As we read the passage from Matthew’s Gospel about wise and faithful servants, or as unwise and unfaithful servants as the case might be, we get a picture of how we might understand what Jesus would have us to do in living a kingdom-life, in being open to God.

Indeed, as we enter into a time when we consider the ways in which we steward our blessings, or take care of what God has given to us, we realize how stewardship involves not just our financial resources but our time and talent as well. What blessings does God want you to give?

It might seem counterintuitive, but God is blessing us, even now, even with all the challenges we face. God is blessing us, and entrusting us with gifts to share with others.

It is why we want to invite you to write a story of blessing. We can gain strength from others when we hear what the Lord is doing in their lives. After all, that is what stewardship is about: it is about taking care of what the Master has given us and then turning around and blessing others.

In Jesus’ parable, we learn what it means to take care of what the Master has provided, We learn how a faithful and wise servant is one who, when placed in charge of the household, knows how to care for it when the Master leaves (Matthew 24:35-41).

In this parable, the wise and faithful servant works when the master is away (Matthew 24:45-47). That is, he works on sharing with others, making sure the house is in order, getting out the message, being responsible, treating others with respect, unlike the unwise and unfaithful servant who pretends to work and who partieswhen the master is gone (Matthew 24:48-49). After all, with the unwise and unfaithful servant, there is only pretense, there is only dishonesty and lying, as he mistreats other servants and wreaks the household. The unwise and unfaithful servant is only playing the part.

To which Jesus points out the consequences: such unwise and unfaithful people will find themselves outside the realm of God’s grace when it is over (Matthew 25:30). There will be crying and teeth grinding (Matthew 24:51).

What does Jesus' parable teach us about taking care of our resources and treasures? What does it communicate about acting faithfully when the Master is away?

Pastor Andy

​I wonder if Jesus tweeted in the first century. I wonder if he had a smart-phone if he might have sent out a bite-sized tweet to folks! 

After all, in just a few words, Jesus answers a difficult question, asked by a teacher of the law (Matthew 22:34). The reason it is a difficult question is it puts Jesus in a bind. When the lawyer asks Jesus, for instance, which of the laws is the greatest, it appears that Jesus can answer in one of two ways. First, he can share that only one of the commandments is the greatest, which will lead the Pharisees to accuse him of ignoring the other commandments; or, second, he can say that all the commandments are great, which will lead the Pharisees to accuse him of being weak and not actually answering the question.
         
Of course, Jesus could have said that all the Ten Commandments were important, and he could have said that the Book of Leviticus was the most important expression of God’s law. He would have been on good ground. But he could also have said the first five books of the Bible – the Torah – contained everything people needed to know about God’s salvation.

But Jesus takes a different route: what Jesus does is give a tweet-sized response. He says, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the greatest commandment. And a second it is like: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (vv. 37-39).

In 74 characters, Jesus says, the whole thing hangs on that (v. 40). 

What do you think is truly great about Jesus' response? What do you feel is important about how Jesus not only says it, but then actually does it, backing it up with his own life and death? 

Pastor Andy Kinsey

Sometimes we just need to be quiet if we want to understand what God is doing! We need to have the confidence and assurance that God is acting for justice and goodness. The Lord is working, even now. In times of trouble. Amidst all the challenges and chaos, amidst all our circumstances! 

Those Red Sea moments we all have, when we realize that we cannot go back, and we find ourselves in fragile, if not fearful, situations. Betwixt and between! Even besides ourselves! Frustrated! In these moments, whose word will we believe – God’s or Pharaoh’s? 

It is interesting that in this passage Pharaoh keeps changing his mind. Earlier, he changes his mind about if he will pursue or not pursue Moses (Exodus 14:5-6). One minute he is “on” the next he is “off.” Indeed, throughout the first part of the book of Exodus, Pharaoh does not know what to do. Plagues come and go. Warning signs are everywhere, but Pharaoh does not listen. Only after the death of the first-born does Pharaoh wake up (Exodus 12:29).

But the Israelites are not always listening and trusting either. They are just as stuck as Pharaoh is! After all, they want to go back to Egypt! So whom do you believe? Moses? Pharaoh? God? Whose your news source going to be? 

Perhaps God’s response to Moses can give us a clue about whom to believe when God says to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to go forward, and let me do the rest! (Exodus 14:15). 

And Moses and the people trust what God says, and where there is  no way, God provides a way! God reveals God’s glory for all who have the eyes to see and ears to hear: In the struggle between good and evil, God’s word is always going to be the last word. A reminder that the Pharaohs of this world will always end up at the bottom of the sea. God’s Word remains, providing a way where there appears to be no way. It is how God works because it is who God is!

