Luke 1.39-56

Cousins often share a special relationship.
I love the story of Elizabeth and Mary.  As cousins, they share family joy and fear. Elizabeth shares in the gift of prophecy with her son: Jesus is here; jump for joy.
Remember how tenuous Mary's situation is.  She leaves her village for a reason. Think of how odd Elizabeth appears to her neighbors.
God has put them together to share in salvations promise.

Luke 1.26-38

In this week's scripture, Mary learns that she will give birth to the Son of God and that her cousin will unexpectedly give birth. Mary's story is the story of society's most vulnerable.  Jesus is not born into the wealthiest family or to Nazareth's most experienced parents.  God did not send Jesus to the community with the best schools or to an earthly father who was anything other than a distant relative of David.
Luke describes Mary as someone on whom God has looked with favor.  God's favor comes to us not as something we deserve.  God's favor is grace.  And Mary is humble, God's servant. Mary steps up to fulfill history.
"For nothing will be impossible with God."

Luke 6.37-49 - Sermon on the Plain (Part 2)

Jesus' most famous sermon continues with some of his more famous imagery.  Jesus is a preacher, but Jesus is not preachy.  His images are earthy and easy to understand, yet they are not earthly, dull, or flat.  Jesus' true message is about imitation and discipleship.  If we follow the ways of Jesus, we are more concerned with leading ourselves than leading others.
When we call Him "Lord, Lord", we commit ourselves to imitate Him, learn His ways and follow Him.

Luke 6.20-37

Two of Luke's difficult sayings on stewardship:

Luke 18.22

Acts 2.45

Luke 4 - part 2

Unfortunately, this is what people think of when they think of an exorcism.  Spinning heads and vomit. Priests leaping from windows. The reality of this kind of oppression is actually worse.  The man in the congregation at Capernaum suffered greatly, with no relief until Christ.  Many suffer the same way in our own day; often, this suffering is diagnosed as some sort of mental illness. (1) We do a disservice when we despiritualize this kind of suffering. (2) We must develop a healing ministry for people who suffer in this way.  Casting out demons is not a matter of some type of incantation, but the healing power of the presence of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Luke 4

In Luke 4, Jesus begins his ministry in the synagogue.  Jesus preaches with authority, a recurrent theme early in Luke.  What does this authority look like?  What about someone else who reads the same words.  Was Jesus just an effective public speaker? Surely that is not it.  Some have spoken powerful, manipulative words, without this kind of authority.  They led people to their deaths or had them kill others.

Jesus delivers the Old Testament prophetic message with a new authority, full of the grace of God, delivered to an amazed and sometimes angered congregation.  Healing and exorcism accompany these sermons.  Jesus came to transform and show the true power of God for humanity.  As he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God...I was sent for this pupose."  God be praised.

Luke

This week we begin an extended sermon series on the gospel of Luke.

Some common assumptions about Luke the writer:

1. Physician - the gospel of Luke recounts many healings and presents a compassionate Jesus. However, this profession for Luke is biblically based on Colossians 4, not the gospel itself.

2. Gentile - if Luke is a Gentile writer, he is certainly the evangelist most interested in the Jewishness of Jesus. The beginning chapters of Luke's gospel present close up views of the Temple and Jesus' very Jewish upbringing, including his circumcision on the eighth day. Based on this information, recent scholars have challenged this tradition.

3. Character in the Story - in Acts 16, Luke uses "we" in the narrative, placing himself in the story as Paul sails the Mediterranean.

The gospel:

1. Is part one of a two part series, including the book of Acts. Paul begins before the birth of Jesus and ends with Paul in Rome.

2. Is not really a gospel, but an epistle to a certain new Christian named Theophilus.

3. Is intended "so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed" (Luke 1.4).

Amos 5 - Overflowing Worship

Amos 5.24 is probably the most famous passage in the book, particularly over the last century. Martin Luther King's quotation of the text will echo for years to come. Hard to top that.

These are some of the strongest words of the prophet Amos. The day of the Lord is dark. The Lord calls Israel to task, not just for its actions, but also for its very worship, a worship pleasing to humanity and displeasing to God.

"But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

May our worship overflow with spirit and truth!

219th General Assembly

Click here to watch and keep up with the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s General Assembly in Minneapolis.

Heidelberg Catechism

I hope you are enjoying the Heidelberg Catechism in the Thursday updates. Kevin DeYoung, from the Reformed Church (a Dutch Reformed cousin of the PC(USA)), has written a neat little book about the catechism called The Good News We Almost Forgot. Check it out if you want to know more about this timeless summary of the faith.

1 Corinthians 14

This Sunday, we continue our study of the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14.

Paul answers two questions:

1. What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?

Answer: Build up the church, not ourselves

2. What is the goal of the gifts?

Answer: To show unbelievers that "God is really among you."

