ReNew Ames Messages

Another vineyard story - here we go! Triumphal entry. Peaceful protest against Roman Empire and the religious establishment. Religious leaders are piiiiiissed. "Who do you think you are? Where did you get your authority?" they ask. Jesus is all - the tax collectors and prostitutes are in better shape than you a-holes.

Then he tells the story about the vineyard. The owner gives the vineyard as a gift to the tenants. Trust is built into this story. The vineyard is a gift entrusted to the tenants. It all starts with gift. Of course, this is how life begins. Before we accomplish anything, even the ability to walk and talk, we are given relationships, food, water, air, a world we didn't create and bodies we did not design. It's all gift. And when we see everything as gift gratitude becomes something more than saying thank you. We begin to see differently. We see each morning differently. We see neighbors differently. We see everyone we meet differently. It's all part of the vineyard. We begin to see that the world isn't about competition or simply a collection of things to possess or acquire or use. It's all gift.

Of course, the story moves on. The tenants beat, kill, and stone the servants sent by the owner to collect the fruit. He sends more. The tenants do the same. He sends his son. They kill him, too. Because they now see themselves not as stewards, but as owners. This can happen when we begin to think that something belongs completely to us. It creates a sense of scarcity and fear. We have to let everyone know that we own it. We have to protect it. If it's taken from us we or we simply give it away, it feels like loss. Perhaps there's an invitation here to hold things lightly, with open hands so that we can still give and receive.

We'll end where Jesus ends. He pronounces judgment on those who won't produce fruit. But it's not just judgment, the vineyard will still go on. It will be entrusted to those who bear fruit. That's all the owner wanted: fruit. He wanted his gift to reproduce and make more gift.

And what do we think of when we think of fruit? Love, joy, peace, and all the rest. We can add to it justice and compassion and empathy and equality. So the question becomes, what kind of fruit are we producing?

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 21:33-46

http://bible.com/events/49670997

Jesus is challenged by the authorities, "Who do you think you are? By what authority are you doing these things?" What things is Jesus doing?

I'll give some background: it's the Monday of Holy Week. He's led a protest parade. Exciting! Crowds love it. Then he goes into the temple and clears things out; he's protesting the system of exploitation that keeps the poor out. Then he goes out into the outer courts and heals the people who couldn't get in. Next, he curses a fig tree that doesn't bear any fruit; could there be a parallel here with the religious system that doesn't bear fruit? Yeah, obvious.

Anyway, then the religious authorities ask where he gets his authority. He asks them a question about John the Baptist. Was he doing his thing because of the divine, or was it human? They can't answer. Just say, "Who knows?" And Jesus is like, "Then I won't tell you where I get my authority." Then he tells them a story.

Here's how the story starts: A father has two sons...

The kingdom of God isn't about saying the right thing or having the right answers; it's about becoming the kind of people who go, the kind of people who do. We're pretty good at having the right answers. We're pretty good at saying the right thing. But Jesus messes with one of our assumptions: that what we say tells the story of who we are.

It doesn't. Through this story, Jesus is inviting us to look at what we do, where our feet take us, who we make room for. Our lives are telling a story whether we realize it or not.

The first son says he won't go work the vineyard, but then later, he changes his mind. What is the religiousy word for this? Repentance. The story Jesus tells leaves room for the person who changes their mind. Leaves room for the person who turns around.

Then there's the second son. He says he'll go...then doesn't. Religious people can be good at this. We can get really good at performance. Jesus upset the religious authorities in the first place when he cleared out the temple. He was calling out forms of religiosity that don't move us out into the world to work for justice, mercy, compassion, equality and love.

So, what's the good news of the story? The father doesn't ask his sons to build the vineyard. Doesn't ask them to save the vineyard. Simply asks them to notice what's going on in the vineyard and work with what's already happening. God is already at work in the world. Where is love moving? Where is compassion needed? Where is healing necessary? Will we become the kind of people who go?

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 21:23-32

https://www.bible.com/events/49666958

Forgiveness is central to the message of Jesus, but Peter wants to know how much forgiveness that is. Is there a limit to grace? Jesus says, "Seventy-seven times." Or, seventy times seven times, depending on how you want to translate the ambiguous language of Jesus.

Then Jesus tells the story about a king forgiving a guy his debts. The guy immediately goes out and demands another guy pay him his debts. The king finds out and is piiiiissssed. So he has the first guy thrown in jail and tortured because he was shown mercy and did not show mercy. Whoa.

Forgiveness. We know it's important, but what is it? Just as important, what is forgiveness NOT? We'll start there, by saying what forgiveness is not.

Forgiveness isn't saying that what happened is okay.

Forgiveness isn't forgetting.

Forgiveness isn't the same as healing or reconciliation.

Okay, so what is it?

Forgiveness is releasing the debt. Someone hurt you, betrayed you, etc. They now owe you. You release them from that debt. Forgiveness may be saying, "I will no longer let my life or my well-being be dependent on whether or not you can pay the debt." They may not be able to give you what you need to pay the debt anyway. You can't rewind time. You can't unsay things already said. You can't get years back. You release them from owing.

