Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Monday Morning Remix: Matt. 11:1-15

On Sunday, Matt. 11:1-15 was presented to our community as God's challenge to us to develop ears that hear when confronted with the unexpected.

Let me summarize the message:
>For John the Baptist, he was confronted with Jesus living out an unexpected form of Kingship (or, an unexpected way of being the Christ or Messiah).

>Jesus confronted the crowds with the unexpected nature of the Kingdom of God: Even its greatest prophets, who announce the coming of the LORD, are not as great as the least in the Kingdom of God.

>For my friend Brandon, he was confronted with the unexpected employment of roofing, away from church ministry.

>All of them had to face God's challenge to develop ears that hear. Would John stick with this Messiah and be blessed (11:6)? Would the crowds accept the presence of God in their midst in the form of a seemingly powerless prophet (11:14)? Would Brandon hear the call of God to be light in a dark community?

What resonated with you? What other takes are there on this passage? What confrontations with the unexpected have you had that would be appropriate to share?

Monday, August 28, 2006

Introducing Monday Morning Remix

Scripture reading must be a communal effort. Talking with Jim Crenshaw yesterday, he suggested doing a post-sermon response. I have tried engaging with more people prior to the sermon, but his suggestion will hopefully close the circle: The sermon will be formed by and then considered by our community as a community. In my opinion, the sermon should be an introduction of God's Word to our community that we then dialogue and work through over the remaining week. Rather than the spiritual week ending on Sunday, let's pray we can recover Sunday as the beginning of the week and God's Word being that which sustains us all week.

So, here's the first installment of Monday Morning Remix, the opportunity to kick around, think through, disagree, affirm, implicate, etc. God's Word that was brought on Sunday. Too many efforts in Scripture reading have been dragged down by being overly serious and (gasp!) boring. The main rule for this effort is to have fun! :)

Aaron