Manna and Coffee

Amos 7-8 provide significant images of what God measures and why it matters. Let us have ears to hear. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

This chapter gives us, in essence, a woe to those who pursue comfort and wealth at the expense of justice and service. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Introduction to our 30 days in the minor prophets --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

It takes time, but Jesus declaration that the Good News would move outwardly from Jerusalem to Samaria and the ends of the Earth occurs. Jesus earliest followers may not initiate that move, but they certainly participate in it. How else can you respond with the Good News takes hold in “unexpected” places. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

How does a community unify, and are we up for the price tag such unity comes with? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Introduction to the book of Acts as we begin a 31 day reading schedule through the book. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

On, “I don't know the man,” and why Peter was right --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

The disciples see a despicable act. Jesus sees the one act of understanding and comfort he'll get before his crucifixion. What do we see when we read Mark 14:3-9 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Why are we so worried about who's in and who's out, and our standing in the “in” group? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

The podcast is getting a bit of a revamp and, while I hope that all listeners will continue to benefit, I'm going to allow the daily bible reading program I've developed for our church family here at Northside to set the agenda for each episode. From the daily reading schedule, “21 Days in Mark,” I offer reflections on a short segment from today's reading. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

The rich man in Mark 10 is very interested in God but remarkably disinterested in discomfort or risk. Often we make the same decisions for the same reason. While money is certainly central to his story and he, in his actions, declares his allegiance to it, it is not only about money. It is also about the comfort, security, familiarity, power, and influence his wealth has afforded him. He just can't risk it. How often do we rest on our comforts and securities and familiarities instead of stepping in faith into the challenges and risks is brings? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

No less a follower of God than John the Baptist looked at Jesus' early resume and sent students to him to ask “Is it really you? Or Should I be looking for another?” The church, by discouraging questions and doubts along the way, has failed the seekers and cynics among its numbers. But John is one of them. Both his expectations and his present circumstances cause him to view Jesus' early ministry in a way that leaves him unconvinced. But instead of ridiculing or rejecting John for his trepidation, Jesus embraces it, answers it, and then celebrates John the question-asker as a faithful prophetic giant. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Brennen Manning's well-known quote about the largest contributor to atheism in our world no doubt has its roots in scripture. As uncomfortable as that quote is for us who are guilty of its crimes, Jesus teaching in Luke 18 is not less comforting. Perhaps the most ignored step in a faithful pursuit of God is the step of honest self-reflection. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

He needs help. They know it. They don't care. His need is completely secondary to whatever it is they want at the moment. This vague synopsis could describe all sorts of interactions in our lives and the lives of those around us. Mark 10 tells the story of a man in need of healing and a crowd of Jesus' followers shouting him down. You'd like to think they'd know better, but the selfishness Jesus has called them away from still holds strong. What can we learn from this story? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

In Luke 12, the parable of the Rich man is sandwiched between two teachings of Jesus on greed and worry. This is not accidental. The words “Don't chase after what you will eat and what you will drink” inform us that when Jesus speaks of worry here, he has in mind the type of worry that hijacks our consciousness of others, causes us to store up for ourselves instead of caring for others. In that way, worry is its own type of greed. In a nation of storage buildings, we probably know more as much or more about storing up than we do sharing, and this passage should give us pause as to how we function in the world. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Certainty drives many of the Pharisees and legal scholars of Jesus day to oppose him. They've got the answers sorted, and any questions they might have certainly can't be answered by the lowly Jesus, a radical rabbi from sticks. It is their certainty that keeps them from getting what Jesus is really doing. Honestly, though, the same is true for Jesus' closest followers. Once they decide he's the messiah, they know with absolute certainty what it means. Peter, so certain that the messiah is a warrior-priest who will reestablish God's kingdom in a physical sense on earth, whips out a sword in the garden and fires the first (and only) shot in the Battle of the Garden. His certainty was no more well founded than that of the Pharisees- both misled in different ways by what they already “know” to be true. So, how are you doing the same thing? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Culturally speaking, our conversations around greatness almost always involve a measurement of achievement. Who has “accomplished” more. More championships, more awards, more records, etc. When Jesus' disciples ask him about greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven, however, none of this measuring sticks show up. What might happen if we learned to measure and pursue greatness on the terms that Jesus offers? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

I imagine the people of Israel celebrated the prophet Amos' early proclamations against their enemies. Who doesn't like it when those obviously-more-evil-than-I people on the other side of the fence “get theirs.” I imagine they are less comfortable when they become the ones on the receiving end of the proclamation of judgment. How is it that we so easily blind ourselves to our own injustices while calling out the injustices of others? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

