Erik preached on Cain and Abel this past Sunday. It’s a story of jealousy, anger, and murder, but more importantly, it’s a story about grace:

If Cain is confused by God, how much more must Abel. His older brother gets all the attention, but consider Abel. We remember him as the one God favored, but what did that favor get him? Killed. God’s favor gets him killed…To Cain, God was unfair. But to Abel, God was unjust. It’s hard to understand an unfair God, but much harder to understand an unjust God. Try to wrap your head around this: Cain, the murderer, is the one God truly favors in this story.

The confusion is mounting, from unfairness to injustice, but at the same time, something else is coming into focus: the thing that is so confusing about God is God’s grace.

Where are You

David preached on the consequences of the first sin in Eden, introducing his subject with the help of a Disney move and a philosopher.

There is a famous line in the animated movie Lion King. The spirit of father king Mufasa says to his son Simba: “You have forgotten who you are, so have forgotten me.” Then, the father reminds the son of who he is. “Remember who you are. You are my son and one true king.” I believe this word reveals the most fundamental problems that we humans have. We have two problems. One is that we have forgotten who we are. And this problem begets another serious problem, which is that we have forgotten God the Father…Kierkegaard said: “The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.” Through our lifetime, we experience various painful losses, and we work hard to recover them. However, there is the gravest loss. It is the loss of the self. And it is the loss of God.

Gullible Thieves and the Gifts of God

Erik preached on the Fall from Genesis three. This primordial passage introduces us to the true nature of sin. Here is part of his conclusion:

We are victims of a con. This is a humbling truth about humanity. In exploring the depths of human depravity, we often talk about our fundamental sin as pride (we want to be gods) or covetousness (we want to possess everything). You can see hints of all that in Genesis 3! But these are epic sins, the stuff of Homer or John Milton. In fact, the root of sin might be a bit more embarrassing. Our sin is that we are gullible. Our sin is that we are easy marks. We thought we were stealing from God, but in fact we were being conned by a snake. In every sin, we fall for a fake when God would freely give us the real thing! Real pleasure, real wisdom, real flourishing. But only if are willing to trust him and receive it as a gift, in God’s way and on God’s time.

The First Relationships

Deb preached on the creation of Eve this past Sunday. She quoted Matthew Henry, the 17th-century nonconformist minister in England: in making Eve out of Adam’s rib, she was “not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him.” Deb concluded with this powerful reminder about God’s desire that all of us find relationships of vulnerability and mutuality:

Just as God breathed life into the first human he created, relationships are the life breath of our community, allowing God’s spirit to flow through our life together as the people of God.

The Gospel in the Garden

David preached on the creation of the Garden of Eden. He found the basis for God’s gracious promises to all of humanity already built into the garden’s landscape itself:

According to verses 10-13, there was a river flowing from Eden, which watered the garden and separated into four headwaters. Their respective names were Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The river flowing from the Eden became the origin of the four great rivers. This means that water from the garden of Eden supplies life to the whole earth. The garden of Eden is itself the paradise, and it is also the source of life to all the lands. The fictional paradises such as Shangri-La and Utopia have the common characteristic, which is that they are totally isolated from the world, enclosed with high mountains or deep waters…But the Garden of Eden planted by God embraces the whole world and shares its blessings from God. When God gives heaven to a man, God expects that the heavenly blessings may flow to the world through the man.

The Day God Took Off

Erik preached on the seventh day of creation in Genesis 2, when God rested. He described God’s rest as the rest of “settling”—settling down and settling in—and explored what what it teaches us about creation, God, and our relation to both. Here is part of his conclusion:

We rest only by entering God’s rest. So rather trying to build a new sabbath practice, or letting go of some ambition, or giving up some pastime that disturbs your peace, my hope is simpler. It’s that once in a while, this thought occurs to you: creation is the space God made so that he might settle down with us. It’s easier to entertain this thought outside on a nice day or a clear, starry night. But you don’t need the grandeur of a natural park or even a trip out into the county. You just need to look up, look around and notice that all of this, the trees and sky, this planet, its sun, and all the 93 billion lightyears of stars: God made them all so that he might have a place to settle down with us. All that work—creation and recreation—to create a place and a people with which to settle down.

In the Beginning there was Darkness

David kicked off our new series on Creation/Recreation with a sermon the opening verses of Genesis. He connected the great cosmic work of God with the work he does in each one of us:

God is the only one who we trust and hope. It is because God created such a beautiful and perfectly harmonious world full of lives out of sheer disorder, emptiness, and darkness. In God, disorder, emptiness, and darkness are not “despair” but “hope.” It is the beginning of God’s creation work. We must always remember this.

The Birth of the Church

Erik preached on Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus’s followers in Acts 2. Here is part of his conclusion:

What does the Holy Spirit do? Makes churches. The Holy Spirit gathers selfish and scattered individuals from every nation, every neighborhood, and every internet platform and unites us into one body. Holiness is a language you cannot learn or use by yourself. Sanctification is a conversation that requires everyone of us to give what we have and receive what we need. That is good news for a lonely generation, like ours. And it’s good news for sinners, like us. Apart, each one of us is unholy. But together, the Spirit is making us into the very body of Christ. 

