GCI Equipper

Whose Acts?

Faith, hope and love keep our focus where it should be – on Jesus.

By Bob Regazzoli, Pastor, Australia

Editor’s note: When I was a pastor, I was intrigued with the words “inward, upward, and outward” to describe our calling and mission. Others used “belong, believe, become,” to help their congregation understand their mission and purpose. In GCI, we use Faith, Hope, and Love for a specific reason. The phrases, “inward, outward, and upward,” and “believe, belong, become,” place the focus on us and our response to God. They focus on our works and our response to our calling. Faith, hope, and love are focused on Jesus and our participation with him. He is our hope; he is love, and we only love him because he first loved us; he is our faith, and it is his faith that sustains us. Faith, hope, and love keep our eyes on the center – Jesus. Australian pastor, Bob Regazzoli addresses this in the following lead article.  – Rick Shallenberger

In his January video message, President Greg Williams announced that the theme for GCI this year is “Faith, Hope, and Love in Action.” The Christian life is often described by the apostle Paul as a life of faith, hope, and love.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:3)

This is the Christian life in action.

Following his Gospel, Luke wrote the book of Acts. This is often referred to as “The Acts of the Apostles” but in reality, he records the ongoing acts of the resurrected Jesus and his work through the Holy Spirit in the church. Luke begins this book with the following introduction: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach…” Jesus’ ministry continued, and it continues today.

Luke’s account in Acts records the activity of the Holy Spirit as he led the members of the church in carrying out the Great Commission. Those who believed Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit, and we see their life of worship, discipleship, and reaching out to others with the love of God.

 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

This activity wasn’t something which was devised by humans. It was inspired and led by the Holy Spirit. In this book, we see some dramatic events occurring as the apostles carried out the mission entrusted to them. But we also see Christians going about their everyday lives, and as they follow the lead of the Spirit, serving in various ways in the life of the church.

In Acts 9 & 10, we read of Peter raising Dorcas from death. Here was a woman well known for “always doing good and helping the poor” (9:36). Following this, Peter stayed in Joppa with a tanner named Simon (9:43). He welcomed Peter into his home and showed hospitality. Peter was then sent to baptise Cornelius, a Roman centurion. “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly” (10:2).

There were some great miracles recorded, plus the miracle of conversions, and then the simple acts of service with Christians living out their faith. “Faith, Hope, and Love in Action” is Jesus in action, through the Holy Spirit, in the lives of all Christians.

Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, and without him, we can do nothing. At times, we may feel that we’re not doing all that much. It’s easy to feel discouraged, to become weary in our Christian walk. The challenges we face can appear quite daunting. As Paul reminded Timothy:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NRSV)

Each day we need God’s Spirit to be rekindled and renewed, to participate in Jesus’ faith, hope, and love. We never forget that Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us.

Imagine it’s January 2024, and you’re looking back on the previous year., What would you hope for our fellowship and our local congregations? I pray we see a healthier church, with Spirit-led worship, devoted discipleship. And like Dorcas, may we always be doing good, as we put Jesus’ faith, hope, and love in action as we serve one another and our neighbours.

We have different ministries within the body according to our gifting, and we know that it is God who will add the increase. Every good gift comes from the Father above, and he, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are with us always.

Let’s continue to ask for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us as we go about our everyday lives, and in this way, our service to God in participating with Jesus. Faith, hope, and love will certainly result in the activity and actions which will bring glory to our great God, because they will be his acts!

Place-sharers are Hopeful!

The beauty of place-sharing is that it helps you understand that you’re not alone.

By Elizabeth Mullins, GCI Publications Coordinator
(Note from author: This story mentions the sensitive topic of suicide.)

I have wonderful friends and family invested in place-sharing. Most of the place-sharing I’ve experienced takes place in established relationships. However, one of the most transformative times for me was with someone I had just met. Don’t underestimate the space and safety you can provide for someone who starts out as a stranger.

Here are a few of the lessons I have learned from place-sharers:

  • I need other people. The Spirit is a wise, constant companion. I was also created for life in the body of Christ. When I’m struggling, the presence and tender attention of another is often the first spark of hope.
  • I don’t need to pretend my life is better than it is. It is possible to pay attention to what is good, true, and beautiful without ignoring my pain or suffering. Grief and hope can exist together.
  • I must first face and name what is happening to me before I can seek healing. Place-sharers give me the space and the hope to show up to my life as it really is, not just how I wish it was.
  • Pain, loss, and grief are universal to the human experience. Sharing my struggles is not complaining or being ungrateful.
  • Nothing I am feeling or experiencing could threaten my belonging as a child of God.

A memorable scene from a TV series reminds me of the way place-sharers are hopeful. A man who has lost all hope is considering ending his life by jumping from a building. His new friend begs him to reconsider.

“If I don’t jump, can you promise me that I’ll be happy?” he asks.

She responds, “Of course not! But I can promise that you won’t be alone.”

You are not alone. Isn’t that the hope of each of us?

Strategies Aiding Congregational Growth

Small shifts can lead to revolutionary results.

By Michelle Fleming, Communications Director

A New Year is often an opportunity to develop new habits and make changes to improve quality of life. By the end of January, 64% of people who have made resolutions are successful in maintaining their intended changes. For a variety of reasons, this number continues to decrease throughout the year. (In last month’s Equipper, I shared some common roadblocks when trying something new. If you missed it, you can read it here.)

We know that bumps in the road are inevitable when developing a new habit. But tiny shifts in our practices can lead to revolutionary results. Our current habits will only continue to lead to our current results. This month, we follow up with some strategies to build in support for you and your team as you make innovative changes to your ministry:
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The Value of Ministry Job Descriptions

A well-crafted job description helps a person see where he or she is in the big picture and in what ways he or she can support the vision and mission toward Healthy Church.

By Eugene Guzon, Superintendent Asia

There is a story you may have heard about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Amusing as this anecdote may be, we can relate to the confusion, frustration, and disappointment caused by the three challenges of wrong assumptions, unmet expectations, and unclear directions. We easily forget that people do not know what they do not know. They cannot follow directions they haven’t been given, and they cannot meet expectations that are not shared. A way to avoid some of this is to provide all ministry leaders with clear job descriptions.

The importance of knowing who does what

Well-crafted job descriptions help us reach our goals of healthy church. People are our greatest resource and each one is unique with gifts given by God through the Holy Spirit to enrich the Body. A leader’s challenge is to help people find their best fit, and properly equip them.

Whether fielding people for tasks or considering one’s own ministry involvement, clear job descriptions help all to be better prepared to fulfil the role given to them and help them see how their role fits in the team’s overarching objectives. Sharing job descriptions helps all see how the various ministries work together and complement each other, leading to shared passion and energy as the team continually works toward healthy church.

Clear job descriptions also help ministry leaders and workers evaluate things like personal effectiveness, progress, or areas that need improvement. This opens the door for constructive feedback, instruction, and relevant equipping. When developed, communicated, and used properly, job descriptions can set teams up for success.

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Dramatic Readings – Voices of Easter

By Rick Shallenberger, Editor

Sometimes you can make a point through a dramatic reading. Dramatic readings present possible emotions and intensity of stories or characters we find in the Bible. They are not direct quotes from the Bible. As John tells us, if everything Jesus said or did was written, there would not be enough volumes in the world to contain it all (John 21:25). Therefore, we add words and emotion to tell a person’s story. I have written several of these to help us understand some of the emotion of people like John, Mary, Malchus, Salome, and a Roman guard. Here are links to some dramatic readings you can use for Holy Week and for Easter service.

Voices of Easter – Mary, Mother of Jesus Morning Prayer

Director’s notes: This prayer is designed to be at or near the beginning of an Easter program. Mary has not yet gone to the tomb and is filled with anguish and mourning as she faces the inevitable task of preparing her son’s body for permanent burial. She knows the promises, she’s seen the miracles, but she also just witnessed her son be tortured, beaten, and killed as a common criminal. She knows he is innocent. (more…)

Reader’s Theater for Good Friday or Easter Sunday

He Is Risen

By Rick Shallenberger, Editor

The format is “Reader’s Theater.” You are all telling different views of the same story. In this particular Reader’s Theater format, you aren’t really in conversation with each other, but you will be feeding off each other’s comments – as if the words they said just triggered your next thought, or just fit in perfectly with your next thought.  You do not have to memorize your lines, but you should look over them several times so you can read with feeling and emotion. All five people will be lined up with microphones and a music stand for your notes. The narrator will be at the podium.

There are several statements that are all said together or interrupt each other. It would be good to practice these transitions ahead of time. I’d suggest sitting and reading through it together and then having rehearsal before the Easter Event.

 

Characters include: A Narrator and five readers.

Readers are Mary, Mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; the Apostle John, the Apostle Peter, and the Pharisee Saul. All will start off depressed, sad, feeling burdened except Saul who is excited that the insurrectionist is finally dead. All will be surprised at Saul’s responses and it’s OK to glance at him as he talks, but don’t give any hint of disgust or disapproval. Simple glances of surprise will suffice.

In Scene 1: It’s very early Sunday morning. All five are sitting down and will rise when introduced. it’s good to have a music stand light (or you can hold a lit candle) which can be turned off (blown out) at the end of the first scene.

Have someone read Matthew 27:57 – 28:1 in between the two scenes.

In Scene 2: You will be standing by your music stand and turn on the light. If you don’t have a light, don’t worry about the candle during this scene. (more…)

Church Hack: Discerning Gifting and Calling

Every member of the body of Christ has the same primary calling. But God gives us different gifts (Romans 12:4-8) and invites us into a diversity of second callings. We can think of second callings as personal response to the primary calling of Christ. Then, our God-given gifts, our passions, our experiences, our contexts, become elements that shape our second callings. The local church offers a Christ-centered, Spirit-led community. Within this community, we can discern what God is doing in our lives—his gifts, callings, invitations to us.

2023-CH2-Discerning-Gifting-and-Calling.pdf (gci.org)

Finding Rest for Their Souls

Teaching the joy of spiritual practices.

If you are anything like me, you have heard some interesting teaching on the spiritual disciplines. One preacher taught that all Christians had to pray for one hour on their knees every morning to have an acceptable devotional life. To this person, prayer was a transaction — we give God some prayer, and he blesses us. I have since learned that prayer is about spending time with God and letting his presence transform me. It does not center on a particular position, time of day, or duration of prayer. Rather, it is far more profitable to have a rhythm of turning towards God throughout our day. I also heard that a proper fast meant refraining from food and water for 24 hours. It is not advisable to go so long without water and staying hydrated was the norm for fasting in the Bible. I have heard it said from the pulpit that every Christian should strive to read the entire Bible in a year. While this is an admirable goal, I have found much more satisfaction and spiritual growth in slowly and deliberately reading scripture that speaks to my particular situation.

For a long time, I had a negative view of the spiritual disciplines because of how I had been taught. Prayer, meditation, fasting, Bible study, sabbath, and other formational practices were like doctor visits to me. I believed they were necessary for my (spiritual) health, but I would have rather done just about anything else. By the grace of God, I have received better information about the spiritual disciplines. They are now life-giving practices that I look forward to with anticipation. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16a NIV). God is showing me how to find rest for my soul as I walk those ancient paths.

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The 4 Es of Ministry Development w/ Amiyo Bacher & Richard Ablordeppey

Video unavailable (video not checked).

In this episode about the 4 Es of ministry development, we are going vignette style once again! We will be hearing from Amiyo Bacher, GCI pastor & church planter in Khulna, Bangladesh, and Richard Ablordeppey a GCI pastor in Buduburam, Ghana.

When we were attending Crossway, I understood that a Christian leader is a servant with credibility and capability to influence brethren in a particular context to pursue their God-given direction. … I am also following what I learned here in Bangladesh. So, we have also a pastoral team. Also, we have a team who are really motivating our brethren in our five house churches. We are really passionate, but we are learning that this is not our ministry. This is God’s ministry. – Amiyo

 

 

The environment that was created by leadership was one that empowered us as youth at the time. It gave us room to operate. For me, the first thing that stood out was the fact that leadership was willing to allow the youth to participate in things that earlier on, only the elders or the older ones were doing.
– Richard

 

Main Points:

The experience of Amiyo Bacher in Manila, Philippines, and Khulna, Bangladesh.

  • How have you been engaged, equipped, empowered, and encouraged in your leadership development? 2:59
  • How have these experiences shaped your leadership today? 8:48

The experience of Richard Ablordeppey in Buduburam, Ghana.

  • How have you been engaged, equipped, empowered and encouraged in your leadership development? 19:26
  • How have these experiences shaped your leadership today? 33:41

 

Resources:

  • The 4 Es – definitions and best practices of the 4 Es in GCI ministry.
  • Engagement – a President Letter from GCI Update discussing the role of “engage” in the lives of Christ followers.
  • Defining the 4 Es w/ Gavin Henderson – A GCPodcast episode defining the 4 Es—engage, equip, empower, and encourage.
  • Process of Development – an infographic that shares the ethos for development and development resources available in GCI.
  • Planting House Churches – read more about the work Amiyo and Christina are doing in Bangladesh

Follow us on Spotify, Google Podcast, and Apple Podcasts.

Program Transcript


The 4 Es of Ministry Development w/ Amiyo Bacher & Richard Ablordeppey

Welcome to the GC Podcast. A podcast to help you develop into the healthiest ministry leader you can be by sharing practical ministry experience. 


