Grace United Methodist Church - Franklin, IN
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  • About Us
    • What to Expect
    • Ministry Partners
    • Institutional Partners
    • Staff
    • What We Believe
  • Community
    • Lent 2021
    • COVID-19: Staying Connected While Apart
    • Upcoming Events
    • Calendar
    • Classes and Spiritual Formation Opportunities
    • Service Opportunities
    • Get Involved - Church Ministries
    • Youth
    • Children
  • I'm New
    • Service Times
    • Mission/Vision
    • Our Building
    • Small Group Locations & Times
    • Introduction to Jesus
    • How Do I Join?
  • Resources
    • Sermons
    • Blog
    • The Vine Worship
    • The Kids These Days podcast
  • Give
    • Giving
    • Supported Ministries
    • Ways of Giving
    • What is tithing?
  • Preschool
    • Home
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    • Amazon Smile

Soul Wrestling - Mark 1:9-15

2/23/2021

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I was so relieved when my youngest son decided not to play football even though he had the build for it.  I had no desire to watch him on the line, getting smashed into, or running full on into another player and careening to the ground.  I didn’t want to sit in the stands and watch him slamming into other players or being at the bottom of a pile up.  I cringe just thinking about it still.  Instead, he decided to wrestle!  

Wrestling.  A sport defined as two opponents grappling in a hand to hand battle with the intent of throwing the other to the floor with force, and pressing their shoulders to the mat. A sport that taxes and contorts the body in ways you can’t imagine and requires mental and emotional fortitude as well.  So much for being relieved. 

 I share this with you because wrestling, I have come to realize, makes a great metaphor to illustrate the season in the church we call Lent.  The forty days we commit ourselves to intentional self reflection and spiritual examination.  It is indeed a wrestling match of the soul and requires us to look again at our commitment to following Jesus - our commitment to living a life reflective of Jesus’ teaching.  It is a time to remember what is important, to recognize the places we have grown cold or callous in our faith or understanding of sacrifice, and to take ownership of how we might be a part of the problem we so eagerly criticise rather than the solution.  

To help wrap our head around the purpose and meaning of Lent, I turn to one of my favorite authors, Frederik Beuchner, who puts it this way: “In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use.  For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days.  After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus.  During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another, what it means to be themselves. If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why?  When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?  If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?  Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo?  Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?  Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?  If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?  To hear yourself answer questions like these is to begin to hear something of not only who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become.  It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end” (Whistling in the Dark pp. 74-75). 

That is Lent - a wrestling match with the soul.  Throughout the bible we read of individuals and groups of people who find themselves in a wrestling match with God, angels, demons, and themselves.  Wrestling with who they are, who they are to become, where to go, how to move forward, how to be faithful to God in the midst of pain, anger, injustice, uncertainty, and tragedy.  How to be patient and courageous.

In the gospel of Mark, 1:9-15, a freshly baptized Jesus heads to the wilderness to face his own wrestling match.  I believe the account of Jesus’ baptism and wilderness experience is told in the gospel to show us that Jesus, in his humanity, endured the hard stuff too. He wrestled with who he was and what he was asked to do; his power and his authority, his hunger and his pain.  So that anyone asking soul deep questions about identity, purpose, or meaning of life, can come to understand that Jesus faced those questions as well.  

The wilderness of the soul can be a frightful and dangerous place but it can also be a place where our senses are heightened like never before. Over the next several weeks we will explore the wilderness together.  Whether you face a wilderness of the heart - a soul searching time, a wilderness of the mind - a time of questioning, reason, and doubt, or a physical wilderness - a time of pain, brokenness, and discomfort, there is much to be learned in the listening.  There is much to be given and received, lost and found. 

The beauty of Lent - is that it can show us how God moves among us even in the midst of pain and anger, injustice, uncertainty and tragedy.  Wrestling is a back and forth, give and take, kind of struggle where we continually search for our footing and hand hold, balance, and position.  It’s not necessarily meant to be easy.  It’s not meant to be all fun and games.  But rather, it is meant for us, like Jesus, to stand us on the edge of a personal wilderness, remembering our baptism - our commitment to God.  We remember the words of God telling us, “you are my beloved, you matter, you are capable, you are where you need to be, your life has meaning, and you are enough...now walk in faith - find your way with me (God) step by step, come what may.     

