The Bridge Community Church

2011-11-18T21:00:00.001-08:00

Farewell to the Rapture
(N.T. Wright, Bible Review, August 2001. Reproduced by permission of the author)

Little did Paul know how his colorful metaphors for Jesus’ second coming would be misunderstood two millennia later.

The American obsession with the second coming of Jesus — especially with distorted interpretations of it — continues unabated. Seen from my side of the Atlantic, the phenomenal success of the Left Behind books appears puzzling, even bizarre[1]. Few in the U.K. hold the belief on which the popular series of novels is based: that there will be a literal “rapture” in which believers will be snatched up to heaven, leaving empty cars crashing on freeways and kids coming home from school only to find that their parents have been taken to be with Jesus while they have been “left behind.” This pseudo-theological version of Home Alone has reportedly frightened many children into some kind of (distorted) faith.

This dramatic end-time scenario is based (wrongly, as we shall see) on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, where he writes: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first; then we, who are left alive, will be snatched up with them on clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

What on earth (or in heaven) did Paul mean?

It is Paul who should be credited with creating this scenario. Jesus himself, as I have argued in various books, never predicted such an event[2]. The gospel passages about “the Son of Man coming on the clouds” (Mark 13:26, 14:62, for example) are about Jesus’ vindication, his “coming” to heaven from earth. The parables about a returning king or master (for example, Luke 19:11-27) were originally about God returning to Jerusalem, not about Jesus returning to earth. This, Jesus seemed to believe, was an event within space-time history, not one that would end it forever.

The Ascension of Jesus and the Second Coming are nevertheless vital Christian doctrines[3], and I don’t deny that I believe some future event will result in the personal presence of Jesus within God’s new creation. This is taught throughout the New Testament outside the Gospels. But this event won’t in any way resemble the Left Behind account. Understanding what will happen requires a far more sophisticated cosmology than the one in which “heaven” is somewhere up there in our universe, rather than in a different dimension, a different space-time, altogether.

The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2).

Paul’s description of Jesus’ reappearance in 1 Thessalonians 4 is a brightly colored version of what he says in two other passages, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 and Philippians 3:20-21: At Jesus’ “coming” or “appearing,” those who are still alive will be “changed” or “transformed” so that their mortal bodies will become incorruptible, deathless. This is all that Paul intends to say in Thessalonians, but here he borrows imagery—from biblical and political sources—to enhance his message. Little did he know how his rich metaphors would be misunderstood two millennia later.

First, Paul echoes the story of Moses coming down the mountain with the Torah. The trumpet sounds, a loud voice is heard, and after a long wait Moses comes to see what’s been going on in his absence.

Second, he echoes Daniel 7, in which “the people of the saints of the Most High” (that is, the “one like a son of man”) are vindicated over their pagan enemy by being raised up to sit with God in glory. This metaphor, applied to Jesus in the Gospels, is now applied to Christians who are suffering persecution.

Third, Paul conjures up images of an emperor visiting a colony or province. The citizens go out to meet him in open country and then escort him into the city. Paul’s image of the people “meeting the Lord in the air” should be read with the assumption that the people will immediately turn around and lead the Lord back to the newly remade world.

Paul’s mixed metaphors of trumpets blowing and the living being snatched into heaven to meet the Lord are not to be understood as literal truth, as the Left Behind series suggests, but as a vivid and biblically allusive description of the great transformation of the present world of which he speaks elsewhere.

Paul’s misunderstood metaphors present a challenge for us: How can we reuse biblical imagery, including Paul’s, so as to clarify the truth, not distort it? And how can we do so, as he did, in such a way as to subvert the political imagery of the dominant and dehumanizing empires of our world? We might begin by asking, What view of the world is sustained, even legitimized, by the Left Behind ideology? How might it be confronted and subverted by genuinely biblical thinking? For a start, is not the Left Behind mentality in thrall to a dualistic view of reality that allows people to pollute God’s world on the grounds that it’s all going to be destroyed soon? Wouldn’t this be overturned if we recaptured Paul’s wholistic vision of God’s whole creation?

[1] Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Cambridge, UK: Tyndale House Publishing, 1996). Eight other titles have followed, all runaway bestsellers.

[2] See my Jesus and the Victory of God (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1996); the discussions in Jesus and the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N.T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, ed. Carey C. Newman (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999); and Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), chapters 13 and 14.

[3] Douglas Farrow, Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).

Divine Watchmaker or Nurturing Father?

2011-06-15T12:01:00.001-07:00

Holy Trinity Sunday
Psalm 8 wonders in awe at the magnificent creator and the largeness of his creation. Expectedly, the psalmist wonders about the motivation the Creator may have to love and care for humanity, such a small feature in the largeness of the cosmos. In this wonderment the purposes of God don’t get lost: God’s intention has been to place humanity over the rest of creation. Genesis tells us this in detail, and the resulting created order is “very good.” This created order is rightly a source of wonderment and puzzlement by humans in every generation. Over 200 years ago the analogy of the watch (and God the Divine Watchmaker) was used to describe our proper relationship with creation. When we find an insect on the sidewalk, instead of thinking of it as a product of chance we must think of it as a highly complex creation that reveals the skillful hand of its maker. As with all analogies, creation-as-watch became an insufficient way to describe the very complex relationship between God and humanity since it does not account for love. Paul writes that our relationship with each other is not unrelated to our relationship with our Creator, who is not a distant watchmaker who has walked away form a well-oiled machine, but rather remains close and nurtures with his presence the whole of creation. Since the fall of humanity into sin, God’s work has been one of restoration, supremely through the work of his son Jesus Christ and presently through the work of the Holy Spirit in his church. The Great Commission of Jesus to his disciples puts into sharp perspective the original Genesis charge over humanity to “have dominion” over the animal kingdom. “Make disciples as you go” reinstates our Christian calling to the rest of humanity. While it is clearly wrongheaded to think of creation as a fount of resources we can thoughtlessly exploit, it is also inadequate to think of ourselves as a community that must remain distant from the world due to fear of contamination or worse, uninterested in the pain of a suffering world. God is present in creation to nurture and restore it. Through the Holy Spirit, God is now present in the church to nurture and restore a suffering world, calling it to conversion. This is the mission of the Trinity. Our presence in the world, therefore, is nurturing and restorative in the power of the Holy Spirit. How could it possibly be otherwise?

El salmo 8 se maravilla del creador magnífico, y de la amplitud de su creación. Como era de esperarse, el salmista pausa y pregunta ¿Qué motivación podría tener el Creador para amar y cuidar de la humanidad fallida, una parte tan pequeña en la grandeza del cosmos? En todo este asombro, los propósitos de Dios no se pierden: la intención de Dios ha sido poner en primer lugar a la humanidad sobre el resto de la creación. Génesis nos dice esto en detalle, y el orden creado resultante es "muy bueno". Este orden de la creación ha sido justamente una fuente de asombro y perplejidad del ser humano en cada generación. Hace más de 200 años, la analogía del reloj (y Dios el relojero divino) fue utilizada para describir lo que debiera ser nuestra relación con la creación. Cuando nos encontramos con un insecto en la calle, en vez de pensar en él como un producto de la casualidad, debemos pensar en el como una creación muy compleja que revela la mano hábil de su hacedor. Al igual que con todas las analogías, la creación-como-reloj se convirtió en una forma insuficiente para describir la compleja relación entre Dios y la humanidad, ya que no toma en cuenta el amor. Pablo escribe que nuestra relación con los demás no esta desligada a nuestra relación con nuestro Creador, que no es un relojero distante que ha dejado sola la máquina bien engrasada, sino que permanece cerca y nutre con su presencia a toda la creación. Desde la caída de la humanidad en el pecado, la obra de Dios ha sido uno de restauración, supremamente a través del trabajo de su hijo Jesucristo y en la actualidad a través de la obra del Espíritu Santo en su iglesia. La Gran Comisión de Jesús a sus discípulos pone en aguda perspectiva el cargo original en Génesis sobre la humanidad para "tener dominio" sobre el reino animal. "Haced discípulos mientras andan" restablece nuestra vocación cristiana con el resto de la humanidad. Mientras que es claramente equivocado pensar en la creación como una fuente de recursos que pueden explotar sin pensar, también es insuficiente pensar en los cristianos mismos como una comunidad que debe mantenerse al margen del mundo por temor a la contaminación o peor, poco interesados en el dolor de un mundo que sufre. Dios está presente en la creación para nutrirla y restaurarla. A través del Espíritu Santo, Dios está presente en la iglesia para nutrir y restaurar a un mundo que sufre, llamándole a la conversión. Esta es la misión de la Trinidad. Nuestra presencia en el mundo, por lo tanto, nutre y restaura en el poder del Espíritu Santo. ¿Cómo podría ser de otra manera?

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom (circa 400 AD)

2011-04-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom (circa 400 AD)

Understanding the Theological Position of the Anglican Church

2011-03-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

St. John's Anglican Church in Vancouver, Canada has made available a video series that explains in detail the evangelical position and missional direction of the Anglican church in Canada and the United States, which is consistent with Anglicanism's reformation roots and biblical foundations.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2011-02-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

What the World Eats, Part I

Psalm 131

Isaiah 49:8-16a

I Corinthians 4:1-5

Matthew 6:24-34

People all over the world eat different varieties of food according to the region in the world in which they live. Urbanized areas, which more and more are becoming the predominant places for humans to live, eat a diet of packaged goods distinct from the natural foods found in rural and somewhat isolated communities. The list of “necessities” of most urban families regarding food and other sundries is long, and it keeps growing. These are some of the “basics” I found at my home today (two adults, two teenagers):

1 BBQ

2 types of milk

3 cars

4 cell phones

5 types of yoghurt

6 radios

7 types of painkillers

8 open Kleenex boxes

9 hair products

18 pillows

22 pairs of pants

34 rolls of toilet paper

Clearly, what my family considers basic is not at all what other families around the world would consider even necessary. And yet, we do not have an electric dishwasher or a microwave and some of our friends who visit us often wonder how we can live without such “basics.” A few weeks ago I had the fortune to buy a new car. Not new new, but new to me: four years old with almost 100,000 miles. I was elated for days. But soon elation gave way to worry: What is that rattling sound I hear? How much will a tune up cost for this car? Will the tires need to be replaced soon? What if a truck runs into me? While elation doesn’t last, worry, it seems, lasts forever. Francis C. Ellis tells about a businessman who wrote down what he called a “Worry Chart,” in which he kept a record of his worries. He discovered that 40 percent of them were about things that probably would never happen; 30 percent concerned past decisions that he could not now unmake; 12 percent dealt with other people’s criticism of him; and 10 percent were worries about his health. He concluded that only 8 percent of them were really legitimate. We hear about an earthquake far away and we worry. We see a neighbor’s car window smashed and we worry. We see prices rising and we worry. We worry that one day all these things we have taken for granted will not be available to us. But our worry goes deeper: we worry that without these things we will not be happy ever again. Jesus teaches that worry is a waste of time, completely incompatible with faith and utterly unchristian: “For the pagans run after these things…(Mt 6:32).” As Christians, the teachings of Jesus help us keep the right perspective when it comes to finding lasting happiness:

Our happiness is found in our Father in heaven. Our basic needs are met there with him; all other “basics” come afterward.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

