The Slightly Above-Average Radio Drama and Theological Revue
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Friday Night Fun with 7/8
C-Plus crews begin preparing 'SliGhtly Above average radio show and revue' - world premiere on palm Sunday
With a total of 81 speaking parts and an additional 14 sound effects crew members, the Radio Show and Revue details a wagon train's slow march westward through Southern Minnesota in 1871. While just about everything seems to have changed since then - Jesus has not. God still loves his people and we can still see God's work in the Bible stories being shared.
ASH WEDNESDAY REMEMBERED, markED AT J.A.M.
Squirrels used to explain judgment, mercy and grace
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
2 Peter 3: 18
Define Grace.
Most people cannot with great certainly.
They have a rough idea of what it is, but rarely to people understand the outlandish dimensions of God’s love that stretches over forever.
With that said, the easiest way to get your big brain wrapped around the universal scope of Grace is the Story of the Three Squirrels.
The three squirrels, in their own way, show us the definitions of judgment, mercy and grace.
Judgment is getting what you deserve.
Mercy not getting what you deserve.
Grace is getting what you do not deserve.
The church is full of big important words that we don’t always get our head around, but you can understand it when God says things like “Be Perfect, for I the Lord Your God am perfect” and “The wages of sin is death.”
So if judgment is getting what you deserve, and God says the wages of sin is death – what do you deserve? Do you sin?
So that’s the start.
The first squirrel lives across the street from the parsonage.
Now squirrels are not known for looking both ways before they cross the street and you can hardly blame a truck that come along and rolls over a squirrel as it darts over the road.
This dead squirrel perfectly illustrates the concept of judgment.
You run out in traffic, you deserve to get hit. Plain and simple.
The logic works with turtles and deer and low-flying birds, too.
If any one of you goes out and starts the Wal-Mart on fire tonight, it is quite likely that the law will eventually catch up with you and you will face a lengthy time on jail. The judge or a jury will decide on guilt – and if you did it – you will live with the judgment – most likely in prison.
In the Bible, we read that the wages of sin is death.
You sinned?
Yeah. Me too. So the bottom line is we will die and we get what we deserve.
The second squirrel is a little more fortunate.
Rather than rolling over the squirrel, the drivers show mercy and hit their breaks. They might be close calls, but the squirrel survives the street.
Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
The squirrel, who is running amok in traffic, deserves to be run over.
The drivers show mercy by breaking and not running it over.
You see this in court cases all the time, when the evidence is overwhelming and it is a slam dunk case – the defendant will throw himself or herself on the mercy of the court.
So sometimes judges will show mercy, too. Rather than getting 5 years for arson – the judge will roll out a two and a half year sentence.
Mercy.
This is where you can see a pretty big divide in people, depending on circumstance.
There was a time when I thought “I don’t know” was a dumb answer – especially when I’d ask my kids or other people who’d gotten into bad trouble why they did what they did.
“I don’t know.”
Honestly, I think the person really doesn’t know a lot of the time.
So let’s say you saw $200 sitting on a counter at a store and you know it didn’t belong to you – but you grab it and put it in your pocket and walk away.
That, my friends, is a gross misdemeanor.
Punishable by up to a year in jail.
If it was you that did it, you’d ask for mercy, especially when the store’s cameras catch you dead to rights taking it.
But let’s say you’re on the other side of the equation – and the $200 belonged to you. You’d demand judgment! She did the crime, she can do the time!
Human being are sort of strange that way, huh?
Not caught up in pettiness, God Himself gives us Grace.
The third squirrel, who wants to run in the road and still will, deserves to die for it.
All squirrel, it is to be noted, deserve death.
But rather than just breaking, the drivers get out and build a $7.3 million bridge overpass. They plant expensive shrubbery and build feeders along the path – one with acorns and the next with corn. They reroute stream to make sure the squirrel has enough to drink and build tree houses with good insulation to make sure Hermine (I just named the squirrel) is comfortable in all weather conditions.
That, my friends, is grace.
That is what God has done and is doing for us.
Judgment demands that we be damned. We are basically selfish and wrong most of the time. We act like we are our own gods and ignore the real one.
Mercy is that God has not flushed us again like He did with the people during Noah’s time. We are not out-and-out destroyed. God hit the breaks!
Grace is what we float upon.
2 Peter 3: 18
Define Grace.
Most people cannot with great certainly.
They have a rough idea of what it is, but rarely to people understand the outlandish dimensions of God’s love that stretches over forever.
With that said, the easiest way to get your big brain wrapped around the universal scope of Grace is the Story of the Three Squirrels.
The three squirrels, in their own way, show us the definitions of judgment, mercy and grace.
Judgment is getting what you deserve.
Mercy not getting what you deserve.
Grace is getting what you do not deserve.
The church is full of big important words that we don’t always get our head around, but you can understand it when God says things like “Be Perfect, for I the Lord Your God am perfect” and “The wages of sin is death.”
