Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

Redemption Church KC
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Weekly sermons from Redemption Church in Olathe, KS.

  1. 1d ago

    Ordinary Time 19: The Good Samaritan

    1. One of Tim's slides read, "Neighbor isn't a noun; it's a verb, an action: 'to neighbor.'" Spend a little time thinking about and articulating what it actually means to be a neighbor. How would you explain it? If it helps, get practical and consider examples of neighboring you've seen in your real life. Who has been an excellent neighbor to you? What have they done that makes you say so? What outcomes have been born of those people and their actions? What things have you done that demonstrate good neighboring? What impact have your own experiences of neighboring others had on you? On your community? 2. Tim pointed out that, when asked, the expert in the law couldn't even name the Samaritan as the person who was a good neighbor. Instead, he said something like "the one who showed mercy." He went on to say that this man was probably not a "bad person," but instead someone stuck in a cycle of exclusion and blame. Think about some of the people that you might consider especially in need of lessons in neighboring. It might be helpful to think not only of groups, but also of individuals if you can. Do you think that these people are "bad people"? Why or why not? Now consider them through the lens of "people stuck in a cycle of exclusion and blame." How easy or difficult is it to really, fully conceive of them that way? Why do you think that is? Where do you feel resistance to this lens? Now consider yourself. Think about ways in which you might wish you had been or could be better at neighboring. Do these moments in your life make you think of yourself as a bad person? Can you think of yourself as someone stuck in a cycle of exclusion and blame? Is that easier or more difficult than thinking of others that way? Why do you think that is? 3. Tim shared two quotes toward the end of his sermon: "People are hard to hate close-up." ... Brené Brown & "If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life, sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." ... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Think back to some of the people you thought of in question two as those who might be particularly un-neighborly. Or perhaps others who you might have a habit of despising. What do you know, if anything, of their sorrows and suffering? If you don't know anything, what might you be able to guess? Try to take a moment to form an authentic, dimensional vision of that/those person’s suffering in your mind. How do you feel considering these people in this light? What resistance do you feel to cultivating compassion for them? Are there places where you feel there should be limits to this kind of consideration? Why or why not? What is valuable about thinking about people in this way? Is it something you practice? Why or why not?

  2. Sep 27

    Ordinary Time 18: The Exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac

    1. As Mandy taught that Luke’s story of the Gerasene demoniac is full of political and military language, she asked us to consider that this story might be more political commentary, along the lines of a satirical political cartoon, than we may realize. What’s it like for you to consider this story that way? What’s it like for you to think about any content of the Bible through this lens? If it brings up resistance for you, share about it. If there’s something about the idea that resonates or makes sense, share about that too. What, in your own personal experience of reading and studying the Bible, might quietly underlie and shape initial responses to this idea? 2. Mandy shared a quote from theologian Dr. Paul Hollenbach: “Demon possession [in the Bible] is often a reflection of class antagonisms rooted in economic exploitation, or a socially acceptable form of protest against, or escape from, oppression.” For many of us, this turns what we may have learned in the past about the idea of “demon possession” on its head. What does this framing stir up for you? What thoughts, questions, or emotions arise as you consider that there may be a different - and perhaps better contextualized - way to understand the Biblical stories about demon-possessed people? Regardless of how you’ve understood those stories about the possessed, spend a little time thinking about who in today’s context might be a rough equivalent of the Gerasene man in the Luke passage from today. Who would they be? What about them makes them possible candidates for this potential label? Assuming that demon possession isn't your go-to, what might be? And how do those conditions & circumstances (as you understand them) hold up within the framework presented by Dr. Hollenbach? 3. As she closed her sermon, Mandy summed up one of her themes with this simple sentence: “healing is so disruptive.” What do you think about that statement? On its face, is it something that feels more true than false? Or vice versa? Why? What examples do you have from your own personal or communal life of healing that has disrupted the status quo? In what ways is individual healing different from social healing? In what ways is it the same?

