Our lives are full of stories.  They mold and shape who we are. Even before we are born we are a part of them.  Some have the power to define us. Some can nearly destroy us. Some inspire us to new heights.  Some are loud, rambunctious and full of chaos, crisis, and conflict, while others are quiet, tender and more subtle and calm.  Some of them we can control while others are an animal all their own. Stories that remind us of what matters most and to make the most of what matters.  Stories that become the threads that make up, as the commercial says, “the fabric of our lives.”

Stories help us understand and give us context and vocabulary to make meaning out of what we experience in life.  That is why stories are so powerful and captivate our attention. Because they help us make sense out of all kinds of emotions, situations, and circumstances.  How we relate, connect and find ourselves in a story helps explain how and why we feel what we feel, do what we do, and react the way we react. For this reason, stories are one of if not the most powerful way of learning, connecting, and understanding.  

Jesus knew this and used the power of story to preach, teach, challenge, encourage, and transform the lives of all those who would have ears to hear.  

In Luke 14, we read a fascinating text because in part one, the scene is a wedding party and in Jesus’ day that was the kind of occasion people would vie for a place of honor.  It was their chance to be seen by the who's who of the day. And so we find ourselves either as the one throwing the party or the one attending the party. If we are the host of the party, we are challenged to seek out and recognize those who come with humility and graciousness and give them a place of honor rather than the ones who come with hidden agendas and are only there to rub elbows with the elite. If we are the guest attending the party we are challenged to set aside our desire for personal gain and recognition of our status and put other guests before ourselves.   The lesson being that honor comes through humility and blessing through service.

Luke 14 is an invitation to participate in the very kingdom of God.  This is the moment the Jewish people had been waiting for - the moment God says to them, “I am here, you waiting is over, come and join me, your God, and feast in the long awaited kingdom of God.”

If you haven’t figured it out yet, this story is not about food!  It is a metaphor of what Jesus was and is inviting us to participate in.  The party to which the original guests were invited was Jesus’ kingdom movement, the living breathing Kingdom of God.  It is his remarkable welcome to all people. It is not about food and festivities. It is not about rules and long standing boundaries.  It is not about being at the right table with the right people at the right time or on the right side of the issue.

The great banquet is about a kingdom movement that God, through Jesus was and is leading and calling all people to be a part of.  The point of such an elaborate story, I believe, is to describe, illustrate and make tangible what Jesus was about; what God was offering to all people, and the idea that If people wanted to be included in Jesus’ movement, this is the sort of thing they were joining - a movement in which ALL are welcome to feast on the goodness, mercy, and grace of God through Jesus.

There are a lot of people in churches, denominations and religious organizations struggling to understand who is invited and who is not to the kingdom table of Jesus.  There are a lot of good people on both sides of multiple issues being challenged, ridiculed, ostracized, targeted, pitted against each other, and emotionally torn up over who gets to participate in the kingdom banquet / kingdom movement that Jesus has set in motion and who does not.  

Nowhere in this parable does Jesus say to weed out the guest list; prioritize by gender, financial status, ethnicity, and educational level; measure their value by what they drive, where they live, and who they know; weight their worth by who they love, what party lines they vote, or where they work, if they work.

Jesus tells this story to help us understand that if we want to follow Jesus - if we want to be the believer and church Jesus calls us to be - if we accept his invitation to this great banquet, this kingdom movement, than we better be prepared to dine, to serve, live and learn alongside people who are different than what we expect.  We better recognize God is a God of surprises and the unexpected.

What gives this banquet life are the lives of all those who come - those who respond and have the courage to say, “we may not agree, we may not fully understand, we may have different ideas and explanations BUT Jesus is at the center of all that we are.   

So what would it mean to celebrate God’s kingdom so that the people at the bottom of the pile, at the end of the line, or on the other side of the wall, would find it to be a story of good news and NOT a harsh word of judgement or divisive criticism?  A story of loving our neighbor and not hating or destroying them before ever knowing them?

