This podcast by the developer of Universalis may be useful for explaining why it happened. You can also see the show notes . It is available on the Universalis website, but you cannot link to individual episodes.
The treasure in the field and the pearl of great price. We usually interpret this seeing ourselves as the merchant and the pearl as the kingdom. But perhaps an even better fit is that God is the merchant and we ourselves are the treasure for whom he gives up everything.
When God called Gideon and Gideon resisted, God didn't try to sort Gideon out. The antidote to weakness is not strength but an awareness that God is with us. God comes to Gideon in ordinary life, as he often does (as with Moses, David, Saul, the disciples), and we don't always see God in our lives because we don't look beyond the ordinary. God is always speaking; are we always listening?
The sermon title was 'Hide and seek', starting in the Garden of Eden. God is seeking us out, and we can't hide. God isn't hiding, and we don't need to seek God. A persuasive sermon.
In and through Christ we are chosen to be part of the true Israel by grace and are chosen for good works - to become like Christ as his disciples, bearing much fruit for the Father’s glory.
We therefore have to:
allow the Father to remove what is ‘unfruitful’ and prune what is fruitful
God's presence and provision in the promised land is first show through Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho. She also appears in the New Testament genealogies of Jesus, in which there were women, foreigners and outsiders, and in the list of great people of God in Hebrews. No matter what damage life has done to us, or we have done to ourselves, we are all of inestimable value to God.
Love is shown in welcoming strangers, for you may welcome angels unaware (Hebrews 13:1-8). Coupled with the Gospel (Luke 14: 7-14) where Jesus says we should invite in the poor and lame and blind. How do we show welcome to strangers when a small minority in our nations confront them with hate?
It was "Serving Sunday" with the tagline "Freed to Serve"
I'm afraid it pretty much washed over me, but as I recall there are spiritual gifts which should be used to build up the church and everybody should be serving.
After the summer break, stepping back into our interminable grind through detailed series on the Gospel of Matthew, we looked today at fasting: nowadays largely ignored by the church but not an optional extra and interrelated with prayer. Start small, be clear about your intentions and prayer focus, and don't show off about it.
I suspect I had the same readings as @Alan29 and @TheOrganist - Jeremiah and the potter, Philemon and Luke 14.
Not the sermon, but the all age address produced a couple of pieces of Lego and asked whether you would start building a tower with them. Then a talk about the Church being likened to a building, and then how you would build something the show what the Church is like - with a lot more Lego produced at that point.
The sermon was about change, being changed and bringing about change, just as the potter reshaped clay (or, the children were reshaping a pile of Lego which is not as messy as clay).
Yes those readings, with the reader not too sure how to pronounce Philemon or Onesimus. I really wanted to hear "Onesie-mus,"
We didn't have that (also sermon on Philemon) but did have one of the other characters in the letter pronounced Archie-puss. I used to know an Archie Puss: a delightful feline!
Continuing the series in the Gospel of Matthew and the speaker was one of our Ukrainian friends, speaking through an interpreter on where our treasure is.
We should gather treasure not here but in heaven because:
Goodness what ours was about. We had the return of a (genuinely) lovely chap who previously prompted me to start a Hell thread, such is his lack of preaching ability. There was a bit of threatening hell for non-believers (with a degree of certainty that bordered on heretical) but beyond that I couldn't discern a point.
2 Corinthians 4. Jars of clay - we do not have to be perfect people to share and demonstrate the gospel, it is like treasure hidden within us. Also Paul tells us never to manipulate or coerce people into accepting it - it is God's work to open the recipient's eyes.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage a group of dispirited Christians of Jewish heritage. How does the author do this? By having them focus on Jesus.
They argue that Jesus is superior to the Angels and to the Torah.
Our problems come when we have a shrunken image of Jesus - the reality is that he is the very image of God.
And as Christians we should be growing in our appreciation of who Jesus is, and our vision of Him should be getting bigger.
We had David and Goliath: What if... The point was that David did slay Goliath, and worrying about the 'What ifs?' doesn't help you. It did happen that way, right down to the crucifixion. We accept the reality and move forward with it.
We were made in the Image of God - to bring glory and honour to God
He became Incarnate - the first part of his suffering
He Invested in us - The Crucifixion was the fulness of his suffering and the Resurrection the receipt that says the Price has Been Paid
We are His Inheritance.
