The Gathering

The resurrection is a declaration that hope is real and worth it. Jesus is doing something new in your life even, and especially, when you can’t see it. Hope is working its way through your life, but on its own schedule. Let’s look at what the resurrection story teaches us about the character of hope.

The peace and calm of Jesus didn’t make sense. On a base level, human beings are self-preservationists; most creatures naturally are. We avoid suffering or pain, and we don’t like feeling threatened. When our safety is threatened, our brains and bodies prepare to fight or run away, and nobody would have blamed Jesus, human as he was, for choosing either of those options. But, Jesus was also the Son of God, and after tears and fear in the garden, he chose to trust his father in a new way.

The gospel writers seem to wrestle with how to describe an emotional Jesus, especially in this story in the garden. It is told three different times by Matthew, Mark and Luke. When they describe how Jesus felt, they all use different words. They say he felt sorrowful, troubled, anxious, and anguish.

This fear/anxiety is something that we all deal with, and so did Jesus. Learning to deal with this kind of anxious fear is important for our ability to try new things, take risks, and deal with the struggles that life throws our way.

Disappointment happens when our expectations and reality do not align. So what can Jesus teach us about dealing with, preventing, and moving forward in moments where we are disappointed?

Anger is often telling us about something going on beneath the surface.

God gave us the emotion of anger for a reason. Anger is good, helpful, informative, and helps us to have deeper insight into what we’re feeling about given situations.

As imperfect people we will never express violence in a just and honorable manner.

It’s important we feel the anger as it comes, express the anger, and then work to move beyond the anger, all at your pace.

The Palm Sunday story marks the beginning of Jesus’ last week. And while the week would be an emotionally hard one for him and the disciples, today's scripture is a story of joy! While we often focus on everything that was hard about this time in Jesus’ life, it is worth noticing that in the middle of the darkest season, his followers were able to experience this moment of great joy.

The shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus Wept". As we begin our new series "Emotional Roller Coaster: The Ups and Downs of Jesus' Last Days" we will look at how human Jesus was and how he felt real emotions. What can we learn from these real-human emotions Jesus expressed?

Now that we have learned about what racism is, how it's a sin, and how we can unify, how do we pursue racial justice? Today we hear from Rev. Dr. Dietra Wise Baker, as we continue our series The Beloved Community.

Implicit or unconscious bias is attitudes or perceptions we have about people without our conscious knowledge. It is when we make a snap judgment based on stereotypes, cultural attitudes, and assumptions. And because of racism, white people do this all the time when it comes to the ways that they view, treat, or talk to people of color.