New Newsletter 7.26.22
Sunset Ridge is a church that desires to follow Jesus, reach people, and radiate God’s love and hope to all.
This week…
Tuesday, July 26:
9am— Story time on the lawn
7pm— Youth group at the Stirmans’
Wednesday, July 27 at 9am: Coffee & Games at Rose Hip Coffee
Sunday, July 31:
9:15am— The Art of Neighboring adult Bible class in the fellowship hall & Roots children’s gathering time in the Kid’s Worship Room
10:30am— Worship Service in the sanctuary
Sermon: “Status Report”—John 3.1-21
4:30pm— Charis Liturgy and Worship—join us to hear our friend, Katie Best-Richmond, give our message!
Upcoming…
Saturday, August 13 from 9am-1pm: Back to School Market
Sunday, October 2: Covenant Renewal Service
Theology of Chronology
Riley Stirman
Film director Tim Burton once said, "Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Not necessarily in that order."
Good storytelling does well to remember that each of these three pieces is important. Great storytelling, on the other hand, understands that sometimes the order a story is told in can be as important as the story itself. Examples of this abound in film: Memento, Pulp Fiction, 500 Days of Summer, and even the cinematic masterpiece Emperor's New Groove all tell their story in a non-linear way that adds something unique to the story.
Reading the Gospels when you know the ending, in light of Jesus's death and resurrection, is almost comical. He tried to spell it out for people so clearly: "I'm going to die." Yet somehow people just could not for the life of them wrap their heads around this. John 2:18-22 is one of those instances. Upset that Jesus had smashed some tables and driven people out with a whip, the leaders ask what sign Jesus can provide to show that he has the authority to do this. Jesus says that if they destroyed that temple, he would raise it back up in three days.
There is a spiritual way to understand Jesus, and there is a literal way to understand Jesus. People in the Gospel of John love taking the literal route, but it's almost never the level on which Jesus is trying to operate (Shameless plug: come worship with us Sunday, July 31st to hear about how Nicodemus does exactly this). The people look and see a building that took 46 years to construct, and they scoff. Jesus sees the fabric of the reality of God's presence shifting to his very self.
The story concludes with a fun editor's note: the disciples remembered what he said after he was raised from the dead. Only then did they believe the scriptures and the word that he had spoken.
The story of Jesus is one you are meant to read out of order.
At some level, Jesus only makes sense in light of the crucifixion. There are things that he says and does that are only remotely comprehensible once we understand that he is the Son of God and that he came to die and be resurrected.
This works on the literary level as we read, but we also see it played out over and over again in our own lives. How many times have you only noticed God's influence when you looked back in time? How many times have you noticed that God actually answered a prayer in such a subtle way that it almost escaped your notice? How many times has the story only made sense out of order?
In some sense, though our stories have yet to be concluded, the most important part has already been written. Our Lord Jesus was crucified and then raised from the dead because of God's incredible love for us. Every single facet of our lives takes on new, rich meaning from this fact alone, including our ability to observe God's movement in our midst.
It's okay if God is hard to see right now. God will make himself known one way or another. The story, after all, is just beginning.
Daily Bible readings:
Monday: Proverbs 30.4
Tuesday: Ezekiel 36.25-27
Wednesday: Isaiah 52.13
Thursday: Romans 5.6-8
Friday: Titus 3.4-7
Saturday: 1 Peter 1.22-23
Praises and Prayers
Out of respect for the privacy of our loved ones, we have moved the ongoing prayer request list to the Sunday morning program.
Please pray for teachers, school staff, and students as they begin the school year.
Care for our people
We are putting together two teams to provide care for the people around us. Our pastoral care team will be focused on offering spiritual support and consideration for our immediate congregation. Our community care team is more outwardly-focused, concerned with the more tangible needs of our neighbors in the Charis community. If you’re interested in joining either of these teams, click the links above to connect to the team coordinators!
This fall, we will go through a process of reaffirming our commitments to each other, this community, and to God. Our covenant here at Sunset Ridge is one that offers a tending of one’s soul and meaningful discipleship and asks for an intentional involvement with our vision and where we hope to grow as a church. We want to strengthen relationships with one another and explore ways of serving faithfully together in different areas of our church. This is also a season of reminding one another what we believe and why we are here in this particular place at this particular moment.
If you would like more information about this process or would like to get connected, please contact chelsea@sunsetridgechurch.org.
God, we gather in gratitude, thankful for the ways you seek to revive us! Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts work together to praise you in this hour. Grant your Spirit to move our hearts and inspire each of us to share your steadfast love with all whom we encounter. Help us to join in giving only what is good, not only today but every day. Amen
