This is the story where Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. It starts with Gabriel meeting Mary and goes through Mary's stay with Elizabeth. Traditionally it's called The Visitation. This story gives us three gifts to think about during the season of Christmas.

First, the gift of community. Mary goes to see Elizabeth. Why? She needs someone. She needs safety. She needs affirmation. She needs someone to recognize, deepen, and celebrate the work of God in her life. She needs love, not judgment. And in Elizabeth, she gets all of that and more. Is there a better vision for what the church is called to be? What would it look like if we provided a place like that? I think we're trying here.

Second, the gift of blessing. Mary shows up all confused and scared with questions and doubts. Elizabeth gives her a blessing. What does it mean to bless somebody? To give life to them. It's an art we should all strive to be better at!

Last, the gift of hope. Hope that God will fulfill his promises to us. That God is already out there fulfilling his promises to us. All we have to do is look for it and we'll find it.

In a world where tough things happen - a world filled with unknowns. Let's lean into community, blessing, and hope. I don't know for sure, but I think it's one of the best ways to live.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Luke 1:39-56

http://bible.com/events/49362755

This story about John the Baptist centers on the question from the religious authorities: Who are you?

J the B answers it by talking about who he is NOT. He is NOT the Messiah. I wonder if we should start where he starts. We are not the Messiah. One of the worst mistakes the church has made throughout history is claiming an identity and power that just isn't ours. When we have messianic ambition, people get hurt - the Crusades, the Inquisition, the many times native lands have been stolen and native people have been displaced or killed; the list goes on.

So instead, we look to John. He chooses humility from the jump. He's in the wilderness, away from the temple, away from power. We start where he starts - we define ourselves by who we are not.

We've all done this. I'm a Christian, but not THAT kind of Christian. I go to church, but I promise it's not THAT kind of church. We read the Bible, but we don't read it THAT way. That kind of thinking can be helpful and clarifying. But we can't stay there. "Who are you?" is a question that asks us to do some deep work. It invites us to examine what we hold dear, what we trust, what we love and who we love - and why. Once we've stripped off all that, we are not, what's left? What good do we offer the world? John's answer is clear - humility. He doesn't point to himself - he points to the one who is on the way.

So, who are you? Maybe you can't answer that question right now. And maybe that's okay. Maybe that makes you ready to answer J the B's invitation to make a way for the Lord. Maybe that's all any of us needs every once in a while. Permission to stop pretending - permission to start again. Maybe what we need is someone to tell us to turn around so that we don't miss the new thing God is about to do.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: John 1:6-8, 19-28

http://bible.com/events/49359539

"Come, thou long expected Jesus," the old Christmas carol says. We anticipate the story of a vulnerable family, an ordinary family of no consequence, in a stable. We talk of the arrival of a king, *the* king, so that we might celebrate God becoming flesh and bone in the form of a baby.

Commonly the kingdom of God is talked about in future tense. Many of us were raised to think of heaven as the kingdom of God. But the words of Jesus are clear: the kingdom of God is right here, right now. It isn't waiting to be built, it is waiting for us to participate in it. Like Jesus was already God before he arrived on earth to proclaim that his kingdom was here, we are already living in the kingdom now, we merely have to step into active work in it.

Speaker: Tony Vis

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

http://bible.com/events/49356150

There's a Rob Bell quote that talks about how Scripture is like a gem - you keep turning it and new and different things come out of it. It's a good quote and a good way to think about scripture. There are sooooo many ways that people have interpreted this story for like 2000 years. It's a frustrating story for me.

So today we're turning the gem and looking at the different ways people have interpreted this story in the past. It all hinges on what Jesus means when he says, "You are worried about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better."

I'm not going to throw in those interpretations here, you can listen to the sermon to find them. And at the end of it - I'm not quite sure that we'll agree on what Jesus meant when he said the thing he said about the one thing needed. Maybe that's okay. Maybe that's Luke's point - maybe that's Jesus' point. Maybe they're both trying to start a discussion - wrestling of sorts. Maybe this Christian faith thing - this following Jesus thing isn't as black and white as we'd like it to be. Maybe it's deliberately ambiguous. Maybe that's intentional. Maybe it's in the pushing against and pulling at God and having God push against and pull at us - maybe it's in that action that transformation happens.