Therefore, no matter what you may be facing. No matter where you find yourself. No matter who you are! No matter how you got here. There is a Word of Truth: There is a Reality in this world that speaks to hope, love, trust, justice, righteousness. There is One who is not only for us and with us, but One who has gone before us (Exodus 14:19-20), One who will lead us – if only we will listen and follow. 

The word of the Lord! No ifs, ands, or buts about it!  

Pastor Andy Kinsey

My heart hurts, is discouraged, and like many, it carries the weight of all that is going on in our world today.  Whether in the political arena or issues related to environmental devastation, natural disaster, the pandemic and its domino effect on schools, businesses, unemployment, or the violence, hatred, distrust, and recent news of our president testing positive for Coronavirus.  It is hard to deny the weight of it all regardless of where you stand on any given topic or issue.  It is difficult to deny feeling the burden of conflicting and contradicting information, uncertainty, and a collective weariness, frustration, worry, tension and sadness that seems to underlie this time in history.

What if we were united?  Do I dare ask such a thing with all that is going on around us in the world, in our nation?  Do we dare consider such a thing with all that confronts us, challenges us, demands our attention, and vies for our devotion? 

As hard as it is, I think we have to.  We have to be willing to ask the question if we are to live into any kind of answer.  We have to consider what our role is in finding, creating, and being the answer.  We have to reflect on what it will take to at least try.  

I look at our world today.  I listen to all the voices shouting, crying, beckoning, demanding, weeping, bullying, and blaming, and I question if being united is possible.  A cursory google search brought up the following: There are 195 recognized countries in the world today.  As of July 2020, there are eleven different “nations” within the United States. As of Feb. 2017, there were between 6,500 and 7,117 identified spoken languages in the world.  In 2019 there were 576 antigovernment groups within the US, and 1,020 recognized hate groups.  Lastly, there are some 200 denominations in the US, and 350,000 congregations (2010). 84,000 of which are considered non-denominational. 

It doesn’t matter how you count it, that is a lot of lines in the sand, walls around the city, and deadbolts on doors.  That is a great deal of divided households, conflicting beliefs, and “us versus them” opinions.  It seems clear we live among a “he said - she said,” “we're better than you” “the other doesn’t count” kind of society. It seems clear, that is the world - our world; and guess who sits in the middle of it all?

Who sits in the hard, messy, unpredictable, uncomfortable, broken middle?  We do.  You and me.  The church.  That is the world, our world, that we, the church are called to love.  That is our world that we who claim to believe in Jesus and seek to live his ways, are called to feed the fruit of  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  That is the world we are called to show what unity looks like.

So, I ask you church, “What if we were united?” 

Paul’s message was simple.  Keep it about Jesus - the end.  Work, live, act, serve, and love like Jesus - period.  No one is better than someone else.  No one is higher or holier than anyone else.  No one person, organization, or institution has all the answers.  Jesus Christ is to be the common thread - the shared goal - the mutual and overall purpose.  And it must start in the heart of believers. 

We are called, like the believers in Ephesus, to unite as a church - as the body of  believers right here where we are.  We start there.  We start with claiming that as our call; recognizing Jesus is our common denominator, the rest is fluff.  Yes, I said it - the rest is fluff.  

A funny thing happens when we start with that - we begin to see with fresh eyes how Jesus loved.  We start to understand how Jesus served those no one else would and those who were different, marginalized, and considered outsiders.  We come to know what it means to accept differences because we know something and someone far greater holds us together and that is more important than what tries to drive us apart.  We soon find that we are able to love not because of who we are or what we do or have, but because of who God is.

In other words church, we answer the question “what if we were united” and we watch as that answer unfolds in the living of our lives.  We find hope scattered in the debris of division.  We uncover a peace once thought to be buried beneath egos, power, and control.  We begin to believe we can get through even this and that there is good in our world.  We find hope and we keep on keeping on with all the grit and grace we can muster. 

May it be so.  Amen.

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine

There are times when we need to remember how worry works. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells those who are listening three times to not worry: : “Do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry!” Now, if Jesus says something once, okay. Twice, sit up! But three times, put it on your forehead! This is important. 

And so, to understand the importance of what Jesus is saying, we have to remember what he said back in verse 24, because in that verse Jesus proclaimed that we cannot serve two masters: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (6:24). In other words, Jesus is reiterating the first commandment in Exodus: “You shall have no other gods before me.” 

