The
reading
Genesis
2:4b-25
4b In the day that the Lord
God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the
earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up — for the Lord God had not
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6
but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground
— 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And the
Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom
he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flows
out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four
branches. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around
the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is
good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is
Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of
the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is
the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden
to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You may
freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall
die." 18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should
be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." 19 So out of the
ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air,
and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the
man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to
all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but
for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his
ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had
taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the
man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this
one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken." 24
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and
they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were
not ashamed.
Mark 1:16-20 16As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." 18At once they left their nets and followed him. 19When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him
The message
Happy Year 2, happy church new year. This morning, we begin another church year. Like our January 1st New Year, this is a time for looking forward and for looking at what is important. The narrative lectionary starts with a long Advent, the time of waiting for Christmas, centuries in a community where things were often not quick or easy, there were wars, famines, defeats, abandoned faith, disobedience, betrayals and horrible events. At Christmas, we often hear the word / name Immanuel, meaning God with us and that is the message of our church year.
We will have a series of Old Testament readings that take us from creation to the birth of Jesus, we will (or should) struggle with some of them. We also need to make sure we do not get lost in the details. The first people to be healed by, talk with, learn from and experience God in Christ, knew these stories, hopes and voices well, we should too.
This new year, we will focus on the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark is the earliest Gospel book that was written. It is fast paced (the Greek words Kai Ethos, and immediately occur every few verses, it was written to be read cover to cover in one sitting),
The Gospel of Mark focuses on Christian Discipleship, what it looks and feels like to follow Jesus. The Gospel centers around a series of escalating conflicts between Jesus and religious and or political empires. You can’t do both, you can’t be fully part of the kingdom of God and of the world. At the same time, you can follow Jesus and work with faith, care for your family and community with faith, build relationships with love.
We start the new year with 2 readings that show “God with us” is at the message told to us from the start. There is creation and Jesus first invitation to come and follow. Today, we start with the second creation story, from the very start, time with people, God being with us, is at the heart of God’s kingdom. Each verse has filled entire collections of books. We can easily get lost in the details Now countless centuries of work and interpretation have been spent on these stories, their own origins, relationship with each other, relationship with science / what we can discover from observing what we can observe. People have spent huge amounts of energy trying to figure out where these rivers are, where the garden was, what fruit was on the tree (probably not an apple), I want to look at something different, at the heart of this story is God with us. God’s time together with people. The first creation story, God is in heaven looking down, seeing and saying “:it is good”, in the second story, God is in the garden, forming life from the earth, witnessing Adam’s loneness, feeling the wind, God is very much with us. Jesus first call of the disciples is simple follow me and I will make you fish for people. Jesus goes to the center of the city and life, the place where people were fishing. God is with us.
We will hear a lot about the ways people have seen and felt God with us. We will also do, show and help others experience God with us. In our ministry this year, I want to focus on a few main ways of care and community outreach.
1-
Our Rainbow Christian Preschool:
2-
Woodside Neighborhood Association:
3-
Stacey’s food pantry
No comments:
Post a Comment