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Don’t Cry – Luke 7:11-17

This story is one of only two stories of Jesus raising someone from the dead, the other being Lazarus. This one comes directly after the story is healing the servant of the centurion, which was a story about Jesus’ power. This story brings that power together with compassion.

I he story here is a hard one. The woman is a widow, who has now lost her son, the one who was to provide for her in her husband’s absence. The loss of her son was more than just a wrenching emotional and personal loss, but a disaster economically. She had nowhere else to turn.

Hopefully no one here is in that place, but we know that circumstances can change and those of us comfortable today could see our fortunes change tomorrow, just as this woman had experienced.

Jesus stepping into this story is of a piece with the heart that scripture continually tells us God has for the immigrant, the widow and the orphan.

As a church, this compassion is the greatest witness we have to the world. But when many people interact with the church, they do not see the compassion that we envision Jesus looking at the widow with. They often see barriers, disgust, resentment and other barriers between the suffering and the people who are supposed to be of God.

Jesus tells the woman not to cry – this is not something we are supposed to do! But Jesus is the one who has the power to step in and change circumstances so that there is no need to cry.

Luke is telling the story about a new kingdom coming to pass. Things are changing – and we live in the same changing and emerging kingdom. Whatever our anxieties, economic, political, personal, Jesus looks on us with compassion and is willing to heal us, even today, even in our modern age and circumstances.

After all this happens, the people were in awe. Psychology tells us that the people who are happiest are those who are able to look at the events of our lives through the prism of resurrection and redemption. They don’t use those words, of course, but that is the concept that we can rely on, not only as a psychological method but as the foundation of our reality. This means we can engage with hard things, can engage with suffering and even death with the knowledge that ultimately there is victory.

–Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, September 8, 2024

Images created with Midjourney.

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Jesus is Willing – Matthew 8:1-17

This passage includes multiple stories of Jesus healing. It comes immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus focuses on the upside-down values of the Kingdom of God versus the glorification of strength in the world around. He addresses the spiritual source of sin versus only the outer actions – hatred and lust versus murder and adultery. And finally he takes apart the religious leaders and their hypocrisy. The Sermon blows the minds of those who heard it – “because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

Having established his authority with his words, this passage tells us how he then did so with his actions.

Scripture tells us “You have not because you ask not.” Many of us put ourselves and our needs aside, not wanting to be a bother, not wanting to be a disappointment, but this is not the attitude we are to have with God. We see that in this story – a man who has been suffering and outcast finds it in himself to bring himself to the feet of Jesus and asks. “If you want to, you can heal me.” And Jesus says, “Yes, I want to.”

This healing is more than a physical healing – it touches the man’s spiritual, emotional even social and economic situation. In the same way, Jesus seeks to heal us in those same ways.

Next up, a centurion comes to Jesus. This man is everything the leperous man was not – powerful, foreign, healthy. But he comes to Jesus across a cultural and ethnic boundary to seek healing for a servant. Jesus responds in kind – again, Jesus is willing.

The next healing is closer to home. Peter’s mother-in-law, who would have been known to Jesus and all his disciples. She is sick, but in this case we don’t even see her ask for healing. But Jesus is willing, even when we do not ask.

And Jesus is willing to take on the repercussions of the healing. The stories of him healing go viral (so to speak) and that evening he is swarmed by people begging for healing. And once again, He is willing.

Matthew connects that willingness to Jesus role as Messiah and as the one who gives humanity its ultimate healing. He quotes Isaiah briefly, but the full passage is:

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:4-6

Jesus is willing, even to the cross. We also have the opportunity to be willing – we can cross the boundaries of culture, of socioeconomics, of comfort. When we do so, Jesus is willing and will bring healing in. Jesus is willing. Are we?

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 25, 2024

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Bethesda – John 5:1-9

Think of something that you have been struggling with for a long time – maybe a sin or temptation, a pattern of behavior, a bad habit or addiction, a hurt, a painful memory, resentment. Something you wish God would heal but over the years He has not.

We’ve all likely heard that there are three answers that God gives to prayer – yes, no and wait. But sometimes that knowledge does not help. It seems like we’ve been waiting for so long for something that would be objectively good. Why wouldn’t He do it?

There is no formula to getting our prayers answered – if there were, we’d all be following it. But God is a person, not a vending machine. He asks us to trust him – on good days, on bad days, in crises, in peace.

We have this example in the man in this story, paralyzed for 38 years, seeking healing from this supposedly magic pool. The specifics of the angel coming down are not in the earliest manuscripts, but were likely added to clarify what the man says later.

This is from the Book of John, the one gospel where the city is Jerusalem looms largest throughout the book, rather than only at the end. The indications of different Jewish festivals help the Jewish people across the world place the stories in time and cultural context. The book of John also focuses on Jesus’ interactions with other people, and this one is notable.

