Posts Tagged with Luke

Sanctuary

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Text: Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:39-56

I have a kind of strange question to ask…

Does this dress look familiar to you?

How many of you have noticed or realized that I have worn it every Sunday for the last eight weeks? 

How many of you have noticed that I have worn this dress… I mean, this exact garment, not one like it, for every day for the last sixty-two days? 

I had seen advertisements for this Wool& dress for ages, advertising this magical wool garment that stretches and doesn’t smell and that you don’t have to wash every day.  Something that keeps you cool when you are hot and warm when you are chilled.

A friend did the challenge.  Then another.  And so I thought – why not. 

I needed a new black dress and something that was well constructed and would last me for a while and could be a sustainable addition to my wardrobe made sense. 

So here I am… day sixty-two. 

Why on earth am I talking about a dress on the fourth Sunday of Advent?

Because we all need to have a safe place to run and share and feel safe when the world around us is falling apart.

Our scripture for this morning tells the story of how an unwed, pregnant teenager ran away from home – and ran straight to the arms and household of her relative, Elizabeth. 

Many of us have heard this story before. 

A relative who went off to live somewhere else for a while – to hide from a secret shame, to get clean, to take responsibility for mistakes.

We have stories that have been passed down in hushed tones about the family that took them in while they got their lives back together.

But we also know there are times in all of our lives when we have a struggle that we aren’t quite sure how to share or speak aloud. 

And so you seek the sanctuary of a close friend – someone you can be honest with.  Someone who will believe you.  Someone who will be on your side. 

When I started this silly challenge of wearing this dress for 100 days, I joined a facebook group dedicated to the task.  I was anticipating getting ideas for how to style with items already in my closet, advice for cleaning… that kind of thing. 

What I didn’t expect is that this group would be a place of sanctuary for so many.

Women talking about difficulties in relationships.

Sharing stories of health crises or tremendous loss. 

Wrestling with insecurities about how they look and past emotional abuse.

We all need a place to turn when things are rough…

When we are unsure of what to do or who will love and accept us…

And this facebook group about a dress has become a place of sanctuary for so many.

The responses are full of love and encouragement and grace and support. 

Ya’ll… it feels like church. 

Our text from the Hebrew scriptures talks about a ruler who will be born in Bethlehem. 

It is an insignificant and unlikely place… but he will be our shepherd.

He will help us find safety and peace and security and love. 

And as Christians, we believe that one that was promised was the Messiah, Jesus. 

But he was born to an insignificant and unlikely person… a young woman, pregnant and unmarried, vulnerable. 

Mary is open and willing and ready to be God’s vessel… but also, she must have been terrified.

How could you explain such a miracle? How would others have responded?

Would there have been stares, questions, disbelief?

Despite her faith and her courage, was it simply too much?

She turns to the only person she thinks can understand… her cousin, Elizabeth, who is having her own miraculous pregnancy. 

I have preached on the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth countless times in my ministry.

But I don’t think that I have ever focused on what it meant for these two to find one another in this moment. 

Charles Campbell captures it well:

“The scene is absurd… A baby leaps in the womb.  Blessings are shared.  Astonishment is expressed.  Songs are sung.  By two pregnant women… It is fleshy, embodied, earthy, appropriate as a forerunner to the incarnation… In the women’s actions, the world is indeed turned upside down. Hierarchies are subverted. The mighty are brought low. Two marginalized, pregnant women carry the future and proclaim the Messiah.” 

(Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, p 95)

In this place of sanctuary and safety, the two women offer support.

They share the joys and the triumphs and the stress and the difficulty. 

And they proclaim and shout and sing about how God is turning the world upside down.

We’ve talked a lot over the last several weeks about home. 

About God making a home among us… about the kin-dom taking root right here in this world.

And the truth is, if we really let it, it changes everything.

God is initiating a world of love and grace and mercy and welcome.

God is calling us to repent of the ways we have shut one another out and turned one another away. 

To let go of our tendencies to shame or harass or judge.

To embrace a life of humility and freedom and mercy. 

And while Mary’s song talks about rulers being toppled from their thrones, we are called to live these promises out with actions that are much simpler. 

Who will you welcome today? 

How can you offer sanctuary for someone who is unsure about their future?

What do you need to do to show grace to someone you love?  

Where is God calling you to be a shepherd for others? 

That’s what church is all about, after all, isn’t it?

It is about sanctuary. 

It is about forgiveness.

It is about community.

It is offering hope and love and support and prayers.

It is a pocket of the kin-dom of God right here on earth as we let the love of Christ transform how we treat one another. 

It might be a facebook group about a dress…

Or it might be at the dinner table when your kid comes out…

Or it might be how you respond to the co-worker you disagree with…

Or it might be reaching out to a complete stranger in the check-out line with a smile of encouragement…

But we are called to love our neighbors.

To love with open arms and humility and compassion. 

May we be sanctuary for all who seek it.

May we carry that kind of love with us… may we carry church with us… wherever we go. 

Time to Go

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Text: Luke 21:25-36, Jeremiah 33:14-16

Have you ever been at a gathering… maybe with family or with friends… and all of a sudden you didn’t really want to be there anymore? 

Maybe you were tired.

Or maybe the conversation became stale.

Maybe they ran out of food or someone said something that offended you.

Or maybe you just knew that you had an early morning planned for the next day and it was time to go.

You wanted to be back home, in comfy clothes, rather than there.

Maybe you had one of those moments in these past few days! 

I just hope you aren’t having one right now 😊

Friends, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. 

When my husband and I are at a party, or an event, or even just hanging out with family and the time has come to go home… when it’s time to get outta there… we have a secret phrase.

“Tut-tut… looks like rain!”

When either one of us utters those words, we know it is time to start packing up our stuff.

And when I shared that with church members, I quickly learned how many other couples and families have their own secret signs… a look, a poke, a phrase.

The point is… we all know how to look and listen for the signs that it is time to go home. 

This Advent at Immanuel is all about going home… 

Getting back to that place that is safe and welcoming and comfortable… 

Creating that kind of space in our own lives for other people…

And yet, as we dive into this Advent season, the scriptures of this particular lectionary year are far from comforting. 

We get a lot of harsh words from the prophets and startling visions of the end times. 

Words of judgement and challenge are going to be leaping off the pages at us. 

