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| Summary: Our mountaintop experiences are not places we need to preserve. Rather we must be willing to follow Jesus back down the mountain into the messiness of ministry with and connection to the people around us. |
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| Summary: Significant religious experiences are given to prepare us for God’s mission in the world. |
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| Summary: The first verse of Mark tells us that Jesus is the Son of God but the people in the Gospel story don’t know that. The account of the Transfiguration, as Jesus starts on his way to Jerusalem, reminds us who it is who will hang on the cross at the end of that journey. Truly human, in solidarity with all who suffer and are oppressed, he is also the God who saves us. That is not a conventional view of God but it may have the merit of being true. |
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| Summary: The Transfiguration is a powerful experience in which Peter, James and John encounter Jesus in all of his glory. This text, however, teaches an important lesson about religious "mountaintop" experiences: all experiences of God's grace are gifts to be shared with others. |
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| Summary: The Transfiguration is a powerful experience in which Peter, James, and John encounter Jesus in all of his glory. This text, however, teaches an important lesson about religious “mountaintop” experiences: all experiences of God’s grace are gifts to be shared with others. |
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| Summary: Significant religious experiences are given to prepare us for God’s mission in the world. |
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| Summary: Our mountaintop experiences are not places we need to preserve. Rather we must be willing to follow Jesus back down the mountain into the messiness of ministry with and connection to the people around us. |
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| Summary: When we edit our lives to let others see only what can be easily and superficially judged as “successful,” we invite others to become voyeurs into our lives in return for a fleeting feeling of superiority. Doing so limits us to one-dimensional relationships. Instead, Jesus invites us to a rich and deep community that can bear the joys and perils of life’s journey. |
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| Summary: The Transfiguration serves as a point in between this world and the world to come. In the Transfiguration, the law and the prophets become embodied in Elijah and Moses. God speaks. This scene gives us hope that God has not given up on this world. |
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| Summary: The Transfiguration is a vision of divine love that allows us to see one another as we really are.
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| Summary: The Transfiguration serves as a point in between this world and the world to come. In the Transfiguration, the law and the prophets become embodied in Elijah and Moses. God speaks. This scene gives us hope that God has not given up on this world. |
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| Summary: When we edit our lives to let others see only what can be easily and superficially judged as “successful,” we invite others to become voyeurs into our lives in return for a fleeting feeling of superiority. Doing so limits us to one-dimensional relationships. Instead, Jesus invites us to a rich and deep community that can bear the joys and perils of life’s journey. |
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| Summary: Our natural way of thinking would convince us that the way to become great and famous -- or at least successful and well off -is to fend for ourselves, forge ahead, and manipulate and jockey ourselves into favorable positions. “Nice guys finish last,” as the saying goes. However, our Lord, by word and by example, teaches us that the way to greatness is to lay down our lives in service to others in his name. In this text from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that “Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.” It is a strange way of thinking, but when God commands, he also empowers and enables. |
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| Summary: We forget the most common form of demonic possession is unbelief. Unbelief is the most common form of demonic possession that’s all around us. And we meet it in people who are very kind and polite. We listen to it from the television screen and read it from magazines, seeming innocuous almost, and yet, it is the constant grip that Satan is present, but we get lulled into this sense that, “Well, it won’t affect me.” |
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| Summary: In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ disciples never seem to grasp who he is or what he does or says. They’re puzzled by his actions and words. In today’s reading, they don’t understand when he speaks about his coming death and instead start arguing about which of them is most important. In spite of the benefit of hindsight, we’re often not much better. But our salvation is in the greatness of Jesus, not of ourselves. |
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| Summary: People maneuver and struggle and sometimes fight to be “first” in this world. They have to live with the outcome which often is tragic. Christ taught us that if we want to be among the “first” in his eyes then we must exercise humility and service. |
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| Summary: The first must be last. The greatest must be a servant. The one who welcomes a child welcomes Jesus. In the kingdom of God, normal expectations are flipped on their heads. |
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| Summary: To increase your “kingdom-value,” you must humble yourself and become a servant of all. The foundational humbling act is to acknowledge your own sin, and to ask God for mercy. Humble service may mean reaching out to people outside of our comfort zone -- particularly children, who can be brutally honest and wildly unpredictable. |
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| Summary: When we serve others by playing the role of a host, we come face-to-face with holiness. Our welcoming of children, in particular, is a welcoming of Jesus. |
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| Summary: There are people who do not claim the Christian faith who nonetheless work for the Lord. We should be attentive to the possibility of the Spirit’s presence as we dialogue with others. |
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| Summary: When the apostle John catches others healing others in the name of Jesus, he tries to put a stop to it, but Jesus will have none of it. We are on the same side. God’s audacious aim is to save the whole world. Therefore, whoever is not against us is for us. Isn’t it just like God to be merciful and hopeful about everyone? Including us. |
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| Summary: For dealing with things that keep us out of the kingdom of God, sometimes the best solution is to cut them out. |
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| Summary: When it comes to dialogue with those who believe differently, you’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar (as the saying goes).
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| Summary: In trying to decide how to respond to Jesus’ acts for our salvation, we learn from the “unchurched” exorcist that fighting evil forms part of discipleship. Jesus affirms any effort to fight evil, but pushes disciples to pursue the values of the kingdom, even at risk. The joy of the kingdom will compensate for any sacrifice we make. |
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| Summary: In response to the attempt by his disciples to stop a man from casting out demons in his name, Jesus teaches the necessity of embracing and empowering outsiders to the community to become insiders. The essence of discipleship involves not the control of others, but following Jesus’ model of including all who seek to follow him. |
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| Summary: Following Jesus sometimes requires us to behave in radically different ways from how we might if we were not his disciples. He makes that point with powerful language and memorable images. |
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| Summary: Jesus challenges his disciples’ narrow vision concerning what is for and what is against the Gospel. In life, functions such as medicine, law, education and other things that do not actively oppose the Christian faith actually support it. |
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| There are 27 sermons in your results. |
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