God's Hideous Self-Portrait

Read the whole article at
https://mbird.com/theology/gods-hideous-self-portrait/

One of the theological distinctions from the works of Martin Luther that, I’d say, is deserving of more attention is his juxtaposition between a theology of glory and a theology of the cross. These categories might seem like esoteric abstractions. Distinguishing between the two can feel as though you’re splitting hairs, a meticulous theological and philosophical tincture that doesn’t offer much in the way of “rubber-meets-the-road” applicability. But Luther’s discrimination between a theology of glory and a theology of the cross represents a fundamental hermeneutic not only for the crucifixion narratives of the Gospels but also for the entire text of Scripture. 

This theological apparatus finds its roots in Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation of 1518, in which the German reformer was afforded the opportunity to abdicate or affirm some of his statements in the previous year’s infamous Ninety-Five Theses. In so doing, Luther was granted the bandwidth to more accurately articulate his quarrels with the church and the papacy. Gerhard Forde writes in On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pseudo-commentary on Luther’s 1518 disputations, that “the Heidelberg Disputation is the most influential of all Luther’s disputations. It is theologically much more important and influential, for instance, than the Ninety-five Theses, even though the Ninety-Five Theses caused more of an ecclesiastical and political stir.” (19) This due in large part because of Luther’s insistence on the basic tenets of theology itself, particularly in Thesis 20, in which he avers, “He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.” For Luther, the cross wasn’t merely the coronation of God’s saving action through his only begotten Son, it was the culmination of God’s self-disclosure. 

What Does it Look Like to Practice Rest?

Read the whole article at
https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/what-does-it-look-practice-rest/

Rest is an important spiritual practice that has big implications for our day-to-day lives. Countless Scriptures, from Genesis to Psalms to the Gospels, remind us that rest is necessary. But rest can quickly become a buzzword that no one really understands. We say we need rest, but what does that actually look like? Is it a nap, a walk, a few minutes along? And so often, as we work to find rest, we end up feeling even more restless.

Because while rest and finding rest are important, there’s more to the answer than just removing something from your life in order to create margin (though that’s important). What we;re really seeking is something more fulfilling, more beautiful, more essential: the Sabbath…………………………….

[Sunday] Mark 7-8 | 4,000 Crumbs - Revealing True Power

Questions for the week

1. What is a ridiculous rule someone has tried to make you follow?

2. Read Mark 7:1-23.   What is the issue that Jesus is concerned about?

3. What are some rules we put on our faith that actually point people further away from Jesus and each other?

4. How does Jesus bring us closer to Him and each other?

5. Read Mark 7:24-30.   How is it encouraging to know that even if we get the crumbs of God’s grace, it is enough?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Anxious About Grace

Read the whole article Here
https://mbird.com/theology/reformation/anxious-about-grace-some-thoughts-on-max-weber/

Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) has been immensely influential, with the “Weber thesis” being one of the most well-known Interesting Ideas around.  The idea, basically, is that Protestantism, especially in Calvinist and Wesleyan and Baptist and ‘Pietistic’ forms, has been a major contributor to the ‘Spirit’ behind capitalism.

But there’s so much more. In looking at religious ideas not strictly in terms of their truth or doxological value, but also in terms of emphases and influence, Weber helped map out a distinctly modern way of doing and evaluating theology.

When I read his book, I hear a trenchant appreciation of how human hearts take the gifts of divine grace and turn them into methods for propelling ourselves toward God. From the perspective of Christian anthropology, the psychic respon…………………………………………….

[Bible Study] Chapter 11-19 | Book of Job

[Sunday] Mark 6 | Hearts & Loaves - Revealing True Power

Questions for the week

1. What is the craziest abuse of power you’ve heard about in the news recently?

2. Read Mark 6:14-29.  What words would you use to describe Herod as a leader? What does his reaction to the girl’s dance show us about him?

3. Read Mark 6:30-43. Specifically looking at verse 34, how is Jesus a different type of leader than King Herod?

4. When our hearts are hard, how does Jesus show us compassion? How does having a serving and compassionate king in Jesus change how we view power in the world?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Bible Study] Chapter 4-10 | Book of Job

We Have to Learn How to Hold Tension With Kindness

Read the whole article at https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/hold-tension-kindness/

Ithink it’s the combination, really. Take a generation of deconstructionists with a touch of entitlement (and a few cynical axes to grind) and drop them in an online environment where every opinion has equal billing, and you get a culture of chronic criticism. No longer hindered by geographical separation that ensured previous generations mostly minded their own business, we now have access to everyone. And we have opinions about their lives. Airing them costs us nothing.

I feel the tremors in………………………………………..

You Can't Take It With You

Read all the article at https://mbird.com/religion/testimony/you-cant-take-it-with-you/

It’s everyone’s travel nightmare: being tossed around from flight to flight, a quick 45 minute layover turning into six hours, and when you finally stand at the baggage carousel as everyone else grabs their luggage and heads home, you stay there, stomach sinking, the great metal contraption going around and around as you realize your bags didn’t make it. 

