Church Blog

What a happy and blessed life belongs to those who do not follow the paths of wickedness and cynicism, but their delight is in God’s law, and they meditate on it day and night. Here is how the book of Psalms begins. Beatitude, an excited pronouncement of blessing, happiness, and good fortune for those who allow themselves to be rooted in a daily diet of scripture, contrasted with the emptiness of being rooted in nothing. These blessed, happy, fortunate ones…

Romans 8 hits us with some astonishingly good news, but also continues to haunt us with the question – what will it look like to walk in the Spirit? Not for the sake of “getting” the Spirit (that already happened (8:9); the Spirit is in us just as we are in the Spirit!), but for the sake of awakening us to what the Spirit is doing in and around us. Fortunately, in Romans 12, we find a robust answer to…

In Romans 8, Paul has established that the death and resurrection of Christ has freed the baptized, Christ-centered community to “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (8:4).” What does this look like? When the Spirit is truly in the driver’s seat, what does daily life look like? First and foremost, Paul defines life in the Spirit by what it is not. It is not life lived in the way of “flesh.” Flesh is the New…

Romans 8 begins with the mind-blowing good news that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” But Paul follows that up with one heavy dose of good news after another. The Spirit has set us free from sin and death (Romans 8:2), because God did what no one else ever figured out how to do – destroying sin on the cross (8:3). And now, living in tune with God’s will is truly possible because sin is…

“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” -Romans 8:1 I find Jesus and the gospel to be good and true, but also exciting, interesting, captivating, haunting, life-giving, and endlessly enjoyable. That’s why we gather, why we open our Bibles and fold our hands in prayer – not because we’re obligated to do so, but because Jesus stirs up something in us, something powerful, beautiful, and eternal. The Gospel is not good advice, a good plan, a…

Halfway through Romans 7, Paul has been exploring the bizarre relationship between sin and religious law. As good as the law (Torah, as the Jewish Romans would have called it) is, pointing us toward patterns of living that are good, just, and holy, law is also a catalyst for sin. We can love law too much, making observable righteousness an ultimate good that it was never supposed to be. Plus, giving a prohibition can inflame the desire to violate that…

We’re a peculiar bunch, church. We are the ones who strive to experience that which is eternal, infinite, that which lies beyond all human possibility. In one sense, it’s a fool’s errand. But we can’t imagine any other way to be human, can we? We read in 1 Timothy that Christ “dwells in unapproachable light.” Unapproachable, but we hunger and thirst to approach anyway. Yet, the means we have to do so are entirely finite. Meeting times. Paper hymnals and…

We who are in a position of power are indebted to bear up the weakness of those in a position of powerlessness. Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. This is Paul’s relentless challenge to the Roman church (Romans 15:1-13). There’s an uneven power dynamic in the church and Paul just isn’t having it. This discrepancy is especially present in the difficult, fractured practice of table fellowship (explored throughout Romans 14). The Jewish Christians and gentile Christians of the…

“For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us.” – Romans 4:16 I hear from time to time a comment along the lines of, “I feel like I didn’t hear much preaching about grace when I was…

Luke 15. The parable of the Prodigal Son. This is Jesus’ idea of fatherhood – to create belonging and safety for those coming home to you, to practice outrageous (even scandalous) generosity toward your kids even in, especially in, their failures. The prodigal son, after messing up so badly, is prepared to relinquish his status as his father’s son. He believes the worst about himself. He works up a whole recital of his sins to offer his dad. But halfway…

Anyone who does not hate their family cannot be my disciple. Anyone who will not carry their cross cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not part with all their possessions cannot be my disciple. This is the triple warning we hear from Jesus in Luke 14:25-33 as a crowd of enthusiasts swells around him. And blessed are those who are troubled by this warning! Blessed are those who do not rush to sanitize the difficult teachings of Jesus. Listening…

In Luke 13, there is a woman hunched over for the last eighteen years who meets Jesus in a synagogue. Calling her over to himself, Jesus says, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” And just like that, “she stood up straight and began praising God.” Well, all this happens on a Sabbath day, which makes the synagogue leader feel the need to stand up and protest. “Come on one of the other six days of the week to…