We like our comfort. So much so that we tell ourselves stories that help bring about our comfort. We're alright. We're doing what we are supposed to. Sure there are problems, but since I'm not powerful, I can't really do much. I'm good. Isaiah's audience told themselves comfortable narratives about their religious practices too. They did so while turning a blind eye to the injustice around them. At its root, comfort-seeking is self-oriented, not neighbor-oriented. Isaiah's message, echoed by Jesus a several centuries later, is that self-oriented comfort narratives are opposed to God's work of justice. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Some of my favorite verses in all of scripture come from Isaiah 43. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine.” But these words are not spoken by a person with no reason to fear. A prophet in captivity has little voice, less influence, and no power. Nor does prophetic calling spare them from hardship. Yet Isaiah, while in captivity in a foreign land, imagines a future where the God of Israel redeems and rescues. These words can only be spoken from a place of hope. Indeed, Isaiah shows us what it looks like to put more stock in our hope than we do our circumstances. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Jesus' teaching on loving our enemies may be the most important teaching for our time. We are surrounded by would-be enemies, and find ourselves bombarded daily with reasons to hate anyone and everyone who doesn't think exactly like we do. But being “right” is a game trail that takes us off on our own way. Jesus invites us to skip the game trail and follow him. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Listen --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

For some reason, many of us find judgement to be a more natural reaction than compassion. The problem is that, to be a Christian is to pass on the compassion we have received, and though we no doubt want to do so, it can be difficult. Sometimes we, like Peter, look for guidelines so that we can know where we stand. Jesus responds to Peter's question about a limit to forgiveness with a parable that emphasizes compassion as something worth passing on. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Sometimes the things we know prevent us from recognizing the opportunities to grow, even when they literally smack us in the back of the head. Peter requires a repeated message from heaven and a conversation with another who had the same experience in order to reach a moment where he can begin to see that perhaps there is a gap in his understanding. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Jesus uses two parables to describe the Kingdom of God in which the initial "offering" is small; a tiny seed and a dash of yeast. And yet, in both cases, the outcome is something much greater. Both the initial images have much greater influences than their visible properties would suggest. I suggest that one takeaway is that, while it is tempting to look for big moments and big events to be a part of, what we end up missing is the small, everyday opportunities to serve that carry far more influence than we might initially imagine. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 casts a vision for a life lived faithfully. Right smack in the center of it, Jesus declares that it is our perspective that must shift in order to make any of this possible --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

8th Century Israelites were experiencing the most comfortable, successful existence they could have imagined. Their neighbors had weakened, the empires to their Northeast (Assyria) and Southwest (Egypt) were in slumps and they controlled a large portion of the major regional trade route. Life was good. Unfortunately, they missed their failures because of their certainty that the good things they were receiving had been earned by their faithfulness to God. Its a lie human beings often tell themselves- do good, get good; do evil, get evil. It is as if we assume a relationship with the Divine is a transaction-based system yielding earthly benefits. The danger in functioning that way is that we blind ourselves to authentic service in the kingdom of God because we are most concerned with our earthly situation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

I am of the opinion that the problem with most of American Christianity is that it has lost of heart of the good news of Jesus. We, instead, have replaced the spirit of Christianity with an ethical code of do's and don'ts that completely miss what it means to be transformed by the spirit of God. Philippians 2 offers an image of what it looks like to live a transformed life. It starts by giving up the certainty that "I know what's best" for me and for others, and discovering that faithful living is found in service and sacrifice. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Nathaniel, when told by his good friend Phillip that he has found The Messiah, the one promised by Moses and the prophets, reacts in disbelief. His disbelief, however, isn't because the claim is farfetched. Many people during that time were looking and hoping for the promised one. Instead, the disbelief is generated by one word; "Nazareth." Nothing good comes from there. Nathaniel nearly misses a chance to walk with Jesus because of a built-in prejudice. Are we really any different? What have we missed out on because of our base-level reactions against others? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

James and John, two of Jesus' early close followers, respond to the sting of rejection with a destructive wish rooted in “faith.” Such faith is really faith in our own worldview, our own understanding of who is good and who is evil, our views which are ultimately a product of our setting, culture, experiences, childhood, etc. Often, those aspects of life are what we truly have faith in, and we act from that place instead of from holy compassion. But Jesus takes the people James and John most hate and and tells a story in which the enemy is the hero and role model. What might happen if we learned to tell stories where our most antagonistic enemies are actually people we strive to be? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

Today on the podcast we reflect on the hubris of assuming we have all the answers and know exactly how everything should be. Habakkuk makes a solid reference point. His initial reaction to God's plan for intervention is rejection: No thanks, God, we're good how we are. By the end of Habakkuk's three chapters, he's still not happy. He's not "on-board." But he is willing to hope anyway. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

In Luke 14, Jesus asks a group of Jewish legal scholars to weigh in on whether or not healing is an appropriate and legal Sabbath activity. The legal scholars offer silence as the answer, Jesus heals the man in front of him who is suffering from an edema, and then provides the people around him an opportunity to recognize that minimizing suffering and saving life is always appropriate sabbath activity. The challenge, though, is learning to value the humanity in others more than you value being “right.” --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message

A short reflection on chaos and calm, a Jesus who can calm storms (but doesn't always do so), and what it means to ourselves be words of peace in the midst of the wind and rain --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/henry-holub/message