WestGate Church Teaching

The word “justice” has (unfortunately) become a cultural buzzword these days, bandied about and even weaponized in our polarized moment. But what is “justice” exactly? Jay stops by to discuss the ways in which we talk about justice in our world is helpful, and ways in which it’s not . And we talk about what it might look like to move forward for faithful Christians who are desperate to reflect the ethical character of God Himself in a world full of injustice and suffering.

In Genesis 18, a great outcry of pain and suffering reaches the ears of God from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. This word “outcry” is a terrible word, used in the Bible to denote the cry of someone being violently oppressed or hurt. And God comes down to investigate it. And in this episode we learn something about God, and something about Abraham - that they are deeply concerned about justice. And in our world, full of injustice and full of outcries, we learn about what it means to be a people who reflect the very character and heart of God Himself: to love what is right, to do what is right and to set things right.

It’s not often a church gets to partner with a city to try to meet the tangible needs of the people. But that’s what Beautiful Day - in which more than 1,300 people participated in last week - did. Finny Abraham, WestGate Church’s local compassion pastor, stops by to share stories from Beautiful Day and talk about some of the lessons he’s learned trying to “be good and doing good.” Then, Sarah Lee joins us for Bible Nerd Out Time as she examines an old Beautiful Day t-shirt and slogan (“let your let light shine”) to traipse through dozens of key verses in the Bible that show what that term means, and why it’s really important to God. And finally, Finny - who along with his wife Susan recently welcomed twins - shares some stories about life with two new babies (and how many diapers they go through each week).

Every year, for the past 15+ years, we as a community have taken a weekend to serve together at a variety of high-impact projects across the city. This year, Beautiful Day was on Oct. 9 and 10. Local Compassion pastor Finny Abraham explains why this weekend is so important and how this weekend can remind us that we all need to grow in compassion and generosity - and by doing we we become more like Jesus Himself.

We love super heroes. Love them. In fact, our culture is obsessed with them - the powerful, competent individuals who save the day. And our tendency is to try to make the Biblical characters into super heroes, too. But in the BIble, the only “super hero” is Jesus. Nowhere is this more clear than In Genesis 16, when we see Abraham and Sarah behaving terribly, in tragic ways that have real devastating impacts. Liz Ditty and Dana Clifford stop by to talk about how to make sense of this confusing story, and what lessons this passage has for us, as modern readers and people who, like Abraham and Sarah, sometimes find it difficult to trust God and just want to take matters into our own hands to grab what we think we need.

In the book of Genesis, we read that God breaks through into history and promises Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child, even though Sarah is barren. But now, it’s been a few years and Sarah still doesn’t have a child. In Genesis 16, we see Sarah take matters into her own hands, telling her husband to use another woman - her Egyptian servant girl Hagar - to attempt to get a child. And in this story, we see the same pattern originally established in Genesis 3, where humans fail to trust God, but rather *see* something they want, desire it and then *take* it. This always has tragic, and far-reaching consequences. It did back then, in the time of Abraham. And it does now. And in this story in Genesis 16 we discover not only the tragedy of what happens when humans choose to behave this way, but how good God is at cleaning up our messes and inviting us to trust and listen to Him.

After returning from a Boyz II Men concert, Dave gets all nostalgic for 90s music, and reflects on a line from the first Christian song he ever heard - a song from the 90s. In that song, the lead singer of the group Arrested Development sings a prayer to God, saying, “I know you’re supposed to be my steering wheel, and not just my spare tire.” That idea is also the core theme of the story of Abraham this week, who cedes the “steering wheel” of his life over to God, letting Him drive. Steve stops by to talk about the “four motives” which typically drive the car of our lives (acceptance, power, control and comfort) and how each person usually has one that’s dominant that we have to submit to God so that He can drive. And then, in Bible Nerd Out Time, Sarah K. Lee stops by to talk about the word “faith” and explains some Biblical Greek scholarship that can help us understand this very mushy word better in a way that “drives” us forward.

Throughout the Bible, Abraham is commended for his “faith” - but that word, in our English vernacular, is a bit misleading. In English, the word “faith” is a noun, not a verb. But in the Bible, faith is always a verb. It’s about trust, and action and active allegiance to God. And the story of Abraham, where God calls Abraham out of his home to another land which God says he “will show” to him later, shows just how much “faith” Abraham has in God, and just how active that faith is supposed to be.

Steve Clifford stops by to talk about the mind-blowing implications of the story of God and Abraham’s Covenant Walk in Genesis 15. We’ll talk about what he thought it meant to be “loyal to God” as a young man young in his faith journey, and how he thinks about it now. Then, Sarah K. Lee joins us for Bible Nerd Out Time, where we talk about the phrase where Abraham “called upon the name of the LORD.” We’ll talk about the difference between what it means to bear God’s image and bear God’s name.

It’s difficult to trust and love someone you don’t know, and as Abraham marches along in the faith journey that God’s invited him into, he starts to have some doubts. After being promised a son, Abraham has now waited some number of years, and he’s wondering: how will this happen? How good is this deity? Will this god really keep his promises? He asks God for some reassurance, and in Genesis 15, we see an incredible ceremony. God goes on a formal covenant walk making a promise to Abraham upon penalty of death. And in that process, Abraham finds out a great deal about this God. He’ll keep his promises. Even if it costs Him His life.