Our sermon series on beginnings and endings made the jump from Genesis to Revelation. Deb introduced this strange, difficult, and fascinating work of prophecy for us. Here is part of her overview:

John begins the account of his revelation by ensuring that we know who God is, who Jesus is, and who we are. Having this wide perspective, like a view from an airplane, will help the believers understand the message he is bringing from the Lord. It helps us remember how we fit into the grand scheme of God’s creation. While Jesus makes God tangible to us, and accessible at a human scale, we should not forget that his nature is so much bigger than anything our minds can hold. Our God is a transcendent God.

A Call is a Gift

David closed our study of creation in Genesis with a sermon on Abraham that challenged us to reconsider what it means to be called by God:

We may think that God calls a person in order to make him to do a job for God. This idea is not wrong, but there is a more important purpose of God’s calling. It is that God would do something for me, and for many others through me.  And it is the greatest blessing in our lives that God is revealed to the world through my life.

Erik preached on the tower of Babel this Sunday, where scripture establishes that humans will not be able to save themselves, repairing the relationships with God and one another that were broken in the fall. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up helping to alleviate the consequences of sin:

Is all our work in medicine, technology, education, art, and politics just self-defeating pride? No, not at all! God isn’t opposed to achievements. He’s not even opposed to giant construction projects. Remember, right before Babylon’s tower is Noah’s ark, and building a floating zoo was as much of an achievement as any city skyscraper. But the difference in instructive. The ark was built out of humility, not pride: Noah didn’t want to make a great name for himself, instead he was ridiculed by everyone for building a boat on dry land. And Noah acted in obedience to God, not disobedience: he followed God’s commands, even when they made no sense. And Noah became a servant, not a tyrant: we imagine Baylon’s rulers carrying whips, but Noah spent all those days on the water caring for the animals. The tower was built of pride, domination, and disobedience. The ark was built of humility, service, and obedience.

The Rainbow Covenant

David preached on the second half of Noah’s story. The story includes some sobering insights about our own inclinations towards sin, but it uses these insights to teach us about God’s extraordinary love and patience, which we ought to remember each time we see a rainbow in the sky.

Despite people’s stubborn heart that is like an impregnable fortress, God never gives up and he works hard to come closer to us. God’s love, wisdom, and power is nothing but all of his struggles to bear with sinners and to be together with them. Only in this God, we have hope.

A God of Second Chances

Deb preached on the famous story of Noah and the flood. Despite being a staple of children’s Bibles, this is an unsettling story about violence and judgment. Yet Deb maintained that at it’s core, it shows us God’s love for sinners.

God’s regrets expressed here are not about his own actions in creation, but in humanity’s actions. If he had wanted to really restore factory settings, he could have made a new Eden, a new Adam and a new Eve. But he didn’t do that. He found a bright spot amid a world that was all evil all the time. That bright spot was Noah and his family. Restarting things with Noah was a fallback plan to the original plan of humanity being faithful. Because humanity had chosen to go against God and become corrupt and violent, it was time to go to Plan B. He is giving humanity a second chance.

Erik preached on Cain and Abel this past Sunday. It’s a story of jealousy, anger, and murder, but more importantly, it’s a story about grace:

If Cain is confused by God, how much more must Abel. His older brother gets all the attention, but consider Abel. We remember him as the one God favored, but what did that favor get him? Killed. God’s favor gets him killed…To Cain, God was unfair. But to Abel, God was unjust. It’s hard to understand an unfair God, but much harder to understand an unjust God. Try to wrap your head around this: Cain, the murderer, is the one God truly favors in this story.

The confusion is mounting, from unfairness to injustice, but at the same time, something else is coming into focus: the thing that is so confusing about God is God’s grace.

Where are You

David preached on the consequences of the first sin in Eden, introducing his subject with the help of a Disney move and a philosopher.

There is a famous line in the animated movie Lion King. The spirit of father king Mufasa says to his son Simba: “You have forgotten who you are, so have forgotten me.” Then, the father reminds the son of who he is. “Remember who you are. You are my son and one true king.” I believe this word reveals the most fundamental problems that we humans have. We have two problems. One is that we have forgotten who we are. And this problem begets another serious problem, which is that we have forgotten God the Father…Kierkegaard said: “The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.” Through our lifetime, we experience various painful losses, and we work hard to recover them. However, there is the gravest loss. It is the loss of the self. And it is the loss of God.

Gullible Thieves and the Gifts of God

Erik preached on the Fall from Genesis three. This primordial passage introduces us to the true nature of sin. Here is part of his conclusion:

We are victims of a con. This is a humbling truth about humanity. In exploring the depths of human depravity, we often talk about our fundamental sin as pride (we want to be gods) or covetousness (we want to possess everything). You can see hints of all that in Genesis 3! But these are epic sins, the stuff of Homer or John Milton. In fact, the root of sin might be a bit more embarrassing. Our sin is that we are gullible. Our sin is that we are easy marks. We thought we were stealing from God, but in fact we were being conned by a snake. In every sin, we fall for a fake when God would freely give us the real thing! Real pleasure, real wisdom, real flourishing. But only if are willing to trust him and receive it as a gift, in God’s way and on God’s time.