But there are also words of comfort and promise and grace and love. 

You see, Advent is a time of preparation.  

It is a time of getting ready. 

And it is not just about getting ready for the birth of one very special child. 

It is about getting ready for how the world is about to turn! 

It is about getting ready for the kin-dom that this child will usher in!

It is about how everything changes and shifts and reorients itself because Jesus has been born and because Jesus is about to come again!

And we are longing for that world and that kin-dom.

We are homesick for God’s reign.

We are waiting and yearning for a reality in which there is no more hunger, no more hatred, no more hurt. 

And the truth is, we aren’t quite there yet.

But as people who follow Christ… we hold on in hope to the promise that God’s kin-dom is our true home. 

Our gospel reading from Luke this morning is what is known as the “little apocalypse.” 

If we glance at these words without diving into the context, they sound awfully scary.

Dismay among nations.

Surging waves.

Planets that are shaken. 

Fear and foreboding.

But let’s think about these signs in context of that party or gathering that I described just a few minutes ago. 

You find yourself a guest at a gathering of the world, but the tables are empty.

The conversation is heated.

The fire is going out.

And you know in your gut that this isn’t your home and it’s time to go. 

You want to get out of there.

You want to get home.

But you can’t. 

You don’t know how.

In that moment, Luke’s gospel tells us, when everything seems to be falling apart and lost and ruined and the party has been crashed…

That is when Christ will come…

That is when God’s kin-dom will appear… 

That is when we will know that we are just about home.

So, in those moments when you are the most homesick…

the most filled with longing…

That is when we need to hang on to hope, because everything that was promised is about to burst forth in life. 

We just need to pay attention. 

The prophet Jeremiah knew something about being homesick.

He understood what it was like to wish that the world around him was different.

He was called to bring a word of judgment against the people of Judah for their idolatry.  They had broken their covenant with God and as a result would face the consequences of their actions.

Jeremiah was called to proclaim a time of famine, defeat, and captivity.

During his prophetic ministry, he witnessed the exile of the Judean leaders, the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

Trust me… if Jeremiah could have cried out “Tut-tut… looks like rain!” he might have gotten out of there.

But somehow in the midst of that, he didn’t abandon his job and he held on to hope.

He trusted in God’s faithfulness in spite of Judah’s sin and rebellion.

He continued to pay attention to the word of the Lord being spoken in his midst and it allowed him to trust that this place that was an absolute mess could be transformed into home once again.

A home where God’s will would reign.

A home where what is right and just would be done. 

In fact, in the chapter before this, the Babylonians are at the gate of the city, attacking it, and yet Jeremiah buys a field as a sign of his hope in what God could do. 

Because as God speaks through him, “the days are coming when I will fulfill my promises and a righteous Branch will sprout from David’s line.” (33:14-15 paraphrase).

Jeremiah trusts and believes that God will make a home among them yet. 

Both of these passages come to us on this first Sunday of Advent.  

And as people of faith, who are trying to walk in the light of Jesus, the world we experience around us surely is not what it should be.

I think about the gun violence here in Des Moines that has tragically taken the life of so many young ones this year.

In the last month, a two-year old child was struck by a stray bullet on the same night a young man named Dean Deng was shot and killed. Deng was part of the Mabaan South Sudanese United Methodist Church here in Des Moines.  The week before the death of a fifteen-year old in the King Irving Neighborhood. 

Or I think about the increasing food scarcity in our community. 

We have a number of volunteers here at Immanuel that have started checking our little food pantry on a daily basis and they stop in my office and tell me about how every day it empties out. Not only do our neighbors need food, but they need gloves and socks for warmth. 

This world is not the home that God intends for us.

And we can be so focused on what is wrong…

We can dull ourselves with all of the anxieties of life…

We can be filled with fear and foreboding…

Or… we can start to pay attention for where there is hope.

We can pay attention to where new life is sprouting…

We can stand up and raise our heads and look for where God is inviting us to invest in the kin-dom… our true home.

I am reminded of the importance of our partnership with local schools and organizations like CFUM and all of the ways we help show young people that they are loved and valued and help put them on a different kind of track – one that doesn’t involve guns and violence. 

And I think of how we can do our part to fight hunger, but also how we can join with larger efforts like the work of DMARC.  DMARC has seen the need grow so much in these last few years that they are moving to larger facilities to care for the needs of our community.  This network is such a vital part of how we partner with our larger community in making sure that all who hunger are fed.  Because of this, our Christmas Eve offering this year will go towards helping DMARC move into their new home. 

Hope, you see, is not passive. 

When everything feels like it is falling apart and we get homesick for a better world, that is when God is inviting us to get up and get busy for the kin-dom. 

If we want a just world, then we need to admit our part in injustices, repent, and seek another way. 

If we want a world where all are healed, then we can do our part in caring for the sick, creating the conditions for health, and preventing disease. 

If we want a world where creeks run clean, then we can recycle and advocate for public policies. 

If we want a world where all who hunger are fed, then maybe we should start setting the table and inviting others to join us.

There are signs all around us that things are not as they should be.

But rather than signs of doom, they are simply reminders of where God is tugging at your heart and calling you to be the hands and feet of Christ. 

Instead of wallowing in our homesickness, we are called to use that hurt deep within as fuel for a better world. 

Friends, if you think that this party is a bust and it’s time to go home… then you are right.

Tut-tut. It is time to go.

It is time to go and get to work for the kingdom of God. 

The Church in Antioch

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Text: Acts 11: 19-30

In our lesson for today, Luke notes that this new community in Antioch represents the very first time that people were called, “Christians.”

Before this, we’ve had a lot of different descriptions of these folks.

Jews.  Disciples.  Followers of the Way.  Those who were part of “This Life.” 

It was hard to describe this community.

And largely that is because this movement started among and as an extension of the Jewish faith. 

Jesus himself was considered a Jewish rabbi, who recruited disciples to follow his teaching… like many other Jewish rabbis of the time.

And yet, there was more to Jesus than this.

He wasn’t simply pointing to God’s Kingdom.

He didn’t just have a particular teaching about what it meant to be Jewish.  

He was ushering in a whole new kind of relationship between God and the world that brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. 

While Jesus walked among those first disciples and the crowds, he described the kind of life we were now called to embody.

