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

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

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Saturday: 5:30pm 
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