At Grace, we are called by God to be in the city for good! For those interested in volunteering this summer, we invite you to attend the orientation held in the North Room of Hope Hall on June 9th from 11:30a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be served. Please RSVP at outreach@graceinthecity.com or call Clottee Hammons at 602-817-8996 if you plan to attend. View PDF flyer.
At the center of our religion, love. What heals us, love. What heals our communities, love. Also, the stated motive of most religious people, regardless of actual outcomes, love. I agree with the Beatles: “All you need is love.”
As we expectantly wait for Christmas, one persona dominates the church world, another persona our culture at large. These two prominent figures both speak of how we should act, what we should do—and the consequences if we do not. The persona of our culture at large? Who can we find everywhere at malls and on cards and sung about in songs during the month of December? Santa Claus.
How about the persona of the church world? Who is it who dominates our Advent stories? Right. John the Baptist.
Native American Urban Ministry and Pastor Mary Louise Frenchman will resume worship services on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. The first meeting back will be Saturday, May 8 @ 11:00 am; sack lunches will be provided after worship, and face masks/social distance will be strictly enforced!
What does the Bible say about creation and humans’ role as part of creation? During the season of Easter on The GLOW Show, Pastor Sarah will explore biblical stories and passages that reveal God’s posture towards Earth, God’s call for humans as part of creation, and the ways Jesus’ ministry was deeply embedded in creation. Today, we explore the third commandment and the Levitical law of rest for creatures and the land. Grab your Bible and enjoy!
Day of the Church Year: Fourth Sunday of Easter
Scripture Passage: John 10:11-18
I’m on the proverbial hot seat this morning, me and all of my pastor colleagues and bishops and lay church leaders—that’s many of you in various roles. We’re all on the hot seat today because Jesus speaks of shepherds. Now, we’re used to hearing Jesus speak of us, God’s people, as “sheep,” ones who need leading and guiding, and we are accustomed to thinking of Jesus as our “shepherd,” one who protects and shows us the way. Every fourth Sunday of Easter, we read from the tenth chapter of the gospel of John, a chapter full of sheep and shepherd imagery. And every fourth Sunday of Easter, we sing or read Psalm 23 which begins: The Lord is my shepherd. Given the ubiquity of the use of sheep and shepherd metaphors within Christianity, we probably know that sheep need a shepherd even if we’ve never personally shepherded sheep. What we may not know is that the metaphor of sheep and shepherd is not limited to Psalm 23 and John 10.
Throughout the Old Testament, God appoints shepherds, leaders of God’s people. The role of shepherd is messianic, meaning the shepherd is called to save the people. Kings are called to the role of shepherd with King David its most ardent example. Just as a note: God only appoints shepherds because God’s people demand it. God says: well, okay, if you really want it that badly, here ‘ya go. Unsurprisingly, these leaders consistently disappoint. In Ezekiel 34, God through the prophet Ezekiel describes in agonizing detail the failures of the shepherds God had appointed. Therefore, God declares, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” God is our shepherd, settling us, seeking us, bringing us back, binding up our wounds, strengthening us, and also bringing an end to unjust power dynamics.
When Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd,” in John 10, Jesus is actually speaking to the Pharisees, the Pharisees who are leaders among the Jewish people, the Pharisees who have just driven out of the synagogue the man born blind because the man is a “sinner” according to them and also because this man disagrees with them. As far as we can tell from the biblical record, the Pharisees are genuine in their desire to serve God, but they miss the mark time and time again. At the very end of John 9, after Jesus opens the eyes of the man born blind and he sees Jesus for who he really is, the Pharisees cannot and will not see Jesus. Ironically, they ask him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” The reader may shout an emphatic “YES!”
So, this morning, leaders of God’s people are on the hot seat for we are not good shepherds. We have been filled with the Holy Spirit at baptism and called to leadership and service within the church. Still, whatever role we have been equipped for and called to within the church, today’s scripture reminds us that there is only one good shepherd, and it’s not us. It’s Jesus.
