Renew Covenant Church Sermons

“When we see suffering, do we draw closer to it? This would be compassion”

Luke 5:36-38 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Jesus is the outlier in whom there is new life. What does it mean to be 'broken' upon the rock? We have a natural resistance to vulnerability and to change, and yet the path to transformation is found as we are broken upon Jesus. Pride and stubbornness, on the other hand, make us hard and brittle, so that we become crushed by outside forces, even those that are good and life-giving.

This Sunday's lectionary Gospel text is timely given our country's current context of protest and disdain for this protest, ie., NFL players/Trump. Jesus has just cleansed the temple and now occupies it in protest of the corruption/injustices rampant in the temple religious system. The Chief Priests and Elders of the people have come to challenge his authority: "By what authority [what right] are you doing these things?" Jesus counter-challenges with a parable about two brothers in a vineyard to convey his point about true righteousness and the faithfulness of Israel to being people of God. We are not Israel, but our hermeneutical approaches to cultural symbols risk a dangerous dogma of its own. A dogma that renders non-white expressions of freedom of speech and protest as un American and dangerous, while blindly defending relics of dominant culture and ritual that actually oppress people of color. What really does it mean to be American and 'patriotic?' Is it blindly defending enculturated, politicized symbo

Jesus responds to the religious leaders' challenge with a parable about workers in a vineyard.

Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus is inviting us to get out of the boat and come to him . . . but just because Jesus is calling you out to him, doesn’t mean the storms will stop.

Matthew 14:13-21 Jesus has compassion on the crowds and commands the disciples to feed them opening the opportunity for all to witness his miracle of abundance.

James 4:13-15 John 14:15-20; 25-27

Conversation #6 in the Tangible Kingdom Series. Bill Strunk discusses how we are a community of apprenticeship. Luke 5:1-11

Judges 6:11-16 & Luke 19:1-10 We Live out and invite in . . . conversation #5 of the Tangible Kingdom series.

I Peter 4:8-10 || Hebrews 10:24-25 || Colossians 3:12-17 We Practice Community.

We continue our series in the Tangible Kingdom as Claire discusses "The Gospel." We embody the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 and John 1.14 A part of living into the tangible kingdom is that "we are incarnational."

God calls us to leave our worlds so he can send us to advance His Kingdom

God and His Kingdom is best reflected in the diversity of His children, and so at Renew we value ethnic/gender/age diversity and seek to reflect it

Micah 6:6-8 6 With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil? Should I give my oldest child for my crime; the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit? 8 He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

God radically receives those who return home. In turn, we are people who seek and chase and invite others. We go out and are relational, we are incarnational, we are real. we don’t demand people be like us in order for them to be with us. And we celebrate when those who are lost are found again. And when we party, we party good. We throw huge banquets and go out of our way. We are authentic We are relational We are invitational We are hospitable

Acts 2:42-47 Common English Bible 42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43 A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything. 45 They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47 They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.

Peter takes the opportunity present the Gospel Message.The Gospel Truth "cuts to the heart." Disciples are charactized by lives of conviction and are continually turning back towards JEsus from the ways of a dark world