Category: Stories

Stories Jesus Told, Part III

We’ve started a winter series at Reservoir, “Stories Jesus Told.” As I shared in our first talk, the idea is that the most striking thing about Jesus as a teacher is that he mainly taught by telling stories. I reminded us that of the many stories Jesus may have told, his four original biographers passed down 45 to us. And quoting my friend Carl Medearis, I mentioned that these 45 stories that Jesus told are stories we might want to listen to, to know, to tell to other people.

The second thing that might strike us is how odd and at the same time commonplace these stories are. Drawn from everyday working and family and social and situations, they seem to indicate that God doesn’t want to draw us out of our lives to a higher plane but to engage us in our ordinary lives with how we think and relate and manage them. The stories aren’t always clear, but they are ultimately pretty intriguing.

And maybe that’s the point – to intrigue us, to get us asking questions of ourselves and our community and God, to engage with Jesus as a teacher and to see what we learn as we do so.

In that spirit, I’ve taken quite a few liberties and rewritten Jesus’ stories in 140 character or less form. They’re going up daily on twitter, but in digest form, here are the second bunch. For the first batch, go here. The second bunch are here.

Stories About Returning Authority Figures

Boss w/ 2 workers leaves town-1 does all well,1 goes ape-sh*t. Boss comes back w/punishments and rewards. Who can God trust? (Luke 12:42-48)

Groom delayed til midnight.5 bridesmaids brought flashlights!Other 5 wanna share,but no luck-they’re lost and locked out. (Matthew 25:1-13)

Guy asks 3 people to manage,invest his assets. 2 risk much, win big: huge rewards. 1-paralyzed by fear-does nothing:fired. (Luke 19:12-27)

Some of you are good to the nobodies, some of you ignore ’em. Here’s the catch:I’m with the nobodies. This really matters! (Matthew 25:21-46)

Stories About Unexpectedly Good News

Two dudes owe a bank, one owes $1K, one $10K. The bank forgives both loans – who loves that bank more? It’s like this with me. (Luke 7:41-43)

A good shepherd does all for the life of his many sheep – they know his voice&listen. The rest are thieves&liars.

PS I’m not just the shepherd, but the gate – taking the sheep into safety & freedom and & the good places they want to go. (John 10:1-18)

A sheepowner is always happier about the one lost sheep found than the 99 milling about, safe and sound. Just like God. (Matthew 18:12-14)

Shepherd has 99 perfectly fine sheep,but just has to find that one he lost-then he’s happy. God and heaven work this way. (Luke 15:3-7)

That woman who stays up looking for her lost coin, then calls her friends at 2am to celebrate-God’s just like that. (Luke 15:8-10)

One dad, two kids. Kid 2 scandalizes with badness, dad scandalizes with goodness, kid 1 scandalizes with bitterness. (Luke 15:11-32)

Laborers hired for different jobs,all paid days wage,then argue about fairness. Boss says:don’t hate me when I’m generous. (Matthew 20:1-16)

Two people pray.Religious one thanks God for his own awesomeness.Irreligious one asks for mercy. God’s listening to #2. (Luke 18:9-14)

Stories Jesus Told, Part II

We’ve started a winter series at Reservoir, “Stories Jesus Told.” As I shared in our first talk, the idea is that the most striking thing about Jesus as a teacher is that he mainly taught by telling stories. I reminded us that of the many stories Jesus may have told, his four original biographers passed down 45 to us. And quoting my friend Carl Medearis, I mentioned that these 45 stories that Jesus told are stories we might want to listen to, to know, to tell to other people.

The second thing that might strike us is how odd and at the same time commonplace these stories are. Drawn from everyday working and family and social and situations, they seem to indicate that God doesn’t want to draw us out of our lives to a higher plane but to engage us in our ordinary lives with how we think and relate and manage them. The stories aren’t always clear, but they are ultimately pretty intriguing.

And maybe that’s the point – to intrigue us, to get us asking questions of ourselves and our community and God, to engage with Jesus as a teacher and to see what we learn as we do so.

In that spirit, I’ve taken quite a few liberties and rewritten Jesus’ stories in 140 character or less form. They’re going up daily on twitter, but in digest form, here are the second bunch. For the first batch, go here.

God’s land is a woman tucking yeast into her dough and working it all the way through. And Jesus always talked like this. (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20-21)

kneading dough

Wheat and weeds grow together in my field. I’ll take care of it later; there’s nothing you can do about it. Let it be. (Matthew 13:25-30)

God’s land: like a net, bulging with fish. The fishers collect the good, throw out the bad. So will the angels at the end. (Matthew 13:47-50)

Gill_Net_Full_of_Fish

Don’t fall asleep on the job. Your boss is watching and might show up at any moment! Stay awake! (Mark 13:32-37)

No one knows when Jesus’ll show up. People’ll be working and eating, and -boom- Jesus will show up and change everything! (Matthew 24:36-44)

Your boss could show up at any moment, like a nighttime thief. Be ready, because he wants to get on his knees and serve you! (Luke 12:35-40)

servant

Again, follow me on twitter for these every day for a few weeks.

 

Stories Jesus Told, Part I

We’ve started a winter series at Reservoir, “Stories Jesus Told.” As I shared in our first talk, the idea is that the most striking thing about Jesus as a teacher is that he mainly taught by telling stories. I reminded us that of the many stories Jesus may have told, his four original biographers passed down 45 to us. And quoting my friend Carl Medearis, I mentioned that these 45 stories that Jesus told are stories we might want to listen to, to know, to tell to other people.

