Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast
Weekly sermons from Redemption Church in Olathe, KS.
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Weekly sermons from Redemption Church in Olathe, KS.
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1. Cole talked about how the story of Naaman's healing struck him, and stuck with him. He said he experienced it as provocative and subversive. How did you experience the story, and how would you describe both the what story and it provoked in you? 2. Cale talked about how being in a position w/money or power or charisma puts us in positions where things revolve around, and that that dynamic starts to “bend” the way we relate to the people and world around us… and the way they relate to us. Reflect on your own experiences of this dynamic. What has that looked like? Don't forget to look for and
1. In his sermon today, Tim shared the following Heschel quote & slide: “Words create worlds.” - Heschel “Ideological capture isn’t falling for a lie so much as operating within a vocabulary that was never ours to begin with.” Consider this concept thoughtfully. What examples can you generate in which choice of words and language clearly shape or have the ability to shape our public story around the topic? How difficult or easy is it to come up with items for that list? Why do you think that is? 2. Another of Tim’s slides read, “This is a story in part about what happens when the people of God
1. What do you think about the retelling as reframing of the story of Elijah that Tim shared in today’s sermon? How did it impact you? What were some of the things that stuck out to you or stirred your curiosity and imagination? What’s your sense of what it means for this story’s reframing, rooted in Jewish scholarship, to be so different than the way the story is told and understood in most Christian contexts? What are the possible outcomes of one understanding being embraced over the other? 2. Elijah spearheads a dramatic event at which the power of God decisively puts to shame Baal’s priest
1. As part of Tim’s sermon today, he talked about Walter Brueggemann’s concept of the royal consciousness — an ideological capture that comes from prosperity. He named three features of it. First: numbness. Brueggemann said that when a person or community achieves a certain level of comfort — with all their basic needs met — something starts to happen to their imagination. Gradually, they start to focus on what’s next (& then next after that, and next after that, and next after that, etc). And then slowly, the suffering of those at the bottom becomes tough to really see and to feel. Tim said,
Ordinary Time 08: David and His Contradictions
Ordinary Time 07: Hesed
Ordinary Time 06: Finding God in the Ruins
Ordinary Time 05: Vulnerable Leadership
Ordinary Time 04: The Excluded Ones
Ordinary Time 03: Finding God In The Ruins
Ordinary Time 02: Promotion Sunday 2026
1. In his sermon, Tim expressed that, in Jesus’ time, Jewish religion had become what all religions — all moral systems & political movements — tend to become over time: more an ideology than a sacred religion. What’s it like for you to think about YOUR religion like this? How much do you think your experience of your faith is ideological? or influenced by ideology? How has that aspect of your faith experience evolved over time? How does it feel to consider that question? 2. Tim said, of the earliest Christians, that they didn’t abandon their religion, they just adapted it. What’s your respons
1. How have you thought about the ascension up to this point in your life of faith? Have you thought much about it? Where does (or has) it fit in to your overall sense of the gospels’ story? What kinds of question and curiosity does it bring up for you? 2. In her sermon, Mandy said, “we live, like the disciples, in the space between blessing & fulfillment.” How does this statement resonate for you right now? How real does it feel? How does it fit in with your own experiences of the ebbs and flows of hope? 3. Mandy also talked about the church as a place that “becomes a place where heaven & ear
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1. Tim defined ideology & described both the way it functions in our lives and the ways in which Jesus worked to break down its hold over people. He taught that the purpose of ideology is to mask the alienation we feel from God, self, others, and creation. He then began the following sentence, which was ended by the slide below. He said, “The Jesus way to be emancipated from full ideological capture is to…” (see slide). To what extent do you see yourself as someone who has been or is captured by ideologies? How do you feel about the idea of your own alienation from God, yourself, others, and c
1. In his sermon, Tim talked about the radical nature of Jesus’ statement that he has other sheep who do not belong to [ancient Israel’s] fold. He went on to discuss the congruence between this statement and the countless examples in Jesus’ life that worked against the paradigm of an in-crowd and an out-crowd (regardless of how you define the boundaries). Tim then said that, “Jesus had a deep trust in relationship — as a great teacher … He knew that Love & fidelity are among the only things powerful enough to make us change & grow.” What relationships in your life have asked you to forgo a lit
