Traveling Light Relay

Sermon Series: Misunderstood Words
“Saints”

Ephesians 1: 1-2, 15-23, NRSV

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. — Ephesians 1:1-2

• saints are “celebrities”
• we see a recognizable character in a saint
• we want to imitate them
• bad ideas/ways of remembering the saints
  • keeping body parts of them, i.e. relics
  • charging people money for touching the relics
• Saints in New Testament
  • it is to address to anyone who follow Christ
  • present reality vs. future reality
  • “Holy People”
    • people who are set apart
    • not referring to the character or accomplishment of the person, but referring to what God has done in that person

Tags: city church sf, rev scot

The Frustration and Freedom of Desire

Song of Solomon 3:1-5, NRSV

Reflections

Desire is insatiable not because the goods of the world are too few, too uniform, or too bland. Desire burns through the goods of the world, even though these goods are not false or intrinsically unsatisfactory…. Desire shatters the economy of things; it disputes the tyranny of objects. It longs for the great emptiness, which is beauty and love without limitation. — Wendy Farley The Wounding and Healing of Desire

• patience and self-control were in previous sermons, but how are they applied on sexuality
• false self
  • manipulate body/image
  • false self of purity in church: “just stop”, “just quit” the desire/passion
• Desire in Song of Songs
  • Focus of desire
  • Frustration of desire
    • Song 3:1-3
    • kill the desire, or
    • attach the energy of desire (becomes addiction)
  • Freedom of desire
    • addiction is where we try to find God (isolation leads to addiction)
    • freedom comes from the road of failures
• Final 2 thoughts: we are created to
  • be communion with one another (i.e. community)
  • have compassion (community of compassion)

Tags: city church sf, rev chuck

Patience in an Age of I Want It Yesterday

James 5:7-12, NRSV

Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the judge is standing at the doors! — James 5:9

• losing patience is like disappointment in God
• Hebrews 12: if we wait on Him, we will receive great things
• 3 pictures of being patient
  • Farmer (James 5:7)
    • submitting to God’s schedule
    • trusting God in the mist of pressure
    • grieving rather than grumbling
    • being patient is refusal of self-pity to our lives; once you have self-pity, you are capable to do anything (destructive)
  • Prophets (James 5:10)
    • being patient as the worldview
  • endurance of Job (James 5:11)
• your impatience with God is directly related to your impatience with people
• 2 ways to cultivate patience; focus on
  • the Gospel – story of grace and patience
  • God’s majesty

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

The Meal Jesus Gave Us

1 Cor 11:18-34, NRSV

Reflections

Charis (grace) always demands eucharistia (gratitude). Grace and gratitude belong together. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning. — Karl Barth

• Don’t mess with my food (Ice dirtier than toilet water)
• Jesus’ Meal gave us:
  • community
    • yet we can still somehow use the meal to divide us, not having it as community, as described in the scripture
  • memory or remembrance
    • it is not just to recall, it is to re-apply, to take it in
  • hope
    • that would lead to transformation

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Growing into Your Baptism

Galatians 3:23-29, NRSV

Reflections

Baptism does not primarily express our turning from the old life to the new, but rather presents to us the new life toward which we must continually turn. Baptism thus points to God’s generous cleansing and renewing grace poured out upon us, and repentance and faith reflect our grateful response to that grace in faith and allegiance… Baptism does not so much express our faith as it calls us to faith. Yet without a life of growing faith, we will experience none of the blessings that are promised to us in baptism. Faith is our opening of our hands to receive the gifts God gives to us in baptism. If our hands are not open, the gifts may still be offered, but we will not receive them. — James V. Brownson The Promise of Baptism

• Growing into Your Baptism, into Messiah’s clothes
• Baptism – common word, but different people have different definition/idea
  • ritual
  • declaration of one’s faith
  • incorporating into a family
  • receiving new identity
  • transformation
• Fully Grown Life
  • Brings you to the family where there is forgiveness
  • Brings you to the family where you matter
  • Brings you to the family where you have a future , where God’s people is

Tags: city church sf, rev scot

Entertaining Angels

Hebrews 13:1-6, NRSV

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. — Heb 13:2

• the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding – different views of hospitality
• Hospitality in Bible
  • attitude of heart that seeks to turn strangers into guests, then hopefully into friends, then maybe even brothers/sisters
  • strangers as in people not like us
• Power of Hospitality
  • God shows up in mysterious way
  • Power of Grace flows thru you when you are making room for others
  • Things we can do personally
    • invite people into your space
    • invite people to your spiritual home, e.g. church
    • eat together
    • host a small group
    • be “promiscuous”, not with our body, but with our money
  • Corporate Hospitality in City Church
    • CityHope
    • be usher
    • contribute in deacon fund

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Sermon Series: Living Out the Resurrection
Live by the Spirit

Galatians 5:16-26, NRSV

Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. — Gal 5:26

• Live by the Spirit, or, Led by the Spirit of God
• a cosmic conflict – between flesh and spirit
  • two worldviews
  • two identities
• pursue the relational wholeness
• Apostle Paul’s challenge to us:
  • never throw in the towel
  • recognize the possibilities of having another identity (two different motivations)
    • root in the identity of flesh (either pride or despair)
    • root in the identity of spirit
  • 3 words to the strategy to this challenge (to root in identity of Spirit)
    • fight!
    • relax! (cut yourself some slack)
    • serve (one another)

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Sermon Series: Living Out the Resurrection
Gifted for Ministry

Ephesians 4:7-16, NRSV

Reflections

Our imitation of God in this life … must be an imitation of God incarnate: our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions. — C.S. Lewis The Four Loves

• Leaving a legacy
  • activism as a way to leave a legacy
  • things are not supposed to be the way it is supposed to be
• to be a Christian is like to be part of global healing to restore things they are supposed to be
  • it would be a “truncated” Christian life if we stop right at believing the resurrection
• Ascension – reminds us to go to the world
  • 3 things about ascension
    • Giver of Gifts
    • Reason of Gifts
    • Community of Gifts
  • brokenness of the world
    • because we hide from God, we hide from ourselves, then we start to hide from others, then we start to think the whole world is against us
  • one body, unity, interdependent in community
  • “truth in love”; truth alone, too hard; love alone, too soft

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Sermon Series: Living Out the Resurrection
Rest

Hebrews 4, NRSV

Reflections

Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s actions. It is taking charge. — Eugene H. Peterson The Contemplative Pastor

• it is easier to say “I believe” than “I am at rest”
• quantity vs quality of rest
• what is Rest?
  1. we are all restless
  2. real rest comes from the completion of work
  3. intention to acknowledge/recognize God’s command, His creation
  4. “stop hiding, stop striving”
• Rest is
  • rooted in creation
  • found in God
• Sabbath as a spritual issue, rather than tactical issue

Tags: city church sf, rev mike

Sermon Series: Living Out the Resurrection
Meditation

Psalm 1, NRSV

• Meditation
  • empty out your mind
  • fill your mind with scripture, thinking of all the implications
• 5 P’s
  1. Place of meditation
     • between reading scriptures and prayers (obviously I don’t meditate enough to lead to prayers)
     • meditating is like preaching to yourself
  2. Promise
     • that you will be happy
     • but it’s deeper, as in “blessed”, with foundation, rooted, stability
  3. Preparation of meditation
     • who do you listen to
     • who do you belong to
  4. Practice
     • read scriptures
     • keep journal
     • I.D.A.
       • Informative
       • Directive
       • Affective
  5. Puzzle
     • (enjoy it like a puzzle?)
     • (puzzle like a mystery?)

Tags: city church sf, rev fred