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"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." 

LIsten as Pastor Adam concludes our series on Faith and Politics. 

In this week's installment of our faith and politics series, elder Gerald walks through the history of American politics and their intersection with the Christian faith. 

The current scene with faith and politics can be draining and discouraging. Today we talk about how to maintain the Gospel's hope in what often seems a hopeless conversation. 

We open up our series on Faith and Politics painting the larger picture. What are the two worlds of faith and politics? How do they intersect? How should they intersect? And how should a Christian go about answering these questions? 

Our culture is big on five year plans. But how does that square with God's plan for our lives? What does it mean to look to His will over our own? We address these questions in this week's message. 

We all struggle admitting we're wrong. But confession lies at the heart of Christianity. Instead of silencing the prophets, may we make space in our lives to hear what God has to say to us through them. 

sermons that inspire and teachings that deepen your understanding of God's Word

Micah 6:88 He has told you, O man, what is good;and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God? Speak-We encourage our members to be a blessing to guests, for we want them to experience the welcome of Christ through our welcome. One great way to do it is to come early.IntroWe are in a new series because we fully embrace the fact that we have four diverse and different voicestelling the gospel story. This is truly unique about the heart of the Christian message, that the message itself embodies the message. The message that all are welcome, is itself said in four different voices.So we have a team of preachers. And to be open to different voice means to be open to different ways of preaching. So we got together and said, how should we prepare for the next series.And Gerald told us about how in his tradition, the preacher selects every Sunday.So we agreed. And I though this should be easier. But it isn’t. I really like having a series planned out. But there is a real leaning on the Spirit that happens with this type of preaching.So I prayed, listened, and prayed and listened and nothing! So do I go up and say I got nothing from the Lord and have nothing to give.But that wouldn’t work. So I prayed and listened. And I remembered what an old mentor of mine taught me. Sometimes the voice of God is the thought that occupies you.The best way to hear what the Spirit is saying to us is for me to hear what the Spirit is saying to me.And the thought that has been occupying me was this, “Man I did not know Justice mattered that much to God!” I really didn’t until I read through the book of Matthew together with you.I always knew Justice was something dear to God. I just never new how dear Justice was to God, that infact justice is essential to the gospel of Christ.That makes a difference, between importance and essential. When you are fixing something, and there is a part that might be important but not essential, that you can jettison. Like pasta. You can add garlic, I think that’s important. Like shrimp, I think that’s important, but not essential. But if you don’t have the sauce, you don’t have pasta. Pasts requires noodles and sauce.Justice is not just something important to have. Without it, you don’t have the gospel. Without justice you don’t have a church. You can’t just have justice. You have to have worship. Justice alone doesn’t make a church. Church is not just a social service. But Church is not just worship. Church is both.This is important because if justice is essential and I’m not doing it, than I might find myself in the wrong side of judgment. This is scary. We better be sure about this.I got this only as I was reading through Matthew 24, that scary passage where Jesus is letting it fly on the Pharisees. Remember that?Matthew 24:23-2423“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,#23:23 Greek tithe the mint, the dill, and the cumin. but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!First, I want to point out Jesus says tithe. From our leadership retreat one leader said pastor, why don’t you talk about tithing! So here I am, you see Jesus says tithe. Actually this is important. For us to work together. But that is not the point of the sermon.I don’t want to be a swallower of camels.Because the Pharisees had everything a good religious person needs to have. Yet, Jesus says you are missing one thing, and its crucial and because you don’t have it, you are more a child of hell than the pagans you try to convert.Remember the Great Commission?The obey all my commandments is what Jesus taught as recorded by Matthew and specifically the sermon on the mount.Matthew 5:3-123“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,#5:3 Greek poor in spirit.for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.4God blesses those who mourn,for they will be comforted.5God blesses those who are humble,for they will inherit the whole earth.6God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,#5:6 Or for righteousness.for they will