Cara: Hello friends, and welcome to today’s episode of GC Podcast. This podcast is devoted to exploring best ministry practices in the context of Grace Communion International churches.  

I’m your host, Cara Garrity, and today we are going vignette style once again. I’m so pleased to introduce you to my first guest for this episode, Amiyo Bacher. He is a pastor and church planter in Khulna, Bangladesh. He is married to Christina, and they have two children.  

Welcome, Amiyo. We are so thankful that you are willing to join us today for this episode. 

Amiyo: Hello.  

Cara: Yes. And I’m excited for our conversation today because we’ve been talking about the 4 Es, engage, equip, encourage, and empower as a guide to our process of development. And I know that you’ve had an experience being mentored and developed in GCI Crossway, in the Philippines.  

I would love for you to share a little bit of your experience with us today and maybe we can learn a little bit about what it looks like in real life to be developed as a leader and to develop others as leaders in our local churches as disciples and as a priesthood of all believers.  

Amiyo, my first question that I’d love to hear from you is, when was a time that you felt engaged in a meaningful and transformative way while you were at GCI Crossway?  

Amiyo: Thank you, Cara, for this wonderful question. Maybe I can say a little bit. Before GCI Crossway, we are all studying in Philippines at lnternational Graduate School of Leadership. So, I got invited by Dr. Eugene Guzon because I’m looking for a church to attend. Then I attend GCI Crossway. So, when we attended GCI Crossway, we observed that people are very friendly and welcoming for the newcomers. That impressed us to continue attending GCI Crossway. 

After a few weeks, we observed the worship service, sermons, fellowship, and intentional personal care that are very meaningful for us to influence joining GCI Crossway. 

Cara: Yeah. I love that you shared that there was an intentional invitation and that they were welcoming. That’s so important to feel welcomed into the body, in the local community of the church. That’s really important.  

After you were welcomed in, and you connected through those first few worship services and connected with some people, how did you get equipped as a leader while participating at GCI Crossway? 

Amiyo: I felt it was like another practical training in the church, besides our seminary school. GCI Crossway is team based and pastor led ministry. It is a very good model that reflects the God we believe in. I felt the pastoral team has built a team of ministry leaders and have an advisory council in place to make sure that the congregation is being equipped, listened to, and going in the right direction in the journey of Jesus. 

Besides, they have many training sessions like discipleship training, a small group after service, pastoral meetings, mentoring, outreach program, retreat, and elder convention. GCI Crossway invite us to join all of this. We are privileged to join those sessions which is very helpful in our ministry practically. So that helped us to equip and fully participate in the life of the church of GCI Crossway.  

Cara: And I think what you said about the practical aspect is really important, that you got hands-on and practical ministry equipping. That’s really great.  

Was there an aspect of equipping that really impacted you the most while you were at GC Crossway? Because it sounds like there was a lot of different things that you had the opportunity to be equipped with.  

Amiyo: Yeah, they have a lot. Their session for equipping the believers who already want to live their life as a leader. So, I feel that personally, the worship service is really amazing and applicable in our country’s context. 

And also, the church fellowship. And also, the intentionality of pastor Aron [Tolentino] and also Dr. [Eugene] Guzon. Their fellowship with my family many times, also other believers, is really amazing for me, for equipping and encourage our whole family.  

And I also observe my area superintendent pastor Dan Zachariah. He’s also doing the same things. He is really available when I need to contact with him or any suggestion. So, I really love and motivated by their service.  

Cara: Yes. And I want our podcast listeners to catch a really important thing in what you said about your experience, Amiyo. The availability of the leaders of Danny and Eugene and Pastor Aaron, the relationships, that they would fellowship with you and your family—that is so important in the development of leaders, and that is the foundation that we can equip one another from.  

And so, without those relationships, equipping is okay and it’s important, but that makes the equipping just so much more important and so much more alive, because we’re the church. So, we’re supposed to be in relationship with each other because our God is in relationship— Father, Son, and Spirit. So that’s a beautiful thing about your experience. That’s incredible. I love to hear that.  

Amiyo: Also, empower and encourage. Also, the sermon has much empowered and encouraged for me and for my wife. We’re also very blessed each Sunday when we attend Crossway. Also, the doctrine sometimes is really hard to understand, but when we attend at Crossway church, they’re teaching about Trinity is very easy to understand and meaningful for me. So, I am also blessed to attend that and also empower and encourage and motivate myself and to attend the Crossway church. 

Cara: Yes. And then, you mentioned that empowerment and encouragement—as you and your family have moved back to Bangladesh. In your church planting and pastoring there in Khulna, what are some more ways that you have felt empowered and encouraged because of the experience that you’ve had in GCI Crossway? 

Amiyo: Based on my experience when we’re attending Crossway, I understood that a Christian leader is a servant with credibility and capability to influence brethren in a particular context to pursue their God-given direction. I observe also in Crossway, the leaders, the pastoral teams, that they’re very good at doing this. 

So, I’m also following and learning from the Crossway church and also their leaders’ lives.  

Cara: Yeah. That’s excellent. That’s excellent. What else about your experience shapes how you lead and how you pastor today?  

Amiyo: For me, I am also really following what I learned here in Bangladesh. So, we have also a pastoral team. Also, we have a team who are really motivating our brethren in our five house churches. 

So, we are really passionate, but we are learning that this is not our ministry. This is God’s ministry. So, our believers, and also our leaders, are really doing voluntary as a servant to serve our brethren in different [inaudible]. So that’s the model I am really following.  

Cara: Ah I love hearing that and I love how even the way that you saw pastoral leadership happen in GCI Crossway and the ways that you were able to participate there has shaped that because that’s a beautiful thing when we realize that our ministries are not our ministries, right? They’re God’s ministries because that frees us to participation in his ministry. 

And I think that is really one of the most important things in developing leaders, right? Yes. Ourselves as leaders and as we develop other leaders, is that we lead only as participants in what God is already doing. Oh, that’s excellent.  

And so, what I hear there that I really praise God for is not only has your experience being developed as a leader at GCI Crossway shaped your leadership, but it’s already shaping how you are developing leaders in Bangladesh. And that is a really cool thing to see, that now you are developing leaders in this particular way according to this model because you believe that this is—from your experience—that this is the Christ-centered way to develop leaders in the church. That’s a really amazing thing. I praise God for that. Amen. Amen. 

When you’re thinking about your experience being developed as a leader and as you continue to—that’s the other thing that I think I heard that’s really important is that you all are continuing as a leadership team to learn and grow. That’s an important thing. When we think about developing, we’re always learning and growing. We like to use the phrase a lot of times, lifelong learner. We never learn everything that we need to know to participate in Jesus’s ministry because that is so amazing and so vast and so incredible, that how could we ever learn everything that we need to know, right? 

So, he’s always teaching us and we’re always learning. So, I thought that was an important thing too. And so, as you guys are continuing to learn, as you are continuing to learn, as you pastor, what would you want our listeners on the podcast to know about developing leaders?  

Amiyo: I think lot of things I can say for our listener, but I’ll advise the first thing is faithful. So being a leader, we have to faithful to God and family. So sometimes we really deny our family. We give more priority to God, but we need to maintain balance, faithfully to God and family.  

And secondly, available. We have to be available to serve our brethren and team. So being a leader, so we should always be available when we need or anything to do. So, we should go there, then our leaders can feel more comfortable with our presence.  

And thirdly, is teachable. So, we should teach our brethren the word of God correctly so that they can bear fruit for our Lord.  

And last part, not the least, is personal responsibility for learning opportunities. I love this. I love to learn from word of God and other teachings to serve our Lord. It is very important for all the leaders to [have] personal responsibility for learning some new things that we can serve in a creative way to our church to learn and also our team. Yeah, these are the things I really want to advise for our listener.  

Cara: Yeah. Yes. And what I really appreciate about your advisement is that the foundation of ministry leadership, because it’s not our ministry, as you said. It’s God’s ministry. The foundation of our development as leaders is discipleship. And in what you’ve just shared, that’s, I think, the key in what you shared is, we’re faithful in our discipleship and we have that responsibility in community with one another where we continue to learn and grow as disciples. 

And I think that’s an incredible thing because first and foremost we are disciples. And then secondarily we are leaders in God’s church and participants in his ministry. So yeah, I think that’s really wise advice. Amiyo.  

Anything else? Is anything else that you would love to, to share with our listeners? Any final encouragements that you would like to share from your own experiences?  

Amiyo: I think I love GCI in whole world—the team-based, pastor led ministry. So, I really love this model that we are also following here and is really working here actively. So, for our listeners, I think all our churches—even in the family also—we need a good team. 

That it works very good way. Not only in our church battles, I always felt that in a family also, we need to work teamwise. And I read about team-based, pastor led ministry is a really, very good way to leading our lives, our family lives, and also church life. Even when we go to church plant in new areas, it’s also working. 

I feel that as a team, so without team, we cannot do good things. But as a team, we can do many good things. Even why we’ll go, how we’ll go, but is this really nice? That’s the things I really want our listener, that we’re team-based and serve God, that our Lord can see the fruit and throughout our life, our team efforts, then our Lord can be glorified. 

This is the things I really want to say.  

Cara: Amen. Team-based leadership. Absolutely. I think that there’s a power in it and I think that it works. It’s a great way to be a relationship and leadership with one another with his church and ministry. 

So, thank you. Thank you so much, Amiyo, for sharing that. That’s about the time that we have today. So, I really appreciate you willing to share out of your own experience and share the insights and wisdoms that you have gained, one from your experience at GCI Crossway, but then secondarily and maybe even more importantly, your experiences in Bangladesh after you have taken your experiences being developed in GCI Crossway and now, you’re passing that on to other leaders. And you’re developing other leaders. I think that’s an incredible thing.  

I think that shows we are disciples who are called to make disciples, and I really praise God that you and your family are saying yes and amen to participate in that. And my prayers are with you guys as you continue to do so. It’s an incredible thing. And what God is up to you in your midst is a wonderful thing. I thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us today. 

And we will hear from our next guest in just a moment.


Hi, friends. I am so glad to introduce you, our second guest for this vignette episode of GC Podcast, Richard Ablordeppy. Richard is a bivocational pastor of two congregations in Ghana, has a family, is father of two children.  

Richard, I’m so thankful that you’re willing to join us today. So, thank you so much and welcome to the GC Podcast. 

Richard: Thank you very much, Cara. It’s a privilege to be here. Yeah.  

Cara: And in this episode we’re hearing experiences of being engaged and equipped, empowered and encouraged, developed as leaders and disciples. And so, I’m really looking forward to you sharing your story with us.  

And so, the first question that I have for you, Richard, is when is a time that you have felt engaged in a meaningful and transformative way in GCI Ghana? 

Richard: That’s a very, very big question because my entire life has been spent in GCI. I was born in GCI, so I’ve had many opportunities to be engaged. But I think the most meaningful one to me was after I graduated from the university and was wondering what to do next with life. Then the opportunity was given by the church, by the head pastor at the time, Pastor Emmanuel Okai. And he said there’s a seminary that GCI Ghana was partnering to train upcoming leaders. 

And he asked if I was interested in participating in that training. It was it a surprise to me because I didn’t think I was supposed to be considered for that. But the trust and the way he brought it up, the trust he had in me and the way he brought it up, encouraged me to just say yes, that I would participate. 

And so immediately after school, I had that opportunity to go into training at a Christian seminary, and that, for me was the most impactful or the most important intervention in my life as far as ministry is concerned. It brought my mind to the ministry. It brought my mind to the service of God, and I began to follow the tracks towards leadership. 

So that is for me, when I had the most meaningful engagement.  

Cara: What I think is so incredible about what you share in your experience too, is Pastor Emmanuel, he was intentional, right? He saw you and what God was at work at in your life and he purposefully engaged you and invited you into that opportunity. 

That intentionality, it sounds like, has been really meaningful, and has had that impact into how you’ve participated in ministry since then. And I think that’s an important aspect of engaging one another is to do it with intention. And I praise God for your willingness to say yes. So that’s an incredible thing. It’s an incredible thing.  

And so, you mentioned Richard, that when you received this training at the seminary and that, that was part of the formative experience that you had. What other ways were you equipped while participating in GCI Ghana that were meaningful to you? 

Richard: So, I think the environment that was created by leadership was one that empowered us as youth at the time. It gave us room to operate. For me, the first thing that stood out was the fact that leadership was willing to allow the youth to participate in things that earlier on, only the, in quotes, the elders or the older ones were doing. 

And so, at a very young age, we’re pushed into service in terms of doing sermonettes, split sermons. We were already doing worship leading and all the other activities in church. But that environment for me was very important—an environment that encouraged everyone to participate.  

And then the next thing, after the environment that was created, was the fact that opportunity was intentionally given to us. For example, when Pastor Okai is traveling to speak somewhere, he would select some of us and then travel along with us. And on the way he talks to you, he asks you questions, you respond. And in that way, he was mentoring us. 

You get to the place. He would allow you to speak, and then he’ll evaluate you afterwards. And so that was one of the ways. 

But he was not the only one doing it. Anytime I had the opportunity to speak in church, there were senior pastors who were like fathers to me. I could walk to any of them and ask for feedback, and they were glad they will gladly give it. 

So, the environment and the intentional way of pushing us, who they saw potential in. They pushed us into this part of leadership. By God’s grace, we were able to find our feet and also to participate and come all the way to this point.  