Can such a story be told?  Will our lives be the ones to tell it?  Will our story here at Grace church be the kind of banquet giving kingdom moving story that Jesus wants us to tell?

With all my heart, I pray it so.  Amen.
Pastor Jenothy Irvine

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Why is that you can hear the words someone says and yet have no idea what they are telling you?  There are times I feel as if I need a vocabulary lesson from our youth director to understand what my teenage boys are saying.  Other times it is as if I am the one talking but by the expressions on their faces, nothing is computing. Does that happen in anyone else's house?  Have you had that experience? Every week when you hear a sermon? Someone shared with me what he calls the, “Do as I mean not as I say” syndrome. Communication is tough.  Even when you know the words it can be difficult to understand. But what if you don’t speak the same language?

Long before any gadget, app, translator's guide, or device was available, something  happened with the small gathering of believers as recorded in Acts 2:1-21. The apostles of Jesus and a gathering of believers had a most amazing experience and encounter, which came to be known as the birthday of the church.  How did those gathered understand what was being said? What did they have in their ears?

It wasn’t so much what was in their ears, as it was what was in their hearts and infused throughout their souls.   It was the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit who on that day launched what is now known as Pentecost. Happy birthday church!

Interesting however that the word church isn’t used in this passage that becomes the mark for the beginning of the church? The word used is ekklesia.  In the Greek the word for church is ekklesia but at the time it had no religious connotation. It only meant an assembly of people. The word did not refer to an institution.  It did not denote an organization. It was not descriptive of a building dedicated to religious ceremonies. An ekklesia was simply a gathering of people. The church then is simply that, people.

Our text says that they were “gathered together.”  This was the first meeting of the ekklesia, the church.  Notice there was no pastor, no elder board, no trustees or finance committee, no board of ordained ministry, no building, no pew, no book of discipline, no hymnals.  Just 120 (if you go back and read chapter one of Acts) people filled with the Spirit.

This is where it gets good!  Ordinary people gathered together.  The founding members of this ekklesia - this gathering - this church - were not the best and the brightest.  They were not high-powered tech wizards or tenured professors at leading universities, or big time power players at roundtable discussions in conference rooms of multinational, multi-billion dollar corporations.
It is imperative for all believers to remember the church is people.  I know we know this and you may be thinking, “ok Pastor, tell me something we don’t know.”  We know it, we pray it, we sing about it, and every week we gather as it, AND YET, so often when we get outside these walls we forget we are still the church!  We are still a gathering of people following the teachings of Jesus. So I say again, the church is people - It is not liturgy or sacraments or great sermons. It is not doctrine of sanctification or theology of holy atonement.  It is not institutions of higher education or even mainline denominations. That all has its place, and it all helps us define who we are, what we do, and what we believe. Those are all ways we practice, grow, remember, organize, keep track of and celebrate being church, but it is not church.  When we forget that, we forget what Jesus was all about in the first place...people.

Today I say to you, let’s do this church.  Let’s accept the mission that sometimes seems impossible in our world today with all its conflict, division, and cynicism, and watch as God makes it possible.  Let’s invite the Spirit to teach us a new language like the day of Pentecost - a new way to speak (and listen) to one another AND to those that others want to silence or ignore.  Let’s take prayerful risks and find new ways to grow and care together even when our fracturing culture and power hungry society tells us to take care of only ourselves. Let’s invite the Spirit to translate the needs of those inside and outside these walls, within and without our denomination and show us what our next steps to be the people God wants us to be.  Let’s do this.

Let’s ask the hard questions and have the tough conversations and live into the answers with love, respect, and kindness.  Let’s trust God with our money, our skills, our relationships, our future as individuals and families, let’s trust God not just with what we know, but what we don’t know.  Let’s be brave AND vulnerable. Let’s be courageous AND compassionate. Let’s be convicted AND kind. Let’s be a gathering of ordinary people and see what extraordinary things God will do with what we give and when we follow.  

