The Grove Charlotte — Podcast

Scripture:  Luke 1:39-56

Dear Church,

After the glory of last Sunday’s cantata, we are resuming our Advent journey through Zechariah’s story. 

We met the elderly priest Zechariah as he served at the altar of God in the holy of holies in Jerusalem’s temple. Who knows what he expected when he walked into that sacred space, it probably wasn’t a visit from the angel Gabriel announcing that his life-long prayer to become a father was finally going to be answered when his equally-elderly wife Elizabeth gave birth to a son whose name would be John and whose destiny would be to prepare the way for the messiah savior of the people. 

Zechariah had a very human response.

He was, understandably, stunned. And he asked questions. How can I be sure of this? He explained his need for clarification: I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. Are you sure you have the right priest?

Instead giving reassurance or explanations, the angel gives Zechariah silence. 

Power-hungry church leaders have seized this story. See what happens when you ask questions? See what happens when you don’t blindly trust those who speak for God–be they angels…or pastors? Many will tell you that the meaning of this story is to shut up and do what you are told, no matter what, or God will shut you up. 

But what if Gabriel wasn’t punishing Zechariah by taking away his voice? What if he was giving Zechariah exactly what he needed to understand. 

I hope you will join us as we explore what can happen when you stop talking. And we’ll find out how God did answer Zechariah’s questions in the gift of a season of silence. 

Peace,
Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Luke 1:1-24

Dear Church,

“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah…”

Luke begins his gospel acknowledging that there are already many other written records of the life of Jesus, but he promises that his will be an ‘orderly account’ because he has ‘carefully investigated everything from the beginning.’ His account will contain all ‘the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.’ In other words, Luke is going to write theee gospel–full, complete and thoughtfully curated–so his readers will know ‘the certainty’ of the faith they’ve been taught.

And before we can know anything else about Jesus, Luke thinks we need to know about a priest named Zechariah. Many, many Christians have never heard of this man, but Luke believes that telling his story is the way to lead his readers into flourishing life with Christ. 

I agree.

We’ll spend these Advent weeks of preparation diving deep into the life of Zechariah and, more importantly, discovering how his life can serve as a map for our own spiritual journey.

Peace,
Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Matthew 7:7-12, 24-29

Dear Church,

As I sit in a coffee shop working on this letter to you, the woman at the next table is reading intensely. She’s underlining and taking notes and pausing frequently to reflect on what’s she’s just read. She’s consuming the book she’s reading. I wondered what she was studying so intensely, so I snuck a peak.  The title is ‘How to Get Rich.’

Jesus’ final words in the sermon on the mount are words of warning. He says that those who hear his words and put them into practice are like wise homemakers who build their houses on stone foundations. But those who hear his words and do not live according to them are like fools who build their homes on sand. When (not if!) storms come, houses built on sand wash away. Only houses built on rocks escape destruction.

The woman sitting next to me in the coffee shop this morning is studying her book so intensely because she believes that if she reads and applies it’s principals she’ll gain wealth that will allow her to build a life of safety, security and opportunity. She’s not reading that book for pleasure, she’s reading it because she plans to put the words into action. If she reads it cover to cover and doesn’t change her spending habits, she’s just wasting her time.  She doesn’t look like she is wasting her time.

Jesus invites us to read his words with equal intensity and intentionality. Powerful and true as they are, Jesus’ words are pretty useless to us unless we let them shape our daily lives.

Jesus doesn’t want us to turn to his teachings to soothe our emotions or signal our virtue.  He certainly doesn’t want us to weaponize them against other people. He doesn’t say ‘those who hear and memorize my words’ or ‘those who understand and agree with my words,’ he says those who put my words into action will experience salvation from the storm. He says those who hear his words and then continue to live as if they hadn’t are foolish.

Jesus is calling us to changed choices.  He wants us to build our lives as if what he is telling us–about wealth, power, sin, grace, healing, love and courage–is true. He is telling us that, though it doesn’t always look like it will, letting his words shape our actions will lead us into flourishing, resilient and joy-filled life here and now.  