So if judgment is getting what you deserve, and God says the wages of sin is death – what do you deserve? Do you sin?
So that’s the start.
The first squirrel lives across the street from the parsonage.
Now squirrels are not known for looking both ways before they cross the street and you can hardly blame a truck that come along and rolls over a squirrel as it darts over the road.
This dead squirrel perfectly illustrates the concept of judgment.
You run out in traffic, you deserve to get hit. Plain and simple.
The logic works with turtles and deer and low-flying birds, too.
If any one of you goes out and starts the Wal-Mart on fire tonight, it is quite likely that the law will eventually catch up with you and you will face a lengthy time on jail. The judge or a jury will decide on guilt – and if you did it – you will live with the judgment – most likely in prison.
In the Bible, we read that the wages of sin is death.
You sinned?
Yeah. Me too. So the bottom line is we will die and we get what we deserve.
The second squirrel is a little more fortunate.
Rather than rolling over the squirrel, the drivers show mercy and hit their breaks. They might be close calls, but the squirrel survives the street.
Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
The squirrel, who is running amok in traffic, deserves to be run over.
The drivers show mercy by breaking and not running it over.
You see this in court cases all the time, when the evidence is overwhelming and it is a slam dunk case – the defendant will throw himself or herself on the mercy of the court.
So sometimes judges will show mercy, too. Rather than getting 5 years for arson – the judge will roll out a two and a half year sentence.
Mercy.
This is where you can see a pretty big divide in people, depending on circumstance.
There was a time when I thought “I don’t know” was a dumb answer – especially when I’d ask my kids or other people who’d gotten into bad trouble why they did what they did.
“I don’t know.”
Honestly, I think the person really doesn’t know a lot of the time.
So let’s say you saw $200 sitting on a counter at a store and you know it didn’t belong to you – but you grab it and put it in your pocket and walk away.
That, my friends, is a gross misdemeanor.
Punishable by up to a year in jail.
If it was you that did it, you’d ask for mercy, especially when the store’s cameras catch you dead to rights taking it.
But let’s say you’re on the other side of the equation – and the $200 belonged to you. You’d demand judgment! She did the crime, she can do the time!
Human being are sort of strange that way, huh?
Not caught up in pettiness, God Himself gives us Grace.
The third squirrel, who wants to run in the road and still will, deserves to die for it.
All squirrel, it is to be noted, deserve death.
But rather than just breaking, the drivers get out and build a $7.3 million bridge overpass. They plant expensive shrubbery and build feeders along the path – one with acorns and the next with corn. They reroute stream to make sure the squirrel has enough to drink and build tree houses with good insulation to make sure Hermine (I just named the squirrel) is comfortable in all weather conditions.
That, my friends, is grace.
That is what God has done and is doing for us.
Judgment demands that we be damned. We are basically selfish and wrong most of the time. We act like we are our own gods and ignore the real one.
Mercy is that God has not flushed us again like He did with the people during Noah’s time. We are not out-and-out destroyed. God hit the breaks!
Grace is what we float upon.
same day, different job: youth went the whole 9 yards
getting rich cleaning a ditch - caring about god's world
Our beginnings and our endings (not god's)
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The church is dead. Long live the church.
The Presbyterian Church in Balaton served as a witness to God’s presence for nearly 100 years. It provided comfort, refuge and challenges for God’s people and worked in Christ’s fields, growing faithful people of this community for generations. It closed. The last pastor died shortly after it shut its doors, a melancholy exclamation point to an already sad story. We make a mistake when we confuse God with the Church. They are not one and the same. God is God. And the church is the primary means of carrying forward the faith of our fathers (and mothers). The church is direct link back to the Disciples who were given the mission by the resurrected Christ to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The Presbyterian Church did what it was called to do for as long as it could. God’s mission was accomplished in this work. We have older friends at Trinity whose faith journeys began two blocks away at the corner of 2nd Street and Central Avenue. Much like the church, you are also given the task of making disciples. And much like the Presbyterian Church, you had a beginning and you will have an end in this world. Are you serving as a witness to God’s presence in the time you are given? Do you provide comfort, refuge and challenges and do you work in Christ’s fields? Maybe all Dogs go to Heaven, but the Bible says that isn’t the case for people. In 2 Timothy 3, we read that “men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” In John 8, Jesus declares “You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am He, you will indeed die in your sins.” Confirmation is not graduation. One way or another, we all live out the faith we have. The question is where are you placing your faith? God doesn’t need us. We need God. |
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Wasn't in the Stars?
By Rev. Lee Yates
Vibrant Faith @ Home
Have you seen the movie "The Fault in Our Stars"?
Here's a short devotional that takes a pretty good movie and turns it back into our experience.
Sometimes you can't explain the twists and turns life takes. How do you deal with disappointment or even tragedy? Check out a film that faces these issues, and then explore where God might be in the midst.
Activity Plan
Material courtesy: http://www.vibrantfaithathome.org/
"Stars" image: Neal Fowler
By Rev. Lee Yates
Vibrant Faith @ Home
Have you seen the movie "The Fault in Our Stars"?