We don’t know how long this man has been waiting, but it seems to have been a long time. We can imagine him younger and more hopeful, pushing and jostling to get to the pool first, and failing time after time. Eventually he gives up, and while he stays in the area he has resigned himself to the fact that he will never be first. Proverbs says “a hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and we can see that this man’s heart is sick.

Jesus steps into this story of scarcity and offers abundance. God wants healing broadly not just to those who get somewhere first. But first he asks a piercing question: “do you want to be made well?”

The man does not say “yes”. Instead, he just shares why it’s impossible, why “it is what it is.”

But that’s not what Jesus asked. That’s not where Jesus wants him to direct his gaze. Not at the superstition of the pool, but the face of Jesus. And Jesus is validating the desire that this man has almost forgotten that he has. Our desires find their root in who God made us to be. They may be misplaced or diverted to incorrect or inappropriate things, but God wants to fulfill the core of our desires, just like in this case.

So where are the gathering pills beneath the colonnades in your life? Where are at sitting on our mat, waiting out the hours but having largely given up.

And maybe it’s not even in your life. We are surrounded by needs and unanswered prayers in our own community and in the global community ended moreso. Where do we step in and how do we make those decisions? We can’t have all the answers, but we can trust that God’s power is abundant, sufficient for both the great problems of the world and our small sins and hurts.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 18, 2024

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Healing Unlooked For – Mark 3:1-6

At this point in Jesus’ ministry he is beginning to become well known in the area, and that means he is beginning to gain the attention of the religious authorities. They see him as a threat and so in this story set out to trap him.

Jesus, though, cannot be tripped or trapped. He knows the hearts of everyone involved, and is specifically ready to go address the misuse and abuse of scripture especially around the nature of the sabbath.

This story of Jesus’ healing is very different than the most of them. They typically are very personal situations, but this one is very public and almost political.

One way it is different is that unlike most other people Jesus had healed is that the man with the withered hand never actually asks for healing. He does not appear to be in desperate straits the way most do in these stories. But this story gives no indication that this man, who tradition holds was a stonemason, actually needed healing in the way most people healed by Jesus did.

Instead, it appears that this man was simply going to synagogue like an the others, possibly there specifically to see and learn from Jesus. When he arrives, though, he and his disability are being used by Jesus’ enemies to further their own ends.

But Jesus ends up flipping things around – he calls the man to stand forth, this man who had not asked for any of this, who was just there for synagogue. And the man obeys, despite what was very likely deep discomfort. He stretches out his withered hand, even though it was likely embarrassing and a source of shame in that culture.

And when he obeys, he receives a gift unlocked for, while Jesus challenges the preconceptions, the authority and abusive nature of those who had tried to trap.

So when we come to sit at the feet of Jesus, can we also do so without any expectation? Can we go simply to be taught and live in His presence, whether at church or throughout our daily life? If we do, we may find healing we did not expect or even realize we needed.

— Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, August 11, 2024

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Jesus Heals an Ear – Luke 22:47-53

This is a story of Jesus healing someone that does not get as much attention, primarily because it comes in the story of the Crucifixion with so many other things going on. But it is worth close attention because it tells us a great deal about who Jesus is.

Just before this story, Jesus took the disciples from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. This is a place he took them often, it says, but this time is different. With the Crucifixion looming, Jesus felt intense anxiety – so much so that he sweat blood. This is a reminder that Jesus was human, that he experienced all the emotions of Inside Out 2 and more. But we also read in the passage that Jesus was ministered to by angels when he prayed.

Meanwhile, the disciples had fallen asleep during this intense time of prayer. Jesus warns them to be alert (which is good advice for us, as well). And then shortly after that, his friend Judas arrives to betray him with a kiss. Jesus has every reason at this point to break down, and most of us would have.

Just before this, Jesus had instructed his disciples that a time of change was coming. “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” The disciples eagerly show him that they already have two swords, but Jesus response implies he was (as often happens) being metaphorical.

So then we see Peter use one of those swords violently – apparently ready to go down in a blaze of glory because he has absolutely no skills here, as indicated by the fact that he cut an ear rather than anything vital. But Jesus has every reason so be angry, every reason to lash out in the same way, but with infinitely more effectiveness. But even more within the bounds of his mission, he still has every reason to leave his enemy writhing there on the ground.

Instead, he kneels down and heals the man who came there to arrest him. This is a picture of how we are called to be, even in the midst of enemies who seek our destruction. Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies, and now he shows them exactly what it looks like. We are called to the same.

We don’t know exactly what happened to Malchus next, but the fact that he is named implies that he may have become a Christian, known to the early church who Luke wrote this account for. Likewise, we never know if our loving actions towards our enemies will bear direct fruit or not, but our call is to create those opportunities by following the lead of our savior.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 3, 2024

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The Lord is Our Banner – Exodus 17:8-16

Yahweh Nissi means “the Lord is Our Banner” – in Exodus 17, Moses named an altar this after defeating the Amalekites. Banners were key to pre-modern warfare, telling soldiers who is leading and where to attack. “Under the banner” can also mean “in the name of” – “under the banner of love* for example.

