Sent: Jesus Reconciles

Advent is upon us! I have to admit, the long season of days after Pentecost, or what is sometimes called "ordinary time," can drag on a little too much for me. For the past few weeks, I have been anticipating and getting excited for the season of Advent. This is a season of waiting for the coming of Christ, so you could say that I was waiting to wait. That might sound strange to you, and now that I have realized this, it is quite peculiar.

I think what intrigues me so much about this season of Advent is the anticipation; the build up; the dramatic longing for Christmas day. I feel like a kid again. I remember getting up on Christmas morning with my brother, and it was commonly agreed upon that we had to try and wake up our sisters before we headed downstairs to gather around the tree. I remember the rule: "not before 6 AM!" I just couldn't wait to enjoy the holy day with my family. Eventually, my sisters would come downstairs and we'd begin opening presents, usually after some bacon and eggs.

It didn't matter that we didn't get along all the time, it didn't matter that we had just argued and fought over the last piece of bacon, or that we didn't wait until 6 to wake up my sisters. What mattered is that we were all there, spending this holy day together.

Looking back now, I can see that Christmas brought my family together. The weeks leading up to Christmas was full of excitement and anticipation...of longing for the day to come where we would enjoy what God has given us...God's very own Son. Looking back, I can see, indeed, that Jesus reconciles. And Jesus continues to satisfy our longing, that is what Jesus does.

This season of Advent, we will be participating in a Bible Study called "Sent." My preaching will coincide with this study, because I really do think God has some amazing things to show us. In the first lesson, Jacob Armstrong says "Advent is a beautiful time, even if you get frustrated with the commercialization and the busyness of it all. There is something beautiful happening in the hearts of people who long for something else, who hope that we will find what our hearts yearn for.In my estimation we are hoping and longing for reconciliation. And the longing is deep."

After receiving the news from an angel that the Messiah had been born, the shepherds "went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them" (Luke 2:16-18).

The ones to whom Jesus was sent became the ones who were sent to bring Jesus to others. That's the deal. That's the reconciliation that God sends us out to do. God has sent Jesus to reconcile us to God, but also us to one another. May it be so.

See you Sunday!

11/22/15---Grace: Means of Grace

Malachi 3:7. which is one of the verses that John Wesley focuses on in his sermon "The Means of Grace," says: "Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, “How shall we return?" The prophet goes on to answer the question by saying "do not rob God," referring to tithes and offerings, and "do not speak against God." The prophet encourages the listeners by saying that God will bless them. 

Wesley thinks about it a little differently, although he regarded giving as an essential piece of Christian living. In his sermon, he begins by asking a similar question that Malachi did: "But are there any ordinances now...? Are there any means ordained of God as the usual channels of his grace?"

Glad you asked, Mr. Wesley. Indeed, there are. Acts 2: 42, which may be regarded as the first Christian community (after the Pentecost experience and the first converts), says that "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." These believers were also just baptized. These are the means of grace, the ordinances of God, the channels of grace. These are the ways we experience God's love in our lives and in this world.

Embedded in these means of grace are different ways in which grace can be described. In our Methodist tradition, through the teachings of John Wesley, we know grace to exist in 3 forms: prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying.

Prevenient grace is, literally, "the grace that comes before." It is grace that precedes human decision. Methodists most commonly conceptualize of this form of grace through the ordinance of baptism. More specifically, infant baptism. We baptize babies before they even know about God's love for them because of prevenient grace. Further, it explains why God is graceful to us, even when we have done wrong. It does not matter what we do, grace is available to all.

Justifying grace is the grace that pardons us from our sins. It is the kind of grace in which we understand that we are saved. It is called the assurance of faith, the kind that does depend on what we believe. In a Word document, there is a "justify" feature where you are able to line things up the way you want. This form of grace is similar: as justifying text within a document puts all the words in line, justifying grace puts us "in line" with God. 

Sanctifying grace is our response to what God has done in our lives. Because of our assurance of faith, we want more and more of God's love; we desire holy living. Wesley would say that this is our "going on to perfection" in order to live more like Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. At this point in our journey with God, we have the assurance that God loves us. The idea of sanctifying grace, though, is that God loves us so much that God desires for us to be made new, not to stay the same. This leads to good works of faith and mercy in the world. 

What's incredible to me is that we know God's grace through our own story with God. Notice that these forms of grace are understood within your journey. So, live your story! 

See you Sunday!