be satisfied.7God blesses those who are merciful,for they will be shown mercy.8God blesses those whose hearts are pure,for they will see God.9God blesses those who work for peace,for they will be called the children of God.10God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.11“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. This is why its important to read a book in its entirety.Why we don’t get that justice is essential, what is justice, and how to practice justice.Why we don’t see Justice as Essential.Jesus shows us why we miss the whole point about justice. Because people don’t like to listen to prophets. People persecute prophets. Because prophets talk about justice. And justice requires, repentance, giving up of power, sacrifice. People like politicians. People hate prophets. People like pastors. People hate prophets.And so do most modern Christians. As Pharisees hated prophets, so modern Christians hate prophets. This is why most of us don’t read the prophets. We read the gospels, and that selective but we don’t read the prophets, and definitely not its entirety. When is the last time you read the prophet Isaiah? Or prophet Micah? Do you even know what was their main point?No, we don’t read them because now we have Jesus and Jesus makes all the prophets moot. He is the final prophet. Yes, but that finality is not erasing of the old, but making the prophets clearer.Jesus says not one iota will disappear.There are bibles that have just the gospel and the psalms. I know, the reason is function, because it has to be small. But if you ask any of our Christian fathers and mothers, they would say that is crazy. This is why they kept the Old Testament. In fact, for the first 100 years, when they said scripture they meant the Old Testament. The Old Testament and the oral stories of the apostles was enough to know who Jesus is.Also, Jesus was a prophet. If you want to understand Jesus, you have to hear the prophet. If you don’t hear the prophet, than what you going to do is make Jesus whoever you want him to be because he is no longer rooted in a tradition.In one sense you have to see Jesus through the prophets, not the prophets through Jesus. If you start with Jesus than you use your own ideas. If you start with the prophets, then you start with the tradition Jesus preaches from.It’s like a telescope. There are two lenses. Smaller and the bigger one, eyepiece and the objective lens. The smaller one is first, the larger one is the final one. You need both. The light comes through the big than the small, but you see through the small than the big. You reverse the order and everything is miniaturized. If you want to see farther, the order of the lens is important.So you read Matthew 24, he is echoing the prophets. It is his language.So let me read you Micah. And the main points of the message will come from that famous verse 6:8.Micah 6:88 He has told you, O man, what is good;and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God? But I want us to read it in its context.God is bringing a lawsuit against his people. What lawsuit? God’s people has broken the covenant. The Sinai covenant, to Mosaic covenant, the covenant that created Israel. Micah 6:1-81 Hear what the Lord says:Arise, plead your case before the mountains,and let the hills hear your voice.2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,and you enduring foundations of the earth,for the Lord has an indictment against his people,and he will contend with Israel.3 "O my people, what have I done to you?How have I wearied you? Answer me!4 For I brought you up from the land of Egyptand redeemed you from the house of slavery,and I sent before you Moses,Aaron, and Miriam.5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord."What Does theLordRequire?6 "With what shall I come before the Lord,and bow myself before God on high?Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,with calves a year old?7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,with ten thousands of rivers of oil?Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"8 He has told you, O man, what is good;and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God? What is the main thing?Well here it is. Guess who’s saying it? God. God is telling us about what’s most important about following God? Prophet Micah is relaying that. Kids Justice League of Nations Honestly, doesn’t this make the Christian life more exciting for the very fact that it is so challenging. But also because life here matters!Elina once asked –Eternal LifeI don’t want to live forever.So now a days I tell them you were born to do justice! -So I say to me kids you are alive to do the Justice of God.-So we are like Justice league-Yeah!-Then I need superpowers-You’ve got God, prayer, love-That’s too weak, I mean like Flash or Superman or like Batman.-Batman doesn’t have superpower.-Then how does he fight Superman-Superhero powers have to make things work What is JusticeRecognition of the divine image of Go

As we conclude our series on Matthew, we consider Jesus' command to take the kingdom principles espoused throughout Matthew's Gospel and share them with others. How do we fulfill this great commission? What does it look like to make disciples as Jesus asks? 

