The Grove Charlotte — Podcast

Scripture:  Luke 11:1-13

Dear Church,

Last week, when Octavia led our time of corporate confession and pardon, she shared how a weekly practice of confessing sins was unfamiliar to her when she first came to the Grove. At first, she wondered what kinds of things people were doing that they needed to confess their sins every week.

She went on to beautifully share how regularly wrestling with her own sinfulness has borne fruit in her life.  A practice of confessing sins has deepened her awareness of God’s love for her and the power of grace and also broadened her compassion for and connection with other people in their struggles.

Mature Christians regularly face the reality that we are sinners.

But what happens when we grow too comfortable?

What happens when we decide that our sins–the things that separate us from God–are reasonable and tolerable? What happens when we keep confessing our sins, but stop repenting of them? How can we walk in the peace Christ has given us, confident of his grace and our belovedness and still, at the very same time, long for greater redemption and transformation? In other words, how do we live as sinners being saved by grace?

I hope you’ll join me as we consider the prayer Jesus gave his disciples in Luke and see that Jesus anticipated our weakness and provided a way for us not just to know, but experience the power of resurrection in our on-going struggle with sin.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Genesis 11:1-9

Dear Church,

Does God just not like tall buildings?

That was my question the first time I heard about the Tower of Babel and no Sunday School teacher ever answered it to my satisfaction.

Why was God so bent out of shape about the people coming together to work cooperatively to build a big tower? Just a few verses previously God was pretty pleased with Noah for building a big boat–what gives?

The Bible is a holy book.  It’s best read, not front to back, beginning to end, but in cycles. On a first read, this story is pure mystery.  But we can begin to understand the danger God saw on the plain of Shinar once we know about Pharoah’s pyramids, Nebuchadnezzar’s statue and Solomon’s temple.

The size of a vision doesn’t make it righteous. Every common cause isn’t in service of the common good. Everything that seems glorious, isn’t. This ancient story reveals that sin isn’t limited to the actions of individuals, we can also be collectively swept up into sin-filled destructive systems of oppression and harm.

Sin is corporate, too.  That’s a terrible, almost incomprehensible truth for those of us raised to take personal responsibility for our own righteousness. How can we be faithful in a world that sometimes gives us no good choices?

The good news is, we have a God who intervenes.  A God who makes a way when there is no way.  A God who loves us enough to thwart our plans and scatter us, even when that is our greatest fear. We have a God who loves us enough to be good to us, even when that goodness seems like a curse. Come and see how the very worst things that happen to us can sometimes, but not always, be our deliverance.

Things are not always what they seem. Sometimes, impressively great things have the capacity to destroy us.  And sometimes, the end of everything and death of our dreams is the door to the wild, free and abundant life we’ve been praying for.

Come and see.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Genesis 3:1-24

Dear Church,

This Sunday, we’re going to sin school. Because let’s be so for real, as the kids say. We have some un-learning to do.

Some of us were taught that sin was what other people did.  Some of us were taught that almost everything we did was sin.  Some of us were taught that since Jesus ‘paid our debt’ on the cross, we were incapable of sinning anymore. Or…we could sin but it didn’t matter anymore. Or that sin really meant ‘missing the mark,’ which doesn’t really sound like anything to worry about.

Healthy disciples of Christ need mature and sober wisdom about sin. We need to understand what sin is’ and what it isn’t, so that we can discover healing, wholeness and freedom in Christ. So for the next six weeks, we’re going back to class to recover the truth about sin. And here’s my promise to you:

No guilt, no shame, no condemnation.

But also–no delusion or flattery or cheap grace faux-theology that our sin is somehow acceptable or benign.

Because Jesus really did come to save us from sin and death. And we need to face our sin in order to see our salvation.

This Sunday, we’ll be learning about sin–because we have nothing to fear. Sin is real and destructive and against us. But the love of God in Christ Jesus is the most powerful force in all of realty; and it is good; and it is for us.

Come and hear the good news about sin!

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Joshua 24:1-15

Hello Grove!

I am so looking forward to sharing the message with you this Sunday. There are so many changes taking place as we wind down the summer. We are beginning to pack up our summer toys and prepare to make lunches and get bookbags ready for homework. Many of us have enjoyed this blazing hot summer while others are looking forward to jackets and cool breezes. As we look ahead to these changes, I want us to remember that seasons change but God does not. No matter what season we find ourselves in or what changes or challenges we may face God remains our consistent provider and protector and redeemer.

