![]() Last Wednesday night, we met with our 6th-12th Grade youth to discuss a topic they suggested: What does the Bible say about following Jesus? The topic is enormous. We started our discussion by admitting that coming away with a definitive answer wasn’t possible. Following God isn’t something you learn about in an instant and recite. It’s more like being born as a baby (or learning how to be a parent). You never get to the end of learning about those subjects. You just keep evolving as you go and hope you’re getting something right. But today’s right thing might not be tomorrow’s right thing. Playing with letter blocks on the floor is right for a three-year-old. The agenda for a thirteen-year-old is a little different. Just repeating the three-year-old thing doesn’t suffice! We asked our young folks what they had learned—either in church or from our culture—about following God. What makes a good follower? Their answers varied. Some said coming to church, others said doing good things, others said being honest or kind. All of the responses contained truth. Were they the WHOLE truth, though? Could we point to any one of these things and say, “This is the single thing you always do, no matter what, that makes you a follower of God?” For each answer they had given, we found many valid examples of godliness, but also exceptions. Though they were all good ideas, not one of them sufficed, alone, to make us followers. Then we read Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 8: 34 [Jesus] called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,[i] will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Jesus says that anyone who wants to become his follower begins by denying themselves. The commonality to all of our grand ideas about following Jesus is that we’re at the center of them! Everything we can idealize or grasp for ends up being not it. We ended up claiming that, on our own, we’re not capable of following Jesus. Even if we take words directly from the Bible, we end up turning them into our own thing. At best, we end up trying to trade our goodness for God’s salvation. We always want to advance the self, even when we claim we’re denying it. ![]() Is following Jesus a hopeless task, then? Only if we think we’re at the center of it. It’s no accident that Jesus follows up, “Deny yourself,” with, “Take up your cross and follow me.” The cross isn’t just a symbol. The cross is death and resurrection. As Jesus died and rose again to new life, so do we, through him. This happens at the end of our lives, but it also happens daily. When we cannot follow correctly—or even deny ourselves correctly—God transforms that old “us” into something new. This new thing cannot be earned, bought, or possessed. We are filled with grace and love even when we have no idea how to create them ourselves. It doesn’t matter if our criteria for following are cultural, material, or “religious”. Saying, “I’m going to become a follower of Jesus” on our own terms is like a five year-old hopping in the front seat and saying they’re going to drive the car. The better they are at actually achieving their aim, the worse it’s going to turn out for them and everyone around that car! Personally, I’m hoping they can’t reach the pedals or turn on the ignition! We cannot determine how to follow on our own. In a couple days, we’ll look at Part 2 of our youth lesson, exploring what following actually looks like and how we discover how to do it! --Pastor Dave
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Ep. 39 - Did Jesus really just say it's OK to cheat??? Ethics, contracts, and greater ideals from the infamous "Dishonest Manager" story in Luke 16.
The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. Follow us at GeekAndGreek.com! During the summer, we had several special “theme Sundays”, employing different kinds of music to convey the gospel message. These weren’t gimmicks. We felt the flow of God’s Word for those Sundays and felt it could be translated better if we spoke in a new way. The results were well-received. We were able to find God speaking in our everyday, familiar languages, not just Sunday-church-talk.
