Monthly Archives: January 2018

Archive for January, 2018

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Mark 1:21-28 Living with Authority

Posted by myoikos in #2017, #authority, 5 Practices, Church, evil, Faith-sharing, Jesus, Sin, Spiritual on January 27, 2018

capernaum

They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. [NRSV]

Capernaum was home to the alternate to the Jerusalem temple for the people in the Galilean region to come and worship. It was also the home of Peter and near where the Jordan River emptiness into the sea of Galilee and also need the area where the Sermon on the Mountain was delivered to the gathers of ten thousand.

In some ways, Capernaum was the home to Contemporary worship and Jerusalem home to traditional worship. Jerusalem was a small big urban centre and Capernaum was a big little town for fishers and farmers. Jerusalem was an urban hub of politics and religion.

Mark’s newspaper-like account of the story of Jesus connects Jesus spiritual cleansing as a new teaching:

Everywhere from Jerusalem to Galilee and all places between folks had folks filled with spiritual dysfunction, possession, strange physical illness, mentally ill, all sorts of manifestation that get lumped into ‘filled with evil spirits. The typical remedy was for people to live outside the city wall as “UNCLEAN” and people separated themselves from what they could not change and could not mend.

Jesus silenced the evil, removed the evil and restored the man to health and into the community. It reminds me of the character, Julia Sugarbaker from Designing Women:

Julia: “I’m saying this is the South, and we’re proud of our crazy people. We don’t hide them up in the attic. We bring ’em right down to the living room and show ’em off. See, Phyllis, no one in the South ever asks if you have crazy people in your family. They just ask what side they’re on.”

Phyllis: Oh? And which side are yours on Mrs Sugarbaker?

Julia: Both. (Southern Living article: 13 of Julia Sugarbaker’s Best Takedowns on Designing Women, https://www.southernliving.com/culture/julia-sugarbaker-designing-women-quotes)

The perspective of the community was that Jesus was teaching something new, drew on a different authority and was something worth sharing with other people.

  • New will only get us so far before we need “new and improved”
  • We will share all kinds of news with other people, good and bad
  • The different piece is authority

Authority: is approved use of power.

The Good News is that Jesus entrusted to disciples and now to us through the Spirit, the authority of God as the church.

  • As the chur, h we have allowed politics to steal our authority.
  • We have let historical misuse of the power defame our authority.
  • We have allowed others who use God’s power for evil to speak for us unchallenged.
  • With so many speaking evil in the name of truth…

These other voices say: you don’t even need to talk about your faith because you don’t have anything to do with us.” Have you come to destroy us?

Jesus was about silencing evil and allowing the people of God to speak.

A restoring of authority.

  • Remind your neighbor, you have the AUTHORITY, the power: to prayer, love, forgive, heal, bless, teach, restore, trust, lead, witness, and many more things.
  • Is this the week you remain quiet and blame evil or is this the time you speak grace, love and truth and healing and all the other witnesses of God’s power through you?
  • Living as one with authority, don’t just possess a spiritual carry-permit, speak the word that restore the kingdom of God. This is our work, this is our mission.

God in the power and authority of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit: Make disciples, speak truth to evil, transform instead of blame, heal instead of complain, love instead of divide. show of the power of God, Evil does not have the authority it claims in outlives, speak God’s healing word.Advertisements

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Mark 1:14-20 Believe, Now!

Posted by myoikos in #2017 on January 20, 2018

closings

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. [NRSV]

This is always a tricky time to balance safety and closing the church for programs, activities and especially for worship. One of the challenges of our UMC slogan since the 1990s has been closing for weather conditions when we claim we have “open hearts, open minds, open doors.” No matter the common sense of being safe and off icy roads, we communicate a conflicting message: We Urgently want you to comes join us, just Not today when the weather is bad.

It is not only in inclement weather but in many conversations and situations that we “think” with our minds, welcome, friendly, open and inviting and yet the words and actions/or in-actions we witness closed, divided, judged and not welcomed.

It is vital to hear Mark’s account of Jesus beginning his ministry with words and witness of invitation and urgency.

The Urgency of believing the Good News

Several motivations:

  1. We believe the opportunity to help others believe is imminently limited.
  2. We believe any amount of time not believing the Good News is time lost or wasted.
  3. We might believe it’s important but not urgent or that if it were an urgent situation we might help in a pinch.
  4. We believe there is plenty of time to share the Good News, and if we don’t help others then someone else will or they will figure it for themselves.

