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Scripture: John 11:43-53

Dear Church,

There’s a hymn called ‘I love to tell the story’ that we sang frequently in a church I used to serve.  In the first verse you sing, ‘I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.’  The second verse continues, ‘I love to tell the story, tis pleasant to repeat, it seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.’

I do love to tell the story of Jesus.  I love to tell the story of the incarnation, of our God who loved the world so much that he took on flesh and was born among us, poor and vulnerable in a stable.  I love to tell the story of Jesus calling fishermen and outcasts and sinners–choosing all the people no one else wanted tp be his disciples.  I love to tell the story of Jesus casting out demons and healing the sick and restoring lepers to community.  I love to tell the story of Jesus’ disciples wanting to send a hungry crowd away, and Jesus showing them that when they trust the little they have to him, it miraculously becomes more than enough.  I love the story of Jesus flipping out in the temple, calling out the Pharisees and healing the wounds of the soldier who came to arrest him.  I love to tell the story of the last supper and Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet and the new command he gives us.

I do love to tell the story of Jesus, except for one part.  One part that is not wonderfully sweet, one part that is never pleasant to repeat.  One part that was terribly, gruesomely not unseen.  But it is the part of the story, more than any other, which reveals the nature of Jesus’ glory and love.  That part, of course, is the cross. 

The cross is the most essential and revelatory piece of the story.

I’ve heard a lot of people tell the story of the cross badly.  I’ve heard them tell it as divine child abuse, as justification for hatred and violence against Jewish people, as a blank check permitting Christians to do whatever seems good in their own eyes. Some of us have seen and heard such awful things about the cross that we’ve learned to barely mention it when we tell the story of Jesus. 

If the cross seems nothing but violent, nothing but tragic, nothing but bad news–the answer isn’t to look away, the answer is to learn to see the cross differently.  And that is what we, with God’s grace, will do in the coming weeks–we will learn to see the cross in new ways.  Because for us, the cross of Jesus is the glory of God, it is the catalyst of salvation, it is hope, it is peace, it is the end of violence, separation and enmity, it is astonishingly good news.  The story of the cross will never be pleasant or sweet, but it is wonder-filled.

Come and see.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Mark 2:23 – 3:6

Dear Church,

Jesus could not have been crucified without the efforts of people of faith.  It wasn’t pagan priests or Roman senators who wanted Jesus dead–folks like that had never even heard of him.  It was his own fellow believers who worked the systems to have him destroyed.

Why?

Because he invited them to begin again.  He showed them that they weren’t God experts.  He showed them that they did not know the God they loved.  We think it all flipped when turned the tables (see what I did there?), but actually the bitterness and enmity started much earlier, when he challenged how they practiced sabbath.  It was way back then, in chapter 2, when religious folks started plotting to destroy him.

In Jesus’ day, people of faith were taught that how you kept sabbath was everything.  In our day, we’re taught that sabbath means nothing at all.  But Jesus is Lord of the sabbath.  What if we’re wrong to reject this sacred gift?  What if, like our spiritual ancestors, we are wrong about some of the things we are most certain of?  What if keeping sabbath is more than a break, more than a relic, what if it is a key to entering into the fullness of life Jesus promised us?

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Genesis 1:31-2:3, Mark 2:23-28

Dear Church,

Scripture starts with the beginning of everything–the story of God creating all that is, land and sky, stars, sun and moon, seas and creatures and plants and birds and humans, made in the image of the maker. 

But, contrary to how you might have heard it, humans are not the grand-flourish- culmination of creation.  God’s ultimate act of creation is a seventh day, the day of rest.  

God’s own creative choice to rest is the root of our practice of sabbath.

And why did God rest?  Because at the end of the sixth sacred day of creation work, God ‘looked at all that he had made and saw that it was very good.’

God rested because all that had been made was, not just good, not good enough, but very good.  And you and I, on our best days and on our worst days and all the days in-between, we are beheld by God’s gaze and included in that declaration.

We are part of the very good.  

And so, one day in seven, we who bear the image of God in our sacred flesh, we rest with our Creator.  We stop to return the gaze of the one who is gazing in delight at us.  You–you–especially you–are very good in God’s eyes.  

I hope you will join me as we rest, remember & rejoice in the life-giving truth that God sees us and claims us and declares us very good!

Peace,
Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Dear Church,

God has a gift for each one of us… a good gift: sabbath.

If you heard that Christians don’t ‘have’ to keep sabbath, if the word sabbath makes you feel guilty, if you think sabbath is only about rules and obligations and not doing anything enjoyable, I have good news for you…sabbath is not what you’ve heard.

Many of us do not recognize that sabbath is a gift from God to each one of us. We haven’t been taught that God gives us sabbath to enjoy.  We don’t know that enjoying sabbath is serious and essential spiritual work.  Surprise! Sometimes, spiritual growth feels delightful.  This is one of those times.

I hope you’ll join me as we learn how to receive and enjoy the gift of sabbath together.  You’re not going to believe how good this is!

