Intersections

  Last week, I talked about how our itchy ears can get in the way of the truth of salvation and how we can be distracted in our pursuit of holiness. Paul still encourages Timothy & even us now to “carry out your ministry fully”, in verse 5. But at the start of our excerpt today, the mood has changed. Paul seems weak and very convinced that death is coming soon.   This part of the letter has become amazingly personal, almost like it’s a little awkward for us to be reading it. Should we close the door to the hospital room that they’re conversing in, to give them a bit of privacy?  Although, we’d miss the lesson Paul has for us. He is continuing where he left off last week to his final words for Timothy. As we’ve gone through this letter, we’ve talked about rekindling the gift God has presented to us, showing up in service for God, staying encouraged and faithful when it’s difficult. But now, at least for Paul, it’s the end of the journey and we are the benefactors of ...

  "Remember Jesus Christ!" are the first words of our passage today, as Paul continues to talk to his protege, Timothy, about what he wants to pass on to him. If nothing else, remember Jesus Christ. Last week, I spoke about how Paul was in his last days, in a Roman jail. Things are bleak for him, and through the passage this week, we find out a little more about that. Paul has suffered, and is sharing with Timothy his experience. Know that I suffered for my faith, Timothy, and yet I was faithful! Know that God sees our suffering for him and is faithful! Know that you will also suffer, and you need to learn to be faithful!  Passing down wisdom is a hard thing. It's more than, as the days are getting colder, reminding my children to grab a coat because the summer days are behind and far in front of us. It's more than just telling stories, because it's not guaranteed that the wisdom will be passed alongside the story.  I was listening to a speaker this week who w...

  Have you ever seen evangelism done poorly? Like… you witnessed maybe a street preacher on the corner with a bullhorn, or … less and less now, but the people with the sandwich board signs with the big letters “THE END IS NIGH”? Well - evangelism may not be one of my gifts but I do have a story for you of it going horribly bad. There  So I was in my later teens (you know, back in the late 1900s), and I had been talking to a friend online for a while and I wanted to share my faith. My friend didn’t have much of a background, and having grown up in a different area, it wasn’t really culturally relevant either. She knew I came from a Christian influence, but I hadn’t been really forthcoming about it. I knew it was something that I should do, because - you know, it’s exciting and I want more people to know about Jesus and the faith that helps sustain me.  Let me tell you: it did not go well. I don’t remember the specifics of it, but all I remember is that I thought it was goi...

  What a wonderful September it was, and here we are in October! How fast was that - those festivals really make the month fly by.  October is kind of this weird space in the church calendar, we could focus on stewardship, but typically that’s saved for November, it’s not Advent yet, and our time within summer is slowly fading away. I’d like to fill this space then with a series I’m calling “Not Ashamed”, based on the Second Letter to Timothy. The New Testament letter, written by Paul, is a short one yet very powerful. Let’s walk further into our faith and our discipleship by proclaiming that we are not afraid of the power the Gospel has over us, and how that makes us unique.  This act of boldness and enthusiasm can be mistaken for arrogance and false teaching, though, so we may need to be careful of how we share the power of the Gospel. It is about looking inward and outward at the same time, that we may grow upward to be closer to the divine, and also outward to be clos...

Representative John Lewis, a towering figure for civil rights, coined the phrase "good trouble." This week's text says some wrongs need to be righted: there are systems, presumptions and prejudices, oppressive patterns, and economic cycles that are impossible to break out of without help. We are making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. What does that transformation look like?   Wait - you might be thinking that this is going to get political... No - don't worry. It might get political, but not in the way you think. At least - not in any more than I have been any other week. Isn't it political to call for the transformation of the world? Doesn't that cast a vision on how we want to live?  In that vision, do we sing about peace and stop studying war? Shall we pray about an end to hunger and living into God's abundance even here and now in our fruitful world? Who can we look to partner with?  These are questions to ask when ...

     Last week, we were with Peter while he and some other disciples are in court for preaching and teaching the Gospel. The Sanhedrin wanted to quash this new movement that has started with Jesus, so they are trying to root them out and silence them.       We come this week to a familiar passage, the conversion of Saul. The whole story continues from our passage today until verse 20, and I encourage for you to read the rest of it some time this week. It’s only another… fifteen verses or so, pretty easy.       Now, our main character this week is Saul. He’s what some may call a pretty bad hombre. He was a Pharisee, and was introduced in chapter 8 as the one who approved of the apostle Stephen’s killing, which he also witnessed. That’s kind of his background right now at the beginning when it says “STILL threatening and plotting against the disciples”, like a bull in a china shop, or a rabid animal after its prey. His story continues...

  As much as I've enjoyed the winter weather... I can't help but to look ahead to when it's a little warmer outside. I know it's a little before the season, but does anyone enjoy garage sales? I mean, it's a great way to clear out stuff from your house you've accumulated, and if you're lucky, then you can get some cash out of it to do whatever you want with, whether it's to trade it for more stuff or not!   Anyway - about five years ago, at our old house, we tried to have a garage sale. We got all our stuff around, put on a half dozen tables, labeled & priced everything to move. It was part of a whole neighborhood two-day sale; we thought - how can we not get rid of this stuff?? We opened the garage on the first morning, hoping there'd be a line down our street. There was no one. We said, maybe it's just early - the people will come later.  At the end of the first day, we had no customers. What we didn't realize is that as much as w...

  Ah... the good old days... back when everything was more simple, am I right? I’m sure each of you has a story or two about “back in my day...” that you could tell me about. It may even involve being thrown in a snowbank (my uncle’s favorite threat), or walking to school, uphill both ways in waist-high snow, barefoot. We have gained so much in the 60-odd years since this church was built, yet I believe its best days are still in front of us. Technologies have changed, improved, and re-evaluated modern life, but not everything can be the way it was when we began.  In 1959, when this church was started, a few other things were: the middle of the Cold War - that probably wasn’t difficult for anyone... Vice President Nixon met on LIVE TELEVISION with the Russian President and debated on the merits of each of their systems. Could you imagine something like that today? The Pioneer 4 unmanned spacecraft was supposed to do a fly-by of the Moon and photograph it. It failed to take any...

       Good morning again, We are only three weeks into our new year here, and it's dark and cold out. I thank each and every one of you for coming out this morning.  Today we will be continuing our series on “Love Never Ends: Being the Body of Christ.” Over the next few weeks, we will be taking a deep dive into the book of First Corinthians, chapters 12-15. Let’s take a step back, though, and talk about this book in the larger scheme of the Bible.  This book was written by the apostle Paul, writing many New Testament letters. Paul’s story is also written in Acts, chapter 18; Paul has traveled to a city in south-central Greece called Corinth. It was established before 3000 BC, and amazingly, it still exists today - although it’s not quite the same city it once was.  Ancient Corinth was a major city in Greece - with a population of 90,000 some four hundred years before the time of Christ. Unfortunately, in 1858, a major earthquake destroyed the ruin...