Renew Covenant Church Sermons

Alison preaches on "Seeing Jesus"

This small section is embedded in parables Jesus is telling involving seeds and plants. The theme in these parables revolve around the dynamic and organic growth of the Kingdom of God. In this particular parable, whether the man sleeps or rises, the seeds he sowed grow. This dynamic of growth is a mystery to us.

Jesus does not fit into the social expectations surrounding him, but he rather disrupts them and then redefines what it means to have identity and be family in the spirit-filled Kingdom life. The world is messed up and Satan’s behind it, but Jesus flips the script on it all offering everyone new identity and new possibility in his family structure.

This gem of a statement by Jesus is set right in the middle of episodes in which Jesus’ authority is challenged around fasting and then sabbath. The religious traditionalists are triggered by who Jesus is and what he does. The point Jesus is making is that what He has come to do and fulfill can’t be fit into old forms and traditions. Jesus’s teachings, miracles and authority are unlike what anyone had seen before. Sometimes we can’t move and change until our paradigms change and we pivot.

Jesus disrupts Levi’s life by calling Levi to follow him. Tax collectors were suspect charaters in Jewish eyes, and in calling Levi, Jesus also does life together with him, immersing himself in Levi’s community of “suspect” characters. Jesus came to be with the sinners. He is the good doctor come to touch the ill not the healthy. What does this mean for us?

In the old law, leprosy made one ceremonially unclean and placed that person ‘outside’ of the community. Jesus (reluctantly?) touches and cleanses this man restoring him holistically--bodily, spiritually, and socially. What is this man’s untameable response?

Jesus begins his public ministry teaching on the Sabbath in the synagogue. People immediately recognize him as someone who teaches uniquely with authority, unlike the traditional teaching of the law.

This is a difficult passage: 42 boys mauled by she-bears because they were taunting Elisha. We find this problematic because the punishment does not seem to match the offense. Did they really deserve this?

Jesus curses a fig tree for having no fruit even when it was not the season for fruit bearing. What is up with this? Is Jesus just being human with grumpiness, or is there a deeper meaning here?

Jesus calls Nathaneal as a disciple. The strangeness of this passage is in how Jesus ‘knows’ Nathaneal even as the two had never met before. Jesus simply says: “I saw you under the fig tree.” What was Nathaneal doing under the fig tree?

the view from the cave can be a dark and lonely place. The surrounding walls of the cave can block your perspective. The view from the cave can sometimes be depressing, but it does not mean that God is through with you or that God has forgotten his promises. God’s delays are not necessarily God’s denials. We need to remember that God is still God. He still has good plans for your life and he wants to be your only refuge.

After winning back Jerusalem and successfully unifying the two Kingdoms, David brings the Ark back to Jerusalem. On the way, the oxen pulling the cart stumble and Uzzah grabs a hold of the Ark to steady it. God strikes Uzzah down dead. David is angered and refuses to continue carrying the ark.

We can pay or manipulate situations to fall into our desired narrative--but God’s purposes will prevail in the end. Just as Balaam’s ass is God’s joke on Israel’s enemies--Jesus the Messiah is God’s joke on the powers of death in the world.

What did Jesus mean by a camel going through the eye of a needle? Did he mean it is impossible or was he using hyperbole to say it’s really hard? Is it bad to be a wealthy Christian? Should Christians shun making money? Aren’t we all saved by Grace? Is Godbiased against the rich? We should be sobered by the reality that we are more prone to idolatry when we have money to rely on instead of God. The rich ruler was missing a relational component which the disciples pick up on. Asking “how?” our weakness and poverty of Spirit, God can do the impossible!

A man should not wear head-coverings in church? A woman should wear head-coverings? Do we still need to do do this today? Man is the image and glory of God but woman is the glory of man? Is Patriarchy defended in the Bible? We look at different takes on this passage and address some engendered issues in Scripture.

God strangely tries to kill Moses. Zipporah acts quickly, circumcises their son, and God spares Moses. Though Moses has this newfound identity and sense “wokeness” for his people, he has not fully embraced his identity as a follower of Yahweh. He is made right by the intercession of Zipporah.

Who were the Nephilim in Genesis 6? And who were the “sons of God” and “daughters of me?” and how do they relate to these heroes of old? How does this all relate to us?

Elisha and his band of friends were chopping down trees to build a house, when one of the axes broke and sank in the nearby Jordan River. One of the men shouted the ancient equivalent of, “Oh no! The ax wasn’t even mine—I borrowed it.” Elisha just whipped out a stick, set it on the surface of the water, and the axe head miraculously floated to the top. As a result, the man kept his job. WWWhhhaaatttt?

The temple tax collectors ask Peter if Jesus paid the temple tax. Peter immediately answers ‘yes.’ Jesus uses this opportunity for a real live action parable. What’s the message? The moral of the story is not about being good citizens and paying taxes, but it is to point out that as children of God, we are free and exempt from ‘tax.’ On top of this, however, the miracle of the Gold Fish emphasizes that when you act in freedom and love -not under coercion or constraint - God himself works for you in ways you would never dream.

Paul arrives in Rome and is given the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel there. Paul encourages the JEws there that: “God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen!”