Paul's discussion is more complicated than this, but essentially, because the church at Corinth had forgotten the purpose of the gifts, they had elevated one gift above all the others - tongues. God's purpose in the gifts is for unbelievers to find faith.

How can we use our gifts for the benefit of unbelievers?

George Goodman

Rev. George Goodman is preaching on Romans 8 this Sunday. In July, George retires from 20 years of service to Presbytery of the Peaks as Associate General Presbyter. Fittingly, he brings a message on Pentecost to a congregation whose formation he helped make possible and assisted from the beginning. George is committed to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and courageously preaches the word of God. His ministry to the ministers of Peaks Presbytery has left a legacy of honest caring and intentional listening.

I thank God for George Goodman.

1 Corinthians 13 - love

Sunday, we arrive at 1 Corinthians 13, a passage commonly used at weddings. This is one of my favorite passages from the Bible. We so often hear it out of context; our challenge is to hear it within its context. Read 1 Corinthians 12 to hear echoes in 1 Corinthians 13. The gifts mentioned there must be rooted and grounded in love. Love is the better way.

The truly difficult word to understand in the passage is "love". Greek has three words for love: eros (desire), philos (friendship/companionship), and agape (self-emptying, divine). 1 Corinthians 13 uses agape. 1 Corinthians 13 is not a romantic passage. God emptied Himself in Jesus Christ, the ultimate act of this kind of love. How can we seek this kind of love in our lives? Love is the greatest.

1 Corinthians 12 - Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual Gifts Assessment from Church Growth Institute, the Methodist Church or Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Passages for Spiritual Gifts

Romans 12.6-8

Ephesians 4.11-12

1 Corinthians 12

Galatians 5

1 Corinthians 11

To understand Paul's discussion of hair and clothing at worship, we need to understand its context. The statue of Caesar above shows how Caesar would have led worship, wearing this robe and hood with his office.

When it came to prayer and worship, superstition abounded among the Gentiles. Paul's later discussion of noisy gongs and clanging cymbols reminded his contemporaries of the insistence of noise, so that nothing interrupted their prayers.

Paul appeals to making our worship counter-cultural. The pagan males cover their heads; Corinthian men should not. The women do not cover their heads; Corinthian women could set themselves apart with shawls.

As Christians, we struggle with what to accept from our culture, what to reject, and what to subvert. Fashions change; the Lord does not change.

A larger issue for worship Paul discusses is the Lord's Supper. The practice of the Lord's Supper divided Corinth. The Supper signifies Christ. The practice of the Supper often distracts and points to something else. For the Christian community, the Lord's Supper offers the reality of Christ through the Holy Spirit. For Corinth, the Supper meant bring your own food and wine. The Corinthians eat on their own, together, not sharing. The taste, smell, and texture of the cup and the bread remind us of Jesus only when we eat together, not seeking to eat alone.

1 Corinthians 10 - Old Testament references

1 Corinthians 10.2 - Exodus 13 - 14
1 Corinthians 10.3 - Exodus 16
1 Corinthians 10.4 - Exodus 17
1 Corinthians 10.7 - Exodus 32
1 Corinthians 10.8 - Numbers 25
1 Corinthians 10.9 - Numbers 21
1 Corinthians 10.10 - Numbers 14

1 Corinthians 10

Since Easter, we have dwelt in Paul's discussion of the resurrection. Paul spends time discussing doctrines that the church has dropped. Belief in the resurrection, both Jesus' resurrection in the first century and the general resurrection in the future, is crucial to Christian faith now.

This Sunday, we jump back to 1 Corinthians 10, where we will lead up to Pentecost and the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 14. Paul addresses a community with two theologies competing with the Christian faith. Many of the Jewish Christian members of the community struggle with their old identity in the face of pagan converts; the former pagans struggle with the exclusive claims of the Christian faith. On top of this, in Jesus Christ, a new identity is forged in freedom and grace.

Context determines how we exercise our freedom in Christ.

For Corinth, freedom in Christ meant eating or not eating idol meat. For Christians today, there are many forms of idol meat - alcohol, vegetarianism, etc. There are actions that hurt our testimony to this freedom in Christ in the eyes of some unbelievers; these same actions are fine outside their presence.

Conscience is our guide, not legalism. Yet the conscience we follow is not always our own.

We Presbyterians say that "God alone is Lord of the conscience", as Paul reaffirms here. Yet sometimes our own conscience is not primary. The conscience of the unbeliever, out attempts to win everyone for Christ, should determine our behavior.