This is why I appreciate so much that the first guiding principle here at Grace is Jesus is Lord. Such a declaration may seem obvious...except when we are defending our position, except when we get angry when people don’t agree with us, except when we get caught up in using our power to hurt others. Such a declaration of Jesus is Lord may seem obvious...until we embrace bitterness over forgiveness, until we believe ourselves morally superior, until we claim ourselves entitled but not responsible. Jesus is Lord which means that arrogance among humans is laughably inappropriate. We are not perfect, and we do fail, each one of us. No matter our position of authority, no matter our moral authority, we are not Lord, and we are not the good shepherd. If generations of the kings of Israel couldn’t get it right, we’re certainly not going to.
To say Jesus is Lord or The Lord is my shepherd is to walk humbly, to live with humility. Even though we are filled with the Holy Spirit and called to lead and serve God’s people, in whatever large or small way, we are also the sheep God seeks, brings back, binds up, and strengthens. I think there is a real struggle for us to walk the line of humility, recognizing that we are the sheep who need the guidance and protection of God while at the same time using our God-given gifts to contribute confidently and passionately to the world. For us to deny our gifts or to even degrade ourselves is not humility. So, our question of the day is: What does true humility look like? Who is someone who practices humility, and what do they do? To read the community’s reflections, go to Facebook live stream worship for Sunday, April 25.
We sheep can get lost—for a whole variety of reasons including our own perceived greatness or power. Thanks be to God that Jesus is the good shepherd who seeks us, brings us back, binds us up, strengthens us for lives of service and leadership, love and humility. We are not Lord, but we have a good shepherd. Thanks be to God! Amen.
What does the Bible say about creation and humans’ role as part of creation? During the season of Easter on The GLOW Show, Pastor Sarah will explore biblical stories and passages that reveal God’s posture towards Earth, God’s call for humans as part of creation, and the ways Jesus’ ministry was deeply embedded in creation. Today, we explore the story of Noah and the flood. Grab your Bible and enjoy!
Day in the Church Year: 3rd Sunday of Easter
Scripture Passage: Luke 24:36b-48
In the gospel of Luke, the women come to the tomb with spices early on Easter morning. When they arrive, they meet two men in dazzling clothes who ask them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.” Later that day while walking along the road to Emmaus, two followers of Jesus meet a stranger who talks with them about the death and reported resurrection of Jesus and then opens up the scriptures to them. When they arrive at Emmaus and sit down at the table together, the stranger takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. Their eyes are opened. It is Jesus. But he vanishes from their sight. These two rush to tell the disciples, “The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon!” And in the middle of the conversation about how they recognized Jesus as the stranger breaking the bread, suddenly, Jesus appears to them all in today’s reading.
Each Easter Sunday and throughout the season of Easter, we joyously proclaim: Christ is risen! To which you respond: Christ is risen indeed! This Easter proclamation comes from the 24th chapter of Luke. These words announce our hope, our joy, our confidence in the power of God. But on that first Easter, it is not all hope. It is not all joy. It is not all confidence in the power of God. For the women at the empty tomb and for the followers who only recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, “He is risen” is a puzzlement. Even when the followers declare, “The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon!” they still ask themselves, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road?” When Jesus appears among them in the passage of scripture we read today, quite suddenly, his presence is not met with sighs of relief, shouts of joy, and hugs all around. Jesus starts with “Peace be with you” because they are startled and terrified and think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus shows them his wounds, asks to eat in their presence, to further assure them of his real-ness, and then opens their minds to understand the scriptures. Yet, still, they persist in wonderment and disbelief.
There is a space between “Christ is risen” and “Christ is risen indeed.” To hear the announcement of Christ’s glorious resurrection is one thing. To respond, “Indeed“ and “alleluia” is another. Because, at least at first glance, Christ’s new life, Christ’s risen life is not all hope, joy, and confidence. New life does not mean the old life resuscitated. New life does not mean reverting back to life the way it was before, no matter how great it was. For the disciples, Christ’s risen life, Christ’s new life does not mean they will again travel with Jesus from place to place as he heals, teaches, feeds, and befriends people. New life means something entirely new, something the disciples and we cannot anticipate or plan for or control.
This Easter, we rejoice when we hear “Christ is risen,” but responding “Christ is risen indeed” at least partly means letting go of the old life and embracing whatever new life is breaking forth in our presence. To say “Christ is risen indeed” is not simply an affirmation of an age-old story but also a somewhat terrifying relinquishment of control. We who are fond of 5-year strategic plans and our daily routines, we may struggle to embrace Christ’s risen life, with Christ’s new life. Maybe we are happy with our old lives. The old lives we can control and understand and predict, each year unfolding like all the years before, with perfect regularity.
