Sermons

Invitation to a Journey - Session 8: Classical Spiritual Disciplines

Invitation to a Journey

Session 8: Classical Spiritual Disciplines

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other. Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

Therefore, my loved ones, just as you always obey me, not just when I am present but now even more while I am away, carry out your own salvation with fear and trembling. God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes.

Pbilippians 2:1-8, 12-13 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 8 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 9 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

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Spiritual Strength

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SPIRITUAL - PART 2

Spiritual Strength
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Acts 9:1-31

Ananias countered, “Lord, I have heard many reports about this man. People say he has done horrible things to your holy people in Jerusalem. He’s here with authority from the chief priests to arrest everyone who calls on your name.”

The Lord replied, “Go! This man is the agent I have chosen to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites.

Acts 9:13-15

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

Our culture greatly values strength. We put a lot of stock in power, control, and victory. The weak often find themselves on the margins and if someone finds themselves in a low place, the most common advice people will give is to toughen up or grow a thicker skin.

Spirituality, for many people, is a source of strength. There is something empowering when we tap into sources of power and strength beyond our own understanding. The first few steps of any 12 Step recovery program involve admitting that we are powerless and that we need rely on a higher power for the strength to overcome whatever addiction we may be trying to break through.

Yet in our text today, we find two very strong individuals brought to their knees by an encounter with the Holy Spirit. A genuine “spiritual experience” with God may indeed give us strength, but that spiritual strength comes first through vulnerability and humility.

Saul is a great religious leader feared by anyone who would challenge his authority or teach against his understanding of God. He stood over Stephen with approval as the people stoned him for blasphemy because of his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. He was on his way to Damascus to destroy the Jesus movement in that community. He was indeed a strong and powerful man.

Ananias was also a strong man. In spite of such great persecution from people like Saul, he continued faithfully proclaiming the Gospel and following the way of Christ. His understanding of the Spirit’s voice indicates a strong prayer life and a strong faith.

Two strong men with completely opposite beliefs about God and about the nature of Jesus and neither are willing to back down. An unlikely pairing to say the least. The thought of a friendly meeting between Saul and Ananias so soon after the stoning of Stephen might be comparable to Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush sitting down for tea the week after 9/11.

Yet when each encountered the Holy Spirit, they were humbled. Saul was blinded before the Lord and became physically weak and dependent on his servants and even on his Jesus-following enemies. Ananias was challenged in his desire for self-preservation and in his understanding of who could truly be saved by God’s grace. Could there be mercy and forgiveness for one as evil and opposed to Christ as Saul, who even now was on his way to Damascus to kill Ananias and all of the believers?

Both had to admit that they were wrong about Jesus and about God’s will. Both had to admit that they had something to learn from each other and that God’s love was far greater than the hatred and fear that stood as an unbreakable barrier between religious leaders like Saul and the followers of “the Way” of Jesus.

The spiritual strength granted to both Saul and Ananias to humble themselves, set aside their fear and animosity, and sit down at the table together resulted in unprecedented church growth among the Gentiles across the known world along with the writing of nearly half of our New Testament Scriptures. This simple act of spiritual strength, of listening to God and listening to one another’s stories, quite literally changed the history of the world.

Spiritual strength is always about the strength to love… especially the unimaginable strength of loving our enemies. This kind of love demands the strength of humility, vulnerability and risk. At the bottom of this post, you will find a link to one of my favorite books, “Tea with Hezbollah.” While none of the stories in this tale involve the kind of radical conversion that Saul experienced, they do teach us a lot about what it means to sit at the table with our enemies, to humble ourselves and to risk everything just to listen to each other. And out of these humble and vulnerable conversations, the strength of the Holy Spirit shines through.

A modern day reflection on sitting at the table with our enemies…



Invitation to a Journey - Session 7: The Classical Christian Pilgrimage

Invitation to a Journey

Session 7: The Classical Christian Pilgrimage

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

“I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word.  I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.  I’ve given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one.  I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me.

John 17:20-23 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 7 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 8 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Invitation to a Journey - Session 6: One Sided & Holistic Spirituality

Invitation to a Journey

Session 6: One Sided & Holistic Spirituality

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

We urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-24 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 6 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapters 6 & 7 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

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Spiritual Direction

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SPIRITUAL - PART 1

Spiritual Direction
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Acts 5:27-41, Luke 12:11-12

God has exalted Jesus to his right side as leader and savior so that he could enable Israel to change its heart and life and to find forgiveness for sins. We are witnesses of such things, as is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Acts 5:31-32

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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“Spiritual but not religious.”

While many Christians balk at such a label, accusing this ever increasing group of abandoning the church and their faith, it is nevertheless a label that speaks volumes about the religious landscape of our nation and much of the Western world. For those who fear the decline of the institutional church as we know it, it is easy to blame such “religious vagabonds” for our plight, but perhaps it would be more prudent to examine their motives, the nature of their faith, and their critiques of what we call “Christianity” in an effort to better understand where we have gone wrong.

