Our text for this week is Colossians 4:2-18.

- What questions does this text raise for you?
- What observations do you have?
- What difficulties do you have with what is said?
- What kind of church does this text paint for us?

I'll be putting the sermon together on Thursday and Friday this week and welcome your posts as a way to direct me in how I approach and preach the text this week. Your input quite often helps in writing questions for us to talk about around our tables as well.

I would also welcome any sermon links that you would suggest that we should have on the blog for this Sunday.

Thanks for your participation, which is a part of your worship of our Heavenly Father.

Resources:
Early Christian Writings (background on Colossians)

Slavery in the Bible:
Evil Bible - anti-Bible/christian site where you can see how others view the Bible about this issue.
Does the Bible condone slavery? - short article


A Weekend to Remember
Visalisa, March 10-12
For: Husband Wife or Engaged Couples

Turning Hearts Tour
Clovis Hills Community Church, May 12-13
For: Parents and Teenagers

Heart Connex, A semi-weekly family e-devotional (free)

Have a link you think would be helpful? Go ahead and click on the title of this post to add your link to the comments.


Table Discussion Questions:

1) How do God’s instructions to families help family
members grow to into a mature & healthy faith?

2) What is one way you can improve the way
you treat each member of your family?

3) How can you have an attitude of service
toward others at your work, school or ______?

(welcome - 10:45 am)
Lebanese Blonde, Thievery Corporation
Open My Eyes, Inhabited
More Beats & Pieces, Coldcut
More Than This, Charlie Hunter & Norah Jones
Oceans Apart, The Fire Theft
Water Shows the Hidden Heart, Enya
Far Away, Trumpet Thing

(self-directed prayer)
Podcast 8, Lotuspike - Progressive Ambient Music(edited)

(communion)
When I Survey The Wonderous Cross, Artist Unknown (Celtic)

(exit - 12:30 pm)
Beautiful (Benny Benassi Remix), Moby
Children Go Where I Send You, Nina Simone
Take Me As I Am, Mary J Blige
Drinking Vinyl, Micael Delta

In yesterday's sermon I shared an invitation to each person to begin particpating, if you aren't already involved, in our Sunday gathering. We definitely need everyone's help in March, but this is about much more than that. This is an act of worship. Your service to our community of faith is taught to be an offering to God. The invitation is for you to grow in your worship of your creator by...

1) Looking through our plansheet for March , and post on our blog where you would like to serve (or questions about that area).

There’s everything from playing with toddlers to, writing a poem to creating a prayer station to stacking chairs to reading a Psalm. It's not enough to come and sit and watch. We need more. We need to make sure we're participants in worship and not spectators.

Click to enlarge March Plansheet

2) Next, you can start praying and dreaming about the direction we need to take next. I don’t know when, but I do know where – it needs to be out of the building, out in the neighborhood or city, somewhere. Jesus mission isn't for us to have a weekly gathering at 11:15 on Sunday mornings, but that’s a good starting place for us to being seeking His direction. As His representatives, our mission is out in the streets and homes of our city. I would love for you to post your prayers and thoughts on this page.

More from the sermon yesterday...

Part of Colossians 3:16 says, "Use his words to teach and counsel each other." (NLT)

This was written to a church. Do you come to Emergent expecting to teach and counsel each other?

Maybe people expect to hear it from the front, to get taught and counseled from the pastor. I love great preaching, but we are losing something by making Pastors the primary (or only) teachers of God's Word. I'm a pastor, but I can say this: we all expect pastors to say certain things because…..they're pastors. I think we also believe that they're at least a little removed from the life of an average person. They work for churches; you work for some guy your pastor wouldn't know how to handle if they ever met. So when the pastor speaks, it's not always directly into your world, because your pastor doesn't completely understand your world.

It makes a huge difference to hear another stay-at-home mom talk about a passage of Scripture that's really helped her cope with the challenges she faces. It's helpful to hear another parent of teenagers talk about his struggles, and how he's found comfort in God's Word that have helped him deal with having a teenage daughter. That's very different from just having the pastor speak. You’re the experts on figuring out how the dangerously wonderful life of Jesus is fleshed out in the Valley here.

