The church of Christ on McDermott Road

Many of the Jewish people had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. They started to rebuild the temple, but allowed opposition to stop them. So, for many years, the house of God was lying “in ruins.” Meanwhile, the people rebuilt their own houses and were enriching themselves, but neglecting God’s house. How can we apply the lessons from Haggai to our own lives? God does not live in a temple made with hands, but he has a temple nonetheless. Are we neglecting that temple, while dwelling in our own paneled houses? (Scripture: Haggai 1:3-9)

God sent Amos to prophesy during a period of wealth and prosperity. The rich and powerful felt that everything was going well. They were well-fed, lazy, and content. But Amos was a farmer who was called to prophesy to the elites, telling them to wake up and take care of their responsibilities. Are we being like the people of Amos’ day? Would we know it if we were? What would it take for us to wake up and “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24)? (Scripture: Amos 6:1-7)

God used the marriage of Hosea to try to get Israel’s attention. He told Hosea to marry a prostitute and experience the pain of being married to a serial adulterer. God did this so that Israel could see how their unfaithfulness felt to God; how it disappointed, pained, and angered him. However, in spite of their unfaithfulness, God continued to love and pursue his people. As we reflect on our own commitment to him, are we faithful or are we like a wayward spouse? If we were being drawn away from God, what would he have to do to get our attention? (Scripture: Hosea 4:1-6)

In this story, Jesus compares the prayers of two Jewish men, a Pharisee and a tax collector.  When Jesus’ first century Jewish audience heard, “Pharisee,” they would have pictured a religious man who was passionate about obeying God and keeping God’s commandments. They would have assumed the Pharisee was going to be the good guy in the story. The tax collector, by contrast, would have been an obvious bad guy, a reprobate and a traitor. However, when the parable ended with the tax collector justified and exalted, it would have been a shocking and even scandalous conclusion to the story. In order to discover the discomfort of this story we have to ask, who do we vilify and look down upon in order to feel better about ourselves? (Scripture: Luke 18:9-14)

Many argue this story is not a parable. Unfortunately, that endless debate almost always shifts the focus from the moral of the story to the minutia of the story. It becomes about, “What happens to people when they die?” rather than, “What happens to people when they’re greedy and don’t feed their poor neighbors?” Maybe we should ask ourselves, why are we so uncomfortable with the true moral of this story? (Scripture: Luke 16:19-31)

Jesus told a story about a farmer with a bumper crop. The farmer drew up plans to store his newly acquired wealth and retire. However, in the parable, “God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Why does God call the man a fool? What should this parable teach us about wealth? Is it possible this story has more to teach than we are typically comfortable admitting? (Scripture: Luke 12:16-21)