Fire has been on our minds this week as the wildfires have brought super bad air to our region. Fire is also the center of the parable of Jesus this Sunday (Matthew 13).
Jesus tell the parable of the wheat and weeds, that culminates with Gods holy angles burning up the wicked. It is a tough parable that makes us wonder, is our God a God of mercy and grace? Pastor Rob reflects on why this holy fire is ultimately a great comfort to us, knowing that God promises to say a permanent no to evil.
The parable of the Sower is a surprisingly haunting parable. Haunting because it talks about how evil works to take away our faith; haunting because we have seen it happen just as Jesus says it will.
The parable is about the Sower who sows seed on different types of ground, each of which represents a different condition of our heart and lives. Pastor Rob reflects on how he has seen people‘s faith wither away for different reasons, each reflecting the words of the parable.
Yet the parable is also about God goodness, generosity and ultimate victory. Pastor Rob also reflects on the amazing harvest that God‘s word produces, as well as God‘s willingness to continue to sow the seed, even when our heart is hard
If your town is like our town, we had a big celebration this weekend (in spite of the weather!). Everyone had a good time, but the weekend forced us as Christians to ask ourselves, what do we make our nation's 250th?
Truthfully, Christians, like many others in our country, come to the 250th anniversary of our nation with many emotions - pride, frustration and hunger for togetherness. Pastor Rob works with the hymn "America the Beautiful" to lead us in a prayer for our country, a prayer that includes praise, confession and supplication (request). This includes some reflections at the end on how we can both want a society in which people follow the teachings of Jesus, but we can also be skeptical of political projects that employ Christian language.
Note: The audio file is a bit longer because it includes the interwoven singing of "America."
