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Spirit Lessons - Acts 2:1-11

5/26/2020

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How is it we can read or hear the same words and yet have very different responses?  How can we hear the same words and they impact us differently.  It is a mystery I am sure, answered only with long drawn out responses, in depth theological perspectives, and highly trained academicians.  Or is it? 

The heavy hitting, yet soft hearted pastor, poet, musician, and legend Mr. Rogers discovered the answer while in New England one weekend when he and some friends decided to visit the church of a well-known and well-respected preacher.  After the service began however, they discovered the presiding minister was away and a supply preacher, an aged one at that, would be speaking in his place. 

That was, of course, disappointing, but Fred Rogers had heard good supply preachers before, as well as meaningful messages from older preachers.  Unfortunately, this man apparently was neither good nor meaningful.  Fred suffered through the sermon, mentally checking off every homiletic rule the man was bending, breaking, or completely disregarding.  

The sermon went against everything Fred was learning in seminary.  When it ended (mercifully) he turned to the friend beside him to commiserate.  But before he could say anything, his words were muted by the tears he saw streaming down her face. 

“He said exactly what I needed to hear,” she whispered.  

That bungle of a sermon was exactly what she needed to hear?  Fred didn’t know what to say.  But as he began to ponder the gulf between their reactions, he realized that the essential difference lay within:  she had come in need and he had come in judgement.  And because of her need, and the sincerity of the old preacher, the Holy Spirit created a pentecost moment and was able to translate the words, poorly constructed as they were, into exactly what she needed to hear.  (The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers pg. 34-35).

Mystery solved.  Thank you Mr. Rogers. 

The mystery of the presence, movement, and power of the Holy Spirit has a long history, dating back to the day it happened and the utter bewilderment of some of the witnesses. 

What happened to Mr. Roger’s and his friend in England was beyond what he could imagine.  What happened to the disciples was beyond any expectation they could have imagined!  

But hold that thought, because while they (the disciples) were gathered and waiting in Jerusalem, Jews from around the known world gathered for the festival of weeks, a harvest festival; a time when Jews would celebrate God giving Moses the Torah, or the book of Law (first five books of the Bible) on Mt. Sanai. There would have been Jews from what is now modern day Turkey, Libya, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Greece, and Saudi Arabia.  These would have been devout Jews; meaning they Torah keeping (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy); law abiding, and ritual honoring Jewish believers.  They did not ignore or deny the presence or life of Jesus, but they did not believe him to be the son of God.  

Both groups gathered in the same place.  Both for different reasons but perhaps both needing the same thing - the assurance of God and truth of Jesus. 

The first followers of Jesus waiting in Jerusalem would not have known the mother languages of all those Jews gathered there for the festival.  Scholars say they would have had to travel to those regions, studied the languages in meticulous ways, learning the culture and politics and nuances.  They had not done all that in all those places in a matter of three years while with Jesus.  

It was and is one of the most incredible miracles ever to happen to this band of believers.  They spoke the same words to all those around them, and by God’s Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus, all of them, from all those different places, heard and understood in their own language the “mighty works of God” through Jesus.” (vs. 11)

What is offered in faith by one person, or in this case, a group of people, can be translated by the Holy Spirit into what the other person (or people) need to hear and see.  The space between them, as Mr. Rogers declares, “is holy ground and the Holy Spirit uses that space in ways that not only translate, but transcend” and I would add transform! (The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers pg. 34-35).  What was said was translated into what they would know and recognize and the perceived limitations were transcended by God’s presence and all were transformed.  Pentecost!

The difference is a matter of need or judgement.  Just like when Mr Rogers went with friends to hear the supply preacher.  Do we hear words that are spoken and receive them from a place of openness, vulnerability, and honesty or a place of anger, intolerance, and frustration?   Do we hear words that are spoken or even the words we speak from places of bitterness, criticism, and impatience or do we hear and speak them from places of hope, positive action, and empathy.

Now more than ever church, we need pentecost - we need to listen for the rushing wind of the Spirit; we need to recognize a power greater than our own rests in the hands of God and it is by the Holy Spirit we are bound one to another in moments like these.  We need to know there is something at work in, around and through us.  We need to hold on to the same promise those early followers did and trust that the space between us is holy ground touched by God’s Holy Spirit - something that has the power and ability to transcend our understanding, translate what we do not comprehend, and transform our situation and circumstance into that which brings us closer to God and one another...a defining moment then and a defining moment now, led by the Holy Spirit if we but come in openness, seeing the hope-filled moments rather than the pain-filled circumstances.

