This week I spoke about honesty using the biblical text of Isaiah 59:9-15. It was an unusual message in the fact that about midway through a person indicated disagreement with me and I responded; after that someone asked a question which prompted me to turn the congregation to find answers. Part of the challenge about that is that we had not prepared for such a response by having microphones available for the responses and questions- so there are long silences in the recording. I expect to put up the 7:00 Saint James-Kingstowne message a little later today which is more complete without silences. It was a wonderful collaborative message- unfortunately, it will have to live on in God’s memory alone…
As promised, I have been able to edit and upload the message from SJK (Saint James-Kingstowne). Remember this message was transformed by the morning message. Take a listen!
I am convinced there is a difference between being invisible for Jesus and being “see-through” for Jesus and it is more than semantics for me. Invisible is being completely unseen (and perhaps unseeable) where as see-though is about people both seeing a person and the essence of the person. The more I follow Jesus and the better I get at following Jesus through God’s work in me, the more my essence is Jesus-y essence. It is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get, who-you-see-is-who-I-am kind of thing. As a Jesus-follower, I hope people will see Jesus through me.
I would say I am not interested in transparency for transparency’s sake (thought that may be good); I am interested in being open and clear about who I am and who I am is connected to Jesus. Now it’s all starting to sound like semantics. It is terrible to know what you mean and not be able to make clear what that is.
I believe one thing Jesus calls us to be is transparent, that is part of being people who bear his message. His love needs to be evident in and through us. What do people see when they look at us? I’ve begun to look at issues of transparency and stories of transparency in the Bible. For instance Jesus taught that it wasn’t necessary to swear by God or anything else, that our “yes” ought to mean “yes” and our “no” ought to mean “no.” We are called to be “lights on a hill.” I am working on where that all will take us as we search the Bible for clues about being transparent in Jesus’ name.
What does transparency mean to you?
Well, I am not planning on preaching about it this coming weekend but there is another twist to the blog- the portion that serves up our podcasts, the audio recordings of our messages, has decided not to feed them any more. It came to my attention this weekend when someone said they were trying to listen to the messages (imagine that- they were doing what I had encouraged and told them was possible!). I thought that maybe it was a browser problem- just a heads up, it is NOT a browser problem. So I spent a couple of hours trouble shooting and reading about the WordPress plugin that serves podcasts to figure what must be done. Of course, the one thing I thought I had together was not together at all- UGH. So if you’re reading this, you cannot at this moment hear the online podcasts through the website- you can download them by browsing the following folder on the website: http://sjalexandria.org/mp3/ Thanks for your patience in this and I hope to get it all worked out soon…
What do you think about when you hear the word perseverance. I think about the struggle it sometimes is to make it through the day, to complete the tasks that need doing. I think that at times we must press on even when we don’t really want to. I think of delayed gratification and sometimes no gratification at all. I remember that God never promised me an easy road.
Maybe the whole Bible is a story of God’s perseverance (and yes, love), of God’s pressing on even when it appears giving up would be the more prudent course. God hangs in there with us and doesn’t give up. But another questions comes to mind: is there a time when hanging in there is no longer the best course? Maybe not for God but what about for us? Should I give up sometimes? Is there a time when I am merely hanging on because I am stubborn? How do I know when that is, if ever? Life is really messy and I want answers that are easier to find, not so elusive.
I am beginning to ask where this message is meant to take us as a community. Are there things we have too easily given up on and things we need to press on in completing? What is the Word for us this week? What word of challenge, of healing, of hope do we need from God?
I was not as satisfied with my scripture tie in (Proverbs 4:25-27) this week. It was a good jumping off place and foundation to what the Biblical meaning of integrity is, to make straight, upright, righteousness. I felt I did not build enough on that foundation piece. However, this message was the opportunity to explore what it means to have integrity, to have foundational principles and to then live them out in everyday life. Take a listen to my approach to this fourth sermon in the Character Series.
I am working on the next message in our character series on integrity. Without even turning to a dictionary, I think about an opposite, about being dis-integrated. I find with all the many pieces of my life demanding attention that I am anything but integrated as a whole person most of the time. I think that as I reflect on what message I will be bringing this week I keep returning to the biblical image of shalom. We so often translate the word as “peace” but there is more to the word; it is more about wholeness, about being a whole person. Integrity to me is about being a whole person.
Jesus is the shalom-man to me, the one who came to bring wholeness to all of creation and to each one of us. I am still early in my musings about the texts and the character call to integrity. Interested in hearing thoughts and comments on integrity as part of our life of faith…
1 Peter 5:5-6. Randi Mack “hit the ball out of the park” with this message. Now three weeks into the message series on character, we turned to one of members at Saint James to present this difficult topic. It would have been hard not to be moved by her message. Listen to it here.
Joshua 1:7-9. What does courage mean in everyday living? Listen to this sermon and see what you think.
I thought it best as we launch the new Character Series that I ask the question, Why Bother? Looking at Luke 6:43-49 (wise man build house on rock, not-so wise builds on no foundation) and flying solo without a video clip, we as why it matters. Take a listen!