Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Marks of the Jesus Community 2. restoration


Marks of the Jesus Community
  1. Restoration to wholeness
sermon: walk through text
verse by verse

came to Jericho—on the way to J
geographic notation
know where you are on the journey
be here now but know when to keep
moving forward
leaving: on the move
disciples and crowd:every J community
has those serious about their relationship
with Jesus and hangers on
BBB named,someone's child, sightless, outcast, life determined by his limitations,
and knows them
handicap not nec a neg today, but always
an opportunity for God to work
sitting stuck in place, passive,
no motivation to move
knows where the best chances are
hearing it was Jesus, how did he know?
Have you told someone lately where that
Jesus is near?
began to shout touch of hope, not so
passive,
Jesus son of David have mercy on me
knowing his own need he acts on the
word of hope
Shush the noisemakers, the boatrockers,
those who won't stay in their place
Tries again now he has hope he's
determined against those who normally
are his 'betters'
Jesus stops, listens I love it! Jesus stops
in the face of need. And when he stops,
the J comm stops—don't we?
instructs him to be brought J expects his community to be participants in his work—help the helpless, he says
crowd goes to him, get up perhaps the
most significant phrase in the story: encouraging: a change of attitude for the hangers on
when did I last tell someone Jesus was
waiting for them?
Cloak: cast off the stuff that identifies you
as the old you
sprang up: hope brings eagerness.
When we know our limits and find a
possible helper, lets spring up
what do you want as last week, we need
to listen to those in need name their deepest desire, not assume we know what's best for them—and we need to be able to name our own desire and take it to Jesus
what's your soul crying out for—God wants
to know.
Jesus gives Bartimaeus and us
the opportunity to speak or back down
it is always possible to pay no heed to the voice of invitation, to stay in our half life instead of the deep full life Jesus offers.
This joining the Jesus community is risky stuff. “No doubt it was hard for some of the people whom Jesus set free to accept their freedom...to relinguish an accustomed way of life as a blind begger” (Daniel Rees quoted in De Waal) De Waal goes on “we may feel safer clinging to our prison bars, where at least we know where we are.”
But this man has no such apprehensions.
Teacher acknowledging Jesus as a teacher signifies humility
make me see knows and admits his weakness, his limitations—what is my blindness? What blindness does our congregation have?
Go...faith...well wholeness is a participatory experience—God's power and our willingness to change
immediately—very markan
followed: not back to old life, not back to previous social position (Life of Brian) but forward to Jesus
on the way: bracket of movement; are we deflected by stuff, or ready to stay on course
the way”

This whole story is a great summary of the spiritual life, both of an individual and of the J community:
Jesus comm keep moving forward with purpose
yet stops to listen to the cries it hears
it sends emissaries to bring others in
asks about need, not assuming it knows
and above all restores people to wholeness.

The Jesus community commits itself not just to refreshment for the insiders, whether disciples or hangers on, but to restoration of all....insiders and outsiders..through encounters with the Divine.

So, today, where are we in the story, on the journey?
will we leave here challenged to change, as the hangers on were, simply refreshed as insiders, or restored to wholeness to join the journey forward with Jesus to a vision of a world restored, healed and at peace?

Jesus is calling for you. Get up, and come.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

summary points on humility

Summary of the marks of HUMILITY
In the Jesus community, humility is a significant characteristic. In this text, humility calls us to
engage seriously with Jesus about who we are and what we want. Humility seeks guidance. 
James and John ask for what they want.  Are we engaged with Jesus in personal and communal prayer and study?  Would anyone  out there know it?

be honest with ourselves about ourselves. 
Are you able, asks Jesus….considering it, they say yes.
Are we honestly willing to go where Jesus goes? Can we rely on his presence instead of our own ability? Is this a mark of THIS Jesus community?

lay aside our own desires for the sake of the one deep desire to know God and live the Jesus way
Jesus doesn’t try to take on what’s not his call.  He lets God be God and take care of the other stuff.  He is just not into position and privilege, but focused on his own mission.  Is this a Jesus community trying to take on too much?  What’s our call?

… let go our paradigm of power
The disciples are locked in conflict over place, position, status.  They have none of their own, for Jesus followers were pretty much from the bottom of the social heap.  They are locked into the empire system of hierarchy, and getting more means getting better.  Jesus says, ‘it will NOT be so with you.’
This was dramatically countercultural in Jesus’ day.  The Empire then, as now, relies on power, coercion and control to maintain dominance and prerogative.(Matt Skinner online)
It’s countercultural today as well. Our society’s way is status, rank and privilege.  Humility is a weakness. Servanthood is for folks we pay to do it. 
“It shall not be so with you”   We are called to be different.
… shift from an attitude of self to one of service
I’m not going to pretend this is easy.  We may not be crucified for it, but it IS a hard process; we have so much to change that is so ingrained in us. And change from the inside out is tough work.

A conversation this week about the current political scene and the role of the church, brought this clear to both of us in the conversation—the struggle for power is all about gaining the votes of those who will gain most by their candidate.  Who we vote for generally will be all about what’s best for us.  In our current reality, it really is all about me.
But the humility paradigm is different—what will be more likely to bring about the best for the worst off? 

The humility of serving one another, not just those in the Jesus community but serving ALL, says Jesus, calls for different thinking, different behavior, different ways of leadership.

Lastly, the characteristic mark of humility calls us to
…be freed from what enslaves us in order to serve instead.
Our text ends with Jesus’ own self-giving example…to give up life as a ransom for all.   Ransom is something paid to free a slave, to free us from what enslaves us.
In the Jesus community, the humility of knowing oneself demands we ask ourselves, what’s enslaving us?  From what do we need to be freed in order to really follow the Jesus way and really participate in a Jesus community?

