PAUL AND ROB AT MARS HILL
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Theology of football
What about being a praying church?
Leonard Sweet
Theology of football
When one person scores we all win.
Norman Mailer's last book was On God. He had no use for God in his life but wrote this at the end of his life. The best metaphor of life was the gridiron. He determined that evil had mastered the basics of the game better than good.
The purpose of the game is to score touchdowns (Sweet). Touchdowns in eternity is when people come into saving relationship with God through Jesus.
To make disciples you have to be on offense. You can't win games with safeties.
The huddle: you can't play the game without the huddle. This is when everyone gets together and has time to prepare. The purpose of the game is not the huddle. This is one reason the Western church is dying. 75% of all churches in the West are dying. Of the 25%, 24 are growing from migrant worshippers. Only 1% are growing by scoring touchdowns.
The last 30 years will be known as the Walmart-i-zation of the faith. The majority of Americans go to mega-churches. It's an illusion of health. There is no health in American Christianity. It is dying.
A huddle. You get penalized if you huddle too long. The priestly function: you exercise your ministerial role to make sure everyone is okay. It's hard to get people out of the huddle.
Agustine: "The worst sin is to curve in on yourself."
You don't learn how to make circles that face outward naturally. You have natural bent inward called sin.
The second way to win a game is to move down the field. This is what God is up to now. This is called mission.
Every one of us is ordained at baptism to be a minister. You baptism is your commissioning as a missionary also. You have ministry to the body and a mission to the world. The huddle is not to get your worn out but "sent out." Your baptism is your passport to the world.
You reach out to where people are not. You move the ball down the field to where the people are not. If you don't get it right, you're never going to score. The only way to do mission in the world is to get ahead of it.
God is up to calling everyone to mission. People know they were made for a mission. The mission in our culture is to please yourself, but people know it's not enough.
Missional means different things to different people. A lot of people in the huddle aren't the best equipped to carry the ball.
Our definition of a successful church is like a crowded airport terminal. This is the wrong purpose. The purpose of a church is to send you out. The church model of airport is a church in deep crisis.
God's also up to the collapse of the leadership model. It's over, but the church doesn't know it.
What killed the leadership myth is that it's based on the corporate model. That came to a crushing end and has proven itself bankrupt. There is no more Wall Street. The world isn't looking to the US for financial leadership anymore.
It also broke down because of lack of followership.
The paradigm that will emerge is followership. I'm a disciple of Jesus and I'm to join him in what he's doing. My fundamental identity is follower.
Reveal. A survey that showed programs do not translate to mature disciples.
Ken Ulmer and Bill Hybels were asked to speak in South Africa.
Hybels had the study done and saw that they were not really making disciples. People in their congregations were no different than anyone else.
Their solution was to create self-feeders.
So what do we do?
Start following and trust the Spirit.
><>><><><><><><><><><><><>
Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Leonard Sweet
Theology of football
When one person scores we all win.
Norman Mailer's last book was On God. He had no use for God in his life but wrote this at the end of his life. The best metaphor of life was the gridiron. He determined that evil had mastered the basics of the game better than good.
The purpose of the game is to score touchdowns (Sweet). Touchdowns in eternity is when people come into saving relationship with God through Jesus.
To make disciples you have to be on offense. You can't win games with safeties.
The huddle: you can't play the game without the huddle. This is when everyone gets together and has time to prepare. The purpose of the game is not the huddle. This is one reason the Western church is dying. 75% of all churches in the West are dying. Of the 25%, 24 are growing from migrant worshippers. Only 1% are growing by scoring touchdowns.
The last 30 years will be known as the Walmart-i-zation of the faith. The majority of Americans go to mega-churches. It's an illusion of health. There is no health in American Christianity. It is dying.
A huddle. You get penalized if you huddle too long. The priestly function: you exercise your ministerial role to make sure everyone is okay. It's hard to get people out of the huddle.
Agustine: "The worst sin is to curve in on yourself."
You don't learn how to make circles that face outward naturally. You have natural bent inward called sin.
The second way to win a game is to move down the field. This is what God is up to now. This is called mission.
