I have a copy of the Bible on CD that I listen to often while I am driving around. Currently I am finishing up the Gospel of Mark. Most scholars believe that Mark was written by John Mark, a traveling companion of Peter. They also believe that Mark was the first Gospel actually written down of the 4. As I was thinking on this it occurred to me that it is very likely that the Gospel of Mark is essentially the sermon of Peter.

As he traveled, Peter was sharing the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. From town to town, many were hearing the message of Christ for the very first time. Now, in an age without computers, notebooks, teleprompters and the like, it is very likely that Peter’s message was very similar from place to place. He might tweak it a bit depending on the audience and wanting to connect with them culturally (just as a preacher today should do), but for the most part I think it is reasonable to think that the message/sermon that Peter proclaimed from place to place was much the same each time.

So, John Mark was hearing almost the same message each time. So, what he wrote down was much (if not all) what Peter was preaching to the early church. So, just like in Acts 2 we find the very first sermon preached on the day of Pentecost, I am thinking that in the Gospel of Mark, we are reading what many people in the early church were hearing. Again, what I am suggesting is that the Gospel of Mark is not a book, it is a story, a drama…it is meant to be the spoken telling of the story of God’s new work through His Son, Jesus.

Why does this matter? Look closely at Mark and you will notice so many places where there are transitional phrases that give a certain tempo and pace to the story. Phrases like “at that time”, “once again”, “immediately”, “as soon as” and more give that tempo to the story. Understand that while Jesus ministered and traveled for 3 years from his baptism to Resurrection, one third of the Gospel of Mark focuses on the last week of Jesus’ life. Just like a movie in a theater or a play on stage, this is the climax of the story, the part you and I most need to hear. Imagine the suspense of the audience as Jesus died on the cross, and their amazement as they heard the discovery of the women when they arrived at an empty tomb. In fact, as I listened to Mark as a story (on the CD) rather than reading it in chunks, I found myself imagining sitting in a home in the 1st century, hearing for the 1st time the story of this carpenter from Galilee who would be the Son of God and Savior of the World.

When’s the last time you listened to the Bible? Not just read it, but truly heard the message of Jesus Christ. You may not have the Bible on CD, but could I invite you, the next time you open your Bible, to imagine more and draw yourself deeper into the story as it was originally conveyed, not just as words on a page?

Grace and Peace
Pastor Bryon

I caught a commercial yesterday that really struck me.  It was filled with images of different people and places watching and reflecting the sun rising.  Some of the phrases from the commercial were:

“This is an invitation to freedom.”, “You are not mortal”, “You can be free”, “You have been invited”

Doesn’t sound too bad, right?  Some additional statements included:

“Man can save his soul.” and “You are your own soul”

This was a commercial for what I would call a pop religion that has become popular in some places, particularly among some notable celebrities.  The first statements I mentioned didn’t alarm me, but the second, well they reminded me of how egocentric our society is becoming.  More and more, I see beliefs moving towards places where salvation or results or whatever are very dependent on what we do, particularly what we do for ourselves.

This in direct opposition to the faith that Jesus teaches in scripture.  Yes, our actions are important, and they can have a tremendous impact on the kingdom of God, but…ultimately…we are to live and work for the glory of God.  We are not our own soul, we are a creation made in the image of God.  We cannot save our soul any more than our actions save us…it is completely an act of faith and repentance that saves our soul and allows us to enter into an eternity with God.

Listen to the words of Judges 21:25, the last verse of this Old Testament book, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”  In essence, each person had made themself king.  I worry that this is a society that we are becoming.  Rules, standards, etc. don’t matter.  What matters is what I think, and no one else has the right to tell me I’m wrong.  What I believe is right so long as I can justify it for myself.

Let me ask you who claim to be followers of Christ this question – Do you believe your Bible or the Bible?  What I mean is this…do you read, study, and apply all of the Bible to your life, or do you take those parts of the Bible that match up with what you want to believe?  Do you use the Bible to justify yourself, or are you using the Bible to transform your heart and mind so that you might better live in the image of Christ?

There are plenty of places in the Bible that I don’t particularly like.  They challenge me and I really don’t like what it has to say about me and how I want to live.  There are far too many things about God that I just don’t understand.  But, I still have to decide who I am going to trust in and follow.  Will that be me?  A pop religion?  The latest fad/belief/slogan?  Or God?

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me [Jesus] will find it.” – Matthew 16:25 (NIV)

Reflexions – 4.30.10

I have begun preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. At the pace we are going, it will be into 2011 before we finish, maybe longer! Part of this is my desire to see us return to the basic story of Jesus, part of it is a desire for us to see the Gospel story as just that…a story. As we walk thru this book over the next few months and see how certain themes and ideas are repeated, we can get a better idea of what God wanted to reveal to us through the life and teachings of Jesus.

But one other reason Matthew wrote his gospel was to link the God of Israel and the OT with the Jews and Gentiles that God was reaching out to through his son, Jesus Christ. You see, Matthew was very interested in linking with the story of God in the past, bringing it to the present, and pointing to the future kingdom of God.

Matthew, echoing Jesus’ words (Matthew 5:17-20), never wanted to negate anything that God had done or said in the Old Testament, but he also knew that God was doing something new in Jesus, and that the kingdom of God was not a static, unmoving thing; but instead the kingdom of heaven was a dynamic, never before seen reality. God was doing something new!