On one hand, we might say that “Spiritual but not religious” is an easy way out because it requires no commitment or loyalty to any particular organization, religious practices or even beliefs. On the other hand, the fact that there exists such a deep longing for spirituality in the human heart, even among those outside of organized religion, should tell us a great deal about the power and work of the Holy Spirit in our world.

“Spiritual” simply means “of or relating to the spirit” or “sacred matters”, which could of course refer only to the human spirit or soul. From a Biblical worldview, however, the human spirit is given life through the breath or Spirit of God. Few will question that at some level, we are spiritual beings, yet an entirely natural source cannot give birth to a spiritual being anymore than a freshwater spring can produce a saltwater stream. If there is indeed something supernatural or “spiritual” within us, we must explore what it means to connect with this “Divine Spirit” whom the scriptures say hovered over the waters when everything began.

Spiritual Direction as a discipline involves two or more people listening for the promptings of this Divine or “Holy Spirit” in the context of conversation, meditation, memories, and other reflective practices in an effort to seek wisdom or direction from the Spirit of God. In this way, it is not the spiritual director who actually does the directing, but rather the Holy Spirit’s own whisper. Thus, one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to guide and direct our path.

Throughout the book of Acts, we see this kind of Holy Spirit Direction in almost every chapter. It is the Spirit who directs Peter, John and the other apostles how to preach to the crowds, how to respond to various needs through miraculous interventions, and ultimately directs them in how to respond when they are questioned by the authorities. In Acts 5:27-41 as Peter stands before the religious leaders, the Spirit does exactly what Jesus says the Spirit will do.

“When they bring you before the synagogues, rulers, and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what you should say. The Holy Spirit will tell you at that very moment what you must say.”
— Luke 12:11-12

Rather than resisting the move in our culture toward spirituality and digging our heals deeper into man-made religious rules and traditions, perhaps it is time we religious people seek to live into our own spiritual natures by connecting with the Spirit of God and learning to become more attentive to Holy Spirit’s Direction in every part of our lives.

Extended clips from Francis Chan on the Holy Spirit

Invitation to a Journey - Session 5: Creation Gifts

Invitation to a Journey

Session 5: Creation Gifts

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, you should prophesy in proportion to your faith. If your gift is service, devote yourself to serving. If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching.  If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging. The one giving should do it with no strings attached. The leader should lead with passion. The one showing mercy should be cheerful.

Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.  Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other.

Romans 12:3-10 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 5 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 5 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Resources for Session 5: Creation Gifts

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Jesus as Presence

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Jesus as Presence
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 6
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 15:4-5, Matthew 28:19-20

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)


Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John 15:4-5 (CEB)


Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Presence is a challenging word in our culture.  On one hand it seems simple enough.  When we were in school, the teacher called our name and we said “present” or “here.”  We are present by virtue of the fact that we are physically located in a particular place.   On the other hand, we have all been present in places or situations when we were physically there but our thoughts or feelings seemed a million miles away.  We’ve also likely been talking with someone only to realize that their mind is somewhere else and despite their physical proximity, they are not really present at all to the conversation.  Being fully present in a moment or with another person requires intentionality and paying attention.

In a spiritual sense, the word presence is even more complicated.  There is an element of mystery, uncertainty, and perhaps even fear involved with the idea of a spiritual presence.  Some describe feeling a “presence” in ghostly terms, like a chill up the spine.  Others find comfort in sensing the “presence” of a loved one who has passed away.  Any spiritual presence, particularly the presence of God, is impossible to fully describe or define. 

Even through all the mystery, Jesus promises to be present with us, to abide in us, so that we can produce the fruit of God’s love.  He also invites us to remain present with him in the same way he is present with us.  If we find it difficult sometimes to be fully present with another flesh and blood person, how can we abide in, remain in, or be fully present with Jesus?

Prayer is one of our primary means of connecting with or remaining present with Christ.  Esther DeWaal writes...

Absolute attention is prayer… If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place.  Something is given…

That “something” is nothing less than the grace of God and the gift of awareness that God is with us.  We need not live in a monastery or isolate ourselves from the world to pay closer attention to a God who is always near.  We only need to carve out those moments in the day where we intentionally turn our attention to God.

Just as with any other relationship, intentionality and paying attention is necessary to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  The question is not, “Where is God?”, but rather, “How is God inviting me to open my eyes and pay closer attention to Christ’s presence already with me?”

No matter how busy our lives may be, we can all learn to be more attentive to God’s presence in everything we see, everything we do, and in everyone we meet. 

What steps will you take this week to pay more attention to the presence of Jesus who is already with you, inviting you to be fully present with him?

 

 

Invitation to a Journey - Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

Invitation to a Journey

Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world. God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan 6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 4 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapters 3 & 4 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Resources for Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

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Jesus as Way

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Jesus as Way
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 5
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 13:33-14:7

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

John 14:5-6a (CEB)

Apologies that we do not have an audio recording of the sermon this week. Please enjoy the reflections below on Jesus as Way.

