Union Church

Listen in as we close out our Human series and see the hope we have in Jesus.

Hope for HumansRomans 15:1-7

"Paul reverses the ordinary structure of obligation. Rather than the weak being forced to submit to the strong, as was typical in Greco-Roman culture, the powerful are here under obligation to ‘bear/carry’ the weaknesses of the powerless.” Robert Jewett

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all -And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm -I’ve heard it in the chillest land -And on the strangest Sea -Yet - never - in Extremity,It asked a crumb - of me.Emily Dickinson 

“The biblical writers distinguish between hopes that are illfounded and vain, and hopes that have a sure foundation. The range of ill-founded hopes is as wide as the human capacity for self-deception. It is vain to place one’s hope in military might (Isa. 31:1–3), in one’s own wisdom (Prov. 26:12) or righteousness (Ezek. 33:13), in riches (Prov. 11:28), or even in the temple (Jer. 7:9–10) or the law of Moses (John 5:45). All of these are inadequate bases of hope, and indeed, for the unrighteous person who trusts in such things, there is no hope (Job 8:13; 11:20; 27:8; Prov. 10:28; 11:7). Thus the majority of scriptural references to hope elucidate the only true foundation of hope, God. In this there is a remarkable continuity between the Old and New Testaments.” - Eerdmans Bible Dictionary

“The reason I can continue watching and waiting, even as the world is shrouded in darkness, is because the things I long for are not rooted in wishful thinking or religious ritual but are as solid as a stone rolled away.” Tish Harrison Warren

1 Thess 4:16-182 Peter 3:8-102 Peter 3:11-141 Cor 15:50-58

Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom. NT Wright

[Jesus] matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weaknesses he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity. - Dallas Willard

1 Sam 16:1-13

“Whereas we often ask “Why?” people in the Bible more often asked “How long?” Their tendency was not to demand that God give an explanation for the origin of evil but rather to plead with God to do something to bring about an end to evil.” - Chris Wright

“Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong” - Tim Keller

“Faith doesn’t eliminate questions, but it knows where to take them” - E. Elliot

Mark 4:35-41

“The wind and the waves recognized Jesus’ voice. They had heard it before, of course - it was the same voice that made them, in the very beginning.” Jesus Storybook Bible

into their hearts came a different kind of storm…Jesus friends had been so afraid, they had only seen the big waves. They had forgotten that, if Jesus was with them, then they had nothing to be afraid of. No matter how small their boat - or how big the storm.”

God says a lot about suffering in Scripture so that you know where to look when the pain comes to you. - Joseph Scheumann

The idea of salvation cannot be reduced to a personal relationship with Jesus. God's plan is much more encompassing. God intends for salvation to be a community-creating event.- Joseph Hellerman

Often the difference between where I am and where God wants me to be is the pain I’m unwilling to endure. There is no growth without change, no change without loss, and no loss without pain. - Samuel Chand

 

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Genesis 1:26-2:3

“The original meaning reflects the practice of setting up an image or symbol that signifies sovereignty, something similar to a national flag. As images of God, the human beings represented the locale where God rules supreme. In the ancient world, royalty were perceived in this way. They were either considered divine themselves or they represented the deity to their people” Diane Bergant 

"The whole human being is image and likeness of God, in soul and body, in all human faculties, powers, and gifts. Nothing in humanity is excluded from God’s image; it stretches as far as our humanity does and constitutes our humanness." Herman Bavinck

The twofold commission given the human couple in this story,“subdue. . . .Have dominion,” is also royal language. Thus, one can say that this is a royal couple that exercises authority over the rest of the created world. Still, their authority is limited. The woman and man are not gods; they are images of God, representatives responsible for God’s world and accountable to God in carrying out this responsibility. Every woman and every man is made in God’s image and has been commissioned to stand as God’s representative in the management of the natural world. Diane Bergant

“Despite what we often hear about this passage, it’s not just a call to make babies and start farms. It’s not chiefly about doing more for God. Instead, this is a beautiful call to imitate the creative work God himself accomplished in creation. It’s about being who he created you to be. Filling the earth is about filling the empty spaces with beauty and using your gifts and talents to show the world the creative nature of its God. Having dominion is about bringing order—ordered hearts, ordered relationships, ordered businesses, ordered homes—out of chaos. We must know him, be with him, and rest in him if we are going to reflect him to the world.” - Elizabeth Garn

