Real Good Courage - The Westwood Podcast

Did the disciples think that climbing the mountain for the Transfiguration was going to be the peak experience for which they had been waiting? Jesus underwent a transformation, the disciples awoke and saw him talking to Elijah and Moses. Although they thought they were at the end of their journey, God spoke and said ‘This is my Son, listen to him’. And then Jesus took them off the mountain. Away from the small community at the mountain top where the disciples may have thought that they would worship, and back into the messy, chaos of daily life. And yet that is where we need to be, not safe in our close community, but focusing on the larger community around us.

This message comes from Pastor Sarah. Our Gospel Lesson is from Luke, Chapter 9, verses 28-36. 

What are those gifts that God has given to bring to our community? We all hold these gifts.  How does our Christ-centered community transform those gifts. In that community, some gifts are not superior or inferior, they are all of the same importance. We all should show up, but allow others to lead as well.

So we ask God transform us and how he wants us to use our gifts and allow the rest of our community to shine as well.

This message comes from Pastoral Intern Aaron. Our scripture reading comes from Paul's letter to theRomans Chapter 12, verses 1-8

How do different definitions of belonging affect our understanding of community?

Peter Block offers three different definitions:

  1) To be connected to one another

  2) To belong to community is to act as a creator or co-owner

  3)  Belonging can be a longing to be in community where our longing is fulfilled

God tells us that grace is at the center of belonging  - through that grace we are no longer strangers and aliens; but now are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

 

This message comes from Pastor Jason. Our scripture reading comes from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 2, verses 8-10 and 19 - 22.

While we can live many parts of a good life on our own, to follow Jesus, you need others in your journey. Jesus only established community through common experience - teaching, living in community, sharing food and fellowship, The disciples were perfectly united as a community. During that time, Jesus primary message was reiterated time after time:  Love your neighbor as yourself; love one another as I have loved you.  He just wanted to make sure that they knew that after his death His disciples and all followers were and are responsible for others.

Jesus trusted the flawed disciples, and us too, to spread His Word to the world. How we live that calling is our surest testimony of His love for others.

Today's message comes from Pastor Sarah. The gospel reading is from John, Chapter 17, verses 20 - 26.

Martin Luther King's vision of a 'Beloved Community was a society where all people are treated with justice, equality, goodwill and reconciled throught the power of God's Love. Pastor Jim Bear Jacobs asked a prescient question: "What is community when we are a society that is so individualistic?" What do we mean by community? When we use it do we use it in the same way?

Our message today comes from Pastor Jason. The Gospel Lesson is from Luke, Chapter 10 Verses 25-37.

Food is a source of sustenance for all, and a pleasure for many. However, it can be expensive and hard to come by for some in our community, country and world. 

This message comes from Pastor Sarah. Today she interviews Todd Western, a local farmer addressing the needs of North Minneapolis, and Andrew Holmberg, a General Manager for a large family owned grocer in the Twin Cities.  Our Gospel message is from Matthew, Chapter 15, verses 32:38. Our scripture lesson is from Psalm 104.

What is the purpose of a creed or ‘I Believe’ statement?

Where creeds overlap, you find companions for the journey. Creeds can unite us, but they can also divide. Some attempts to rewrite the Apostles’ Creed help us understand who God is and can change both our view of the world, and God.

Paul saw the shrines to the unknown god in Athens as misguided. Our God is known, and close. Not far away, distant emotionally or unknown. His message to the Athenians suggests that we should embrace those around us while hewing to the bible’s teachings. God made this earth spacious for all living creatures., human and otherwise.

Because we trust in God, and we are created by God, we can peel back the layers and more fully understand.

This message comes from Pastor Sarah. Our New Testament Lesson comes from Acts, Chapter 17, verses 16-28.

 

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette provides a restated creed:

I believe in God the Father, the Almighty God above, Maker of the earth and heaven which were formed in God’s great love.

And in Jesus, loving Jesus, God’s own Son, who makes us new. This the creed of generations, is the faith for our church too.

Jesus by God’s Holy Spirit was so wondrously conceived, Born unto the Virgin Mary, who your promises believed.

Jesus suffering under Pilate, on a cross was crucified. Soldiers mocked hi, friends denied him; he hung there until he died.

So it was, our Lord was buried, in a borrowed tomb he lay. To the dead he then descended, where was joy on earth that day?

There’s more to God’s great story: In three days he rose again. He ascended into heaven and he sits at God’s right hand.

I believe what God has promised: Christ will come as he has said. He will judge the nations’ peoples, both the living and the dead.

I believe God’s Holy Spirit makes the church one family. We’re surrounded by God’s people, saints who in our Lord believe.

I believe that God forgives us for the times we turn away, And that God will raise our bodies on that resurrection day.

We rejoice that we’ll live forever, singing praise to God’s great name. This the creed of generations is the faith that we proclaim.

 

This message is on the third article of the Apostles’ Creed, and we focus on the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Resurrection of the body can be the cornerstone of faith. The through line of our theology is that the body is central to our understanding of our existence in Christ. Scripture is full of creation words.

Creeds struggle to get things right about what they believe. Gnosticism would have us believe tht the true self is spirit and soul. Not the physical being. Much of our theology is about escaping from the body. The creed talks about the creation as an important component of our belief.

The creed does not tell us that humans are spiritual only. To the contrary, our bodies are clothed in Christ, and this informs us and guides our actions. Why does this matter? Because we don’t just exist, we profoundly matter in God’s plans.

Today’s message comes from Pastor Jason. Our New Testament Lesson comes from Romans Chapter 8 ,Verses 22- 25.

Our second reading is from Revelations, Chapter 21, Verses 1 - 5.

 

Masai Creed

We believe in Creator, Father-Mother Spirit, who called the world and all that is in it. Into being, who spoke the creative-forming wor, and all came father who created women and men and set them free to live in love. In obedience to the will of supreme love and in community with all.

We believe in Creator, Son and Brother, who, because of love beyond our understanding, love for creation, entered the world to share our humanity, to rejoice and despair; ate set before us the paths of life and death, and walk them with us; to be rejected and die, but to finally conquer death and bind the world to himself for all time.

We believe in Creator, In-Dwelling Spirit, who invites us into community., that we my thought faith and that community of oneness, experience uplifting and sustaining grace; that we may fulfill our human responsibility reach out to our neighbor, whoever that may be; that we may rejoice in the constant nature of creation and wondrous joy of life itself.

We believe in Creator, whose word teaches us that all things grow together, the Circle of Life; that the paths of life and death, good and evil, too often come together, that choices are not clearly defined; but that we confidently and responsibly tread the path we choose and only the true One can be our judge. We believer in Creator, who is present and working in this world through all creation.

AMEN.