Forgiveness is choosing freedom. Hanging on to resentment or bitterness keeps you chained to the other. Forgiveness releases you from that.

Grace changes everything. We stop keeping score. Our goodness no longer depends on everyone else being wrong. We stop ranking sins. The kingdom of God isn't a courtroom where we keep track of everyone else's failures. It's a table. A big table, and at the table everyone is carrying something. Debt. Shame. Regret. Failure. Wounds. And Jesus says, "Come to the table." Grace isn't a reward for someone getting things right. Grace and forgiveness are what makes a new future possible for those who didn't.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35

https://www.bible.com/events/49661339

This is the third in our series The Sage and The Son, where Aaron and Tony sit down to discuss topics of theology, social justice, and where they see the American Church heading (and where they hope it will go).

Speaker: Aaron Vis and Tony Vis

Paul says these things are good and right and true and beautiful. They sound simple...until we try to do them.

The church in Rome was the location this letter was headed, and Paul was writing to a deeply divided church. So where are we in the letter? We're about three quarters of the way through. The first part of the letter is filled with all sorts of theology: sin, grace, mercy, Jesus, life, death, atonement, reconciliation. Theology that is deeply beautiful. Then we get to chapter 12; he says, "Therefore." In other words, all that theology has to become more than a simple set of beliefs. It has to transform us so we are living into it.

"Love must be sincere." No pretending. No performance. No religious theater." Be devoted to one another in love." Devoted. It means we don't leave when things get complicated. Devotion sticks around for hard conversation, when a crisis of faith happens - when questions come. Devotion sticks around after the diagnosis, in the hospital, through the treatment. This is one of the most powerful things we can give to others. Not answers. Not explanations. Just presence.

"Do not repay evil with evil." Evil tends to reproduce itself. Someone has to ask the question: who will stop it?

"Enemies - feed them - give them drink." The good news isn't about defeating enemies. It isn't about winning. We can disagree without dehumanizing. We can create healthy boundaries without hate. We can work for justice without violence.

All of these things are what it looks like to allow beliefs and theology to work on us and transform us to live into the new humanity God is creating in us and through us.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Romans 12:9-21

http://bible.com/events/49658096

This is the story of the beginning of the book of Exodus. It is one of our primal stories, a foundational one. So first, let's walk slowly through a retelling of the story and I'll comment along the way.

Pharaoh has all the power. Yet he's afraid of people who have no power. He does what fearful people with power often do. Fear turns into policy, suspicion turns into laws of the land. He enslaves them, he uses them, and yet they continue to grow larger in number. So he orders that all newborn male babies are to be killed.

In response to this order, two Hebrew midwives resist. They won't participate. Maybe that's something we can live into. Most of us will never stand before a Pharaoh, or a president, or a powerful politician. But we will stand before those who will ask us to diminish life. Sometimes faith isn't that complicated; sometimes faith is the refusal to participate in the diminishing of life.

Next comes the story of Moses' mother and sister, and then Pharaoh's daughter. They, too, refuse to participate. We see that most people think that power is the ability to control people. In this story, we see that true power looks like courage. True power looks like compassion and empathy and love.

The story gets better; Moses' sister gets Pharaoh's daughter to agree to allow Moses' mother to take care of him. And get this, Pharaoh's daughter PAYS her to take care of her own son!

Pharaoh thinks he's controlling the future. But he isn't, really. God is moving. Quietly, subtly, underneath the surface, through ordinary people. Sometimes we look at all that is happening in the world and we think that we can't possibly make a difference. Exodus tells a different story. All we have is the next courageous thing, the next faithful thing, the next compassionate thing. What if those things really do matter? What if the work of God always looks smaller before it grows and gets big? What if the kingdom of God really is hidden in the small before it gets large?

All we have is the next faithful step and trust that God is working through the little things.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Exodus 1:8-22; 2:1-10

http://bible.com/events/49654964

This is the story of the Canaanite woman asking for healing for her daughter. Okay, so this is another story, along with the version found in Mark, that I've preached several times. Here, we have yet another angle.

The world is starving for good news these days. It seems like every corner we look in online, there's something bad or depressing to read about, and everyone we talk to could tell us a story about some other bad thing happening. As followers of Jesus, we're called to be bearers of that good news the world is longing for. The promise that God is good and loving and is even now leaning towards us with love and mercy. The promise that God's saving, reconciling, liberating power is available to all people, in all times, and in all places. However, it seems that a good number of people in our Christian tribe no longer believe this promise.

But this story brings me hope. Why? Because in it, Jesus changes his mind. That makes us uncomfortable. But if we read this story literally, it's pretty obvious.

The major question I want to ask is this: what if Jesus learned something from this desperate foreign mother? What if, in his humanity, Jesus encountered somebody whose experience expanded his understanding of his own mission? We often think of Jesus as fully divine. But he was also fully human. Hungry. Tired. Frustrated. But also moved by compassion. Listening. Learning. Growing. Evolving. Changing his mind.