The Third Way, by Dr. Walter Wink

2011-02-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

The Third Way
One of the most misunderstood passages in all of the Bible is Jesus' teaching about turning the other cheek. The passage runs this way: "You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. And if anyone takes you to court and sues you for your outer garment, give your undergarment as well. If one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two."
This passage has generally been understood by people as teaching non-resistance. Do not resist one who is evil has been taken to mean simply let them run all over you. Give up all concern for your own justice. If they hit you on one cheek, turn the other and let them batter you there too, which has been bad advice for battered women. As far as the soldier forcing you to take his pack an extra mile, well are you doing that voluntarily? It has become a platitude meaning extend yourself.
Jesus could not have meant those kinds of things. He resisted evil with every fiber of His being. There is not a single instance in which Jesus does not resist evil when He encounters it. The problem begins right there with the word resist. The Greek term is antistenai. Anti is familiar to us in English still, "against," "Anti"-Defamation League. Stenai means to stand. So, "stand against." Resist is not a mistranslation so much as an undertranslation. What has been overlooked is the degree to which antistenai is used in the Old Testament in the vast majority of cases as a technical term for warfare. To "stand against" refers to the marching of the two armies up against each other until they actually collide with one another and the battle ensues. That is called "taking a stand."
Ephesians 6:13 says, "Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand (antistenai) in that evil day and having done all to stand (stenai)."
The image there is not of a punch drunk boxer somehow managing to stay on his feet even though he is being pummeled by his adversary. It is to keep on fighting. Don't retreat. Don't give up. Don't turn your back and flee but stay in there and fight to the bitter end.
When Jesus says, "Do not resist one who is evil," there is something stronger than simply resist. It's do not resist violently. Jesus is indicating do not resist evil on its own terms. Don't let your opponent dictate the terms of your opposition. If I have a hoe and my opponent has a rifle, I am obviously going to have to get a rifle in order to fight on equal terms, but then my opponent gets a machine gun, so I have to get a machine gun. You have a spiral of violence that is unending.
Jesus is trying to break that spiral of violence. Don't resist one who is evil probably means something like, don't turn into the very thing you hate. Don't become what you oppose. The earliest translation of this is probably in a version of Romans 12 where Paul says, "Do not return evil for evil."
Jesus gives three examples of what He means by not returning evil for evil. The first of these is, "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." Imagine if I were your assailant and I were to strike a blow with my right fist at your face, which cheek would it land on? It would be the left. It is the wrong cheek in terms of the text we are looking at. Jesus says, "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek..." I could hit you on the right cheek if I used a left hook, but that would be impossible in Semitic society because the left hand was used only for unclean tasks. You couldn't even gesture with your left hand in public. The only way I could hit you on the right cheek would be with the back of the hand.
Now the back of the hand is not a blow intended to injure. It is a symbolic blow. It is intended to put you back where you belong. It is always from a position of power or superiority. The back of the hand was given by a master to a slave or by a husband to a wife or by a parent to a child or a Roman to a Jew in that period. What Jesus is saying is in effect, "When someone tries to humiliate you and put you down, back into your social location which is inferior to that person, and turn your other cheek."
Now in the process of turning in that direction, if you turned your head to the right, I could no longer backhand you. Your nose is now in the way. Furthermore, you can't backhand someone twice. It's like telling a joke a second time. If it doesn't work the first time, it has failed. By turning the other cheek, you are defiantly saying to the master, "I refuse to be humiliated by you any longer. I am a human being just like you. I am a child of God. You can't put me down even if you have me killed." This is clearly no way to avoid trouble. The master might have you flogged within an inch of your life, but he will never be able to assert that you have no dignity.
The second instance Jesus gives is, "If anyone takes you to court and sues you for your outer garment, give your undergarment as well." The situation here is dealing with collateral for a loan. If a person was trying to get a loan, normally they would use animals or land as collateral for the loan but the very poorest of the poor, according to Deuteronomy 24:10-13, could hock their outer garment. It was the long robe that they used to sleep in at night and used as an overcoat by day. The creditor had to return this garment every night but could come get it every morning and thus harass the debtor and hopefully get him to repay.
Jesus' audience is made up of debtors -- "If anyone takes you to court..." He is talking to the very people who know they are going to be dragged into court for indebtedness and they know also that the law is on the side of the wealthy. They are never going to win a case. So Jesus says to them, "Okay, you are not going to win the case. So take the law and with jujitsu-like finesse, throw it into a point of absurdity. When your creditor sues you for your outer garment, give your undergarment as well."
They didn't have underwear in those days. That meant taking off the only stitch of clothing you had left on you and standing nude, naked, in court. As the story of Jonah reminds us, nakedness was not only taboo in Israel. The shame of nakedness fell not on the person who was naked, but on the person who observed their nakedness. The creditor is being put in the position of being shamed by the nakedness of the debtor. Imagine the debtor leaving the courtroom, walking out in the street and all of his friends coming and seeing him in his all-togethers and saying, "What happened to you?"
He says, "That creditor has got all my clothes," and starts walking down to his house. People are coming out of bazaars and alleys, "What happened? What happened?" Everyone is talking about it and chattering and falling in behind him, fifty-hundred people marching down in this little demonstration toward his house. You can imagine it is going to be some time in that village before any creditor takes anybody else to court.
What Jesus is showing us in these two examples so far is that you don't have to wait for a utopian revolution to come along before you can start living humanly. You can begin living humanly now under the conditions of the old order. The kingdom of God is breaking into the myths of these people now, the moment they begin living the life of the future, the kingdom of God.
Jesus' third example is "If one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two." Now these packs weighed 65 to 85 pounds, not counting weapons. These soldiers had to move quickly to get to the borders where trouble had broken out. The military law made it permissible for a soldier to grab a civilian and force the civilian to carry the pack, but only one mile. There were mile markers on every Roman road. If -- and this is the part we have left out -- the civilian were forced to carry the pack more than one mile, the soldier was in infraction of military code, and military code was always more strictly enforced than civilian. So Jesus is saying, "All right. The next time the soldier forces you to carry his pack, cooperate. Carry it and then when you come to the mile marker, keep going."
The soldier suddenly finds himself in a position he has never been in before. He has always known before exactly what you would do. You would mutter and you would complain, but you would carry it. As soon as the mile marker came, you would drop it. Suddenly, this person is carrying the pack on. The soldier doesn't know why, but he also knows that he is in infraction of military law and if his centurion finds out about this, he is in deep trouble. Jesus is teaching these people how to take the initiative away from their oppressors and within the situation of that old order, find a new way of being.
It is interesting that Gandhi said, "Everyone in the world knows that Jesus and His teaching is non-violent, except Christians." What Jesus is articulating here is a way of living in the world without violence, a way of overcoming domination in all of its forms by using a way that will not create new forms of violence. In the past, we have thought we had only two choices, either resist evil or don't resist evil. Jesus seemed to be saying, "Don't resist evil," and, therefore, non-resistance seemed to be the only alternative. Be supine, submit, surrender, flee, give up. It seems as if Jesus were asking us to be a doormat for God, to give up all concern for our own justice as well as the justice of others. Now we see in this passage interpreted in a new light, Jesus is not calling on people to be non-resistant. He is calling on them to be non-violent. He is calling on them to resist, yes, but to resist in a way that is not injurious or harmful to the other person.
In just the last few year, non-violence has emerged in a way that no one ever dreamed it could emerge in this world. In 1989 alone, there were thirteen nations that underwent non-violent revolutions. All of them successful except one, China. That year 1.7 billion people were engaged in national non-violent revolutions. That is a third of humanity. If you throw in all of the other non-violent revolutions in all the other nations in this century, you get the astonishing figure of 3.34 billion people involved in non-violent revolutions. That is two-thirds of the human race. No one can ever again say that non-violence doesn't work. It has been working like crazy. It is time the Christian churches got involved in this revolution because what is happening in the world is that the world itself is discovering the truth of Jesus' teaching, and here we come in the church, bringing up the rear.
This is the most exciting time a person could imagine to be alive. The gospel has never been more relevant. The world has never been more ready.

The New Exodus

2011-01-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Matthew 3:13-17

Torah, the five books of Moses, has been the foundation for all belief and practice of the people of God for centuries. With time, the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures were compiled to become what Christians call today the Old Testament. We must never forget that the Hebrew Scriptures are “the bible Jesus read.” Jesus’ favorite book, according to the references to scripture noted in the gospels, was the book of Deuteronomy. During his temptation Jesus quoted this book three times from memory, preceded by the famous saying “It is written…” No serious Christian theologian or bible scholar would suggest the Hebrew Scriptures are unimportant or irrelevant to the followers of Jesus today.

The Torah was of utmost importance to Matthew. The narratives of Genesis and Exodus were assimilated by Matthew’s memory to such an extent that they show unmistakably as a sub narrative of his gospel. Joseph the dreamer, angelic visitations and announcements, the flight to Egypt and the unrepentant King ordering the killing of the infants are all themes common to Torah and Matthew. A writer of fiction would have gone farther and actually arrange his narrative to mirror step by step the old stories of Moses. But Matthew writes as a witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, so he serves the gospel story faithfully; the similarities to Torah show like recognizable scenery and background resonances, like the drum beat that keeps the parade in step.

When Matthew’s story moves south (from Nazareth in “Galilee of the gentiles” to the waters of the south Jordan River in Judah) we perk up like eager children: “Tell us another Torah story, Matthew!” And Matthew does. For after the “Son” (the name Son was commonly used by the Hebrews as a metonym for the People of God) went to Egypt, and the murderous King persecuted the Son, Moses stood before the waters of the Red Sea and Yahweh opened a way for the Son to pass through. The man in the water is John the Baptist, calling people not to Baptism but to repentance. Baptism was the outer sign of the inner attitude of the heart. People who seek the outer sign without the inner repentance are chastised. God is not like the pagan gods that must be impressed with our performance; The God of Israel does not bargain with human merit. But Jesus’ inner attitude shines through with such power that the necessity for repentance and the outer sign of baptism are ridiculously unnecessary. After a brief dialogue by the water, John acquiesces and glory breaks upon the water. Through this episode recorded by Matthew we recognize what actually happened hundreds of years ago by the Red Sea: The leader of the people, staff in hand, humbly waited for Yahweh to go before the Son, that is to say, his people. Jesus, resplendent with God’s glory, goes through the waters inaugurating a New Exodus for his people. And Jesus, the Son of God, is Yahweh parting the waters: He is making a way for you and for me to become the Son, his people, and follow him. What could be more glorious than that?

The Threat of Glory

2011-01-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

First Sunday after the Epiphany, Matthew 2:1-12

The magi were merely supporting characters in the drama that resulted in Herod’s death, the so called King of the Jews. The band of scholars comes into the scene knocking on doors and peeking through windows, looking for the newborn King of the Jews. They followed a star, which by anyone’s standards was …shall we say, pretty generic guidance. But their obedience to that sense or feeling or fleeting idea lead them to a more secure and definite certainty: The Word of God. It is the Word of God that will be obeyed as the ultimate authority over God’s people always. The episode turns a tad ironic when Herod, the King of the Jews, becomes the actual announcer of the Word of God to the seekers. You see, to begin with, King Herod was hardly a Jew. This Roman appointee had just enough Jewish ancestry to allow the Jews to think they had a king “of their own.” Furthermore, the message he relates to the magi clearly places him on subordinate grounds in relation to this new king that has been born according to the will of God and as announced by the prophets. Herod’s announcement is equivalent to having a president announce his own coup d’état.

Herod as a preacher of the truth is an odd, odd picture. After the assassination of Ceasar and subsequent civil war Herod enjoyed the goodwill of Antony. When the Parthians invaded Syria and Palestine and set the Hasmonean Antigonus on the throne of Judea (40-37 BC) the Roman senate, advised by Antony and Octavian, gave Herod the title “King of the Jews”. It took him three years of fighting to make his title effective, but when he had done so he governed Judea for thirty three years as a loyal “friend and ally” of Rome (See The New Bible Dictionary: Herod). But both Cleopatra and the Hasmonean family kept him on his toes. He eventually got rid of all his Hasmonean detractors one by one through cunning murder. He is also famous for having executed many of his children on grounds of subversion and treason. He eventually got rid of all his detractors one by one through cunning murder. He is also famous for having executed many of his children on grounds of subversion and treason. The story told by Matthew portrays well the duplicitous personality of Herod’s suspicious mind.

Matthew's narrative unapologetically presents Herod under the light of Torah memories of Egypt's pharaoh in the book of Exodus. His crazy slaughter of the infants (Mt. 2:16) is consistent with the historical evidence of what we know about Herod elsewhere. Even though his life was marked by military vigor, able administration, lavish building projects and keen diplomacy, Herod will be forever remembered as a paranoid, insecure murderer. But the Magi, following a different authority, don’t seem bothered by Herod’s reputation. Did they realize how offensive a mention of the newborn King of the Jews would be to him? In this encounter the tables are turned and the scheming ruler becomes naïve while the seekers become truly wise: “Bethlehem, Judea” is the brief Word. Herod was over 70 years old. And from this side of history we know that this encounter was one last call for repentance and faith. God, in the unfolding drama of salvation, takes time to invite Herod to his table of grace. Herod, evidently, refused. He died only months later (Mt 2:19).

There are times when our best laid plans intersect with the perfect will of God. Contrary to popular misinformation, these occasions are rarely a cloud-and-rainbow experience. They are more customarily disorienting, terrifying moments when the threat of glory humbles our pride and pronounces a verdict that expects our confession and repentance. The will of God requires that my vane plans be displaced, that I admit wrongdoing; that I repent. Jesus said: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters (Mt 12:30).” May we find the grace to yield our lives to Christ when the threat of glory approaches.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

What Else Are We Missing?

2011-01-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Psalm 147

Ephesians 1:3-14

John 1:1-18

Even though this date came to mark the highest point of the calendar used by most people around the world today, the birth of Jesus the Christ came in almost absolute obscurity. More people noticed the lavish displays of power of the Roman Herod and the religious pomp of Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest. Even Barabbas the revolutionary was more popular in his adult life than Jesus; people clamored for the revolutionary while they condemned the rabbi. We may conclude that, given the overwhelming public disdain for Jesus, this Rabbi and his teachings are best left behind as either an odd historical spark or a quaint heartwarming/heartbreaking legend. None of us serious people should be expected to take anytime looking at Jesus. Under the present circumstances of global warming, financial crisis and social injustice, paying attention to Jesus, one may think, is a complete waste of time.

The Gospel of John begins with the opposite attitude: The Word Made Flesh is absolutely central to creation, life and purpose. In John’s writing the superlatives abound: Everything was made through him/Nothing was made without him. And yet a sobering minor note is played in this bombastic poetic symphony: “…the world didn’t notice (John 1:9, The Message).” Should people living 2000 years after the birth, ministry, crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus be expected to care for a history that didn’t even make the charts on its own day?

Popularity charts are important nowadays. A YouTube video gone viral can lead to fame and fortune. Greyson Chance, the kid that performed Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi at his elementary school recital became a YouTube sensation (over 35 million views). He later performed at Times Square as part of the New Years Eve Concert and was televised on NBC to millions of viewers. Popularity can be an indicator of amazing talent and extraordinary skill…sometimes. While the greatest artists of our time go ignored by YouTube, people can’t seem to stop watching Charlie biting his brother’s finger (over 265 million views!).

Many people have wondered out loud whether Jesus would be recognized as the Messiah, the Son of God if he came to live among us today. My answer: without a hit video of himself walking on water he probably wouldn’t have a chance. But if humanity missed the truly most important visitor in history, it is fitting to ask: what else are we missing? How many things come by us and past us every day without our noticing them? Is it possible that, because of hurry and distraction, we are ignoring God’s presence and God’s work in our lives?

Joshua Bell, a violin prodigy that performed at Carnegie Hall at the age of 18 and has performed with every major orchestra in the world performed an experiment one cold January morning in 2007. In a busy subway station in Washington DC, standing next to a garbage can, Joshua Bell performed for 45 minutes. Only hours before he had played to a sold out audience with tickets costing over $100.00 each. The result of the experiment was predictable and sobering: only a handful of people paid attention to the master violinist and only one person actually recognized him, out of a crowd of over 1,000 people.

Every Sunday around the world, people gather in mostly small groups, many in the obscurity of chapels and cold warehouses, to pay attention and listen to the symphony that Christ brings about throughout history into the world as announced by the evangelist: “In the beginning was The Word…” In the hustle and bustle of life, will you stop and listen?

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Christmas Eve Service December 24, 6pm

2010-12-18T22:43:00.000-08:00

This is a family event. A potluck dinner will follow. All are welcome. For a map to the TLC Journey High School click here.

Christmas Concert December 18, 6pm

2010-12-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

This is a family event. Admission is free. Refreshments will be served after the concert. For a map to the TLC Journey High School , click here.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus

2010-12-12T00:25:00.000-08:00

The Cestello Annunciation

By Andrew Hudgins, in the book, Saints and Strangers

The angel has already said, Be not afraid.

He’s said, The power of the Most High

will darken you. Her eyes are downcast and half closed.

And there’s a long pause -a pause here of forever-

as the angel crowds her. She backs away,

her left side pressed against the picture frame.

He kneels. He’s come in all unearthly innocence

to tell her of glory -not knowing, not remembering

how terrible it is. And Botticelli

gives her eternity to turn, look out the doorway, where

on a far hill floats a castle, and halfway across

the river toward it juts a bridge, not completed-

and neither is the touch, angel to virgin,

both her hands held up, both elegant, one raised

as if to say stop, while the other hand, the right one,

reaches toward his; and, as it does, it parts her blue robe

and reveals the concealed red of her inner garment

to the red tiles of the floor and the red folds

of the angel’s robe. But her whole body pulls away.

Only her head, already haloed, bows,

acquiescing. And though she will, she’s not yet said,

Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord,

as Botticelli, in his great pity,

lets her refuse, accept, refuse, and think again.

Printed respectfully for teaching purposes only without express permission.