What do you do under pressure?

Matthew 23If there is a chapter in gospels that finally puts rest that image of Jesus as this soft, always smiling, hippie feel good teacher, it is this chapter. In this chapter his veins are popping, his throat is horse from shouting his judgment on the religious leaders. He is laying it on them thick.This is definitely one of those chapters you don't want to read it in its entirety because it is non-stop. It is like a mother's scalding that goes on for hours. Just when you think you mother's wrath has subsided and done, here comes another wave. And so it is with Jesus.And when you listen, you hear those fiery prophets of old, Jeremiah and Isaiah, those who warned the people of impending doom because Israel thought they were covered by their ethnicity, safe by their jewish citizenry, a gauranteed to be saved. They could do no wrong. And Isaiah and Jeremiah says, “Oh no, you did lot of wrong!”This is what Jesus is doing. The Pharisees though they were doing right by God, best they could, under Roman occupation, helping people to be faithful without being radicalized into zealots, a terrorist group.But Jesus looks at them and says, you got it all wrong. That hurts. When you are trying your best and still get it all wrong?The way Jesus lays it on the Pharisees is so painful, I was tempted to just read one of Jesus words of judgment. But I realized that if we are going to know Jesus as Jesus is, you have to hear this judgment. As hard as it is to hear, if we don’t hear it all, we won’t hear what he says at the end.Now to put it into the right context, two things to say before reading the scripture itself.First, Jesus judgment comes after the Pharisees were on the attack. The previous chapter, Pharisees are doing everything in their power, direct attack, secret traps, to get Jesus to disqualify himself. Jesus words does not come as a tit-for-tat. Jesus was not rolling up his sleeve and saying “that’s all you got, now it’s my turn.”Jesus words of judgment comes after the Pharisees have basically exposed themselves as sick.Jesus’ words is not a comeback of a vengeful leader. Jesus words is the truth of a doctor, the diagnosis of a sick soul and society. As hard as it is, we can’t talk about the cure until we talk about the disease. A band aide won’t do because we are not talking about a minor scrape, but a cancer of the soul and society.Second, the context of the whole Matthew gospel, who is telling us about the story of the King of the Jews. And what Jesus is doing here is playing an important role of a king, that of judgment.Remember. Jesus entered the city on a donkey just a few days ago, a symbol of a King who is returning not to conquer, a white horse, but to his own people, disrobed of the armor, and brining the peace he has created. And when the King comes back, he comes with judgment, to judge all the cases that have been piling up while he was away.One of the primary role of a king is judgement. He is one who declares what is right and wrong. The King, who is wise and just, because his calling is from God, will mete out the judgment of God's wisdom and justice. This was hardly the case for most kings. For most all kings were sinners and abused their powers. But this King is actually God, so his judgment is wise, fair and just.And the returning king judges his stewards. This is the world behind the parable Jesus often told, about the vineyard owner returning to his vineyard and judging the tenants.Well, this is the parable if flesh and blood. Jesus is a prophet, but he is the kingly prophet, and he judges.So are you ready for some judgment from Jesus? 23:1-41Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2“The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. 3So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. Now don’t let the word Pharisees throw you off. His judgment is not just for the professional religious. His judgment if for all Christians, who know God Word and rather than focusing on obeying it oneself, using it to judge others. More energy is spent on exposing the sins of others than on repenting of one’s own sins.Any one feel a pang of guilt from this. Good!5-125“Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. 6And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues.7They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’8“Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters9And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your Father. 10And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you must be a servant. 12But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  Religion used to create another pecking order. You are the bottom of the society, so come to church, get a title, be the first to be seated at the dining table, claim special knowledge of scripture, make everyone afraid to read bible on their own, or pray on their own. Make yourself a necessity.How can there be any hierarchy in the Christian family, when there is only one Father, God, and all of us, are brothers and sisters. How can a Christian bea master over another? How can a Christian think lower of other Christians?13-2413“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.15“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!16“Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ 17Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?18And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. 19How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it. 21And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it. 22And when you swear ‘by heaven,’ you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.23“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!All this is hitting to close to home.Jesus is judging how religion plays all these games of rule, how they argue about what is good and what is not good, about how to please God, all the while forgetting or ignoring about what really is good and matters to God’s heart.This is church dividing over whether to play tradition hymns or contemporary music. Over whether they should do lectionary preaching or thematic preaching.This occupies us. We make theology about why we do what we do. And in arguing about it, we really feel like we are doing something for God. I mean we are wrestling for truth right?Meanwhile, children die of starvation, teens commit suicide, families break apart, innocent people are getting killed and executed. People are dying because of hopelessness and injustice and we argue about doctrines?Have you heard about the argument about the argument over justification from the classical definition and new perspective?Big name theologians.I imagine them going up to heaven, and they meet Jesus and they are all so proud because they defended the truth, and say well Jesu I defended the classical theology of justification. And Jesus is going to look at them and say, “what are you talking about? I never heard that doctrine before.”Jesus isn’t saying don’t think things through. Of course we should. Jesus says go tithe. But here is something you and I cannot argue about. Practice justice , mercy and faith! 25-28 25“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.27“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. Jesus returns to what he first started with, Christians unwillingness to deal with their own crappy heart. This filthy heart of ours. Look how everything Romans do, you do in the pretense of religion.29-3629“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destro

