Washington Street UMC Sermon Podcast

Following the flood, God forms a new level of intimacy through the covenant with Abraham. This new covenant establishes a lineage out of Abraham that will be given a homeland, a sense of belonging, and a purpose of vocation. God is forging a new path with humanity, which is promised to be an everlasting covenant.

The story of the flood wraps up the opening stories of creation. We were created in intimacy with God, humanity then found themselves distanced from God, and through the flood, creation is rescued by God. This three-fold pattern will become the norm for creation in the arc of the universe.

Humanity, which was given dominion over all the earth, was enticed to try and take dominion over God. This action led to their being evicted from the Garden of Eden. This first sin snowballed until God was so upset with humanity that God decided to start anew. There is agony, concern, mercy and grace in this story.

The creation narrative indicates that humanity is different than the rest of creation. God spoke to us; God breathed life into us; God gave us words of instruction, unlike any other part of creation. We are, as God's created humanity, formed in the likeness (the image) of God. But what does this mean, and how does that shape our purpose?

As a Christian community, we are to be the witness of God's love in the world as the physical representation of Christ. Our witness then should look like the witness of Christ. Matthew 9 offers a great example of Christ's witness, as he dines with the unwanted, goes where he is needed, and is flexible enough to pause along the road to acknowledge the needs of those around him.

The gifting of the Spirit first creates a space of welcome, but the Spirit doesn't allow the newly formed church to be too comfortable. Following the kind of gathering imagined in the Great Commission, the body of believers then live a life that witnesses to God's divine change. We don't just "make disciples of Jesus Christ," we "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."

Following Jesus' physical departure at the Ascension, Pentecost comes and offers an enduring promise: we are gifted to be a people of Christ in community. Though the disciples were unsure of what life would be like in the absence of Christ, God makes clear at Pentecost that we are not alone. We are gifted and created to be a people together.

There will always be something else inviting us to turn from the ways of God. But faithful disciples must stay alert and focused, always reminding ourselves of the God of all grace, who will restore, support, strengthen, and establish us. We remain in faithfulness in our corporate experience, united by the grace of God will all who share in the Christian witness.

Focus on "Do not fear what they fear" ... how can we be ok with the changes that are happening?

Christ was not defined as a stagnant truth, but a living stone. So too should our faith be a living stone, as we continue to be built and grow in understanding and faithfulness. As the world changes, so too must we, in faithful ways as God leads.

Take a little of Christ with you in all you do - don't act one way at church on Sunday and another way the rest of the week.

Being born anew in Christ leads us to claim a foundational truth that is centered on mutual love. In a world that is continually changing, we must maintain this truth, and insist upon this mutual love.

The promise of Easter is that we have this new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How does that new birth sustain us when the world around us doesn't reflect that same joy?

For Jesus, one of his main ways to demonstrate love was to redefine "justice." Throughout his witness, Jesus makes it clear that God's love is not neutral; God takes sides. God loves everyone, but pays particular attention to those who society overlooks. There is no greater witness to this justice-is-love proclamation than at Easter.

Mandatum ovum is Latin for the words, “New Command.” It is the phrase that offers us the namesake for our Holy Thursday gathering, which we call “Maundy Thursday.” In this command, Jesus offers his followers a new way of understanding what it means to be a follower of Christ: to love one another.

Conflict avoidance is not the way of Jesus. In his ministry, Jesus often put himself in the midst of conflict for the purpose of proclaiming the way of God. We saw the same thing in the early church, when Paul and Peter disagreed on the expansiveness of God's love. Sometimes conflict is the most faithful step for Christ's disciples.

The world is not lacking religious zealots. Take a nice spring drive through the beauty of our Commonwealth, and you'll find it hard to miss religious symbolism, whether that is crosses, the name "Jesus," or other flags paying homage to a diety - human or godly. Sometimes what we need most is to disconnect from the gods of the world, that we might be recentered in the God of resurrection - the God...

It seems like every corner we take we find another gaslit fight waiting to break out. The world is anxious, like a lit powder keg, waiting for ignition. In such a tense moment, what we need is to cultivate a calming presence that difuses tension and holds fast to truth and love.

We're all just a little bit conceited, aren't we? We live in a world that has given us permission to be a know-it-all, who can spit out fake news as if it were truth, and people will believe us. But the way of Christ is one of humility and selflessness. A faithful posture requires a limiting of one's ego.

Very few of us live without wounds that lie beneath the surface. We have likely been traumatized, or we know someone who has. The world would try to convince us that carrying wounds and trauma makes us less loved, less faithful, and less able. Yet Jesus invites us to see and touch his wounds to know we are not alone.

Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness, a spiritual force that invited Jesus to turn away from the truth of God's power and authority. Paul says that, for all people of faith, we struggle in a similar fight against spiritual forces and cosmic powers. So what really is behind the systemic issues that continue to deteriorate God's beautiful creation?

Lent is a journey to discover wholeness. But to admit we have wholeness to discover, we must begin in the acknowledgement of the brokenness of our world. The world is plagued by sin - separation from God - separation from love. Sin is a failure to love. As we begin this year's lenten journey, we'll consider how the brokenness of the world is the result of our failure to love.

We often think of hope as short-term planning: What do you hope will happen in your upcoming job interview; your athletic competition; or you current dating relationship? But hope isn't the same as goal-setting. Hope offers us something greater; it is an invitation to a promise that is bigger than our own lives.

As we maintain a focus on hope, we find that hope is not a stagnant entity. Hope is not just something we think about or believe in, hope is a motivator that leads us into action. Like a daily walk, hope is something that we practice and live out.

The Old Testament offers a beautiful witness to the power of hope in story. By offering hope in story, we are able to pass on hope, to share hope, and to include the greater community in the promise of hope.