11/15/15---Grace: It's Free

Although it seems like we hear of and experience God's grace all the time, focusing in on it gives us a great opportunity to be attuned to what God is doing in our lives and the world around us. We know something about God's grace, as we just celebrated 50 years of ministry here at Gray Memorial last Sunday. We know something about God's grace, too, as we anticipate the coming holidays in which we are intentionally thankful to God, and celebrate the birth and sending of Jesus.

For the next 2 weeks, grace will be our focus. I will be preaching on how grace is free, and the ways in which we experience grace in the world and in our lives (John Wesley calls these ways "means of grace.")

John Wesley preached about grace, too. His, and my, focus verse when talking about the nature of grace, that it is free for all, is Romans 8: 32 "He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" The key word here is "give." God gives us grace. God does not make us earn it; God gives us opportunities to respond to the grace God has given us. There is a world of difference there. Wesley wrote a sermon called "Free Grace" in which he describes the nature of grace, largely up against the idea of predestination. He argued that since grace is free, it is also "in all." The idea of the "elect" still exists in Christian thought, although I believe the idea that we have to "earn" God's love is more prevalent (although the ideas are related). We have inside of us a mind that cannot conceive the fact that God freely loves us because of God's goodness. We cannot imagine having something like that for free, and so this idea creeps into our minds and our hearts.

However difficult it is for us to fathom, God still makes this true. On our worst days, our best days, and all of them in between, God's loving grace never runs out or is diminished. Grace is not performance based. Grace gives us a reason to be our best, to run our race with perseverance, to walk our journey with hope, to reach out in courage, and to speak with boldness of this grace.

I pray that these 2 weeks before Advent give us a way in which we may approach the holidays, knowing that it is because of God's grace that we have reason to celebrate.

I'll see you on Sunday!

Cloud of Witnesses--11/8/15

There has been so much planning...so much anticipation, excitement, and preparation for Gray Memorial's 50th Anniversary celebration. Well, it is finally here! With all of this build up, it will not only be a relief to see it all play out and participate in such a noteworthy occasion. It will also be a blessing. It will also be something many will remember for years to come.

This Sunday, we will fellowship together, remember and celebrate Gray Memorial's 50 years of ministry, and give glory to God who is faithful to God's people here. Part of what I anticipate will make this day special is the people who will show up. Folks that have been part of the story of the ministry in and through this church will gather to celebrate what God has done. Memories will be drawn up by the mere sight of some individuals. Stories will be shared, and God will be honored by it all.

1 Corinthians 3:9-11 is also a testament to this church's ministry: Christ is the foundation of what we do. This has not been, is not, and will not be simply a place where people gather for their own sake. We do so in Christ, for the sake of Christ's mission in the world and for us: to know  and show God's love, and be made new. Christ is the foundation, Christ gives us our purpose for being here, and is reason we exist. Without a good foundation, any structure will ultimate fail, it will only stand for some limited amount of time. So it is good that our foundation is Christ, for the mission and purpose of this church coincides with Christ.

Hebrews 12:1-3 names those people who surround us as a "cloud of witnesses." Those gathered here on Sunday all have witnessed something about God in and through Gray Memorial. We can testify to God's activity through our ministry. There is no greater thing to witness than the ministry of God; that's the best kind of witness you can be.

And Ephesians 3: 16-20 names the mystery of how this ministry can actually happen in and through a community of imperfect people: because God can do more than we can ever imagine. We are witnesses to this! 50 years of ministry is no accident! God is doing the work. What a blessing it has been to many to be involved in God's ministry through this community of faith!

These are the reasons we celebrate. These are the reasons Gray Memorial can look back on 50 years of ministry and glorify God through all the ups and downs and everything in between. God has been faithful to us, praise God!

So come...celebrate, reminisce, fellowship, remember, honor, worship, and praise the God who is with us in every step of the way.

11/1/15---Unbound

This Sunday, we celebrate All Saints Day, along with the Lord's Supper. On the one hand, we are remembering and honoring those people who have gone before us and have shown us the way to live in Christ; who persevered on their walks with God; who have modeled what it looks like to live like a child of God. On the other hand, we remember Christ's offering for us. We remember that Christ, too, showed what it looks like to live a life that followed and pursued God. Christ was also a saint, in this way.

Our Scripture focus will be John 11:32-44, the gospel story of when Jesus raised Lazarus. In the raising of Lazarus, God steadfastly refuses to let death have the final word (Feasting on the Word). And this is not a one-time thing. The case of Lazarus does not stand alone. There are still stories of people escaping death, and attributing that miracle to God. More importantly, this says something about God's power over death. We are all raised up. The saints you have known have been raised up. Jesus says to all of us "come out" from the power of death; he beckons us all to be unbound and let go (v44). 

