September 30, 2018 Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Luke 19:1-10 Extravagant generosity is about us participating in the extravagant kingdom-building work G-d is engaged in. G-d’s act of “loving, saving, and healing” in our community and around the world. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
Mount Olivet UMC - September 23, 2018 Genesis 41 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 The culture of now tells us that we earned this and thus we deserve it, but when we read stories like Joseph we see that the plenty we enjoy is a gift from God, a generous gift placed in our lives by our Creator. Stewardship means caring for something that ultimately is not ours, which is why talking about stewardship of creation is so easy while talking about stewardship of money is so difficult. Stewardship means caring for ...
Mount Olivet United Methodist Church - September 16, 2018 Proverbs 3:13-16 Luke 16:1-13 How we earn money is a clear and accurate indicator of our priorities. We might speak out in favor of honest work that others should be doing but do we follow the same prescription in our own businesses? We can earn by following the footsteps of someone else but at some point we have to begin living into the calling G-d has place on our lives because what you are called to will look different than what your m...
Ephesisans 4:25-5:2 So then, the new life offered to us by G-d in Christ is an invitation to claim the renaming and claiming done by G-d in our baptism. This is not a new list of things we must do to be renamed “beloved child of G-d” and claimed. It is not a list of things we must to do experience G-d’s grace. Instead, in speaking truthfully, resisting evil speech, and resisting anger we are able to don that which G-d has offered to each of us through Christ, a way of life that is different from...
The power of G-d’s blessing should not be used for personal or political advantage over another person or group of people. Jesus never said “G-d Bless America," or for the context of His time “G-d bless Rome,” because while overlooking our blessings and theirs, ignoring the fullness of what G-d is doing and was doing, G-d already gave a blessing and continues to do so. G-d has blessed us, but in some cases we have yet to reach the inner-spiritual harmony, the same harmony Jacob lacked, in order ...
July 22, 2018 Matthew 27:15-23 Which Jesus do you want? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth? Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
July 29, 2018 Deuteronomy 23:12-14 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 The Bible says a lot of things. It is a collection of books telling the story of the people of God. It is a book of covenant, heartache, promise, lament, renew, and hope. But “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it,” creates a problem. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
When Jesus flipped the social structure of first-century Israel on its head in the Beatitudes, He did not leave it to the disciples to figure out. He laid out a detailed plan for how His followers are to become a force for transformation, filling in the spaces He opened up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the church. When followers of Jesus Christ come together to further the Kingdom of G-d great things happen. So often though, inviting someone to church is about great programming or a fabulous new p...
Mount Olivet UMC Isaiah 55 Romans 10 The saving work that we proclaim has been done by Jesus. Words and actions do matter, both are necessary but the former leads to the latter. While faith without works might be dead, works without the Gospel proclamation only point others to the self-righteousness we want to put on display. Proclamation is not about us. It does not start with us and it does not end with us. So when we are stuck starring at a blank page in a notebook or feel as though we do not...
In the redundancy of love the sinner hate the sin we overlook that Jesus calls us, each and every one of us without exception, to love. The redundancy of love the sinner hate the sin blinds us to the role of God in all of this, as we try to assume the agency of the divine. It is God who judges, not us. Especially not religious leaders like me. Jesus did not let the adulterous woman off the hook. In showing mercy and forgiveness (we call this grace) Jesus also shows that holiness matters as he ac...
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit seals the Church’s identity in the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Our identity is not found in local church politics, denominational dysfunction, or theological impasses but instead in the One who calls us to transform the world. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
May 6, 2018 Year B, Easter 6 John 15:9-17 While we might want to think of ourselves as Joey saving Ross, more often than not we are Joey saving his sandwich Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
I'm not talking about throwing Bibles as weapons, I am referring to the weaponization the Holy Word of God to do battle against your enemy. This is not in a spiritual warfare scenario but rather to battle back against secularization in an attempt to reclaim the Church's position of authority and power in the United States. All of this to maintain the status quo for churches who thrive on a combination of nationalism, patriotism, and bad praise music. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer...
April 22, 2018 Easter 4, Year B John 10:11-18, Good Shepherd Sunday The community created by the Shepherd is open and inclusive. All are invited to join the flock. There is no one who is outside the reach of this Shepherd and no one so far gone that they cannot become part of the flock. Because the risen Christ is the Shepherd, and people like me are not, our deepest fears, insecurities, and separations can be healed by the Shepherd. Whether you drive a Jeep or a Prius, whether you eat processed...
