My husband Matt loves movies. Last I checked we owned over 1,000 dvd’s. If you don’t know, DVD’s are a disc that has a movie on it and it’s kind of like a CD… which if you don’t know what a DVD is then you definitely don’t know what a CD is. Either way, my husband organizes all of the DVD cases not in alphabetical order, or by genre, but by the color of the DVD case. He does this for me because I really love the look of it all together on a shelf and the way that one color feeds into the next. When we lived in Jacksonville, we came home one night to find that our apartment had been robbed. They took computers, instruments, and anything else they could find that seemed valuable at the time. They also cleared a very large bookcase of DVD’s before they left. 

I know, it sounds like a heartbreaking scene for someone like my husband who loves his movies so much.The good news, or great news even, was that my husband never keeps his DVD’s in the case. He keeps them in a large binder stored directly next to the DVD bookcase. This means that there was a point in time when the robbers went through every single DVD case to find absolutely nothing inside. I wonder if they gave up checking after they realized the first few were empty, or if they sat there in a pile of empty cases checking every last one. Either way, the DVD’s and the binder were safe at home and the cases have never been seen since.

There are certain spoken and unspoken rules about how things should be organized in our culture. Books, movies, and files are often organized alphabetically or by genre, and stories are often told chronologically in the order the events happened. John, and several writers from the Bible, played by different rules. Their culture certainly had priorities about how history should be preserved, but chronological order was not always of greatest importance. This Sunday, the verses that we study will jump from one festival to the next. This is because John organized his gospel by thematic events. However, this was not put together hastily or without thought. On the contrary, what we discover is a literary design that is incredibly complex and meticulously structured.

This Sunday we will be reading the second half of John chapter 10. We find Jesus in the festival of Hannakuh and the people are asking Jesus to explain who he is. The verses in the translation I’m using say: “Tell us plainly who you are”,,, but another translation could be “Stop annoying us and tell us who you are.” Jesus responds to the question by not only saying who He is, but who we are as his followers.

Some people do not take the straightforward answer well. Others are intrigued. We invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:00AM to discover more about who Jesus is, the themes John presents to us in the book of John, and where we fit in the narrative.

One of the challenging things about reading Scripture is trying to figure out the imagery employed from an ancient culture. As the saying goes, the bible was written for us, not to us. I’ll admit that there is not a lot in my life thatWe’ll be reading John 10:1-21 where Jesus gives a discourse that provides a contrast to the corrupted religious system that had just rejected the formerly blind man, and Messiah who went to find him.

The story is the closest thing to a parable that we find in John’s gospel, and it uses imagery that would have been familiar to the first hearers but which is almost totally foreign to us.

He describes a practice of shepherding where there was a common sheepfold used by multiple shepherds. This pen would likely be a circular stone walled enclosure with one gap which would be guarded to ensure the security of the sheep. The shepherds would be known by the gatekeeper, and their sheep would follow them by the sound of their unique call, or whistle, or a tune played on a flute.

This good and proper practice is contrasted with sheep rustlers who sneak over the fence to steal sheep – forcing them to go with them.

Then Jesus changes the metaphor, where HE is a gate for the sheep. This still stays within the shepherd mold as well. Shepherds would sometimes sleep in the gap of the enclosure, as the first line of defense against robbers or predators that might threaten the sheep. He would literally become a door to the pen.

He talks about motives – the motives of hired hands and the motives of a good and true shepherd.

All of this is meant to contrast the values and purpose of the kingdom of God over against a religious system. As you read this description by Jesus,what are the main characteristics of his relationship to his followers? In what ways can a religious system manifest the characteristics of the robbers Jesus described?

Jesus seems to be trying to encourage people like the formerly blind man that religion may reject them, but it doesn’t really matter. Following Jesus is where real life is found. But this begs the question…how do we KNOW we’re following Jesus and not a religious system? How can we discern what or who we’re following by the clues Jesus gives us in this story?

This is an important issue to consider. I’m looking forward to digging into this on Sunday – hope to see you there!

This Sunday we’ll be reading a familiar but challenging text in our study of John. We’ll encounter a man who was born blind whom Jesus healed – and the miracle of this man gaining his eyesight effectively blinds the religious leaders in the story. It’s another classic “gospel reversal” which we encounter frequently in John’s gospel. We’ll be reading Chapter 9:1-41.

This is honestly an entertaining passage – it reads like a Shakespearean comedy. There is witty dialogue, imbecilic folly, but also pathos and drama. It’s a great story with a powerful message.

The story begins with a stunning miracle performed by Jesus, as well as some insight as to the nature of suffering – but that part is really only the set-up the real point – the reaction from the religious elite.

