Missio Dei: Tempe: Recent Episodes
Missio Dei Communities
Missio Tempe Family,
You have embodied the risen Christ throughout our city.
You have laughed together.
You have cried together.
You have lived life, together.
For all of the service to our neighbors and to each other, thank you.
Go from this place, in the hope and peace of Christ,
into the Missio Dei.
As a family, we have now joined with Missio Dei Mesa. You can follow along with our sermon recordings in their podcast feed. Much love from all of us in the Missio family — thank you for following along!
Mark 15. For a teaching on Mark 16, look for our podcast “EASTER SUNDAY: What Just Happened?” from April 19, 2022.
Join Stephanie Weeden (and a couple of special guests!) as she guides us in thinking through Psalm 137.
Lord of Creation, create in us a new rhythm of life composed of hours that sustain rather than stress, of days that deliver rather than destroy, of time that tickles rather than tackles.
Lord of Liberation, by the rhythm of your truth, set us free from the bondage and baggage that breaks us, from the Pharaohs and fellows who fail us, from the plans and pursuits that prey upon us.
Lord of Resurrection, may we be raised into rhythms of your new life, dead to deceitful calendars, dead to fleeting friend requests, dead to the empty peace of our accomplishments.
To our packed-full planned calendars, we bid, "Peace!" To our over-caffeinated consciences, we say, "Cease!" To our suffocating selves, Lord, grant us release.
Drowning in a sea of deadlines and death chimes, we rest in you, our lifeline.
By your ever-restful grace, allow us to enter your Sabbath rest .
In the name of our Creator, our Liberator, our Resurrection and Life, we pray. Amen.
Taken from: “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals” by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth,
and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near.
Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you;
bring the nations into your fold;
pour out your Spirit upon all flesh;
and hasten the coming of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
In this bonus pod from our Sunday Gathering on March 6th, Sarah casts the vision for our liturgy and Charlie calls us to three practices throughout the season of Lent.
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.
We continue our series in the spirituals by looking at Swing Low Sweet Chariot. In this sermon, we remember that we both taste heaven now and yet long for heaven not yet.
In this teaching, we continue our series looking at the Spirituals and what lessons they might teach us about following Jesus faithfully.
This teaching is on the spiritual: There is a Balm in Gilead which is a reference to Jeremiah 8:22.
2 Challenges: 1. Have a conversation with your closest friend or spouse about your 2021 budget and stewardship.
- Share your budget with someone else in your MC or a trusted friend.
Challenge: Pray for the Elders to be good stewards with integrity and generosity of our resources.
In this teaching, we explore 1 Peter 5:1-5. In this passage, the Apostle Peter gives us a new vision for what it means to live as God’s household by addressing elders, those who are younger (not currently leading) and everyone.
As shepherds, Peter gives three contrasts for what it means to be an elder in God’s family:
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Not out of obligation but gospel obedience
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Not for job security but for selfless service.
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Not to lord over others but to be an example to the flock.
As elders take up their role of service in God’s family, Peter asks those who are younger to submit to their elders. Submission for Peter is not about withdrawal or resignation Joel Green says, but about “active engagement.”
Two takeaways of what submitting to leaders could look like:
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Invite your MC leader or an elder into a big life decision you are making.
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Invite yourself into the ordinary rhythms of a leader (i.e. doing laundry, playing with kids, going to the store)
The last group, Peter addresses is EVERYONE. He says for ALL to be clothed in humility.
In the midst of this election season, (100 days from now) how might we be clothed in humility towards one another knowing that none of us see the whole picture.
We will process this teaching more as we gather via zoom Sunday, July 19th at 10:30am!
“God whispers in our pleasure but shouts in our pain.” - C.S. Lewis.
In this podcast, we explore 1 Peter 4:12-19. Continuing with the main themes of 1 Peter, we explore what it means to joyfully suffer alongside our Suffering King.
There are three arenas of suffering for us to be aware of:
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Suffering because the “world is not the way it is supposed to be.” We live in a world of sin, sickness, and death.
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Suffering because of the consequences of our sin. Peter mentions this in 4:15.
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Suffering because we follow Christ in a world hostile towards our King and His Kingdom. This is the main arena of suffering Peter is addressing. We focus on arenas 1 and 3 in the podcast.
A question we want you to pause and reflect on: Apart from the health precautions placed in our country by the government around our Sunday gatherings, what would persecution look like over the next year if we take seriously the call of Jesus and the cost of His Kingdom?
Make a list.
Suffering is inevitable, so the question is: what do we do with suffering?
When it comes to suffering are you a:
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Avoider
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Fixer
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Pouter (Self-Pity)
Peter calls us to a fourth way, to joyfully go through suffering because the Suffering Servant goes with us.
But why do we embrace suffering?
Because we know the end of the Story. We continue to do good because we know Jesus will return and restore all things.
In this season, what is the Spirit inviting you to continue to do good in your workplace, neighborhood, MC, family, and beyond?
In this podcast, Chris Gonzalez unpacks 1 Peter 4:1-11.
In 1 Peter 4:1-2, we see Christ as the “example” or in the Latin term: “Christus Examplar” The other dominant image of Christ is of the victorious one over sin and death: “Christus Victor.” We need both images of Christ and his role in creation.
Which one do you tend to focus on at the expense of the other?