I’ve somehow successfully dodged the missing luggage catastrophe over my years of flying, and this is with living across the country from…………………………………

[Sunday] Mark 4-5 | Bad Soil Good - Revealing True Power

Questions for the week

1. Describe someone who was in a hopeless situation that was so bad, you would say that they were “beyond saving.”  What made it seem like they were “beyond saving?”

2. Read Mark 4:35- 5:43.  In each of these 3 sections, identify how Jesus takes hopeless situations and brings good news to them. In other words, how do we see Jesus turn bad soil to good soil?

3. Where in your life have you seen Jesus turn bad soil into good soil?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Happy Endings for the Underserving

Read the whole article at https://mbird.com/literature/parables-of-grace-happy-endings-for-the-undeserving/

In the Season 2 Christmas episode of Ted Lasso, the players are merrily handing out gifts to one another in the locker room when one of them — the show’s erstwhile villain and perpetual dolt, Jamie Tartt — ducks into the coach’s office. Jamie has forgotten to buy a Secret Santa gift. But before he even finishes explaining his predicament, a gift almost magically appears — wrapped, and with a bow on it. A…………………………….

[Bible Study] Chapter 1-3 | Book of Job

[Sunday] Mark 3-4 | Seeds & Trees - Revealing True Power

Questions for the week

1. Describe a time in life in which you saw or felt God working in a big way.

2. Read Mark 4:1-20.  What is the parable of the sower about?  Who causes the seeds to grow?

3. Read Mark 4:26-33.   Who causes the seeds to grow?  How is the Kingdom of God like a mustard seed?

4. This week, go and find a big tree.  As you sit by and look at that big tree, think of how it started as a seed.  Reflect on your own faith and promise of Jesus that comes like seeds.

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Mark 2-3 | Bringing Down the House - Revealing True Power

Questions for the week

1. Think of a time when it was difficult for you to forgive someone.  What emotions did you feel as you wrestled with what it meant to forgive them?

2. Read Mark 2:1-12.   If you were busy and someone broke into your home to be healed, how would you respond? How does Jesus respond?

3. Why do scribes get angry?  When have you gotten angry in a similar situation?

4. How does Jesus bring restoration to the paralyzed man?

5. Read the rest of Mark 2 and 3.  How does Jesus restore different people back to God in each of the stories?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Bible Study] Chapter 11-13 | 2Corinthians

Too Tired to be Holy

Read the whole article here. Too Tired to be Holy - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

I don’t know about you, but even this early in the year I don’t feel particularly holy. 

Instead, in many senses of the word, I feel tired. I’m tired after a hectic Christmas season full of leading worship services, a (non-COVID) sick kid, and all the traveling that comes with visiting family around this time of year. Add to that the self-improvement drive New Year’s brings to finally lose those 15 pounds I’ve been meaning to lose resulting in getting up at 5 AM to plop down on a rowing machine and it’s anyone’s guess as to why I’m physically tired. 

I’m also tired of all the negative news out there in the world. Maybe it’s just our living in a 24-hour news cycle and having access to events across the glob……………………………………

Why Keeping a Sabbath Should Be Your New Year’s Resolution

Read whole Article here

https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/why-keeping-sabbath-should-be-your-new-years-resolution-ie/

Sabbath is like holding a newborn for the first time for many of us. We don’t really know what to do with it. It confuses us.

The ideas that we inherit associated with the Sabbath are those of a required gathering for worship, a day of pious practices or a strict mandate to stay indoors where we are relegated to watch TV or take a nap. Honestly, it all sounds rather boring. It’s time that could be spent on the thousand other important tasks we weren’t able to touch during the busy workweek. Sabbath, as we understand it, is another obligation tugging at our over-committed schedules. All we really know is that we’re supposed to not do anything and that doesn’t sit well with the prevailing cultural need to be productive. Not only do we not have the time, we’re not convinced it’s a priority.

I mean really, who are we hurting if we choose not to rest?

Which is a decent enough justification to placate our conscious until we hear how serious God is about Sabbath: “Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.” (Exodus 31:14) Or begin questioning what………………………………………………………………………………….

Read whole Article here

https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/why-keeping-sabbath-should-be-your-new-years-resolution-ie/

[Sunday] Mark 1 | Let's Go! - Revealing True Power

Questions for the week

1. What is something in your life that has been a wake up call?

2. Read Mark 1. There is a lot about Jesus in this chapter. What is your favorite part of the chapter?

3. Specifically looking at verses 14 and 15, what does it mean to “repent and believe the gospel?”

4. Looking at all of these stories where we see that “Jesus is the Son of God,” how do these stories in Mark 1 help us see that Jesus is the Son of God and good news for you?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Revealing True Power: The Gospel of Mark

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Mark begins his Gospel showing his full intent, “This is the beginning of good news of Jesus, the Son of God.” This declaration of Jesus as the Son of God still deconstructs our own wants and dreams for power, from our feckless notions of political power, to the notions of us who want to gain power from religious dogma, to our own personal wants for notoriety and importance. Mark's Gospel reveals true power as we follow Jesus to the cross, revealing the good news of a life reborn of freedom.

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The Gospel of Mark

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[Sunday] Await Epiphany

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What Had happened at Grace this week.