Urgency: importance requiring swift action.

Jesus begins his ministry with a call for people to find God was near, make a spiritual change in their lives and believe God is working to love, transform and fulfil our lives.

Two Usual Tracks

Urgency through repetition:

Were you aware that it takes viewing the same commercial 16 times for us to become motivated to consider buying or using a product or service were previously not interested or aware existed? That doesn’t mean after watching the same commercial 16 times we automatically buy the product, but after that much repetition, we begin to make an internal action toward a new product. We are 50% likely to try, talk about, take some action to learn more about a product or service. Advertising creates a sense of urgency or importance.

Urgency transformed through repentance

Before and After stories. This is my life before Jesus, and this is my life after. For those who grow up in in the faith and in the church, we have the repetition model. For those who come to the church later have a more clear before and after witness.

EITHER MODEL, Jesus is the one describing the Good News as something IMPORTANT and something REQUIRING SWIFT ACTION.

BUT… It is hard to look back 2000 plus years and say, you need to be in a hurry to give your life to Jesus.   A God who works in billions of years starts with a message of urgency..Mark 1:14-20

..NOW is the time,

The cooling of the sun and the increase of earthquakes, volcanoes and colder winters will be the new norm for the next thirty years. Some would say these are signs of the end times/others would say we are in a long cooling cycle of the sun.

The “Now is the time” perspective is that whether our time is long or short, the weather is not going to be pleasant. (Now is the time to invest in a heavier coat!)

Mark account of Jesus’s Marketing Message: is about the second type of URGENCY:

How long do we let someone stand in the cold before we open the door and convince them it is better inside the house than out?

How long do we let folks run around in with fear, emptiness, loneliness, grief, grudge, judgment or any other reason, when we know that in this fellowship, in this word, in this body that God is near, God is here!

We who have found Christ, or We who have known Christ all these years, look out the windows and doors and see a hurting, searching, failing, struggling, divided-world and we are called to invite people to believe in Jesus.

Believe, Now! Not because the end is near, rather because

  • you don’t have to be alone
  • you don’t have to be afraid
  • you don’t have to be divided
  • you don’t have to be correct
  • you don’t have to be perfect
  • you don’t have to be hungry
  • you don’t have to be captive
  • you don’t have to be a stranger
  • you don’t have to be lost
  • you don’t have to be cold

..but you do need to come to Jesus

  • This is what is urgently needed.
  • This is what is Good: God so loves us that he gives us Jesus
  • This is what is Good: Jesus died for our sin/brokenness/failures and pride/
  • He emptied himself to fill us with a new chance a life with God and all God’s people.
  • Don’t stand out in the cold, come inside
  • Let the cold weather be your opportunity to invite someone into the fellowship.. into the church, into your spiritual journey- travel together

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#babyitscoldoutside, #comeinfromthecold, #comeintoday, #itswarminChrist, urgency

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John 1:43-51 Come See Heaven Open Up

Posted by myoikos in #2017 on January 13, 2018

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” [NRSV]

CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUR OF ROCK SPRING

  • The power of doubt
  • Consumption of assumption
  • Oh little town of Rock Spring,
  • Nathanael, the product of Peter and Andrew

COME AND SEE

  • Come see with your own eyes,
  • The shepherd saw the angels but said to one another, let us go see for ourselves, what has been told to us
  • Thomas who had not yet seen Jesus raised from the dead, told the others, I will not believe until I see with my own eyes
  • The invitation is for tag team invitation for people to come see.
  • The greatest showman is a wonderful new musical that is a great movie even if you don’t ususally go see movies, it is worth experiencing. Is about PT Barnam’ seeing a dream come to life, loose it, and being reminded that joy can be found through people who love and trust.

YOU WILL SEE HEAVEN OPENED UP

  • Peter and Andrew promise Nathaniel that he will see heaven open if he goes to see Jesus,
  • That is what it means to find Jesus
  • It might. It be coming to church, the music and events, the ministries and activities, but it is through these people and the relationships we share that the Kingdom of God can show up
  • Some folks will tell you they don’t like church because all they talk about is money, or the Christian people gossip, lie and stab each other in the back, these are folks who have seen people WITHOUT Jesus
  • The challenge is to strive to share Jesus and not ourselves. Or at least not sharing our selves without Jesus opened up and visible.

