We are beginning in June 2018 to livestream our sermons. We are currently using Facebook Live on Pastor Tim’s personal page https://www.facebook.com/revcaffeinated . You do not have to be Facebook friends with him to view them, though he does accept friend requests freely unless he can tell you are a spam bot. They will also be shared to the church Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/firstlutheransmtx/ after worship. On this page, the sermons will be in ‘reverse order’ with the most recent first. Simpler that way. Every month or so older ones will move to an archive.
Some of the sermon videos have apparently disappeared. I have contacted Facebook to see what that is all about. Hopefully they will return.
July 22nd: God Seeds and Surprise Plantings
Text: Mark 4: 26-34
Well, we had technical difficulties. First the tripod was left at home (PT’s son is using it to make stop-motion videos that are pretty cool). Then the signal was wonky because PT forgot to turn off wifi. So we didn’t get all of the sermon. ALSO, if you are a church geek, you will notice that the readings for the next weeks are from June and July. Instead of jumping right back to the Revised Common Lectionary, we are going back to pick up readings we skipped for the Grief series. (If you don’t know how Lutherans generally pick the readings for Sunday you can learn about that at http://www.elca.org/lectionary .) We are going back because this is the year we focus on Mark, yet for reasons too complicated for this forum we jump to John, which Pastor Tim finds problematic as a narrative preacher (one who focuses on the overall story line rather than line by line expository preaching). In July and August we would have several readings from John chapter 6 which repeat the theme of Jesus as “bread of life”. While that is a powerful image, Pastor Tim is pretty sure he has two weeks of sermon insights from it.
Here are the basics of our message:
God alone does the work of the Kingdom. We may sow the seeds, we may be involved, but without God there is nothing. And because God does not work on our sense of what should happen or when it should be, we don’t always see what we expect to. This was illustrated with the story of how the ancient cathedrals took several lifetimes to build. We don’t have the patience to see that God takes the long view and a broad vision. Also, like the mustard seed, which is an undesirable plant to us, God does things that we don’t understand or appreciate. God works through the ways we least expect… after all, we worship and serve a God who was crucified and yet used the ultimate death to make real the ultimate grace.
Summer Sermon Series: Grief, Loss, and Hope
July 15: Community around God’s Tree of Providing and Healing
For our final week on Grief and Hope, we focused on what God’s Community looks like as imperfect people committed to loving one another. We looked to the Book of Acts where the first believers were described as being known by charity and care for one another, as well as the vision of the Tree of Life from Revelation.
This week’s tech surprise was the video flipping sideways partway through. No clue what that was about. The camera didn’t flip.
Texts: Revelation 21: 22 – 22:5
Acts 1:1-11, 2: 42-47
July 8: Fear of Rejection, Being a ‘No-Drop’ people of a ‘No-Drop’ God
Texts: Romans 15: 1-9
Psalm 147: 1-11
Hebrews 10: 19-25
Matthew 11: 18-20, 25-30
This week looked at the things we shared about how we hold back from relationship, many of which are about fear of rejection. But we are reminded that we are called to community around a faith in a God who does not reject, and that we can strive to reflect that acceptance and love in our community. The closing concept, which Pastor Tim did not finish in the sermon, is that Christian community is a no-drop (a concept from a story in the sermon of a cycling group that stayed together and let the slowest set the pace) because we follow a no-drop God. He get the line right later in worship.
July 1: Fruits of the Spirit of Connection
Texts: Ruth 1: 16-18
Psalm 133-134
Galatians 5:22- 6:6
Matthew 5:13-16
This week we focused on the “fruits of the spirit” from Galatians, as God’s gifts to us for building life-giving relationships with our siblings in Christ. The work of being in community is God’s work in us, calling us to forgiveness and reconciliation, and to the work of bearing one another’s burdens. It also speaks to God’s hope for us regarding the challenges to strained relationships in our congregation. Next week we will finish the series with a sermon on commitment. The responses to this sermon through our question about why what holds us back from life-giving relationships are truly God-filled with honesty about past experiences and self-doubt. We will conclude with prayerful commitment to walk together and move beyond reluctance that comes from those challenges, learning to better reflect God’s grace and acceptance for one another.
