Guerrilla Christianity

Transfiguration Sunday is placed on the church calendar as the end of the season of Epiphany and the last Sunday before the Lenten Season. Why is this? As we will see in today's lesson, the Transfiguration marks a pivot point in each of the gospels and a turning point when Jesus' ministry goes from teaching and performing miracles, to the journey to Jerusalem and the cross. For the Christian today, it also divides two acts in our faith life. We begin our Christian walk learning who Jesus is, and the second act is learning to live the life Christ calls us to as our Lord.

Luke 9:28-36

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on March 3, 2019

S.D.G.

Having established 1. that Jesus Christ has been resurrected, and 2. that there is a resurrection, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 now turns to the topic of what our resurrected bodies will look like. He uses the example of a seed to show that what is sown is not what grows. In other words, we cannot know from the appearance of a seed what the tree that grows from it will look like. In the same way, all of what our resurrection bodies will look like is contained in our bodies, but we can also look at Jesus' resurrected body to know what we will be on that last day.

1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50

Recorded at Hudson UMC on February 24, 2019

S.D.G.

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for Christians today? For some, the idea of unexplained phenomena (ooften called "miracles") don't fit in with our 21st century scientific sendibility. For others, it's just something to remember once a year at Easter (alongside eating the ears off chocolate bunnies). But in the text from 1 Corinthians 15 we find Paul arguing that if we don't believe in the resurrection, our very faith is entirely hopeless. In other words, the resurrection isn't just another thing to believe about Jesus, it is THE thing we MUST believe about Jesus, and we are going to look at the resurrection with a critical eye and determine if it is truly worth believing in.

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on February 17, 2019

S.D.G.

In the 21st Century, the Christian church in America has completely lost touch with the holiness of God. We feel comfortable with a God that we can pal around with but not with a God that demands strict purity. Looking at this throne room vision by Isaiah, we examine the infinite holiness of God and what it means for us as children of God. Rather than elevating ourselves, this message is meant to put us in proper relation to Almighty God.

Isaiah 6:1-8

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on February 10, 2019

S.D.G.

After Jesus' first sermon in his hometown synagogue, the people were at first amazed, then irate that he would not do the miracles in Nazareth that they heard about in the surrounding country. Jesus reminded them that God's kingdom extends beyond the borders of Israel - in fact is borderless - and that in times past non-Jews had received grace that God withheld from the Jews. Though the context is difficult to understand today, the sentiment is the same. We often look around and think that there are others who are far less deserving than us. Yet God loves all of his creation and called it very good in the beginning. Why should we feel sole ownership over the gospel?

Text: Luke 14:21-36

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on January 31, 2016

S.D.G.

When Jesus preached his first sermon in his hometoown synagogue, he providentially opened the scroll to Isaiah chapter 61 and read what was in essence his mission statement. It is important for us to have a mission statement so that we can maintain a clear vision of what our purpose is. If we fail to do this, we are setting ourselves up to fail, because we can easily get distracted and pulled away from our true purpose with other things. So what can Jesus' mission statement tell us about what the church's mission is today?

Text: Luke 4:14-21

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 31, 2016

S.D.G.

Those of us in English-speaking countries throw the word "love" around a lot. I love this movie. I love that burger. I love my country. But we also allow the dilution of the word to creep into our vocabulary in the church. Love is love. Love trumps all. From 1 Corinthians 13 we learn that the love we often talk about is not the love that Jesus commanded us to have for each other, or the kind of love that is held up as the greatest love. The greatest love of all is not learning to love yourself, as Whitney Houston sang. Rather it is to love others before myself, and to do so sacrificially, the way God modelled love on the cross of Christ.

Recorded at Hudson UMC on February 3, 2019

S.D.G.

When we are baptized, it is not a private affair. Instead, it is a public declaration of the grace we recive from God through Jesus Christ. And when we are baptized, we are not baptized to be in isolation. Rather, we are baptized into the body of Christ, which is a universal organism, ordained by God for one purpose, with each of its individual parts made for its own purpose. And when one of those parts fails to perform, the entire body suffers. Today we challenge ourselves to live up to the life that God has called us to in Jesus Christ.

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on January 27, 2019

S.D.G.

None of Jesus' miracles occurred prior to his baptism in the river Jordan, and today we are looking at the very first of the miracles that he performed - turning water into wine. Temperance arguments aside, ultimately there were two primary reasons for this being Jesus' first miracle. First, he was showing the people who he was, his "credentials" if you will, by performing an impossible task - changing the chemical composition of water into wine, displaying his mastery over the elements of nature. Second, he was turning the enslavement to ritual legalism into a celebration of joy. And of course, John himself tells us that these miracles are recorded so that we may believe today.

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on January 17, 2016

S.D.G.

In the Bible there is not one recorded miracle that Jesus performed prior to his baptism. Baptism for Jesus marked the beginning of his earthly ministry, and for us as Christians it marks the beginning of our walk with God. God knows us intimately before we know him - we call this "Prevenient Grace." So baptism is less about what we do and more about what God does in us.

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 10, 2016

S.D.G.