We all instinctively desire to have more control over our lives. This, however, puts us at odds with Christ, who calls us to surrender all control to Him. In today's passage Pastor Adam looks at how Jesus confronts the idea of control in our lives, and invites us to take up Jesus' challenge to let Him, not us, be the one in authority. 

From an early age we're drawn to take ownership of things. The only problem is this impulse will continue to weigh us down in life, and undermine Christ's call to surrender all ownership to Him. How do we surrender that ownership? And is it worth it?

Matthew 17:1-81Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. 2As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. 3Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.4Peter exclaimed, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials17:4 Greek three tabernacles.—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”5But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” 6The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.7Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus.2 Peter 1:16-1816For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes 17when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”1:17 Matt 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35. 18We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.How wonderful it is to be in the inner circle. To have inside access.Not only is Peter one of the elected Jesus’ twelve out of thousand Jewish teens stretched their hands to get picked, he is also one of the three, in the inner, inner circle, the insider insider access.And this story of transfiguration is one of them.When Jesus said that morning, “Peter, James and John,” follow me up to Mount Horeb. Peter pumped his fist and said “sweet,” I’m going to come back with selfies with Jesus, post it to facebook, and show all the world how lucky he is and how unlucky the rest of the people who can only envy from distance.And he goes and it is actually more than he expected. Jesus keeps upping the ante. Jesus keeps outdoing himself. Healing, then walking on water, then feeding 5,000. But this, this is glorious, the only word for it!He sees Jesus in all his glory. His face like the sun, his robe suddenly bright white. And then, the Moses and Elijah! Hall of Famers! This is like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle gathered around a lecture room, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Lebron James in their prime in the same team.And there they are talking. And Peter thinks this is so great, he forgets that he wants to go down and show off. He just wants to stay there. He wants to forget the world and just live the rest of his life out here on the mountain top.It is an amazing experience Peter never forgets. In fact, Peter often talks about it. This is why the gospel writers have this story, because Peter told them. And he didn’t forget a single detail. But of all the amazing details of that experience, one detail sticks out most. It was what surprised him most.Read 2nd PeterOf all the things in the experience of the transfiguration, what sears Peter’s heart, what Peter sees is the whole point of that experience is the words of God to Jesus, words ofa Father to his Son, “This is my beloved Son who brings me great joy!”For the revelation of that transfiguration story is this word of a father to a son, in itself not supernatural, for after all it is words, it is relationship, it is about every human person because every person is a child with a father. And yet it is those words that is the miracle isn’t it. It is those words that are supernatural.I want us to consider those words today.First, it is because of those words that I trust this story.Because that is the last thing you expect when you are telling a story about the coming out of the Son of God.Transfiguration is the coming out of the Son of God. It happens right in the middle of Jesus’ story. Gets baptized, wilderness, then the mountain. These are very familiar themes.Cross the red sea, go up the mountain, then wilderness- that’s Moses.Desert- no rain, Rain – baptism, go up the mountain to meet God – ElijahHere is Jesus who is like Moses only greater. Who is like Elijah but greater.Moses and Elijah of great significance. As great a warrior as Joshua was, as great a king as David was, as wise as Solomon was, as poetic as Isaiah was, it wasn’t Joshua and Isaiah. It was Moses and Elijah.