Brewing Theology With Teer

Trinity SundayJohn 16:12-15June 12, 2022The Holy Spirit will guide us.Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit will “take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.” The Holy Spirit will not “draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen, indeed out of all that” Jesus “has done and said.”Jesus tells his disciples that they, we, will not be left on our own to make sense of the work of God. We are not left to ourselves to decipher what a faith-filled life looks like or how to respond to the call Jesus has placed on each of our lives.

Pentecost Acts 2God takes the most fragmented parts of our modern “post-Babel” lives and makes them whole. This is part of God making all of creation whole. We bear witness to this when we gather around Christ’s table. This is our witness in our worship, mission, and teaching. The unification of the Church is the work of the Holy Spirit – bringing people who speak different languages or only listen to siloed voices together to speak the one language of the Holy Spirit, the one language of God. The language of Grace.

May 22, 2022Acts 16There is no such thing as a “self-made Christian.” A heart opened to the works of God, along with our conversion or faith, are acts initiated by God. This is why when the church speaks of repentance, we remember that we have been repented, that it is the inward working of the Holy Spirit that enables us to turn toward God.Jesus’ life and ministry testify to this.Jesus called his disciples. They did not seek him out. People would come to him only after he began his ministry and word spread.In situations and places where hope and the presence of God seemed to be surely gone – a possessed man chained up among the tombs or at the grave of Lazarus – Jesus, the Lord, imitates what is needed for us to be open to the good news of new life that can only be found in him.New life that calls us beyond the city gates. Moving us away from the safety of our comfort and into the lives of the people we least expect.New life that opens our hearts and minds to receive the good news of the gospel. And in turn,

Acts 10 and 11; Revelation 21May 15, 2022“Will we allow the Holy Spirit to prod us today, to give us a vision, to drag us, as it dragged our apostolic forebearers before us, kicking and screaming, all the way toward the wideness of God’s mercy?”[7]In just a few minutes, we will pray that Charlie is so filled with the same Holy Spirit that moved the home of Cornelius that he is never the same. And because he will not be the same, we pray that we will not be the same. The work of the Holy Spirit moves us beyond our bolted down pews, and our Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, toward the wideness of God’s mercy.Do not misunderstand. Doctrine, disciple, and practice are necessary for the church, just as the law was necessary for Peter and Israel. But our attachment to constancy in doctrine and practice puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to the work of God because we often see the way things are (or the way things were) to be more powerful than what God is doing before our v

May 8, 2022Acts 9:34-34Our fixed structures often lead to paralysis and death for those on the margins or lower rungs of the social ladder. But the One who ordered the chaos of creation, was worshiped in a manger, and carried a cross telling fishermen to drop their nets, and the ill and dead to get up.In Aeneas’ healing and Tabitha’s rising these social systems have been rendered null and void.And church, we bear witness to this. We are witnesses to how Jesus Christ has overcome the power of Sin and Death. In the empty tomb, leaving his burial clothes behind, Jesus tells the world no more with we be separated from God or one another.It is not that the last shall be first; they are.It is not that the dead shall live; when we were dead to our Sin Jesus offers us new life.In Christ no one stays in their place: fishermen will preach, the paralyzed walk, and the dead live again.From death in Sin to new life through Grace.

May 1, 2022Acts 9:1-20Our stories of encountering the risen Lord are how we bear witness to Mary’s Easter morning discovery of the empty tomb. We are witnesses to the very voice that knocked Saul on his behind, who spoke to Ananias, who overcame the power of Sin and Death, and who continues to speak to us today.Luke tells us Saul was completely changed – from Enemy-Number-One to being the person who would carry the Good News of God in Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. To people like you and me.We stand today as witnesses to the awesome work of God along the Damascus Road. It would have been easy, maybe even justified, for God to write off Saul. After all, Saul was Enemy-Number-One of the Church. But as we read each year on Good Friday, God is not in the business of writing people off. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, he prayed for the forgiveness of the very people who killed him.And that is Grace – the nothing you can do to earn or lose it love and forgiveness of God. Right now, it is yours, just as it i

Today is a celebration of the Gospel Good News that Sin and Death do not hold the last word. The very thing Mary went to the tomb toconfront and mourn is no more because of Christ. Easter is not just the celebration of the tomb being empty. In the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see how the darkness of this world has been and will be overcome and ultimately annihilated by God.Mary arrived in the garden at night expecting to weep and mourn the rising of the sun yet revealed the victory of the Son, living, breathing, with no need for his burial clothes. Jesus’ physical presence and emptiness of the tomb echoed what he said to Mary’s sister, Martha, at the graveside of their brother Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives bybelieving in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

April 10, 2022Palm SundayLuke 19:28-40In our procession of fools, we miss that there is so much more to this story.In each stop between the Mount of Olives (Palm Sunday) and The Skull (the cross), Jesus is gathering all of humanity into him. The best and the worst we have to offer. No prayer or ritual must first be spoken or performed on our part.If last Sunday, Mary’s anointing of Jesus with perfume was the prelude to Holy Week, then Palm Sunday is Act One of a larger story. A story that we have all been gathered into. Fleming said it best, “the testimony of the four evangelists (gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the testimony of the Christian church, is that in this event, in this godforsaken death, the cosmic scale has been conclusively tipped in the opposite direction, so that sin and evil and death are not the last word and never will be again.”There is so much more to this story.

