Spark Cast

As is often the case, our familiarity with these teachings of Jesus can blind us to the real challenge of His call to lay down our lives.

Mary's extravagant act of anointing Jesus with perfume is an ode to a much broader movement of Jesus and the Gospel elevating the presence and voices of women.

People were puzzled about Jesus’ identity in the Gospels and are still today. In John 10, people ask Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Through the Gospel of John we have encountered people’s confusion over Jesus’s role and identity. One of the biggest metaphors Jesus used to address this — the “Good Shepherd” — poses the question, “Now that I know who the Good Shepherd is, how do I figure out what he wants?”

In the thick of a debate with religious leaders about Jesus’ identity, he claims, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They disagreed (and tried to execute him on the spot for it). Was Jesus saying he was God? What person in their right mind could possibly believe that about themselves?

In John 9 Jesus heals a blind man. It's a miracle! Yet, not everyone who was there saw Jesus for who he is - The Messiah. They were blind. But there is more to this text for those who are willing to consider digging deeper into the biblical story, for people who are disabled, and how non-disabled people may be blind.

When we think of Jesus as the “light of the world”, we often think of the sharp contrast between light and dark, true and false, and whether we’re saved in the light or lost out in the darkness. Jesus’ claim that he is the light of the world is actually much bigger than that, and it tells us deep truths not just about who Jesus is, but about who we are and what our purpose on earth is.

The radical nature of Jesus' love protects a woman that was caught with a man who wasn't her husband. Some religious leaders want to stone her to death. This text raises many questions: What does this story mean? Why does Jesus help this woman? What was Jesus writing in the dust? What caused the religious leaders to walk away? We will learn that Jesus helps those that are having stones thrown at them. He is a Stone Catcher.

Why is following Jesus and living out the law seem so contradictory to Christians, then, and now?

Many of his disciples said this is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it? This week we will attempt to unpack some of the tensions of trying to live the way of Jesus. Really, eat flesh? Literally drink blood? Living the way of Jesus isn't as cut and dry as it sounds (and was probably never meant to be cut and dry).

“I am the bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” Who talks like that? And how does that work? Jesus speaks a bold message, polarizing both his followers and foes. The ensuing questions that Jesus’ first hearers asked probably aren’t that far off from the questions we’d ask today.

John 5 tells the story of a man longing for healing in the pools of Bethesda. Jesus' encounter with this man brings about healing, questions and conflict.

Violet Wulf-Saena is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Resilient Communities (CRC),an environmental justice organization working hand-in-hand with the Peninsula's frontline communities to implement tangible climate change solutions, from nature-based infrastructures like rain gardens to community air quality monitoring and home upgrades. The impacts of climate change will be felt first and most by communities without the resources to adapt. Justice demands that communities who have been historically marginalized, excluded from panning processes, and those that are at the frontline should receive the resources and support necessary to adapt to climate impacts that are already negatively affecting their health. The situation is urgent and the time to act is now.

Signs, wonders, and miracles all refer to a category of events in the biblical accounts of Jesus' ministry. But what role do they really play in the story? Why are they there? And how shall we think of them in a rationalistic world? Perhaps the miracle is not the point. Rather, the miracle points.

Much ink has been spilled, and many sermons preached, on Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Most often portrayed in our pulpits as a sinful woman of ill repute, the Samaritan woman becomes a one-dimensional lesson on morality. But what if there's more to the story than that? (Spoiler Alert ... there is!)

A prominent religious leader, Nicodemus, seeks out Jesus under the cover of night. Looking for answers, he instead gets more questions as Jesus takes him through a perplexing dialogue about water, spirit, flesh, rebirth, and the upside-down kingdom of God's love.

The fashioning of the whip and the driving out of the moneychangers is an act that happens at a temple. But the temple to which this event refers has a long, varied history and identity, all the way to modern expressions of Christianity. May we heed Jesus' words again, to not turn this house into an emporium.

Due to technical difficulties, the messages from May 1 and May 8 were not recorded. Here we provide an extremely brief summary of main points that we hope are helpful for our Spark community.

"In the beginning was the word." These words mark the opening of the Gospel According to John, a piece of writing that has incredible diversity and profundity in its depiction of Jesus and what the Christian story means as a result.

HE IS RISEN! [Unfortunately the first part of this message was not recorded.]