  3. Sep 20

    Ordinary Time 17: Jesus Calms the Storm

    1. Tim started his sermon today, reminding us about Hegel’s ideas about the importance of the “other” in our ability to grow in self-consciousness. He also taught us that in first-century Jewish Palestine, the “other” was the Gentile. Who are your “others?” Which do you feel most resistant to moving closer to? Why? What insights might the nature of or patterns in your list be able to provide for you? 2. When he talked about the disciples’ response to the sleeping Jesus, Tim taught about the importance of cultivating the ability to recognize the presence of God. How does one go about doing that? How can you do that? What might you say to someone who asked you to teach them? Where and when have you found the most growth in cultivating your own ability to recognize the presence of God? When do you find it to be most challenging? 3. Toward the end of his sermon, Tim talked about the idea of the weightiness of some Christians. He used the metaphor of the moving sand dunes in Cape Cod to illustrate his point. He said that a person who can name accurately the anxiety all around us in our world without getting sucked into it, is someone with a weighty presence. He also shared a quote from Dallas Willard: “Instead of counting Christians, we should weigh them.” When you consider this concept, are there people who come quickly to your mind? Who are they or what do they have in common? Can you put other words to the nature of that weightiness in those specific individuals? What impact has that weight quality had on you as you have been in relationship with those people? What do you know or suspect about how those people came to be people of such a quality? What does it tell you about what you or others who desire to cultivate and mature in that quality might aim to pursue or avoid?

  4. Sep 13

    Ordinary Time 16: The Path to Shalom

    1. Tim started his sermon today, talking about two approaches to understanding what wholeness is and how peace can be established. Both revolve around the brokenness, struggle, failure, and negative aspects of life. The first aims to exclude and eliminate these parts of life in order to achieve wholeness and peace. The second involves embracing and reconciling oneself to these aspects of life. When talking about the brokenness, the struggle, the failure and the negative, Tim said these things are “hardcoded into creation for our benefit.” They, he said, help us to learn and change and grow. What are your responses to these ideas? What thoughts or feeling surface for you in response to the idea that these difficult things are hardcoded into creation for our benefit? What are your thoughts about the differences between the first and second approaches described above? What kind of experience do you have with each? What have your experiences taught you? Is there a difference between the approach that you mentally “better” and the approach you might default to in troubling times? What does that look like for you? 2. Tim talked about prophets as people who feel the falseness of the age and refuse to go along with it. He talked about three elements of the prophetic imagination: feeling the pain of the marginalized, criticizing injustice, and energizing toward a better future. Take a moment to consider people that you consider to act, at least at times, as prophets in our world today. What is it that prompts these people to come to your mind? What traits do they have? What actions do they take? Consider the paradigm of the prophetic imagination. In what ways are you participating in this way of being in the world? How does it feel to consider yourself as a participant in this type of activity? 3. As he closed his message, Tim talked about the way that we are still at church in exile and that the story told through the section of the Old Testament helps us know what to do: We still gather in small communities, read the scriptures, talk about faithfulness instead of success. We break bread together, and put our hope in the future where everyone belongs and knows the love of God. We don’t try to be perfect, and mostly we just struggle and fail. But we confess, we change and we grow, we forgive, and we reconcile. These things, Tim said, help keep us from becoming people who fall for the lie of empire. What are your thoughts about this? This list of things may seem to describe small actions, but what is the size of their impacts? What experience do you have with choosing these paths and how do they shape and form you, your experience of the world, and the world around you in which you do what you can to create and extend shalom? Do they feel like meaningful action? Why or why not?

  5. Sep 6

    Ordinary Time 15: Into Exile

    1. In his sermon, Tim said “the royal consciousness is always blind to those for whom the system does not work.” Working under the assumption that the royal consciousness is alive and well in our society today, who is it that you think is most often not seen? To whom is our culture so often blind? Now consider this on a more personal level. Are there ways in which you or those you love personally have been unseen by the system? What have been the outcomes of that blindness? Which people for whom our systems do not work are you most often blind to who is it that you do not see? 2. Tim talked about the story arc from Egypt to exile. His slide said “the story began centuries earlier with the people of God, walking out of Egypt [ended with] the final remnant of her people walking back in… for the Jewish people, this is a wound that has never closed.” Then, he said that as we read this we are “just like a guest in someone else’s grief.” Many of us have been taught over the years to always see ourselves in the underdogs, the victims, and the oppressed in the Bible’s stories. Tim’s framing here challenges that orientation. How does it feel to think of yourself this way? Are you more naturally inclined to identify with the bereft people in this story or others like it? How easily can you see the story from the perspective of someone helping Israel to walk back into its ideological capture? Why do you think you’re inclined to approach it that way? Does reflecting on your orientation toward this type of story and the ongoing grief in the heart of the Jewish people present any opportunities for you to reconsider or challenge some of the ways you might tend to engage with the stories in the Bible? How so or why not? 3. As he closed his sermon, Tim brought us back to the wisdom Jeremiah shares about this time in Israel’s history. His counsel included encouragement to just keep going in the daily things of life and to be serious about good neighboring. What do you think about this wisdom and advice in the world as you see it today? What does it look like to take neighboring seriously? How do you cultivate it? How do you practice it?