April 3, 2022Luke 12:1-8I want to be Mary, we should all want to be Mary, but none of us are., all the time.Yes, sometimes we are Mary but other times we are either Martha busying ourselves with work, or we are Judas, wanting to attach Jesus to our political agendas. Nevertheless, Christ gathers all to himself when he goes to the cross.Adoration, gratitude, and worship while in the next breath being made righteous, still being a recipient of the grace of God when we reject or betray the gift afforded to each of us.And still, Jesus is gathering us in. Jesus is gathering you in.Grace is and always has been extended to the faithful and unfaithful – to Martha, Mary, and Judas, to you and me. Inclusive of all people, Christ is gathering us into the transforming light of his grace. A light so bright that the darkness of this cross cannot drown it out.

March 27, 2022Lent 4Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32Both sons forgot who they were, first and foremost, who they were before the world applied its labels and new identification.The father in this parable must have been looking for him, Junior, to see his son returning. On top of the family home, he watched, looked, waited, and then ran; in the same way, God continues to seek us out, gathering us in, calling us child, calling us beloved.This is the same Father who at his Son’s baptism shouted, “You are my Son, the Beloved,”[7] and at the Transfiguration said, “This is my son, the beloved.”[8]Howard ThurmanTheologian Howard Thurman wrote, “you don’t need to leave home to forget”[9] who you are.Junior and Senior forgot, but the one who sought them both would not let them forget.The world will call you many things. Your sin will call you many things. But the One who insists on embracing you and throwing a banquet in your honor will not allow you to forget and is calling you beloved, a child of God, even when we forget.

March 20, 2022Luke 13:1-9Lent 3, Year CThe hope we need in a world broken by sin is that our fruitfulness comes by the laboring of the divine gardener, the One who is devoted to the flourishing, the fruitfulness of all creation, despite what our sin says about us.By gathering all of creation up in his mercy and grace, Jesus is cultivating us toward fruitfulness, answering the question pastors love to debate with one another in large arenas and dank church basements – “how has God has dealt with our sin?”The starting point for us is to repent, turning away from the bright lights of sin and toward the faithfulness of the gardener. The One who promises never to forsake or abandon. The One who has covered us in the manure of his divine grace so that we are made clean by his righteousness.Grace and mercy.Mercy and grace.https://www.facebook.com/realteerhardyhttps://www.twitter.com/teerhardyhttps://www.instagram.com/teerhardy

March 13, 2022Luke 13:31-35Transformation through the faithfulness of the One who did not turn his back on us after lamenting that we had turned our backs on him.And the good news is that as you have been gathered and sent, you are not sent out covered in the dirt the world has smeared on you by puppets who would like to think they can leave a lasting impact on your life.In Jesus gathering us up, we are made clean.The cause of Jesus’ lament, our sin, does not hold the final word. Jesus has invited us to stop the puppet show and to step into his grace under his wing of love, protection, and transformation.

Luke 4:1-13Lent 1, Year CThe Gospel good news is that there are no ifs. There are no buts. No fine print.We have begun our journey through Lent in the wilderness because Lent is a time of being in the desert, being in the wilderness. We live in the wilderness. We live in a world where the temptation to assume Christ's throne as our own is always present. We opt for the most reasonable decision, planned entirely, leaving nothing to chance, and in doing so, push God entirely out of the picture. God, relegated to the private, while we wander the wilderness seeking ways to ascend when the truth is that God has already descended to us.Jesus Christ has descended to us, bring the divine gift of grace: unmerited, nothing you can do about it, no if/then's attached love, forgiveness, and mercy.Many people view Lent as a season to get better through piety. So often, our Lenten practices are laden with the same temptations presented to Jesus in the wilderness – if you do this, then you will ascend, you will achieve, you

Luke 9:27-36Listen to him.Though we are shaped by social, cultural, and economic pressures that tell us we must ascend, if we listen, if we set aside our own noise, we hear words of grace. A word that tells us God will not be confined to the mountain-top, theology, or Law. A word that tells us God is present with us now, in this sanctuary, in our homes, in the places we feel most alone.God has come down, dwelling among us in flesh and blood, a holy and living tabernacle, and is not set apart from us. God is seeking us, giving us something different from G-law-spel – a law-filled list of you must X, Y, and Z to receive grace. Jesus is speaking to the church today.Listen to him.Set aside the Law and follow, for the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets have been fulfilled. God has come to us. God continues to come to us. Because God is continually seeking us out, the love of God, the amazing grace of our Lord and Savior is always yours. It never ends.