Now let’s go to verse 33: “Seek God’s kingdom first and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”         

What is to come first? You as god or God as God? Your kingdom or God’s kingdom? Because you cannot have two masters.

This is where worry comes in! What worry does is divide us between God and everything else that stands in place of God. Worry, if allowed, divides and conquers the soul. After all, that’s what the word “worry” literally means – to split or divide. It actually comes from an ancient English word which means to strangle or tear apart. Worry divides us against ourselves (and God) and fragments our emotions, leaving us drained, if not defeated.

And what Jesus is teaching us is that, if we allow it, worry will track us down and strangle us; if we allow it, worry will be our master. And when that happens we cut ourselves off from God, from the Source of our well-being. Remember, no one can serve two masters. God did not create us to have two masters, but one! God created us to worship only one God (Exodus 20:3).

God created us in God’s own image! God values you! God made you, and God did not make you to have worry, to be split apart!

How may we seek God's kingdom first and, in doing so, put worry in its proper place? What do we need to do to seek God's kingdom first?

​Pastor Andy Kinsey

​When we turn to Chapter 3 in Exodus, we read the story about Moses and the burning bush. It is a story central to Judaism and Christianity and to the way we understand who we are as God’s people and who God is as God.

Unfortunately, sometimes, when we read this story, we may get caught up in the bushes, so to speak, and fail to see the big picture. By that observation, I mean that we can fail to see the larger point that God is wanting to communicate if we get caught up in the kind of bush it was or the kind of chemical reactions that can take place in the desert to cause a bush to burn without being consumed.

As one writer has put it, “When God decides to make an appearance, any old bush will do.” Any old bush would do!

And yet, it is the ‘any old bush’ in Exodus that is blazing while not being burned to crisp that gets Moses’ attention – a combination of sight and sound that attracts Moses to come and stand on holy ground: to come into the presence of God (3:3). First, there is sight because fire is coming out of the bush; and second, sound because God is speaking to Moses (3:4).
          
It is a scene of divine mystery, with God’s disclosing who God is as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (3:6); and it is a scene of clarity with God telling Moses two important things: first, God hears the cries of his people; God realizes the pain of the Hebrews in Egypt. God knows what is happening (3:7-9). Second, God assures Moses that God will go with him from slavery to freedom (3:11-12). 

In other words, God speaking out of an ordinary bush is just the beginning of what God is going to do! God promises to remain close to Moses though it took a burning bush to get his attention!

How is God trying to get your attention? What burning bush have you seen lately? After all, there is always a bush burning somewhere!

Pastor Andy

What if this is the new normal?  What if this is life now?  What if it’s all a hoax?  What if it isn’t?  What if Biden wins the election?  What if Trump stays another four years?  What if this is what public school looks like from now on?  What if this is as good as it gets?  What if, what if, what if. 
    
For being such small words in the English language, the words what and if when put together can be full of promise and hope like “what if this is the best day ever?” or “what if this is the answer I have been waiting for?” They can also be full of uncertainty and dread like, “what if this is the worst day ever?”  “What if this is all there is - what if this is the answer?” 

Have you considered the powerful and profound nature of the question “what if” when it comes to your life and the living out your faith during this particular time in our country and in history. 
    
For example:  What if  we lived our life out of our God given potential rather than human generated fear?  After all, potential is God’s gift to us.  Making the most of it is our gift back to God.  

What if we measured spiritual growth and faith  in someone not by keeping score of their sin, failures, and shortcomings or  by tracking how well they follow the  do’s and don’ts of religion and its institutions,  but rather by being Jesus to each other? 

What if we approached every day as if the victory has already been won at Calvary’s cross, (because it has) rather than fearing we just might lose?    

What if we could reimagine what community, success, wisdom, love, and neighbor could look like or sound like?  Too much to ask for?  Too big?  Too lofty?  Too rainbowy, warm fuzzies, and pixie dust wishful thinking?   Really?  Cause have you ever wondered what if Moses’ mother hadn’t saved him by floating him down the river for Pharaoh's daughter to find?  What if David’s sling slipped and he missed Goliath’s forehead?  What if Esther refused, had not prayed and fasted, thereby finding favor, thus saving the Jewish people from genocide?  What if Joseph and Mary had not heeded the angel’s warning to flee Bethlehem before Herod’s henchmen showed up? What if those first followers of Jesus gave up, quit, or walked away when things didn’t make sense, when they were afraid, or when everything around them was in turmoil, falling apart, or  being undermined and destroyed?

