Speaker: Bev Modlin Scripture: Luke 7:36-50 http://bible.com/events/49645386

Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Honestly? I kinda hate this parable. So we'll see what we can do. All of us have this sense of justice in our bones; we know right and wrong, and when something's wrong, we want to rush to make it right. We want the bad guys to get what they deserve and we want the good guys to win. So when Jesus tells this parable, it feels pretty unsettling. The weeds grow with the wheat. The servants say, "Should we pull the weeds?!" And Jesus says, "No, let them grow together." AHHHHHHH! That sucks. We realize that this is a story about humanity. Goodness and evil are all tangled up together. Why doesn't God just fix it? Then we ask the deeper question, if we're honest enough and mature enough. Why doesn't God fix us? The field isn't just out there, it's also in us. We're a mixture of love and fear. Generosity and greed. Etc, etc...maybe the place for us to start is by tending our own interior field. "Should we pull the weeds?" Yeah, that resonates with me; it mirrors my own heart, and maybe it mirrors yours, too. I can get all worked up about the weeds. Sometimes my own weeds, but more often than not, it's the weeds in other peoples' lives. "Jesus, trust me, I know good and evil, let me pull the weeds." Jesus says, "No. Wait." I hate that he says this. He's insisting on humility and patience and restraint when it comes to patrolling the borders of the field that ultimately belongs to him. The point isn't that Jesus will go easy on the weeds. Apparently, there will be a separation and burning and plenty of weeping and gnashing of teeth; how that works out? Yeah, we have no clue. I think Jesus is trying to tell us that we can't police the field without damaging some wheat. So the question this brings us to is this: where do we want to spend our energy? Burning things down, or growing healthy and strong? Maybe the challenge is to grow healthy and strong, which is hard enough. Maybe it's to become less interested in labeling people and more interested in loving them. Maybe it's to become less interested in deciding who is worthy and more interested in making room for grace. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43 https://www.bible.com/events/49642325

Speaker: Alexia Hanson Scripture: Haggai 1:1-15 http://bible.com/events/49639260

We're starting off here by talking about how many of us have this little voice inside our heads that asks the question: Am I enough? It sometimes gets louder after we've made a mess of things...and we've all made a mess of things. Since we all live with that voice I want us to sit with Paul's words, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No condemnation. That isn't just good news, it's like a whole world being opened up in front of us. But that's not the end for Paul; it's just the beginning. Jesus tells a story about a farmer who just sows seeds, like, all over the place. God scatters seed with reckless abandon. Everyone is invited. The seed lands on all kinds of ground just as grace arrives in all kinds of lives. Maybe we've spent years analyzing the soil of our lives. Rocky? Thorny? Hardened? Notice that Jesus never said any patch of ground is permanently doomed. Rocks and thorns can be removed. Hardened ground can be broken up. Paul gets this when he talks about living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. It's like two different kinds of soil. Jesus loves to talk about plants and growth, and if there's one thing we know about growth, it is that it's slow. The invitation here from Paul and Jesus isn't to try harder. It's to become softer. More receptive and less defensive. More open to change and less afraid of it. Because the promise of these two passages seems to be: when soil opens itself to grace, when the heart makes room for the Spirit, life begins to emerge where we thought only death existed. There is no condemnation. That's where it starts. Then growth and transformation happen slowly. And maybe, years from now, someone will find themselves standing in the shade of the tree that is your life that grew from a seed you don't ever remember being planted. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 http://bible.com/events/49636153

Speakers: Aaron Vis and Tony Vis In part two of The Sage And The Son, Tony and Aaron answer more of the submitted questions from back in May.

Again, kind of an odd little episode in the life of Jesus. To what shall I compare this generation. Then he tells a weird little story about children playing in the marketplace, and doesn't really explain it, which leaves room for us to play and figure it out. Here's the gist: the people have become impossible to satisfy. John is too serious. Jesus is too joyful. John is too conservative. Jesus is too liberal. John is too strict. Jesus is too open. Neither of them can win, if winning was the point. So the issue isn't John. And it's not Jesus. The issue is the human heart. It seems that there is a kind of heart that becomes committed to dissatisfaction, a heart that always has to have a reason, always has an objection, a criticism, a complaint. We've all been there. It's so easy to become cynical. No one has to teach us. It comes naturally. Especially after heartbreak, after we've been let down, after things don't go the way we hoped. Many of us have been let down by the state of the world for so long that it feels like we've been carrying an extra burden for, like, ever. So we stop trusting. We stop hoping. And Jesus comes to us, with compassion, I think, and says, "Are you okay? Seems like something has happened in your hearts." Then Jesus shifts. Extends an invitation, "Come to me, you who are weary and burdened." We know what it's like to be weary and burdened. So when Jesus says, "Come to me, I'll give you rest," we think, "Yes, please." Then he says the thing about his yoke being easy and his burden light. Here we have to talk about yokes - the kind we put on animals, and the kind that rabbis had. The yokes the typical rabbis had were heavy and burdensome. Their yoke was their understanding of Torah, which told you how to live every moment of your lives. They were filled with all kinds of rules and regulations you felt you had to memorize. Jesus' yoke, his teaching, or his interpretation of Torah, was easy. He got it down to one law. Love God, love people. He offers a whole different way of life that doesn't include all the right things to believe and behaviors to adhere to. We don't have to have that anxiety hanging around our shoulders. We don't have to live with the burden of proving ourselves, the burden of being successful, the burden of pleasing other people, the burden of saving or fixing the world. We can't solve all the world's problems. What we do have is the yoke of Jesus, to ask ourselves the question, "What does love require of me?" wherever we are, whenever we are there. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 11:16-19; 25-30 https://www.bible.com/events/49629944