Prayer and Response Prompt
(only one this week rather than separate congregation and personal journey prompts)
What is inside of me that gets in the way of building life-giving relationships?
June 24: “And They’ll Know…”
Texts: Isaiah 43: 15-21
Romans 7: 15-25
John 13: 31-35
Focus this week: Christian Community
This week we focused on the heart of Christian Community, and our own failures at it. Jesus’ words “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” are the center of that community. Yet that love is a challenge. The sermon wraps around a familiar song that opens and closes it.
Congregational Prayer and Response Prompt
In our listening work, we have heard that many experience few close relationships in the congregation. What church relationships did matter most to you?
In what ministries or ways did those form and grow?
Personal Journey Questions:
What is a relationship that you have lost or is conflicted?
What does it take to keep or renew relationships?
Sharing of Prayer Responses from previous weeks: We shared them after worship. They also went out in the email on Monday evening. Contact pastortim@flcsm.org if you haven’t seen them.
June 17: “Reflexes”
Texts: Exodus 16: 1-8 – The Israelites look backwards to “the fleshpots of Egypt”
Matthew 5:38-48 – Rejecting Revenge, Turn the other cheek
Congregational Prayer and Response Prompt
When was it painful to be part of this congregation?
What effect did that have? Does that still hold true in some way?
Personal Journey Questions:
What is a regret or hurt that you are still carrying?
How does that still hold you?
Unfortunately, the livestream of the sermon did not work well. There was a hum in the audio that overshadowed the spoken words. The sermon focused on these major points:
- Many of our behaviors are instinctual reflexes, much like kicking when the doctor hits our knee. Our readings have two responses to challenge or pain: In Exodus, the people who have just become free long for the days of slavery, when they had food to eat despite the strings attached. In Matthew, Jesus commands us to let go of the human reflexive response to get even.
- Our human response to change is similar: to run and hide, or to lash out.
- Al-Anon teaches that whenever we seek change in our lives, the response of those around us who are comfortable or who do not want to see or are not able to change, is to reject and push back against it. The Israelites are blaming Moses for the new struggles they face rather than trusting God to care for them.
- We often look to the past just as they did. Using the image of riding a horse, we are reminded that we go where our eyes are headed. When you turn a horse’s head, the body follows. Likewise, we move where we keep our eyes and heads focused.
- Longing for a better past (theme from last week) is not an option moving forward, because, and this is the hardest to grasp, the past is how we got where we are. Repeating the past is not an option. We need to look to a new future.
- Remember, the Church lives on Holy Saturday… The disciples on that Saturday may have wished they could go back to Thursday before Jesus was arrested, or maybe even before Palm Sunday to call the whole thing off before the Crucifixion on Friday. But like them, we live on Holy Saturday, and the only way to God’s future is forward. New life is only ahead.
- The Israelites didn’t need the fleshpots of Egypt. God woke them each morning with manna. The challenge for them and for us is to stop looking for solutions in the past but instead, we are to trust that the Manna of New Life is ahead of us.
If you want to try to listen to it you are welcome to, but the hum is significant.
June 10: “Handing To God”
Texts: Job 16:18 – 17:16: Job prays for relief
Jeremiah 29: 4-14 :God’s promise of Renewal – “I know the plans I have for you.”
Reflection and Prayer Questions:
Congregational Renewal Questions:
What is a ministry or activity that you miss?
What did that mean to you? Why was it significant?
Personal Journey Questions:
What is something or someone you have lost (either physical death, loss of relationship, or other significant life change) about which you still struggle with some sense of grief?
What did that mean to you? Why was it significant?