Brewing Theology With Teer Hardy

If we leave the story at “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven” we miss the abruptness with which Lent draws to a close, the closing is not drawn out, and the quickness with which Holy Week moves. Jesus entered the Holy City and before a week goes by, he will have been crucified. He will be dead. In less than a week the ma...

No amount of cancelations or changes in plans can cancel or change this condition we all face. But in Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, the One who came down from on high and took on our earthly existence we are the recipients of the promise that Death does not get the last word. The day is coming when God is going to shout, “Come out!” and all of the death will be unbound, their grave clothes will no...

Skipping over Jesus’ bit of being born anothen, preferring the safer-waters of John 3:16, we miss that we have been born anothen. We have been born again. We have been born from above, born anew. Jesus’ resurrection sealed this for all us. Everyone. Even those of us who prefer John 3:16 over John 3:3 or 3:5. This Lenten season we are considering what it means, as Saint Paul put it, to “adopt the m...

God is willing to risk our disobedience in hopes that we will freely turn towards God and proclaim that we are followers of Jesus Christ, that we have adopted the attitude of Christ.” Not followers up to a certain point. Not followers with prerequisites - God must first prove something in hopes that we might repent and follow Christ. Throughout our Lenten journey we will turn towards Christ, turni...

Every time we hear Jesus’ invitation to his table and we share bread and wine, taking seriously his invitation to all people - the poor and the rich, the meek and the powerful, the hungry and those with plenty - we are experiencing the grace and promise of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus’ table is a table of blessing, a common table where the excluded are welcomed and blessed. What we do here this m...

Every time we hear Jesus’ invitation to his table and we share bread and wine, taking seriously his invitation to all people - the poor and the rich, the meek and the powerful, the hungry and those with plenty - we are experiencing the grace and promise of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus’ table is a table of blessing, a common table where the excluded are welcomed and blessed. What we do here this m...

The invitation to grace was part of what made Mister Rogers and the Neighborhood of Make-believe tick. Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister. His calling was to care for children, me and you, in a world that often neglects the intelligence of children in exchange for easy distractions and questions unanswered. Mister Rogers once said, “Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun l...

Assuming our unrighteousness upon himself, Jesus will take our unrighteousness with him to the cross - by the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, Christ has done for us that which we were and continues to be unable to do for ourselves. We have been made righteous. We are right before God. Our justification began in the Jordan River and was realized on the cross when Jesus died for t...

The birth of Christ was and continues to be Good News for all people. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

God’s dreams seem beyond us because they are. This is the work of God that we get to be a small (very small) part of. The beginning of the dream Isaiah saw was revealed to Joseph. The scandal of the incarnation is that in Christ, God is prepared the rearrange the ordering of creation - beginning not with power and political might but rather through a child born in a manger, and eventually on the c...

On Christmas, we will recall how Jesus entered into the darkness of this world, the darkness created by sin, as the great Light. Yet, we allow the bright lights of Christmas to overtake the darkness of Advent begins with. Standing in the Light of the Christ child in the manger is more comfortable than waiting in the shadow of what is to come because in waiting we relinquish control of the agenda....

Our circumstances may give us pause, distracting us from the larger story we are a part of, but the Psalmist is reminding us that our response to G-d’s mighty acts is a posture of worship - praise and thanksgiving - aka a posture of gratitude. Gratitude because today, regardless of the affairs in your life, the moment your feet hit the ground and you took a deep breath of a new day it was the divi...

The Thessalonians, one of the earliest Christian communities, like many Christians today, earnestly expected Jesus’ return within the lifespan of the first generation of Christians. Their hope for the new age to come was giving way, challenged by the realities of life. The grind of everyday life had shifted the Thessalonians' posture of anticipation and gratitude to impatience. Community members w...

Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15 Luke 16:19-31 Everything necessary for salvation - the saving of us and all of humanity - is found in this book. On face value, the stories are complicated, grotesque, beautiful, and full of hope.  
 We do not have to twist the words in this book to fit the agenda of the Church or our politics. Jesus’ teachings, while confusing at times, clearly outline what the garden in Rev...

Words like Grace make little sense outside of communities unified in the Lordship of Christ. Our need for the unmerited love of G-d is the thread that holds us together and we cannot be a community of faith without Christ and His Grace as the center. We can excel at doing good things for people in need but without the Grace of G-d, we are people trying to be good, knowing (or unknowing) that the g...

The journey we find ourselves on is about us having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (a frightening thought) but at the same time, we are part of a community formed by the Potter for the task of being the Potter’s hands and feet in the midst of what the Potter has created. Jesus was the ultimate vessel created by the Potter. Taking the form of the first human created out of clay by the Po...

We are assured that things will be put right in the presence of Christ, regardless of how people like me interpret the Law. Regardless of what religious professional debate endlessly, regardless of what a finalized doctrinal statement says, Jesus, G-d, will have the final say over our application of G-d’s Word. The indignation of the synagogue leader revealed that he found his justification by fol...

Whatever may come the way of the church, we know that the faithfulness we exhibit is grounded in the faithfulness of Christ. Without relying on the faithfulness of Christ, to the point of death, the church then and today has little to stand on. Simply put… because G-d is faithful, we are assured that we may live more faithful lives.  We do not have to live in fear of weariness or hardship. We do n...

The DIY faith Paul is writing to correct calls us away from quick-fix solutions, and towards grace and mercy, telling us the work of Christ was and continues to be insufficient. Paul was calling the ancient church away from revolutionized human teachings - three-quick and easy steps and back to a life of extravagance. Extravagant grace. Extravagant compassion. Extravagant mercy. Simply put… the fo...

In Christ, we discover that the poverty we enter into at death - you cannot take it with you - and the sad comprehension of the cruel reversal turns into Good News. Just as Jesus fully revealed God’s good purposes for creation in his earthy life, so too is it for us who have clothed ourselves in Christ at the time of our death. There is nothing left to do, no barns to take down or to build up, and...

July 28, 2019 Luke 11:1-13 Simply put… Bon Jovi is right, we are a community living on a prayer. A prayer mind you, that lacks $15 seminary words and is not longwinded. The prayer Jesus taught to his disciples is sufficient witness to G-d, made truthful by worshipers, through the One who taught is to be prayed.  Jesus offers us, through this prayer and all prayer to G-d, sufficient grace and compa...

Scripture tells us Jesus is the capital “W” word of God, the fullness of God’s image that is otherwise invisible to creation. Jesus is the full revelation of God when we otherwise rely on those who caught a glimpse of the infinite wonder of God. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe

Go and care for the person in the ditch. Go and care for the person, the group of people you despise. Go and care for the person wearing the MAGA hat. Go and care for the person wearing the Black Lives Matter shirt Go and care for the person who has wronged you. Help every single person that comes across your path without first wondering if they are “just going to buy booze” with the fist-full of...

To make Paul’s words through this entire letter plain - Simply put… it is foolish to think we can fool G-d with self-righteous works of the Law to achieve salvation. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are sufficient for all people. It is foolish to think circumcision - works of the Law - is a sufficient alternative to the Gospel. When we buy into the idea that there is something necessary for s...