This is what fascinates me: God wants to share who God is with us. God is unbound by death, and so we have the opportunity to as well. Following God is life-giving, to be sure. Being a child of God gives our lives meaning and purpose. But following God is also eternal-life-giving. We are unbound, because God sets us free. Praise God!

10/25/15---Tensions of Hebrews: Sacrifice once and for All

Last Sunday, I preached on Hebrews 5: 1-10, and my basic point was that Jesus is the best "high priest" we can have----he is the one who can truly save us. This week, our focus will be on Hebrews 7: 23-28, where we are reminded that Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all. Both of these points make me think about how we have our own "idols" in our life, but Christ satisfies us, saves us, and completes us.

The truth of it is that we have our idols. We have things in our lives that we "worship" over Christ. We can "worship" entertainment, people, money. We can even "worship" church and we can "worship" worship. When the way we reach God takes our attention, our praise, over and above God, we have created an idol and we have worshiped an idol. This is extremely difficult to handle for me. I can love a worship song more than I worship God. I can lift up my own spiritual disciplines over and above the God to whom they are directed. I can praise the people in my life that help me see and draw near to God more than God. I can cherish the relationships God gave me over God. I can be more dedicated to the church God has led me to over and above the God it worships and serves. But God is our focus! God is the reason! God has more for us...

Christ is our high priest, where our praise, attention, and focus is directed. Christ is the one who points us to God, opens up the relationship we may have with God, Christ is our High Priest.


God loves it when we sacrifice something for God's sake, whether it be for the church, in service to someone, or for our own spiritual growth and discipline. The danger is, though, that we can presume that our sacrifices are the ones that inevitably "earn" our relationship with God, "earn" God's love for us, and "earn" our own salvation. This can creep into our lives, folks. Believe me. This is what I mean by worshiping something other than God.

Hebrews 7: 27 says "Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself."

God is accessible by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, not what you do for God. What you do for God does not have to be out of obligation or duty, but out of the joy of your heart as you strive to be God's child. Your spiritual disciplines can become ways to seek God, not ways to earn God's favor. Your service to God's people can become ways to share the love of God that you have received; an outpouring of God's grace. Your service to the church can become ways to nurture the community of God in which you have been so nurtured. These can all become ways to worship God in joyful obedience to God.

10/4/15---We are all One

This week, I was heartbroken about the execution of Kelly Gissendaner in Georgia. Kelly was a graduate of Candler Theological Institute in 2011, a program that Candler School of Theology offers at the  Lee Arrendale State Prison, in Alto, GA. I became aware of her story through an ethics course at Candler, and started to follow along. Amazing stories of how she impacted the people at the women's prison, inmates and officers alike, came flowing into my heart like a beautiful song of God's love and grace might enter your ears and into your heart. These were notes to her redemption song.

There are numerous articles detailing her life and her case, but that's not all that this post is about. I would love to talk to you about her if you would like to hear more. Her's is an amazing story of the power of redemption.

God brings people together through Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. Many thousands of people joined one another in prayer and petition (to God and to the Georgia Pardons Board) on Kelly's behalf. This is what the body of Christ is all about: the uniting power that God supplies, even (perhaps, especially) in the midst of pain, tragedy, loss, and need. I called the Georgia Governor's office multiple times this week, and each time I was put on hold or prompted to leave a voice message, and my heart flooded with a sense of unity because I knew others were calling. We became one.

This Sunday, we celebrate World Communion Sunday. Around the sanctuary, there will be several photos from around the world of families with one week's worth of food. Some of the photos will look similar to the food you have stored in your house, others will not at all. These photos remind us of our differences, to be sure, but offers us a stunning perspective on the creative unity that God displays through all. God's image is in each of us, despite where we are and what we eat. I hope that these photos will bring some awareness, but also highlight the beauty in our unity as people of God.

I will be preaching in reference to two passages. One is  Luke 5: 27-32. This is the story where Jesus eats with Levi, a tax collector whom the Pharisees saw as a sinner unworthy of their presence, or Jesus'. They ask Jesus "Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus answers, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." The other is 1 Corinthians 10: 14-17, which reminds us that "Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf." We are one, in Christ.

We are all sinners, in need of Christ's redemption and healing. What I have come to understand about God's grace (although it remains a holy mystery) is that it is final, total, and complete. It covers all things. It covers the tax collector's sins, Kelly's sins, my sins, your sins, and everything in between.

So, on this special occasion of World Communion Sunday, let's be mindful of God's universal church. Praise God! See you Sunday!