Cara: Yes. And I hear in your story the importance of relationship. 

You mentioned that you were mentored by Pastor Okai, and I think that’s an incredible way to experience being equipped—that it’s hands-on. It’s not just the head knowledge, but it’s actually, come along with me and see.  

Yeah, I praise God for that experience. I think that’s really where that equipping comes to life. And we see that actually reflected in the life and the earthly ministry of Jesus as well. He says, come along, do what I’m doing. That’s incredible.  

Then, you’re talking about those specific opportunities that were intentionally opened up and provided to you and the other youth in that environment, in GC Ghana. What were some of the maybe most important or key ways that you were empowered and encouraged that really impacted how you developed as a leader? 

Richard: I think, first of all, identifying the strengths that we had. For me, the leadership identified in me some strengths and would give me assignments in that direction.  

For example, there was a convention, and that is, in those days, we’re just doing F.O.T. [Feast of Tabernacles] But it had been. We now called it convention, annual conventions. We were drafted into organizing those programs. 

So a couple of us were put together and asked to go and design a program and bring it up, get a budget, put together, and bring it up, and then feedback will be given. Go and add this. Have you considered that? And gradually that kind of hands-on approach, we were able to learn, we were able to get a skill. And they were able to pass on to us things that we didn’t get from school or from studies.  

And so, for me, those were some of the ways. I valued those means of empowering us more than even the seminary opportunity I had.  

Also, we had what we called leaders’ or new leaders’ seminars. And in these new leaders’ seminars, you would go and you are supposed to speak on a particular topic. You go and speak, and then there are many leaders there who evaluate what you’re speaking on.  

So, I enjoyed the hands-on approach to doing things that were church business than the academic ones that we did, which brought us the knowledge we that was required to save. 

So those were the ways I think, were the most impactful means I was empowered or I was brought up.  

Cara: And not only that “hands-on” that’s really important, as we’ve even already mentioned and how it reflects even the ministry of Jesus and brought you into participating in his ministry. 

Not just learning about the Ministry of Christ, but I hear also that you said they, the leaders that were pouring into you, saw and identified and called out your strengths and the giftings that God has given you. And I think that’s a really important thing for us as the body of Christ to think about and to practice because that whole image, even of the body of Christ. We’re different parts of his body. 

And so to see you personally as God has created you, and to draw that out so that you can respond to your own calling as whatever part of the body God has made you to be instead of, kind of “factory setting” making leaders, and we just make a bunch of hands instead of what is God doing in the life of this person? 

I just really think that’s an important thing that I heard you say that I want our listeners to hear is that personalized way that the leaders who poured into you were able to come alongside you to name that.  

Leaders poured into you in a personalized way. How did that help you respond and even discern more specifically your calling as Richard, instead of just a generic leader? 

Richard: I think that when I went to the seminary, and I started to study more about the theological or the theory behind scriptures and some of the topics that were treated there, it whipped up a certain interest. And of course, I was baptized already. I had a love for the Lord already, but I think that exposure just clicked something in me. And I began to read a lot, do my own kind of research, my own Bible studies. 

And I realized that I was developing a deeper relationship with the Lord, and so I found for myself that fulfillment, that I was getting to know the Lord better day after day. And it came to a point where I’ve now wanted to serve. I now wanted to become engaged more in serving wherever the opportunity was within the GCI environment. 

And so, it came more or less as an easy thing, something that I desired for. And so, it wasn’t a difficult thing to take up the role when I was one day offered the opportunity to become an elder. Earlier to that I was a deacon. I had served as a deacon for some time in one congregation, and I was then made an elder about seven years ago.  

And so that is, for me, the core of it—was just the interest and of course, the Holy Spirit working in me and through me to bring me to the point where I had a natural interest to be in ministry.   

Cara: Yes. And thank you so much for sharing that experience and even your own way of recounting how you responded to a sense of calling. 

As you share a little bit of your story with us, Richard, it sounds like you had a number of people that really poured into you that really walked alongside you, not just as a disciple, but as you were developed as a leader. 

And when we talk about in GCI, the four E’s engaging, equipping, empowering, and encouraging you had it, it sounds like a robust experience of that in GCI Ghana. So how have those experiences shaped who you are as a leader today, as you pastor these two congregations?  

Richard: I think what they have done—the upbringing or the training and the mentoring that I received has made me develop into an experienced person. 

It has made me develop into one who has learned to work with teams. So, the drive from the national pastor is that we work as teams in our local congregations. So yes, these are two different congregations I am pastoring and I have other colleague pastors that I am working with. And then we have Avenue champions that we’re working with. 

But because of that team-based kind of leadership that we are being encouraged to work in, it makes the work easier. And so there are two separate congregations that I’m able to share my time with both sides. I am able to get feedback. I’m able to really enjoy the work because it’s not burdensome. 

Any job you’re doing or any work you’re doing has its ups and down, but it’s not burdensome because you have people who also love the Lord, people who also share the same passion, and together you are able to do the work of God without much stress. And indeed, when the love of God is at work in everyone, life becomes easier because everyone bears a little bit of the burden of the other.  

And so in all of this, back to your question, I think when it comes to equipping us, there were intentional efforts made available for young leaders to get equipped. So, there was a seminary training. There was the monthly upcoming leaders’ seminar for speakers or speaker seminar. There was the opportunity to be to join the national pastor, go out and preach somewhere.  

There were intentional efforts put in place, and so at the end of the day you didn’t find yourself stranded. If you had a challenge, you just reached out to your lead pastor or whoever was supervising you, and you had that support. 

Again, I’ll touch on the environment. The fact that there is this brotherly and loving environment, for me, it’s one of the best things that we have in GCI. That our leaders are friendly, fatherly, or brotherly (and sisterly for lady pastors we have), we are able to relate very well. And no one despises you because of your age, that you are a young one. 

Everyone is helping you rise up. And for me that is very important for our environment here. I had the opportunity to become the board chairman for the Ghana Church, and it was a big surprise. I didn’t see it coming, but somehow it came. I got nominated onto the board. 

And I was a member of the board, served a couple of years, and then I got elected as the board chair. And the faith and trust that senior pastors had in the youngest member on board there, was very encouraging. And I think it’s something that I thank God for, that people far more experienced than you can be patient with you to listen to you and help you become molded into someone better. And that is the privilege I have enjoyed.  

Cara: Amen. I join you in praising God for that. And as we come to the end of our time on the podcast today, what final words would you, or advice, what do you want our listeners to know about developing leaders? 

Richard: Number one, we must be intentional. Number two, we must take away the barriers or possible barriers that can hinder people with potential from moving up or coming forward to participate in the service or in leadership. And number three, we must make sure that the environment is loving. It’s having the Spirit of God at work, and we must allow the Spirit of God to work through us. 

And I think when the Spirit of God is at work, it’s obvious that a loving environment will begin to be seen. And people are able to operate best when they know they are not going to be crucified for their slips and their errors.  

And so for me, those are the important things I think any congregation or any team needs, especially a church organization needs the intentional drive and then the removal of barriers. In my case, paying for some of the courses I had to attend was taken up by the church. It was a barrier to me. I couldn’t have afforded some of them. And so, the church offered to help me knowing that I was not in the position to support myself in that way. And over the years, it has yielded the benefits that the church wanted or God wanted to come out of me.  

So those are the things that I think are important. And I’d like to thank you for this opportunity to share my experience. Thank you. 

Cara: No, I’d like to thank you. This has been some wonderful insights. I really am thankful for you to share your experience and I praise God for the experience that you’ve been able to have and for those final words of encouragement and advice to our listeners.  

I join you in continuing to be in prayer for our congregations in Ghana. As well as, for our younger leaders that are coming up and that we create environments of love and intentionality for them to step into the spaces and the people that God has created them to be. 

Thank you so much, Richard, for joining us today. It has been an absolute pleasure.  

That’s all we’ve got for today, folks. Until next time, keep on living and sharing the gospel. 


We want to thank you for listening to this episode of the GC Podcast.  We hope you have found value in it to become a healthier leader. We would love to hear from you. If you have a suggestion on a topic, or if there is someone who you think we should interview, email us at info@gci.org. Remember, Healthy Churches start with healthy leaders; invest in yourself and your leaders. 

Gospel Reverb – Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith

Video unavailable (video not checked).

In this episode, Mandy Smith joins our host, Anthony Mullins. Mandy is the Pastor of St. Lucia Uniting Church in Australia, the former Pastor of University Christian Church in Cincinnati, OH, and a cohort leader at Western Theological Seminary. She is the author of some exceptional books, including Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture, and Almost There: A 30 Day Journey Where Tomorrow’s Uncertainty Takes a Back Seat to The Promise of Today, and The Vulnerable Pastor. Her latest book, Confessions of a Secular Saint, is due out in the fall of 2024.

April 2 – The Liturgy of the Passion
Philippians 2:5-11       “Kenosis”
5:47

April 9 – Easter Sunday
Matthew 28:1-10        “Don’t Be Afraid”
13:47

April 16 – Second Sunday of Easter
1 Peter 1:3-9               “Living Hope”
23:11

April 23 – Third Sunday of Easter
1 Peter 1:17-23           “Mutuality Through Kinship”
32:03

April 30 – Fourth Sunday of Easter
1 Peter 2:19-25           “Suffering Is Universal”
40:42

Show notes:
Mandy’s website
Mandy’s Emptying Prayer Video


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Program Transcript


Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith

Welcome to the Gospel Reverb podcast. Gospel Reverb is an audio gathering for preachers, teachers, and Bible thrill seekers. Each month, our host, Anthony Mullins, will interview a new guest to gain insights and preaching nuggets mined from select passages of scripture, and that month’s Revised Common Lectionary.

The podcast’s passion is to proclaim and boast in Jesus Christ, the one who reveals the heart of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And now onto the episode.


Anthony: Hello friends, and welcome to the latest episode of Gospel Reverb. Gospel Reverb is a podcast devoted to bringing you insights from scripture found in the Revised Common Lectionary and sharing commentary from a Christ-centered and trinitarian view.

I’m your host Anthony Mullins, and I’m jazzed to welcome our guest this month, Mandy Smith. Mandy is the pastor of St. Lucia Uniting Church near Brisbane, Australia. She’s the former pastor of University Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. And for those of you that may be geographically challenged, those are not nearby neighbors. That’s not a Sunday afternoon drive, so that’s going to be a fascinating story to hear.

She’s also a cohort leader at Western Theological Seminary and is the author of some exceptional books, including Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture, and Almost There: A 30 Day Journey Where Tomorrow’s Uncertainty Takes a Back Seat to The Promise of Today, The Vulnerable Pastor, and her latest book, which will come out in the fall of 2024, which is entitled, Confessions of a Secular Saint.

I highly recommend these books to you wherever you get your books. I’ve listened to Mandy on several podcasts, and she is a trusted voice in the body of Christ. And if you want to know more about her, you can find that information on her website, which is thewayistheway.org. Once again, that’s thewayistheway.org.

Mandy, thank you for being with us and welcome to the podcast. I know you’ve gotten up early since you’re in Australia. Thank you for that. And since this is your first time joining us, we’d love to know a little bit about your story and how you are participating with the Lord these days.

[00:02:10] Mandy: Yeah. It’s so good to be with you and it’s wonderful to have an opportunity to join the conversation that you’ve already got going on here.

I grew up in Australia but left to go to university with my very new husband back in 1989. Planning to go for 10 years so that we could return to ministry in Australia, which is what we’ve always felt called to do.

And doors kept opening in the US and the UK and doors kept closing in Australia. Until the middle of Covid, then suddenly something opened up. And I would not recommend an international move in the middle of a global pandemic. That was a crazy time. So about two years ago then we moved back to Australia and I was originally from working with the churches of Christ.

And now we are working with the Uniting Church in Australia, which is in the 1970s in Australia, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalist churches (for the most part) most of them joined to become this denomination of the Uniting Church in Australia.

So I’m still learning about what it means to be a part of the Uniting Church, but similar to my upbringing, there’s a passion for unity, as you can hear in the name. And the Restoration Movement, Churches of Christ that I grew up in were a unity movement—in theory—as well. We don’t always get it right, but that’s the desire and that really resonates with my own heart, that even though we’re all very different when we unite around the body and the joy of Christ, then we find something in common with one another.

And it defies the world’s way of understanding when they can say, what do those people have in common? Because it makes no sense that they would be together.

So that’s where I am now. I’ve been here at St. Lucia Uniting Church for about 18 months now, and I was placed here by the presbytery as part of a regeneration project. The congregation was pretty close to closing. Had about 12 people in their 70s and 80s when I first arrived. And they decided, no, we’re going to give it one more try. And so, my hiring was a part of their effort to do that.

Yeah, I’m seeing God doing a lot of miracles, and it’s really hard work. But we are growing and I think these days, numbers aren’t everything but we’re getting 35 or so on a Sunday now. God’s doing something and drawing people to us and drawing people who are really hungry and coming out of some really difficult situations.

So it’s exciting to be a part of that.

[00:04:44] Anthony: God’s always up to something.

Mandy: Oh, my goodness. I wish he’d tell us what it was.

Anthony: Right. I think it is wisdom he only allows us to see around the bend just a bit. Otherwise, we’d run in the opposite direction if we knew what was ahead. But it’s always good. It is always good.

Let’s get to it. We’re here to talk about the lectionary passages for the month of April.