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John 14:6 is likely among the most quoted verses in the Bible.  There is only one problem.  It is rarely quoted in the context in which Jesus spoke these famous words, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Typically this verse is used as a way of bolstering Christian exceptionalism or exclusivity, often condemning those outside of Christianity to hell.  Interestingly enough, people are more willing to use this verse to condemn someone born and raised in another religion with minimal or even no access to the Christian gospel than they are to challenge those who call themselves “Christian” while living in a way very much opposed to the way of life Jesus taught and modeled for us. 

The truth is, Jesus did not have Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus or Atheists or Samaritans or even his own Jewish people in mind in this moment.  There is no indication in John’s presentation of the Last Supper (John 13—17) that anyone is concerned about the fires of hell or eternal punishment.  The disciples are not worried about eternity, they are worried about losing their friend and teacher right now.  They are grappling with the fear of the unknown as Jesus’ tries to prepare them for his own imminent death at the hands of the religious leaders and the state.  What will become of them when their leader is gone? 

Throughout these chapters, Jesus emphasizes the way of love and service.  It is in this way of life that his disciples must continue on.  As John would later write, “perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment” (1 John 4:18).  We must remember, Christianity did not even become a religion until well after Jesus’ death.  It is unlikely that Jesus, the disciples, Paul, or any other good Jew at that time would have threatened the whole world with the fear of eternal punishment if they did not convert to a new religion and subscribe to creeds and doctrines that would not be firmly established for another 200 to 300 years.

Jesus is not setting up a barrier between us and God.  Rather, he is reminding the disciples that through the way of life and love he has modeled for them, they have already seen and known the Father’s heart.  “No one comes to the Father except through me” is simply away of saying that except for Jesus, they would never have known the deep love and mercy of God and would have remained in fear.  Except for Jesus, or to put it another way, “if it were not for Jesus,” we would continue to live in fear.  We would continue to fight and scrape our way to the top through violence, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy and every other vice that turns us against one another in a desperate effort to protect ourselves and our own interests. 

But Jesus showed us another way.  We have nothing to fear from our enemies, not even death, because we know how much we are loved by God the Father and we are invited and called to live out the truth of that love in the way we give ourselves for the sake of others.  As the Mandalorian says, “This is the Way.”

 

 

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Jesus as Lord

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Jesus as Lord
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 4
2023 - A Lenten Journey
Luke 6:46-49; Matthew 7:21-23; John 13:12-17

 (based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)


Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Matthew 7:21-23 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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We don’t use words like “Lord” very often today, but the truth is that lords were pretty common in Jesus’ day and throughout much of history.  A lord is simply a master or ruler over a kingdom or even over a household.  In some contexts, lord was simply a title for a landowner.  Generally such a title implied having slaves or servants in some form.  Diana Butler Bass puts it this way:

In a world where millions were held in slavery  and millions of others lived in poverty and powerlessness at the bottom of a rigid social hierarchy, claiming Jesus as “Lord” announced one’s liberation from oppression.  “Jesus is Lord” made sense in an empire of slaves, as submitting to his lordship amounted to spiritual freedom, especially in the new community called the church where, apparently, female slaves held leadership positions and Roman social status was upended

Freeing Jesus, 120

Rome would have been perfectly fine with Christians claiming Jesus as “a” lord, as one among many.  There was always room for a new god or two in the roman pantheon.  The problem was that all other lords or gods must submit to “the” lord, “the son of god” who was Caesar himself.  Such titles were common in Jesus’ world, but they refereed only to the emperor who held absolute power and divine authority.  Any challenge to that fact was considered high treason.  This is why Jesus’ supposed title, “King of the Jews,” was written above the cross as a statement of his crime; threatening the sovereignty of Caesar. 

The point was that people could worship or serve whomever they wanted, so long as they maintained their place in the Roman hierarchy.  Paul’s declaration to the Galatians that there is no more slave nor free (Gal. 3:23), does not sit well in such a system.  Empires built on the backs of the poor, the oppressed and the enslaved cannot stand when those on the bottom begin to see themselves as free and worthy of equal treatment or justice. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we still have many “lords” in our lives today.  We do not live as free people who live into the divine image in which we were created.  Consider the things we spend most of our lives obsessing over: money, politics, health, appearance, social status, possessions, comfort, etc.  We are all “lords” of our own lives, “masters” of our own destinies, and we fight each other to get to or to remain near the top of the social pyramid.  In the absence of a single “Caesar” at the top, we spend our lives fighting for that coveted position of absolute power and prestige.

What would it mean today to truly say that Jesus is Lord? 

At the very least it should mean that all of those things which consume our time, our energy and our resources have no control over us.  We shout that our “freedom” is threatened, for example, when the opposing party takes control of the government, but if Jesus is Lord, our freedom is found in Christ, not in the capital.  If Jesus is Lord, nothing except Christ has power over us, and we have no right to lord power over others.

 

 

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