The Prodigal Son

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32; 1 John 4:7-12

Speaker: Brandon and Kristin Hill

Date: 11.16.2008

We started out with a little history lesson on the famous painter Rembrandt. We studied one of his most famous paintings - The Prodigal Son. We then read the story of the prodigal son, Luke 15:11-32 and discussed the attributes of the son, the father, and the brother.  How can we relate to each of them? The son is selfish, with an entitlement attitude. The brother is bitter, jealous, and in competition for his inheritance and his father's love.

The key here is with the father. We often compare ourselves only to the son or to the brother but how can we be life the father? The father is the picture of unconditional and selfless love. He is an illustration of Christ's love for us. The real question here is how can we show that kind of love to those around us. Instead of always putting ourselves in the place of the son, let's think how we can be like the father - that picture of love to our community. So many in our world do not have knowledge of what this love is. Think about a child who comes from an abusive family? If you tell he or she that God loves them, how can they have any understanding of that meaning unless we model it?

One of the most important attributes of love is showing true empathy.  As quoted from an article I was reading in a counseling journal "self-love translated into neighbor can be good when it is occupied with empathy. Self-love becomes good when people who want to be treated decently treat others decently; when people who want security seek the security of others; when people who want to be appreciated show appreciation; when people who want to be treated justly act justly; and when people who want to be cared for care for others. It means valuing all persons, including oneself, to the same degree as God values us: equally. "

1 John 4:7-12 - God is love...This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us...Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Continue to think how we can be that self-less picture of love to those around us because once we have come home to the father's love, he gives us the ability to bring others home too.

The Cross at the Center

Speaker: Justin Roach
Date: 11.09.2008

The Cross At the Center
- The early church did not understand the cross as the strange and unfortunate end to the life of the Messiah. Each of the Gospel writers records Jesus describing the cross not only as the way of the kingdom, but also as the call upon the life of disciples. Disciples are to take up their cross daily in following Jesus.
- Therefore the suffering way of the cross is the ironic means through which the life of the kingdom comes to the world. The cross is not an abstract scheme for accomplishing some religious plan of salvation. The cross is the way of the kingdom. It represents a different way to view the world, success, and the redemption and reconciliation of history.

- “Here at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who spitefully use him. The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the kingdom, nor is it even the way to the kingdom; it is the kingdom come.” – John Howard Yoder

The Way Beyond Escapism (Essenes)
- The Essenes believed that the only way to please God was to leave the systems of the world altogether and to create alternative communities of faith in the surrounding wilderness areas.
- Christians throughout history have battled with the temptation to become isolationists. The call to not be “of” the world has often been heard by believers as a call to seclusion.
- The cross is a reminder that Christ is found in the messiness of human pain and suffering. Jesus lived and died with sinners on the margins of existence.
- The sheep and the goats both ask, “When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick and in prison and visited you?” And the king responds, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matt. 25).

- “There can be no theology of the incarnation which does not become a theology of the cross. As soon as you say incarnation, you say cross. God did not become man according to the measure of our conceptions of being a man. He became the kind of man we do not want to be: an outcast, accursed, crucified… Behold the man!…is a confession of faith which recognizes God’s humanity in the dehumanized Christ on the cross… When the crucified Jesus is called the ‘image of the invisible God’, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity.” – Jurgen Moltmann

The Way Beyond the Powers (Herodians)
- The Herodians and Sadducees believed that the system (the “real world”) was too powerful to be overcome and so the best strategy was accommodation.
- “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:15).

- “Jesus died just like all the others who challenged the Powers that dominate the world. Something went awry with Jesus, however. They scourged him with whips, but with each stroke of the lash their own illegitimacy was laid open… They stripped him naked and crucified him in humiliation, all unaware that this very act had stripped them of the last covering that disguised the towering wrongness of the whole way of living that their violence defended.” – Walter Wink

The Way Beyond Violence (Zealots)
- The Zealots were violent activists who believed that if the common people would rise up in violent response, God would empower them to defeat their enemies.
- In the “myth of redemptive violence” the survival and welfare of the nation are elevated as the highest earthly good. There can be no other gods before the nation. By divine right the state uses violence to cleanse the world of its evil opponents who resist the nation’s authority. The name of God is invoked as having specially blessed and favored the supremacy of the nation.
- “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

- “The cross is not just a symbol of God’s kingdom; it is that kingdom come… Because we have confidence that God has raised this crucified man, we believe that forgiveness and love are alternatives to the coercion the world thinks necessary for existence. Thus, our true nature, our true end, is revealed in the story of this man in whose life, we believe, is found the truth. Jesus’ death was not a mistake but what was to be expected of a violent world which does not believe that this is God’s world.” – Stanley Hauerwas

“Not-Yet” Authorities
- Because the kingdom is both “already” and “not yet,” God has ordained authorities to act in ways that protect the innocent and curb the progress of evil. I believe Christians can fulfill the call to be an authority under three conditions:
- A believer is called to be a peacemaker and not a person of violence.
- Christ and other peacemakers remain the heroes for one in authority.
- If necessary, the one in authority is willing to obey God rather than man.

The Way Beyond Scapegoats (Pharisees)
- Pharisees believed that God would send the Messiah if there were more righteous people and fewer sinners (in particular prostitutes, drunks, and collaborators).
- The death of Jesus is not unusual. His crucifixion is the death of another threat to the religious and political establishment. What is unusual is that the enemy of the state and of religion is, in fact, an innocent victim.
- Judgment in the light of the cross comes not from God, but from people declaring what they think is God’s will: in scapegoating Jesus, human beings unknowingly judge themselves. Though they think they are judging another, they are in fact projecting their own sins onto one who is innocent.

Citizen of the Kindom of God

Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11
Speaker: Garry Albright
Date: 11.02.2008

Democrat or Republican? Liberal or Conservative? The election is right around the corner (depending on when you read this, maybe past), and although politics is always an interesting, if not lively, conversation piece, it is usually considered social taboo to ask another person who they are going to vote for in the upcoming election. Usually this mixed-company no-no stems from the fact most of us do not necessarily like all of the baggage that certain labels carry. But it's human nature for us to attach labels, and often times they are hurtful or prejudiced.

What would our country, our community, and even our church look like if the label that we wore was the mark of Christ? What if the inward love of God was so big that it effected the outward appearance that we had as His people? I am so blessed that the people I am surrounded by are individuals that I can see a manifestation of God's love in. My wife, my friends, and the group of committed readers of this corner of the world wide web- they exemplify Paul's words of how our attitude should be that of Christ Jesus. I want so much to have others see Christ in me. I want His love to so consume me that in action and word, I will be labeled as His.

This election day, I am not going to ask you in mixed company if you are Democrat or Republican. My prayer is that instead of these, you will label yourself as a Citizen of the Kingdom of God, and that I will be labeled as such too.