Every one of us is ordained at baptism to be a minister. You baptism is your commissioning as a missionary also. You have ministry to the body and a mission to the world. The huddle is not to get your worn out but "sent out." Your baptism is your passport to the world.
You reach out to where people are not. You move the ball down the field to where the people are not. If you don't get it right, you're never going to score. The only way to do mission in the world is to get ahead of it.
God is up to calling everyone to mission. People know they were made for a mission. The mission in our culture is to please yourself, but people know it's not enough.
Missional means different things to different people. A lot of people in the huddle aren't the best equipped to carry the ball.
Our definition of a successful church is like a crowded airport terminal. This is the wrong purpose. The purpose of a church is to send you out. The church model of airport is a church in deep crisis.
God's also up to the collapse of the leadership model. It's over, but the church doesn't know it.
What killed the leadership myth is that it's based on the corporate model. That came to a crushing end and has proven itself bankrupt. There is no more Wall Street. The world isn't looking to the US for financial leadership anymore.
It also broke down because of lack of followership.
The paradigm that will emerge is followership. I'm a disciple of Jesus and I'm to join him in what he's doing. My fundamental identity is follower.
Reveal. A survey that showed programs do not translate to mature disciples.
Ken Ulmer and Bill Hybels were asked to speak in South Africa.
Hybels had the study done and saw that they were not really making disciples. People in their congregations were no different than anyone else.
Their solution was to create self-feeders.
So what do we do?
Start following and trust the Spirit.
><>><><><><><><><><><><><>
Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
The 7 First Words of the Church
Philippians 4
Leonard Sweet
Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice..
How do you get the the peace that can not be understood?
7 words to simplify for a personal mantra
Anxious nothing
Prayerful everything
Thankful anything
Peace....
Looking at the meat of it: prayerful everything
What does that mean?
It's the disciple's prayer. The point is to become the prayer. To become one Lord's prayer. So that all of life becomes a Lord's prayer.
That's part of prayerful means, to so live your life that everything becomes a prayer offering to God.
If you want to grow tall in your faith, you first have to grow down on your knees. You grow up by going down. Our problem is that we have weak knees.
Prayer is the most powerful, revolutionary force in the universe.
You are a direct answer to a prayer. Jesus' prayer: that God would send people for the harvest.
The problem we have in understanding prayer is multiple:
We've imbibed the fallacy that it's the trees that move the wind.
Every commercial is telling you this. They are telling you that the gospel isn't true.
The most powerful forces are invisible, but we don't trust it or believe it.
It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
We cannot trust the wind.
Prayer is invisible, unseen.
So, we are pneumanaughts, sailors of the Spirit. We are called to the spiritual. To live a wind-blown life.
Jesus said that he came baptizing in the water and Spirit.
The Church has tried to master the world of the physical.
John 3. You can't tell from whence it comes and whither it goes.
If you are living a controlled life, you may not be led by the Spirit.
Your church is place to sent out, not worn out.
1905
Einstein did his essays proposing the theory of relativity.
The church is still stuck in Newtonian thinking: cause and effect.
Einstein said this cause-effect is gone.
1929 Eddington decided he had to become an Einstein "evangelist" and began to lecture. He went in front of the Royal Society of London.
The Word became Flesh.
The spirit matters.
Even a tree grows out of thin air.
Brian Green, The Elegant Universe
"Matter is vibrating strings of energy."
What metaphor is best? Strings, loops?
These dimensions (up to 26) are leaking back into our dimensions and what do you have? It appears you have scientists more open to the miraculous than people of faith.
Fundamentally we are vibrating strings of energy.
Someone gives off good vibes.
Some people who you are not on the same frequency with.
Dematerialize
If what God created in us is a one of a kind song, then part of your spiritual development is to learn to find and sing the song he has given to you.
Turn off, Turn on, Tune in, Turn up
Tune ups: life together, study, prayer, worship
Jesus Christ is God's perfect pitch. When you tune your life to him there will come a time when the frequency of your being matches his, there is something that has to give and it's not going to be Jesus. Then we begin to resonate with his love. E very day is a constant retuning. When you are living in a state of resonance, all things are possible. This is the power of the Spirit unleashed in your life.