Think about the Sermon on the Mount…

In ‘The Message’ translation, as the sermon continues after the Beatitudes, Eugene Peterson writes:

“Let me tell you why you are here…”   

The whole sermon is full of instructions for the people of God.

It reminds us of the attitudes we are supposed to carry with us into the world and how we can serve God and God’s Kingdom. 

We are supposed to fulfill God’s laws – God’s plans and guide for how we love and live with one another.

And as we do, we become salt and light. 

Our very lives, our witness, helps others to experience God.

Think a bit about what it means to be salt and light. 

We aren’t called to be salty in a way that is angry and bitter and ill-tempered.

Salt takes what is already there and brings out the flavors.  It helps us taste what is hidden. 

When you sprinkle salt on watermelon or tomatoes, the flavors are more bright and sweet.

When you add salt to soup, it becomes rich and deep. 

Salt is used for curing and preserving and healing.

That is our job! 

We bring out the “God-flavors of this earth” (MSG) by pointing to the good news and movement of God and lifting up stories of life and hope. 

In the same way, the light of God within us helps others to see God. 

Our faith is not meant to be secret or private… but to shine far and wide so that others might have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as well. 

So the testimony and witness of the Book of Acts tells us about how those first Jewish disciples lived in the way Jesus called them to live. 

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God within them, they were salt and light… not just for themselves, or for their neighbors, but for the entire world. 

We see it in that first community in Jerusalem that gathered to break breads and pray and learn at the feet of the apostles. 

We see it in how they cared for the vulnerable within the community.   

We see it in how people were healed, and faith deepened, and understanding of the Kingdom of God expanded and grew. 

Even when persecution and threats could have driven them underground, hiding away the light of God in their hearts, they shone.

And suddenly, this small group of Jewish disciples who believed that Jesus was the Messiah became an international movement of Jews and Gentiles.

Which brings us to Antioch.

If we remember, the experience of Pentecost was itself had a global impact because Jewish faithful from across the world had returned to the city for the festival.

But, after the death of Stephen, some of those disciples fled and returned home… some all the way to the northern end of the Mediterranean Sea. 

They began to be salt and light back home, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with their fellow Jews. 

And because Antioch was a huge, cosmopolitan city – a crossroads of the world at this time – some of those folks from Phoenicia and Cyprus and even people as far away as the north African city of Cyrene found themselves together. 

As the Holy Spirit led them, they pointed to what God was doing in the world and just like Peter had experienced in Caesarea, Gentiles began to join the movement as well.

That’s the thing about salt and light. 

It can’t be hidden away. 

It can’t be contained to just one thing.

If you salt your potatoes on the plate, some is bound to land on the chicken and broccoli, too.

If you set a light in one corner of a room, eventually the whole space will be illuminated.

Jesus was telling those first disciples that if they followed his way, the whole world would notice.

So why are we surprised when they do? 

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem heard about these happenings and decided to send Barnabas up to check on things.

You know, I have to be honest, before this summer and taking the time to really look closely at the book of Acts, I really didn’t know who Barnabas was… but he is such an instrumental part of this early Jesus movement!

Barnabas is the guy in chapter 4 who sells his land and gives the proceeds to the poor. 

Barnabas is also the guy who vouches for Saul when he comes back to Jerusalem after his transformation. 

And he’s the guy who gets sent to this community in Antioch.

This is an incredibly strategic decision on the part of the apostles. 

Scripture tells us that Barnabas was actually from Cyprus, this island in the northern Mediterranean Sea. 

Although he was Jewish, a Levite in fact, he had a cross-cultural identity, growing up outside of Israel in a region that had been ruled by various empires and was a major player in regional trade. 

So Barnabas would have largely understood the customs and traditions of this Roman trade city. 

And when he arrives, what he finds is a mixed Jewish and Gentile community that is full of salt and light and the power of God. 

Barnabas himself is a non-Hebrew Jew. 

He has heard about Peter’s experience with the Roman soldier, Cornelius.

So when he arrives and sees the Holy Spirit moving among this diverse group of folks, he is filled with joy and starts to figure out how he can encourage them to grow even more fully into their relationship with God.

His gets himself situated and preaches a few sermons, but then realizes that this needs to be a team effort and he goes to Tarsus to search for Saul.

Yep, that Saul.

The one that Barnabas had vouched for in Jerusalem.

The one who had stirred up some conflict among the other Greek-speaking Jews and got sent back home.

Home for Saul was on the northern Mediterranean.

You see, he, too, had this kind of dual-identity. 

Firmly Jewish, and yet also a Roman citizen, fluent in the Greek culture and world. 

Together, these two became a dynamic team that helped to shape the church into more than just a Jewish sect. 

The Spirit of God truly had moved beyond Jerusalem… beyond Samaria… and from Antioch would move to the ends of the earth. 

As such, this group of folks needed a new name. 

They were more than a Jewish community.

The Holy Spirit fell upon all who would believe in Jesus Christ so that they might be salt and light for the world.

As Paul would later write to the church in Galatia, “You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus.  All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28)

And if we are all one in Christ, made God’s children through faith in Christ, what better name for this group than Christian. 

These Christians in Antioch understood why they were there. 

To know God and to know Jesus.

To be salt and light for the world.

And to reach out in love to their neighbors.

In fact, when they heard about a potential disaster, a famine, headed towards the people of Judea, they took up a collection and sent it to Jerusalem to help. 

We are here today, because of that diverse and vibrant community in Antioch.

Because of the way they didn’t let labels get in the way of who was welcome.

Because they let their light shine beyond their city to bring healing and hope to the world.

From Jerusalem… to Samaria… to Antioch… to right here in Des Moines, we are called to do the same. 

To let our light shine so that others might know God.

To bring out and support the work God is already doing healing and bringing hope to the people of this community.

To love our neighbors. 

Whether that is providing milk and juice for the families at Hawthorne Hill…

Or signing up to tutor at schools this fall…

Or volunteering with Vacation Bible School…

Or the ways, big and small, you make a difference in the lives of others through your daily work…

Be light.

Be salt.

Be evidence of God’s grace to a world that is desperate for hope. 

You Will Be My Witnesses

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Text: Luke 24:44-50, Acts 1: 9-11

Forty days after Jesus rose from the grave and conquered death, he led the disciples out to the countryside to the little town of Bethany. And he reminded them of everything he had done.

