Pearl Church Community

Ketuvim

2008-10-01T13:50:23-08:00

The Ketuvim sermon series is off! Psalms, Job, Song of Songs… These books do not back away from topics considered onerous by most. What have these books taught you? How are they challenging and/or encouraging you? In what ways are you being shaped by these books on liturgy, suffering, and sexuality?

Epilogue

2008-08-13T12:39:18-08:00

A few post-sermon thoughts about the epilogue… Reading 31:10-31 as an epilogue to the book as opposed to a woman that a king is to find and marry doesn’t change the content of the passage. Rather, it changes the implications of the passage.

-For example, this text clearly teaches us about the kind of woman King Lemuel’s mother tells him to find and marry. The difference in understanding this woman as lady wisdom/epilogue (as opposed to a superwoman men are to wed) implies that both men and women are to look for and wed this woman – not just men.

-Another difference in understanding this woman as lady wisdom/epilogue implies that woman aren’t expected to be perfect and men aren’t expected to look for the perfect woman. The text isn’t a bar to evaluate each other by as much as it is an exhortation for us to look for and commit ourselves to wisdom. Over time, this commitment results in wise men and wise women who are marked by lady wisdom.

I’d love thoughts on this. How have you understood this text previously? Can you think of some other implications that I’ve not mentioned? And, how is it that we go about pursuing wisdom anyhow? What might this look like?

Counsel…

2008-08-03T19:00:16-08:00

In the spirit of my weekly ramblings about sermons, here goes… hopefully this may spur some discussion.

First of all, I thought Melissa did fantastic - absolutely hit it out of the park (to use a baseball analogy, thought Jon and Gail would appreciate that - go cubs!). Her approach, the use of stories and illustrations, even the questions she helped us ask, all seemed very appropriate and very… well, wise!

What stuck out to me most was perhaps the most developed section, dealing with “many” counselors and Melissa’s illustration of “triangulating” data. I felt like that image really connected with my mind and my experience (as one who regularly googles and “triangulates") so it was easy to see the wisdom in understanding and embracing this kind of counsel.

I also thought the ending, when she spoke about our own willingness to accept counsel - our “humility” when it comes to placing ourselves in a posture where we’re able to hear and accept counsel when it comes to is in various forms was an extremely important move. I thought it gave us all a challenge as we walked away - are we really in a place where we can accept the counsel that comes our way or are we proud, believing ourselves not to need this kind of counsel?

Anyone else have thoughts related to the sermon?

John

Wealth and Wisdom

2008-07-20T21:22:57-08:00

Today’s sermon on Money from the book of Proverbs was superb. I appreciated Mike’s balance of practical wisdom from the text and pastoral insight into our hearts’ ability to hear that wisdom. As he mentions, we so often associate money (in some Christian circles) with guilt and/or evil. But Proverbs flies in the face of the kind of thinking, clearly presupposing that making money in the right kinds of ways and for the right kinds of reasons is GOOD, even Godly, even wise! This was really good for me to hear - I find that I’m one of those people who Mike was describing, having been conditioned by the communities of my upbringing to subtly associate wealth with varrying degrees of “wrong.” I found real wisdom in the sermon today, especially as I think critically about what it means to work hard and provide money for my family, to be able to give and support what happens here at Pearl, to be able to give and support missionaries and causes we deeply believe in, to be able to wisely save and plan for the future. I think I was mostly moved by how this Proverbs series contines to surprise me with its no-nonsense practical wisdom. This is good stuff for my heart - and perhaps other people will want to chat or write here about their thoughts and/or reactions…

John

Miscellaneous Thoughts from Proverbs…

2008-07-27T13:39:42-08:00

So today’s sermon felt a lot like reading the latter part of Proverbs didn’t it? Just jumping from thought to thought, thinking through how the various themes and saying applied to our lives. I’m wondering which in particular resonated with different ones of us - whether it was the proverb about gentle answers or the one about sharpening each other, or one of the others? I think it would be an interesting and potentially meaningful conversation to have. So which one hit you?

John