It doesn’t take the bad news away.  It doesn’t give us all the answers.  It doesn’t necessarily make facing tomorrow easier, but it does make it bearable.  It does make it endurable.  It does somehow, in a way that only the spirit of God can, make it more tolerable. 

How will you let the Spirit Lessons of Pentecost translate, transcend, and transform your life right now, today and in the days ahead.  May God be with us all and make it so.   

Come Holy Spirit come, bind us together in ways that cannot be broken.
Come Holy Spirit come, fill us with wisdom, unity, and truth.

Pastor Jenothy
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No Bridge Too Far - Romans 8:31-39

5/19/2020

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Years ago I used to think that love always had to be big, even grandiose. After all, I had a “superman” complex about love in the Christian life. That is to say, I had this picture in my mind that communicated how “love and suffering for the sake of Christ” meant that you had to become a missionary to Latin America, or you had to become crucified on an anthill, like Celia Coplestone in T.S. Elliot’s The Cocktail Party. I thought that such love and suffering in the Christian life meant going to the gallows like Dietrich Bonhoeffer did.

To be sure, that can happen, but more and more I realize how, for most of us, love in the Christian life, or life in the Spirit, is much less glamorous. Love in the Christian life is something more ordinary, like making a telephone call to a person who has lost a loved-one, or taking time to make face-masks for healthcare workers, or sending cards for those who are living alone, or a helping a neighbor in need. 

For the vast majority of us, I believe, that’s how love really works: ordinary actions in everyday situations, making a difference. Because in the Christian life such love is sacrificial: it suffers, and it understands that, if we are going to follow Christ, we will also suffer with Christ (8:12). After all, in Romans 8, Paul is not talking about love as hearts and Valentines. Rather, he is talking about the struggles we all face on a daily basis; he writing about how we all  are to act sacrificially toward others, and especially toward those who are going through difficult times, through grief, loss, loneliness. And in our current crisis who among us is not experiencing such feelings? Indeed, if we aren’t, we are probably in some kind of denial – and that’s not good. 

It’s why Romans 8 is such tonic to all the other “fluffy spiritualities” in the market place these days: the Christian life is not about fleeing into self-indulgence or away from the problems of the world, but is rather about being formed into the very likeness of Jesus Christ, which means being formed into a cross.

But it’s a cross that claims victory, and it’s a victory that leads us over bridges of conflict and struggle into God’s glorious presence, as we realize more and more that we are more than conquerors through the One who loved us and saved us, and convinced always that the following affirmation is indeed true: that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, not things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). 

Brothers and sisters, there is no bridge too far for God. No bridge too far that can separate us from the One who loves us. How may we demonstrate such love now? 
​

Pastor Andy Kinsey
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When Words Are Not Enough - Romans 8:26-30

5/12/2020

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Prayer: When we don’t know what to say - you are there.
When words fail us - you are there.
When we open our mouths to speak and only tears of confusion,
anger, and grief fall - you are there. 

It has been said there are one million fifty seven thousand three hundred seventy nine point six words in the English language.  That is a January 1, 2020 estimate.  Of course depending on your source, that number decreases to as low as a quarter of a million words.  Either way, that is a lot of verbs, nouns, adverbs, prepositions, cultural slang, synonyms, antonyms, and metaphors!  

You would think with so many choices a person wouldn’t have any trouble at all finding the word or words to express any given thought, idea, direction, question, or opinion.  You would think with 1, 057, 379.6 words to choose from, a person could find the right word to capture any given emotion, reaction, inspiration, or observation.  Whether it be good, bad, right, wrong, or somewhere in between.

Yet, most of us know it doesn’t work that way.  How many of you have ever found yourself at a loss for words and not because you can’t remember or recall the word, but because any word you try to use would not say what you want it to say.  For example, have you ever been at a loss for words at the sight of something beyond beautiful;  A newborn baby, a once in a lifetime sunset, the sound of your loved one’s voice?  How many of you have ever come up short with words when deep down feelings find their way to the surface of your soul;  the utter brokenness of love lost, the anger and rage of an injustice, the unconsolable thoughts and feelings attached to the question “why”?  How do you explain the emotion, thought, or spiritual connection upon hearing a piece of music or seeing a piece of art that speaks to the very core of who you are without a single word?  

There are situations, circumstances, and experiences when words simply are simply not enough.  It is in those moments however, we often say more than we might ever know.  It is in those moments the Spirit of God transforms and transcends our limitations and reveals a deep and abiding connection to God. 

