Hospitality

Christians are called to move far beyond mere friendliness and engage in active acts of intentional hospitality.

The Prodigal could find no hospitality until he returned home; his older brother could not bring himself to offer hospitality. Both missed the love and grace that was poured out by the extravagant hospitality of the father.

As human beings, we have all experienced loneliness and rejection when wonderfully friendly people are so engrossed with their friends that they do not notice the stranger in their midst.

As children of God, we know the extravagant hospitality of God’s love and grace.

As Christians, we are called to share the hospitality we have received.

Hospitality (July 12, 2009)

Magnificat

Tradition tells us that when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, she experienced the quickening of the life growing within her womb. Luke records the event and Mary’s soaring prayer hymn – the Magnificat.

We explore how Mary’s Song can be our hymn of praise for the birth of the living Christ deep within our own spirits.

Like Mary, we offer praise and gratitude that God has taken notice – even of us. God notices even though we are not the rich and powerful, the rulers of this world. We celebrate that God’s love grows within all human beings beginning with the lowliest.

Like Mary, we see our values and lives turned upside down, especially during the time of year when our culture worships at the malls and kids prepare for the coming of a different God. The rich are toppled, the poor are exalted.

Like Mary, the growing spirit of Christ within assures us that our God – the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Miriam and Moses – keeps promises. Modern Commercialism does not deliver its promise of an easy life surrounded by material possessions. Despite the extravagance of our holiday giving, love comes not from the cultural celebration of Christmas. Instead, we affirm and celebrate that life and love comes only from the God we know through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Magnificat (December 13, 2009)

Abundance

It is all too easy to see scarcity all around us. We never seem to have enough. Life in Christ offers a radically different view: God’s abundance overflows for the earth and all who make their home here.

We explore the Parable of the Sower, Psalm 24:1, and the call of Peter as lessons in abundant living.

Abundance (November 15, 2009)

Reconciliation

Few can argue of the importance of reconciliation for those of us who follow Jesus Christ. Paul writes that we are called to a ministry of reconciliation. But can we be reconcilers without first being reconciled – with God – with ourselves – with others.

Perhaps the most important, yet most difficult part of a mission and ministry of reconciliation is honest self reflection. We confess our part in breaking the relationship and accept ourselves as fully forgiven by God and by our own deepest spirit. Only then are we set free from the guilt and shame and burden of responsibility for our own sins through forgiveness.

First take the log out of your own eye, and then take on the task of removing the speck from the other.

Reconciliation – a vocation and calling as important to Christian mission as Social Justice and Christian Charity.

Reconciliation (October 18, 2009)

Praying Through Your Anger

 

Pray your way through anger and use all that bottled up energy for good rather than harm.

Praying Through Your Anger (September 20, 2009)

Mission

Why has God called the church into being? Why a particular church in a particular place? What is the raison d’être of the church. We get back to basics and recall the essential role that mission plays in giving the church purpose. The church exists for mission – for acting as a steward of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our buildings, our ministers, paid staff and volunteers, and our material resources are all marshaled to fulfill the the church’s core purpose.

Mission is the Church acting as a Steward of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Mission (August 16, 2009)

Ecology

 

For a very long time, human beings have lived as though there was no limit to the earth’s capacity to sustain human life. We took the command in Genesis 1 to “dominate the earth” as free license to consume the earth and it inhabitants and use them up. We saw ourselves as having control and power over the earth.

 

But Genesis 2 adds a different view of our place in the creation. We the gardeners living in the Garden of Eden. The command is to tend and care for God’s garden. Eden is God’s household – a home for all living beings. We are earth’s caretakers.

 

We are stewards, charged with nurturing and maintaining God’s earth for all the “fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals  and one another. We are responsible stewards when we do that which promotes life, health and shalom. We fail as stewards when we engage in practices and policies that degrade and destroy life and that which makes life possible.

Ecology (August 2, 2009)

Confidentiality

We explore Confidentiality as the Stewardship of Information belonging to another and discover that this Christian discipline is far different from keeping secrets. The opposite of Confidentiality is Gossip – the sharing of information without regard or respect for the person about whom we are speaking.

As Christians, we always hold one another in high regard and seek the absolute best for the other. This is the nature of love.

Exploring confidentiality as holding another’s life in trust, we explore both the extent and the limits of Confidentiality.

Confidentiality (July 19, 2009)

Spirit Transplant

To be a Christian means to have a sprit transplant. Explore a new metaphor about life in the Spirit.

Spirit Transplant (May 31, 2009)

A Way of Life

Christianity is a WAY OF LIFE. This contradicts much of modern culture that describes faith as acknowledging a set of doctrines and beliefs.

A Way of Life (May 24, 2009)