Intersections

  Do you know what a paradox is? A paradox is defined as “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.” Our faith as Christians is rife with paradoxes. Let me name a few: Christians conquer through surrender; we see the unseen; we lead by serving; and, we are strong when we are weak. Those are but a few. One preacher from another generation said “that without paradoxes there is no Christianity.” We wrestle today with another paradox—living today with an eye on the future. It’s particularly challenging for us to think about the future in light of Jesus’ own words to us in Matthew’s Gospel. In the Sermon on the Mount, when he’s laying out the new ethic for the Kingdom of God, we hear him talk to his disciples about not storing up treasure on earth and about not worrying about food or clothing, and especially not worrying about tomorrow. His quote is “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomo...

We are starting an adventure today, also known as my first preaching series! We will be taking a deep dive into the Gospel of John chapter 6 to see how food and faith intersect to bring us closer together as a community. I hope you came here today hungry for ice cream, but most importantly, JESUS! We will be checking out the first 21 verses for this first week. Here they are, in the Contemporary English Version:  “Jesus crossed Lake Galilee, which was also known as Lake Tiberias. A large crowd had seen him work miracles to heal the sick, and those people went with him. It was almost time for the Jewish festival of Passover, and Jesus went up on a mountain with his disciples and sat down. When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?” He said this to test Philip since he already knew what he was going to do. Philip answered, “Don’t you know that it would take almost a year’s wages just to buy only a littl...