Jesus reminded them of how he healed and forgave.

He reminded them of his words and truth.

He connected the dots for them and helped them to understand his suffering and death.

I’m pretty sure that he probably talked about love.

And then he said five simple words: “you will be my witnesses.”

He blessed them.

And he left them.

On that day, forty days after Easter, Jesus was taken up into heaven.

And the disciples, our scripture says, returned to Jerusalem with joy in their hearts to spend time in worship and prayer and to wait. 

You will be my witnesses.

You know, we started this series on what it means to practice resurrection by talking about how we are called to be the living witnesses of the resurrection.

We are the proof that Jesus is alive and that God is real and that the Holy Spirit is moving.

Everything we say and do is a sign to the world of the reality of resurrection power.

There are some days, however, when I wrestle with why Jesus couldn’t have just stayed with us and done all of this himself. 

Wouldn’t it be so much better if Jesus was standing here teaching and preaching? Leading us? Showing us how to live?

There are so many problems that we face in the world today…

The ravages of illness and death…

The exploitation of workers…

Natural disasters…

And then there are the political tensions and violence…

Our scripture today takes place in Bethany – just two miles from Jerusalem in the time of Jesus. 

But today, that journey would require traveling from Israel into the West Bank through a separation barrier. 

Today, the conflict between the Palestinian and Israeli people over land and the right to exist and live and move freely makes this a dangerous place. 

As rockets and missiles fire, and the death toll rises… especially among the Palestinians who are far more vulnerable.

How I long and pray for peace for these peoples. 

And how I wish that in that very spot where Jesus once stood, he might stand again, raise his hands, and breathe peace upon the world. 

What is the ascension all about?  Why is it good news? 

Why were the disciples… who were so scared and timid in the days after his death, so filled with joy at this experience? 

This language of going up or ascending is really the “language of enthronement.” (GBOD)

In the ascension of Jesus, he rises not simply from the grave, but up to his full authority.

He no longer walks and talks among us but he is now “seated at the right hand of the Father.”

He is no longer the prophetic carpenter from Galilee, but he has risen to his fullest stature as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The ascension is the completion of the resurrection.

And that is a good and holy and awesome thing.

But there is something else to the ascension that we often miss.

In the incarnation of Jesus, we celebrate the word of God was made flesh. We witness how God came down and was born as a tiny babe in Bethlehem.

Every aspect of our human life was experienced by God.

Love and loss.

Stubbed toes and broken promises.

Laughter and tears.

Disappointment and overwhelming joy.

Fear and grief.

Jesus experienced the fullness of our lives – and the ultimate depths of suffering and death.

God entered our humanity in the birth of Jesus… that little child who was fully divine.

And when Jesus Christ – a man of flesh and blood, a fully human being who ate and drank and lived and died – when Christ is taken up into heaven, all of humanity is taken up to God also.

These two moments: the incarnation and the ascension unite the human and the divine. They establish an unbreakable relationship.

And so we don’t need to stand on the Mount of Bethany, with our mouths open, staring at the sky waiting for Jesus. 

As the angels – those messengers in white robes who show up remind the disciples – ask, what are you doing standing around for?   

Jesus has not left us… he has united us with the divine.

“You will be furnished with heavenly power,” he says as he is carried up into heaven.

You will be my witnesses.

You are going to tell my story.

Jesus blesses us and empowers us to carry on the work of love and grace and transformation in the world.

To be the people of the resurrection.

As I think about our graduating seniors, I think about how this time of transition is just like that blessing and ascension moment.

For years, we have been pouring our love and faith into you. 

Today, we have the opportunity to bless you and send you out into whatever God has prepared next for your lives.

But you aren’t leaving us. 

And we aren’t leaving you. 

We are simply moving into a new phase of our relationship and lives together. 

You are crossing a threshold and claiming your lives in new ways. 

You are going out to be witnesses for Jesus.

To tell the world what Jesus has done.

To love people as Jesus has loved us.

To share God’s kingdom with the world… as you learn and grow and teach and play and serve.

But there is another truth here…

Sometimes, I bet you as students have heard that your real life begins after you graduate. 

But you have been pouring love and ministry back into us through your leadership and energy and service and witness this whole time. 

You are not the future of the church… you ARE the church and have been the church. 

You didn’t have to wait until you graduate or until you finish college or get a job… you get to serve Christ right now. 

One church put on their sign, “We believe in life before death.”

And in the church, just like we sometimes get it wrong about our young people…

We can get so caught up in life after death, in what happens up there with Jesus and whether or not we are going up there, that we forget about this life.

Jesus invites us to live before we die.

He invites us to go and share and tell and bless and love.

He invites us to not only live, but to share new life with the broken and hurting of this world.

William Herzog II writes that “neither resurrection nor ascension is about human longing for life after death.  Resurrection is a call to mission.  Nothing is said about the disciple’s resurrection… they are focused on waiting… until the mantle passes to them and the power from on high endows them for the mission ahead.”  (Daily Feast, Year C, pg 277)

We practice resurrection and work to make God’s will happen on earth as it is in heaven.

We practice resurrection because the Kingdom of God has come.

And in the ascension, we are connected and reminded of the divine power that will allow us to do so. 

You know, those disciples were asked to wait… but they didn’t have to wait long. 

Next week is Pentecost Sunday and after just ten days of praying and praising and expectation, the Holy Spirit rushed into their lives and forever changed the world. 

You know… if Jesus had simply stayed with us – he would have just been one person.

But the Body of Christ… the church… is greater than one man. 

And we are going to explore in these coming months how those first disciples claimed the power of the resurrection.

How they found the courage to speak God’s truth.

How they reached out in love.

And how the message of Christ moved from Jerusalem, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.   

Quick spoiler alert… it wasn’t easy.

At times it felt impossible.

As impossible as it might feel today to pray and work for peace for the Palestinian and Israeli people… or to respond to a natural disaster… or to navigate forces of oppression… but…   

That is our mission. 

To receive God’s power.

To share God’s love.

And to change the world. 

May it be so. 

Living Proof

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Text: Luke 24:36b-48

Did the resurrection actually happen?  I know what you are thinking… that’s an awfully strange question for a pastor to be asking. But I wasn’t there.  You weren’t there.  It happened a really long time ago. If someone asked me that question today, if I had proof that Jesus is alive, what could I show them?

