​You will remember that in the scriptures there is the language of covenant or promise. A covenant is the way God promises his mercy to provide for us and to care for us. In the Bible, there are several covenants that God makes with the people. The first is the covenant God made with Noah and with every living creature in Genesis 9. In this covenant, God promises never again to destroy the earth. Instead, God is going to restore and recreate the earth according to his purposes. God promises in this covenant life not death.

Later in Genesis, God makes a covenant with Abraham and Sarah (12:1-3). Through this couple, God will call forth the people of Israel to become a great nation through which God will bless all nations. In this covenant God promises Israel a land and a future, to be a people.

In Exodus, God makes a covenant with Moses through the giving of the law (13-16). In this law, God sets the bounds within which Israel must keep the land and relate to others. It is a law that promises fruitfulness in the face of challenges. 

But we are not finished. Following the giving of the law, God makes a covenant with David; through David, God will bless those who follow as rulers of Israel. God will promise to sustain Israel via faithful and obedient leadership.

All these covenants have a common theme, and that theme is promise. God promises to be Israel’s God, and to abide with Israel through thick and thin, through obedience and disobedience. After all, God’s promises are irrevocable (Romans 11:29), a reminder of the biblical principle that once God calls Israel God provides for Israel. This is the promise at work in scripture: once God calls us, God provides for us, even when we might fall away, even when we think we don’t have enough, God will be faithful.

It is the message we hear again, and again in the prophets of the Old Testament, of how God will forgive and restore the people when they go in another way. It is the foundation of God’s covenant.

In the end, of course, the ultimate answer to God’s covenant or promise is Jesus, as Jesus is the new Noah and the new Abraham, the new Moses and the new David. Jesus embodies the salvation of Israel, if not the whole world. Indeed, Jesus is the One who is faithful and obedient. He is the One who won’t break "covenant" with us. As the Lamb of God who suffers in his body the pain of all broken covenants, Jesus works to forgive us and reconcile us. He is the Good Shepherd who goes after us as lost sheep and brings us into the fold of a new and unbreakable covenant, which is the basis of who we are and what we do as Christians.

How may we respond to God’s covenant with us? What can we do to share in God’s covenant of promise and mission? How may we trust in God's good work?

Andy Kinsey

“Worship is ecstatic, mystical praise and celebration.  Worship is what you do inside and outside of church when you DO God’s word.” 
                        -John Wesley

When I reflect on worship - what it is and what it means, I find myself thinking that worship is about people, purpose, and place.  

Worship is people - intergenerational, learning and growing together through the act of worship; sharing our stories alongside THE story.  Worship is my story informing your story and your story influencing my story and hearing, seeing, and living it all out within THE story.   Seeing how they intertwine, support, inform, build up, and challenge one another along the way.  It is about milestones and moments shared that recognize and celebrate Christ with us in the living out of our days - births, deaths, accomplishments, achievements, hard work, celebrations, memorials, loud moments, quiet moments, still moments, and even the difficult moments.  Especially the difficult moments. 

Frederick Buechner writes,
 “phrases like Worship Service or Service of Worship are tautologies.  To worship God means to serve him.  Basically there are two ways to do it.  One way is to do things for him that he needs to have done - run errands for him, carry messages for him, fight on his side, feed his lambs, and so on.  The other way is to do things for him that you need to do - sing songs for him, create beautiful things for him, give things up for him, tell him what’s on your mind and in your heart, in general rejoice in him and make a fool of yourself for him the way lovers have always made fools of themselves for the one they love.  A Quaker Meeting, a Pontifical High Mass, the Family Service at First Presbyterian, a Holy Roller Happening - unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings, the time would be better spent doing something useful.”  Wishful Thinking-A Theological ABC. 

Worship is about purpose and must have purpose to have impact.  That purpose is to be in relationship with the One who created us; to turn and look at God looking at us.  Our greatest desire, whether we name it or not, is to be in connection with our creator.  Worship provides us time and space for that purpose.  We balance our purpose between messages, music, prayer, arts, something old and something new; between challenging, equipping, inspiring, convicting, teaching, encouraging, and leading one another while walking alongside each other. 

Worship is about place.  It is a place for us to experience the presence of the Holy in the midst of all that goes on in our life and world.  It is the act of doing God’s word.  It is a place to intentionally work on being with God and with one another.  It is also a place in which we make a place for God.  It's about finding your place - seeking to serve, participating in missions and outreach, as well as volunteering.  It’s about providing a place for others.  A place for people to be who they are and where people are on their journey.  It’s about recognizing God’s place among us whether in a formal or relaxed, planned or spur of the moment, organized or organic way.  When the Christ in me honors the Christ in you, we create a place for the divine to work on us both.  Worship then is about people, purpose, and place.  

Prayer: May all that we are be an act of worship in which all that you are is celebrated and made known.  Amen.

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine

God uses many avenues and channels to meet people:  – whether going to Peter along the sea, or to a woman by the well, or to Nicodemus at night, or to Zacchaeus in his home. The scriptures don’t prescribe a one-size-fits-all experience to the Christian faith. If they did, I know I would probably fail the test. I didn’t have a dramatic call or conversion to Christ like Paul. No, it was more like a growing awareness that God’s grace was real and that there were people who communicated and demonstrated that grace to me over time. I was loved into the kingdom, so to speak! It wasn’t spectacular, but it was life-turning. 

What about you? 

I don’t believe there is only one way to experience the risen Christ. Instead, what we need to see is how such experience is always followed by faithfulness, by displaying the fruit of the Holy Spirit, like love, joy, peace, patience (Gal. 5:7-8). True conversion will always lead to a life of commitment, to living the commandments of loving God and neighbor. Indeed, if a person is not demonstrating such activity following their meeting Christ, we might ask if conversion has taken place. 