We're going to start off talking about Christian coffee mugs. Have you noticed that most that fit this criterion are pretty specific types of Bible verses? Yeah, there are definitely some passages that don't end up on a mug, or a t-shirt. Like the passage we're reading today. Some of the things Jesus says here are hard to digest. They don't necessarily fit the image we have of a gentle prophet and shepherd inviting us to join him. They're a bit harsher and direct. Do not be afraid. Jesus says it three times in this little section of teaching. We'll hang here for a few moments. Fear shrinks us. Fear makes us want to hide. Fear tells us to be quiet, to not shake things up or else we're going to lose people; real relationships might disappear. He's trying to tell it like it is, trying to prepare them. Following Jesus is costly. You will be afraid. Then he says the thing about the student not being above the teacher. In other words, Jesus is saying, "If they misunderstand me, they'll misunderstand you. If they mock me, they'll mock you. If they call me evil, they'll call you all sorts of things." We spend way too much time and energy trying to make people like us. But there's a weird kind of freedom that comes when we stop trying to get everyone's approval. We're then free to get down to the business of actually loving people. Then he says the thing about what he tells them in the dark they should speak in the daytime. Faith often grows in the dark. They've been listening to Jesus privately for some months. Now it's time to live it in public. What could that look like? Then he says the thing about not bringing peace, but a sword. We're not talking about a sharp metal thing. We're talking about the truth Jesus brings. It brings division. Not because Jesus enjoys division, people just respond to truth differently. When people give their loyalty to Jesus above all others, even families don't understand. It's why he says the thing about fathers and mothers. Then he says the thing about taking up a cross and following him. The disciples aren't hearing jewelry that they could wear around their neck. They're hearing death. We ought to hear death, too. The death of self. The death of ego. The death of always having to be right. Little deaths everyday until resurrection is possible. We could be afraid. Or we could remember the thing Jesus says about the sparrows. Easily overlooked. Ordinary. But God sees them. And we're worth more than many sparrows. We are known and loved and held by the divine. Sometimes knowing that gives us all the courage we need to follow Jesus. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 10:24-39 http://bible.com/events/49626856

Speaker: Bev Modlin Scripture: John 9:1-41 https://www.bible.com/events/49623691

Today we're slowly walking through the calling of Matthew. Jesus saw Matthew at the tax collector's booth; we have to understand some of tax collector culture to grasp why Matthew would have had a negative reputation amongst his people. He's basically an IRS agent working in collaboration with the Roman empire to extort money from his own people. So yeah, he wasn't liked. Yet Jesus calls him anyway. What did Jesus see in him? What did Jesus recognize that he hadn't yet recognized about himself? Jesus is always doing stuff like this because apparently, this is how grace works. Grace sees something in people before it fully exists. Grace recognizes the person you can become before you can see the person you can become. So let's talk about the booth, which is more than just a piece of furniture. What does it represent? Safety. Security. Predictability. Identity. And yet, he leaves it behind. Why? Who knows? But the call of Jesus into something new was stronger than the comfort he's known in his booth. We all have booths. Some of us are sitting in them now. The booth of bitterness. Of cynicism. Of Certainty. Of other peoples' expectations of us. Of our past wounds or failures. All kinds of booths. Here's the thing about booths: they can become so familiar that they begin to feel like home. Even when they shrink our souls and keep us from becoming the person we were made to be. Jesus says, "Follow me, I've got something better in store for you." Then the story gets interesting. He's at Matthew's home eating with tax collectors and sinners. This makes the religious people nervous. Who you eat with reveals who your people are. And Jesus keeps surprising people with who he eats with. He doesn't just preach grace, he practices it. Makes it visible. So the religious people question him. In response, he says, "It isn't the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." Here's what's funny. No one questions a doctor for spending time in the hospital. Jesus being with these people doesn't mean he's a failure as a rabbi, it shows his purpose. Then he says the thing about God desiring mercy, not sacrifice. He's saying that when religion gets disconnected from compassion, it loses its heart. It stops looking like and revealing God. Then he says the thing about calling not the righteous, but the sinners. What's the difference between righteous people and sinners? The sinners know they're in need of healing. The righteous KNOW they DON'T need healing, which, of course, is the thing that makes them sick. This is an invitation to move toward transformation. The righteous don't want transformation because they don't think they need it. But the sick...they notice that Matthew doesn't stay in his booth. He leaves it behind and is transformed. Then he eventually writes it down. He's transformed and helps the generations that follow find healing, too. He becomes a witness. Because that's what grace does. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 9:9-13 http://bible.com/events/49620456

It's Trinity Sunday! We're starting off with a VERY brief history lesson with an introduction to the Nicene Creed. Yes, I'm even going to quote from the creed. We're going old school. The creed clearly clears things up. Yeah, no. We all still have questions. All of these analogies seem to fall short. Maybe the Trinity is better NOT explained; maybe it's better if we experience the Trinity. Think about the blessing/benediction from Paul: Grace of Jesus. Love of God. Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We all know what grace feels like. We all know what love feels like. We all know what fellowship feels like. Maybe that's how we talk about the Trinity, by noticing how God has already been moving among us. Grace. Love. Fellowship. I like that a lot. But it doesn't stop me from wanting to explain it, or at least think about and play around with it. So, we'll do some more of that, by borrowing from Richard Rohr and running through some thoughts here. - God is dynamic. - God is diverse. - God is communal. What are we left with? Mystery. But it's a mystery that can be experienced if we're paying attention. Grace. Love. Fellowship. And if we're really paying attention, those things are everywhere. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 https://www.bible.com/events/49617181