1972 Alain Aspect, University of Paris: nonlocalism "distance is dead" The only thing that separates us is not distance, but mind.
><>><><><><><><><><><><><>
Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Leonard Sweet
Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice..
How do you get the the peace that can not be understood?
7 words to simplify for a personal mantra
Anxious nothing
Prayerful everything
Thankful anything
Peace....
Looking at the meat of it: prayerful everything
What does that mean?
It's the disciple's prayer. The point is to become the prayer. To become one Lord's prayer. So that all of life becomes a Lord's prayer.
That's part of prayerful means, to so live your life that everything becomes a prayer offering to God.
If you want to grow tall in your faith, you first have to grow down on your knees. You grow up by going down. Our problem is that we have weak knees.
Prayer is the most powerful, revolutionary force in the universe.
You are a direct answer to a prayer. Jesus' prayer: that God would send people for the harvest.
The problem we have in understanding prayer is multiple:
We've imbibed the fallacy that it's the trees that move the wind.
Every commercial is telling you this. They are telling you that the gospel isn't true.
The most powerful forces are invisible, but we don't trust it or believe it.
It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
We cannot trust the wind.
Prayer is invisible, unseen.
So, we are pneumanaughts, sailors of the Spirit. We are called to the spiritual. To live a wind-blown life.
Jesus said that he came baptizing in the water and Spirit.
The Church has tried to master the world of the physical.
John 3. You can't tell from whence it comes and whither it goes.
If you are living a controlled life, you may not be led by the Spirit.
Your church is place to sent out, not worn out.
1905
Einstein did his essays proposing the theory of relativity.
The church is still stuck in Newtonian thinking: cause and effect.
Einstein said this cause-effect is gone.
1929 Eddington decided he had to become an Einstein "evangelist" and began to lecture. He went in front of the Royal Society of London.
The Word became Flesh.
The spirit matters.
Even a tree grows out of thin air.
Brian Green, The Elegant Universe
"Matter is vibrating strings of energy."
What metaphor is best? Strings, loops?
These dimensions (up to 26) are leaking back into our dimensions and what do you have? It appears you have scientists more open to the miraculous than people of faith.
Fundamentally we are vibrating strings of energy.
Someone gives off good vibes.
Some people who you are not on the same frequency with.
Dematerialize
If what God created in us is a one of a kind song, then part of your spiritual development is to learn to find and sing the song he has given to you.
Turn off, Turn on, Tune in, Turn up
Tune ups: life together, study, prayer, worship
Jesus Christ is God's perfect pitch. When you tune your life to him there will come a time when the frequency of your being matches his, there is something that has to give and it's not going to be Jesus. Then we begin to resonate with his love. E very day is a constant retuning. When you are living in a state of resonance, all things are possible. This is the power of the Spirit unleashed in your life.
1972 Alain Aspect, University of Paris: nonlocalism "distance is dead" The only thing that separates us is not distance, but mind.
><>><><><><><><><><><><><>
Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
One Great Chapter with Gene Sonnenberg
Matthew 12:1-8
Lord of the harvest.
The offense to the pharisees is that they did this harvesting on the Sabbath.
It's not lawful to do this. A concern among religious people. What's allowable? For many religion is based on "what can I get away with?" As soon as I know where the line is then I can know how far to go.
Obviously King David ate consecrated bread.
Jesus asked what of the priests on the sabbath day who eat the bread of the sacrament?
Implication, one greater than david is here.
They're waiting for the King, on greater than the king. The Son of Man is LORD of the sabbath, he is above the lawgiver, Moses.
Zachariah 6. The branch, the messiah. They understood the branch as the messiah. He's going to rebuild the temple. If it's going to be rebuilt, when is it going to be torn down.
Jesus said that tear this temple down and in 3 days I'll rebuild it. (see Targum)
He doesn't fit their expectations for the messiah. He quotes Hosea 6.6.
As they begin to announce this day, let us return the LORD, he will restore us.
Ba'alism was the fertility cult. They're trying to name their children after Ba'al. They are confused.
God said, "What can I do with you?"