“You’ve heard the story, you know how it goes, Once upon a garden we were lovers with no clothes Fresh from the soil we were beautiful and true, In control of our emotions to till we ate the poison fruit. And now its...Hard to be, Hard to be, Hard to be A decent human being” David Bazan

“If you can’t see your toddler in the house and it’s quiet, they’re not somewhere helping orphans. They’re somewhere testing your perimeter for weaknesses.” Jon Acuff

“We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and dignity, should allure us to love and embrace them.” - John Calvin

The whole concept of the image of God is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected . . . and this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this. . . . There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“God doesn’t make junk, and doesn’t junk what junk what He has made.”  - Al Wolters

Picture 1/2Colossians 3:9-11Ephesians 4:17-24 

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. . . . Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” - C.S. Lewis

Passion in the midst of indifference.Intentionality and slowness in the midst of fragmentation and burnout.Community and vulnerability in the midst of isolation and pretending.Trust and submission in the midst of self making and re-invention. Sacrificial love and generosity in the midst o

Today we grieved the loss of Miles Garcia and reflected on Psalm 46.

Matthew 28:1-20

“These women will become the first witnesses to the resurrection, a fact that seems to guarantee the credibility of the account in a world that usually did not accept women’s testimony as legally binding. Were the story fabricated, only male witnesses would have appeared. The role of the women also points to the dawning of a new age of equality among women and men in Christ” Craig Blomberg

“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.” Galatians 3:28

“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers…” —Hebrews 2:11

“Not only does he show himself as still loving and accepting those who had abandoned him, but he even treats them as equals! (They might be failures, but) they remain laborers with him in the work of the Father. Jesus is neither denying his uniqueness nor deifying the disciples. But he is portraying the church as a brotherhood that manifests more equality than hierarchy, even if some functional differentiation between leaders and followers is clear from other Scriptures. (e.g., 1 Pet 5:1–5; Heb 13:17).” Craig Blomberg

“Think what he (Matthew) had to gain and lose by it. Denying the resurrection left everybody’s world view intact. The Jews could continue as they had done. The Romans could go on running the world their way. Philosophers could still debate their lofty doctrine. Nobody would need to make radical readjustments. But if the resurrection of Jesus was true, and if people were to start reordering their lives by it, they would be on a collision course with the rest of the world. Matthew knew that as well as we do.” - NT Wright

“Mountains have figured prominently at least six different times in this Gospel (see also 4:8: Temptation Mountain; 5:1: Sermon Mountain; 15:29: Supper Mountain; 17:1: Transfiguration Mountain; 24:3: Consummation Mountain). Ever since Sinai, mountains have been the classic loci of the Lord’s great revelations. Now here in Galilee, the Lord gives the final revelation of his Gospel on a mountain. “As it were, the same divine law swings itself like a bow from the mount of the first revelation in Sinai to this mount of the last revelation in Galilee.” Matthew’s Jesus, the New and Better Moses, the Messiah- Interpreter of God’s law, will now give his church her final orders from the Mission Mountain.” Dale Bruner

“All spiritual, metaphysical, philosophical, and religious power “in heaven” but also all social, physical, political, and economic power “on earth” are in his hands. He is in charge around here.” Dale Bruner

“The Christians’ focus was not on “saving” people or recruiting them; it was on living faithfully—in the belief that when people’s lives are rehabituated in the way of Jesus, others will want to join them.” - Alan Kreider

“Disciple” (mathēteusate). Interestingly, the usual missionary terms are not employed here: “preach,” “convert,” “win,” and the like. A slower, lower-profile verb is used, an almost scholastic, schoolish word, “disciple.” To disciple means “to make students of,” “bring to school,” “educate” or, in modern-English terms, “to mentor,” “to apprentice.” The word pictures students sitting around a teacher more than it does penitents kneeling at an altar—an educational process more than an evangelistic crisis, a school more than a revival. The word’s prosaic character relaxes and says in effect, “Work with people over a period of time in the simple educational process of teaching Jesus.” Only the Cosmo-creator can do the big things like convert, win, bring repentance, or bring a person to decision—all authority is his, and his alone. Disciples will do the little thing of “discipling” others—that is, they will spend time with people—in the confidence that sooner or later the Cosmocrator with all his authority will create in some of these people the decision to be baptized (or, in Chr

Today we see the cross of Christ and how the love, justice, and victory of God collide.