Remember that the person who was persecuting Christians, Paul, is also the same person who will write to the Corinthians that “love is patient and kind; not envious or boastful.” There was a real change.

Paul’s encounter with the living Christ along the road to Damascus was a painful encounter, with Paul coming to a dramatic change in his life. It reminds us that Christ surprising him unexpectedly. How might we remain open to Christ this season? Where might Christ surprise us in the days ahead?

​Pastor Andy Kinsey

What do our words say about us as followers of Jesus?  Our faith?  Our church?  Do our words hurt, or do they heal?  Do they work in service to truth or to falsehood?  Do our words build up, or do they tear down?  Do they connect or divide?  Do they reveal or cover-up?  Are they full of hope or just empty promises?  As a church, what are we saying to those outside our walls, to those who have been hurt by the church in the past?  What do our words sound like to those who grew up in the church but now question their faith, or those who have served the church their whole career and now see things changing?  What do those who are searching for answers or looking for meaning hear us saying?  Do we speak the truth in love? 
    
These were some of the same concerns Paul had when he, from prison, wrote his letter to the Ephesians.  His letter addressed a collection of ethical advice and instructions on how those who followed Jesus; who proclaimed to be a believer (the term Christian wasn’t around yet), should work together, utilize their gifts as individuals and as a whole,  talk to one another, and stay connected through the Spirit of God to show unity in the body of Christ.  His words challenge us to consider how we, the followers of Jesus at Grace UMC, speak the truth in love to ourselves and to others. 

Paul wrote this letter to Jews and non-Jews, two groups that were divided by so many factors it would have taken an act of God to unite them. The two groups had very different cultural backgrounds,  religious histories, and faith expectations or approaches to the teachings of Jesus.  Can you think of any groups today we could say the same thing about?  One would think something like oh, maybe the death, burial, and resurrection of God’s son Jesus would bring people together!  

In the first three chapters of this letter, Paul teaches about the great measures God took in order to make these two groups into one new humanity in Jesus. Then in the last three chapters, Paul shows them how Jesus’ unifying work should impact every relationship and aspect of their lives.  When you follow Jesus, you don’t get to pick and choose when, how, or with whom to be “Christian” with or to.  You don’t get to pick and choose who gets the truth and who doesn’t.

Telling the truth is straightforward and simple.  It is the way we tell the truth that gets us in trouble.  That is why Paul writes to the believers in Ephesus and reminds them they are the examples of God’s Kingdom on earth.  They are to live as the Easter people they are so that when others see and hear them, they will see and hear a new way of being and doing community; a better way of living alongside one another, understanding who our neighbors are, and a better way of living for the greater purpose of Jesus.  

Paul wasn’t naive.  He had been around the block a time or two and he knew how people were and could be.  He had seen the best and the worst in people.  He didn’t expect the church to agree on everything, or that everyone would hold hands and sing peace, love, and happiness.  He knew people were people; with emotions, tempers, individual ideas, life experiences, and varying expectations.  He knew the believers he wrote this to were coming from very different perspectives and experiences.  BUT he also knew it was critical they understand the unifying power of Jesus.  

It was crucial that they understood they could not attain such unity on their own.  It was not within their human ability any more than it is within ours. We cannot love like Jesus loves when left to our own devices.  We are all too human.  It takes a willingness and a reliance on the presence of Jesus with us to exist from such a place of love. Paul knew it and was reiterating it to the church. 

He was not telling them never to be angry.  Never argue or challenge one another.  Never be emotional.  He was not telling them to never speak their mind or their convictions.  He was not saying always compromise and give in.  What he was telling them was that when disagreements, challenges, conflicting ideas, miscommunication, or anger shows up, (because it will), then talk, share, listen to understand not to debate, and work through it from a place of love, not comparison, competition, or useless criticism.  Speak the truth in love.   

Speak truth without belittling or beating up the people who disagree, disengage, or dispute what is being said or decided.  Speak truth without punishing, persecuting, or pushing aside the people who challenge, dissect, or seek to understand the why of it all.  Speak truth knowing that not everyone is going to get it, hear it, or want it AND that is o.k. Because it is God through God’s Holy Spirit that works in people’s hearts and lives, not you or me.  

To speak the truth in love, takes work and intentionality.  It takes a willingness to get out of our own way and seek the way of God - the way of Jesus.  It takes courage to say what others might not like, or hear what might challenge our own understanding.  It takes humility to say it in a way that is not arrogant or prideful.  It takes conviction of Spirit with the understanding you might be wrong.  It takes compassion to speak words of kindness even when sharing hard truths.  It takes letting go of ego - of self and holding on to God - holding on to the example of Jesus.  

Paul’s words are a summons to righteous behavior - a challenge and calling to do better with our words; to be better with what we say and how we say it.  It is a call to see both the humanity of a person and the face of Jesus at the same time - to see the humanity and the divinity of a person because they are created in the image of God, just as you were.  This text is a call to the church - the body of believers to be one in Christ; to always start there. 

That doesn’t mean we all act, look, think, and sound the same.  It doesn’t mean that we agree on everything, approach things the same, or understand things equally.  It means at the core of who we are as followers of Jesus, that we seek the same truth - to live as Jesus taught us.  It means at the core of who we are as followers of Jesus, we are on this long walk in the same direction together.  It means at the core of who we are as followers of Jesus, we still have work to do.

That work, people of God, must again and again return to this table of communion, and flow from the love with which we are welcomed, the mercy with which we are forgiven, and the grace we are freely given.   It is at this table we remember and are equipped to follow Jesus.  May this table help us keep a clear perspective of truth, a willingness to be the body of Christ in the world, and the courage to speak the truth in love.  

Amen

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine