Who was your favorite teacher? For me, it was Mr. O'Connel. He expected excellence and never let up on our writing. Any use of passive voice and he would rip up the essay. In fact, he would be horrified by the loose grammar used in my weekly emails!

Mr. O'Connel always had an answer about grammar but only had questions when it came to literature. His questions created dialogue in such a way that we depended on each other to grasp some of the complexities and beauties of novels. His inquiries literally took my mind to a place I didn't know I hadn't gone before.

What's Jesus' teaching style? Why does it matter? Well, I believe that, when it comes to religion, we too often look to be spoon-fed a simple lesson. We see that all over the Christian faith, but Jesus didn't teach that way. He asked questions, started debates, and spoke in parables. We want him to teach us clear rules like grammar, and he wants us to enter the complex and beautiful world of literature, of his novel about God's kin-dom coming to earth in us.

So, please pray over the Scriptures (Proverbs 4:10-13; John 3:1-18) and ask yourself, "Am I like Nicodemus...interested in this teacher but not totally open to the new life he talks about? Will I let Jesus teach me a new way? And if so, how?"

I have so many thoughts to share with you. But truth be told, as I type, there are literally hundreds of people in our building thanking us for opening the doors for the Women's March! The doors were wide open for the Inauguration as well. And despite the wide divides in people’s politics, all have reminded me of our call to be God’s heart on the Hill - one that fiercely loves like Jesus and welcomes all.

Read the passages for this sermon, and wrestle with what (if any) is the holy intersection between faith and politics?

Would you consider Jesus a “Revolutionary?” Why or Why not? And does such a label bring you comfort or make you radically uncomfortable? Truth be told, our Christian tradition contains a wide range of depictions of Christ: from meek and mild to anything but! As we continue our search for Jesus in our ongoing series, Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?, I ask that you consider what Jesus might protest in our modern era. Who or what would he revolt against? And what "weapons" would he have us use?

Traditionally, a revolutionary is someone who rises up from the marginalized class. While we often forget this lens, truth be told, most of Scripture is written from this perspective. God’s people simply were not always the ones with the power. For example, read again Isaiah 49:1-9, our Old Testament lesson. Note how, although the Israelites were in exile and politically and socially powerless, God promised to empower them to be the light not only to themselves, but to all the nations! So if you are feeling powerless today, come to worship!

On the other hand, Christ is anything but powerless. He has every tool at his divine hand. And yet…according to Philippians 2:1-18, our epistle lesson, Christ refused to use the weapons of this world but rather humbled and emptied himself to be used by the power of God. So if you are feeling empowered and strong, God has a word for you too!

For me, God’s word came this week in an old quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. as he wrote to fellow pastors. He reminded us, “Every minister of the gospel has a mandate to stand up courageously for righteousness, to proclaim the eternal verities of the gospel, and to lead men from the darkness of falsehood and fear to the light of truth and love.” Let us all ponder how we, like Paul in Philippians, may be being called to be a star of light in the world. Or, as I preach in this sermon, “A Revelatory Revolutionary!”

Well, as a kid I loved the books, and I enjoyed "Where's Waldo." Waldo’s outfit was distinct, and one should be able to identify him in the crowd. But often, the pages were filled with so many distractions and “red herrings” (i.e. something also in red and white stripes, etc.) that the task could require time and attention. It wasn’t always obvious.

So let me ask: Is Jesus’ presence obvious in the world around us? Can you quickly discern what is Christ-like and what is not: Are there red-herrings? Do we get confused both about all the places in our life God wants to show up and what God will intends to do there?

Every Year, January 6 ends the 12 Days of Christmas and begins the Season of Epiphany. This is the day in the church calendar where we celebrate the arrival of the Wise Men. In the church, Epiphany is a time of letting God reveal new understandings or deeper truths to you about yourself and the world through the birth, baptism, and life of Jesus. They went looking for a powerful King and were surprised to find a poor peasant child. And yet, though it wasn't what they were expecting, they had an epiphany - a moment where they suddenly understood something very important to them, that God had come for even them as Gentiles (not Jews) and that God was doing a completely new thing.

So read over the Scriptures below and use them to help you ponder, “Where’s Jesus?” in your life and our world? Where should we be looking? What kind of work is he doing, and what’s distracting us from discovering him in the scenes of our lives.

This sermons leads us up to a “Reaffirmation of Baptism,” so may it help you remember your own baptism or, if you haven't been baptized, to consider being baptized yourself. Remember, even Jesus showed up right there in front of a confused John the Baptist seeking baptism and insisted on joining us in our human weaknesses so that we could discover how to live out his divinity in each aspect of our lives.

I made a startling discovery a few years ago when I led a short-term Disciple Bible Study of the book of Psalms. I was reading a commentary, focusing on Psalm 26, and realized that a very literal rendering of verse 2 is: "Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my kidneys and heart."

"Say what?" you may be asking yourself. That is certainly what I was asking myself!

Here's the gist. For ancient Hebrews, the seat of one's conscience / emotions is the kidneys, not the heart. Rather, the heart is the seat of one's intellect; it is the organ used in decision making. So, Psalm 26:2 is usually rendered into English as, "Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart [literally kidneys] and mind [literally heart]." However, in a majority of the places in the Old Testament where we read "heart," the "decision making organ" is what is really in mind (pun intended). So, in Deuteronomy 6:5 when it says to love "God with all your heart," this is the decision-making organ, not the place of emotions. Similarly, Jeremiah 31:33 has God writing the law on our decision-making organ, not our place of emotions.

So, with all of this in mind / heart, and as we enter a new year with many choices to be made, this sermon focuses especially on loving God with all our mind. Particularly, we consider what the Apostle Paul means by being transformed by the renewing of our mind and by having the mind of Christ.

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, and yet, when we have experienced pain or loss, Christmas can be an especially sad time. Join us for this service planned and designed recognizing that for many, the joy of the season is tempered by great pain.

This Sunday is the last time we’ll mark the Advent season as a Church family in 2016; can you believe it? Time has flown by, but I am grateful for the ways in which we’re able to reflect on God’s presence in the world together. One specific way is with our CHUMC Advent Devotionals. If you have not yet gotten the chance, pick up a devotional book on Sunday by the bulletins or simply read some from the CHUMC Facebook page. The ways in which God has been speaking to our church community have been moving and powerful.

Here, we pick up our Advent journey with the birth of Jesus as told in Matthew 1:18-25. It’s short, but there is a lot in there. As you read it, think about Joseph and the emotions and feelings he must have felt during this first Advent. Honestly, this whole story is wild, gossipy, unseemly… all of the things we don’t expect about the birth of God Incarnate. But we come to understand that is how God works - in and through all of the reality that is human experience. Perhaps the most shocking part is that God is with us, in every way, in all of our wild and unseemly capacities. God loves us and uses us for good. Paul reminds in Romans 1:1-7 that we are called, all of us, even the wildest. And he would know; he was a wild, unseemly guy for a time. This Sunday, we will look at the miracle of Emmanuel “God-with-us” as we continue to listen and prepare our hearts for God’s unconventional way in the world.