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I hate that he says this. He's insisting on humility and patience and restraint when it comes to patrolling the borders of the field that ultimately belongs to him. The point isn't that Jesus will go easy on the weeds. Apparently, there will be a separation and burning and plenty of weeping and gnashing of teeth; how that works out? Yeah, we have no clue.I think Jesus is trying to tell us that we can't police the field without damaging some wheat. So the question this brings us to is this: where do we want to spend our energy? Burning things down, or growing healthy and strong? Maybe the challenge is to grow healthy and strong, which is hard enough. Maybe it's to become less interested in labeling people and more interested in loving them. Maybe it's to become less interested in deciding who is worthy and more interested in making room for grace.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43https://www.bible.com/events/49642325
No condemnation. That isn't just good news, it's like a whole world being opened up in front of us.But that's not the end for Paul; it's just the beginning. Jesus tells a story about a farmer who just sows seeds, like, all over the place. God scatters seed with reckless abandon. Everyone is invited. The seed lands on all kinds of ground just as grace arrives in all kinds of lives. Maybe we've spent years analyzing the soil of our lives. Rocky? Thorny? Hardened? Notice that Jesus never said any patch of ground is permanently doomed. Rocks and thorns can be removed. Hardened ground can be broken up.Paul gets this when he talks about living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. It's like two different kinds of soil. Jesus loves to talk about plants and growth, and if there's one thing we know about growth, it is that it's slow.The invitation here from Paul and Jesus isn't to try harder. It's to become softer. More receptive and less defensive. More open to change and less afraid of it. Because the promise of these two passages seems to be: when soil opens itself to grace, when the heart makes room for the Spirit, life begins to emerge where we thought only death existed. There is no condemnation. That's where it starts. Then growth and transformation happen slowly. And maybe, years from now, someone will find themselves standing in the shade of the tree that is your life that grew from a seed you don't ever remember being planted.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23http://bible.com/events/49636153
Speakers: Aaron Vis and Tony VisIn part two of The Sage And The Son, Tony and Aaron answer more of the submitted questions from back in May.
wherever we are, whenever we are there.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 11:16-19; 25-30https://www.bible.com/events/49629944
We spend way too much time and energy trying to make people like us. But there's a weird kind of freedom that comes when we stop trying to get everyone's approval. We're then free to get down to the business of actually loving people.Then he says the thing about what he tells them in the dark they should speak in the daytime. Faith often grows in the dark. They've been listening to Jesus privately for some months. Now it's time to live it in public. What could that look like?Then he says the thing about not bringing peace, but a sword. We're not talking about a sharp metal thing. We're talking about the truth Jesus brings. It brings division. Not because Jesus enjoys division, people just respond to truth differently. When people give their loyalty to Jesus above all others, even families don't understand. It's why he says the thing about fathers and mothers.Then he says the thing about taking up a cross and following him. The disciples aren't hearing jewelry that they could wear around their neck. They're hearing death. We ought to hear death, too. The death of self. The death of ego. The death of always having to be right. Little deaths everyday until resurrection is possible.We could be afraid. Or we could remember the thing Jesus says about the sparrows. Easily overlooked. Ordinary. But God sees them. And we're worth more than many sparrows. We are known and loved and held by the divine. Sometimes knowing that gives us all the courage we need to follow Jesus.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 10:24-39http://bible.com/events/49626856
Here's what's funny. No one questions a doctor for spending time in the hospital. Jesus being with these people doesn't mean he's a failure as a rabbi, it shows his purpose. Then he says the thing about God desiring mercy, not sacrifice. He's saying that when religion gets disconnected from compassion, it loses its heart. It stops looking like and revealing God.Then he says the thing about calling not the righteous, but the sinners. What's the difference between righteous people and sinners? The sinners know they're in need of healing. The righteous KNOW they DON'T need healing, which, of course, is the thing that makes them sick.This is an invitation to move toward transformation. The righteous don't want transformation because they don't think they need it. But the sick...they notice that Matthew doesn't stay in his booth. He leaves it behind and is transformed. Then he eventually writes it down. He's transformed and helps the generations that follow find healing, too. He becomes a witness. Because that's what grace does.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 9:9-13http://bible.com/events/49620456
It's Trinity Sunday!We're starting off with a VERY brief history lesson with an introduction to the Nicene Creed. Yes, I'm even going to quote from the creed. We're going old school. The creed clearly clears things up. Yeah, no. We all still have questions.All of these analogies seem to fall short. Maybe the Trinity is better NOT explained; maybe it's better if we experience the Trinity. Think about the blessing/benediction from Paul: Grace of Jesus. Love of God. Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We all know what grace feels like. We all know what love feels like. We all know what fellowship feels like. Maybe that's how we talk about the Trinity, by noticing how God has already been moving among us. Grace. Love. Fellowship. I like that a lot.But it doesn't stop me from wanting to explain it, or at least think about and play around with it. So, we'll do some more of that, by borrowing from Richard Rohr and running through some thoughts here.- God is dynamic.- God is diverse.- God is communal.What are we left with? Mystery. But it's a mystery that can be experienced if we're paying attention. Grace. Love. Fellowship. And if we're really paying attention, those things are everywhere.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 2 Corinthians 13:11-14https://www.bible.com/events/49617181
In this second iteration of Aaron and Tony chatting about faith and living a life that reflects Jesus, folks submitted questions and they answered them, mostly off the cuff. There are still more questions that didn't get answered this time around, so be on the lookout for another Sunday like this in the near future to finish up the list, if everything works out!
We continue on in the Farewell Discourses. This time, we finish with the prayer Jesus prays at the end of his long, difficult discussion with his disciples, before he says goodbye. We'll begin by remembering, again, the context.It's remarkable that Jesus intercedes with the Father on our behalf. I love the idea that God cares about my little life and loves me enough to talk to the Father about me. Not just about me, but about the ones I love, and all of us at ReNew, and for that matter, the entire world.What does he pray about? Glory. Normally think of winning we think about glory. Jesus subverts and redefines that idea. Glory is the work Jesus accomplished. It looks like washing feet, healing people, forgiving, welcoming those on the margins, and eventually it looks like a cross. Glory is love poured out.Jesus then connects the cross to eternal life. Eternal life is not what we normally think. It's a relationship with the divine, now. Jesus is constantly bringing us back to the present moment, the now.Then he prays that they may be one. Unity. This isn't uniformity. That's when everyone thinks the same, votes the same, and experiences God the same. Unity is hard. It takes humility, listening, learning, repentance, and grace. Jesus prays for unity right before violence erupts. Violence intends fear. And fear divides. Fear causes us to choose sides. Fear divides. But Jesus is always building newer and bigger tables inviting more and more of us to sit at them. We struggle at unity because we'd rather preserve the institution than create communities of healing. Jesus has a better idea: building a community shaped by the love of God.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 17:1-11https://www.bible.com/events/49610724
It's the only commandment given by Jesus in John's story about Jesus. Love. Let's think back to what we talked about last week, with the possibilities of what that could look like in our day. Maybe here, Jesus does give us a road map, or a strategy. The strategy is love. The only way those things are possible is through love. But let's acknowledge, those things feel impossible.Yeah, Jesus sensed that, too. So he said he'd send us the Spirit. Even after Jesus leaves, he'll continue to be with them through the presence of the Spirit. The church describes the Spirit in a particular way, with particular language, and what we can apply particular meaning now, in modern times.Then Jesus says this thing about the peace he gives. Jesus gives us a different kind of peace than the world gives. It's deeper than trouble. It's a rootedness, a steadiness, a center that holds no matter what. We know people who radiate this kind of peace. They don't pretend that life isn't hard. But there's a groundedness to them. It's like they know that love is underneath all things, maybe holding all things together. Maybe that's the kind of peace Jesus is talking about.Again, yes, we live in troubled times. We don't deny that. But we face it head on, with love, through the presence and power of the Spirit.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 14:15-27http://bible.com/events/49607445
and get through these turbulent times together.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 14:1-14
We feel them because we've experienced them.Then comes an interesting part of the story. Jesus is going to transform their walk of disappointment , they just don't know it yet. What I love about this story is its simplicity, how ordinary it is. These disciples are on a walk. In those days, people walked wherever they went. Walking is important, physically and mentally, and even spiritually.These two were on a pilgrimage and didn't know it. We're kinda like that. We spend most of our days on a pilgrimage but we rarely think of it that way. How often do we wake up in the morning and think, what does God have in store for me today?But Jesus is with these two. And the first thing he does is show up with a question. He invites openness. They talk, and Jesus just listens. We have a God who listens, who takes us seriously even when all we have are complaints and doubts and a lack of imagination. Still, he listens.Then Jesus speaks. He reframes their experience. Their hearts burn. Transformation often works that way. You feel something emerging inside before you can fully explain it.They arrive in the village. They ask him to stay. He does. Then he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to them. And their eyes are opened. Then he disappears. But what happens next? They go back to Jerusalem. Resurrection does that; it reorients our direction and gives you hope. When they get there they explain to the disciples, at first they didn't recognize him, then after the bread thing, their eyes were opened.That's what I like about this story: it gives us permission, permission to NOT always recognize where God is at work, permission to be in process, permission to walk slowly, really slowly through confusion and doubt and wondering and still be on the road with Jesus. So keep walking; maybe the ordinary spaces will eventually become holy and you'll realize you were never alone. Not for a second. Not alone even on the road AWAY from hope, and maybe especially there.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 24:13-35http://bible.com/events/49597299
Please note that, for the sake of an audio medium, this Sunday's message has been edited down to remove the minutes of no talking while folks participated in the workshop at their tables. To see Sarah's slides and examples of the practices she detailed here, see the video on our YouTube channel, ReNew Ames, under the April 12th date.Speaker: Sarah Fleminghttp://bible.com/events/49593888
Perplexed. The story begins with wondering and confusion and it ends there too. It's still early in the morning, when something has ended but the next thing has yet to begin. Maybe that's where this story meets us. Maybe we're in the confusing time, too.It might be confusing now, we might be perplexed now, we might be living in a time where one thing is ending and the new one hasn’t begun yet. That’s okay, because a new world is coming where justice, righteousness, equality, and peace rule the day and darkness is no more. Let’s just keep doing our best to help make that happen. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 24:1-12http://bible.com/events/49590557
They don't know how right they are. This is what real kingship looks like. Not violence or coercion, but self-giving love.We get to the cross and the tomb. Is that the end? Can a love like Jesus' come to an end?Final question: Where do you find yourself in the story? Maybe with Judas, Peter, the disciples, Pilate, the crowd. Wherever we find ourselves, that's where the story finds us. Not with condemnation, but with presence. A deep presence calling something more out of us. Inviting us to be transformed. Because, maybe it didn't really have to go this way - we just let it.Finally, at the center of the story isn't just suffering and violence and death. At the center of the story is love. And maybe that love is active in the world today, in our lives today. In the broken places of our lives, in redeeming the past we can't seem to shake. I think this story tells us something significant: divine love goes further than we think. It goes into and beyond betrayal. Into and beyond denial. Into and beyond failure. Maybe divine love goes even further and beyond death itself.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 26:14-75; 27:11-66http://bible.com/events/49586645
Let's start off by talking about how reality works. You eat right, you exercise, you get stronger and healthy. When you don't, well, you kinda go backwards. This is like what Paul is explaining here.He talks about sharing in Christ's suffering and then sharing in his glory. (Glory here is not heaven, glory here is sharing in Christ's humanity; becoming fully human, becoming what human beings were meant to be). When we don't share in Christ's suffering (giving himself away) we are in bondage to decay; we become something other than what we were intended to become. Like Dallas Willard talks about, grace is opposed to earning, not to effort. In other words, it takes effort to work with the Spirit to become who God intends us to become. We take on some chosen suffering in order to work with God in being transformed.So in the context of these words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, what would it look like for us to put in some effort?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Romans 8:12-25https://www.bible.com/events/49583176
And somewhere in the quiet spaces in your life, the Spirit is working now. Because God sees differently.So maybe we should see differently, too. Maybe we need to look again; look at people differently, look at the world differently, look at ourselves differently. The next movement of God might begin, is probably beginning, in the quiet places the world barely notices, if it notices at all. And maybe the next movement of God is beginning right here in this room, in your heart and in mine.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 1 Samuel 16:1-13http://bible.com/events/49579809
a little more often.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 9:1-41http://bible.com/events/49576397
So to believe something (or in someone) is to invest it with our love. Belief is important to God because love is important to God.So maybe the invitation is something like this: maybe the questions you've been afraid to ask = the faith you feel you've outgrown - the certainty that no longer fits - maybe those things aren't a threat. Maybe they're birth pangs - contractions - a sign that something new is trying to be born - a new YOU is trying to be born.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 3:1-21http://bible.com/events/49572821
Again, grace doesn't just forgive. It transforms. It recreates. It helps us live into and create a better world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Romans 5:12-21http://bible.com/events/49569376
This is a special, different kind of conversation. Most of you know and love Tony, Aaron's dad, and have been blessed by his ministry and friendship and love. Aaron sat down with Tony to talk about end of life and hospice, and how their family is working together to process and prepare for death. Speakers: Aaron Vis and Tony Vis
God is on our side - with us - near.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 5:1-12http://bible.com/events/49559249
those in this world who work for justice for all people.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 4:23-25; 5:1-12http://bible.com/events/49555918
But none of us really does that. We're all following. We got our beliefs, our values, the ways in which we live our everyday lives from someone. It was handed down to us. There's nothing new under the sun. Who are we following? It's an important question for self-reflection.There are characteristics and actions that DON'T look like Jesus, but we see them everywhere. And if it doesn't look like Jesus, we should stop following.So it's not too late. We can still repent and receive forgiveness, because that's what God does (this is John's message, who then points to Jesus). Then we can repent - rethink - change our thinking about some things - and then follow Jesus who shows us how to live in the kingdom. And what does Jesus immediately start doing with his new followers? Oh, he goes around Galilee and heals people of all their diseases. That's our work: bring healing into the lives of others wherever we are whenever we are there.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 4:12-23http://bible.com/events/49552986
This story seems to be telling us that once we've been seen by Jesus, truly loved to the core of who we are, it is then that we're able to see others as people loved by God. May we see the way Jesus sees, and may we always seek after the One who is always seeking after us.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 1:29-42
There's practicality in the meal Jesus gave us (the Lord's Supper) that also runs parallel with the practicality of the presence of water in our lives, and it invites people to live into it. Maybe if we remind ourselves often enough that we are God's beloved, we'll begin to believe it. And if we begin to believe it, maybe we'll begin treating others as if they, too, are God's beloved. Because they are. And maybe that's where new life begins; not just for us, but for all of creation.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 3:13-17http://bible.com/events/49546182
Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. It's wonderful because Christmas brings us all kinds of things. Gifts, goodies, time with friends and family, great lights and decorations, the list goes on.But most of all, I think, Christmas brings us love.This story really is all about love. God isn't always what we might expect - power, awesomeness, majesty - but love - love born among us as an infant. Whatever else Christmas brings us this year, none of it is really worth all that much unless we stop and consider that Christmas brings us love - and calls us to love.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 2:1-20
Christmas decorations make us see the world differently, through the eyes of children. During Advent, the stories we read in the Bible invite us into a new way of seeing as well. Today we are talking about the stories of Mary (in Luke) and Joseph (in Matthew).The inward vision of Mary: she responds to the personal call of God. She was open enough to hear the call of God. Then she was daring enough to say yes when God called. How open are we to hearing the call of God this Christmas season? Once we hear it, because God doesn't force it, we have the opportunity to say no. Are we daring enough to say yes when God calls? What is God calling you to this season? What about the new year?The outward vision of Joseph: his heart is changed to not leave Mary and the child. He stays. He heard the call of God and he bound his life to the lives of those who were vulnerable. Are we hearing the outward call of God? Do we have eyes to see and ears to hear it? Why do we exist as a church if not to make room for those who've been shut out?We exist to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. God calls each one of us individually, and all of us together as a community; are we listening?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 1:26-38; Matthew 1:18-24https://www.bible.com/events/49540153
So, John the Baptist in the Wilderness. Why do we do Advent in the wilderness?Well, maybe there's some deep thinking here about the nature of power. The Word of God comes to John in the wilderness. Luke gives us a long sentence about all the people in power; yet, the word comes to the one without power. What is it about power that makes people unable to hear a fresh word from the divine?In the wilderness you have no power, there's no plan B. Life is raw and real and all we can do is wait and watch and hope for God to come into our lives and give us what we need. In the wilderness we know our lives depend on God. We know what the wilderness feels like.Then John moves on; he talks about repentance and sin. Yeah, I'll acknowledge that we don't really like those words. But, here they are, in the Bible. What is sin? Well, sin is anything that kills us. It's estrangement from God and others, it's disconnection, it's definitely NOT about God's anger. God has the ability to manage God's own emotions.So, J the B asks us to repent. To turn away from anything that kills, and turn toward the divine. So kind of a weird thing to talk about on our organizational Sunday. But maybe not. We could puff out our chests...we're a real church now! We made it! But that doesn't feel right. Instead, on this day, we choose humility. We recognize that we've made mistakes, that we don't know it all and might not have all the right answers. We choose repentance in order to welcome God into our lives so that we can be transformed.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 3:1-6https://www.bible.com/events/49536676
We're goin' Thanksgiving Mode on Sunday - gettin' into the gratitude groove. The words - thanks, thanksgiving, grateful, and gratitude - aren't in this psalm. But you can hear the word, the idea resonating underneath this entire psalm. It's an acrostic; each new line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It's an artsy fartsy way of communicating completeness - wholeness - fullness. Everything good that happens on this planet is because of the divine. It's all gift. We'll talk about two things:Gratitude is learned - one generation will commend your works to another. Here we are stopping to talk about teaching gratitude from parent to child, etc.Gratitude is theological - it's rooted in the very person and being of the divine. We'll talk about three different attributes of the divine given in this psalm: God is gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. God is powerful - the same God who created the universe is able to pick us up and transform lives. God is near - God is closer than the air we breathe - all we have to do is pay attentionSpeaker: Aaron VisScripture: Psalm 145
This is the part where Jesus gets interrogated by Pilate. It's this weird little story that hinges on questions. Are you the king of the Jews? What is truth? Are you the king of the Jews? Pilate wants to know if Jesus is going to lead a violent overthrow of the government. He wants to know if Jesus is a threat and eventually doesn't see him as a threat. But in reality, Jesus is a threat. Not to overthrow the government by violence - but he's a threat to violence itself. He doesn't play by those rules - he says his kingdom is from someplace else.What is truth? Jesus' answer? Silence. He seems to be saying, I am the truth. You're looking at it. Truth is Jesus. It isn't a weapon to be used. It isn't something we possess - it's something we belong to. Jesus is the truth and everything he embodied. His way, his love, his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness. Jesus offers a whole different way of life for anyone who will listen.This is something I think the world is ready for and in desperate need of. A new way of living - the question is, are we willing to live into it?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 18:28-38http://bible.com/events/49523153
Yeah, easier said than done. Well, we endure anyway - even when it seems like the world is falling apart. But HOW do we endure? We'll move to the table which might be the only symbol that will save us. Self-sacrificing, self-giving love. The table, where all are welcome - where we're all on the same level - where there are no hierarchies and everyone belongs. The table - where we all recognize that all of us are on the same team - made of the same stuff - in need of the same nourishment. So we receive from God that nourishment - and we participate in making sure that everyone gets that nourishment - gets what they need to live full healthy lives in the here and now. Even while we struggle.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 21:5-19http://bible.com/events/49519653
Let's begin by talking about Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Paul planted churches and then sent people like Silas and Timothy to check up on those churches. Way too many for Paul to keep track of all by himself. Then they would then report back to Paul and Paul would sometimes write them letters back to help them. So in a way, Paul was a kind of spiritual physician giving these churches regular checkups. It seems as though Paul's diagnosis for the church in Thessalonica was pretty good - it was a reasonably healthy place. He points out three things that make them spiritually healthy.1) Their faith is growing. How could he tell? Who knows?! How can we tell if our faith is growing? Faith is less about the things we believe and more about trusting in God. That happens at ReNew all the time, as we are challenged by one another to ask questions and examine difficult conclusions.2) Their love for one another is increasing. Again, how did he know? How do you measure that? At ReNew, we can see that happening as we share our time together on Sunday, or participate in youth programs on Wednesday nights or Sunday afternoons, or organize and attend game nights, weed the garden, etc. We have fun together and we support one another when we need it the most.3) They show incredible resilience. How do you measure that? We live in a world where it's hard to be a person of faith - our kind don't have the best reputation right now. It's hard to believe that God is actually renewing all things. There are all sorts of reasons to doubt, to give up on faith, to become cynical - and yet, here we are. We're still here.We may not be perfect, but this place is in pretty good health.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12http://bible.com/events/49516294
it probably brings an image of a specific practice for you, or maybe something you thought you were supposed to be doing a certain way. Yeah, that's probably not what the Psalmist meant. Scripture wasn't meant to be read alone at 5 a.m. with a cup of coffee. It was meant to be read (and in the ancient world it was only read) in community. This is one of the ways we allow ourselves to be filled.So in our effort to connect to the divine, we have two main resources that we pull from all the time. First there's the book of scripture, which we all think of immediately. But then there's also another resource, one that I won't spoil here, but you can think about it with us as you listen. The late great Rich Mullins has a great song about it. We're going to read those lyrics together and think about them in that context. Empty. Filled. To be emptied again - trees are full of grace bearing fruit for the benefit of others. Trees don't exist for themselves - they only exist to bless (give life) to creation. That's who we become.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Psalm 1:1-6http://bible.com/events/49512947
The parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge. I'll start here by comparing Jesus' parables to the stories we read to kids at bedtime. Yes, they're a lot alike. Let's have some fun with it.This parable really does make for a good children's book. Of course, we have all kinds of adult sized questions after hearing this story. No, we may not have any answers for these questions - but I always think it's a good idea to at least ask them - acknowledge them.Jesus says that this story is about praying and not giving up. Not losing heart. What does it look like to lose heart? Let's imagine ourselves as the widow. What happens when we pray like the widow? Maybe the real miracle of prayer is that it changes us - makes us into the kind of people for whom injustice is never normal - makes us into the kind of people who keep showing up in the world where and when it's most needed.Jesus then connects this to the word "faith." Faith and prayer have a lot to do with each other, I think. Maybe faith is the jet fuel for our prayers. Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe our prayers are the jet fuel for our faith. Whichever way it goes, faith - a trust that God is NOT like the judge - faith is the thing that keeps us showing up.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 18:1-8http://bible.com/events/49503020
I'll focus on the phrase "foreigners and exiles" or, "strangers and aliens" to begin. We have all probably been places that left us all feeling what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land. In the context in which Peter is writing to these early Jesus people, they felt like strangers in a strange land because of their connection with Jesus - they would have avoided cultic rituals and would have been seen as different - people would have been suspicious of them.We definitely know what that's like. It used to be easy to give examples of this - us living in this culture. Now, it's extra difficult and weird - we now feel like strangers among our own Jesus people. This is where that video comes in. The images of violence being punctuated by the Lord's Prayer really just makes our skin crawl, if we think about the context of that prayer and who Jesus asks us to be.So how do we make our way in this environment? Peter's answer - living stones. We need each other and together we remain connected to the cornerstone, Jesus. We need each other now more than ever in these "unprecedented times." We NEED each other.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 1 Peter 2:1-12http://bible.com/events/49499623