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
They knew they were taken out to the woodshed by Jesus as a prophet like Hosea.
Mark adds the point regarding mercy. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
Jesus is shifting the concept of religion from what is lawful to relationship.
I desire mercy and kindness. Love you enemies that you may be children of your father who is kind to the wicked and the ungrateful.
We see that this is a religion based on what you can't do.
Matthew 12.9-21
He healed the man with the withered hand. An opportunity for the message. He gets their attention and they came to entrap him, "is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?"
Then Jesus answered most directly, explicitly, "It is lawful to do good on the sabbath."
Against such there is no law. It's always good to do good.
They conspired. Who is this carpenter to tell us what is lawful?
The good news. It's always good to do good. He healed them all.
Isaiah 42
The second servant psalm. It's quoted at Jesus' baptism, configuration.
cf. Isaiah 61. The year of the Lord's favor.
When John the Baptist was in prison Jesus sent the message that he is the one to heal the sick.
God is concerned with more than whether things are lawful.
Doing good is always lawful.
Matthew 12:22-32
He performs another act of love.
They accuse him of being in league with the demonic. His logic is agumentum ad absurdum.
You can almost hear their nashing of teeth upon hearing his response. If by the Spirit I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God, the rule of God, has come upon him. What you are seeing is the rule Isaiah promised is here.
The Talmud doesn't deny Jesus did miracles, it says he did works by demonic powers.
They are witnessing God working in history and still refuse his message. Jesus could only defeat Satan if he first goes and binds Satan. N.T. Wright claims that this battle took place at Jesus' temptation.
Jesus showed he was the victor. Satan has been bound.
Binding is the same word used in Revelation 20 where Satan is bound and put in the pit.
The battle is assured, the victory is guaranteed.
Jesus seems to be suggesting that if you attack him it's understandable. I can blaspheme the son and be excused in ignorance, but it's another thing to have God work through his Spirit in your midst and then claim that it's of the devil.
Jesus talks of every careless word and judgment.
"It's not the healthy who need a doctor...it's not the healthy who need a doctor."
He keeps going back to their desire to be good people they are missing the point.
Matthew 12.38-45
He indicts them "evil generation" when they ask for a sign. The sign of Jonah. What is this sign of Jonah?
Jonah 4.
He was gravely dispeased, "Is this not what I said when I was home...'I new you are compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.'" (he quoted Deut)
Didn't I tell you that they might repent.
Assyria was the nation that invented win by intimdation. Assyria had obliterated every nation through merciless warfare. Israel had said they had special protection from God, but if Nineveh survives, it means death for Israel. What is Jonah afraid of? He's afraid that God is going to switch sides. No sign will be give except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Then Assyria repents and comes down and destroys Israel into captivity.
The sign of Jonah? Something greater than Jonah is here.
Something greater than Solomon.
Judgment on Israel and rescue for the Gentiles.
Many will come from the east and west and take their seat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The restoration of Israel is people coming in and being a part of God's plan.
How would God speak to us today?
God can start over how and when he pleases.
Israel has attempted to extricate it's demons many times.
Your house has been left desolate. 70 AD.
Ezra and the Sopharim tried to cleanse Israel.
The Macabean revolt is a temporary fix.
The rise of Pharisess and the Essene revolt.
Jesus the Galilean. Simeon bar Geora. Bar Koshiba revolt.
Nothing short of a new habitation will do.
Religious people are always into quick fixes.
It's no accident that Jesus completes....
"Who is my mother and who are my brothers? ...Here are my mother and my brothers."
Mat 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.
We're family and nothing can break the bond we share. Relationship vs. legalism and religion.
Paul said to Philemon to accept Onesimus as your brother.
1 Tim. 5
Do not rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father. To the younger men as brothers, to the older women as mothers.
We are one in Christ.
In the light of current teaching.
Neither Jesus nor those he taught wrote commentaries.
Do we need more commentaries. The early Christians wrote gospels instead of commentaries. They write midrash on Jesus. He's the center and the only thing that matters is that relationship with him.
What happens when you tell a little kid not to play in the water? Soon enough he'll be on the edge and then in it.
What can I get away with.
