Denver Community Church

November 24, 2019: Loved & Capable of Loving - Amanda Lum

“Keep yourself from idols.” What a curious way to end a letter like this. Unless we recognize the idea of what idols represented. Idols and idolatry was about more than bowing down before statues of a the gods. It was about the human propensity to place anything in the created order above the one who created it. When we do this, we give away our power to the created order.

 

This, according to NT Wright, was what the idea of “sin” meant. It was humanity’s missing the mark by handing over to lifeless things the power and authority that was ours in the first place. This is what has led to slavery for us and for all of the created order. In this, we fail in our most basic calling – the invitation to co-create with God and be his presence in this word. To keep away from idols then, is negative way of stating the invitation that has been ours from the beginning: to accept and live out our deepest calling.

November 17, 2019: Breath, Water and Blood – Michael Hidalgo

It wasn’t just water and it wasn’t just blood. It was both. And the Spirit. It was actually all three. What in the world does all of this mean? Well, that’s the thing. No one is 100% sure (though no one is that honest). The best we can do is examine how John speaks about water and blood and the Spirit in his Gospel and his letters. And it is there we find some connections.

Most specifically – the moment that Jesus died. He was pierced and blood and water flowed. This speaks of his real, authentic humanity, and the life that came (and still comes) through that death. A life given by the Spirit. This is what we know to be true – is that life does in fact come from death – and we are invited to trust that.

November 10, 2019: The Burden of Being Fully Human – Scott Oppliger

John tells the hearers of his letter that the commands of God (which are loving God and loving others) are “not burdensome.” There is an echo in these words of the invitation Jesus offered to any who would come found in Matthew 11, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

What John is getting at, and what Jesus was talking about, was learning the way to become fully human. To live lives of love, lives marked by the grace, essence and presence of God. This is what it means to be human. What if we understood these commands not as another rule to follow, but a path on which to walk so we can discover what full life actually looks like?

November 3, 2019: Love > Fear – Michael Hidalgo & Maggie Knight

Few are well acquainted with love, because many are consumed with fear. Fear resides deep within us, and it’s unbelievably subtle. It carries immense influence in how we think, live and function - it is a deep and abiding fear (or terror) of God. This is because many have been introduced to a god who is ready to ensure we experience eternal conscious torment forever. The good news? We can avoid this horrendous punishment if we repent. Talk about a relationship that is little more than a cautious standoff with an angry deity!

 

But God is love, and love drives out fear. What does this look like? It looks like Jesus. Through him we learn of a God who took our suffering, pain, fear, pain, sin and brokenness. A God who allowed our suffering to be his. When Jesus was crucified he not only suffered with us, but exposed the shame, fear and guilt we carry deeply within us. In the moment of his greatest agony, our fear was brought to light. This is how fear was destroyed. In Jesus, the God who is love destroyed fear once and for all. 

October 27, 2019: I Am God – Bekah Stewart

Christian Mystic Marguerite Porete wrote, “’I am God,’ says Love, for Love is God and God is Love, and this Soul is God by the condition of Love.” What a densely packed statement. It’s possible she points toward the suggestion that is here in these verses. That is that God’s love is in us. If that’s the case, then we are love too.

Which means we can actually be for our world a sign, a symbol and the actually presence of God. How? By loving each other. Jesus said the same, “By this all people will know you’re my disciples … love one another.” What if this is the greatest thing we can do? What if this is all we gave ourselves toward, remembering loving God and others are the most important commands? Is it possible our world might experience God’s presence, and know God more.

October 20, 2019: What Does it Matter Anyway – Amanda Lum

“Test the spirits,” says John. And how do we do that? By observing whether they acknowledge Jesus actually came in the flesh. There is a near constant insistence from the writers of the Christian Scriptures and the Early Church that Jesus was the divine in real skin and bone as evidenced in all the early creeds. Which raises the question, “Why did (and does) Jesus being real flesh matter so much?

What’s fascinating is there are multiple answers to that question. Ultimately, it points toward the union promised us as humans, a union God longs to have with this physical world. Athanasius summed it up saying, "God has become man, so that man might become God." It points toward the reality of the deep love God has for this good, physical world. In the incarnation, God said this world is still good.

October 13, 2019: One Life – Michael Hidalgo

There really only is one life. One source that gives life and breath and everything else to everyone. But we live like this is not the case. We cut some people off, we exclude, we gather with “our” people. But the vision of Jesus was to join the life of the Divine. It’s possible, we can do this to the extent that when people join the life of DCC, they join the one life that flows in and through all people.

October 6, 2019: Hold it Like This – Michael Hidalgo

Generosity. If there is anything that seems to cause tension to rise in the minds and hearts of the faithful it is talk of giving. We can admit that giving and living generously is a good thing to do and even see it displayed in the life of Jesus. So why do we trend toward holding tightly to that we’ve been given? What if we held things loosely? Perhaps we’d discover great freedom in doing so.

September 29, 2019: As It Should Be – Michael Hidalgo

Justice is a central theme throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. But what is it? In it’s simplest meaning it means that everything is as it should be. The high places are made low, and the low places made high. Everyone has one they need, and because of that there is no more war; shalom now has her way. While we long for this in our world, this is something we can pursue in our life together here and now.

September 22, 2019: It's A Matter of the Heart – Amanda Lum

There are moments in life when we feel like we have gone too far, really messed things up and maybe even moments when we are beyond forgiveness. These are the times when our “hearts condemn us …” Of course, the opposite is true too, because there are times when our “hearts do not condemn us …” Whatever we feel or think or believe in those moments there is one thing that is always true: God is bigger than our hearts.

 

This ought to fill us with confidence before God. He is not to be feared, but embraced even as he already embraces us. Armed with this confidence and held in his loving embrace, we then are free to reveal what our hearts tell us, and we can know this because of the Spirit given us.