Imago Dei Community

Haggai is a minor prophet whose book is just two chapters. But it is packed full of a massive question: do we prioritize what God prioritizes? Hidden in this book is a call for the people of God: “Consider your ways,” Haggai says, and think about all the effort you put into all you prioritize: is it fulfilling? So much of modern life involves experiences of losses that we disguise as gains. What would happen if we reoriented our priorities with what God puts first?

For two weeks, we will be listening to Jesus pray. During his time on earth, the gospel writers record dozens of moments where Jesus cried out to God in public and in private. What did Jesus pray about and why is that important? While this series could last all year due to the number of prayers he prayed, we will spend three weeks looking at three different prayers of Jesus to ask this question: how can we join Jesus in his prayers for us?

For two weeks, we will be listening to Jesus pray. During his time on earth, the gospel writers record dozens of moments where Jesus cried out to God in public and in private. What did Jesus pray about and why is that important? While this series could last all year due to the number of prayers he prayed, we will spend three weeks looking at three different prayers of Jesus to ask this question: how can we join Jesus in his prayers for us?

With the cultural rewards of church attendance gone, what reasons are left to be a part of a church? We no longer rely on the church to build community, receive Christian teaching, or even to serve worthy causes. So what’s left? We are in need of fresh vision for God’s mission and church. This Sunday, we will look at our mission and our vision as a church and consider why on earth anyone in Portland would ever go to church.

Preacher: Bob Howard Text: 2 Corinthians 13:4

The wise men saw a star and went looking for God only to realize that the star was God looking for them. Meeting with Herod, they asked the whereabouts of the God incarnate, the king of the Jews, but none of their tactics worked. The strategy, might, and political power of Herod offered them nothing. Their own efforts to “seek God” only resulted in the great realization that God had sought after them. We do not find God through our own search for meaning. We find God when he reveals himself to us. Strangely, when we give up the search for God, we can finally see God has searched for us in Christ.

Joseph is the first story in Scripture to unpack (in a major way) God’s transformational presence in darkness. No one in all of the Old Testament gets as low and near death as Joseph: he is literally thrown in a grave, betrayed by his own family, and left for dead only to be sold as a slave. His narrative is one where we as readers are challenged to see the shocking presence of God in the depth of the grave. God arrives in the darkness of suffering in a way that foreshadows his ultimate arrival in Christ.

When David is made king, he makes his first move a simple but profound one: he moves the ark of the covenant back to the center of life for God’s people. His willful action doesn’t bring the presence of God, rather, it brings the peoples’ attention to the fact that God is present. The season of Advent reminds us that no matter how dark, God is near. God’s presumed absence is often an invitation to our attention: where are we looking? What is at the center of our life? Just as David brought the ark in to remind the people of God’s commitment, what do we bring in to remind us of the same thing?

Simeon spent his whole life waiting for the Messiah to come. He spent his life alongside God’s people in darkness. And then he saw the child Jesus. His prayer shows us a profound theological reality of what happens to darkness when God arrives upon its depths.

Jesus is good news even when things fall apart. In this episode, Pastor Seth King looks at the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.