The Return of the Son of Man

2010-11-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

I bumped into an acquaintance of mine who is very serious about his observance of Jewish culture and tradition. We ended up talking about the bible and I asked if the resurrection is an important teaching in his tradition. “Not really,” he said, to my utter surprise. “Our teachings emphasize our life here and our necessity to prepare the world for the Messiah.” I admitted that I envied his cosmology. As far as American Christianity is concerned, it seems to be very much focused on individual salvation in the world to come and not sufficiently concerned with issues of injustice, pollution and other contemporary challenges to the way we live now. The people of God awaited for centuries the Anointed One of God, that is to say the God-sponsored heir to the throne of David. But they had suffered demise. In their exile in Babylon, the prophets’ faithful teachings of God’s promises had sparked a renewed sense of hope in the promised messiah. Even in the first pages of the bible, the book of Genesis recounts the judgment of God to the devil and promises one who will bruise the snake’s head (Gen 3:5), will bless all the families of the earth (Gen 12:3) and will rule over Judah be obeyed by the nations (Gen 49:8-10). To these the prophets witnessed, and with repeated announcements they reminded the people how the descendant of David will bring shalom to the earth (Is 9:6-7), will endure suffering and bear the people’s sins (Is 53:5-6), rule over Israel (Micah 5:2) and become the savior (Jeremiah 23:5-6). The people of God, through the Books of Moses and the subsequent teachings of the prophets, had learn to anticipate the coming of the messiah with a messiah-worthy attitude: wisely and faithfully preparing the world for his arrival. The Olivet Discourse (found in Matthew 24, 25 but also in Mark 13 and Luke 21) is a section of Jesus’ teachings concerning the work and attitude his followers should have on the face of the coming of the Son of Man. The constant warnings “keep watch (24:42),” “be ready (24:44),” “who then is the faithful and wise servant…(24:45)” give the hearer the emphasis needed to understand and interpret the parables. This watchfulness is faithful and wise: It is focused on duty and integrity rather than on opportunism and dishonesty. The servant who is only obedient when the master is around will be found out and punished. However, the faithful and wise servant does not need to keep watching the gate; by watching his conduct daily he will be found faithful and the master will reward him upon his return. The daily routines can become our only focus. Comfort and prosperity can lead us to irresponsible and abusive behaviors. But for the follower of Jesus there are no days off. Every day and at every moment we receive enough grace to remain faithful if we are vigilant and wise, preparing the world for the coming of the King.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Christ the King

2010-11-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 46
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the devil appeared to him with a single objective: to dissuade him from following the Father’s will and to become self-reliant in his kingdom work (Luke 4:1-13). The temptation of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry makes a telling parallel to the taunting and mocking Jesus receives now (Luke 23:35-43) at the very end of is ministry, while he awaits in supreme obedience the will of the Father at the cross. The leaders mock him with familiar words: “If he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One...” “If you are the King of the Jews…” and again, “save yourself…” The devil may change his appearance, but his tactics never change. If the devil was relentless against Jesus, why should we hope it will be different with us? h In his mocking, the first thief expresses a perspective that seemed in tune with the public opinion of the day. To treat Jesus with contempt and dismiss his teachings and his work of many months among the people granted this thief obviously needed shelter within the popular opinion of the Jewish and roman authorities. It is misguided to think that the sometimes unbearable pressure we suffer from our peers will be mitigated by the number of our birthdays or the level of our suffering. If the first thief was a slave of public opinion until the end of his days, why do we think it may be different with us? h The second thief fits better with the long series of people who, over the length of Jesus’ ministry, repented at his feet. The repentant thief first chastises the contempt, cynicism and irresponsibility of the first thief. Consequently, he expresses respect for the name of God and for Jesus, his blameless herald. He also expresses responsibility for his own guilt and his expectation of the kingdom of God. h We may be occasionally surprised by our feelings of anger and indignation at the sight of some evil in the world. It is harder to determine, however, whether this evil resides inside us or outside. Self righteous people insist the problem resides outside, and routinely point out the guilty parties, the social imperfections and the long to-do lists that other people are responsible for. The opposite to that is the neurotic. Neurotic people think everything is their fault, and their guilt increases at the sight of things unfinished, people hurt and laws broken. Neurotics live with long lists of all the things they must accomplish to make the world right. That list and their guilt are both endless. But the evangelist Luke gives us the repentant thief so that we will not be misinformed about the two common errors of self-righteousness and neurosis. The thief is concerned with the wrong done outside of him, but also equally aware of the wrong living inside of him. His sentence of crucifixion, however severe, was the lawful punishment for his life of crime. He is not one to take refuge behind long lists of social imperfections or political corruption. On the contrary, he is quick to recognize his condition and admit his guilt with courage before the crowd and before Jesus. His words, remarkable in their brilliance and forever worthy of remembrance evade the common religious mistake of talking about Jesus. He finally turns to Jesus in surrender and says: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Do Not Be Deceived

2010-11-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19

Commentary on Luke 21:5-19.

Wendell Berry once wrote: “all man made things are temporary.” But most architecture in the world obeys a different principle; that which suggests that immortality can be achieved through buildings, be it a pyramid, a mausoleum or the tallest tower in the world. But towers fall, and people die. These facts, however, do not seem to dampen grandiose architectural aspirations and obscene building projects in Las Vegas or Abu-Dhabi. Judging by the evidence at hand, human pride and the quest for immortality continue to keep architects and building crews busy. This is nothing new: the contemporaries of Jesus dealt with the Roman Empire's domination and, in particular, King Herod's architectural developments, such as the temple on Mount Zion. According to today's gospel lesson, while the disciples payed the predictable tribute to the grandiose gift of Herod to the Jews (what historians have called the “second temple”), Jesus reminds them: “The days will come when this temple, and many things you see now will be destroyed, and not one stone will be left upon another.” The original temple had replaced the humble tent or tabernacle which Moses used to provide a center and a place for the people of God to worship the God of Abraham. Generations later, King David grew ashamed that, while he had a palace to live in, God “slept in a tent (1 Chronicles 17).” But David’s heart proved to be in the right place. In obedience to God, he restrained himself and waited for his son Solomon to build God a temple, which turned out to be a gleaming marvel in his time. Consequently, that temple was destroyed in the 6th century BC due to Israel’s pride and disobedience during the Babylonian exile, when the land of Israel became a free for all and neighboring nations pillaged and destroyed it. With the rise of the Roman Empire came a time of religious tolerance that allowed nations such as Israel to practice religion in the way that they chose without much interference from the occupying forces. Herod, King of Judea, dedicated his life to building projects that would secure his name in the pantheon of Great Men. Among many of his grand architectural achievements, the second temple on mount Zion became his masterpiece: a substantially larger and more lavish version of Solomon’s original. For the disciples of Jesus, the news that this temple will be destroyed, may have been nearly impossible to comprehend: This marvel sitting atop mount Zion which centers our religion and national pride, which has been under construction since our childhood, will be destroyed? Where will our identity come from? Where will our religious center be? Added to this, the news of the end of the world, and specifically the end of their life of peace as followers of Jesus in exchange for a life of persecution, was sure to give them something to think about. The particular shock the disciples must have felt was more than a mere religious or philosophical disagreement. The Galileans must have dealt with their source of identity as it related to the temple. All their lives had been lived in reference to the most significant building project in their lifetimes. Travelers to and form Jerusalem received the same set of instructions: Make sure you see the progress on the temple project/how is the temple looking so far. Up to 50 years may have passed from beginning to completion of this magnificent structure. When the temple falls (or the two towers, or the Pentagon, or the White House), who are we? In which direction will we look when we are lost and afraid?

Jesus clearly taught his disciples; “I am the way, the truth and the life.” In our exposure to the person of Jesus Christ as presented to us through the pages of the bible, a certain curiosity may be aroused. Church attendance and bible study may enhance this desire to know more. But it is only through confession of sins, repentance and surrender to God’s will that we can come to see Jesus as the true and only center that gives meaning to our lives and everything else around us. In him we can come to experience acceptance, trust and endurance through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is then, and only then, that we find the person and the message of Jesus completely trustworthy, our imperfect everyday existence under his perfect will, and our present suffering an occasion for faithful witness to his love. According to the second volume of Luke’s work (the book of the Acts of the Apostles) the disciples’ acceptance, trust and endurance came weeks after Jesus’ death, and only through the empowering of the Holy Spirit the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Jesus, through his death and resurrection, embraced the difficulties and pain in his life and promised he would do the same with ours. Our pain and suffering is neither final nor beyond God’s loving embrace.

King Herod and his followers had spent a lifetime building layer upon layer of a foundation of a building that was destined for destruction. When Jesus tells his disciples the truth about the future of the temple we can think it mean spirited or perverse. But what kind of a person would Jesus be if, knowing the future, wouldn't tell us?

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Children of the Resurrection, Luke 20:27-40

2010-11-06T22:33:00.001-07:00

Lectionary Readings

Haggai 1:15b–2:9
Psalm 145
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38

Jesus in Jerusalem encounters a series of tests to his authority. Rulers and teachers of the law wonder out loud: What’s your understanding of the prophet John the Baptist? What’s your view on the Temple? What about Rome? At the heart of the present conversation the issue seems to be: “Let’s see if Jesus has Moses right.” But Jesus will not waste time with arguments: it is clear that, while Sadducees and Pharisees excelled in theological hairsplitting, Jesus is interested in obedience to God in the face of the coming kingdom. Moses is Judaism’s undisputed authority. Except, by the metonymic “Moses” people spoke of such things as (1) the Torah (the five books of Moses), (2) the commandments therein, or (3) the tradition and consequent myriad of rules and regulations associated with the Law of Moses (akin to the Pharisees). The Sadducees were a Jewish religious sect that, according to Jewish historian Flavious Josephus, “persuade only the well-to-do and have no popular following. But the Pharisees have the masses as allies (Antiquities 13.10.6).” Sadducees spoke of Moses in fundamentalist terms referring to “what we read literally in the Torah,” forsaking any hint of pharisaic predilection for rabbinic tradition. The resurrection, the Sadducees claimed, had been a theological innovation foreign to the original “Moses.” The response Jesus gives to their hypothetical scenario proves that (1) the resurrection is consistent with the Torah, and that (2) they are ignorant of the “Moses” they so proudly speak. Speech is the best window into the soul. Men and women reveal themselves by the way they speak daily. E-mail, facebook and other technological innovations have allowed us to “post” our speech, that is to say, our character, personality and inner life, for everyone to see, indelibly, for ever. In this encounter, the Sadducees display their patriarchal narrow interpretation of Moses, and of themselves. It is evident in their speech that their place in society allowed them to be in contempt of the oppressed: they speak of the fictitious woman in patriarchal terms, crassly describing the “woman” as little more than a baby machine whose main role is to provide a progeny by which the male’s name and reputation will go on after his death. The rudeness of their big joke about the seven brothers going through her bedroom and finding her “useless” is beyond their perception. They are blind to their own condescension and vulgarity. Everyone laughs at their joke either because they are also blinded by privilege and power or feel afraid to blow the whistle at the party. And so it is with human pride: the two places for the human self without God are either to oppress others in a parasitical fashion in order to sickly crawl towards death or to endure oppression silently for fear of upsetting the apple cart and possibly get singled-out/ostracized/shamed/fired/hurt. Jesus, however, speaks (even about fictional characters in a story!) with utmost dignity and love. The woman and the seven brothers of the story become in Jesus’ speech “those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age…like angels, children of God, children of the resurrection (v35, 36).” Jesus teaches “Moses” by laying out an eschatological perspective, “one that takes into account the presently unfolding purpose of God, and that generates in the present both faithful interpretation and faithful response (Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke, p 718).” The followers of Jesus are now described as those who are mindful of God’s final purpose for the cosmos and act in consistency with that end. Those who cling to pride will also cling foolishly to temporal things. Laws, marriage, even theology (perhaps especially theology!) are all destined to end; they will one day be unnecessary. Our participation now in the inbreaking kingdom helps us see beyond these and other temporal institutions and brings us closer to the heart of God. Following the prophet Haggai, our eyes are fixed on God’s ”House of Splendor/House of Peace (Haggai 2:1-9)” and our mouths will “speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever (Psalm 145:21).” Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Seeking the Kingdom, Luke 19:1-10

2010-11-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

During the summer of 1988 I worked as a carpenter helper. I began knowing absolutely nothing and thanks to the patience and generosity of my boss I did not get killed in the process. With time, I eventually picked up the basic skills of the trade: “this is how you hold the hammer,” “this is how you cut a 2X4,” “this is what you do when there is nothing to do.” But my development was not all a rose garden. My boss, a fastidiously precise German carpenter would very seldom let any imperfections go without a lecture or “learning opportunity” for me. I found this pattern thoroughly humiliating, since in Mexico, frank and direct communication of negative evaluations is consistently used as a tool for exclusion and shame. We were working on the same property where my boss lived so we would always go to his kitchen or backyard for lunch. His wife, a humble, generous lady was the epitome of hospitality. It was very perplexing to have some of his sermons followed by coffee and scones freshly baked by his lovely wife. The stern corrective at the worksite contradicted their hospitality minutes later. I used to wonder: does he like me or hate me? Only months later would I realized that his concern for me had two sides, and both of them were love.

Zacchaeus, a short, decidedly wealthy and also marginalized character in Jewish society in the first century, was also an influential player in the roman-occupied region of Palestine. It would be therefore incorrect to speak of him as an outcast in the same sense as the blind healed (Luke 18:35-43) or the ten lepers healed (Luke 17:11-19). But nonetheless, a certain marked deference and exclusion was applied to him by his neighbors. In our society, IRS agents keep their identity secret, probation officers live outside the county where they work and psychiatrists avoid contact with their patients in social settings for basically the same reason.

His status as “ruler among tax collectors” sets him apart from others who, through their physical misfortune, were kept outside the circles of Jewish social privilege. His status was that of a wealthy, influential outsider, perhaps like the rich ruler in chapter 18. While Jesus is at table with him, Zacchaeus is quick to list the things he already does that are consistent with Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God: I give generously to the poor; I do not seek unlawful earnings. While many translations choose the future form of the verb to provide a context where repentance and conversion are emphasized, in the original Greek the verbs in Zaccheaus’ speech are in the present tense: “I give…’ “I pay back…” It is worthy of note that the grumbling of the critical crowd does not take any of this into account (In Luke 7:1-9 people are eager to see a Centurion helped by Jesus because of his benefaction to the Jews). Luke emphasizes the actions of Zacchaeus in terms of readiness for the kingdom of God (“good news to the poor…” Luke 4:18-19). While many were far off, or even against the kingdom of God, this man was actively seeking the kingdom Jesus had been proclaiming.

Jesus surprises Zacchaeus with his own hospitality. Out of all the people he could have dined with, the prize goes to the short man on the tree. But Jesus is not simply going to lunch. Middle Eastern culture will not let us separate the man form his “house” which was a veritable institution in Jesus’ society. Sons, daughters, servants, wives and concubines were members of the Greek and Roman households. The reputation of a man was linked to that of his household. It stands to reason that the marginalization of the head of the household would trickle down to the rest of the household members as well. Marginalization can result from willful rejection, thoughtless miscommunication, unfounded xenophobia or lazy misinformation. But the message of Jesus (which is light on innovation, firmly established on the message of Justice found in the Torah, the prophets and John the Baptist himself) is about a complete restoration of the cosmos, going beyond individual wellbeing, encompassing the healing of social wounds and beyond.

It would be misguided to pay too much attention to Zaccheaus and his actions, other than to point out that he had responded effectively to the message of John the Baptist and later the message of the kingdom of God through Jesus. The central feature of this story is the all-encompassing salvation Jesus proclaims and offers. Salvation throughout this gospel embraces life in the present, restoring the integrity of human life, revitalizing human communities, setting the cosmos in order, and commissioning the community of God’s people to put God’s grace into practice among themselves and toward ever-widening circles of others. [1] Jesus proclaims salvation to the entire household, thus making the message of the kingdom clear: Salvation will not only restore the outsider seeking the kingdom and turn him into an "friend of God (a son of Abraham)" but will also encircle the entire household in social restoration, breaking down the barriers that previously separated people. Anything short of this couldn’t be rightly called “salvation.”

