The Well

Pastor Laura's Blog

 

In Jesus' time, the town well was the place where people gathered and shared news and ideas. It was also the place they could be refreshed. In the book of John, chapter 4, the town well was where Jesus offered his living water to the Samaritan woman. In this blog, I will offer some reflections on sermons I just preached, and some thoughts on upcoming sermons and Scripture passages. I welcome your thoughts, questions and insights in conversation with me. Your feedback will help me as I pray about what word from God I can bring to people in the sermon. Please check in weekly and send me your thoughts via email through our Contact Us form.

June 27, 2006

The parable of the talents was one of those passages of Scripture that I just assumed I knew all about. I really thought I had my sermon all outlined early in the week. But I did a little reading and research just to see if I could find out a new little nugget of information - and that's when I discovered that there are all kinds of different ways of looking at this parable! There is even one commentator who insisted that Jesus himself was the third servant and he was talking about the way the world treats him. This was very intriguing to me, until I realized that Jesus begins the parable by saying he is talking about the kingdom of heaven. But I was fascinated to see all the different viewpoints, and in the end, I came to a new, deeper understanding of this parable.

Next week we'll do a little gardening with Jesus as we tackle the parable of the weeds. This is one of the parables that Jesus actually explains to his disciples, but his explanation doesn't exactly clear things up. Join us as we try to sort through the original parable and Jesus' explanation!

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June 19, 2006

It's really impossible for me to preach on the story of the prodigal son without getting a little choked up. The story is so breathtakingly beautiful that it seems most appropriate to simply read it and then sit down and let the words wash over people. But, no preacher can resist the opportunity to try to add to what Jesus said (it is the curse of our profession)! For me, the image of God as perfect father, perfect parent, who allows a child to leave home with more money than sense, is exactly who I know God to be. But this is the same God who searches us out, even when we are simply experiencing the consequences of our own choices, and who welcomes us home as soon as we realize that true freedom is found living in our Father's house. I have been the prodigal. I have been the resentful older brother. And now I want to live and love with the heart of the Father.

Off topic for a minute, I will be performing in a play this weekend, and it's caused me to do a lot of reflecting on how I see God. The play is called The Wise Woman, and is based on the story by George MacDonald - an early Christian fantasy author who influenced C.S. Lewis. I play the role of the wise woman (I will obviously be acting), who is a metaphor for God. Over the weeks of rehearsals, I have had fun exploring this feminine metaphor for God and also trembling at the thought that I should be the one to play this role. It's a big responsibility to embody, even as a part of a production, what God might be like. I have also discovered that I have had some difficulties with scenes where the wise woman expresses anger. I realized that I have spent so much time focusing on the love of God (see above paragraph!) that I had forgotten that God also has some righteous anger, especially when we do things that hurt others. This role is stretching me personally and spiritually, and that's probably exactly what God intended.

Speaking of talent (ba dum bum), next week I will be preaching on the parable of the talents from Matt. 25:14-30. This is a great opportunity for us to think about how God has given gifts to each of us, and what we are expected to do with them. Find a place to use your gifts with us!

 

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June 12, 2006

I think I prefer to preach on obscure passages rather than well-known ones. With an obscure passage, simply making people aware of it is half the sermon right there! But with a well-known and much-loved passage, like the Good Samaritan we covered yesterday, I have to work twice as hard to try to find something fresh and new for us to experience in the story. Although, like most people, I prefer to do things the easy way, there is a deeper sense of satisfaction for me when I am able to find a new perspective on a story I have heard many, many times. It's not that I'm especially clever - in fact, you could argue that I've been fairly dense till now if I'm finding things in the Good Samaritan story that I didn't realize were there all along - it's that God is constantly revealing more and more of who He is to us through Scripture. We can't take it all in with one dose. We must return to the pages of the Bible over and over and seek to know God more each time. It's what keeps the life of faith so exciting - discovering new gems hidden in plain sight!

 

This will be even more true for me next week when we tackle the story of the Prodigal Son. It is also well-known and much-loved. For myself, it is my favorite teaching of Jesus. I chose to preach on this parable on Father's Day because the father in the story is such great example of God's unconditional love. As with Mother's Day, I know that Father's Day can also be painful for some people because of strained relationships with fathers or the loss of a beloved father. But we will celebrate all the men God places in our lives who fill the role of good and loving fathers to us. And I trust that God will reveal something new to all of us, even in this very familiar story.