As we read this passage, it’s easy to identify with the man healed from blindness. It’s the oft repeated theme of the powerful oppressing the weak, and it reveals the absurdity of obsessive rule-keeping. But as members of the church in 21st century America, we need to recognize in the folly of the religious leaders a cautionary tale about the symptoms of religious blindness.

In v14 we find out why the healing of this man is controversial at all – it took place on the Sabbath. No work was to be done on the Sabbath day – and according to the Talmud, kneading was a forbidden work – something Jesus did when squishing his spit together with dirt to make a paste of mud. An activity that required the use of three fingers stirred up an outrage that ended with one man being excommunicated from the hub of Jewish society, the synagogue.

We could wag our heads at these religious leaders and wonder how they could be so blind…but as the modern church, do we have similar blind spots? Can you think of any examples where the rules of what we might consider righteousness have become more important than people? Have you ever witnessed the church pushing the requirements of holiness at the expense of people?

As you think about it, why did John include this story in the good news about Jesus? What do you think his purpose is; what is he trying to reveal about the religious order of that day contrasted with the plan of God as it unfolded through Jesus?

How can we keep ourselves from succumbing to religious blindness? How would you rewrite the Pharisee’s story if they were truly able to see?

Can’t wait to cover this one…hope to see you Sunday!

DNA testing to discover our ancestry has been all the rage for the last several years. People have looked into their histories and found new family members or had surprising results that indicated they were not who they had always thought they were.

In the passage we’ll be reading this Sunday Jesus will be discussing family lineages, though not biological or genetic ones. We’ll be tackling John 8:31-59, the last installation of a very long conversation/argument that Jesus had with the leaders and the crowds while in Jerusalem.

As the discussion opens, what does Jesus point to as our source of true freedom? How does that compare to what most people think freedom is? The Israelites were outraged that Jesus would infer that they weren’t already free people (which is odd, considering that there were probably Roman soldiers standing guard, watching this increasingly argumentative crowd). They considered themselves part of the covenant people simply because they had the right last name and were part of the Jewish race. Yet Jesus equates freedom from sin with adoption into a family – we are freed from our bondage to a broken self will and elevated to the status of family members with God. In other words – being born as a descendant of the people of promise doesn’t automatically make a person part of the family – one must commit one’s self to Christ. How does this play out in our present day church environment? How can people make the mistake of thinking they are secure in God’s family when possibly they are not?

Jesus then makes a sharp delineation between families – indicating that those who are rejecting him and his teaching are showing off the family resemblance – only they’re revealing they’re part of the wrong family. How we respond to Jesus reveals our family traits. How will our lives reflect our response to Jesus?

In the last section, Jesus makes the profound statement “Before Abraham was, I AM.” – equating himself with God and inspiring the crowd to want to stone him on the spot. It’s an awesome thought to me that Abraham looked down the corridors of history in anticipation of Christ’s day and rejoiced…it reminds me that being part of a family with God has always been his design. God wants family, not drones of religion. How can we be inspired to live in a way that shows off the family resemblance? This will be a challenging yet encouraging study – I hope you can join us this Sunday!

A few weeks ago, I had a friend tell me a story about his elderly cousin that he helps to care for. His cousin lives about an hour away and usually has a list of things for him to work on when he stops by. Recently, she had a light bulb in her kitchen go out. Since she was unable to fix it on her own she had to wait for one of his visits to come and replace the light bulb. My friend went into his cousin’s kitchen and in the dark he could see silhouettes of pots and pans that had been piled up. It had been too dark to care for the space or do dishes since there were no windows. He went in with his ladder, unscrewed the old light bulb, and put in the new light bulb. Can you guess what happened after that?

As the the new lightbulb was put in, he saw rodents scatter everywhere. The room was filled with them and they scrambled quickly to hide back in the safety of the darkness. I gasped in terror when I heard this story while he merely chuckled. I guess he has come to expect this sort of thing.

I think if it were me I would want to unscrew the new lightbulb and back out of the room slowly. In a situation like this, I’d rather not know what is lurking in the shadows. Sometimes, when light exposes things we don’t want to see, there can be a tendency to flip the switch off and say, “I’d rather not know. I’m good with the way things were.” 

This Sunday we will be reading John chapter 8:12-30. The first verse will start with the revolutionary declaration that Jesus makes about himself. Jesus says that He is the light of the world and that anyone who follows him will no longer have to walk in darkness.

This confronts everyone who hears this statement with a choice. Do we choose to follow Jesus and follow his light, or are we good with the way things are? Do we want to live in darkness with dirty dishes? I mean yes, there may be rodents, but at least we can’t see them! 