Well, to be honest, I would show them you.  We are an Easter people, aren’t we? Our lives are marked by the resurrection of Jesus, isn’t it? If the resurrection is real… if Jesus is alive… then it is our lives that bear witness to that truth.

Let’s back up a bit and explore what that means.  In our gospel for today, Luke tells us about how the disciples first encountered the resurrected Jesus.  In this version of the gospel, women had traveled to the tomb and the body of Jesus was gone. Instead, they encountered two messengers who told them that Jesus was alive. The women ran back and told the disciples who were mighty confused.  Only Peter was willing to take their story seriously and when he went to look in the tomb for himself, he simply found a linen cloth. 

Later that day, two followers of Jesus were walking along the road to Emmaus and Jesus showed up beside them!  When they finally realized who it was, they ran back to Jerusalem, found the eleven remaining disciples and the rest of those gathered and told them that Jesus really, actually, truthfully, was alive. And bingo-bango… Jesus appears in the room.  Without warning. Without doors opening.He just shows up.

Luke tells us that they thought they were seeing a ghost and Rev. Dr. Derek Weber (Discipleship Ministries) picks up on that idea… “They were haunted by him,” Weber writes. “by the idea of him, by the blood of him. They were terrified of their shame, of how they had abandoned him, of how they wouldn’t believe in what he had told them before or what the women said they saw.” 

This idea that Jesus would simply appear. And be there. Right there. Standing before them. It was almost too much to comprehend.

And so, Jesus offers them living proof. He isn’t a spirit. He isn’t floating in the air. He’s real. Flesh and blood. Here are my hands, he says. Look at my feet. Touch them. This was about more than just seeing the marks from the resurrection still present on his body. It was also about grabbing on and feeling the blood and the life and the warmth coursing through him. 

In our modern English translations, we might read “touch and see” here in verse 39, but Weber notes that in the Greek, the words are more of a command. He is telling all of them – Grab a hold of me!  Ground yourselves in my reality. Hang on to it. Don’t just see, but behold! What you are going to touch and experience when you do will change your entire life. Or as Weber puts it: “Grab hold of the reality of Christ and see not just him but you, too.  See your path, your future, your mission, and your reason for being.”

And then, to dispel ANY remaining doubts about whether or not he was really real, Jesus eats a piece of fish. Because, ghosts don’t eat, right? Things that are dead don’t eat. I am real.  The resurrection is true. Everything I told you is actually happening.  And then he goes on to remind them, once again, about what God wants not just for them, but for all people. 

As we launch into the summer, we are going to follow the disciples as they travel to the ends of the earth with this message of transformation and life and abundance  and hope.  We will walk step by step through the ways they lived out the resurrection of Jesus in the world.  So we aren’t going to dive into all of that today.

You see, first, we need to appreciate and understand and grab a hold of the truth of this moment. As Derek Weber writes, “the gospel, the life of faith has to be grounded in reality…  If we don’t start here, if we don’t watch that piece of fish being eaten, if we don’t grab hold, we won’t see. And if we don’t see, then we are likely to turn our message into one of the hereafter, the sweet by and by and not the here and now.”

Think about it.  If all that Jesus did was create a way for us to get to heaven… there would be no need for the resurrection. In his death, he could simply have cracked open the wall that separates heaven from earth enough for our disembodied souls to get in. He didn’t need to come back and walk and talk and eat fish to carry us into heaven when we died. He could have simply sent a messenger, or showed up as a spirit.  And the message of the Christian faith would have been something like: everything will be better after we die.  

To be honest, that is how I see a lot of Christians walking around and acting. That is the message that is often shared with people. This world doesn’t matter. These people don’t matter. Who cares what is going on in Myanmar or Minneapolis or on the Mexican border, because my faith is about what comes after this life. 

Except, it’s not.   That is not the truth of the Christian faith. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, if Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead then our preaching is useless and so is your faith. The good news is that the resurrection life transforms THIS world and not simply the next.  It is born out in flesh and blood and love and community right here and right now.  Our faith is an embodied faith.  Our spiritual lives cannot be separated from our physical lives.

Debie Thomas reminds us in her essay this week that we have a Savior with a body like ours… a body that was nurtured in a womb and who hungers and weeps and gets angry at injustice and who was vulnerable to forces of violence and cruelty beyond his control.  And we have a God who resurrects bodies, “The physical resurrection of Jesus is God’s definitive offering of both compassion and justice: all that has been taken, broken, mistreated, wronged, and forgotten, will be restored.”

This truth, this good news, this resurrection is so real that you can reach out and grab a hold of it! It begins right here and right now. It is experienced anytime we feed our neighbors who are hungry. Or advocate for justice in our neighborhood. We behold the resurrection when we cling to the hand of our elderly neighbor or sick friend. Or break bread with an enemy. It is the proclamation that lives matter.  Bodies matter.  Stories matter.  What you are experiencing in this world matters and God wants to heal and restore and redeem anything that has broken or separated us.    

As Jesus tells the disciples, huddled together in that room on the day after the resurrection:  You are witnesses of these things. You are the proof. The living proof. You bear out the truth of the resurrection in everything you say and you do. Friends, we are Easter people.  We are called to practice and embody the reality of the resurrection in all that we say and do. 

So in these coming weeks, we, like the disciples, will go back to some of the teachings of Jesus and remember what exactly that means. We’ll practice what it means to listen… and to remain… and to love… With not just our minds… And not just for an hour on a Sunday…But with our whole lives.  So that anyone who meets us will know – the resurrection is real and Jesus is alive among us. Amen.

Rejoice With Me!

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Text: Psalm 98: 7-9, Luke 15:3-6, 8-9, 11-13, 20, 24, 28, 31

Every year, our congregation has a charge conference. It is our annual meeting to elect leadership, set goals for the future, care for those called into ministry, and more.
And it’s happening in just one week!
Next Sunday, November 1, we will have our charge conference online at 2:00pm. There will be a link on our website to join in, so be sure to check out the details and join us!