We live in a world where changing your mind feels like losing, feels like failure. But what if changing your mind is evidence that you've been listening and learning? What if changing your mind means that your heart has become larger? What if it isn't failure; what if it's growth? This woman changes Jesus. And he doesn't punish her for it. He praises her faith because she refused to believe that God is smaller than her need. She refused to believe that as an outsider she had to stay an outsider. Even if there's a crumb of grace, I'll take it, she says. It'll be enough.

That's why this story gives me hope. If Jesus can change his mind, so can we. And so can the church. If Jesus can listen, so can we. Maybe the deepest spiritual practice isn't being certain, but being open.

There are moments when God comes to us through people we don't expect, someone we were prepared to exclude. And sometimes that person expands our hearts. The Canaanite woman asks for a miracle, and she gets it. But so do Jesus and his disciples; they get changed minds and expanded hearts. And now, generations of people who read this story discover that God's table is much, much bigger than they were previously taught or imagined. And isn't THAT good news?

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 15:21-28

http://bible.com/events/49651807

Here's the story of Jesus walking on water, but from a different angle than usual!

There's an interesting relationship that Christianity has had with fear, especially over the last 50-100 years, maybe even longer. Don't know what to call it. Buff Christianity? No Fear Christianity? Instead of making a compassionate, gracious space for us to acknowledge our fears, fear has been used to manipulate and control. Fear has been seen as the opposite of faith. I don't think that's healthy or helpful.

So now to walk through the story...on the surface, it seems to reinforce No Fear Christianity. They're afraid. Peter then has faith to ask Jesus to tell him to walk on water. He sees the wind and the waves and gets afraid again. As long as he has faith, he does the impossible! When he fears, he fails.

However, nowhere else in the stories about Jesus are we called to prove our faith, or test the character of God, by taking pointless risks that threaten or endanger our lives. Nowhere else in these stories are we taught that bad things will happen to us if we're too chicken to do the hard thing to earn God's protective care. So what's the alternative? How else can we possibly read this story?

Things happen, the disciples are afraid. I don't think it's wrong to be afraid, it's part of what it means to be a human being. Maybe the issue isn't with feeling fear. Maybe it's where that fear can lead us. It can lead us to believe that possibilities are threats. It can lead us to believe that the pain will never end, that we'll never love or laugh or hope again. It can even lead us into suspicion. That's where it led Peter in the story.

Then Jesus asks the question, "Why did you doubt?" Maybe when Jesus asks that question, he's really asking, "Why did you doubt me? Why do you not trust that I'll be honest with you? Why do you doubt that I am with you, and for you, and in you, and around you? After all this time, why do you feel the need to test whether or not it's really me?"

So the last thing I'll say is where I think this story leads us. Notice Jesus. No matter what the disciples say, or do, or feel, Jesus continues to move toward them. Nothing can stop him from moving toward us. Not the wind, the waves, mistaking him for a ghost, and definitely not our fear. Jesus continues to move toward us.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33

http://bible.com/events/49648667

Speaker: Bev Modlin

Scripture: Luke 7:36-50

http://bible.com/events/49645386

Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Honestly? I kinda hate this parable. So we'll see what we can do.

All of us have this sense of justice in our bones; we know right and wrong, and when something's wrong, we want to rush to make it right. We want the bad guys to get what they deserve and we want the good guys to win.

So when Jesus tells this parable, it feels pretty unsettling. The weeds grow with the wheat. The servants say, "Should we pull the weeds?!" And Jesus says, "No, let them grow together." AHHHHHHH! That sucks.

We realize that this is a story about humanity. Goodness and evil are all tangled up together. Why doesn't God just fix it? Then we ask the deeper question, if we're honest enough and mature enough. Why doesn't God fix us? The field isn't just out there, it's also in us. We're a mixture of love and fear. Generosity and greed. Etc, etc...maybe the place for us to start is by tending our own interior field.

"Should we pull the weeds?" Yeah, that resonates with me; it mirrors my own heart, and maybe it mirrors yours, too. I can get all worked up about the weeds. Sometimes my own weeds, but more often than not, it's the weeds in other peoples' lives. "Jesus, trust me, I know good and evil, let me pull the weeds."

Jesus says, "No. Wait." I hate that he says this. He's insisting on humility and patience and restraint when it comes to patrolling the borders of the field that ultimately belongs to him. The point isn't that Jesus will go easy on the weeds. Apparently, there will be a separation and burning and plenty of weeping and gnashing of teeth; how that works out? Yeah, we have no clue.

I think Jesus is trying to tell us that we can't police the field without damaging some wheat. So the question this brings us to is this: where do we want to spend our energy? Burning things down, or growing healthy and strong? Maybe the challenge is to grow healthy and strong, which is hard enough. Maybe it's to become less interested in labeling people and more interested in loving them. Maybe it's to become less interested in deciding who is worthy and more interested in making room for grace.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

https://www.bible.com/events/49642325