Let’s do this Church!  This is our mission, should we choose to accept it. Amen.

Pastor Jenothy Irvine

At the end of John’s First Letter, we see how all the parts come together, focusing more intensely on what the whole Letter is about, or focusing, if you will, on the one color that stands out the brightest, or on the one color that brings clarity to the whole: the color red.

The reason the color red is so important is because it reveals the price of God’s love in conquering sin and death on the cross. (1 John 5:4-5). Jesus’ crucifixion brings victory, but at a cost, the shedding of blood (1 John 5:4). Indeed, at Jesus’ crucifixion, this very victory comes by water, blood, and Spirit: when Jesus dies on the cross, both water and blood come from Jesus’ side (1 John 5:7, John 19:34). But the Spirit also bears witness to these facts. The Spirit testifies to God’s great love for us, and not only for us, but for the whole world (1 John 4:16, John 3:16).

In short, God’s great love is written in red, but it is also drenched in water and soaked in the Spirit (1 John 5:9). The victory we have in Christ is the victory we have received by the One who overcomes sin through death. If we take this piece out of the picture, then the picture doesn’t make sense.

Jesus’ death defeats death. This is the testimony we share. Hopefully, this is the testimony on our hearts (1 John 5:10). God’s love-blood for the world is written in red. Not as show, not as a spectacle, but as a witness, as a reminder, of our own sinfulness and God’s power to forgive it. It comes as way to identify with others, especially those who suffer. It is a love that will not let go.
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Pastor Andy Kinsey

The language of bonding is important. The reason such language is important is because the life of faith is one of perpetual binding or weaving together: we are woven into a covenant community where true love (unselfish and sacrificial love) is what binds us or ties together. It is the kind of love Christ gave us, the kind of love that we find in true friendship, true community, true relationship.

Indeed, that’s how a popular praise song goes: “Bind us together with chords that cannot be broken.” Of course, there is also the old hymn “Blest Be the Tie that Binds, our hearts in Christian love…” Such language of bonding may resonate with us.

I say this because over the last few years I have observed how the bonds that have kept us together – at least as a society – are unraveling. So many things seem to be coming apart. I don’t think I am the only one saying this. More and more, we see the bonds of love and trust broken in government, in the church, in corporate life, even in family life. The ties that bind us together seem to be coming apart, especially when we see that the highest rate of suicide in the Western hemisphere is now in the United States, a symptom if there ever was one of a lack of understanding and compassion, or of broken bonds in our common life together. We also see it in the opioid epidemic. Such breakdowns remind that God created us for relationships, but that such relationships always need to be cultivated.

And so, when we read in First John that God is love we can hopefully realize again that our relationship with God and with each other is about holy and sacrificial love – trusting, believing, “abiding” love. That’s the word John uses – abiding.

“Abiding love” is about a “hanging together” kind of love, or a “learning how to go down the same road together” kind of love, even when the road is difficult. We learn to abide with each other or stay with each other. It is not easy to do, but it is something we are called to do.

How may we continue to abide with each other? If God is love, how may we show such love to others?
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Pastor Andy Kinsey

In John’s First Letter we find an apostle who is seeking to guide his church back to the basics of the Christian faith, or to what is inside the box. Apparently, there were persons in John’s congregation who did not believe in Jesus as God’s Son, as well as the notion of Jesus’ death on the cross as an act of atonement for sin. Apparently, there were persons who were having a difficult time believing and acting accordingly, not to mention the fact they were having a tough time loving one another! 

In other words, we find an apostle who is trying to assist the church with being clear about what the church’s mission is to be about, or what is in the box. When the church – that is, when we – lose sight of what is in the box, or of how Jesus laid down his life for us, we are also in the process of losing sight of the knowledge of how we are to lay down our lives for one another (1 John 3:16). We begin to lose sight of what Jesus’ sacrificial love truly entails, that it is not only an act of forgiveness, but it is also a pattern of behavior among those who believe (1 John 3:23). We begin to lose sight of the mission.