Philippians 2:5-11                                                        “Kenosis”

Matthew 28:1-10                                                        “Don’t Be Afraid”

1 Peter 1:3-9                                                               “Living Hope”

1 Peter 1:17-23                                                           “Mutuality Through Kinship”

1 Peter 2:19-25                                                          “Suffering Is Universal”

Let me read the first passage of the month. It’s Philippians 2:5-11. I’m reading from the New Revised Standard version. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the liturgy of the passion on April the 2nd.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Mandy, this is one of my favorite passages, the Christ hymn. This beautiful sweeping text that’s sometimes referred to as a kenosis passage. Kenosis being a self-emptying that we see in Jesus Christ.

Why should we be in awe of this kenosis reality of God revealed in Jesus Christ?

[00:06:45] Mandy: Yeah, you’re right. It’s a huge sweeping text and not only the concepts that it describes, but the poetry of it is just transcendent. And I guess that’s all we can do when there’s something that’s so beyond our understanding of God emptying himself to become like us.

Like how could we even wrap our minds around that? And sometimes poetry is the only thing we have to actually communicate. One plus one does not always equal two. We can’t have scientific language about this kind of thing. And so to be transformed, to be swept away in the beauty of the poetry, I think is a part of what’s happening here.

But what a crazy thing. I think if we were going to invent a God, we would not invent a God who did that. That makes us really uncomfortable because if we were going to be God—if I was going to be God, I wouldn’t even think that was the way to do it.

I would assume being a God is always lording over everybody, and what a way that Jesus lords over us by serving us and emptying of all of that in order to become like us. And I confess that most of my Christian experience has been more about Jesus as God. And it’s only been in recent years that I’ve really been trying to embrace this possibility that Jesus was also human.

And I think I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be human by studying Jesus. I think he was more willing to be human than we often are, and I see it in this kind of kenosis. We see this kind of happening in some kind of galactic space, like at the beginning of some kind of science fiction movie or something of this emptying happening in a place where we can’t see and happening before Jesus was born.

But we see it in his daily experience as well, that the story of something like his temptations in the wilderness. I see him doing that, that he’s choosing once more not to go back to being God. I think that the enemy is actually saying, hey, don’t forget your God. You could feed yourself any time you like, you can make the stone into bread. Just be God again and then you won’t have any of these problems. You can make sure that everybody bows down and worships you. You have the power. Just do it.

And so, when I read those temptations, I hear Jesus refusing to give up his ordinary human limitation and to just keep following the Father one day at a time.

And in that I see lessons for my ordinary human limitations as well. So that’s one reason why this is one of my favorite passages.

[00:09:19] Anthony: He is the true human, and he shows us what it looks like to be human. And sometimes we want a superhuman God, not the God that we have. That’s what we received, the God that we have given to us in Jesus Christ.

And so I want to ask you this, and this feels a bit like an unfair question because there’s so much gospel in this text, but if you were preaching this pericope to your congregation, what else would you herald?

[00:09:45] Mandy: Yeah, just this way that this is the way of Jesus and if we are following him, don’t be surprised if it’s the way that we are called into as well.

On a personal note in probably in the last eight years or so, I’ve entered into a practice of emptying prayer simply because God has put me in some places that make me really anxious and that feel way over my head. And out of that anxiety, I’m tempted to just work harder and try to be God basically.

And the only thing I know to do, and I do this every single morning, I do this every time I feel overwhelmed—which is often—to instead of trying to fill myself up, being called to empty and say, Lord, I just confess all the ways I’m trying to fix this on my own, and all the ways I feel in over my head.

And that was all I thought I was doing. Like I just thought that’s what needs to happen in order to just minister more honestly, and not from anxiety. But if I’ve ever felt the feeling of the Holy Spirit, that’s when it’s come, and I’ve realized what I’m doing is emptying of my own power and control in order to be available for the Spirit that is already there.

Like, I think we often say, come Holy Spirit because we don’t feel the Holy Spirit. But that’s actually not what Scripture describes. Scripture describes a filling that we’ve already been given. And it’s lovely for us to say, come, to invite the Holy Spirit. But I think when we say that, the Holy Spirit is like, I’m already here. Will you just give me some more space?

It’s been crazy that there has been in that emptying prayer—and I actually have a video that I’ve created, pretty low budget one, but a guided prayer, kind of visualization prayer of emptying based on 2 Corinthians 4, that I’d be happy to share with you if you want to share it with folks, because it’s basically the prayer that I do.

When I’ve done that emptying prayer, without expecting it, finding myself with an idea or a passage of scripture that’s come to me, or some comfort or encouragement or courage that I’m realizing now that power was always available to me. That comfort and guidance was always available to me, but I was just too busy trying to fix everything myself.

And that feels like really good news to me that this is not only Jesus’ story. But it’s our story, that when we empty, it makes us available to the work of God in a way we may not have ever known.

[00:12:13] Anthony: And thanks be to God that he is trustworthy to fill us up. That there doesn’t need to be fear in the emptying of ourselves just as we see in Jesus Christ.

And yes, we’d love to have access to that low budget film of yours, on the emptying prayer. So we’ll include that in the show notes.

And just a final thought—we don’t have time to get into it—but in the close of this pericope, we see every knee bending, every tongue confessing. And it made me think of a quote I saw once from Frederick Buechner and he said, “The final secret, I think, is this: that the words, ‘You shall love your God’ become in the end less a command than a promise.”

That eventually we just step into the reality. Of course, we want to be with you for eternity when we come face to face with the Lord.

Let’s transition to our next passage of the month. It’s Matthew 28:1-10. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Easter Sunday on April the 9th.

Mandy, would you read it for us, please?

[00:13:14] Mandy: I love Easter Sunday. I get to read that passage. So yes,

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

[00:14:24] Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God. It is resurrection Sunday, and I don’t know if you struggle with this, Mandy, but I sure do. When it’s holy week, I get a sense of just this feeling of I’m an imposter. Imposter syndrome.

How do I ever preach a sermon on Easter Sunday? How is that done? Of course, it’s by the Spirit, but it’s always quite intimidating and overwhelming. But there is so much to say and so little time in a sermon (and of course in a podcast like this), but we try.

So what Christological thoughts would you like to share in light of this passage?

[00:14:54] Mandy: Yeah, I’m just struck when we are reading, in tandem with the previous passage that, again, the good news comes from something that’s just the opposite of what human beings do. Again, if I was going to be God, I would do something much more spectacular than just leave an empty space .

And I think there’s something really beautiful about God’s willingness, his true trust, in what happens in the small things, in even the emptiness, that he sees the miracle of what can happen.

It’s not spectacular in the way that we would expect spectacular things. Although of course, it is spectacular that soon they’re to see his risen body. And what an amazing thing! We can’t even wrap our heads around that, beyond just if you had a friend who died and then came back to life.

That’s one thing—just to see someone that you love again. But then to think, okay, and we believe this person to be the Son of God, and what does this mean for everybody, not just those who’ve been friends with him?

I love to try when I do enter into preaching this passage—and I hear you on that, who am I to speak such a wonderful truth? But I think in some ways—I have a friend who says, awe can lead us—no, he says anxiety can be expressed either it can devolve into this wrestling or it can also be an invitation into awe. And so, I think what we feel in that lead up to Easter Sunday is a sense of the weight of what this thing is.

And that weight can press us down and say, I’m just a small human being. Who am I to carry this message? Or it can move into a space of awe, of this is massive and I’m only small but the mystery of it! I think in some ways that’s an invitation—a little bit of an invitation into a small part of the experience of what they experienced on the day, of what on earth have we been given to carry on this day?

We don’t even understand it, but we’re going to proclaim it anyway. And those women didn’t have a chance before they ran to tell the disciples to figure out what on earth they had just seen and to fully understand it. But they spoke with the joy of it anyway. And that’s the only thing I can do on Easter.

[00:17:16] Anthony: You were mentioning the context that aligns with Philippians, the emptiness that is there. And I think it was Barbara Brown Taylor—I once read her talking about how new life often starts in the dark, whether it’s a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, Jesus in the tomb, right? So even when it’s dark about us, that may not be the true reality because beyond it is something beautiful.

And I sometimes hear people say, Mandy—and maybe you’ve heard the same—that the disciples abandoned Jesus at his death And there was abandonment, of course, but I also see the women going to him and being the evangelist, if you will, sharing this great message. Tell us about it.

[00:17:59] Mandy: Yeah. I know a lot of women who feel called to proclaim the good news are very encouraged by this passage, especially if they’re in contexts that don’t affirm them in their calling.

I’m really hesitant to say—because I always want to be welcoming to my brothers. And I never want to communicate from the pain of my experience as a woman in the church. And it’s hard for me to communicate from that because I also want to bring healing between men and women, and I don’t want to perpetuate all of the brokenness between men and women.

And at the same time, I think it is really good to share it is really painful to feel that calling and to not always be given an opportunity to share it.

But the interesting thing for me because I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you, but the denomination I was a part of in the US did not ordain women for leadership. And that was the seminary I went to and also the churches I served.

And so, I was the first female lead pastor among a communion of 6,000 congregations, which put me in a really, really difficult space as a young adult in college and then in the process—and I’m not an aggressive person. I’m not an ambitious person. I hate the limelight, I hate conflict. I’m a nine on the Enneagram if you care about those things. So it’s been incredibly painful for me.

But all of that is to say, the ways that—and I think if I’ve ever had abuse, it has come from ways that people have treated me in that whole context. But every single time somebody has not received me or has not treated me in the way that Christ would treat me or has not recognized what God is doing in me—and I’ve had some really painful experiences—every single time, it has been an invitation for me to talk to the Lord again and to say, who are you again? What are we doing here again? Who do you say I am again?

And for anyone who’s marginalized—which is not just along gender lines, but many different ways people are marginalized—it can be a really empowering experience if it becomes an opportunity for us to say once more, who are you again? Who am I again?

And so—I saw this in Covid too—when everything hits the fan, it’s often those who have been on the margins, for whom the system has not been functioning anyway, who actually have real leadership to offer in that space. And that’s how I see this passage. These women were not given much of anything really in the system. And so when the status quo falls apart, they have something that enables them to press through.

And so I think that’s just what wisdom for us to look for when—because at the moment, I think everything is hitting the fan, not just because of Covid, because of all kinds of factors that are bringing us to a place of crisis in the church and around the world.

So how do we listen to the voices who are saying, you know what? Before you were aware that the system was falling apart, it wasn’t serving me anyway, and I’ve had to function within the system according to the kingdom. How can we invite those people to be leading, as these women had the opportunity to, when Jesus was dying and coming back to life?

[00:21:18] Anthony: Amen and amen. And I want to say to you, Mandy, we don’t know each other, but I sure am thankful for you and admire you for especially saying yes to the invitation to be the first ordained women in your space. It’s a beautiful thing, and we thank God for your ministry.

Let’s move on to our next passage. It’s 1 Peter 1:3-9. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the second Sunday of Easter, April the 16th, and it reads,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

“By his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Wowzer!

I believe theology Mandy should lead us to doxology, that our God-talk should lead to God-worship. So help us worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by exegeting this staggering statement from verse 3.

[00:23:16] Mandy: So let me read verse 3 again here. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Yeah. It’s the center of everything that we are about, right? I love how the writers of the New Testament just break into praise and I love to imagine them—even though we are reading it on a screen or on a nice white piece of paper printed in beautiful text . I just love, if they’re writing it themselves or if they’re reading or speaking it aloud for an [inaudible] to write it all. Try to keep up and write it down as they go. I just love the thought of them, either way, the pen not being able to keep up with the words. They’re not just reciting a written doxology here. They are breaking into to genuine praise and being willing to share that.

If you received a letter with this kind of language, you would feel behind it the real worship of the person who was writing it. And even if I did receive a letter like this from somebody that I loved and trusted, I’m coming in after the end of a hot day, and I’m tired and I’ve got a letter in the mailbox and I’m opening up and I’m reading their words of rapture. And I’m like, oh my goodness, there’s some bills in the pile here as well. I think it’s good for us to give ourselves permission to not always be there with the person who’s writing these wonderful letters in the New Testament, but to choose to believe.

Oftentimes, I think that we have our theology backwards because we say, I’m going to try and think and think and think about this thing that I’m told in scripture is true: that we’ve already been given a new birth into a living hope, that because Jesus rose from the dead I should break into this kind of praise. We don’t feel the wonder of that on a regular basis, and it’s really hard for us to get our heads around it.

And I was raised in a tradition where we basically thought if you just keep thinking about it, if you just keep reading about it, then one day you might really understand it and then you’ll start to step into heartfelt worship. But what I actually have found is better, is to go in reverse: to live as if it’s true, to choose in practical ways to worship, to serve, to give as if these things have already been done for me. And somehow, it falls into place. Like the discomfort of living as if it’s true, actually allows you to experience it in a more genuine way.

Not all the time, of course, but it goes backwards (or it feels backwards) to say, how would I live if I really did believe that I’m already in this living hope through Jesus’ resurrection? And how might my stepping into it actually help me? The discomfort of that experiment might actually help me embrace it in more ways than hoping to understand it first.

[00:26:13] Anthony: Yeah. It often brings me to the Greek word for repentance. Metanoia is to think your way into a new way of acting. Whereas the Hebrew concept, teshuvah, is to act your way into a new way of thinking. And I think they work together. Sometimes we do need to have our minds renewed—to think our way into a new way of acting.

