Mark 16:6-8Luke 24:13-17, Luke 24:45-49Matthew 28:19John 21:15-17“God is a relational being: without the concept of communion it would not be possible to speak of the being of God…God has no true being apart from communion.” – John ZizioulasPerichoresis (from Greek: perikhrsis, "rotation")“The Holy Spirit is the agent of the kingdom of God. That kingdom is present, often hidden, in the church. The Holy Spirit is the way that God keeps actively loving us in time, the way that the Trinity keeps showing up to us, keeps pointing us toward the truth embodied in the crucified. By God’s love, we live in the age of the Spirit, that new time in which the church exists and testifies to the world that our time is not our own. God has taken time for us, and the sign of that divine intrusion is the Holy Spirit at work in the church that lives and works in the world. God through the Spirit draws us into the life of the Trinity, making possible a people who would otherwise not exist. The Spirit must have a body on which the Spirit can rest. That body turns out to be called church.” – Willimon, The Holy SpiritJohn 14:25-27“The Spirit has distinct work to do: to make us one body, the body of Christ. That the Holy Spirit is called “Advocate” indicates that in Christ we are more than simply accepted by God or even justified by God. The advocate continues to plead for us, represent us to God in ways greater than our ways, and to speak on our behalf to God better than we could speak for ourselves. At the same time the advocate is God representing God to us, revealing God to us in ways that we could not have come up with on our own.” – Hauerwas, The Holy SpiritPreveniant Grace:There’s this idea we have in Wesleyan theology that says "pre-grace". That God is pursuing us and working things out for us even before we realize that God is pursuing us and working things out for us. God was moving in your life before you realized it. God is working everywhere all the time with everyone. There is no place that God is not working. Epiclesis Prayer:We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O God, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, we offer you these gifts.Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of the Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom. All this we ask through Jesus Christ: By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours now and forever. Amen.

Mark 16:6-8Luke 24:13-17, Luke 24:45-49Matthew 28:19John 21:15-17“God is a relational being: without the concept of communion it would not be possible to speak of the being of God…God has no true being apart from communion.” – John ZizioulasPerichoresis (from Greek: perikhrsis, "rotation")“The Holy Spirit is the agent of the kingdom of God. That kingdom is present, often hidden, in the church. The Holy Spirit is the way that God keeps actively loving us in time, the way that the Trinity keeps showing up to us, keeps pointing us toward the truth embodied in the crucified. By God’s love, we live in the age of the Spirit, that new time in which the church exists and testifies to the world that our time is not our own. God has taken time for us, and the sign of that divine intrusion is the Holy Spirit at work in the church that lives and works in the world. God through the Spirit draws us into the life of the Trinity, making possible a people who would otherwise not exist. The Spirit must have a body on which the Spirit can rest. That body turns out to be called church.” – Willimon, The Holy SpiritJohn 14:25-27“The Spirit has distinct work to do: to make us one body, the body of Christ. That the Holy Spirit is called “Advocate” indicates that in Christ we are more than simply accepted by God or even justified by God. The advocate continues to plead for us, represent us to God in ways greater than our ways, and to speak on our behalf to God better than we could speak for ourselves. At the same time the advocate is God representing God to us, revealing God to us in ways that we could not have come up with on our own.” – Hauerwas, The Holy SpiritPreveniant Grace:There’s this idea we have in Wesleyan theology that says "pre-grace". That God is pursuing us and working things out for us even before we realize that God is pursuing us and working things out for us. God was moving in your life before you realized it. God is working everywhere all the time with everyone. There is no place that God is not working. Epiclesis Prayer:We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O God, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, we offer you these gifts.Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of the Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom. All this we ask through Jesus Christ: By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours now and forever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13"He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

1 Corinthians 13:1-13"He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

1 Corinthians 13:1-13"He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

1 Corinthians 13:1-13"He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