We'll start off by talking a bit about the Spirit - cuz that's where Paul starts. We are the church because of the presence of the Spirit.Then Paul talks about how we are the body of Christ - that's the image he uses. The miracle of the human body is a complex wonder that shows us how every part is valuable, no matter how small or unnoticeable it might seem to us, especially if we feel that way about ourselves. So Paul is drawing the comparison between the human body and the body of Christ here. If you want to find community, a place to belong, a place where you fit in - this is it. The church, the body of Christ.Then he talks about the Spirit giving gifts. ALL KINDS OF DIVERSE GIFTS. This is intentional divine diversity. So this is when you get the chance to think about where you might find a place to fit in - a place to use your gifts. All of us belong! All of our gifts are appreciated and needed here.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 1 Corinthians 12:1-27http://bible.com/events/49496097
Jesus isn't holding anything back - he's letting the crowd know what it's going to cost to actually follow him. I appreciate that about Jesus - let's get all the cards on the table!We're going to spend a lot of time asking some questions, and these questions aren't necessarily going to be easy to answer. That's okay.Here are the questions that will help us get at the heart of the "cost of discipleship."1) Who is my "we"? How narrow or wide is the circle that includes "my people"? Are we willing to risk a "we" that goes beyond race, religion, gender, sexuality, politics, etc?2) What do I think is mine? What do we hold on to more tightly than the divine?3) What are we willing to hate? In other words, what are we willing to let go - to move beyond? Beliefs? Traditions? What source of safety and security do we trust more than the divine?4) What version of the faith are we selling? The easy kind? Or the kind that has only one non-negotiable? Self sacrificing, self giving love?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 14:25-35http://bible.com/events/49489368
(Apologies for the late upload, this sermon was previously posted the week of the 24th but didn't process correctly the first time)The calling of Abraham next to the calling of Matthew. I've done this before - this time we come at it from a very different angle. Change for us human beings is difficult. It's less of a point I'm making, and more of a way for us to feel something as we enter into the stories.First let's look at the story of Abraham and Sarah's initial calling. Here we have another foundational story. And in it, faith seems to be defined as people responding to the voice of God calling them into change and uncertainty. This is interesting - since for the past 100 or so years faith has been defined as being certain about different ideas about God, Jesus, the Spirit, humanity, the Bible - etc. But here, at the beginning of the Bible, we have a story defining faith as a journey into the uncertain.This is where the story of Matthew comes into play. He leaves his tax booth and follows Jesus. During the beginning of his journey he comes into contact with unclean people - marginalized people (ironically, he's one of those marginalized, too). And in coming into close proximity with them as he follows Jesus (loving people), I wonder if his thinking about them is changed, too.Maybe faith is less about being certain about a set of ideas and beliefs about God or anything, really - and it's more about going, leaving, moving into the uncertain future trusting that God will be with you and that blessing is coming.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Genesis 12:1-9; Matthew 9:9-13http://bible.com/events/49482587
This is one of my favorite - if not my favorite story about Jesus. It's not a healing - it's not miraculous - it's Jesus' first sermon. In it, he pretty much frames what his whole life has been and will be all about.I'm going to help us visualize the story by describing in detail what things might have looked like. Let's talk through the movements - the scroll, the attendant, the pointer, the Moses Seat. I like it. Jesus reads from Isaiah, and says that this scripture is fulfilled in their hearing. He's claiming the whole freedom for the captives, setting prisoners free, sight to the blind stuff as what his whole life was going to be about - essentially because that's what God has been up to all along.His hometown people like what they hear but they're skeptical. Jesus moves on - and essentially preaches a sermon that condemns his own people - they should have been about this the whole time - but they haven't been. Then, the people try to kill him. Yeah, like whaaaat? Some thoughts here. First, sometimes God chooses to speak to us in unexpected ways - ways we sometimes reject.Next, sometimes anger and violence and compromising integrity are the last defense of those who have to face the truth of their crooked religious affirmations.Finally - and we talked through this in our The Bible...Really? class. Sometimes we have to read the Bible creatively. Jesus quotes Scripture - but he cuts some of it out. He leaves the violence and destruction out of it. He reads Isaiah within the context of the whole Bible, which leads to God not destroying the world, but healing it.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 4:14-30http://bible.com/events/49478832
We've got the end of the story of Noah and the Ark. This will be a broad, sweeping retelling of the story starting in Genesis 6. This is a conventional divine judgment story. God looks at the state of humanity and has some regrets - decides it's time to wipe the whole thing out - system reboot - clean slate. God decides to do what nearly all Near Eastern deities do - start over.But then, in Israel's story, something amazing happens. God has a change of heart. God notices Noah and his family and gets a little worried. In the middle of this horrific story we have a brand new and radical idea emerging in the ancient world: God isn't an angry tyrant who needs to be placated. God is more like a concerned parent - a father/mother grieving for a lost child.In order for this new emerging idea about God to persist, Noah needs to survive. So God gives him an ark. God saves Noah. God makes a promise - never again will God flood the earth. And God gives the rainbow as a symbol. A rainbow. An upside-down symbol of violence. The symbol of violence is turned into a symbol of God's promise to love and care for all the earth - every living creature, for all generations. This is a radically inclusive promise.But this story isn't just about God. It also tells the truth about us. If left alone, we're doomed. Not much has changed in thousands of years. We're still nasty, disobedient, and violent. There's also the truth about the ark. God gives us the ark. We have an ark in a stormy world - and there are some crazy waves out there.Let's remember the truth of the promise and the rainbow - God's promise to love and care for all the earth - through all generations. AND there's the truth about the symbol the rainbow foreshadows - the truth about the cross. It's another symbol of violence that Jesus turned into a symbol of God's grace and unconditional love for all of humanity. God's grace covers us and then God sends us out into the world with that same grace.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Genesis 9:8-17http://bible.com/events/49476084
This is the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones. To put it mildly - Israel probably felt like those dry bones - disconnected and isolated - alone and probably a bit dead inside during this time. Captivity, forced separation from loved ones, oppression, isolation in a new land. We know what those dry bones feel like.Then God asks a curious question: "Can these bones live?" Uh, they're dead, God. What are you even talking about? The bones can't do anything for themselves. All they can do is sit there in the dust. Then God tells Ezekiel to call upon the breath - the four winds. Help comes from outside ourselves - comes from beyond ourselves.He calls on the breath - the wind - and the bones live. The Spirit is the power beyond ourselves.But God also sends Ezekiels into our lives. This happens throughout history, and we can see it. God sends us Ezekiel's, too. So the next time you feel disconnected and isolated and alone - pray for and watch for and wait for the Spirit. But also pray for and watch for and wait for an Ezekiel to enter into your life - new life might be just around the corner. So here we end on a hopeful note, of new life being possible.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14http://bible.com/events/49466472
The expert in the law wants to know how to experience life to the fullest. No, he's not talking about heaven when he asks about eternal life. He's asking about how to experience life deeply - now - in the present. Jesus turns the question around on him (we'll have a little fun with this here). He responds, "love God, love your neighbor." Jesus says, "good - do this and live!" Then the expert asks another question (again, we'll have a little fun with this), "Who is my neighbor?"Maybe what he's asking is, who is NOT my neighbor? How much love are we talking about, Jesus? Where do I draw the line? Surely you don't mean everyone is my neighbor.Then Jesus tells the story. One of the most famous stories ever told. At the end - he asks the expert, "who was the neighbor?" Yeah, the one who showed mercy. Jesus: "go, and do likewise." Do it. Draw close. Feel empathy. Let that move you into showing mercy - showing kindness. Do it.Bottom line - love. In everything - love. In all things - love.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 10:25-37http://bible.com/events/49463266
A little different kind of sermon for Sunday. I'm gonna talk a little bit about what Jesus said about the heart - the idea is that it's the controlling center of people. You can tell a lot about where a person's heart is by the things they do - especially when they're tested. So we'll walk through the story of Naaman and leprosy and see if we might discern some things about each character. We'll start with Naaman - he's a four-star general in the Aramean army. He's normally the one in control - he calls the shots. Then, he gets leprosy and finds out that his sworn enemies are the ones who can help him. When he gets there he's told to dunk himself in the Jordan - 7 times. It's humiliating. It's tough when we struggle with humility - it's hard to admit you can't control everything, you can't heal yourself - at times, we all need to ask for help.Maybe you're like the servant girl. She's the one in the story - a nobody - who has the guts to point someone in the direction of healing.Maybe you're with Gehazi - gee, I hope not! - but you're always looking for an edge, looking for a way to take advantage of situations and people in order to get what you want.Or, maybe you're with Elisha - you're the one of the ones who humbles themselves and works with the divine to bring healing into the lives of others - to help put things back together.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 2 Kings 5:1-27
Jacob wrestles with "God." So, did this one back in 2020 - now from a totally different angle. You could say I really "wrestled" with this one this week.A little background: Jacob's a deceiver - his life is a mess. He's on the run because his brother Esau wants to kill him 20 years after he stole the blessing. He finds himself alone on the banks of a stream - it's dark. He can't hide behind his wealth, his servants, or his family. Utterly alone in the dark when he's attacked by a stranger. How many times have you found yourself alone in the dark? Once there, how often have you battled with something you won't recognize as divine until much, much later? People have argued for millennia about what really happened to Jacob. But I don't know if it really matters. It doesn't matter because all the epic battles we face in life are on some level with God and about God. They're about God because of the questions under those battles. Who am I? Does my life matter? Who have I become? Where is God? Who does God want me to be?So they wrestle. All night. This depiction of God isn't something we're used to thinking about. Isn't God supposed to be loving, hospitable, welcoming, inclusive? Apparently not - at least not in the ways we usually define those things. This God is wild and weird and unpredictable. This God wrestles. This is a God who wants to engage - intimately. This is a God we can throw ourselves against with everything we got. Don't know about you, but I need a God who can handle that.They wrestle. Jacob loses and is left with a limp. But he won't let go. Sometimes spirituality is about not letting go of the God who won't let go until something good happens. Then the strangest thing happens. The stranger asks him his name.This is the second time he's been asked this question in life. The first time, by his father. Jacob lies. This time, he gets a do over. He tells the truth. He is Jacob. The deceiver. The liar. The cheat. He is Jacob. Maybe being honest with ourselves is the only way we can begin to heal. Maybe it's only in naming the ugliest parts of ourselves that we can begin to forgive ourselves and experience the transformation God longs to give us.Now, he is named Israel. The one who wrestles with God. That's the blessing. A new name. A new future. To wrestle is to stay close - to remain intimate with - now, we get to wrestle with God as long as we live.
In order to understand the story, we're reading 4:1-12 - I'll need to talk about why Peter and John are in prison in the first place. Essentially, they came across a guy who was lame from birth. The guy asks for money; instead, since they knew that Jesus lived his life with love and compassion and healing and justice, they decided to go deeper. They don't offer him charity - they offer him healing. They give him his dignity back, he no longer needs to beg. They give him his life back - now he can presumably work for a living.This is where we pick up the story. The religious leaders are upset because Peter and John are teaching about Jesus the resurrected one. They're trying to figure out where their power comes from - presumably they feel threatened. So they bring in the very same people (the high priest) who gave the go ahead for Jesus to be put to death.Peter defends the two of them - they haven't come to disturb anything, they've come to bring the things that Jesus brought - love, compassion, healing, and justice. In Jesus, God is putting the world back together again. He is the "capstone" - he is unique - in Jesus, God is up to something new in the world and we get to be a part of it.The message Peter is trying to get across is something like this: you want to make sense of what you think you know about the divine? You want to know what God is truly like? You want to make sense of your own life and what it means to be a human being? Look at Jesus. Love. Compassion. Healing. Justice. That's what God looks like - that's God's dream for us human beings. This is why I haven't given up on religion - haven't given up on faith, even though Christians have given me lots of reasons to do so. Jesus is unique - extraordinary. We turn our lives toward him and then pattern our own lives after his. We make our own lives about love, etc.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Acts 4:1-12
It's Pentecost Sunday - the day we celebrate the arrival of the Spirit. Like we talked about last week, Christian means "follower of Christ." We can also understand it as meaning "little Christ." We're all little Jesuses. This happens with the indwelling of the Spirit. The Spirit is nothing more than Jesus moving from the outside to the inside. It's Jesus moving in.So here we'll walk a bit through the story in Acts 2. How do we know that Jesus has moved in?1) There will be a renewed sense of community. They were all together in one place. The Spirit arrived to the gathered community. They had everything in common. We'll talk for a bit about the importance of the gathered community. With all of our online options today, the gathered community has never been more important.2) There will be a renewed sense and passion for loving the world - our neighbors. There was such a diversity of people present at the first Pentecost. They were there meeting the practical needs of people.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Acts 2:1-13; 42-47http://bible.com/events/49447317
Yeah...I don't know about this one.As we start by retelling this story, we're going to focus on the line, "If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Why are we dealing with this idea just five weeks after Easter? Easter is like the most obvious proof that Jesus was and is the Messiah - and yet, the church assigns this story just five weeks after Easter. Already? We're questioning who Jesus is already?Well, maybe it's perfect timing. The life of faith, more often than not, isn't a simple movement from unbelief to belief and then that's it. It's a constant oscillation between those two things. So it's appropriate that we go from "Christ is risen, he has risen indeed" to "If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." We often don't believe - faith can be and often is a constant struggle.The story moves on. Jesus says, "I have told you, and you didn't believe. You do not believe because you are not my sheep.": What the what? Ouch. Does that mean that if we don't believe we don't belong? That's only if we make belief primary here, which Jesus doesn't seem to do. What Jesus seems to be saying is belonging comes first - maybe what he's saying is that belief can't come first - belonging leads to belief.To believe in the Bible is to trust - to depend upon - to throw our lot in with. It's an orientation of our hearts - a willingness to stake everything we have on the person, the life, death, and resurrection of God's Son. It's not an abstract thing - it's a thing best learned (maybe only learned) through relationship.BIGGEST IDEA HERE - We belong to each other, and together we belong to the divine. So even if belief, trust, faith falters - we still belong.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 10:22-30http://bible.com/events/49437424
Jesus is the gate. Once you walk into a relationship with Jesus the gate, there's a transition that takes place. You go from one place to another - you walk across the threshold. This is like the story of when Saul turned into Paul. In Paul's words, "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!"Walking into a relationship with Jesus the gate - there's new life ahead - a life that is abundant. This is where we can talk about what abundance means - it comes from living the Jesus way - love God, love people. We experience that through this community of Jesus people. It is a life that is full - abundant, as we give ourselves away to one another and together to the world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 10:1-10http://bible.com/events/49434224
These first 4 verses are a jumbled mess. It's really one run-on sentence with a bunch of dependent clauses at the beginning and doesn't get to the main subject and verb until what we have as verse three. In other words, John is really excited to write about what he's writing about. So instead of going verse by verse, we'll talk about the main things he's trying to convey.1) This Jesus thing really happened. They saw it. Heard it. Touched it. It really happened. John is writing in the late first century to 2nd and 3rd generation Jesus people. By the time they learn about Jesus, it's been 50 years since Jesus physically walked on the planet. You can imagine them having questions - did this really happen? Was Jesus real? Are these stories real? John is giving them reassurance as someone who was with Jesus. He understands it's hard to believe - so he's saying, trust me. I was there. Doubt is there - for all of us. Especially 50 generations or so later, if I have my math correct. Lean into doubt, but don't go alone. Lean into questions, but do it in community.2) We experienced him. I'll do some 'spaining about the grammar here. He's using the perfect tense - that is, talking about something in the past that still continues to have an impact in the present. 3) John wants them to experience, too. John's experience of the joy that Jesus brings is incomplete unless he shares it with community. It's one of the reasons we gather week after week. It's a shared experience of the divine that continues to transform us in the present.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 1 John 1:1-4http://bible.com/events/49430871
What is this story about? It's about failure and forgiveness - not one or the other, but both. The disciples spent three years with Jesus; in that time, they learned from him every day and spent all their time with him. After Jesus left them (after giving them his Spirit - his presence), they went back to the way things were - fishing. Sometimes we do the same - we experience the presence of God - we know what to do next, know the changes we need to make, know the conversations we need to have, and then we don't - we forget - we lose the nerve.Then there's Peter - Jesus asks him three times if Peter loves him. Echoes the three betrayals. Jesus meets Peter right where he failed him. God meets us in our failures, too - with his nonjudgmental presence offering grace, love and forgiveness.This story is also about going where we might not want to go - and it's in those places that God meets us. In fact, it's in those places where God becomes flesh again - this time in us.Finally, this story is about a sense of calling. Not in a big sense - like, you're now a missionary on fire for Jesus saving the world overseas. No, not like that. Jesus calls us to feed his sheep - show love like he showed love. No matter where we are - we have a calling to love.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 21:1-19http://bible.com/events/49427418
It's Easter Sunday! We're getting started here with a brief retelling of the story. Then we get to the part where the angel says, "Do not be afraid." I have trouble with this. Maybe we all have trouble with this. There's so much in the world that causes us fear. So what makes this angel think he can come into our place of worship, look us straight in the eye and say with all seriousness, "Do not be afraid?"After he tells us not to be afraid he makes an announcement and then a promise. An announcement that, if true, changes everything. He is risen. What if that's true? If it's true, it changes everything and all things are possible.Then he makes a promise: Jesus is ahead of you. Most of what causes us fear is in the future. It's an uncertain tomorrow. Jesus is ahead of us. Jesus promises to be with us in whatever we face in our uncertain future. And that gives us hope.Of course, hope isn't something we can just sit back and enjoy. Welp, I hope everything turns out okay tomorrow! Welp, I hope God shows up tomorrow. That's wishful thinking. Hope, real hope, is to throw ourselves into the struggle for the realization of that hope.And that's how Matthew's story about Jesus ends. It ends with an invitation to live into resurrection - to live into hope - an invitation to let it define our lives.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 28:1-10https://www.bible.com/events/49422813
A note: there are some audio issues in this one that are unfixable in editing. Our apologies!Palm Sunday! There's a connection between Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, and Palm Sunday, as the season of Lent draws to a close. Both will lead us into contemplating our own mortality - the fact that all of us will one day die. THAT always leads us to the realization that we live in a complex, uncertain, and sometimes unfair world.That's what makes Palm Sunday so odd. It starts with a celebration - a parade - then ends in the unjust death of Jesus. And the entire parade - the entire celebration, Jesus knows what's ahead, knows he's going to die.So we're going to notice how Jesus carries himself as he makes his way in a complex, uncertain, and unfair world. We'll notice that he comes to bring peace and reconciliation. Jesus rides into the city on a donkey, not a horse, indicating a nonviolent intention. He didn't come looking for a physical fight, so does he force the issue? Yes, but the world didn't have to kill him - and yet it did.This leads us to notice that Jesus was going to fulfill the Father's call on his life no matter the consequences.What does that mean for us? If we're following Jesus and living as passionately and as fully as he did when he walked on this planet - it'll look like we don't quite fit in - like we're fish out of water. We live in a world where violence and aggression rule the day - if we're living like Jesus we're living on a different plane of existence, where peace and reconciliation rule the day.How do we do that? We pay attention to our cultural moment. That's what Jesus was doing. He was protesting Roman occupation - he was protesting empire - he was protesting might makes right. What does that look like in our day?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 19:28-40https://www.bible.com/events/49420259
The story of Jesus and Nicodemus. In order to understand this, we have to know a little bit about Nicodemus. John gives us some clues. He's a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. Smart. Well respected. His whole life was dedicated to understanding and living up to Torah - becoming as holy and righteous as can be in order to honor God. He comes to Jesus under cover of darkness. Perhaps he didn't want to be seen by his fellow Pharisees. Maybe his faith had become stale - like it wasn't giving him life. But he notices that Jesus lives differently - he wants what Jesus has. A vibrant life. A vibrant faith.Jesus tells him he must be born again. And like a good fundamentalist, Nico reads him literally. Doesn't understand the metaphor. So Jesus talks about the Spirit - the wind. He still doesn't get it. So Jesus pulls an obscure story out of Numbers about biting snakes, dying people, and salvation by way of a bronze snake up on a stick. Weird, I know. If you look up at the snake after being bitten - you live. Look up and live.Why don't we look up and live? Well, sometimes we don't look up and live because we're afraid - sometimes we're filled with shame because of the image of God we've been given. But sometimes we don't because we think we can take care of our own problems all on our own. Jesus tells Nico this story so he'll understand that a relationship with the Divine is founded on love and grace. That's how transformation takes place.That might have been difficult for Nico to hear. Maybe he felt like his whole belief system had been a sham. But this wasn't condemnation - this was an invitation to start again - to be born again.Maybe "born again" is an openness to this Spirit - maybe it's an openness to change and growth. Maybe it's to see the world with wonder and curiosity. Maybe "born again" is a willingness to trust God with your life - your future - like a newborn trusts mommy and daddy.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 3:1-21https://www.bible.com/events/49413343
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem as a mother hen - calling her chicks back and yet, they were not willing.We're going to spend some time thinking about this image of the mother hen. What in the world could this story be saying to us?1) Maybe this story is inviting us to embrace a vulnerability not often embraced in this world. Jesus doesn't offer to get rid of the "fox" (Herod). What Jesus does offer is his presence, his life, his very body to give protection, shelter, and warmth - even in the face of danger - even if it would cost him his life. What would it look like to embrace that vulnerability in this world? We're talking about chicks and children - some of the most vulnerable in the world. What would it look like for us to stand in front, offering protection? How does this change how we see the body of Christ - the church? How does this change how we view politics and the policies we support?2) Maybe this story is inviting us to create space for lament. Jesus laments that his children will not come home. So we're going to create space for lament. 3) Maybe this story is an invitation to return. The image of the chicks with their mother hen is an image of gathering, community, intentional oneness. What is it in our lives preventing us from coming home?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 13:31-35http://bible.com/events/49410046
We live in a world that is obsessed with knowledge - which is a good thing. Knowledge gets you ahead. Knowledge is power. That's what we say. And we experience that, too.It worked for Paul. He really was THE MAN, when it came to all things God.For a lot of us who grew up in the Church, head knowledge of the contents and principles of the Bible was something that we valued highly. Memorization, then being able to recite on the spot, or at least be able to talk about it with certainty. Paul called all of that stuff "garbage" when compared to knowing Jesus. Garbage. Rubbish. Actually, the best way to translate that word is, "shit." It's all a bunch of BS compared to knowing Jesus. Okay, poop - let's talk about poop. This is now the second sermon I've preached about poop. Yay!All that stuff we know about Jesus is like manure - it fertilizes the heart and soul to prepare us for knowing Jesus. The head stuff is great. But it's also BS. It has to fertilize the heart so that we can actually know the divine. And knowing Jesus has a transformative effect on our lives. We become a gracious presence. We become a healing presence. We become a loving presence. We become a welcoming presence. And most importantly, we become a loving presence.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Philippians 3:1-14http://bible.com/events/49406721
It's Lent time, baby! It always starts with an examination of this particular story in Luke. Today we're talking about how we can approach it - from an individual perspective - how does this impact each of our lives? AND from a communal perspective - how does this impact us as a community?Temptation one is to go after the short-cut - to take the easy way - to go after instant gratification. We're always looking for instant gratification. But the slow, hard work of building relationships, establishing trust, and invitation is the only way things go well.Temptation two is to compromise in order to grasp after power. Yeesh, this one is tempting all the time - compromise our integrity in order to get ahead. But there's a flip side to this. We hold a different view about human sexuality and gender. It would be easy for us to be self-righteous about it - to be militant about it - to try and force others to come to the same conclusion - but that's not how God works.Temptation three is to make fear the basis of faith. This can be used to manipulate and control. If we just have to believe the right things and believe in them hard enough then God will protect us. You can be coerced into believing some pretty crazy things if fear is the basis of faith. But the cross teaches us something different. God's beloved still get hurt and ache and bleed and die. But we have a God who suffers alongside us. This is good news - because we also have a God who resurrects.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 4:1-13https://www.bible.com/events/49403199
This morning we are doing something a bit different once again, with a panel of therapists who are in our community. A huge thank you to Sarah Fleming, Holly Thompson, and Jason Stark for sharing their time and wisdom with us today!Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Psalm 13:1-6http://bible.com/events/49399816
