Traveling Light Relay

Lenten Sermon Series: Songs of Lent
Authentic Direction

Psalm 19, NRSV

Reflections

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says “If you keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.” I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be in the one kind of creature is heaven: that is it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be in the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, importence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.
— C.S. Lewis

• God is Great (v.1)
  • proclaims His handiwork
  • personified His creation, not deified it
  • God reveals Himself, wants to be known thru creations
  • nature provokes question (v.3-4)
  • speaks truth into our lives
• God is Guilding us (v.6-7)
  • laws for guidance
  • freedom found within restrictions
• God is Giving
  • giving us resources
  • holy habits that shape us
  • not all things are reviving soul (v.7)
  • giving us Himself, our Redemmer (v.14)

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: Songs of Lent
Authentic Hope

Psalm 130, NRSV

Reflections

Henri Nouwen wrote, “Many people suffer because of the false supposition on which they have based their lives. That supposition is that there should be no fear or loneliness, no confusion or doubt. But these sufferings can only be dealt with creatively when they are understood as wounds integral to our human condition. Therefore ministry is a very confronting service. It does no allow people to live with illusions of immortality and wholeness. It keeps reminding others that they are mortal and broken, but also that with the recognition of this condition, liberation starts.” George MacDonald put it with epigrammatic force when he wrote, “The Song of God suffered unto the death, not that we might no suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.”
— Eugene Peterson, from
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

• Authentic Hope rooted in:
  • Honesty and reality (v.1-2)
  • God’s commitment in your life (v.3-4)
  • Waiting in confidence (result of continuous grace) vs. waiting in frantic (leads to bad decisions) (v.5-6)
  • Hope in God, not anything else (v.7-8)

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: Songs of Lent
Authentic Trust

Psalm 25:1-10, NRSV

Reflections

A moment of conscious triumph makes one feel that after this nothing will really matter; a moment of realized diaster makes one feel that this is the end of everything. But neither feeling is realistic, for neither event is really what it is felt to be. The circumstances of triumph will not last, and the moment of triumph will sooner or later give way to moments of disappointment, strain, frustration, and grief, while the circumstances of disaster will prove to have in them seeds of recovery and new hope. Life in this world under God’s providence is like that; it always has been, and always will be; it is so in the Bible, and it remains so as the twentieth century gives way to the twenty-first. The mature person, who is mentally and emotionally an adult as distinct from a child, knows this and does not forget it.
— J.I. Packer, from
A Passion for Faithfulness

• Lent
  • re-orienting your life
  • authentic and honest interaction with God
• Waiting on God
  • always being mocked (troubled from outside)
  • self doubt, self loath (troubled from within)
  • constructive waiting: remember God’s character, mercy, love
  • gratitude driven waiting, not result-driven
• Not just wait, pursue as well
  • pursuit of God
  • trained by practice (prayer, community)
  • not be passive
• Rely on God’s Character
  • remember God’s steadfast love, mercy, history

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: What So Good about Good Friday?
The Fifth Word: I Thirst

John 19:28-37, NRSV

Reflections

The stories in John of Jesus offering living water, of those following him never being hungry or thirsty, only heightens our sens of horror and awe, as we get the full impact of what John is saying, at the thought of Jesus himself being….thirsty. Had the water of life failed? Had the wine run out for good? He saved others; could he not save himself? As with the crown of thorns and the mocking purple robe, this (John is saying) is part of the truth of it all. This is how Jesus must do what only he can do. He must come to the place where everyone else is, the place of thirst, shame and death. That, too, is a fulfillment of scripture (Psalm 69:21). That is his glory and, yes, his joy.
— N.T. Wright, from
John for Everyone

• Plan
  • fulfill the scripture
  • promise of God, something great coming out from darkness
  • provision, not fatalism
  • our view to the struggle is changed
• Promise
  • to be present in our lives
  • you’ll always thirst, until Christ is the center of your lives
• Purpose
  • the cross re-purposing you
  • take up the cross and follow Him
  • we reorient our lives

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: What So Good about Good Friday?
The Fourth Word: Forsaken by God

Matthew 27:45-46, NRSV

Reflections

To speak of sin by itself…is to forget the resolve of God…. Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way. Moreover, to speak of sin by itself is to misunderstand its nature: sin is only a parasite, a vandal, a spoiler. Sinful life is a partly depressing, partly ludicrous caricature of genuine human life. To concentrate on our rebellion, defection, and folly–to say to the world “I have some bad news and I have some bad news”–is to forget that the center of the Christian religion is not our sin but our Savior. To speak of sin without grace is to minimize the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, and the hope of shalom.
But to speak of grace without sin is surely no better. To do this is to trivialize the cross of Jesus Christ…. What had we thought the ripping and writhing on Golgotha were all about? … In short, for the Christian church…to ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel. For the sober truth is that without full disclosure on sin, the gospel of grace becomes impertinent, unnecessary, and finally uninteresting.
— Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be