As we, together yet alone, take our first steps into this season, let us do so with the following blessing, written by author, artist, and poet, Jan Richardson.  
Beloved is Where We Begin
If you would enter
Into the wilderness,
Do not begin
Without a blessing.

Do not leave without hearing
Who you are:
Beloved,
Named by the One
Who has traveled this path
Before you.

Do not go 
Without letting it echo
In your ears,
And if you find
It is hard
To let it into your heart,
Do not despair.
That is what this journey is for.

I cannot promise
This blessing will free you
From danger,
From fear,
From hunger
Or thirst,
From the scorching
Of sun
Or the fall
Of the night.

But I can tell you 
That on this path
There will be help.

I can tell you
That on this way
There will be rest.

I can tell you
That you will know 
The strange graces
That come to our aid
Only on a road
Such as this,
That fly to meet us
Bearing comfort
And strength,
That come alongside us
For no other cause
That to lean themselves
Toward our ear, 
And with their 
Curious insistence
Whisper our name: beloved, beloved, beloved. 

People of God, may the wrestling begin… amen.

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine
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No Guts, No Glory - 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

2/16/2021

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Glory.  We are fascinated by it.  We are moved when we see it.  We stand in awe of it.   So why is it when it comes to our faith, to the glory of God revealed in Jesus, and lived out in those who believe, that few of us have the guts to truly live it,  and many fail to see it?  The most glorious news one could share with someone else, yet we don’t have the guts to share it, or our guts only share it so far, within limits.   The best news anyone could hope to receive - that they are loved beyond measure and their life has meaning and purpose yet they can’t see past their circumstance, resentment, or regret; or past the judgement, criticism, and callus of believers.

Our eyes are wide open to the glory of an Olympic athlete getting a gold, the underdog winning the hard fought fight, an unknown poet taking the inauguration stage, or a former Colts quarterback making it to the Hall of Fame.  We revel in such glory stories.  Yet when it comes to the greatest glory story of all, we often treat it like another entre in the buffett line. 

The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to the church in Corinth addressed two things: a message to believers about how their lives are meant to be a lens through which others see the glory of God, AND a lesson to believers that there are people around them that cannot see such glory because they are looking elsewhere; distracted or focused on other things.

When was the last time your life - what you do, where you go, who you help, the way you treat people, where you spend your money, the words you speak, the projects you get involved in, the causes you support, and how you spend your time; was the lens through which someone saw the glory of God?  The peace of Jesus?  The presence of love?  The attitude of humility?  The grace of forgiveness? 
When people look at you - your family, your lifestyle, your choices, your behavior, do they see glory?  When people listen to you - your opinions, ideas, conversations, do they hear glory?  

It is so easy to go about life and forget why we are here - forget that God created us for good.  Easy to fall into habits, patterns, and ways of living that get us by and yet do not reflect glory.  We become entrenched in the day in, day out, routine of it all; going to school, getting a job, earning a paycheck, paying the bills, raising the kids, running the kids, cleaning the house, attending meetings, changing the oil, getting a loan, working on a project, taking out the trash, feeding the pets, checking the mail, and on and on it goes until perhaps we lose sight of the glory we have been given and are to be shining and sharing with others.  

Paul is telling the believers then and now, that yes it gets hard, yes it gets uncomfortable, yes it can be mundane, yes there are no guarantees you won’t get hurt or suffer, it’s risky, and yes it takes guts AND we don’t give up, we don’t get too comfortable, we don’t hide from the hard stuff, we don’t silence or cancel one another out, and we don’t go blind to the glory-filled things God is doing.  

