Job 1,2,3 & 40, 41, 42 Suffering and Evil
Take time and read the chapters assigned from Job for next Sunday. The context will help your understanding and thinking as we investigate the topics of suffering and evil in our lives. I am hopeful to offer grace for your journey through the sermon and your reading the text ahead of time will give a fuller focus to our experience.
We find a wonderful beginning and ending of Job’s life and years of suffering and evil that plague him in the middle. I wonder if we feel the same. I believe we can understand how Job felt. As we are reminded of God’s promises we are sure to find that however we may find our selves today, the best is yet to come. And that thought again moves me just a little closer to home.
Blessings, Dave Weesner
Sunday Worship
Scripture: Job 1:1-5; 42:12-17
Sermon Title: “Life in the Middle”
Thursday, August 09, 2007
A Word on Birth...
We all agree birth is the beginning of life. We struggle to discern exactly when and how life begins. We simply can know that we are, and not much more. Birth becomes a slippery slope upon which to make important life choices, unless we define its boundaries. Does our birth occur with the first gulp of air, the first moment of viability as an individual while still in the womb, or at our conception from egg and sperm to ovum? These questions puzzle our society and we struggle to find substantial answers worthy of the question.
Consider birth from another perspective. Theologically we are born, have our birth, as and when God invites creation. Perhaps our birth is primordial and predates our understanding of self and world. Perhaps God weeps at a society in which hearts move to violence and disrespect for others over the boundaries of birth. Perhaps with God there are no boundaries and as God speaks the word of creation, we are born into being. Birth then becomes not a physical relationship with the world, rather a Spiritual relationship with the creator.
The bitter conflict over the boundaries of physical life should not also become the defining point of the birth of our souls. Our birth has more to do with our relationship with our God, than our lung’s relationship with oxygen. Yet, we all agree, birth is the beginning of life.
Consider birth from another perspective. Theologically we are born, have our birth, as and when God invites creation. Perhaps our birth is primordial and predates our understanding of self and world. Perhaps God weeps at a society in which hearts move to violence and disrespect for others over the boundaries of birth. Perhaps with God there are no boundaries and as God speaks the word of creation, we are born into being. Birth then becomes not a physical relationship with the world, rather a Spiritual relationship with the creator.
The bitter conflict over the boundaries of physical life should not also become the defining point of the birth of our souls. Our birth has more to do with our relationship with our God, than our lung’s relationship with oxygen. Yet, we all agree, birth is the beginning of life.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Readings Leading to Aug 12, 2007
John 14 & 15 The True Vine
Jesus is offering final instructions to the disciples in these two chapters. He is clarifying some things that are easily misunderstood. One of theses clarifications is the route we must take to get to our Father God. Within this passage is the idea of going home and finding our final place of being with God. Others find this passage as offering a route for salvation. Your reading and understanding may vary, but Jesus is being clear about one thing.
Jesus tells us, “I am,” reminding us of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush. God said, “I am who I am.” so this seemingly unimportant little, “I Am,” actually some pretty powerful insight. Jesus, one final time, reminds the disciples who he is. We hear the words spoken to Thomas in our own lives. We affirm with the disciples that God is alive, Jesus is God. There is much more in just this one verse (the way, the truth, the life) that offers even more power into our lives to live in the presence of this risen God and move every day just a little closer to home.
Blessings, Dave Weesner
Sunday Worship
Scripture: John 14:6
Sermon Title: “No One”
Jesus is offering final instructions to the disciples in these two chapters. He is clarifying some things that are easily misunderstood. One of theses clarifications is the route we must take to get to our Father God. Within this passage is the idea of going home and finding our final place of being with God. Others find this passage as offering a route for salvation. Your reading and understanding may vary, but Jesus is being clear about one thing.
Jesus tells us, “I am,” reminding us of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush. God said, “I am who I am.” so this seemingly unimportant little, “I Am,” actually some pretty powerful insight. Jesus, one final time, reminds the disciples who he is. We hear the words spoken to Thomas in our own lives. We affirm with the disciples that God is alive, Jesus is God. There is much more in just this one verse (the way, the truth, the life) that offers even more power into our lives to live in the presence of this risen God and move every day just a little closer to home.
Blessings, Dave Weesner
Sunday Worship
Scripture: John 14:6
Sermon Title: “No One”
A Word on Death...
Is death the absence of life? We will not avoid death, just as we did not avoid life. Theories abound as to the finality of death. I believe death is not the last word, but is a place of changing, yet continued existence. To be clear, our bodies will experience a physical death. Yet there is a part of us, sometimes referred to as our soul, our spirit, or inner being, which I believe has and will continue to transcend this life. It is as if our souls are not bound within the world as we experience it today. The soul is primordial, comes from God and will one day return to God.
Death then is the condition of passing from this experience of life unto the next shadowy place where God will be found. Many claim to have visited death and then returned to life to share their experience. These reports offer that death may lead us to a place of goodness and eternal grace, or a place of anguish and turmoil. I find scripture supports their observation.
We need not fear death. God's grace and love will abound in death as creative power. In addition, we shall not glorify or worship death. To do so would be to fail to live fully within the gift of today. And isn't our goal to live in this moment in time as faithfully as possible without fear of death? I think so.
Death then is the condition of passing from this experience of life unto the next shadowy place where God will be found. Many claim to have visited death and then returned to life to share their experience. These reports offer that death may lead us to a place of goodness and eternal grace, or a place of anguish and turmoil. I find scripture supports their observation.
We need not fear death. God's grace and love will abound in death as creative power. In addition, we shall not glorify or worship death. To do so would be to fail to live fully within the gift of today. And isn't our goal to live in this moment in time as faithfully as possible without fear of death? I think so.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
A Word on Conversion
Conversion means change. That which has been, now is somehow better or improved, closer to perfect. Broken verses Repaired; Lost verses Found; Empty verses Filled. You get the idea.
A conversion, in a Christian context, is also known as a "born again" experience. We may recall John Wesley's experience of a "strangely warmed heart.” Conversion is necessary for the life in Jesus Christ. How conversion happens, what it may look like, or even the time period needed to complete a conversion, vary to the extremes. We do know the Holy Spirit is active and leads the process of conversion. We do know we become more like Jesus Christ in conversion. We do know conversion moves us toward God, perhaps even within God. Conversion is individually unique, yet held in common with others within the community of faith.
Conversion is a life dance with God's grace enabling our soul to be refined into something more. One can die without experiencing conversion; however, one cannot experience the fullness of life without experiencing conversion.
A conversion, in a Christian context, is also known as a "born again" experience. We may recall John Wesley's experience of a "strangely warmed heart.” Conversion is necessary for the life in Jesus Christ. How conversion happens, what it may look like, or even the time period needed to complete a conversion, vary to the extremes. We do know the Holy Spirit is active and leads the process of conversion. We do know we become more like Jesus Christ in conversion. We do know conversion moves us toward God, perhaps even within God. Conversion is individually unique, yet held in common with others within the community of faith.
Conversion is a life dance with God's grace enabling our soul to be refined into something more. One can die without experiencing conversion; however, one cannot experience the fullness of life without experiencing conversion.
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