Or do we want to follow Jesus and live in the light? Do we want the honest truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be? The gospel is regularly confronting us with this choice and it’s one that we cannot answer for other people. Each one of us must look at our own lives, examine our own feet, and decide which direction to take our next steps.

I’m looking forward to digging into this passage. As always, there is so much beneath the surface that will be fun to unpack and discover together at church this Sunday. Hope to see you there!

This Sunday we’ll be reading one of my favorite stories about Jesus. In it, we’ll see the Jesus I’ve put my whole trust in and the grace on which my hope is glued.

The problem is…most scholars don’t believe the verses we’ll be reading are from the original manuscript of John’s gospel. Worse…I believe them.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t count this story as accurate or true. It’s sort of complicated – but we’ll get into it more on Sunday.

We’ll be reading John 8:1-11 in our study of John, the story of the woman caught in adultery – or, as I prefer to call it, the case of spiritual malpractice.

As you read this story, there are some very poignant questions you want to keep in mind. First and foremost is: Where is the man and accusations against him? According to Deut 22:23-24, both parties in this scenario were to be put to death. We assume she was betrothed since death by stoning is only mentioned for engaged people in the Law. Why might the religious leaders not be interested in the man in this relationship?

If the woman were engaged, she lived in a culture where her husband had been picked for her by her father. Have you ever seen Fiddler on the Roof? Do you remember the daughters who had different ideas about marriage than Tevye? It’s a very reasonable possibility that this woman had a young man in her life that she had fallen in love with and they gave in to their desires. I think it’s really interesting that so many paintings and movies depict the woman of this story dressed in red and displaying the stereotypical attributes of promiscuity. I seriously doubt that was the case.

Why do you think the narrator points out that Jesus stooped to draw or write in the dust, but didn’t provide the details of what he drew or wrote? If what was drawn isn’t important, what significance can you imagine would be conveyed by that action?

Jesus’ answer is possibly one of the most quoted passages in Scripture, next to “judge not”. Usually, both are misapplied when used. If Jesus meant that a person had to be sinless in order to carry out the judgements of the Law, nobody would ever have been held accountable. It’s likely that he’s pointing out Deut 13:8-9 which commands the accuser to strike the first blow. He’s also saying something else – theses accusers need to look at their own hearts to determine if they’re in a position to rightly defend God’s righteousness this way. It’s sort of like: “If we’re gonna’ get this serious about defending God’s righteousness, we may need more stones than just for her.”

By saying this, Jesus brings to light the most heinous sin being committed that day. What were these men doing by leveraging God’s righteousness and the Law of Moses in order to get at Jesus? In what way were they using God’s word and their faith? How can we keep from doing the same thing in our own context? Where do we apply God’s truth, first and foremost?

The graceful words that Jesus wraps around this woman are beautiful to me. His final command, to “go and sin no more” has been puzzled over a lot. He said the same thing to the man he healed at the Pool of Bethesda after he had been busted by the religious leaders for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. In both cases where this phrase was used, the context is one where people are being abused by religious authorities. Since going forward and living a “sinless life” was, and is, completely impossible for humans in a fallen world – perhaps he meant “change the trajectory of your life because these guys are looking for a way to get me through you.” I certainly don’t know if that’s the right way to read it, but it sort of tracks.

Either way…that statement is placed at the very end of this story. How many steps can you discern that happened between Jesus’ first meeting this woman until that statement? Did he lead with a command about sin? When did he express grace and release her from condemnation, before or after this command about sin? What might we learn from that?

I’m really, really stoked about this study – I can’t wait to dig into the scriptures together! Hope to see you Sunday!

This Sunday we’ll be reading John 7:25-52 and we’ll be tracking the same themes we looked at last time: a misunderstood Jesus.

It’s not easy to find clarity in this life. Our world is generally a blurry place. There are so many things that want to influence us, but we see so little of the whole picture that it’s very difficult sometimes to make sense of life. That’s one of the things Jesus has come to do in introducing the kingdom of God – he provides a story from which we can start to make sense of the world around us.

In order to grasp that story though, we have to avoid some of the attitudes and reactions that many of the people in this passage had.

In v 25-29 the people draw a conclusion about Jesus based on the rabbinical teachings that Messiah would appear with no origin story. How does Jesus address this misunderstanding? What didn’t the people know? Does that imply anything to us about what we are sure we know about God and his ways?

In v 30-36, and 40-46 the leaders of Jerusalem want to arrest Jesus but the guards they sent come back stunned and empty handed. The leadership thought that they were in control of this situation, but clearly they were not. What do you fear losing control of most – and what can we learn about who is in control from this passage?