So is it better to serve, or sit at the feet of Jesus? I don't know that I/we know. But they're both important and we probably ought to pay attention to both.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42

http://bible.com/events/49353051

Last week was the most important commandment - this week we go waaay back to the basics and talk about the ten commandments. We're starting by talking about the story of God saving the Israelites from Egypt. Basically a summary of the first 19 chapters of the book of Exodus. God parks them at the base of a mountain and says, "Okay, after I saved you, here's our arrangement. Here's how you live in relationship with me and with each other."

A few thoughts about the commandments as a whole. The first thing is - this wasn't anything new for the Israelites. If you go back through the book of Genesis, you'll find all the commandments represented there. Cain, don't kill Abel. Abraham, put away all your false gods, etc. It's nothing new. And they're nothing new for us, either. It's not that we don't know them - it's just that we don't follow them. It's the same with the greatest commandment - love God, love people - it's not that we don't know it, we just don't do it very well.

That's why this second idea is helpful. The ten commandments - just like the greatest commandment - is like a mirror in front of our faces. God sets the bar too high for anyone to attain. They're not there so we reach perfection; they're there so we can see how we're doing. It's a tool for self-examination - self-reflection. This is why we can't put them up on the wall and force others to live by them. That's disrespecting them by making them into something they are not.

They're a reminder that we aren't perfect. The reason the bar is set so high is so that we'll come to the understanding that we're gonna need God's help to become the kind of people God wants us to be.

Last idea: this is the first time that God speaks to the entire nation of Israel at one time. We get the sense that God is speaking directly to us. God is saying, "Look, I made you. I love you deeply. I know what it takes for you to live well with each other and what it will take for you to live well with me."

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Exodus 20:1-21

http://bible.com/events/49349548

There are a range of feelings in the room after last week's events. To ignore that would be unfair and dishonest. Let's talk about this story, though. We're near the end of Jesus' life on earth, for context. He's asked a question: What's the most important commandment? If you truly want to live life to the fullest - what's the most important thing? Jesus responds, love God - love people. That's it. Simple. Basic.

We should also think about the environment in which Jesus lived and loved and taught and healed. It's an occupied land. They see Roman soldiers every day. They live under an authoritarian power. Which means underneath their lives - all the time - there's a sense of anxiety and fear and an uncertainty about the future. It's into that environment that Jesus says, "The most important thing? Yeah, love God and love people."

Love God. Jesus says start with worship. It's how we are reminded of who God is and what God is all about - love and grace and healing. It's into that environment that we're reminded that we belong to a God who apparently doesn't care to move large levers of power, but instead chooses to live and love and work among the vulnerable - the people who have been pushed out and forgotten. Worship also reminds us that our lives are to be a reflection of God's life since we're all made in the image of God.

Love people. Live and give our lives for the flourishing of others. How do we love people well in a time of uncertainty, anxiety and fear?

Back to the basics. Love God, love people.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Mark 12:28-34

http://bible.com/events/49346204

Paul says to Timothy in this letter that he's the worst sinner ever. Yeah, ever. So, this is when we talk about his story back when he was Saul and how maybe he was right. Saul was a really bad dude. He was a religious extremist who sought out followers of Jesus so he could get them arrested or kill them.

But then Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus (where he was going to go find more followers of Jesus) and Jesus made him Paul - their two stories become one story. Turns out, God was looking for someone like Saul.

Let's talk about the stories within our community of Jesus followers, though. Paul's story can become our story - stories of transformation. We know that kind of transformation happens because God loves us in spite of our past. And God will work with us in spite of our past.

The question is, are we willing to surrender our stories to the divine? Are we willing to surrender our lives and become the kind of people who transform the lives of others?

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

http://bible.com/events/49342864

Yay, Zacchaeus! Okay, did this one about five years ago - now we're taking a totally different angle. Zacchaeus wanted desperately to see Jesus. Questions it raises: when was the last time we felt that kind of desperation to see Jesus? When was the last time we wanted more? More meaning, purpose, significance - more life? He couldn't see because of the crowd. When was the last time we pondered the things that are getting in the way of us seeing the divine?

He ran ahead and climbed the tree. He recognizes that he needs to move. He needs to shift. He needs a new perspective. When was the last time we recognized that we needed to move? That we might not know all the answers and we need a new perspective? When was the last time we risked looking foolish for our faith? When is the last time we tried something unconventional?