There has to be something in the center that the edge of circle is not even needed anymore.
><>><><><><><><><><><><><>
Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Lord of the harvest.
The offense to the pharisees is that they did this harvesting on the Sabbath.
It's not lawful to do this. A concern among religious people. What's allowable? For many religion is based on "what can I get away with?" As soon as I know where the line is then I can know how far to go.
Obviously King David ate consecrated bread.
Jesus asked what of the priests on the sabbath day who eat the bread of the sacrament?
Implication, one greater than david is here.
They're waiting for the King, on greater than the king. The Son of Man is LORD of the sabbath, he is above the lawgiver, Moses.
Zachariah 6. The branch, the messiah. They understood the branch as the messiah. He's going to rebuild the temple. If it's going to be rebuilt, when is it going to be torn down.
Jesus said that tear this temple down and in 3 days I'll rebuild it. (see Targum)
He doesn't fit their expectations for the messiah. He quotes Hosea 6.6.
As they begin to announce this day, let us return the LORD, he will restore us.
Ba'alism was the fertility cult. They're trying to name their children after Ba'al. They are confused.
God said, "What can I do with you?"
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
They knew they were taken out to the woodshed by Jesus as a prophet like Hosea.
Mark adds the point regarding mercy. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
Jesus is shifting the concept of religion from what is lawful to relationship.
I desire mercy and kindness. Love you enemies that you may be children of your father who is kind to the wicked and the ungrateful.
We see that this is a religion based on what you can't do.
Matthew 12.9-21
He healed the man with the withered hand. An opportunity for the message. He gets their attention and they came to entrap him, "is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?"
Then Jesus answered most directly, explicitly, "It is lawful to do good on the sabbath."
Against such there is no law. It's always good to do good.
They conspired. Who is this carpenter to tell us what is lawful?
The good news. It's always good to do good. He healed them all.
Isaiah 42
The second servant psalm. It's quoted at Jesus' baptism, configuration.
cf. Isaiah 61. The year of the Lord's favor.
When John the Baptist was in prison Jesus sent the message that he is the one to heal the sick.
God is concerned with more than whether things are lawful.
Doing good is always lawful.
Matthew 12:22-32
He performs another act of love.
They accuse him of being in league with the demonic. His logic is agumentum ad absurdum.
You can almost hear their nashing of teeth upon hearing his response. If by the Spirit I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God, the rule of God, has come upon him. What you are seeing is the rule Isaiah promised is here.
The Talmud doesn't deny Jesus did miracles, it says he did works by demonic powers.
They are witnessing God working in history and still refuse his message. Jesus could only defeat Satan if he first goes and binds Satan. N.T. Wright claims that this battle took place at Jesus' temptation.
Jesus showed he was the victor. Satan has been bound.
Binding is the same word used in Revelation 20 where Satan is bound and put in the pit.
The battle is assured, the victory is guaranteed.
Jesus seems to be suggesting that if you attack him it's understandable. I can blaspheme the son and be excused in ignorance, but it's another thing to have God work through his Spirit in your midst and then claim that it's of the devil.
Jesus talks of every careless word and judgment.
"It's not the healthy who need a doctor...it's not the healthy who need a doctor."
He keeps going back to their desire to be good people they are missing the point.
Matthew 12.38-45
He indicts them "evil generation" when they ask for a sign. The sign of Jonah. What is this sign of Jonah?
Jonah 4.
He was gravely dispeased, "Is this not what I said when I was home...'I new you are compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.'" (he quoted Deut)
Didn't I tell you that they might repent.
Assyria was the nation that invented win by intimdation. Assyria had obliterated every nation through merciless warfare. Israel had said they had special protection from God, but if Nineveh survives, it means death for Israel. What is Jonah afraid of? He's afraid that God is going to switch sides. No sign will be give except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Then Assyria repents and comes down and destroys Israel into captivity.
The sign of Jonah? Something greater than Jonah is here.
Something greater than Solomon.
Judgment on Israel and rescue for the Gentiles.
Many will come from the east and west and take their seat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The restoration of Israel is people coming in and being a part of God's plan.
How would God speak to us today?
God can start over how and when he pleases.
