Redeemer West Side

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Luke 1:39-56
Luke narrates the story of Jesus’ birth through the story of Mary, who in this passage breaks into what is one of the most famous songs in all of Christendom. For Mary the news that God had seen her and her people caused her to burst into song. Jesus’s birth, as we will see in Herod’s story, is a threat to those already in power and a source of joy to those longing for liberation.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 1:18-25
The story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s gospel is seen through the eyes of a troubled Joseph. While Luke narrates the story through an excited Mary. Matthew paints the sober picture of a man who just found out that his fiance is pregnant. Would Joseph follow the expected path and divorce Mary? Or would he exercise faith and overcome his fear of shame and believe the unbelievable. Advent requires us to ask the same questions of our own lives. Is salvation possible and are we willing to risk everything to believe that it comes through the miraculous birth of Jesus?

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Luke 3:1-10
John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, was the last of the “Old Testament” prophets. His words challenged those who heard him as he sought to prepare their hearts for Jesus’ arrival. Advent is a season, in the words of Fleming Rutledge, that “is designed to bring us face-to-face with reality—reality about sin and death, reality about the human race, reality about God. Something ultimate has entered our world, something or Someone that calls us to attention, calls us out of our daily preoccupations and our routine points of view.” That was the role of John the Baptist, and the task before us over the next five weeks.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Hebrews 11:13-16; 12;22-29
Perhaps the most familiar chapter in Hebrews is chapter 11 which lists multiple spiritual biographies to demonstrate that the motivation for running the race is a longing for a better country (11:16).  The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus assures us that our destiny is not a dark, foreboding mountain that measures our virtues against our vices (religious moralism), but a joyful assembly and City that is unshakeable and are already in the process of receiving by grace.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Hebrews 11:39 - 12:12
Because the ‘world is no friend to grace’, faith becomes a long obedience in the same direction.  Or as the metaphor found here, a race that requires perseverance.  We are told that in order to run the race of faith we must fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  What does that mean and how can we do it?  The sermon will seek to answer those questions in light of the principle of hardship as discipline that trains us to run the race well.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Hebrews 7:18-28
Jesus is not just our source of encouragement, but perfection, a frequent theme in Hebrews that NT Wright defines as “God is working at bringing his world to perfection and doing what is necessary to make it complete”.  We long to be whole and for the world to be whole.  Jesus as our eternal priest (7:21; 28) is holy, blameless, pure and exalted (26).  As such he can guarantee a better covenant than was available in the previous age, one which offers an indestructible life (7:16).  Yet we struggle living out of that life which is why we need Jesus, our advocate, who lives to intercede for us.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Hebrews 3:12-13; 4:14 - 5:10
The writer of Hebrews is concerned that in ‘these last days’ (1:2) our hearts will harden just as the Israelites’ hearts did in their wilderness journey. A hard heart manifests itself in cynicism as well as indifference to God and others. Therefore we need encouragement from others and from Jesus, our High Priest, who learned obedience through suffering and is therefore able to empathize with our temptations. We can go to him, who sits on a throne of grace, for encouragement and comfort. He is our Wonderful Counselor.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Hebrews 2:1-11
Having celebrated the glory of Jesus as the ‘radiance of God’s glory’(Hebrews 1:3) the writer issues a warning to pay attention to what has been heard (2:1).  Implicit in this text is the real danger of ignoring the salvation procured for us by Jesus, either through indifference or suffering.  We find in these verses a picture of God’s Kingdom as ‘already but not yet’ (we do not see everything, 2:8) which can lead to doubt and discouragement.  In the midst of that discouragement the writer reminds us of the one thing we do see clearly, Jesus. The sermon is an opportunity to explore the inevitability and importance of what it means to keep our eyes on Jesus.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 7:15-29
Epistemology is a fancy word for how we know things. Jesus concludes the sermon challenging his listeners to reflect on the nature of truth and wisdom. The current cultural narrative surrounding truth and wisdom is relativistic and individualistic. Truth is what I/we define it to be, and that to suggest otherwise is seen as a hidden ploy to oppress (truth as a power play). Jesus gives a simple illustration of the importance of thinking carefully about our understanding of truth. This sermon is an opportunity to reflect on truth and wisdom and the importance of not just knowing God’s word, but living it.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | Matthew 6:19-24
The current cultural narrative is that to be on the right side of history is to believe that religion is on the wane and through science, technology and political ideology the history will increasingly bend towards justice. Jesus directly contradicts this narrative by challenging his followers to look beyond material treasures (earthly) and instead build up heavenly treasures.  The former he defines as darkness, the latter light, both flowing from our hearts (v21).  There is growing dissolution with the Enlightenment Project (the ‘right side of history’) and a new openness to a more transcendent hope outlined by Jesus here.