1. One idea that Cole worked with during his sermon today was the way in which the travelers on the road to Emmaus were kept from recognizing Jesus. Framed within the larger message and emphases of the book of Luke, Cole asserted that it was not, as many think, God who kept the men from recognizing Jesus. How have you previously understood that part of this story? If it had been God blocking them from seeing, why might God have done so? How has Cole’s positioning and contextualizing impacted your ideas about this same question. If it wasn’t God, how would you articulate the reason for the not-
1. What was the baseline or core of the story you were told about Easter as you were growing up, or growing up in your faith spend some time exploring in discussion the ways your understanding of the story shape your view of the Christian short story, of God, of yourself, of the church, and of the world. 2. Tim shared the quote, if you don’t doubt the claims of Easter on at least some level, then you’re probably not taking them seriously enough.” Share about how you approach and hold the story of the resurrection. What does doubt look like and where does it show up as you conceive of and conte
Community Group Questions 1. Tim used Muzafer Sherif’s 1950s social psychology experiments at Robbers Cave and Middle Grove as a framework for discussing what he called The Big Lie & The Big Truth. He defined these two ideas like this: The Big Lie: the good life comes through winning, controlling, dominating, defeating through power, and violence. The Big Truth: the good life comes through cooperation, community, common good, neighboring, friendship, mutuality, interdependence, forgiveness, reconciliation, and fidelity over time. In other words, each other. What types of situations, settings,
1. The story of Lazarus is very well known, especially in Christian circles. Hearing it framed today in the larger context of John’s narrative and the timeline of Jesus’s approach to Jerusalem, were there new things that struck you in the way that you understood it or how it resonated? Tim preached and discussed the nature of Jesus‘s tears in the John 11 narrative. He talked about common interpretations that say that Jesus is weeping for loss and empathy, but he also pointed out the mention in the passage of a deep anger that welled up in Jesus. Tim also talked about his tears being tears of a
1. Early in her sermon, Mandy talked about a natural phenomena in which ants can get stuck following one another’s trails and end up walking unceasingly in continuous loops; they get stalled out as the blind following the blind and the death spiral ends only with their deaths. What examples exist in your own life in which you have followed someone that you believed to be leading you down a clear path, only to discover you were in a kind of endless-circular march of your own? How were you able to exit the spiral? Was there a type of death that was needed as a part of that process? Whether they
1. Tim taught about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, explaining how radical his intentional choices to both be in Samaria, and to ask for water from the Samaritan woman were in his time. Tim said, “If Jesus is going to travel through Samaria, it’s for theological and relational reason - not logistical ones.” What social divides and imaginary partitions exist in your social circles or environments that might serve as modern parallels to the taboos that divided the 1st century Judean & Samaritan children of Judaism? Spend some time thoughtfully considering and discussing th
1. The story of Nicodemus and his nighttime approach to Jesus is fairly well known among Christians. How did Tim’s teaching this week impact your understanding of Nicodemus, the story itself, its historical context, and/or the very famous John 3:16? What kinds of thoughts or questions arose for you after learning more about the origins of the Pharisees and their historical context? Does seeing them through a different frame provoke any new ideas when it comes to the way you may have understood them throughout the gospels? What might the takeaways be for that as a modern day Christian reading a
1. Tim referenced David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water” speech, in which Wallace describes two fish swimming along when an older fish passes by and says, “Morning boys, how’s the water?” The two young fish swim on, and eventually one turns to the other and says, “What is water?” Wallace’s point — and Tim’s — is that the most important realities are often the ones we’re least aware of, because we’re so completely inside them. Tim also cited Wallace’s line: “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it,” and suggested that the discomfort of fasting during Lent is meant to do exactly that
1. Tim listed four things that often stand between people and belief in God: Lack of hard evidence No personal encounter Lost capacity for mystery & Human suffering How do each of these things impact your faith? Are some of them more impactful than others when it comes to your ability to believe? How do you see them functioning in your day-to-day life? For you, do the impacts feel more slow and building, or more sudden and harsh when something big happens? Or both? 2. During the transfiguration, Peter’s instinct is to build tabernacle spaces for all who are present, to rest on the mountain top
