January 10, 2021

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for January 10, 2021: Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Acts 19:1-7, Mark 1:4-11: Theme: Baptism of the Lord: Song: Spirit Song UMH 347 Genesis: Since it is the beginning of the year, it is fitting that we start at the beginning of the bible – the creation story. The story does not start at the beginning of creation, it starts at the beginning of order in the world. This story shows that from the beginning of order, God has wanted humankind to be a major part of that creation. It is our job to maintain that order. God has left a lot of responsibility in our hands. This verse covers the first day of creation. After God is done for the day – he says and it was good. And yet there is still 6 more days of work to complete. Perhaps God knew that there would always be unfinished business in creation for man to complete. There are some things that still need to be corrected in order to call it good. Psalm 29: This psalm is a celebration of being co-creators with God. We get to work, but as we see God’s creation first hand, we can’t help but to be in awe and to worship God. As we watch God in action, we see that his source of creation is his voice. All he has to do is to speak, and the world appears. Perhaps that is why Jesus Christ, who is also with God is the WORD – the one who makes it all so. As we watch God at work in creation, we too are blessed with peace and abundance. The beginning of the psalm calls us divine beings, created with the purpose of living a blessed life with God as the center. Questions: When have you watched God at work in creation? Do you see the awe of God when you are in nature? How can we speak the future into being? What does it mean to be a divine being?

December 12, 2020

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for December 13th: Isaiah 61:1-4, Psalm 126, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, John 1:6-8, 19-28; Song: Hark the Herald Angels Sing UMH 240 John: Advent is the time when John the Baptist says prepare the way. We are always reminded of John’s role in the story of salvation for the second and third Sunday’s of Advent. The book of John starts out with an introduction to John the Baptist. In John, John the Baptist is a witness to the power of the messiah. He says that he saw the doves above Jesus was he was being baptized. His purpose is to tell others about the messiah so that they will know also. We hear his story to remind us that we too are to be a witness to the power of the messiah. During advent we announce the good news that Jesus is not just coming into our lives, the Spirit of Christ is already here. There are signs all around us that God is present. We just have to be willing to open our eyes and see them. Isaiah: The long book of Isaiah is not written by one person to one audience. It is a historical book, written at different times by different scribes. This is known as Third Isaiah, the latest of the writers. This is also the verse in Luke where Jesus comes to the synagogue and announces that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” After he is baptized, and goes into the wilderness, the next thing he does is go the synagogue and announce his mission – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to those who need it. He is explaining what it means to be the messiah and to offer healing and salvation to others. Isaiah is the prophecy that there will be help for our modern problems. Jesus promised to be there for us. Will we be there for him? Questions: Who is the person calling in the wilderness today? How are you a witness to the power of Christ? How are you fulfilling Christ mission to the world?

December 6, 2020

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for December 6th: Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85:1-2,8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15, Mark 1:1-8; Theme: 2nd Sunday of Advent, Song: O Come O come Emmanuel Isaiah: Going through a national crisis affects the way in which you read the scriptures. You come to realize that much of the bible was written to deal with dark times in history. The prophet Isaiah was considered the most important prophet in the bible. But the almost 60 chapters are actually three different books, written by three different people in three different times. This chapter is the beginning of Second Isaiah. The country is in utter shock that God would let someone come in and destroy their country. They don’t know what to do, think or believe. Isaiah speaks to their pain and grief, and promises that God will being comfort to their souls. It will help to get through the pain knowing that things will get better, and to know that God feels our pain. A Prophecy for a dark advent season. Mark: Mark is a very practical gospel writer. His gospel does not begin with any cute nativity stories. He gets down to business and talks about who Jesus is as the messiah. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise in Isaiah. Mark begins by telling the story of John the Baptist. Jesus cousin is the one to prepare the hearts of the faithful for a savior. John tells people someone else is coming. The story starts with John’s ministry of baptism. Eventually his cousin will also come to him to be baptized, and that will truly start Jesus one year ministry on earth. Prophecy is the theme of advent – creating a brand new future. Questions: What do you think will become of this very dark time in our history? Do you see God’s presence in the midst of the chaos? If you could create the future, what would it look like? What good news does the world need to hear in order to move forward?

November 22, 2020

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for November 29th: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7,17-19; I Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37; Theme: First Sunday of Advent; Song: People, Look East UMH 202 Mark: The beginning of Advent always starts with the end – the second coming and works its way backward. The beginning of Advent always starts a new gospel to study. This year we will be looking at the book of Mark – the strangest of the gospels. Chapter 13 is a bit strange even for Mark. The Jewish temple has been destroyed, which causes a major crisis for believers. Not only does this event disturb a way of life, it disturbs a belief about God. The people are looking for some sense of direction in their faith. This chapter of Mark is known as crisis literature. It is found in both Revelations and the book of Daniel. It is a way of taking people’s mind off of what is happening in real time in their world – and getting them to think about God and the ultimate reality. Today, we are all too familiar with a world in crisis. We are encouraged to be alert in our world to see what God does to make things better. Corinthians: Paul spent much of his ministry writing letters to the churches that he established. Whenever they had a problem they looked to him for the solution. There were a lot of things going on in the Corinthian Church. Mostly, there were factions who refused to work together. Apparently, they also had different feelings about Paul. So Paul had to remind them that he worked for God. And that is the Spirit of God which held them together. God calls each of us into faith, and reveals the power of Jesus Christ to us. This verse is important in Advent because it tells us that the center of faith should be Jesus Christ. Questions: Where do you go for help in the midst of a crisis? How does a crisis make you more alert to what God is doing? How is Jesus the center of your faith? What does Jesus call you to do in the world?