Luke's version of the Beatitudes - except he includes some "woes."The first thing we notice is that this is all backwards - Jesus has things all upside-down. What our world thinks of as blessed usually involves prosperity linked to wealth, comfort, no lack of possessions or materials to get what we want. Yeah, it's the opposite of what Jesus says.I'll admit that I don't quite know what to do with these things. I'm tempted to edit these things. I'm tempted to see them as metaphors. Poor? Hungry? Mourning? Hated and excluded? Jesus must've been exaggerating.But he wasn't. The crowd Jesus was talking to were the sick, the lame, the demon possessed. They were the marginalized - the outcast. And Jesus calls them "blessed" - says that God is on their side. When you've got nothing left - end of the line - you are now closer to the kingdom of God than ever before. You are blessed. God is on your side.Of course, there is the other matter of the woes. Most of us live cozy and comfortable lives. For the most part we're not in dire need of anything. There isn't much in our circumstances that can lead us to a sense of urgency about ultimate things. We can go days without talking to God - days without thinking about God. It's not because we don't want to, yearn to, desire to, it's just that - in the words of Jesus - we've already been comforted. We're full.So maybe what Jesus is saying is that for most of us, we have something to learn about following Jesus - about blessedness - that our life circumstances won't teach us. Maybe we have something to learn from people who don't have what most of us have. Maybe it's our turn to shut up and listen.But humanity doesn't want to listen. We don't listen to the poor, the hungry, the immigrant, and all the others who've been marginalized by the powers that be. Humanity doesn't want to listen. Why should we? We're already full. Woe to us.What do we do? Maybe step into that calling. Maybe we do listen and learn and stand in solidarity with those who've been pushed out. All we have to do is let go of power and privilege. All we have to do is give away all of our love. Maybe then we'll experience this thing called the kingdom of God. Maybe then we'll experience the fullness of what Jesus calls "blessed."Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 6:17-26https://www.bible.com/events/49396230
What does this story say about us human beings? I love how this story talks about failure so honestly. We've been out all night and haven't caught anything! I know nothing about fishing, but I do know what it's like to put a lot of time and energy into something important and not get anything out of it. And I love it that these are the people Jesus calls - they're just like us!What does this story say about God?God calls people.God calls people in a way that honors who they are.I love the abundance we find in the divine. Yay! Food for all!What does this story ask us to do? What's next? For us as a group, and for individuals?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 5:1-11https://events.bible.com/en/event/edit/49392799
This is the story of Isaiah's vision in the temple and his calling and commissioning as a prophet. At first, this story seems inaccessible. It's not like we're all seeing heavenly beings flying around all the time. So this raises all sorts of questions. And maybe we don't have answers to some, or all of those questions! But the story is still worth thinking through. So in examining it, we're going to notice some things.First, this story seems to be telling us that God is a God of encounter. God actually shows up. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." God shows up in a time of chaos - crisis. I wonder, as we look at our world, personal, political, cultural, what does it mean for God to show up? Scripture and the witness of others tells us that God does show up - that God is a God of encounter.Next, this story seems to tell us that worship is dangerous. "Woe to me!" A hot coal touches his lips. Transformation happens. What would happen if we came to worship trusting in the power of this vision? How do we feel about forgiveness being painful? Are we ready for change? Do we want transformation?Finally, this story measures success differently than we do. God chooses Isaiah to speak the truth. The truth is so real and raw and reorienting that people won't want to hear it. They choose not to hear it. And they walk away. Success here isn't popularity and a mega church. The promise here is a stump, a remnant, a holy seed. It might not be much, but it will be just enough. Do we dare trust in the God of tiny seeds?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Isaiah 6:1-13https://www.bible.com/events/49389384
This week's all about deacons, elders, and how we are organized with those structures in place. Sound a little dry? Well, let's talk about why it's actually exciting, and why we already have those systems in place, even if we haven't been using those labels. We're walking through the responsibilities of those roles, as well as talking about how we can all participate within this structure we call ReNew.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Ephesians 4:1-16http://bible.com/events/49385640
This week looks a little different! We spent the sermon time working on a practice from the book Praying In Color by Sybil MacBeth. Our own Sarah Fleming walked us through the practice and then we spent some time together in the room actively participating in this form of prayer. This is more of a visual activity, obviously, so head over to ReNew Ames on YouTube for the full experience.Speaker: Sarah Fleminghttp://bible.com/events/49382473
Jesus enters a synagogue and teaches with authority - the people are amazed. Next a man with an impure spirit recognizes Jesus and Jesus casts out the spirit. The people are amazed again and Jesus becomes famous throughout the land.What a weird little story. How much of this can we relate to? Well, if we use our imaginations - we can.We'll imagine what it was like for the people in the synagogue. They were amazed. They came to worship minding their own business and suddenly they have an encounter with the divine they can't explain. "Whoa, what is this?" they asked. There's something more going on here. Have you ever had an experience like that?Next, we imagine what it's like to be the man with the impure spirit. We really don't know what this is. But maybe it doesn't matter. We all know what it's like to be possessed by something (I promise it doesn't get weird here) that takes away our agency and our dignity. The impure spirit recognizes Jesus as the Holy One of God. And puts up a fight. But Jesus brings healing.Finally, we'll imagine what it's like to follow Jesus. He didn't use his authority for himself. He didn't consolidate power - he gave it away, He used his authority to free, to liberate, to heal. He had an integrity and authenticity that made people want to follow him. He also walked straight into the pain and the horror and wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid to confront anything that kept the man from living a flourishing life. Wherever the darkness is, the struggle is, the pain is, this story seems to be telling us that's where Jesus is. Maybe we ought to be there too.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 1:21-28https://www.bible.com/events/49379057
The story of the calling of Phillip and Nathanael - but mostly about Nathanael. This story is not about what Nathanael sees - it's really first about what Jesus sees.It's only when Jesus sees Nathanael for who he truly is that Nathanael experiences transformation. He tells him is is a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Let's unpack that here. Deceit is a concept we we get. Nathanael is a real one - he's an authentic one.But the first person to ever be called "Israel" is a guy named Jacob. Now, there is irony in this statement and we're gonna do some nerdy Bible work. The gist of it is this: the people of God are meant to be people of deep and profound integrity - real, authentic, honest. When they have doubts, they express them - when they're skeptical, they're honest about it - they truly wrestle with the divine and it's so good.Jesus sees that in Nathanael and names it. He could have named any number of things about Nathanael that would have brought out things like shame and embarrassment. But he doesn't. He sees and names the quality in Nathanael that he want's to nurture and cultivate. And because of it, Nathanael is transformed.What would it be like if we saw others the way Jesus sees?Jesus sees you for who you really are at your core. Sees the goodness - your capacity to love others. It's only when Nathanael is truly seen that he is able to see who Jesus is. In other words, it's only when we have been seen to our core in that personal way that we can see others. It's only when we have been loved right down to our core that we can love others and God does. You are seen. You are known. You are loved. Now, let's do the same.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 1:43-51https://www.bible.com/events/49375616
We'll start out here by talking about the false narrative around prophets. They were not fortune tellers or predictors of the future. They were primarily truth tellers.We are jumping into the first of a four part sermon series that Isaiah gives on The Servant of the Lord. First, the context. The Israelites were in Babylonian captivity - living in a foreign and dangerous land. And Isaiah says that God is sending a servant who will bring justice and God's teaching to the world. But who the heck is Isaiah talking about?First, he's telling the truth about Israel. Israel is the chosen nation that will represent God in the world. They will bring about justice - they will bring God's teaching. And of course, we know they did because we still know about God and God's relationship to Israel and the world.Second, he's telling the truth about Jesus. Now, did Isaiah know about Jesus? No. But because God's truth is timeless it gets fulfilled in Jesus as well. This passage connects to the baptism of Jesus passage in Matthew - many of the same words are used to describe Jesus.Finally, he's telling the truth about us. We are now the body of Christ. We now bring God's justice and teaching into the world. Did Isaiah predict that? No. But we now get to embody Jesus in the world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Isaiah 42:1-9http://bible.com/events/49372073
The way God came into the world was not what the people wanted or yearned for or prayed for. The way God showed up to rescue was unexpected. God often shows up unexpectedly.This is a paradox, God showing up unexpectedly. The all-powerful one shows up as an infant, the very essence of weakness and vulnerability. But it's also the one human reality that calls out of everyone who witnesses it a love that hadn't been there before. That's what this story is about, love.Then Jesus grew up and became a man who taught the people about how much God loves them. But he didn't just tell people of God's love. He embodied it and showed us what it really looks like to be a human being. He showed us love and how to love.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 2:1-20http://bible.com/events/49366288
This is the story where Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. It starts with Gabriel meeting Mary and goes through Mary's stay with Elizabeth. Traditionally it's called The Visitation. This story gives us three gifts to think about during the season of Christmas.First, the gift of community. Mary goes to see Elizabeth. Why? She needs someone. She needs safety. She needs affirmation. She needs someone to recognize, deepen, and celebrate the work of God in her life. She needs love, not judgment. And in Elizabeth, she gets all of that and more. Is there a better vision for what the church is called to be? What would it look like if we provided a place like that? I think we're trying here.Second, the gift of blessing. Mary shows up all confused and scared with questions and doubts. Elizabeth gives her a blessing. What does it mean to bless somebody? To give life to them. It's an art we should all strive to be better at!Last, the gift of hope. Hope that God will fulfill his promises to us. That God is already out there fulfilling his promises to us. All we have to do is look for it and we'll find it.In a world where tough things happen - a world filled with unknowns. Let's lean into community, blessing, and hope. I don't know for sure, but I think it's one of the best ways to live.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 1:39-56http://bible.com/events/49362755
This story about John the Baptist centers on the question from the religious authorities: Who are you?J the B answers it by talking about who he is NOT. He is NOT the Messiah. I wonder if we should start where he starts. We are not the Messiah. One of the worst mistakes the church has made throughout history is claiming an identity and power that just isn't ours. When we have messianic ambition, people get hurt - the Crusades, the Inquisition, the many times native lands have been stolen and native people have been displaced or killed; the list goes on.So instead, we look to John. He chooses humility from the jump. He's in the wilderness, away from the temple, away from power. We start where he starts - we define ourselves by who we are not.We've all done this. I'm a Christian, but not THAT kind of Christian. I go to church, but I promise it's not THAT kind of church. We read the Bible, but we don't read it THAT way. That kind of thinking can be helpful and clarifying. But we can't stay there. "Who are you?" is a question that asks us to do some deep work. It invites us to examine what we hold dear, what we trust, what we love and who we love - and why. Once we've stripped off all that, we are not, what's left? What good do we offer the world? John's answer is clear - humility. He doesn't point to himself - he points to the one who is on the way.So, who are you? Maybe you can't answer that question right now. And maybe that's okay. Maybe that makes you ready to answer J the B's invitation to make a way for the Lord. Maybe that's all any of us needs every once in a while. Permission to stop pretending - permission to start again. Maybe what we need is someone to tell us to turn around so that we don't miss the new thing God is about to do.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 1:6-8, 19-28http://bible.com/events/49359539
"Come, thou long expected Jesus," the old Christmas carol says. We anticipate the story of a vulnerable family, an ordinary family of no consequence, in a stable. We talk of the arrival of a king, the king, so that we might celebrate God becoming flesh and bone in the form of a baby.Commonly the kingdom of God is talked about in future tense. Many of us were raised to think of heaven as the kingdom of God. But the words of Jesus are clear: the kingdom of God is right here, right now. It isn't waiting to be built, it is waiting for us to participate in it. Like Jesus was already God before he arrived on earth to proclaim that his kingdom was here, we are already living in the kingdom now, we merely have to step into active work in it.Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Luke 1:26-38http://bible.com/events/49356150
There's a Rob Bell quote that talks about how Scripture is like a gem - you keep turning it and new and different things come out of it. It's a good quote and a good way to think about scripture. There are sooooo many ways that people have interpreted this story for like 2000 years. It's a frustrating story for me.So today we're turning the gem and looking at the different ways people have interpreted this story in the past. It all hinges on what Jesus means when he says, "You are worried about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better."I'm not going to throw in those interpretations here, you can listen to the sermon to find them. And at the end of it - I'm not quite sure that we'll agree on what Jesus meant when he said the thing he said about the one thing needed. Maybe that's okay. Maybe that's Luke's point - maybe that's Jesus' point. Maybe they're both trying to start a discussion - wrestling of sorts. Maybe this Christian faith thing - this following Jesus thing isn't as black and white as we'd like it to be. Maybe it's deliberately ambiguous. Maybe that's intentional. Maybe it's in the pushing against and pulling at God and having God push against and pull at us - maybe it's in that action that transformation happens. So is it better to serve, or sit at the feet of Jesus? I don't know that I/we know. But they're both important and we probably ought to pay attention to both.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 10:38-42http://bible.com/events/49353051
Last week was the most important commandment - this week we go waaay back to the basics and talk about the ten commandments. We're starting by talking about the story of God saving the Israelites from Egypt. Basically a summary of the first 19 chapters of the book of Exodus. God parks them at the base of a mountain and says, "Okay, after I saved you, here's our arrangement. Here's how you live in relationship with me and with each other."A few thoughts about the commandments as a whole. The first thing is - this wasn't anything new for the Israelites. If you go back through the book of Genesis, you'll find all the commandments represented there. Cain, don't kill Abel. Abraham, put away all your false gods, etc. It's nothing new. And they're nothing new for us, either. It's not that we don't know them - it's just that we don't follow them. It's the same with the greatest commandment - love God, love people - it's not that we don't know it, we just don't do it very well.That's why this second idea is helpful. The ten commandments - just like the greatest commandment - is like a mirror in front of our faces. God sets the bar too high for anyone to attain. They're not there so we reach perfection; they're there so we can see how we're doing. It's a tool for self-examination - self-reflection. This is why we can't put them up on the wall and force others to live by them. That's disrespecting them by making them into something they are not.They're a reminder that we aren't perfect. The reason the bar is set so high is so that we'll come to the understanding that we're gonna need God's help to become the kind of people God wants us to be.Last idea: this is the first time that God speaks to the entire nation of Israel at one time. We get the sense that God is speaking directly to us. God is saying, "Look, I made you. I love you deeply. I know what it takes for you to live well with each other and what it will take for you to live well with me."Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Exodus 20:1-21http://bible.com/events/49349548
There are a range of feelings in the room after last week's events. To ignore that would be unfair and dishonest. Let's talk about this story, though. We're near the end of Jesus' life on earth, for context. He's asked a question: What's the most important commandment? If you truly want to live life to the fullest - what's the most important thing? Jesus responds, love God - love people. That's it. Simple. Basic. We should also think about the environment in which Jesus lived and loved and taught and healed. It's an occupied land. They see Roman soldiers every day. They live under an authoritarian power. Which means underneath their lives - all the time - there's a sense of anxiety and fear and an uncertainty about the future. It's into that environment that Jesus says, "The most important thing? Yeah, love God and love people."Love God. Jesus says start with worship. It's how we are reminded of who God is and what God is all about - love and grace and healing. It's into that environment that we're reminded that we belong to a God who apparently doesn't care to move large levers of power, but instead chooses to live and love and work among the vulnerable - the people who have been pushed out and forgotten. Worship also reminds us that our lives are to be a reflection of God's life since we're all made in the image of God.Love people. Live and give our lives for the flourishing of others. How do we love people well in a time of uncertainty, anxiety and fear? Back to the basics. Love God, love people.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 12:28-34 http://bible.com/events/49346204
Paul says to Timothy in this letter that he's the worst sinner ever. Yeah, ever. So, this is when we talk about his story back when he was Saul and how maybe he was right. Saul was a really bad dude. He was a religious extremist who sought out followers of Jesus so he could get them arrested or kill them.But then Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus (where he was going to go find more followers of Jesus) and Jesus made him Paul - their two stories become one story. Turns out, God was looking for someone like Saul.Let's talk about the stories within our community of Jesus followers, though. Paul's story can become our story - stories of transformation. We know that kind of transformation happens because God loves us in spite of our past. And God will work with us in spite of our past.The question is, are we willing to surrender our stories to the divine? Are we willing to surrender our lives and become the kind of people who transform the lives of others?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-17http://bible.com/events/49342864
Yay, Zacchaeus! Okay, did this one about five years ago - now we're taking a totally different angle. Zacchaeus wanted desperately to see Jesus. Questions it raises: when was the last time we felt that kind of desperation to see Jesus? When was the last time we wanted more? More meaning, purpose, significance - more life? He couldn't see because of the crowd. When was the last time we pondered the things that are getting in the way of us seeing the divine?He ran ahead and climbed the tree. He recognizes that he needs to move. He needs to shift. He needs a new perspective. When was the last time we recognized that we needed to move? That we might not know all the answers and we need a new perspective? When was the last time we risked looking foolish for our faith? When is the last time we tried something unconventional?Jesus looked up and saw him, said, "Come down, I gotta spend some time at your house." Do we know that we are seen? In all of our foolishness, Jesus sees us. But it's more than that. He wants to come home with us. When was the last time we allowed Jesus into our homes without him giving us time to clean things up first? Do we understand that it's okay to let Jesus into all of our mess? Think about who Zacchaeus is - his house was definitely not in order. And yet, there's no judgment - there's just, "I gotta spend some time at your house!"The religious people mutter - of course they do. But not Jesus. He chooses to see the beauty in Big Z - the potential. Do we hold people hostage to the versions of themselves they are seeking to outgrow? Are we willing to see the beauty? The potential? Because Jesus seeing those things allowed Big Z to be transformed and to change. If there's one thing I've learned it's that this faith thing is evolutionary in nature - it's a change and grow or regress and die kind of a thing.Salvation has come to this house. Wait, dude climbs a tree and gets to go to heaven? Maybe salvation is more than where we end up when we die. What if it's also about experiencing healing now? And once we've experienced a bit of healing, what if it's about becoming a part of the healing of the world? And if that's true, what are we going to do about it?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 19:1-10https://www.bible.com/events/49339420
Short little parable: two people go into the Temple and pray. A Pharisee and a tax collector. The tax collector goes home justified. Let's walk through this parable slowly and talk about how easy it is to think that we're "not like the Pharisee."Now there are also two words we should talk about: sin and sinner. Yeah, we have an aversion to those words for various reasons. BUT, Jesus insists on using that word, "Sinner." So then we should talk a bit about what the Bible says about sin.There are different perspectives of sin we have in this parable. The Pharisee sees sin as something you do - he makes a list. It creates an us versus them kind of scenario. The tax collector, however, does not make a list. He simply calls himself a "sinner." For him, the concept of sin is more than just the "wrong" things that we do. It's deeper than that. Sin is something he has - it's like it's infected him. From his perspective, sin is something that has become a problem for everyone. And when we have a problem, we typically want to do something about it, right? What do we do with our sin? Well, we have some options. First, we can avoid it or say that we don't have it and that other people do. That's what the Pharisee does. Problem is, it doesn't do anything for us. We remain unchanged.Next, we can obsess over it. The tax collector could have done that - his list of sins was a mile long. We can wallow in our guilt and our shame. We can beat ourselves up for it. Problem is, when we do that we wind up cutting ourselves off from the divine and from other people. We don't want that.There's another option - we can confess it. We can be honest about it. Jesus insists on us talking about it and confessing it because there's power and healing that comes along with honest confession.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 18:9-14http://bible.com/events/49336012
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Such a good story. I used to think I knew what this story was about - that I had it all figured out. But this story has depth, and layers, and we can learn so much more from it than we maybe expect. The basic read is that we should all be like Philip and courageously tell people about the good news of Jesus so that unacceptable outsiders might be changed and become insiders. Hmm...does that interpretation sound familiar? Yeah, there's so much more going on in the story - more than just the eunuch's conversion.The narrative changes and turns and moves forward when someone asks a good question. Just before sabbatical, I talked about how important questions are - they're doorways that can open up lots of possibilities. This is another example. So we'll pay attention to the questions.So here's some context to the eunuch's story. He can't practice his Jewish faith on account of his eunuchness. Spell check is saying I made that word up. Who cares? Now we get to the questions...1) "How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?" A doorway is open and on the other side is community, relationship, people, help. We all long for it, need it. So we'll talk a bit about that.2) Is he talking about himself or someone else? The eunuch was struggling with some verses in Isaiah. So Philip connects it to Jesus. It's likely the eunuch saw himself in Jesus - someone who had been pushed aside and rejected. But resurrection, new life is possible through Jesus!3) "What's preventing me from being baptized?" Yeah, lots of things. He's a queer black foreigner from Ethiopia. He's a eunuch. Don't you know your Hebrew scriptures, Philip? He doesn't belong. We have rules, man. But Philip says nothing. No religious test. He just baptizes him. So the eunuch isn't the only one converted that day; Philip was also converted. He recognizes that Jesus changes everything - that the resurrection changes everything. The Spirit is going to do what the Spirit is going to do - conquer isolation and fear and welcome any one the Spirit wants into the Kingdom of God. The eunuch and Philip were both transformed all because someone asked a good question.We're left with a question of our own. And it's not a question about how wide God's embrace is. It's not a question about who's in and who's out. The question for us is, will we participate with the wild Spirit of God in our day or not?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Acts 8:26-40http://bible.com/events/49332573
Mark skips any kind of birth narrative in his story about Jesus. He starts with John the Baptist. And J the B is all about preparation. If you want to meet this messiah, you've got to be prepared!John was probably a member of the Jewish sect known as the Essenes. Too much to write in here - suffice it to say they were kinda like the Jewish version of the Amish - only super extreme! They focused on a strictly ordered life of spirituality off in the desert. They wanted to be ready when the messiah came - they wanted to be ready. We do the same when we are preparing to welcome a baby, either through birth or adoption.How do you prepare for a baby? First, you prepare to have your life completely changed - totally transformed. That's what this idea of repentance is. We don't turn our lives around because we're afraid of the divine. We turn our lives around because God is so good. We turn around because we're confident that God will forgive us and offer us grace that transforms.How do you prepare for a baby? You create an environment that is best suited for the baby to grow. How do we prepare our lives so that we're in the best position to grow and experience transformation?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 1:1-8http://bible.com/events/49329292
Today we're talking about the story of the workers in the vineyard. We human beings have this sense of fairness deeply rooted within the human psyche. Which is why when we read this story it immediately doesn't seem fair. Why did Jesus tell such a story? Probably because he wants us to stop and think - maybe see the world differently. It's always what he wants when he tells a story. It's why he tells so many of them.First, this story is about God's generosity - not about fairness. And God's generosity is real generosity - pure grace - no earning here (even though the story is about payment of wages). Next, this story seems to indicate that God's heart is bent toward the marginalized - the leftover people in the world. The landowner in the story goes back and gets the people no one else would hire. Sounds super Jesusy to me.Last, the only way this story isn't uncomfortable to us is if we become more like the divine and show generosity to all people. The story has no ending. We don't know how the people in it responded. Jesus leaves it as a cliffhanger letting the listeners decide how they will respond. Which will it be? Bitter and jealous? Embarrassed by extreme generosity received? Or becoming more like God and offering generosity.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 20:1-16http://bible.com/events/49325867
I'm gonna talk about who the best people in church are. No spoilers, you'll have to wait.There's a story where Jesus says that whoever welcomes a little child welcomes God. Whaaaat? What did he mean by that? I have three suggestions:1) Maybe Jesus said it because kids teach us that our imaginations can help us understand the things of God. Jesus tells his followers that he will suffer and die and rise after three days. Jesus invites them to imagine a world where death doesn't have the last word, a world where the hardest suffering can lead to unthinkable joy. But the disciples can't seem to imagine it. Can we open up our imaginations? How can the world be different? How can we make it different - more just and generous for everyone?2) Maybe Jesus said it because kids teach us to ask the hard questions. Again, Jesus tells them he'll suffer, die and rise again. They didn't understand and were afraid to ask. You know who isn't afraid to ask questions? Kids. They'll ask all the hard questions. Good questions lead to a deeper understanding of the divine.3) Last one - I think Jesus said that about children because they show us what divine power and greatness look like. Children are completely vulnerable - in every place in the world they're vulnerable. Power and greatness are found in vulnerability. Greatness is defined by serving others and sacrificing ourselves so that others might flourish. We know this in the deepest parts of ourselves.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 9:30-37http://bible.com/events/49322529