The second thing that might strike us is how odd and at the same time commonplace these stories are. Drawn from everyday working and family and social and situations, they seem to indicate that God doesn’t want to draw us out of our lives to a higher plane but to engage us in our ordinary lives with how we think and relate and manage them. The stories aren’t always clear, but they are ultimately pretty intriguing.

And maybe that’s the point – to intrigue us, to get us asking questions of ourselves and our community and God, to engage with Jesus as a teacher and to see what we learn as we do so.

In that spirit, I’ve taken quite a few liberties and rewritten Jesus’ stories in 140 character or less form. They’re going up daily on twitter, but in digest form, here are a few.

Stories About Something New Happening, and What it Might Be Like

Old and new don’t match when you’re patching clothes or storing wine. New things need new containers. (Mark 2:18-22, Matthew 9:17, Luke 5:33-39)

The teachers in God’s land are like a homeowner who keeps finding new treasures to share alongside old ones. (Matthew 13:52)

van-gogh-the-sower

Farmer throws seeds everywhere – growth rates vary widely, from nothing to insanely large amounts. Think about that! (Matthew 13:3-23, Mark 4:1-9)

Light wants to travel and shine. Same with truth. There’s no permanent secret or hiding place – all will be known in time. (Luke 8:16-18)

lightshining

How seed becomes life is a mystery. Same with God’s land. We’ve just got to spot the life and enjoy it! (Mark 4:26-29)

God’s land is a tiny seed that grows into a plant for food and spice and big bird-nested branches, just so beautiful. (Mark 4:30-32, Matthew 13:31-32, Luke 13:18-19)

Again, follow me on twitter for these every day for a few weeks.

Snapshots of Neighboring from the Reservoir Community

Many of you have already communicated your experiences of neighboring to us – we thought it would be encouraging to share these as we all try to navigate our own efforts of neighboring!

“This week my son dragged my daughter and me out of the house early (even before my hair was done) and we all still had our pajamas on. I’m so glad he did though, because we met a neighbor whom we haven’t spoken to since we moved in 2 years ago. It turns out she’s 90 and she’s lonely. That was her primary word she used. She was out for her morning walk before the rain came. “

“Last night, I had a great dream about working side by side in a kitchen next to my grumpy neighbor across the street who I spy on all the time. In the dream he struck up a conversation with me as if we’d been talking forever. It was a great dream 🙂 Praying that it will be a reality.”

“This week I asked the little girl I was babysitting how she knew if someone was a neighbor. She answered, “Because they always say: “May I come in?” This was meaningful to me to think about neighboring as an invitation into something more – our lives, each other’s stories.”

“We had been told that Mrs L wasn’t very friendly, was actually rather grumpy. A year or two after moving in, we did some renovations at our place that required a big dumpster in our driveway. Mrs. L would be staring at that ugly dumpster for a few months, so I thought it would be neighborly to let her know ahead of time. I think she was surprised that anyone would reach out. She invited me in for a cup of tea and I got to hear her story. Turns out she isn’t grumpy or mean, she was grieving the death of her beloved husband. Neighboring reminds me that everyone has a story.”

“This week I looked up and made eye contact with my neighbor on the other side of the street – AND – I actually waved. This is a significant step in the context of our neighboring relationship”.

“For my five year-olds birthday party, recently, she invited a bunch of classmates including a girl we hadn’t spent much time with. Not tons of lines of difference between us, but I wanted to connect with the girl’s dad because his family is from Mexico and Amelia’s school tends to have outsized presence from white, upper-income families. As soon as we invite the girl, her family immediately sent an invitation to her own birthday, around the same time. We went and had a ball—just a few families, mostly their friends who had also immigrated from Mexico. So the party was a really new and valuable experience for Amelia—her first tres leches b-day cake, her first pinata—we loved it. I was really grateful Amelia had a chance to learn about the world and we got to build a bigger bridge.”

“God totally opened up play with our neighbors next door who although we have boys the same age they barely played for the first three years we lived here.  We talked a few times with the other couple about putting a hole in the fence or removing it all together but it never happened.  Finally our more extroverted 4 year old started talking to them over the fence more and more and we finally decided to build some sort of platform so that he would stop climbing on the bunny hutch to talk to them.  The next day we came home from church, saw some wood on the street being put out for trash and thought we could use it to build a platform.  Low and behold it is a castle play house that has been taken apart.  We dragged it over and my husband put it back together and put it up against the fence and installed a door leading over the fence to our neighbors yard.  They bought at cargo net and attached it to their side of the fence, since then the boys went from playing a few times a year to almost every day.  We could have never built a castle that cool –  God totally gave us the castle and opened up friendship where we were struggling.”

“Our neighborhood should be perfect for kids. We live on a dead end, and there’s a family across the street from us with boys the same age as ours. They’ve been living there as long as we have, but somehow the kids never felt free to just hang out together without adults involved. Then a couple years ago a new family moved in next door, also with kids the same age. Those kids weren’t at all shy about coming over and asking our boys or our other neighbors out to play, and their example catalyzed all the neighborhood kids to be more open and invitational; now they’re all outside together most afternoons. We feel so grateful to be living somewhere with such an old-school feel, and I hope next time we find ourselves in a situation where the community isn’t as open and welcoming as it could be, we could be the catalysts!”
“I’ve been praying about more opportunities to meet my neighbors – where there just hasn’t seemed like there are any natural/organic opportunities.   Since I’ve been praying over the last 2 weeks – I’ve seen my neighbors across the street – more than I can remember.  I’m not sure if I’m just more aware to see them now – or if God is orchestrating moments of intersection.  Either way – I’m totally encouraged!” (Now to do something about it).

Email us at neighboring@reservoirchurch.org if you’d like to share your experience of neighboring.