Freedom Day: One Voice to End Slavery

Join us Sunday, March 25th at Van Guard University from 2pm - 7pm in Costa Mesa for Freedom day.

Ia Satan Responsible for Global Warming?

In a recent sermon, Jerry Falwell stated that "global warming" is a tool of Satan. In an article for Ethics Daily.com, Bob Allen writes:

Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell, who has worked for decades to involve conservative Christians in politics, said Sunday the debate over global warming is a tool of Satan being used to distract churches from their primary focus of preaching the gospel.

"If I decide here as the pastor and our deacons decide that we're going to get caught up in the global warming thing, we're not going to be able to reach the masses of souls for Christ, because our attention will be elsewhere, " Falwell said in Sunday's sermon at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va. "That's pretty wise for Satan to concoct."

Falwell urged preachers listening on TV across the country, particularly evangelicals who signed an Evangelical Climate Initiative statement declaring man-made global warming a moral issue: "Don't be duped any longer. The jury is still out on global warming."

After reading the quote by Falwell, I didn't immediately jump on the anti-Falwell wagon. I'm constantly being asked by people whether or not preaching social justice distracts from the message of the cross, and it is important to consider for a second what the Rev. is saying here...for a second. After about a second of consideration, it becomes apparent of two things:

First off and most apparent: If global warming is a ploy by Satan to deter churches from reaching "masses of souls for Christ," Falwell himself has given himself over, as his entire sermon, entitled, "The Myth of Global Warming," was itself on global warming.


In his sermon, Falwell does admit the importance of taking care of creation, he preached that we should take care of our trash, beautify the earth, and keep the streams clean. He did, rightfully so, express concern at alarmism. I would agree with him, Christians need not panic the global warming is outside of the power of God, but we also should recognize that an aspect of keeping the streams clean, picking up our trash, and beautifying the earth (with its atmosphere), is to care about CO2 production.

My second observation follows this admittance that we should care for God's creation: If we should be beautifying the earth, how would preaching about taking care of what Brian McLaren calls our "created sister" be any more of a distraction to reaching lost souls than lobbying against abortions and same-sex marriages.

If everyone lived like me, we would need 4 planets!

We talked a bit on Sunday about the disparity between the average U.S. worker, and CEOs. While most of us are not CEOs, are we living within our means, or are we using resources which aren't really ours?
Obviously as an American, I use more than my fair share of Earth's resources, but have you ever wondered how much more? Take this quiz to find out how many earths we would need if everyone lived like you.

Jesus and the Pharisees V

If you were poor would the Bible bring you more comfort or less?

Mark 2:23-28

23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Have you never read?: 1 Samuel 21:1-6

1 Sam 21:1-6

21:1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"

2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, `No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."

4 But the priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here-provided the men have kept themselves from women."

5 David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!" 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

Had Jesus ever read 1 Samuel 21:1-6?

What aspects of Jesus’ rendition are different?

Purpose of Sabbath

Gen 2:2-3

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Ex 23:10-11

10 "For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove

Ex 16:4-5

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."

Ex 20:8-11

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Ex 23:10-11

10 "For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

• Is it fair to infer that people can violate restrictive rules for the sake of human needs such as hunger?
• Are there other “laws” within religion that have overstepped their boundaries and intent, hurting instead of helping?

Jesus and the Pharisees III

(Heard on NPR January 25^th)

“On the opposite side of every divide in American life there stands the other. Depending on who you are the other might be a right wing evangelical or a left wing Jew. Or the other might be a group of Muslims praying in an airport, two gays kissing on the subway, or a gen next 20 something with purple spiked hair and a nose ring.” -Juan Williams, author of eyes on the prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965

Who is the other to you?

Mark 2:13-17

…He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and `sinners'?"

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Has somebody ever tried to push their conviction on you? Why do you think they tried?

Have you ever tried to push your convictions on others? Why did you try?

