Zao MKE Church

Torn: The S Word

What is "sin" and why do some of us feel terrible at the mere mention of the word?

 

This Lent, the season leading up to Easter, we'll break down the B.S. around sin (hint: it's way less about sex, drugs, & rock n roll than you might have heard), discover why talking about sin can actually give us a stronger faith, a more inclusive community, and more accountability from systems of injustice.

Brief: The Gospel by Any Other Name

What happens to the message of Jesus when it is interpreted throughout different cultures and across different times? It becomes more rich with meaning! Though there are many gatekeepers in religious community, we are called to trust that the heart of Jesus's message thrives among cultural difference - and to beware conflating Jesus with western culture or whiteness, which has caused immeasurable harm throughout history.

 

In our last sermon on this series, we jump to a slightly longer book - Galatians. We'll sit with the whole book in one setting to understand how the radical Paul who wrote this letter advocated for taking the gospel message of Jesus beyond its first home in Judaism, and how this is good news for all of us!

Brief: When The Bible Gets Weird

Reading the book of Jude can feel rather head-spinning to modern readers: the angel Michael arguing with the devil over Moses dead body, clouds without rain and crashing waves turning to foam, innumerable references to scriptures both within and outside of the Old Testament. And honestly, it actually gets *weirder* when you know more what the author is talking about - for instance, when you realize he's referencing the idea than angels pissed God off by coming to earth and procreating with human beings, creating a race of giant angel-human hybrids, which caused God to bring the flood and wipe out everyone but Noah.

 

So how do we make ANY sense of this? And why is it that the only verse people quote now in Jude is used against LGBTQ people?

 

Come get into the weeds, and we promise we'll all come out clearer together.

Brief: Not A Slave, But A Sibling

Philemon, one of the shortest books of the Bible, was written to urge a rich slave owner to free an enslaved man in his household as a matter of Christian duty, and to receive him home as a beloved family member - entitled to all the rights of a brother, not a slave. So how did this become a favorite text of defenders of American slavery in the 18th & 19th centuries?

 

Read it for yourself and decide among trusted community- is this book of the Bible pro-slavery or radically abolitionist?

Brief

The Bible can sometimes feel overwhelming, so you might be surprised to know that some of the books of the Bible were originally written in less than 300 words.

 

In the next sermon series that starts this Sunday, we’re going to take a look at some of the shortest books of the Bible to see that those short, yet potent, messages are.

 

What was so important to get across that these writers only used 300 words to say it?

Naked As We Came: Perfect Parent, Perfect Child

Every new parent thinks their newborn baby is perfect, right? Well God thought that about you at the moment of your creation, and unlike human parents, the shine never wore off. Sometimes we talk about God as the "perfect Father" - but what if God thinks of you as the perfect child?

Naked As We Came: Trust

What does it mean to trust in God? Do we trust God with the vulnerability of a newborn baby? Should we?

 

In faith spaces, we often take for granted the idea that trusting in God is important, but in this episode we'll unpack what we mean by trust and whether trust, even in God, must be built in relationship.

Naked As We Came: Surrender

We come into this world through irresistible forces of movement and change. Through our lives, we learn to resist change. What if we released our resistance and surrendered to the flow of creation?

Naked As We Came: Suffering

Try as we may, we cannot avoid suffering - for ourselves or for our loved ones. What does the suffering of the innocent tell us about humanity, creation, and the nature of God?

Naked As We Came: Delight

“The joy of the lord is your strength” - Nehemiah 8:10

 

When we arrive on this earth, everything we take in everything with wide-eyed wonder. What if that’s a feature we aren’t supposed to age out of? Though many of us wear cynicism like an armor, the call of God is to earnest joy and delight wherever we can find it. An attitude of delight us vulnerable, but also gives us strength for the beautiful life we were born for.