•Colossians 3:1-17•“Restraint is crucial. When I know that it is wrong for me to act in certain ways, I simultaneously affirm the integrity of others by acknowledging that my behavior can potentially violate them. To practice restraint, I must be able to stand back and see that the exercise of my freedom can become disordered and injurious. There are limits to what I can and cannot do: this is what honest intimacy teaches. Limits protect the integrity of others. A well-ordered life, one that results in healthy relationships, is one that presupposes the double capacity to get out of the way of another, so as not to impede flourishing, and to be available to help, so that together both can sort out what true flourishing actually looks like.” –Wirzba “The Way of Love”•Genesis 3:1-11•“To eat from the tree amounted to the consumption and thus the erasure of all limits. In this act the need for restraint vanished. When they ate the fruit, they indicated that they wanted to be little gods beholden to no one, able to exercise personal freedom however they wanted. What they did not realize is that a life without limits amounts to a life of degradation and dissolution. Why does unrestrained freedom lead to the wounding of life? Because when one lives without restraint, one acts in ways that inevitably violate the integrity of others. To deny the sanctity of creatures, a sanctity that is grounded in God’s love for them, is to put oneself in a position to exploit them. The origins of sin and shame are to be found in the distorted desire that refuse intimacy and instead seeks power, control, or simply convenience. Upon denying the need for restraint and thereby also denying the integrity and sanctity of others, they want to hid. Being ashamed, they can no longer be naked (exposes).” –Wirzba•Adam & Eve living without limits Without Theological Limits Cain & Abel living without limits Unlimited jealousy, greed or consequenceLiving without relational limits•Genesis 11:1-4•Unlimited power, unlimited reach at unlimited cost Using others – exploiting technology, exploiting a workforce Living without societal limits•Exodus 1:11-14 Living without economic limits Ultimately these are a reflection and results of their anxiety. We aren’t good enough. We don’t have enough. God is holding back – not on our side. Our future is in danger of failure.•God gave the freed people a law to live byLive in limits!So that everyone can thrive and flourish here in this community.Gleaning laws.Jubilee laws.Sabbath laws.All about limiting personal freedom so that others can flourish. There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed. •Exodus 20:1-2•Church- life without limits is a life of idolatry•“Another way to understand the corruption of love is to examine how an idolatrous impulse comes to reside within human hearts. As a fundamental distortion of love, idolatry transforms intimacy in which others are cherished, served, and empowered, into forms of bondage in which others are made to serve us. To be idolatrous is to be incapable of delighting in things as they are, because they are seen as valuable only insofar as they serve personal needs, desires and expectations. People become idolatrous because they can’t get past worshipping themselves. The primary problem is confused worship. Genuine worship is meant to take us beyond ourselves to be the source of life, which we clearly did not create. What we find in idolatry is, however, is a gesture that keeps us at the center of everything, realigning each creature so that its value is determined by us. –Wirzba•To make an idol of anything is to place upon it an expectation it cannot bear. Moreover, when we expect a creature to calm our fears or satisfy our ambitions, we invariably make that creature serve an end that is alien to its own fulfillment. The creature is thereby violated and wounded. Idolatry and intimacy are mutually exclusive. Put anther way, we make idols of all sorts of things – the stock market, a job or company, our family – because we think that by giving our allegiance to them our lives will be made more secure and complete.Idolatry is a confused gesture that unleashes destruction upon the world. Why? Because idolatry is a distortion of love. Rather than making room for the other creatures to become themselves, idolatry makes creatures serve us. In every idolatrous move, creatures are made to serve the fear, insecurity and ambition we feel. Creates can no longer be themselves. They must be made to serve whatever desires we have. Idolatry is the imposition of the self upon the world for the purpose of self’s comfort, control, and glorification. Idolatry affects everyone. It is like the default setting by which people tend to operate. You don’t need to be a moral monster to reduce others to the scale of your own concerns. All you need to be is afraid, insecure or impatient. All you need to do is replace a primary trust in God with an exclusive trust in yourself.- Wirzba•Who have you not treated as a gift? Who have you had unreasonable expectations upon to benefit yourself? What thing have you been trusting in to give your life security and make it complete? Have you been worshiping God or yourself? And in that – have you been living without limits – where? Are you impeding on others? Where does your life and to whom do you need to re-embrace love? Where, or to whom, do you need to make room for as they to become themselves?