[1] Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke, pp 24-25.

What I've Done

2010-10-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Linkin Park, an alternative rock band who came to quick fame at the beginning of the century, sang regarding a world that, in spite of the positive and uplifting mood surrounding many in their generation, was filled with loneliness, heartache and other pains of excess. In October of 2000 the young group entered the scene with a message that “not everything is right in the world.” With their albums “Hybrid Theory,” "Meteora," and "Minutes to Midnight," they denounced the hidden pain of their generation and cried in longing for a better future. It is for the public to determine whether the group’s hope has, with the years, turned to just more “hype.”

The Christian message is a message of hope without hype. This means that every visible sign of progress and success in religion must be met with a healthy degree of skepticism. The prophets of Hebrew history provide us with years of stern warnings against backsliding, desperate shouting denouncing greed and injustice and regular martyrdom of those who challenge the status quo. People enjoying the gifts of power and privilege have been the least prone to heed the prophets’ warnings. Why would anyone dare to disagree, criticize or denounce a system that provides them with comfort, security and authority? Toeing the party line is often akin to the ageless art of survival.

The prophet Joel, on the face of great pain from Babylon reminds the people of God that “it isn’t over until it’s over.” Bombastic language runs through his proclamation from beginning to end: Abundant rain, an overflow of wealth at harvest, “never again” and “I will pour out my Spirit on all people (Joel 2:23-32).” Within the context of the people suffering Babylonian exile and the hope of returning to their beloved and familiar promised land, the prophet Joel draws out a hope so expansive that it is hard to miss and impossible to believe. This expansive vision is also true and necessary, especially for those living in hopeless situations. The danger when living through grief and despair is not hoping too much but hoping too little. The only hope that is adequate for the Christian is consistent with the Great God of Hope.

The psalmist addresses the God of Hope by describing, in worship and gratitude, his identity and activity. “You, you, you,” is the ongoing litany of the psalmist, delineating his infinite power and might and enumerating the many gifts and benefits God has already bestowed on his people. Restraint is not a concern of neither the author nor the believing community who sings it. This psalm’s hope, like the vision of Joel, flows to the ends of the earth. But the largeness of this vision is often exchanged for a smaller, ,ore contained alternative: a vision of justice and peace that benefits me. Once my family and I have been spared from destruction, provided for our hunger, set on a path of prosperity and enjoyed the power and privilege we crave, that will be enough justice, than you.

It is therefore odd to find Jesus teaching about piety while contrasting two characters that are so alike in their positions of privilege. The Pharisee and the tax collector are more like each other than they are different. They both, under Roman occupation, enjoy the benefits of the empire: Safe passage, a dignified employment, enhanced social standing, a steady income, respect and admiration from peers, and a solid future in their careers. It is true that the Pharisee and other Jewish religious leaders had no respect for tax collectors, but that is beside the point. Why, I wonder, would Jesus contrast people who socially and politically are so alike? What kind of qualities is Jesus wishing to contrast for us that will give us a better understanding regarding what the follower of Jesus is and is not? While their social condition is not as dissimilar as we might think (they both belonged to a very small first century “middle class”) their prayers are ostensibly different. The Pharisee, in contrast not with the tax collector but with the entire Hebrew tradition, prays oddly in the first person, highlighting his smug social status and morality as evidence of his piety. “Look just how well I’ve turned out, God!” His list of accomplishments clearly betrays his white collar status and his distinguished social class. In sharp contrast, the tax collector prays simply: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Any first century hearer would have immediately recognized the authorship of that prayer. The book of Daniel comes to mind, which at that time was enjoying a resurgence in popularity due to a renewed interest in eschatological speculation. Two opinions prevailed in those days regarding the future: one was that God had rescued and relocated his people back to the Promised Land, and the new temple built under Roman occupation was a sign of how God was prospering his plan among his people. The visible signs of progress and the wealth of the elite were evidence, for some, of God’s redemption. But an alternate viewpoint was also popular: that of the skeptics who wondered out loud whether the size of this “redemption” was consistent with the Great God of Hope. It seemed that "justice" had reached only a select few, and “the redeemed” was a rather small, very select group compared to the all encompassing vision of the prophet Joel. According to N. T. Wright this new reality under Roman occupation was also exile, living under the curse of disobedience and that a more extensive redemption was coming. Daniel's prayer of confession (Daniel 9) resonates in the brief line of the tax collector’s prayer:

9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:

"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 "Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

"Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

15 "Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

17 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."

The prayer of confession is subversive against the evil within, the sinful nature of Paul’s letters. The prayer of confession is also the antidote to a life stuck in the mire of sin and self preoccupation. Our spiritual fathers and mothers agreed, even before the teachings of Jesus (as evidenced in the prayer of Daniel) that confession of sin is a healthy discipline for the God-seeker. Many churches around the world would not even dream of having a worship service that does not include a prayer of confession of sins. And we too, practicing a daily time of meditation and bible reading, will do well to begin with a prayer of confession before God. This simple discipline of telling God “what I’ve done” is sure to turn religious hype into true hope.

Always Pray and Never Give Up (Luke 18:1-8)

2010-10-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

The Parable of the Persistent Widow (The Message)
¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

⁴"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Commentary on the Lectionary Readings

Jeremiah 31:27-34

Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8

I am not a very good swimmer. As a matter of fact, I cannot call myself a swimmer at all since I can hardly stay afloat for a swimming pool length or two before I am completely out of breath. Back in 1988 when I learned to swim, my instructor pointed out a few (ok, many) bad habits that, in her opinion, I needed to work out if I wanted to become a real swimmer. Instead, I continued to swim harder as if to try and “muscle” my way out of my problem. Almost 22 years later I continue to fall into the same bad habits. I guess, while kicking as hard as I could, I gave up learning. According to Jesus, his followers are people who don’t ever give up: their prayers are constant, insistent and expectant before God always.

On his way to Jerusalem, and by this Luke clearly means “on his way to the cross,” Jesus takes time to paint a picture of what a faithful follower looks like. Gratitude, as we saw in the previous chapter, is a bold characteristic of the Christian. And now Jesus explains that a second characteristic of the believer is an insistent confidence in and a bold openness to the benefaction of God. If you are like me, you are already working on a moral list of qualifications for the REAL follower of Jesus (#1: Filled with bold gratitude. #2: Insistent and expectant in prayer. Puff…) But as we look at this story, remembering chapter 17 and the ten lepers will help us avoid this moralizing trap. While the widow, a most vulnerable character in Jewish life, must act alone in her search for vindication and justice before a corrupt fat cat of a judge, the children of God will be vindicated because our “judge” is good and our motives clean: we do not seek the gift –we (like the one thankful leper) seek the giver when we pray (Hallowed be Your Name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done…) When we come to Jesus on our own merit we quickly give up. But when we come to Jesus seeking only Jesus, this is the type of person we will become: Filled with gratitude, persistent in prayer, seeking justice tirelessly

Paul’s mentoring to Timothy rings with fatherly confidence and courage: “Always be sober, endure suffering…” But the “sour grapes” of Jeremiah are much too real for many of us who think that “God grew tired of us.” Even when we may become a target of unjust actions within an unjust world, God promises to grant us swift justice and vindication. Jeremiah’s vision began to realize in the day of Pentecost when God’s Holy Spirit was poured into the hearts of the believers who did not grow tired and prayed to God incessantly. For God does not grow tired of us, and neither will we grow tired of seeking justice, coming again and again in prayer and worship to our God.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Shouting with Gratitude: Luke 17:11-19

2010-10-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

1 11-13It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance but raised their voices, calling out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

14-16Taking a good look at them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."

They went, and while still on their way, became clean. One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus' feet, so grateful. He couldn't thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan.

17-19Jesus said, "Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?" Then he said to him, "Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you." (The Message)

Commentary on Lectionary Readings

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Psalm 66
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

My wife and I had been married for a number of months by this time, but we still lived with the uncertainty of my legal status in the country. Things got complicated since my entry into the country had been unorthodox and the process of immigration anything but smooth. From movie-like interrogations to medical examinations, the wait and the uncertainty had us thin with exhaustion. But that glorious day came when, within the morning mail I received what in Canada is known as a Certificate of Landed Immigrant Status, a long page, grainy with bureaucratic importance, with colors like those found in thousand-dollar bills. My emotions took a wild ride that morning. I remember first feeling a little numb, like this was not actually happening at all. I felt like when you retell a dream you've had the night before. But then the tangibility of the document brought me back to earth and I realized that it was done –that the process had ended and I was now allowed to stay in

Canada

and pursue my new life there. It never occurred to me that, out of gratitude, I should go back to the government office and shower the clerk with kisses. Neither did I feel moved to write a formal letter of Thank You to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism in Ottawa. What I felt instead was an enormous debt of gratitude to God, whom after many months had granted me my prayer: to stay in a country not my own.

Gratitude is a rather elusive concept. At Christmastime our parents make us feel guilty when they consider we are ungrateful while opening presents. Soldiers shame us into gratitude when we question our country’s motives for aggression. We may even feel inadequate ourselves when our only response to someone's kind act is suspicion rather than gladness and thanksgiving. It is no surprise that many people are confused about gratitude. Gratitude is distinct from guilt, shame, joy, contentment or relief. But mystery lingers: why do so few people experience gratitude while others, faced with the same circumstances, do not? Ten lepers, burdened with years of marginalization, considered unsuitable for good company due to their illness and their ethnicity (Samaritans!), approached Jesus while on his way to Jerusalem and begged for mercy the way some homeless person may “hit” tourists for money. Jesus sends them to the priest for a formal “check up.” The ten were healed along the way. But only one (and behold, a pagan foreigner!) returned to Jesus shouting with gratitude. Was the command to see the priest considered a brush-off and met with an off-camera curse? Did Jesus realize that the most compassionate priest in Jerusalem would have had a hard time seeing these ten, and was likely to send them back to their own temple (Mt. Gerizim) with their own people (the Samaritans)? Was Jesus not aware of the institutionalized racism and injustice of his day? Jeremiah, used to living between cultures, reminds us of the struggles immigrants face, and calls the exiles to respond with patience, industry, confidence and magnanimosity while waiting on God for their deliverance. Paul in his letter to Timothy writes regarding the Christian’s unquestionable loyalty to Christ even on the face of Caesar's "salvation," the Roman Empire’s mantra known as Pax Romana. And Luke in his narrative gives us the picture of the common Christian: an outsider healed and saved by Jesus; a bold, even boisterous follower exuding gratitude. Jesus calls this man "an unworthy outsider who has come back to me gratefully to give God glory." Some of us may become ill, suffer exilic displacement, experience the dislocation of sin and the systemic oppression of those in power. Eventually we may become aware of our need, see Jesus at a distance, run to him for mercy, obey his command and even receive his healing love. But Jesus goes farther, deeper yet. Salvation comes only when the leper recognizes the giver in the gift. There is no priest (Samaritan or Jewish), place (Mount Gerizim or Zion) or man (King Herod or King Caesar) we can run to for this kind of salvation. But when we experience this love, this salvation in Jesus, it is impossible not to run back shouting with gratitude to give him glory.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Forgive

2010-10-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Lamentations 3:19-26
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:8-14
Luke 17:1-10

The movie titled “The Book of Eli” delivers apocalyptic images, missionary zeal and a brand of violence that could easily be considered terrorism. The journey of a single man to fulfill his last mission appears strange and suicidal. But the protagonist, Eli, soon gains the love and trust of the viewer, in spite of his decidedly reckless and crazy “courage.” Eli’s mission is to protect and preserve a book, which eventually turns out to be the Christian Bible. While the movie is in my opinion unremarkable and even forgettable, the impact it had on me as a viewer bothered me a bit, since I found myself condoning Eli’s violence for the sake of his mission. I wondered if I would have condoned Eli’s actions if he had been protecting a copy of the Koran (the Holy Scriptures of the Muslim Faith) instead. To my great shame, it almost seemed like I was quite ready to condone terrorism, as long as it was Christian! The idea that faith and terrorism can be reconciled is of course utterly absurd. The Christian faith is particularly bent on non violence as vividly demonstrated by the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But today’s psalm shows that the Judeo-Christian tradition is not above reproach. Reprehensible words and actions have sprinkled our history for centuries. An outsider might validly ask how such a statement (Psalm 137) could have survived within “the book of God’s love.” One reason is that the bible is not a product of modern moralizing or eulogizing redactors. No. Every human emotion, as raw as it may be, is represented and dealt with within its pages. Texts of retribution and vengeance, Judeo-Christian or not, are interpreted by Christians under the light of the life and teachings of our Lord Jesus himself. And Luke chapter 17 provides a timely contrast to the vindictiveness of Eli and Psalm 137 alike: While the psalm advocates vengeful venting as a valid way to grieve, Jesus warns that those who know better should do better, lest we make a little one stumble (in their faith and their wellbeing). According to Jesus, the little ones are not “dashed” but protected, and the sharp stones of psalm 137 are now a millstone hung around my neck as a desirable substitute to the real punishment that awaits my self-centeredness and irresponsibility. This contrast is also present elsewhere in Luke: the older brother who ignores his younger brother whom “was lost but is now found (Luke 15:32)” or the rich man who “didn’t see” Lazarus the beggar (Luke 16:19-21). Jesus, after proclaiming God's New Economy now lays out the way for us to participate in it: a program for reconciliation that includes deep concern/confrontation and readiness to forgive/forgiveness and restoration. This program requires vigilance and responsibility. Forgiveness, therefore, is not a moral duty, but rather a way in which we participate in God's New Economy of his kingdom as proclaimed through the Lord Jesus. To forgive is to imitate God and experience the outpouring of grace that saved us. The disciples cry out: “we need more faith!” But faith, as pointed out by Jesus, is not an Odyssey of heroic proportions that earns entitlement. No. Faith is steady obedience coupled with humility. It is rather foolish to think that anyone, by his madly heroic “faith,” can put God in his debt. A love that cannot be repaid can only be called Amazing Grace.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

The Rich Man or Lazarus?

2010-09-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Psalm 91
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

Let your eyes feast on the wonderfully lyrical and descriptive depiction of today’s parable by the renowned Gustave Doré. In a masterful use of asymmetry, poetic geography and landscape, Dore gives us depth, distance, heights and depths with an abyss in between. The rich man of parabolic fame sits on high, celebrated by an adoring audience. Wine and food are supersized to overemphasized the gluttony and the obvious misappropriation of earthly goods. Moving down we find a lower state of being where dogs and beggars subsist off the thoughtless excess of the rich (loaves of flat bread were used as serviettes by Roman Aristocracy and “recycled” by being tossed over balconies). But Doré goes the extra mile: he gives us the towering figure of a slave who is dressed so well one wonders what the rich man might be wearing in comparison. The division is unmistakable and the contrast between the two scenes is stark. But then I stumble for a moment. The dogs look more like hunting hounds, the pedigreed pets of a prince and the beggar shows no “sores.” Could it be that the author is bent on romanticizing poverty? Poverty, I am always reminded, is not pretty.

