TESSERA MATERIALS
PEOPLE OF THE STORY OF GOD
EPISODE 3
Prayer
O God,
We are gathered here, uniquely in all of history,
we particular people in this singular time and place.
You, O God, cultivate beauty and life outside of our calendars, clocks and sense of urgency.
Tune our hearts to the voice of your Spirit.
Wake us to be present to You and to one another
in these shared moments we are given.
May we in our joys find grace to enter the sorrows of others.
May we in our sorrows find grace to embrace the joys of others.
Let us prize these moments and care for one another deeply–
for each of us, and our relationships to one another, are precious and eternal.
O Father, enlarge our hearts.
O Spirit, expand our vision.
O Christ, establish your kingdom among us. Amen.
Scripture
Genesis 18:1-15
We’ve been through quite a ride already in this amazing story of God. A beautiful communion of the one, holy God walking with his first two people came to a sudden halt as his people hide in shame and isolation after choosing their own wisdom rather than God’s wisdom. Ego building projects and more attempts at living apart from God’s presence spread through all of humanity. But this faithful God won’t stop pursuing the people he created. God now arrives at one couple and starts building a family through them. They are now the ones invited to walk with him in a new beginning. This couple is Abram and Sarai. Let’s consider a few things.
- You might think God would start something new with a young couple full of life and energetic potential. That doesn’t happen. God visits a couple that has some decades and probably a little rust.
- You might think God would start something with a really faithful couple who knows him and is committed to him. But, Abram’s father worshipped other gods and Abram most likely did too.
- You might think God would start a new family through a fertile couple. Nope. It’s been said that God doesn’t start his work with what we have but with what we don’t have. This is very true in this instance.
Maybe you’ve experienced it. God often works outside of our plans, expectations, calendars and clocks. Abram and Sarai, who are now Abraham and Sarah, receive a promise of a son, but it’s not happening on their clocks and in their sense of urgency. Abraham even devises a plan to take Sara’s servant and impregnate her. Interesting plan, Abraham. And even in the unfaithfulness of Abraham God remains faithful. Sarah does eventually become pregnant and a son is eventually born to Abraham and Sarah. Isaac is his name, and through this offspring of Abraham and Sarah all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But this blessing coming to all humanity through this offspring isn’t solely through Isaac, it culminates through Jesus the Messiah from the lineage of Isaac. This long-awaited Son of Abraham, Jesus, would offer his life as a faithful substitute entrusting himself to God’s care and bring life and freedom to all who are held captive in a world of isolation, sin and death. He is the one who shows us what it truly looks like to walk with God.
But this all takes such a long, long time. God’s just not in a hurry. ‘Urgent’ isn’t in God’s character. Faithful, merciful, patient…these are the characteristics present in God’s character.
Reflection and Discussion
- Share a time in life when you experienced the grace of God working outside of your plan, schedule and sense of urgency.
- In what way is a sense of urgency gripping your heart and mind in this season of life
- What do you think it might look like to slow down, release that sense of urgency, and walk with God at his pace?
- Some use the word ‘relaxed’ to describe Jesus. What do you think allowed Jesus to be fully present in the world and yet calm?
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT MOSAIC
Are you a youth, have a youth living with you, or know a youth who would like to get more connected with other Mosaic Youths? Well, we have great news! We are so excited to hang out with our Mosaic Youth September 29th from 6:00-7:30pm at Piedmont Park. This is the first of 4 Youth Tessera Nights we have coming up this fall!
As always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our core team. If you need contact info for any of the core team, email [email protected].
Are you new to Mosaic or simply feeling a need to discover more of your purpose in this beautiful church family?? The Heart of Mosaic is a small group focused on helping you learn more about who we are and helping you discover how you’d like to be involved in the life of our church. We will be focusing on the following topics:
- Stories of a Mosaic
- Ecumenical, Inter-Denominational, Creedal
- Collective of Participants
- Intentionality in our Movement
If you’d like to join us on this journey, please email [email protected] or [email protected].
AMAZON WISHLIST
What a joy it is to have so many incredible kids at Mosaic! We are so thankful for the life they bring to our church family and wanted to give you all an opportunity to participate in refilling/building up their supplies, especially as we approach the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. If you are interested in contributing, click here to be redirected to their Amazon wish list.
KIDS’ WORSHIP
Starting Sunday, August 18th, we started welcoming our K-5th graders into our opening corporate worship at Mosaic. They join us in singing and are dismissed before the message. Mosaic’s leadership has discerned this to be a good and beautiful thing for a couple of main reasons.
1. Our Mosaic Kids are part of us. Worshipping together is a beautiful reflection of our multi-generational church family. It’s important for us to see one another, sing one another forward, and turn our hearts and minds toward Jesus together.
2. Our Mosaic Kids leaders are part of us. For Mosaic Kids leaders to worship together with all their Mosaic family on a Sunday morning is essential and life-giving to their faith.
Parents, you’ll still need to check in your K-5th graders at the Mosaic Kids check-in table when you arrive on a Sunday morning. However, your K-5th grade children will not enter their classrooms until after our opening set of gathered worship around 10:30 am. They will be dismissed and meet their teachers at the back doors of the Piedmont Park sanctuary to head to their classrooms at that time. Your nursery and preschool children (ages 0-5) can still check in and go to their classrooms immediately unless you want to have them join you for worship as well. Please share these things with your children as you help them understand the goodness of this movement. We encourage you to not just tell them what’s happening, but help them understand why it’s happening. We believe it to be a joy to share in this gathered worship across our generational spectrum. We will be welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed us.
MOSAIC GIVING
We’re a community trusting in God’s abundance as we practice our movement of receiving and extending the grace of God with one another and our neighbors. We invite you to join us in this movement of trust and generosity. You can give online by clicking the button below or by mailing a check to Mosaic Church, PO Box 81632, Lincoln, NE 68501.