One of our current focus team members, Brian Gelder, brings us perspective on the history of soil in the lands of the early Old Testament stories, and what questions some of those stories raise for us when we examine the full context of the culture and history surrounding them. There is benefit in taking a bird's eye view of these lands and stories, rather than just the Sunday School answers or the Hollywood portrayals of their characters.Just like the soil changes over time and needs adjustments and cultivation, we grow and change with the shifting of time and historical perspective we gain on the cultures and environments we find ourselves in over the course of our lives. Maybe we will walk away with more questions to ponder, and some added color to the pages.Speaker: Brian GelderScripture: Leviticus 25:1-7; 26:3-6, 18-20
Paul responds with joy and in faith when in a tight circumstance. While imprisoned in Rome, awaiting judgment from Nero, he writes this letter to the church in Philippi. In the same fashion, we are meant to reflect before a watching world what God's intentions and character are.Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Philippians 1:12-19http://bible.com/events/49295510
We're talking about what forgiveness actually is, and what it ISN'T. Forgiving others who have hurt us isn't easy, and a lot of us were taught that it means forgetting the fault and harm done to us in favor of being in relationship with that person again.In reality, forgiveness often is not a once and done deal, and it will have to happen over and over. Like every spiritual practice, repetition is good and healthy. But we don't always have to be back in relationship with someone when they have hurt us. Boundaries are healthy, accountability and admission of wrongdoing are necessary parts of forgiveness, too. Our responsibility begins with naming what harm has been done, and ends with letting go of resentment and anger in favor of the restoration of ourselves.Speaker: Jason StarkScripture: Matthew 6:9-15; 18:21-35https://www.bible.com/events/49292324
Here's a weird one to tackle before sabbatical! It's an odd little story about the Sadducees confronting Jesus with a question about marriage after the resurrection. Here are some things that I notice about the story that might be helpful.First, I notice that just like the Sadducees had questions, we also have questions. The thrust of this part is this: it's okay to question spiritual things. It's okay to question your beliefs - to interrogate what's been handed down to you. In fact, I think Jesus invites us to ask more questions. We do not need to be afraid. Sometimes great questions can lead to lots of growth.Second thing I notice, privilege can be dangerous. When we read stories about Jesus in the Bible we notice how privileged people are always using, manipulating people on the margins to discredit Jesus. People in pain don't matter to people with privilege. But maybe it's the people on the margins who understand resurrection better than anyone. They're the ones who need resurrection now - not just after they die.Lastly, I wonder if we really want this place Jesus is describing (effectively describing heaven). People won't marry and won't be given in marriage after the resurrection. For these people, the woman belongs to the husband - the wife is his property. Jesus says that won't happen in heaven. No one belongs to another person because all are children of God. He's describing a place where things like sex, sexuality, gender, class, and status no longer define people. If that's the case, then churches shouldn't be involved in any kind of discrimination whatsoever.Lastly...communion - which is a foretaste of heaven. We all gather around the table together. There is no hierarchy here - we're all on the same level because we all belong to God and we're all in need.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture:http://bible.com/events/49285865
"Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD." He's asking for mercy - you only ask for mercy if you've done something wrong. So I ask the question: why do we even care about something written by some king over 2000 years ago? There are all kinds of things in this world that indicate it isn't what God intended it to be.The Psalm starts as a personal lament - then it turns into a national lament. What he's recognizing is that his heart is just a microcosm of what's happening in the rest of the world. No one is innocent. We all have a part to play.But this is a Psalm of ascent. That means the tone starts on a somber note. But as it moves along, the notes get higher and lighter - filled with hope. There's hope because he's not at the end yet - there is still time to turn things around - still time to make necessary changes.Not only do we have time left - but we have a God who is on our side - a God who listens - a God who isn't content to let us stay where we are. We have a God of redemption. When God looks at any one of us - God doesn't just see what we've become. God doesn't just see all the stuff that's wrong. God sees a fully formed Jesus-like human being ready to come out.So we continue to pray, and worship, and serve the world and God's people because we have a God of forgiveness - a God of unfailing love - a God of redemption.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Psalm 130:1-8http://bible.com/events/49282757
Jesus is sending out the disciples to do what they've seen him doing for some time now. But there's a danger here in taking his words too casually. When we put them within the context of the whole of chapter 10, they begin to carry a bit more weight.So if we read these words a little more deeply - and NOT a simply casual reading - here are some things I think we'll notice:1) Jesus people are meant to do their Jesus thing from the margins. Now, I'm certain that this would come as a surprise to a lot of Jesus people today. We're used to being in the center. But this wasn't the case for the earliest disciples. They were sent out as vulnerable outsiders - people on the margins. What does this mean for us? Well, maybe we need to reexamine our yearning to cozy up to people in power. Maybe we need to rethink how we operate and instead operate out of a posture of extreme humility. 2) The small things become big things in the kingdom of God. Notice, it's the small things that get rewarded. Jesus doesn't care about our hierarchies - like, at all. We don't tend to glamorize the small little behind the scenes work. But that seems to be the work that God cherishes. Small things become big things. It's why Jesus talked about seeds and yeast, etc.3) We represent Jesus whether we like it or not. This is staggering. What Jesus is offering his disciples and us is his reputation - his character - his standing in the world. Whoa. What if we took this literally? How would this change the way we act, speak, think? This idea could and SHOULD change everything. The church in our world has a lot of rethinking to do - maybe it starts in a little place like this and others like it.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 10:40-42http://bible.com/events/49278279
Without joy, there is little fulfillment in belief.Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Philippians 1:1-11, 2 Corinthians 11:23-27https://www.bible.com/events/49275906
It's pretty clearly established that Jesus is a terrible salesman when he tells people to follow him. He has 4 conversations that challenge people with what he's selling. But what is he selling?1) He's selling rejection and extreme patience. Jesus gets rejected by Samaritans - a bunch of people who believe different things about all the things. James and John want to call down fire from heaven to burn the village (WTF, right?). Jesus rebukes them. Just like the disciples we have the capacity to lead with anger instead of love. Jesus rebukes that. I imagine he reminds them that to follow Jesus is to bring life, not death - even if it's to people who disagree with us.2) Jesus is selling movement and constant change. He has no place to lay his head. Homeless Jesus. The call to follow Jesus is the call to always move, always learn, always grow, always change. Change is hard - not sure I'm buying what Jesus is selling.3) Jesus is selling disruption and disorientation. Dude just wants to take care of his family obligations before following. I think the thing Jesus is selling here is a testing of our loyalties. Following Jesus comes with a certain detachment to all other commitments. Jesus if primary. That means our families and other relationships. even prior beliefs may be disrupted.4) Jesus is selling a sense of urgency. We always have excuses for not following when the call of God comes. Jesus is all, don't hesitate - if you're gonna hesitate, don't follow. Sheesh!Look, Jesus might be a horrible salesperson – but at least he’s honest. And if we’re honest, we know he’s telling the truth. We know that Jesus has the cure for our boredom and hunger. He knows we have this deep hunger for a sense of real value and purpose in this life. Jesus seems to be so hard on us because he too has a sense of urgency on our behalf. He knows that what we really yearn for is transformation and renewal. So Jesus says, “Follow me. Come, die with me. Die to all of that other stuff so that you can truly live.”Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 9:51-62https://www.bible.com/events/49272456
In several different places in the gospels, Jesus shares what his purpose is. Here's one from John 10 - he says, "I have come so that you may have life and have it abundantly." Then a little later on - in John 15 - he tells his followers that if we want to have abundant life, we need to stay connected to the vine.Problem is, that's not always that easy. That picture of abundance isn't the only one offered to us. Our world gives us plenty of ideas for living an abundant life. Most of it has to do with the accumulation of stuff and status. But those things don't last.So Jesus gives us a different view of abundance. He says, "I am the vine and you are the branches - remain in me and you will bear fruit - fruit that will last." In a sense, what Jesus is saying is that if we stay connected to him and allow God to work in us and through us, we will bear fruit. The fruit we bear looks a lot like the list that Paul gives in his letter to the Galatians. Most of us have this sense that our lives are only characterized as abundant when we display and create that kind of fruit.Are we connected to the vine? What are the ways we can stay connected to the divine?How else do we create fruit that will last? We ask God to do a little pruning. In a world of addition, what might God be asking us to cut out? Let go? What might God be pruning in our lives so that we can become fruit-bearing branches - so that our lives can truly be abundant?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 15:1-8https://www.bible.com/events/49268391
Pentecost - birthday of the church - the day the Spirit came. All of that.Wind is unpredictable. I think one of the best ways to describe wind is that it's powerful. We've been harnessing the power of wind for a really long time. Windmills - sails - etc.As we enter the story of Pentecost, here are three things to think about:1) This wind power - spirit power is creative power - it can bring something out of nothing. I'll connect it to the creation story. The Spirit can still do that for us today.2) This spirit power is unsettling - can make us uncomfortable. Yet it still draws you in and has this intoxicating effect. We have tornados and wind storms and derechos that are fascinating in a horrifying way, we often stare at them in awe. This spirit can sometimes be unsettling. It can transform us and sometimes that can be uncomfortable. The Spirit can also sometimes lead you to change what you believe. There's the story in Acts 15 when they disregarded a whole bunch of the OT to let non Jews into the movement - literally changed their beliefs all because it seemed good to the Spirit.3) This spirit can make God's future for creation real in the present. There will come a time when God's kingdom will come - when God's dream for the world will happen. The prophets talked about what that looks like. And every time we follow the Spirit, we help make God's dream for the world real in the present.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Acts 2:1-21http://bible.com/events/49262237
If you knew you were about to die, what would you say to those in this world you love the most? What hope or dream would you share? What advice would you give?That's essentially what we get in Jesus' words. He knows the end is near. So what dream does he give them? A command and a promise. The command - love each other. Jesus doesn't say, act as if you love each other. He doesn't let us off the hook. He means really love each other - as he has loved us. Man, it seems like he's asking the impossible. Important questions for us to ponder - again, I don't know if I have the answers. What would it look like if we took this seriously? Do we know how to love as Jesus loved? Do we know how to feel the kind of compassion he felt? Do we hunger for justice so fiercely that we'll reorder our entire lives just to bring it about? Do we want this?Most of the time we don't. We'd rather be safe and keep our circles small and manageable. We'd rather love people based on shared values and preferences and beliefs and not on Jesus' all-inclusive command. And yet, love is the thing Jesus calls us to. As he's headed for death - love is the thing he commands.The promise - everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another. Love is the litmus test. Love is THE identifying marker. NOT beliefs. Not doctrinal or personal purity. Not any of the other things we argue about and split over. But love. Jesus seems to be saying that if we fail to love one another then the world will not learn what it needs to learn about who God is. And if we're honest, we've done a whole lot of failing.Fortunately, Jesus doesn't leave us alone. He gives us a road map. As I have loved you. Live and love as I have lived and loved. Weep with those who weep. Laugh with those who laugh. Touch the untouchables. Include those who have been pushed out. Feed the hungry. Visit the prisoners. Free the captive. Confront the oppressors. Stand with the oppressed. Wash each other's feet.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 13:31-35http://bible.com/events/49258770
The image of the good shepherd brings up complicated feelings for me. I'll explain why - hoping everyone else sort of feels the same way. I don't have answers in this message. All I come with is a bunch of questions. I'll ask them and I'll try to answer them.1) Why does Jesus use this metaphor for himself in this particular setting? A lot to explain here in the email so I'll boil it down. Given he's in the temple and the people are celebrating the Feast of the Dedication, it seems as though Jesus is equating his presence with the very presence of the divine. This is one of the I AM statements that Jesus makes. OR, it could be that God's presence doesn't dwell in the temple. It's out in the wilderness with the sheep, the hired hands, and the wolves. In other words, God's with the outcasts, the unclean, the nonreligious.2) What does Jesus mean when he says he knows his sheep and they know him? This part makes me uncomfortable. In my experience, a life of faith isn't quite this straightforward - not this certain. 3) Who are the hired hands in our lives? The hired hands don't have skin in the game. They're in it for themselves - personal gain. When danger comes, they run. Who are the voices we listen to that might be doing us harm? Who are we letting shape us and mold us? 4) What does the church soften this image so much? Yeah, look at those pictures of Jesus as a shepherd. They don't match what Jesus says. The good shepherd is gritty - has skin in the game - even lays down his life for his sheep. How do we embody this kind of love in the wilderness? How do we embody this kind of love for each other?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 10:11-18http://bible.com/events/49255244
There are lots of things we do without thinking about the reason we do them. A relevant example on a Sunday morning is how we order our worship services. Why do we worship? More specifically, why do we do the certain things we do in worship? It's called the liturgy - which means the work of the people. There's an intentionality to it - a reason - a purpose for the order in which we do things and this Hebrews passage helps us think through it.Act one of worship is The Approach to God. There's a welcome - an invitation to stand and sing. We're approaching the divine. In Hebrews, it talks about two mountains - one is wild, the other is sort of mild. The first mountain represents the tangible presence of God through symbols - fire, darkness, gloom, storm - it's the untouchable untamed presence of God. The other mountain is invitational - it's almost like there's a party going on. The Approach to God - it's fear and awe inspiring and yet at the same time it's invitational. It's like Niagra Falls, or the Grand Canyon. From far away, it's beautiful - but get too close and you realize it could kill you - you're mortal. Or it's like a lion - from far away, it's beautiful. But you get close enough and you realize your life is frail, imperfect, small. When we approach God, something like that happens. We recognize the sheer beauty while at the same time recognizing our smallness and our capacity to make a mess of things. This is why we leave room for confession of sins in the prayer - that's why we open ourselves up for receive forgiveness.Act two of worship - the Word of God. Now we're in the position to listen to the divine. Verse 25 - see to it that you do not refuse the one who speaks. Some how, some way, through some miracle of the Spirit, God speaks. And when God speaks, shaking happens - verse 27. God shakes loose those things inside of us that don't belong. Transformation happens.Act three - the Response to God. The bulk of this act of worship happens on the outside - the way we live out our lives as transformed people - we become the presence of Jesus where we are whenever we are there. The benediction isn't an ending - it's a sending.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Hebrews 12:18-29https://www.bible.com/events/49251772
So Jesus has been gone, his disciples aren't with him anymore. Peter says, "I’m going fishing, who’s with me?" And they all go back to their previous way of life.We often do this, too. God reveals something to us and we’re sure of what next steps to take. But life hits us hard and we end up not doing what we just committed to doing. We revert back to the safe and comfortable.Then Jesus shows up again and offers them hospitality. He makes them breakfast! He’s already conveying forgiveness without saying a word. Then he walks with Peter. They have the whole "do you love me?" conversation. Three times, Jesus asks. Three times, Peter answers, "You know I do." It's the flip side of the previous story, where Peter denies Jesus three times. Jesus knows that Peter needs to accept that he’s forgiven before he can move forward.Will we go back to our old way of being, after we have committed to one way of living and walking alongside Jesus?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 21:1-19http://bible.com/events/49248269
Doubting Thomas story. Yay. The word "believe" is so important to John. He includes this story about someone who just can't believe. I'm glad that Thomas made it into the story. Because sometimes it's hard to believe. Do we really believe this stuff? I think it's a fair question - and it's a question we shouldn't hesitate to ask.Christianity is made out to be a set of beliefs you have to assent to. If that's all it is, then when you doubt, when you question, suddenly the whole thing falls apart. But what if it's more than that?The word "believe" is also translated as "to trust." And it's probably a better translation. Trust is a relational word. Our faith isn't just about believing the right things - it's also about relationships. Maybe that's why John gives us this story - to benefit those who will not see Jesus and touch his wounds. It's John's way of saying, "I was there - trust me." And when we trust each other - when we gather together - even if it is behind closed doors - somehow we get Jesus, too.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 20:19-31http://bible.com/events/49244737
The disciples are locked in a room. Jesus comes through the door and suddenly dead isn't dead anymore. Twice he says, "Peace be with you." Says, "As the Father is sending me, so I'm sending you." Here's what I think Jesus might be getting at: "Just like I created an environment for you to be transformed - become new - I'm now sending you into the world to create that kind of environment for others to be transformed - so that the world can be transformed." That's what the church is about.Where do we start, Jesus? He's all - start with forgiveness. I think he says start with forgiveness because forgiveness is a lot like resurrection. To forgive is to participate in resurrection. So Jesus sends us into the world with a message - forgiveness. God loves the world, the kingdom of God is near, this world matters, bring good news to the poor, release the captives. But we have more than a message - we're called to participate in resurrection in the world. If we would actually show love, grace, healing, forgiveness - actually participate in resurrection I think more people would want to get in on what God is up to in the world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 20:19-23http://bible.com/events/49241284
We're going to walk through John's account of the resurrection. If we piece all the stories together, we can tell there was a whole lot of confusion about the day. How many guards were there? Was there really an earthquake? What did the angels say? Did Mary go to the tomb alone? Or not? All of these discrepancies in the story show that these people were trying to describe an event that didn't fit their reality - their understanding of how things work. None of them saw it coming.So why didn't they see this coming? Jesus did and said so many different things that hinted, or even explicitly stated, "Hey, something big is going to happen, look for this! Maybe they should have seen it coming? What were they looking for when they went to the tomb? They were looking for death. They were looking for a body.Then Jesus shows up looking like a gardener. Maybe the real world we perceive every day of our lives isn't as ordinary as we think it is. Maybe our perception of the world isn't big enough - wide enough - deep enough. Maybe there's more to the world than we know.If Jesus is alive, then he is who he said he was and we really are forgiven and have new life. That's what the resurrection means for us. It's also an invitation to live in a new world where God is renewing all things.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 20:1-18http://bible.com/events/49237797
There's a Dallas Willard quote where he argues that Jesus is the smartest person who ever lived. It's pretty cool. Not only is Jesus brilliant, but he's also one of the greatest communicators to ever live. He communicated with words, yes. But he also communicated with his body.So the question is: as we watch Jesus enter Jerusalem, what is he trying to communicate? Was this a parade, a party? Or was it something else?If someone back in my childhood had told me that the triumphant entry was less of a parade and more of a subversive political protest, I wouldn't have known what to think. I was a kid! But that's what this is. Rome was about imperial might and they were marching into Jerusalem at the same time on the other side of the city. I've talked about this before, but we get the gist again. Jesus had no weapons, he brings peace. This is hippy Jesus at his best.I'm closing today with a Franciscan blessing.“May God bless us with discomfort — discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger — anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless us with tears — tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with foolishness — enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.”Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 11:1-11http://bible.com/events/49233643
We apologize for the sound quality, our system was having difficulties this weekThe parable of the rich young fool has been read and interpreted many ways. There are some who would see it as a cautionary tale against gaining wealth, and others who would say it is more about what you do with your wealth.Perhaps it is somewhere in between, asking us to examine who we consider with our wealth, and what our purpose is for gaining more. Are we seeing those around us who may be wanting in some way? This doesn't just apply to physical wealth, either. Are we physically and mentally healthy so that we may share our time and energy with others when they need us? Are we dedicating our resources of all kinds to making life a more thriving place for everyone we meet?Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Luke 12:13-21http://bible.com/events/49229946
Simple one note message. We're just gonna walk through the story and see if we can make sense of it. Mark's story is important to put into context to understand what's going on here.. The disciples have seen and experienced some mind-blowing things. They're on a spiritual high. Jesus senses it, so he asks them who people think he is. Then he asks them, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter stands up and says that Jesus is the Christ. And what he means by that is Jesus is going to liberate Israel from Roman occupation.Then Jesus talks about how he's going to suffer and die. Peter rebukes him (a bold move on his part!). Jesus rebukes him back. A little friendly fire between friends. In reality, Jesus is shattering their preconceived notions about who God is and who God's messiah was supposed to be.Jesus says, "If you're going to follow me - take up your cross. Lose your life to save it." Sounds crazy - sounds counterintuitive. But in reality - it's not. You can't have life without death. This i's how God designed the world to be.Bottom line - following Jesus means we give of ourselves for the good of the larger human community. How does that play itself out in our lives?Simple - maybe a little shorter than normal. But it's all good.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 8:31-38http://bible.com/events/49222934
It's a common belief and teaching within the Western Church that the passages about not worrying, not being afraid, are commands to never be anxious or worry. That if we do, we are sinful and should repent for those responses to events and wonderings.But this is not the case. Framed as gentle admonishing, or kind reassurances, it is like a parent saying, "Hey, don't worry, it's going to be okay, see all of these creatures and plants that want of nothing? Aren't you loved even more than they are? It'll be okay." This doesn't mean we don't worry or feel anxiety. It's a natural response as humans, and keeps us safe in many instances. Instead of dwelling in that anxiety, and that creating even more anxiety, we can ride the wave of anxious feelings, and acknowledge them for what they are.So what can we do to ride that wave? Well, a great place to start is to practice daily gratitude. It will likely start simply, seeing a list of basic things and the more obvious people in our lives. But as we practice gratitude every day, and don't repeat the same list, we find ourselves picking out new, specific things to be grateful for. It creates a grounding place for us to return to in those most anxious moments.Speaker: Jason StarkScripture: Psalm 23:1-6Matthew 6:25-34Philippians 4:6-7
Jesus in the wilderness, tempted by the evil one. Okay, I've preached on this like six times between Matthew's story and Luke's. But a different angle today. This is always the story that begins Lent, and we need the lessons in this story because of what it says about Jesus.1) We need the Jesus of the wilderness. Jesus knows anxiety, knows depression, knows social isolation, knows hurt, knows pain. We need to know that Jesus knows this. Because as we make our way through this wilderness world, how can we make it unless we have a God who knows the way.2) Jesus didn't choose this. The Spirit led him there. We don't choose our wilderness. I'll give a few examples of this. Does God want us to suffer? I don't think so. But this story tells us that God is ready to shape us and mold us even in the wilderness.3) The wilderness can last a long time. Forty days and nights! What did that do for Jesus? What can it do for us? Maybe Jesus needed to experience the reality that God's love would hold even in the wilderness - that the Father's love is and always will be an "always and no matter what" kind of love. And with that knowledge, when the tempter came he found that he wasn't at his weakest, but at his strongest.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 4:1-11https://www.bible.com/events/49215871
Pink Himalayan Salt. Yeah, it's all over my TikTok right now and seems to be a thing. Maybe I'm wrong and people will be like, "Dude, what the hell are you talking about?" Don't care. Gonna talk about it anyway because we're thinking about salt.Salt is important today - the ancients knew this, too, for a variety of important things. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." We're gonna stay with that one line for the rest of our time. What was Jesus getting at?1) Jesus was giving them and us our identity. We ARE salt. Whether we like it or not, we will spiritually impact the world around us.2) Jesus telling them and us that our lives have a ton of divine value - we are precious. In this story, Jesus is telling the poor, the marginalized, the pushed out that their lives are valuable - precious.3) Salt is meant to be poured out - used up - given away. We can't stay locked up inside our saltshaker. We're meant to enhance - not cluster up and preserve ourselves.4) Salt works best when it enhances and destroys when it dominates. Biscuits and gravy, Christian Nationalism, and book banning.What do we do? It's tempting to hide, to not say or do anything. But Jesus warns against losing our saltiness. So we need to live with more patience, wisdom, a willingness to listen and learn with empathy so that we can enhance and make better and pour out our lives for the thriving of the world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 5:13-20http://bible.com/events/49212317
1) Our self-worth begins with the knowledge that God isn't distant. This would have been a revolutionary idea at the time. No, this God cares for and loves and interrupts the lives of human beings.2) Our lives began with God knitting us together. This is the image of a woman intricately weaving or knitting something together. It's creating something for one's own pleasure. God creating humanity to have another someone to love and bring joy to.3) Our bodies are miracles. Our bodies, just as they are, are fearfully and wonderfully made. They're like divine technology.Tying these three concepts together, we can sum it up as this: everyone on the planet is known, accepted, and loved by God.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Psalm 139:1-24http://bible.com/events/49208723
