Simply Grace

In order for a team to be successful it has got to tolerate differences. A team is strong when different people work together to share their gifts. However, a team is weak when it’s members attack those who are different. This is called the scape-goat phenomenon. When a team suffers loss and hardship it is tempted to blame the problem on someone who is perceived to be different and a problem maker. But when somebody is made to be the scapegoat and mobbed, the team preserves unity and conformity at the expense of losing a greater set of strengths. The team experiences only a temporary cohesion in its rejection of the scapegoat. In the long run the team is weakened, because it cannot overcome existing or new challenges without a broad array of capabilities. [https://www.graceupland.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Sermon2021.02.18-1024x1024.png] Treasures in HeavenThe only way out of the scapegoat phenomenon is to change the behavior of the group. Instead of looking for someone that is the problem, who is different, who nobody likes, each person in the team must learn to stop and look in the mirror. That is what Ash Wednesday is all about. You are invited to consider the uncomfortable reality that perhaps all of your problems are not somebody else’s fault, but your own. As Jimmy Buffet sings, “It’s my own damn fault.” So let me show you how this works. As your pastor I have failed you. I have not set an example as I should have. I have tried too hard to depend on my own righteousness and not enough on God’s righteousness. Today I publicly repent. I confess that I am a sinner. I am 100% dependent on God’s mercy and forgiveness. When I was an intern pastor in Sierra Vista, Arizona I was under the supervision of Pastor Mark Perry. Pastor Perry was a great pastor who taught me so much. But of all the things he did, I have to say that he really excelled at Lent! I remember him sharing a resource with different ideas of Lenten disciplines. It wasn’t the regular list of giving up chocolate or gum. There were things I had never heard before. The one that captured my attention was secret keeping. Keeping a secret as a Lenten disci pline was something I had never thought of before. The idea comes right out of the gospel reading from Matthew chapter 6. Jesus encourages his disciples to practice their piety in secret. If you give money, do it in secret. If you pray, pray in secret. If you fast, keep it a secret, cover it up, so that nobody knows what you are doing. Jesus compares all of these good works to saving money or storing up treasure. If we do good deeds so that other people see us, then we will be disappointed when those people we were trying to impress are no longer with us. People often fall from prominence and importance. It can leave you feeling disappointed and let down. They key is to not perform your good works for other people, who are bound to disappoint, but to God who can always be counted on. In other words don’t do good deeds to gain social status, do it only for God. When you dedicate your life to God you will never be disappointed. 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 So, be reconciled to God! Jesus became sin for a sinner like you! In Jesus you become righteous Do not accept the grace of God in vain. God will listen to you God will help you. Now is the time; now is the day of salvation! There is no obstacle in your way So Be a servant of God Give everything to God: Give your: endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger to God God will give you power and strength in both your right hand and your left hand God will give you: purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, and truthful speech You will have honor when you are dishonored When you have a bad reputation, good will give you a good reputation When you are treated as an impostor, God will show that you true; When you are unknown, and will make you well known; When you are dying, God will make you alive; Even if you are punished, you will not be killed; Nobody can crush your soul Even when you are sorrowful, God will always give you something to rejoice about; When you are poor, God will make you and everyone rich; When you have nothing, In God you will possess everything. Amen! Amen! Amen!

[https://www.graceupland.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/TheologyThursday2021.02.18-1024x1024.png] Thank you Ingrid, June, Loretta, Mark, Sandy for joining Pastor Wesley. We studied the readings for the First Sunday in Lent. Genesis 9:8-17 reminds us of God’s covenant of peace shown through the rainbow. Psalm 25:1-10 encourages us to remember that God can lift up our soul. 1 Peter 3:18-22 connects the waters of the flood to the promise of baptism. The eight people in the ark remind us of the eight days of creation, and the eight steps of baptism! Mark 1:9-15 is the brief account of Jesus being driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. God provided for Jesus with the company of beasts, and the care of angels!