The First Relationships

Deb preached on the creation of Eve this past Sunday. She quoted Matthew Henry, the 17th-century nonconformist minister in England: in making Eve out of Adam’s rib, she was “not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him.” Deb concluded with this powerful reminder about God’s desire that all of us find relationships of vulnerability and mutuality:

Just as God breathed life into the first human he created, relationships are the life breath of our community, allowing God’s spirit to flow through our life together as the people of God.

The Gospel in the Garden

David preached on the creation of the Garden of Eden. He found the basis for God’s gracious promises to all of humanity already built into the garden’s landscape itself:

According to verses 10-13, there was a river flowing from Eden, which watered the garden and separated into four headwaters. Their respective names were Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The river flowing from the Eden became the origin of the four great rivers. This means that water from the garden of Eden supplies life to the whole earth. The garden of Eden is itself the paradise, and it is also the source of life to all the lands. The fictional paradises such as Shangri-La and Utopia have the common characteristic, which is that they are totally isolated from the world, enclosed with high mountains or deep waters…But the Garden of Eden planted by God embraces the whole world and shares its blessings from God. When God gives heaven to a man, God expects that the heavenly blessings may flow to the world through the man.

The Day God Took Off

Erik preached on the seventh day of creation in Genesis 2, when God rested. He described God’s rest as the rest of “settling”—settling down and settling in—and explored what what it teaches us about creation, God, and our relation to both. Here is part of his conclusion:

We rest only by entering God’s rest. So rather trying to build a new sabbath practice, or letting go of some ambition, or giving up some pastime that disturbs your peace, my hope is simpler. It’s that once in a while, this thought occurs to you: creation is the space God made so that he might settle down with us. It’s easier to entertain this thought outside on a nice day or a clear, starry night. But you don’t need the grandeur of a natural park or even a trip out into the county. You just need to look up, look around and notice that all of this, the trees and sky, this planet, its sun, and all the 93 billion lightyears of stars: God made them all so that he might have a place to settle down with us. All that work—creation and recreation—to create a place and a people with which to settle down.

In the Beginning there was Darkness

David kicked off our new series on Creation/Recreation with a sermon the opening verses of Genesis. He connected the great cosmic work of God with the work he does in each one of us:

God is the only one who we trust and hope. It is because God created such a beautiful and perfectly harmonious world full of lives out of sheer disorder, emptiness, and darkness. In God, disorder, emptiness, and darkness are not “despair” but “hope.” It is the beginning of God’s creation work. We must always remember this.

The Birth of the Church

Erik preached on Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus’s followers in Acts 2. Here is part of his conclusion:

What does the Holy Spirit do? Makes churches. The Holy Spirit gathers selfish and scattered individuals from every nation, every neighborhood, and every internet platform and unites us into one body. Holiness is a language you cannot learn or use by yourself. Sanctification is a conversation that requires everyone of us to give what we have and receive what we need. That is good news for a lonely generation, like ours. And it’s good news for sinners, like us. Apart, each one of us is unholy. But together, the Spirit is making us into the very body of Christ. 

Paradigm Shift

Preaching on Jesus’s ascension, David compared the paradigm shift experienced by Jesus’s followers to the paradigm shifts that occur in scientific revolutions, fundamentally changing how we make sense of the world around us:

As to general relativity found by Einstein, British physicist J.J. Thomson said, “General relativity is not an isolated result but ‘a whole continent of scientific ideas.’” By the deep reflection and search of one person Einstein, a gigantic continent of knowledge, which had been unknown, rose to the surface…In the same way, Jesus is not just one great figure and his death and resurrection is not a great event in human history. Jesus is “a continent.” He is the kingdom of God that came down on earth. And everything on it is from him, through him, and for him. And this kingdom expands through the witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Practice Resurrection

Erik preached on Easter, taking inspiration from the final line of a poem by Wendell Berry: “Practice Resurrection.” Resurrection is something that happens in each Christian’s life in the era between Christ’s first resurrection and the final resurrection of all. Here is how he put it:

Because resurrection life is life in which death has been overcome, we do not need to wait for death for it to begin. Death is like a wall that Christ has obliterated, not just so that we can reach eternal life on the other side, but so that eternal life can reach us. “You have been raised with Christ,” writes Paul Colossians. Resurrection life began that first Easter, and begins for each us when we receive Christ as Lord and throw our lot in with him.

