Brewing Theology With Teer Hardy

Pentecost Acts 2 God takes the most fragmented parts of our modern “post-Babel” lives and makes them whole. This is part of God making all of creation whole. We bear witness to this when we gather around Christ’s table. This is our witness in our worship, mission, and teaching. The unification of the Church is the work of the Holy Spirit – bringing people who speak different languages or only list...

May 22, 2022 Acts 16 There is no such thing as a “self-made Christian.” A heart opened to the works of God, along with our conversion or faith, are acts initiated by God. This is why when the church speaks of repentance, we remember that we have been repented, that it is the inward working of the Holy Spirit that enables us to turn toward God. Jesus’ life and ministry testify to this. Jesus called...

Acts 10 and 11; Revelation 21 May 15, 2022 “Will we allow the Holy Spirit to prod us today, to give us a vision, to drag us, as it dragged our apostolic forebearers before us, kicking and screaming, all the way toward the wideness of God’s mercy?”[7] In just a few minutes, we will pray that Charlie is so filled with the same Holy Spirit that moved the home of Cornelius that he is never the same. A...

May 8, 2022 Acts 9:34-34 Our fixed structures often lead to paralysis and death for those on the margins or lower rungs of the social ladder. But the One who ordered the chaos of creation, was worshiped in a manger, and carried a cross telling fishermen to drop their nets, and the ill and dead to get up. In Aeneas’ healing and Tabitha’s rising these social systems have been rendered null and void....

May 1, 2022 Acts 9:1-20 Our stories of encountering the risen Lord are how we bear witness to Mary’s Easter morning discovery of the empty tomb. We are witnesses to the very voice that knocked Saul on his behind, who spoke to Ananias, who overcame the power of Sin and Death, and who continues to speak to us today. Luke tells us Saul was completely changed – from Enemy-Number-One to being the perso...

Today is a celebration of the Gospel Good News that Sin and Death do not hold the last word. The very thing Mary went to the tomb to confront and mourn is no more because of Christ. Easter is not just the celebration of the tomb being empty. In the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see how the darkness of this world has been and will be overcome and ultimately annihilated by God. Ma...

April 10, 2022 Palm Sunday Luke 19:28-40 In our procession of fools, we miss that there is so much more to this story. In each stop between the Mount of Olives (Palm Sunday) and The Skull (the cross), Jesus is gathering all of humanity into him. The best and the worst we have to offer. No prayer or ritual must first be spoken or performed on our part. If last Sunday, Mary’s anointing of Jesus with...

April 3, 2022 Luke 12:1-8 I want to be Mary, we should all want to be Mary, but none of us are., all the time. Yes, sometimes we are Mary but other times we are either Martha busying ourselves with work, or we are Judas, wanting to attach Jesus to our political agendas. Nevertheless, Christ gathers all to himself when he goes to the cross. Adoration, gratitude, and worship while in the next breath...

March 27, 2022 Lent 4 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Both sons forgot who they were, first and foremost, who they were before the world applied its labels and new identification. The father in this parable must have been looking for him, Junior, to see his son returning. On top of the family home, he watched, looked, waited, and then ran; in the same way, God continues to seek us out, gathering us in, callin...

March 20, 2022 Luke 13:1-9 Lent 3, Year C The hope we need in a world broken by sin is that our fruitfulness comes by the laboring of the divine gardener, the One who is devoted to the flourishing, the fruitfulness of all creation, despite what our sin says about us. By gathering all of creation up in his mercy and grace, Jesus is cultivating us toward fruitfulness, answering the question pastors...

March 13, 2022 Luke 13:31-35 Transformation through the faithfulness of the One who did not turn his back on us after lamenting that we had turned our backs on him. And the good news is that as you have been gathered and sent, you are not sent out covered in the dirt the world has smeared on you by puppets who would like to think they can leave a lasting impact on your life. In Jesus gathering us...

Luke 4:1-13 Lent 1, Year C The Gospel good news is that there are no ifs. There are no buts. No fine print. We have begun our journey through Lent in the wilderness because Lent is a time of being in the desert, being in the wilderness. We live in the wilderness. We live in a world where the temptation to assume Christ's throne as our own is always present. We opt for the most reasonable decision,...

