In this teaching for the Avery County Prayer Group, Michael reflects upon Christ's statement in John 6, "I Am the Bread of Life." We'll follow this statement from the lips of Jesus all the way to Israel's wilderness journey, all the way to the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews, all the way to the Ark of the Covenant, to Mary, and to the universal church. After this journey, you ought to be able to connect Christ's statement, "I Am the Bread of Life," to your own life, and to your place in the world.

Join in for this first NPC Worship on the Lawn Sunday service. We continue through Luke's travel narrative, focusing now on Luke 13 and Christ's healing of a woman with a disabling spirit, and two parables that he shares about the Kingdom.

As we continue our journey through Luke's Samaria (Luke 12:13ff), this message connects our personal pandemic experiences with Israel's exile, the Christian life, and the story of the world, which moves from 1. Garden through 2. life in the Fallen World, towards 3. Heaven. Jesus meets us along the way, listens to our questions, and then plumbs the depths of our hearts by calling forth the ways we life self-referential lives intent on consuming the world around us. Of course, the invitation is always there to open our hearts to the One who comes to journey alongside us, and towards whom everything moves. Indeed, it is sweet freedom to realize that our lives are hidden with Christ, in God. Truly, it sets us free from ourselves, and bends us back towards God and all those created in God's image.

This teaching for the Avery County Prayer Group connects the classic offices of Jesus, namely his priestly role, to his work in becoming "sin" for us, as the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5: 20-21, so that we might become the righteousness of God. This, in turn, clarifies our call now to be ambassadors for Christ, as we live out Jesus' ministry of reconciliation in the world around us. Perhaps this is a timely meditation during a week of pandemic and racial strife.

It Is Well by Newland Presbyterian Church

This message helps to connect our journey through Luke with the means of grace (specifically prayer) that God's shares with us along the way. We'll contextualize our own travels through pandemic by locating them in the grand story of God's journey to be with us in Jesus. This transcendent story is focused in a manageable way for us in the story of Jesus' passage through Samaria as he travels with his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem. This journey through uncomfortable Samaria is, of course, where Jesus "taught his disciples to pray," using the words of the Lord's Prayer.

In other words, as we journey with Jesus, he gives us gifts, gifts whose primary purpose are to help us receive, share, and participate in God's own life of love, beauty and glory. Prayer is one of those gifts!

This teaching 1) shares two ways the ancient church read the Bible 2) applies those ways of reading to the Exodus, the story of Isaac's (near) sacrifice, and the relationship between Adam & Jesus (the second Adam). Then, we bring it all together with a literal sketch of how Ephrem the Syrian pictured Adam in Eden, and Jesus on Mt. Calvary (see Jonathan Pageau for more on this).

Iris and GT share with us a song and a reflection : )

This sermon reflects on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, giving emphasis to the questions asked of Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal Life," and, "Who Is My Neighbor?" Jesus then flips our questions around, demonstrating that HE is the "Good Samaritan," who draws near, washes clean, feeds, clothes, and promises to return. In other words, the well known parable of the Good Samaritan tells the Good News about Jesus.

This message is the first in a series titled "On the Road with Jesus," which covers that middle portion of the Gospel of Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee (home), through Samaria (an unwelcoming land), to Jerusalem (victory). Perhaps Jesus can help us navigate this unwelcome Covid-19 space as we journey from past comfort towards future victory.