ReNew Ames Messages

We celebrate Palm Sunday as the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people celebrate because they see Him as their soon-to-be triumphant conqueror of the empire they were living under. There are many groups of people who would have had different perspectives of this event, depending on their age and status in that society, but the overall mood portrayed is celeb...

Paul speaks to a group in Athens, at a place called Mars Hill, and describes God in a way that intrigues the people. He uses apophatic theology, which examines what God is NOT, rather than describing what God IS. By highlighting what and who God is not, Paul further illuminates what and who God is. God cannot be contained in a building or an community. We can encounter God in spaces that are outsi...

At the core of its theme and purpose, Lent is a journey towards the cross, or a journey of preparation. A key element of preparation is discipline. Knowing this, Lent is a journey into discipline, as we proceed forward through 40 days of preparing for the cross. There are so many spiritual practices that we can engage in; thinking specifically of the season of Lent, we can point our attention to t...

In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the social barriers preventing the tax collector from approaching the presence of God in the temple didn't deter him from recognizing what he had done wrong and coming before God in humility. While the Pharisee was taking every step to do things just the right way and go above and beyond to have his actions be visible, the tax collector was jus...

The story that is traditionally labeled "The Prodigal Son" is mislabeled; a more accurate name would be "The Ridiculously Compassionate Father." Both sons in this story are the actual worst, from their deep disrespect and disregard for their father, to their continued bad attitudes and unrepentant spirits. But their father continues to extend love and acceptance, to the point of embarrassing himse...

We've built our lives around the avoidance of suffering. When Jesus told the disciples that he would face betrayal and death, they were incredulous. But Jesus pointed out to them, "you're thinking of human things instead of divine things." Jesus said if people wanted to follow him, they would have to voluntarily suffer for the benefit of the world. We know that suffering can bring great things. We...

So let's recap real quick: Jonah took the message from God to the Ninevites, but delivered it halfheartedly. To his surprise, the entire city repented and changed their ways. This made Jonah angry; he believed that Ninevah did not deserve to be redeemed. That leads us to the end of the story, or rather, the open-ended question: what did Jonah do next? The Ninevites didn't matter to Jonah. He would...

Sometimes we hear the voice of God for a while and then it fades out of our awareness. But when we keep seeking that voice, when we stop and pray and reconnect with the Divine, that voice will return. And more than likely, the voice will tell us to "Go!" After all, the Divine is a God of action. This book of Jonah is a story about a God who does the unexpected, about a God who can't be measured, a...

God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah whole and keep him at the bottom of the sea for three days. The choice to use the word "great" to describe the fish is interesting because it is also associated with God so regularly. The great God commissions a great fish to help carry out God's great work in Jonah. The word associated with Jonah, however, is "down." When he is down at the bottom of the...

God calls Jonah and tells him to "Go to Nineveh." Nineveh is the last place on earth an Israelite prophet would want to go. Jonah runs in the opposite direction; he hires a ship to take him to Tarshish. Jonah's chasing after a fresh start, perhaps to build a new life and make some money. He probably spent all he had on that ship to Tarshish. He now wants wealth so that he can control his own futur...

We live in a world obsessed with the outside, with how things look. Jesus makes the point that we can look really good on the outside but be a train wreck on the inside. He redefines righteousness and redefines holiness, teaching us that faith isn't just about what we do, it's about who we are on the inside; in other words, our motivation for how we act. Some traditions lead us to picture God as a...

We all have this innate ability to look at the world and see when things just aren't right. We look at our own lives, in our own hearts and souls, and recognize the same thing. But that doesn't mean we are without hope. We come from a tradition that believes God is alive and active in the world putting things back together. AND God has invited us in on the project. The question is: how? What's God...

A foreigner approaches Jesus with honesty and humility, and in faith, she asks Jesus for healing. In a world where we are expected to hide weakness, we can approach God with vulnerability. God's grace, God's healing presence is open and available to anyone. When we come to the divine honestly and with humility and with faith, it opens us up to grace and healing. ReNew Community Worship Service Spe...

Beginnings come with new questions, questions we may not have the answers to; in other words, beginnings come with a little chaos. The scriptures never call the chaos bad - or evil. The Spirit is hovering over the chaos. It's into the chaos that God speaks. God invites creation to create right alongside of God. We're all invited to create something beautiful - something good with God. ReNew Commun...

This may not be the Christmas story we want, but it's the one that we get. And it might be the story we need. If God isn't willing to come to Bethlehem, then it's not going to do us much good. If God is going to save us, then God's gonna have to come down here to where we are, because we can never get there on our own. ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23 h...

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 2:1-20 http://bible.com/events/48815669

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Philippians 1:3-11 http://bible.com/events/48812586

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Colossians 1:3-20 http://bible.com/events/48808974

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Romans 13:8-14 http://bible.com/events/48805209

ReNew Community Worship Service Speakers: Aaron Vis, Andrea Gronau, Lynn Owens-Hill https://my.bible.com/events/48801560 https://www.thebridgehome.org/ (Some rough audio around 8:50)

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 12:13-21 http://bible.com/events/48797008

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-18 https://my.bible.com/events/48794166

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Kings 18:1-2; 17-46 http://bible.com/events/48790691

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-16 http://bible.com/events/48786994

ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 14:25-35 http://bible.com/events/48783262