Archive for July, 2016
Amos 8.1-12 “Final Fruit-Baskets?” 202160717 RSUMC
Posted by myoikos in #2016, #askseekknock, #findingJesus, #gotell, #jesus, #relationship, #weareprophets, 5 Practices, Boldness, Citizenship, Extravagant Generosity, Intentional Spiritual Growth, Meaning, Passionate Worship, Preparation, Prophets, Putting God First, Radical Hospitality, Resurrection People, Risk Taking Mission and Service, Spiritual Growth, Trust, Truth, Witness on July 16, 2016
This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!” Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. [NRSV]
Sackcloth, baldness, morning only child, a bitter day.
- Sackcloth, baldness and morning, oh my!
- Sackcloth, baldness and morning, oh my!
- Sackcloth, baldness and morning, oh my!
-
• Sackcloth: A sign of sinfulness
• Baldness: A sign of unhealthiness
• Morning an Only Child: Grief for this generation and the next
• Bitter Day: A sign of our separation from God.
Sending a famine instead of a fruit basket.
Not a famine of land, bread or thirst
But a famine of HEARING the words of the Lord.
God’s bringing a basket that we fill find as empty.
• If I bring fruit every day, and no one takes even a bite, it will eventually spoil
• If I bring healthy snacks and no one even samples, we will eventually starve
• If I bring hope for this generation and the next and no one trusts and believes, we have nothing left.
The basket is full of unwanted, un-tasted, un-sampled, un-digested, un-used nourishment: It lies in waste (or lingers in our waists)
Seeking and not finding, Knocking and nothing opening, Asking and receiving none.
The question of the day is
how long will the famine take?
How many attacks can we stand?
How many bodies left on the ground?
How many reports of violence before we are numb?
Where is the fruit basket?
• The basket of milk and honey?
• The basket of power and grace?
• The basket of truth and certainty?
• The basket of goodness and peace?
We want that fruit basket, then
1. Why not eat it when it is placed in front of you?
2. Why wait until there are famine and ruin?
Today is the day for feasting on the Word of God.
• Open and read it
• Read and share it
• Share and sing it
• Sing and Teach it
• Teach and live it
• Live it and find the God, who loves us, living with us, still.
Luke 10:25-37 Show Me The Mercy 20160710 RSUMC
Posted by myoikos in #2016, #sermons, Christian LIving, grace, Radical Hospitality, Relationship, Trust, Wisdom, Witness on July 9, 2016

JOB #1. Show Me the Mercy
- Somewhere the passion for justice and mercy has become a political topic.
- In the News this week we have seen heightened tensions and enraged emotions from people who have a heritage of being marginalized by race, gender and creed have been blamed for the evils of our society.
- One answer for being oppressed is to fight back and reverse the oppression
- One answer is to learn from oppression and say, no more oppression
- One answer is to keep quiet, removed and mind our own business.
- These are the options in Jesus’s parable
- Those who turn to the law to help, ignoring the hurting
- Those who want to keep out of the fray
- Those who get personal in the process of healing.
- Putting the verse in a current context might be:
- Some would look at violence and unjust scene and jump to legal answers. For example USING the situation. Can’t you hear the leader who gets back to the temple and begins talking about Crime and Violence Laws they need to impose to keep people safe? They are more concerned about the LAW than the person.
- Talking Gun Control instead of Mercy for the Oppressed
- Pontificating on Social Media about Mercy, but showing no mercy.
- Work toward healing and wholeness
- Some might see the violence and unjust scene and talk to themselves or their peers but keep from being informed or involved. The talk and debate but leave the neighbor dying in the street.
- Someone stops, ignoring the laws, traditions, expenses and inconvenience and shows personal-to-person mercy.
- Some would look at violence and unjust scene and jump to legal answers. For example USING the situation. Can’t you hear the leader who gets back to the temple and begins talking about Crime and Violence Laws they need to impose to keep people safe? They are more concerned about the LAW than the person.
- QUESTION: Which neighbor would you hope walks by you in your time of crisis?
- The one who using the situation to address the law
- The one who only talks about doing good when its easy or simple.
- The one willing to get you through?
- Have a heart for God that looks for the good in the midst of evil and brokenness.
- Seeing the heart of God, even in the lives of our enemies (the victim)
- Seeing the place for healing instead of winning
- Healing Wounds
- Sharing Wine
- Sharing the expense and opportunities for service.
- Let’s focus on the laws, rules, getting even and determining what is fair.
- Let’s identify who are what to blame, but not help
- Let’s talk about it and keep our distance
- Let’s just keep attacking people and taking advantage of the opportunity
- Bad stuff happens, live with it.
- Mercy begins by Looking for Goodness, Godliness, Humanity:
- Seeing yourself in your enemy.
- Who do you want as neighbors?
What do we do with this passage?
Be the ones who teach
- mercy over correctness,
- mercy over distance,
- mercy over self.. then we become to Good Neighbor with God’s help and grace.
Footnote; the parable is not about befriending the robber or the thieves, nor what the Good Samaritan would/might have done if the thieves and robbers were in progress of about to attack the victim. Mercy remains the same: how we interpret how to show the mercy will always.
Luke 10.1-11 A Church on Tour 20160703
Marching Orders
The Lead Team of Followers
The Promise of Failure
Bringing the Kingdom Near
- in my words
- in my mind
- in my heart