I believe he is telling the church and by that I mean those who follow Jesus, that their lives as a community - a body of believers (not just individuals) is meant to show the glory of God - our purpose is to live life together, in such a way that the glory of God shines through, even when its hard and even when people may not see what we are trying to do.  We press on with guts and prayer, trusting that God’s glory, not ours, will prevail and that people will come to have eyes to see, including the eyes of some within the church.

The glory of God appears in a variety of ways - in expected and unexpected places.  It takes guts to live a life that reveals such glory - it takes guts to see such glory.   I pray dear church, we are up for both. 
Amen

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine
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The Cure for Fatigue - Isaiah 40:21-31

2/9/2021

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In one of the most famous passages in the Bible, the prophet Isaiah seeks to remind the people of Israel following Exile about the ground of their hope and comfort. He reminds the people with a series of questions about their faith: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” – God is creator and liberator! God is the Lord of heaven and earth (v. 21-22).

In other words, don’t underestimate what this God will do, when compared with the gods and goddesses surrounding you in Babylon! Nothing is going to defeat this God, or the purposes of God, for the good of God’s creation, or for God’s people! No matter how difficult the moment (Rom. 8:28). 

This is the reason for Isaiah’s hope: it is in the very nature of God to create new beginnings for his people, to offer a way when there appears to be no way!

Think, for example, of how God led Israel out of the wilderness following the Exodus: it was during this wilderness time of struggle that Israel developed the Tabernacle, the priesthood, the Sanhedrin, the Torah, and the twelve Tribes. It was actually a time of creativity. Or, consider how God led the people of Israel back to Israel following the Exile in Babylon: it was during this time of disturbance that Israel created the synagogue, the teaching class called the rabbis, and wisdom literature. God did not just create and then stop creating in Genesis. God is creating all the time, even now. New things are being born. 

Think of all the online-learning opportunities now occurring, for example, or of the ways some churches are now cooperating with other churches because they may not have the resources, or think of the different ways we are trying to connect and encourage differently, or the way we have had to adapt and experiment. What’s the old saying? Necessity is the mother of invention!

How is God calling us to trust and walk together? How God is working to show us new possibilities? How are we walking in God’s strength and not being weary?
​

Pastor Andy Kinsey
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Oil, Clay and Rock - Elements of Healing and Wholeness

2/2/2021

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Today we pause, regroup, take a deep breath, and allow ourselves to recognize we may be tired of the race; that some are broken in body or spirit, worn down mentally and physically from the last year.  We take a moment and sit with each other in our individual and collective pain, loss and grief.  Today we give space for healing, prayer, and renewal as we seek to encourage one another and find wholeness. 

Using the symbols of oil, clay, and rock, we remember God’s presence with us. 

Oil has long symbolized healing, cleansing, and anointing. It has long been used for spiritual and medicinal purposes.  It has come to represent the balm that soothes our wounds, the agent that purifies, and the marker of our royal inheritance as God’s people.  It is not the oil itself but what it represents that matters.  Throughout the bible oil is used to wash the dirty, dusty feet of weary travelers as a sign of hospitality; or poured over wounds for healing, and the head as a sign of honor.  Fragrant oil was burned as an offering in temples and homes on special occasions.

As you reflect on the oil, may it soothe your wounded heart or physical pain; may it bring comfort, peace, .  Imagine the love of God, the hand of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit pouring over you and those places in your life which need 

Scripture tells us that God is the Potter and we are the clay.  In other words, in the hands of God, we are molded, shaped, and created into vessels of God’s love, mercy, and grace.  God is continually shaping us and forming us into who we were created to be.  The thing about clay is that no matter what shape it takes, it is still clay and it can be remolded, or reshaped into something new.  

As you reflect on the clay, consider how God shapes you.  How has this past year formed your faith.  Imagine the love of God, the hand of Jesus, and the presence of the Holy Spirit shaping your life, relationships, church, and family. 