  6. Aug 30

    Ordinary Time 14: Josiah

    1. In his sermon, Tim talked about the idea of going from A to B as a constant invitation in our culture. “A” is where you might be less than successful or satisfied and “B” is where you could be happy and content… finally satisfied. As Tim said, there is always something on offer that says it can get you to B. He also said that the conversion into whatever that might be is always an ideological conversion. Whether small or more all-encompassing, which programs for going from A to B have you bought into or participated in? Which are you participating in today? With each example, share whether it was something you inherited or were converted into. How have or do you see the ideological nature of your engagement with these “programs?” Is it easy or hard to look at through that lens? Why do you think that is? Pretty much, no one would sign up for something that offered an ideological capture or conversion. And many things that fit the paradigm Tim described would also not identify as a “Program.” what are some of the other terms or phrases that, at the end of the day, may end up as the same sort of thing (e.g., a lifestyle, a belief or value system, a club, etc)? 2. What are some of the critiques of our culture or our world or the people you encounter as you experience life that are most frequently on your mind? What about these topics makes them feel so important? In his sermon, Tim said, “Any critique that doesn’t implicate self is an ideological critique.” What does that mean? How does that apply to the critiques you thought about listed above? 3. Tim contrasted the ideological conversion discussed in the earlier question with something he called a true conversion where you go from “A” to also “A.” The starting place “A” is a good human and the resulting “A” is a flash of insight that, “I am not one with myself.” This, he said, was the foundation for new birth. He also shared a slide that said, “to practice resurrection means letting the stuff that leads to death die away so something new can be born again.” Reflect on your own experiences of ideological conversion and your experiences of or hopes for true conversion. What, in those narratives, needs to die away? What, as you consider your life today, might be a thing that leads to death of which you need to let go?

  7. Aug 23

    Ordinary Time 13: Hezekiah

    1. As Christina taught about this period in Israel & Judah’s history, she said, “Empires always demand absolute allegiance.” Where has your absolute allegiance been requested, required, or demanded? In what ways do or don’t those spaces line up with what you know of empire? To which of those spaces have you given some form of absolute allegiance? What has been the fruit of that allegiance in your life and the lives of others? 2. Considering your experience and understanding of the United States today, do you see it as an empire? Why or why not? How does it feel to examine and/or acknowledge the Empire-ness of the nation in which you live? If you do acknowledge the U.S. as an empire, what does that mean for how you make sense of your own lived experience, as part of the machine of Empire? In which ways might that frame help you make sense of your own life? In what ways does it challenge you? 3. In her sermon, Christina stated, “No empires last forever.” Given the chaos of our country right now, how do you feel about the idea of the eventual downfall of every empire, including the one in which you live? As she closed her sermon, Christina said, “God’s priority is God’s kingdom,” and then posed this question: “Are you standing in the way?” How do you respond to this question? What does it mean for God to prioritize God’s kingdom? What does it look like for someone to stand in the way? What does it look like for someone to get out of the way? What does it look like for someone to actively prioritize God’s kingdom too, especially living in the midst of Empire?

  8. Aug 16

    Ordinary Time 12: Suffer the Grace

    1. Cole talked about how the story of Naaman's healing struck him, and stuck with him. He said he experienced it as provocative and subversive. How did you experience the story, and how would you describe both the what story and it provoked in you? 2. Cale talked about how being in a position w/money or power or charisma puts us in positions where things revolve around, and that that dynamic starts to “bend” the way we relate to the people and world around us… and the way they relate to us. Reflect on your own experiences of this dynamic. What has that looked like? Don't forget to look for and consider situations in which you are the person being centered. How can we show up in the world, living un whatever privileged circumstances we may find ourselves in, and actively work against that "bending?" what does it look like to actively try to step outside of and subvert the transactional system un which we are so immersed? Try to come up with ideas and examples that are concrete enough to I be actionable. 3. Cole highlighted the fact that the stay 1 of Naaman’s healing is moved forward when - and only when - he listens to his servants. Who, in your life, might be the equivalent of Naaman’s servants? If you can, avoid the example of subordinate co-workers; presumably, most of us who are fortunate enough to work (let alone have work subordinates ) work in an environment in which listening to others is encouraged. Call suggested that one place we might be most likely to learn and receive grace from below is from the poor. He talked about “suffering the kindness” of those below us. He talked specifically about receiving kindness from sources we can’t control and the arrogance that makes that difficult. He said “can you hear it? Are you close enough?“ take a moment to sit with those two questions and meditate on what there might be for you in them. If you’re with a group, share what surfaces for you.

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Weekly sermons from Redemption Church in Olathe, KS.

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