When it comes to the eighth chapter of Romans, “even wordsmiths are at a loss for words. Not many adjectives can do justice to its mystery and majesty”.  One theologian calls it the “Great Eight.”  Martin Luther called it, “the clearest gospel of them all”.  William Tyndale, who was martyred for translating the Bible into English, called it, “the most excellent part of the New Testament”  (Mark Batterson, If page 15)

Why “The If Chapter?”  Because in the midst of the action, adventure, story line, subplot, and even a few special effects, the hinge on which everything turns is the “if” statement in verse 31b or the second half of the verse.  

All that stands between so much of our current political, economical, racial, environmental, and cultural situations and a unified, acceptable, doable, workable, and sustainable solution is one little if.  What if we would truly listen to one another?  What if we treated one another as people and not labels?  What if we recognized and admitted when we were wrong and grew from it?  All that stands between your current circumstances and your wildest possibility, dream, and God potential, is one little if.  What if I took a chance?  What if I could do it?  

If you believe with every ounce of muscle, bone, and fiber of your being that God is for you, then you have nothing to fear; the sky's the limit for your God given potential and how you live out your faith in word and deed.  AND you have much to offer the rest of us.  

If however,  hidden behind or just below the surface of that good job, nice house, big smile, perfect pet, and manicured lawn,  you doubt God’s love and good intentions, such doubt will surface in a thousand forms of fear.

Those early followers knew fear.  They carried the task of spreading the Jesus message to the known world at the time.  They were confronted with uncertainty, disappointment, and failure.  They knew hardship, struggle, and heartache.  They faced cultural challenges, political assumptions, and government expectations.  They questioned God’s purpose and Jesus’ call on their lives and how they were to live.  Paul knew what they were facing and said: yep, it’s a long haul, a tough road, uncertain at times AND God is with you through it all. Period.  God was, is, and will be with you.  Jesus was, is, and will see you through.  Period. That is Paul’s great reminder and truth of chapter 8. 

If God is for us dear church (and God is), there is no room for fear, only faith, hope, and love.   And our communities, our families, friends, colleagues, neighbors - our world could use a little faith, hope, and love right now.  

Thanks be to God and may it be so, amen. 

Pastor Jenothy Irvine

What does it mean to be free?  Is it a state of mind?  Is it physical in nature? Is it more mental or emotional?  Is there a psychological component?  What does a heart set free look like?  Free from bondage.  Free from addiction.  Financially free.  Debt free.  Culturally free.  Free from responsibility.  Free from addiction or abuse. Free from the past.  Free to be yourself.  Free from worry and doubt.  In the church when we speak of being free, we often mean free from sin and guilt and we understand that to mean, we are set free in Christ.  It is difficult to know who is free and who is not.  

A person can follow all the rules, do all the right things, say all the right things, and go through all the right motions, and yet NOT be free in their heart.  A person can live in the right neighborhood, have a good job, drive the right kind of car, have the right friends, and yet, NOT be free in their heart.  

As Jesus followers we are called, named, identified as the church.  As such we were given, by Jesus, a model to live by; a way to be community.  We were given a promise, first by God and then, fulfilled by Jesus, that we would become the family of God.  That we would find our true freedom in Christ.

Here’s the thing though - from the early church, some followers came to believe it was all about rules, regulations, and certain ways or practices.  They loved God and followed Jesus with as much passion and conviction as anyone else but they clung to the rituals more than the cross.  This caused problems in the church.  This still causes problems in the church today. 

Paul is going after the pious followers of Jesus who measure their salvation and freedom in Christ by whether or not they, or anyone else who claims to be a follower, are adhering to the strict Jewish code of circumcision.  This was considered to be the mark of the true people of Israel, the true people of God.

Paul sends this letter as a reminder that Jesus fulfilled the code of law or the code of God; Jesus completed the promise of God given to their ancestors Abraham and Sarah, and passed on through people like Moses, David, Joshua, Esther, Ruth, and all the way to Mary and Joseph.  

Freedom was now found in Christ and Christ alone.  Jesus set us free from the bondage of sin and from being held captive to destructive, hurtful behavior toward ourselves and one another.  Jesus came to make us free from those things that imprison our ability and shackle our potential as people of God.  Jesus came to free the marginalized and invisible in society from oppression, We are to live by God’s way given to us through Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, and not by our human nature.  

When we live out of a place of human nature / human desire, we seek things like power, control, authority, division, and …. That was not the promise given, nor the promise we are to keep.  That is not who we are designed to be.  That is not our original goodness created by God.  