Paradigm Shift

Preaching on Jesus’s ascension, David compared the paradigm shift experienced by Jesus’s followers to the paradigm shifts that occur in scientific revolutions, fundamentally changing how we make sense of the world around us:

As to general relativity found by Einstein, British physicist J.J. Thomson said, “General relativity is not an isolated result but ‘a whole continent of scientific ideas.’” By the deep reflection and search of one person Einstein, a gigantic continent of knowledge, which had been unknown, rose to the surface…In the same way, Jesus is not just one great figure and his death and resurrection is not a great event in human history. Jesus is “a continent.” He is the kingdom of God that came down on earth. And everything on it is from him, through him, and for him. And this kingdom expands through the witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Practice Resurrection

Erik preached on Easter, taking inspiration from the final line of a poem by Wendell Berry: “Practice Resurrection.” Resurrection is something that happens in each Christian’s life in the era between Christ’s first resurrection and the final resurrection of all. Here is how he put it:

Because resurrection life is life in which death has been overcome, we do not need to wait for death for it to begin. Death is like a wall that Christ has obliterated, not just so that we can reach eternal life on the other side, but so that eternal life can reach us. “You have been raised with Christ,” writes Paul Colossians. Resurrection life began that first Easter, and begins for each us when we receive Christ as Lord and throw our lot in with him.

We Can't Make Peace, but We Can Receive It

David preached on Luke’s account of Christ’s crucifixion. In killing Jesus, the religious and political powers were trying to make peace by removing a troublesome figure. But that was a false peace, founded on injustice and lies. Yet on the Cross, God was at work offering a different path to true and perfect peace:

Jesus’ peace is founded on “love.” And this love is the love that embraces all sinners in the world. Jesus on the cross prayed to the Father, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (34). Peace in the world is conditional and transient.  There are many complicated conditions to be satisfied in order to maintain peace, and the peace is easily given up for “more important issues.” But Jesus’ love is unconditional. Jesus loves the sinners. He loves even his enemies who hate and crucify him with no reason. He loves even his enemies who are mocking him without knowing what they are doing. Jesus’ love is unconditional. Therefore, peace coming from Jesus’ love is steady and never changes in whatever situation. Jesus never scolded his disciples for any fault. He scolded them only for their little faith. Jesus’ love was always overflowing, enough to cover all their faults. Jesus rebuked them only when they hesitated to believe this love. There is nothing we should change ourselves in order to enter into peace with Jesus and stay in the peace. What we need is faith in his love. Then, just as we are, we have peace with him.

Seeing through the Cross

Erik preached on the parable of the wicked tenants, in Luke 20. It’s the final parable in our series, and helps prepare us for Jesus’s passion. Here is part of his conclusion:

Luke tells us that the religious leaders saw that this parable was preached against them—they were the wicked tenants who stifled and stole the fruits of God’s people. But it was really preached for the disciples. Jesus told this parable just a couple days before he would be arrested and crucified. Nothing would test the disciples’ faith like this. God would appear absent: Jesus himself would cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God would appear foolish: the idea of the messiah being killed by the oppressive powers God sent him to overthrow seemed so ridiculous that Peter couldn’t believe Jesus’s warnings—“this shall never happen to you!” And God would appear weak: as Jesus hung on the cross, the soldiers taunted him: “if he is God’s messiah, King of the Jews, let him save himself.” But it was right here, on the cross, when God appeared absent, foolish, and weak, that he was doing is greatest work: obliterating sin, defeating death, redeeming the world. “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The weakest thing would become the salvation of everything.

Jesus gave this parable to his disciples so that were others saw absence, foolishness, and weakness, they would see God’s presence, patience, and power.

Cascade of Power

David preached on the Parable of the Ten Minas, which includes the difficult saying: “everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” He opened up Jesus’s words but reading the minas an allegory for spiritual power:

Like the noble man gave minas to his servants, power flows from king down to his servants who trust and obey. John 2 tells us about Jesus’ first miracle that he turned water into wine at a wedding banquet in Cana. In the banquet, the wine was gone, and it was a very serious problem. Jesus might have solved it by bringing wine from heaven like rain. But Jesus didn’t solve the problem that way. What Jesus did was flowing his power down through those who believed in his authority. First, Jesus’ mother Mary brought his issue to Jesus. Then, she said the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” After this, Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And when they filled to the brim, Jesus told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” The servants obeyed this far. Then, the water had already turned into choice wine. Jesus had the power to turn water into wine. But he didn’t work directly onto water. Instead, he cascaded his power down through Mary, and through the servants prepared by Mary. And finally, the power reached the water in the jars and changed it into wine. Like cascade falls, the power of king in the highest flew down through people of faith and performed the wondrous miracle

