Presbymom

 This translation from the original Greek text is my own – my Wednesday class jokingly named it the ‘Laura Southern Version’, or LSV. While our regularly used translations are good, the word changes I make here are intended to emphasize different areas and help us hear in new ways. Listen to the living Word from: Romans 8:9-17 – LSV 9  But, all ya’ll are not in the flesh , ya’ll  are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God is home in ya’ll.   Yet, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.   10  But if Christ is in ya’ll, then even though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life   because of justice.   11  But if the Spirit of the one raising Jesus from the dead   is at home in ya’ll, the one raising Christ from the dead will also bring life to ya’ll’s mortal bodies   because of the Spirit living in ya’ll.  12  So then, brothers [and sisters], we have a debt—not to the flesh, to ...

  After appearing on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus also appeared to the disciples showing them his hands and feet and eating fish. Once convinced that he wasn’t a ghost, they were ready to listen and receive the words of Jesus. Let us receive them now. Luke 24:44-53 (NIV)   44  He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  46  He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,  47  and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  48  You are witnesses of these things.  49  I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been...

  Last week we talked about twisty vines on which we are the branches – branches hanging onto Jesus, The True Vine. We dug into how we abide with God talking about the nuance of that Greek word ‘mineo’ – abide, to remain, stay with me. If we abide in God, God abides in us. This scripture from John is the continuation of Jesus’ speech to his disciples at the last supper. If you were looking at a red-line Bible, you know the ones that put Jesus’ words in red, this would be Jesus all over the page. Jesus commanding us, his friends. Listen for God’s word, listen to God’s Word as he speaks to us. John 15:9-17 9  “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  10  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  11  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  12  My command is this: Love each other as I have...

  These words from John come to us from Jesus’ Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper right after he had washed the disciples’ feet. It is also the last of the “I am” statements we hear in John. John 15:1-8   “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.  2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.  3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.  4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.  6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and i...

  This Sunday is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. I hope the lectionary texts speak for themselves with why that is. The first scripture we read is from 1 John, and now we turn to the gospel of John. It is thought that The First Letter of John was written in 100CE by followers of a Johannine school. The gospel itself is thought to have been written by a disciple of the apostle John – one who wrote John’s teachings. Hearing things aloud wasn’t and isn’t always enough. The tie between the two books – John the gospel and 1 John the letter is that the letter expounds on and teaches the new Christian churches what the gospel means and how to live into it. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees who argued about why he healed the blind man and then had trouble understanding his parables about a shepherd and a gate. Hear now God’s Word from the gospel as Jesus elaborates to the pharisees what he meant by a story about a shepherd entering through the gate and the sheep following because ...