(As great as Larry Bird was, it’s Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, and sorry if that upset anyone).Because Moses was the great deliverer and the messiah was considered the next Moses who would deliver his people from tyranny.Elijah was considered the greatest prophet and messiah would be preceded by Elijah because Messiah would be the great Prophet who performs great miracles and brings the people back to God.And there is Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. Jesus is as great as them. He can hang with them. He can talk with them. But wait, not just as great, but greater. Because after a while Moses and Elijah are gone and there is only Jesus.Remember, just few weeks ago, Jesus started teaching the disciples that he is the messiah who must suffer. And the disciples are all confused. So here is a clear sign that Jesus is the messiah, and not just the messiah but the Son of God.But if I were making up the whole Jesus story, and if I needed to puff up his credentials, this is exactly what I would do, have Moses and Elijah show up and vouch for Jesus. After watching a Lord of the Rings movie few months ago, my son said to me, “In every hero movie there is always a mentor. Luke Skywalker has ObiWan, Harry Potter has Dumbledore, and Frodo has Gandalf. And the all the mentors has to die.” And then about a minute later, “and they all have to be white and old and have a beard.”You know you are watching a made-up story when the story you hear sticks closely to the pattern of the script.But what is unexpected, what is out of script, and so what convinces me this happened is the tender loving words of God to Jesus, of a father to his son. This I why it is the words that’s most important to Peter’s memory.God said in front of Jesus’s closest friends, “This is my beloved Son who brings me great joy.”What Peter didn’t expect was the creator God, God who has a history of bringing down the stick when necessary, Noah’s flood, Babylonian exile, would say words so fully affirming, something he always wished to hear from his father.All stories where God has children all end up being quite dysfunctional.So Chronos ate all his children.And Zeus was the most absentee father.Who is the buggar! That’s your son Zeus! Why is my wife Hera trying to kill him. Because he is your bastard. Yeah, uh, lets him outa bit.There is no other religion they could get this from. For all gods are so hungry for power they can never be so vulnerable as to confess their unconditional love like that.But here is God, the almighty one making himself all vulnerable. Because anyone who has ever confessed “I love you,” know that confession makes you completely vulnerable.Second, yet we continue to doubt these words. Tertullian said something interesting about Trinity. He said he believes it because it is so illogical. He says, if you want to make up a religion, than you make it as reasonable as possible. But to come up with this mathematical contradiction, three in one and one in three, only real experience can bring you to that.So because these words is the what you least expect God would say, so we know this is what really happened. Yet, it still doesn’t make it any easier for us to believe in the truth of those words. For what makes us not expect such words continues to create doubt in our heart.For in our life, we have never experienced such completely and unconditional affirmation.-I have.-Yeah, you mean when you were two.-I means as a baby, we receive so much affirmation. But as we get older, the affirmation lessens doesn’t it?-So much less, that we confused cause and effect and say, if we need such affirmation when we old, it means you are a baby. We think maturity is ability to live without affirmation because that is actually our reality.- How many of our fathers ever gathered your close friends and said, “This is my son, This is my daughter, my beloved and he gives me great joy,” not when you were two, not when you were 32 the probable age of Jesus at the transfiguration.-We live often under judgment. We feel we are judged by our peers, judged by our friends, judged even by our fathers and mothers. Indeed, they do judge us. I know because I’ve been judged by my father and I’ve judged as father. I don’t want to, but it comes out.When Ian was six, we joined a baseball league. During a game a boy missed a slow rolled grounder and I heard his father say, “What’s wrong with you?”I know he doesn’t mean that, but it is mere frustration. But I don’t think the kid can parse that.I swore I will never say that.Do you think I kept that promise? I regret that I have said it at least twice. I apologized immediately, but words are often like poison thrown in the water, you can’t retract all of it.We live as if we are constantly being judged.Even judged by the people we pass on the streets, the neighbors we meet walking our dogs. This is why in every passing, we pay attention to body language, who will say hi first, will they say hi back, who will move out of the way, all ways of us figuring out how we are judged and how we have to preemptively judge others so we won’t be judged.Even the most well intended parents, who mean to affirm us, cannot affirm us. Because they come back from world scarred with judgment.But having affirming parents are rare. Many of us come from broken families, where mothers hounded us, or left us, fathers hurt us or even sexually abus

