Rev Chris Roth

  John3: 1-17  Most of us have had the experience of being somewhere in public, and you’ve had someone come up to you and ask if you’re a Christian. If you reply, “yes, I am a Christian.” The follow-up question will often be something like, “But, are you ‘born again’?” The term “born again” describes a kind of Christian who can give a day (and sometimes a time) when they had a powerful personal spiritual conversion experience, that they sometimes describe as being “born of the Spirit”. This is a powerful inner experience of transformation. More traditional Christians usually have two responses to being asked if they are “born again”. One is plain dismissal. They roll their eyes and say to themselves “oh, you’re one of those”. They label them as extremists, unsophisticated, overly emotional, religious nuts. They dismiss them and don’t take anything they say with much weight. The other reaction from more traditional Christians is often self-doubt and anxiety. Am I “born again...

Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4: 1-11 Lent is 40 days (minus Sundays) in imitation of the 40 days Christ spent in the wilderness. 40 is a symbolic number that represents preparation. So, this is a time for Christ to prepare for his public ministry. He is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil and he is tempted in three ways. I thought it might be interesting to consider how some of the Church Fathers looked at this. (There were Mothers, but they didn’t really write anything that we still have). Generally, The Church Father saw Scripture as having a layered interpretations. So you could read a passage literally, which means the plain meaning of the text- (we might say the surface reading). Then there was the moral sense, which was a way of applying the passage to the individual believer’s life, often this meant a moral lesson learned. And the spiritual sense is a symbolic way of reading the text that might connect with other parts of Scripture...

  Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17; Matthew 6: 1-6, 6-21 As you know, Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent. Lent was originally a time for people to prepare for baptism at Easter. In the early Church, these were people who were leaving Paganism. We tend to think of Pagans as a bunch of nature worshipping hippies. But when you look into it, there was some pretty dark stuff happening there. (There’s stuff that just isn’t even right for me to repeat here.) So, those who were coming to be baptized had to be prepared. They were going to be washed outwardly, but they also need to be washed inwardly, and part of that was learning a new way to be in the world. This is sometimes called a Phronema- this means something like “mindset”. When Paul talks about having the “mind of Christ” in Philippians 2, this is what he is talking about. It is a new way of seeing the world. It means replacing old patterns of thinking with new ways of thinking. It means replacing old assumptions with new assumptions. … It takes...

Exodus 24: 12-18; Psalm 2; 2 Peter 1: 16-21; Matthew 17: 1-9 Today we have reached the end of the season after Epiphany. As we’ve talked about before, “Epiphany” comes from a Greek word meaning something like “manifestation”. And throughout this season we have seen Jesus’ true identity being manifested. In our Gospel reading today, we see another manifestation of who Jesus is. They see Jesus transfigured. His face is changed and his clothes become white and radiant. He looks like a heavenly being, which is of course who he is. He came from heaven. He existed before his own birth. … Right before our Gospel reading today, Jesus asks his disciples the question,  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And they answer,  “John the Baptist, others say Elijah; and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matt 16:13-14).  This question is the central question of the season after Epiphany- ‘who is Jesus?’ Jesus then asks them a more important question. ...

  Isaiah 58: 1-12; Psalm 112: 1-10; 1 Corinthians 2: 1-16; Matthew 5: 13-20 In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us what it means to be citizens of the Kingdom of God. Jesus describes a person who is not controlled by the destructive force of anger; who treats lust as seriously as adultery; who doesn’t abandon their spouse (in a culture where that would leave them very vulnerable); he describes a person whose word can be trusted without extra oaths and contracts; who doesn’t seek revenge; who loves their enemies; who gives to the needy secretly without needing to be recognized for it; who doesn’t serve money as the most important reality in life; who is not anxious about the necessities of life; and who doesn’t judge others because they recognize they still have much to correct in their own lives. … This is what a citizen of the Kingdom of God is like. Jesus is describing the way of life for those who want to be his disciples. … The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer thought ...

Micah 6: 1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31; Matthew 5: 1-12 The season after Epiphany is about manifestation. This is what we have been talking about on Sundays. We see things about Jesus that were previously hidden. … In last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus began to gather the Apostles who would come to reconstitute the 12 tribes of Israel. We also read that Jesus called people to repent, saying that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. To be citizens of this new kingdom means a different way of being- a different way of thinking and acting- which is why we are called to repent. Repenting means to change our mindset. … Today’s Gospel reading begins the Sermon on the Mount, which is chapters 5-7 of Matthew. It is an answer to the question: What is a citizen of the kingdom of God like? Our readings today speak about a life aligned with God. We read in Micah,  “what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)....