The name is used only once, in a passage that is ultimately problematic. The Amalekites ambushed the people of Israel, and after God enables victory, the Amalekites are marked out as a people for destruction.

This destruction becomes relevant again in 1 Samuel, when Samuel instructs Saul to wipe out the Amalekites, down to the children.

This story is hard to square with the teachings of Christ, and is even difficult to reconcile with the teachings of the Old Testament like “do not kill.” This is important because we see leaders today justifying violence in God’s name as well. In reality, if the Lord is our banner then it redefines our relationship with our enemies.

Irenaeus was an early church father who struggled with this difference as well. He sees the story of the Old Testament as one of “gradual pedagogy” where His gradually moves a primitive, violent people to a full understanding of the God who is Love. Origen was another, who saw over time a development and revelation of how to interact with enemies, finding its fullness in the Cross.

If the Lord is our banner, He redefines the source of our security. We no longer place our faith in our own strength or resources, but rather in God Himself. We no longer need to have a scarcity mindset, but can rest in His abundance, letting that impact our engagement with others in love rather than fear and competition.

If the Lord is our banner, it redefines our identity, our vocation and equips us with a different ethic. We are to participate in God’s work of lifting up the marginalized, freeing the captives and giving sight to the blind.

— Guillermo Jimenez, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, July 21, 2024

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God and Body Image – Psalm 139:13-16

Paul prayed for the Thessalonians:

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

This prayer gives us the promise that God cares about and addresses all of us “through and through… spirit, soul & body”.

This goes back to the story of creation and the fall. God calls us and all He created good, but the serpent comes in and tells us the lie that what He made us and gave us is insufficient.

Psalm 139 tells us more of this truth. Verse 13, makes it clear that we are carefully, individually crafted. We are handmade, artisan, made-to-order, small-batch humans.

Verse 14 echoes this, putting it into the context of all God’s marvelous creation. We see the creation and know how beautiful it is, but question it when it comes to ourselves.

Verse 15 emphasizes how special we are, carefully crafted in the deepest, the most sacred place. We are made to be one of a kind and precious.

Verse 16 stretches this promise out, beyond only our bodies and out to our full lives rolling out ahead of us along the paths God has laid out.

As a people, however, we struggle mightily with what we look like. This cuts across men and women, all ages and ethnicities. Body dysmorphia, eating disorders, plastic surgery – all of these can come against the beautiful truth that our bodies were created by God. Social media has multiplied these issues exponentially even though filters, editing, AI and of course full time health & beauty regimens by models and celebrities mean that reality and image are farther away than ever.

The response to this is to seek the truths of God, over and over again. We need to hear the truth that we are His beautifully crafted creation multiple times to let it sink in. We need to let the Holy Spirit speak to us, making it clear that we are beautiful and we are loved.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, July 14, 2024

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Healing Shame

When we feel hurt we often run from the church, which is traffic because that is the one place where we should feel safe. One reason we often do not is because of shame.

The word shame itself has its roots in the ancient word for “to cover” and is deeply rooted in notions of privacy. There are physical aspects to shame – humans are the only animals who blush. But beyond these intellectual understandings of shame, we want to understand what God has to say about our shame.

The past has a way of bubbling up like hives. Shame that is hidden well reemerge. We hide in at least two ways.

First, we hide from God. That is silly of course, because we cannot actually hide from God. It’s an ancient story, though – we see Adam and Eve going from feeling no shame to hiding their bodies from God and from each other. But more than its impossibility, it is also unnecessary. God forgives – Jesus himself forgave the crowd and the soldiers and the politicians who murdered him, and he will forgive you for anything you may have done.

There are two basic forms of shame. Genuine Shame is that shame we feel after having done something truly outside of morality. It begins as guilt and evolves into shame – moving from feeling bad about what we have done to feeling bad about who we are. This is where confession and repentance comes in.

There is also False Shame – shame put on us by our surroundings, shame put on us by others even when we have not done anything wrong. This is the shame felt by the abused, put on by abusers, or the shame of family expectations unmet – shame that does not stem from wrongdoing but mismatched expectations or manipulation. This shame, too, must be brought to Christ.

Going back to Genuine Shame, though, scripture gives clear direction. Psalm 32 says:

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Psalm 32:3-5

There will be times, though, where we do not know whether we are feeling genuine shame or false shame. Is this real sin, or shame brought on by society or those around us? In those times, we can fall back on the Holy Spirit. John writes:

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, remain in him.

