Denver Community Church

May 2, 2021: Scott Oppliger - That's Not How You Treat Family

This week we'll look at the book of Obadiah, where the prophet speaks to a people who are rejoicing in their enemy's calamity, asking "Is this how you treat family?"

April 25, 2021: Tov! – Michael Hidalgo

When Amos, a shepherd, came around the people of Israel were enjoying the good life (6:1-7). Well, not all of them. The ones enjoying the good life were on the “top” of the social order; the ones oppressing those on the bottom. And those on the bottom were the ones working to ensure the good life remained for those at the top. They enjoyed safety, security, wealth and allowed their places of worship to become pagan centers of worship. The women even told the men, “Bring us some drinks!” (4:1), while others went hungry and thirsty. Of course, they did all of this with impunity believing that as long as they worshipped God and performed some religious rites, they were pretty much good to go. 

God’s response? ““I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them …” (5:21,22). You see, God never says, “I reject your justice because of your lack of worship!” Rather God insists, “I reject your worship because of your lack of justice.” This is what the people of God got backward, and what unhealthy religion gets backward constantly. Religion is not to serve our comforts, but to lead us to seek the healing and justice of our world. This is why Amos cries out, “Let justice roll down like a river!”

April 18, 2021: Bugs, Wrestlers and Faces – Bekah Stewart

Joel speaks of an army invading and the coming destruction it will bring. The army here are locusts and ancient people understood the power of such an army. They would devour everything in their path until nothing is left. Famine and drought would follow close behind. So what are the people to do? Well, according to the prophet, now is a time for wailing, mourning, weeping, despair, sackcloth, fasting and repentance. For this is a time, when all is stripped away, they are able to see things more clearly. And when they can see, they can repent. 

 

It is then that there will be restoration. God has compassion on God’s people (2:18), will restore their land (2:25) and will pour out God’s spirit (2:28). Which raises the question, “Is this how it all works?” Because it seems like, according to Joel, God punishes to get our attention, and when we repent, then God relents. Perhaps. It’s also possible that when we turn (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word for repent) toward God we recognize the God who has been there the whole time. In this, we are able to recalibrate the way we live and move in this world.

April 11, 2021: About a Homer for Gomer – Michael Hidalgo

Perhaps there is not better prophet to speak to the United States in 2021 than Hosea. He spoke mostly to the Northern Kingdom of Israel addressing its religion, its morality and its politics. His chief metaphor for the people of Israel was that of a “harlot.” To feel the impact of this, we may want to use the word “hooker.” As a people they were promiscuous; fooling around with anyone or anything that they believed would serve their interests. Corruption and oppression were rampant, and they people of God pinned their hopes on their allies rather than God. Hosea, speaks to the people and remind them, not of God’s great anger, but of God’s great love. 

This picture of Israel’s promiscuity is expressed in Hosea’s own household. His wife, Gomer, is an adulteress, one who has been with many others. This leads to divorce in his marriage - and in that culture it is Gomer who would have been seen as one who is a disgrace. But the story of Hosea and Gomer reflects God’s heart, not our attitudes. This is why Hosea brings Gomer back to be his wife and renews their marriage. 

The idea that this story of Hosea and Gomer actually happened was unacceptable in the minds of many. This is why many have suggested maybe this didn’t really happen - maybe it was a dream, a vision or a picture, but not a historical fact. Perhaps what’s more unacceptable is the way God continues to return to God’s people; reaching out to us again and again to renew a relationship for which God’s heart longs. 

Apri 4, 2021: This isNot Resuscitation – Amanda Lum

In the church we are familiar with Good Friday, when Jesus gave His life on the cross. We also know that Friday was not the end of the story; that the story does not end in death. We gather every year on Easter to celebrate and cling to the hope found in the resurrection. We are familiar with Friday and possibly even more familiar with Resurrection Sunday, but what about Saturday? Rarely do we talk about the day that the family, friends, and followers of Jesus lived through between His death on the cross, and His resurrection. Even though we rarely talk about Saturday, all of us at some point in our lives will sit in our own Saturdays.

 

Saturday and the pain it holds is a reality all of us will face in this life, but Sunday is coming. Resurrection is coming, and it will be beyond anything we could have ever dreamed or imagined. Today we hold the promise of Resurrection because we know the story does not end in death, but the disciples didn’t know that, in fact they never saw it coming. When you read about the resurrection and about the encounters Jesus has with people following His resurrection, there is one common theme, confusion. They are utterly confused, filled with fear, and doubt; none of them saw it coming.  That’s because in the ancient world the followers of Jesus never thought of or even dreamed of the possibility of their Messiah being resurrected. There was no category in their thoughts, lives, or beliefs for the Messiah to be resurrected. This was brand new. And that’s what resurrection is, something completely brand new. Resurrection invites us to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to possibilities we never thought would ever have existed. Resurrection invites us to see that God is doing a new thing, bringing new life, and it is beyond anything we could have ever imagined. 

March 28, 2021: It is Finished – Michael Hidalgo

Of all the words Jesus spoke on the cross these three: “It is finished,” may be among the most well-known. However, it is possible we can overlook the nuance of Jesus’ words, as in some ways something new had just begun. The words John records echo the end of the creation poem in Genesis 2.2 when “God had finished the work” of bringing the universe into existence. Of course, these words of Jesus that John records have even greater connection to the creation poem because of how the gospel begins: “In the beginning …” A clear reference to Genesis 1.1, and the connections do not stop there. The next scene is in a garden, where Jesus is thought to be the gardener. Another reference to the first human whose job was the care for the garden. 