On Easter Sunday at both our worship service in the courtyard and during live stream worship, I asked how we all practice resurrection. Many of you responded insightfully and thoughtfully, from saying hello to people who are determined to be grumpy to taking care of ourselves when we could be consumed by despair to practicing gratitude and forgiveness to serving others. At worship in the courtyard, Ursula raised her hand and said: “Grace is a resurrection church, and I’m part of Grace.” Grace is a resurrection church. We are a resurrection people who embrace the new, risen life of Christ, personally and communally. On a really concrete level, there’s not much for us to do but to be present to what God is doing, to show up for what God is leading us to do, to walk forward even when we are afraid. We do not and cannot control the new, risen life of Christ breaking forth among us any more than the disciples could stop Jesus from showing up among them to say “Peace be with you.”
What Christ’s new, risen life looks like here and now, I can’t really tell you until we walk into it together. The plan, for all those of us who want a plan, is that, when Christ’s new, risen life breaks forth among us, either individually or communally, we will embrace it even though we might be scared. Today, I invite us to practice mindfulness for just a moment. Mindfulness is simply becoming aware of what we can perceive through our five senses as well as tracking the thoughts of our minds. When we are caught up in our thoughts, we can miss what is right in front of us. My hope is that by practicing mindfulness today and moving forward, we might become aware of Christ’s new, risen life breaking forth among us instead of getting stuck in old habits and patterns, fears and thoughts about what we believe should happen.
Please put both your feet on the floor, hands at rest in your lap or on the arms of a chair. Breath in. Breath out. What do you smell? Taste? Touch? Hear? See? What thoughts are entering your mind? Where and how is Christ’s new, risen life breaking open? Breath in. Breath out.
We have heard: Christ is risen. Will we respond? Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
What does the Bible say about creation and humans’ role as part of creation? During the season of Easter on The GLOW Show, Pastor Sarah will explore biblical stories and passages that reveal God’s posture towards Earth, God’s call for humans as part of creation, and the ways Jesus’ ministry was deeply embedded in creation. Today, we explore the second creation story from Genesis 2:4b-25. Grab your Bible and enjoy!
Beginning in May, Margie Betz and Pastor Sarah will be hosting an 8-week study entitled Lazarus At The Gate, a curriculum that leads a small group through a careful look at their personal finances in light of Jesus' and the prophets' call to living gratefully, justly, simply, and generously. This group will meet via Zoom or outdoors in person. Click “read more” for more information.
What does the Bible say about creation and humans’ role as part of creation? During the season of Easter on The GLOW Show, Pastor Sarah will explore biblical stories and passages that reveal God’s posture towards Earth, God’s call for humans as part of creation, and the ways Jesus’ ministry was deeply embedded in creation. Today, we explore the first creation story from Genesis 1:1-2:4a. Grab your Bible and enjoy!
What does the Bible say about creation and humans’ role as part of creation? During the season of Easter, Pastor Sarah will explore biblical stories and passages that reveal God’s posture towards Earth, God’s call for humans as part of creation, and the ways Jesus’ ministry was deeply embedded in creation. Find the podcast on Apple podcasts, the Grace Facebook page, and at www.graceinthecity.com/news each Wednesday.
Day of the Church Year: Easter Sunday
Gospel Passage: Mark 16:1-8
The stillness of this pandemic year, live streaming worship in the sanctuary with only a few people, Hope Hall largely empty, hours spent on the phone, on zoom, emailing, and texting instead of hours spent eye to eye at hospital bedsides, at the table in my office, in your homes, around tables in Hope Hall, or gathered for worship, the stillness of this pandemic year reminds me of the stillness of that first Easter morning. When the sabbath is over, the disciples still fearfully locked in the upper room, the women go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices. What they know is that Jesus is dead. Two thousand years later, we may struggle to remember their perspective, that on Easter morning when they awoke, their friend and teacher was dead. Suddenly, violently, unjustly dead. A good man, a faithful Jewish man, one who welcomed and embraced people with great generosity of spirit. Dead. If what happened was only that a good man suddenly, violently, unjustly died in a Roman occupied Israel, people would have not proclaimed the good news of God’s saving love, no matter Jesus’ death, no matter Jesus’ preaching and teaching, no matter Jesus’ miracles and great love. If what happened was only that a good man suddenly, violently, unjustly died in a Roman occupied Israel, most people would have shrugged their shoulders and moved on. The disciples would have feared for their lives but eventually gone back to fishing and tax collecting. The women would have mourned him and then returned to their families. That’s it. And when the women come to the tomb on Easter morning, that’s all they know. Still, they come.