But I agree, sometimes you just have to do it. And it’s not necessarily “faking it till you make it”, but it is just stepping into that reality and seeing the miracles of God at your side.

Verse 6 informs us to rejoice while suffering. And sometimes, that’s a challenge, right? And so my question is, can lament and rejoicing be held together without contradiction? How does that work?

[00:27:02] Mandy: Yeah. I don’t know if we’re—I think you can do them at the same time, in a way, because my lament is usually growing from the joy that I have, that I can see what could be, that I’ve been promised—we’ve been promised.

God is making all things new, and we can see all the ways that things aren’t new yet. And so our lament somehow grows from our joy, from our desire to see that joy fulfilled. So I think there are always two sides of the same coin.

But for me, oftentimes, it comes in the order of what we see in the Psalms. That we are given permission by so many Psalms to just say, where are you, Lord? Are you even listening? Don’t you see the injustice? Don’t you see the brokenness? Are you watching? Are you hearing us?

And that is a kind of an emptying too. There’s a theme here, I think, that can feel like a kind of emptying. And if we don’t really believe in the filling that happens after we empty, then it just can feel like we’re just going into darkness. We’re just talking about hard things and we’re never going to emerge again.

And I often see this tension of, oh, we’re going to lose control if we lament, if we let people say what they’re really feeling then it’s just going to go down in a dark hole, and everyone’s going to be depressed. But I think when we lament in God’s direction especially, it’s not just complaining, it’s releasing. It’s emptying.

It’s trusting that there is somebody who actually cares about this stuff, who maybe even cares about it more than we do and who can take it when we beat on his chest, he’s not going anywhere.

And so something beautiful happens in that space because we do learn: oh, I’m not alone in this. Oh, God is not surprised by this. Oh, there is a space for me to be safe, to actually be honest and to share all the stuff that I’m just holding in. It’s really painful to feel a lot of pain, to feel frustration and anxiety, and to feel like God’s expecting us to just push it down.

To be able to release that, actually then (as we see in the Psalms of lament) they often turn into praise. They often return into natural rejoicing that was down there all along. Maybe it’s like I was saying before that we squash the Holy Spirit. Maybe the joy of the Holy Spirit is in us all the time, but it’s just so weighed down by the lament and we can access it once more when we let that lament come and be released to the Lord. And trust he can hold it and we don’t have to carry it on our own.

[00:29:33] Anthony: Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Emmanuel, God with us. That to me, that’s so reassuring and even in times where it feels like the fire is hot and the trials are coming fast and furious that God is with us, and he understands. We have a high priest who understands what it’s like.

Mandy, let’s go to our next passage of the month. It’s 1 Peter 1:17-23. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday of Easter, which is April the 23rd. Would you read it for us, please?

[00:30:06] Mandy: Yes. And this is my birthday, so it seems fitting that I would read this passage. Yeah, alright, here it is.

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. 22 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

[00:31:11] Anthony: As I was listening to you read verse 19 about the Lamb of God, I was thinking about how I often want Jesus to show up as the roaring lion of Judah, the victor—which he is. But often the way that I experience him is as the lamb, broken for the world and for me. And I’m encouraged by that.

I just want to ask you what does it mean that God judges, all people impartially? And maybe as a tag onto that, how do we join in how he does this?

[00:31:40] Mandy: I think we often come to the word judge through our lens of the judicial system, that you’re engaging with an institution. And this is the judge’s job to do this. And in the Old Testament, the judges were spiritual leaders, people who sat in the gateway of the city. And if anybody had a dispute or a question or a problem, they sought the judges for their wisdom and for their discernment and for their mediation.

And I think we see God in a different way when we see God through this lens of judge, that this is not judgment in the sense that we think of it as in a legal sense. There’s a relational piece and a spiritual piece and a wisdom that we want truth. We want to be seen according to who we truly are.

And there are sometimes where I have been judged really harshly by human beings, and I want God’s judgment in that space because he knows what my heart really was. And there are other times where maybe I have got away with something when my motives were not good. And I need God to come.

This is the judgment he gives us even as we’re living, not just when we die. I want God to say, Mandy, that was not a good motivation right there. So either way it’s truth, and either way, it’s not for our damnation, but bringing us to the fullness of who God’s truly created us to be, to be our true selves and to reflect his goodness and his glory in ourselves.

So, it brings healing. This is the kind of judgment that ultimately brings healing and makes all things new. That’s how I try to see judgment.

And I think those who are in times of suffering as we see in books, especially in the New Testament, where there are people in oppression, they want to hear that those who oppress them—and we’re talking, blood’s flowing in the streets here. This is not just somebody teasing them. They want to know that there is a God who sees it and who will bring things to order. And so, I think we can judge them for writing such intense kinds of passages. And we see it in the Psalms too, where the psalmists are saying, God, will you come down from heaven and will you bring about judgment on this person who is oppressing me?

But maybe we don’t really understand what it feels like to be in that place of having someone who is a wolf at the door. And maybe if we were, we would also want that kind of God who can judge and make things right.

[00:34:09] Anthony: Yeah. We want judgment that’s healing, and therefore we see the vivid judgment of God at the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, and he didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it through him. Hallelujah. Praise God.

Our theologian for today, Mandy, the apostle Peter, seems to believe that the purification of our soul should lead to genuine mutual love, experienced in kinship. So, my question for you is, how are we getting this right and how might we be getting it wrong?

[00:34:42] Mandy: Interesting. So actually, along the lines of what I was just saying as well, I’ve been really encouraged in recent years to be reading a little bit about the difference between the guilt gospel and the shame gospel.

So, folks who do ministry in places outside of Western culture often have to know this distinction between a culture that understands guilt and then the resolution of that is to have your sins forgiven in that usual sense that we talk about, the cross shaped bridge. We’re far from God because we’ve sinned and that’s definitely scriptural.

But in an honor, shame culture, which is often eastern cultures. And I think our culture. There’s been studies that have shown that our own Western culture is also becoming more this way. So this is not just something to learn when we go overseas anymore. They’re more—and this is getting to your question here—they’re more interested in shame and honor, which is a more relational thing.

So, the guilt thing, as I said earlier, can be more institutional. This is my personal sin, and I have been called up before this judge, and I have to be convicted or found guilty or innocent which is a personal, an individualistic kind of thing, whereas the shame on a culture is mostly to do with being outside of the community, being unacceptable somehow.

And this is actually how a lot of people come to understand their need for the gospel, that they feel not good enough for God. And so, if we are only evangelizing through the lens, oh, you know how you’ve sin. You’re a horrible person and you’re far from God. If they’re already feeling shame and excluded, then we have just made them feel even more that way by telling them they’re horrible people.

And there’s actually a great website, I think it’s just unashamed.com, where they’ve shared a lot of research along these lines, that the kinship is the thing that we are inviting people into. That scripture has lots of different ways of communicating what the gospel is to different cultures, and I think we’ve got stuck in that one way, in the guilt / innocence way.

But to understand the honor / shame way is to say, they often use more relational language, more communal language and family language. There is a family that you are being adopted into, and to be saved is to be welcomed once more. Again, you thought you were excluded, but you are included.

I think this is not just, oh, let’s all be friends so that we can feel warm fuzzies. But this is a salvation issue. This is a way that many people I know and myself as well, especially people who are marginalized. I think this is meaningful because they feel the shame of being excluded, of being marginalized. And for them salvation is Jesus has made it possible for you to be welcomed in and for you to be seen and known.

And kinship then is not just, let’s make friends but a salvation thing.

[00:37:33] Anthony: Yeah. I’ve often thought that salvation is best understood as belonging, which is relational. That you belong to God. And it’s good. He can be trusted. Come on in. The fire’s burning. Coffee tastes good. You belong here.

Our final passage is 1 Peter 2:19 – 25. It’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the fourth Sunday of Easter, April the 30th.

For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. 22 ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ 23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Jesus Christ, bore our sins in his body so that we could live for righteousness. As a Spirit-empowered response to this reality, Mandy, what does it look like to live for righteousness?

[00:39:19] Mandy: That’s a big question. Again, it’s a strange reality. Again, if I was going to be God, I would not say, oh, the way we’re going to solve this is by me. My wounds are going to be the thing that’s going to solve the problem.

But I remember being on a retreat once in Kentucky, which I think is where you are. Am I right?

[00:39:39] Anthony: I’m from Kentucky. I live in North Carolina now. Very close.

[00:39:42] Mandy: Down there at the Abbey of Gethsemane, which is an amazing place for a silent retreat, and I was really carrying some serious suffering and feeling like this was a sign God had forsaken me.

And in many ways, I think to quote Barbara Brown Taylor again, she actually makes a distinction between pain and suffering. So, pain is the actual experience that cannot be denied, and the suffering is our belief about that experience that God has forsaken us, which we see Jesus wrestling with.

And in many ways, that’s worse than the actual pain. We see that in Job as well. That yes, you can’t argue with what he’s lost. But the question that most of the book of Job is about is why. What does this mean about your relationship with God?

So, I was in that place when I went to this Abbey, and it’s a Catholic setting, and so there’s crucifix hanging on the walls everywhere you go. And in my Protestant tradition, we don’t usually have a Jesus actually hanging on the cross still.

And so, I just was like, geez, Jesus, you just hanging everywhere, suffering everywhere I go. And it’s a real bummer. And I’m here to try to rest, and I just don’t want to be confronted with your suffering everywhere I go. You’re really spoiling it. I’m trying to enjoy my lunch here, Jesus. And you’re just hanging there on the wall looking at me. And something changed in me, and I came to see—especially people who suffer all around the world have that crucifix on the walls of their homes because (as much as I understand why we want to have an empty cross) because he’s resurrected now.

When we suffer, I need to know I’m not alone. This thing that had been judgment, had felt like, oh, that’s a sign God’s forsaken you because you are suffering and he’s not. Instead, I came to see, the solidarity that he has with me, and I have with him in that place. That, as it says in this passage, if you endure when you do right and suffer for it.

Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father is what took him to the cross. He could have stopped any time. He could have just said, oh, just kidding. I’m not really the Son of God. I’m not really going to do miracles. He could have got out of it anytime he wanted to, but he just kept saying yes, every single day to the Father, and even when he knew what was coming. You can feel this heaviness upon him of obedience and of knowing what it’s going to take, where it’s going to take him.

And to just suddenly realize that is our story, that when we do right and we suffer for it, we have God’s approval. It’s not a sign that we are forsaken by God. It’s as even though we see Jesus cry out on the cross, my God, why have you forsaken me? I refuse to believe that was because the Father had actually forsaken him. I believe that it was because Jesus was lamenting, as we were talking about earlier, and that psalm that he’s citing from Psalm 22, I think everybody would’ve known it and would’ve known the whole Psalm.

Which is the wrestling of a person who is in absolute agony and who still chooses to see that God has made things possible. And the end of that psalm sounds very much like he has done it. That gives me great hope and for me to live for righteousness means living in a way that embraces the possibility that even when I suffer—I don’t do right as perfectly as Jesus did, but it often is my desire to serve and to obey and follow that gets me into painful places. And to trust that the righteousness there is knowing, even though I don’t feel it, that we have God’s approval in that place.

[00:43:21] Anthony: I was sitting in a sanctuary once with a dear friend who happens to be a professional theologian, and we were talking about Jesus on the cross that we were seeing in this sanctuary.

And I thought, why don’t we come up with a symbol of life, right? The resurrected life. And he said to me, for a lot of us, we need to know, we need to be able to look up and see this broken, battered body, that he gets us. He understands that we can trust that he knows, and he’s not apart from it. He’s in it with us.

And I thought, that’s hard to argue with. I’m glad that Jesus had his way with you as he was staring at you during this retreat to remind you of who he is and what he’s up to. And what we see he was up to, is he doesn’t return abuse for abuse.

We talk about the kingdom of God being an upside-down kingdom, that looks upside down to our experience. What we often see as abuse leads to future abusers. What can we learn and live as a result of what we see in Jesus?

[00:44:25] Mandy: Yeah, that’s a big question. And actually, I just want to add one thing to what you just said about looking for a symbol. And as soon as you said it, I just thought, I think we are the symbol. You know that?

We carry around the resurrection so that the world can see, and I’m reminded of the passage that says we carry in our bodies, the death of Jesus from Corinthians. We carry in our bodies the death of Jesus so the life of Jesus may be seen our in our bodies. So even though it feels like death, for us, it looks like life.

Most of the people I know who look most alive and who show the resurrection power, have died a lot, have suffered a lot. And that’s where the miracle is revealed, I think.

But yeah, to get back to the second question, oh my goodness, there’s so much I want to say about this, and I don’t think we have time.

But going back to what I was referencing earlier about the real ways that I have experienced abuse from fellow Christians (mostly related to gender stuff), that actually it’s been also the place where I’ve come to know the meaning of the gospel in more and more ways. Because my human tendency is to just push back and to just demand that person apologize or that person change.

And in a particular moment, I felt like there was somebody who was specifically standing in the way of something that I felt God calling me to do. And that’s a deeply painful place to say, yes, I want to obey God. But there are human beings who are saying, no, you are not called to that. And so, I just remember crying out to the Lord and saying, when will he learn? When will he change? Will God change his heart? Fix him. And I felt this almost physical pressure on me saying, Mandy, let it go.