When we live out of place of the Holy Spirit, we seek things like shared authority, equality, compassion, empathy, unity, and we find ways to build true communities across social, cultural, racial, sexual, and political lines.

How do we do it?  How do we live the kind of life Paul is talking about and Jesus died for?  How do we keep the promise and be the people of God?  Paul makes it quite clear (as did Jesus before him in response to the Pharisees' question of the greatest commandment): Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.  It doesn’t get much simpler than that church. 

There are a lot of promises being spouted out right now in our country; from all sides and angles of the political arena.  There are a lot of promises being made regarding what is and what is not the truth of Covid19.  There are a lot of promises being put out there for us to decide what is and what is not true; what is and what is not who we are to be, and how we are to live. 

There is only one promise ever given that remains as true today as it was when it was first spoken - “I will be your God and you will be my people.”  It’s that second part that is the promise we must learn and strive to keep. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Live that promise church, and you will live free, regardless of what is going on around you.  Live that promise and you will live with purpose and intention regardless of what promises around you are being spoken, unspoken, broken or manipulated. 

​Pastor Jenothy Irvine

​In the ancient world, most people would have known all too well what a cross was about. They would have known, for example, what the apostle Paul was saying when he spoke of crucifixion. Indeed, earlier Paul in Galatians Paul had reminded the Churches in Galatia of how he had been crucified with Christ (2:19), and of how it was no longer he who was living, but Christ who was living in him (2:20). It was quite a picture. Paul shared with the Christians in Galatia that Jesus died in public humiliation. It was as if God was drawing a diagram for the whole world to see.

 It reminds me of those many times when I was in high school and the coach of our team would draw up a play at a timeout, only for us to mess it up and fail to follow the instructions! The coach would literally draw us a picture, and then, we would forget it! It was as if we would go back to our old habits! 
         
 Let me ask you: Have you ever been in a situation where you just don’t get something, or you have a difficult time understanding? And someone will say to you, “Do you need me to draw a diagram for you?” And you feel so big!
   
 To bring the point closer to home, “How many diagrams does it take for Christians to understand that Jesus was crucified like a common criminal, and that he died such a death to liberate us from sin and evil? How many pictures does it take for us to understand what Jesus did on the cross to forgive us and reconcile us to God and one another?”

Maybe this is why Martin Luther, the German Protestant Reformer, had the artist Mathias Grunewald paint the picture of Christ crucified, with Luther pointing to it, reminding the church of the gospel. 

Maybe the church always stands in the need of such a reminder, a reminder that Paul had been saying all along: that “We preach Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

How big does the diagram of Jesus crucified have to be? How may we think about the promises of God in ways that do not reduce the bigness of Christ's love?

Pastor Andy Kinsey

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I hereby call to order case number G.A.L. 2:15-21 the cultural dispute between Jewish believers and Gentile converts.  Representatives of today’s case are Paul, an apostle and church planter of the early church and Peter, also an apostle and leader of the early church movement.  Gentlemen, you may proceed. 

Your honor and members of the jury, I am the apostle Peter and I represent a long line of Jewish believers, the people of Israel.  This is a simple misunderstanding with a simple solution.  We, as Jewish believers are God’s chosen people, Israel.  Our jewish lineage speaks for itself and as it was written in the Biblical Law, the Torah, the first five books of what is now called the Bible, we are chosen by God to God’s purpose and we live that purpose by holding to a strict code of behavior, beliefs, and expectations.  That is how we ensure our place as God’s chosen.  That is how we are set apart and marked for God’s goodness.  

Your honor and members of the jury, if I may.  Paul here - This is not a simple misunderstanding between two cultural groups with various backgrounds and religious experience.  This is one group deciding for and over another who is in and who is out; who is more and who is less.  The misunderstanding is not about groups, biblical law, or how much one does to follow the law.  The issue is failure to understand the very essence of why God, through Jesus came, walked among us, taught us, and changed the world.  My colleague Peter seems to have forgotten that.   And how dare he speak in such a way that excludes the very people Jesus made a way for - the very people society tends to ignore. He is undermining the very work we started and established in the early church.  He is allowing division to creep in and destroy what was planted here in Galatia.  

It is no longer about the Biblical Law.  It is no longer about holding on to every dot and tittle of the Torah.  Jesus was the fulfillment of that law, all of it in every way.  There is nothing we can do to earn our way into God’s favor; no rule, code, task, achievement, or accomplishment that will obtain or secure our place with God.  Through Jesus Christ, we are one body, one church, one fellowship.  We are marked by a promise of faith. 