Matthew 27:32-66

“From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable from within, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.” - Fleming Rutledge

“Wit and cruelty were in combination…to make death in the highest degree terrible and miserable.” - Martin Hengel

“Crucifixion as a means of execution in the Roman Empire had as its express purpose the elimination of victims from consideration as members of the human race. It cannot be said too strongly: that was its function”. - Fleming Rutledge

And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed, indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say..He who suspended the earth is suspended, he who fixed the heavens is fixed, he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood, God is murdered. - Melito of Sardis

Jesus’ last sentence before death was a question, not an affirmation. Jesus could have ended his life much more triumphantly with a noble exclamation—“God is love!” or “Love one another!” or “I triumph!” But when he died asking questions, we learn that Jesus not only took on our flesh and blood but also our nervous systems. He came not only giving us answers; he also came asking our questions, and questions seem weaker than exclamations. Jesus has been redefining strength his whole life. - Dale Bruner

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have very different angles on things, but they all converge on this: When Jesus is crucified something happens, and the result is the powers that have locked up the world in corruption, decay and death are overthrown. And Jesus is, from now on, running the show—even though it doesn’t look like it because we have the wrong idea of what power is and how it works. If we take the New Testament seriously, we ought to see that the crucifixion of Jesus is the means by which God’s Kingdom is actually launched on earth as in heaven—because the powers are defeated, and this new world comes to birth. - NT Wright

Romans 5:6-81 Peter 3:18

“The wrath of God, which plays such a large role in both the Old and New Testaments, can be embraced because it comes wrapped in God's mercy..The wrath of God falls upon God himself, by God's own choice, out of God's own love. The 'justice connection' may not be clear to those who are accustomed to privilege, but to oppressed and suffering Christians in the troubled places of the earth, there is no need to spell it out. God in Christ on the cross has become one with those who are despised and outcast in the world. No other method of execution that the world has ever known could have established this so conclusively.” Fleming Rutledge

“The concept of substitution may be said to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God. While the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.” - John Stott

Romans 5:9-11 2 Corinthians 5:21

“The cross is the means by which God’s kingdom is actually launched on earth as in heaven—because the powers are defeated and this new world comes to birth.” - NT WrightColossians 2:13-15

Fake freedom: Be true to yourself.Real freedom: Be true to your God. - Matt Smethurst 

Galatians 5:1, 13-15

The Devil loves a bloodless cross. He doesn’t mind a shiny trinket around your neck so long as it’s not a shining treasure in your heart. Satan is afraid of the blood. He knows it washes sinners clean. He knows that the bloody cross spells his doom. And he knows the blood of Christ pays the wrath owed sinners, thereby forever making his accusations against God’s people null and void. Which is why Satan would love for you to keep your gospel nice and respectable. - Jared C. Wilson

Listen along as we see everything upside-down as Jesus nears the cross.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 27:1-31

This passion of Jesus Christ, this unveiling of man’s rebellion and of God‘s wrath, yet also his mercy, did not take place in heaven or in some remote planet or even in some world of ideas; it took place in our time, in the center of the world history in which our human life is played out. So we must not escape from this life. We must not take flight to a better land, or to some height or other unknown, nor to any spiritual cloud cuckooland nor to a Christian fairyland. That the word became flesh also means that it became temporal, historical. It assumes the form which belongs to the human creature, in which there are such folk as this very Pontius Pilate. The people we belong to and who are also ourselves at any time on a slightly larger scale! It is not necessary to close our eyes to this, for God has not closed his either; he has entered into it all. The incarnation of the word is an extremely concrete event, in which a human name may play a part. - Karl Barth

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

 

“Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one, of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us. But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built.” - The Big Book, AA

Romans 3:23-24

“Oh my soul, oh my Jesus, Peter denied you three times, I have denied you more. Oh my soul, oh my Jesus, Judas sold you for thirty, I’d have done it for less.” - Kings Kaleidoscope 

