Traveling Light Relay

An Epiphany for a Watching World

Matthew 2:1-12, NRSV

Reflections

It’s not just the saints and poets who ‘realize life’ while they live it. It is anyone who wants to see God. A God who does not go into hiding. A God for whom the game of hide and seek has to do with us who hide, with him who seeks, who speaks, who shows up.
– Timothy Jones
Awake My Soul

• Epiphany – revelation of Jesus
• New Year Resolution – something’s gotta be changed
• The passage is not so much about behavior change, but more about the encounter, the meeting of Three Wise Men with new born baby Jesus
  • Recognize Christ as the true King
    • How people recognize Christ?
    • How the Three Wise Men, who are foreigners/outsiders, recognize Christ?
  • Worship Christ as the true King (v.11)
  • Follow Christ as the true King
    • This encounter changed the Three Wise Men’s lives
    • Taking the road less traveled
    • To be Epiphany of Christ, of the Church

Tags: city church sf, rev chuck

Confession and Assurance

Psalm 51, NRSV

Reflections

Repentance is not a popular word these days, but I believe that any of us recognize it when it strikes us in the gut. Repentance is coming to our senses, seeing, suddenly, what we’ve done that we might not have done, or recognizing…that the problem is not in what we do but in what we become.
– Kathleen Norris
The Cloister Walk

• God is like a “bulldog”; He won’t let it go because He wants to see you healed, see you whole
• 4 principles of repentance
  • You have to see “it” (v4)
    • Is it true guilt or false guilt?
    • Look into your heart? your conscience?
    • Let God educate your conscience thru community and His word
    • See things as God see things
  • Confess it
    • Take responsibility
    • “I have done this”
  • “Melt it” in God’s love and mercy
    • This is where assurance comes in
    • The mentality is similar to “I have done this against my good friend”
  • Forsake it (v10)
• End Result: Assurance to be free, to be authentic, to be real

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Finding Faith

Luke 17:11-19, NRSV

Reflections

When Christians affirm, as they do, that Jesus is the way, the true and living way by whom we come to the Father (John 16:4), they are not claiming to know everything. They are claiming to be on the way, and inviting others to join them as they press forward toward the fullness of truth, toward the day when we shall know as we have been known.
– Lesslie Newbigin
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

• Looking for authentic, life-changing experience
• First step of faith:
  • Is He real? (You’ll never find out if you keep your distance and not calling for Him)
  • Am I worthy? Even if He is real
• Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Quest
• The more messed-up you are, the more likely you will receive Jesus’ grace and mercy
• Life of Faith
  • we might struggle on our path
  • we might forget how loved we are
  • we might forget how blessed we are
  • we move on, and we lose the power of praise (Luke 17:15)

Tags: city church sf, rev scot

The Gentleness of Jesus

John 8:2-11, NRSV

Reflections

In the person of Christ do meet together infinite majesty and infinite meekness. These are two qualifications that meet together in no other person but Christ. It is he that is terrible out of his holy place; who is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea: before whom a fire goeth; at whose presence the earth quakes, and the hills melt; whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and of whose dominion there is no end. And yet he was the most marvelous instance of meekness, and humble quietness of spirit that ever was; when he was reviled, he reviled not again; he had a wonderful spirit of forgiveness, was ready to forgive his worst enemies, and prayed from them with fervent effectual prayers. Thus is Christ a lion in majesty, and a lamb in meekness.
– Jonathan Edwards

• Meekness/gentleness being played out in this passage/li>
• Problem of religion; condemnation, belittle, looking down, acting superior
  • it is human nature to condemn others, but it’s not just in religion, it’s everywhere in today’s culture, in politics
  • We are prone to condemn others, destroy others
• Jesus’ approach of humility
  • Gentleness and bravery at the same time, with patience
  • Keeping poise, tenderness and toughness at the same time
  • Lion and the Lamb
  • Forgiving but not tolerating
• Application:
  • New Approachability: dealing with criticism/advice
    • Not to be devastated, not to be indifferent
    • Not to be inflexible, not to be totally flexible for appraisal
    • To measure approachability, “Do ‘messed-up’ people like you?”
  • New Patience:
    • God loves us, but we don’t necessarily see it right the way
    • In the same way, we can love others, and we don’t need them to see that right the way

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Flourishing

Colossians 1:1-14, NRSV

Reflections

Fruitfulness is an image of overflowing abundance growing out of generosity – a generosity of heart as well as possessions. It is a community forming itself around Jesus, refusing to let enemies be enemies and debtors be debtors.
– Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat

• Flourishing: bearing fruits
• “When you don’t have it, you wonder if you will ever have it; when you have it, you wonder if it will last”
• Is it possible to live with a sense of hope flourishing without losing it?
• 3 things we need to do
  • We need to recognize our own stories in the bigger context
    • Fruits at cosmic level, our stories in the bigger picture of what God is doing
    • Too often we live like we are center of the universe
    • Look around you (v6), there is something bigger happening
  • We need to connect to God
    • What do you connect to help you flourish? What drives you?
    • “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” — C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
  • We need to engage God’s story

