Love Through a Jewish Heart

Craig J. Sefa

January 9, 2022

Sermons, Matthew

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Such a simple question and yet the answer very much seems to depend on who you ask. For some, all that matters is that you believe in Jesus and pray the “sinners prayer” to confess your sins. For others, it’s about how you work toward justice and mercy in the world. Still for others it appears to require agreement with a particular set partisan political positions. If you don’t vote X, for example, you must not be a Christian.

We are very quick as Christians to determine who is “in” and who is “out.” We are quick to say we love God and just as quick to assume the person who disagrees with us must not love God.

There’s only one problem. Jesus doesn’t allow us to simply “say” we love God. By connecting Leviticus 19:18 to the greatest commandment of loving God, he has declared that the only way we can actually love God is by also loving our neighbor… even the neighbors we most despise…

Craig J. Sefa

November 28, 2021

Sermons, Matthew

Too Scandalous

Craig J. Sefa

November 28, 2021

Sermons, Matthew

Imagine you’re reading the Bible for the first time. You decide to read it straight through like any other book. Genesis goes pretty well. It’s filled with great epic stories like Creation, the Flood, Abraham, Joseph and so on. Exodus starts out pretty well too. Baby Moses put in a basket and floated up the river to the palace of the very pharaoh who would have had him killed with all the other male Hebrew infants. Then he grows up among the Egyptians only to turn on them and set his people free from slavery. God parts the Red Sea and leads his people through the wilderness to the promised land. The story moving along just fine and then we get stuck. Our exciting pageturner almost instantly becomes a boring and sometimes incomprehensible file box of ancient legal documents. We might skim through to a couple of other highlights…. stories like David and Goliath or Daniel in the Lion’s Den, but for the most part we have a tendency to get lost in this ancient text.

Then some well-meaning Christian friend tells us we should start in the Gospels. “That’s the good part,” they say. “It’s the story of Jesus.”

Great, back to the story…. and so we turn to Matthew Chapter 1, the first page of the New Testament. If Moses’ story was exciting, surely this story about Jesus will be even better.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers…

17 verses and 14 generations later, we finally get to Jesus. That is, of course, assuming we make it that far without giving up. What kind of a story is this. No “Once upon a time,” or even “It was a dark and stormy night.” All we get is an ancestory.com report for a family we know nothing about…

Craig J. Sefa

January 6, 2019

Sermons, Matthew

Personal Revealer

Craig J. Sefa

January 6, 2019

Sermons, Matthew

GOD – Part 1

GOD as Immanent Personal Revealer
Sunday, January 6, 2019
Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him”
Matthew 2:1-2

Take a moment to reflect on the image below. Where do you see God in this picture?

In a spiritual formation class many years ago, the professor asked us to find an image that represented our relationship with God. I honestly can not remember where I found this image, but I have kept it tucked in my journal ever since.

At first glance for me, I saw myself sitting at a table like this on the beach gazing out upon the horizon in amazement at the wonder and beauty of God’s creation. Christianity is not exclusive in seeing or experiencing the divine presence in creation.

But the longer I looked at this image, the more I realized a second truth about God’s presence, equally as important. God wasn’t just “out there”, somewhere beyond the sunset. God was also sitting in the other chair, watching the sunset with me.

God not only knows us intimately as one who created us along with all of the universe. God also wants to be known by us. God humbles himself to take on flesh and dwell among us, to sit with us at the table and enjoy the beauty of all that he created.

We have many images of who God is… Creator, King, Judge, Priest, Shepherd, Father, Redeemer… but understanding God as “Personal Revealer” brings all of these roles together. Jesus said that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father. (insert reference).

Everything we know about God, we know because God chose to make himself known to us, even though our finite minds could never fully process what God continues to reveal.

Who are we that God would be mindful of us and care to go to such great lengths that we might know him and love him as he knows and loves us?
How do we respond to the grace of God’s self-revelation?
How do we react when God, the Creator of the universe, calls out to us in the cry of a helpless baby in a manger?

O Come, let us adore Him! Praise be to God!