The Pharisees pursued a program to extend the imperatives of the symbolic order to the masses while themselves following a rigorous practice of purity.

In today’s episode and the next two, we see Jesus directly confront the central tenets of the Pharisaic holiness code:

1) Their rules of table fellowship

2) Public Piety

3) Maintenance of the Sabbath

Table Fellowship

Table Fellowship was the central expression of social intercourse in antiquity:

For the oriental every table fellowship is a guarantee of peace, trust, or brotherhood…The oriental, to whom symbolic action means more than it does to us, would immediately understand the acceptance of the outcasts into table fellowship with Jesus as an offer of salvation to guilty sinners and as the assurance of forgiveness. Hence the objections of the Pharisees…who held that the pious souls only have table fellowship with the righteous.

–Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus

What are some ways that we guarantee peace, trust, and brother(sister)hood today?

Do we even have anything that resembles this?

If you haven't already done so (Ian) watch Dr. Muffins

What is the correct question to ask:

1) Is sin contagious?

2) Are we well?

Which of the two statements do you agree with more?

1) By grace, we are saints who sin.

2) We are Sinners saved by grace.

Jesus and the Pharisees II

Do you see anything in this text that is subversive to the religious leaders?:

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

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2:1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

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Who can forgive sins but God alone?

What are the Pharisees really saying?

Who was responsible in Israel for pronouncements of forgiveness?

Who is Jesus threatening?

the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins

What is Jesus saying?

2 Options:

1) Jesus can forgive sins

2) Humans (sons of Adam) can forgive sins

Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up, take your mat and walk'?

Would you rather:

Have social Standing in a community

or

Be able to Physically stand on your own two feet?

“A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees,”

“Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.”

How would Jesus’ ministry have looked differently if he focused his healing ministry on the wealthy and political leaders?

“This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

Have you ever had your religious actions, cause others to glorify God?

Have you ever had any of your actions, cause others to glorify God?

Jesus and the Pharisees I

Mark 1:21-28

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God!"

25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching-and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Mark’s plotting of the Scribes and Pharisees

Jesus’ first public act: Exorcism of an “unclean spirit,” as “teaching with authority,” in contrast with the scribes. (1:21)

Forgiving paralytic’s sins (2:1-12)

Eating with tax collectors and sinners (2:13-17)

Disciples not fasting (2:18-20)

Disciples eating grain on the Sabbath (2:23-28)

Jesus Healed on the Sabbath (3:1-6)

Casting out demons (3:13-30)

Not only does Jesus carry out his mission in contrast and opposition to the scribes and Pharisees, but they actively oppose him at every turn and seek to destroy him from the time of his initial campaign in Galilee.

Pharisees absent from the narrative while Jesus performs Moses and Elijah-like acts, (sea crossing, exorcism, healings, and wilderness feeding)

7:1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus

Then the Pharisees come from Jerusalem and attack the disciples for not washing their hands. (7:2-13)

The Pharisees request that Jesus provide them with a sign (8:11)

Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce (10:2-12)

Jesus goes to Jerusalem

11:11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple.

Pharisees come to entrap Jesus about paying money to Caesar (12:13-17)

Quiz about marriage in heaven (12:18-27)

Quiz about greatest commandment (12:28-34)

Looked for a way to kill Jesus (14:1)

Come to arrest him (14:43)

Who were the Pharisees?

Pharisees appear to have comprised a political faction among the broader range of scribes functioning in connection with the temple-state. The fragments of information available indicate that they were active in connection with the Jerusalem Temple government and that they served as representatives of the high-priestly rulers in dealing with villages and outlying districts such as Galilee. They were known especially as “accurate interpreters” of the Law and as having promulgated additional rulings, “the traditions of the elders,” that held the authority of state law at points under the Hasmoneans. Their legal rulings and opinions in later rabbinic literature are concentrated on issues such as eating and tithing of agricultural produce.