“Remarkable parallels appear between the names of the two prisoners, along with remarkable differences in their character. “Barabbas” means son of a father in a simple, human sense. Jesus, on the other hand, was the Heavenly Son of his Heavenly Father, though not yet generally so recognized. Several important manuscripts and versions add in both vv. 16 and 17 that Barabbas’s forename was “Jesus.” Although the external evidence for accepting these readings as original is relatively weak, it is hard to imagine anyone creating this potentially embarrassing parallel if it were not true. Certainly, having both characters named Jesus tightens the parallelism and makes the irony of the crowd’s response all the greater. Pilate’s question then becomes, Do you want Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ? The “Christ” (Messiah) is still a title at this point in history, and Pilate does not think Jesus deserves it.” - Craig Blomberg

 

“It seems that every generation offers the people of God two Jesuses, one of whom is a popular, patriotic, hate-the-enemy Liberator. No church, of course, has the whole Jesus—he is not easy to capture. Every church makes an attempt to present the authentic Jesus in a way relevant to its time. It is the responsibility of every congregation in every time to discern the Jesus who is truest to canonical sources and, so, most relevant to the deepest (though not always most obvious) needs of the time. The permanent contribution of the Barabbas story is its teaching that the church’s main trial in every age will be her choice of the Jesus she wants…This raises the question: Are the people of God at any given time following the Jesus of the normative apostolic documents or are they following the Jesus of current voices? Are they choosing a Suffering Savior or a macho Messiah?” Dale Bruner

The answer to the question of who

Listen along as we near the end of Matthew's gospel.

Notes/Quotes:

Text: Matthew 26:47-75Title: Gethsemane’s Gifts

“Jesus’ enemies are not his only problem. Jesus’ overzealous followers have historically been as painful to him. Disciples who trust their own instincts and praxis too much, who are too sure that Jesus must admire anything they do to serve and defend him or the oppressed, or who think the salvation of sinners or the liberation of the innocent justifies any means, are taught by this Gospel to think again.” - Dale Bruner

“This statement is sometimes interpreted as a call to pacifism, but in fact it is simply an observation that violence breeds violence. Perhaps warfare is sometimes necessary to prevent greater evils done to others but never merely in defense of self or God. Still, the proverbial form as a rationale for Jesus’ command suggests it would apply in other situations too. These will have to be settled on a case-by-case basis.”- Craig Blomberg

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,    yet he opened not his mouth;like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,    so he opened not his mouth. —Isaiah 53:7

 “he speaks in his own language, the language he has learned and lived for many years: the language of biblical prophecy. His answer to the question of messiahship is the same oblique form of ‘Yes’ that he gave to Judas in 26.25: ‘You’ve just said so’ or ‘those are your words’. It was perhaps a way of avoiding arrogance or apparent selfish pride. But the ringing affirmation which followed made it clear that Jesus saw himself and his work in terms of the biblical picture of messiahship (the passage about the son of man in Daniel 7, quoted here, was sometimes taken messianically at that time). What's more, he saw the confrontation between himself and Caiaphas as the concrete outworking of the clash between that ‘son of man’ and the Fourth Beast (Daniel 7.7-8), the monster that was waging war against the true representative of God's people.”- N.T. Wright

“Comes as close as the courtyard, sitting with the guards “to see how this would end.” “Following at a distance” is a wonderful description for the way most of us follow Jesus. We want, as Peter wanted to see how all this will end before we commit ourselves. Unfortunately, that strategy means that we cannot help but end up sitting with the guardians of the established order.”- Stanley Hauerwas

Title: God's Plan

Matthew 26:30-46

“Remarkable is Jesus’ prediction of the complete collapse of the whole church (“you will all”) right after his complete gift of himself to the whole church (“drink of it, all of you,” v. 27). “Though there will be but one traitor, they will all be deserters” (Henry, 393, emphasis added). Did Jesus know before the Supper that his disciples were this unstable? Would he have given them all forgiveness if he had known that they would all fall? We know the answers. Jesus gives disciples his Supper knowing not only what they have been but what they will be.”  - Dale Bruner

“Why should (or would) a person presume so much on the capacity of his (or her) nature? It is wounded, hurt, damaged.... It needs a true confession, not a false defense”  -Augustine

“He takes the three... in order that those who saw the glories [at the Transfiguration] might also see the griefs [at Gethsemane]”  - Dale Bruner