February 20, 2022Luke 6:27-38Blessed are the poor.Blessed are the hungry.Blessed are those who weep.Blessed are you when you are hated.Woe to the rich.Woe to the full.Woe to those who laugh or mock.Woe to those who are falsely propped up.Blessed are you, the one overlooked by the world.Woe to you who cannot see beyond your pride and self-interest.Blessed are you, the one deemed a loser by the standards of the world.And woe to you who insist on those standards being kept.In this flip, Jesus declares a new way of living and being. Jesus is not offering a list of character qualities for us to aspire toward. No, Jesus’ opening words in the Sermon on the Plain create a new list of contrasts between the kingdom of Caesar and the Kingdom of God with the implications of Jesus’ flip detailed in our scripture reading.Love your enemies. No thanks. I can barely love my neighbors.Bless those who curse you. I would rather pass. They can have their blessing when they stop their cursing.Pray for those who abuse you. Maybe ne

February 13, 20221 Corinthians 15:12-20“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ… the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection assured to us is an affirmation of the whole life of Jesus. The resurrection of Christ offers us hope when we cannot see the fruits of our labors today. An affirmation of the significance of every human life.An affirmation of our hope placed in the news that our sins are forgiven, a place at Jesus’ table is prepared for us, and that the anxieties of this life caused by pain and death do not hold the final word. Paul is making an argument. He is not relying on testimony from the tomb, that will come later from the gospel writers. For Paul, not having seen the empty tomb himself, Paul did Jesus on the Damascus Road must

February 6, 20221 Corinthians 15:1-11The Gospel Good News of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s vindication over the power of sin and death in this life. It is Good News.It is Good News because what happened on the cross and because Jesus Christ is risen, all of your failures to adequately answer the question “What Would Jesus Do?” are forgiven. Once-for-all forgiveness for you.The tomb remains empty so that you will remember that all of your sins – the ones they will not let you forget and the ones you cannot forgive yourself for – are forgotten. Buried with Jesus Christ in his death were all of your sins. And in the light of the Good News of his resurrection, his perfect righteousness is now yours. The best news.Good News.This Good News is the news that is proclaimed week after week, the best kind of broken record because it does not matter if you are an orthodox stick in the mud or an unorthodox heretic. It does not matter if you cling to the resurrection news or find it impossible to believe becaus

January 16, 20221 Corinthians 12:1-12The lordship of Christ is not a declaration the church can make on its own or a declaration the church can sustain over generations without the help of God. And this is where we find the gospel good news – regardless of what gifts the Spirit has given you, regardless of whether you think you are worthy of such a gift, and regardless of the priority others might place on those gifts God is going to use you to further God’s kingdom. Buckle-up because God promises to use the gifts God has given to individual members of Christ’s body to build up the entire body, and in building up the whole body, the Kingdom of God is advanced, revealed a bit more as we await Christ’s promise to return, and the Kingdom of God is fully revealed. Christ has leveled the field. He is Lord, and there is no hierarchy. No one higher than the other because the lordship of Jesus Christ, a gift to all of creation, refocuses the attention of the church away from division and conflict, pointing us toward

January 9, 2022 - Baptism of the LordLuke 3: 15-17, 21-22Patterns are changing whether we want them to or not. We observe the patterns of life in the church differently. But because Jesus is lord and because what happened in the Jordan cannot be undone just like what happened at your baptism cannot be undone even though the patterns of our lives may change the call to discipleship and the pattern of following Christ’s example does not. We may gather online or at home for worship, we may have small gatherings in sanctuaries, and what we do today might shift in the weeks to come and our call to follow is the same. This is why the patterns of the church; the liturgy of our shared life is so important. These things give us an unmovable guidepost by which we can keep moving onward toward what John Wesley called Christian perfection, perfecting our lives in Christ because by Christ’s actions we have been right before God.

Micah 5:2-5aLuke 1:39-45, (46-55)While the Good News of Christ’s embodied life fills me with joy, it is even better news for the people of a nowhere village than those living in an empire like, well, us. For people who live in the empire, with all the privileges of Pax Romana, those same privileges can blur our vision and prevent us from seeing that Christ would not be born and Virginia Hospital Center. Mary’s Magnificat was not sung in the Temple or National Cathedral. No, her song of praise and servanthood was sung in the backwoods as she and her cousin lived under the boot of the empire. We often say that God does not take sides, but God has done just that in Bethlehem and through Mary. In flesh and blood, God has taken the side of those on the margins.With those pulling a double-shift only to be barely able to put food on the table.With those working in the fields, feeding the empire while not being able to come out of the shadows.Mary’s boy with a birth certificate stamped in a one-donkey town takes the