This is the story of Elijah’s passion Gilgal is where Elijah’s passion with Elisha begins. Elijah told Elisha that it was not necessary for Elisha, the student to continue with Elijah his teacher. But Elisha wanted to stay faithfully with his teacher. That is why she went with him. But before we go to the two prophets, why don’t we consider the significance of this location: Gilgal? [https://www.graceupland.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/SermonPassionofElijah2021.02.14-1024x1024.png] Passion of Elijah SermonGilgal is the place where the people of Israel camped after crossing the Jordan River. They crossed over after forty years living in the desert under the human leadership of Moses. They have received the law during this time and learned how to live obedient to God’s commandments. But Moses died before crossing the Jordan River. The people were under the new leadership of Joshua. Immediately after crossing the river, Josué told the people something very important. You have to decide who they are going to serve. Will they serve the gods beyond the Euphrates River, the gods of Egypt, or the God of Israel? Joshua and the other leaders placed huge standing stones, an “Ebenezer,” as symbols of their faithfulness to God. We can reflect on this question. Who do we worship? To the gods of our pasts or to the only God who is present with us today? Each of us has a past. We have had people and things in life that we loved. Although they were slaves in Egypt, the Hebrews had many good years with abundance and connection to the most impressive empire in all of history. Don’t you think there were people who missed the Egyptian way of life? Very soon Elías is going to leave the world in a whirlwind and leave Elisha alone. That’s what the sons of the prophets at Bethel said when Elijah and Elisha arrived. The sons of the prophets were mocking Elisha as a faithful disciple. Remind yourself that Elijah was not popular with all the prophets. Several of them always made beards to the king and didn’t really care much about the true word of the Lord. Do you know that recently “Christian prophets” have been very fashionable? These people make a lot of money selling their books and appearing as special preachers. But many of his predictions have had false results. His false predictions were things that people wanted to hear, but they were not based on any reality. Elijah was not like that. He told the truth that sometimes he was against the king and against false prophets. That’s why their sons were mocking Elisha as a threat, and all of this happened at Bethel, stop two of Elijah’s passion. Bethel is quite an interesting location. “Bethel” means “the house of God.” It is where Abraham praised the Lord and built a holy site. Abraham is the godfather of every believer because God chose him to be a blessing to the whole world. Abraham was great but he was not perfect. He made very big mistakes. Abraham pretended that his wife Sarah was his sister in Egypt to avoid persecution. All of this happened after God promised that Sarah was going to have a baby! God removed and saved them from Egypt. Again with God’s promise and protection Abraham praised God at … Bethel a second time. Finally Abraham and Sarah did have a son named Isaac, which name means to laugh. Isaac’s youngest son was James. Jacobo was a tremendous child, some called him “scoundrel” because he had a tremendous capacity to hide. There was a time when he was running out of his troubles and stopped at night precisely at Bethel to sleep. During the night he had a dream of a ladder that extended from earth to heaven with angels going up and down. And in the dream he received the same promise from God that his grandfather Abraham received: to have land and children, and to be a blessing to the whole world. Remembering all this Elisha the disciple of Elijah knew that God’s blessings are very great and more important than the threats of others. We too must remember God’s unconditional promises. We are saved by the grace of God. That is why we say with Elisha to people who always criticize and mock: be quiet. They do not throw dirt or lies on me: I am a son of Abraham, a son of God, although I deserve or not, God has chosen me and I am saved by his grace. But neither the path nor the passion ends there in Bethel, but continues to Jericho. In Jericho everything happened the same. There were more sons of corrupt prophets mocking and criticizing Elijah and Elisha. But Jericho brings its own history and symbolism. It was in Jericho a great and prosperous city that God showed his power and choice really rare and strange. God chose a prostitute named Rahab. She is named and remembered in the New Testament as a woman of great faith. When Joshua led the conquest of Jericho it was Rahab who hid the Hebrew spies. And then Rahab gave birth to Boaz who married Ruth and they had Obed who had Jesse who had David the great king. The