November 22, 2020

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for November 22nd: Deuteronomy 8:7-18, Psalm 65, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Luke 17:11-19; Song: Now Thank We all our God UMH 102; Theme: Thanksgiving Deuteronomy: The people finally make it to the promised land. The scouts led them to a place where they would have abundant food. They are finally able to settle down and enjoy life. Moses reminds them not to forget about God just because they are not going through tough times. He reminds them that what they have is not because of their efforts, but God’s. We still make the mistake today of associating God with tough times. The only time we think to pray is when we need something. We may not always realize it, but we need God all of the time. It is important at this time of year to say thank you, but we have to let thankfulness be a regular part of life. Moses words are an important reminder for us today – the be thankful even when God leads us out of hard times. Corinthians: Paul is stressing how important it is to be willing to give as much as we can. The Jerusalem Christians were going through a famine, and Paul was trying to encourage the gentiles to be willing to give to help them. Like many of us, when we are struggling, the first place that we cut back on is our giving. We tell the church that we just don’t have it to give. Paul response is not to give sparingly. We are giving to God, not to people. We should always give God our best. God calls us to help those in need, and in turn God will provide for us. Thanksgiving is our chance to realize that all that we have is a gift from God. It is not ours to hoard. It was given to us, so that we can take care of ourselves and help others. questions: What times has God brought you through? Did you stop going to church and praying when things got better? How can you restore your relationship? What gifts have you received lately? How can you give to help others? How will you say Thank you during this Thanksgiving period?

November 8, 2020

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for November 8th: Joshua 24:1-3,14-25, Psalm 78:1-7, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Matthew 25:1-13; Theme: Choose to be a disciple Song: 717 The Battle Hymn of the Republic Joshua: Moses has literally went to be with God, and the nation of the sons of Israel have to find a new leader. Joshua has been groomed for the job. When Joshua is ready to take over he personally goes to pray and to take his vows. Now he wants to include all of the people in his mission. He tells them that he has decided to follow God, and now each of them can choose, must choose to do the same. He does not want people to feel that they are being forced to follow God. It must be a choice. If it is a choice, then you will take it upon yourself to prepare to fulfiil that promise. They have made this choice twice before, but the third time they make it public and change their life in order to fit that choice. Matthew: Jesus continues to teach his disciples about faithfulness. These are the last teachings that Jesus will give them before he goes through his tribulation. This lesson is about endurance. This is the story of the 10 bridesmaids. They are all excited to be able to meet with the groom. 5 have enough oil to last through the night, and 5 do not. All of us who go to church want to consider ourselves faithful. But some of us give up more easily than others. When it really counts, we have already given up and walked away. We are easily discouraged. We are easily distracted. We are not very disciplined. Jesus is telling them to stay on course, to take faith serious, to study. We have gone this far, we have to have faith to make it to the finish line and to go all of the way. questions: When did you make a choice to become a Christian? How does making a choice for yourself help you? What are the things that discourage you about being faithful? What are the things that help you to keep focus?

November 1, 2020

Breaking Open the Scripture Scripture for November 1st: Revelation 7:9-17, Psalm 34:1-10,22; I John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12: Theme: All Saint’s Day; For All the Saints UMH 711 Revelation: The book of Revelation was written to a church in crisis. The world was falling apart, and people were looking to their faith for answers. John gave them a vision that was full of answers. Usually, we are afraid to look at the symbolism of Revelation. But it seems that this is a time when our society is at the end of our rope, and we are looking for answers to our faith. Revelation says that the faithful will not only get through the crisis, they will get their answers, they will also get their peace. John starts to describe heaven. He says that he sees a number that he could not count of people from all over the world. We have learned to put aside our differences and live together as a collective people. Interesting that the message is that only those who hold onto and live their faith will overcome the present crisis. Matthew: On All Saint’s Day we are given the beatitudes to ponder. Blessed are those people who hold onto their faith in a time of crisis. This is the same message that we get from the book of Revelation. Life is hard, we go through some challenges. We can let those challenges get the best of us, or we can overcome them. Just because life is hard for us, we are not supposed to make life hard for other people. The hardships of our life should inspire us to work to make life better for others. That is how we get to heaven. Heaven is a place beyond this life, but it is also a part of this life. Heaven is a place that is found in community. It is a life that we build together with others. Heaven is our reward for being faithful. When we are willing to be kind to others, that is when we are closest to God. questions: What crisis do you need to overcome in your life? What crisis would you like to see eliminated from the life of all people? What happens when you show kindness to others? What does it mean to be blessed?