Some of you aren't speakers or teachers, but I'll bet each of us have something to offer - an insight or an encouragement. We believe we can "teach and counsil" each other through weekly art contributions and conversation around tables as well. Another passage talks of some other ways we can participate in the worship life of a group of believers. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says:

10God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you. 11Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.

You get the idea of a group getting together to worship God. Some are good at speaking, and can't wait to share what God has been teaching them lately. Others head right to the kitchen to make the coffee and food that are going to be served. Others come with a poem or art piece to share their story in a variety of brushstrokes. Others come in and quietly sit beside someone who looks down and who needs a bit of encouragement. I could go on. Everyone has something to offer, something they naturally love to do. Nobody's a spectator.

1 Corinthians 14:26 puts it this way:

"When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight" (The Message).

Everyone should come to our gatherings expecting to contribute something. And don't forget the the focus isn't on the front. It's on God, through each other. The audience is listening, but the audience isn't the people who come. The audience is God. Everyone participates in some way of offering worship to God.

Colossians 3:18 - 4:1 (New Living Translation)

18You wives must submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. 19And you husbands must love your wives and never treat them harshly.

20You children must always obey your parents, for this is what pleases the Lord. 21Fathers, don't aggravate your children. If you do, they will become discouraged and quit trying.

22You slaves must obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Obey them willingly because of your reverent fear of the Lord. 23Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ. 25But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites who can get away with evil.

1 You slave owners must be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master--in heaven.

I think many Christians would agree that one of the most difficult place to live our our faith is at home, with those closest to us. Our recent sermons and blog posts have touched on ideas of living out our faith and how for many of those who claim Christ in America, there is no behavioral difference that can be seen between Christians and those of other or no faith.

Colossians is a letter written to a church of people at a sepcific time in a certain culture. As God's Word it still speaks to us as a gathering of people of faith. However, what about those who are not husbands or wives? What does this talk of slavery have to say to us in our culture? For women, is this another example of men using their religious authority as another power trip and "keep women in their place?"

What questions does this text raise for you?
What observations do you have?
What difficulties do you have with what is said?

I'll be putting the sermon together on Wednesday and Thursday this week and welcome your posts as a way to direct me in how I approach and preach the text this week. Your input quite often helps in writing questions for us to talk about around our tables as well.

Thanks for your participation, which is a part of your worship of our Heavenly Father.

"The Audience is Listening" THX Video's (right click to save)
Broadway
Broadway2000
Cavaclade
Cimarron
Grand
Simpson's Parody
SST
Tex
Tex2
Wings
The story of "Deep Note"

George Barna's Revolution - A Review (Amazon book link)

Questioning Church (Blog Post)

Bono's Sermon from the National Prayer Breakfast

(starting at 10:50 am)
Open Skies, David Crowder Band
Un Simple Histoire, Thievery Corporation
Let Go, Frou Frou
Several, Christian Kleine
Beautiful Day, Laidback
Horus Children Song, Stefano Raffaelli (edited)

(self-directed prayer time)
Each Year of our Lives, Ansi (Podcast)

(communion)
Funeral-Rebuilding Serenity, Serenity Soundtrack

(starting at 12:30 pm)
Stars, David Crowder Band
Sometime, Stefano Raffaelli
Union (Featuring Sting), Black Eyed Peas
Humate-3.2 Bedrock, Cafe Del Mar

Thanks for reading our Scripture for Emergent this week - Colossians 3:16-17. I'd like to hear what you notice here and any questions or thoughts you have about these two verses.

Last week on the blog our two posts were good, but disappointing in that there were so few that posted. So I invite you to share your thoughts, even if you may not think they are valuable.

Text - Colossians 3:1-17

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience - Book by Rod Sider (book review)

From The Evangelical Scandal - Article from Christianity Today, Rod Sider

How do we turn the ship around?
We need to rethink our theology. We need to ask, "Are we really biblical?" Cheap grace is right at the core of the problem. Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only; when we limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; when we misunderstand persons as primarily souls; when we at best grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin; when we embrace the individualism and materialism and relativism of our current culture. We also lack a biblical understanding and practice of the church.