1 Corinthians 2.1-5

This Sunday is Passion/Palm Sunday. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem placed Jesus onto the radar screen of the authorities. The cries of the people, Hosanna ([God] save us), reminded the Roman and Jerusalem authorities of prophecy and politics. Although the authorities did not understand his kingdom or his message, they were correct in his annointing. The scene swiftly shifts from the palm lined entrance of a messiah into Jerusalem to the cross of a suffering servant.

Paul believes he is a herald of this king. No ordinary messenger, a herald brings the special message of a royal person. Heralds have authority and speak directly on behalf of a king. When Paul uses the word "proclamation" (kerygma), he means that his preaching is a royal message from the king of the universe.

The heart of Paul's proclamation is Jesus Christ and the cross. The cross reveals the power of God. On the cross, Jesus Christ died perfectly obedient to God, judging humanity and offering forgiveness.

During Holy Week, we remember the cross. The road to the empty tomb passes through Golgotha, blocked by the cross. Jesus Christ suffered on our behalf. May we pause there this week to see the true power of God.

Youth Sunday

^"12Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. ¹³Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching." 1 Timothy 4.12-13

Since Forest Presbyterian's youth group is leading worship 3/21/2010, there is no sermon update this week. Check back next Thursday for Passion/Palm Sunday, when we will discuss 1 Corinthians 2.1-5. Check out the podcast link to the right to listen to earlier sermons.

God bless!

Yours in Christ...

1 Corinthians 6

This Sunday, Paul pushes the Corinthians further on the ethics of the community. He argues against taking fellow Christians to court and the anti-nomianism present at Corinth.

In Matthew, Jesus counsels the church to resolve disputes in the church face to face, before even involving any other people. Jesus understood human nature and our desire to solve our problems by involving others. Jesus counsels that we be direct, honest, and assertive.

The Corinthians had begun to take church matters into the Roman courts. Acts 18 shows how quickly the Corinthians had forgotten their history; the leaders of the synagogue tried to take Paul to court. Now, the Corinthian church was repeating history, asking a pagan civil court to settle a theological matter. Our baptism join us together in Christ and means Christians should settle our disputes within the community if at all possible.

The phrase "all things are lawful for me" translates more literally as "all things are possible." The law is not even at issue. The Corinthians think that since they are free from the letter of the law that they can do whatever they want. Paul counters with his earlier metaphor - our bodies are the very presence of God in the world, a temple, a place set apart. Paul focuses their attention on the Spirit within. Our response to the grace of God - glorify!

May we glorify and enjoy God forever!

1 Corinthians 5

Paul's epistles are "occasional" letters. Occasional does not mean that the letters are written at irregularly spaced intervals. Instead, Paul's letters are addressed to specific congregations with specific issues. Corinth's issues revolve around sex, resources/food, and power.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul finally begins to address the issues at hand. The word Paul uses is porneia, the root for our word pornography (a written porneia). The root of Porneia meant prostitute, male or female. This kind of sexual anarchy described violates the sanctity of the community and of the individuals involved. In Corinth, a man is living with his father's wife. Paul accuses a member of the community of incest, an ethical violation in virtually every culture. This breach corroded the life of the congregation and led to arrogance and defensiveness.

Paul makes the theological connection between sex and passover. Passover is a time for renewal and restoration, a deliverance from whatever is oppressing us. Lent is the forty days leading up to passover, a time to throw out the old things from our lives, remembering what Jesus has done for us and the new life to which he has called us. Actions based in "Sincerity and Truth" require repentance. May we become worthy, for worthy is the Lamb, Jesus Christ!

1 Corinthians 4

Since he is soon to virtually disappear from Paul's letter to Corinth, we should speak more about Apollos. Apollos remains a mysterious character in the Bible. He grew up in Alexandria and appears at Ephesus in Acts 18.24-28. After Priscilla and Aquila teach him "the Way of God," Luke's euphemism for faith in Christ, Apollos goes to Greece, where he eventually comes to teach in Corinth.

Alexandria was the seat of knowledge in the ancient world, famed for its library. Founded by the conquering hero Alexander the Great, who saw himself as the new Pharoah, scholars tells us that ancient Alexandria developed into a city whose population was one third Egyptian, one third Greek, and one third Jewish. Philo's school there taught a unique brand of Judaism, heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and rhetoric. Apollos must have been raised in this tradition, which gave him the confidence to "speak boldly in the synagogue" (Acts 18.26).

Acts comment that Apollos "powerfully refuted the Jews in public" (Acts 18.28) tells how persuasive he must have been. Paul's refutation had led him before Gallio, the local Roman magistrate. Paul would have relished the opportunity to offer a defense before Gallio; God had other plans. Apollos had the rhtorical skill to avoid that kind of confrontation, for a time.

