Matthew 14:22-33-“The Weight of Fear”

Synopsis:

After feeding the multitude, Jesus sends the disciples off to set sail while he finally gets away to pray. During the night, a great storm rises and the disciples are battered to and fro. Early in the morning, Jesus defies gravity and transverses the waters to meet the disciples exactly where they are. They think he is a ghost, but Peter asks to be invited onto the water. He begins to walk on the water. Not until he looks around he sees the storms and rising tide and begins to sink with fear. Jesus catches him, but still asks him, why didn’t he trust God with what was first firm beneath his feet. FDR said to our nation in a time when we were facing a Great Depression and an impending World War, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and in this Gospel story we see how Peter’s fears cause to sink, rather than being still and trusting God is the God of the wind and the waves.

John 9:1-41-"Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing First with Fresh Eyes (COVID #1)"

Synopsis:

Jesus heals a man born blind. His disciples assume he is born blind because of his parent’s sin, but Jesus tells them this is not so, spits in the mud, rubs it on his eyes, and sends him to wash in a pond. Immediately, everyone in town who knows this man start asking questions, and the religious authorities get involved. Because Jesus heals on the sabbath (using religious rules as a technicality rather than celebrating this man has been healed), the Pharisees are outraged and interrogate the man who is now seeing for the first time in his life with fresh, healed eyes. They want him to agree that Jesus is a sinner for healing him on the sabbath and that Jesus is a charlatan. With great humility and simplicity the man responds, “Look, all I know is I was blind, and now I see.” No matter our level of sight impairment, the trans-formative power of the Gospel illuminates our mind’s eye to imagine new possibilities beyond the situations into which we are born. We are invited to re-imagine our lives (through dreaming), our relationships (through reconciliation), our homes (through clearing), and our communities (through peacemaking and justice) with fresh eyes as if we were seeing the world for the first time.

John 3:1-17-"Clearing the Way for Christ: Seeing Others with Fresh Eyes"

Synopsis:

Jesus is visited at night by the respected rabbi Nicodemus. He visited at night because Nicodemus doesn’t want anyone to see him. In a world before streetlights and lampposts, night time was a dangerous place, but the danger of socializing with a radical rabbi like Jesus was a greater threat to popular Nicodemus. Jesus invitation to Nicodemus flips his world upside down when Jesus tells him that he has come because “God so loved the world,” not just the chosen, biological of Abraham descendants. The wind of Spirit, “blows where it chooses,” and those born again of the Spirit cannot be contained by restrictive, exclusionary religious systems. The Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost to not only set fire to our hearts but to open our eyes to see each other–of every race, place, and faith–as our God-given siblings. While we want to build walls between who is in an who is out, the Spirit keeps circling our hearts until the walls come tumbling down so we can look into our neighbor’s face with fresh eyes and see a fellow child of God.

Luke 12:13-21 - "Stories Jesus Tells: Hearses Don't Have Hitches

Synopsis: Jesus tells this parable to settle a family dispute where one brother believes he isn’t getting the fair share of the family fortune. The man in the parable is not chastised for planning for the future or even for relaxing, eating, drinking, and being merry. He is a fool for failing to see that salvation and security are not for sale, but gifts of grace discovered through our generosity. Ken Chafin once said, “I never saw a hearse pulling a U-Haul on a trailer hitch, because you can’t take it with you.” True joy lies in sharing, not hoarding.

Keywords: Parables, generosity, joy, life abundant, greed, fear, isolation, security, love, community, family systems theory, sharing, stewardship