Union Church

Listen along as Anthony shares some reflections on grief and the love of God.

Notes/Quotes:

Job 13:13-16

Miles picture

“It is hard to have patience with people who say, ‘There is no death’ or ‘Death doesn’t matter.’ There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn’t matter. I look up at the night sky. Is anything more certain than that in all those vast times and spaces, if I were allowed to search them, I should nowhere find her face, her voice, her touch? She died. She is dead. Is the word so difficult to learn?”

“My idea of God is not a divine idea, it has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it himself…He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of his presence. The incarnation is the supreme example. It leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins…and most are offended by the iconoclasm and blessed are those who are not." 

Listen along as we wrap up our series through the Bible.

Notes/Quotes:

Listen along as we look at Jude's letter on Christmas Eve.

Jude:1-3 - Jeff Orsburn

In the church, this is the season of Advent. It’s superficially understood as a time to get ready for Christmas, but in truth it’s the season for contemplating the judgment of God. Advent is the season that, when properly understood, does not flinch from the darkness that stalks us all in this world. Advent begins in the dark and moves toward the light—but the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness. Advent bids us take a fearless inventory of the darkness: the darkness without and the darkness within. - Fleming Rutledge

“Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: “These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace.” Henri Nouwen

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,

Jude 1:24-25

The entire thrust of this season at the end of the church year is designed to bring us face-to-face with reality—reality about sin and death, reality about the human race, reality about God. Something ultimate has entered our world, something or Someone that calls us to attention, calls us out of our daily preoccupations and our routine points of view. That is what this season with its special biblical readings is designed to reveal - Fleming Rutledge

Listen along as we continue through the story of Scripture.

Notes/Quotes:

1 John 1:1-10 - Christine Reading

In our unredeemed state we are “of the devil,” who has sinned and lied and murdered “from the beginning” (1 John 3:8 / John 8:44); we are “from the world” (2:16; 4:5 / 8:23; 15:19). We therefore “sin” (3:4 / 8:34) and “have” sin (1:8 / 9:41), “walk in the darkness” (1:6; 2:11 / 8:12; 12:35) and are “dead” (3:14 / 5:25). God loved and sent His Son to be “the Savior of the World” (4:14 / 4:42) so that “we might live” (4:9 / 3:16). Believing in him or in his “name” (5:13 / 1:12), we pass from death to life (3:14 / 5:24). We “have life” (5:11, 12 / 3:15, 36; 20:31), for life is in the Son of God (5:11–12 / 1:4; 14:6). This is what it means to be “born of God” (2:29; 3:9; 5:4, 18 / 1:13).

“There, the people gathered earnestly to hear the aging apostle speak about his experiences with Jesus. As John’s strength diminished and his ability even to speak declined, Jerome tells us that “He usually said nothing but, ‘Little children, love one another.’” The listeners reportedly grew weary of hearing the old man repeat the same line over and over. “Teacher,” they asked, “why do you always say this?” According to Jerome, the aged apostle replied, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if it alone is kept, it is sufficient.” - Michael LeFebvre

1 John 4:7-21

“Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us” (I John 4:10). We must not begin with mysticism, with the creature’s love for God, or with the wonderful foretastes of the fruition of God vouchsafed to some in their earthly life. We begin at the real beginning, with love as the Divine energy. This Primal love is Gift-love. In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give."

1 John 3:1-3

Questions:

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour, All for love’s
sake became poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender, Sapphire-paved
courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour, All for love’s
sake became poor.

Listen along as we continue our journey through the story of scripture.

Notes//Quotes:

2 Peter 1:3-11

The important point to keep in mind is that love is a virtue, not an emotion. Christians are not encouraged to feel warmly about each other or even to like one another; they are instructed to act lovingly toward one another. Thus Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 speaks about what love does, how it acts, not how it feels - Peter Davids

“If we aren’t careful we live with a gospel that leaves our inner life untouched and merely makes sure we have the right marking somehow, the right brand so it will be clear that we belong to the right herd…But Christ comes to us and says to us “Let me transform you inside, let me take all of those fears, all of those angers, all of that contempt, all of that lust that eats at your soul and replace it with a worship of God and a love of others that will make your entire life sweet and strong because you’ll be standing with me in the kingdom of God.”” - Dallas Willard

Gospel + safety + time. It’s what everyone needs. A lot of gospel + a lot of safety + a lot of time.