point of all this is not only that God’s love is unconditional and for everyone, but God has the custom and way of choosing people on the margins of society, people rejected by the world for having essential purposes for God. Now who are these people today? Who is the person in your life who is on the sidelines that God is going to lift up to a tremendous purpose and position? You have to meet this person! This is what Elisha did with Elijah, be faithful and present with the rejected. There was only one more stop on earth for the passion and way of Elijah, the Jordan River. When Elijah and Elisha arrived by the river, a group of fifty men approached, sons of the prophets, it was a crowd. We imagine that they were there to ensure that this was Elijah’s last day on earth. But when they were closing in, Elijah folded his mantle, touched the water of the Jordan and parted the waters of the river. The two true prophets crossed on dry land exactly as the people crossed generations before in the opposite direction and another generation before did through the Red Sea of ​​Egypt. This same God who parted the waters at the dawn of creation. The other night my family and I watched the movie “Aquaman.” I said to my wife, or this is the movie they made for women. She scolded me, saying, no, with such violence this movie is surely for men. In the movie there are supposedly billions and billions of human types who live in the waters far more than on land. The point is that the seas and oceans are vast compared to land. The space we have to live is light and fragile. The planet, the oceans, and the climate God holds like a miracle in front of “gazillions” years of light in all directions. This opportunity to physically live may be the greatest miracle of all! After the Aquaman movie he asked Sheri, Did you like the Aquaman movie? She couldn’t hide her smile and said, yes. We are the same. There is a joy in living in this miracle on earth. Elijah is like the Aquaman controlling the water of the Jordan reminding us of the miracle of creation and escaping the threats of evil people. But this is not the end. Elías and Eliseo do not hold hands and jump to a paradise without problems. No. Elijah cannot escape his destiny. Just as Jesus could not escape his way to the cross. Although today on the Sunday of the transfiguration we remember the sublime joy of being up on the mountain with Moses and Elijah and feeling energy in the presence of God. No. God said, “Listen to my son.” The son Jesus said, “come down the mountain and come with me to the cross.” And for Elisha the poor disciple in an instant passed the chariots of fire separating him from his beloved teacher and Elijah went in a whirlwind to heaven but not without promising to give his spirit. Jesus also promised us his spirit. Jesus also ascended into heaven. We have the spirit. We have the way. We are the pilgrims. We have the promises. No one disturbs us, no one scares us. We go on the road. Let’s go to the cross. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[https://www.graceupland.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/TheologyThursday2021.02.11-1024x1024.png] Theology Thursday 11 February 2021Thank you Bob, Loretta, Mark, and Sandy for studying with Pastor Wesley the Bible readings. 2 Kings 2:1-12 the departure of Elijah with chariots of fire and the Spirit anointing Elisha Psalm 50:1-6 God’s call to faithfulness 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 The light of Chris illuminating each heart and not veiling or sealing off the light from others Mark 9:2-9 Jesus’ transfiguration and the presence of great ancestors like Moses and Elijah https://youtu.be/5g_JO_UZBHE

Estudio bíblico para el Domingo de Transfiguración. Gracias a Dios por la oportunidad de aprender de pastores latin@s un mensaje para toda la humanidad. Los textos están llenos de imágenes y símbolos poderosos para animarnos en el camino de la cuaresma: el camino a la Santa Cruz. Gracias al Pastor Cesar presentar sobre el evangelio. [https://www.graceupland.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/VerboDeDios2021.02.10-1024x1024.png] 2 Reyes 2:1–12 El tema de discipulado y maestro como Eliseo aprendió de Elías. Es doloroso decir “adiós” a un tiempo de ser internado, y empezar en el liderazgo. El Espíritu Santo nos ayuda en llamar estudiantes nuevos. Salmo 50:1–6 Dios llama a creyentes fieles. No sólo decir con la voz, sino también con acciones. Cuando Dios viene, viene ruidosamente. 2 Corintios 4:3–6 La luz de Jesus brilla en nosotros como vela sagrada. Nosotros no debemos poner velo en frente de al vela de Cristo, sino compartir la luz de Jesú con todos. San Marcos 9:2–9 La experiencia grande arriba de la montaña con Jesús, Jacobo, Pedro, y Juan, pero también con Moises y Elías. El hijo del hombre es el hijo de Dios y sigue en las tradiciones de la ley y los profetas para caminar a la cruz. https://youtu.be/RZI5l8NGCQ0