As we have been preparing for this meeting, I met with our Administrative Council Leadership and I asked them a question:
Do we have a future?
Now, that might seem to be kind of a stark and sobering question, but to be honest, there are churches out there that simply aren’t going to make it.
David Kinnaman with the Barna Group says that their research shows one in five churches are not likely to make it through this pandemic.
There are disruptions related to giving, the numbers who are able to gather, but also a lack of adaptation to the realities that are around us. I know of at least one congregation that simply has done nothing together as the church since mid-March. They have no online presence. They aren’t meeting outside. They are simply doing nothing.
So, do we believe we have a future?
Is Immanuel United Methodist Church going to make it?
When I asked that question in our Zoom Council meeting, someone immediately responded:
100% YES!
In fact, the energy level of our meeting rose as people got excited thinking about that future.
We talked about how we are providing connection and spiritual growth and it is something that people need now more than ever.
We talked about how new people have joined us online and during our evening vespers services and at our Zoo Day and how we are actually expanding our reach.
We were energized by the idea that what we are learning how to do together now is actually strengthening us for the ministry that God has planned for us.

You know, for months we have been focused on the moment….
This next week….
What we can do right now….
Analyzing the data so we can make the healthiest choices to do no harm….
We have changed on the fly….
We have created what is necessary to keep going…
And all along the way we have been trying to pay attention to who we are leaving out and missing and how we can do better.

When we were able to step back and step out of the fray of what is happening right now and look to the future, we were surprised by the sense of clarity and focus we had.
Because more than anything, this whole pandemic has helped us to home in on what is really essential and what is really important.
You see, there is a lot that we could do as a church, but there are really only a few things that we need to do:
• Keep our eyes on God who made us.
• Help people to know that they are not alone and that they are loved.
• Learn and share the good news of Jesus.
• Live out our faith by doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly.
We realized as we talked that not only are we doing those things, but we are actually doing them pretty well.
And we began to shift our mindset to realize that this is a season that we could see growth!
Not just growth in our numbers of people, but also growth in our love and knowledge of God.
Growth in our ability to respond to issues of injustice.
Growth in the ways we reach out to people that have been left out or disconnected.

And for the first time in a long time, it seemed like we really and truly had something to celebrate and be excited about!

We’ve been reading through Psalm 98 these past couple of weeks and today the end of the Psalm reminds us why we are rejoicing with all of creation.
It is because God is establishing justice on the earth.
So much feels troubled and broken, but the God who created it all is setting things right.
God sees the problems of this world and shows us a better way.
God calls us and equips us to be generous and loving and merciful and kind and honest so that all people… all the world… might be set right again.
I think part of the reason we have cause to celebrate is that what we see all around is that we actually have been following Jesus during this time.
We’re reaching out to the lonely and sharing our abundance with others and speaking the truth about the problems of this world and trying our best to respond with love and kindness.
We see evidence of how God is working through us to establish God’s will, God’s justice, right here and right now.
And the whole world rejoices along with God!

I was thinking about this idea of God’s justice and celebration and rejoicing when I read the parables of the lost in Luke chapter 15.
So often, we talk about them as if the lost coin, or the lost sheep, or the lost son were at fault in the situation. They rolled off or wandered away and when they repent or return home or are found, the rejoicing commences.
But New Testament scholar, A-J Levine invites us to flip the parable.
What if these instead stories were titled “The Shepherd Who Lost His Sheep” or “The Woman Who Lost Her Coin”? “The Father who Lost A Son”?
What if they are actually about the one doing the losing?
We might start to ask questions about whether or not we are paying attention to the people around us in our care.
Do we count who is present?
Do we notice who or what we have lost?
Will we make an effort to reach out and find them?

You know, this really came home to me when I thought in particular about that last parable of the father with two sons.
We always think about the first child who runs away and the great rejoicing and party when he is found.
But the second son is lost as well, right?
He is missing from the party.
The father in this story notices.
He runs out of the house and into the fields and meets him there.
The father begs for him to come in.
And the father reassures him: I love you. You belong to me and I belong to you.

That is what God does.
God knows who you are.
God sees who is missing and what isn’t working.
God’s heart breaks at the injustice and the disconnection and the harm we do.
And there is no length that God will not go…
No mountain God won’t climb…
No wall God won’t kick down…
Nothing that will keep God from establishing justice, wholeness, shalom, from making sure that God’s intentions are fully lived out on this earth.
Nothing can separate us, right?

And when even just one of us turns our hearts back to God…
or lets ourselves be found…
or experiences healing…
or is lifted out of our troubles…
or finds food and shelter or warmth…
oh… how the world rejoices…
How the rivers clap their hands…
How the sea roars…
How the mountains and hills sing together for joy…
What a day of rejoicing…

This church has a future.
And we have a future because we continue to keep our eyes on the God who made us through worship and devotion and prayer.
We have a future because we are paying attention to one another and we count and notice who is part of our community and are doing our best to reach out to help people know they are not alone and that they are loved.
We have a future because we keep the good news of Jesus at the center and we are learning and growing and putting that faith into action every day.
We have a future because we notice who and what is missing and we try to respond with food in our pantry and warm clothes for Joppa and by showing up at rallies in support of our neighbors… so that God’s justice, God’s intentions, God’s will might be done on earth.

Friends, there is a reason that our Ad Council got excited on that Zoom call.
It’s because when you see signs of the Kingdom of God, you have to rejoice.
When the lost are found, and the hungry are fed, and the sinners repent, and the lonely are surrounded with love… the whole world breaks out in song.

I’m so grateful for all of you.
I’m so proud of who you have been as the church in the midst of this difficult time.
And oh, how I can’t wait for that day when we can all get together… for real… with hugs and food and smiles and songs to celebrate in a fully embodied way all of the joy that is just welling up in my heart.
What a day of rejoicing that will be.

Day by Day

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Text: Acts 2:42-47

Friday night is game night at my house. 

For years it has been an event where friends and family gather, surrounded by food and laughter and love. 

Everyone brings something to the table… even if it is just a story or a giggle or themselves. 

One of the things that usually happens, however, is that before we are all ready to sit down and eat, one of the kiddos gets a little too eager and sneaks a bite from the food that is laid out. 

That has probably NEVER happened at your house. 

You know, the table is one of my favorite images of the Kingdom of God. 

That huge table where all are welcome, and all are loved.

And the amazing thing about the Christian community born out of the ministry of Jesus is that we are like those kiddos at the dinner table.

We get to sneak a bite…

We get to catch a foretaste of the glorious banquet. 