“It teaches the church at least three important truths: Jesus’ true humanity, his free obedience, and his real courage. If Jesus had not been confused by what was happening, could he have been truly human? And if Jesus had not been truly human, that is, an entire human being with not only a body like ours but also emotions and a mind like ours, could he have been our representative before God? Take away Jesus’ humanity and you take away humanity’s salvation. (“What was not assumed was not redeemed,” the fathers said.) Gethsemane’s emotions do not shame Jesus’ humanity, they prove it; they tell us that Jesus drank our cup to the lees, that he really was one of us, that he knew what it was to suffer, to be down, and in some ways even out. Might we reverently say that in Gethsemane, with its carefully chosen words for Jesus’ emotions and mind, that Jesus knew what it was to be emotionally crushed and mentally “crazy,” at least for awhile? This would mean that Jesus knows what we go through at our limits, and knows this not just “divinely” but also humanly. Does this lowness make him less appealing? Does this “baseness” diminish deity?” - Dale Bruner

“He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” —Hebrews 2:17-18

“Jesus did not know this wonderful theology and so prayed here not only for a knowledge of God’s will but for a knowledge of what might be possible for God. Hadn’t Jesus read his Bible enough to know these things? The truth of our text is that the Son of God himself in his human condition lay on the ground dumbfounded before the sometimes unfathomable will of God. This poverty of spirit seems closer to God than a richness of spirit that knows God’s secrets." - Dale Bruner

“One actually has the privilege of seeing Jesus’ will move in these petitions. In his first prayer, Jesus’ will moved visibly; there he asked, if possible, for the cup to be removed, but then added his proviso. In this second prayer Jesus does not ask for the cup’s removal, as if he is saying, “I’m beginning to think that you don’t want that cup to go away except by one route—my drinking it.” Jesus’ will moved from a nine, ten, or eleven o’clock position to a twelve o’clock position in his Gethsemane prayers. (Jesus’ will seems never to have been at six o’clock, in opposition to God. But the church learns from his first petition that the human will can ask honest questions “at ten o’clock,” so to speak, and still be within the magnetic field of God’s will.) Even in the first petition, in its second half, Jesus asked for God’s perfect will—“yet not as I want, but as you want.” But full humanity means seeking (not always fully having or knowing) this perfect will. The full humanity of even Jesus was not on automatic pilot at perfect twelve o’clock. Gethsemane is full of instruction to the ch

Listen along as we near the cross and see Christ shining through all the contrast of life and discipleship.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 26:1-29

A woman began the Christmas story; a woman now begins the passion story. Women will also begin the resurrection mission. The place of women in the Gospel stories has liberating ferment. Jesus is ahead of his time and his people, new and old, and is saying something by permitting so many records of—yes—women’s ministry. - Dale Bruner

The disciples are willing to hurt a woman who is there for the sake of the poor who aren’t; Jesus is unwilling to serve the plural poor at the expense of a single poor woman—he will not even let one human being be sacrificed on the altar of a principle. - Dale Bruner

“Agape love, perhaps the greatest contribution of Christ to human civilization, wills the good of whatever it is directed upon. It does not wish to consume it.” Dallas Willard 

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Jesus was going to his death wounded by the wounds common to humanity. Greed, lust, ambition: all kinds of natural drives and desires turning in on themselves rather than doing the outward-looking work the creator intended them to do. When we say that Jesus died ‘ because of our sins,’ we don’t just mean that in some high flown, abstract sense. We mean that what put him on the cross was precisely the sins that we all not only commit but wallow in. “It isn’t me, is it, Master?” Only when you’ve said that, knowing that it might well be you, can you begin to appreciate what it meant for Jesus to sit at that table and share that Passover meal with them, with Judas too.”  NT Wright

We don't come to the table to fight or to defend. We don't come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir up trouble. We come to the table because our hunger brings us there. We come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity. The table is the great equalizer, the level playing field many of us have been looking everywhere for. The table is the place where the doing stops, the trying stops, the masks are removed, and we allow ourselves to be nourished, like children. We allow someone else to meet our need. In a world that prides people on not having needs, on going longer and faster, on going without, on powering through, the table is a place of safety and rest and humanity, where we are allowed to be as fragile as we feel.” - Shauna Neiquist