And we are discovering that together at the Grove, not just on Sunday morning at 10am (in the sanctuary or on the livestream!), but also in the many, many other ways we gather to live out the words of Jesus.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Matthew 7:7-12, 21-23

Dear Church,

When I am confused and scared and discouraged, I run to the promises of Jesus.

I remind myself that he said, ‘All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away’ or ”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’ or ‘I go away to prepare a place for you’ or ‘do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…Your Father in Heaven knows you need these things…but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’

I find hope and comfort in these words because I believe Jesus said them and I believe Jesus meant what he said.

Eugene Peterson translates Matthew 7:21-23, the portion of the Sermon on the Mount we are pondering this week, like this:

Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our super-spiritual projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’

Though these words neither comfort nor reassure me, I believe Jesus meant what he said here as well.

Jesus tells us that serious obedience is required of true disciples. A true disciple isn’t the one who worships every week or studies scripture intensely or gives to charity. Worship and scripture and generosity are good gifts from God. But they are not a substitute for following Jesus.

These words of Jesus are profoundly unsettling–and I believe that is how they so deeply bless us.

I hope you’ll join me as we hear the good news of Jesus’ promises for those who desire to be true disciples.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Matthew 7:7-12, 15-20

Dear Church,

Sometimes the words of Jesus soothe, and sometimes they sear.  This Sunday, we will pick up where we left off last week in the sermon on the mount and consider this teaching from our Lord:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Whatever lies ahead, we will not face it alone.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus tried to prepare his disciples for what was coming. They did not understand what was happening, but they knew everything was about to change. They were not frightened for Jesus, they were frightened for themselves. They feared they would not have the strength to be faithful. These are the last words Jesus said to them before he rose from the table:

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

In him, we have peace. This world is exactly what Jesus prepared us for. And like Jesus’ first disciples, we may not always be able to be faithful to Jesus, but Jesus is perfectly faithful to us. We could not face these days alone, but we are not alone. The one who loves us has overcome the world. We were made for such a time as this.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Matthew 7:7-14

Dear Church,

There’s an old Spiritual that contains the line ‘Everybody talking about Heaven ain’t going there.’  I think the only proper response to that is…ooof.  It seems like the kind of thing Christians, people who believe in the power of grace and forgiveness and new life, shouldn’t be singing.

Except, Jesus said things like that all the time. There are two paths, and not everyone is on the right one.  There are true disciples and false disciples, true prophets and false prophets, wise builders and foolish builders. Jesus said not everybody who calls, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will be saved. He told a story about people coming to him at the last day, showing their Christian credentials, flexing that they had preached and prophesied and worked miracles in his name. His response, ‘I do not know you.’

I’d like to ignore this part of the gospel, but the stakes are too high.  Jesus was preparing us, from the very beginning, for the reality that…not everybody talking about heaven is going there. He was teaching us that his name was powerful and so a day was coming when many would use it and claim his authority to fight against the very Kingdom he came to establish.

Wise followers of Jesus need to be able to spot the difference between those who build on the words of Jesus and those who twist them to support their own agendas.  We need to learn the difference between the promises of Jesus and the promises of those who claim to speak for him. We need to know the difference between the truth of the Kingdom of God and the truths of earthly authorities.

And we need to learn how to hold the truth without deploying it as a weapon or using it as a dividing wall. We need to learn how to use the truth of Christ in the way of Christ. In other words, we need to learn the culture of the Kingdom of God.

I hope you’ll join me as we launch into a new worship series focused on the final portion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Luke 12:1 & 13-31

Dear Church,

Two brothers came to Jesus desperate for his help. And after listening to their plea, he said:

No.

No way, I’m not helping you.

I don’t want anything to do with this.

Can you imagine? Having a problem and turning to Jesus and then watching him turn away? What in the world could have inspired our gentle and compassionate savior to be so…harsh?

Money.

They were fighting over their inheritance and Jesus didn’t want any part of it. He refused to intervene. Instead he told a story about the danger of wealth.