Jesus himself said it this way: “Greater love has no one than this; than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (15:13). And John puts it another way: “Little children, let us love, not simply in word or speech, but in truth and action” (1 John 3:18). How can we say we abide in God, if we are not showing loving by our actions? Or, if we see someone in need, and do not respond, how can we say God is in us? (1 John 3:17). We can’t.

Rather, what pleases God is to believe in his Son on the one hand and to love one another on the other (1 John 3:22-23). The two go hand in hand and failing those two things, we miss what’s in the box.

How may we continue to abide with God by loving one another and helping those in need? How may we continue to fulfill God’s mission?

​Pastor Andy Kinsey

In John’s First Letter, we read how we all are God’s children. John tells us that the reason we all are part of God’s family is because of God’s great love in Christ: Jesus atoned for us, and not simply for us, but for the whole world. 

That’s the whole point of the Gospel: that God so loved the world that God gave his only Son that whosoever believes will have everlasting life.

It is this kind of love that makes the mission possible in the first place: God first loving us and giving to us so that we may in turn love God and love others (1 Jn. 4:19). The mission is possible because of what God has done for us and what God continues to do in us!  It is the reason why we are in mission: Jesus became like us that we might become like him. 

That’s the very Mo-Jo that keeps us going! Take that away and there is no mission! No hope! No Gospel!

Perhaps another way to think about this is how we as church do not necessarily have a mission so much as a mission has us! Yes, our mission is to care and grow as disciples. But equally true is how God’s mission of caring and growing involves us. And to the extent that we can envision God’s mission for us, we can extend that mission to others – by our giving, by our witnessing, by our praying.       

It is why there is really no limit we can place on God’s mission, or on God’s love, or to the number of children we can help, or to how many people may come into God’s presence. As children created in the image of God, we understand ourselves to be in a mission to bless that image in all people, in all children – whether in Africa or Central America, or in Franklin or the state of Indiana, God’s mission is always a mission of love large enough to care for everyone. That’s how big God’s love is!

How may we extend that mission of love to others? What may the mission entail for each of us?
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Pastor Andy Kinsey

​This text is part of what is called the farewell discourse (NIB), and is a part of Jesus’ final
scene with his disciples. Catholics call this prayer the Lord’s Prayer as it is the Lord who is
praying. What we call the Lord’s Prayer, they call the “Our Father.” Whatever it is
called, there is a lot in it and would take several sermons to unpack the whole thing. For
today’s purposes, I want to focus on who Jesus is praying for.

After he gives thanks to God and for the relationship he has with God, he speaks to God
honestly and wholeheartedly, telling God “It is time, I have done what you asked, I have
stayed the course...” and then Jesus asks God to honor that by protecting the believers.
Jesus asks for the hearts of his disciples, those who were with him, to be guarded by God.
He then prays, and this is where you come in, for “those who will believe.”

Jesus includes us in his prayer. His prayer is that we would be one heart and mind, like
God and Jesus are of one heart and one mind. He prays that we would be evidence to
others of God’s love and grace, so that the world might believe God is real and active in
their midst. I don’t know about you, but to truly take in the fact that Jesus, the son of God,
the one who brought Lazarus back from the dead, walked on water, and commanded the
wind and sea, fed 5,000+ people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish, prayed for me, kind of
blows my mind.

Why do we work so hard, pay better attention, and seek deeper understanding during the
40 days of lent, only to walk right back into our old practices after we shout “he is risen”?
Why do are we so eager for the day after Easter when it is what takes place the morning of
Easter that changes everything?

Easter is not over. Easter should make us want to be a better people. It should inspire us
to draw close to God and recognize how we keep God at bay. It should motivate us to seek
the risen Jesus and recognize God’s presence when things are good, rather than always
questioning, doubting or even blaming God when things are tough. Easter should bring us
out of our emotional and mental tombs of darkness and into a place of gratitude, service,
and hope.