We get a preview of what awaits us.

That is what the early Christian community was doing in the book of Acts. 

You know, if after worship today, you sat down and spent some time reading just straight through Acts, you’d find it reads a lot like a journal. 

Luke felt called to write down what happens to the disciples after Jesus leaves them.

He carefully documents those early days of ministry, the birth of the church, the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God.

It is his personal witness to the Kingdom of God that was taking root in the world… a Kingdom that wasn’t totally and completely and fully there yet.

But all around there were these glimpses. 

These bites.

These foretastes of everything that God desired for God’s people. 

As Luke begins writing in Acts, he reminds us that he has already written about the ministry of Jesus… but in case we forgot, he gives us a quick recap.

Jesus suffered for us… and died for us… and then by God’s power he showed up again! 

For forty days he hung out with the apostles and taught them about the Kingdom.

It was a Kingdom they had experienced when the hungry were fed and the blind healed and the oppressed set free.

The kingdom was wherever Jesus went. 

Forty days pass after the resurrection and  Jesus takes them out of the city.

They all start to think – this is the moment.  This is it.

Down with Rome.

Down with oppression and disease and death. 

Down with anything that would destroy life.

One of them cries out – Master, is this time?  Are you going to restore the kingdom now?  

They are like those eager kids crowding around the dinner table…

Is it ready?

Is it now?

His answer? 

Not yet.

You’ll know it when it comes. 

And to drive home his point, Christ is lifted up and taken out of their sight.

He leaves us with promises.

The promise that Christ will always be with us.

The promise of the Holy Spirit.

And the promise that just as Jesus came to be with us once, in the new creation, God will come and be with us again.

As the church, we are sandwiched in between these realities. 

We know the truth of Christ’s life and teaching and death and resurrection. 

But at the same time, we wait for the fullness of the Kingdom.

In the meantime, we get these glimpses.

And we long for the time when everything will finally be ready. 

When God will make a home among us. 

When God will dwell with us.

When the heavenly banquet is set and everyone will have a place at the table. 

But how do we live and wait and worship and act during these in-between times?

What are you supposed to do right now as a person of faith?

What is your day by day responsibility?

Some of us thought we knew six months ago.

We had our day to day pattern figured out with worship here at the church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday night supper and various small groups meeting throughout the week.

Every other part of our life was crammed with work and school and kids and grandkids and sports.  But for a whole lot of you, church was important too. 

But then, all of that was thrown out the window.

Every pattern in our lives was disrupted. 

And everything we are doing today is being compared to what we did six months ago.

Including how we practice our faith during these “in-between” times.   

But if we look back through history, we will find that people of faith have answered that question in many different ways. 

And so maybe in these unique circumstances, instead of comparing ourselves to what was familiar, maybe we should look for other examples and figure out how to be the church in a way that is faithful to this moment. 

I keep finding myself going back to those early disciples.

Back to those first Christian communities and how they lived their faith day by day.

We find their experience all throughout the book of Acts and the New Testament epistles.

And what we discover is that church wasn’t a place they went on Sundays. 

Rather, being the church was how they lived their lives every day.

And most of it centered not on going to a place of worship, but creating space in their homes and in their relationships for God to dwell with them.

They clung to those promises of the Kingdom of God…

They took seriously that line of the Lord’s prayer and made room for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it was in heaven. 

And they decided to live every single day as if they were already gathered at the heavenly banquet.

Faith for that very first community centered around the table.

Not the altar in the temple, but the kitchen table, the dining room table…   

That place where their family and their friends and their neighbors gathered. 

Luke describes their fellowship in Acts 2:42-47. 

Twice in this passage, they talk about the common meal.

About breaking bread.

About sharing food with gladness and simplicity. 

Church happened every day in their homes. 

And it wasn’t just those first three thousand converts. 

This is the primary way that the early Christian communities survived and expanded and grew for the first decades of our tradition.

Everything is happening in our homes right now.

If you are in one of our many senior-living communities, you aren’t allowed to leave home! 

You are working from home.

Many of our kiddos are going to school from home, at least part time.

We are eating at home.

And I have seen all of the photos being shared of how you have created space for these things.

You are utilizing technology to connect with people outside or chatting through windows and open doorways.   

The desk area set up so you can get work done.

The nook you created for your child to focus and learn.

The way the dining room table was cleared off because you finally have people at home at the same time to eat once again. 

Why not create space in our homes for church as well? 

In that place that we live and breathe and work and learn and play and love and laugh…

Why shouldn’t that also be a place where we make room for God to dwell?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be taking a more in-depth look at these very first house/churches of the Christian tradition.

We’ll explore how they worked and what it meant for the people who hosted them.

Throughout it all, we’ll try to discover some lessons for how our faith can not just survive covid-times, but thrive. 

And each morning, we are going to send out and post a devotion with a very simple activity that will help you and your family create space in your home for the Kingdom of God to be made real. 

You know, faith was not complicated for these folks.

In fact it was very simple. 

They had experienced the Kingdom of God and they committed themselves to live in that reality until it was fully present. 

And to do so, that first community of three thousand people devoted themselves every day to four things.  We read about it in Acts 2:42-47:

  1. The teaching of the apostles
  2. Sharing life together
  3. Breaking bread around the table
  4. and prayer. 

You know…

If you put those in a slightly different order, it kind of sounds like the four parts of our discipleship pathway here at Immanuel.

We, too, believe that we should pray and praise and worship God… and we’ve been creating ways for you to make prayer a daily part of your life with our daily devotions. 

We, too, believe that we should gather together to connect and break bread and laugh… and the caring connections groups that were sent out and our virtual coffee time on Zoom all help us to do so.

We, too, believe that we should grow in our faith by learning and studying the scripture… and you can join in one of our weekly online bible studies or small groups that are starting up. 

We, too, believe that we should pool together our resources, going out in the world to serve and share what we have with those in need… and from the masks you create or the sandwiches you put together at home for CFUM or the time you spend with Joppa… these are all ways that we are pulling together to serve others. 

Our church is not just surviving this pandemic… we are thriving in the midst of it.

But I also know that some of us as individuals are struggling with it all. 

The Barna Institute has discovered that one in three practicing Christians – 32% – have stopped attending church virtually during the pandemic. 

The novelty of virtual worship and life has worn off. 

