Mosaic Church Of Clayton

"And if there was anywhere we should be able to fall apart it is at church. But somehow we have this belief that God expects us to be able to handle it all, to have it all figured out. We tried to brush away vulnerability and weakness maybe because of our pride, maybe because of something we learned along the way that God is only for the strong, there is not room for weakness and vulnerability in Christianity. But to be the church, we have to learn how to do that together. We will only be able to go alone so long until like Moses, we are collapsing under the weight and wondering where God is. We have to be doing the hard and messy work of caring for each other."

"And as we remember that there is room for everyone at the table, we need to look around and see who is not here. What people are we just not paying attention to, where is God moving outside of our normal ways of understanding him as we try to keep things neat and tidy? Life with Jesus is messy and the miracle, the love of Jesus cannot be contained. When we have open hearts to engage, to listen and learn, the power of Jesus spills over the table, it makes room for everyone and moves in ways we would not expect."

Here is our teaching and sermonette for our Sunday focusing on enneagram twos, the helpers among us.

Enneagram ones are known as the fixers, the reformers and the perfectionists. Here is our teaching and sermonette from July 25 as we learned more from our enneagram ones.

This week we learn about enneagram nines and their desire for keeping the peace.

Here is our interview, teaching and sermonette for Enneagram 8, the challengers and/or protectors amongst us.

Enneagram Sevens are our enthusiasts. They seek to make the most of life and to enjoy themselves as much as possible. Listen to learn more about this point of personality and about how to use these forces for good. We need more whimsy and holy curiosity in the world, but we also can know that even when life is not fun, when life is hard, God is still with us.

This week we look at the enneagram six point of personality, the loyalists.

Know as the investigator, enneagram fives seek to understand their place in the world through knowledge. This podcast includes an overview of an enneagram five, a spiritual practice and a short sermon on Thomas, who behaves a lot like an enneagram five, and what Jesus says to him.

Today we kick off our summer series all about the enneagram. In this recording we talk about how we got the enneagram, why we are studying and what it actually is. This is an overview to kick off the rest of our summer series.

And it matters because we know that persecution of women, discrimination and mysogony are problems world-wide. Christians should be leading the way in elevating all of God’s people. All of God’s image bearers. And instead in a week when we should have been speaking out on social media about 85 young girls killed because they were seeking an education, some religious leaders chose to take to social media to argue about women preachers and yoga pants…yes, I said yoga pants.

"God is going out of God’s way here to show the extent of who is invited. God could have sent anyone to the farthest reaches, God could have ignored the farthest reaches. God chooses a dark, black person who is not a man, but also not not a man, a person who had no power on their own, or even personhood, to be the one who has an encounter with Jesus and shares that with the Nubian people. God is going out of God’s way to make a point here, a point that God makes throughout the gospels, Acts and the letters of the New Testament, by furthering the kingdom through the foreigner, the one of the outside of the Jewish tradition, the women, the ones without power."

Sermon from April 18, 2021"The miracle though, the proof that all of this is more than just something we do to feel good about ourselves, is that Christianity keeps going. Despite all of the wrong things that have happened, despite the ways that it has been misrepresented, the Christian movement keeps going. We are invited to be part of that very real movement. In order to do that we have to face the whispers of our ancestors, of our contemporaries and the ways they do not represent Jesus because we might find a little racist ideology, a little sexist ideology, a little of the power we like that motivates the way we judge others and see and operate in the world. We cannot fix all the sins of the world and Jesus did not ask us to take that on. But in order to really be a part of this world altering movement, we have to be humble, keep learning and keep asking for forgiveness from others. That is the gospel. That none of us are perfect and that we will do our own work to know how to better represent this Jesus

Sermon from April 11, 2021"The stories we tell matter. The echo chambers we create matter. In a conference I was in recently, we were asked to share something we had had to give up about ourselves, something we had learned about ourselves during the last year. One minister said, “I’ve had to give up seeing myself as the one with all the answers.” In conversation after conversation these past few weeks, I’m hearing that a number of us feel mixed with this great hope we have for the end of the pandemic, this enormous pressure. We are telling ourselves stories about how we should have done more, taken up that new hobby, saved more, lost that weight, done more with our families, gotten that extra education…and the list goes on."

Luke 23:53 to 24:12"And this is how God makes beautiful things out of us. Out of the ashes of our lives, when we think there is nothing left to give, no hope left, beautiful things happen because God is still a God of resurrection. That is the hope this morning. Whatever you are feeling, whatever is in your soul, know that we still serve a God that is the God of resurrection. We serve a God who loves us and loves making beautiful things out of our lives, out of our world, out of our church, out of our community. God is still in the business of resurrection and invites you this morning to believe the impossible could be true."

Luke 19:1-10"As we move closer to the cross for Easter, may we know the power of the gospel. May we go all in on the right kingdom and quit chasing the things of the kingdom of this world. May we care more about others, about love, about a world where everyone is seen and treated as a child of God rather than pursuing power, beauty, money, success and all of the things this world says matter."Monologue was written by Rick McKinley from the Imago Dei Community, Imago Dei is a non-denominational church in SE Portland, striving to love God, each other and our neighbors well. 

Psalm 98"If the pandemic had a soundtrack what would it be? Maybe it would be horns from drive by celebrations, the oven dinging to tell you that the banana bread is done, the sighs from one more thing cancelled, the sound of our loved ones through a zoom call or the phone, birds at bird feeders we started watching, the voices of our family members all the time because we are all in the house together, or more silence that we are used to, the voices of government officials as they give us the latest reports and updates." 

Luke 15"Jesus is telling these parables because of the Pharisees and their scribes who were listening to this because they have criticized him for the time he spends with those they would consider sinners, it is up close and personal kind of time. Bumping elbows at a table, sharing food that you would all reach in and eat with fingers, hugs or handshakes of greeting at the door. Jesus is intimate. If there was ever a season where we knew the power of touch, it is right now. We see videos of people who have created huge plastic bubbles in order to be able to hug and touch grandparents, when we know what it is like to not just reach out with our normal handshakes but instead to awkwardly wave or bump elbows, when we know what it is like to want to reach out and hug someone, sit close to them but we have to stay six feet away, grandparents finally able to hold and cradle a grandchild after waiting months. We know how valuable touch is."

Luke 13:1-9, 18-19, 31-35Sermon for February 28, 2020"Here is the joy and the beauty of these scriptures, Jesus is not being crazy. Jesus is not being wrath filled or vengeful, Jesus is trying to be a prophet that says, You cannot separate yourself from the suffering but neither will I. Jesus says, “I will not separate myself from your suffering. I will not separate myself from you.” Theologian Frederich Beuchner said, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen.”"

Luke 10:25-37"Realizing that we are all connected is how we love our neighbor as ourselves. It is as simple as that. When you thrive, I thrive. When you offer me help, I can take it, knowing we are connected. You will need help someday. This is why I don’t think Jesus gives us any details of the man who had been attacked on the road because it allows us all to see ourselves as him."