The rock is a common symbol of stability, protection, and a sure foundation.  Throughout the Psalms we read of God as our rock, our refuge and strength.  Many grew up learning the song about building your house upon the rock and not the sand.  We take encouragement from those who came before us and faced great struggle and pain.  We look to their faith and personal experiences and draw comfort, courage, and hope.  We share our own stories of grief, disappointment, and brokenness.  We listen to our stories, recognize similaires, discover differences and cherish both.  

As you reflect on the rock, may you draw strength and be encouraged to know God’s love is unshakable.  God’s grace is unmovable.  God remains our rock.  Imagine the love of God, the hand of Jesus, and the place of the Holy Spirit providing the foundation you need to stand on each and every day. 

Prayer - You are the source of strength, healing, and wholeness.  You are the place of comfort, rest, and peace.  You are the hope and promise of all things good, beautiful, and true.  In moments of brokenness, pain, and grief, you collect our sorrow, discomfort, and tears.  In moments of uncertainty, turmoil, and transition, you carry our fear, questions, and doubt.  Wrap us in your overwhelming Love and hold us while we weep, tremble, and scream.  Sustain us in your unconditional Grace and walk with us to the other side.  Heal us body, soul, and mind.  Amen. 

Pastors Jenothy and Andy


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Courage to be First - Philippians 3:10-16

1/26/2021

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In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul throws out some very important “stuff” to “take hold” of Christ, because he knows how Christ has taken hold of him. 

When Christ took hold of Paul on the Road to Damascus and called out to Paul, he could not help but take hold of Christ. He could not but seek to imitate the One who took the “form of God, but did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but instead emptied himself, and became human, a humble servant, obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

In Paul’s way of thinking, the reason we can take hold of Christ is because Christ has taken hold of us and called us, and this is what it looks like – a giving up and a letting go, a pressing on and straining forward. 

I believe it was my seminary professor, Fred Craddock, who called this message a message of downward mobility: Jesus comes from the very heart of God, from all that was good in God. He came from the ivory places of glory, possessing all that was wonderful, and he tossed it all, becoming human, like you and me, obeying God, even unto death.

And what Paul says is, “If this is who Jesus is, then how can I still seek upward mobility? How can I keep all that I have – good and bad – and follow some other cause or movement, or leader, and remain faithful? How can I run this race with any sense of purpose?” 

More to the point: How can any of us? How can I? How can I claim to be a follower of this “God in human form” and keep my own agenda, my own pride, my own stuff, and just add on “church” as it may or may not fit into my schedule, or my plans? How can I tack on my faith around the edges, and keep my life intact, when I run toward the One who gave it all up and tossed it all out, and came down here, to become a servant, for me? What kind of courage do we need to put this first? What kind of grace does God provide to reach this goal?

Because we are running the same race, aren’t we? Aren’t we? The same race? Running toward the One who has taken hold of us? If so, let’s run this race together, having the mind that was in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Andy Kinsey

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Courage to be Gracious - Philippians 1:2-14

1/19/2021

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A mother changes the way she views the boy who shot and killed her little girl.  Parents ask for a lesser sentence for the two men who beat their son and left him for dead. A man spends years trying to save the life of the man who shot him point blank with a shotgun. These stories illustrate the point that we have a choice to make.  It is the same choice believers have had to make since the early church.  It is the same choice churches have had to make from their beginnings until now.  

In the wake of the attack on the Capitol building and in light of the unrest, division, and turmoil that continues to wreak havoc on our nation, you, we, the church, have a choice to make.  You can choose to allow all of it to eat away at your emotional core; pretending you are o.k. and pressing on, all the while it devours you from the inside out turning you into a vessel of bitterness, pain, and apathy.  You can choose to let it fester within you, feeding it the energy fueled by propaganda and media hype until it spews out of you like poison or accelerant on a fire.  You can choose the path of least resistance, buy your time, lay low, and hope not too much of the filth and mess touches  your life or stains your mental and emotional clothing.  You can choose to retaliate, throw judgement and hatred around, and seek vengeance in the name of justice. OR you can choose to be gracious. 

On the one hand it should be the easiest choice in the world.  On the other hand, we know in reality,  it is often far more complicated and takes far more courage.  

