Denver Community Church

February 15, 2015: Eden is Coming Back – Michael Hidalgo

In our world today there is so much brokenness connected to sexuality – from porn to rape to sex slaves – our world has been ripped apart by one of the most intimate acts. But what if the story does not end with brokenness? What if this love poem actually calls us back to Eden? What if what we see is a vision of how things were which is how things can be and will be? 

All over this poem we see images of the garden, we see a freedom to express one’s deepest passions – without shame. There is a beauty and a wholeness contained in this relationship – all of this comes after Eden. Which tells us there is renewal, restoration and healing that can and will happen even in the deepest and most serious wounds – even sexual wounds. This is our hope – is there can be a new story.

February 8, 2015: Wake Up – Jon Gettings

“Do not awaken love until it so desires.” Though this verse seems at first glance to be primarily emotional and cerebral, it is also explicitly carnal. Due to the way we have surrounded the topic of sexuality in the church with an unhealthy layer of fear, verses like this get commonly read as warnings. Warnings of impending judgment by God, or impending doom of a relationship if the timing of our emotional, physical sexual activity isn’t in “God’s timeline”, however that timeline has been framed for us. 

 

However, this woman is not a woman speaking from a place of despair for wrongs done. She is a woman speaking from a place of: first, joy and longing (2:7); second, joy and relief or arousal (3:5); and third, joy and fulfillment (8:4). This is a matter of fact statement or declaration about the power of the reality she is caught up in. 

Love is desire that is fulfillment and was also meant to reach deep fulfillment. When we begin on the trajectory of love’s desire its goal is consume us and fulfill us body and soul, and the Beloved speaks about the powerful ways that it moves. How do we embrace love and fulfillment with intentionality as we pursue God and our relationships with others?

February 8, 2015: Wake Up – Michael Hidalgo

“Do not awaken love until it so desires.” Though this verse seems at first glance to be primarily emotional and cerebral, it is also explicitly carnal. Due to the way we have surrounded the topic of sexuality in the church with an unhealthy layer of fear, verses like this get commonly read as warnings. Warnings of impending judgment by God, or impending doom of a relationship if the timing of our emotional, physical sexual activity isn’t in “God’s timeline”, however that timeline has been framed for us. 

However, this woman is not a woman speaking from a place of despair for wrongs done. She is a woman speaking from a place of: first, joy and longing (2:7); second, joy and relief or arousal (3:5); and third, joy and fulfillment (8:4). This is a matter of fact statement or declaration about the power of the reality she is caught up in. 

Love is desire that is fulfillment and was also meant to reach deep fulfillment. When we begin on the trajectory of love’s desire its goal is consume us and fulfill us body and soul, and the Beloved speaks about the powerful ways that it moves. How do we embrace love and fulfillment with intentionality as we pursue God and our relationships with others?

February 1, 2015: You're Still the One – Scott Oppliger

The man says to his beloved, “Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her.” Which is to say – “one is better than many.” Which raises the question, “Is this true?” In our world today we talk about sexual conquests, and some believe having a tally that goes beyond counting on both hands is good.

But then, why is it so many want to know that one day there will be someone who doesn’t leave? Why is we want to know there will be the same someone there every morning when we wake up? It’s possible that we have given up on what we really want and just settled for something else that can give us the sense that we are connected – even if just for a little while?

How might things change for us if we gave ourselves over, not to our sexual desires first, but tended to our deeper desires and pursued true relationships?

February 1, 2015: You're Still the One – Michael Hidalgo

The man says to his beloved, “Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her.” Which is to say – “one is better than many.” Which raises the question, “Is this true?” In our world today we talk about sexual conquests, and some believe having a tally that goes beyond counting on both hands is good.

But then, why is it so many want to know that one day there will be someone who doesn’t leave? Why is we want to know there will be the same someone there every morning when we wake up? It’s possible that we have given up on what we really want and just settled for something else that can give us the sense that we are connected – even if just for a little while?

How might things change for us if we gave ourselves over, not to our sexual desires first, but tended to our deeper desires and pursued true relationships?

October 25, 2015: I Am the Good Shepherd – Jon Gettings

We all follow someone. Which is to say we all pattern our lives, our way of thinking, our attitudes, biases and opinions on someone (or maybe something). Following and imitating others is how we learn to live life. Children watch their parents and others walk around on two of their limbs, and what do they do? They struggle, wobble, pull themselves up and take that first glorious step. Because they watched someone and followed them.

Jesus claims to be someone worth following – someone who is good. To be clear there are others who are being followed, but they are different. They run away from danger, but Jesus gives his life up for his sheep. These words of Jesus are challenging because they not only point to him as the good shepherd, but indict the other shepherds, which is a resounding echo of Ezekiel 34 – which is all about judgment of shepherds.

Which is interesting because in Ezekiel, the sheep wander and get lost but the blame is not placed on the sheep, it’s placed on the shepherds. And what is God’s response to go and gather the lost sheep. To bring them home, to be their good shepherd. So when others wander from God because of the shepherds who exactly is held guilty?

January 25, 2015: A Theology of Lust – Landon Lynch

Sex is often referred to as “getting some.” Which is an interesting turn of phrase and far more than semantics. It reflects an attitude about sex that is dominant in our culture. Namely that one person is often placed below the needs of another. From pornography on the computer screen to a bed behind closed doors many believe that we go into sex to get something from the other – meaning the other is there to serve our needs. 

But this is not what we see in the Song of Songs. Both the woman and the man express their desire for the other. And in a day in which women were literally property – we see something astonishing. The woman is given equal voice with the man in speaking of her desires. Make no mistake – they are equals. Which raises the question, how would our understanding and practice of sexuality change if we recognized equality and mutuality?.

January 25, 2015: A Theology of Lust – Amanda Pennington

Sex is often referred to as “getting some.” Which is an interesting turn of phrase and far more than semantics. It reflects an attitude about sex that is dominant in our culture. Namely that one person is often placed below the needs of another. From pornography on the computer screen to a bed behind closed doors many believe that we go into sex to get something from the other – meaning the other is there to serve our needs. 

But this is not what we see in the Song of Songs. Both the woman and the man express their desire for the other. And in a day in which women were literally property – we see something astonishing. The woman is given equal voice with the man in speaking of her desires. Make no mistake – they are equals. Which raises the question, how would our understanding and practice of sexuality change if we recognized equality and mutuality?.

January 22, 2015: ISIS, Islam, and Jesus – Serve Global Forum

January 11, 2015: What We Really Want – Michael Hidalgo

What do we do with verses like, Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” [7.7,8] Umm, good question isn’t it?

Some, actually many, tried to make this about something else. Because talking about this in the confines of Scripture is one thing, but talking about this out loud in a room full of people, or writing a book about it is another thing entirely. Perhaps this is why Early Church Fathers like Origen argued the breasts the young man so desperately wanted to grab and hang on to were clearly the Old and New Testament. The only problem is when this was written there was no New Testament. 

Chances are the young man is graphically expressing what he actually wants to do. So where does this leave us? It leaves us in the place where we all are … a recognition that sexual desire and sexuality are not bad or wrong or dirty or shameful. Rather they are God given and a beautiful part of being human.

Not only that, but our sexual desire and our sexuality is something that actually points us to God and has much to teach us about our deepest desires and longings. As G.K. Chesterton said, “A man knocking on the door of a brothel is knocking for God.” What he is getting at is what we will talk about … our sexual desire tells us much about our spiritual longings.