U-turns Permitted

An Advent/Christmas message from Isaiah 40:1-5 and 27-31. 

The well-known parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, from Luke 16:19-31, does not teach us about what heaven and hell will be like. It shows that there is hope for both rich people and Lazaruses in Jesus' Good News.

"Lord have mercy...." prayed the sinner in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. A parable of personal forgiveness and kingdom reversal. And a challenge to take these words on our lips every day. Luke 18:9-14.

Jesus taught that we should include those whom we would normally not include. Yet history shows that we (Christians) pretty much ignore Jesus' teaching. The passage is Luke 14:1;7-14.

Much of our Christian teaching and experience focuses on how to keep the law to get/stay in God's good graces. There's much more to be said and experienced than that. The woman in Luke 13:10-17 was bent and bound. Jesus unbent and unbound her. That's good news!

Today we read Luke 12:32-40. Jesus frees us from fear and gives us freedom and joy in using our resources for the betterment of His world.

Today we conclude our series on "What is the Gospel?". After a brief review, we ask ourselves what it might look like to live the kind of life that we might call "God's life".

We live in a culture that wants to "get over" or "fix" suffering asap. We have lost the ability to experience Jesus' presence in suffering. It is part of the good news of the Gospel that we are never alone, especially not in our deepest suffering.

The church has acknowledged Jesus as King throughout the centuries, but has often used the tools of Empire to build His Kingdom. How did Jesus set up God's Kingdom and what does that teach us?

Our series on "What is the Gospel?" continues with thinking about how Jesus rescues all of creation, on every level, from the intensely personal to cosmos-wide.