Jesus shows us the way of humility.  Will we follow?

Marks of the Jesus Community: Humility



Marks of the Jesus Community: 1. Humility     October 21, 2012
Margaret A. Scott

Today we start a worship series on Community: we’re already focusing on community in our Simple Supper program; the youth are emphasizing it in SS and youth group.


v.32  They were on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus walking ahead, the rest trailing behind ….in early days of Christianity, it wasn’t called that, it was called The Way, a movement within Judaism, and the image of being on the way, or on the road, comes up a lot in Mark’s gospel, and was a reminder they were on a journey together, moving forward with purpose, not standing still.    As the Jesus community, are we?

Jesus goes on for the third time to tell them about what’s ahead, and it’s not pretty.  The first time, Peter argued back at him, the second time they were silenced by their fear of showing their incomprehension.  This time, two of them get up the courage to speak.  Perhaps the third time they heard the tail end of his comments “and rise again”, or perhaps they still just saw him as the Messiah who’d overthrow the Romans and be crowned the new king.

Do us a favor, Jesus, they ask

Jesus takes them seriously, and in good rabbinic style asks them for more information
We want to have the places of most honour when you’re crowned, they say.

Again, he takes them seriously, doesn’t say, “just who do you think you are?”  I wonder if it’s because they’re at least interested and motivated, with courage to question, unlike the others who’re still stuck in fear, following at a distance compliant but not engaged.   Where are we in following Jesus?
Questioning and courageous, or fearfully compliant?

In the Jesus community, humility calls us to engage seriously with Jesus about who we are and what we want. Humility seeks guidance.

So Jesus accepts their longing, because at least desire can be re-channelled, passion can be redirected, complacency can’t.
so he takes them a little deeper.
Are you able to go where I go, do what I do, and take the consequences of living God’s “Way”?  Yes we can, they say
He’s already told them three times he’s headed to a place of trouble before a new life; but to get to any place you have to go through what’s on the way there, the process.
now they begin to believe they can go there too—for this moment, the vision of the place, Jesus’ new realm, is stronger than the reality of the process. 

Life is tough; sometimes we go through hard times to bring about God’s realm in our families, our society, our world—living the Jesus way can take us places we’d rather not go.
Last week a bunch of us visited The Sisters House, in downtown Erie Pa. Four Benedictine nuns decided to move into a drug enslaved neighborhood, because they believed in the vision of “your will be done on earth”—a powerful witness that, like our Habitat houses in the Josana neighborhood in Rochester, is transforming life for everyone there.

In our Jesus community is the vision bigger than the reality? 
Like James and John we SAY what we want—a deeper spiritual life..a congregation growing in faith, witness, size… a strong Sunday School…but don’t realize that the process towards it might actually involve transformational activity on our part.
In the Jesus community, humility calls us to be honest with ourselves.

Then Jesus goes on to clarify his purpose.  It’s not my job to assign seating, he says.  He is clear about his purpose, and is sticking to it, unwilling to be distracted by lesser issues.  Are we?  Is our Jesus community clear about our purpose?  Can we lay aside our own desires for the sake of the one deep desire to know God and live the Jesus way?

And this is where we come to the hub of the text, the center of the Jesus Way.  Status or servanthood.   Disciples need to choose.
This was dramatically countercultural in Jesus’ day.  The Empire then, as now, relies on power, coercion and control to maintain dominance and prerogative.(Matt Skinner online)
It’s countercultural today as well. Our society’s way is status, rank and privilege.  Humility is a weakness. Servanthood is for folks we pay to do it. 

In the Jesus community, humility calls us to let go our paradigm of power.

In case we haven’t got it yet, Jesus explicitly calls us to live differently from the world around us.  “It will not be so with you”.

In the Jesus community, humility calls us to shift from an attitude of self to one of service.  I’m not going to pretend this is easy.  We may not be crucified for it, but it IS a hard process; we have so much to change that is so ingrained in us.

A conversation this week about the current political scene and the role of the church, brought this clear to both of us in the conversation—the struggle for power is all about gaining the votes of those who will gain most by their candidate.  Who we vote for generally will be all about what’s best for us.  In our current reality, it really is all about me.

But the humility paradigm is different—what will be more likely to bring about the best for the worst off?  The humility of serving one another calls for different thinking, different behavior, different ways of leadership.

Our text ends with Jesus’ own self-giving example…to give up life as a ransom for all.   Ransom is something paid to free a slave, to free us from what enslaves us.
In the Jesus community, the humility of knowing oneself demands we ask ourselves, what’s enslaving us?  From what do we need to be freed in order to really follow the Jesus way and really participate in a Jesus community?

Jesus shows us the way of humility.  Will we follow?














Monday, October 15, 2012

Simple Suppers



Hello Church Family -

We are excited that our Fall Simple Suppers will begin tomorrow evening.  We will meet each week (five weeks in all) at 5:45pm for a meal and discussion.  Children who are in choirs will be able to leave at 6:25pm so that they can get to practice on time.  Children not in choir, youth and adults can then stay for an intergenerational session focused our topic of the evening.  We will end each session by 6:55pm so that people attending church meetings can get to their meetings on-time.  Our time together as a faith community, learning together, will be a time of blessing for all!

We will have a free will offering for the meal.  We will have vegetarian,  gluten-free, and diary free meal options available.

If you think you will be attending an RSVP would be appreciated.  Hope to see you here at church!

Grace and  peace,
Margaret & Pam