Union Church

The Story of God: Scripture

Listen along as we begin our journey through the Bible.

Colossians 3:16-17 - Jon

What the Bible ISN’T:
Moralistic
Characteristic
Fatalistic
Individualistic 
Consumeristic
Doctrinalistic
Fictionalistic 

What is the bible?
The Story of God that leads to and centers on Jesus, shaping the people of God for life and flourishing.

The Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne—everything— to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. - Jesus Story Book Bible

 

Structure of the Bible:
Creation 
Fall
Redemption Initiated
Redemption Accomplished
Mission of the Church
Redemption Completed 

“Mission is not just one of a list of things that the Bible happens to talk about, only a bit more urgently than some. Mission is, in that much-abused phrase, "what it's all about.”” - Christopher Wright

“Each word must be understood within its own verse, each verse within its on chapter, each chapter within its own book, and each book within its own historical, cultural, and indeed canonical setting,” - NT Wright

“If we as believers allow this story (culture) rather than the bible to become the foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture. Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter: a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers!” - Mike Goheen

John 5:36-40

Luke 24:25-27

Questions to ask when reading the Bible:
What’s going on? (story//context)
Where is the good news? (Jesus) 
How has the church seen this through history? Communion of the saints//Community
How does this shape us toward flourishing in life?

Psalm 119:105
Hebrews 4:12
Ephesians 6:17

Advent: The Invitation of Advent: Love

Today we look at the Advent theme of love and see how Jesus opens our hearts and hands.

 

Notes/Quotes:

John 3:16-17 -

Storge - Familial love - parents/kids
Philea - Friendship love
Eros - Romantic love
Agape - Covenantal Love

True love is to be ruthlessly and unconditionally committed to another’s flourishing.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” - CS Lewis

“Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated by the shorthand “the kingdom of God. Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.” - James K.A. Smith

1 John 3:1

Ephesians 4:14-16

Advent: The Invitation of Advent: Peace

The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
    on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
    and the staff for his shoulder,
    the rod of his oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
    and every garment rolled in blood
    will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:2-7

…and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end…

Isaiah 9:6-7

 

“Peace in Scripture is a situation of comprehensive welfare. In English the word “peace” usually refers to either an inner tranquility – peace of mind - or to an outward state – absence of war. But biblical shalom conveys the picture of a circle; it means communal wellbeing in every direction and in every relation… The Hebrew word depicts a circle embracing the whole community, internally and externally … Peacemakers are reconcilers.”

 

The Need for Peace in the Time of Jesus

Internationally 

Ethnically

Interpersonally

Spiritually

The Provision of Peace by the Work of Jesus

Spiritually

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:19-20

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Romans 5:1

 

The Provision of Peace by the Work of Jesus

Interpersonally

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Matthew 5:9

 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Romans 12:18

The Provision of Peace by the Work of Jesus

Ethnically

 

It shall come to pass in the latter days
    that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
     and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore.

 

Isaiah 2:2-4

As we celebrate the arrival of the Prince of Peace,

what kind of peace do you need most?

Spiritual Peace

Interpersonal Peace

Ethnic Peace

International Peace

Advent: The Invitation of Advent: Joy

Luke 2:8-20

“To buy wool, milk, or a kid from a shepherd was forbidden on the assumption that it would be stolen property. The rabbis ask with amazement how, in view of the despicable nature of shepherds, one can explain why God was called ‘my shepherd’ - Joachim Jeremias

John 15:10-11 

“Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.” - Eugene Peterson

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - CS Lewis

It is a good fight because it is not a struggle to carry a burden, but a struggle to let a burden be carried for us. The life of joy in God is not a burdened life. It is an unburdened life. The fight for joy is the struggle to trust God with the burdens of life. It’s a fight for freedom from worry. - John Piper

Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away. Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. . . . Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us. - Henri Nouwen

Advent: The Invitation of Advent - Hope

Week 1 of Advent.

Isaiah 1:1-20 - Reading - Rose Odum

I am bombarded every day with "the holiday season" which, according to the world of commerce, began with Halloween. But I know it's not "the most wonderful time of the year.” It's Advent. Advent begins here, in the darkness of Sin and Death. Fleming Rutledge

Hebrews 9:11-14

“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable, so that 30 years later he might hang on a cross.” - JI Packer

“Our invitation to Advent starts here, now - and thank God, because being here now feels really complicated. And hard. And sad at times. With a lot of loss. Right? What gives me hope in this Advent season is the reminder that everything can be taken away except that hidden part of me. Whether I lose my savings, my house, my title, or my very livelihood, what is un-takeable is the part of me that Jesus illuminates. In the gift of my life is a doorway to a much larger reality. And Jesus is the Light that shows me the way. May you rest in the peace that the darkness can never extinguish the light that has been given you.” Scott Erikson

Human: Hope for Humans

Listen in as we close out our Human series and see the hope we have in Jesus.

