Brewing Theology With Teer

Lent 42 Corinthians 5:16-21The difficulties we carry from our past – the things we wish we had not said even if it was OK to say those things back then, the doors we locked while at traffic lights, the streets we crossed to avoid walking past someone, or the people we misidentified because of the nothing more than the color of their skin – were taken to the cross with Christ and buried. The result of this is God reconciling creation to God so that we can become instruments of God's reconciling work.We have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation.A message of love.A message of hope.So, what are we to do?Trust in the promises of God. Trust that we have not been left alone to figure this out. Trust that through "self–examination and repentance; prayer, fasting, and self–denial; and reading and meditating on God's Holy Word," God has reconciled us, and God is reconciling us. To one another – to those, we hold dear in our memories, those we have unknowingly harmed, those we have knowingly harmed, and tho

February 26, 2023Psalm 13 The help we expect, the help we so desperately need, does not come from ourselves. The track record of human history tells this to be true, and yet time and time again, we turn to ourselves to make right that which we continue to taint with our sin. Cries of lament are our turning toward God, acknowledging our humanness, and opening ourselves to being transformed. It is in being transformed that we can act first by setting aside empty platitudes like “racism is too much, we have to give it to God,” and second, by actively working to correct generations of harm that was done in Christ’s name through acts of supposed mercy and compassion. The very things the Church has been called to do since the disciples were first called away from their fishing nets.The transformation that comes, the coming reality of Dr. King’s dream, the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, the Kin-dom of God, is a gift to us by the One to whom we pray, the One who is actively working to transform his body, and the

February 19, 2023Matthew 17:1-9The transfiguration of Jesus Christ, God's shining glory and splendidness, was not a one-off event. Every time the Word of God is proclaimed, every time water is blessed and falls over a person’s head, every time we gather around Christ’s table of grace, and every time we act wither mercy and compassion, we experience what John Wesley called means of grace, and we are transfigured.Many voices, too many to list off, tell us we need to transform ourselves.“Make yourself better,” they say.“Improve this so that you can...”As Jesus was glorified at the Transfiguration and set his sights on Jerusalem, we know the heavy lifting has been done. Making his way to the cross, Jesus carried the weight of our sin and guilt, as well as the glory that can only belong to the second person of the Trinity.As he exited the tomb, the weight of the guilt of our sin was left behind so that his righteousness would be ours. And it is the righteousness of God, revealed in Christ – born, transfigured, cru

The darkness of our world pushes those who feel isolated, alone, or forgotten further into the shadows, where it can seemingly feel impossible to see or experience and source of hope – a source of light.Rev. Fleming Rutledge wrote, “Jesus is calling us to let our light shine in a world often shrouded in darkness. Our good works, acts of kindness and compassion, can bring light into the lives of those around us.”The things we do in the church – the hymns we sing, the meals we share, the sacraments, the mission work, the committee, and council meetings – are not things we do to make ourselves feel better or to check a box on the list of good things we are supposed to do. No, what we do here matters because, in everything we do – in the hymns, meals, sacraments, mission work, and yes, even the meetings – we are bearing the light of Christ into a world in desperate need of light.Being bears of the light of the world makes us a source of hope and positivity, even in difficult and trying times, because our world ca

January 8, 2023Matthew 3:13-17Baptism is not reserved for those who have unwavering faith, those who perfectly understand the church's doctrines, or those who have accomplished every act of works righteousness declared to be required by someone wearing a robe or headset attached to a mic pack. The “belovedness” bestowed upon the baptized is for everyone.Every single one of us.For those we forget or say are unworthy.For those in the cheap seats and those who sit in the front row.For the scoundrels and losers.For the sinners and saints.Your “belovedness” is to be celebrated with childlike wonder and awe.Brewing Theology on Spotifywww.teerhardy.com https://instagram.com/teerhardy https://twitter.com/teerhardy https://teerhardy.substack.com/

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13For all our strengths and abilities are not gods and will never know the right time. The best we can do is mark time in the ways Jesus instructed us: in worship, around Christ’s table, and in remembering that the author of time has called each of us beloved, forgiven, and free. The good news is this – wherever we are headed this year, in the seasons that lay ahead of us, we are held in the hands of God, and by God’s grace it will be well.Brewing Theology on Spotifywww.teerhardy.comhttps://instagram.com/teerhardyhttps://twitter.com/teerhardyhttps://teerhardy.substack.com...