Where Apollos succeeded with outsiders, he struggle within the church. St Jerome tells us that Apollos left for Crete, returning to Corinth only after Paul's letter. This is tradition, not scripturally based. Paul says that he encouraged Apollos to return from Ephesus (1 Cor 16.12). Apollos politely refused. Corinth was an ornery bunch, tougher opponents for Apollos than the leaders of the synagogue.

Some, including Martin Luther, believe Apollos wrote Hebrews. Hebrews reads more like a sermon or a teaching than a letter. Paul or someone else may have written it. The text gives us few clues. Martin Luther's idea is more of a wish than scholarship.

Ultimately, Apollos was a faithful preacher and teacher, who demurred when people thought more highly of him than Paul. Many say he later became a bishop, some say there in Corinth. More importantly, Apollos would have remained a faithful, dynamic teacher of the Way of God.

1 Corinthians 2.6-16

On Passion/Palm Sunday we will come back to 1 Cor 2.1-5. This Sunday, we will focus on the remainder of chapter 2.

One word can make all the difference in our understanding of the scriptures. In this case, the word "unspiritual" (v14) causes the problem. Unspiritual does not accurately translate the word psychikos. Nor does the "natural man" of the King James Version.

Paul intends to contrast the spirit and the psyche. The Greek means something more like the "psychological man" - the person who is focused on the inner self.

The psyche is not bad, but it is not the basis for life with God. The Spirit completes us. We have a human part and a God part. The human part is already there, filled with the human spirit. The spiritual part is empty, destroyed at the fall, filled in only when we receive the spirit of God.

The Corinth church was filled with people who believed they had spirit, and that others in the church did not. But that is a story for later in the book. His main purpose here is to orient us around the Spirit of God, the foundation of all true Wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1.18-31

²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

The community in Corinth consisted of a mixture of backgrounds, Gentile and Jewish. In order to understand the difficulty these groups had trusting and understanding the cross of Jesus Christ, Paul's other epistles provide some clue.

For the Jews, dying on a tree was an abomination. As Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21.22-23 in his epistle to Galatia, "for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”" Crucifixion, according to modern historians, usually involved nailing the victim to a standing tree (our modern imagination of the event ordinarily contains a post driven into the ground - still a tree), putting him under this curse (Deuteronomy also explains why Jesus followers were so insistent that his body come down right away). Paul offers a theological explanation for this manner of death. In Galatians 3.13, Paul he says that Jesus became a curse for us in order to remove the curse of the law. The legal source of the stumbling is understandable, albeit surmountable.

The Gentiles were under the sway of gnosticism, the philosophical schools of the day, and many other worldviews. Paul lumps them together in Colossians. The key to understanding Paul's problem with this "wisdom" is that it is constructed by humans. Wisdom is not bad according to Paul; any wisdom which elevates itself above Christ is.

How do we understand the cross today? What are our stumbling blocks? What wisdom competes with the cross?

²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1.10-17

Although Corinth was an ancient Greek city, many of its inhabitants during Paul's time were new immigrants.

1 Corinthians menitions a Gaius. Acts 18 names a Titius Justus. R. F. Collins suggests that they are the same person, a wealthy Roman colonist, a former soldier, Gauis Titius Justus. As the Roman Empire ran out of money, they began to pay former soldiers in land.

Corinth was a port city, standing along the Isthmus of Corinth. The southern section of Greece, the Peloponesus, is a penninsula. Today, a bridge connects Corinth to the mainland of Greece and a canal cuts across the isthmus.

The Romans destroyed the city in 146 BC under L. Mummius. Jews, Romans, Greeks and others from around the world resettled Corinth.

As context for the epistle, Corinth hustles and bustles with the activity of a busy seaport. Converted the Gentiles still struggle with their relationship to their former idols; Jewish Christians still seek to hold firmly to their traditions; the new Christians, like Paul, struggle to proclaim the gospel of Christ amidst the confusion.

Corinth's conflict is implied by Paul's answer to it. In this week's section (1.10-17), the Corinthians are voting for their favorite apostle instead of Jesus and attempting to establish their own authority based on who performed their baptisms.

Paul's letter intends to focus Corinth on the cross, the love of Christ, and the power of the resurrection. And so should we.

1 Corinthians 1

This week, we begin with the Paul's first epistle to Corinth. Although Paul wrote and refers to other letters to Corinth, only two remain as scripture.

Paul founded and had a rocky, intense relationship with the church at Corinth. Luke gives us his version of the story in Acts 18.1-18. Notice the names that the two books have in common, particularly Priscilla and Aquila (who are no longer in Corinth when the letter is written), and Sosthenes (Paul's secretary), who is beaten before the local magistrate.

An epistle is a letter. Think of letters you have written - what is in them? Paul's letter begins as any other letter would, by telling who is writing and by naming the addressee. Then, Paul greets his readers. Paul's greeting is worshipful. His greeting does not come from himself - it comes from God in Christ.