Hope for Humans
Romans 15:1-7

"Paul reverses the ordinary structure of obligation. Rather than the weak being forced to submit to the strong, as was typical in Greco-Roman culture, the powerful are here under obligation to ‘bear/carry’ the weaknesses of the powerless.” Robert Jewett

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
Emily Dickinson 

“The biblical writers distinguish between hopes that are illfounded and vain, and hopes that have a sure foundation. The range of ill-founded hopes is as wide as the human capacity for self-deception. It is vain to place one’s hope in military might (Isa. 31:1–3), in one’s own wisdom (Prov. 26:12) or righteousness (Ezek. 33:13), in riches (Prov. 11:28), or even in the temple (Jer. 7:9–10) or the law of Moses (John 5:45). All of these are inadequate bases of hope, and indeed, for the unrighteous person who trusts in such things, there is no hope (Job 8:13; 11:20; 27:8; Prov. 10:28; 11:7). Thus the majority of scriptural references to hope elucidate the only true foundation of hope, God. In this there is a remarkable continuity between the Old and New Testaments.” - Eerdmans Bible Dictionary

“The reason I can continue watching and waiting, even as the world is shrouded in darkness, is because the things I long for are not rooted in wishful thinking or religious ritual but are as solid as a stone rolled away.” Tish Harrison Warren

1 Thess 4:16-18
2 Peter 3:8-10
2 Peter 3:11-14
1 Cor 15:50-58

Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom. NT Wright

[Jesus] matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weaknesses he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity. - Dallas Willard

Human: When Life is Hard

1 Sam 16:1-13

“Whereas we often ask “Why?” people in the Bible more often asked “How long?” Their tendency was not to demand that God give an explanation for the origin of evil but rather to plead with God to do something to bring about an end to evil.” - Chris Wright

“Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong” - Tim Keller

“Faith doesn’t eliminate questions, but it knows where to take them” - E. Elliot

Mark 4:35-41

“The wind and the waves recognized Jesus’ voice. They had heard it before, of course - it was the same voice that made them, in the very beginning.” Jesus Storybook Bible

into their hearts came a different kind of storm…Jesus friends had been so afraid, they had only seen the big waves. They had forgotten that, if Jesus was with them, then they had nothing to be afraid of. No matter how small their boat - or how big the storm.”

God says a lot about suffering in Scripture so that you know where to look when the pain comes to you. - Joseph Scheumann

The idea of salvation cannot be reduced to a personal relationship with Jesus. God's plan is much more encompassing. God intends for salvation to be a community-creating event.- Joseph Hellerman

Often the difference between where I am and where God wants me to be is the pain I’m unwilling to endure. There is no growth without change, no change without loss, and no loss without pain. - Samuel Chand

 

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;

To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,

Our God ever yearns His resources to share;

Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;

The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Human: Image of God

Genesis 1:26-2:3

“The original meaning reflects the practice of setting up an image or symbol that signifies sovereignty, something similar to a national flag. As images of God, the human beings represented the locale where God rules supreme. In the ancient world, royalty were perceived in this way. They were either considered divine themselves or they represented the deity to their people” Diane Bergant 

"The whole human being is image and likeness of God, in soul and body, in all human faculties, powers, and gifts. Nothing in humanity is excluded from God’s image; it stretches as far as our humanity does and constitutes our humanness." Herman Bavinck

The twofold commission given the human couple in this story,“subdue. . . .Have dominion,” is also royal language. Thus, one can say that this is a royal couple that exercises authority over the rest of the created world. Still, their authority is limited. The woman and man are not gods; they are images of God, representatives responsible for God’s world and accountable to God in carrying out this responsibility. Every woman and every man is made in God’s image and has been commissioned to stand as God’s representative in the management of the natural world. Diane Bergant

“Despite what we often hear about this passage, it’s not just a call to make babies and start farms. It’s not chiefly about doing more for God. Instead, this is a beautiful call to imitate the creative work God himself accomplished in creation. It’s about being who he created you to be. Filling the earth is about filling the empty spaces with beauty and using your gifts and talents to show the world the creative nature of its God. Having dominion is about bringing order—ordered hearts, ordered relationships, ordered businesses, ordered homes—out of chaos. We must know him, be with him, and rest in him if we are going to reflect him to the world.” - Elizabeth Garn

