Scripture tells us Jesus is the capital “W” word of God, the fullness of God’s image that is otherwise invisible to creation. Jesus is the full revelation of God when we otherwise rely on those who caught a glimpse of the infinite wonder of God. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
Go and care for the person in the ditch. Go and care for the person, the group of people you despise. Go and care for the person wearing the MAGA hat. Go and care for the person wearing the Black Lives Matter shirt Go and care for the person who has wronged you. Help every single person that comes across your path without first wondering if they are “just going to buy booze” with the fist-full of money you are going to give them. Go and care for every single person who you believe has gotten wha...
To make Paul’s words through this entire letter plain - Simply put… it is foolish to think we can fool G-d with self-righteous works of the Law to achieve salvation. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are sufficient for all people. It is foolish to think circumcision - works of the Law - is a sufficient alternative to the Gospel. When we buy into the idea that there is something necessary for salvation apart from the grace and mercy of G-d in Christ we are like the ancient church in Galatia f...
It was Jesus that freed the man removed and restrained by his community, not the disciples. It was Jesus that freed the man by removing the restraints place on him by his community, not some do-gooder neighbor that finally felt guilty about the man’s situation. So thanks be to G-d that we are not Jesus because how often do we ignore the bondage of those removed and restrained from the community. How often to we fail to act when we see a person laying by the side of the road and choose to pass by...
We will pray that as you come to know the love of G-d in Christ that you will welcome the Holy Spirit’s movement for yourself. Know Milana, that the Holy Spirit is not oppressive, forcing itself upon you, but rather the Holy Spirit, just like Christ, is life-giving. The late Phyllis Tickle wrote that we today are living in the age of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is moving us within the Church and those outside the church, in a moment of Holy Revitalization so that Christ’s Lordship may be known t...
The world will know Christ's love by not the unity we advertise, but by the unity we find in Christ's love for one another. Our unity - beyond Mount Olivet the United Methodist Church but also including them - shows to the world Christ's love through the way we love one another. The Good News is through Christ's faithfulnesses to us, Christ's prayer for us does not change because of our lack of unity or faith. Our lack of unity - our willingness to cutoff and push aside part of the body - does n...
"The Holy Spirit’s proper work never goes anywhere without Christ, and the Spirit does nothing apart from resurrecting Christ in dead sinners. The Spirit does not moonlight in any other job but to drive everything in all creation to Christ." We are a community of disciples and no one is expect to grow, learn, or minister alone. Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit will, is, working in and through us. The Holy Spirit is working for you, in you, revealing Jesus in our midst and continuing to reveal t...
The problem, like the religious leaders, we cannot come to faith through knowledge and empirical truths. Every time we approach faith in this manner we come up short because the answer given by Jesus does not fit in our empirical truth box. Our faith in the messiahship of Christ, what we believe to be true about who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing today, is only possible through G-d’s faithfulness. Jesus told the religious leaders, “the works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” (John ...
The calling extended to Peter, “Follow me,” is the same calling extended to each of us when we emerge from our baptismal waters. This calling - “Follow Me” - is an invitation to meet Christ at his table, but “Follow me” is also an invitation to experience the fullness of the freedom extended to us by the power of Jesus’ Easter victory - the final victory over our captivity to sin and death. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
Thanks to preachers and fresco artists, Thomas has carried a bad reputation for 2000 years. Because of people like me using the doubter to convince you not doubt but to have faith, Thomas is known for something not entirely accurate to who he was or what he was doing in his moment of infamy. “Doubting Thomas” was simply asking for something he had been accustomed to receiving. Because the crucifixion itself was a sign - “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you...
When the Kingdom of G-d and earthly realms collide, it is not always immediately apparent, but the Kingdom of G-d is always victorious. We have seen these collisions throughout Christ’s ministry but now on Palm Sunday as the shadow of the cross begins to appear on the horizon we may not be so sure of what is to come. The prophets foretold what would happen - “despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was des...
Because we live on this side of the empty tomb we have the ability to see the new thing the Lord did in Christ Jesus and yet still, we still stand with our arms folded, hardened to the possibility that this new thing really changed the world. We find it hard to believe the new thing the Lord has done is still changing the world. Jesus told his disciple in orders to experience the newness of what the Lord is doing we are to assume the posture of a child. Meekness in the sense that we are open to ...
Reconciliation with one another - which enables us to gather around Christ’s table - cannot happen without forgiveness. After all, if we have been reconciled to G-d by Jesus and G-d is no longer “counting people’s sins against them” then we are a community called to the same work. We are a community seeking reconciliation but without forgiveness, we cannot be reconciled to one another. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
Luke 13:1-9 For Jesus - his life, death, and resurrection - the Kingdom of G-d is always at the forefront. The Kingdom of G-d is priority number one for Christ. When we accept Christ’s invitation to repent w are intentionally turning towards his kingdom. In this turn, we begin to see, experience, and become a part of the healing, liberation, and compassion extended to all of creation by G-d through Jesus Christ. The Good News is that in five weeks, through the emptiness of his grave, we see the ...
Philippians 3:17-4:1, Genesis 15 Pauls’ words speak life to Mount Olivet. We are reminded that in all we do, everything, we are to imitate Christ’s love. No exceptions. This work is not easy, and like the Philippians, we will miss the bar established by Christ. We will fall short. In our shortcomings, G-d’s grace - the love unmerited love of G-d - is still ours. That never changes. So whether we are engaged in acts of justice and mercy - not just speaking and marching but engaging in meaningful ...