But the parable moves on and so does the picture before us. The scene changes to a different sort of verticality: Lazarus is now “above,” in heaven, feasting in Abraham’s company while the rich man suffers punishment “below.” Theologian Joel Green reminds us that the rich man, despite his suffering, has not learned humility. His speech is in the imperative (send!) and twice he assumes poor Lazarus to be his errand boy. The separation that fed his greed now rises against him: The towering servant is the angel at the gates of the Garden of Eden.

But there is more: the parable comes closer to home. While our age trains us from birth to make idols of the rich and famous, Paul writes to Timothy saying: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Tim 6:22).” And thus the third interpretation of the parable emerges: While the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is distant in the future (eschatological), the poor are here now. Jesus and Dore present them at the forefront, as to not allow us to pass them by, to ignore them. But the pharisees, the lovers of money were ignoring them. Their attention was fixed on wealth and social posturing. “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31).” It is indeed necessary to rip out half the bible (Moses and the Prophets, the Hebraic Torah and Nevi'im) to obscure God’s preferential love for the poor. “Command (the rich),” Paul continues, “ to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share (v.23).” Why not live this way, imitating God in His love for the poor? Rock singer Bono said once: "God is with us if we are with them." Remember the promise of God for those who love His Name: “With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation (Psalm 91:16)."

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

God or Money?

2010-09-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah 8:18–9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

Times of distress are known to bring out the worst in people. Indeed, feelings and opinions that remain hidden find their way to the surface (often in surprisingly frank and even angry ways) during times of trouble. The psalms are x-rays of the human soul, and like today, they occasionally shock us with their frankness. It is evident in the biblical landscape that the summarizing prayer (v. 9) however faint or pious does not go ignored by God. God does help and rescue and save his own “for his name’s sake.” But this deliverance, expected and prayed for by the people of God, is not always timely in our eyes. Jeremiah facing a cold and miserable winter of poverty and hunger exclaims (8:20-21): "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me.”

Jesus himself faced extreme pain and prayed for deliverance in Gethsemane (Luke 22:42). But in contrast to the xenophobia of psalm 79, a distinct preference for the outsider marked his ministry. Paul’s first letter to Timothy actually commands Timothy to pray “for all people (2:1),” citing God’s desire “for everyone to be saved (2:4)” and restates the universal extent of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (2:6).” But most importantly, Paul the apostle is himself an envoy to the gentiles, the foreign nations the psalmist had so harshly berated. There is much to be said about the graceful unfolding of God’s plan for humanity that cannot be discussed in these short lines. Jesus proclaimed a kingdom that had a particular economy that shook the common religious assumptions of first century Judaism, but it was not in itself a new program. Moses and the prophets had already announced this new economy of the kingdom by spelling out the ethics of justice, mercy and forgiveness. The pharisaic response of shock and surprise was exposed as willful ignorance and hypocrisy. It is not surprising that all these insights find a spearhead in Jesus’ teaching about money. Serving God or serving money (the deity known also as Mammon) are mutually exclusive enterprises. But Jesus’ nugget of wisdom (Luke 16:13) comes amply illustrated by the preceding two parables: the parable of the Lost Son and the parable of the Smart Manager:

Both squander in loose living
Both encounter a crisis
Both long for home
Both find a way back, even though their honesty is doubtful

Jesus does not condemn the rehearsed piety of the lost son or the shady honesty of the smart manager, for they both are among those who return to God’s economy of forgiveness in imperfect ways. While we are required to abandon our worship of “god money” completely, we are not required by God to be perfect. Faith requires that we trust imperfectly in the perfect will of God.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Family Camp 2010, Forestville CA

2010-09-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

9/11

2010-09-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Television has become, so to speak, the background radiation of the social and intellectual universe, the all-but-imperceptible residue of the electronic big bang of a century past, so familiar and so thoroughly integrated with American culture that we no longer hear its faint hissing in the background or see the flickering gray light. This, in turn, means that its epistemology goes largely unnoticed. And the peek-a-boo world it has constructed around us no longer seems strange.
There is no more disturbing consequence of the electronic and graphic revolution than this: that the world as given to us through television seems natural, not bizarre. For the loss of the sense of the strange is a sign of adjustment, and the extent to which we have adjusted is a measure of the extent to which we have been changed. Our culture's adjustment to the epistemology of television is by now all but complete; we have so thoroughly accepted its definitions of truth, knowledge and reality that irrelevance seems filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane. And if some of our institutions seem not to fit the template of the times, why it is they, and not the template, that seem to us disordered and strange...
...Television, in other words, is transforming our culture into one vast arena for show business. It is entirely possible, of course, that in the end we shall find it delightful and decide we like it just fine. That is exactly what Aldous Huxley feared was coming fifty years ago.
(Neil Postman, Entertaining Ourselves to Death, pp. 79-80.)

Jesus replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it. I don't want Isaiah's forecast repeated all over again: Your ears are open but you don't hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don't see a thing. The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won't have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won't have to look, so they won't have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.
(Gospel of Matthew 13:10-12, The Message Translation)

Clay

2010-08-31T11:36:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

The word disciple in today’s readings is pivotal to our understanding of the kingdom of God proclaimed, inaugurated and introduced by Jesus. Previously, salvation had been understood as a matter of pedigree or ethnic history: you were born into the family of Abraham, the people of God. But today’s teaching shows Jesus actually trivializing family relations: We must “hate” family to truly be a disciple. This is a term that defines the people of God not in terms of pedigree but rather in terms of personal commitment. The “great crowd” now includes the crew of outcasts predicted in Mary’s Song (Luke 1:51-53) and in the Nazareth’s Sermon (Luke 4: 16-21): they include the woman healed from an affliction of 18 years, the man healed from dropsy, ex-prostitutes, the poor and others. To choose this company, as we learned from previous banquet scenes, is social suicide: outcasts are those who offered no benefit for social advancement. Jesus turns to them and says: “…any of you who doesn’t give up everything cannot be my disciple.” An open invitation, yes, but a tall order also. Who can pay such a high cost? A disciple, therefore, prefers the outcast over family, friends and other potentially advantageous relations. A disciple is one who participates in the present, yet often invisible, radically economy of grace of the kingdom of God. Secondarily, a disciple is one that must count the cost of discipleship. To venture into an unattainable building project can lead to social humiliation (looming large in Palestinian social economies), and to go to war without a numerical certainty for success will clearly result in pain and calamity. Our obedient response to God’s invitation in Jesus is serious and urgent, but also expectedly thoughtful. A pharisaic compliance has already been ruled out by Jesus as hypocritical and self-serving. It is rather our willingness to participate in God’s economy of grace that Jesus sets before us that will mark our discipleship (Philemon). Will we continue living in a social economy of exploitation and self advancement? Or will we partake in the already ongoing Great Supper of the Kingdom, where the outcasts are invited and even dragged in (Luke 14:13, 23)? Let us return to the psalmist, lest we make the pharisaic mistake of becoming self important: a child of God is “knitted together, formed and fashioned” by God, “fearfully and wonderfully made.” But without God, Jeremiah’s clay is just that: clay. A disciple has the potential of clay. Will we live according to God’s will or be lumped together and recycled? God’s invitation bells: “If you repent I will relent.” Therefore, let us join the psalmist in his prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).”

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Video Credits

Invite the Poor

2010-08-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Psalm 81:1, 10-16

Old Testament Jeremiah 2:4-13

New Testament Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Gospel Luke 14:1, 7-14

“Open your mouth and I will fill it,” says God (Psalm 81:10). What a bold and utterly overwhelming image: God, the one who brought you out of Egypt, inviting you to dinner! But the invitation is not met with grateful attendance. On the contrary, the prophet Jeremiah demands to know: “ "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? (Jeremiah 2:5)” Not showing up to God’s banquet is something that will not go ignored. How could anyone turn down such an offer?

Jesus is himself invited to dinner and notices competition, vanity and entitlement among the guests. He is quick to tell a story that yawns with sermonic morality. But the clarifying comments to follow both sharpen Jesus’ remarks and inform us profoundly on the meaning of discipleship. “invite the poor,” Jesus commands simply. “The Church’s love for the poor...is a part of her constant tradition,” reads the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II was fond of speaking regarding the church’s “option or love of preference for the poor,” echoing thoughts of Latin American theologians. But let’s be clear: The church does not have a “preference for the poor” because this is an avenue to vindicate those who, through systemic injustice, have been marginalized. No. Jesus commands us to invite the poor, “those who cannot repay you” because this is the only way in which we might begin to understand God’s love for us. Without this laboratory of hospitality, this internship of compassion, God’s mercy is simply inaccessible to us.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

This Unstoppable Kingdom

2010-08-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

Psalm 71;1-16 (17-24)

Old Testament Jeremiah 1:4-10

New Testament Hebrews 12:18-29

Gospel Luke 13:10-29

Women, the young, the elderly and the sick have been long considered inferior, incomplete or underdeveloped. Their perceived lack of potential, intelligence or fortitude stereotypes them as less than “the measure of all things.” When racism gets added to the mix, minority groups get added to “those whom WE must take care of.” This condescension is only disturbing when we are the ones condescended to. But when we join in the lie of superiority, this condescension is virtually invisible. The psalm writer is an elderly person seeking God while in desperate need and faithful hope. At the end of his days, the life to come seems the only hope within his grasp. Meanwhile, young Jeremiah cries hopeless at the task God sets before him. “I am only a child” he whimpers. But God will have none of it: “’...I am with you and will rescue you’ declares the Lord.” The letter to the Hebrews warns: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” But not everyone responds in worship, adoration and thanksgiving. Jesus is the entire brilliance of God as he teaches and heals on the Sabbath day, proclaiming the kingdom that “cannot be shaken.” But the synagogue ruler responds indignant to this ever-spreading kingdom of God in Jesus. It is hard to determine exactly what part of the kingdom reality this man is indignant about: could it be the threat against his authority as a “man-in-charge”? Could it be the threat of a new interpretation of the law that convicts him of hypocrisy? Or could it be this woman Jesus called out and touched, making her social invisibility impossible and now threatening? Jesus, in a social reversal, declares the kingdom through the eyes of a common farmer, who albeit inadvertently, brought in a voracious, invasive species to his garden through a nearly invisible seed. How could he possibly keep it under control now? In a year it will be everywhere. Birds will be chirping in mockery, nesting in it. Jesus also takes us to the kitchen to see the kingdom through the eyes of a woman (heaven forbid!) who mixes yeast into the flour. You don’t expect she could get the yeast out now, do you? It’s too late. This invisible ingredient will soon start growing and growing. And so it is with God’s kingdom, my dear synagogue ruler. Once this seed is in the garden, this yeast mixed in the dough, this woman healed and “loosed,” how can you possibly hold back the tide? It is too late. This kingdom is simply unstoppable.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Peace on Earth?

2010-08-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

Psalm

80:1-2, 8-19

Old Testament

Isaiah 5:1-7

New Testament

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Gospel

Luke 12:49-56

The message of Christ has been characterized by love and peace. Jesus is the man who chides violence and advocates obedience to God rather than revolution. So it is odd to hear Jesus characterizing his ministry as one of division and not of peace. How can this episode be consistent with the rest of the gospel message? Psalm 80 goes back to pre-exilic days, when Assyria, a superpower in those days, pushed his way around the northern regions of Palestine. The displacement of people had already resulted in the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh being refugees in the south, namely Jerusalem. And the worship service in their honor is no pity party: It is (1) a song of grief for the vine now hurt and vulnerable, (2) a prayer for restoration (not of fortunes but of relationship with God), and (3) a re-orientation (this is not bad luck, but rather God’s rebuke v.16). In one word, life with God is less like a picnic and more like a grueling marathon where, through suffering, we become athletes. As some coaches are known to say, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

The vine, that relentless biblical image of the people of God, is also in Isaiah, who lived in the same pre-exilic period. This vine, which used to be cultivated by God, is nothing but sour grapes. Injustice and disobedience is its disappointing harvest. Like an out-of-shape runner who plummets to the ground, defeated.

The walk (marathon!) of faith is riddled with pain. No wonder so many avoid it. To take a stand for righteousness is risky at best, and many have already lost their freedom or even their lives for “sticking their necks out.” Hebrews 11 is a long historical litany of those who have done this and were “destitute, persecuted and mistreated –the world was not worthy of them (11:37-38).” Jesus himself is the suffering servant summa cum laude. Where do we get the idea that following Jesus is an easy, all-pleasurable experience? The truth is revealed: some move forward while some refuse to move. A spouse is willing to fight for her marriage and the other spouse is not. A brother wants to go, following Jesus, and the other wants to stay. Division. What are we to do? “Consider (Jesus) who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:3).”

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

To Be Rich Toward God Part II

2010-08-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

Psalm

Old Testament

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

New Testament

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Gospel

Luke 12:32-40

This week’s readings are all foundational to the forming and ever-reforming Christian mind. Dr. Martin Luther King, the night before he was assassinated, spoke with fiery faith of his fearless determination to continue on his struggle for human rights in the USA. Others have spoken with similar zeal. What should we make of such unusual behavior? The alternatives we have are few. One is to think of such people as unstable or even mentally ill. Another is for us to accept that faith is possible, even when such language is foreign to us.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews explains that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.“ But contrary to the modern misrepresentation of faith as “a leap in the dark” the bible turns our attention to, among others, Abraham who by faith “received his son from the death.” Elsewhere through the message of the prophet Isaiah, God calls his people: “come, let us reason together (Is 1:18).” Our created intelligence is not an insult to God.

Jesus honors people’s intelligence with his teaching, nurturing their faith. And as he reasons with the crowd, a household narrative emerges (Lk 12:41-48): Jesus is the Lord who leaves for a wedding feast and returns to find his servants at their posts, attentive. The Lord rewards them and personally serves them. This is, of course, shocking in its unlikelihood. But we get it: when we trust Jesus we can look forward to The Wedding Supper of the Lamb. The second household narrative is less shocking but more convicting: the slave who knowingly rescinds his responsibilities (of course, says the first-century, middle eastern crowd) will be slashed. The third narrative reminds the hearers of the beating servants deserve when they “forget” their duties. How often do bosses act kindly and go easy on those who “don't remember.” Corporal punishment, however distasteful may sound to our modern ears, was not at all dissonant to Jesus’ contemporaries. It was obvious even to the disciples (who want to make sure the message is also for them): This journey of faith is serious business, with serious consequences. But the first narrative, with the Lord serving the lowly, now that is crazy good news, and so like Luke to tell us about it. It does makes sense to live by faith, to give to the poor and thus make treasure in heaven. Only thus will we see “the salvation of God (psalm 50:23).” Pastor Alejandro Sotres

To Be Rich Toward God

2010-08-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Psalm
49

Old Testament
Hosea 11:1-11

New Testament
Colossians 3:1-11

Gospel
Luke 12:13-21

Peace and prosperity, the beloved Shalom of the Hebrews, is in Hosea a vanishing blessing. This is associated with the people of God’s inability to “see”: “but they did not realize that it was I who healed them (Hosea 11:3).” The apostle Paul is more specific regarding this inability to understand: It is rather a whole way of life that must be “put to death” and a new way of life that must be “put on.” There is no actual difference between Hosea and Paul. Both recognize the tremendous difficulty that the people of God face. All of us feel the pressure from our peers, society and ourselves to trust our strength, our career, our self determination or our pedigree rather than wait on God. My anxiety is due to my need to be admired as significant and extraordinary now. In the face of this tremendous pressure, who can trust God?

