Showing posts with label Bulletin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bulletin. Show all posts
Friday, December 20, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
A New Old Command
(Text for the bulletin reflection is below the video.)
Today's texts: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35.
In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus says to his disciples, “A new command I give you: love one another.” What seems strange is that this is not the first time the Bible commands God’s people to love. The command to love is in the Old Testament, and Jesus reaffirms love as the basis or summary of all the law and the prophets. So in what way is this command new?
One new thing is the qualification Jesus makes on this love: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet and later Jesus’ love would bring him to death on a cross. The love Jesus commands is not just an elevated kindness or benevolence, but a love that is willing to give up everything for someone else.
And part of the newness of this command is probably that it refocusses the disciples’ love in preparation for Jesus’ departure. Soon Jesus will no longer be with them in body. The disciples are together now because of their love for Jesus, but will they love each other once the object of their love is no longer physically present with them?
It’s a curious fact that it’s sometimes easier for us to love the strangers in our communities than it is to love our own friends and families and community members. Jesus commands his disciples to love each other as he loved us because our love for Jesus is made real in our love for each other! Our mission in the world starts with our own
people!
This week's readings: Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10,22 - 22:5; John 14:23-29
Today's texts: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35.
In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus says to his disciples, “A new command I give you: love one another.” What seems strange is that this is not the first time the Bible commands God’s people to love. The command to love is in the Old Testament, and Jesus reaffirms love as the basis or summary of all the law and the prophets. So in what way is this command new?
One new thing is the qualification Jesus makes on this love: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet and later Jesus’ love would bring him to death on a cross. The love Jesus commands is not just an elevated kindness or benevolence, but a love that is willing to give up everything for someone else.
And part of the newness of this command is probably that it refocusses the disciples’ love in preparation for Jesus’ departure. Soon Jesus will no longer be with them in body. The disciples are together now because of their love for Jesus, but will they love each other once the object of their love is no longer physically present with them?
It’s a curious fact that it’s sometimes easier for us to love the strangers in our communities than it is to love our own friends and families and community members. Jesus commands his disciples to love each other as he loved us because our love for Jesus is made real in our love for each other! Our mission in the world starts with our own
people!
This week's readings: Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10,22 - 22:5; John 14:23-29
Sunday, April 21, 2013
The Shepherd understands the sheep
Today's readings: Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30
(Text for reflection is below the video)
Revelation 7:17 makes a remarkable statement: “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.” Generally in scripture it is us who are the sheep and God who is the Shepherd, but John the Baptist (for one) announces Jesus to his followers as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), and in Revelation Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb. This imagery gives a strong sense of identity with us: God (the Shepherd) became one of us (the sheep) in Jesus (the Lamb). In this passage of Revelation the image is reversed again: the Lamb becomes the Shepherd.
This shift in imagery from Shepherd to Lamb to Shepherd presents us with a beautiful picture of a God who identifies deeply with his people. The Lord who is our shepherd and leads us beside quiet waters (Psalm 23) is not a far-off God with unrealistic expectations of us and little to no understanding of what it means to be human. No, this God became flesh and dwelt among us. You might say (in keeping with the image) that the Shepherd became wool and grazed in green pastures with his sheep!
So Jesus, our Shepherd, understands our weaknesses and limitations, because he has tested in all the ways we have (Hebrews 4:15-16). He accepts and guides us not in ignorance but in full, intimate knowledge of our struggles and our needs.
The Shepherd knows what it’s like to be a sheep, so let us approach Him with confidence and gratitude!
This week's readings: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
(Text for reflection is below the video)
Revelation 7:17 makes a remarkable statement: “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.” Generally in scripture it is us who are the sheep and God who is the Shepherd, but John the Baptist (for one) announces Jesus to his followers as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), and in Revelation Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb. This imagery gives a strong sense of identity with us: God (the Shepherd) became one of us (the sheep) in Jesus (the Lamb). In this passage of Revelation the image is reversed again: the Lamb becomes the Shepherd.
This shift in imagery from Shepherd to Lamb to Shepherd presents us with a beautiful picture of a God who identifies deeply with his people. The Lord who is our shepherd and leads us beside quiet waters (Psalm 23) is not a far-off God with unrealistic expectations of us and little to no understanding of what it means to be human. No, this God became flesh and dwelt among us. You might say (in keeping with the image) that the Shepherd became wool and grazed in green pastures with his sheep!
So Jesus, our Shepherd, understands our weaknesses and limitations, because he has tested in all the ways we have (Hebrews 4:15-16). He accepts and guides us not in ignorance but in full, intimate knowledge of our struggles and our needs.
The Shepherd knows what it’s like to be a sheep, so let us approach Him with confidence and gratitude!
This week's readings: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
Sunday, April 14, 2013
God's Renewing Work (April 14, 2013 Bulletin Reflection)
(Text is below the video.)
This week’s readings seem to have a common thread running through them: the theme of renewal, of remaking, of reversal of circumstances, of transformation.
Psalm 30 is a song of praise in response to reversal of fortune: “you turned my wailing into dancing,” says the Psalmist.
In Acts 9 we see Saul, a persecutor of Christians who was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples,” have an encounter with the risen Jesus, and by the end of the chapter, he is “preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.”
In John 21 Jesus appears again to the disciples after his resurrection. He eats with them and we get another glimpse at the resurrection body, the renewed and remade body of Jesus, which is a glimpse into our future renewed and remade resurrection bodies.
In Revelation we see angels and all creatures gathered in heaven’s throne-room worshipping Jesus, the Lamb that was slain but lives again. It’s a vision of the way things are and of things to come: of the risen Lamb and of a creation renewed and transformed to praise and glorify God.
This is the work God is doing in the world through Jesus. At the end of Revelation, Jesus says, “I am making everything new!” Mourning is turned to dancing, sinners are remade into saints, dying bodies are remade into eternal bodies, anxious creatures are transformed into worshipping and celebrating creatures.
This is the big picture of salvation: Jesus is renewing and remaking all of creation!
This week’s readings seem to have a common thread running through them: the theme of renewal, of remaking, of reversal of circumstances, of transformation.
Psalm 30 is a song of praise in response to reversal of fortune: “you turned my wailing into dancing,” says the Psalmist.
In Acts 9 we see Saul, a persecutor of Christians who was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples,” have an encounter with the risen Jesus, and by the end of the chapter, he is “preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.”
In John 21 Jesus appears again to the disciples after his resurrection. He eats with them and we get another glimpse at the resurrection body, the renewed and remade body of Jesus, which is a glimpse into our future renewed and remade resurrection bodies.
In Revelation we see angels and all creatures gathered in heaven’s throne-room worshipping Jesus, the Lamb that was slain but lives again. It’s a vision of the way things are and of things to come: of the risen Lamb and of a creation renewed and transformed to praise and glorify God.
This is the work God is doing in the world through Jesus. At the end of Revelation, Jesus says, “I am making everything new!” Mourning is turned to dancing, sinners are remade into saints, dying bodies are remade into eternal bodies, anxious creatures are transformed into worshipping and celebrating creatures.
This is the big picture of salvation: Jesus is renewing and remaking all of creation!
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