Hebrews 3:1-4:13
Jesus is better than Moses
We can learn lessons from Israel's history
Even though we have eternal security we should heed the warning not to drift away.
(Full disclosure: even though this was the early morning service I did fall asleep during the sermon so I may have missed a connection in there somewhere)
Dives and Lazarus
Jesus only dignified the pauper Lazarus with a name because Dives means rich man and is not a name. We need to see people with the eyes Jesus and not only accord dignity to the rich and powerful.
We love to judge, as long as it's not us being judged. Jesus judges in a different way that doesn't fit the world's ideas. If the judgements we make are simply about difference we should not do it but if it's about sin then we can and indeed should... remembering always we may have a plank in our eye compared to the other's speck and our judgements should be humble and gentle.
Comments
Sorry, I really have forgotten.
This podcast by the developer of Universalis may be useful for explaining why it happened. You can also see the show notes . It is available on the Universalis website, but you cannot link to individual episodes.
There are three challenges in the passage.
- the claim the Christ is unique
- that we will do greater works than Jesus
- that prayer will always be answered
The answers to these challenges areWhen God called Gideon and Gideon resisted, God didn't try to sort Gideon out. The antidote to weakness is not strength but an awareness that God is with us. God comes to Gideon in ordinary life, as he often does (as with Moses, David, Saul, the disciples), and we don't always see God in our lives because we don't look beyond the ordinary. God is always speaking; are we always listening?
In and through Christ we are chosen to be part of the true Israel by grace and are chosen for good works - to become like Christ as his disciples, bearing much fruit for the Father’s glory.
We therefore have to:
God's presence and provision in the promised land is first show through Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho. She also appears in the New Testament genealogies of Jesus, in which there were women, foreigners and outsiders, and in the list of great people of God in Hebrews. No matter what damage life has done to us, or we have done to ourselves, we are all of inestimable value to God.
It was "Serving Sunday" with the tagline "Freed to Serve"
I'm afraid it pretty much washed over me, but as I recall there are spiritual gifts which should be used to build up the church and everybody should be serving.
After the summer break, stepping back into our interminable grind through detailed series on the Gospel of Matthew, we looked today at fasting: nowadays largely ignored by the church but not an optional extra and interrelated with prayer. Start small, be clear about your intentions and prayer focus, and don't show off about it.
Not the sermon, but the all age address produced a couple of pieces of Lego and asked whether you would start building a tower with them. Then a talk about the Church being likened to a building, and then how you would build something the show what the Church is like - with a lot more Lego produced at that point.
The sermon was about change, being changed and bringing about change, just as the potter reshaped clay (or, the children were reshaping a pile of Lego which is not as messy as clay).
We didn't have that (also sermon on Philemon) but did have one of the other characters in the letter pronounced Archie-puss. I used to know an Archie Puss: a delightful feline!
We should gather treasure not here but in heaven because:
1. We love what we collect
2. What our treasure is will change our lives
3. We can't serve two masters.
We also had (in the Children's Talk) some archery!
The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage a group of dispirited Christians of Jewish heritage. How does the author do this? By having them focus on Jesus.
They argue that Jesus is superior to the Angels and to the Torah.
Our problems come when we have a shrunken image of Jesus - the reality is that he is the very image of God.
And as Christians we should be growing in our appreciation of who Jesus is, and our vision of Him should be getting bigger.
We were made in the Image of God - to bring glory and honour to God
He became Incarnate - the first part of his suffering
He Invested in us - The Crucifixion was the fulness of his suffering and the Resurrection the receipt that says the Price has Been Paid
We are His Inheritance.
Generosity towards the poor.
Jesus is better than Moses
We can learn lessons from Israel's history
Even though we have eternal security we should heed the warning not to drift away.
(Full disclosure: even though this was the early morning service I did fall asleep during the sermon so I may have missed a connection in there somewhere)
Jesus only dignified the pauper Lazarus with a name because Dives means rich man and is not a name. We need to see people with the eyes Jesus and not only accord dignity to the rich and powerful.
We love to judge, as long as it's not us being judged. Jesus judges in a different way that doesn't fit the world's ideas. If the judgements we make are simply about difference we should not do it but if it's about sin then we can and indeed should... remembering always we may have a plank in our eye compared to the other's speck and our judgements should be humble and gentle.