King's Cross Church South Bay

With the installation of our new officers, we are taking a brief hiatus from our Parables series. This week we will soak on the biblical standards for the calling and qualifications of our leaders. Whether politics or airline pilots or bosses, leadership can make you or break you. That's why it is critical to remember who the real leader is in the Church, so that all of the 'middle management' liv...

This week we return to our series in the Parables, and we come to the famous sower of the seeds passage. Jesus tells a story about contrasting soils to an agrarian society, where the economy was built off these realities. People were used to thinking intently about their jobs and income, but who gives that much attention to their own hearts or spiritual lives? Economic dangers are tiny when compar...

This Sunday Andy Noch will be joining us for worship. Andy has served as a pastor for many years in Rolling Hills and Whittier, and he will be leading us in a year-end reflection on Solomon's benediction at the dedication of the temple. In that prayer, Solomon emphasizes several things about God's character that encourage us as we enter a new season, too: God's faithfulness to his promises, his pr...

This Sunday we come to the unusual figure of Simeon. He is most known for saying "Now I can die" after seeing baby Jesus at the temple. But why would he? And who does that today? Maybe the closest comparison we know today is so-called "bucket lists" - where an aging person commits to do or experience a particular thing before they die. With bucket lists, we know it's more than just a checklist. It...

This Sunday we come to the song of the angels, as they announce the Incarnation to some very startled shepherds. The last two weeks we have heard a jaded priest and an unwed teenage mom respond to Christmas with singing. Now we hear from the King's messengers themselves. So how do these heralds from heaven view Christmas? They sing two short phrases of joy that have been plastered on billboards an...

This week we are looking at Mary's famous song, the Magnificat. As incredible as Mary's response to the angel's news is, we often overlook that at first she is not that excited about this. Initially, she submits to the news, but it takes some time before she celebrates it. Something has to shift before it becomes real and soul-stirring. She has to talk to somebody else. She has to go see her cousi...

Christmas is coming! That news may conjure mixed emotions for many of us as adults, but for the original hearers it was overwhelmingly wonderful news. When joy erupts in our lives that strongly, it often spills out of us in other ways. (There's a reason stores and radio stations start playing certain songs.) Repeatedly in the Gospel of Luke, the response was spontaneous songs of joy - from Zechari...

There is a sickness that makes it very difficult to give thanks - a sense of always needing more, or never believing you have enough. It prevents us from celebrating what we've already been given. This week in our series on the Parables, Jesus gives us a story about a man who is putting his confidence in his possessions, followed directly by a lot of teaching about worry. Those two things are deep...

This week we come to the famous parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. Jesus tells a story with a good guy and a bad guy. We hear both of their prayers, but Jesus stuns his hearers when it is actually the bad guy who receives God's approval. For those of us overly familiar with this parable, we tend to gloss over the very thing that made this so stunning for Jesus' original hearers - namely, ho...

We have repeatedly said that Jesus' parables are meant to be beautifully annoying, yet this week we come to one that is specifically about annoyance. A widow who is not getting justice decides to keep pestering a judge until she gets it. Why would Jesus tell us this story? In a rare exception, we are told in advance explicitly what this parable is about: to encourage us to pray and not lose heart....

This Sunday we come to the parable of the Great Banquet, which is perfect for a communion Sunday. Certainly it should be noted that Jesus is showing us that he loves to throw a great party, but he tells a story of a great party where many are simply "too busy" to come, despite having RSVP'd. So the host invites the beggars to come instead. Unlike the 'important' people, the beggars gladly drop eve...

"That's not fair!" Every kid knows this phrase instinctively. Someone else got more candy. Someone else is getting to play. Or worse yet: I studied hard to get an A on the test, but the teacher gifted everyone an A?! If kids were adults, they'd probably start dropping buzzwords like: 'Inequity! Injustice! Travesty! Who is the tyrant who would perpetuate such an outrage?' Enter the parable of the l...

This week we are looking at the famous parable of the lost sheep. Jesus tells this story of a shepherd leaving a large herd seemingly unattended to go after one wayward sheep. Modern ears hear that story and begin to wonder about professional negligence, but his original audience would have heard clear echoes of Ezekiel 34 - a passage aimed directly at spiritual leaders. Additionally, the context...

