The View from the West Mesa

In Luke 6, Jesus tells us that he is "Lord of the Sabbath." Now the purpose of the Sabbath is given as two seemingly different reasons. First, because God worked six days and rested on the seventh, so should we rest on the Sabbath. The second reason is that YHWH had brought Israel out of Egypt - they had been saved and had now been released. The Sabbath then, pictured rest and release from oppression. It is not a large stretch to say then that the Sabbath means life, healing, release for the people of God. Jesus tells us that he is Lord of the Sabbath. What did he mean? A number of meanings have been suggested but, in it's simplest form, it means that he as the Son of Man can best interpret it; that he can illustrate what it means to observe the Sabbath. He has to say this because he has been just accosted by those who objected to his followers "working" on the Sabbath by "harvesting grain," and walking through the fields. The Sabbath, they knew wa...

What does it mean to be the image of God? This question has been debated and still is in various quarters. Scripture doesn't give us a clear statement as to what this means for us. Some ideas that have been suggested include that we are spiritual beings, that we are persons, that we are creative, that we are a triune being, and that we have free will, among others. Some have suggested that Adam was created in the image of God, but that after the Fall, he produced offspring in his own, presumably fallen and corrupted image. To be honest, Scripture does say that Adam produced children after his image, but it doesn't add that that image was corrupt or fallen. What are we to do with this; are people today the image of God or not? Do we even need to spend time on this question if Adam has so messed us up that any image we might bear is unrecognizable? God Creating Man As His Image (Sistine Chapel) I don't know that Adam caused such a change in the image we bear and he likely d...

Paul discusses salvation in two parts. First, is the reversal of Adam's separation from God. The human race for Paul was reconciled to God by our having a representative who lived faithfully. This is the basis for all the Second Adam and related discussion. It is in this sense that Jesus destroyed sin in the flesh and the resultant Pauline "in Christ" argument. The second is what God has done for you, as opposed to the human race. The answer to this is, let me be careful here, not much. At least not as is often trumpeted. We are saved by two strokes. The first is God, desiring to have a people, has thrown open the doors to his kingdom, just as he has done before. The result is that if you want to join God, you can (stroke 2) because Jesus has reconciled the world to God and redeemed the human race. You don't need your sins forgiven specifically before you can join God, but joining God allows you to be "in Jesus," in whom there is no sin. This is roughl...

The third week of Advent is also known as the week of Joy. The images here are those reminiscent of the carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing! and similar hymns normally sang this time of year. Our sermon text this week is Isaiah 61.1-11, which is the text Jesus uses in Luke to describe why He has been sent into the world. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, the speaker says. This applies to both Isaiah who has been commissioned by God, and to Jesus who has been baptized, and upon whom the Spirit has descended. This is a different kind of commission. We have seen visions, tongs with burning coals, and even a mantel falling from the sky. Here it is no less than the very Spirit of God that evidences the charge of our speakers. The charge Isaiah has been given is to give good tidings to the afflicted, and to bind up the brokenhearted . While we enter the second half of Advent, of waiting, and on this Sunday of Joy, we are reminded that there are those who are afflicted and brokenhearted...

This election wasn't a victory for White Supremacy, misogynists, or racial bigots. It was a victory for the rule of law and the Constitution, for actual inclusion based on acceptance rather than hate, for valuing of human life, even up to birth, the reduction in federal over-reach into our lives. It was a victory for Liberty for all Americans. This election wasn't a victory for White Supremacy, misogynists, or racial bigots. If you are a White Supremacist, a Gay-hater, a woman-hater, or race bigot, this election result says nothing about you or your quite disgusting self-love. You and your relatively small group of miscreants remain hateful and despicable misfits on the fringe of our great society. This election wasn't a victory for White Supremacy, misogynists, or racial bigots. The people you love to hate are human beings and as such, the image of God enfleshed. You insult all of us by expressing your juvenile hate and you look as stupid as the people who are rioting ...

T he redemption of the world through Jesus of Nazareth is called a new covenant by Jesus, and most believe it is the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31. Even though it is called a new covenant, the text reads more like a renewed covenant, rather than a new one entirely. God will forgive their iniquity and they will be His people; they will all know God and not need others to teach them the word of God because it will be written on their hearts. This, as has been observed by others does not describe a new covenant, but what God has always wanted for humans and those who would be his followers – that they would be His people, living most fully as the images of God they were made to be. God has been so committed to the welfare of people that He has not allowed Man's faithlessness to frustrate the plan He has for a planet populated by those who would live as cosmic lovers, living as Jesus modeled.   In God's pursuit of his desire to bless His images with a world of lover...

Eight years ago – actually for six or eight years before that – I had the same emotional reaction to that election as apparently some of you are experiencing to this one. That was painful, very painful and its affects have lingered, and at times returned over the better part of the past decade or more.  I am pleased with the outcome of this election, but I am not overjoyed. What we have witnessed over the past twenty years or more is a direct assault on liberty in the form of expanded federal power, the extension of federal requirements into our lives, and the complete corruption of the federal government including the court system. It has been made blatant under the current President in almost every way imaginable. ·         He has used the IRS to oppress and intimidate political and religious opponents. ·         He has refused to enforce law and has used the intimidation of the FBI and the Justice Department to silence opposition a...