As far back as I remember, the Christmas story has not changed. A mash-up of Luke and Matthew’s accounts is etched into my mind: Mary and Joseph are both greeted by the angel Gabriel, wise men traversing a far, shepherds keeping their flocks by night, no room in the inn, and the manger. Oh yeah, and sweet baby Jesus. I could tell you the story and leave out one or two parts, and you wouldn’t miss a beat. Everyone knows this story.Every year, regardless of national or global events – during war and peacetime; before a pandemic and during; as a child, adult, or slightly older adult – the story is read, “pageanted” and preached around the world. We did this last year and the year before, albeit online, we are doing it tonight, and if I did the math correctly, we will do this again in 365 days.So, what is it about the story of the birth of the Messiah that brings us back year after year?Brewing Theology on Spotifywww.teerhardy.com https://instagram.com/teerhardy https://twitter.com/teerhardy https://teerhardy.sub

The turkey will be dry.Your end-of-the-year bonus may come in the form of a jelly subscription you did not want.The relatives you dread seeing will overstay their welcome.And, that powder room appliance might be full.No matter how much we try to avoid the broken and messiness of the world and our lives, the birth of Joseph’s boy tells creation that we are not separated from God. Our story is not Jesus’ story; instead, Jesus takes the world's story, our Sin – our the messy side of ourselves that we try to hide during the holidays – upon himself.The peace we want on earth, the peace we will attempt to create for ourselves is here, through the grace of God, through a child, through a family as messed up as mine or yours.

December 4, 2022Luke 1:26-38“Let it be with me according to” the will of God, according to the grand plans of God’s earth-shaking in-breaking. “Let it be with me according to” the Creator of Heaven and Earth. That’s what she said. With three words, “Let it be,” Mary reveals to the world that the way things are is not how things will be when the will of God is followed when the Kingdom of God is fully realized. Let it be.________________________________Join me on Substack - https://teerhardy.substack.com/Follow me on Instagram - https://instagram.com/teerhardyFollow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/teerhardy

Luke 21:5-19The Church has a word to speak in the face of rising Christian Nationalism and all the bigotry that comes with it. The One through whom all creation has been saved has a word for us.Paul wrote to the church in Rome, facing down persecution themselves, “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”The church tells the story that evil does not get the last word.The light of Jesus Christ shines brighter than any of the shiny distractions in Herod’s temple – 2000 years ago and today – because all creation is God's dwelling place.Live with the knowledge that we have a word to speak today in the race of rising Christian Nationalism, and that word is that death, destruction, and evil do not hold the last word.Jesus promises to set the world right.Jesus promises that work has begun through his church, no matter how flawed or lost we become.Christ is Lord. We are not.He has come. And he will come again.________________________________Join me on Substack - https://teer

November 6, 2022Ephesians 1:11-23While we want to control, guide, and strategize our way into what is to come, the truth is that God is the One at the wheel.The role of the saints – past, present, and future – is to praise God, soak up God’s amazing grace, and be open to being used as vessels of mercy, grace, and compassion.Our story, saints of yesterday, day, and tomorrow is wrapped in the unifying salvific work of God in Jesus Christ.Freedom from sin.A life shaped by the fullness of God’s grace.An invitation to “saintliness” today, just as we are, just as you are, because of who we are in Jesus Christ; beloved.

October 9, 2022Luke 17:11-19Because we are recipients of a supernatural Grace, something we a difficulty naming but once we have experienced it, we are never the same, our posture and response to God are one of gratitude, shifting our worldview entirely.Worship goes from being a 60-minute weekly hostage situation to being the posture we assume throughout the week. Stewardship becomes joy-filled generosity instead of being a fundraiser where the giver is constantly on the lookout for a return on their investment.Jesus told the Samaritan man, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” A better translation of this is, “Get us and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.” The mustard seed-sized faith that the man had transformed him from the inside out.The same is true of us – the sinners and saints of the church. In his book, Kingdom, Grace, and Judgment Robert Farrar Capon wrote, “Grace perennially waits for us to accept our destruction and, in that acceptance, to discover the power of the Resu

Luke 16:19-31Jesus is not telling a parable about Hell, the final judgment, or heavenly rewards. Our lesson is not a story about the afterlife and how to get to where we all want to go. Jesus is extending an invitation to the Pharisees then and today, to his followers then and today, to live as though the Kingdom of God (his kingdom) is already among us. The Kingdom of God broke into the world through Mary’s womb, which the cross or grave could not snuff out.It can feel as though the chasm is too great. But church, we bear witness to Christ’s chasm crossing, Kingdom ruling, and grace extending every time we gather for worship – proclaiming Christ resurrected and ascended. In our witness to Christ’s Kingdom, we flip how we view the world, setting aside the worth of material lives and instead choosing to put our faith in God’s Grace.Jesus say sthe rich man’s family wouldn’t believe a dead man walking into their living room with a Jacob Marley-like warning.Lucky for us, death did not hold back Christ and does no

Luke 16:1-13Through Grace, Jesus saves those respectability says are beyond saving. This parable is not about finances or management. It is a parable about new life. New life free from the weight and guilt and consequences of our sin.New life that comes to us by way of the unjust steward’s death to self.New life that is a gift from God, given to respectable people but also to the people ignored, exploited, and forgotten by the respectability our world demands.The unjust manager is inviting us to love God where we love wealth, to love God where we love security by relying and trusting upon the Grace of God given at no cost to us.Grace, love, and mercy for scoundrels like you and me.