We Can't Make Peace, but We Can Receive It

David preached on Luke’s account of Christ’s crucifixion. In killing Jesus, the religious and political powers were trying to make peace by removing a troublesome figure. But that was a false peace, founded on injustice and lies. Yet on the Cross, God was at work offering a different path to true and perfect peace:

Jesus’ peace is founded on “love.” And this love is the love that embraces all sinners in the world. Jesus on the cross prayed to the Father, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (34). Peace in the world is conditional and transient.  There are many complicated conditions to be satisfied in order to maintain peace, and the peace is easily given up for “more important issues.” But Jesus’ love is unconditional. Jesus loves the sinners. He loves even his enemies who hate and crucify him with no reason. He loves even his enemies who are mocking him without knowing what they are doing. Jesus’ love is unconditional. Therefore, peace coming from Jesus’ love is steady and never changes in whatever situation. Jesus never scolded his disciples for any fault. He scolded them only for their little faith. Jesus’ love was always overflowing, enough to cover all their faults. Jesus rebuked them only when they hesitated to believe this love. There is nothing we should change ourselves in order to enter into peace with Jesus and stay in the peace. What we need is faith in his love. Then, just as we are, we have peace with him.

Seeing through the Cross

Erik preached on the parable of the wicked tenants, in Luke 20. It’s the final parable in our series, and helps prepare us for Jesus’s passion. Here is part of his conclusion:

Luke tells us that the religious leaders saw that this parable was preached against them—they were the wicked tenants who stifled and stole the fruits of God’s people. But it was really preached for the disciples. Jesus told this parable just a couple days before he would be arrested and crucified. Nothing would test the disciples’ faith like this. God would appear absent: Jesus himself would cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God would appear foolish: the idea of the messiah being killed by the oppressive powers God sent him to overthrow seemed so ridiculous that Peter couldn’t believe Jesus’s warnings—“this shall never happen to you!” And God would appear weak: as Jesus hung on the cross, the soldiers taunted him: “if he is God’s messiah, King of the Jews, let him save himself.” But it was right here, on the cross, when God appeared absent, foolish, and weak, that he was doing is greatest work: obliterating sin, defeating death, redeeming the world. “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The weakest thing would become the salvation of everything.

Jesus gave this parable to his disciples so that were others saw absence, foolishness, and weakness, they would see God’s presence, patience, and power.

Cascade of Power

David preached on the Parable of the Ten Minas, which includes the difficult saying: “everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” He opened up Jesus’s words but reading the minas an allegory for spiritual power:

Like the noble man gave minas to his servants, power flows from king down to his servants who trust and obey. John 2 tells us about Jesus’ first miracle that he turned water into wine at a wedding banquet in Cana. In the banquet, the wine was gone, and it was a very serious problem. Jesus might have solved it by bringing wine from heaven like rain. But Jesus didn’t solve the problem that way. What Jesus did was flowing his power down through those who believed in his authority. First, Jesus’ mother Mary brought his issue to Jesus. Then, she said the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” After this, Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And when they filled to the brim, Jesus told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” The servants obeyed this far. Then, the water had already turned into choice wine. Jesus had the power to turn water into wine. But he didn’t work directly onto water. Instead, he cascaded his power down through Mary, and through the servants prepared by Mary. And finally, the power reached the water in the jars and changed it into wine. Like cascade falls, the power of king in the highest flew down through people of faith and performed the wondrous miracle

Humility is Grace Received and Extended

Erik preached on the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector this Sunday, using the scripture to explore the relationship between God’s grace and our humility. Here is his conclusion:

Humility boils down to this: receiving grace from God, and extending grace to others. Humility is receiving grace and extending grace. That is our salvation: by grace, with humility. This parable warns that the door into God’s kingdom is low and the path is slippery. Some pretty good people fall, some pretty bad people make it. That’s unnerving, certainly. But take comfort: God’s kingdom is full of tax collectors and pharisees. From Jesus’s disciple, Matthew the tax collector, to his apostle, Paul the pharisee – they were knocked down by grace and lifted up by grace so that they might become conduits of grace. It’s all grace, no merit, no separation, no superiority. If you’re humble enough to accept that gift, the kingdom of God is yours.

Hope amidst Injustice

David preached on the parable of the widow and unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8) this past Sunday, a parable which both acknowledges the stubborn injustice we see daily and encourages us to put our hope in God’s justice. Here is David’s explanation for why the widow continued praying even when injustice seemed so strong.

Praying in hope was the only thing that she could do. When surrounded by unjust enemies and rulers, she might sit and cry alone in darkness, cursing the world and complaining to God. But she didn’t do so. She didn’t put out the flame of hope. She rose up and went to the judge. And she pleaded. She continued to do that. At last, she made him move. She made him do justice for her. It was not the judge’s power that did justice. It was her persistent prayer. Her prayer was much powerful than the judge’s power. By the prayer, she won what she wanted. It was because her prayer prevailed. Her prayer prevailed over the judge, over the enemy, and all the injustices.