Jesus has already taught substantially about wealth in the Gospel of Luke. The wealthy thus far have been characterized as “fools,” that is, those who live in absurd ignorance to God’s graceful initiatives. And now a man has the audacity to ask (demand?) that Jesus should rubber stamp his decision to divide his inheritance with his brother. His arrogance, assuming compliance and ignoring the need for sound advice already set him in parallel to the prodigal son (Luke 15:12). Jesus has a one word to describe and to judge him: “greed.” The text that follows provides the editorial interpretation to this terse indictment: A man is blessed by a bountiful harvest, but what he does in response to this is what Jesus calls greed. First, he fails to recognize that the harvest has been a gracious allowance of God to his people. Second, he engages in pathetic self talk, instead of the expected acts of thanksgiving and worship. Third, the rich man behaves “without understanding (psalm 49:20)” by acting without regard for the community at large. In short, this man fails to realize that “God has healed him” and that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Luke 12:34).”

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Friend at Midnight

2010-07-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Psalm

Old Testament
Hosea 1:2-10

New Testament
Colossians 2:6-14

Gospel
Luke 11:1-13

“I will listen to what God the Lord will say…” reads the psalm (82:8) in a distinct show of personal responsibility while in the midst of congregational worship. This trend is consistent in the book of psalms: while there is no room in the community of faith for detached individualism, personal responsibility before God is necessary. We are confronted repeatedly: but, will we listen? The psalm ends with the result of careful listening: “righteousness goes before him…(v.13)” Another confrontation is common in the psalms: Will our listening result in faithful obedience?

The prophet Hosea becomes a living rebuke to the people who have neither listened to God nor obeyed his commands. Words such as “Unfaithful,” “No Compassion,” and “Not my people” instead of the usual “sons of the living God” are the words used to describe the disobedient. Even so, God welcomes his unfaithful people the way the prophet welcomed his wife from prostitution. The apostle Paul declares Christ the ultimate Word of God, the incarnate Word who is “the head over every power and authority (Col 2:9).” If the ancients, who did not listen to the prophets faced such a rebuke from God, what can we expect when we ignore Jesus, God’s ultimate, most exalted “Word"?

The Gospel of Luke has already shown that the path of discipleship requires careful listening and faithful obedience (Luke 8:21, 11:48). But this communication is not one-way. Conversation is the stuff of relationship. But veiled, manipulative, coward conversation destroys relationship. Right relationship cannot happen without frank conversation. Prayer is answering God. But when our answers become impersonal, something in us is trivialized. Our relationship is profaned. God is not glorified. Jesus teaches: “When you pray say Father…” “Ask...seek...knock,” that is , be direct with God knowing that, when God speaks, none of his communication will ever trivialize his holy nature. Like the friend at midnight who wouldn't think of refusing help and risk social dishonor, even though the asking is curt and inopportune, God will always respond to his children not according to the request or according to the asking, but according to His nature, “for his name’s sake (psalm 23:3).”

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Choosing What Is Better

2010-07-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

Psalm

Old Testament

Amos 8:1-12

New Testament

Colossians 1:15-28

Gospel

Luke 10:38-42

Today’s readings begin with a kick to the chair we are sitting on: “Why do you brag of the evil you do, mister Big Guy?” The fact that this is psalm 52 helps us apply the saying correctly. After the confession of sin in psalm 51 we now can ask ourselves “which way will you go, O my soul?” Choosing is an important theme in the Torah (“choose life!”) and the psalms (“But I…” 52:8). The shepherd-prophet Amos chimes in: All human choosing is under God’s will. His prophetic accusation and warning come swift: “While today you hear His words and ignore them, the day will come when you will hunger and thirst for God’s word and will not find it.” In short. our choices are responses to God’s initiatives. When God speaks, will we choose to listen?

The Gospel of Luke brings us again along the way (literally the way to Jerusalem, but figuratively –always in the gospels– is the way of Jesus) and into the house of Martha. We remember Jesus sending out missionaries to proclaim the good news just pages ago and now we see Jesus himself as the missionary in action. The reception is positive and sedate: no exorcisms, no doctrinal fencing, no religious envy, "just tea." Suddenly there is a chainsaw cutting the dinning room table in half: “Don’t look now but there is a w-o-m-a-n...s-i-t-t-i-n-g at the feet of our guest!”

I understand a little bit about politics in Washington. I grew up in Mexico city. There everyone has its place. Men of a certain pedigree pontificate and decide on behalf of the masses, enjoying drinks and tapas while the rest of the population prepare, serve and clean after them. California, where I now live, is not much different. Except women today seem to be taken much more seriously than before, to the point that the woman sitting at the feet of Jesus does not come across to us with the intended original shock. But just think: In customary Jewish first century relations, the men discussed theology while the women kept their glasses full. Martha is acting in full character when she demands Jesus to put Mary in her place: Back in the kitchen, as a servant, away from the guests, out of sight, under the oversight of big sister, waiting for a husband to give her a name. But Mary chooses Jesus, the one the apostle Paul sings about. And please don't give me any condescending pats about Mary’s submissive “spirituality.” She sits there curious, brave, even defiant, and absorbed. Martha’s tamales don’t go far enough. Mary’s hospitality is so focused, devoted and adoring we may as well call it a worship service.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

“Tell them: ‘The Kingdom of God Is Near.’”

2010-07-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

Psalm
30

Old Testament
2 Kings 5:1-14

New Testament
Galatians 6:7-16

Gospel
Luke 10:1-20

My mother send me daily on an errand that is common to Mexican households: just before the main meal, at around 2pm, the fresh tortillas are being made at the neighborhood tortilla factory. It was my job to take a cloth and the coin left on the kitchen counter to purchase one kilo of freshly made tortillas for our meal. My friends told stories about their “escapades” such as trips to the park, a certain corner store or worse, all under the cover of “long lineups” or “tortilla factory breakdowns.” I didn’t have the guts to lie to my mother, so I usually did my chore simply and faithfully. It was great returning home just on time to sit at the table to enjoy our family meal. For our family, it was essential to have our fresh tortillas daily and on time. Anyone could have done this chore. But picking them up was my job, and I enjoyed doing it. It never occurred to me to feel as though my job were the most important. After all, my mother had been cooking for hours and getting the tortillas was a task that only took minutes.

Sending people to do your bidding is complicated. Corporate managers go trough a power checklist: Reliable people are sought. Achievable goals are set. Measurable results are observed and interpreted. But as unreasonable as it may seem, Jesus seems do be doing something very different: Naïve, inadequate people are sent out (lambs among the wolves), humanly impossible goals are set (“Heal the sick…”) and the results rest in the Father alone. It makes sense: their task is to announce what God is doing in Jesus. It isn't their task to make anything happen: they are just to announce what is happening. They do go out with expected fervor and return celebrating their great influence for good in the world. But even this celebration is chastised by Jesus: The only celebration is not regarding what we do, but what God is doing.

Announcing the good news of Jesus, telling people that God is waiting, not with a disciplinarian’s stick but rather with oils and ointments to heal our wounds, is the most amazing task on earth. And, quite frankly, pretty much anyone could do it. The charisma, skill or experience of the messengers seems irrelevant to the task at hand. God is already doing what is important . All there is left to do is announce it and return home on time to sit at our Father’s table for the wedding supper of the lamb.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Jesus Asked the Man: “What Is Your Name?”

2010-06-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

Psalm 42, 43

New Testament Galatians 3:23-29

Gospel Luke 8:26-29

Human solutions are often the cause of more grave and seemingly irreversible catastrophes than the problems meant to be solved in the first place: Our need to move and sell goods fast brought about the engine that needs much fuel. Our need for fuel made deep-sea drilling a necessary solution. What unthinkable calamity will we cause as we develop a solution to an oil spill? Human economy has become dangerously out of synch with the ecology of creation. There was no such disconnect with Jesus. The good news Jesus proclaimed is both cosmic and intensely personal. The redemption Jesus achieved on the cross resulted in a new living hope for the universe: God is in charge, and God is intervening on behalf of creation to preserve it and purify it. But this action is neither dismissing nor contrary to human welfare. In God’s ecology, personal healing is part of the renewal of the cosmos. The way in which Jesus bridges cosmic and personal healing has been called “radical inclusion.” But this inclusion is a far cry from our attempts to appear fashionably tolerant. The inclusion Jesus incarnates is entirely divine. The good news to the world is not that God loves the world, but rather that God has been included in the world through his Only Son. This radical inclusion that Jesus proclaims is not proclaimed by words but by his presence in the world. Cosmic healing requires a permanent home visit from the great physician. Today’s gospel readings give us the dark and even chilling episode of the healing of a man who was demon possessed. The story begins with the intrusion of Jesus in non-Jewish territory (Galilee’s East Side, over the lake). The introduction of the man in question happens immediately, and Jesus’ healing is also immediate. The cleansing of the man is dramatic, and far reaching: symbolically, the land is also “healed” with a herd of pigs (a Jewish sign of impurity) tumbling down the abyss and later by the sending back of the transformed neighbor. But the people respond with rejection: those lands seem to prefer pigs and monsters over healing. At this point, Jesus’ disciples (albeit elsewhere, but under similar circumstances) asked Jesus for a judgment of fire from heaven over the unrepentant. But here Jesus actually leaves a blessing: He sends the man back to his own land and his own people. Neither people (heathen or disciples) understand the far reaching work of redemption of Jesus. But at least they are getting to know the great physician who is not too busy cleaning our cosmic spill to ask a man: “What is your name? (Luke 8:29)”

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Jesus Said: “Your Faith Has Saved You.”

2010-06-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Psalm 5

New Testament: Galatians 2:15-21

Gospel: Luke 7:36-8:3

Out of two workers, the boss chose me over his own son to work for him. When the time came to get the work done, family relation seemed lees important that the necessity the boss had to get the job done on time and he knew that he could count on me to work hard until the job got done. I got the job but the boss’ son hated me for a while. Sometimes posture is more important than pedigree. In his ministry, Jesus dealt with much criticism regarding the people with whom he associated. Jesus himself spoke about people’s misrepresentation of his ministry as one of “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34). The present scene (Luke 7:36 ff) confirms and clarifies this accusation: This time Jesus is eating with what seems like the “right” company, at the house of a Pharisee. But the story also reveals the main source of people’s uneasiness about Jesus: It was not so much that he ate and drank (even though some restraint would have gone a long way with his more fundamentalist followers). It was not so much that he befriended “tax collectors and sinners” (the present company is evidence that he did spend time with “the right crowd,” something that his more conservative followers found at least helpful). No. The point which made Jesus’ ministry so hard to swallow for so many is that he, unmistakably and systematically, had an inclination for the disenfranchised. Even while he is seated at a proper meal in a proper house with the proper company in a very proper manner of being, this inclination shows through to the bewilderment and disapproval of many.

The woman, quite physically, is showing a marked inclination herself: she is all over the feet of Jesus. And this worship-inclination is not incidental but rather the point of Jesus’ teaching. The bowing of the woman is contrasted with the verticality of the Pharisee. Only pages later this point will be completely established when Jesus shares the story of “The Prodigal Son” and makes his disapproval for that kind of verticality complete. The disenfranchised’s inclination to worship in humility is what Jesus is so inclined to, and calls here and in many other places, faith.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Book Recommendation: Santa Biblia by Justo L. Gonzalez

2010-06-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

“A certain instinct tells us that radical evangelism in our society would bring about the conversion, not only of unbelievers but also of the church. And that would be too threatening. Therefore we make certain that mission flows only in one direction: that the center can affect the periphery, but not vice versa. We translate materials into Spanish. We give money to support a Hispanic mission. We appoint a Hispanic pastor to go out there and work among the Hispanics. But we are not ready to adjust our structures so that congregations made up of mostly poor people can be really viable. We are not ready to share our leadership, to open our cultural paradigms to the give-and-take that true encounter brings about. And then we wonder why our translations are not read, why our money brings so little result, and why our Hispanic pastor becomes frustrated and decides to go elsewhere. And so the Hispanic community –or any other minority community- is left without the resources that our faith and our churches could offer.” From Santa Biblia by Justo Gonzalez p. 55

A Very Successful Ladies' Retreat

2010-06-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to the supportive families who held the home life together while our women were able to have a refreshing and invigorating time at Mount Gilead last weekend. They returned with reports of great learning, deep sharing and stronger bonds of sisterhood and friendship.

Jesus Gave Thanks...Blessed...Broke...and Gave

2010-06-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Psalm 113, 114 (Passover’s Hallel)

Old Testament Genesis 14:18-20, Psalm 110

New Testament 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Gospel Luke 9:11-17

Jesus knows about hunger. Ideas that exempt Jesus from human suffering make a superman out of him, and inadvertently make him unable to relate to our humanity. His 40 days of fasting in the desert, his struggle on the cross and even his breakfast on the beach after his resurrection place Jesus in the company of everyone of us who has hungered and thirsted before. Therefore, the miraculous feeding of the crowd reported by look strikes us primarily as Jesus responding in solidarity to human need and suffering. But Jesus’ response to the crowd does something more: it is also teaching them how to be human. Forsaking our tendency to institutionalize ministry (Line up! Take a number! Here, take this and move on! One per person!) Jesus begins by creating community, making people sit in groups, forming large circles on the grassy hill. And then he Gives Thanks, Blesses, Brakes and Gives. The people that by now are facing one another, learning by watching in Jesus what Eugene Peterson calls “the unforced rhythms of grace.”

The Lord’s Table, which we observe and celebrate every Sunday is, among other things, the ultimate lesson on how to be human. It begins with our proper response to God for His gifts of life, peace and our daily bread. It continues with the human privilege to dedicate parts of creation to the creator. Communion then takes us through the pain of sharing as we break the bread, against our corrupt tendencies to hoard and hide. And it finally leads us to the act of giving, which is a supremely divine attribute that God shares with humanity.

These rhythms were not new to the people of God. Passover observed and celebrated the God’s redemption of his people form slavery in Egypt. Jesus during his last supper picks up these rhythms and incarnates them, making them visible through his life, his ministry, his work on the cross and his presence in the world through his body, the church.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

2010-05-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Psalm 8

Old Testament Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

New Testament Romans 5:1-5

Gospel John 16:12-15

Humanity for thousands of years has entertained the question of God in a degree greater than all other human concerns combined. If the question is not whether God exists or not, most who believe in a divine beginning and a divine existence ask the following question: “what is God like?”

It is tragic to mistake the God of the bible with a monolithic deity, uninterested in human affairs, quick to punish those who fail to meet his divine expectations. These concepts come from a world of religions, and many could construct such a picture of God from the Christian bible. But spending time with the stories of Moses and David, Ruth and Mary, reveal a different story. These stories reveal a God of love. Most supremely, Jesus Christ reveals God as Healer, Provider, and ultimately Redeemer. In a word, Emmanuel: God with us.