Jeremiah 2:4-13According to Swiss theologian Karl Barth, all scripture and the entire Christian faith hang on the integrity of four little words from our text today: “Thus the Lord said….” Everything we believe as Christians stems from these four words. “Thus the Lord said….” God said creation would happen, and it did.God said Israel would be the shining star to the nations, and it is. God did not forsake or abandon Israel when they turned to the gods of Baal or ignored their set-apartness.God has spoken a promise, and, in the church, we believe that promise is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The loquacious God took on human flesh and showed us what faithful life to the Lord looks like to the point of death, and then showed us that even death cannot separate us from the Lord.

Isaiah 5, Isaiah 27, John 15Parables of judgment always feel like a smack on the nose. Like a teammate, launch a firm chest pass your way when you are not ready, and instead of a quick layup, you have a broken nose and blood on your new sneakers.But the Good News in the doom and gloom of the parables of judgment is that judgment does not equal punishment. God does not tear down the walls of the vineyard and allow the beasts of the wild to trample the vineyard.Isaiah does not forget the second part of his prophetic task – to energize and announce the good news of God’s justice and new creation. Building up after tearing down.

Hosea 11:1-11We often turn toward God’s love or God’s justice. This leads us to the thought that the God of the Hebrew Bible and the God of the New Testament are somehow different – the God of the Hebrew Bible is focused on justice and vengeance, while the God of the New Testament is concerned with love.Ignoring this tension ignores that tension reveals even more to us about God than we imagine. We know that God does not seek justice at the expense of love, nor love at the expense of justice.Jesus holds this tension in perfect harmony.He invites himself to dinner at the home of tax collectors who cheats their neighbors, extending grace and an invitation to repentance.He drew in the dirt to disperse a rock-wielding mob and then told a woman to go and sin no more. As he took his last breaths on the cross, Jesus extended forgiveness to the man next to him and invited the man to be with him in paradise.That is gospel Good News. That is the good news revealed from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.

Amos 8Amos declared that the superficial religion of many – their Sunday morning best while not caring for the poor, going so far as to make a profit off the backs of the poor – was about to end. Resulting in their destruction. While it may not seem like it, the sending of Amos by God to the northern kingdom was an act of compassion and grace.God was all out of patience, and the summer fruit represented Israel’s end, looking delicious and inviting on the surface but rotting from the inside out.Their temple praise – their Sunday morning songs – would turn to wailing and sadness.Reading like Amos eight makes us, or at least me, uncomfortable because we do not like to think of God being anything but patient, loving, and kind; full of grace, and slow to anger. A critique of me is that, as a preacher, I lean too much into the grace of God at the expense of holiness. I do not like the critique, but it is probably fair.The problem Israel faced is similar to one we wrestle with daily – trampling on and taking advanta

Amos 7The prophets point out to the people of God where God is calling us to go when complacency takes root, and we miss the movement of God happening before our eyes. The prophet, then and now, has the task of bringing a word from God to the people. In the case of Amos, this word from God was to return to the will of God.Amos is one of six minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. “Minor” describes the length of Amos’ writings compared to the more loquacious “major” prophets. Still, it does not diminish the word he brings to the people of God.The prophet's work disturbs those in power or places of comfort when those in power act in ways contrary to God’s will for all creation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ministry of Christ. In the church, we believe Jesus to be more than a prophet. Christ is the Word of God Made Flesh, the Loquacious Word of God. We believe Jesus came to inaugurate God’s rule on earth, to set right the human propensity to set ourselves against God’s will, and to fulfill all of the req

Galatians 5Paul’s letter was not written for you.Paul’s letter, Paul’s letters, and all of the Holy Scriptures were written for the Church. The Body of Christ is assembled through the love of God our Creator, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.Paul writes, “the fruit of the Spirit is.” Singular. Not the “fruits of the Spirit are.” Do you notice the difference? The Fruit of the Spirit is one gift, requiring one another, produced through the Holy Spirit and not individual Christians. Through Christ’s body. The Fruit of the Spirit – the Spirit-Filled Life – is to learn to be a disciple and live a life where we require others in our lives.The Fruit of the Spirit describe the Body of Christ, made flesh in the world through the work of the Holy Spirit.We need one another.Life centered on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.Life made possible through Word and Sacrament.Life free from religion for the sake of self-improvement instead freed to live a life only possible through t