I would think that evangelicals would want to get biblical and define the gospel the way Jesus did—which is that it's the Good News of the kingdom. Then we see that it means that the way to get into this kingdom is through unconditional grace because Jesus died for us. But it also means there's now a new kingdom community of Jesus' disciples, and that embracing Jesus means not just getting fire insurance so that one doesn't go to hell, but it means embracing Jesus as Lord as well as Savior. And it means beginning to live as a part of his new community where everything is being transformed. (read the rest of the article here)

Anne Lamott quote

...when you ask God into your life, you think that he...is going to come into your psychic house, look around, and see that you just need a little cleaning - and so you go along for the first six months thinking how nice life is now that God is there. Then you look outside the window one day and see that there’s a wrecking ball outside. It turns out that God actually thinks your whole foundation is shot and you’re going to have to start over from scratch.

A Generous Orthodoxy - Book by Brian McLaren (Tom has if you want to borrow)

From A Generous Orthodoxy....an interview with Brian McLaren

Question: What is a generous orthodoxy?
McLaren: Well, I took a whole book to try to answer that, and still didn't do it justice, but in a sentence, a generous orthodoxy is an attempt to remarry two things that never should have been divorced --- truth and love, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, doctrine and ethics/mission. The phrase comes from Hans Frei, a leading postliberal theologian. I think it represents the hopeful possibility of a convergence of postliberal and postconservative Christians.

Orthodoxy - from the Greek ortho ('right', 'correct') and doxa ('thought', 'teaching'), is typically used to refer to the correct theological or doctrinal observance of religion, as determined by some overseeing body. (right beliefs)

Orthopraxy - derived from Greek meaning "correct practice". It refers to accepted religious practices and may include both ritual practices as well as interpersonal acts. (right practices)

Generous (Evangelical) Orthodoxy - Excellent post from Scot Mcnight's Jesus Creed blog

Matthew 6:33 - Strive first for God's Kingdom

The Ragman - Story by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

(starting at 10:45 am)
Canteloop, US3
One Thing, Finger Eleven
Gone Going, Black Eyed Peas
Miracle Drug, U2
Extra: Bono's sermon from the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb, 2.
Watch video or read text
Say Hello>, Deep Dish
Cab Negret, Arrojas

(Self-Directed Prayer)
Another Green World, Stream of Consciousness

(Communion)
Meditation, Santana and McLaughlin

(starting at 12:30 pm)
King Without A Crown, Matisyahu
Slow Mood, Riccardo Moretti
Fa Away, Trumpet Thing

Have a song you think might work well next week? Post the title and artist.

Welcome to our weekly sermon blog! Last week was a good week of input on the text. I'd like to see that continute to grow to where we are averaging 10 people posting a week. Feel free to spread the word about this blog - all ages are welcome.

The text this week is Colossians 3:1-17.
In the sermon, I'm planning to focus on how we live out what Jesus has done for us. There is this classic paradox of Paul here. Christ has already defeated the powers, but his reconciling rule has not yet been established in history. The purpose of this section of the letter to the Colossians is to help them navigate life in the reality of that "already and not yet."

I have lots of ideas banging around in my head about the text, but I think there are some ways of thinking that Paul hit on that are important:
1) A change of focus from the temporary to eternal (vv 1-2)
2) Killing off the old self (vv 3-8)
3) Putting on the "clothes" of Christ (vv 9-14, 17)

Anyone have access to mannequins we could borrow? Let me know if you do.

You've invited to:
- Ask Questions
- Make Observations
- Tell a Story
- Share an Insight

Don't worry about making your comments "pretty." You may click on the title to post.

This past Sunday we had out the list of all the different areas of our Emergent gathering that people are helping out with and the openings for others to start helping. Thanks to those that filled in some of those spots! There are a few more areas where we could use your help for the next 3-4 weeks:
1) One person set up our welcome table
2) One person to help Christi C with toddlers
3) One person to help Cathie S with elementary age children
4) Sixteen people to create some kind of art to display in our gallery (Contact Mandee M)
5) 4 females to read our Psalm and pray our opening prayer
6) Few more people each week posting on this blog about the sermon text

Question: Do you think it would be beneficial to have set table leaders?