April 18, 2018 - Wesley Theological Seminary Ezekiel 37:1-14 Irrelevancy and decline are the undead among us, preventing us living the called life we were born into through the waters of baptism. Without living into the new life we experience through the waters of baptism we are not only those trying to survive the post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world, worst yet we are the living dead, reaching, pulling, and ripping the life out of anything we can get our hands on. Without the living waters, w...
April 15, 2018 Easter 3, Year B Luke 24:36-48 The part of Christianity that is most necessary is at times the hardest to not only explain to outsiders but also to explain to someone who has faithfully attended worship for 40 years. We start thinking of ghosts instead of bodies, creating for ourselves the same tricky-wicket the disciples experienced. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
April 8, 2018 - Mount Olivet UMC Year B, Easter 2 John 20:19-31 Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
Easter 2018 Mark 16:1-8 The ending of The Gospel of Mark does not fit the new life, new hope feeling we enjoy each year as we use Easter to signal the return of new life in spring. On a day when we expect to feel the overwhelming presence of the risen Christ, the ending of Mark’s gospel is entirely underwhelming. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
March 25, 2018 Palm Sunday, Year B Mark 11:1-11 To challenge those who are paraded through the empire in up-armored vehicles and with military escorts is a dangerous business. In doing so you run the risk of being mocked by people you have never met. In doing so you run the risk of being betrayed by your closest friends. In doing so you run the risk of being assaulted by the very power you are standing up to. To challenge the status quo, to be the counter-cultural voice, to put on a piece of pol...
Because there is so much going on in this story, and the writer of Mark wrote such a condensed account of the ministry of Jesus, and on top of that uses misdirection, we miss it. The people in the synagogue did not miss it. Yes, they were astounded by the spirit being cast aside but they knew what was going on. They saw something different happening. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
But what happens when God incarnate is the one calling us to repent and believe? It is easy to blow off the street preach as we walk out of Starbucks or to flip the channel when the slick-haired televangelist begins preaching. It’s easy to not make eye contact with someone on the street or turn off the television and go play with our kids. It is easy to write off the story of Jonah, but what are we to do when Jesus calls upon us to repent and believe? Year B, Epiphany 3 Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Mark 1:14...
Year after year we see the wise men as minor characters in our children’s Christmas pageants and fail to see that for us, Gentiles, the wise men’s visit to Bethlehem signaled, just as Simeon declared in the Temple, that Christ had come for all people. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
Simeon and Anna were ordinary people. Neither of them held the title of Reverend in front of their name. Simeon and Anna were ordinary people faithfully waiting for God to move. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
We almost have a great story in the Nativity. All we needed was for sweet baby Jesus to defeat the empire. Instead of fleeing to Egypt as a refugee, we needed sweet baby Jesus to raise an angelic army, wielding Luke’s lost light saber, defeating the empire, releasing Israel from the rod of their oppressor. As Mary and Jospeh are being counted to calculate the tax to be handed down by Emperor Augustus we need Jesus to say, “Stand back Mom and Dad. I’ve got this. Get full access to Brewing Theolog...
God empowered Mary to this journey and just as God awaited Mary’s response of “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to you word” God waits for us today to respond in a similar manner. The story of the incarnation is not a story to keep in the books, 2000 years ago. Each day we are invited to see God’s favor upon us and respond, even when we feel unworthy to the task. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
On Christ the King Sunday I was joined in the pulpit by Jim Dake to discuss what it means to be called to ministry, both as clergy and a laity. All of us are called to be in ministry. Each of our calls will look different. No one person will have the same call as their mentor colleagues. Whether you are called to ministry in your home, neighborhood, or on the other side of the world, you are called by the same Jesus who called His disciples to follow him. Get full access to Brewing Theology with...
We can look to what is to come with confidence, not worrying about what will or won’t happen, because Christ has already sealed the deal for us. Christ has already conquered death, atoning for our sins, making us righteous before God, acting as our mediator, and ensuring that when he comes again in the fullness of his glory all will participate. Regardless if we died yesterday and Christ comes tomorrow, we are assured through the promise of scripture and the strength of our faith that we too wil...
1 Thessalonians 2:1-13 Revelation 7:9-17 What we miss in avoiding the tension between Thessalonians and Revelation is that while it may be hard in this life we have the confidence of knowing what happens at the end of the book: God wins. We win. Christ’s holiness wins over “failure and disappointment,” “separation and abandonment.” Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
Matthew 22:15-22 We keep the lights on because we are returning ourselves to the One whose eikon was stamped onto our lives when we were formed in our mother’s womb and through the new life we receive when we die to ourselves in the waters of baptism. We keep the lights on because we have not mixed up God and Caesar. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
Jesus is pretty clear about children in the Kingdom of God. This is one of the subjects within Jesus' teaching where it is hard to twist the meaning of His words. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