It can be easy to shake our heads at how wrong those who waved the palm branches were about Jesus, but the truth is, we often aren't much different. How often are we crying out to God to save us with really no idea what that really means?

Matthew 15:1-201Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, 2“Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”3Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? 4For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16. and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ Exod 21:17 (Greek version); Lev 20:9 (Greek version). 5But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 6In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. Greek their father; other manuscripts read their father or their mother. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,8‘These people honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.9Their worship is a farce,for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ Isa 29:13 (Greek version).”10Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 11It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”12Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”13Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, 14so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”15Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”16“Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. 17“Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.18But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. 19For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.” IntroTraditions are everywhere. Traditions is simply set of practices pass down to us. For the most part we practice those traditions. Traditions serve many functions, one of them is building community.Consider one of the most American tradition. Watching the super bowl together as a family.It is a tradition. Because even if you don’t like football. Even if you don’t have the slightest clue why they call a game where it is all passing and running and occasionally kicking football, you still watch it.And what must you eat while watching the game?It’s tradition. It marks you as a sane American.Tradition is everywhere. Tradition is not in essence bad. But every tradition can potentially lead you to disobey God. That is the danger of tradition. That is the lesson of today’s story.Read Scripture Definition of Tradition – Set of behavior and rituals with an assumed worldview My first response to Peter is like Jesus. Wow Peter, how can you not get it. Jesus is teaching something real simple, something we all get immediatelybut Peter doesn’t. And we can feel good about ourselves and say we are not easily duped by tradition and then of course find ourselves actually to be exactly like Pharisees because we have failed to understand the power of tradition and it’s danger.Today I think if Jesus walked with us for a week or two and then asked him how he feels about what we are doing to uphold his commandments, and asked him to tell us honestly, I think Jesus would offend us. I think Jesus would question some of the traditions we practice and we would probably look at him and say, “what, no.”So let’s consider the power of tradition, it’s necessity, and why it can be dangerous.First, we all live in a stream of traditionThis is a simple obvious fact that all of us are born into a tradition.We are born into these traditions. We don’t pick and choose. We don’t choose what is most rational or most fun. We are simply born into it. And like a stream it is powerful. It is very difficult to not do it. Even if there is no real rule or law.Again. Consider superbowl. If you don’t go to it, you are a loner. What if I just don’t think football is that important. Now some of you are going to think I’m a total loser or some effeminate person.Or what about we don’t do thanksgiving. If I said I am not going to invite my families. My family is going to disown me. Why? There is no rule. But there is the force of tradition. Tradition is very strong.Tradition is useful because it helps create community.Tradition is a way to strengthen ties. It is how we emphasize and reconnect through what we share in common. It gathers us around a common practice. Thanksgiving tradition purpose is to gather all Americans in the act of thanksgiving. It is a call for American’s to recognize that their bountifulness is due to God. And it does exactly that. Families gather.Each college have traditions. It helps those students in the college to feel proud of their school, and in practicing that tradition one becomes not just a student body but a member of that college. And that tradition doesn’t just connect you to the students you are attending with, but with everyone else who went before. Tradition because it is something