Tags: city church sf, rev chuck, rev matt

Creating a Culture of Grace

Luke 6:37-42, NRSV

Reflections

Not long ago, I was asked by a college student how I could stand to go to church, how I could stand the hypocrisy of Christians. I had one of my rare inspirations, when I know the right thing to say, and I replied, “The only hypocrite I have to worry about on Sunday morning is myself.”
– Kathleen Norris The Cloister Walk

• We want a culture of Grace, not a culture of judging, not a culture of making the right choice
• By default we think it is other people’s problem/issue first
• Is our church a place that fill with grace, care, and humility?
• More often than not, church is a place that condemn sinners
• The passage is not saying that we stop making moral/value judgment
• but stop being self-righteous, arrogant, judgemntalism, seeing crystal clear of other’s problem
• We must know that we
  • all have nature blindness spiritually (v42)
    • People in village close to death camp in WWII
    • “We know it but we don’t know it”
    • how humanity was suppressed
  • always in denial
  • need to remember the gospel before addressing people around us
    • “I have the log that I must get rid of”
    • Gospel fills with stories of disciples falling short, but they do not gloss over these details
    • Enable a community of grace when we confront our problem of being a hypocrite
• Jesus’ job – to love us; our job – to love each other

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

The Primacy of Community

John 17:1-3, 20-26, NRSV

Reflections

Love cannot exist in isolation: away from others, love bloats into pride. Grace cannot be received privately: cut off from others, it is perverted into greed. Hope cannot develop in solitude: separated from the community, it goes to seed in the form of fantasies. No gift, no virtue can develop and remain healthy apart from the community of faith. “Outside the church there is no salvation is not ecclesiastical arrogance but spiritual common sense, confirmed in everyday experience.
– Eugene Peterson Reversed Thunder

• The fall of man and the broken world
  • Devil’s strategy: divide and conquer
    • breaks the relationship between us and God
    • not focusing on Gods glory, but our own glory
• 3 things happen when are part of community
  • Heals our soul
  • Persuade us and the watching world about God
    • that we call Jesus our Lord
    • that we give up our lives, lose control of our lives
    • when we come together, we overcome the bias of disbelief
  • Roots our identity
    • Garrison’s Lake Wobegon story “Our Lydia”: label on the picture frame shows the identity of the daughter to her parents

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Seeking the Shalom of the City

Jeremiah 29:4-14, NRSV

Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. — Jeremiah 29:6-7

• We are all different, work differently, see things differently, behave differently
• It is not easy to engage to the city
• Seeking peace, Shalom, not just for ourselves, but also for things and people around us, shalom for the city, shalom for all
• Two faulty agendas (for a city)
  • Babylon agenda VS Tribal agenda
  • Babylon agenda: assimilate people from land they conquered
  • Tribal agenda: engage the city, but in the inside, disdain the city; just using it, despise the city; a selfish, fortress mentality
• God’s Agenda v5-7
  • seek welfare of the city
  • bring flourishing to everybody
  • work for city’s shalom
  • pray for city’s shalom
• Source of energy to seek shalom is the Gospel
• God gives us permission to love the city

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Seeking Shalom

Philippians 4:6-9, NRSV

Reflections

The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Old Testament prophets called shalom. We call it peace, but it means far more than mere peace of mind or cease-fire among enemies. In the Bible shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight — a rich state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.
– Cornelius Plantinga Not the Way Its supposed to Be

• Seeking Shalom; Seeking Peace; Seeking God’s Shalom for the whole
• People want peace of God, but not necessary God of Peace
• Apathy – counterfeit peace
  • “didn’t care”
  • “checked out”
• Gospel of Peace
  • God’s agenda for the world
• Source of Peace
  • rooted and re-rooted over and over at the Gospel (forgiven as child of God)
  • the peace on this earth is not long lasting
  • peace based on principle, on God’s Shalom
  • Grace happens in a “cosmic” level
• Discipline of Peace
  • pray with humbleness (v6)
  • think of whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever… (v8) – talk to your heart, not listen to your heart
  • doing/practice (v9) – putting into practice, put faith into action
    • “Heart Practice” – a way of repeating

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Costly Kindness

1 John 3:16-20, NRSV

Reflections

It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular. — C.S. Lewis

• Random kindness is helpful, but it has no impact on our lifestyle
• Newspapers used to refer us as “citizens”, nowadays we are more accurately described as “consumers”
  • As consumers, we have abundant of choices, but it carves out a part of our heart
• Lifestyle of Costly Kindness
  • Practical generosity/deeds
    • people are infinitely more valuable
    • bear one another’s burden (Gal 6:2)
    • you can be kind without feeling it; bearing burden without feeling the burden
    • “makes room for people”
  • It is important because things are not what they are supposed to be
• Part of Spiritual Life
  • praying
  • being generous
• Cultivate the lifestyle
  • remembering the gospel
  • remembering God’s kindness to us

Tags: city church sf, rev fred