•Colossians 3:1-17•“Restraint is crucial. When I know that it is wrong for me to act in certain ways, I simultaneously affirm the integrity of others by acknowledging that my behavior can potentially violate them. To practice restraint, I must be able to stand back and see that the exercise of my freedom can become disordered and injurious. There are limits to what I can and cannot do: this is what honest intimacy teaches. Limits protect the integrity of others. A well-ordered life, one that results in healthy relationships, is one that presupposes the double capacity to get out of the way of another, so as not to impede flourishing, and to be available to help, so that together both can sort out what true flourishing actually looks like.” –Wirzba “The Way of Love”•Genesis 3:1-11•“To eat from the tree amounted to the consumption and thus the erasure of all limits. In this act the need for restraint vanished. When they ate the fruit, they indicated that they wanted to be little gods beholden to no one, able to exercise personal freedom however they wanted. What they did not realize is that a life without limits amounts to a life of degradation and dissolution. Why does unrestrained freedom lead to the wounding of life? Because when one lives without restraint, one acts in ways that inevitably violate the integrity of others. To deny the sanctity of creatures, a sanctity that is grounded in God’s love for them, is to put oneself in a position to exploit them. The origins of sin and shame are to be found in the distorted desire that refuse intimacy and instead seeks power, control, or simply convenience. Upon denying the need for restraint and thereby also denying the integrity and sanctity of others, they want to hid. Being ashamed, they can no longer be naked (exposes).” –Wirzba•Adam & Eve living without limits Without Theological Limits Cain & Abel living without limits Unlimited jealousy, greed or consequenceLiving without relational limits•Genesis 11:1-4•Unlimited power, unlimited reach at unlimited cost Using others – exploiting technology, exploiting a workforce Living without societal limits•Exodus 1:11-14 Living without economic limits Ultimately these are a reflection and results of their anxiety. We aren’t good enough. We don’t have enough. God is holding back – not on our side. Our future is in danger of failure.•God gave the freed people a law to live byLive in limits!So that everyone can thrive and flourish here in this community.Gleaning laws.Jubilee laws.Sabbath laws.All about limiting personal freedom so that others can flourish. There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed. •Exodus 20:1-2•Church- life without limits is a life of idolatry•“Another way to understand the corruption of love is to examine how an idolatrous impulse comes to reside within human hearts. As a fundamental distortion of love, idolatry transforms intimacy in which others are cherished, served, and empowered, into forms of bondage in which others are made to serve us. To be idolatrous is to be incapable of delighting in things as they are, because they are seen as valuable only insofar as they serve personal needs, desires and expectations. People become idolatrous because they can’t get past worshipping themselves. The primary problem is confused worship. Genuine worship is meant to take us beyond ourselves to be the source of life, which we clearly did not create. What we find in idolatry is, however, is a gesture that keeps us at the center of everything, realigning each creature so that its value is determined by us. –Wirzba•To make an idol of anything is to place upon it an expectation it cannot bear. Moreover, when we expect a creature to calm our fears or satisfy our ambitions, we invariably make that creature serve an end that is alien to its own fulfillment. The creature is thereby violated and wounded. Idolatry and intimacy are mutually exclusive. Put anther way, we make idols of all sorts of things – the stock market, a job or company, our family – because we think that by giving our allegiance to them our lives will be made more secure and complete.Idolatry is a confused gesture that unleashes destruction upon the world. Why? Because idolatry is a distortion of love. Rather than making room for the other creatures to become themselves, idolatry makes creatures serve us. In every idolatrous move, creatures are made to serve the fear, insecurity and ambition we feel. Creates can no longer be themselves. They must be made to serve whatever desires we have. Idolatry is the imposition of the self upon the world for the purpose of self’s comfort, control, and glorification. Idolatry affects everyone. It is like the default setting by which people tend to operate. You don’t need to be a moral monster to reduce others to the scale of your own concerns. All you need to be is afraid, insecure or impatient. All you need to do is replace a primary trust in God with an exclusive trust in yourself.- Wirzba•Who have you not treated as a gift? Who have you had unreasonable expectations upon to benefit yourself? What thing have you been trusting in to give your life security and make it complete? Have you been worshiping God or yourself? And in that – have you been living without limits – where? Are you impeding on others? Where does your life and to whom do you need to re-embrace love? Where, or to whom, do you need to make room for as they to become themselves?

