On this occasion the Sadducees are the ones who challenge Jesus with questions intended to discredit or humiliate him in public. 

• How does Jesus react to the confrontation? 
• What can we learn from the pattern of his response?

    What can we draw from the historical dynamics of this scene of mixed motives and misplaced zeal? We can consider our present Impasse over the question of relating to human sexuality, either as fully inclusive, or as the historic creedal Church, putting authority of scriptural truth above ever changing cultural norms.
     Despite good intentions, the movement to change the understanding of our denomination from biblical guidance to cultural accommodation cannot stand. 
     We cannot agree with the disingenuous presumptions of our present context about how Jesus would relate to homosexual lifestyle and gender confusion and fluidity. Jesus did not address the issue of homosexuality because it went without saying - there was no question of controversy over normalizing such social arrangements for people of the covenant of faith. Building on Jesus’ foundation, the apostle Paul within the same generational era wrote corrective messages to the emerging gatherings of early disciples. Paul passionately reminded them how they had left behind alternative cultural views on human sexuality. Such letters from Jesus’ commissioned ambassadors form much of the New Testament of the Bible. 
     A relatively recent church movement spurred by Western cultural changes has insisted on creating a unique category for alternative views on sexuality and gender. Although intended as gracious acceptance, this view excludes those struggling in this aspect of life from the rest of us dealing with forms of brokenness in this fallen world. Jesus came to transform all forms of brokenness into wholeness - a restoring of the “image of God.”  All are precious to Jesus. All born into this world are broken. All need grace and spiritual renewal to allow the Holy Spirit to transform inner character and outer behaviors over time. 

Support the show

     Can you imagine what might it be like to know that whenever your name comes up, others know or remember you for your kindness, patience, and attentiveness to others?
For this All Saints Sunday, where we have recognized eleven sisters and brothers from our church family who have died over the past year, we find our encouragement and hope in the One who has overcome both the brokenness of this realm of existence and its ultimate result, death.
     How can we hope to overcome our trials and losses - especially when losing loved ones with whom we have shared so much of our own lives? Our spiritual lives grow strength and increased capacity for endurance and retained joy in the way that parallels our physical challenges when injured. As a coach might express it: "you have to want it (bad enough)." We find achievement comes from our willingness to embrace the small sacrifices of daily living which build up our capacity over time. Skills develop and life experience produces a kind of spiritual and emotional resiliency that is not possible without pain and suffering.
     Ultimately we are able to have confidence in our capacity for joy because we are met in our "work" by the working of God to gift us with both the will and the power to overcome and succeed, using our willingness to experience suffering and other sacrifices. This attitude and view of this life in relationship with Christ is the source of faith that "flourishes" in the midst of suffering and even persecution.

Support the show

     A nameless youngster provides two fish and five bread rolls which Jesus multiplies into a feast for thousands - with lots of leftovers! Is anything too difficult for Christ Jesus? Not a thing. Because of this reality we are set free to manage resources entrusted to us by Him. We let go of self-directed ownership as our mindset, and experience a renewed mind of trust and gratitude, hold on lightly to the things God places in our care.
     Pastor Dave shares three marks of healthy stewarding of resources by persons of faith in Christ. What does our generosity (or lack) say about our worldview? What does our approach to giving to Kingdom of God advancement reveal about our depth of commitment to Christ? Does our doing matching our saying?
     A manager mentality frees us for joyful obedience and generosity. We find our joy and freedom in such disciplined living according to Jesus' call to live well with him.

Support the show

Our final message from reflecting on the prophet Jeremiah’s extremely challenging season of calling God’s people to turn away from all other authorities for guidance, including so many competing sources which pressure us with false promises- lies. Jeremiah’s message sounds ridiculous to the average citizen as well as the King. Why? Because to act on his message as authentically from the Lord would mean surrendering without a fight to a foreign army intent on conquest! Jeremiah’s message: the only hope for staying in homeland and having a normal life of farming their same properties is if they choose surrender to the Babylonians. No one accepted this strange offer. Why not? Because if I do not have a genuine, ongoing relationship with God, then I cannot recognize his message or messenger, and certainly will not risk trusting God beyond what makes sense to my limited mind. The persisting good news: even so, God will offer grace and a new covenant in Christ Jesus, through his self-sacrificing gift of love. Even after complete failure, Jesus offers relationship to redeem our suffering caused by our own willful free rejection of Him in the past.     Key passage: Jeremiah 31:31-33

Support the show

     Jeremiah is drafted by God to serve a ministry career that no one in their right mind would want. A pastor's nightmare: Jeremiah spends decades preaching and pleading for repentance among people he loves, while all of them reject his message, and ultimately tire of him and finally arrest and try to murder him. Who wants that assignment? Right. 
     Yet as a pastor I am committed by love to share hopeful yet hard truth with my congregation. Like a parent who loves their child unconditionally, one still lives out a relationship of conditional connection. As with God, the highest and deepest relationships have both unconditional love and conditional blessing. 
     If one refrains from telling the truth out of intention to love and avoid hurt, the good intention is actually emptied of real love, dissolving into a sad sentimentality which does not support life in relationship. At the same time, if one insists on plain truth and delivers the message from a heart that is absent genuine desire for the recipient's best interests, that truth is distorted into a kind of brutality, and does more harm than silence. Like Jeremiah, faithful disciples of Jesus are called to loving, hard message delivery, and are committed to living in pursuit of faithfulness to God and neighbor.