In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul addresses the need for the believers there to remember who they are and what they are to be about.  The Phillippian church was perhaps Paul’s favorite church.  They were a people he had come to love; a people who loved and encouraged him and made him proud.  They were a community of believers who were about doing ministry.  They were an active church.  They were known in their community for their actions and outreach.  You might say they were a church that left the building.   

So what was the problem?  The problem was they allowed disagreements, opinions, ideas, and issues to come between them that could potentially fracture what they were about and who they were to be.   Paul calls them back to center.  From his own prison cell he tells them it is the grace of God that brought him and them this far, the grace that forgives and empowers believers to carry on in unity.  It is the grace of God that meets us in our own darkness, trials, and grief and brings us together into the light of Christ - the light of mercy, forgiveness, and unity.  It is that grace that allows us to then have the courage to be gracious to others.  We can’t do it of our own accord - maybe you can, I can’t.  

I admit, I don’t always want to be gracious.  I grow weary of watching our world self destruct and denominations self-implode.  I am tired of people hurting other people without seeking to listen or even try to understand the issues; tired of people thinking that canceling out each other’s ideas, beliefs, experiences, insights, and thoughts is how to live in community.   I told the staff the other day I felt like the flag outside the church, flying at half staff.  I mourn what has happened in this country - in the past and in the last couple weeks.  I mourn all the pain and loss I have seen over the years and sat through with people I come to love, all of which seems magnified right now.  My heart hurts for those who feel isolated and forgotten in their own homes.  I feel for those who haven’t been with family. It can be difficult to show grace.  

I can see how it would have been easy for Paul to become bitter.  To withdraw into his cell, come to hate those who imprisoned him, and perhaps even come to resent the day God’s grace changed his life.  It would have been easy for him to come to the conclusion that he deserved his punishment.  Afterall, before his own change of heart, he punished and persecuted Christians, even ordered them to death.  It would have been easy for Paul to quit, to give up. 

But it's not about Paul is it?  It's not about me.   It’s about Jesus and this incredible mystery of divine and holy love-filled grace that we can never fully understand or grasp.  A grace that is incomprehensible; a love that is unconditional, and a hope that is everlasting.  


What will our choice be?  As followers of Jesus, will we give up?  Will we turn away?   Will we allow emotionally charged issues, political differences, hot topics, systemic injustice, fear of the other, or racial tension to divide us?  Like the church in Phillippi, we must remember who we are in Christ.  We must remember it is by grace, God’s grace, we are here to begin with.  It is by God’s grace that we are loved and can give love.  It is how and why we do what we do. It is God’s grace that can do far more than we can.  We must remember it is because of that grace, and not anything we do in and of ourselves, that we can have the courage to be gracious; to live a gracious life; to love and love well inside and outside the walls of this building.

Dear Jesus, may it be so.
​
Pastor Jenothy Irvine


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Courage to Be Changed - Philippians 2:1-5

1/12/2021

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In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul writes: “Do not do anything out of selfish ambition or conceit. Regard others better than yourself. Do not look to your own interests, but keep in front of you the interests of others” (2:3-4).

Note Paul’s assumption: we share in a common life, in a common good together. When we act out of selfish ambition or conceit, when we fail to act with humility (thinking we possess the whole truth), when we think we can act as if our actions and words don’t matter – we fail to serve the common good, the “interest of others.” 

And what Paul says in this passage is that it doesn’t have to be this way. 

The English translation here is a little misleading, for what Paul is really saying in Greek goes something like this, or sounds like the following. It should sound more like since we have encouragement in Christ (and we have); since we have consolation, since we share in the life of the Spirit; and since there is compassion and sympathy in Jesus – we can receive joy! We can share in unity.

After all, God gives us the grace to be changed to live in this particular way! Not as some ideal, but as the “real” body of Christ, sharing the light of Christ! 

Therefore, if we understand what Paul is saying, by practice and by attitude, we can really resist, and not succumb to, the “spiritual forces of wickedness.” Indeed, as Christians, we know that these “forces” are preventable! After all, they have been defeated. There is a more excellent way, and it is the way of Christ, of love and righteousness (I Cor. 12:59)! 