Israel has attempted to extricate it's demons many times.
Your house has been left desolate. 70 AD.
Ezra and the Sopharim tried to cleanse Israel.
The Macabean revolt is a temporary fix.
The rise of Pharisess and the Essene revolt.
Jesus the Galilean. Simeon bar Geora. Bar Koshiba revolt.
Nothing short of a new habitation will do.
Religious people are always into quick fixes.
It's no accident that Jesus completes....
"Who is my mother and who are my brothers? ...Here are my mother and my brothers."
Mat 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.
We're family and nothing can break the bond we share. Relationship vs. legalism and religion.
Paul said to Philemon to accept Onesimus as your brother.
1 Tim. 5
Do not rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father. To the younger men as brothers, to the older women as mothers.
We are one in Christ.
In the light of current teaching.
Neither Jesus nor those he taught wrote commentaries.
Do we need more commentaries. The early Christians wrote gospels instead of commentaries. They write midrash on Jesus. He's the center and the only thing that matters is that relationship with him.
What happens when you tell a little kid not to play in the water? Soon enough he'll be on the edge and then in it.
What can I get away with.
There has to be something in the center that the edge of circle is not even needed anymore.
><>><><><><><><><><><><><>
Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Session 1 with Leonard Sweet
Living out of surround sound. Do you hear the double ring?
Where did Jesus grow up? Nazareth. Where was he born? The royal city.
Born in a royal city, the most nowhere place.
Our father...
As soon as we proclaim this intimacy we proclaim...."who art in heaven."
Alpha and Omega..
A test. A big thing now is "spiritual gift inventories." Something about this is not in stereo. You may hear someone say that "this is not my gift." If you're not hearing surround sound, you're not hearing the gospel. You don't need God for your gifts, you got 'em, use 'em. That's where we're going to bless others naturally. I want to know what your weaknesses. God is going to bless people in your life where you are most weak, not where you are most strong.
My strength is made perfect in your weakness. God has shown he uses people precisely where they are most cracked.
Paul has a secret (not the secret) how to live in contentment no matter what the circumstance.
I can do all things through Christ. Part of the secret is absolute confidence. You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. That's absolute humility. That's it. Absolute confidence and absolute humility.
You can see it, feel it, touch it, hear it. Be open to receiving this.
For things to pop out in their 3-d reality, you got to go through some paces.
1. Allow the image to get blurry. You cannot stare at one point, focused on a critical point. You have to bring both left and right brain together. You go "cross-eyed". Part of being this way is to letting your eyes look at two different points. As you look at these different points, things get cloudy and you have to let yourself loose control. This is a huge issue for a lot of people because they cannot loose control. Why do we have to be in control so much? Do the best moments of your life happen when you are in control? "I'm an out of control disciple of Jesus." If you 're willing to let go then it pops out and you suddenly realize it was there all the time.
Remember, what you are looking for is an image.
The church is the last part of our culture still communicating with a word. We are in an image culture.
Brining things that are even opposite to play and dance together.
Not a bell curve, but a well curve. The middle is dropping out and the ends are getting bigger. TVs are getting bigger and smaller, churches are getting bigger and smaller.
Now return to the great narratives of the faith and see.
The nativity story. Kings and shepherds. Pregnant virgin, baby and king, manger palace. You have a king born in a place known for it's smells being given gifts of value. The innkeeper gets a bad rap, but he did provide the best he had. Before he gave them the manger, he had to have it cleaned out. We have the story today because of the stall-cleaner. We need to receive this gift but we need a stall-cleaning. In many ways, John the Baptist was the stall cleaner for Jesus' ministry.
Birth/Death
Resurrection.
When Jesus dies, he wasn't by himself. (Barth)
You've got to take the story in it's fullness. He died surrounded by two criminals. In fact this is the first certain Christian community. Here's the story of the gospel. Where are your sinful people? If you are not in community with those marginal people, then you are not a true community.
John 20 Exegesis
Jesus was a carpenter, a mason. Look at these stones, I'm going to tear them down and rebuild them again.
Images and contrasts.
Dirty linen. This is the greatest story ever told. Four of the verses detail dirty laundry.