"Don't Settle for More"

Text - Colossians 2:16-23

Study Guide: The Letter to the Colossians

"Whenever authentic, joyful confidence in Christ diminishes, regulations are brought in to preserve what the power of Christ once created."
~ John Piper


Discussion Questions

1) What is one rule (any rule) you don’t like?

2) How should followers of Christ deal with legalism when we encounter it?

Legalism:
- adding requirements of conduct beyond Scripture and make them essential.
- taking the standards of conduct taught in the Bible and make them regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God’s favor.

3) Do any rules come to mind that you might need to let go of?

Additional Information: Homosexuality
While this weeks sermon isn't on the subject of homosexuality, some of your posts on our sermon text did head in that direction a few times. This section of links is shared in hopes of fostering humble conversation and an attitude of love and respect. It is of great value to listen to other viewpoints. While there are many beliefs about the issue of homosexuality, no matter what you believe, I think we can find common ground on the reality that there has been much hatred and violence from Christians against the gay and lesbian community. This is unacceptable because it is outside of the character of Christ.

Gay Forum (mp3)
Audio from the Generous Orthodoxy Conference in Washington D.C. October 7th & 8th, 2005.

Forum Description:
"Is homosexuality really the biggest evil of our time? Some have said as much. If not- then what is? How do we live together? What are Christian communities learning about this process? How did we become our culture’s moral policemen? Why are we so familiar with Paul’s thoughts on this topic yet so unfamiliar with Jesus’ on the poor?"
(more audio from the conference here)

Conversation from the Forum:
How do you feel about the phrase “love the sinner but hate the sin” when used against homosexuals?
Response from gay woman: “I don’t think Christians should hate.”

Said to a gay Christian: “You would be welcome at my church. We welcome adulterers, fornicators….”
Thoughts of gay person: “I don’t really want that kind of welcome. I don’t want you to hold your nose to welcome me to your church.”

Quote: "I just want to love people period. I don’t want to love them, but. And I think a lot of us have really big but’s. And when you have that sentence, the 'but' looks so big, they can’t see the love."

Question to those on the forum who are gay Christians: “Suppose someone comes to you and says, “I’ve read the Bible verses and I don’t think I can go to accept what you all have said about yourself. I can’t get past the idea that homosexuality is a sin, but at the same time I don’t want to be a bigot and treat people in a terrible way.’ What advice would you have for them?”
Response 1: Just be friends with people. The most powerful thing you can do is get to know somebody.
Response 2: Love the person. (Difference in opinion creates an opportunity to love, not an obstacle to love.)
Response 3: Consider what Jesus had to say about the subject and the types of people that He hung out with.

Link - Police Hunt for Supspect in Gay Bar Attack (Forbes, Feb 4, 2006)


Dr. Tony Campolo on Homosexuality (more from Radical Congruency blog)
Clip 1 (5.8Mb - 4:29)
Clip 2 (12.8Mb - 9:50)
Clip 3 (11.1Mb - 8:33)

Dr. Campolo's position on homosexuality is conservative: he believes that the Bible forbids all homosexual activity. However, he does not support attempts to "convert" gays into straights; rather, he advises gay people to pursue celibacy. His position is what some refer to as "Side B."

Peggy Campolo, Dr. Campolo's wife, takes a different view. She supports monogamous, same-sex relationships, and believes that marriages should be recognized in the church for both heterosexual and homosexual couples. Peggy's position is what some refer to as "Side A."

Two committed Christians with two different views - yet they are able to share the same bed each night and respect each other's faith. How do they do it?

Listen to Dr Campolo and his wife, Peggy, here (From Gay Christian Network)

(Welcome and Exit)
(65 min)

(Self Directed Prayer)
The Mystic Flame, Simon Cooper

(Communion)
I Will Remember You, Sarah McLachlan