And Jesus himself says to come from the Father. As he announces his departure back to the Father, he promises the Holy Spirit, his presence with us for good. This coming and going, this mutual subordination of love is most awkward, even embarrassing, for a deity. Maybe, but not odd. From the beginning, God has revealed a personality of love. And Jesus Christ, in his down-to-earth way as he walked the streets of Bethany and Galilee , further enhanced the distinct colors of God’s Grace. Then the Holy Spirit came (and comes!) to fill God’s people with his presence and with every gift and fruit distinct to God’s personality, empowering us to call God Father, Jesus Lord, and the Holy Spirit our healing and our strength as we partake from the gifts of election, redemption and sanctification of God, in Christ, by His Spirit.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

In Our Own Tongue...

2010-05-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

Old Testament Genesis 11:1-9

New Testament Acts 2:1-21

Gospel John 14:8-17, 25-27

The day of Pentecost, as today’s readings aptly portray, is the episode that complements the Tower of Babel. At Pentecost, the people are perplexed and amazed, not by the confusion seen in Genesis but by God’s empowering of His people by His Spirit. The day of Pentecost is important to Christians for the following reasons:

1. Pentecost establishes the Holy Spirit as the “founder” of Christianity. It is reasonable for historians to seek the “starting point” of a movement by trying to identify the people or the person who was most influential on the outset. It is misguided, however, to attribute undue influence to Paul (the most prominent spokesman for Christianity in the first century) or Peter (the most influential spokesman for Christianity in the Jewish world). No. Christianity is a movement “of the Spirit,” established by the Spirit and continued to our day.

2. Pentecost establishes the “first fruits” of Christianity. Pentecost was a festivity in which the Jewish people celebrated the giving of the Torah (law) to Moses. Additionally, it was the seasonal fair that celebrated the first harvest of spring. Luke’s Pentecost is both a celebration of the giving of God’s word through his Spirit (with the disciples “declaring the wonders of God”) and the celebration of the first harvest of Christ, with the gathering of the 120 disciples and the consequent incorporation of over 3000 people that same day (2:41)

3. Pentecost is God’s embracement of humanity in Christ by His Spirit. That day, the many international visitors heard the wonders of God expressed in their own tongue. On this day, the unity of the Spirit is unmistakably recognized in the plurality of languages. This event does not undue the “curse” of the Tower of Babel (with its “confusion of languages”), but rather, it blesses it. In Pentecost, God reigns over human diversity and blesses it by His Spirit.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Ascension Sunday

2010-05-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

Psalm 47

New Testament Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23

Gospel Luke 24:44-53

My mother often had to deal with my brother, my sister and I as if she were a single mother since my father was forever tied up with work. When she took us shopping she told us to “sit tight” while she found laundry detergent, house paint, school supplies, etc. We were obedient (terrified) kids and rarely got into trouble. But waiting like that can be excruciating, especially when you take a boy into a fabric store. One time, bored to tears with the waiting, I walked away and got lost. It was only a few minutes, but it was enough for me to feel that rush of adrenalin familiar to soldiers and firefighters. I wondered: “Will I ever see my mother again?” I know it sounds silly, but the anguish and pain the child feels in those moments are very real. Ascension, after all, is a leaving, a separation, and introduces a time of waiting.
This is a Sunday like no other. The disciples are filled with joy to be with Jesus. And as Jesus raises his hands to bless them, he is taken up into heaven and leaves them. All they can remember are the distinct instructions he gave them: “But you stay…(καθίσατε)” The Gospel of Luke, in its unique composition uses the word kathizō primarily to signal the moment in which Jesus is about to sit down to teach (4:20; 5:3). The world had never heard words like those Jesus spoke when he sat down to teach. When Jesus sat, expectations heightened. Now the disciples are the ones to sit tight. What can they possibly teach? The next time the evangelist Luke will use that word is to tell us about how the Holy Spirit “sat” on each one of them, like flames of fire, as they were enabled to proclaim “the wonders of God.” The Holy Spirit is coming. Just sight tight. The waiting is worth it. Pastor Alejandro Sotres.

Regent College Convocation 2010

2010-04-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Pastor Alejandro Sotres on his recent graduation with a Master of Divinity degree from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Jesus said to Simon, “Simon, do you love me?”

2010-04-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Psalm: 30

New Testament: Acts 9:1-20, Revelation 5:11-14

Gospel: John 21:1-19

There is great comfort in expertise. Living in a world of Managers and CEOs and Directors, teenagers experience anxiety related to their lack of specialized skills. But once they find their niche, they join the crowds of professionals, collecting the diplomas, accolades and cubicles due to them. Peter was a fisherman. Jesus was a rabbi. Peter followed Jesus for a while and witnessed the skilled rabbi call people, teach them, train them and send them in successful missions. Thousands showed up to hear his teaching. Peter operated well under that glow. But now that the Rabbi is dead, what is a fisherman to do? The older we get, the less likely we will change careers, launch a new business or move. If we can help it, we will keep things just as they are. In old age, leaving a beloved home can be traumatic. This is why Peter’s return to his area of expertise does not surprise us. Who wants to be a mediocre (and possibly dead) rabbi when you can be a pretty decent fisherman? But God intervenes in our lives and we often lack the maturity to see the big picture. Someone said to me that wild fires actually renew redwood forests and cause them to burst into life. It is hard to think of renewed life in the midst of a fire. The presence of Jesus by the Sea of Tiberias (also known as Sea of Galilee), the miraculous catch and the breakfast on the beach, they all run through Peter’s life like a wildfire. A short chapter in his life he thought was closed reopens. The dead rabbi is here again with a new threat of life. Peter sits to a picnic that makes him feel small, inexperienced and afraid. In our American culture there is a vast industry that is dedicated to help each one of us avoid uncertainty, incompetence and risk. We can either purchase the training that will make us competent (fast) or hire the services of those who “know the trade.” Venturing into unknown territory becomes simply unnecessary. But when we live fenced in we become less, a domesticated version of God’s wild original. Jesus provides for Peter the new orientation that makes his move towards uncertainty and risk reasonable and necessary. Peter would be insane to lead a life that ends in crucifixion. But Jesus provides the calling that makes it necessary for Peter to take that risk. I don’t know many mothers who would be willing to go through the pain of childbirth except for the joy of motherhood. Our pain and our suffering need a vocation to be sane and bearable. Pain in our lives can be pointless and wasted. But with the vocation of Jesus it can strengthen and nurture, clearing the way to exuberant life.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres.

The Following Sunday, Thomas...

2010-04-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Psalm: 150

New Testament: Acts 5:27-32, Revelation 1:4-8

Gospel: John 20:19-31

Millions of Christians all over the world gather each Sunday to worship the resurrected Christ. Their worship is the proclamation of the gospel in word and in evidence: The proclamation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. While many have tried to improve on the simplicity of Christian worship, wiser minds have been faithful to its purity. This first service concludes with the passing of the peace and a three-part “benediction:” sending, empowerment and promise. This benediction frames and shapes our identity in the world and our ministry to the world.

Sending: We are in the world like Jesus was in the world. Every vision Jesus has and every intention he held for the world is also ours today as we go out into the world. We have been made Jesus to the world.

Empowerment: Jesus’ humanity was like our humanity, and our empowerment is also like his was. In the humanity of Jesus his powerful ministry would have been impossible without the empowering of the Holy Spirit. It is this empowerment that elevated the ministry of Jesus from a mere teaching or social justice endeavor to a ministry of profound transformation and healing. By the power of the Holy Spirit the ministry of Jesus was and is the ministry of the Father to the world. This is our ministry.

Promise: Forgiveness is something that must be received and authenticated in a long series of loving encounters. Forgiveness, unlike the letter of absolution that is applied to a bad debt or a criminal sentence, is an invigorating process of healing that is imparted personally over time (it is not instantaneous). In worship, the people of God are remembered in and reminded of their forgiven state. As the weekly gatherings continue, so does the increase in understanding, the worship and the blessing.

Thomas did not “go to church” that first Sunday. As it is common now, his friends tell him what he missed. The essence of the gathering is condensed in the brief and enthusiastic report “We have seen the Lord.” Any Christian in any century would be hard pressed to try and improve on such a terse and eloquent exclamation. The problems begin when we do try to improve the basic quality of our worship and witness. Sunday after Sunday congregations around the world gather to proclaim this basic truth: “We have seen the Lord.” It is no surprise that during many of these services, people “see and believe” and, like Thomas, join in the worship.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres.

Still in the dark, Mary...

2010-04-03T16:10:00.001-07:00

Easter Sunday

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Epistle John 20:1-18
Gospel 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Radiance, the color white and the sound of the trumpet may be the things we associate with Easter Sunday. Indeed in joy we celebrate the event that marked the day of the week in which Christians have gathered to worship for two thousand years. It is the historical event that sealed the truth in Jesus’ teachings and his identity as the Messiah born in Bethlehem of Judea. Absolutely: without the joy of Easter we do not have any of these things. That is why it seems odd to have the evangelist John begin his Easter story in the dark. Haven’t the other gospels already recorded and established the historical fact that the disciples went to the tomb “at the break of dawn”? But this seemingly clumsy oversight is no surprise to us who have become familiar with the theology and the poetry of John The Divine (meaning “the theologian,” as he became known in the medieval church). John does not waste words. Phrases in his writings do not come about by chance or carelessness. When John says dark he means it: He meant it in his prologue where he writes that “the darkness doesn't understand (the light.)” He meant it when he wrote about Nicodemus, the one who came to see Jesus “by night,” and later wrote against those who, seeing the light, loved “the darkness” instead of the light. When his Easter story begins “in the dark,” we understand. And the light of God’s new creation established by Jesus and his resurrection is not at all like the trumpet blast or the white-robed choir we may associate with it. It is rather like a silent flood that overtakes, slowly, everything. The flood that has now reached every continent in the world began “in the dark” with one unlikely woman: Mary Magdalene, who had seven demons cast out of her. She was brave enough (crazy enough?) to stumble, walk, even run, in the dark, searching and crying and waiting for the light of her Lord to shine at Easter dawn. She began in the dark, but didn’t stay there.
Pastor Alejandro Sotres.

This is the Gate of the Lord (Palm Sunday)

2010-03-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
The Triumphal Entry Luke 19:28-40
The Passion Luke 23:1-49

Today’s readings take us from the joy of Palm Sunday to the pain of Good Friday, as Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem to eventually surrender to the Father’s will of the cross. We would be mistaken to think of the cross as a terrible misfortune that Jesus miraculously overcame. No. The cross was neither unforeseen nor tragic. The cross was the will of the Father and gradually became the focus of Jesus. By the time “Palm Sunday” comes along, the cross has clearly become the ultimate passage for the ministry of God in Jesus, God the Son. The cross, therefore, is the elucidation in retrospect of the entire ministry of Jesus: Through the cross both the teachings and the actions of Jesus make sense. Seeing the cross as a misfortune is tragic to our understanding of the gospel.
On the cross, Jesus prays “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)”revealing at least three things. First, Jesus prays from the cross to the Father. This ongoing relationship of trust is not the pagan mortification that brings good fortune, but the dialogue that allows us to see and obey the path God has for our lives. Second, Jesus understands the great guilt of our sin. In our rebellion, we do not recognize the cross as the Father’s will and once again rebel against it. And Jesus intercedes for our forgiveness before we come to know we are guilty. And third, Jesus culminates his ministry on the cross, indirectly giving meaning to all of his teachings and actions, but quite directly interpreting the parable of the fig tree without fruit. Jesus here cries “forgive them” using the same word he used when the servant interceded with the vineyard owner who had had enough and was ready to chop it down (Luke 13:8): “leave it alone (aphiēmi).” Thus the servant superimposed himself on our behalf and bought us “another year” when fruit of repentance may appear.
Pastor Alejandro Sotres.

INTERNATIONAL FAIR 2010

2010-03-03T13:29:00.001-08:00

This Is My Son

2010-02-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

Transfiguration Sunday
February 14, 2010

Psalm: 99
Old Testament: Exodus 34:29-35
New Testament: 2 Cor. 3:12-4:6
Gospel: Lucas 9:28-36

“Brilliant!” said the film critic at the end of the movie. “It’s a masterpiece,” responded another critic. Those are common expressions when we witness something unusually remarkable. The Psalmist seems to express himself thus while coming before God in worship. That energy moves him to invite others with an expression that is fundamental and vital to our faith: “God is holy!" And it is there that we notice a great difference: In worship we do not behold something, but someone. The prophet Moses stood before The Holy and the effect was such that people could not see his face because of the glow. In contrast we find the apostle Paul, who saw with the other disciples the divine glory and holiness of Jesus, and his face does not seem to glow very much. Paul knows why: people suffer from blindness, and even if holiness came home for dinner (and Jesus did!), people can’t see for looking. Jesus, by his mere presence declares openly his divine holiness, and the evangelist Luke reports the various responses accordingly: People wanted to kill him (4:29), they were filled with awe (5:26), doubted his authority (7:39, 49), and his own disciples were both amazed and afraid of him (8:25). When Jesus asks his disciples what they think of him, Peter gives the “correct” answer, but shows little deference. Can you call a tiger “tiger” without spilling your tea? God the Father reveals the identity of Christ (“This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him”) but the disciples, bless their hearts, don’t move. They are stuck with the rest, afraid one minute, sneering the next. They haven’t yet gone all the way back to join the psalmist in his response to The Holy: a life of lavish praise and humble adoration.
Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Transforming Encounters

2010-01-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

February 7, 2010

Psalm 138
Old Testament Isaiah 6:1-13
New Testament 1 Cor 15:1-11
Gospel Luke 5:1-11

The psalm writer begins with extravagant faith: “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.” We would be hard pressed to come up with a more self-righteous , pedantic phrase, unless of course the speaker knows what he is talking about.
Isaiah knows. He had an encounter with The Holy that made him positively certain about God’s intentions to choose him for His purposes. The encounter brought the prophet from sheer terror (“Woe to me” is the sanitized translation of the gut wrenching moan in 6:5) to unbridled surrender (“Here, here! Send me!”)
THe Apostle Paul gives us a litany of transforming encounters with the resurrected Jesus. This transforming presence that impacts common people in such a profound way is what Paul calls THE GRACE OF GOD.

Jesus is found teaching by the sea when the serendipitous encounter “happens.” Peter is the expert fisherman who is at the moment down on his luck. The empty nets mock his reputation and embarrass his name. But Jesus has compassion and grants him a second opportunity for satisfaction and success. The fisherman, obediently acquiesces, yielding his already pride bruised. The resulting miracle completely breaks his vanity and fills him with reverent fear. Peter is now a poor and ignorant man that can no longer pass for blueblood. And Jesus, just like Gopd did with the psalm writer and the prophet, says to Peter: “Fear not,” and boldly sets his life in the right direction. Pauls teaching reminds us that transformation begins with obedience. Peter leaves behind his last chance to leave his mark in this world and follows Jesus. And what about you?

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

Fullfilled Today!

2010-01-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

Third Sunday After the Epiphany

Psalm 19
Old Testament: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
New Testament: 1 Cor 12:12-31a
Gospel: Luke 4:14-21

In and through his word, God's entire "personality" is revealed. Unlike us who often hide in fear behind words, protecting our addictions and vices from the light of truth, God's word is self-revelation, resplendent with God’s presence. In Psalm 19 the hearer is moved from cosmic awe to a hush reverence, to confession of sin, and to repentance. In the Nehemiah reading, people weep as they hear the word of God. By now a principle emerges: when God speaks, things happen, and people are moved, even changed.