 

 

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June 5, 2006

Yesterday was a first for us. For the first time in over two years (our entire existence), Living Water Christian Church did not have a Sunday evening service. We did have a full house for a great Pentecost service in the morning, and we are still celebrating the growth God is bringing to Living Water. But it was kind of strange to head home at 2 in the afternoon. It's not just about routine, although it definitely did feel like a new routine. It's about identity and whether we would still be Living Water without a Sunday night service. I discovered yesterday that the answer is "yes, we can." All the things that make Living Water special were still there - the great people, relaxed atmosphere, lots of hot and cold drinks, fantastic music, meaningful worship and the presence of God. And after worship, we had our first ever daytime Act(s) II- our time of food and fellowship. I wasn't sure if people would stay after noon for conversation about the sermon and the Pentecost story. I know how busy people's lives are. But many did stay, and we had some wonderful food and even better conversation. What a great way to see for ourselves how the Holy Spirit continues to be active in the life of this church!

 

Next week we begin our series on the parables and stories of Jesus. We'll begin with the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a story that even non-Christians are familiar with, so it will be a challenge for me to find something new to say about it. But I love a challenge! Join us this summer for a second look at some of the greatest stories Jesus told, and find yourself drawn closer to God through those stories.

 

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May 29, 2006

The last two weeks have been truly amazing. We have been worshipping in our present location in Parkville for over a year, and it has been a year of slow and steady growth. But the last two weeks, we have seen a spike in attendance that has caught us off guard. For a church planter, this is a dream come true, but it also throws us for a loop as we try to prepare ourselves for what will come next. We have scratched our heads and asked, "What are we doing differently that is suddenly attracting all kinds of visitors and repeat visitors?" We can't put our finger on any particular thing, so the obvious answer is that it's a work of God. We have worked hard to be faithful to what God has called us to do, and now we are able to see God do the rest of the work. What an incredible adventure! We anticipate that as people travel over the summer, our attendance may dip down a bit, and that is why we are having only one worship service at 11 am for the summer. But it is still exciting to sit back and watch God do an incredible thing with Living Water Christian Church. Come be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime journey!

Next week is Pentecost, one of my favorite days of the year. It is the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. It is a day when we can decorate the whole room with red (that's the color for Pentecost), and remember the excitement of the wind and fire on that first Pentecost day. Join us for worship next Sunday at 11 am (and wear something red if you have it)!

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May 22, 2006

It was a very surreal experience to hear my daughter preach on Graduation Sunday. I have been watching her grow up for almost 18 years, and I could see that she was becoming a woman with her own ideas. But sitting in a congregation and listening to your child preach causes you to really look at this person in a new light. She has thoughts and ideas - even theological ones! - that belong to her. She brought the Gospel message to us as she understands it in her own life, not as her mother would preach it. For me, it was a moment of great pride and also a moment of some sadness. I realized that she is not a little girl that I must raise anymore. She is a young woman who is ready to make her own way in the world. What amazes me most is that, despite all my shortcomings as a parent, God helped her turn out remarkably. (OK, that's enough parental gushing.)

It was also a great day yesterday as we had our first ever all-church picnic. The food was incredible. The fellowship was outstanding. And the white elephant prizes for Bingo were of a much higher quality than I expected!

Next week is Memorial Day weekend, and so we'll spend some time remembering the people whose love and sacrifice have made us who we are. It will also be the last evening service we'll have for a while. During the summer, we will have just the 11 am service so that, as people travel, we will still have some people worshipping with us!

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May 15, 2006

It was interesting to me to spend some time thinking about what kind of parents Mary and Joseph were. I think we either tend to skip over any thoughts about how Jesus grew up, or we idolized Mary and Joseph as some kind of super-human parents with an idyllic household where babies never cried and diapers never needed to be changed. But the story from Luke 2:41-52 gives us a glimpse at the family unit that is less-than-idyllic. Jesus essentially disobeys his parents, or at least wanders away from them when he was old enough to know better. Mary and Joseph don't even notice until a day has gone by. And then they have the frantic three-search to find him. This is a picture of a very human family. But we also found some clues that revealed to us that Mary and Joseph actually were good parents. In fact, if they had had a little more faith in their parenting skills, they probably would have found Jesus much sooner.

Next week is graduation Sunday. We will honor our graduates with a gift and a blessing. I am especially excited because my daughter Bethany will bring the message. She is graduating from Shawnee Mission West next week, and she will bring a commencement address at the graduation ceremony. When she told me that her speech is basically a sermon, except she can't mention faith, I thought it would be wonderful for her to have a chance to give the speech with the faith part put back in! Next Sunday is also the day of our all-church picnic after morning worship. If you're joining us for worship at 11:00, please plan to stay after for our picnic, too!