As John Wesley and so many others have taught us, God’s grace, working on the human heart, can prevent us from such behavior. After all, once God’s grace moves in us, we can truly confess and realize our need to be changed. 

How may we walk as Jesus walked in humility? How may we have the mind that was in Christ Jesus?

How may we allow God’s grace to change us to be more like Christ?
​

Pastor Andy Kinsey
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Courage to Be Vulnerable - Philippians 2:5-11

1/5/2021

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Even before my  boys were born, while I was pregnant, I started a notebook of letters to each of them. Others were messages about what we had done that day or as they grew, how we celebrated a particular milestone.  Poem, song lyrics, and prayers are scattered throughout as well.  Any of the longer letters you find there, usually contain a section of what I would call, “the heart of the matter.”  A section that speaks a truth I want them to know and remember.  Something that tells them, no matter what else you read in this book of letters, THIS is what matters most.  

I believe that is what we read in Phil. 2  It is Paul’s “what matters most” section of his letter to the church in Philippi.  And what matters most is that the believers not only act like Jesus, but think like Jesus as well.  They are to have the same mind as Christ - to be united in how they think and in how they act.   To do that they must have the courage to be vulnerable and show the world around them there is another way.

Most people think courage is being strong, resolute, and it is, but at its core, is vulnerability.  We can probably all think of someone in our lives who has shown courage by being vulnerable.  Someone who spoke the truth when no one wanted to hear it.  Shared personal stories never said before.  Maybe we have done so ourselves.  Yet, the world often tells us that being courageous involves being tough handed or hard hearted; that it requires superhero strength.  

In the Roman Empire, divine and human power were asserted through strength, dominance, and war.  Being “courageous” meant winning out over one’s opponents; showing power over others and using that power and control to gain more power and control.  

Jesus on the other hand, showed ultimate courage through his vulnerability; humility, compassion, and servant leadership.  It was not what people expected but it was exactly what was needed to turn ideologies, paradigms, and systems upside down in order to establish a kingdom, a church, a community, of hope, love, and peace. 

This passage talks about how Jesus, who is God (“in the form of God,” “equality with God”), did not assume to be better than everyone else.  Instead, he became humble, gave up the privileges of his divinity, “emptying himself” - made himself vulnerable in human existence.  

That is the reality we remembered and celebrated just last week, with Christmas.  Immanuel - God with us.  It doesn’t get more vulnerable than a baby born in a feeding trough smack dab in the middle of our human mess.  That is where courage and strength prevail - in vulnerability. Jesus became vulnerable to reveal God’s strength.  Jesus became vulnerable to identify with our vulnerability - to show us we too find strength in him and in ourselves when we have courage to be vulnerable.  In vulnerability there is healing, restoration, and growth.  There is a comfort in knowing we are not the only ones struggling, empowerment in sharing our truth, and solidarity in journeying together.  

Paul used this hymn to teach those early followers who were in conflict among themselves and with outside groups.  Paul is advising them to have everyone’s interest in mind, as Jesus did, rather than trying to prove themselves right or better than anyone else.  It’s not about you and me, it’s about we.  It’s not about us and them, it's about all.

Paul is telling them and us to have the courage to be vulnerable.  Courage to remember what we are about as a church and people of God.  Courage to be united when being divided is easier.  Courage to admit when we are wrong or don’t have all the answers.  Courage to accept, even welcome the strangers among us.  Courage to love and let love.  Courage to surrender control sometimes.  Courage to say, “me too,” and trust God anyway.  Courage to fall down and to let someone help you back up.  Courage to allow brokenness to reveal God’s wholeness. Courage to say, “I am only human.” 

Here comes the scary but exhilaratingly beautiful part.  Having the courage to be vulnerable is risky - vulnerability wouldn’t be vulnerability if it didn’t involve risk.  It’s been said that courage is showing up in the arena of life - whatever arena it is: work, school, church, family, relationships, zoom calls, new beginnings, and old barriers.  Courage is showing up in those places and moments not knowing what the outcome will be and doing the hard thing anyway.  