Last week, Pastor Kate wrapped up the sermon series, A Season of Astonishment: Reviling in the Ordinary Goodness of God, and this week we will build on that foundation. We will look at the goodness of God and ask ourselves what are we doing with it? I pray that we may be able to challenge action out of ourselves and each other as a community- in love, to recognize the gift of goodness and rest in its benefits.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday,

Nicole

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Scripture:  Psalm 8, Psalm 13

Dear Church,

We’ve just wrapped up an astonishingly good week of Camp Wonder (VBS, if you’re old school!) with children and youth at the Grove.  Each morning we played and sang and worshipped, told stories, made art, created friendships and feasted at the breakfast and lunch tables. We pounded flowers (you had to be there) and even learned to play disc golf!

And in the midst of all the holy chaos, we focused on wonder.  The incredible truth that each one of us is made in the image of a wonderful wonder-making God.  And we leaned into the blessed freedom we have to ask questions, express our doubts, get curious and wonder.  Every single one of us is wonderful and made to wonder.  Wonderful and wonder-full.

On Sunday, we’ll gather around two of King David’s prayers.  Psalm 8, extolling the wonders of creation and our place in it. And Psalm 13, where David vulnerably wonders where God is in his life.

I’ll leave you with a few lines from the original songs our children learned and will be sharing with you in worship. Our friend Elizabeth Bridges placed this line in the chorus of the song she wrote for them about the prodigal son: “You can never get away from how much God loves you.”  And these lines from the bridge of our theme song: “I am full of wonder and wonderful” and “I’ll wonder as I wander this great big world.”

God is better than we imagine.

The truth about God’s love is astonishingly beautiful. It is a holy gift to plant seeds of the goodness of God in the hearts of our little ones. How wonderful it will be Sunday to allow them to sing that truth back into our hearts. I hope you’ll come and be blessed.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Exodus 25:1-9, Exodus 31:1-11

Dear Church,

We come to the Grove from a lot of different places and backgrounds. We like different foods and root for different teams and celebrate with different foods and traditions. Other than Jesus, we have very little in common.

But over the years, I have discovered one other place of passionate agreement.  Something that unites us across generations, genders and cultures:

Everybody hates group work.

Almost every person has a story to tell about a school assignment or work project that went left because other people were bossy or lazy or incompetent. Most of us would prefer to do important work on our own, without depending on–or being sabotaged–by anyone else.

But that is not God’s will for us.  God calls us to life, to ministry, to work…together.  I hope you’ll join me as we look at the story of what is perhaps the very first group project–the time God asked the people to build a tabernacle-sanctuary in the middle of camp–together.

Because Jesus is our friend, but he does not want to be our only friend. God calls us to life with Jesus, together.  Come and see!

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  1 Kings 19:1-13

Dear Church,

For a long time I was part of a church that used a standardized liturgy each time we celebrated communion. The pastor would come to the table and say, ‘The Lord be with you,’ and we all knew to answer back, ‘And also with you.’

That part always bothered me. Because it seemed as though the pastor was saying, ‘May the Lord be with you’ like the characters said, ‘may the odds be ever in your favor’ at the start of the Hunger Games. Like we were praying that God would be with us in the future (maybe even in the immediate future once we took the bread and the cup) but for now, we were all acknowledging that God wasn’t with us. Our prayers were like a holy dinner bell, calling God in for supper.  The Lord may be with you…or maybe not.

And for most of human history, people have thought this way. We’ve believed that God’s sacred nature meant that God had to stay far away from ordinary sin-filled humans  People climbed mountains to get closer to God, or sought the holy in the depths of caves, acting like God was a prize that could only be won by the strongest and bravest and most exceptional. People thought God might come closer to those who devoted their whole lives to achieving spiritual perfection, but could not stand the stink of ordinary imperfect human lives. Or maybe we just hoped it was that way.

The consistent revelation of scripture is that God is with us. Already. From the beginning of Genesis to the glorious triumph of love in Revelation, God is with us. God is close, right now. Theologian Sam Wells speculates that the biggest problem of humans isn’t our morality–it’s our isolation. We weren’t made to do things ‘for’ God, but to be with God. As our friend Lisa Koons puts it, ‘God made us to hang out with us.’

So we start not with a hope–‘may the Lord be with you!’ but a stunned declaration, ‘God IS with us!’ God is WITH us. GOD is with us…close to…us.  It’s a glorious truth to savor in this season of astonishment.

I hope you can join us as we watch the prophet Elijah discover the nearness of God for the first time. It happens, not when he’s at the top of his game, but when he’s burned out and teetering on the edge of despair. Maybe you’re there too? Come and discover how tender and close God is to your beautiful weary heart.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Luke 15:11-32

Dear Church,

When my girls were little, we had to teach them how to say sorry. And we had to practice–a lot.  Like all young children, they had trouble controlling their impulses, using their words instead of their hands (or feet!) and asking instead of taking. Things could escalate quickly.

