by Cedar Ridge Community Church | Mar 15, 2020
A message from the series “Inside Out and Upside Down.” Jesus was a spiritual leader and teacher rooted in his Hebrew tradition. He was Jewish through and through, and the Gospel of Matthew portrays him as a rabbi—but a different kind of rabbi. To that end, Jesus is a strong advocate of “Torah” (the ancient Hebrew Law) as the means to a meaningful, ethical and fulfilling life. But unlike most other religious authorities, Jesus realizes Torah was not meant to be a set of rules, based on fear, that police our outward behaviors. Rather Torah is best understood as a “Way,” based on love, which helps transform us from the inside out so we can live such a life. Jesus is conscious that the religious way (often symbolized by the Pharisees) is simply not working. Just trying harder to follow rules does not bring the life and health it was supposed to. So Jesus goes to the heart of the matter, reinterprets Torah from the inside out, and addresses the motivations within us. The goal is not another set of religious rules, but harmony with the will and way of God, based on reciprocal love—what Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven.
This week we look at Jesus’ teaching in the latter part of Matthew chapter 5, where he addresses various outward behaviors that represent the broken nature of the human condition. He talks about murder, adultery, relational abuse, deceitfulness, revenge and hatred. It’s quite an extreme and scary list, such that Jesus says many will indeed declare themselves not guilty. But that’s not the point for Jesus. This is not an exhaustive list of “dos and don’ts” but there is a common thread: the way in which all of us have a tendency to dehumanize another person to justify our own actions. So he turns the list upside down and flips it inside out by tracing this motivation and attitude of dehumanization into the inner world of every one of us. We all have these tendencies. We may not murder but we all harbor hateful, angry, revengeful thoughts and feelings. We may not commit adultery but that does not mean we don’t objectify people sexually. This is painful to hear, but Jesus is setting a different tone and getting to the real root of our problems for the purpose of healing and wholeness. The tone is love: we are completely loved and accepted, so fear (which focuses on policing our outward behaviors) is no longer the motivation. In an atmosphere of love, we can honestly look at our inner motivations and are empowered to change from the inside out. This is life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
by Cedar Ridge Community Church | Mar 9, 2020
A message from the series “Inside Out and Upside Down.” “The Sermon on the Mount” is the most famous summary of Jesus’ teaching in the Christian Scriptures. But this teaching begins, not with instructions or prohibitions, but with a poem. And this poem declares that the poor, downtrodden, ridiculed, and seemingly “weak” are actually approved and favored by God. Setting the upside-down tone for the sermon as a whole, Jesus’ memorable pronouncement of “congratulations to the losers” must have caused quite a commotion in the crowd gathered on that mountainside. Within first century Jewish society, it was generally accepted that following the Torah led to divine approval—which was in turn demonstrated in tangible rewards: material wealth, health and good fortune, respect and honor in the community. Thus, it was the rich and powerful who must be “blessed.” The poor, grieving, down-on-their luck must have offended, failed or disappointed God in some way.
After 2000 years of reading this shocking, revolutionary declaration, we have found ways to tone down the impact and make Jesus’ words correspond to what seems “fair” or “feels true.” We romanticize the poor, oppressed and grieving as possessing the secret of confident dependency on God. Or we spiritualize these attributes so that it is the humble (but not humiliated), the empathetic (but not depressed), and the otherwise virtuous who are favored by God and will be rewarded—if not here on Earth, then at least in life beyond the grave. We don’t want to be shocked. We want to know the rules and so be able to judge our own performance and that of others. We want to earn approval; rules and rewards make sense and feel safe; they grant us a measure of control. Grace (unearned blessedness) is scary. This week we will consider what it means to let go of a “performance approach” to following Jesus, and instead embrace a life of being wholly loved—not because or in spite of who we are and what we do, but simply because God is Love.
by Cedar Ridge Community Church | Mar 2, 2020
A message from the series “Inside Out and Upside Down.” In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives five main discourses of teaching. The first and most famous of these, found in chapters 5 -7, has become known as “The Sermon on the Mount.” It has also been called “The Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven” because here Jesus lays out much of his core teaching about personal and community ethics, morality and spirituality. He used a powerful metaphor in his time to describe what life lived in harmony with God could look like—the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus dreams of and invites us into a future where the divine way (the way of heaven) is possible on earth.
This “sermon” is given early on in the writer of Matthew’s account, and not long after Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. We are currently marking the forty days of Lent, and this week we root Jesus’ teaching in the Lenten season of personal transformation. We explore the meaning and significance of Lent, and through this lens, consider how the Kingdom of Heaven is both upside down and inside out. It is upside down because people normally viewed as at the bottom of the pile are raised to the top; and also because it turns out that divine power is not domineering but expressed as empowering, life-giving love. It’s inside out because the way we behave is determined by the health of our inner motivations (which is where Jesus points); and also because how we live and behave really matters. So we begin with the end in mind by considering what kind of life Jesus is calling us to, and practicing stillness to be able to look at ourselves more honestly in God’s presence.
by Cedar Ridge Community Church | Feb 24, 2020
A message from the series “More Than Enough.” In this final week of the series, we discuss the life and work of Eugene Peterson, and seek to understand the lifelong practice of following Jesus that brings deep satisfaction through congruence–being our “true self.” We look at the three components of a contemplative life: prayer, listening and imagining, and participating in the work God is already doing.
by Cedar Ridge Community Church | Feb 18, 2020
A message from the series “More Than Enough.” In this sixth week of the series, we discuss the life and work of Howard Thurman and seek to create awareness of the emotional complexity within us that causes violent responses, as we commit to practicing non-violence in everyday life.