They come wondering who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb. They come with spices. They come even though it is dangerous. They come not expecting a miracle, only a dead body. They come expecting to honor and care for their friend and teacher. This Easter, I am amazed by the women, their hope, their resilience, their courage, their steadfast love. How easy it is to lock ourselves away, to avoid what is hard, to succumb to fear and lethargy. They do not. Instead, they practice resurrection. Knowing only that Jesus is dead, they act with hope and courage, hope because anointing will make no difference at this point, courage because showing up at the tomb of a convicted criminal puts them at risk. Only they will know that they’ve honored Jesus, but that is what they want.
This Easter, the women, with their practice of resurrection, inspire me.
How do you practice resurrection? What acts of hope and courage do you perform? I invite you to think about it as I share how I do. To practice resurrection for me means signing up for volunteer shifts at vaccination sites, taking part in the work that will bring stability and safety to the world. It means for me keeping on with what I believe is important, even when I don’t do it well, trying and making mistakes, learning and growing. To practice resurrection means for me not giving up on people, not giving up on anyone, seeing people’s beauty and gifts and just them, you, you precious, beloved children of God. Our question of the day is: How do you practice resurrection? What acts of hope and courage do you perform? To read the community’s reflections, go to the Facebook live stream worship for April 4, 2021.
In a world bowed down by suffering and injustice of many kinds, will we act with hope and courage and perhaps a bit of foolishness? Loving and serving and showing up for people is what Christ’s resurrection looks like here and now. Working for justice, seeking peace, building loving community is what Christ’s resurrection looks like here and now. Here we are this morning, driven to worship God, to serve others, to show up for our community, despite all the other things we could be doing today. Though the Easter message of Christ’s resurrection may seem an irrational intellectual exercise, the resurrection of Christ is neither fanciful nor ephemeral.
On that Easter morning, when the women come to anoint his body, Jesus is nowhere to be found. The young man dressed in white tells them that Jesus is raised, that the disciples can find him in Galilee, the place where it all began. The gospel of Mark tells us that the women are seized by terror and amazement such that they flee from the tomb and tell no one anything. And that’s where Mark’s gospel ends. But Christ’s resurrection had already changed the world for the women come to the tomb despite its senselessness, and fifty days later, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all in Jerusalem to form the church. Christ is risen on Easter morning, and Christ is risen among us. We practice resurrection with hope and courage because, truly, Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Day in the Church Year: Maundy Thursday
Gospel Passage: John 13:1-17, 31b-35
When Jesus gathers with his disciples, we already know that Judas will betray Jesus.
Jesus had traveled and ministered with his disciples for three years, but he had never washed their feet before, an unsightly task for the Son of God.
Jesus informs them: I am with you only a little longer...Where I am going, you cannot come.
After three years, Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment and his last: to love one another.
We do not know if the disciples sense change afoot, but we readers of the gospel of John certainly do. Maundy Thursday ushers in change. The disciples likely believe they will spend their lives accompanying Jesus in his ministry. They likely expect that life with Jesus will only get better and better as Jesus ushers in the kingdom of God in glory and power. Instead, Maundy Thursday brings grief. Maundy Thursday ends abruptly with arrest and abandonment. Maundy Thursday transports Jesus and the disciples to the cusp of something entirely new.
That cusp is possibly the scariest, most alive place we humans know. March 15, 2020 when we announced to those who showed up for pancake breakfast that we would have to temporarily shut down the breakfast because of the coronavirus, and communication went out that we were canceling worship and all in person activities for at least two weeks. September 11, 2001 when we woke up to images of planes flying into the World Trade Center towers. The moment we ask ourselves: Is this the end of this relationship? The day we step onto a plane or a bus or climb into our cars to travel to a different place and make a life there. The day we begin college or move out of our parents’ house and we realize for the first time what it is to be on our own, making our own way in life. The moment after the funeral, the necessary financial and legal knots untangled that we sit down and really take in: My dad is dead. My mom is dead. My spouse is dead.
