Pod Be With You

It's Worldwide Communion Sunday, and we are revisiting the vision of unity, abundance, and wholeness that is at the heart of what Communion is. This Sunday reminds us that this "togetherness" is not just a mystery, but something we live out daily in the way we enact our faith. Two Gospel stories this week...Zacchaeus, and John's version of the Feeding of the 5000...illustrate the heart of the Kingdom...welcome, plenty, transformation. 

We talk often about how the Bible is written by many, many authors across many, many years, and so there will be differing perspectives, opinions, and voices contained within its pages. This a good thing, leading to depth, richness, and diversity.

But sometimes our scriptures speak loudly, with one voice. And this week is one of those times...James and Mark are both proclaiming the same truth about the ways of this world, and the ways of God's Realm. And though they employ different ways of communicating, the message is the same. Join us this week for a journey into pride and humility, power and servanthood, death and life.

James has a lot to say this week about the power, for both good and for evil, of speech. In twelve short verses, he drills down to the bedrock of the matter, that the words we speak and how we speak them can create, and nurture, and inspire, or they can destroy, and poison, and defeat. He bases this in solid Creational theology, and calls upon Christians to speak words of life. Good stuff. Join us as we explore the power of words.

In a shocking turn of events, we're on the same scripture passage this week! (And we will be at least throughout September.) We're taking a deep dive into the Book of James, notably Martin Luther's least favorite book of the entire Bible. We will be talking, faith, works, salvation, the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of this World, and salty epistle authors. Fun! Join us!

The Whole Armor of God, and the blazing courage of the woman with a hemorrhage, are our topics today...and there is a lot of overlap. We talk first about the metaphor in the Letter to the Ephesians about God's Armor, and how that actually undermines a militant, violent interpretation of Christian faith. Then we go all in on courage, and how it is grounded in a profound trust in the Divine. You should join us for these interesting, interwoven exploration of the Word.

We are on two different tracks again this week, but also again, they are surprisingly close...community, the human condition, the call of grace, repentance and transformation, found in the story of Jesus eating with sinners, and contrasted with the story of Herod's execution of John the Baptizer. It's all there in these two tales from the Gospel of Mark, who understands the siren call of power, and the power of God to transform.

103 sermons and four stories between the two of us, but all ways of celebrating the goodness of hope and healing. From the gospel of Mark, two intertwined stories of a desperate woman healed and a young girl raised from the dead - both of whom needed Jesus' power and great faith. And from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), two stories of powerful men struggling with some kind of mental/spiritual illness - both of whom needed time and the support of their communities to heal. Resonant and relevant, these stories still hit us where we live: squarely in the messy, blessed mix of humanity. 

David and Goliath, Jesus calming the storm. Two passages, two messages, but both with similar themes. And not only similar, but immediately resonant: how do we weather the storms raging around us? Systems of domination and destruction, chaos and accident? How, in the face of real and legitimate fear, do we carve out space to be peaceful and good? And how, in the face of overwhelming challenges, can we do our small but essential part - and have faith that God will do what we cannot? 

We are on separate paths this week, but paths that intersect at multiple points. Both Paige and Aaron are talking this week about the role of the Church and the Christian as parts of a larger community, how we are called to be witnesses to God's compassion, God's grace, God's love. Does that make it easy or non-controversial? Certainly not...but it is part of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.