Podcasts about 2then jesus

Find us online at: AdventNYC.orgEmail us at: Podcast@AdventNYC.orgTalk with us at: Advent Sermons & Conversations on FacebookCome to a service and hear the sermons live and in person Sunday morning 9am and 11am in English and 12:30pm in Spanish at 93rd and Broadway.Readings for This Week:First Reading: Daniel 12:1-3The book of Daniel is an example of apocalyptic literature, which is full of strange visions and symbolism. Arising during times of great persecution, apocalyptic literature is concerned with God’s revelation about the end time and the coming kingdom of God, when God will vindicate the righteous who have been persecuted.1“At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”Psalm: Psalm 16My heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; my body shall rest in hope. (Ps. 16:9)1Protect me, O God, for I take ref- | uge in you;  I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good a- | bove all other.” 2All my delight is in the godly that are | in the land,  upon those who are noble a- | mong the people. 3But those who run after | other gods  shall have their troubles | multiplied. 4I will not pour out drink offerings | to such gods,  never take their names up- | on my lips. R 5O Lord, you are my portion | and my cup;  it is you who up- | hold my lot. 6My boundaries enclose a | pleasant land;  indeed, I have a | rich inheritance. 7I will bless the Lord who | gives me counsel;  my heart teaches me night | after night. 8I have set the Lord al- | ways before me;  because God is at my right hand, I shall | not be shaken. R 9My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spir- | it rejoices;  my body also shall | rest in hope. 10For you will not abandon me | to the grave,  nor let your holy one | see the pit. 11You will show me the | path of life;  in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for- | evermore. RSecond Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14 [15-18] 19-25Images of worship and sacrifice are used throughout Hebrews to highlight what Christ has uniquely accomplished through his death. Because we have received forgiveness through Christ’s death, we live with sincere hearts by trusting in God’s promises and encouraging love and good works from each other.11Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” 14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. [15And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 16“This is the covenant that I will make with them  after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts,  and I will write them on their minds,”17he also adds,  “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.]   19Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.Gospel: Mark 13:1-8In the last week of his life, Jesus warned his disciples concerning trials that were to come upon them and upon the world. He exhorts the listener: Do not be alarmed.1As [Jesus] came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”  3When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