It’s called grace and it is the reason Jesus came when he came, taught what he taught, died when he died, and rose when he rose.  It is not about insiders and outsiders.  It is not about being separated by and for God, it is and has always been about bringing all God’s people back to God - and Jesus did that by being the fulfillment of the biblical law and sacrificing his own life for ours and those to follow. 

Thank you gentlemen that will be all.  We will take a short recess to allow the jury to deliberate.  As you do however, I ask the jury to consider the following…On the surface, Galatians chapter two seems to be centered on the question of whether Jewish and Gentile Christians should eat at the same table - should they share what was called an agape meal together at one table.  The heart of matter however, is much deeper.  The heart of the matter is not who sits at the table, the heart of the matter is the question: who is God’s true Israel? (N.T. Wright)  Who is the ultimate insider?  Who are the true people of God? 

Peter declared it was those whom God chose from the beginning; those who followed the biblical law of Moses and held to the teachings therein.  Paul focusses his answer on the most basic point of all.  God’s true Israel consists of one person:  Jesus / the Messiah.  He is the faithful one.  He is the true Israelite.  The question then becomes: who belongs to  Jesus?  How is that identity expressed?  How is one’s promise of faith lived out? 

For Paul, the answer is related to God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah, when they couldn’t have children and God told them they would have children upon children; so many, it would outnumber the grains of sand or the stars in the sky.  That promise was and is fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah; The promise that God would create a single worldwide family whose identity marker would be their faith - living a Christ-like faith - living, serving, growing together, caring together in community. 

In order for you, the jury, to unpack all that is embedded in this text it is critical to keep in mind three questions:  Who set’s things right?  What role has Jesus played in setting things right? What does the character and truth of life with Jesus look like (regardless of race, gender, political party, work experience, sexual orientation, the size of your paycheck, cultural background, educational level, or religious heritage)?  (NIB Vol XI)

In the life of those who believe in God and claim Jesus as Messiah and Lord, the answer to who sets things right is God.  God is the one to rectify; put things in order, and make right that which has gone awry.  God rectifies his people by coming to their rescue and instituting right order in a world gone wrong.  How God does this - leads to question two.

What role has Jesus played?  Paul states that we are made right, set in order, brought back into a right relationship through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.  It is not through the strength or purity of our own work ethic or ability to follow all the rules.  We do not rectify our relationship with God through our works alone but we are made right through the faithful act of Jesus who gave his life for ours.  His promise of faith gave us ours.   

What Jesus has done for us is not merely to enable us to believe and thereby find individual forgiveness of sins.  His promise of faith, created a whole new world and liberated us from powers that once held us captive.  (i.e. powers that kept us separated one from another; powers that divided rather than united, powers that oppressed rather than built up.)  You cannot reach a verdict in this case without recognizing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and how that in and of itself put to death the old regime (old way of biblical law) and inaugurated a new creation.

Third and final question you, the jury, must wrestle with is this: What does the character and truth of a life with and for Jesus look like?  What does a promise of faith look like?  Paul tells us that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  We read in other New Testament writings Jesus’ words, “you abide in me and I abide in you.”  In other words, when you say yes to Jesus, it is by divine mystery that God’s Holy Spirit manifests itself in your life through your character, not your list of great works.  

The character and truth of a life in Jesus looks like a life transformed - a life lived and given as an instrument of God’s reconciling love; a life lived as a vessel of God’s restoring love.   A life of trust - not always knowing the answer or outcome, but trusting God is working for good in all things; God is with us no matter how messy or ugly life gets.  How can you be an instrument of God’s reconciling love and be divided believers; a divided church, denomination, organization or community?  How can you be an instrument of restoring God’s people when you or oppress others, or hate someone because of their skin color,  who they love, who they vote for, where they live, or whether they have a job or not?  

Jury, you have perhaps the most significant decision of your life to make.  You are not only deciding for yourself but for believers everywhere - the way you live your life reveals what, how, and who the church will be.  The way you live your life, give of yourself and your resources, reveals your decision.   Your decision will impact the world.   

In today’s society I don’t have to tell you the lines of division among believers are still there.  The struggle to be the true people of God remains. Perhaps your decision will bring us that much closer to what God had in mind all along.  

We are adjourned.   Amen
Pastor Jenothy Irvine

Commentary and insights adapted from N.T. Wright’s Paul for Everyone, The New Interpreter’s Bible Vol. XI, and William Barclay’s DBS Commentary on Galatians.