Last fall, we were fortunate to get a few hostas from El St. John’s garden. Hostas are a lily-like plant, one of many, many plants to be found from El’s home. Annie planted them in front of the parsonage, not knowing whether or not they would take. Well, I am happy to say that in the past couple of weeks all of them have come up and look to be good and healthy!

Some day, a new pastor will come along, never having met El St. John or so many other Big Island saints that have gone on to glory. I feel it will be part of my responsibility to make sure they know the story behind those hostas. They may not want to keep them, they might want to move them or do something new with them; but I still want to make sure they know their story.

This is our task in the kingdom of heaven today. Let us never forget or neglect the past, but also let us never be afraid when God desires to do something new in us and in our community. May our hearts always be open and our faith courageous as each new day dawns upon us. What is God doing new in your life? And if you can’t answer that, pray to God that He will reveal His plan for something new in your life.

This Sunday we will have several reminders of God doing something new in our world – Dot Abel will be baptized as a symbolic act of being buried and resurrected with Christ into new life, and we will celebrate communion as a reminder of the new life all believers have through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and our repentant hearts. Our handbell choir will be playing, too. Our text will be Matthew 4:23-25…hope to see you there!

Grace and Peace

Pastor Bryon

Friends,

Good afternoon! I hope this email finds you all well. May God bless you today and throughout the week!

Annie has started a Bible Study for women as part of our Wednesday night ministry, and she and I were talking about some of what she would be presenting tonight. As she shared, there were a couple of things she had found in the text/topic that I had not really researched or considered before. I was reminded then of how exciting it is to me to know that someone else is digging into God’s Word and finding new truth and application for their life.

How often do we “read” the Bible but not really “learn” anything from it? Sometimes it can become just so many words on a page, and when we finish, we check it off our list, and go to the next item. No, God’s Word is something to be savored, something we should linger on and consider its meaning for us in that moment.

When I do Bible Study these days, I have as many as 8-10 Bibles spread around me along with 2-3 commentaries/dictionaries as I try to understand as much of the text as I can. I can’t say I always did this, but recently I have had such a hunger for this that I have so enjoyed digging in deeper and deeper. As I find out new details and things to add to my understanding, I am so blessed and challenged. I have much to learn, that much is certain.

But that also becomes the difficulty – as I have been preparing for preaching from Matthew for the next few months (likely more than a year, to be honest) I am already struck by Jesus’ words and his teachings. Can I be honest? I am going to say some things this Sunday that are likely to make several folks very uncomfortable, potentially even more than that! I certainly pray that I am faithful to the text and in my delivery, but as I see the radical faith and life that Christ calls us to, I can’t help but see some serious challenges that you and I (oh, yeah, I’m guilty, too!) really need to work on.

If you don’t regularly attend worship with a community of faith, I hope you’ll come join us Sunday. Warning! Might be some tough things to hear. But I also firmly believe you’ll come to know the love of God deeper through an engagement with the Bible and fellowship with others. Let’s take life seriously…let’s take God seriously! I don’t believe there is any one of us that couldn’t benefit from a deeper relationship with God.

My text Sunday will be Matthew 4:18-22. You can listen to last week’s sermon on Matthew 4:12-17 here. Hope to see you Sunday!

Grace and Peace

Pastor Bryon

One of the things that God can be most amazing at is taking your expectations, tossing them out the window, throwing something at you from out of left field, and then your being totally surprised and blessed by what He ends up sending your way.  That has been the past few days for me.

First, God needed to show me who I was being.  I had some stereotypes I was working from and so I jumped to some conclusions before I even really had a chance to find out a decent portion of the story.  In short, God humbled me, and He did it in a much nicer way than I deserved.

Then, He opened my mind up to some new things I hadn’t really considered; in fact, He showed me that I don’t know everything!  Soon after, God reminded me that one of the greatest things He does is redeem relationships.  He redeems humans to Himself through the sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but more than that, He offers redemption within human relationships when we allow grace to flow through us.

Quite a couple of days, huh?  So, I’m reminded that I need to listen better.  And now I’m trying to really listen.  If the past couple of days is any hint of what God is up to, I really hope I don’t miss anything He has to say before the end of the week!

This is a quick story, but let me leave you with this question…What is God trying to do new in your life?  How well are you listening?

I’ll be preaching on Ephesians 4:1-16 this Sunday.  The title of my message is “Us + ??? = One” – hope to see you there!

Blessings

Pastor Bryon

Friends,

Another beautiful day today!   God’s Creation has certainly been on full display here recently as fall is approaching.  Yesterday my sermon came from the parable of the Good Samaritan.  My hope was that as we studied and thought about the idea of loving God and loving neighbor that we would be reminded that the reason we are asked to show mercy to others is because God first showed mercy to us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Over the coming weeks, I plan on discussing more about what it means to love our neighbor, and why it is so needed and important in our world today.  I pray this message blesses you!

You can listen to the message here:  Neighbors Place – Rev. Bryon LePere

Scriptures Referenced:

• Luke 10:25-37
• Deuteronomy 6:5
• Leviticus 19:18
• Romans 13:10, 1 John 4:11-12
• Isaiah 53:1-7
• 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 2:2
• John 19:23, John 19:1