More beautiful words cannot be found than those of Jesus praying for his followers.
Praying that their hearts be guarded and then his joy be made complete in our coming to
know him. Wait, what? His joy made complete in us? Yes. We complete the joy of Jesus
Christ, the risen son of God, the miracle worker, healer, preacher and teacher, when we
follow his example and live in relationship with him and one another. That is the Easter
truth Jesus prayed before the Easter moment happened.

Christians will never organize their churches all in the same way. They will never worship
God all in the same way. They will never even all believe precisely the same things. But
Christian unity transcends all these differences and joins them together in love” (Barclay
218). That is what Jesus prayed for before the finale of his life on earth - that his followers
then and now would seek a unity they did not fully understand but was being lived out in
front of them.

The problem is, this unity at the present time and all through history, is injured, stalled, or
prevented because people love their own ideals, creeds, rituals, and expectations more than
they love one another. If we really loved each other and really loved Christ, no church
would exclude anyone who was another follower, believer, and disciple. If we really loved
each other and really loved Christ, no believer would stumble over the things we put in
place to stumble over because they wouldn’t be there - well maybe they would be there, but
they wouldn’t trip us up like we allow them to today.

How do we hold on to Easter hope? What does it look like to live as Easter people? Is it
learning to forgive when we are hurt? Apologizing when we would rather not? Raising our
children with love, kindness and direction in a world that seems to teach the opposite?
Loving our enemies, both personal and national? Having courage to face impossible odds
and uncertainty? Keeping the faith when so much in our world seems to be falling apart?
These acts take courage, grit and perseverance. It takes holding on to the hope that God is
in control and not the loudest political voice, latest voting poll, or breaking news story. It
takes the power and presence of Easter. And it takes us, Easter people, being willing to
love with the love of Jesus, not the love of self.

I recently spoke at a women’s retreat and at the table I was sitting, a woman shared how
much she enjoys retreats because it brings her back up, lifts her spirits and energizes her
faith. She went on to say how hard it is to go home after because it’s like we are up here
and everyone else is down here - down here is where the Easter message is needed and as
Easter people we are called to bring that energy, passion, truth, and life to them. To make
the ordinary extraordinary! That is what Easter people do. That is completing Christ’ joy,
fulfilling and living out his prayer.

Easter people, keep the sense of anticipation, mystery, excitement, promise, and hope found
on Easter morning alive.

AMEN
Pastor Jenothy Irvine

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and she sees that the stone had been rolled away (John 20:1). She cannot figure out what has happened and so she runs and tells Peter and the other disciples, but no one seems to comprehend what has taken place (John 20:2).

Sure, Jesus said things about being raised on the third day, but no one really understood him at the time. After all, talking about resurrection at the end of history is one thing, but resurrection actually happening now? That’s a whole other ball game. 

Indeed, the whole point of the resurrection is that Jesus is no longer there; the line wrappings are, but the body is gone (John 20:6-7). And it is a difficult event to digest.

Even on that first Easter morning, there are three different responses to Jesus’ resurrection: first, there is the response of Peter, who runs to the cave and looks in, only then to go back home, as if nothing had happened (John 20:10); and then, there is the Beloved Disciple who also runs to the cave; but unlike Peter, he doesn’t go in, but he does see and that’s enough for him to believe (John 20:8); and lastly, there is Mary who stands by the tomb distraught, weeping; she doesn’t know what to do (John 20:11).

But it is also Mary who, after the other disciples had left, begins a conversation with two angels and with One she thinks is the gardener (John 20:12-14). In time, she realizes that it is Jesus who is before her (John 20:18).  

Talk about a surprise! Talk about something mind-boggling! Jesus is shattering the old ways of seeing the world and Mary is caught up in new life!

How is Christ calling us to live in a new world of hope? How is Christ calling us out of the closed tombs of our self-centeredness and into the kingdom of light? What is the good news of new life to you on Easter?
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Pastor Andy Kinsey

Prayer: May the God who has walked a mile in all our shoes, who showed us the way through the life of Jesus, continue to show us how to live and serve together. Amen.

