Sunday, October 23, 2016

Blessed are You

╬ Blessed are You!

“You will be hated because of my name.”  (Mark 13:13)  To the ones who are being transformed:  to his followers who have embraced the way and the truth and the life of Jesus, he gives this warning.  The world will resist – even violently – this way of being that calls forth love in the face of fear, that celebrates generosity in the face of greed, that honors God above empire. Who knows better than Jesus the consequences of speaking truth to power when power does not want to hear.  And yet, Jesus encourages us that even in the face of persecution we can know the “beatus,” the blessing of God, the joy of the Lord!
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Sunday, October 16, 2016

Blessed are the Peacemakers

LOOKING AHEAD … to Worship on Sunday, October 16:

As we continue in our Beatitudes series, we begin to see the profound movement of Jesus’ teaching in this discourse on blessings. 

╬ Blessed are the Peacemakers

We begin to discover a grander purpose underlying Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes.  He has been talking in paradoxical terms that challenge us to experience real blessing in the hardest circumstances of life.  He moves on to talk about Kingdom attributes that God is blessing and calling forth from us.  And we discover that all the while he has been leading us on the path of transformation, toward embracing our true identity and calling as God’s people.  The children of God are the peacemakers:  the ones who are actively working to bring about the great Shalom that God intends for humanity and all creation.
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Sunday, October 9, 2016

Blessed are the Merciful and Pure in Heart

Worship on Sunday, October 9 …

As we continue with our exploration of the Beatitudes.  As we move into October, we prepare to renew our commitment to support the mission and ministries of Abiding Love.  And in our study, we begin to fold in the vital consideration of “Blessed for …”
╬  Blessed are the Merciful and Pure in Heart
There is a palpable progression in Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes.  He begins with the blessing that is experienced even (or especially) when our spirits are famished and grieving.  He then moves to the way God blesses us when we are humbled by circumstance, hungry for change and open to God’s leading.  He moves on, into more positivistic places of blessing:  experienced when we can approach others and the world with compassion and mercy, and when we operate from the purest sense of who we are in God.  All the while, Jesus is expanding our focus, from the ways in which God is blessing us, to the ways God is seeking to bless the world through us.
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Sunday, October 2, 2016

Meek and Hungry

Sunday, October 2:  “Meek and Hungry”    We continue in our Beatitudes series

╬  “Only the Meek and Hungry Need Apply.”  Employers today are looking for the accomplished and successful.  Only the best and brightest people with a proven track record need apply. Yet the One who calls us to action, in actualizing the Kingdom of Heaven – the rule and reign of God in the world – is looking for a different skill set, a different attitude toward life and the world.  God is calling forth the conviction that righteousness – right relationship between God and people and creation – as the central priority in life.  We rarely hear “meekness” lifted up as a positive qualification or attribute … until we understand it as the ability to be led and guided in the will and ways of God.  We open ourselves to true blessing when we begin to understand and embrace this way of being, God’s way of being. The Beatitudes.
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Sunday, September 25, 2016

Empty and Lost

Sunday, October 2:  Our focus today is on the first two Beatitudes Jesus teaches … for the poor in spirit and those who mourn.

╬ “ Empty and Lost ”  The Beatitudes have this extraordinary character of paradox.  We are blessed when we are “poor in spirit?”  What does it mean to be poor “in spirit,” and how can that be understood as blessing?  In the same way, how are we to receive and embrace the idea of blessing when we are grieving?  And yet, Jesus says these things clearly and directly, inviting us to go deeper … to discover that only empty vessels may be filled; to engage a deeper of notion of the goodness of God:  present in healing and redeeming power in the very places of our loss and emptiness.  Blessed are we when famished in spirit and mourning loss.  It is here that the inflowing of God begins.  The Beatitudes.
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Sunday, September 11, 2016

Mount and Plain

Sunday, September 18:  We begin our new series focusing on the Beatitudes!

╬ “Mount and Plain” In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus ascends the mountain to deliver his most profound teaching about blessing.  In the Gospel According to Luke, he leads his followers out on a wide, level plain.  The differences in the Gospel accounts have a lot to say about the Gospel writers and intended audiences, about the context and situations in which the teachings are recounted.  But the truth of the message – the core of Jesus’ teaching – comes through with paradigm-shattering clarity.  He’s teaching us how to live God’s way in a world that struggles with the will and ways of God.  We begin with the contexts and uniqueness of “the sermon on the mount” and the “sermon on the plain” … the Beatitudes.
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Rally Day … Day of Service -claimed-gathered-sent

WORSHIP on Sunday, September 11 … 
Rally Day … Day of Service!

What an exciting Sunday!  And the perfect day to complete our series focusing on the people of God as The Body of Christ.

╬ “claimed-gathered-sent”  Our faith life is filled with “trinities.”  God is revealed as Father-Son-Spirit.  We are created-redeemed-sustained by the love and grace of God.  The continual renewing of creation and much of our human experience follows a pattern of life-death-resurrection to new life.  The calling of people to live out their faith – to the glory of God and for the sake of the world – can be understood in a triune way, as well.  The people of God are claimed by God in baptism, gathered together as a community of faith and sent in a mission of love and service to a needful world.   As the Body of Christ in the world today, we are the claimed-gathered-sent ones of God.  Our shared journey is to live into and to live out that true identity.

The God who claims us has gathered and gifted us and is sending us to the world God loves.  What a blessing to make our way together!
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