The first thing the resurrected Jesus does is fold the grave clothes.
Remember in exegesis, tell the story and don't get to theology too fast.
What is preventing you from seeing the reality of what God is actually doing? Why was Mary able to see two angels? Peter and John only saw dirty laundry.
She stayed in the pain and confusion. In the tears she was able to see what was really there?
Good example: Joshua Bell's experiement in a Washington train station.
When you're confronted with Jesus we have to pay attention so that we can see him.
After his resurrection Jesus was recognized by other than eyes. They recognized him when he spoke, broke bread, and ate.
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Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Where did Jesus grow up? Nazareth. Where was he born? The royal city.
Born in a royal city, the most nowhere place.
Our father...
As soon as we proclaim this intimacy we proclaim...."who art in heaven."
Alpha and Omega..
A test. A big thing now is "spiritual gift inventories." Something about this is not in stereo. You may hear someone say that "this is not my gift." If you're not hearing surround sound, you're not hearing the gospel. You don't need God for your gifts, you got 'em, use 'em. That's where we're going to bless others naturally. I want to know what your weaknesses. God is going to bless people in your life where you are most weak, not where you are most strong.
My strength is made perfect in your weakness. God has shown he uses people precisely where they are most cracked.
Paul has a secret (not the secret) how to live in contentment no matter what the circumstance.
I can do all things through Christ. Part of the secret is absolute confidence. You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. That's absolute humility. That's it. Absolute confidence and absolute humility.
You can see it, feel it, touch it, hear it. Be open to receiving this.
For things to pop out in their 3-d reality, you got to go through some paces.
1. Allow the image to get blurry. You cannot stare at one point, focused on a critical point. You have to bring both left and right brain together. You go "cross-eyed". Part of being this way is to letting your eyes look at two different points. As you look at these different points, things get cloudy and you have to let yourself loose control. This is a huge issue for a lot of people because they cannot loose control. Why do we have to be in control so much? Do the best moments of your life happen when you are in control? "I'm an out of control disciple of Jesus." If you 're willing to let go then it pops out and you suddenly realize it was there all the time.
Remember, what you are looking for is an image.
The church is the last part of our culture still communicating with a word. We are in an image culture.
Brining things that are even opposite to play and dance together.
Not a bell curve, but a well curve. The middle is dropping out and the ends are getting bigger. TVs are getting bigger and smaller, churches are getting bigger and smaller.
Now return to the great narratives of the faith and see.
The nativity story. Kings and shepherds. Pregnant virgin, baby and king, manger palace. You have a king born in a place known for it's smells being given gifts of value. The innkeeper gets a bad rap, but he did provide the best he had. Before he gave them the manger, he had to have it cleaned out. We have the story today because of the stall-cleaner. We need to receive this gift but we need a stall-cleaning. In many ways, John the Baptist was the stall cleaner for Jesus' ministry.
Birth/Death
Resurrection.
When Jesus dies, he wasn't by himself. (Barth)
You've got to take the story in it's fullness. He died surrounded by two criminals. In fact this is the first certain Christian community. Here's the story of the gospel. Where are your sinful people? If you are not in community with those marginal people, then you are not a true community.
John 20 Exegesis
Jesus was a carpenter, a mason. Look at these stones, I'm going to tear them down and rebuild them again.
Images and contrasts.
Dirty linen. This is the greatest story ever told. Four of the verses detail dirty laundry.
The first thing the resurrected Jesus does is fold the grave clothes.
Remember in exegesis, tell the story and don't get to theology too fast.
What is preventing you from seeing the reality of what God is actually doing? Why was Mary able to see two angels? Peter and John only saw dirty laundry.
She stayed in the pain and confusion. In the tears she was able to see what was really there?
Good example: Joshua Bell's experiement in a Washington train station.
When you're confronted with Jesus we have to pay attention so that we can see him.
After his resurrection Jesus was recognized by other than eyes. They recognized him when he spoke, broke bread, and ate.
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Disclaimer:
These notes are not intended to be an exact representation of the teaching. Text here is not official transcript endorsed by the speaker nor Wineskins or Church of the Servant King.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
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