We're all gonna die. One day. Life is precious. Let's not waste it. A question that comes up when we confront our own mortality is often is, what kind of person am I becoming? What kind of life leads to a life being called "blessed"? That's what this Psalm is all about. Three movements.
1) There are paths that shape us. Walk. Sit. Stand. It's like the Psalmist is watching a person sort of gradually settle into a way of life. This is how formation happens. Slowly. Our desires are cultivated. This Psalmist wants us to pay attention to the voices and influences that are forming us. Life isn't about learning how to behave, it's more about learning how to become.
2) There is a source from which we can choose to live, through divine guidance. This is how we eventually bear fruit. Trees don't strain to bear fruit. They stay connected to the source (water) and naturally bear fruit. What are some ways to stay connected to the source? Try things out. Experiment. See what works.
3) Understand that life is and always has been seasonal. There are seasons for bearing fruit, and there are seasons for putting down roots. Sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves. Maybe seasons of silence, of absence, are seasons of putting down roots to stay connected to the source. Stay patient; it's a long process. Look, man, we're all just trying our best here!
We may not know how many days we have left. This Psalmist seems to be saying, "We get to choose which paths to take." We choose them today, tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that. Over time, we become people who naturally bear fruit in its season.
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Psalm 1:1-6
21 Oct 2026
October 18, 2026 "Nothing Can Erase The Image Of God"
This is the story about the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus: do we pay taxes to Caesar or not? Yeah, you thought you could trap Jesus. C'mon, man. Face Palm Emoji.
I'll retell the story and then we'll work through three movements of the story.
1) There's always a struggle/battle over what has ultimate authority. Everywhere you went in the ancient world you were reminded who had the power and who had the authority in your life. Every time you bought something, Rome was there. Paid taxes, Rome was there. You literally carried the reminder around in your pocket. We may not live in ancient Rome, but we know what it's like to have things compete for our complete allegiance.
2) The image on the coin says something about the image stamped on each of us. Yes, it's the image of God. Nothing can erase that; not sin, not brokenness, not failure, not anything. This changes the way we see other people. We can't reduce them to categories. Of course, that's what empire wants us to do. That's what much of religion wants us to do. But Jesus keeps turning people back into human beings.
3) Give to God what belongs to God. What belongs to Caesar? The image on the coin tells us it belongs to him. So give it to Caesar. What belongs to God? The image stamped on us is the image of the Divine. Us. All of us. We all belong to God. What are we giving back to God? What do our lives reveal about what we worship? Whatever has our deepest allegiance will eventually leave its image on us. Fear leaves an image. Power does. Anger does. Hate leaves an image. But so does love. And mercy. And compassion. And on and on.
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Matthew 22:15-22
https://www.bible.com/events/49681444
7 Oct 2026
October 4, 2026 "The Divine Invites More"
The parable of the wedding banquet. This is the third parable Jesus tells to protest/critique his own religious tradition, or possibly all religious traditions. Here we enter into the wedding banquet parable.
The invitation goes out, but the guests refuse to show up. I imagine the king was pretty angry. But what does he do with his anger? He turns it into grace, like Jesus turned his anger inside the temple to grace outside the temple and healed the people who couldn't get in. What would it look like if we all learned how to turn our anger into grace? What kind of a world could we actually make?
So the king turns his anger to grace and invites all the people in the streets, the good and the bad. And suddenly, the banquet is full.
Three things...
1) The invitation is wider than we think, and maybe wider than we want. This tracks with how Jesus lived his life. We draw circles. Jesus makes them wider. We make lists. The divine invites more. Remember, Jesus is critiquing his own religious tradition. What would he say about ours?
2) We're pretty good at making excuses. All their excuses are ordinary things. Work. Family. We don't have to hate God to miss the invitation, to miss the kingdom. Ordinary things can make us miss it. But here's the thing about the invitation; here's the thing about grace: it always comes to us in the present. The invitation is always now. We're not invited into a future event. The banquet is now, it's a present reality we're invited to live into now. How do we make our homes, neighborhoods, churches, even our country into a big grace party where all kinds of people are invited and have everything they need?
3) Then we get to the weird part about the guy who gets thrown out because he didn't wear the wedding clothes. Maybe the question isn't, "Did you wear the right clothes?" Maybe the question is, "Are you living into the invitation?" We can show up physically and stay emotionally, spiritually, relationally outside. We can show up at the table and not eat. So maybe the wedding clothes are simply the clothing of someone who allows grace to actually change them.
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14
https://www.bible.com/events/49674581
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