• Model of Humanity
  • It’s lament, it’s authentic prayer, Psalm 36
  • It’s human, in the middle of darkness, with absence of God
  • All the doubts, anguish, questions to God, a model of lament
• Model of Discipleship
  • Place of scripture in our lives; not pick and choose parts of scripture
• Model of Self-sacrifice
  • So that we don’t have to “earn” it
  • Contrary to the ending of the movie Saving Private Ryan, where Private Ryan feels the need to “earn it” for others’ sacrifice
  • Sometimes we value more on things we earn, rather than things that were freely given

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: What So Good about Good Friday?
The Third Word: Woman, Behold Your Son

John 19:23-27, NRSV

Reflections

Christianity served as a revitalization movement that arose in response to the misery, chaos, fear, and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman world…. Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fire, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services…. For what they brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable.
— Rodney Stark
The Rise of Christianity

• Ordinary care (physical)
  • Care for well being of Mother Mary
  • Not just forgiveness of sins, or renewal of the soul, but ordinary matters to Jesus too
  • God has not forgotten you in this physical world
  • You may grow indifferent to God, but God does not grow indifferent to you
• Savior’s Grace
  • Grace to John: even with failures, he can always go back to Jesus, to the foot of the cross
  • In the mist of “failure”, John goes to Jesus
  • Do people come to you when they feel they have failures? You having Savior’s Grace?
  • He recommission John in ministry, to take care of His Mother
• New Creation for the world: like the birth of a new baby, the new creation of community, with spiritual transformation
• To be “clothed with Christ”: feeling shameful is not when we did something wrong, but when we think something is wrong with us, like being naked

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: What So Good about Good Friday?
The Second Word: You Will be With Me

Luke 23:32-43, NRSV

Reflections

Whoever heard of a suffering God? The idea is plain daft. God is up in heaven, and there he will stay. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were true? If God came to visit us, like a great king visiting his subjects? Or, even better, if he came among us as one of us, sharing our way of life, with all its tragedy, sorrows and grief?
— Alister E. McGrath
What Was God Doing on the Cross?

• “The foolishness of the Cross”
• Rejected King
  • There won’t be transformation until we stop seeing Jesus as someone we can use, and start seeing Him as beautiful
  • We put criteria, to have Jesus be personal assistance, to be useful to us
• Received King
  • Prayer won’t be focusing on personal situation/circumstances
  • Prayer would be about stability of soul
• Relational King
  • Jesus responded with relationship
  • The relationship is the paradise

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Lenten Sermon Series: What So Good about Good Friday?
The First Word: Father Forgive Them

Luke 23:32-34, NRSV

Reflections

Instead of genuine forgiveness, our generation has been taught the vague notion of “tolerance.” This is, at best, a low-grade parody of forgiveness. At worst, it’s a way of sweeping the real issues in human life under the carpet…. Jesus’ message [of forgiveness of sins] offers the genuine article and insists that we should accept no man-made substitutes.
— N.T. Wright
The Lord and His Prayer

• Teach us about ourselves
• We don’t know what we don’t know (v34)
• Soul Ignorance

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

The Nature of Faith

1 Peter 1:3-9; Hebrews 11:1,6, NRSV

Reflections

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
— St. Augustine (354-430) in
Patches of Godlight

• The Nature of Faith
• Faith involves thinking
• Life is unstable, cannot use bible in a superstitious way
• Where is faith placed?
• Historical Faith:
  • Understanding – to conclude from evidence
  • Belief – conviction
  • Commitment – trust, growing confidence
• How faith brings stability to your life?
• Faith is not a talent, it is a necessary human condition
• You don’t lose faith, you place it in difference places
• It is not the strength of your faith that matters, it is the object of your faith that matters

Tags: city church sf, rev fred

Called to Community: Mission

Mark 2:1-12, NRSV

Reflections

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
— St. Augustine (354-430) in
Patches of Godlight

• Community into Ministry
• Effort:
  • It is hard work, it requires money
  • People can be cantankerous
  • But when people’s lives are changed and transformed, that’s God’s Kingdom advancing
• Faith:
  • Barrier always exists
  • We need to remember the grace miracle of your own salvation
  • “No one is a lost cause”
• Ultimate Issue:
  • Sin, to be forgiven

  Tags: city church sf, rev fred