In 1 Peter 4:3-6, Peter tells these churches to embrace their new identity in light of the cultural norms they had practices for so long: debauchery, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, etc (1 Peter 4:3).
In this season, what are some cultural norms you need to set aside to embrace the creational norms of living in God’s kingdom?
In 1 Peter 4:7-11, Peter casts a vision for what this new way of living looks like with three descriptors: love, hospitality, and serving.
Over this next month, how can you embrace love, hospitality and serving even in the midst of the global pandemic?
This week we unpack the most controversial passage in all of 1 Peter. But maybe in many ways we have misunderstood what Peter meant?
This teaching is framed around five questions: “But what about _______?”
So far in 1 Peter, we have explore who we are (Family) and why we exist declaring and demonstrating good news as God’s royal priesthood (Missionary) but the question is how should we go?
What should be our posture as God’s people? We see in this passage our servant identity. We are a family of missionary servants.
In 1 Peter 2:18-25, Peter addresses all Christians as slaves in their new status in service to Jesus and the Kingdom.
However, God never asks us to do anything he isn’t willing to himself. Who God is and what God has done always comes before our identity and calling as servants.
Jesus is displayed as the ultimate servant in this passage with echoes and hints from Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12.
Here is our question for you: How can you creatively imagine this week to be a servant in your neighborhood, to your co-workers, to that person that makes you uncomfortable in your MC, and to our city?
How am I supposed to live in this world?
State, Economic Order, Family.
READING RESPONSIBLY
We can’t just read Peter’s words as timeless principles to be applied. There is a vastly different context that his original hearers were in compared to the context we are in, as his contemporary hearers.
THEY HAD NO VOICE.
The Christians to whom Peter was writing were a tiny minority with no responsibility whatsoever for the political order.
THEY HAD NO HISTORY.
Between them and us there lies the whole story of the rise and disintegration of Christendom.
THEY HAD NO OPTION.
The dissolution of the given element (State, Work, Arranged Marriage)
Let’s talk about our relationship with the State. Politics would be the top topic of conversation this summer if it weren’t for COVID-19.
6 months until election.
What can we say?
1 . As submitted people, neither revolting nor withdrawing, but Humbly Engaged.
Not revolting…
“Being the representatives of the new order of God’s new creation does not mean that we are free from the old creation, free to overturn the old order. On the contrary, we are to “be subject for the lord’s sake to every human institution”. That is a remarkably all-embracing instruction
Not withdrawing…
“Submit” can be opposite of revolting, but also is the opposite of withdraw. Finding and occupying ones place in society.
Their danger wasn’t in being rebellious but in being absent.
William Temple, “Christianity is the most materialistic of the world’s great religions.”
How do we do this? 3 words: “With great difficulty.”
Local is a key.
“A thing must be local to be real.” - G.K. Chesterton
2. As people freed not for self-determination, but freed for service.
We hear Freedom as self-determination. Freedom is for service.
Freedom - exodus background freedom is for service. “The point of exodus is not freedom in the sense of self-determination, but service, the service of the loving , redeeming, and delivering God of Israel” rather than the proud and self-serving Pharoah.
Martin Luther’s 2 Theses of a book on Freedom. “The Christian is the most free lord of all and subject to none. The Christian is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone.”
Both statements are true. Both of them at full strength and not, as is so often he case, a tasteless mixture of the two.
3. As people who see everything and everyone in relative relationship to Christ the Redeemer.
vs. 17 Honor everyone… Honor the emperor.
In this podcast we explore 1 Peter 2:4-12, the very heart of Peter’s letter.
Like the honey bees in the U.S. facing these new giant Asian hornets, we need to adapt to the challenges we face as God’s people in our time and place. This is the goal of 1 Peter to help us be a faithful, missionary presence.
Like the engine of the car that makes the car go, Jesus is the cornerstone of the church as a temple that without him, the building crumbles. As we think about our identity and calling as God’s people, would we not do this apart from Jesus.
Like an orchestra with many instruments and sounds, we together are the living stones that make up the church. Peter is asking us the question:
Are we as an entire church, faithfully playing our role in our city?
Peter references two main passages in forming the church’s identity from Exodus 19:4-6 & Hosea 1:10.
1 Peter 2:4-12 showcases how we are a mediator people who declare with our lips and demonstrate with our lives that Jesus is King.
For the watching world, the outsider looking in, what would they say notice about our church family? What would they think if they watched us living together as a church? With both our words and our very lives.
The passage ends with “they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of his visitation.” Peter has specifically made a note that this 1 Peter audience had never physically seen the risen Jesus and that we have taste that the Lord is God (Psalm 34:8) but not seen. But here he says, the world may see your good deeds and glorify God. In other words, through our shared life, people get to taste and SEE God on display.
Renown missiologist Lesslie Newbigin says,
“It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community.”
In this teaching we explore how our gospel identity gives birth to a visible gospel family of deep, sincere love (1 Peter 1:22-25).
However, Peter warns us with five community killers that threaten to destroy our gospel family (1 Peter 2:1).
How are you prone to malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander in the life of our church family?
Yet as we live together as a family, we remember we are like a dependent nursing child.
As you journey with us through 1 Peter and this teaching, notice how Psalm 34 is referenced throughout and may it encourage you in this season.