Sometimes we like to think of Jesus people as the "hands and feet of Jesus." Or, we think of Jesus people as the presence of Jesus in a lost and broken world so loved by God. Those are good ideas. Scriptural ideas. But they can also be dangerous if that's the only way we think of Jesus. What happens when something goes wrong? What happens when people abuse power? What happens when Jesus people cozy up to power and make all kinds of compromises to integrity? Well, people look at that and say, "I want to have nothing to do with Jesus if that's what Jesus is all about!"

In Revelation, the first seven churches were called "lampstands," a beacon of light in their place. It's important for us to remember that Jesus is also outside, above, and yet among the lampstands - the churches. He speaks words of encouragement and healing. But sometimes warnings and corrections.

The beginning of the Church was based on enthusiastic small gatherings of people who wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus, whom many of them had followed while he was on Earth. The formation of that version of the Church was spontaneous...courageous...sacrificial...chaotic. It seems that, a generation later, this thing that started off as chaotic has become a thing. It's organized now. Now there are people coming in and focusing on right doctrine, right belief, having the right people in the house and in leadership. Jesus essentially says, "Those are good things, but you've forsaken your first love."

Perhaps this is what happens when churches become too internally focused and forget that they are a lampstand, bringing God's light and love and healing and forgiveness to the world. If we as Jesus people neglect to welcome and care for those who are abused, forgotten, pushed aside, and unwanted by the rest of the world, we are failing to live out the calling that Jesus put before us.

And specifically within religious spaces, when we fail to include and protect and welcome...we must face that reckoning and do things differently. We are called to do so much more merely than repeat the words of Jesus.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7

http://bible.com/events/48882226

Easter is filled with hope and excitement and love.

That's how Holy Week started for the disciples. After three years of walking the streets with Jesus and spending so many hours listening to him teach and heal and proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and that it would be here, they watched him ride into Jerusalem on a donkey with the crowd shouting "hosanna!"

But it only took a few days for everything to turn towards darkness, as the crowds swayed in favor of executing the man whom they had previously been celebrating. This man had spoken about breaking down empire, but also about replacing it with peace. Calling to eliminate abusive power structures brought Jesus to trial as he was betrayed by Judas, set before those in authority, and condemned to die for his call to love the least of these.

Jesus was executed for his call for liberation of the oppressed, and his disciples grieved his death, their loss of a friend. In the same way, we weep when we see the brokenness still in the world. War, famine, cruelty, oppression, abuse of the marginalized and exclusion of those who are not able-bodied or white or male, the rich standing by while the poor and the sick and the hungry suffer.

But now the world is different. Because a resurrection happened. An event so absurd that it is explained away every day, applying arguments against a miracle when the very miracle of life and an earth that supports that life are right in front of us. We are allowed to look at all of this and say, "that's absurd!" A resurrection? Absurd. Yet we believe in that miracle, in the reincarnation.

If it really happened, if Christ really did literally rise from the dead after three days in the grave, then God really does care about the real, the tangible, and God really is putting things back together again.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: John 20:1-18

http://bible.com/events/48878804

We celebrate Palm Sunday as the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people celebrate because they see Him as their soon-to-be triumphant conqueror of the empire they were living under. There are many groups of people who would have had different perspectives of this event, depending on their age and status in that society, but the overall mood portrayed is celebration.

Because we know the full story of Holy Week, it's easy to quickly push through Palm Sunday to get to the next week, the grand finale of the season, so to speak. But if you immerse yourself in this story, and pause at every chapter, there is much to observe and process. We may need to put ourselves in someone else's perspective in order to travel through each chapter with thoughtfulness.

To view this week through the eyes of a child is to experience it with awe, then grief, then great joy. An anticipated king arriving in the city, received by a parade of hopeful people, that king's betrayal by one of his own closest friends to briefly benefit financially, the trial and execution of the king because of his words of hope and justice for the people under the thumb of empire, and then the final plot twist, when the king reappears after rising from the grave. One can only view this story with wonder, grief, and then joy if perceiving it as a child would. The weight of understanding more than you may be expected to, but not grasping the fullness of the context at first.

Don't skip straight to Easter. For Good Friday is soon upon us. Slow down, take in every chapter.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Tony Vis

Scripture: Matthew 21:1-17

https://my.bible.com/events/48874823

Paul speaks to a group in Athens, at a place called Mars Hill, and describes God in a way that intrigues the people. He uses apophatic theology, which examines what God is NOT, rather than describing what God IS. By highlighting what and who God is not, Paul further illuminates what and who God is.

God cannot be contained in a building or an community. We can encounter God in spaces that are outside church walls, outside any construct of humanity. We are just as likely to find God in a moment on the street or out in a field as we are while sitting in a sanctuary.

God is not served by human hands as if God needs anything from us. We have found ourselves so consistently in the mindset that God needs us to accomplish things in the world, but the reality is that God is completely capable of doing all of it without us. However, God WANTS us involved, and so calls us to be active in doing God's work in the world. We were created for the purpose of modeling God in our actions and words.