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May 8, 2006

As I think about upcoming sermons, I try to find a balance between addressing specific issues people are thinking about and spending some time getting to know the Bible better. I usually go back and forth between a topical series -like the one we just finished about The Da Vinci Code and The Gospel of Judas - and a book of the Bible -like the book of Mark we just finished on Easter. Although all of my sermons are biblically-based, there are times when it's helpful to see how the teachings of the Bible intersect with issues in our culture. That's what we tried to do with this last series. Many of us either have questions ourselves or know of others who do after reading The Da Vinci Code.

With the release of the movie right around the corner, I thought it was important for us to at least know the orthodox Christian answers to claims of other gospels or knowledge about Jesus that has been kept secret. I found that many people had never heard of the Gnostic gospels, and we had some interesting discussions about why they were not included in the Bible and why they are not considered to be reliable sources for information about Jesus. Rather than seeing The Da Vinci Code as a threat to Christianity, I see it as an incredible opportunity for us to learn more about our faith and to have conversations with other people about it. If you'd like to explore more about this topic, I recommend this website.

Next week is Mother's Day. For many of us, this is a special day when we get to thank our moms for putting up with us through our adolescence! But for some people, Mother's Day can be a painful day. Whether people have lost their mothers, are wrestling with infertility or have suffered under an abusive mother, the celebration on Mother's Day can be uncomfortable. That's why we take the opportunity on Mother's Day to celebrate all the incredible women who fill the mothering role in our lives - aunts, sisters, neighbors, teachers, and others. It is a day when we see how God uses many women to help us grow up and grow wise. We will do the same thing for men on Father's Day. The Scripture story we will use next Sunday is found in Luke 2:41-52. It is the story of when Jesus was 12, and he was "left behind" by his parents. Were Mary and Joseph negligent or was something else going on here? Join us for worship and find out!

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April 30, 2006

Yesterday we looked at the "shocking"claim made by characters in The Da Vinci Code - that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. Although I said that I don't think Jesus was married, and I gave my reasons why, I also said that it wouldn't affect the way I think about Jesus if I were to learn that he had been married. The amazing and unique thing about Jesus is that he is the Incarnation of God; he is fully human and fully divine at the same time. Therefore, whatever it means to be human, that's what Jesus was when he lived on earth. He surely knew what it was like to fall in love, and if it was discovered that he had been married, it would only demonstrate that he knew even more about the life most of us live because he lived it, too.

Next week we'll wrap up this series "Can We Trust the Bible?" by looking at what God's role has been in the writing, preserving and passing on of the books we find there. We'll also have some fun learning about the quest for the Holy Grail, and see if we can find where those legends came from. We will also finish watching "The Gospel of Judas" in our time of Act(s) II. People have found this National Geographic special to be thought-provoking but ultimately inaccurate in many of its claims. We have had very interesting discussions about it the last two Sunday evenings!

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April 23, 2006

It was interesting to see the different reactions people had to our new series on The Gospel of Judas and The Da Vinci Code called "Can We Trust the Bible?" Some people really weren't interested in, and had no knowledge of, either book. But I heard from some of those folks that they enjoyed learning about where we got the Bible. Other folks had read the books and had lots of questions about what they contained. Some people knew friends and co-workers who had asked a lot of questions after reading the book or seeing the TV special, but they didn't know how to answer the questions until now. And some folks just seemed to be really uncomfortable that we were dealing with these books at all. In a perfect world, every sermon I preached would be fascinating and relevant to every person who heard it. In the real world, sometimes I just hope that I gave everyone something new to think about, and I pray that someone came to a new understanding of who God is and how much they are loved. It's hard to do that when the topic of the sermon is The Gospel of Judas (like it was this Sunday), but I believe that as long as we continue to seek God, we will discover something new that draws us deeper into our faith.

Next week we'll tackle some of the questions that have been raised by The Da Vinci Code. We will learn a little more about some of the other Gnostic gospels and how Dan Brown used them in his book to come to his conclusions. I won't give away any spoilers, and I won't vilify the book or movie, but I will try to explain why orthodox Christianity rejected (and continues to reject) some of the ideas in his book. If you have read the book and have questions, please email me on our Contact Us form and let me know what they are!

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April 17, 2006

Living Water sanctuary decorated for EasterYesterday was an amazing day! Easter is always a great day to be at church. There are beautiful flowers and beautiful people, and the music is always energetic and exciting. But this Easter is one I will never forget. This was really our first Easter where we were completely settled in (more or less) to our Parkville home. We had flowers all over the place, and the room looked and smelled wonderful. We had a lot of guests come to worship with us, and we almost filled the entire room. It is always a joy to worship with lots of people, and yesterday was truly a joyful worship experience. You can hear my sermon, Unfinished Easter, or read about it here.