“You’ve heard the story, you know how it goes, Once upon a garden we were lovers with no clothes Fresh from the soil we were beautiful and true, In control of our emotions to till we ate the poison fruit. And now its...Hard to be, Hard to be, Hard to be A decent human being” David Bazan

“If you can’t see your toddler in the house and it’s quiet, they’re not somewhere helping orphans. They’re somewhere testing your perimeter for weaknesses.” Jon Acuff

“We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and dignity, should allure us to love and embrace them.” - John Calvin

The whole concept of the image of God is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected . . . and this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this. . . . There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“God doesn’t make junk, and doesn’t junk what junk what He has made.”  - Al Wolters

Picture 1/2
Colossians 3:9-11
Ephesians 4:17-24 

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. . . . Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” - C.S. Lewis

Passion in the midst of indifference.
Intentionality and slowness in the midst of fragmentation and burnout.
Community and vulnerability in the midst of isolation and pretending.
Trust and submission in the midst of self making and re-invention. 
Sacrificial love and generosity in the midst of selfishness and empty accumulation
Expectation and hope in the midst of brokenness and chaos.

Well Proved Help

Today we grieved the loss of Miles Garcia and reflected on Psalm 46.

Matthew: Jesus is Alive

Matthew 28:1-20

“These women will become the first witnesses to the resurrection, a fact that seems to guarantee the credibility of the account in a world that usually did not accept women’s testimony as legally binding. Were the story fabricated, only male witnesses would have appeared. The role of the women also points to the dawning of a new age of equality among women and men in Christ” Craig Blomberg

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers…” —Hebrews 2:11

“Not only does he show himself as still loving and accepting those who had abandoned him, but he even treats them as equals! (They might be failures, but) they remain laborers with him in the work of the Father. Jesus is neither denying his uniqueness nor deifying the disciples. But he is portraying the church as a brotherhood that manifests more equality than hierarchy, even if some functional differentiation between leaders and followers is clear from other Scriptures. (e.g., 1 Pet 5:1–5; Heb 13:17).” Craig Blomberg

“Think what he (Matthew) had to gain and lose by it. Denying the resurrection left everybody’s world view intact. The Jews could continue as they had done. The Romans could go on running the world their way. Philosophers could still debate their lofty doctrine. Nobody would need to make radical readjustments. But if the resurrection of Jesus was true, and if people were to start reordering their lives by it, they would be on a collision course with the rest of the world. Matthew knew that as well as we do.” - NT Wright

“Mountains have figured prominently at least six different times in this Gospel (see also 4:8: Temptation Mountain; 5:1: Sermon Mountain; 15:29: Supper Mountain; 17:1: Transfiguration Mountain; 24:3: Consummation Mountain). Ever since Sinai, mountains have been the classic loci of the Lord’s great revelations. Now here in Galilee, the Lord gives the final revelation of his Gospel on a mountain. “As it were, the same divine law swings itself like a bow from the mount of the first revelation in Sinai to this mount of the last revelation in Galilee.” Matthew’s Jesus, the New and Better Moses, the Messiah- Interpreter of God’s law, will now give his church her final orders from the Mission Mountain.” Dale Bruner

“All spiritual, metaphysical, philosophical, and religious power “in heaven” but also all social, physical, political, and economic power “on earth” are in his hands. He is in charge around here.” Dale Bruner

“The Christians’ focus was not on “saving” people or recruiting them; it was on living faithfully—in the belief that when people’s lives are rehabituated in the way of Jesus, others will want to join them.” - Alan Kreider

“Disciple” (mathēteusate). Interestingly, the usual missionary terms are not employed here: “preach,” “convert,” “win,” and the like. A slower, lower-profile verb is used, an almost scholastic, schoolish word, “disciple.” To disciple means “to make students of,” “bring to school,” “educate” or, in modern-English terms, “to mentor,” “to apprentice.” The word pictures students sitting around a teacher more than it does penitents kneeling at an altar—an educational process more than an evangelistic crisis, a school more than a revival. The word’s prosaic character relaxes and says in effect, “Work with people over a period of time in the simple educational process of teaching Jesus.” Only the Cosmo-creator can do the big things like convert, win, bring repentance, or bring a person to decision—all authority is his, and his alone. Disciples will do the little thing of “discipling” others—that is, they will spend time with people—in the confidence that sooner or later the Cosmocrator with all his authority will create in some of these people the decision to be baptized (or, in Christianized cultures, the decision to own their baptisms) and then to follow Jesus.” Our Main Man Bruner

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” —Jesus (Jn.10:28)