So we taught them how to talk instead of punch back when there was a problem. They’d run to me and I’d send them back to one another and coach them through a conversation. Tell your sister what she did that hurt you. Listen to what she’s saying to you. Can you tell her that you are sorry?

They were little and learning, so I didn’t expect perfect.  I ignored rolled eyes and huffy breaths and barely audible apologies.  But there was one thing they instinctively did that I always made a point to interrupt and correct. One would say, ‘I’m sorry’ and the other would answer back ‘It’s okay.’ And I’d swoop in:

Don’t say it’s okay, because it’s not okay.  Say, ‘I forgive you’. Because that’s how we can start again and make it better.

Forgiveness isn’t an implicit acknowledgment that what happened wasn’t important or harmful. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that what they did was okay. Forgiveness opens a path to healing and change.

We are a forgiven people. We need to spend more time being astonished at that truth. What does it mean that we are forgiven? How does it change us? How does it connect us to God? How can it be?

This Sunday we return again to Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son and the astonishing forgiveness and love he received from his Father when he least expected and deserved it.  But this time, we meet the older brother and learn what it feels like, not to be forgiven, but to watch someone else not get what’s coming to them.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  Luke 15:1-24

Dear Church,

So far in our Season of Astonishment, we’ve marveled at two glory-filled truths:

We are Chosen & We are Changed.

But on their own, these might be astonishing and terrifying truths.

Recently, I was watching a sci-fi show where the evil supervillain could pick and switch any unsuspecting person, without warning, from a resister or bystander into a violent destructive ally. It’s only good news if we know the nature of the God choosing and changing us.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells three stories about the character of God: a shepherd recklessly rescues a wandering sheep, a woman relentlessly searches for a lost coin and a Father who lets his youngest son go and then watches and waits for the moment he exuberantly welcomes him back home.

God has chosen us and God is changing us because God. Loves. Us. Right now. As we are. God is not waiting to love us until we become who we ‘ought’ to be.  We rush past the truth of God’s love too quickly in our quest for power, purpose and understanding. God IS Love. That’s an astonishing revelation. God is not vengeful. God is not destruction. God is not MAD at you. God is LOVE. God loves us.  AND Jesus’ parables and presence show us, God’s love is so extraordinary–extra-ordinary–so far beyond what we name and claim as love–that we barely recognize it.

God’s love seeks what is lost because sheep, coins and children have intrinsic non-negotiable worth. God’s love is limitless and non-transactional. It is not a resource to be hoarded or a reward to be earned; it is necessity. And, most improbably and offensive to us, God’s love refuses to conquer or compel us ‘for our own good.’ God’s love is not a prison. The younger son is free to walk away, but he does not have the power to stop the Father’s longing for his return. The Father waits as the shepherd searches and the woman seeks, expectantly.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all is not how hard it is for us to trust God’s love, but how recklessly easy it seems to be for God’s love to trust us to come home.  

I hope you will join me as we practice astonishment and wonder at God’s love for us.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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Scripture:  John 3:1-21. 1 Peter 1:3

Dear Church,

He was a Pharisee, a member of the ruling council and a spiritual leader of his people. He was respectful and curious and sensitive to the moving of the Spirit. He knew the Bible inside and out.  You could sum up Nicodemus in one word:  Faithful.

And with all of that extraordinary faith and impressive pedigree, Nicodemus hears what every one of us hears when we seek the Lord:  You must be born again.

For centuries, Christians have wondered and argued and threatened one another over the meaning of these words. At times, the church has twisted this revelation into a weapon of exclusion or accusation.

But Jesus isn’t threatening us here, he’s promising us something – something astonishing and wonder-filled:

Wherever we are on our spiritual journey, the goodness of God is making us new. Life with Jesus is not a self-improvement plan.  We are not limited by our own will power and wisdom. We can have faith, not in our own efforts, but in the power of the love of God to heal and grow us. 

So we can breathe deep and unclench our souls. We can relax and rejoice. As we hear each Sunday after we confess our sins, we can be at peace because God is making us new.

We are not in competition with anyone. We are not in danger. Since that very first Easter Sunday, we have held by the love of Jesus who endured the cross for us, the love of God who raised Jesus from the dead and the love of the Spirit who lives in us, filling and connecting us to that great holy love.

On our best days, on our worst days, in what appears ordinary and in what appears extraordinary (spoiler alert: it’s all extraordinary), we can be astonished and comforted by the great mercy of God that has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let’s come together to revel and rejoice in the goodness of God! God’s own Spirit is making us new. In Christ, we are born again.

Peace,

Pastor Kate

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