God is not formed by human beings; we did not make God in our image, God made us in God's image. We see through Jesus' example that God is a God of justice, love, grace, inclusion, and forgiveness. So when we seek to be like God in our daily lives, are we seeking to model justice, love, grace, inclusion, and forgiveness?

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Acts 17:16-34

http://bible.com/events/48871029

At the core of its theme and purpose, Lent is a journey towards the cross, or a journey of preparation. A key element of preparation is discipline. Knowing this, Lent is a journey into discipline, as we proceed forward through 40 days of preparing for the cross.

There are so many spiritual practices that we can engage in; thinking specifically of the season of Lent, we can point our attention to these disciplines as we reflect and prepare for a time of recognizing Christ's sacrifice. Jesus uses phrases like "When you pray," and "When you give to the poor," showing us the assumption is that we will already be regularly engaging in spiritual disciplines. As we reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus, we sacrifice in much smaller ways, actively seeking to be more compassionate, loving, merciful, and generous.

But this isn't just about practicing these actions and habits so that people will recognize our sacrifice. After all, Jesus calls out performative service and actions as hypocritical. We aren't supposed to be serving and reflecting to be noticed. So Lent is also a journey of authenticity; as we give our own resources, time, and energy to practices that better the world and ourselves, we are giving God our hearts. And in giving, we are transformed.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Matthew 6:1-6; 16-21

http://bible.com/events/48867218

In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the social barriers preventing the tax collector from approaching the presence of God in the temple didn't deter him from recognizing what he had done wrong and coming before God in humility. While the Pharisee was taking every step to do things just the right way and go above and beyond to have his actions be visible, the tax collector was just asking to be shown mercy.

In a time when we continue to seek to break down oppressive systems that were built to keep marginalized people on the outside, looking at this story shows us how expansive God's love is. The God who would show a corrupt but repentant tax collector mercy and grace is the same God who tells us to open our doors wide and embrace every person we encounter.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Tony Vis

Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

http://bible.com/events/48863547

The story that is traditionally labeled "The Prodigal Son" is mislabeled; a more accurate name would be "The Ridiculously Compassionate Father." Both sons in this story are the actual worst, from their deep disrespect and disregard for their father, to their continued bad attitudes and unrepentant spirits. But their father continues to extend love and acceptance, to the point of embarrassing himself in front of his entire community in order to extend grace and welcome his sons into his space.

God's love and grace and acceptance are so expansive that She is almost an embarrassment, totally inappropriate, and ridiculous. How then shall we live if we are to imitate a God like that? Accepting all people, no matter what, sounds like a good place to start.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Jason Stark

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

http://bible.com/events/48859914

We've built our lives around the avoidance of suffering.

When Jesus told the disciples that he would face betrayal and death, they were incredulous. But Jesus pointed out to them, "you're thinking of human things instead of divine things." Jesus said if people wanted to follow him, they would have to voluntarily suffer for the benefit of the world.

We know that suffering can bring great things. We can see Jesus' example of suffering for the sake of justice and restoration in the world. So what do we do with that knowledge? We seek to model Jesus' willingness to suffer and give himself away.

A practical application of suffering is fasting; we understand the purpose and the results, and we know it is an act of giving part of ourselves up. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that can teach us to sacrifice comfort and time temporarily with long term results bringing personal growth and insight.

So knowing that...what kind of Jesus followers do we want to be? Do we want to be those who avoid temporary suffering, or do we want to be those who give ourselves away?

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Mark 8:27-38

http://bible.com/events/48856169

So let's recap real quick: Jonah took the message from God to the Ninevites, but delivered it halfheartedly. To his surprise, the entire city repented and changed their ways. This made Jonah angry; he believed that Ninevah did not deserve to be redeemed.

That leads us to the end of the story, or rather, the open-ended question: what did Jonah do next? The Ninevites didn't matter to Jonah. He would have preferred that they be wiped off the face of the earth. And we understand that vengeful spirit...there are people in the world whom we would rather never associate with, ever.

But what if Jonah also just pictured a God of anger and vengeance, and couldn't imagine a God of compassion and mercy? What if everyone matters to God, even the ones we would rather be excluded? What if the marginalized and the oppressed and the left behind ones are the same ones who matter in God's eyes? Well, we're shown a living example of this, in a Galilean man who walked around showing this radical love that disturbed the status quo. And Jesus showed that radical love by sacrificing everything to embrace the whole world.

Now go and do likewise.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11

http://bible.com/events/48852258

Sometimes we hear the voice of God for a while and then it fades out of our awareness. But when we keep seeking that voice, when we stop and pray and reconnect with the Divine, that voice will return. And more than likely, the voice will tell us to "Go!" After all, the Divine is a God of action.

This book of Jonah is a story about a God who does the unexpected, about a God who can't be measured, about a God who is full of immeasurable grace, unexpected mercy, and impossible outcomes.

So what is your "no way, not happening" thing? What is next? Jonah didn't stay on the beach, saved, just sitting there, he went to Ninevah. None of us can stay on the beach, saved, just sitting here. God is up to something and God wants us involved.

ReNew Community Worship Service

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10

http://bible.com/events/48848485