The people in power react to the growing support Jesus is gaining in Jerusalem in v47-52. What attitude jumps out at you from their statements? It’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when we start thinking more of ourselves than we should. In what ways can we as the church start to feel superior to others, and how can we counteract that tendency?

The key to clarity is found in the middle of the passage, in v37-38 where Jesus makes an invitation. It’s a powerful moment which we’ll describe in more detail on Sunday. He’s addressing a spiritual hope in Israel, water being a symbol for the end of exile… but it also points to a deep human need – a longing for fulfillment and purpose. Come and drink and then be the conduit by which others have their thirst quenched. How can drinking in Jesus’ words, example and mission be a source of satisfaction and purpose in our lives?

Have you ever watched talent competitions on TV, like American Idol, and been amazed at how unaware people can be of themselves? There are countless examples of contestants entering these types of competitions convinced that they have what it takes to win the show, only to be shocked when the judges say that they have no business even singing in the shower, let alone in front of people. It’s a harsh reality that some people have trouble facing. While others may be aware of their own lack of ability, there are certain people who are blindly confident in themselves, even when they shouldn’t be.

This Sunday, we’re going to be reading John 7:1-24 and we will be reading about several different scenarios of people whose confidence is misplaced in their own knowledge and idea of who Jesus should be. And while Jesus isn’t a cruel British judge on a panel, he is clear when people aren’t hitting the marks of what his mission is all about. Not only does Jesus confront the misunderstandings, he also continues his mission of exposing the truth of what is in people’s hearts.

Jesus’ brothers are also introduced in the gospel during these verses. They are mentioned in a few other gospels and even some of Paul’s writings for the early church. We can assume they were often around Jesus and we can also assume they weren’t followers (YET). Since they have a close connection to Jesus, they offer some familial advice about how to fix the problems Jesus is facing. I like to imagine them laying on a couch somewhere and interrupting important conversations to share their solutions. “You know what you should do Jesus…” 

While it will feel easy to judge the people interacting with Jesus in these verses, it’s important to remember that scripture is meant to be a mirror we hold up to ourselves. What parts of these interactions can we relate to? How often do we dictate, with misplaced confidence, the direction that we want Jesus to go? Where does humility fit within our approach to understanding Jesus?  Join us this Sunday at 10:00AM as we read through and discover the answers to these questions together.

Have you ever had a fair-weather friend? You know, someone who is happy to be your pal until it may cost them something or it is somehow inconvenient. Then they are nowhere to be found. Jesus had and still has his share of those types of friends, as we’ll see in the passage we’ll be exploring this Sunday – John 6:60-71.

Jesus has gone off the deep end in some people’s estimation, talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood – a clear violation of Old Testament law. Jesus was speaking figuratively…but even still, it was just too uncomfortable for many of his followers…..so they quit following.

Jesus didn’t soften what he said or chase everyone down and beg them to stay with him. Does that surprise you at all? What elements of the gospel disturb you or rub you wrong? When Jesus says we have to lose our life to find it…or demands that we take up a cross to follow him…or insists that we forgive people who mistreat us? What about where he tells someone to sell everything and follow him? We like to think about miracles and grace and Jesus loving the outsiders….but there is all this other stuff about eating his flesh and dying to self that sometimes makes us want to avoid Him.

So what do WE do in those instances? We may not ever admit to walking away…but do we shut out those hard claims of the gospel on our lives? Through a thousand little choices do we reclaim our lives from Jesus, or do we remain committed to His Gospel?

Peter’s response to Jesus is beyond wonderful to me.

“Where we gonna’ go?” What has the gospel brought to your life that you think you could replace through some other pursuit? How can we remind ourselves of what’s really important when we’re tempted to return to our old lives, piece by piece?

Peter said “we believe and we know you are the Holy One of God.” What do you see as the difference between believing and coming to know? What does this tell you about the nature of following Jesus?

It should prove to be a convicting yet encouraging exploration of the Word this Sunday – hope you can be there!

This Sunday Janelle and I will have a conversation which continues our study on the subject of unity in the Body of Christ. The above video from the Bible Project is specifically about justice, but it carries themes that are integral to our understanding of the basis for God’s intention for a united family of faith.

We’ll be looking at Paul’s challenge to the church in Galatians 3, specifically v1-3, 6-9 and 26-29. Consider why his words would encourage us to aspire to unity across the many variations of Christ’s church. I’m looking forward to exploring this text together – see you then! And don’t forget, we’re participating in a Unity Service with Pastors United of Bay County, this Sunday at 4pm at Sharron Sheffield park in Lynn Haven. I hope you can join us as we unite to praise our One God and Father of all!