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Genesis 28:10-22

Dear Church,

In recent years we’ve dedicated the month of January to renewing our commitment to our mission here at the Grove.  We’ve done a deep dive on the three parts of our mission statement (inviting all to serve and come alive in Christ).

Every year we’re on the same mission, but each year is a new season with its own beautiful gifts and challenges. 

I hope you’ll join me as we gather around the story of God’s promise to our ancestor Jacob and reveal our ‘word of the year,’ It’s a word that captures God’s posture towards us and inspires our posture towards one another and our neighbors.  I’m excited to share it with you!

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Matthew 14:13-21

Dear Church,

Each January our community returns to its mission–inviting all to serve and come alive in Christ–to review, to renew, to recommit.  This Sunday, we focus on the call to serve that’s at the center of our common life and the story of the feeding of the crowd in Matthew 14.  Most bibles give this passage of scripture the subtitle ‘Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand,’ but it wasn’t Jesus who did the feeding.  The disciples ended up feeding the people that day, but only after they tried to send them away. 

The disciples had been serving the crowd with Jesus all day.  They noticed the growing hunger in the crowd, but assumed it was not their job.  They came to Jesus and asked him to send the people away so they could find food for themselves.  After all, they signed up to ‘fish for people,’ not feed them fish.  They assumed people were responsible for caring for their own physical needs.

They were wrong. 

They didn’t understand the assignment.

And we continue to struggle.  Some of us feel that people’s spiritual needs are all that matter.  Others of us are convinced that our call is only to meet physical needs.  A few understand that everything, every need, every encounter is spiritual, but are paralyzed by their own limited resources.

Today we consider how the power of Jesus still flows through us to meet the needs we notice.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Matthew 3:1-17

Dear Church,

This Sunday we are looking at another one of those rare stories that appears in all four gospels, the baptism of Jesus.  If you have even the most rudimentary understanding of baptism–or of Jesus, this is a moment that does not make sense. 

I don’t know about you, but I was taught that baptism was for the forgiveness of sins, and I was also taught that Jesus didn’t have any sins.  So, what’s Jesus doing being baptized? If you are wondering this, you are in good company because Jesus’ baptism really confused and offended John the Baptizer as well.  When Jesus came before him to be baptized, John refused to do it saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, why are you coming to me?’  It makes it look like Jesus is confused about who he is and what’s going on here.

But of course, Jesus isn’t confused–we are.  And that’s his answer to John, ‘it needs to be this way now, this is what will fulfill all righteousness.’  What seems right and righteous to us doesn’t to Jesus.  In fact, the righteousness of Jesus is often unrecognizable to us.

Friends, there was nobody more all in and fully committed to Jesus than John.  The man ate bugs, for God’s sake.  Literally.  But when John actually came face to face with Jesus,  when John encountered not an idea about Jesus or a ministry task for Jesus, but Jesus in his flesh–Jesus made him uncomfortable.  Jesus challenged John’s expectations and his ministry practice and his faith.  The righteousness of Jesus wasn’t what he expected.  He couldn’t recognize it as holy. 

Every January we spend a season examining and reclaiming our mission as a church, together as a community.  I hope you’ll join us as we learn how John’s encounter with the Lord and the higher righteousness displayed in the baptism of Jesus can guide and shape us as we recommit to the first part of our mission, inviting all people to share in the goodness we’ve found in Jesus and one another.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Church,

The world has moved on from Christmas, but we are still wrapped up in wonder, joy and celebration of Jesus.  I hope you are still savoring the astonishing words of the angel who announced the birth to the shepherds, who were still working hard in the dark of a cold night, ‘Do not be afraid,  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people.  Today, in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is the messiah, the Lord.’

The world has rushed on to gawk at the New Year, promising us that if we plot resolutions and self-improvement plans we can change everything for ourselves and finally be happy.  But the Spirit invites us to imagine a different kind of life, one that does not ask us to lose weight, get organized, work harder, save more money or do anything else to become acceptable in our own sight.  The Spirit finds us in our dark nights and whispers that although Jesus was born long ago, he was born for us too, he is our messiah-savior-the-one-we’ve-been-waiting-for, he will be Lord of the lives we already have.  There is peace, there is wholeness, there is freedom for us here and now, in him.  The one who has changed everything does not require us to change before he loves and accepts us.  In him, we find the abundant life the self-help-industrial-complex promises us.

This New Year’s Day we will continue to keep Christmas as we celebrate Epiphany, the story of the wise ones who followed a strange star that led them to Jesus and the revelation that the child born King of the Jews was also born the redeemer of all creation.  From the very beginning, the circle of salvation was widening to include those who are strangers to us but known as beloved to God.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Tonight we gather to worship on Christmas Eve, the most sacred night of the year, to rejoice in the marginless nature of God’s love and salvation.  Come and hear. Rejoice in the good news: our God has come to bring us boundless love, forgiveness, peace, and joy.

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