Gethsemane Traditional

Jan. 27, 2019

Let's look at our appetite for approval. What is your approval rating? How many “likes” do you get on social media? How well do you fit in with your chosen tribe?

Gethsemane Traditional

1/20/2019

This week, we will consider our desire for intimacy, and the cheap imitations we use to try to appease that appetite.

Gethsemane Traditional

In the marvelous movie about John Nash, the brilliant physicist with schizophrenia, there is a scene in which Nash says to a representative of the Nobel Prize committee inquiring about his mental health, "You see, I am crazy. And I still see things that are not real. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I choose not to indulge certain appetites." During this series, we will look at the appetites and drives that can own us, and how we can choose not to indulge them. Over the course of four weeks, we will consider our desire for possessions, intimacy, approval, and other addictions. St. Paul says "all things are permissible, but I will let nothing master me."

The Always Imperatives

Year of Gratitude, pt. 1

Gethsemane Traditional

2019 is "The Year of Gratitude," and we will learn to practice thanksgiving daily, and train ourselves to keep gratitude as the basic spiritual response of our Christian life. The habits of our hands and voices help to form the habits of our hearts, and so the practice of thanksgiving daily shapes our hearts to be grateful. We will continue to focus on gratitude in various ways throughout the year, including challenging each of you to write a thank you note or another expression of gratitude, beyond the customary courtesy, every single day for 365 days. We will have sermons scattered across the year to keep us thinking about it together. This will make a great beginning for the year.

New Year's Eve Sermon