And I was like, oh, not you too, God, not you, not another voice telling me, I just have to adapt to this painful situation, and I just have to suck it up and I just have to take it in. And honestly, it just felt like more of this oppressive, abusive experience that I was already experiencing. And he said, no, no, no, I’m not saying that you should give into this person or agree with this person. I’m saying let it go because I let it go and all of the pain that he experienced, and I suddenly just sensed the story in a different way of what God was doing on the cross because we don’t often give God much credit for having emotions.

And what if our rejection of him brought deep pain in him? That he had created something beautiful and given it to us and we had just ripped it out of his hands and said, we just want it and we don’t want you. And what if that broke his heart? And when somebody breaks our heart, there’s just this natural instinct that wants to take all that pain and roll it up in a ball and just hurl it in their direction.

We do that all the time. And this is what we’re talking about here. The kind of abuse just gets passed on and the violence just escalates. But what if instead God said, I’m going to take all that pain that I’m experiencing because I see how beautiful this was supposed to be, and you have just broken it.

And instead of just rolling it into a ball and throwing at us, he—like the cartoon characters like to swallow it and let it explode like a bomb. You see a cartoon character swallow a bomb and it explodes inside of them. What if he said, no, I’m going to let it just blow up inside of me.

This is real pain. And I felt this is what God was asking me to do. Not to deny the injustice, but to choose to say, I’m going to let go. I’m going to let my sense of indignation die in me. I’m going to let my want, my desire for vindication and revenge, I’m going to let that die in me. And honestly, it did feel like it was going to kill me.

I felt like I’m going to lose myself. I’m not going to exist anymore. Even if it doesn’t kill me physically, it’s going to kill my identity because for us to protect ourselves is a fundamental human instinct. But I felt the Lord say, but because I did it, I’m asking you to set aside your sense of right, of what you deserve, because I did it.

Oh, my goodness. Something happened that freed me from this little script I’d been in and I suddenly realized we were stuck. I’m stuck in a script here. Like you say this to me, I say that to you. We go back and forwards and it just goes round and round in a circle, and I just felt like I was suddenly drawn out of this cycle of whatever the script is that between men and women or between whoever’s always perpetuating. And I was able to say, ah, look at this space we’re stuck in. Look at this thing. I feel freed from it. I don’t need you to approve of me in order to do the things that God is calling me to do anymore. I hope one day you get it, but I’m going to just keep saying yes to God.

And I felt such a freedom and such a release. And it was really good news. Like it wasn’t just now I can do my job. It was like, ah, this is the hope of the gospel. This is the power that God has given us, that he’s asking us to die to what we think we need in order to actually receive what he’s offering us.

And it will feel like death. If you are taking poison, thinking all along that it’s helping you heal, the doctor is going to have a really hard time saying, actually that thing you keep putting in your body is what is killing you. If you believe that’s what you need to live, it’s going to feel like death to say, ah, I’m going to have to choose to stop taking this medication.

And it’s only after you take it that you start to heal, that you start to see, oh my goodness, the doctor was right all along, but it’s going to feel like death first. So that is what I’m learning and living. As I see how he broke the pattern of abuse and how he refused—oh my goodness, what a beautiful thing that this God who had been so wronged by us and continues to be so wronged by us, refuses to take it out on us and chooses to take in himself the pain of all of that so that we don’t have to bear what he would be righteous, what he would be justified in dealing out to us from his own deep pain of us rejecting him. So, praise God that he has taken on that pain within himself and somehow let it die in him so that he can come to us and receive us again.

[00:51:02] Anthony: You said because I did it, Jesus that is. He did it. He’s done it. And it reminded me of a statement that Richard Rohr made, that pain that is not transformed always gets transmitted. And what I hear you saying, (and I praise God for it) is he transformed it because, hey, Mandy, I did it. I did it for you and you get to do it with me. We are going to transform this.

And I’m so grateful for that and grateful for you. Thank you so much for being with us. I saw a statement you made on the socials recently where you said, when I see only seeds, may I speak of gardens. And I’m thinking for you, as you said early on, ministry’s hard.

It’s hard work. It’s tough. But I pray that the Lord will allow you the joy of walking through a lot of gardens with him in the quiet of the evening and see the beauty of what he is doing all around you.

Thank you for joining us, and I certainly want to thank a couple of people, Reuel Enerio, and Elizabeth Mullins, who do such incredible work with this podcast.

And Mandy our tradition here at Gospel Reverb is to end in prayer. And so if you’re willing, would you please pray for those who are listening?

[00:52:15] Mandy: Yes, of course.

God, we thank you for this crazy way that you have come to us, that you have invited us into. Thank you that you are the kind of God that we can trust to not abuse, to not oppress, that your power is the kind of power that empties.

And it’s so much unlike anything we see in the world and in ourselves. And so Father, we pray that you would invite us, that you would teach us, that you would show to us how to be more like Jesus. Thank you for modeling it yourself and not just talking about it, but for saying, okay, let me come and do it; let me be like you and let me show you what it looks like.

And Father, we need your help because we have so many other ways we’ve been taught to fill ourselves up and to be enough in our own strength, our education and our media and our culture. And everything around us says, no, if you empty, you’ll just be left empty.

But thank you, Lord for the miracle that when a human being empties in your direction, that there is something that you are then able to fill. Thank you that your Spirit has been promised to us, that you are already with us, that you are already just waiting to give us the insight and the vision and the direction, and the comfort and the courage that we need—maybe not the things that we think we need, but what we actually need.

So Lord, give us the courage to empty and trust that there is something that will fill us, something better than we were trying to fill ourselves with. We thank you for this promise, for this miracle that we have access to every single.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.


Thank you for being a guest of Gospel Reverb. If you like what you heard, give us a high rating and review us on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast content. Share this episode with a friend. It really does help us get the word out as we are just getting started. Join us next month for a new show and insights from the RCL. Until then, peace be with you!

Reader’s Theater for Good Friday or Easter Sunday

He Is Risen

By Rick Shallenberger, Editor

The format is “Reader’s Theater.” You are all telling different views of the same story. In this particular Reader’s Theater format, you aren’t really in conversation with each other, but you will be feeding off each other’s comments – as if the words they said just triggered your next thought, or just fit in perfectly with your next thought.  You do not have to memorize your lines, but you should look over them several times so you can read with feeling and emotion. All five people will be lined up with microphones and a music stand for your notes. The narrator will be at the podium.

There are several statements that are all said together or interrupt each other. It would be good to practice these transitions ahead of time. I’d suggest sitting and reading through it together and then having rehearsal before the Easter Event.

 

Characters include: A Narrator and five readers.

Readers are Mary, Mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; the Apostle John, the Apostle Peter, and the Pharisee Saul. All will start off depressed, sad, feeling burdened except Saul who is excited that the insurrectionist is finally dead. All will be surprised at Saul’s responses and it’s OK to glance at him as he talks, but don’t give any hint of disgust or disapproval. Simple glances of surprise will suffice.

In Scene 1: It’s very early Sunday morning. All five are sitting down and will rise when introduced. it’s good to have a music stand light (or you can hold a lit candle) which can be turned off (blown out) at the end of the first scene.

Have someone read Matthew 27:57 – 28:1 in between the two scenes.

In Scene 2: You will be standing by your music stand and turn on the light. If you don’t have a light, don’t worry about the candle during this scene. (more…)

Sermon for April 2, 2023 – Palm Sunday

Program Transcript


Speaking Of Life 5019 Always At Your Side
Michelle Fleming

When we’re faced with a difficult next step, whether it’s our health, our job, or our family situation, we often feel alone. How can we approach difficulties, including suffering, with courage and hope? We can look to our Elder Brother Jesus and how he entered into our suffering during Holy Week – enduring what none of us could.

Today is Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday. While we typically focus on Jesus riding on a donkey’s colt and being welcomed with cries of “Hosanna!,” another important aspect of this day in the liturgical calendar is Jesus’ purpose as he entered Jerusalem. In fact, the word passion means “to suffer.”

Jesus was resolute and steadfast, knowing the suffering that lay ahead of him. We can learn more about his desire and the reason for his courage and hope by studying the suffering servant poems found in the book of Isaiah. Though these poems were written to encourage the Israelites in the Babylonian exile, we can see parallels with Jesus’ suffering during Holy Week. Today we’ll focus on the third poem in Isaiah 50:

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakenswakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

Isaiah 50:4-9 (NRSV)

The first part of the poem shows us that not only did Jesus have his ear attuned to what God was saying, but he also took time to “encourage tired people.” In other words, Jesus noticed others around him were tired, maybe suffering, and in need of comfort and inspiration. Even though he knew what he was facing, Jesus used his “well-taught tongue” to help others. Let’s continue reading:

The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

Isaiah 50:5-6 (NRSV)

Jesus knew his suffering was only part of a bigger story; it wasn’t the whole story. Notice that when he was taking the next difficult step, the poem doesn’t say he wasn’t afraid. It says that he did not turn backward, and did not hide his face from insults. This is the definition of courage: being afraid and yet taking the next right step. Where did Jesus’s courage come from? Let’s find the answer in the last few verses:

The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?

Isaiah 50:7-9a (NRSV)

As Jesus faced the events of Holy Week, we can learn from Isaiah’s third servant poem that the Lord God, never left his side. “Look!” Isaiah says. “It is the Lord God who helps me.” Jesus had courage and hope during the most difficult week of his human life because God never left his side.

Isaiah’s servant poems give us a behind-the-scenes look at the Son of God’s desire as he faced suffering beyond what we can imagine. We can understand how Jesus was sustained by God’s presence and endured the cross because his compassion compelled him to take on suffering and bring it to redemption.

When we face adversity ourselves, we can be assured the Lord God will be with us. Whether you’re facing difficulties, or in a peaceful place, may you be confident of the Father, Son, and Spirit’s constant presence right here, right now, always at your side.

I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 31:9-16 · Isaiah 50:4-9a · Philippians 2:5-11 · Matthew 26:14-27:66

The theme for this week is having the mind of Christ, and on this Palm Sunday, we pause to consider the thoughts Jesus must have been thinking as he approached the events of Holy Week. Our call to worship in Psalm 31 finds the psalmist in sorrow and grief, yet confident God is aware of his suffering. Isaiah 50:4-9a is the third of four servant songs that speak about having hope and courage in the midst of suffering. In Matthew 26, we can read the story of Judas’s betrayal, the first Communion ritual, and Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our sermon text is Philippians 2:5-11 where we’ll explore what having a mindset like Christ means for us.

Great Minds Think Alike

Philippians 2:5-11 NRSV

If you think back over your life, can you remember your best friend from high school or college? You know, someone who knew you inside and out and still liked you. You might have used sayings like “we’re on the same page” when you referred to your friendship. It may have meant you had similar interests, goals, or ways of seeing the world. The two of you were in sync, much like two gymnasts doing a routine or the figure skating couples you may have watched during the Olympics. When one of you came up with an idea that the other had also just thought of, you may have said something like this: “Great minds think alike.”

Today we’re going to study what was probably an early Christian hymn found in Philippians 2, and we’ll explore what verse 5 in this passage means when it suggests that we should have the same mind as Jesus. Let’s read Philippians 2:5-11. (Read Sermon Text)

Let’s set the context for the passage by looking to earlier verses in the letter to the Philippians.

  • There was concern about dissension among members: Paul talks about his concern regarding those “opponents” who are emphasizing circumcision and law keeping as a means of living righteously (Philippians 1:28, 3:2, 7-11, 18-19). It is Paul’s desire that the believers in Philippi are unified, “standing firm in one spirit” (Philippians 1:27 NRSV).
  • Unity doesn’t mean there won’t be differences of opinion: Paul understands human nature, and he urges the congregation to be united in love (Philippians 2:3-4). It is possible to disagree with another’s opinion and hold that tension in love, without attempting to persuade, manipulate, or change another’s mind. Melody Stanford Martin asks an important question in Psychology Today: “What would happen if instead of trying to change or control each other, we focus on seeing and understanding each other?” Martin suggests that when we “suspend our need to convert [or persuade someone], we make space to learn.” It’s in this space of learning that love exists.

Suspending our desire to change or control others requires a big dose of humility, and that starts with kenosis. Kenosis is a Greek word that means self-emptying, but it doesn’t mean we completely lose ourselves and become doormats. Let’s look at Jesus’s example as described in Philippians 2:5-11 to understand how our Triune God approaches the idea of kenosis.

The triune God and kenosis

Kenosis, or self-emptying, is the way the Father, Son, and Spirit live. Franciscan theologian and philosopher, Bonaventure, who lived in 1221-1274, talks about the relationship of the Trinity as a fountain full of love. The Father holds nothing back but empties into Jesus, the Son. Jesus then empties all into the Spirit, and the Spirit empties back into the Father, no withholding. The fountain represents the infinite love that is at the center of everything, and the Father, Son, and Spirit don’t fear emptying themselves completely because the fountain of love will never run dry.

We can see the self-emptying attitude in Jesus, his willingness to let go of meeting others’ expectations and cultural norms, and his gift of loving people where they are, without judgment (Philippians 2:6). Kenosis forms the central feature of the mind of Christ, and in the hymn in Philippians, Paul makes plain that everything Jesus did came from his self-emptying mindset. First, he became a human, emptying himself of his divine privilege and putting on our flesh (Philippians 2:7). By Jesus becoming fully human, humanity is bestowed with dignity and fellowship with the Divine. In everything he did during his thirty-three years on earth, Jesus descended, chose humility, and emptied himself of any rights or privileges, ultimately allowing himself to bear the hatred of the world by dying on a cross so that hatred could be dissolved in God’s love for their creation (Philippians 2:8).

