Metro Hope Church

Life of Joseph Teaching Series

Posted by Jose on April 14, 2012

Read Genesis 37 foward as we begin our new series on Joseph. The drama of Joseph’s life can teach us so much about handling things we can and can’t control. Yet in the midst, God continues to give us a purpose, hope and remains the ultimate dream-giver.

How do we discern these big dreams? Dreams that connect us to God’s larger purposes and plans for the world. Invite a couple of friends as we delve into scripture together!

NY Times Feature: Portraits of Harlem Clergy

Posted by Jose on April 9, 2012

Photo Courtesy: Ozier Muhammad, NY Times

Pastor José was featured along with other Harlem Clergy in the NY Times. The piece was called, Portraits of Harlem Clergy.

If you scroll down there’s a two minute audio interview as well.

Holy Week: His Passion and Glory

Posted by Chantilly on April 3, 2012

Good Friday Service, 7pm, 3rd Fl National Black Theatre

Contemplative gathering with reflections and readings on the cross.

Join us in celebrating resurrection through worship and a short teaching. 11am on the 3rd Fl of the National Black Theatre, Temple-Side.

There will be a time after the service to take fun Easter photos. So come dressed in your Sunday’s best!

Stewardship Series

Posted by Chantilly on March 3, 2012

Join us this Sunday as we read Acts chapter 2. If relationships are God’s sacred eco-system, then how are we caring/stewarding the relationships and entrustments we’ve been given? Stewardship implies that God has entrusted us with purpose, people and possessions. How are these relationships being nurtured? Join us this Sunday as we dig into the word to find truth for our lives.

@ The Communion Table

Posted by Chantilly on February 20, 2012

The Communion table was Jesus’ last meal with his friends. It was a place of immense sorrow and hope. Betrayal and friendship. All of these tensions held gently in one space. So too at Metro, Jose invited us a couple weeks ago to Jesus’ table where all were welcomed. People encircled while the musicians played the instrumental of “Came to My Rescue,” a song that our church knows very well. It speaks of God answering our call to rescue us.

Around the table, it was as if we were encountering Jesus through one another. Jose passed around the bread and cup with the invitation not to commemorate, but remember Jesus. In my spirit, I was grateful he made the distinction. Commemorating Jesus memorializes him. As if the bread and cup are tombstones, physical salutations of his death. Rather, remembering Christ is to embody his death and resurrection in community. How? We embody his death, when we choose to suffer together. We embody resurrection when we stand in solidarity and walk together in resurrection-hope.

As Metro’s pastor, Jose spoke about the privilege he’s had in walking with us in some dark spaces. At the Communion table, he reminded us, this relationship was not one sided. He asked Metro to journey with him and his family, as they were entering what may be the hardest season they have ever experienced. At the Communion table we made commitments to stand, pray together, and share in one another’s sorrow and healing.

The Apostle Paul once said in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7,

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Paul writes not “if,” but when we experience suffering, so too shall we experience comfort, not only from a com-passionate God, a co-suffering God, but also through community. Suffering and comfort are held together gently in one space by the body, who is inextricably linked to the source of comfort and care, God.

Whenever we gather at Metro, around the communion table, I experience God. God’s presence moves between us. God’s presence transforms strangers, who would otherwise have stood divided, into one body, one family. Around the table, I experience the living Jesus, alive in those standing next to me. With our hands held, Jesus holds us. Even with the tensions, paradoxes, and contradictions that exist between and within, at Communion we don’t commemorate. We remember a living Jesus, who joins us in our suffering and in our comfort; holding us close, so we can hold one another gently.

Relationships Pt.I – Sacred Eco-System

Posted by Chantilly on February 8, 2012

This first Sunday of February, Metro Hope Church began a new series on Relationships. I had the privilege of introducing the topic and getting our minds and spirits stirring.

We looked at the creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2 and re-imagined the Garden of Eden as a sacred eco-system. Creator, creation, humanity, and the Earth not simply co-existing or being tolerant of each other, but living as interconnected and interdependent beings. This sacred eco-system, built on relationships, functioned and thrived in harmony and balance. When we talk about the “Fall” we re-imagined it as the event that disrupted the balance of the Garden. We begin to see sin, as that which disrupts and dishonors relationships. Whatever divides, diminishes, minimizes, is sinful, a consequence of the Fall.

Jesus’ mission, then, was to restore the balance of that eco-system, where the integrity of relationships is of utmost importance and value.

Jesus’ revolution was a radical redefinition of relationships.

He redefined the concept of family by calling his disciples his mother, brother, and sisters. Jesus redefined the relationship between the elite and the downcast of society, like the ill, those of ill repute (i.e. tax-collectors and prostitutes), women, and children. Jesus redefines relationships in such a radical way that it shakes up the status quo.

Jesus disrupts to interrupt the dysfunction.

Dysfunctional relationships, from the beginning of time, has a compounding effect. We don’t know how to relate to God, to one another, or to the Earth. We enslave. Genetically alter nature. Legalize greed. We find more ways to manipulate God’s eco-system.

Jesus’ revolution begins with repentance.

Repent for the kingdom of God is near (Matthew 4:7).

Repent is metanoia in Greek.

When I asked the Metro crew what came to mind when they heard the word “repent,” it was interesting that most of the words were reminiscent of Adam and Eve’s realization of nakedness, shame, and fear. Someone shouted, it reminded him of the blow-horn guy on the street, whose words are often condemning and apocalyptic. Guilt. Mia culpa. Sackcloth and ashes.

In our religious culture, we’ve somehow reduced “repent” to guilt and condemnation. When Jesus said, “repent,” (metanoia) it was a command to re-think, re-evaluate, and by doing so, undergo an internal revolution. It’s a complete 180. The present systems and structures would have to undergo a revolution too, from the inside-out.

So I challenged the Metro crew to discern with God, one relationship that needs to be repented – reconsidered and reevaluated. It could be personal. We need to repent the relationship we have with ourselves. Maybe we need to be more kind to ourselves and embrace our imperfections through God’s grace.

Maybe we need to repent an interpersonal relationship. Do you need forgiveness? Or need to forgive someone else?

Maybe we need to repent a social or political relationship. How does our role as voters, consumers, and citizens honor the relationships of God’s eco-system? In this current political climate, I called for “corporate repentance” the reevaluation of the marriage between big corporations and Washington.

Ultimately repentance is holistic. It’s all encompassing. It’s personal and public, local and global.

I’m inviting you, Metro this week to let Jesus disrupt you to interrupt the dysfunction.

Share one relationship that you’re discerning, re-thinking, and re-evaluating. You can email me at chantilly@metrohopenyc.org and I’ll do my best to continue the conversation here on this blog and share some of your reflections with others.

peace this week,
Chantilly

New Relationship Series

Posted by Jose on January 26, 2012

Relationships can be beautiful, yet complicated. At their best, relationships can help us to become more Christ-like, and essentially more of who we were created to become. At their worst, we can find ourselves holding bitterness, and judgment – all the results of living in a broken world. The gospel of shalom teaches us to reweave relationships through the ministry of reconciliation. Building bridges, as we know, is a process. A process that begins within – then flows out into the world.