We have another such opportunity coming up on November 17th. The readings that day speak of changing times, endings, and holding on through trials. On that Sunday, we’re going to use protest songs to convey that message. Protest songs have a deep history in American culture, from early spirituals through folk music up until today. Make your plans to join us on November 17th. If you have any favorite protest songs, email me at pastor@sov-id.org or Director of Music Ministries Paul Wagner at the same address, just substituting “music” for “pastor”. ![]() This past week marked the first chapel services of our 2019-20 preschool year. For those who don’t know, Shepherd of the Valley hosts a preschool with 140 enrolled students, three- and four-year-olds eager to learn about each other, life, and school! Seeing them walk down the halls singing and playing is always a joy! Each month we gather for chapel services, remembering and hearing more about God. Our Director of Youth and Family Ministries, Sara Manning, and I lead chapel services along with the preschool directors and staff. Figuring out content is always a challenge. We need to share material that’s appropriate for three-year-olds, respectful of their different backgrounds and traditions, but also meaningful and true. Leading preschool chapel forces us, as leaders, to delve down into our core beliefs. We ask, “What aspects of our relationship with God are foundational and indispensable?” Anything that isn’t absolutely at the center has to be left out. It might not apply to all of our children, or it might be too hard to understand at such a young age. As we started our year, we wanted to get three simple concepts across:
These seem simple, but how many of us lose our way, finding doctrines or beliefs that do not reflect these values? We suspect God is against us, or exists only to judge us. We say God judges us on how right we are or how perfectly we live. So much harm has been done to the world, and to its people, when we forget those three, simple affirmations. That’s why we wanted to start early, raising a new generation to understand the God who cares about them and about all the people around them. As we trust in this, decisions become easier, ways forward become clearer, and our lives transform. Does your faith still rest on those affirmations? If not, is whatever you’re trusting in as important and sure as they are? It wouldn’t hurt any of us to remember that God exists for goodness, that God loves us, and that God brings us together to care about each other today. --Pastor Dave ![]() Earlier this week, we talked about Jesus’ beautiful stories of lost sheep and coins, arguing that it is God’s great delight to love and welcome people despite the boundaries we set up to prevent same. For some, a single phrase in Jesus’ stories threatens to overturn the apple cart. From Luke 14: I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. When we read this, our self-justifying, exclusive natures pipe up to say, “Aha! He said, ‘Sinner who repents’. That means anyone outside of my group is, by definition, a sinner! In order to be reconciled, they first have to say they’re wrong and think like me.” This is handy for us, but it’s not intrinsic to the gospel. In this story, the designation of “sinner” was not brought up by Jesus, but by religious leaders who were scandalized that Jesus would eat with anyone who is not them. Employing the word himself, Jesus contradicts their point effectively. He refuses to get in an argument about who’s a sinner and who’s not. The story strongly implies that the religious leaders themselves are doing something wrong. Everyone involved could be painted with a sinful brush. Instead, Jesus goes with their term, turning their expected outcome on its head in the process. It’s as if he’s saying, “Even IF the word, ‘Sinner’ applies as you suggest it does, that does not exclude these people from the love and family of God.” Modern debates about inclusion, exclusion, and suitability often get bogged down in examining whether something is a sin. This is almost always a waste of time. Even if you get an answer, who among us does not also commit sins? The important question is not who’s a sinner and who’s not, but what God does with people who have fallen short. Asking, “Is this a sin?” we seek condemnation of our neighbor and absolution for ourselves. It’s no accident that most of the topics we debate in this fashion involve potential “sins” that we do not think we, ourselves, commit. From a perch of safety on high, we debate the fitness and fate of people who are not us, secure that we’ll remain unstained either way. The seekers in Jesus’ story did not do this. They moved, seeking out people who fall short, rejoicing when they were recovered and carried home. This is the work of God. But what about that little phrase, “who repents”? Doesn’t that mean it’s up to the lost person to acknowledge, confess, and renounce their shortcomings before they can be reconciled? That’s the way we’ve defined repentance traditionally. We think of repentance as the act that brings reconciliation with God, much like sticking our card into an Automatic Teller Machine and punching out the correct code to receive forgiveness. That’s not what happens in these stories. God is not portrayed as a static ATM, waiting for us to think properly, say the right words, and stop sinning before he’ll connect with us.
So, then, what’s this repentance thing about? The concept of repentance appears in the languages of Old and New Testament (in Hebrew and Greek), in the Latin to which they were translated, and on into English. In all cases, it carries a sense of turning and/or walking. The Latin translation tends to take this literally, almost “to turn and re-walk”. The Hebrew is more of an internal mind-turning, often with sorrow accompanying. The basic idea is new direction and change. ![]() Re-walking beautifully expresses the action in these stories from Luke 14. When the sheep went out under its own power, it became lost, walking in a separate direction. The seeker re-walks the sheep back where it was meant to be. Getting lost did not happen in a single moment; it was a progressing journey. So is the reconciliation. Carried or guided by the shepherd, the sheep re-walks the path at every step. It may not even know where it’s going. The direction has changed and it’s towards reunion. That’s all we know. All of us who fall short aren’t fixed or cured by what we believe, nor by what we confess. We simply tell the truth that we are re-walking our paths towards something good, even when we can’t see what that is. This re-walking journey doesn’t end with our reunion. It continues all the days of our life thereafter. We who re-walk do not return to a static community, localized in space and time, which does not move. We are transformed and we continue to be transformed, along with our community, walking in new ways thereafter. Another way of phrasing Jesus’ celebration description might be, “All of heaven rejoices over one journey re-walked that transforms a person’s life in joy, brings them into community, and changes that community in turn. Heaven rejoices more over this than over 99 lives and 99 communities that don’t go anywhere because they don’t perceive the need to move from where they are, nor to welcome anyone or anything new.” This brings up obvious questions: How do we define our faith lives and journeys? Do we trust in our own power and convictions, or do we trust in being re-walked by something greater than we? What is the purpose of our faith communities, to stay static and wait for people who think like us to join, or to move in the great re-walking ourselves? God delights in finding us far more than we delight in being found. Yet heaven rejoices at every step of the journey anyway. May your re-walk be enlightening and blessed. Pastor Dave
Ep. 38 - Did Jesus really just say it's OK to cheat??? Ethics, contracts, and greater ideals from the infamous "Dishonest Manager" story in Luke 16.