The scripture readings for this Sunday, November 11, were Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 and Mark 12:36-44. Rev. Laura Mayo have the proclamation. The text has also been included below. #TheseAreOurSacredStories I finished proofing the final copy of my article for the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, but on Thursday morning I learned that to twelve more people were gunned down, I wanted to edit what I had written to include them. Because I used the word slaughtered to describe what happened to the eleven Jews in their temple and the word murdered to describe another gunman’s attack on two African-American grandparents, I needed a different verb and thus my use of the thesaurus. I looked up alternative words for slaughter this week: I was out of words. I feel like I am all out of words. There are not enough thesauruses in the world for what is happening in our country. And I cannot be silent. You cannot be silent. We must find the words, find the actions, find the courage to demand that gun violence in our country stop. We must demand that it stop with our voices as we call and write our elected officials and even if we feel like it’s not doing any good we say that we will not tolerate assault rifles in the hands of civilians; that we will not tolerate the lack of background checks and waiting periods; that we are not willing to live with mass shootings as the status quo.   This is a public health crisis. We must demand over and over and over that we pass universal background checks. Demand that we close the private sale loophole. Demand that we reinstate the ban on the purchase and sale of assault weapons. 12,504 people were shot at killed by a gun so far this year. 24,284 were injured. 3,002 of those slaughtered were under 18 years of age (including two 15 year old Lamar High School students who were killed with a gun this week). The overwhelming majority of these lives would have been saved with effective gun control. We know that this is so, because, in societies that have effective gun control, people rarely, rarely, rarely die of gunshots. The states with strong gun laws have fewer gun murders (and suicides and accidental killings) than states with lax laws. We cannot listen to those who, as the death toll mounts, say that this is an impossibly hard, or even particularly complex, problem. We cannot listen to pronouncements that more guns will make us safer. We cannot let NRA money write the narrative. We must open our eyes. This is just what Jesus asks of us in today’s lection: that we see, that we refuse the status quo, that we topple the oppression of the domination systems. “Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.43Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:41-44). I typically write proclamations on Thursday. This means that after my trip to the thesaurus for another word for slaughter, I turned my attention to our sacred stories for this week. As I reread Mark, several things began to take on a different light. I have exclusively heard this passage as a way to induce guilt such that congregants will give more to stewardship or capital campaigns. I have heard this woman’s story reduced to a moral time and time again - she gave all she had, surely you can give a little more . . . But such exploitation is not why Jesus invites us to see her. I wish I knew her name. Instead of her name, we are given her status: to be a widow in first century Palestine was to be a woman living on the margins of society. She had no safety net: no husband to advocate for her, no pension to draw from, no social status to speak of. She was vulnerable in every single way. Two pennies short of the end. And she gave those away. Are we really meant to applaud a destitute woman who gave her last two cents to the Temple, and then slipped away to starve? She gave all she had to live on - her whole life. “Why? Asks Biblical scholar Karoline Lewis, “Out of obligation? Respect? Demand? Expectation? Religiosity? Piety? All of the above? She gave her whole life because there were no other options. She gave her whole life because that’s what was expected of her. She gave her whole life because her life depended on it. Caught in a system of quid pro quo, trapped in expectations that demanded more from her than she could practically give, knowing that her future depended on her present, she had to do what she did. She acted out of assumptions and assertions and assessments that located her, managed her, and determined her life. There was no other recourse than to give her whole life.” To be clear, very clear: this is not an indictment against Judaism. Set this story in any cathedral, in any institution that should care for the poor but instead devours them. As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the religious leaders, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation” (Mark 12:38-40).  The religious leaders devour the widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers while the widow, after her offering, is left with only her prayers to devour; she has no money for food. And Jesus asks us to see it - Jesus doesn’t say we should offer her our thoughts and prayers - he says the religious leaders offering long prayers while participating in oppression and injustice will be condemned. This passage is located on the Tuesday of the last week of Jesus’ life. Jesus has been offering one scathing critique after another of the economic and political exploitation he witnessed all around him. On Sunday Jesus made a mockery of Roman pomp and circumstance with his protest march through Jerusalem. On Monday he took a whip into the house of worship and turned over the tables of the money changers bringing the business of the temple to a halt; He shouts: God’s house is to be a house of prayer but you have made it a safehouse for your oppression and injustice and this will not stand. Jesus seeks to end the collaboration between the religious leaders and Roman imperial control. Jesus points out the religious leaders’ hypocrisy again and again: our hypocrisy - we cannot make this about them and not us. Long prayers offered for show while widows’ houses are devoured.   And here is a widow now. Look at her. See her. Jesus invites the disciples - invites us to open ourselves to this widow. Jesus demands we watch her give her life away. She is not a stewardship sermon. Jesus never commends the widow; he doesn’t applaud her self-sacrifice; he never suggests we should follow in her footsteps.   Jesus asks us to see her: When I say you devour widows’ houses, this is what I mean. This is what you do. Look at her. Be a witness to her devouring - and worse to her participation in her own devouring. No one makes her give the last of her resources. This is the story of the televangelist begging for a new jet who takes the last of the elderly couple’s savings and then refuses to help when there’s no money for medicine. This is the swirl of religiosity and NRA money that has Christians believing there is nothing to be done about the public health crisis caused by guns; and worse has them participating in their own devouring as they vote time and again for people who care more about money than human lives. Lest you think this cannot be what Jesus meant, lest you think all those stewardship sermons were right on, consider Jesus’ next words: As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mark 13:1-2). It is time to take back this sacred story. It is time to take back every narrative that preserves the status quo rather than justice. We must, as Jesus did, call out any form of religiosity that manipulates the vulnerable into self-harm and self-destruction. Jesus sees the widow. Jesus' eyes are ever on the least, the insignificant, the hidden. Jesus holds up children, women, the vulnerable time and time again and asks us to see, to welcome, to love, to care.  And here, just before his own death, he asks for more than sight, more than welcome, more than love, more than care -- he asks us to see the damage of the domination systems, to know that they cannot continue to stand - “not one stone will be left here upon another” - and calls us to work for change; to upend the status quo; to build the kingdom not of money, not of collaboration with the oppressors .  . . No, we are called to build the realm of God. The widow allows the last scraps of her security to fall out of her palm. She is not an object lesson. She is a prophet: her life and her coming death speak a holy denouncement of injustice and corruption. Without speaking a word, she proclaims God's Word in the ancient tradition of Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, and Amos - words like: "The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders: It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?' declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty" (Isaiah 3:14-15).   Are we willing to see those being devoured by our domination systems? Are we willing to call bluff on the common narrative?  Can we see the widow? Can we see the thousands slaughtered by guns? Can we work and work and speak and march and demand change? The widow doesn’t need our thoughts and prayers she needs the system to change. Amen. - Rev. Laura Mayo

Laclede Community Church - Your mountain community church in Laclede, Idaho. An Exposition of Matthew 4:1-2Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become […] The post Matthew 4:1-2 | Training Day appeared first on Laclede Community Church.