2 Peter 2:1-3

2 Peter 2:22 

Psalm 19:7-11

2 Peter 3:1-13

Acts 1:6-8, 

An Eschatological grid 

Listen along as we continue our journey through the story of Scripture.

Notes//Quotes:

Listen along as we look at the letter from James to the church.

Notes/Quotes:

James 1:1-28  - Mike Reading

In a word St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul’s epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and salvatory for you to know, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. - Martin Luther

Mark 3:20-21

“In English, perfect means “without blemish.” What this word (perfect) means is: whole, to be complete, be consistent, like an integer, which is related to integrity. It speaks of maturity…All the ethics of the Bible are imitative, because this is what God is like.” - Jonathan Pennington

Listen along as we continue our journey through the story of scripture. Today we look at the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 1:1-4

“It is the audience that really helps us to understand the book. The audience appears to be primarily Jewish Christians, who grew up in Judaism, but have believed in Jesus. They have embraced him as the Messiah. Yet they have hit a snag. For whatever reason – perhaps the pressure of persecution and opposition – they are thinking about going back to Judaism. They’re considering leaving this newfound faith and going back to the old ways: animal, sacrifices, worship at the temple – the old paths, if you will, that the Jews have trusted in for generations. In other words, these people are starting to doubt whether this Jesus thing is all it first promised to be.” Michael Kruger

Colossians 1:15-16

”If Jesus is not God, then there is no Christianity, and we who worship Him are nothing more than idolaters. Conversely, if He is God, those who say He was merely a good man, or even the best of men, are blasphemers. More serious still, if He is not God, then He is a blasphemer in the fullest sense of the word. If He is not God, He is not even good.” J Oswald Sanders, The Incomparable Christ

“The great object of the Epistle is to describe the contrast between the old and new covenants. But this contrast is based upon their unity. It is impossible for us rightly to understand the contrast unless we know first the resemblance. The new covenant is contrasted with the old covenant, not in the way in which the light of the knowledge of God is contrasted with the darkness and ignorance of heathenism, for the old covenant is also of God, and is therefore possessed of Divine glory. Beautiful is the night in which the moon and the stars of prophecy and types are shining; but when the sun arises then we forget the hours of watchfulness and expectancy, and in the clear and joyous light of day there is revealed to us the reality and substance of the eternal and heavenly sanctuary” Adolph Saphir

Hebrews 2:1

The vultures of consumerism will come to steal your generosity.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Listen along as we go through the letter to Philemon

Notes//Quotes:

Text: Philemon

Reading: Philemon (esv)

“23 …if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23 & 24)

“though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you” (Philemon 1:8 & 9a.)

 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances” (Proverbs 25:11, nasb)

“Human reconciliation runs on loving tact, something every Christian should master regardless of personality or position.” (R. Kent Hughes)

“12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (Philemon 1:12-16)

“…[I]n Christ Jesus you are ALL sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” 

“The relationships of the old creation that are marked by polarities (you are either one or the other) and characterized by an economic hierarchy (one side of the relationship is valued higher in the economy of the present age) do not continue into the new creation in Christ.”  (Daniel Ragusa)

“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” 

“6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 

“Forgiveness is a form of voluntary suffering. In forgiving, rather than retaliating, you make a choice to bear the cost.” Timothy Keller

Listen along as we wrap up the pastoral epistles.

Notes/Quotes:

Titus 2:11-3:11

“The laws allow them to possess as much land as they can get with no limitation whatever. Money is so highly valued among them, that its possession is not only thought to be necessary but in the highest degree creditable. And in fact greed and avarice are so native to the soil in Crete, that they are the only people in the world among whom no stigma attaches to any sort of gain whatever. Again all their offices are annual and on a democratical footing…the Cretans by their ingrained avarice are engaged in countless public and private seditions, murders and civil wars, they yet regard these facts as not affecting their contention, but are bold enough to speak of the two constitutions as alike”. Polybius, Greek Philosopher, 150 B.C.

Titus 1:5-9

“The vocation of pastor(s) has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans.” - Eugene Peterson

“My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see grace operating in their lives…Congregations are composed of people, who, upon entering a church, leave behind what people on the street name or call them. A church can never be reduced to a place where goods and services are exchanged. It must never be a place where a person is labeled. It can never be a place where gossip is perpetuated. Before anything else, it is a place where a person is named and greeted, whether implicitly or explicitly, in Jesus’s name. A place where dignity is conferred.” Eugene Peterson

Titus 2:1