What does the upcoming year look like? Because it feels like it's gonna be an upward climb. We live in a very different world than just a few short years ago. The past is gone and, as always, the future is unknown. But the future now looks to be a bit more shaky than usual.The context of this passage is Israel's time in Babylonian captivity. They were afraid. Their past was gone and the future looked shaky. That's when God speaks these words: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name, you are mine."There's a great significance to God knowing our names. Names are important. They tell us who we are and to whom we belong.God knows our names. We are loved.That's what an experience of being known and loved by God generates in a life - faith. Most of the time we think that faith begins with believing the right things. But that's that's not true. The beginning of faith begins when we know who we are and to whom we belong. The beginning of faith begins with an experience of the love of God.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Isaiah 43:1-7http://bible.com/events/49205110
New Year's resolutions are hard to keep; so many people don't even make it out of January. But I think they're still good things. Something inside of us says, "Dammit, life could be better for me. Something's gotta change."That's how it was for Israel - God looked at the state of his relationship with him and thought, something's gotta change. God calls them to be intentional in how they live their lives every day. It sounds like some New Year's resolutions to me.Do Justly - the concept of justice - how we all have this ability to sense when things aren't right. We have this because we're made in the image of a God who is just. It's a big concept. It's more than just being a good person. It's about looking at what's happening in our community, the systems behind it, and working on behalf of those who are treated unjustly.Love Mercy - translated word for word it could be translated as "love love." Love the love of God that creates community out of separate beings. It's a call to love each other with the same kind of love we have for spouses, kids, brothers and sisters.Walk Humbly - walk around in this world with an awareness of God's presence and action in our lives. This is the thing that holds the other two things together. If we're aware of the presence of God, justice and loving community with a deep deep love comes naturally. Let's make these our New Year's resolutions as a community.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Micah 6:1-8http://bible.com/events/49201619
So it's the first Sunday of Epiphany. During this season, we normally take a look at the stories in the Bible where God reveals God's self to people in new and different ways. This is certainly one of those stories. Jesus appears to John in a big robe with a golden sash. He's huge - his hair is white and his eyes are like fire and his feet are bronze and his voice is like rushing waters.We're taught by many voices on social media to fear things, things that don't even make sense, they often have no basis in logic at all. It's easy to get caught up in all of that and feel depressed and anxious. Fearful.John is found on the island called Patmos. It's a remote and desolate place. One thing this story is telling us is that there's no place we can find ourselves that God won't come to meet us. The people John was writing to needed to hear this. It means there's no hole big enough that God can't find us - wherever we are - God will come to us.Then John has his vision of Jesus. It's big, powerful, king Jesus looking all big and cosmic. But then, what are the first words from Jesus? "Do not be afraid." This is important - because many of us have been taught to be afraid of God. We have to do certain things and believe certain things to get in with God. And if we change our beliefs or do bad things, God will be angry.But what's the first thing Jesus says? "Do not be afraid." Jesus is essentially saying, "there will be all sorts of terrible and terrifying things that happen in life - but I'm with you through them all. In fact, I've already endured the worst humanity has to offer. I will be with you. I am not here to condemn you, but to be with you, forgive you, comfort you, and to transform you."Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Revelation 1:9-20http://bible.com/events/49194605
This is the story of the birth of Jesus. Why would God come to us in this way? Why would God do such a thing? It's a question I've asked and answered before - this time in a little different way.1) I think God did such a thing to show us that God's not afraid of the mess. This story is so messy - from an unwed pregnant 14 year old Mary all the way to the animals and shepherds who smell like animal poop. God's not afraid of your mess, either.2) I think God did such a thing because God considers all of creation worthy of being saved - and that includes your little life. Even though our lives are messy - God still considers us worthy. Not because of the things that we have done - God just decided we were worthy. Know this in the deepest parts of yourself - you are worthy to be saved, healed, worthy and being made whole again.3) I think God did such a thing to show us how much he loves us. Christmas Eve always has to come down to love. If it doesn't, we've effed things up. lol.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 2:1-20http://bible.com/events/49188467
The story of the choosing/calling of Mary. We're going to walk through Mary's Song."My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior." How might this be good news for us? In her circumstances, she responds with a song. And not just any song, it's a song that before it's about anything else, it's about joy. She responds with joy. This song reminds us that an appropriate response to God's presence is joy. Not fear. Not guilt. Not obligation. But joy. What would lead her to sing for joy? Maybe it's her foundational trust in the goodness of God. She chooses to believe that her life is filled with the presence of a God who is on her side and acts generously toward her and through her. What would it be like for us to frame our lives like that?"For he has been mindful of (or, he has looked with favor on) the humble state of his servant." How might that be good news? Do you ever imagine God watching you? If you do, how do you imagine God looks at you? Is that a scary thought? Are God's eyes cold? Judgmental? Or are they patient, warm, invitational, full of love and grace? God looking at her is a wonderful thing to Mary. She doesn't feel small or diminished. She seems to be filled up and lifted up."God brings down the proud and lifts up the humble." Most of us don't have it all together. We fear all sorts of things. Ask for help. We've got a whole community full of people willing to help. And when we humble ourselves in that way, God is waiting to rescue.God's choice of Mary really is subversive. God didn't choose a powerful person to bear God's son. God chose a nobody from Nazareth. Maybe God can do something through your little life. Maybe God can do something big through this little church.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 1:26-56http://bible.com/events/49185352
J the B preparing the way. John's mission is to prepare people for the coming of Jesus. His message was all about repentance. To change your mind. Be open to the possibility that the way you perceive the world might not be the very best way. Turn around. Move in a different and better direction. Wake up and take corrective action.Problem is, we don't like change. We don't like to take responsibility. We'd rather blame others for the way we are and how the world is. So John talks tough. "Repent!" he says. "Turn around."The crowds apparently wanted to hear this message. Maybe deep down they knew they needed this message. So they ask, "What the hell are we supposed to do then?!"Then, John starts talking about the regular everyday stuff of life: money, possessions, cloaks, food, and pay. Part of his message seems to be - wake up, we will never experience the fullness of Jesus - the fullness of God and what the divine can do through us until we've surrendered everything we have back to God. So we ask different questions: What might God want me to do with what I have? My stuff? My money? My house? Etc.He also seems to be saying that those who are prepared to see Jesus automatically become aware of and sensitive to the needs of those around them.Lastly, when they ask what they should do, John doesn't get all radical on them. Doesn't tell them to leave their regular lives and go start a movement with him. Nope. He seems to be saying, "Go home." Go back to your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your fellow classmates. We don't have to be weirdo spiritual professionals. Go home. Be generous now. Be merciful now. Do justice now. Right where you are.When we live life like this all of a sudden all of creation begins to pop with the presence of the divine - Emmanuel - God with us - right where we are.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 3:1-18http://bible.com/events/49182020
When was the last time you were really vulnerable - like you really needed help? This is the context into which Isaiah is praying. Israel really needed help. Tear open the heavens and come down!Advent begins from a place of desperation - the place of helplessness - the place of vulnerability. If we're honest about it, we're all in that place of vulnerability. The ways in which we've messed things up are too big for us - we need help. We need a savior. If we don't acknowledge our helplessness and vulnerability - then what are we waiting for during Advent?We may be helpless - but we're not hopeless. Isaiah then references a whole bunch of times when God saved Israel - came down and saved them in their past. If God did that in the past it gives us hope that God will do it again.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Isaiah 64:1-12http://bible.com/events/49178529
We're moving toward Advent and this scripture gets us there. John is writing this letter to real people in a real place and time. These are people who needed to be reminded that God is present and that God is large. So John gives them a vision of the divine that is much larger than our brains can comprehend: God is larger than space and time as we know it - but also invades space and time as we know it. The one who was, who is, and who is to come.This idea is all over the pages of the scriptures. God tells Moses to tell the people "I Am sent you." Let's rewind to the creation story - God creates through God's word - through speaking. In John 1: The Word of God becomes flesh. In Paul's letter to the Colossians: In Jesus all things hold together. God is larger than space and time as we know it - but also invades space and time as we know it - just to be with us. I wonder - why do we need to be reminded of this? God wants to be with us in our pain, our grief, our struggle, our sorrow. And God wants to be with us in our joy and our happiness. The only question is - do we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Revelation 1:1-8
The calling of the prophet Samuel. I love the honesty in this story. Clearly, Samuel wasn't ready for a call from God. It took him 4 times before he realized it was God calling and even then he had to have someone else tell him what was going on. If we're honest - no one's ever really ready for a call from the divine. Just read through the Bible - the only one that seems close to ready is a young woman by the name of Mary. When's the last time you listened for a call from the divine?Samuel's story shows that the timing of God's call is intentional and always right on time. There was a time in church history when the church had 3 popes. Yeah, it messed everyone up. No one knew who to trust - no one knew where the authority was. Then a dude named Martin Luther showed up. Said that if we want authority all we needed was scripture and each other. The Reformation changed the course of history. And now, in our day, we're reexamining these ideas and wondering if there might be a new iteration of them. God's calling lots of people in our day to be those voices.Another thing about God's calling - sometimes God works outside the normal power structures of the world to get done what God wants done. Samuel shouldn't have been called - there were others in line. But they weren't gonna work. So, God worked outside the normal channels and worked in a surprising way. That leads us to another Martin Luther - the Jr. Martin Luther. He had to work outside the normal power structures to get done what God wanted to get done.God's calling each of us - and maybe all of us together - to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves. Maybe we have a little sense of what that might be. We're never ready for it - but here we are. If we answer that call, maybe we, too, can change the course of history.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture:http://bible.com/events/49168299
What is prayer? Do we have an adequate definition? If we're honest, prayer is kinda hard to define. Jesus never gives us a definition, but he does give us a prayer. The one we find in Luke is the shorter version of The Lord's Prayer. Some of us know this prayer so well that we can say it without thinking about it. Like brushing our teeth, or putting on a seat belt. But some things are meant to be thought through while we're doing them. Like this prayer. Many have said before - and I agree - we should call this The Disciples' Prayer. This is our prayer. Jesus entrusted it to us. It's his gift to us. It's a prayer that gives us a center - and it's a prayer that will form us into people who look like Jesus.Gives us a center - God is that center, God's reign in this world is that center. With a proper center we realize that our little lives are important to God. With a center, we realize that our lives are part of something much bigger than just ourselves - we're praying for God's kingdom to come - we're involved in what God is doing in the world.Forms us into people who look like Jesus. We pray for daily bread - the basic stuff of life. Then when we look up from our prayer, we notice that there are some in this world who don't have the basic stuff of life. So we have to do something about that. We can't pray this prayer with integrity if we don't do something about that. Forgive us - we ask for forgiveness so that we can then extend forgiveness in this world. Lead us not into temptation - we are reminded about all the things that draw us away from God and avoid them. These things form us into people who look and act and love like Jesus.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 11:1-13http://bible.com/events/49164877
The story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz is one of faithfulness, love, and welcome. What may not always be highlighted when studying this passage is just how above and beyond every character takes their love and loyalty for one another. Naomi, during her time in a foreign land, loving her daughters-in-law, and then looking out for Ruth once the two of them travel back to Bethlehem. Ruth, with her unmoving determination to care for her mother-in-law and make a life for both of them together in Bethlehem. Boaz, in his role as kinsman-redeemer, also born to a foreigner, welcoming and loving Ruth, and caring for her and Naomi rather than passing them off to someone else.So shall we all act in our own context, with faithfulness, love, and welcome of others.Speaker: Tony VisScripture: The Book of Ruthhttp://bible.com/events/49161363
We're gonna stick with the identity question - who are you? Verse 10 will be our focus - For we are God's workmanship (handiwork), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.There's this idea that we are the creators of our own lives. Nowhere do we see this more than in social media - no wonder humanity eventually came up with this idea. We carefully craft the persona we want the world to see. It feeds that part of our souls that says, "I'm in charge here. I'm a self-made person."Paul says, "Nope, we are God's handiwork." We are not self-made - we are God-made. But it gets better. Behind that idea of "handiwork" there's this idea that we are God's artwork - God's masterpiece. Each one of us - a masterpiece of the divine artist. Why would God do this? What were we made for? We were made for work. So this isn't a new idea - it's an ancient idea that Paul is repackaging and giving back to the Ephesians.What kind of work? Good work. What kind of good work? Good work which God prepared IN ADVANCE FOR US TO DO! What in the actual? What does that mean? Ha! Hell if I know.Anyway, these works are unique to each of us. Sometimes we call this our calling, or our vocation, or our purpose. It's the place where your passions, what you're really good at, your gifts, your personality, and where you live and work all come together. When you find that place, you've found your good works.We are all a masterpiece of God. God wants all of us to partner with the divine in the world. So where is that place for you? Where all those things come together - that's your identity.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Ephesians 2:1-10http://bible.com/events/49157957
We're going to talk about the foundation of our identity - who we are.The foundation of our identity is in what God has done for us - we've been rescued. Rescued from the worst things we have done - our past does not define who we are.We've been qualified. We've been made worthy to become citizens of the kingdom of God. Sometimes we don't feel worthy to be in someone's presence because of what we've done to them. Sometimes we don't feel worthy to be in someone's presence because of our high view of them. We're talking about the creator of the universe - what makes us think we're worthy of divine presence. Well, God just makes it so. We are worthy - we've been qualified.We've been redeemed - made useful. Useful enough to partner with God in the world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Colossians 1:3-14http://bible.com/events/49154458
Seeds, Weeds, and Little Birdies, baby!I'll start with a TikTok about parenting - Jim Gaffigan is the best, man! Parenting really is hard. And here's the reason: we want to be in control. If we could force our teenagers to make the right decisions we would do it. Because we love the ideal of control. And it's not just a parent thing - it's a human thing. But God's ideal for us isn't control.Jesus tells three parables to show us what the KoG (the Kingdom of God) is like. And these stories are absurd. They don't make sense. They're jokes.The gardener. He scatters seed willy nilly and goes inside and takes a nap. The seeds sprout all on their own. That's not how gardening works. Good gardeners do all sorts of things to make the thing grow. But not Jesus' gardener. What does this have to teach us?The mustard seeds. Yeah, they're weeds. That's the joke. No one plants mustard seeds. They're weeds and they spread like weeds and look like weeds. What does it mean that Jesus equates the KoG with a little seed? Who and what counts in God's kingdom? What is beautiful? Where do we see, perceive the divine?Little birdies. The plant grows and the birds perch on its branches and enjoy the shade. They get grace! Isn't that so sweet? Yeah, on the surface. But let's go deeper. Do we want birds in the garden? Nope, they eat the seeds and fruit. Birds are bad for gardens. Crows screw up cornfields. That's why we have scarecrows - to keep those little bastards out.But Jesus is like, "nope, I like birds in my garden." Why does Jesus say this? What might it mean? Here's what I think - radical inclusion and hospitality - that's the KoG.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 4:26-34https://www.bible.com/events/49151043
Sin is a condition we all find ourselves in. We just make a mess of things. It's who we are. But if we only talk about it as a condition, we only get it half right AND we let ourselves off the hook. If we read the stories in the Bible, we come to find out that it's also about the choices we make. We have a choice in the matter. The classic example is David and Bathsheba. That's an ugly story. It is said that after Nathan confronts David, this Psalm is a result.David has the audacity to ask for forgiveness. What in the actual fart? Maybe David understands that the heart of God defines what love is - what compassion, and grace, and mercy are.The Hebrew word rechem is translated as "great compassion or mercy." Richard Rohr talks about this from the lens that mercy is part of the mystery of who God is. David understood the gospel before there was anything called the gospel. God just forgives, God just restores. Like we talked about last week, it's just who God is.God is betting that when we receive that kind of radical forgiveness we will be changed. Transformed.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Psalm 51:1-19http://bible.com/events/49144023
How did they conduct business 4000 years ago? They made covenants. Here's how the covenant ritual worked: they cut animals in half, made an aisle, stated the terms of the deal, and both parties would walk through the dead animals saying, "Maybe I become like these animals if I fail to keep my end of the deal."So then comes Genesis 15. God promises Abram descendants and a home. Abram asks how does he know that's gonna happen, God has him get some animals, and Abram does. He cuts them up - sets up the covenant ritual. Then a smoking pot and a blazing torch appears and goes down the aisle alone. That's not how covenants work. Abram should have walked through, too. Here's the point: God is committing to keeping both ends of the deal. God will be faithful even if Abram makes a mess of things.God isn't angry or petulant. God isn't demanding anything from Abram - God is only asking Abram to trust - to be in a relationship with a God who has been revealed as love, grace, and generosity.We, as the people of God, have the opportunity to reflect the character of God back to the world. We don't exist to tell people what they have to believe in order to make it to heaven. That's missing the point. We don't exist to police the behavior of people in here or out there. That's missing the point. We exist to be in a relationship with God and to reflect the character of God back to the world. To be a place of grace. A place of generosity. A place of love.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Genesis 15:1-21http://bible.com/events/49140538
Let's talk about the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists talk about what they're experiencing when they first see new images and discoveries. They wax poetic - they're astonished, amazed. They talk about it almost as if it's a mystical experience or an intense spiritual experience.
We get that. Sometimes creation can do that to us. That's what's happening to King David when he wrote this Psalm. O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. David is having an intense spiritual experience of the divine through contemplating creation. He begins to understand just how large the divine really is.
Then, it gets intensely personal. He feels honored and cared for. Who are we humans that you pay attention to us? You've made us a little lower than the heavenly beings. We know what these experiences are, too.
David doesn't stop there - he realizes that the divine wants to work with us in the caring for creation. God wants partners. And when we do partner with God in caring for those who need it most - the incomprehensible glory we see in the universe is now reveals in our little lives below.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 8:1-9 https://www.bible.com/events/49137008
Jesus tells a story about a king who puts his servants in charge of some cash money. While the king is gone, they're supposed to use it as if he were still present. Two do, one doesn't; bad things happen to the one who doesn't.
1 - God wants us. God wants to be in our lives. 2 - We don't want God. When we look around at the world it doesn't take us very long to figure out that we human beings don't want God and don't want the ways of God. 3 - In spite of our messing things up, God still wants us. 4 - Two servants gain money, one doesn't. The two who did a good job were commended because they were faithful - it had nothing to do with how much they gained. They were faithful. They risked what they had been given and they risked being associated with a guy no one else wanted as king. What does it look like for us to risk what we've been given in service of the divine?
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 19:11-27 http://bible.com/events/49130041
If we knew what people were going through, would we act with more kindness? Would we walk through life with more awareness of others' pain, and joy, and everything in between?
In order to really love like Jesus, we have to carry that kind of empathy.
Speaker: Marlin Vis Scripture: Luke 18:35-19:10
This is Matthew's version of the "It is not right to throw the children's bread to the dogs" story.
This one is a little difficult to summarize so I'll be brief. Two major points:
1) Can God be bigger than our theology? Is God more loving than we even know? Are there people in our lives that we despise but now we need to show love and mercy? 2) This woman wouldn't take no for an answer - she wrestles with Jesus and wins! Are we willing to wrestle - to show patience, courage and endurance with the divine?
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 15:21-28 http://bible.com/events/49123182
The take-away is listening to the Holy Spirit - being watchful and prepared for the encounters in which God places us in order to care about the one person right in front of us.
In the first 8 and a half chapters of Acts, we see God calling the apostles to preach to the masses - and thousands of people coming to believe in the Gospel of Christ. Preaching to the masses is very important! But the second half of chapter 8 gives us a glimpse of a different kind of evangelism. We are suddenly given an example of evangelism efforts for ONE HUMAN SOUL... not the masses.
We see the Holy Spirit direct Phillip to one man. Philip could not have imagined that his obedience to that one Ethiopian man would have ripple effects for the Gospel to go from Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The final call to the listener - Who is "the one" God might be calling you to witness to, to serve, to meet the needs of? We can't imagine the kingdom ripple effects God might have in store through our obedience to "the one."
Speaker: Bep Reeves Scripture: Acts 8:26-40 http://bible.com/events/49119808
So, full disclosure. Remember when Covid happened? Remember that first Facebook live I fumbled through trying to have a conversation about this story cuz I didn't know what to do? Yeah, this is the sermon I was supposed to preach. Now I get to do it live.
We'll walk again through the story and I'll have - you guessed it - 3 things to say.
1) Here we are again - Jesus trampling on boundaries to give someone the dignity they deserve. 2) Jesus leads with vulnerability. This is Jesus. The water into wine guy. He could have gotten himself something to drink. Instead, he names his need to see if she has anything to give. I think it may have been his humility that won her trust. 3) Jesus sees without shaming or condemning. Maybe God is calling us to see others - even our enemies - through the eyes of love. Maybe God is calling us to see ourselves through the eyes of love. Maybe God is calling us to see our own stories through the eyes of love - the stories we tell about ourselves, that somehow we're not good enough, that we're insignificant, that we don't matter. And when we see others and ourselves through the eyes of love, perhaps we'll be able to love others and ourselves the way we were meant to.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 4:1-42 https://www.bible.com/events/49116326
The Church is a place for sinners who long to be saints, not a place for saints who have long forgotten they are sinners.
The Church is a place for celebration and joy, not a place for gloom and doom and somber faces.
The Church of Jesus Christ is a place where old ways are constantly giving ground to new ways—where God is understood to be dynamic and fluid, never himself changing, yet ever changing God’s people and God’s church in order to accomplish God’s purposes and fulfill God’s mission in a broken world.
New wineskins are not optional, they are absolutely essential—the old ways must constantly be renewed, reformed, and transformed..
“And none of you, after drinking old wine wants the new, for. he says, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:39)
Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Luke 5:33-39 http://bible.com/events/49113077
Let us love one another. God is love. There's always something about these words that seems foundational to me. Like, there's something about these words that seems to form what ought to be underneath everything we say and do in this place - like DNA level stuff. It gets me thinking about how ReNew started. Just a few people meeting together trying to figure out who God wanted us to be. We eventually came up with our foundational statement - following Jesus to renew lives that renew the world. We connect people Up/Out/In. The thing that is foundational to all three of those ideas is...love.
Love one another. It's about community. Relationship. We were made for it. It's in our DNA. Think about the very first thing Jesus did when he started doing his thing in and around Galilee. He formed a community - a family - a group of people - a gathering. Because relationships are essential. God is love - and you can't have love without relationship.
Love is self-giving - self-emptying. That's the kind of community we're called to be. Problem is - we're not all that good at it. We make church about so many other things other than love.
When groups of people share a common mission and purpose the bonds of love grow stronger. As we, together, give ourselves away to the world our relationships with each other grow stronger. That's how God's economy works. The more you give away - the more you get in return.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21 http://bible.com/events/49109878
We're going to zero in on the first line of Hebrews 11 - faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Everyone has faith. We have a lot of faith in the things that we have created - technologies. It's a lot harder to have faith in things like the promises of God. We find the promises of God in our liturgy of baptism - it takes faith to believe those things. Sometimes it's hard to have faith in a God we can't see.
The writer of Hebrews was writing to a community to encourage them in their faith. And then gives a list of all the great heroes of faith. But here's the thing about those heroes - they were all normal people who did some pretty crappy things. They all messed up in big ways - kind of like that. But what makes them heroes of the faith is that they were all willing to act on a vision even though they would not ever see the fruit of their faith.
Faith and hope give us a trajectory for our lives - they give us something to strive after - to work toward - they're future-oriented. Faith and hope in what God is up to isn't wishful thinking. It becomes wishful thinking when we do nothing about it. Faith and hope compel us to work toward the realization of what we hope for.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-16 http://bible.com/events/49106590
James gives a lot of practical teaching up to this point in his writing. Now he changes directions - adds something new. Now he starts talking about the root of it all - he starts talking about the heart, what's inside.
Bitter envy, selfish ambition, etc. He calls is false wisdom. We all have it.
So what do we do about it? Again, practical teaching. Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse your hands, purify your heart. We can sum this up with just one of them: draw near to God.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: James 3:13-18, 4:1-10 http://bible.com/events/49100001
More practical theology - practical faith from James. The tongue is a fire.