The New Testament leaps forward to reveal the new creation brought about by God’s word: A community resplendent with godliness, unity in diversity, mutual submission and love. And Luke gives us a glimpse of the birth of this community: Jesus, the Spirit-filled man, comes to read (Ezra-like) the word of God to the people. Jesus' presence is commanding, his reading is moving, the bible portion is evocative redolent with nostalgia of times gone by. What could possibly ruin this moment? But Jesus has the audacity to ignore this opportunity to “shock and awe (he left these things behind during his temptation –Lk 4:1-13).” He does not hide behind power, manipulate through emotional appeals or trivialize God by reducing the mystery. Instead, he fulfills the longing of every person: through God’s Word he reveals God’s whole personality to the entire human race for the first time ever. Through speech he reveals —himself. Something only God Himself could accomplish.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres

International Fair, Saturday FEB 20, 6pm

2010-01-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

Join us for an evening of great food and family fun.

40 Day Journey: From Fear to Love (Daily Readings)

2010-01-11T19:18:00.001-08:00

Journey begins Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Book of the Month

2009-11-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

Let Bishop N. T. Wright introduce you to the advent season with this profound-yet-simple view of the meaning of the incarnation of Christ through the way He taught his disciples to pray. In Mr. Wright's words, the Lord's Prayer is "astonishing, crazy and utterly risky."

“…it may dawn on us that there is not just a larger world out there; there is a larger God out there. He’s not just a celestial cleaner-up and sorter-out of our messes and wants. He is God. He is the living God. And He is our Father. If we linger here, we may find our priorities quietly turned inside out. The contents may remain; the order will change. With that change, we move at last from paranoia to prayer; from fuss to faith. The Lord’s Prayer is designed to help us make this change: a change of priority, not a change of content.” p. 6, 7.

Calendar

2009-10-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Nick Vujicic: Life Without Limbs

2009-10-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

By Kristi Watts
The 700 Club

CBN.com – What makes someone extraordinary?

Their abilities? Their talents? Or simply, their smile.

When I first met Nick Vujicic, I knew I had just encountered someone extraordinary! From the moment he began to share his amazing story with me, I witnessed firsthand how God is using a man with no arms and no legs to be His hands and feet.

“My dad was saying that his head was next to my mom’s head as I was being born. He saw my shoulder. He just went pale. He was hoping my mom didn’t see me, because he saw that I had no right arm. My dad had to leave the room, and he couldn’t believe what he saw,” Nick Vujicic tells The 700 Club. “The doctor came in, and my dad said, ‘My son has no right arm.’ [The doctor] said, ‘No, your son has no arms or legs.’ And he said he nearly fell on the floor. He couldn’t believe it.

“The whole church was mourning, like, ‘Why would God let the pastor’s son be born that way?’ My mom, at first, she didn’t want to hold me. She didn’t want to breastfeed me. She just felt very uncomfortable for the first four months. It took them quite a while before they could trust in God that He didn’t make a mistake – that He didn’t forget them or me.”

Nick’s parents gave their fear and even disappointment in their son’s disability over to the Lord. They choose to trust God and His promise that He had a plan and purpose – a hope and a future for their son. But as the years passed, Nick on the other hand, had many challenges trusting in a God that he felt gave him less.

“I challenged God. I said, ‘God, I know that I’m a sinner. I know that I won’t probably have peace until You’re in my heart. But I will not let You in my heart until You answer me, why? Why did you take my arms and legs? Why didn’t You give me what everybody else has? God, until You answer me that question, I will not serve You.’

“I wanted to end it. If God wasn’t going to end my pain, I was going to end it myself. So at age eight, I tried to drown myself in a bathtub with four inches of water. I told my mom and dad, ‘I’m just going to relax in the bathtub. Can you put me in the bathtub?’ I turned over a couple of times to see if I could do it. I couldn’t. The thought that stopped me from going through with it was the love for my parents. I loved them so much, and all they did was love me. I pictured my funeral. I pictured my parents, and all I saw was guilt on their shoulders that they couldn’t have done more.”

That would be the last time Nick would attempt suicide. But it wouldn’t be the last time he would come face to face with those deep issues that made him want to end the pain.

One day Nick’s mother had him read an article about a severely disabled man. That man’s story made a huge impact on Nick.

“I have a choice,” Nick says, “to either be angry at God for what I don’t have or be thankful for what I do have. My mom said, ‘Nick, God’s going to use you. I don’t know how. I don’t know when, but God’s going to use you.’ And those seeds started penetrating in my heart. That’s when I started seeing that there is no point in being complete on the outside when you’re broken on the inside. I found out that God can heal you without changing your circumstance.

“I gave my life to Jesus Christ when I read John 9 at age 15, where a man was coming through a village, this blind man from birth. Jesus saw him. People said, ‘Why was this man born that way?’ Jesus said, ‘It was done so that the works of God may be revealed through him.’

“In second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, it says, ‘All scripture is God-breathed.’ I believe God breathed in me life and faith. This faith came over me. This peace came over me. I felt like God answered my question that I’d been waiting for. The question was: Why? Why did you make me this way? The answer was: Do you trust Me? That’s the question. When you say yes to that question, nothing else matters. There was nothing else I could find. There was nothing else that could give me peace. I knew arms and legs wouldn’t give me peace anyway. I need to know the truth of who I am, why I’m here and where I’m going when I’m not here. I haven’t found that truth anywhere else but in Jesus Christ.”

It was in Jesus Christ where Nick found the strength to do what many thought would be the impossible.

Nick says, “It’s so hard to be strong when people constantly say, ‘You’re not good enough. Go away. We don’t want anything to do with you.’ In life, if you don’t know the truth, then you can’t be free, because then you’ll believe that the lies are the truth. But once we realize that when we read the Word of God and you know the truth of who you are, then I’m not a man without arms and legs. I am a child of God.

“I believe if God doesn’t give you a miracle, you are a miracle of God for somebody else’s salvation.

“I thank God that He didn’t answer my prayer when I was begging him for arms and legs at age eight. Because guess what? I have no arms and no legs, and He’s using me all around the world. We’ve seen, so far, approximately (and this is conservative) 200,000 souls come to Jesus Christ for the very first time in the last six, seven years.”

In the last decade, Nick has shared his story in 24 countries to over three million people. Whether he’s talking to a stadium packed with people or one single person, his heart behind the message is the same.

“I want to look right to you and tell you that God loves you. He hasn’t forgotten your pain. He hasn’t forgotten your family. Maybe while you’re watching this interview, you’ve compared your sufferings to my suffering, and that’s not where hope is. Hope is in the name of God, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope is when you compare your suffering to the infinite, immeasurable love and grace of God. Isaiah 40, verse 31 says, ‘Those who wait upon the Lord, who renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles.’

“I didn’t need my circumstance to change. I don’t need arms and legs. I need the wings of the Holy Spirit. I’m flying, because I know Jesus is holding me up.

“Don’t give up on God, because God will not give up on you.”

Baptisms 2009

2009-09-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Gustavo and Ana Valencia, Victor and Gaby Valverde, Alberto and Maria Valencia and Karla Avila on their day of Baptism, last Sunday September 13 in Forestville CA.

Family Camp 2009

2009-09-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

2009-09-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Finally, Christianity without Christ coming to a church near YOU!

Family Camp September 11-13 2009

2009-09-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

The entire Bridge family will be at FAMILY CAMP SEP 11-13. If you are not able to camp the entire weekend, remember to join us for worship and baptisms by the river on Sunday September 13, 10am at Mirabel Campground.

Resgister for the Alpha Course this Fall

2009-07-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

The Alpha Course is a ten-week course that explores the Christian Faith. It is a perfect introduction to the Christian life for those who are seeking or curious. It wil be offered in Spanish on Tuesday nights and Wednesday mornings. It will also be offered in English Thursday nights. Call the office to register (707) 528-2664

What would you do?

2008-12-17T14:04:00.001-08:00

The Love that Can Only Be Received

2008-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Leap Over a Wall

2008-07-11T02:07:00.000-07:00

“Each of us has contact with hundreds of people who never look beyond our surface appearance. We have dealings with hundreds of people who the moment they set eyes on us begin calculating what use we can be to them, what they can get out of us. We meet hundreds of people who take one look at us, make a snap judgment, and then slot us into a category so that they won’t have to deal with us as persons. They treat us less than we are; and if we’re in constant association with them, we become less.
And then someone enters our life who isn’t looking for someone to use, is leisurely enough to find out what’s really going on in us, is secure enough not to exploit our weakness or attack our strengths, recognizes our inner life and understands the difficulty of living out our inner convictions, confirms what’s deepest within us. A friend.”
From Leap Over a Wall by Eugene Peterson p. 54

Why Multicultural?

2008-07-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

God has displayed His creativity not only in the diversity evident in forests, mountains and seas, but also in ethnic diversity. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation....I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing ...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’”(Gen.12:1-3). Through this one man who left his people, all peoples on earth would be blessed. But how? Men and women waited anxiously for the messiah, the son of Abraham who would bring God's kingdom to earth.

Jesus, called Emmanuel (God with us) began his ministry saying "The kingdom of God is near." And indeed, a new era had begun. The end of his life brought the fullfillment of God's promise to Abraham: “Then Jesus came to (his disciples) and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age’” (Matt.28: 18-20).

This key command is echoed in different ways throughout the New Testament (Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-49; John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8). The multicultural church prepares us with a picture of eternity. “And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev.5:9).

In these difficult days when ethnic segregation seems more desirable by some, God calls us to embody the inbreaking of His kingdom by being the new humanity established through the Father's promise, The Son's sacrifice and the power of the Holy Spirit.

"An explosion of joy.”

2008-06-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

“Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy.”
Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p. 116.

Graton Labor Center December Workshop

2007-11-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 9am-11am

For more information or to register to participate, email pastoralejandro@sbcglobal.net

Carpentry Workshop @ Graton

2007-10-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

Join us for our next carpentry workshop Saturday November 10, 9-11am at the Graton Day Labor Center.
View pictures of our last workshop OCT 20, 2007.

Graton Day Labor Center Grand Opening

2007-09-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Baptisms 2007

2007-09-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

We were glad to join Sean, Daniel, Nico and Armando in their baptism last Sunday September 2, 2007 in Forestville. Baptisms are by far the high point of our yearly family camp.

Click here to see more pics
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City Kids Festival

2007-08-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

City Kids Festival: a Santa Rosa tradition sponsored by the Redwood Gospel Mission and the churches of Sonoma County that provides school supplies to children and a message of hope in a safe family environment. THE BRIDGE was glad to be invited to participate with music and games.

Para ver más fotos haga click aquí
Click here to view pictures

Apple Valley Fun Day

2007-08-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Supporting safe community and healthy living, Burbank Housing and the City of Santa Rosa pull all the stops for the neighborhood of Apple Valley, on Steele Lane, just west of the Charles Schulz Museum. THE BRIDGE provided music and games.

Para ver más fotos haga click aquí.
To view pictures click here.

Visit to sister church in Colombia

2007-07-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Angela and Glenn Matsen, leaders at the Santa Rosa congregation presented a gift from THE BRIDGE to our sister congregation IGLESIA CRISTIANA BETESDA in Medellin, Colombia, Angela's home congregation. Pray for this congregation and for Pastor Rafael Duran Perez.

Ángela y Glenn Matsen, lideres de la congregación de Santa Rosa presentaron una ofrenda de amor de parte de EL PUENTE a nuestra congregación hermana IGLESIA CRISTIANA BETESDA en Medellín, la congregación original de Ángela. Ore por esta congregación y por su pastor Rafael Duran Perez.

Jesus Adrian Romero

2007-06-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

Graton Labor Center Construction

2007-05-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

See more pictures

Volunteers will be needed throughout the summer to ready the new site for the Graton Day Labor Center. Give a couple of hours of your time this or any Saturday.

What's in your hand? By Rick Warren

2007-05-12T00:56:00.000-07:00

Graton

2007-04-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

See more pictures

Practice Resurrection

2007-04-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

"Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front"
(Collected Poems: 1957-1982 by Wendell Berry)

So, friends, every day do something,
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing....
Love someone who does not deserve it....
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias...
Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered the facts....
Practice resurrection.

Burbank Housing Fiestas

2007-03-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

Be sure to join us as we celebrate community with Burbank Housing. These are the dates:

Saturday March 31, Larkfield Oaks 12-3pm

Saturday April 7, Lavell Village 12-3pm

Living the Resurrection

2007-02-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

As we prepare for resurrection glory in the age of hype, nothing seems more contradictory than to speak about resurrection in the anti-climactic terms of awe (lack of understanding), meals (common place, humble feedings marked by encounter, hospitality and joy), and friends (what does that word mean in today's world, anyway?)

Eugene Peterson, pastor, professor, mentor and friend takes us on a journey through the reality of resurrection and the simplicity and everydayness of this glorious reality of new life in Jesus. Those expecting fireworks and dragons are left disappointed. But the simple souls that walk along a lonely road, those laboring the tangled nets and the ones sobbing at their own misery are perfectly situated to find the risen Christ there and then (here and now), as Messiah embraces humanity and elevates it to kingdom come.

Read this book and prepare your heart for a resurrection that doesn't wait for tomorrow.

Celebrating Community with Lavell Village

2006-12-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

On December 19 we kicked it up a notch with the Burbank Community of Lavell Village, where 50 families and 85 children live. At 12 noon the lively music and potluck gat things on the move, later followed by games, dancing and piñatas. Thanks go to Veronica Leyva and Carmelita at Burbank Housing management for making this possible, and to Kristina at the Volunteer Center for providing toys for each one of the resident children here. Back to the dance floor. Macarena, anyone?

Shining Star GRATON

2006-12-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all for participating in small and big ways to make our community stronger. Last Saturday, through the rain and wind about 20 volunteers partnered with Thirft Store owner Elaine Neiswender to serve the community of Graton with food bags. You can visit Elaine during her weekly food distributions every Thursday, 10-11am Bilingual volunteers are always needed.

Family Camp and Baptisms

2006-09-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Last Labor Day Weekend The Bridge celebrated with Family Camp and Baptisms in the Russian River. Congratulations to Hector and Clara Magaña and Victor Manieri Jr. on their baptism.

City Kids Festival

2006-08-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to so many of you who came out and supported the work of the Redwood Gospel Mission at their annual Julliard Park festival. Also, thanks to those who came out to say hi. It was good to see you all. Many kids were blessed and as followers of Jesus, we were doing what we are created for, love God and love God's children.

The Bridge Begins

2006-07-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

During the summer months of 2006, a small group of people were called by God to begin a new kind of church community where everyone is welcome, no matter where you come from or where you've been. July was HOT! but we survived it. After weeks of searching for identity and a place to hold worship services, God confirmed the vision for an urban multicultural church in the city of Santa Rosa. The rest is history.

God@Graton

2006-06-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

Please remember to pray for the work of God in the town of Graton. Pray for my friend Davin Cardenas, Work Coordinator for the Centro Laboral de Graton.