2021 - What a Start!
Advent - What We All Need Right Now
What does everyone need right now? A bunch of hope. Which is what the whole of Christmas is about. It’s hope despite our circumstances. It’s hope even when the rest of the world is hopeless. Because this is hope that comes from outside this world. When the world is mundane, it’s miraculous. When the world is lonely, it's intimate. When the world is constrained, it’s free. And when the world is banal, it’s divine. This is what Jesus has come to earth to bring us and it’s ours if we want it!
Gracious Giving, Gracious Vision
The gospel is very clear about how we are to think/feel/act on our relationship with money. We can try all we want to squirm out of it (believe us we’ve tried) but Jesus told us to be like himself: not giving out of surplus, not guilt, but being willing to give everything up. Where we (all!) fall short on that, let’s now come back to the grace thing. Grace is where every single thing in our christian lives must begin and end and never ever run dry. It is not a doctrine, grace is a person, our only answer, our only fuel, if we’re to be the kind of self-giving people we know we want to be. So - as we take this moment to remember the kind of church we know bread will be again - let’s make it about grace.
Philippians - Letter of Hope - Freedom from Worry
Philippians - Letter of Hope - Kingdom People
Paul paints the vision of Christian community: God's children, citizens of heaven, turned outwards to face the brokenness of the world and revealing glimpses of heaven's glory, transformed through our relationship with Jesus. We remember that we don’t do this Kingdom-building in our own strength.. Empowered by his spirit, we do it together as a community (yes! even in these crazy, ongoing pandemic days)
Philippians - Letter of Hope - All Under Christ
Philippians - Letter of Hope - Citizens of Somewhere Else
As if by magic, the part of Paul’s letter to a persecuted and divided church in ancient Philippi felt more than a little bit relevant to our national experience this week (it was a scheduling fluke, but it’s kind of amazing how often that happens!) Paul’s major concern for any church and any situation is ALWAYS the gospel… How can we help people know the love of Christ, and for us today, every bit as much as the Philippians, that means knowing what citizenship really means, and what harmony is always going to require of us.
Philippians - Letter of Hope - To Live is Christ
The antidote to being dictated to by our circumstances: it is a definition of life that enables us not to have to escape the world and culture, nor be governed by it. It helps us embrace it and redeem it and live above it. It is the only thing big enough to do it. It is to be people of heaven - here and now - who can say, with Paul: to live is Christ!
Philippians - Letter of Hope - An Intro
Ben introduces our new series on the joyful letter that Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, which feels particularly relevant to us today. We reflect on the tumultuous times surrounding Christians in the early church, and set the scene for one of Paul’s most encouraging letters, as he promises us that Christ has gifted us with the ability to endure these difficult times.
How to Pray - Yours Is The Glory
The Lord’s prayer - along with this series - ends with a dramatic claim of God’s sovereignty and divinity. After petitioning for all that we need - our sustenance, our forgiveness and our protection - we reorient our eyes and hearts back upon the one who has already fulfilled it in Himself. But there’s more- Jesus is inviting us to relax in the closeness and safety of our Father's loving arms. We do not need to fear or worry because it is His Kingdom, His power and His glory and we can simply enjoy Him!
How to Pray - Deliver Us
Spooky season or not, this is undeniably not the moment that most of us want a discourse on evil and the devil’s role in how we screw up. And yet, there’s to escaping that we’re told to pray: “Lead Us Not into temptation and deliver us from evil.” We look at what is (eh-hem) MIS-leading about the translation, and how, if we understand this properly, we see how vital a nuanced understanding of the forces of good and evil really is. The ultimate test for all of us is whether or not we can prayer “not my will, but yours” and Jesus shows us how this is done. It starts, and ends, with knowing just how good, God really is.
How to Pray - Forgive Us, As We Forgive
Forgiveness. Our culture doesn’t talk much about forgiveness, preferring tolerance, or condemnation (not necessarily bad things) instead. But Jesus asks us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Real forgiveness is deeper and richer and stronger and more lofty than we often understand. And it is the hallmark of Jesus’ kingdom - because it is on the path of forgiveness that we find freedom - not just for ourselves but the whole creation. But forgiveness is rarely easy. So let’s remind ourselves again about the power of God’s forgiveness, and commit to being the people we are - forgiveness people.
How to Pray - Give Us This Day
Jesus is inviting us to pray for our needs with a whole new framework. It's one that recalls God's faithfulness to provide in the past while looking to the future when the kingdom is fully established and there is no lack. So when we make our petitions, we can be confident of God's readiness to provide in the big and small details––knowing that we can be unashamedly bold and broad in our requests because we're His children.
How to Pray - Your Kingdom Come
Carrying on with the Lords Prayer series…Your Kingdom come, Your will be done. Jesus often taught about his Kingdom through parables, using subtle, complex, interesting language that sort to subvert. They reveal that those who knew him face-to-face found it as difficult to grasp the kingdom as we do, because the truth of the kingdom is too complex and other-worldly to be fully revealed. It won’t fit on a billboard. It doesn’t translate into slogans. It isn’t interested in winning. A challenging truth in these days, but one vital to our comprehension of who we’re called to be, and what we’re called to pray.
How To Pray - Our Father in Heaven
Kicking off our new series on the Lord’s Prayer, this week: ‘Our Father in heaven.’ We have a loving father whose ear is attentive to us - he always wants to hear from us. But his fatherliness doesn’t just mean beloved intimacy, it also speaks of deliverance. And as we pray to him we collaborate in the revolution where the first are last, justice reigns and God’s kingdom comes to God’s earth.
Jesus' Supernatural Power - Over Death
Resurrection. It can’t happen without first death, but so often we find engaging with the reality of our loss and grief so difficult. We can be tempted to either avoid it altogether or indulge it. Neither approach enables us to let God’s power in to bring life out of death, joy out of grief and rejoicing out of sorrow. But when we understand and trust in God’s loving resurrection power, it makes it so much easier for us to give our pain over to him, and see him make all things new. So let’s see again the kindness and transformative power of Jesus and trust in the resurrection once more.
Jesus' Supernatural Power - The Fish and the Fisherman
Unlike other categories of Jesus’ miracles, these 2 accounts of miraculous catches (told in Luke 4 and John 21) bookend Peter’s time as a disciple in the gospels, but stand alone as phenomenons (ie - miraculous provision of bounty wasn’t something Jesus did a lot of, and isn’t necessarily the point of these stories at all)… But when we look at them together they speak volumes about what happened to Peter in his time as Jesus’ disciple, and what we can learn from him. Struggling with fear and anxiety? This one is for you.
Jesus’ Supernatural Power - Over the Elements
The withered fig tree isn’t the point of the miracle in Matthew 21. The point is in the reality that Jesus offers to share his power with us. He empowers us to participate in all the good that He wants to unfold in our neighborhoods. This divine power transforms us and brings shalom but where do we begin? We begin with trust in the One who upholds us. Take a listen.
Jesus' Supernatural Power - Healing
The gospel accounts are full to the brim with stories of Jesus healing people; the blind are given sight, the lepers are cleansed, and the paralyzed get up and walk. In each of these accounts we learn something perhaps obvious but very important nonetheless: sickness is anti-Kingdom and it is central to Jesus’ mission to bring healing and restoration. In light of our commission to do as Jesus did, what does praying for healing look like during a worldwide pandemic? Spoiler: in our weakness He is strong and in our openness He authorizes and empowers us to pray for healing by His Spirit- even over Zoom.