The Law worked to offer the assurance of G-d’s presence in a period of waiting on G-d to make good on a promise. But as the story continues to unfold we see the generosity of G-d, and the promises of G-d fulfilled as Israel established itself in the promised land and later returned home after the exile. Israel’s response to G-d’s generosity was to give thanks, yet as the early church began to find its way, Israel’s response to the generosity and the ordering of a community began to be used to se...
We have missed the mark, and so on Ash Wednesday, the marks on our foreheads are a reminder to us to ask for forgiveness and try again. The Good News tonight is that on the cross and in the victorious empty grave we will find on Easter morning we are made righteous before G-d. Lent is not about giving something up so that we can be uncomfortable like Christ spent 40 uncomfortable days in the wilderness. During the season of Lent we remember that which we could not and cannot do for ourselves, Ch...
While little of what happened in a once indoor NFL stadium resembled a group of people following Jesus, today, a few days removed from General Conference, Jesus is still the transfigured Messiah, guiding his disciples down the mountain, heading towards the cross. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
Jesus sought these three men out. Before he was teaching on the banks of the Sea of Galilee they were a group of business partners who had a bad night at work. Before Jesus stepped into Simon’s boat, Simon was just a guy trying to clean his fishing gear and go home. But that’s the way discipleship works. Before you or I decided to be a follower of Jesus, Jesus revealed the awesome abundance of G-d. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
Worship establishes in us a new posture to not only approach G-d with but also a new posture for how we approach all of creation. Like the magi, we approach the manger not knowing all of the answers. We approach the manger not having all of the junk in our lives we continue to carry with us not quite figured out. We approach the light of the manger still struggling to over come the curse of sin that we fall back into no matter how many times we think we have overcome it. Get full access to Brewi...
The reality of what happened in Emmanuel trading the clothing of royalty for bands of cloth and laying in the manger is found in those who had forgotten or ignored the promise made by G-d. The good news changes the reality for all people, and invites all of creation to enter into the grace of G-d regardless of what the powerful say. Regardless of what the darkness of sin says. Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe...
December 23, 2018 - Advent 4C Micah 5:2-5 Luke 1:39-55 Get full access to Brewing Theology with Teer Hardy at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe
The entire prophetic tradition culminates in John the Baptist’s words, and we convince ourselves that what we’ve done is just too much. John knew the time had come. He knew the Messiah was here and that it was time to change. Things were already changing. The coming of Christ is good news. It is awesome news, yet due to the “darkside of ourselves” we see the darkside of creation and think there is no changing this. Things are too far gone for G-d to work through a baby or a grown man. We see war...
It is easy in Advent to become so focused on the babe in the manger that we forget Christ’s promise of return and vindication. The shininess of the tinsel and glow of the lights make it easy for us to lose focus. It is easy in our attempts to control the peace, hope, joy, and love of the season through packages from Amazon and Target we forget G-d is in control, holding all things in a vision that is boarder and more intricate that we can either think or enact on our own. Advent is a time when w...
November 25, 2018 - Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Luke 18:33-37, Christ the King Sunday When we are baptized, named and claimed as beloved by our Creator, we proclaim Christ as our Savior and promise to serve Him as Lord. That was a bold profession to make 2000 years ago and it continues to be so today. It is a declaration that Christ is Lord and everything else is secondary. Our allegiance lies with Christ, because of the promises made at our baptism which means the truth for our lives l...
November 4, 2018 - Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Mark 12:28-34, All Saints Sunday The saints of the past and us today have flaws. They, we, fell short of what Christ describes as the greatest of the things we are supposed to do. But in Christ loving us as himself, the saints and each of us are made righteous. What once was thought to separate us from the love of G-d is no more and Christ invites us to join him and the saints around His table. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ through...
In the darkness we experience today, a world-wide refugee crisis, a criminal justice system in desperate need of reform, wars that seem to have been accept as the status quo without end in sight, bigotry and hatred that has percolated out of the holes it had been hiding in, and a children who still have not been reunited with parents, in these situations it easy to allow the darkness to adjust our vision so that we miss what John told us from the very beginning, “The light shines in the darkness...
October 28, 2018 - Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Job 42 Much of what we do as followers of Christ is based upon mystery. From the basics of how exactly did Jesus turn water into wine or how the feeding of the 5000 actually happen to the sacraments - Baptism and Communion - there is much that we claim to know but what we think we know pales in comparison to the mystery that still remains. There are aspects of creation that I will never understand - violence, illness, and hate. I’m sure man...
October 14, 2018 - Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Mark 10:35-45 What Jesus said to the disciples shapes our lives as followers of Jesus, individually, and as a community. Discipleship means following Jesus with childlike reliance and living a cross-bearing life that resists the power and prestige we grasp for when our own security is in question. Jesus lived this cross-bearing life to the point of death so that we can do likewise, faithfully, evening though, like James and John we continue...
October 7, 2018 - World Communion Sunday Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Mark 10:2-16 By quoting Genesis instead of echoing Deuteronomy Jesus told the Pharisees that the Kingdom of G-d, G-d’s disruptive reign, will empower those previously without power. Social structures designed to keep people groups in their place will be disrupted. This point is driven home further when Jesus double-down, using children, a segment of the population viewed as property, to illustrate what kind of dependen...