1 John 2:27

We feel shame about sex, we feel shame about money, we feel shame about how we treat our children, we feel shame about lies we tell, we feel shame about drugs & alcohol, we feel shame about having been abused. If you feel shame about any of these things, know that you are not alone. Many of us have either struggled with the same sins or felt the same false shame for many of the same reasons.

In all these cases we need community, we need to share our burdens with others. You may be burned by this at some point but true healing happens in community.

If you have shame buried deep – and nearly all of us do – bring it to God and bring it to your brothers and sisters. We are the beloved of God and He wants us to bring healing to each other of all our shame, false, genuine and that which could be either.

— Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, July 7, 2024

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I Am – The God of Surprise

God first calls himself I Am when he reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush. This is one of the key “theophanies” in the Old Testament – the visible, physical appearance of God to humans.

There are many of these across scriptures, mostly by surprise. The appearance to Hagar in the wilderness, the promise of a child to Abraham, the wrestling with Jacob, the appearance to Samson’s parents, the call of Samuel and many others. He also appears in other forms, like the pillars of cloud and fire, or the storm on Mount Sinai.

If you look at a map of these theophanies, the miracles of Jesus, or even all the locations mentioned in scripture, you will see a relatively small window of geography. But if you consider the eternal nature of the name “I Am” you’ll understand that God is everywhere and can work in any and all places – hence the surprise.

We get a taste of this in the story of Jonah – Jonah thinks by leaving the physical location of Israel he will escape the call of God. In reality, God meets him in the middle of the sea, and in a notably surprising way. Jonah’s prayer from the depths gives us a picture of what this surprising encounter can look like when we are at our lowest.

And so he finally obeys and heads to Nineveh where something equally surprising happens – they listen, and are forgiven. Like Jonah, many of us seek for justice, even vengeance, and so the end of the story where Jonah rages at the compassion of God. Ever dramatic, he wishes he would just die. Then comes the story of sitting beneath a plant God causes to grow, but then that God causes to be destroyed by a worm. Again, he wants to die. The story of vengeance deferred because of the mercy of God is a surprise and also a challenge.

— Sermon Notes, Melanie Malone, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 16, 2024

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Where Can I Carry My Shame? – 2 Samuel 13:1-22

The subtitle of this sermon series is “Renewed Life in Christ and His Body”. That last part is key because healing is not only an individual activity but something that happens corporately and in community.

The previous Sermon looked at the hurry created by our families of origin. It started with a look at the family of the patriarchs and all the dysfunction there, and how through the work of God in Joseph, healing came to that family.

The story today is of another high profile biblical family that was deeply dysfunctional. David’s son Amnon lusted after his half-sister and manipulated her into being alone with him where he raped her.

It’s key to understand in this context that God hates abuse like this. Violence led to Him causing the Flood; Jesus warns that violence against the vulnerable will lead to millstones around necks; Christ Himself was abused and betrayed.

So when we look at this story of abuse and violence, we should not be centering the perpetrator of that abuse, but rather Tamar herself. We need to listen to what she has to say: “Where can I take my shame?” Ties of family and society barred her from doing more than being silent.

This is in contrast to the four men in the story who had far more freedom of movement and agency. Amnon was infatuated with Tamar, and instead of setting aside an inappropriate desire or finding a legitimate way to address it, sees what he wants and takes it. Then having done that, the deception (self-deception and otherwise) is over and his “love” turns to hate.

Absalom, though ostensibly on her side and offended on her behalf, does not do anything for two years. When he eventually does, it is a mirror of Amnon’s behavior, taking Amnon’s life much as Amnon took Tamara’s dignity.

David, responsible for this whole household, does nothing but wallow in impotent anger, and certainly does not take any responsibility for his own part in unknowingly enabling Amnon.

Finally, Jonadab, who actively and knowingly enabled Tamara’s violation, appears to get off scott free, and is still advising David towards the end of the story.

This is a story with important implications for us as a church. A massive proportion of people, women especially, have been sexually in some way. We have victims in our church and in our lives. When a victim of sexual abuse enters our church we need to be in a place to welcome and love them.

Tamar asked the question “Where can I carry my shame?” It’s a question that goes unanswered in the original story, but we see the answer come under the new covenant: she can carry her shame to Jesus, and so can we.

And as we are Christ’s body, as a church we must be a safe place where the hurting and abused can carry their shame. We must listen, acknowledge and walk alongside the hurting without being presumptuous or impatient.

Abuse and shame thrive in silence, so if you have lived that, find ways to break the silence. Start small, maybe writing a letter and then destroying it if you aren’t ready to share it. But seek someone you can trust to share it with. If you are mired in shame and self-blame for what someone else did to you, forgive yourself, and let go of any self-recrimination. Seek the redemption and healing Christ offers both directly and through His body.

God wants to renew every part of us – mind, body, soul, spirit. He wants to make us all whole again.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 9, 2024