Some of the other demands on our time have picked back up. 

It maybe has felt easier to check out.

I think that is why looking back on these early Christian communities is so important.

Over these next few weeks we are going to remember that it has always been easier to check out. 

There have always been other demands on our lives.

But if we have the ability to taste and touch and experience the Kingdom of God right here and right now, shouldn’t we make every effort to do so? 

Shouldn’t we work to create space in our day by day lives for the presence of God to be known?

Shouldn’t we tap into the joy and the life and the blessings that we discover when we join with other people of faith to break bread and to learn and to share and to pray? 

In spite of the threat of persecution, these early Christians devoted themselves, every day, to grabbing a hold of that foretaste of the Kingdom. 

And in these times of division and conflict and stress and fear… I think that might be exactly what we need to keep going….

We need to pull up a seat at the table…

And taste and see and know that the promises of God are real…

And they are here…

Right where you are… wherever you are. 

Thanks be to God.  Amen. 

The Stones Would Shout

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Text: Luke 19:29-40

If the disciples were silent, the stones would shout.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how no matter what happens in this world…  no matter the destruction or devastation…no matter the obstacles or despair… there is nothing that can stop God from being praised.

About three weeks ago, tornadoes filled the skies over Nashville. My friends at East End UMC woke up to discover their building had been destroyed. But they gathered that Sunday morning in the park next to the church. An alter made from broken pieces of their sanctuary grounded them. And they sang their hearts out, surrounding one another with love and lifting up the name of God in praise.

This week, I tuned into “Some Good News” a web series launched by John Krasinski, whom you might know from the Office or the new Jack Ryan series.  One of the stories he shared was of an elderly couple separated by COVID-19, because the wife is in an Alzheimer’s care unit.  Even in the midst of their separation and struggle, the husband stood outside of her window, singing “Amazing Grace” and you can hear her gradually catch on and start singing out her own praises of God. 

I think about those disciples of Jesus, headed into Jerusalem on that morning.  They had seen mighty and amazing things done by this man, their teacher. They had witnessed the dead being raised. The blind and the sick healed.  They had witness barriers and boundaries being crossed as women and children and Gentiles and Samaritans were welcomed by their Master.

Jerusalem was the seat of power.  And heading there, on that day, on that morning, with that colt… Well… it felt like a victory march!  Of course they were singing and shouting and praising God with a loud voice:

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!

These are echoes of the cries of the angels in the field… Of the psalmists…Of the prophets throughout history… They were witnessing God’s glory revealed and present…

and it was all taking place before their eyes!  Of course, they were praising God.

Only…

If we move just one verse past this Triumphant Entry, there is not joy, but weeping.  Jesus weeps.  He looks out over the city and can’t contain himself. Because he knows that this Kingdom they are waiting for, it will not arrive in an instant. He knows that in the coming week, those same disciples that were praising him would betray him.  He knows that there will be wars and destruction and illness and death long before these visions are ever realized.  He knows that this moment of God’s embodied presence with the people is fleeting.

We live in that in-between times. That Kingdom of God, it’s not fully here yet. Conflict rages in our world.  A virus has brought us to a standstill.  I could go on about the climate, and poverty, and racism… Jesus still weeps over our cities and towns and neighborhoods.

And there are days when it is awful hard to praise God.  It’s hard to lift up our heads and see the good. Some of you are already exhausted and the peak of this illness is still weeks away here in Iowa. Some of you are worried about loved ones who are sick. Some of you are on the front lines and every day you put yourselves at risk for others. And we can get so focused on the task before us, that sometimes, its hard to stop and focus on God’s goodness.

Maybe your own heart has been quiet this week. Maybe your lips have been silent. Maybe it’s not just this week, or this crisis, but the grief or the pain in your life has been weighing on you for some time.

I keep thinking… how do we praise God when the words just won’t come? 

And then I realized… maybe you don’t. 

If the disciples were silent… the stones would shout. That’s what Jesus told the Pharisees who were trying to silence their voices.  He was telling them that there is nothing that can stop God from being praised. There is no force on earth or on heaven that can stop this momentum. The Kingdom is coming and there is nothing they or any other power in this world  can do about it.

This week, Billie shared with us a passage from Romans 8 as a part of our staff devotion.  And I got to thinking about how Paul captures this sentiment in his particular chapter. 

He tells us that there is no comparison between these hard times and what will come next…But Paul also reminds us that it isn’t just us, not just human people, who are waiting for God’s Kingdom. Even the creation is groaning and waiting and breathless with anticipation.

And the moment we get worn out and can’t wait any longer and don’t know what or how to pray… well, that’s when the Spirit steps in.  That’s when our “wordless signs, our aching groans” are turned into prayer by God’s very spirit. Even the groans of creation are turned into prayer. Because when we fall silent and have no words to say, even the stones will shout.  It will shout out the truth that there is nothing at all in this world or beyond this world that can separate us from God’s great, amazing, sacrificial love. Not trouble or hard times or hunger or homelessness or danger or threats… Nothing. No thing. No power. No principality. Nothing that was created.  Not even death itself.

When we don’t have the words to sing.  When the world overwhelms our hearts.  When our lips fall silent. Look around. Look around at the signs of this great truth blossoming everywhere.  Look at the crocus and the daffodils with their white and yellow and purple blossoms of joy. Look at the buds forming on the tree and the grass turning green. Open the windows and listen to the birds sing their own tunes of praise. Watch the squinnys play in the yard and the wind blow. Let the warm sun fall on your face.  How are these not divine messages…songs from above… creation itself shouting out God’s praise?

We might not be gathering in the sanctuary this morning to praise God together. We might not be waving palm branches and lifting our voices. But we are not alone. No matter where we are today, the creation has joined us in praising our maker. The creation has joined us that hope-filled wait for the new creation, the Kingdom of God.

So my challenge to you all… Get out there and join in the song. Where do you see God’s wondrous world shouting out praises? Take a picture…. Make a short video… Send it to us here at Immanuel on our facebook page or by email… But also – share it with your friends and neighbors and loved ones.  Think of all the mighty things you have seen God do in your life and with a photo or a snapchat or an email… share the good news… shout God’s praises… let your voices raise in glory. Amen. 

Copyright © 2024 Rev. Katie Z. Dawson. All rights reserved.