The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. Follow us at GeekAndGreek.com! Listen to more Geek and Greek podcasts here: geekandgreek.com/ ![]() The Gospel text for this week comes from Luke, Chapter 15. It contains two parallel parables, beautiful in their simplicity. Take a look: 15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The story continues last week’s theme of God changing our direction. Then we talked about outward versus inwards, lines versus circles. These stories highlight the difference between exclusion and inclusion, revealing God’s bias towards the latter. In this reading, the indoctrinated religious leaders of the time made a motion towards exclusivity. They openly wondered why Jesus was welcoming, and eating with, people who were not in the religious fold, deemed unworthy of joining. It’s easy for us to cast stones at those leaders, saying, “Thank goodness we’re not them!” This claim does not hold up to scrutiny. How many of us have heard, or used, terms like, “believers and unbelievers” or “church members and non-members”? We’re taught that our identity depends on dividing the world into insider and outsider designations. We extend these designations to our relationship with God. We define sacredness by location. We call the church, “God’s house” and caution our children to be on their best behavior when they cross that threshold, as if God resided inside and not outside, as if God were in the business of judging whether our behavior conforms to standards. Within “God’s house” stands the altar, considered to be even more sacred, and thus more off-limits to normal people. In the altar area many churches lift statues, representations of God or saints or angels looking down, inaccessible and unapproachable. When we express faith in this way, we end up with a series of concentric circles, like an archery target. God (supposedly) lives in the smallest, center circle. Each circle outside of that is bigger, but also less “holy”. Personal holiness is determined by how close to the bullseye you get. Those in proximity to the altar and the church are presumed holier than those outside. Those who memorize and repeat correct beliefs of the church are presumed holier than those who doubt, disagree, or never learn them.
Constructing things this way, we separate God from the world. We also separate ourselves from each other. Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, we ask, “How can God possibly be with someone who is not as close to the center as I am right now, especially considering all the work I’ve put in and the time I’ve spent shooting at this target?” Today we read about a God who refuses to be localized. When asked why he’s eating with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus gives a response that amounts to, “God doesn’t stay where you try to put him.” We hear the story of a sheep tender leaving the flock to seek out a single, lost lamb. We hear the story of a woman turning her house inside-out to find one, lost coin even though nine already sit upon her table. Each time, the seeker ranges far and wide, rejoicing when the object of their search is discovered and reunited even harder than they rejoice over the existing flock. When religious leaders attempt to draw circles and exclude, Jesus roams, recovers, and welcomes. He does not ask about qualifications, fitness, or how near the bullseye the arrow hits. He zooms off the target altogether, catching not only our stray arrows, but us! He delights in doing this, because he loves us! Being “Christ-like” does not mean hitting the mark or living close to the center. It does not mean drawing lines and excluding those who do not qualify by the traditional standards of holiness. Being Christ-like means including, embracing, and loving as peers those whom God has wandered off the grid to welcome. Inclusion and exclusion are not equally valid approaches to faith. Inclusion follows God, allows for the possibility that God finds and calls people who don’t measure up to our preconceived standards. God exists beyond us, working to transform and move us. Exclusion places our standards in place of God’s work. It limits God’s work in space and time. God dwells only with us, for the express purpose of making us look good compared to our neighbors. This not only puts us at odds with them, but with God. Pastor Dave Pastor Dave concludes the message with a special surprise for his wife, Careen!
Ep. 37 - The cost of discipleship is steep. Can anyone really pay it? If not, how does that change the view of our relationship with God?
The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. Follow us at GeekAndGreek.com! Listen to more Geek and Greek podcasts here: geekandgreek.com/ ![]() Women’s Bible Study has resumed meeting at 10:00 each Thursday morning. The group will study the Book of Exodus this year. If you’d like more information, you can contact the church office or Sylvia Morris in the church directory. If you’re not available at 10 on Thursdays, never fear! We have far more things going on. We’re going to have adult and intergenerational educational activities this fall too, beginning soon!
Join us to get to know more of your church friends while studying interesting topics! |
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