That is the message of Paul in Romans 8:26-2.  Paul speaks with assurance of how the Spirit finds the words we cannot and prays on our behalf when we can’t find a way.  Paul speaks with unwavering certainty of God’s ultimate promise to work for good in all things for those who love, follow, trust, believe, and have hope in God.  Considered to form one of the most important passages on prayer in the whole New Testament, verses 26-27 are the foundation of  understanding just how close the Spirit of God is with us; how in tune the Spirit is to us, and how the Spirit is the most central and most underestimated being of the Trinity.  It is the Spirit that intercedes on our behalf when words are not enough.  It is the Spirit that takes our very breath, our every tear, and every ounce of anger, fear, and confusion and finds the exact word, phrase, sigh, groan, or heartbeat, carries it to God when for whatever reason we can’t, and gives it to God as our heartfelt message.   C.H. Dodd describes it this way, “prayer is the divine in us appealing to the Divine above us” (Barclay 111).  

Over the past two months, it has been difficult at times to know what or how to pray or to know what to say or how to say it.  More and more I hear people expressing similar thoughts and feelings; sharing their frustration and just wanting all this pandemic stuff to be over AND at the same time - often in the same breath they share a sense of fear and hesitancy, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. 

How do you put such emotions into words? How do you express uncertainty, fear, and anxiety?  How do you name thoughts and feelings we never thought we would encounter?  How do you explain it to young children?  The truth may be that WE don’t, the Spirit does.  WHY?  Because, as Paul has said over and over again, in our humanity we are finite and limited.  As much as we want to, we don’t have all the answers.  As much as we think we are, we are not in control.  As much as we know, we still must walk by faith.  

Perhaps it is then, in our jumbled moments, we are our most vulnerable and open self; vulnerable as individuals and as a community.  It is then the Spirit reveals how emotionally involved and eternally invested it is in our yearnings and longings toward the Divine.  It is then we come closer to God and god comes close to us in a way that cannot be explained.  It is then the Spirit, that is always with us, steps in and finds the way for us. 

We will be ok church.  We will find our way through this pandemic, and we will be changed but NOT because of this virus, but because of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit that will ensure our arrival on the other side.  It is by the Spirit I hope and pray we w3ill be a changed humanity: more aware, more kind, more responsible, more compassionate and empathetic, more pro-active, more in tune with what matters and how to be a part of the solution rather than the problem.  I pray because we have hope as God’s Easter people, as followers of Jesus, we have hope that all things work together for good for those who love God.  

We may not know how or when.  We may not feel like things are working for the good we want them to be.  We may not see things coming together for good the way we imagined them to be.  We may not be able to find one word out of 1, 057, 359.6 to express where we are emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, or one that captures the uncertainty, fatigue, and grief around us.   Even then dear church, even then, we have hope.  For we know when words are not enough the Spirit is.   When words fail us, the Spirit will not.   Not today.  Not tomorrow.  Not ever. 

AMEN

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine


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Good Pain, Really? - Romans 8:18-25

5/5/2020

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It is in the very nature of Christian hope to keep on hoping and longing for that day when there will be no more suffering, even when there is suffering amongst us. It is in the nature of Christ hope to yearn for that day when there will be no more crying, even when there are tears on our faces (Revelation 21:4).

As Christians, we continue to hope against hope, even when we confront the impossible. We continue to believe in God’s good purposes, even when all the evidence runs contrary to it. 

Now, to be sure, the skeptic may scoff, and if so, that’s fine. Skeptics will be skeptics! But as Christians we continue to believe and have hope, and the reason we do so is because of what God has done in Christ, of how God himself took on evil and defeated it on the cross, entering our darkness and lighting the way, taking the bad and transforming it into the good. 

Such is the source of our hope! Such is the reason we can have hope; for even amidst suffering and death, there is the evidence of God’s life and goodness and grace. There are people whose extraordinary lives, even now, are bearing witness to such a source of hope, to the truth of God’s love and compassion, as they display courage each and every day, despite the odds; their lives convey hope, even when there appears to be no hope. 

Again, if such people can live in such hope, we can take comfort and live in such hope too, for we can live with the assurance that “God is working for good for those love him and who are called according to God’s purpose” (Romans 8:28). We can live in the hope that the future is not pointless: that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed to us; that God is able to take our pain and transform it; God is able to take whatever is facing us and bring about something we had not anticipated – a life filled with hope and light: the very goal of creation itself, the very the hope in which we are saved. 

How may we continue to endure in hope?
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

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