This week we come to a parable where Jesus teaches about mustard and biscuits. Aside from being a really dated movie reference, I love how raw and unpretentious this image is. As usual, his parables are about the kingdom of God, and they are designed to surprise. In this case, where you'd expect grandiose images of his kingship, he instead points at a shrub and a cook in the kitchen. What kind of...

We've said that Jesus designed his parables to tease us into active thought. That often means looking for the surprise in the story. This week it is right on the surface. Jesus gives the example of a dishonest manager who is wasting his owner's possessions, but the owner finds out. And once the manager realizes he is about to be fired, he uses the remaining time to cut deals with clients. It's the...

This week in our series on the Parables, Jesus provokes us with his sense of justice. He references a recent tragedy and then starts asking who is at fault. Then he tells a parable about wasted resources that may need to be cut. Both could easily be headlines from this week. Yet neither part of this teaching is very comfortable if you are a follower of Christ. And it certainly doesn't seem joy-ind...

As I promised last Sunday, this week we come to my favorite parable. It's only three short verses, and might seem rather obvious. But, as we shall say repeatedly in this series, Jesus is teasing us into active thought. He is aggravating with truth. What is so provocative about this simple story of a treasure buried in a field? It all comes down to how we read it. Who are you in this story? With wh...

This Sunday we begin a new series in the "Parables: "Provoking with Truth." There is so much discussion around this teaching device Jesus liked to use, often described as an 'earthly story that tells a heavenly truth.' Many regard them as a quaint way to make a topic easier to understand. But Jesus did not. He said explicitly the opposite to his disciples. Parables either blind or aggravate. These...

"Even as..." Probably the two most amazing words Jesus ever applied to us. Jesus, speaking to the Father says, "Even as we are one..." "Even as you loved me..." He's talking about God's own inner life and intimacy. And then applies it to his followers?! That we are so loved! That we would be so united! Look, in these emails I usually attempt to eliminate any unnecessary exclamation points. But rar...

The symptoms: apathy, anxiety, indecision, addictive escapism, easily manipulated, growth-less drifting, dependency and burnout. It reads like a bad drug commercial. But it sounds sadly familiar. What’s the condition to which these symptoms point? Aimlessness. Purposelessness. Life without a direction. If any drug company could produce a pill to solve these symptoms, they could print their own mon...

When Jesus begins to pray for his followers the night before his death, what is the first thing he asks the Father to give them? Holiness. For many of us that might seem abstract or distant. We hear ‘holy’ and often think ‘holier-than-thou’ or even ‘sanctimonious.’ Yet here Jesus connects our holiness to our joy. Why don’t we? Many Christians celebrate grace but struggle to see a reason to celebra...

Have you ever had the privilege to hear or witness something that you knew right away was special and significant? This Sunday we get to “eavesdrop” on an intimate, beautiful, and glorifying prayer between Christ the Son and God the Father. Why is this considered the greatest prayer? Why has the “hour” finally come now instead of earlier in His ministry? We will unpack those questions as our serie...

This Sunday we continue our series in the Upper Room. Jesus turns to console his disciples, but not without a strong dose of reality. Yes, there will be grief - real grief - but joy is his agenda. With two funerals tomorrow in the life of our church, that's a promise some of us are living through personally. So how do we experience that kind of hope when grief and heartache are dominating the hori...

This Sunday we continue our series on the Upper Room, and Jesus brings up the Holy Spirit yet again. Repetition in the ancient world was for emphasis, but why is he bringing up the Holy Spirit so much? As we've said throughout this series, he knows he is dying the next day and wants to equip his followers for life. But I imagine what surprised them most was his claim that they will be better off o...

This Sunday we come to a very challenging word from Jesus. He basically says, "do not be surprised when the world hates you." The same God who 'so loved the world' wants his followers prepared for the opposite treatment - for persecution. But why? What is it about Jesus that elicits such a strong response? Should his followers expect better treatment? And what about when Christians are just being...