Today we have two things to talk about fire, and one about water.
1) Our words can be like fire that scorches the lives of others. We see this all the time. From the people who lead our nation to the people inside our own homes.
2) Words of gossip can spread like wildfire. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. Gossip spreads and can consume entire communities.
3) Water - our words can be like fresh life-giving water. James is connecting to the creation story with this image. God created the universe by speaking - we, as people made in the image of God have the ability to create life in others by the words that we speak.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: James 3:1-12 https://www.bible.com/events/49096646
Far more than it shows a model for marriage, or for an individual relationship between two partners, Genesis 2 shows God's design for us to be together. Whether it is just a few people or an entire community, we are made to be in regular connection and to share life's ups and downs with those around us. None of us can do it alone. And we don't have to.
Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Genesis 2:4-25 http://bible.com/events/49093250
James makes it clear at the beginning of his letter that there's a power available to Jesus people. It's a power that has the ability to form a new kind of community that is different from the rest of the world. And that power comes from Jesus. He makes it clear that faith in Jesus changes everything about the way we live our lives.
In some ways, we need James right now. Badly. He doesn't let us merely spiritualize our faith or cut it in half seeing it as a free ticket to heaven when we die. There's no escapist theology here. This is all down and dirty do the hard stuff of life. He kinda goes on a rant.
Okay, James. So, what shall we do? He says, "don't show favoritism." Then he tells a story about a rich guy and a poor guy walking into church. The rich guy gets preferential treatment. The poor guy has to stand by the door. Did this really happen in James' church? Maybe. Or maybe he's taking the wider cultural realities and bringing them down with laser-like focus in order to show us just how absurd they really are.
We make a lot of assumptions when we see the poor or hear about them. These assumptions were given to us - they're lazy, they don't work hard enough. Blah, blah, blah. All the while, we ignore the cultural realities that make it impossible for some people to provide for themselves. And that's just the rich and poor. What about other people groups who experience the adverse effects of favoritism? People of color, mental illness, LGBTQ+ peeps. When we ignore cultural realities that keep others out, we show favoritism.
There's a radical egalitarianism we find here in James - we're all equal. The Bible has other ways of thinking we can lift out of its pages - complementarianism, hierarchies of power, etc. We get to choose which voices in the Bible we get to privilege. It's our choice - let's just make that clear.
Why is this such a big deal to James? Because of the Greek word adelphoi. It's translated "brothers." We would say, "brothers and sisters" - better yet, "siblings." We're family! We all belong to the same family and we're called to solidarity - not division.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: James 2:1-19 http://bible.com/events/49089725
What are we doing here? Why do we come on Sunday mornings when there are all sorts of other things we could be doing to be productive in life? Why do we play this church game at all? One of the biggest reasons is that we come to pay attention to the divine. That's one of the meanings of the word "religion." It comes from the Latin root "lig" which, in part, means "to pay attention." So worship is like a divine alarm clock that wakes us up. But paying attention to the divine isn't just receiving gifts from the divine (every good and perfect gift...), we're also called to do. So here are two ways we're called to do.Watch what you say. If we're religious and we don't keep a tight rein on our tongues, our religion is worthless. Just because words aren't physical it doesn't mean they can't be violent and cause great harm.Watch out for others. Religion that God accepts is to look after the most vulnerable people in society. Back to the word "religion." The root word "lig" can also mean "to tie." Religion is meant to tie us back to our spiritual origins in the divine. How do we do that? James' answer is to look after people who most need it.You mean religion isn't about doctrine? You mean religion isn't about believing the right things about God? You mean religion isn't about spiritual practices like prayer and fasting? Is that what James is saying? Nope. But what he is saying is that all of that stuff better make a difference in our lives. And our lives better make a difference in the world or it's like we look into a mirror and forget what we look like. We miss the whole point.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: James 1:16-27https://www.bible.com/events/49082777
Peter gets a vision that disrupts his reality. Then he gets an invitation to go to Cornelius's house. He suddenly gets the meaning of the vision. God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. He understands that God wants to include the whole world - not just Jews.Divine disruption - it challenges current ways of seeing the world and understanding God and how to follow God. God invites Peter into more freedom, more inclusion, and more complexity. It's hard at first - he even resists God on the basis of his current understanding of God. But eventually he gets it.More freedom, inclusion, and complexity. This story shouldn't surprise us. At least not if we've read the stories about Jesus in the Bible. Jesus was the ultimate divine disrupter - constantly challenging purity laws. In fact, he replaces the law of purity with the law of love and inclusion.Growth isn't instantaneous. Most of us will need multiple divine disruptions before we take a step. That's how growth and maturity works. So don't be afraid of the disruptions. Pay attention to them. Embrace them. They'll lead us into a greater understanding of the divine and how the world is intended to work.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Acts 10:1-48https://www.bible.com/events/49078011
Peter gets a vision that disrupts his reality. Then he gets an invitation to go to Cornelius's house. He suddenly gets the meaning of the vision. God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. He understands that God wants to include the whole world - not just Jews.Divine disruption - it challenges current ways of seeing the world and understanding God and how to follow God. God invites Peter into more freedom, more inclusion, and more complexity. It's hard at first - he even resists God on the basis of his current understanding of God. But eventually he gets it.More freedom, inclusion, and complexity. This story shouldn't surprise us. At least not if we've read the stories about Jesus in the Bible. Jesus was the ultimate divine disrupter - constantly challenging purity laws. In fact, he replaces the law of purity with the law of love and inclusion.Growth isn't instantaneous. Most of us will need multiple divine disruptions before we take a step. That's how growth and maturity works. So don't be afraid of the disruptions. Pay attention to them. Embrace them. They'll lead us into a greater understanding of the divine and how the world is intended to work.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Acts 10:1-48https://www.bible.com/events/49078011
Many of the smaller stories we find in the Bible are just little microcosms of the big themes of change and transformation. The LORD brings Jeremiah to the potter's house and uses the imagery of the potter and the clay. God wants to transform Israel - but it all depends on repentance - it all depends on their willingness to change.Now, when we hear a call to turn toward God - to repent - we hear it from two different places. First, from the place of independence. No matter how put together we make ourselves out to be, we're still clay, shaped and molded by someone outside of ourselves. Second, we hear it from the place of uselessness. We feel empty or cracked. In this way, this is a hopeful reminder - we're still clay - clay that belongs to the divine.This little passage reminds us that repentance is hard - we often resist it. So the invitation of the morning is repentance - turning toward God to be shaped and molded.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Jeremiah 18:1-12http://bible.com/events/49075732
This story is about keeping priorities straight, and keeping a right perspective on life. The rich man, in all of his privilege and wealth, loses sight of what is important in the midst of his excess stuff. Are we paying attention? Are we keeping our eyes on the needs of those around us, and seeing people as Jesus does? Or are we sitting in the middle of our excess of everything and just focusing on our own desires?Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Luke 12:13-21https://www.bible.com/events/49069617
People in the scientific community live into the theological themes of repentance and sanctification better than most religious people do. They live life and undergo authentic evolution all the time. They're able to let go of previously held beliefs about the world through the scientific method.In Paul's letter to the Galatians, he calls the Jewish church of Galatia out on their inconsistency in connection and acceptance of the Gentiles. Paul underwent and authentic evolution, from thinking works of the law justified us to the understanding that faith in Christ is the thing that gets the job done. How did that happen? Like a good scientist, Paul experimented. He found that no one can live up to the law - it's going to take something else - faith in Christ.This affects us in two ways. 1) It affects how we approach God. We don't have to be afraid - through faith we are loved, accepted, and transformed. 2) We are transformed from the inside out. Normally we think the opposite - if we just do the right things we'll become better people. But Paul points us in a different direction. It's by the faith of Christ living in us that we are transformed.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Galatians 2:11-21http://bible.com/events/49068631
We're walking slowly through the story of Jesus appearing to the two disciples walking to Emmaus.They were talking about everything that had happened. That's a loaded four words. "Everything that had happened." They were there witnessing the previous week ending with the crucifixion of Jesus. Then they heard the reports that Jesus' body was missing, AND that he might be alive. That's a hard thing to believe. They must've talked all about Jesus' life - what he taught and embodied - what he did. He gave them all so much hope. But now he's dead and gone.What were they feeling? They must've felt trapped. Trapped in their grief. Trapped and stuck in their old ways of thinking. We know what it's like to feel trapped in our old ways of thinking - trapped in old patterns of behavior - trapped, stuck by depression - etc.Maybe that's why they didn't recognize Jesus. That trapped feeling will do that to you. Maybe that's how we all live our lives - we're trapped in old ways of thinking and we fail to recognize the presence of the divine walking right alongside us. It's only at the table when Jesus breaks the bread that they recognize that it's him.Why does Jesus keep himself hidden? Speculation time. Maybe it's because he wants them to keep searching and longing for him. Maybe it's because Jesus isn't going to force them to believe. Or maybe it's so that when they do recognize him they get it right. They recognize Jesus in the blessing, the breaking, and the giving of the bread. That has implications for us as a community of Jesus people. People recognize Jesus in the blessing, the breaking, and the giving. If we're going to reveal Jesus to the world it'll have to be through blessing, breaking/sacrificing, and giving ourselves to the world.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 24:13-35http://bible.com/events/49065056
Here's a question given to us by Brian Zhand: did you ever notice that the gospel writers don't even attempt to describe the resurrection? They talk all about the crucifixion. But for the resurrection, there's just the announcement that it happened. Then he suggests that they couldn't describe it. Death belongs to the old age - we know all about death. But resurrection is from the New Creation. They simply didn't have the categories for it.Let's talk about the three characters in the story. Nicodemus, Joseph, and Mary. They're all locked inside the old creation mindset (we can't blame them, because we do it, too). They're locked inside their own tombs of fear, failure, meaningless life. We get locked in these tombs and others. Is there hope? Yup - it's Easter.There's resurrection. And once they experience resurrection it transforms their lives. The early church lived radically. We can, too. We don't have to fear. We can build a more inclusive kind of world. Hungry people can be fed. Homeless can be sheltered. The lonely can find friendship and love - if we live into resurrection life.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 19:38-42; 20:1-23http://bible.com/events/49061521
Sometimes we only see what we want to see. The people in the story saw Jesus as the one who was coming to liberate them from Roman oppression. That's why they were waving palm branches. They'd seen this play out in their history with Judas Maccabeus. Of course that's what they saw.But that's not who Jesus revealed himself to be. He was teacher - healer - nonviolent - etc.But we're not that much different than the people in Jerusalem. We see what we want to see. Christian nationalism, anyone? We want Jesus to come and conquer the things in our lives that get in the way. Of course, Jesus does do that kind of thing on occasion. But like cleansing the temple in Jerusalem, he tends to mess around in places we'd rather him not go. He tries to reorient our lives. He messes with our priorities. He also shows us what kind of life he wants us to lead. He didn't ride in on a war stallion - he rode in on a donkey. Humble - he lived a life of humility. As Paul wrote - Jesus emptied himself. We're always trying to fill up. Sometimes people even talk about worship that way. We go to worship to get filled up for the week. What if we're called to empty ourselves?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 21:1-17https://www.bible.com/events/49057024
Raising of Lazarus - yeah, we're doing it again. So we've got a new spin. This is a hard story to wrap our heads around. It's a strange story that raises all sorts of questions that are difficult, if not impossible, to answer.So even though this is a confusing story - hard to understand - there is something we all can understand. Two words. Yup, a sermon on two words in a story about Jesus. Those two words? Jesus Wept. That's it. What do the tears of Jesus teach us?1) The tears of Jesus legitimize all human grief. This negates all prosperity gospel B.S. We grieve - all of us. It's like our constant companion. And we have a God who cries with us.2) The tears of Jesus honor the complexity of life and the uncertainty of tomorrow. The raising of Lazarus won't change his past. He'll still have the lingering memory of his illness and saying his final goodbye to those he loves the most. But now, everything has changed - his life is now completely different. And change is hard.3) The tears of Jesus show us the necessity of silence. Jesus doesn't try to fix things with words. People say the stupidest things to people who are hurting! Sometimes our presence and our tears are the only appropriate language - sometimes silence is a necessity.4) The tears of Jesus show us that sorrow can be a strong driving force for change. What breaks your heart? What splits you open? Will you let that move you to compassion for others and allow yourself to be moved into resurrecting action?Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 11:1-44http://bible.com/events/49053766
The burning bush story! In the midst of being overwhelmed by the presence of God, facing a bush burning brightly and white-hot, Moses hides his face, and God speaks.1 - We're all functionally blind, just like Moses. We have no idea what the future holds. But God sees. God sees reality for what it is - and God has a preferred future for all of us, a future with milk and honey. That doesn't mean it will be easy - but milk and honey will be there.2 - Okay, so what do we do? God says, "Go." Even though you're blind, you can't see - just like Moses - God says, "Go." Keep moving. Keep taking steps. Trust. And the last thing God says is, "I'll be with you."Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Exodus 3:1-12http://bible.com/events/49050135
When a widow's son dies, Jesus sees the desperate situation she is now in and ministers to her needs. The miracle of the story is only one part of it. Understanding that this woman is not only grieving, but now in a place where she will have no one to support her is a heavy knowledge, one which Jesus does something about. People matter to God. Jesus had compassion and acted upon that compassion, even at great risk.So, how will we do the same?Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Luke 7:11-17http://bible.com/events/49046538
The clearing of the temple: Jesus disrupts our thinking. Causes us to ask questions. What are we doing here? He disrupts our thinking in two ways (more than two, but we only have time for two here).First, Jesus disrupts our thinking about the other. The system of exploitation that was set up blocking access to the divine in the temple made Jesus angry. The marginalized, the poor had no access to worship in the temple without paying an outrageously inflated price first. Blocking access to the divine? Who do we think we are? This is one of the reasons we at ReNew made the decision we made a year ago - to be open and affirming. Second, and last, Jesus disrupts our thinking about our own bodies - challenging us to see them as temples, homes of the divine. This isn't what we were taught. We've been taught to mistrust and fear our own bodies. Jesus talks about his own body as a temple for the divine. Do we have a healthy theology of the body? How can we move past our fear, mistrust and squeamishness and offer our whole lives to God - including our bodies? These are the kinds of disruptive questions the church needs to answer.Barbara Brown Taylor says a lot about our bodies, and how crucial it is that we love our own so that we can love others' bodies better. It's impossible for us to love our own bodies more without increasing our love for all bodies. Which means, of course, that we can't love our own bodies and stand by while other bodies are mistreated and abused. Which is why our kids might save us, with their willingness to call out the oppression and hatred around us.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 2:13-22http://bible.com/events/49042822
The story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness features three temptations. It's a pretty solid narrative structure, but it also can be applied to more general situations that we find ourselves in.First temptation is to go after short-term immediate gratification rather than trusting that God will provide what we need when we need it. We can have whatever we want whenever we want it without thinking about it. Whether it's buying something with one click on our online account, or upgrading our phones, we are conditioned to expect those desires to be fulfilled pretty immediately.Second temptation is all about cutting corners, cheating the system in order to get what we want. We all have ambition - what's a little white lie here and there? Jesus is uncompromisingly committed to being the kind of person God wants him to be.Third temptation is to jump - to test and see if God is as faithful as God says. We don't need to test God, for God is always with us.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 4:1-13http://bible.com/events/49039133
Here we are again bumping up against this theme of crossing lines and boundaries. The reason we bring it up so often here is because we see Jesus doing this all over the pages of the Bible. He's constantly crossing lines and boundaries. And this story is no different - we'll notice all the lines and boundaries that mark off territory - and Jesus is inviting us to step out and learn that our line drawing has consequences.1) Our line drawing causes us to be blind to those who are different or are in need.2) Our line drawing prevents us from feeling compassion and empathy for those who are different. This is why line crossing is so important.People who live differently - think differently - believe differently are not our enemies. They may in fact be the very people who can teach us exactly what we need to learn.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 16:19-31https://www.bible.com/events/49033241
There will be no better summary of this week's message than the closing paragraph:"That, friends, is why I love what we get to do here and why I don’t give up. We get to create a community that loves. We get to create a community where our doors are wide open just like Jesus’ arms. Anyone is welcome. Everyone is welcome. And we’ll do our best to provide the right type of atmosphere where all of us can live full, happy, healthy, flourishing lives with the ability to contribute to God’s good world. We’ll do our best to provide the right type of atmosphere where all of us can live and love like Jesus. And the only caveat there, is if someone wants to come in and undermine love – I’m sorry, this place is probably not for you. But for everyone else, there’s a place for you here. That, my friends, is some real good news. That is the best news of all. That, my friends, is truly evangelical."All are welcome and celebrated in our community; every identity and creed, every race and economic status, every sexuality and gender, every doubter and seeker of any kind. You are welcome to ask questions and find safety at ReNew Community. You are loved by us and you are loved by God, for exactly who you are, no strings attached or requirements to look different down the road. Period. No exceptions.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 1:1; 1:15; Matthew 12:31-33http://bible.com/events/49030780
God invites us into conversation with God and one another through God's creation. The first chapter of Genesis has been interpreted in many ways, but the one that we are examining here is great and beautiful poetry. Through the building of the world in words and patterns of rhythm, we can be carried through the beauty before us and learn a whole lot about who God is and what God wants the world to be like.Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Genesis 1:1-31http://bible.com/events/49027088
So we've spent a couple of weeks looking at the beginning of the Jesus story. His baptism in Mark - Jesus leaving home and calling the first disciples in Matthew. Now, back to Mark just after Jesus had sent the disciples on a local mission trip.They get back from the trip and they're so excited to tell Jesus what they had accomplished that they talk all over each other. So, Jesus says, "Come away with me - y'all need some rest."Jesus commands rest - commands Sabbath. Sabbath is important. When we truly observe Sabbath it's like we're saying: "We belong to you, God. We don't own this world. We can let go for a little while and the world will not fall apart." This is something we're not very good at. We've made being busy a virtue. But God says, "rest." When we do rest, we're making a theological statement with our lives. God is the one in charge. We don't save the world.Sabbath is also a way to become less self-absorbed. When the disciples get back they're telling Jesus all about what THEY had accomplished. They're so full of themselves. It should have been, "Hey, Jesus - look at all that God accomplished through us." It's not that we're unimportant - God loves it when we partner with him. It's just that when we do, it's God changing the world and we're God's instruments.Sabbath rest is also reenergizing. I'll explain more on Sunday. So at least for a day - take some rest. Let God be God and you go be a creature for a day. You just might find yourself with a little more life.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 6:30-34; 53-56https://www.bible.com/events/49023311
Leaving Nazareth. The story of Jesus leaving home to do his thing. What would cause a young guy, 30 years old, to leave his home, his family, his business? Maybe he remembered his baptism? Maybe he remembered the voice? Maybe he sensed that God was up to something new? He was beginning to sense that God's reign wasn't passive, but active, powerful, revolutionary. So, he began to talk about it. Preach about it. His message was clear and simple: The time has come. The kingdom of heaven is near. Repent and believe this good news.What does it mean that the kingdom of heaven is near? Dallas Willard had some words to say about that.Then Jesus moves on and calls a few disciples. They left their nets and followed. For most of us, it didn't happen that way. It happened over a long time. And yet at some point, we decided to believe. Now, we rational people are inclined to define religious faith intellectually - a set of beliefs we hold to be true. That's what was handed down to us. Believe the right things. But it would be better for us to remember that the whole thing got started not with a set of beliefs or creeds - the whole thing got started with the words, "follow me." Faith is more about following than believing.We don't even have to leave our jobs to do it. God calls us in the context of our ordinary lives.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 4:12-22https://www.bible.com/events/49019702
The baptism of Jesus. Why is this story in the Bible? He didn't have followers yet - none of his disciples were there. So how did they know this story? Well, probably because this story was important to Jesus. He had a profound experience told the story to his followers over and over again. The story is in there because Jesus was fully gripped by the power of God's love. And because he was gripped by God's love, he figured out who he was and what he would do. "You are my Son, my beloved."It can be that for us, too. Baptism is a sign of God's unearned love and acceptance.But it's also more than that - it's also a sign that we've pledged ourselves to a new kingdom - the kingdom of God. That means we work toward the things of the kingdom. Things like justice, and peace, and healing, etc. What we do NOW matters.Every morning we wake up it's like coming up out of the waters again - new breath, new life, new opportunities to work toward the things of the kingdom of God.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 1:9-13http://bible.com/events/49015936
Starting off the New Year with a doozie of a story! Ahab and Jezebel have a dude named Naboth murdered and then steal his land. Woo hoo.So, why are stories like these even in the Bible? Well, turns out we can learn from them. In this story we see that one thing leads to another. Greed leads to lying which leads to a whole bunch of other things that lead to murder. We learn that sin gives birth to sin - it multiplies itself. It's a sick cycle that we're all caught up in - all of humanity is caught up in it - and it leads to death. That's one of the lessons of this story.So, if that's the case, how do we break the cycle? We turn to Jesus ... yay! In the words of Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." In other words, we beat death by dying. We have been crucified with Christ. We participate in the breaking of the cycle by allowing Jesus who lives in us to transform us and live through us. This is why spiritual disciplines are so important. Every time we participate in a spiritual discipline we die a little and Jesus is allowed to live in and through us.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: 1 Kings 21:1-21http://bible.com/events/49012302
The Word became flesh. So why does John tell the Christmas story this way? He's trying to reach as a large an audience as possible. He gives us cosmic Christmas.John used the word "word," or "logos" in Greek. This would have been a familiar concept for John's readers. The word, or logos, is the rational principle behind the entire universe - it gives the universe its reasonableness. You could say that the logos is what holds the universe together and makes things make sense.That word became flesh. It would have blown the minds of his readers. He wants them to know that the one who created the universe became part of the universe in becoming human. And that has implications.1) Our bodies matter - they are good - just as they've been created. We grow up learning the lesson that our bodies are bad and that we're just souls trapped in a meat puppet. Nope, Jesus took on flesh - our bodies and all of creation are good.2) It means we have comfort in our suffering. Jesus experienced pain and loss just like we do.3) We have hope for the future. God forever connected God's divinity with our humanity. Died and rose again. SO we have that hope. Yeah, Easter on Christmas.So why did God do it? Love.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 1:1-14http://bible.com/events/49003270
This is the story of John the Baptist wondering if Jesus was the Messiah or if they should wait for another. It's a curious story because you would think that J the B would know and be clear about this. He leaped in his mother's womb when Mary came to see his mom. He was there at Jesus' baptism. But he wasn't clear, because Jesus turned out to be a messiah no one was expecting.Jesus tells the delegation John had sent to tell John that, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, etc. (He's quoting Isaiah 35 there, kinda cool.) In other words, true messianic power isn't in fiery judgment, political revolutions, military coups, or violent insurrections against the government on behalf of the divine. Nope, it seems to be in the small individual acts of healing and restoration that transform the lives of the people in the world that no one seems to care about. No one expected that.Whether you are struggling today or soon to be struggling, God's going to come to you, that's God's promise - that God will meet you where you are. It might not be in the way you expect - it might be in a way that you can't even imagine right now. But you can expect that God will come to you. So keep waiting. Keep watching.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Matthew 11:1-11http://bible.com/events/48999800
"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." Paul isn't just talking about what's going on in this little church. If you read the rest of the letter, he's placing what's going on in the Philippian church within the context of God renewing, recreating, and transforming all of creation. And we get to be in on it.So, how do we get in on it? Where do we start? That's where John the Baptist comes in. Repentance is the key - that's where we begin. Turning towards the Divine. John is here to wake us up. This is the time of year we can get lulled to sleep with all the Christmas shenanigans going on - the gifts, the parties, the get-togethers. This is the time of year we tell the truth about ourselves. It's the time of year we prepare for the coming of God into our lives. It's the time of year we tell the truth about the lies we've told. It's time to clear our conscience - to be honest about the relationships we've had a hand in breaking.All to prepare ourselves for the arrival of God.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 3:1-6; Philippians 1:3-11http://bible.com/events/48996244
The beginning of Advent: Mary travels to stay with Elizabeth for the remaining duration of her pregnancy. So often the materialism and stressful factors of Christmas dominate our focus during this season. It is easier to see what stresses us out, what we could gain, what we could consume. But let us not lose sight of the journey towards the birth of Jesus. Enjoyable as some of these other aspects can be, they won't carry the same lasting joy that we can choose in Christmas when we settle into the journey towards a miraculous birth.Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Luke 1:39-45http://bible.com/events/48990836
Jesus goes and preaches in his hometown. They're skeptical - they think they know everything about him - so they reject him. Sometimes the ordinary, the familiar, what we think we know can blind us to the extraordinary - can blind us to what God is doing in the world.God reveals things to us through the ordinary. That's a positive thing to think about, but it probably should also make us a bit uncomfortable. How many times do we miss what the Divine is revealing to us because we think we know all the things we need to know about life and the way the world works? How many things have we missed because we're not really paying attention to the ordinary - family, kids, friends, neighbors, etc.?We don't want to reject Jesus - we want to represent Jesus. Which is exactly what Jesus gives his followers the opportunity to do. He sends us out - empowers us to do the things he does. But we're just ordinary people - people around us might not sense the divine working in and through us - we will be rejected, too. Might have to wipe some dust off our sandals.Here comes Jesus, asking his old neighbors and us to think differently, to learn new things, to follow him into new places, to do things we've never done before in ways we've never imagined before, to care more and give more and love more and include more and sacrifice more. And even if people reject it, there's probably no better way to live.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Mark 6:1-13http://bible.com/events/48989378
1) There's something about religiosity that can make us prone to being judgmental. But maybe it's more than that. Maybe it's part of the human condition - it's just in us.2) The religious experts set a trap for Jesus and how he gets out of it. He essentially turns the whole trap back on them. In doing so, Jesus gives us the best antidote to religious judgmentalism: we're all in the same boat - we're all part of the same human family and we're all making a mess of things.3) He gives the woman grace. He's just shown up the religious elite - that means they're now gunning for him. He essentially takes the hit so that she can be set free. It won't be easy, but she now has a chance to make amends and live a transformed life.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: John 8:2-11http://bible.com/events/48985747
This is the second of Isaiah's Servant Songs. These songs reveal some things about the nature of God's servants - people like us.First, servants are called and formed for a purpose. We aren't an accident - we were formed by God and called for a purpose.Second, if we're called and formed for a purpose as servants, then we've got work to do. What kind of work? We see themes in this passage of restoration and reconciliation. If we reach back further in Isaiah we see themes of justice. What that looks like in all of our lives is going to be different. But one thing we can know - it's going to be hard. This is why Jesus says "if you want to follow me, you have to pick up and carry your cross first."Finally, we will not fail. God will not be denied. The enormity of the task and the seeming inadequacies of God's servants does not mean that God will fail.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Isaiah 49:1-7https://www.bible.com/events/48982220
This is a story that definitely fits in the horror genre. Demon possession, gore, violence, possessed pigs running off a cliff...it has it all. Because it has such heavy and disturbing themes, it's sometimes difficult to approach this story.We'll start with the question Jesus asks. "What is your name? Who are you, really?" It's a loving question - Jesus is approaching the man with compassion. What would happen if we let the Divine ask us that question: who are you, really?The man says, "Legion." A great multitude. A fast many. An incalculable swarm. Maybe it doesn't matter how we define demons, other than to say that it's anything that wants to possess us - anything that seeks to take away our true identity and separate us from God and other people. Woof - we all wrestle with Legion.But the story isn't over. It also reveals where we find our freedom. The man falls at the feet of Jesus. The people find him sitting at the feet of Jesus. Freedom comes at the feet of Jesus. Freedom is in the surrendering to Jesus. Which, of course, is the Sunday School answer. But that doesn't make it easy.We don't have to surrender. The people in town don't. Instead, we come back to the original question: "What's your name? Who are you, really?"At the end of the story, Jesus won't let the guy follow him. Instead, Jesus trusts that the guy will live into his new identity - his original identity rooted in the divine - and that's the thing that will transform his community. Hmm, maybe we could do that too.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 8:26-39http://bible.com/events/48978623
We were created in the image of God, in other words, we are icons representing God. When Jesus preached in the temple, he read from the passage that declares good news for the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind. This reading of a proclamation of freedom and healing is one made by a king, and it was significant to the people listening, who would have understood this. Jesus shook up the status quo by declaring freedom was for those who were marginalized. So how are we doing the same?Speaker: Tony VisScripture: Colossians 1:15-20; Colossians 3:18-25; Luke 4:16-21http://bible.com/events/48975186
Parable of the widow and the judge. Luke tells us that this is a story about praying and never giving up.Pray always and never give up. But sometimes we don't want to pray - all we get is silence from God. Jesus' story says "keep praying, even when you get silence or inaction from God in return." Jesus teaches us this because it's something we need to be taught! Otherwise we would quit praying.There are a bunch of Psalms about poets praying into the silence, saying things like "How long, O LORD?" "Why?" "Wake up from your slumber!"That's the tradition that gets handed down to us. We have permission to pray - to bear our souls. We have permission to question God - especially when all we get in return is silence. We keep praying because we've been taught to keep praying. We keep praying because we've learned what God is like: patient, kind, loving, full of grace. God is everything the judge in the story is NOT.Pray always - not just when it's religiously appropriate - pray whenever we're moved by anything in this world.Most of all - God wants us to always pray because God wants us to be with God - wants us to open our eyes and our hearts to God - wants to be in relationship with us.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 18:1-8http://bible.com/events/48971537
This is the parable of the two lost sons. A very familiar story, one that we talk about all the time in church. Typically it's called The Parable of the Lost Son, or something similar.We all know the feeling of something being lost. But this parable gives us a different perspective on that concept. The two sons are lost - but not misplaced - only hiding. The first son literally runs away - we live in a world that runs away from the divine.The second son is still home, but he's lost. Lost inside his resentment.But in this story, lost isn't really lost at all. "No one's ever really gone," in the words of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. We can lose things, misplace things, but Jesus' story teaches us that God doesn't have that freedom. To God, when someone is lost it doesn't mean that God doesn't have the ability to find them. When someone is lost it simply means they're cut off from the kind of relationship God desires to have with them. But in this story, the father comes to find them - both of them. Remember how far God has come to find you.Speaker: Aaron VisScripture: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32https://events.bible.com/en/event/edit/48968109
Passionate faith - what does it look like?