•Colossians 3:1-17•“Restraint is crucial. When I know that it is wrong for me to act in certain ways, I simultaneously affirm the integrity of others by acknowledging that my behavior can potentially violate them. To practice restraint, I must be able to stand back and see that the exercise of my freedom can become disordered and injurious. There are limits to what I can and cannot do: this is what honest intimacy teaches. Limits protect the integrity of others. A well-ordered life, one that results in healthy relationships, is one that presupposes the double capacity to get out of the way of another, so as not to impede flourishing, and to be available to help, so that together both can sort out what true flourishing actually looks like.” –Wirzba “The Way of Love”•Genesis 3:1-11•“To eat from the tree amounted to the consumption and thus the erasure of all limits. In this act the need for restraint vanished. When they ate the fruit, they indicated that they wanted to be little gods beholden to no one, able to exercise personal freedom however they wanted. What they did not realize is that a life without limits amounts to a life of degradation and dissolution. Why does unrestrained freedom lead to the wounding of life? Because when one lives without restraint, one acts in ways that inevitably violate the integrity of others. To deny the sanctity of creatures, a sanctity that is grounded in God’s love for them, is to put oneself in a position to exploit them. The origins of sin and shame are to be found in the distorted desire that refuse intimacy and instead seeks power, control, or simply convenience. Upon denying the need for restraint and thereby also denying the integrity and sanctity of others, they want to hid. Being ashamed, they can no longer be naked (exposes).” –Wirzba•Adam & Eve living without limits Without Theological Limits Cain & Abel living without limits Unlimited jealousy, greed or consequenceLiving without relational limits•Genesis 11:1-4•Unlimited power, unlimited reach at unlimited cost Using others – exploiting technology, exploiting a workforce Living without societal limits•Exodus 1:11-14 Living without economic limits Ultimately these are a reflection and results of their anxiety. We aren’t good enough. We don’t have enough. God is holding back – not on our side. Our future is in danger of failure.•God gave the freed people a law to live byLive in limits!So that everyone can thrive and flourish here in this community.Gleaning laws.Jubilee laws.Sabbath laws.All about limiting personal freedom so that others can flourish. There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed. •Exodus 20:1-2•Church- life without limits is a life of idolatry•“Another way to understand the corruption of love is to examine how an idolatrous impulse comes to reside within human hearts. As a fundamental distortion of love, idolatry transforms intimacy in which others are cherished, served, and empowered, into forms of bondage in which others are made to serve us. To be idolatrous is to be incapable of delighting in things as they are, because they are seen as valuable only insofar as they serve personal needs, desires and expectations. People become idolatrous because they can’t get past worshipping themselves. The primary problem is confused worship. Genuine worship is meant to take us beyond ourselves to be the source of life, which we clearly did not create. What we find in idolatry is, however, is a gesture that keeps us at the center of everything, realigning each creature so that its value is determined by us. –Wirzba•To make an idol of anything is to place upon it an expectation it cannot bear. Moreover, when we expect a creature to calm our fears or satisfy our ambitions, we invariably make that creature serve an end that is alien to its own fulfillment. The creature is thereby violated and wounded. Idolatry and intimacy are mutually exclusive. Put anther way, we make idols of all sorts of things – the stock market, a job or company, our family – because we think that by giving our allegiance to them our lives will be made more secure and complete.Idolatry is a confused gesture that unleashes destruction upon the world. Why? Because idolatry is a distortion of love. Rather than making room for the other creatures to become themselves, idolatry makes creatures serve us. In every idolatrous move, creatures are made to serve the fear, insecurity and ambition we feel. Creates can no longer be themselves. They must be made to serve whatever desires we have. Idolatry is the imposition of the self upon the world for the purpose of self’s comfort, control, and glorification. Idolatry affects everyone. It is like the default setting by which people tend to operate. You don’t need to be a moral monster to reduce others to the scale of your own concerns. All you need to be is afraid, insecure or impatient. All you need to do is replace a primary trust in God with an exclusive trust in yourself.- Wirzba•Who have you not treated as a gift? Who have you had unreasonable expectations upon to benefit yourself? What thing have you been trusting in to give your life security and make it complete? Have you been worshiping God or yourself? And in that – have you been living without limits – where? Are you impeding on others? Where does your life and to whom do you need to re-embrace love? Where, or to whom, do you need to make room for as they to become themselves?

