The reality of what happened in Emmanuel laying in the manger is found in those who had forgotten or ignored the promise made by G-d. The good news changes the reality for all people, and invites all of creation to enter into the grace of G-d regardless of what the powerful say. Regardless of what the darkness of sin says.
Read MoreThis is what makes the Good News different from the promise of security and peace offered to us by empires and the elite. The Good News of Emmanuel is a particular promise available and revealed through particular yet unlikely means, in particular yet unlikely places, and at particular yet unlikely times. We can expect the Good News to be revealed to us through powerful kings and prophets but also through those we are told are not capable of bearing such a promise and those who had forgotten the promise all together.
Read MoreThe preparation John is calling for is a change in orientation, not pointing to guilt or shame, but instead facing in a new direction. A direction that allows the refiner’s fire to burn away the damage sin has done to creation and then live in the hopefully light of the coming Christ.
Read MoreWhen we are baptized, named and claimed as beloved by our Creator, we proclaim Christ as our Savior and promise to serve Him as Lord. That was a bold profession to make 2000 years ago and it continues to be so today. It is a declaration that Christ is Lord and everything else is secondary. Our allegiance lies with Christ, because of the promises made at our baptism which means the truth for our lives looks different from those who do not make the same proclamation.
Read MoreThe incarnation reveals to us is that while the darkness may seem dark, the Light of Christ always prevails.
Read MoreThe saints of the past and us today have flaws. They, we, fell short of what Christ describes as the greatest of the things we are supposed to do. But in Christ loving us as himself, the saints and each of us are made righteous. What once was thought to separate us from the love of G-d is no more and Christ invites us to join him and the saints around His table. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ through our Baptism into His life, death, and resurrection, and not our own self-righteousness, we are declared holy. The greatest commandments, loving “the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” and loving your neighbor is a little less daunting knowing that before we ever attempt to fulfill it, Christ first loved us. Christ fulfilled it for us.
Read MoreMuch of what we do as followers of Christ is based upon mystery. From the basics of how exactly did Jesus turn water into wine or how the feeding of the 5000 actually happen to the sacraments - Baptism and Communion - there is much that we claim to know but what we think we know pales in comparison to the mystery that still remains.
Read MoreQuoting 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, using children, a segment of the population viewed as property, to illustrate what kind of dependency, reliance on G-d, will be necessary to be apart of the Kingdom building work Jesus has begun in his own ministry.
Read More“Hey, excuse me, sir, um could you please move so uh I can get a glimpse of Jesus. Yeah, I’m the guy who took more in taxes from you than you needed to pay, yeah don’t worry I’m still holding onto the money, I haven’t spent it all yet. But could you do me a solid and help a brother out?”
Read MoreBy purchasing this book you are helping to keep the conversations about faith without stained-glass language going. Proceeds from this book will help cover the cost of servers, websites, and future live event.
Read MoreIt is not that we should not invite people to church. Instead, our lives are to be a force of transformation, a living witness to the Word of G-d made flesh in Jesus Christ, and that is a far greater invitation than anything else we can offer.
Read MoreThe Gospel is not a habit or practice. It is not a list of mission trips must-dos or daily prayer journal habits, but instead, the Gospel is a history. Proclamation of the Gospel is the declaration that something happened on a tree on a hill over 2000 years ago and that three days after that something happened something even greater happened.
Read MoreWhat we proclaim is unmerited and irresistible new life and that we are not the source of that new life. There is nothing we can do to help ourselves corporately or individually experience the unmerited and irresistible new life given to us by through the promise of Christ and by the Holy Spirit.
Read MoreWhile we might want to think of ourselves as Joey saving Ross, more often than not we are Joey saving his sandwich
Read MoreWhether you drive a Jeep or a Prius, whether you eat processed grains or are an organic vegan, the risen Christ invites you to come through the gate and join the flock.
Read MoreIn our endless conflict over relevancy, which essentially has become how do we get millennials to walk through our doors we are moving like the walking dead. Not quite dead but not quite living. Not quite living because we have forgotten that the one who called us and sent us was not concerned with relevancy. Christ himself was concerned with two things: loving God and loving each other.
Read MoreThe unbelief of the disciples that we frown upon during Eastertide creeps up for many of us before the lilies and tulips of Easter Sunday go dormant for another year.
Read MoreActs 3.12-19, Psalm 4, 1 John 3.1-7, Luke 24.36b-48
Read MoreApril 8, 2018 - Mount Olivet UMC
Year B, Easter 2
John 20:19-31
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.
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