I agree with the brilliant theologian and philosopher Forrest Gump when he said, “You can learn a lot from other people’s shoes. Where they been, what they do…” and then remember, he points to the shoes of the woman sitting next to him on the bench and says, “Those look like comfortable shoes.  I wish I had a pair of shoes like them. I bet you could walk all day in shoes like that.” To which the woman replies, “my feet hurt” (opening monologue from Forrest Gump”.

Feet do hurt don’t they.  Especially when you have been walking or standing all day.  Experts tell us that there are 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 tendons, muscles, and ligaments in the human foot.  No wonder foot pain can create pain in the legs, hips, and back. What’s more, there are more than 250,000 sweat glands on the foot.  And I believe it. Especially during summer marching band practice and wrestling season.

Today we have shoes for everything and every occasion imaginable.  Sunday shoes, business casual shoes, dress shoes, prom shoes, dance shoes, wrestling shoes, basketball shoes, band shoes, concert choir shoes, rain boots, snow boots, horse riding boots...You name it and there is probably a shoe that fits.

If you were to look in Jesus’ closet however, you wouldn’t find much but a pair of simple leather sandals.  In Jesus’ day shoes were a matter of functionality and practicality. A simple sole and a plain leather strap. The roads were dusty, rocky, and in the dry season, there could be 2-3 inches of sand and dirt on the roads.  In the rainy season those 2-3 inches of dry dirt swelled into wet sticky mud.

For this reason, it was common for households to have large pitchers of water and a basin at the door of their homes explicitly for visitors, guests, family, and friends to have their feet washed.  Notice I didn’t say for them to wash their own feet. It wasn’t like at my mom’s house where you get to the door and she hollers, wipe your feet and come on in. In Jesus’ day, it was the task of the lowest ranking house servant to wash the feet of those who entered.  It was one of the most demeaning and filthy tasks in their culture.

It doesn’t get much more clear than Jesus doing the most basic, intimate, humbling act of washing feet to show the importance of what it means to serve.  It’s not like we did as kids in the summer rinsing our feet with the garden hose. This is an act of humility. To kneel, take the foot of another person, pour water over them, and proceed to wash between the toes, around the heel, and making sure its all rinsed off and patted dry.  It’s an intimate act of service.

This passage is about two things: 1. Jesus taking on the lowliest acts and becoming a servant king.  2. It is about you and me coming to learn what it means to serve by the example of Jesus.

I am not talking only about donations, great hospitality teams, or volunteering once a week.  That is certainly a part of it. Yet, this whole passage gives insight and instruction on how to be church and it has very little, if anything to do with denominational polity, governing bodies, or institutional religion.  It has everything to do with Jesus, the Son of God, King of Kings and Lord of lords, being the king we least expected - a servant king and calling us to take on the same kind of attitude.

His followers didn’t always have the best attitude. Just a few passages before this, the disciples were arguing who among them was the greatest.  They wanted to know who ranked where - what was the order of importance - and who fit what role. Knowing this, and knowing his time was limited, Jesus wanted to make sure he did everything he could to help them understand what was truly at stake and what was truly important - to love and to serve one another and to love and serve others.  
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I came across a story /  a legend of St. Francis of Assisi.  In his early days he was very wealthy; nothing but the best was good enough for him.  He was an aristocrat of the aristocrats. But he was ill at ease and there was no peace in his soul.  One day he was riding alone outside the city when he saw a leper, a mass of sores, a horrible sight. Ordinarily Francis would have recoiled in horror from this wreck of humanity.  But something moved within him and he dismounted from his horse and flung his arms around the leper. As he embraced him the leper turned into the figure of Jesus. The nearer we are to suffering humanity, the nearer we are to God  (Barclay 138). The more we understand what it means to serve, the more we are Jesus to each other, the more we are Jesus to each other, the more we show the world what love truly is.

May it be so believers, may it be so.
Pastor Jenothy Irvine

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