You hold the keys to heaven, who will you keep out? Who will you let in?

  • So this passage holds our model:
  • Have an encouragement accountability partner,
  • Reach out to the people we know and meet
  • Invite them to come see Jesus at work in our lives, in our worship, ministry, fellowship, etc..

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#openheaven, Body of Christ, faith in action, Faith-sharing, hospitality, Jesus, ministry, Resurrection, Salvation, Welcome, Witness

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Acts 19:1-7 People of the Spirit

Posted by myoikos in #2017, #holyspirit, #marriage, #relationship, Baptism, Holy Spirit, Meaning, Relationship, Spiritual, Witness, Worship on January 6, 2018

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. [NRSV]

The Coach’s Gator-Aid Baptism: Acceptance and Celebration for winning or setting a record, but Christian baptism is not just a public celebration: it is about covenant making and covenant keeping.

Baptized in the Spirit vs Second Birth

Over time some churches and denominations have made more of the verse that is like intended. Some would teach that when you and I repent, acknowledge that we are sinners and believe Jesus to be our “Lord and Savior” that it is somehow a partial baptism that we must have a second baptism in the Spirit, as the sign of some spiritual maturity or marker of spiritual progress. When in fact this passage is about a lack of information, a shortcoming in the teaching and Paul wants all disciples to ha e the full story, the full benefit, and full connection as a disciple, believer and follower of Jesus.

John Wesley

Salvation for Wesley is the process that begins in the Holy Spirit before we are aware of what is happening, We mark our part in the process when we acknowledge Jesus Christ has died for our sins personally (thus justifying us through Grace and the Spirit), what follows in our response of becoming the person Jesus died and rose to save, the Spirit guiding us in the journey of sanctification toward the goal of wholeness in the Spirit, he called perfection.

Bottom line, if someone speaks of not having the Spirit it is actually a matter of perspective, ignorance (being misinformed or uninformed) and/or misinterpretation.

From the beginning of Creation, the Holy Spirit moved through the great chaos and spoke order and purpose. The Spirit moved in creation over the earth and was breathed into humanity giving us that very image, breath and spirit of God in us.

What makes us exceptional is that we each are Spirit-filled people, we all have the Spirit of God to credit for our life, our purpose and our meaning.

When the world denies or runs from God’s Holy Spirit

They do so in fear, misinformation, pride, personal desire to control, or a lack of experience/understanding.

So what? Our personal faith journey is to affirm we are spirit filled people, saved by Christ and living for God’s purpose, in God’s love, uniquely through each one of us.

So what’s the deal with this passage and Paul re-baptizing these folks?

  1. This passage is about teaching what baptism is about
  2. This passage s about understanding the work of the Holy Spirit
  3. It is for us a reminder that to be a Christian is to 1) be aware we are born of the Holy Spirit, 2) we are connected by the Spirit and 3) empowered by the Holy Spirit for Spiritual work and witness.

Part of this verse is about competing traditions:

“We have John the Baptist”… Our baptism is older and more closely connected to the first baptism, John the Baptizer, who baptized Jesus, “If John was Good Enough for Jesus, then John’s baptism is good enough for me. “Ours is the more traditional flavor.”

Paul is teaching that Baptism is the vehicle and not the destination.

It’s not owning/experiencing something, it is becoming something more important.

Paul’s correction is not saying John’s baptism was wrong, only that it conveyed part of the power:

The Two Parts of Baptism

The Jesus Part and the “my” part.

John the Baptist’s baptism was about repenting, acknowledging our sinfulness and our brokenness and that Jesus is the hope and salvation for our sins.

The second part is what difference does the Jesus part make in my life and how will accomplish my response to Jesus’s part.

Too many people settle for the utterance of words instead of the building of a relationship. Are you and I settlers?

Think of the marriage covenant:

Legally a couple is married when they have exchanged vows and pledged themselves to one another and both say the traditional, “I DO.”

But that is not the marriage, that is only the beginning of the covenant. The marriage is the journey of joys and struggles that span the time the couple shares.

Paul reminds us that we are

  • Spiritual
  • Need Christ but also the Spirit
  • Therefore help others find a way to grow in the Spirit

Invite someone to a life in Christ

Inquire what Baptism means to someone’s daily life

Back to School Homework

Do you remember your baptism?

Do it make any difference to you on this day?

If so how,

If not, let’s work on it together, is Paul model