Laura with Kay

Then in the evening, after another great worship service, we celebrated the life of my best friend, Kay. We shared in song, prayer and Scripture, and then we simply shared stories about her - touching stories and funny stories. We cried a little and laughed a lot and thanked God for the privilege of knowing Kay. It was a memory I will carry with me forever.

I feel like I need to apologize for my next sermon series, which begins on Sunday. I hoped to avoid the whole Da Vinci Code controversy - I figured I'd let other pastors tackle that one for anyone who was interested. But then someone asked me if I had read it because she had some questions about it. I realized that I couldn't engage people in conversation if I didn't know where the questions were coming from. So, I read the book, and I realized why it is raising so many tough questions about the Bible and the history of Christianity. Then when I watched the television special on the Gospel of Judas, I knew that people would have even more questions about the Bible. So, at the risk of jumping on the hype bandwagon, I want to spend a few weeks looking at these two books - Da Vinci and Judas - and following the trail of questions they leave us with. If you have read either Da Vinci or Judas (or both), please email me some of the questions you had. I will do my best to answer them in my sermons. Even if you haven't read either book, I hope you will join us for this fascinating look into the Bible - where it came from and whether we can really trust it.

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April 10, 2006

I'm always a little nervous whenever we have a service of music for our Sunday worship. It's not that I don't trust the musicians to do a good job (Fusion 112 is still the best worship band ever, in my book), it's that I'm not sure if people will experience the service as worship rather than performance. We are so used to sitting back and watching other people entertain us that it's difficult to move people to a place where they can listen to others sing, or watch others do liturgical dance, and experience it as worship themselves. But the Holy Spirit dealt with my concerns by filling the room so that everyone present was able to worship even as others sang and danced. It was a beautiful service that spoke to me and many others and helped us all prepare ourselves for Holy Week and reflect upon what Jesus was thinking as he headed into that week. Now it is time to look ahead to Good Friday and our service of remembrance and reflection about all that the cross means to us.

Next week, of course, is Easter. It's one of my favorite days of the year. On Easter, everything seems possible. No matter what the weather may bring, the day is always beautiful. We will have lilies and other flowers decorating the worship space. The children have made butterfly banners for us to line the walkway. The musicians have prepared some incredible music, and I am so excited about preaching from Mark's version of the resurrection story. I know it will be a memorable day in the life of Living Water Christian Church. It is also a day when I will do a different kind of celebrating, too. My friend, Kay Roberts, requested that Living Water have a service to celebrate her life when she died. Easter is our day to do that. After our evening service, we will gather with Kay's friends and family and remember some wonderful times we spent with her. We will also display her many works of art and marvel at her creativity. I may shed some more tears because I miss her so much, but I will also praise God for the gift of this wonderful woman.

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April 3, 2006

It never ceases to amaze me how Scripture can reveal new things to us every time we return to it. For some reason (I think my mind is still a little cloudy from my grieving process - see the entry for March 16, 2006), I picked a passage from Mark (Mark 4:35-41) to preach on without realizing that I had just preached on that same exact passage 18 months ago! The only thing more difficult than writing a sermon from scratch is writing a new sermon from scratch that doesn't repeat the things you just said 18 months ago. I was very upset with myself when I realized it, but it was too late to change passages because the worship plan had already been set in place. I prayed that God would help me find something new to say so that my congregation wouldn't sit there listening and think, "Didn't she just preach on this a while back?" (I am aware, however, that research indicates that most people are barely able to remember even 25% of a sermon's content a short while after they heard it - and that's if they really liked it and paid attention!) But God directed me to some fresh ideas about the passage that took it in a different direction and gave me some new things to think about. It was so exciting to see the same passage offer up new thoughts and to share them with the congregation.

I am really looking forward to next week - Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. Our Sunday services will be led by Fusion 112, and they have picked out some great songs to help us focus on the last week of Jesus' life. It is always such fun to see people's reaction when they hear Fusion 112 for the first time; they can't believe that this small, new church has such a professional, incredible worship band. God has truly blessed us with some exceptionally talented musicians! After our evening service, I will be participating in an ecumenical community service that will include an orchestra and a mass choir. It will be a very different service from the one at Living Water, but just as moving and powerful. I hope that many others from Living Water and the community will come to that service, too.

January-March 2006 archive

October-December 2005 archive

August-September 2005 archive

June-July 2005 archive

Who is Pastor Laura? Pastor Laura Guy, Living Water Christian Church

Get the 411 on Pastor Laura and the rest of Living Water's staff here. Read her answers to frequently asked questions here.