Kenosis and us

Human beings are put off by the idea of emptying ourselves. First, Jesus’ teachings tell us that the way to winning is by losing, and that goes against cultural rules and expectations. But we can see it is true by observing Jesus’ life and interactions with people. Why does kenosis, having the mind of Christ, work?

  • It meets our deepest need. Emptying ourselves of our egotistic tendencies to be important, right, or perfect makes space for God in us. Our hearts long for deep communion and being at one with God, even as Jesus was of one mind and heart with God. What initially seems to be a great loss, giving up our own notions of rightness and perfection, becomes an opportunity to be filled with the Spirit of God.
  • It’s the path of transformation. Jesus did not avoid death. Instead, he transformed it into resurrection. If we don’t believe that infinite love is at the center, we will behave as if there isn’t enough. We will feel like we must protect ourselves, not trusting in our inherent worth as children of God. On the path of transformation, we must let go of our human shortcomings, guilt, and shame, as well as our biases that are rooted in our desire to be right or protect ourselves. By letting go, emptying ourselves of the weights that hold us hostage, we can find our truest selves, grounded in the steadfast, infinite love of God (Philippians 2:9-11).

Moving toward kenosis

Kenosis does not come naturally to us, but life presents opportunities for letting go, often through experiences of great love or great suffering. However, there are practices we can incorporate to make us aware of habitual thoughts and feelings that keep us stuck.

  • Contemplative (or centering) prayer: This practice of prayer doesn’t focus on a laundry list of wants or suggestions for God to act upon. Instead, contemplative or centering prayer incorporates silence and a focus on a chosen word or phrase that communicates your intention or consent to God’s presence. You rest in God’s presence, and when you notice your mind becoming distracted, you return to your chosen word or phrase.
  • Silence: Similar to centering prayer, silence allows you to focus on your breath and an openness to God’s nearness. Sitting in silence is not comfortable, but it affords an opportunity to notice the types of thoughts and feelings that arise, and then consider their truth and helpfulness.
  • Lectio Divina: The Latin phrase, “Lectio Divina,” refers to a close reading of scripture to notice what God might be saying to you. It is not a theological or doctrinal study, but a careful listening to what God wants us to know about ourselves and our relationship with God, not about anyone else. Though you can find helpful information online about Lectio Divina, the basic steps are as follows: 1) read the passage slowly, out loud if possible; 2) identify a word or phrase that catches your attention; 3) read the passage again slowly, perhaps from another translation; 4) identify how the passage or the word/phrase relates to your life right now and what feelings have arisen in your heart; 5) read the passage again and ask God, “What are you saying to me?” 6) Journal or sit quietly with what comes up.

Great minds do think alike, and Philippians 2:5-11 challenges us to develop the mind of Christ by understanding kenosis and how it can be part of our mindset, too. As we close, let’s read together a poem prayer written by Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes from the Unfolding Light website:

Jesus,

Your deepest humility and self-emptying
is not of rank or status or even suffering, but of love;
your greatest miracle is this:
that you loved the people who are impossible to love.

My Chief, my Beloved,
here is my salvation, and my calling.

I love you and entrust myself to you.
May your heart be in me,
that with all my life
I may thank you,
I may worship you,
I may follow you.

For Reference:

Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W1

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April 2 – The Liturgy of the Passion
Philippians 2:5-11, “Kenosis”

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Program Transcript


Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W1

Anthony: Let me read the first passage of the month. It’s Philippians 2:5-11. I’m reading from the New Revised Standard version. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the liturgy of the passion on April the 2nd.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Mandy, this is one of my favorite passages, the Christ hymn. This beautiful sweeping text that’s sometimes referred to as a kenosis passage. Kenosis being a self-emptying that we see in Jesus Christ.

Why should we be in awe of this kenosis reality of God revealed in Jesus Christ?

[00:06:45] Mandy: Yeah, you’re right. It’s a huge sweeping text and not only the concepts that it describes, but the poetry of it is just transcendent. And I guess that’s all we can do when there’s something that’s so beyond our understanding of God emptying himself to become like us.

Like how could we even wrap our minds around that? And sometimes poetry is the only thing we have to actually communicate. One plus one does not always equal two. We can’t have scientific language about this kind of thing. And so, to be transformed, to be swept away in the beauty of the poetry, I think is a part of what’s happening here.

But what a crazy thing. I think if we were going to invent a God, we would not invent a God who did that. That makes us really uncomfortable because if we were going to be God—if I was going to be God, I wouldn’t even think that was the way to do it.

I would assume being a God is always lording over everybody, and what a way that Jesus lords over us by serving us and emptying of all of that in order to become like us. And I confess that most of my Christian experience has been more about Jesus as God. And it’s only been in recent years that I’ve really been trying to embrace this possibility that Jesus was also human.

And I think I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be human by studying Jesus. I think he was more willing to be human than we often are, and I see it in this kind of kenosis. We see this kind of happening in some kind of galactic space, like at the beginning of some kind of science fiction movie or something of this emptying happening in a place where we can’t see and happening before Jesus was born.

But we see it in his daily experience as well, that the story of something like his temptations in the wilderness. I see him doing that, that he’s choosing once more not to go back to being God. I think that the enemy is actually saying, hey, don’t forget your God. You could feed yourself any time you like, you can make the stone into bread. Just be God again and then you won’t have any of these problems. You can make sure that everybody bows down and worships you. You have the power. Just do it.

And so, when I read those temptations, I hear Jesus refusing to give up his ordinary human limitation and to just keep following the Father one day at a time.

And in that I see lessons for my ordinary human limitations as well. So that’s one reason why this is one of my favorite passages.

[00:09:19] Anthony: He is the true human, and he shows us what it looks like to be human. And sometimes we want a superhuman God, not the God that we have. That’s what we received, the God that we have given to us in Jesus Christ.

And so, I want to ask you this, and this feels a bit like an unfair question because there’s so much gospel in this text, but if you were preaching this pericope to your congregation, what else would you herald?

[00:09:45] Mandy: Yeah, just this way that this is the way of Jesus and if we are following him, don’t be surprised if it’s the way that we are called into as well.

On a personal note, in probably in the last eight years or so, I’ve entered into a practice of emptying prayer simply because God has put me in some places that make me really anxious and that feel way over my head. And out of that anxiety, I’m tempted to just work harder and try to be God basically.

And the only thing I know to do, and I do this every single morning, I do this every time I feel overwhelmed—which is often—to instead of trying to fill myself up, being called to empty and say, Lord, I just confess all the ways I’m trying to fix this on my own, and all the ways I feel in over my head.

And that was all I thought I was doing. Like I just thought that’s what needs to happen in order to just minister more honestly, and not from anxiety. But if I’ve ever felt the feeling of the Holy Spirit, that’s when it’s come, and I’ve realized what I’m doing is emptying of my own power and control in order to be available for the Spirit that is already there.

Like, I think we often say, come Holy Spirit because we don’t feel the Holy Spirit. But that’s actually not what Scripture describes. Scripture describes a filling that we’ve already been given. And it’s lovely for us to say, come, to invite the Holy Spirit. But I think when we say that, the Holy Spirit is like, I’m already here. Will you just give me some more space?

It’s been crazy that there has been in that emptying prayer—and I actually have a video that I’ve created, pretty low budget one, but a guided prayer, kind of visualization prayer of emptying based on 2 Corinthians 4, that I’d be happy to share with you if you want to share it with folks, because it’s basically the prayer that I do.

When I’ve done that emptying prayer, without expecting it, finding myself with an idea or a passage of scripture that’s come to me, or some comfort or encouragement or courage that I’m realizing now that power was always available to me. That comfort and guidance was always available to me, but I was just too busy trying to fix everything myself.

And that feels like really good news to me that this is not only Jesus’ story. But it’s our story, that when we empty, it makes us available to the work of God in a way we may not have ever known.

[00:12:13] Anthony: And thanks be to God that he is trustworthy to fill us up. That there doesn’t need to be fear in the emptying of ourselves just as we see in Jesus Christ.

And yes, we’d love to have access to that low budget film of yours, on the emptying prayer. So we’ll include that in the show notes.

And just a final thought—we don’t have time to get into it—but in the close of this pericope, we see every knee bending, every tongue confessing. And it made me think of a quote I saw once from Frederick Buechner and he said, “The final secret, I think, is this: that the words, ‘You shall love your God’ become in the end less a command than a promise.”

That eventually we just step into the reality. Of course, we want to be with you for eternity when we come face to face with the Lord.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Have you ever considered how Jesus might have felt as he faced the events of Holy Week? How can considering this help us face difficulties in our own lives?
  • The passage in Isaiah refers to God’s presence “right here.” How does knowing God is with us “right here” help us face difficult situations? What insight does this idea of God’s presence “right here” give us about worrying, especially in light of Jesus’s admonition in Matthew 6:34?

From the sermon

  • Does the idea of kenosis or self-emptying seem scary or uncomfortable? Why or why not?
  • Have you ever participated in centering prayer, silence, or Lectio Divina as spiritual practices? If so, please share about your experience. If you haven’t, do any of the practices sound intriguing? Why?

April 6, 2023 – Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday

Exodus 12:1–4 (5–10) 11–14 | Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 | 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 | John 13:1–17, 31b–35

Theme: Our new life in Christ is grounded in Jesus’ humility, service, and self-sacrificial love which he expressed by voluntarily laying down his life for every one of us.

Suggested Preparation:

Communion elements—Fill individual communion cups with wine or juice. Prepare individual servings of bread. (How you do this may need be guided by local observance of COVID restrictions. In keeping with the theme for this week, you may wish to also provide gluten-free bread and/or grape juice as an alternative for those with dietary concerns.) Plan to have helpers carry the platters of bread and the wine, and as they bring the elements to each person, have that person serve the person next to them rather than taking it for themselves, giving their neighbor the bread and the wine.

Readings—Invite volunteers, youth perhaps, to read—see below for when to include the readings in the service: (R1) Psalm 116:1-2, 12-14; (R2) Psalm 116:15-17; (R3) Psalm 116:18-19; (R4) 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; (R5) John 13:1-17, 31b-35.

PrayersInvite volunteers to give short prayers as follows—see below for when to include these prayers in the service: (P1) Thanksgiving to Jesus for being present by the Spirit, for drawing everyone together, and for reminding us of all he has done; (P2) Thanksgiving to Jesus for laying down his life and pouring himself out for us; (P3) Thanksgiving to Jesus for the people he brings into our lives whom we can serve, and offering ourselves up to Christ to be broken and poured out as he was.

Closing Song—A song or hymn of sending or service, or of communion/fellowship (CS).

Maundy Thursday

Welcome, followed by the gospel reading (R5 – John 13:1-17, 31b–35).

Our new life in Christ is grounded in Jesus’ humility, service, and self-sacrificial love which he expressed by voluntarily laying down his life for every one of us. On this day of remembrance, Maundy Thursday, we participate in communion, serving one another in Christian love. And we are reminded of how Christ’s ongoing gift being poured out in our hearts by the Spirit is meant to be shared with others by pouring our own lives out through humble service, sharing, and sacrificial giving.

Prayer (P1) – Thanksgiving to Jesus for being present by the Spirit, for drawing everyone together, and for reminding us of all he has done.

On this day we are reminded of how often our focus drifts away from what is on God’s mind and heart. As the annual spring festival drew closer, the disciples may have been joining in the traditional singing of the Hillel psalms (Psalms 113-118) as they traveled. They may have participated in the cleaning of homes and businesses in preparation for Passover. And they may have been involved in the selection of a special lamb for sacrifice and as part of their fellowship meal. (Name of member) will read Psalm 116:1.2, 12-14 (R1).

I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. (Psalm 116:1-2 NRSV)

What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord; I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. (Psalm 116:12-14 NRSV)

But the disciples also participated in some heated debates about who would be greatest in the kingdom. This must have pained Jesus greatly. He reminded the disciples that those who desire to be greatest in the kingdom of God must be willing to be servants. (Name of member) will read Psalm 116:15-17 (R2).

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. (Psalm 116:15-17 NRSV)

As they gathered in the upper room for their fellowship meal, the disciples were shocked the sight of Jesus rising from his place at the table to take on the role of a servant. He laid aside his outer garments and equipped himself with a towel. He knelt in front of each disciple and began to wash and dry their feet. Only Jesus realized fully at that point what the price of true leadership would be—he knew he was facing crucifixion as the cost for being the Lord of the kingdom. He chose in that moment to demonstrate for the disciples the inverse values of God’s kingdom by humbling himself and washing their feet. (Name of member) will read Psalm 116:18-19 (R3).

I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 116:18-19 NRSV)

Peter was offended by the thought that his esteemed teacher would humiliate himself in this way. But Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” Then Peter wanted him to wash his hands and his head as well. But Jesus said that since he had already bathed, only his feet needed washing. But then Jesus said that they were all clean except one—the one whom he knew would betray him.

As he finished, Jesus pulled on his outer garment and joined them again. He pointed out that as their teacher and Lord, he humbled himself to wash their feet. They were to have the same attitude toward one another, loving one another the way he loved them. The new commandment he gave them was to love one another in the same way in which he loved them. This would be how everyone would know they were his disciples.

The new covenant was ratified in Jesus’ own self offering. He was willing to be broken and poured out so that we could be freed from all that keeps us bound—evil, sin, and death. Jesus was willing to do whatever it took, even if it meant suffering and death, so that we could be liberated and receive new life in him. (Name of member) will read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (R4).