Luke 9:27-36 Listen to him. Though we are shaped by social, cultural, and economic pressures that tell us we must ascend, if we listen, if we set aside our own noise, we hear words of grace. A word that tells us God will not be confined to the mountain-top, theology, or Law. A word that tells us God is present with us now, in this sanctuary, in our homes, in the places we feel most alone. God has...

February 20, 2022 Luke 6:27-38 Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the hungry. Blessed are those who weep. Blessed are you when you are hated. Woe to the rich. Woe to the full. Woe to those who laugh or mock. Woe to those who are falsely propped up. Blessed are you, the one overlooked by the world. Woe to you who cannot see beyond your pride and self-interest. Blessed are you, the one deemed a loser...

February 13, 2022 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ… the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection...

February 6, 2022 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 The Gospel Good News of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s vindication over the power of sin and death in this life. It is Good News. It is Good News because what happened on the cross and because Jesus Christ is risen, all of your failures to adequately answer the question “What Would Jesus Do?” are forgiven. Once-for-all forgiveness for you. The tomb...

January 16, 2022 1 Corinthians 12:1-12 The lordship of Christ is not a declaration the church can make on its own or a declaration the church can sustain over generations without the help of God. And this is where we find the gospel good news – regardless of what gifts the Spirit has given you, regardless of whether you think you are worthy of such a gift, and regardless of the priority others mig...

January 9, 2022 - Baptism of the Lord Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 Patterns are changing whether we want them to or not. We observe the patterns of life in the church differently. But because Jesus is lord and because what happened in the Jordan cannot be undone just like what happened at your baptism cannot be undone even though the patterns of our lives may change the call to discipleship and the patter...

Micah 5:2-5a Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) While the Good News of Christ’s embodied life fills me with joy, it is even better news for the people of a nowhere village than those living in an empire like, well, us. For people who live in the empire, with all the privileges of Pax Romana, those same privileges can blur our vision and prevent us from seeing that Christ would not be born and Virginia Hospital...

December 5, 2021 Luke 1:68-79 The peace Zechariah prophesied has no meaning apart from the will and purpose of God. Let me repeat it; the peace Zechariah prophesied has no meaning apart from the will and purpose of God. The church cannot make sense of peace and pursue justice in the name of peace, apart from the peace of God embodied in flesh and blood and laid in a manger. The peace of God was pr...

Jeremiah 33:14-16 The good ole days and even the status quo may be OK or even great for us, but for many, the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, Christ's return cannot come quickly enough. What we may long for could be a return to pain and suffering for others. So, what are we to do? What is to be done? This is the rub; there is nothing for us to do. The prophet Jeremiah did not leave a checklist....

Mark 13 November 14, 2021 Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Dismantling this world is frightening.  But in Mark 13 Jesus describes a dismantling to realize God’s justice and love for all of creation.  God’s redemption and transformation of this broken world is good news for all; the comfort and privilege for which we work and to which we cling instantly pale in the light of God’s justice and lo...

October 31, 2021 John 8:31-36 While we may live free to do as we please because of geography, our condition as sinners does not change. There is no amount of flag-draped apparel, apple pie, or fireworks that can undo this condition. In following Jesus, we have been sent from the consequences of our sin. All of them. That is what we mean when we declare our sins to be forgiven. That very declaratio...

October 24, 2021 Mark 10:46-52 Generous living as a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be like Bartimaeus, like the saints of the past, to give our whole selves over to being formed, shaped by the one who calls out, over the noise of the world that rebukes us, telling us we are insignificant and not enough, not worthy of someone else's time. Our time, our generosity, our love joins us with Christ. Thi...

Mark 10:17-31 October 10, 2021 Eternal life, salvation, and the kingdom of God are not things to be bought or earned. The rich young man did not expect Jesus to tell him to sell everything. The rich young man wanted to talk about social morality, practical ethics, or have Jesus say to him after bragging about his righteousness that he was good to go, nothing else to be done. Go young rich man, and...