This cusp is one of the scariest places we humans know because, on the cusp of something entirely new, we really do not know what will come next. The scariest because we look into the future and don’t recognize the world: a world where terrorists fly planes into buildings, for instance. This cusp is also one of the most alive places we know because, on the cusp of something entirely new, we cannot rely on what we’ve done before to guide us. Standing on this cusp is a creative act, one that requires our full attention to the present moment.
This cusp is Maundy Thursday. Jesus gathers with his disciples to wash their feet, to send them into lives of loving service, to give them a new commandment: to love one another. He will go on to teach them and pray for them, and then, they enter a garden where Judas brings soldiers and police officers to arrest Jesus. Suddenly, the disciples’ world stops, the way our worlds have stopped, and just as we have experienced, they are scared, perhaps panicked, disoriented. In the gospel of John, Simon Peter and the disciple Jesus loves follow after the soldiers, police officers, and Jesus. The rest of the disciples are not mentioned again until the third day. Even though Simon Peter follows Jesus, when he stands warming himself in the courtyard of the high priest, Peter denies knowing Jesus to a bystander. What will happen next to Jesus? What will come of their lives? Peter does not know. The disciples who scatter do not know. The world is askew; they are on the cusp of something entirely new.
At this moment in history, we too are on the cusp of something entirely new. A year ago, our collective life came to a sudden stop, and we had no idea what to expect. Here we are again, at what I hope is the cusp of a post-pandemic world, a world that will not look the same as the pre-pandemic world. In our own personal worlds, we may be on the cusp of something entirely new, a moment we will look back on, a time requiring deep breaths and courage and faith. The world is askew, just as on that first Maundy Thursday. On the cusp of something entirely new that they could neither control nor understand, the disciples hear a new commandment, a commandment to us dearly familiar: to love one another. In the gospel of John, the very last act of Jesus’ ministry is washing the disciples’ feet. He has lots to say to them that night, four full chapters of teaching we will hear in the coming weeks, but Jesus’ last command is embodied in his last act and it is simply to love.
On the cusp of something entirely new, in a world that no longer feels secure or certain, at a time when we are forced to honestly say “I don’t know” more often than not, Jesus’ dearly familiar commandment is for us a guide. I think about Jesus weighing that night: what will help my disciples move forward? An act of love accompanied by a command to love.
How do we move forward? Most if not all of us get tangled up in the judgmental chatter of our minds, in the partisan chatter of the news, in the ceaseless worries and tensions and questions of this life. On this cusp, we might feel bereft, like we just don’t know how to move forward. But here, on the cusp that is Maundy Thursday, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet and commands them to love one another. How do we move forward? With love because God first loved us. We discern the loving action, the deeply loving action, and then we do it because God first loved us. Maundy Thursday shows us the love of Christ, love not as platitude but as dirty hands and aching knees. We might be scared as we stand on the cusp of something entirely new. Still, we are loved, and that love guides us always. Amen.
Please join us for our Quarterly Pizza & Ministry Night on the third Tuesday in April, April 20 at 6:30 pm via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86867996008?pwd=ZGNvYjMyNmxtT3h2Mm9qMEJ0VUZNQT09.
As ever, Ministry Night is a time to build community, hear updates about the ministry we do together, to ask questions, and also to share ideas about how we might be in the city for good! All are welcome at Ministry Night…but you’ll have to bring your own pizza this time. Maybe by July we can meet in person!
During worship at Grace during the pandemic, we have only been reading the assigned gospel passage each week in worship. To get a fuller sense of the biblical narrative and the church year, the following Bible passages are the assigned Revised Common Lectionary readings for Year B, our current year. Click “read more” to see all of April’s readings.
Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary to those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries in the month of April! We will recognize and pray for all those who are celebrating birthdays during our Community Building Coffee on Sunday, April 4 at 12:30 pm via zoom. Find the link in your weekly email from Pastor Sarah.
We gathered for mid-week Lenten worship in the courtyard for the last time on March 24, sang Holden Evening Prayer, and heard stories of grief and hope from both Luke 7 and a member of our own community, Steph Rodin. Enjoy, and sing along!
