As a Hospice Chaplain, I am frequently saddened by how many Christians I encounter (either my Patients who are dying or their family members) who do not have a theology of suffering. They seem to believe that by following Jesus, they will somehow be exempt from all of the hard things of life. God never promises to do this for us. Suffering, pain, loss, death, are all a part of our story on this side of heaven. The passage people often quote to me (when I ask them how they are doing) is Jeremiah 29:11. I am going to deconstruct this passage and show that it is almost always used out of context and is therefore harmful theology. In the 2nd half of my sermon, I am going to encourage people to remember the Good News of the Gospel, which is always good news, especially in the midst of the hard parts of life.

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

And continuing from verses 10 and 11:

32 Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34 You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

37 “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” 39 But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

Our faith invites us into a life of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God. We might say this is what it looks like to abide in God’s will. But how do we know what God’s will is? Some people seem to figure it out and walk that path; many more just put one foot in front of the other without much confidence they are walking on God’s path. We learn from our text that God’s path is never a short, straight line but wanders all over kingdom come like a drunk on the boardwalk. Even the apostle’s had to stop, turn around, go a different direction when they were spreading the Gospel. With God it’s always one step at a time!

The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.

4-5 As Paul and Silas traveled from town to town, they presented the simple guidelines the Jerusalem apostles and leaders had come up with. That turned out to be most helpful. Day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size.

6-8 They went to Phrygia, and then on through the region of Galatia. Their plan was to turn west into Asia province, but the Holy Spirit blocked that route. So they went to Mysia and tried to go north to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them go there either. Proceeding on through Mysia, they went down to the seaport Troas.

9-10 That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans.

11-12 Putting out from the harbor at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days.

Our best way forward, now more than ever, is to joyfully receive the unexpected love of Jesus Christ, to face our own complicity in being disconnected from God & each other, and to join in the costly demonstrations of unexpected love we see in the life and death of Jesus. The story of the woman in John chapter 8 who almost got stoned can help us. We have lots of opportunities to do the work of justice.

Contact one of these leaders if you’re eager to find new ways of working alongside like-minded Highlanders for justice, kindness and humility, as we work to usher in a more just and generous world.

Rex Brandt, [email protected] who will lead us toward serving alongside and caring for refugees.

For local, Community Outreach contact:

[[Then each of them went home,

They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

When they heard what he said, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”]]  

Highlands Church is theologically grounded in the unsurpassable worth of every human being and the unstoppable love of God for all creation as revealed by the inspired word of God. Both people who “lean left” and “lean right” have chosen to be part of this community because they absolutely believe that is true. This is the theological foundation of our Ethos and it insists that the table of God  has room for all of us, even if the way we might live out this core foundation may differ.

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

To view the Highlands Church Covenant referred to in this message, Click Here.

More now than ever being firmly grounded in our view of humanity is critical. Not a day passes that someone is defining how we should view this person, that group, possibly all of humanity. What this creates is a giant Us vs Them world.  We, on the other hand, are choosing daily to imitate the ridiculous love Almighty God has for each of us and all of us, and live and love without labels but, that still requires a starting point.

11 The Lord instructed him, “Go to Judas’ house on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias enter and put his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 Ananias countered, “Lord, I have heard many reports about this man. People say he has done horrible things to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 He’s here with authority from the chief priests to arrest everyone who calls on your name.”

15 The Lord replied, “Go! This man is the agent I have chosen to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

5 I was circumcised on the eighth day. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. With respect to observing the Law, I’m a Pharisee. 6 With respect to devotion to the faith, I harassed the church. With respect to righteousness under the Law, I’m blameless.

7 These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ. 8 But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ 9 and be found in him.

In the midst of so much hate in our nation, many of us have a renewed sense of deep hope that hate can be worn down by beautiful acts of love. The Book of James suggests that we must be doers of the word and not only hearers. Now more than ever, we want to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Roll up your sleeves, there’s much to do!

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Synopsis: We all sense we are at a very important time in our history with a lot of uncertainty about our future because it feels like the priorities of many of our leaders and institutions are not attuned to the voices of the poor, the immigrant, the marginalized and the helpless. Now more than ever the Church needs to be the living presence of Jesus in our world. It sounds like an impossible mandate but the truth is that comes down to each one of us just doing the next right thing. That’s what abiding in Christ looks like and that is God’s strategy for how we can do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God in our world. Do the next right thing.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.

Fr. Richard Rohr visited us the evening of Jan 12. He’s heard about us from other church leaders around the country and from some of our own. He was eager to get to know Highlands Church. The evening was meant to be an evening for our church community to be with him. Pastors Jenny Morgan, Mark Tidd and Rachael McClair joined Fr. Richard Rohr to examine many facets of the Christian faith. Fr. Rohr was met at Highlands Church with an over-capacity audience and did not disappoint.

This Sunday, people from our community share their stories of how our church, our Lord and our Community has impacted their lives over the past year. After they complete their stories they place a stone on a small cairn as a symbol and a marker of their passing this place in time, much like Joshua instructed in Joshua 4:4-7.

If you are on an authentic journey, you’ll spend a fair amount of time in a dark wood, where the true way is wholly lost.  But it’s all right, because lost is a place too.  John the Baptist shows us what to do when we are in the place called lost, and how Jesus might feel about our time spent in the dark night of the soul.

2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”