Our definition of a bad economy and Jesus’ definition of a bad economy are not the same. In the Lord’s eyes, having too much money is far more dangerous than having too little.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Leviticus 25:1-24; 35-38

Dear Church,

The summer before I headed off to college, I told my youth pastor that I wanted to read the entire Bible. He said, ‘that’s great–but don’t waste your time with Leviticus, it’s got nothing to do with Jesus.’  In my youth pastor’s defense, I’m certain he just didn’t want me to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of complicated descriptions of the proper way to hem the garment of the high priest and give up on Bible reading altogether. In a real way, he was right–we really should be focusing first and primarily on the gospels and the words of Jesus.

BUT…

The revelations preserved in Leviticus have everything to do with Jesus. In fact, the words of Jesus’ first sermon, ”The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’ are a quote from the prophet Isaiah who was himself quoting, you guessed it, portions of the book of Leviticus.  Specifically, verses from Leviticus 25 which contains God’s commands to the people about how to use the land, how to treat the poor and powerless and the forgiveness of debt.

In other words, Leviticus gives us a detailed description of God’s economy. And how we use resources, live, work, use money and respond to the poor are some of the things Jesus talks about most.  Because God calls us to a faith that shapes all our choices and is enacted in our daily lives. As the scholar Richard Boyce puts it, when the chosen people live by the precepts in the book of Leviticus ‘God’s light shines as brightly in the sales of property as in the sounds of prayer.’

Everything that exists is a gift from our generous Creator. How we think about God is often more accurately revealed by what we choose to do with God’s gifts than by the words we pray and the theology we claim to believe.

The precepts of God’s economy laid out in Leviticus 25 are wild!  It’s almost impossible to imagine how different life would be if we took them seriously.  Just this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the United States, which has the most powerful and prosperous economy in the world, is on track to set a new record of 650 thousand unhoused people living on the streets. So it’s worth spending some time soberly contemplating whose version of an economy is actually unimaginable.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Exodus 16:1-18

Dear Church,

“Gather as much as each of you needs”

Those were the instructions that Moses gave the children of Israel on the night before God fed them with manna–the bread of heaven. There’s a lot to ponder in this story. The people were in a strange place. They couldn’t take care of themselves. They were worried and angry and attacking their leaders. They were longing for a past that never existed, and they couldn’t see any future but death. And then the ground around them was covered with a strange mysterious substance that God told them was the bread of heaven. The people tried it and found that it tasted like honey.

SO. MUCH. TO. UNPACK.

But in these first days of their new life as freed people chosen to be salt and light and a source of blessing to all nations on earth, God slipped in an economics lesson.

God, always a generous provider, opens the storerooms of heaven and pours out goodness to the people. Bread everywhere–they don’t have to harvest it, bake it or buy it. There isn’t a catch, but there is a non-negotiable way to use it:

Gather each day, for that day.

Everyone gets what they need

Everyone gets to rest.

This is God’s economy. God’s instructions for handling God’s abundance. Because God isn’t just feeding the people here. God is also re-forming them as a peculiar, holy people who won’t live like all the other nations.

And God is still reforming God’s people. I hope you’ll join me as we submit and surrender once again to God’s strange and holy way.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Genesis 1:1-31, Matthew 6:25-34

Dear Church,

In 1992 James Carville was the key strategist for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, hung a sign on the wall to get campaign staff to remain focused on three key points with potential donors. The second bulletin point read, ‘The economy, stupid.’* 

And so ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ became a rallying cry in that campaign and every presidential campaign since.

But what if we don’t believe the economy is the greatest force shaping our lives? And given that Americans are divided about what facts indicate that an economy is good, whose opinion on community and right use of resources should be most influential for Christians?

As the first kid to raise their hand during the children’s sermon would tell us, God’s wisdom should be the foundation of our own.

We’re not stupid, but Carville was right, the economy is fundamental. The way we make use and share wealth shapes our world. These choices are deeply spiritual. And so over the next few weeks we are going to seek the Spirit and turn to the word of God to help us see the economy through the eyes of Christ.

What kind of economy does God call good? And what choices are we willing to make to help create it?

This Sunday, it’s Holy Economics 101, and we’re starting at the very beginning.  And immediately after we hear about it, we’ll have a chance to participate in it. Come, taste and see!

Peace,

Pastor Kate

*the other two points were (1) Change vs more of the same and (3) Don’t forget about health care! You’re welcome.

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