Support the show

Pastor Isel Acanda shared a special message with us during his travel from Cuba to the Florida Conference of Methodism's Cuba Task Force weekend. Isel is the new Presiding Elder (District Superintendent) of our partner district of Mayabeque, consisting of church west of Havana, Cuba. The district includes our sister Methodist church in La Sierra.
Pastor Isel challenged our congregation to consider how Jesus called those present to do their part when he performed powerful miracles, like the raising of good friend Lazarus back from death. The text is from John 11.
It means getting near to Jesus and offering ourselves with intention to serve his purposes. How do you see yourself in Jesus' ongoing and present mission? It is just a book you read about past glory, or is it more like a spiritual awareness and readiness to be part of what Jesus is doing among us and in our world now?

Support the show

"Our church is God’s answer to the prayers of our local community.” 
Our North East District Superintendent, Jay Therrell, provides needed spiritual support and oversight for 9 counties of 63 United Methodist churches and their pastors. In his role, Jay is our "Chief Mission Strategist." 
His message is from Matthew 28, the setting of Jesus' Great Commission to his chosen ambassadors to the world. He said "Go!" He did not suggest or request, but commanded the emerging body of disciples to make more disciples of Jesus for the sake of lives transformed and peoples and nations recovered from the brokenness of sin and separation from God.
"We (the Church) are God's 'Plan A'...and guess what? there is no 'Plan B!'"

Support the show

Pastor Donna shares a description of ancient "Blood covenants" - where two parties conduct a publicly witnessed ritual, binding them to an agreement in which each agrees that breaking the contract can mean death. This was truly a "solemn oath." 
In the case of ancient Judah, God makes such a promise with the nation of Israel which is broken by the people's rebellion and unfaithfulness generation after generation. 
God calls the people foolish for rejecting His gracious life-giving relationship for dedicating their lives to "dead" gods: non-living creations from human imagination. He lets them know the time is almost here for suffering the excruciating loss which is inevitable in such self-destructive pursuits.
Yet God also brings the message through Jeremiah that there will someday still be a hopeful harvest of relationship for descendants who emerge from the approaching disaster. One generation's choices lead to future generations' new realities. But with God, even the harmful decisions cannot completely destroy the covenant. Grace will still come in time.

Support the show

     God does not merely show Jeremiah a vision or give him a vivid dream. God directs him to actually go see the local potter in the workshop and observe how he works his craft. While there, the prophet observes the complete creative power the artist has over the unfinished project. The potter suddenly stops his project. It was not turning out as he intended. He does not merely stop bothering with it and then set it aside. He decides to start over from the beginning and do something completely new with the same lump of clay.     
     Then the Lord sends this dramatic new picture message by Jeremiah to deliver to the leadership of his kingdom, Judah. He passionately calls on his people and civic leaders to turn back to God and renew their commitment to faithfully uphold their prior promises. God’s warning delivered by Jeremiah is intended to challenge their thinking. He insists on sharing the truth in love: the realization God has ultimate authority over their individual and collective lives. 
     For our time, what means do we have to respond to our Creator's call for relationship? Prayer is such a gift of intentional practice to engage God. Prayer both reveals our condition and develops faithful relationship with God. But does prayer really make any difference? A few examples: Jonah, Hannah, and Hezekiah. 

Support the show

    We begin a new series for September drawn from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah: “A Covenant Season.” The prophet Jeremiah lives in ancient Judah (the southern Kingdom) and speaks for God during a lull in history between the devastation of the northern Kingdom by the Assyrian Empire, and the beginnings of the threat to the southern Kingdom by the Babylonian empire. 
     God's assessment of Judah's failure to keep covenant relationship is likened to the vast difference between living water, perpetually flowing from a nature source, and the crude cisterns dug into the ground to catch whatever runoff flows into it. He says his people have abandoned him with this kind of trade: life for death. The Living God rejected for a false god piece of stone! 
     Yet we find we are not so different, as we become aware of the false gods we have given elevated authority over areas of our lives - for a fleeting sense of material security or social position. What is the answer? Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our broken world as a new covenant. We each get to decide between the resurrected Christ Jesus or something in this world to give our heart in committed relationship. What will you choose?

Support the show