking truthfully, resisting evil speech, and resisting anger we are able...

The power of G-d’s blessing should not be used for personal or political advantage over another person or group of people. Jesus never said “G-d Bless America," or for the context of His time “G-d bless Rome,” because while overlooking our blessings and theirs, ignoring the fullness of what G-d is doing and was doing, G-d already gave a blessing and continues to do so. G-d has blessed us, but in s...

July 22, 2018 Matthew 27:15-23 Which Jesus do you want? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth? Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

July 29, 2018 Deuteronomy 23:12-14 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 The Bible says a lot of things. It is a collection of books telling the story of the people of God. It is a book of covenant, heartache, promise, lament, renew, and hope. But “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it,” creates a problem. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

When Jesus flipped the social structure of first-century Israel on its head in the Beatitudes, He did not leave it to the disciples to figure out. He laid out a detailed plan for how His followers are to become a force for transformation, filling in the spaces He opened up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the church. When followers of Jesus Christ come together to further the Kingdom of G-d great thing...

Mount Olivet UMC Isaiah 55 Romans 10 The saving work that we proclaim has been done by Jesus. Words and actions do matter, both are necessary but the former leads to the latter. While faith without works might be dead, works without the Gospel proclamation only point others to the self-righteousness we want to put on display. Proclamation is not about us. It does not start with us and it does not...

In the redundancy of love the sinner hate the sin we overlook that Jesus calls us, each and every one of us without exception, to love. The redundancy of love the sinner hate the sin blinds us to the role of God in all of this, as we try to assume the agency of the divine. It is God who judges, not us. Especially not religious leaders like me. Jesus did not let the adulterous woman off the hook. I...

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit seals the Church’s identity in the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Our identity is not found in local church politics, denominational dysfunction, or theological impasses but instead in the One who calls us to transform the world. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

May 6, 2018 Year B, Easter 6 John 15:9-17 While we might want to think of ourselves as Joey saving Ross, more often than not we are Joey saving his sandwich Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

I'm not talking about throwing Bibles as weapons, I am referring to the weaponization the Holy Word of God to do battle against your enemy. This is not in a spiritual warfare scenario but rather to battle back against secularization in an attempt to reclaim the Church's position of authority and power in the United States. All of this to maintain the status quo for churches who thrive on a combina...

April 22, 2018 Easter 4, Year B John 10:11-18, Good Shepherd Sunday The community created by the Shepherd is open and inclusive. All are invited to join the flock. There is no one who is outside the reach of this Shepherd and no one so far gone that they cannot become part of the flock. Because the risen Christ is the Shepherd, and people like me are not, our deepest fears, insecurities, and separ...

April 18, 2018 - Wesley Theological Seminary Ezekiel 37:1-14 Irrelevancy and decline are the undead among us, preventing us living the called life we were born into through the waters of baptism. Without living into the new life we experience through the waters of baptism we are not only those trying to survive the post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world, worst yet we are the living dead, reaching,...

April 15, 2018 Easter 3, Year B Luke 24:36-48 The part of Christianity that is most necessary is at times the hardest to not only explain to outsiders but also to explain to someone who has faithfully attended worship for 40 years. We start thinking of ghosts instead of bodies, creating for ourselves the same tricky-wicket the disciples experienced. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Ha...

April 8, 2018 - Mount Olivet UMC Year B, Easter 2 John 20:19-31 Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

Easter 2018 Mark 16:1-8 The ending of The Gospel of Mark does not fit the new life, new hope feeling we enjoy each year as we use Easter to signal the return of new life in spring. On a  day when we expect to feel the overwhelming presence of the risen Christ, the ending of Mark’s gospel is entirely underwhelming. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscr...

March 25, 2018 Palm Sunday, Year B Mark 11:1-11 To challenge those who are paraded through the empire in up-armored vehicles and with military escorts is a dangerous business. In doing so you run the risk of being mocked by people you have never met. In doing so you run the risk of being betrayed by your closest friends. In doing so you run the risk of being assaulted by the very power you are sta...

Because there is so much going on in this story, and the writer of Mark wrote such a condensed account of the ministry of Jesus, and on top of that uses misdirection, we miss it. The people in the synagogue did not miss it. Yes, they were astounded by the spirit being cast aside but they knew what was going on. They saw something different happening. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer H...

But what happens when God incarnate is the one calling us to repent and believe? It is easy to blow off the street preach as we walk out of Starbucks or to flip the channel when the slick-haired televangelist begins preaching. It’s easy to not make eye contact with someone on the street or turn off the television and go play with our kids. It is easy to write off the story of Jonah, but what are w...

Year after year we see the wise men as minor characters in our children’s Christmas pageants and fail to see that for us, Gentiles, the wise men’s visit to Bethlehem signaled, just as Simeon declared in the Temple, that Christ had come for all people. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

Simeon and Anna were ordinary people. Neither of them held the title of Reverend in front of their name. Simeon and Anna were ordinary people faithfully waiting for God to move. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe