Each year, most everyone looks forward to Christmas because of the promise this season holds. From the music, to the lights, to the decorations, to our worship during this season, there just often seems to be something a little extra in the air. And yet, this season also contrasts with the brokenness of our lives, our families, our world. For many, there’s a sense that we know we should feel something magical this season, but that magic seems just a little bit harder to find with each passing year. What happened to the promise of the season? What actually does Christmas promise? As we work through this series this Advent, we will see how Christmas has already fulfilled God’s promises of hope, love, joy, peace and new life… and how those promises are yet still to be fulfilled.

 

There are some things in life that seem so obvious, we shouldn’t have to ask. But then we have kids, and they start asking “why” about everything. In fact, An average four-year old child asks 437 questions a day, and I’m pretty sure 400 of those are ‘why’. It’s after the 137th ‘why’ that we realize we don’t know nearly as many whys as we think we do. And that’s even more the case when we’re talking about the church and our faith. Why do we exist as a church? What are we supposed to do? Well, our “why” is printed on the cover of our bulletin and on our website homepage. “We exist to experience and share the love of God in order to transform our homes, our community and our world.” But, what does that mean? Over the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about it.

 

As long as humans have had money and possessions, we’ve struggled with balance and health.  Many today seem to think that the economic and consumerist challenges we face right now are unique to our age and time.  And yet, as long as there has been currency and possessions, we have struggled to handle those things appropriately.  It truly is a tale as old as time.  And so, we will look to ancient wisdom to guide us through these modern times.  There are few places better to find such wisdom than the book of Proverbs, written by the wisest of the wise, King Solomon himself.

 

It seems as if the pace of our lives is only getting fast and faster. We measure value and importance based on busy-ness and hurrying. Even our vacations are packed full of activity. When we do rest, it rarely leaves us refreshed and restored. Perhaps surprisingly, the concept of rest is one of the dominant themes in Scripture, and one of the greatest promises made to those who put their faith in Christ. So maybe its fitting that we’re starting a series on rest on Labor Day Weekend. Through this series, we’ll explore what it means to truly rest.

 

Often, usually without realizing it, we add things to our faith.  We start to think that it’s “Jesus and…”  As Eugene Peterson writes, “in our time it is more likely to be Jesus and politics, or Jesus and education, or even Jesus and Buddha. This letter deletes the hyphens, the add-ons. The focus becomes clear and sharp again. God’s action in Jesus. And we are free once more for the acts of faith, the one human action in which we don’t get in the way but on the Way.” This summer, we’re going to get back to Always Only Jesus, with the book of Hebrews as our guide. We’ve all added on to our faith, probably without even realizing it. Let’s shed the extra baggage and get back to living the free and light life of faith Jesus died to bring us.

 

Have you noticed how our world and our culture seems like a ship at sea without a compass or a rudder? Not only do we not know which way to go, we seem unable to go anywhere in an intentional manner. And this isn’t just true culturally, it’s true in the church as well… and in many respects our lives feel the same way. The virtues and values that guided us in the past don’t seem to be helpful now, and we wonder how to find our way forward. For Paul and the apostles, the Cross provided the way forward for every though, every action, every belief they held. It was both the map and the objective. In the weeks to come, we’ll see how the Cross molds our understanding of the Seven Virtues

 

We often think about the questions we have of God, but don’t often think as much about the questions God asks of us. It turns out God asks a lot of questions to us in the Bible. Through these questions we learn a lot about God and even more about ourselves.

 

Today we begin a new series, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church. We’re keying off the ideas in the book of the same name by Reggie McNeal. As we continue navigating these strange and uncertain times, it is right and good to figure out what lies before us and how we are going to get there. The six questions we’ll be asking over the course of this series will help us prepare to join God in the work he is already doing in and around us.