not new but old is the reason why it connects you through the generations.Tradition connects you to a community spatially but also temporally. It connects you through time.So the 4th of July connects you to those who fought for the independence of this country. You are not just remembering the sacrifice of the freedom fighters, you are joining them.This is why Peter is very worried about what Jesus did. He says to Jesus, did you know you upset the Pharisees. Basically you’ve been cut off from their community, and by implication any other villages who support Pharisees.Tradition is a way of knowingNow I said tradition is a set of habits and rituals. Though tradition’s main act are habits and rituals it’s aim is not just behavior. It’s aim is to shape your thinking your worldview. It aims to become your lens. All tradition aims to become the way of knowing. The behavior imposes certain world view.Superbowl. It is American to love football, inches and yards, not centimeters and millimeters like wimpy Europeans with their short wearing soccer craze.So we begin to return to our story. The Pharisees in enforcing the tradition is also trying to have people see people through defiled and undefiled, and those who have the tradition of washing, Jews, themselves, as undefiled.But it is not just enforcing an artificial way of knowing. The behavior also emerges from a certain form of knowing, namely seeing cleaning of hands as a cleaning of the soul.For us, we can’t see how one can connect defilement and hand. But that is only because weNow it’s difficult for us to see this tradition, this connection. You and I agree with this behavior but for different reasons. We have come to accept the tradition of science. That we have germs in our hands.We do not accept the underlying worldview. But their worldview was that defilement was a physical act. You touch holy things you become holy. You touch unholy things you become unholy.There is a remnant of this. When people believed if you touch Aids person, then you will get Aids. Now there was scientific confusion about it. But for most people, they did not believe that you can only get it when blood is shared, because the effect of Aids was so physical, that they believed if you touch an Aids person, even if there is no blood shared, that somehow you will get it.And we have it in our children’s game. The game of coodies.It was a way of seeing things.This is why Peter just doesn’t get it when Jesus says what you touch doesn’t make you unclean. Clean and unclean was not just a practice but a way of knowing.So tradition is everywhere and these are its’s powers, specifically, it’s power to effect how you see the world and how you treat people. That is why tradition is so dangerous, why tradition can begin to contradict God. Tradition can get in the way of God’s Kingdom.Danger of tradition is not just in religion Tradition is a way of knowing. If you question everything then you will have no time to consider the answers to question that really matter.Science needs this. When you and I learn science, we don’t start from scratch, is the world matter and spirit? We say matter. That is the focus of science. We are asking when we see something happen, what spirit caused it but what other matter caused it. We say atom. None of us say, prove it. We accept it.But the thing is, even those traditions can get things wrong.Did you know that this past week there was a new discovery that is going to overturn everything we know about dinosaur? Well that was the headline. It is a huge change, but it isn’t going to change the movies we see. It is about classification.This is the classic classification.This is the new classification. See the difference. Only dinosaur lovers sees how significant this.But do you know where this change came from?It wasn’t a new species? It was old data looked at differently.The reason this was divided this way was because a scientist * looked at the hip bones and said well look these dinosaurs have their hip bones wider and these have it here. Well, one can see why they liked this theory, because it was so easy to spot. And so they went with it. The theory became tradition.And tradition then was accepted. So when new species were discovered, they were first classified by the hip bones. But some questioned it because ther

Living out Christ's Kingdom often stretches us out of our comfort zones. Sometimes he may even ask us to do things equaivalent to getting out of a boat and walking on the water. Other times it may be as "simple" but scary as loving our enemies as ourselves. Are you making space for the unprecedented kingdom in your life? Listen as Pastor Adam challenges us all to take steps toward living into Christ's unprecedented kingdom.

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