All of these references to the creation poem are meant to lead us to see a beginning of sorts. In the case of Jesus, it is a new beginning. Though for Jesus it was finished, for his followers the work to which he called them had just begun. And how would they go about doing this? And here there is one last detail John offers us. After Jesus spoke these words, he “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Except the Greek does not indicate it was “his spirit” but “the spirit.” It is the Spirit Jesus had promised them when he said, “ … very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). And this is exactly what John says happened when he died. Which is no surprise because Zechariah had prophesied “… I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child … On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity” (Zechariah 12.10, 13.1). So here we are then, at the end, which is the beginning of the work the Spirit has empowered us to do.

March 21, 2021: God, Where Are You? - Michael Hidalgo

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” With these words, we learn Jesus has lost everything, even God. In his cry, he experiences the absence of God. For Jesus, and those in his culture, God was seen at the foundation, the bedrock of all things. To lose God then means to lose everything. We are confronted with this troubling truth not on the fringes of our faith, but smack in the midst of the most central event. That doubt, crying out - even an atheism from experience - is a part of our Christian Tradition. 

If we are called to participate in the death of Christ, then we are invited into this reality as well. But we resist, for to do so would be to give up our explanations, our security and how we make sense of our world. “It is the incoming of that which cannot be contained in our various mythologies, that which ruptures them all and calls them into question” (Insurrection, p 23). And it is in this place, in these moments that we find ourselves with Christ. We discover all that we held to tell us who God is … are not God. In losing them, we find the Divine. Perhaps this is what Meister Eckhart meant when he wrote: “God rid me of God.”

March 7, 2021: Mothers and Sons – Amanda Lum

Hanging on the cross, Jesus said to his mother, “Here is your son,” and he was not referring to himself. This is not the first time Jesus messes with the accepted idea of family. In another story, his mother and brothers think he’s not making wise decisions and they call for him, only for him to say, “Who are my mother and brothers?” It’s a new way of relating to others in his Kingdom; not the way culture has understood it. Everyone, Jesus insists, is family and to be treated as such. This is what the “disciple who Jesus loved” understood, for it is reported that this disciple took the mother of Jesus to live in his home.

 

It is presumed “this disciple” (you know, the one whom Jesus loved) is John. That’s one way of understanding it. But what if by not naming this disciple throughout the Gospel, John is giving a subtle nudge for us to find ourselves in the story. What if John is asking us to see ourselves as the “disciple whom Jesus loved?” What if we are standing at the cross? What if we pay witness to the shame Jesus bears as he hangs there, suffering, the object of scorn? If this is the case, then this is our mother, and we are the child. Because in the kingdom, we are family.  

February 28, 2021: Two Tickets to Paradise – Michael Hidalgo

Paradise. A loan word from the Persian picture of an enclosed park or garden. This picture, of course, calls to mind something familiar: The Garden of Eden. The word Luke uses is the same word used in the Septuagint referring to Eden. And what was Eden? It spoke of radical union with God, the other and one’s self. But that’s not the end of the story of Eden. The story unravels and speaks of disintegration, splitting, conflict and banishment. What was once a place for humans to grow and flourish and employ their calling is now a distant memory. And should one want to find their way back, the entrance is guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.

This story is echoed in other places and other wisdom traditions. It speaks of the universal longing to enjoy the union with God and with all things. The sort of union manifested in Paradise. This is the picture John offers in Revelation when he refers to the “paradise of God” (Revelation 2.7). And this is the same word-picture Jesus offers the rebel dying with him on the cross. Which is an interesting moment. For it is there, being crucified with Christ, that the rebel understands who Jesus is. And there, dying next to a rebel, Jesus says, “You will be with me …” And what does Jesus invite his followers to? To be crucified. Perhaps, this rebel, is in many ways the first disciple. And in picking up his cross, in losing his life, he finds it in Jesus - in Paradise.

February 21, 2021: Forgive Them –Michael Hidalgo

When Jesus pronounces forgiveness to those who have crucified him, he is, at the same time, accusing them of something. For if there is no wrongdoing, there is no need for forgiveness. Said another way; when forgiveness is granted, it proclaims the presence of wrongdoing. This is what we witness in Jesus’ words - he is crucified as a rebel, guilty of sedition. In our time, as we remember his death we hear these words as a statement toward, not only those doing the accusing and the crucifying, but also a display of God’s mercy to all humanity. However, if we consider the first readers of Luke’s gospel, what did they hear?

It’s possible they read this and understood themselves forgiven for the Imperial System they were caught up within; a system of domination, the Global Military Superpower called Rome. It was this system that killed Jesus; and he prays forgiveness over them as he is dying. Some may rightly question: “Is this anyway to bring justice to bear?” This question may arise as it feels like those who have been forgiven get a pass for their part and the system can continue. But this sort of thinking believes forgiveness and justice do not go together. We cannot forget “every act of forgiveness enthrones justice.” For it has the power to make things right - it names the wrong, it pursues reconciliation (where possible) and works toward restoration, while at the same time dispensing with the need for revenge. This is the power of these words: it exposes the evil and commits to undoing it.