Humility is Grace Received and Extended

Erik preached on the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector this Sunday, using the scripture to explore the relationship between God’s grace and our humility. Here is his conclusion:

Humility boils down to this: receiving grace from God, and extending grace to others. Humility is receiving grace and extending grace. That is our salvation: by grace, with humility. This parable warns that the door into God’s kingdom is low and the path is slippery. Some pretty good people fall, some pretty bad people make it. That’s unnerving, certainly. But take comfort: God’s kingdom is full of tax collectors and pharisees. From Jesus’s disciple, Matthew the tax collector, to his apostle, Paul the pharisee – they were knocked down by grace and lifted up by grace so that they might become conduits of grace. It’s all grace, no merit, no separation, no superiority. If you’re humble enough to accept that gift, the kingdom of God is yours.

Hope amidst Injustice

David preached on the parable of the widow and unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8) this past Sunday, a parable which both acknowledges the stubborn injustice we see daily and encourages us to put our hope in God’s justice. Here is David’s explanation for why the widow continued praying even when injustice seemed so strong.

Praying in hope was the only thing that she could do. When surrounded by unjust enemies and rulers, she might sit and cry alone in darkness, cursing the world and complaining to God. But she didn’t do so. She didn’t put out the flame of hope. She rose up and went to the judge. And she pleaded. She continued to do that. At last, she made him move. She made him do justice for her. It was not the judge’s power that did justice. It was her persistent prayer. Her prayer was much powerful than the judge’s power. By the prayer, she won what she wanted. It was because her prayer prevailed. Her prayer prevailed over the judge, over the enemy, and all the injustices.

Money Practice

Deb preached on the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. She included this great gem of wisdom:

My Grandson likes to help a in the kitchen. He has a set of plastic knives that he can use, so while my daughter is cutting up carrots with a sharp metal knife, he can be cutting up a banana with a not-very-sharp plastic knife. He’s learning how to prepare food, so when he is old enough to handle a metal knife, he will be familiar with what he needs to do. He has learned this by practicing with a plastic knife. 

For us, money is like the plastic knife. It’s something we practice with so we can develop the heart and the ability to handle the things that God considers to be truly valuable. Jesus says, “If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” The way we handle money is a proxy for us to practice using our resources in a godly way.

Eternal Retirement

Erik preached on the parable of the unjust steward on Sunday, from Luke 16. He tied Jesus’s command to share money generously with the gospel of eternal life. Here is the question he posed in conclusion:

What do our finances reveal about our hearts? Do they show people who are responsible and frugal, enjoying the good things of God’s creation while also planning for the future, all while paying our taxes to IRS and God? Great – that’s no small feat! But the thing that really matters is: Do they show people who long for the kingdom of God? Who know that death has been defeated and are preparing for eternal life? Who want to experience as much of that future right now as possible?

The Banquet Means Joy

The parable of the great banquet in Luke 14 can seem intimidating, with some refusing an invitation to a feast and others being compelled to join. But David reminded us that the whole point of describing the kingdom of God as a banquet is that God intends it to be a joyous affair:

When God holds a wedding banquet for his son, his joy is not over his son but over those who repent and come to the banquet. Through the banquet, God is not celebrating for his son, but for the returning of the sinners. That is God’s joy. For this joy, God prepared such a great banquet, redeemed us by paying the price, and prepared a snow-white robe of righteousness by sacrificing his son. Each of us is such a great joy to God. And each of us is the one to be celebrated by God in the banquet. This is how God is connected to us

Kingdom without Limits

Deb preached on a pair of related parables, the mustard seed and yeast. She observed that Jesus is trying to teach us something about the nature of God’s kingdom:

The Kingdom of God as described by Jesus is one without limits. With a geopolitical nation, you have a border that is in a fixed place. Cross the river and you’re in or you’re out. But, in contrast, the Kingdom of God can keep on growing. It doesn't reach a limit. In fact, science tells us that the universe itself – stars and galaxies and all created matter – is continuing to expand and speeding up the rate at which it is expanding. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom without limits. Our part in it as the people of God is to fertilize and remove weeds, to stir and to knead, to prepare the way, to maximize its growth.

The Barren Tree and its Keeper

Erik preached on the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke 13), encouraging us to hear more than the warning “repent or perish.” Here was part of his message:

When we read this passage in fear, all we can hear is the threat—be fruitful or else—and respond by trying to force out as many holy emotions and good works as possible. But this no more possible than it is for a tree in shallow, shady, sandy soil to produce good fruit. When we read this passage in faith, however, we can hear God’s promise to take responsibility for us, doing everything necessary to help us produce love and the works of love. When Jesus told this parable, he wanted us to see God as the vineyard owner, who planted each of us, and the Holy Spirit as the vineyard keeper, who tends and cares for us. Like we read in this morning’s psalm: “You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land… Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the branch you have raised up for yourself.” God is like a vineyard keeper, cultivating the fruits of the Spirit in each of us.