Jesus held a coin struck with the face of the Emperor and an impossible questions from the good church folks, who knew that whatever he answered would get him in trouble: either with the the crowds who resented spending a dime in taxes to their Roman oppressors, or with the Roman authority who made it very clear that they expected people to pay them whether they wanted to or not. 

Paul found himself in the mountains for what may have been an attempt to relax, but unable to do so, preached so powerfully that people began to believe in Jesus before the locals tossed him out.

Like the coin in Jesus' hand, there are lots of competing forces that brought it into being, but our task as people who follow Jesus is to identify whose minting truly defines us.

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We hear a story of Ezekiel, who found himself brought to a valley of dry bones by the Spirit of the Lord and asked the question, "mortal, can these bones live?".

We hear of the death of Lazarus, and witness Jesus meeting Martha and then Mary in the road to abide with them in their grief. 

Throughout Scripture, joy and sorrow messily mingle, yet we see that God doesn't hurry either of them. God is the One Who Abides. 

In this moment of forced abiding, we stand in a space between the world as it was and the world as it will be, or could be. How do we dwell in this space and learn from what it has to teach about both joy and sorrow?

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Phil, Sergey, & Pastor Eric gathered for worship this morning. This is for those who aren’t able to attend worship in person. 

What do we do when everything is crazy and we don't know which way to turn? 

We give thanks that even when everything has changed around us, God is with us.

Scriptures:
Psalm 23
John Chapter 9 (all of it)

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Phil, Sergey, & Pastor Eric gathered for worship Sunday morning. This is for those who aren’t able to attend worship in person. Please sing along, pray along, and worship along with us!

Scriptures:
Psalm 23
John Chapter 9 (all of it)

Music:
Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross


Join us in giving thanks to God in worship, trusting in God’s mercy and love.

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This is Part 2 of a two-part sermon. While you can listen to either one and have a “whole” sermon, part 1 is handily titled “Nick at Night (Part 1 of 2)”. 

(Here’s a link to Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/132881/2958247)

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and he had some hard questions for Jesus. 

His most significant struggle was how to deal with Jesus’ statement that he needs to be born again from above, and by water and Spirit, in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus asks some heavy questions of Jesus trying to get him to bring some clarity to this whole situation. 

How can we hope to understand when someone who grew up in this culture couldn’t even get it? 

What if light is so foreign to us that we can’t even recognize what it is?

 

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This is Part 1 of a two-part sermon, handily identifiable by the label, “Part 2”.

(Here’s a link to Part 2: https://www.buzzsprout.com/132881/2958346)

Nicodemus went to see Jesus at night. Part of what he was looking for was whether this was a crazy guy who just drove people out of the temple due to his own delusions of grandeur, or whether this was the principled action of someone sent by God to call people to some renewed sense of faithfulness. 

I don’t know that Nicodemus went in “believing in” Jesus, but I do think that he went in with a mind that had an openness to hope that perhaps Jesus was someone bringing renewal and restoration to God’s people living under the oppressive Roman regime. 

Sometimes in the deepest night, even a glimmer of hope is enough. 

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Yeah, I said it: Temptation is tempting.

What?

It is; otherwise it would be called “the thing that I saw but didn’t feel compelled to take even a second look”; and part of what makes the temptation of Jesus an event worth mentioning is that in order for it to be called “the temptation of Jesus”, temptation has to be something that’s tempting for him, too. Yes, the fact that the Divine and Human natures both exist within Jesus means that he has a capacity to resist temptation and fully trust in God’s providence that we don’t, but it’s important that Jesus was tempted because it allows us to know a crucial thing about the love God has for us: God finds it important to share our experience.

It’s a good thing for us that God’s love is strong; nothing fragile could stand in the face of our brokenness without collapsing.

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Today’s teaching is challenging for those of us who are human beings because it cuts to the heart of the most damaging and lasting effects of Sin and how it affects every aspect of our lives. This is a text where Jesus speaks clearly about divorce, but it’s spoken in the cultural context of his time and place. Jesus speaks clearly about anger and swearing, and when we dig in deeper, we see that this is more complex than we might otherwise imagine. 

Moses urges his people to “choose life”. 

When we hear the law, often what we hear is the word of conviction, the word of shame, the word of guilt — words of death.

How in the world can the law be seen as giving us words of life and hope?

How do we live into the spirit of the law while not removing its letter?

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Late post...this is from February 9...oops. :)

When we hear that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, it can fill us with some rightful dread because usually when someone talks about God’s laws, it isn’t because they plan to regale us with tales of God’s love for creation.

Jesus says in the Gospel that he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. What IS the law that Jesus fulfills? How can we ever live into the righteousness of God when we so often rebel against this law of which Jesus IS the fulfillment?

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Late post...this is from February 9...oops. :)

When we hear that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, it can fill us with some rightful dread because usually when someone talks about God’s laws, it isn’t because they plan to regale us with tales of God’s love for creation.

Jesus says in the Gospel that he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. What IS the law that Jesus fulfills? How can we ever live into the righteousness of God when we so often rebel against this law of which Jesus IS the fulfillment?

Support the show