1) Passionate Faith is an absolute trust in the God who loves and protects us in spite of our imperfections. 2) Passionate Faith is a sacrificial faith. 3) Passionate Faith is a forgiving faith. The forgiveness in this case is more than just "I forgive you." Stephen is actually wishing well those who are killing him. He's essentially asking that God would bless them.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 7:51-60 http://bible.com/events/48963097
It's all about love. Jesus says that as the Father has loved him, so also has he loved us. Remain in his love. If we're going to remain in Jesus' love we ought to know what his love looks like. When you boil it down, his love brought him nothing but trouble - danger everywhere, the sick pulling on him, crowds pressing in on him, across every social barrier - and eventually it took him to the cross.
If we remain in the love of Jesus we may find ourselves serving in places we might not want to be while the world laughs at us. Do we really want to remain in the love of Jesus?
When we do - Jesus calls us friends. The one who walks beside us - serving with us. And we bear fruit. Our love turns into action, turns into sacrifice. Abiding in the love of Jesus bears fruit, brings joy, and transforms the world.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 15:9-17 http://bible.com/events/48960106
Jesus heals a woman in the middle of a worship service in the synagogue. God is large, unmanageable, and full of surprises.
Then, something curious happens. The leader of the synagogue gets upset because you're not supposed to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus works on the Sabbath. He breaks the law and traditions. Something he does with regularity. Jesus rebukes the guy revealing that the leader of the synagogue is just as bent over on the inside as the woman was on the outside. In the name of God's law the leader of the synagogue missed an occasion of God's love. God's love is what the law was meant to point to - and when it's used to push out or hurt it's a misuse of the law.
Let's become a community, not of laws and traditions, but of love - the kind of love revealed in Jesus.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 13:10-17 http://bible.com/events/48957006
The goodness in us isn't a light we emit all on our own - it's a derived light. We are light in the Lord.
Light is seen. The writer of Ephesians is writing to a small church much like that churches we encountered in Revelation - and in fact is one of those churches. You might think that the encouragement would be to lay low so as not to draw attention to themselves. Nope - they are called light. Faith isn't a private matter. Light shines. Sometimes it's a small light, like a candle - holding someone's hand in a time of need. Sometimes it burns like a bonfire - like standing up for those who are oppressed and marginalized. But light always shines.
Light exposes. The closer we follow Jesus the more light we derive from him - and that exposes all in our lives that doesn't belong there.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 5:8-14 http://bible.com/events/48953385
This week, Tony comes to us with a challenge to ask questions, to boldly approach the idea of uncertainty with the ability to acknowledge that we may not have answers right away, or ever.
Speaker: Tony Vis
Raising of Lazarus: what a story.
Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
What the heck does that mean? Lazarus is still dead. What's going on here? Perhaps Jesus said those things and then John recorded them for us so that we would open up the way we think - to conceive of the world differently - to understand that things aren't always as they seem, not as long as Jesus is around.
We don't do this often enough. We like to keep our thinking closed. If we open up our thinking it can also open us up to being wrong - it means we're open to risk and failure. New ways of thinking aren't always bet with enthusiasm and acceptance.
But this isn't just an opportunity to open up our thinking. It's also an invitation to change the way we live. We can live a new and different life now. Once Lazarus walked out of the tomb, he had a choice as to how he was going to live.
So. If you were to die and then be given a Lazarus opportunity, how would you live? What kinds of things would you do? What would your priorities be?
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 11:1-44 http://bible.com/events/48941403
God is planning a wedding! The Lamb will marry his followers! Yeah, sounds weird. It's a freaking metaphor. Marriage is about union. So this metaphor is about a union of Jesus and his followers. And it's about a union between heaven and earth.
This is a vision of God finally putting things back together again. It ends in a garden city and you know what other story is set in a garden? The very first story in the Bible, the Garden of Eden. Okay, great. That happens one day, what do we do in the meantime? This whole book by John has been one great invitation to live like the Lamb - love, grace, healing, forgiveness. Work towards helping this place become more like heaven. What we do now matters.
Over the centuries, the church has been at the forefront of a lot of good work to make this place more like heaven. Social programs, free healthcare, shelter for marginalized folks, efforts to enact better protections for minors and other vulnerable people. Let's go back to that work as our focus. The church can and should be involved in that work, with all hands on deck.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 19:1-21; 20:1-15; 21:1-27; 22:1-21 https://www.bible.com/events/48938699
So...judgment is coming! Armageddon, bowls of wrath, and the great prostitute - woo hoo!
What will judgment look like? John seems to be saying two things. First, God is going to take away everything gained by the ways of the empire - gained by taking advantage of people and creation. What happens when your stuff gets taken away? Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Second, John seems to be saying that God will eventually contain evil and those who love evil in a place outside the new heaven and new earth. We just don't know when and John doesn't tell us when. There are no secret codes telling us when it's going to happen.
So, what do we do in the meantime? We look for signs of empire in our own lives. We name them. And turn around. What are the signs of the empire? Too many for us to talk about, so we'll take a few. Pride. Greed. Lies. Deception. Violence. Etc.
Lastly, do we want judgment? Sounds like it sucks. But we do. We long for it. We want justice. We cry out for things to be made right. God's not going to destroy the whole thing and start over - God is going to renew and renovate.
God isn't done with us yet.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 15:1-8; 16:1-21; 17:1-18; 18:1-24 http://bible.com/events/48935117
Every healthy relationship simultaneously develops more connectedness and more independence. Parent - Child. Friend - Friend. Spouse - Spouse. Jesus - Peter. The story of Peter being told in a vision to take and eat what had previously been labeled as unclean for the people in his culture is a story of removing barriers that previously were in place to keep order. It isn't that Peter had been doing the wrong thing by not eating the unclean food, it was just that Jesus was offering an expanded way of looking at the world.
The people we have previously chosen to leave out of our numbers, the ideas we have looked at as black and white rather than grey, these are being presented to us every day as opportunities to learn and stretch ourselves and accept a wider, more inclusive reality. Will we take and eat? Will we be like Cornelius?
Speaker: Gary Hanson Scripture: Acts 10:9-23 http://bible.com/events/48931396
So at the time this books was being written, the churches in Asia Minor would have been witnessing a great deal of suffering and oppression, both around them and within their communities. They would have looked around at the world and thought, "What is going on in the world?" We ask that same question today, as we witness the constant violence and oppression and brokenness everywhere.
John's response is to tell a story revealing that there's more going on in the world than meets the eye. And through this story, he's saying that evil powers are at work in the world and that those spiritual powers manifest themselves in the physical. Paul speaks to this in Ephesians, saying, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood," etc.
Now this next part in chapter 13 is where things get pretty wild (well, more wild than they already were, right?). There's a dragon, and there are two beasts, which are a rather crude imitation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The dragon promises (like God promises), peace, security, health, happiness, etc. But the way of the dragon is the way of violence. The way of the Lamb is love and grace. This theme is brought up in different ways with different metaphors time and time and time again in this little book.
Follow the ways of the dragon - or, follow the ways of the lamb. This is hard. Sometimes it's black and white. But, sometimes it's gray. And when it's gray, we lean toward grace - we lean toward self-sacrifice - we carry ourselves in a posture of listening and learning.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 12:1-17; 14:1-5 http://bible.com/events/48927297
Chapter 8 of Revelation - the 7th seal is broken. We expect the world to be put back together again. Not yet. Instead, we get silence in heaven. We live in a noisy world - but is anyone truly listening?
Think about what it's like when you're listened to. You get a sense that your life matters. You get a sense of dignity. When we pray, heaven is silent and God listens. This world matters to God.
Then we get more destruction. God is judging evil by exposing it. But it feels like it takes forever for anything to be changed for the better. Why is it taking so long? Because God is tempering judgment with grace. It's just like God to throw in some grace. God is more patient than we are. God is giving the world a chance to repent. God is giving the world a warning sign. "Look, this is where you're headed. Turn around."
If we don't know how we need to repent - stop and pray. Because when we pray, all of heaven stops and God listens.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 8:1-13; 9:1-21 http://bible.com/events/48924602
When you experience knee pain and you go to the doctor, what do they do? They diagnose the problem and find a solution that will help ease the pain. They try to get to the bottom of what's really wrong so you can heal.
That's essentially what we have going on here in chapter 6. We expect God's plan to be enacted - we expect the world to be put back together. Nope. We get violence. All the evil around us has to be exposed. God is getting to the bottom of what's really wrong so that the world can be put back together. And God is waaaaaaayyyyy more patient than we are. So patient, that it's easy for us to give in to a kind of fatalism. Welp, I guess evil is going to win after all cuz the world has gone crazy and out of control.
Then we get chapter 7. Yeah, the world is still going crazy, but it's not out of control. God is still on the throne watching over the faithful while the world goes crazy.
But, they only see this vision while they're gathered around the throne in worship. Is this whole book about worship? Uh, yeah. It is. It's in worship that we get the divine perspective.
It's also significant that there's a great multitude there. We can not forget about the power of gathering with people who believe the same things about God that we do. A community, when bound together with a common purpose, can transform and improve lives within and outside of it.
But when we leave this place on Sunday morning, we take our worship with us. The Benediction isn't an ending - it's a sending. This bears repeating, a lot. A mystic man of faith named Brother Lawrence writes about the phrase, "Coram Deo" - "before the face of God." All the little things we do, we do them Coram Deo. We practice the presence of God. This helps us sustain our faith, enliven our hope, and expand our love and helps us live in the ways of the Lamb.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 6:1-17; 7:1-17 http://bible.com/events/48921208
This is a continuation of the invitation to worship. John sees that the one on the throne has a scroll that is sealed. This is like an architect with the plans for a great building. Only the one who can enact the plans can open the scroll. John weeps because there is no one worthy to open the scroll. Israel couldn't do it and neither can any of us. So, apparently God's plan to renew the world and set things right will not be enacted.
But then the angel says, "Hold up - the Lion is here - he'll open the scroll!" So, John HEARS that the Lion can open the scroll. But when he looks up, what does he SEE? A little slaughtered Lamb. So God's victory won't come through the lion-like strength, violence, and brute force. No, God will still have a lion-like victory and transform the world, but it will come through self-giving, self-sacrificing love. It's the only way the world gets transformed.
When we worship THIS God - the little Lamb - we are transformed. We are purchased by God and become a kingdom of priests. What do priests do? Connect people to the Divine. We are now a conduit of God's self-giving, self-sacrificing love that transforms the world.
But when we walk out the doors, we're under constant pressure to have a different identity.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 5:1-14 http://bible.com/events/48917740
Worship is something larger than we expect. When we worship together we're joining in on a reality that is already taking place: all of creation is giving honor and glory to God, is already worshiping. When we meditate on creation we eventually get to the awe inducing question, "Who did this?"
Worship gives us a center. There's a lot of talk about the throne - an occupied throne. The throne is in the center and everything else is around the throne of God. God wants us to recognize that God is the center of our lives - a reality that just is. When something goes wrong, we can remain calm because we know that God is in the center, with us. When someone wrongs us, we can respond with patience, love, grace, and forgiveness because that's who God is. When we see something wrong in the world, we can respond with self-sacrificing love because that's who God is, etc.
So, this winds up being an invitation to worship - an invitation to surrender to God who is on the throne. We'll pick up this theme next week, too.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 4:1-11 http://bible.com/events/48914262
This is the famous hot, cold, lukewarm letter. Often this is portrayed as hot being good, cold and lukewarm being bad. You're either on or you're off, there's no in between. But what if it's something different?
Let's talk about the place: Laodicea. They had no water source of their own. They got their water from two different places. One city nearby had a hot spring. One had a cold spring. So, once they pumped the water in it was lukewarm. Jesus is saying, be hot, or be cold. This is another invitation to have an impact in the world. Hot water had healing properties. Cold water brings comfort and joy. This is an invitation to bring healing (hot water). And it's an invitation to bring comfort and joy (cold water).
Jesus talks about our tendency to be self-sufficient and self-reliant. He gives us the invitation to connect with him - "I stand at the door and knock." The presence of the divine is what finally brings a sense of fulfillment.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22 http://bible.com/events/48910699
Philadelphia. There's some really cool stuff here about the city being a gateway or a doorway to the east. Jesus is essentially saying, "I've opened a door for you. Will you walk through it?" He's inviting the church to partner with God in making the world like God's kingdom - love, grace, healing, etc.
We're taught to open doors for ourselves, to make things happen, to create our own destiny, to work hard and move up the ladder. We're always looking for doors to open...how often do we miss the doors that Jesus has already opened for us? Jesus opens doors, but also recognizes that it's hard to walk through them. It's risky. We might fail or be rejected. But Jesus says he'll be with us and believes in us.
Some say our faith is like an epidural...takes the pain away. God is more like a midwife who encourages us along the way to new life. Some say our faith is like a crutch to make us feel better. Faith is not about a crutch, it's about a cross. On the other side of pain and self-sacrifice, there's resurrection...there's new life.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 3:7-13 http://bible.com/events/48907245
Pentecost: the Spirit was present in the midst of Jesus' followers, and they preached, prayed, and served together. We think of the Spirit coming down to be in the midst of the people, but what more can be applied to our current existence from this story?
The Kingdom of God is here, now, and the Spirit is among us as we go through every day. So what will we do in this Kingdom? Well, hopefully we are speaking in love, seeking justice for the oppressed, finding healing and welcome for those who are broken and marginalized. That is what heaven looks like, what the Kingdom looks like for us every day: self-giving service and persistent work to make peace in the world.
How will we make the Kingdom abundantly clear in our daily lives?
Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Acts 1:4-8; 2:1-18; 2:42-47 http://bible.com/events/48903835
Sardis was an unconquerable city that got complacent and was conquered on two different occasions. Among the people of the church community of Sardis, there were those who were around the worship practices of the followers of Cybele, the mother goddess. The goddess of procreation and productivity. Part of their worship involved cultic rituals, with people wearing robes in the temple and cutting themselves. Their robes would get soiled with blood and dirt, making them unclean.
So Jesus says, "Wake up! You've fallen asleep! You're not paying attention!" calling attention to the practices that made people unclean. But Jesus goes on, "There are some of you with white robes - robes that are not soiled."
Imagine living in Sardis and Jesus gives you this message. You're about to give up on this whole Jesus thing when you hear that there are those who have remained faithful. In other words, we need each other. This is the place where we bring all our struggles and questions and doubts and failures, because this is the place where we're surrounded by people who are with us, cheering us on, and holding us together.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6 http://bible.com/events/48896799
To start this one, here's a little context on the community in Thyatira. It was a blue-collar manufacturing city. Lots of trades and trade associations. These associations were tied to the worship and temple practices of other religions. If you wanted a license for your business you would have to join one of these trade associations. That would have been difficult for these early Jesus followers.
Apparently there was a woman - or group of people - who knew the answer. Jesus refers to this woman or group of people as Jezebel. I'll get into the OT story of who Jezebel was and how she got the Israelites to worship both the LORD and Baal. Essentially - we think - these people were teaching that you could be a Jesus follower and also participate in these temple practices and the worship of other gods. Sort of like the Nicolatians. So, there was this idea of a spirit of compromise.
This tends to do 2 things to us. We compartmentalize our lives. We're one person when we're around religious people and someone else at home and someone else at work and so on. Jesus is the one with feet like burnished bronze - Jesus is at the center of our lives. It also leads us to simply make decisions based on what we want instead of what we value the most.
Jesus is the one with eyes that blaze like fire seeing through all of our compromises. He's constantly inviting us to make this world what God wants it to be - full of grace and truth and beauty and creativity and generosity.
Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 2:18-29 http://bible.com/events/48893274
This letter spends a lot of time in the context of the different religious temples and gods and goddesses, and certain practices that some folks in the community participated in. The Nicolations were a group within this church who chose to view other religions' practices as fine to incorporate into their daily life. Essentially a blending of other religious practices from their surrounding community and previous contexts, within their daily life as Jesus people. So the letter written to this church is essentially saying, "See how some folks are choosing to blur some of the lines and practice some kinda sketchy things alongside following Jesus? Well, don't do that. Here's what you should do instead."
If you really think about it, we aren't that different in the world today! We choose to ignore certain standards, allow violence to be enacted against our enemies via physical harm or gossip or slander, look past neglected and marginalized communities in need of justice. Our inaction and complacent acceptance of such wrongs is what it looks like to devote our attention to other gods.
So how do we remain faithful? How do we overcome? Well, maybe we dwell on the sword that comes out of Jesus' mouth; we dwell on the truth. Whatever is true, noble, right, and so on, think on such things, as it talks about in Philippians. What we fill our minds with impacts how we live.
But maybe it's even more than that. Jesus says, "To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna." Maybe it's not enough to just avoid things that harm us. Maybe we're meant to overcome. Maybe Jesus is calling us to find things that are wrong in the world and work with him to set them right. And maybe it's only when we step into that work - the work of justice - that God gives us hidden manna...gives us exactly what we need to endure.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 2:12-17 http://bible.com/events/48889715
Letter to Smyrna. Oh boy, here's a real pick-me-up. A summary of the letter: words from Jesus to a real church. "Hey, I know your afflictions and your poverty. I know things aren't going the way you would like them to go. I know it feels as though you've lost control, like you've lost everything - yet, you are rich! I know you're being marginalized. It's gonna get worse before it gets better...if it gets better. So hang in there and be as faithful as you can for as long as you live."
Yikes.
This letter shows that Jesus followers suffer, too, sometimes greatly. But the words in this letter acknowledge that suffering. They also make it clear that it's okay to question God. In fact, questioning God is a deep, profound expression of faith because, in spite of what's happening all around us, we refuse to believe that God has abandoned us.
Jesus also acknowledges the people's profound poverty. But also says, "Yet you are rich!" So which is it?