Here's a short devotional that takes a pretty good movie and turns it back into our experience.
Sometimes you can't explain the twists and turns life takes. How do you deal with disappointment or even tragedy? Check out a film that faces these issues, and then explore where God might be in the midst.
Activity Plan
- Open in prayer. Here are some words if you need them:
- Lord, help me express my doubt, anger, and frustration. Help me claim my dark emotions and face them. Help me to have the courage to face reality without losing sight of your love and beauty. Amen.
- Read Psalm 42 from your Bible. Notice how the psalmist shifts from hope to sorrow and back. Ponder what might cause the psalmist to have such mixed feelings.
- Think about the movie The Fault in Our Stars.
- What issues of faith are raised in this film? When are they raised?
- Where do you think questions of faith could have been addressed, but were not?
- When, in your own life, have you experienced pain like the characters in the movie?
- To what extent can you truly understand someone else's pain?
- What might you say to someone who is struggling to see God in the midst of sorrow or pain?
- What have other people said to you (good or bad) about God in the midst of your struggles?
- How is it possible to find hope in the midst of struggle, pain, and sorrow?
- Read Psalm 42 again, and then spend some time reflecting on these questions:
- Do you know someone who is hurting and needs to feel God's love close to him or her? How can you be God's presence?
- Do you know someone who feels alone? How can you reach out to him or her?
- What questions do you have about struggle, pain, and sorrow?
- Close in prayer. Here are some words if you need them:
- God, do not let suffering keep me from sensing your love. Strengthen my compassion to reach out to others. Grant me faith that is brighter than darkness, and open my heart and my voice to proclaim your presence to others. Amen.
Material courtesy: http://www.vibrantfaithathome.org/
"Stars" image: Neal Fowler
J.A.M. Devotional 1.0
I think the Spirit is sending me a message in the form of coincidence.
I came across the photo of Riley, Kassidy, Marissa, Dezi and Double D a couple days ago. I simply marveled at how much they’ve grown up in the past four years (since the picture was taken).
It seems like yesterday that they were so small and loud. Now they are, for the most part, larger and loud.
As it turns out, yesterday marked a year since Jason died in a terrible accident. There are a lot of people still hurting – a lot of people miss you Steffes.
The point here is that life is too short to live carelessly and foolishly.
Some might say “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
To those, who would say this, I’d ask if you’re quoting Isaiah 22 or 1 Corinthians 15.
The Isaiah quote comes in the form of a pretty good-butt chewing by the prophet to the people, telling them that they’re priorities are crazy wrong and that their city – and their nation – will fall shortly to the enemy.
The second quote is the logical end if not for Jesus. If there is no Jesus, there is no new agreement between God and His creation. Without this covenant, we’re dust in the wind (quoting Ecclesiastes). And as dust, nothing matters – so do whatever you want.
Others might say make the most of every day.
I’m in this group.
Crazy quotes like “He who dies with the most toys wins” are just as bad.
Work on becoming the person that God has made you to be. I really doubt that any of actually comes very close to this, but we can try.
God's Word - and His Law - prod us into doing this as a response to His grace.
As for this quintet of young men and women, I have no doubt that God has good things planned for them.
I look forward to seeing what God is doing and will do in their lives.
But know this, it goes quick – even if you get old fast like I did. Make it count.
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:14
Pastor Thul / June2014
I think the Spirit is sending me a message in the form of coincidence.
I came across the photo of Riley, Kassidy, Marissa, Dezi and Double D a couple days ago. I simply marveled at how much they’ve grown up in the past four years (since the picture was taken).
It seems like yesterday that they were so small and loud. Now they are, for the most part, larger and loud.
As it turns out, yesterday marked a year since Jason died in a terrible accident. There are a lot of people still hurting – a lot of people miss you Steffes.
The point here is that life is too short to live carelessly and foolishly.
Some might say “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
To those, who would say this, I’d ask if you’re quoting Isaiah 22 or 1 Corinthians 15.
The Isaiah quote comes in the form of a pretty good-butt chewing by the prophet to the people, telling them that they’re priorities are crazy wrong and that their city – and their nation – will fall shortly to the enemy.
The second quote is the logical end if not for Jesus. If there is no Jesus, there is no new agreement between God and His creation. Without this covenant, we’re dust in the wind (quoting Ecclesiastes). And as dust, nothing matters – so do whatever you want.
Others might say make the most of every day.
I’m in this group.
Crazy quotes like “He who dies with the most toys wins” are just as bad.
Work on becoming the person that God has made you to be. I really doubt that any of actually comes very close to this, but we can try.
God's Word - and His Law - prod us into doing this as a response to His grace.
As for this quintet of young men and women, I have no doubt that God has good things planned for them.
I look forward to seeing what God is doing and will do in their lives.
But know this, it goes quick – even if you get old fast like I did. Make it count.
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:14
Pastor Thul / June2014
