Paul
Beautiful
Not To Us
Rescuer
Beautiful Things
Sweetly Broken

Jon
I’m glad you’re here
First things first, offering
Opportunity for next Sunday
Membership class
My hope is not to come at you with information, but to help you get to know others and me
Find out about the church, how we function
We just want to know who you are
Is this something you want to do communally with us?
Now we move on to the text!
Sidebar on Words With Friends (za and whiz)
Luke 14: 1-6, then 7-14
I’m a nerd, we could dissect everything, but not everybody’s that way, so we’ll just get into the meatier stuff

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to share a meal in the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, they were watching him closely. A man suffering from an abnormal swelling of the body was there. Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, “Does the Law allow healing on the Sabbath or not?” But they said nothing. Jesus took hold of the sick man, cured him, and then let him go. He said to them, “Suppose your child or ox fell into a ditch on the Sabbath day. Wouldn’t you immediately pull it out?” But they had no response. (Luke 14:1-6 CEB)

Three key things
Sabbath
They would practice it together
How do we interpret the text
Jesus is questioning the prominent leaders
Exchange of ideas
Dig into it and see the question
The issue of hospitality
Hospitality
In a couple of weeks we’re going to start our summer series on the gospel of Mark
What does a hospitality look like in the kingdom of God?
What kinds of people do we invite to the table?
Jesus invites all sorts of scandalous people to the table
Luke says One Sabbath
The narrative centers around the practice of Sabbath
Sabbath starts Friday evening with a glass of wine
Saturday morning worship service
With everyone in their community
From there, that’s when they start to eat (I love this practice)
Jesus is coming from worship to a meal
Sabbath is a REALLY big deal in Judaism
Because God said keep the Sabbath holy
This is the 6 on, 1 off rhythm that I want you guys in
Each particular rabbi would interpret the text differently as to what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath
Now being in a community, you would put yourself under the yolk of the rabbi
So Jesus comes into the picture
Jesus and His disciples were doing things that were…inappropriate
I hate that word
They’re doing things on Sabbath that you’re not support to do
So Jesus and His followers are being watched closely
The Pharisees, the teachers, the rabbis – they’re there to uphold the text
I get that as a minister of the gospel, but I also feel the weight of that
I can identify with the Pharisees to an extent
Issue of protecting the text versus preserving the text
How does Jesus respond to this scrutiny?
When somebody’s scrutinizing me, I start to defend
Jesus deals with human suffering
In essence He says “I’m not missing humanity”
Everybody just came from the same worship service talking about resurrection, and suffering, and humanity
Talking about the kingdom of God and then talking about “where should we eat” or the Lakers
Do we need to say instead “how can I serve you in this moment?”
God gave us Sabbath to focus us
Jesus doesn’t defend, He asks questions
Questions that you are afraid to answer
What is the deeper question? Is human life and suffering less important than the Sabbath?
Jesus is showing us that THIS is what Sabbath is all about
There’s no openness when we value tradition over people
I’d like us as a community to ask a lot of questions, to study the text
Preserving, protecting, defender of the text, closed off
Suppose your child or your money were in danger or needed help
So you would make exceptions to your rules if it was about you
Jesus reveals two cracks in the religion
Is there a remote possibility that we could have some things off in our interpretation of the text?
Why do you think we’re so resistant to being wrong?
Pride
Fear
Tribalism
Jenga? Pulling the block of sabbath out maybe the tower will survive, maybe it won’t
I like that game
Can you play Jenga on your iPhone?
Fight or flight
The brain can be really tricky
Personal story
In the last ten years, a lot of things in my life have cracked
I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan
Very conservative area
Mom worked for a rabbi and Dad’s best friend was a Catholic priest
Eschatology – end times and rapture and the end of the world
Grew up in this system of lines that were really clear
Eschatology was the big one
But as a youth pastor when I was asked about it I shrugged and said I’m not sure
I was taught by very respectable people
My parents, my youth pastor, my Bible college professors (that’s where I found my wife Shannon)
Fuller’s seminary it wasn’t challenged either
Then I started dialoging it up with another minister in Michigan
Fuller theological seminary colleague then had some other thoughts as well
Don’t rearrange the furniture, my mom had it like that for forever
Eschatology is a BIG DEAL, it shapes the way you do everything
Now when someone asks me about Revelation, I say yeah there’s some weird stuff in there and I think I’m just starting to understand some of it
A book of discipleship
Here’s how you stand for Christ when things go crazy
Abundant life stuff? Oh Jesus talks about it
You know what amazes me? My parents are in their 70s
I recently talked with my dad, the dreaded conversation, I think eschatology is about this
And my dad said me too
And I was like, what? You can’t change your mind, you’re 80
Mom, what’s going on?
Me too
…
We don’t value tradition over truth
As we go through the gospel of Mark, I’d really love it if this could be a community of people who could say what’s on their mind and on their heart
You never know where God might show up in the form of human suffering