Well, whether we are rich or poor or somewhere in between, we all have the same access to God's love, joy, power, and light as anyone else. We all have that light...and that light can give off warmth, and energy, and brightness. Are we living into it?
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 2:8-11 http://bible.com/events/48886060
Sometimes we like to think of Jesus people as the "hands and feet of Jesus." Or, we think of Jesus people as the presence of Jesus in a lost and broken world so loved by God. Those are good ideas. Scriptural ideas. But they can also be dangerous if that's the only way we think of Jesus. What happens when something goes wrong? What happens when people abuse power? What happens when Jesus people cozy up to power and make all kinds of compromises to integrity? Well, people look at that and say, "I want to have nothing to do with Jesus if that's what Jesus is all about!"
In Revelation, the first seven churches were called "lampstands," a beacon of light in their place. It's important for us to remember that Jesus is also outside, above, and yet among the lampstands - the churches. He speaks words of encouragement and healing. But sometimes warnings and corrections.
The beginning of the Church was based on enthusiastic small gatherings of people who wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus, whom many of them had followed while he was on Earth. The formation of that version of the Church was spontaneous...courageous...sacrificial...chaotic. It seems that, a generation later, this thing that started off as chaotic has become a thing. It's organized now. Now there are people coming in and focusing on right doctrine, right belief, having the right people in the house and in leadership. Jesus essentially says, "Those are good things, but you've forsaken your first love."
Perhaps this is what happens when churches become too internally focused and forget that they are a lampstand, bringing God's light and love and healing and forgiveness to the world. If we as Jesus people neglect to welcome and care for those who are abused, forgotten, pushed aside, and unwanted by the rest of the world, we are failing to live out the calling that Jesus put before us.
And specifically within religious spaces, when we fail to include and protect and welcome...we must face that reckoning and do things differently. We are called to do so much more merely than repeat the words of Jesus.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7 http://bible.com/events/48882226
Easter is filled with hope and excitement and love.
That's how Holy Week started for the disciples. After three years of walking the streets with Jesus and spending so many hours listening to him teach and heal and proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and that it would be here, they watched him ride into Jerusalem on a donkey with the crowd shouting "hosanna!"
But it only took a few days for everything to turn towards darkness, as the crowds swayed in favor of executing the man whom they had previously been celebrating. This man had spoken about breaking down empire, but also about replacing it with peace. Calling to eliminate abusive power structures brought Jesus to trial as he was betrayed by Judas, set before those in authority, and condemned to die for his call to love the least of these.
Jesus was executed for his call for liberation of the oppressed, and his disciples grieved his death, their loss of a friend. In the same way, we weep when we see the brokenness still in the world. War, famine, cruelty, oppression, abuse of the marginalized and exclusion of those who are not able-bodied or white or male, the rich standing by while the poor and the sick and the hungry suffer.
But now the world is different. Because a resurrection happened. An event so absurd that it is explained away every day, applying arguments against a miracle when the very miracle of life and an earth that supports that life are right in front of us. We are allowed to look at all of this and say, "that's absurd!" A resurrection? Absurd. Yet we believe in that miracle, in the reincarnation.
If it really happened, if Christ really did literally rise from the dead after three days in the grave, then God really does care about the real, the tangible, and God really is putting things back together again.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 20:1-18 http://bible.com/events/48878804
We celebrate Palm Sunday as the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people celebrate because they see Him as their soon-to-be triumphant conqueror of the empire they were living under. There are many groups of people who would have had different perspectives of this event, depending on their age and status in that society, but the overall mood portrayed is celebration.
Because we know the full story of Holy Week, it's easy to quickly push through Palm Sunday to get to the next week, the grand finale of the season, so to speak. But if you immerse yourself in this story, and pause at every chapter, there is much to observe and process. We may need to put ourselves in someone else's perspective in order to travel through each chapter with thoughtfulness.
To view this week through the eyes of a child is to experience it with awe, then grief, then great joy. An anticipated king arriving in the city, received by a parade of hopeful people, that king's betrayal by one of his own closest friends to briefly benefit financially, the trial and execution of the king because of his words of hope and justice for the people under the thumb of empire, and then the final plot twist, when the king reappears after rising from the grave. One can only view this story with wonder, grief, and then joy if perceiving it as a child would. The weight of understanding more than you may be expected to, but not grasping the fullness of the context at first.
Don't skip straight to Easter. For Good Friday is soon upon us. Slow down, take in every chapter.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Matthew 21:1-17 https://my.bible.com/events/48874823
Paul speaks to a group in Athens, at a place called Mars Hill, and describes God in a way that intrigues the people. He uses apophatic theology, which examines what God is NOT, rather than describing what God IS. By highlighting what and who God is not, Paul further illuminates what and who God is.
God cannot be contained in a building or an community. We can encounter God in spaces that are outside church walls, outside any construct of humanity. We are just as likely to find God in a moment on the street or out in a field as we are while sitting in a sanctuary.
God is not served by human hands as if God needs anything from us. We have found ourselves so consistently in the mindset that God needs us to accomplish things in the world, but the reality is that God is completely capable of doing all of it without us. However, God WANTS us involved, and so calls us to be active in doing God's work in the world. We were created for the purpose of modeling God in our actions and words.
God is not formed by human beings; we did not make God in our image, God made us in God's image. We see through Jesus' example that God is a God of justice, love, grace, inclusion, and forgiveness. So when we seek to be like God in our daily lives, are we seeking to model justice, love, grace, inclusion, and forgiveness?
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 17:16-34 http://bible.com/events/48871029
At the core of its theme and purpose, Lent is a journey towards the cross, or a journey of preparation. A key element of preparation is discipline. Knowing this, Lent is a journey into discipline, as we proceed forward through 40 days of preparing for the cross.
There are so many spiritual practices that we can engage in; thinking specifically of the season of Lent, we can point our attention to these disciplines as we reflect and prepare for a time of recognizing Christ's sacrifice. Jesus uses phrases like "When you pray," and "When you give to the poor," showing us the assumption is that we will already be regularly engaging in spiritual disciplines. As we reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus, we sacrifice in much smaller ways, actively seeking to be more compassionate, loving, merciful, and generous.
But this isn't just about practicing these actions and habits so that people will recognize our sacrifice. After all, Jesus calls out performative service and actions as hypocritical. We aren't supposed to be serving and reflecting to be noticed. So Lent is also a journey of authenticity; as we give our own resources, time, and energy to practices that better the world and ourselves, we are giving God our hearts. And in giving, we are transformed.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 6:1-6; 16-21 http://bible.com/events/48867218
In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the social barriers preventing the tax collector from approaching the presence of God in the temple didn't deter him from recognizing what he had done wrong and coming before God in humility. While the Pharisee was taking every step to do things just the right way and go above and beyond to have his actions be visible, the tax collector was just asking to be shown mercy.
In a time when we continue to seek to break down oppressive systems that were built to keep marginalized people on the outside, looking at this story shows us how expansive God's love is. The God who would show a corrupt but repentant tax collector mercy and grace is the same God who tells us to open our doors wide and embrace every person we encounter.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Luke 18:9-14 http://bible.com/events/48863547
The story that is traditionally labeled "The Prodigal Son" is mislabeled; a more accurate name would be "The Ridiculously Compassionate Father." Both sons in this story are the actual worst, from their deep disrespect and disregard for their father, to their continued bad attitudes and unrepentant spirits. But their father continues to extend love and acceptance, to the point of embarrassing himself in front of his entire community in order to extend grace and welcome his sons into his space.
God's love and grace and acceptance are so expansive that She is almost an embarrassment, totally inappropriate, and ridiculous. How then shall we live if we are to imitate a God like that? Accepting all people, no matter what, sounds like a good place to start.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Jason Stark Scripture: Luke 15:11-32 http://bible.com/events/48859914
We've built our lives around the avoidance of suffering.
When Jesus told the disciples that he would face betrayal and death, they were incredulous. But Jesus pointed out to them, "you're thinking of human things instead of divine things." Jesus said if people wanted to follow him, they would have to voluntarily suffer for the benefit of the world.
We know that suffering can bring great things. We can see Jesus' example of suffering for the sake of justice and restoration in the world. So what do we do with that knowledge? We seek to model Jesus' willingness to suffer and give himself away.
A practical application of suffering is fasting; we understand the purpose and the results, and we know it is an act of giving part of ourselves up. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that can teach us to sacrifice comfort and time temporarily with long term results bringing personal growth and insight.
So knowing that...what kind of Jesus followers do we want to be? Do we want to be those who avoid temporary suffering, or do we want to be those who give ourselves away?
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 8:27-38 http://bible.com/events/48856169
So let's recap real quick: Jonah took the message from God to the Ninevites, but delivered it halfheartedly. To his surprise, the entire city repented and changed their ways. This made Jonah angry; he believed that Ninevah did not deserve to be redeemed.
That leads us to the end of the story, or rather, the open-ended question: what did Jonah do next? The Ninevites didn't matter to Jonah. He would have preferred that they be wiped off the face of the earth. And we understand that vengeful spirit...there are people in the world whom we would rather never associate with, ever.
But what if Jonah also just pictured a God of anger and vengeance, and couldn't imagine a God of compassion and mercy? What if everyone matters to God, even the ones we would rather be excluded? What if the marginalized and the oppressed and the left behind ones are the same ones who matter in God's eyes? Well, we're shown a living example of this, in a Galilean man who walked around showing this radical love that disturbed the status quo. And Jesus showed that radical love by sacrificing everything to embrace the whole world.
Now go and do likewise.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11 http://bible.com/events/48852258
Sometimes we hear the voice of God for a while and then it fades out of our awareness. But when we keep seeking that voice, when we stop and pray and reconnect with the Divine, that voice will return. And more than likely, the voice will tell us to "Go!" After all, the Divine is a God of action. This book of Jonah is a story about a God who does the unexpected, about a God who can't be measured, about a God who is full of immeasurable grace, unexpected mercy, and impossible outcomes. So what is your "no way, not happening" thing? What is next? Jonah didn't stay on the beach, saved, just sitting there, he went to Ninevah. None of us can stay on the beach, saved, just sitting here. God is up to something and God wants us involved.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10 http://bible.com/events/48848485
God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah whole and keep him at the bottom of the sea for three days. The choice to use the word "great" to describe the fish is interesting because it is also associated with God so regularly. The great God commissions a great fish to help carry out God's great work in Jonah. The word associated with Jonah, however, is "down." When he is down at the bottom of the sea, down in the belly of the fish, Jonah is at his lowest point. And what does he do? He prays words from the psalms. Before this, he ignored God consistently. But when he is at his lowest point, when he is down at the bottom, Jonah prays. When we are at our lowest point and we cry out to God, God is already present and reveals God's self to us. Like Jonah's prayers are energized by the word of God, so ours can also be.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10 https://my.bible.com/events/48844746
God calls Jonah and tells him to "Go to Nineveh." Nineveh is the last place on earth an Israelite prophet would want to go. Jonah runs in the opposite direction; he hires a ship to take him to Tarshish. Jonah's chasing after a fresh start, perhaps to build a new life and make some money. He probably spent all he had on that ship to Tarshish. He now wants wealth so that he can control his own future and create his own destiny. We like to think that these stories are ultimately about us. And they are. But they're primarily stories about God. This story isn't just about Nineveh. It's about Tarshish, too. God reveals himself in Tarshish. God's love and presence is more expansive than we ever thought possible. Even when we screw things up, God shows up and offers grace. Head for Nineveh and you can bet that God will meet you there.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jonah 1:1-17 https://my.bible.com/events/48841000
We live in a world obsessed with the outside, with how things look. Jesus makes the point that we can look really good on the outside but be a train wreck on the inside. He redefines righteousness and redefines holiness, teaching us that faith isn't just about what we do, it's about who we are on the inside; in other words, our motivation for how we act. Some traditions lead us to picture God as an angry god; when we imagine God like this, we become obsessed with the outside. We care primarily about what people do and with whom they spend time. We demand obedience (moral conformity) from everyone else and when we don't get it, we become angry and vengeful. We essentially become like the angry god we imagine. If we worship and serve the God that Jesus reveals - loving, merciful, gracious - we are slowly transformed into the image of that God instead.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 7:1-23 https://my.bible.com/events/48837151
We all have this innate ability to look at the world and see when things just aren't right. We look at our own lives, in our own hearts and souls, and recognize the same thing. But that doesn't mean we are without hope. We come from a tradition that believes God is alive and active in the world putting things back together. AND God has invited us in on the project. The question is: how? What's God's strategy? One word: love. Love God. Love people. Love people on the inside, love people on the outside, love even your enemies.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40 https://www.bible.com/events/48833448
A foreigner approaches Jesus with honesty and humility, and in faith, she asks Jesus for healing. In a world where we are expected to hide weakness, we can approach God with vulnerability. God's grace, God's healing presence is open and available to anyone. When we come to the divine honestly and with humility and with faith, it opens us up to grace and healing.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 7:24-30 https://www.bible.com/events/48829815
Beginnings come with new questions, questions we may not have the answers to; in other words, beginnings come with a little chaos. The scriptures never call the chaos bad - or evil. The Spirit is hovering over the chaos. It's into the chaos that God speaks. God invites creation to create right alongside of God. We're all invited to create something beautiful - something good with God.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3 https://www.bible.com/events/48826235
This may not be the Christmas story we want, but it's the one that we get. And it might be the story we need. If God isn't willing to come to Bethlehem, then it's not going to do us much good. If God is going to save us, then God's gonna have to come down here to where we are, because we can never get there on our own.
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23 https://www.bible.com/events/48822483
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 2:1-20 http://bible.com/events/48815669
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Philippians 1:3-11 http://bible.com/events/48812586
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Colossians 1:3-20 http://bible.com/events/48808974
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Romans 13:8-14 http://bible.com/events/48805209
ReNew Community Worship Service Speakers: Aaron Vis, Andrea Gronau, Lynn Owens-Hill https://my.bible.com/events/48801560 https://www.thebridgehome.org/
(Some rough audio around 8:50)
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 12:13-21 http://bible.com/events/48797008
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-18 https://my.bible.com/events/48794166
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Kings 18:1-2; 17-46 http://bible.com/events/48790691
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-16 http://bible.com/events/48786994
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 14:25-35 http://bible.com/events/48783262
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 16:1-9 http://bible.com/events/48779489
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 6:56-69 http://bible.com/events/48775665
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 6:35; 41-56 http://bible.com/events/48771698
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 6:25-35; 51 http://bible.com/events/48767806
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 6:1-15 http://bible.com/events/48763988
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 14:1-14 http://bible.com/events/48756158
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20 http://bible.com/events/48752461
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Exodus 14:5-31 http://bible.com/events/48748804
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 2:13-22 http://bible.com/events/48745102
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Sara Gregory Scripture: Luke 19:1-10 http://bible.com/events/48741455
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: John Sorrell Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:5-10 http://bible.com/events/48737807
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 6:5-15 http://bible.com/events/48734098
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 4:14-21 http://bible.com/events/48730428
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Galatians 5:1-26 http://bible.com/events/48726678
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 6:5-15; Isaiah 6:1-8 http://bible.com/events/48723064
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Marlin Vis Scripture: Acts 10 http://bible.com/events/48719234
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 6:5-15 http://bible.com/events/48715376
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 32:1-11 http://bible.com/events/48711415
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 2:14-41 http://bible.com/events/48707498
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 14:15-21; Acts 2:1-13 http://bible.com/events/48703521
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 29:1-11 http://bible.com/events/48699608
poor audio until 4:16 ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: John Sorrell Scripture: Luke 15:11-32 http://bible.com/events/48695717
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 15:1-17 http://bible.com/events/48691815
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 23:1-6 http://bible.com/events/48687922
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 24:36-49 http://bible.com/events/48683811
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 4:32-37 http://bible.com/events/48678833
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 16:1-8 http://bible.com/events/48673566
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 11:1-11 http://bible.com/events/48644339
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 12:20-33 http://bible.com/events/48608282
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 10:46-52 http://bible.com/events/48584256
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 10:32-45 http://bible.com/events/48560947
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 10:17-31 http://bible.com/events/48540104
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 9:30-41 http://bible.com/events/48536067
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 9:2-13 http://bible.com/events/48532122
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 14:13-21 http://bible.com/events/48528168
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 2:1-12 http://bible.com/events/48520429
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 1:21-28 http://bible.com/events/48481422
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 1:14-20 http://bible.com/events/48412303
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 5:21-43 http://bible.com/events/48348263
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 3:1-6 http://bible.com/events/48214206
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 http://bible.com/events/48087083
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 1:39-56 http://bible.com/events/48066718
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 1:26-38 http://bible.com/events/47977976
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jeremiah 33:10-18 http://bible.com/events/47874699
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 12:35-40 http://bible.com/events/47816408
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 9:14-29 http://bible.com/events/47621985
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 11:1-13 http://bible.com/events/47342625
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30 http://bible.com/events/46861270
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11 http://bible.com/events/46519584
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8 http://bible.com/events/46054829
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 22:1-19 http://bible.com/events/45246429
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 21:8-21 http://bible.com/events/44328707
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 18:1-15 http://bible.com/events/43472592
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9; Matthew 9:9-13 http://bible.com/events/41813364
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 12:1-3 http://bible.com/events/40886625
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Exodus 16:1-15 http://bible.com/events/40265347
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 18:15-20 http://bible.com/events/39042097
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 16:13-28 http://bible.com/events/38435955
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jeremiah 1:1-10 http://bible.com/events/34983400
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33 http://bible.com/events/29430618
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Mark 8:27-38 http://bible.com/events/23058454
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23 http://bible.com/events/24370470
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Luke 15:25-37 http://bible.com/events/28461329
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 32:22+32 http://bible.com/events/26911472
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 28:10-22 http://bible.com/events/25648474
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Romans 6:1-11 http://bible.com/events/20216663
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 9:35-38; 10:1-23 http://bible.com/events/19055411
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 13:1-6 https://my.bible.com/events/21973774
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Luke 7:-10 http://bible.com/events/17370604
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 2:1-21 http://bible.com/events/16302912
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 1:1-14 http://bible.com/events/15601050
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 5:1-9a http://bible.com/events/14176932
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 14:1-14 http://bible.com/events/12198420
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 2:42-47 http://bible.com/events/11425441
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 24:13-35 http://bible.com/events/7208547
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 20:19-31 http://bible.com/events/7204725
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 20:1-18 http://bible.com/events/7187574
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 11:1-11 http://bible.com/events/7168003
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 3:1-17 http://bible.com/events/7130626
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11 http://bible.com/events/7077386
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 http://bible.com/events/7067879
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 5:13-20 https://www.bible.com/events/7061206
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Matthew 5:11-12; 21-24 http://bible.com/events/7056770
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12 http://bible.com/events/7052328
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 4:12-22 http://bible.com/events/7047840
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 1:29-42 http://bible.com/events/7043474
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 40 http://bible.com/events/7038999
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Galatians 4:4-7; Acts 7:54-60 http://bible.com/events/7017954
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5; Isaiah 11:6-9 http://bible.com/events/6761323
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 10:25-37; Acts 1:8 http://bible.com/events/6708436
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20 http://bible.com/events/6633794
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 17:11-19 http://bible.com/events/6523797
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Romans 12:1-21 http://bible.com/events/5923720
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20; Romans 12:2 http://bible.com/events/5572174
ReNew Community Worship Service November 10, 2019 Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 13:31-35, 44-52
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Mark 12:38-44 http://bible.com/events/4973257
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 15:1-10 http://bible.com/events/3022743
ReNew Community Worship Service Date: October 13, 2019 Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 14:25-35 http://bible.com/events/705750
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Jeremiah 32:1-15 http://bible.com/events/697191
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Mike Van Rees Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17, Isaiah 43:1a,4a http://bible.com/events/693052
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Isaiah 43:14-21 http://bible.com/events/688785
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Dave Schutt Scripture: Luke 11:1-13 & Luke 18:1-8 http://bible.com/events/686536
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 13:1-17 http://bible.com/events/675961
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 13: 6-9 http://bible.com/events/671811
ReNew Community Worship Service August 11, 2019 Speaker: Marlin Vis Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21 http://bible.com/events/667759
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 19:1-10 http://bible.com/events/659950
ReNew Community Worship Service July 14, 2019 Speaker: Julie Wiemann Scripture: Mark 1:16-20 http://bible.com/events/652300
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 10:25-37 http://bible.com/events/648964
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16 http://bible.com/events/644745
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Suzanne Vogel Scripture: Luke 10:38-42 http://bible.com/events/640833
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: I Corinthians 12:1-27 http://bible.com/events/636808
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 2:1-21 http://bible.com/events/632738
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 12:1-7 http://bible.com/events/628659
ReNew Community Worship Service, Memorial Day Speaker: Aaron Vis/ReNew congregation Scripture: https://bible.com/events/626802
What Does This Story Reveal About God? -Wants trust - Plan for us - Cares about us -Calls us won’t leave us -Super Vague - Calls out of comfort zone -Promises and keeps them -God is creative -Playing favorites -God talks -Promises rewards/blessings -Desires relationship -Large vision -Surprising
What Does This Story Reveal About Humanity? Us? -Abraham halfway obeys - Need community -Willing to follow - included - Abraham lead -Follow your gut because it might be God speaking - All are capable -We can follow in faith -We need God to lead - Will keep calling/blessing -Blind faith/listen and be aware -Stop and mark significant spiritual experiences -We look for security and blessing -Blessed to be a blessing
What Is This Story Calling Us To Do? -Go - Listen - Trust - Obey -Serve - Care - Engage -Give - Remember - Testify -Bless - Have faith -Sacrifice - Worship - Leave comfort zone - Help those in need - Unemployed need child care -Change
ReNew Community Worship Service May 19, 2019 Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 14:15-31 http://bible.com/events/620749
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 16:16-40 http://bible.com/events/616765
ReNew Community Worship Service May 5, 2019 Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 16:1-15 http://bible.com/events/612696
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 21:1-19 http://bible.com/events/608324
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 20:1-31 http://bible.com/events/604167
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 19:28-40 http://bible.com/events/599624
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 12:1-11 http://bible.com/events/595415
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-3 http://bible.com/events/591227
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Julie Wiemann Scripture: Acts 1:8 http://bible.com/events/589355
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Jacob Parks Scripture: Exodus 14:1-14 http://bible.com/events/585079
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11 http://bible.com/events/580876
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 3:1-17 http://bible.com/events/576506
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 5:1-11 http://bible.com/events/568124
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 4:14-30 http://bible.com/events/564143
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-24 http://bible.com/events/559675
ReNew Community Worship Service January 27, 2019 Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: 2 Samuel 6:1-15 http://bible.com/events/555407
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-20 http://bible.com/events/547118
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 http://bible.com/events/542886
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Zephaniah 3:14-20 https://www.bible.com/events/531978
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Philippians 1:3-11 http://bible.com/events/528333
ReNew Community Worship Service November 25, 2018 Speaker: Mike Van Rees Scripture: II Kings 14:23-29 http://bible.com/events/520202
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 4:5-32 http://bible.com/events/516689
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16 http://bible.com/events/512794
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21 http://bible.com/events/508906
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 3:1-13 http://bible.com/events/504987
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10 http://bible.com/events/497059
ReNew Community Worship Service September 23, 2018 Speaker: Christa Mooi Scripture: Luke 9:57-62 http://bible.com/events/485199
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Psalm 1:1-16 http://bible.com/events/481196
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16 http://bible.com/events/476810
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 12:13-21 http://bible.com/events/468658
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 2:1-11 http://bible.com/events/464797
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17 http://bible.com/events/460909
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: I Samuel 17:1-58 http://bible.com/events/457169 Hoosier's Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drvid...
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Dave Schutt Scripture: http://bible.com/events/453416
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 13 http://bible.com/events/441881
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14 http://bible.com/events/449879
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 18-21-35 http://bible.com/events/446160
ReNew Community Worship Service Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Galatians 5:1-15 http://bible.com/events/439039