I wonder what God could do with 20 seconds of your courageous vulnerability?  I wonder what it would look like to live each day with courageous vulnerability?  What would your relationships look like?  How would you grow and change?  Where would God take you?  I wonder what more this church could do with those who have the courage to be vulnerable?  Finally, I wonder what your faith could do with courageous vulnerability?

Are you willing to find out?  May it be so.  Amen.
​Pastor Jenothy Irvine


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Emmanuel - Isaiah 9:2-7

12/29/2020

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The Good News of the Gospel and especially the Good News of Christmas and the Christmas Season is that God knows you very well! And more that: God loves you deeply and dearly. God knows you by name!

This is the glorious message of Christmas, and it is in line with what we read in the Gospel of Matthew: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet Isaiah – ”Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be ‘Emmanuel,’ which means God is with us” (Matthew 1: 22-23).

That’s Christmas! At Christmas, we celebrate the birth our Lord Jesus Christ, the One whose name, in addition to Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace – is Emmanuel or God with us. It is a name that speaks to a God who, instead of keeping his distance, comes close, very close, in Jesus Christ, and thereby comes close to us!

Charles Wesley, the prolific hymn writer of Methodism rose to his greatest height of creativity in expressing this message when he wrote these words:

     Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord:
     Long-desired, beyond him come, Finding here his humble home.
     Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, Hail the Incarnate Deity!
     Pleased as men with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.

     Hark the herald angels sing! Glory to the newborn King!

Instead of keeping at a distance, God has come to dwell with us in the form of a baby – the Word made flesh in Jesus (John 1:5).
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During these days of Christmas as we move into 2021, how may we cherish God's closeness, even while many are physically distant? How may we celebrate God's presence with us in a world that seems far from God? May we discover that God's grace is closer to us than we might have imagined!

Pastor Andy Kinsey


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Prince of Peace - Isaiah 9:2-7

12/21/2020

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As Christians, we are not to live in denial – of anything, whether it is about living in peace in our families, or between siblings or spouses, or between political parties, or among nations. Peace does not look past reality! Rather, it faces reality. 
In fact, I can remember so well the class I had in seminary (at Emory University) when another president by the name of Jimmy Carter came and spoke to us about the risk of attaining peace between Egypt and Israel. There was nothing fanciful about it. It was messy, and it was costly. 

In many ways, it speaks to what the prophet Jeremiah was saying to the people and leaders of Israel in the 8th century BC, when he warned them about peace when there was no peace (6:14). Jeremiah was like a doctor delivering bad news to a patient. His diagnosis was that, unless the patient took measures to turn to God, the patient would die. 

However, the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day gave a “second opinion.” They said, “Don’t listen to Jeremiah; what he is saying is not true; we are going to be just fine.” Jeremiah, however, said otherwise. He said:

     “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain;
     prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.
     They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.               
     ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”        

    
Translation: We cannot fake peace. We can only have peace when we recognize God’s presence, when we affirm the image of God in ourselves and in others, even our enemies, when we face the reality of our condition (Matthew 6:24).


As we celebrate Advent, we need to remember that there is a cost to following the Prince of Peace; there is risk. But there is also hope: there is hope in the One who will fulfill God’s promises – promises that remind us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13): like breaking out of old habits and patterns, or like focusing our attention on the One who make all things new, or like living in truth, no longer captive to what is false, but open to what is real: to God’s grace. How may we receive what God wants to give us in our world? How may we now practice peace in our lives and so share it with others? 


​Pastor Andy Kinsey


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Grace United Methodist Church
1300 E Adams Dr,
Franklin, IN 46131

Phone: 317-736-7962
grace@franklingrace.org

Weekend  Schedule
Saturday: 5:30pm Casual Service
Sunday: 9:00am Traditional, 11:00am Contemporary, 11:00am The Vine

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