•Colossians 3:1-17•“Restraint is crucial. When I know that it is wrong for me to act in certain ways, I simultaneously affirm the integrity of others by acknowledging that my behavior can potentially violate them. To practice restraint, I must be able to stand back and see that the exercise of my freedom can become disordered and injurious. There are limits to what I can and cannot do: this is what honest intimacy teaches. Limits protect the integrity of others. A well-ordered life, one that results in healthy relationships, is one that presupposes the double capacity to get out of the way of another, so as not to impede flourishing, and to be available to help, so that together both can sort out what true flourishing actually looks like.” –Wirzba “The Way of Love”•Genesis 3:1-11•“To eat from the tree amounted to the consumption and thus the erasure of all limits. In this act the need for restraint vanished. When they ate the fruit, they indicated that they wanted to be little gods beholden to no one, able to exercise personal freedom however they wanted. What they did not realize is that a life without limits amounts to a life of degradation and dissolution. Why does unrestrained freedom lead to the wounding of life? Because when one lives without restraint, one acts in ways that inevitably violate the integrity of others. To deny the sanctity of creatures, a sanctity that is grounded in God’s love for them, is to put oneself in a position to exploit them. The origins of sin and shame are to be found in the distorted desire that refuse intimacy and instead seeks power, control, or simply convenience. Upon denying the need for restraint and thereby also denying the integrity and sanctity of others, they want to hid. Being ashamed, they can no longer be naked (exposes).” –Wirzba•Adam & Eve living without limits Without Theological Limits Cain & Abel living without limits Unlimited jealousy, greed or consequenceLiving without relational limits•Genesis 11:1-4•Unlimited power, unlimited reach at unlimited cost Using others – exploiting technology, exploiting a workforce Living without societal limits•Exodus 1:11-14 Living without economic limits Ultimately these are a reflection and results of their anxiety. We aren’t good enough. We don’t have enough. God is holding back – not on our side. Our future is in danger of failure.•God gave the freed people a law to live byLive in limits!So that everyone can thrive and flourish here in this community.Gleaning laws.Jubilee laws.Sabbath laws.All about limiting personal freedom so that others can flourish. There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed. •Exodus 20:1-2•Church- life without limits is a life of idolatry•“Another way to understand the corruption of love is to examine how an idolatrous impulse comes to reside within human hearts. As a fundamental distortion of love, idolatry transforms intimacy in which others are cherished, served, and empowered, into forms of bondage in which others are made to serve us. To be idolatrous is to be incapable of delighting in things as they are, because they are seen as valuable only insofar as they serve personal needs, desires and expectations. People become idolatrous because they can’t get past worshipping themselves. The primary problem is confused worship. Genuine worship is meant to take us beyond ourselves to be the source of life, which we clearly did not create. What we find in idolatry is, however, is a gesture that keeps us at the center of everything, realigning each creature so that its value is determined by us. –Wirzba•To make an idol of anything is to place upon it an expectation it cannot bear. Moreover, when we expect a creature to calm our fears or satisfy our ambitions, we invariably make that creature serve an end that is alien to its own fulfillment. The creature is thereby violated and wounded. Idolatry and intimacy are mutually exclusive. Put anther way, we make idols of all sorts of things – the stock market, a job or company, our family – because we think that by giving our allegiance to them our lives will be made more secure and complete.Idolatry is a confused gesture that unleashes destruction upon the world. Why? Because idolatry is a distortion of love. Rather than making room for the other creatures to become themselves, idolatry makes creatures serve us. In every idolatrous move, creatures are made to serve the fear, insecurity and ambition we feel. Creates can no longer be themselves. They must be made to serve whatever desires we have. Idolatry is the imposition of the self upon the world for the purpose of self’s comfort, control, and glorification. Idolatry affects everyone. It is like the default setting by which people tend to operate. You don’t need to be a moral monster to reduce others to the scale of your own concerns. All you need to be is afraid, insecure or impatient. All you need to do is replace a primary trust in God with an exclusive trust in yourself.- Wirzba•Who have you not treated as a gift? Who have you had unreasonable expectations upon to benefit yourself? What thing have you been trusting in to give your life security and make it complete? Have you been worshiping God or yourself? And in that – have you been living without limits – where? Are you impeding on others? Where does your life and to whom do you need to re-embrace love? Where, or to whom, do you need to make room for as they to become themselves?