Jesus looked up and saw him, said, "Come down, I gotta spend some time at your house." Do we know that we are seen? In all of our foolishness, Jesus sees us. But it's more than that. He wants to come home with us. When was the last time we allowed Jesus into our homes without him giving us time to clean things up first? Do we understand that it's okay to let Jesus into all of our mess? Think about who Zacchaeus is - his house was definitely not in order. And yet, there's no judgment - there's just, "I gotta spend some time at your house!"

The religious people mutter - of course they do. But not Jesus. He chooses to see the beauty in Big Z - the potential. Do we hold people hostage to the versions of themselves they are seeking to outgrow? Are we willing to see the beauty? The potential? Because Jesus seeing those things allowed Big Z to be transformed and to change. If there's one thing I've learned it's that this faith thing is evolutionary in nature - it's a change and grow or regress and die kind of a thing.

Salvation has come to this house. Wait, dude climbs a tree and gets to go to heaven? Maybe salvation is more than where we end up when we die. What if it's also about experiencing healing now? And once we've experienced a bit of healing, what if it's about becoming a part of the healing of the world? And if that's true, what are we going to do about it?

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

https://www.bible.com/events/49339420

Short little parable: two people go into the Temple and pray. A Pharisee and a tax collector. The tax collector goes home justified. Let's walk through this parable slowly and talk about how easy it is to think that we're "not like the Pharisee."

Now there are also two words we should talk about: sin and sinner. Yeah, we have an aversion to those words for various reasons. BUT, Jesus insists on using that word, "Sinner." So then we should talk a bit about what the Bible says about sin.

There are different perspectives of sin we have in this parable. The Pharisee sees sin as something you do - he makes a list. It creates an us versus them kind of scenario. The tax collector, however, does not make a list. He simply calls himself a "sinner." For him, the concept of sin is more than just the "wrong" things that we do. It's deeper than that. Sin is something he has - it's like it's infected him. From his perspective, sin is something that has become a problem for everyone.

And when we have a problem, we typically want to do something about it, right? What do we do with our sin? Well, we have some options. First, we can avoid it or say that we don't have it and that other people do. That's what the Pharisee does. Problem is, it doesn't do anything for us. We remain unchanged.

Next, we can obsess over it. The tax collector could have done that - his list of sins was a mile long. We can wallow in our guilt and our shame. We can beat ourselves up for it. Problem is, when we do that we wind up cutting ourselves off from the divine and from other people. We don't want that.

There's another option - we can confess it. We can be honest about it. Jesus insists on us talking about it and confessing it because there's power and healing that comes along with honest confession.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

http://bible.com/events/49336012

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Such a good story. I used to think I knew what this story was about - that I had it all figured out. But this story has depth, and layers, and we can learn so much more from it than we maybe expect. The basic read is that we should all be like Philip and courageously tell people about the good news of Jesus so that unacceptable outsiders might be changed and become insiders. Hmm...does that interpretation sound familiar? Yeah, there's so much more going on in the story - more than just the eunuch's conversion.

The narrative changes and turns and moves forward when someone asks a good question. Just before sabbatical, I talked about how important questions are - they're doorways that can open up lots of possibilities. This is another example. So we'll pay attention to the questions.

So here's some context to the eunuch's story. He can't practice his Jewish faith on account of his eunuchness. Spell check is saying I made that word up. Who cares? Now we get to the questions...

1) "How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?" A doorway is open and on the other side is community, relationship, people, help. We all long for it, need it. So we'll talk a bit about that.

2) Is he talking about himself or someone else? The eunuch was struggling with some verses in Isaiah. So Philip connects it to Jesus. It's likely the eunuch saw himself in Jesus - someone who had been pushed aside and rejected. But resurrection, new life is possible through Jesus!

3) "What's preventing me from being baptized?" Yeah, lots of things. He's a queer black foreigner from Ethiopia. He's a eunuch. Don't you know your Hebrew scriptures, Philip? He doesn't belong. We have rules, man. But Philip says nothing. No religious test. He just baptizes him. So the eunuch isn't the only one converted that day; Philip was also converted. He recognizes that Jesus changes everything - that the resurrection changes everything. The Spirit is going to do what the Spirit is going to do - conquer isolation and fear and welcome any one the Spirit wants into the Kingdom of God. The eunuch and Philip were both transformed all because someone asked a good question.

We're left with a question of our own. And it's not a question about how wide God's embrace is. It's not a question about who's in and who's out. The question for us is, will we participate with the wild Spirit of God in our day or not?

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Acts 8:26-40

http://bible.com/events/49332573