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NRSV)

Prayer (P2) – Thanksgiving to Jesus for laying down his life and pouring himself out for us

When everyone is served, they will take the elements at the same time. As each person begins to take communion elements from the trays, they will symbolically serve one another, as a reminder of Jesus’ instruction to love another. Rather than simply taking the elements for themselves, they will hand them to the person to their left. [passing the trays to the right; or you may wish to have helpers hold the trays while each person serves the person to their left]. When all are served, invite the group to take the bread and the wine together.

Jesus offered himself in a tangible, physical way—allowing his body to be broken, and his blood to be shed. This was a powerful expression of God’s love for each one of us. In the same way, Jesus calls us to love one another, to be broken bread and poured out wine for others. We can only do this as we eat and drink of Christ, soaking ourselves in the Spirit, and allowing Jesus to love others through us. As Jesus lives in us by the Spirit, we respond to his grace by humbly offering ourselves in service to others, in gratitude for all Christ has done for us.

Prayer (P3) Thanksgiving to Jesus for the people he brings into our lives whom we can serve, and offering ourselves up to Christ to be broken and poured out as he was.

Closing Song (CS).

Benediction: Now may the God who sends you, sanctify you by his Spirit, keep you from the evil one, and fill you with his inexpressible joy, in Jesus’ name. Amen. (John 17:6-19)

April 7, 2023 – Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 | Psalm 22 | Hebrews 10:16–25 or Hebrews 4:14–16, 5:7–9 | John 18:1–19:42

Theme: Our new life in Christ is grounded in Jesus’ humility, service, and self-sacrificial love which he expressed by voluntarily laying down his life for every one of us. On this day of remembrance, Good Friday, we are reminded that we participate in Christ’s self-sacrificial laying down of his life, being broken and poured out on behalf of the Father’s beloved children. And we are reminded of how Christ’s ongoing gift being poured out in our hearts by the Spirit is meant to be shared with others by our own persons being broken and poured out for the Father’s beloved children through humble service, sharing, and giving.

Suggested Preparation:

Readings—Invite volunteers, youth perhaps, to read—see below for when to include the readings in the service: (R1) John 18:1-14; (R2) John 18:15-27; (R3) John 18:28-19:16; (R4) John 19:17-24; (R5) John 19:25-27; (R6) John 19:28-30; (R7) John 19:38-42. (Have all readers read from the same Bible version.)

PrayersInvite volunteers to give short prayers as follows—see below for when to include these prayers in the service: (P1) Thanksgiving to Jesus for being present by the Spirit, for drawing everyone together, and for reminding us of all he has done; (P2) Thanksgiving to Jesus for laying down his life and pouring himself out for us; (P3) Thanksgiving to Jesus for the people he brings into our lives whom we can serve, and offering ourselves up to Christ to be broken and poured out as he was.

Closing Song—(CS) A song or hymn of sending, service, or commitment.

 Good Friday Reflective Service

Welcome, followed by thanksgiving prayer (P1).

On this day of remembrance, Good Friday, we are reminded that we participate in Christ’s self-sacrificial laying down of his life, being broken and poured out on behalf of the Father’s beloved children. And we are reminded of how Christ’s ongoing gift being poured out in our hearts by the Spirit is meant to be shared with others by our own persons being broken and poured out for the Father’s beloved children through humble service, sharing, and giving.

Today we reflect on Jesus, who willingly gave his life for our own. Jesus Christ, the One who came as God in human flesh, voluntarily allowed himself to be betrayed, falsely accused, beaten, and crucified for our sakes, even though it meant he would die and be buried. Even though at any moment Jesus could have walked away from his cross, he chose not to, because his cross was the means by which everything made by him and through him was taken through death into newness of life. What hope we have because of Jesus’ self-offering!

 

Today is a day to declare again that we were crucified, and we died with Christ. And because we share in his death, we participate in Jesus’ broken and poured out gift on the cross. As we read today’s gospel passage, let us consider anew what it means to fully participate in what Christ has done for us in laying down his life. Let us reflect on what it means that in Christ by the Spirit, we ourselves live broken and poured out for others.

(Name of member) will read John 18:1-14 (R1).

  • Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, Judas Iscariot, arrested, and falsely accused.

Each of the twelve disciples was personally chosen by Jesus. He knew them down to their core and he still loved them and included them in his ministry. Jesus knew Judas would eventually betray him, but even so, he knelt and washed his feet, and included him at his table, within his circle of disciples. Jesus expressed his Father’s love by the Spirit, including each person in that love, even though he knew they could betray him to the authorities at any moment.

Our participation in Jesus’ death includes our willingness to include others, even though they may turn against us or betray us. Christ’s life and love in us by the Spirit compels us to welcome and include others despite the risks involved.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit move you to include through kindness, humble service, or compassionate care those people you have previously tended to exclude from your relationships? Pause for reflection.

(Name of member) will now read John 18:15-27 (R2).

  • Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, Simon Peter, who vehemently denied being associated with him.

How easy it is to say we are going to stand by Jesus until the end! This is what Peter told Jesus, but when Jesus refused to allow him to use his sword and he discovered his life was on the line, his assurance quickly oozed away! When the opinion of the people around him became more important than his loyalty to Jesus, what came out of Peter was violent denial and a refusal to be identified with his teacher and friend.

Part of our participation in the death of Christ is identifying with Jesus no matter the opinion of others. Drawing upon the Spirit of Christ living within we find the strength to stand fast, even when this means the people whose opinions we value most are turned against us. Our comfort is knowing that even when we fail to stand fast in our relationship with Christ, he holds on to us—his love for us never fails.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit change the way you respond to the opinions and preferences of the people in your life? Pause for reflection.

(Name of member) will now read John 18:18-40 (R3a), followed by (name of member), who will read John 19:1-16 (R3b).

  • Jesus was interrogated and flogged by Pontius Pilate, who found him innocent, tried to free him, but ultimately sentenced him to crucifixion at the insistence of the crowd.

Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, and Peter denied Jesus. Now Pontius Pilate, the one person who had the power to free Jesus and who declared three times that he was innocent, ultimately chose giving Jesus up to be crucified over doing what was just and right. Even though his life was on the line, Jesus never ceased to speak the truth about who he was and why he was here on earth. He was not ashamed to be the Son of the Father, even though he knew it was going to cost him his life.

We participate with Jesus in his death as we stand up to human institutions and refuse to be intimidated by their demands that we sacrifice righteousness and justice for the sake of power, wealth, and the opinion of the people. As those who identify with Jesus in his sacrifice and death, our supreme loyalty is not to the state, but to the Lord himself, the King of the kingdom of God.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit be moving you to stand against unrighteousness and injustice in your church, your community, or your world? Pause for reflection.

(Name of member) will now read John 19:17-24 (R4).

  • Jesus carried his cross, was stripped naked and crucified with two criminals, with soldiers gambling for his clothing.

It was bad enough that Jesus was flogged, tortured to the point of death, but then he had to carry his own implement of death up a hill to where he would be crucified on it. He was stripped down and the soldiers gambled to see who would get his clothing. Mocked and abused verbally, Jesus was torn apart in every way imaginable. The humiliation and vulnerability Jesus experienced in those moments must have been intense.

Our participation with Jesus in his death includes those times when we experience abuse, suffering, ridicule, mockery and rejection from others because we choose to live according to the truth of who we are in Christ. The apostle Paul said he counted everything loss for the sake of knowing Christ. This speaks powerfully about the value we place on Jesus and what it means to be broken and poured out for his sake.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit enable you to bear up under ridicule, rejection, or abuse because of identifying with Christ and choosing to live in the truth of who you are in him? Pause for reflection.

(Name of member) will now read John 19:25-27 (R5).

  • Jesus surrendered the care of his mother to his disciple, John.

With all that Jesus was experiencing, and how close he was to death in that moment, it is marvelous that he would make the effort to be sure that his mother was cared for after his death. How hard it must have been to give her up, the one who had borne disgrace for his sake, who had made the hard choice when Gabriel came telling her she would bear a Son named “Immanuel.”

Sometimes our participation with Christ requires the surrender of people or belongings we treasure. Our being broken and poured out may involve giving up relationships or life circumstances we value and do not want to give up.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit, enable you to surrender that thing you’ve been holding tight to that God has asked you to let go of? Pause for reflection.

(Name of member) will now read John 19:28-30 (R6).

  • Jesus realized his work was done, drank sour wine, proclaimed “It is finished,” and gave up his spirit.

Jesus came to the end of his life, realizing that he had done everything the Father had asked him to do. Now it was time to declare that he had reached the end and to move on. In the midst of his intense human suffering, this giving up of his Spirit in union with the Father was an act of faith, of implicit trust. But he did not hesitate. He surrendered his spirit into the care of God and courageously entered death for all our sakes.

Our participation in Christ’s death includes our letting go of everything in this life that may be of importance or of value to us. There are times when we have finished what God has asked us to do, and we need to move on. Sometimes we are asked to let go of relationships, or jobs, or responsibilities, and to embrace new ones. We may not know what to expect, or how it will all work out, but we need to allow the door to close on the past, and we need to move on into the new life God has for us in Christ.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit be closing a door in your life and moving you to enter a world full of new possibilities and new relationships? Pause for reflection.

Thanksgiving prayer (P2).

(Name of member) will now read our last passage for today, John 19:38-42 (R7).

  • Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus asked for and buried Jesus’s body in Joseph’s own tomb.

Joseph and Nicodemus had been secret followers of Jesus. They didn’t want to risk losing their position in the community, so they hadn’t let others know where they stood. But when Jesus died, they stood up, placing everything at risk for the sake of giving Jesus a dignified burial rather than allowing him to be thrown into a mass grave.

Sometimes our participation with Christ asks that we take a stand alongside those who are rejected or despised. We may need to step up and be known as “one of those” people who refuse to follow along with social expectations, who are willing to help the poor, the needy, and the outcasts.

Reflection: How might Christ’s love poured out in you by the Spirit be calling you to take a stand alongside those whom society rejects but Christ loves? Pause for reflection.

Thanksgiving prayer (P3) and closing song (CS).

Benediction: Now may the God who sends you, sanctify you by his Spirit, keep you from the evil one, and fill you with his inexpressible joy, in Jesus’ name. Amen. (John 17:13-19)

April 8, 2023 – Holy Saturday

Job 14:1–14 or Lamentations 3:1–9, 19–24 | Psalm 31:1–4, 15–16 | 1 Peter 4:1–8 | Matthew 27:57–66 or John 19:38–42

Theme: Our new life in Christ is grounded in Jesus’ humility, service, and self-sacrificial love which he expressed by voluntarily laying down his life for every one of us.

Suggested Preparation:

Small Group Gatherings—Join together in groups of eight to twelve people during the discussion period. Have pen/pencil and paper available for each group, It may be helpful to have the discussion questions on each paper to encourage participation: (1) What are some areas of death, grief, loss, or sorrow that we see in our neighborhood or community? (2) How is Jesus at work right now in bringing his life and light into these dark places? (3) How can we as a congregation participate with Jesus in what he is doing to bring his light and life into these dark places? Have one person in the group act as facilitator and recorder, who will share on the group’s behalf with the congregation what is gathered. You may wish to select facilitators beforehand and coach them to encourage full participation by all the members of their group.

Readings—Invite volunteers, youth perhaps, to read—see below for when to include the readings in the service: (R1) Lamentations 3:1–9, 19–24; (R2) 1 Peter 4:1–8; (R3) Matthew 27:57–66.

PrayersInvite volunteers to give short prayers as follows—see below for when to include these prayers in the service: (P1) Thanksgiving to Jesus for being present by the Spirit, for drawing everyone together, and for reminding us of all he has done; (P2) Thanksgiving to Jesus for entering death in our place, on our behalf, and bringing his hope and light into our darkest places; (P3) Thanksgiving to Jesus for the people he brings into our lives to whom we can bring his hope and light, and offering ourselves up to Christ to be broken and poured out as he was.

Closing Song—A song or hymn of sending or service, or of commitment (CS).

 Holy Saturday Reflective Service

Welcome, to be followed by the gospel reading and thanksgiving prayer (see below).

On this day of remembrance, Holy Saturday, we participate in Jesus’ rest, in his penetration into death itself, freeing us from all that death means for us. And we are reminded of how Christ’s ongoing gift being poured out in our hearts by the Spirit is meant to be shared with others in their own dark times of loss, suffering, and grief, as we participate with Jesus in bringing the light of God’s grace, comfort, and healing into those places.

Today we are gathered together in remembrance of our Lord’s death. We are reminded of how Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sat and observed Joseph and Nicodemus preparing Jesus’ body for burial. The finality of the moment of death dismayed these disciples. What would they do now that they had lost their Messiah?

(Name of member) will read Matthew 27:57–66 (R3), to begin our service.

Thanksgiving prayer (P1)

Jesus’ body died as each of ours one day will die, and he was buried in a tomb. In the darkness of that tomb, Jesus, having lost his human life, entered into our darkest place—death—and in that place, transformed it with his living presence. As God in human flesh, Jesus entered into our human death and brought new life.

(Name of member) will read 1 Peter 4:1–8 (R2).

Thanksgiving prayer (P2).

Just like Jesus brought light and hope into our lives, each of us is called to participate in Jesus’ work of bringing his life into places that are dark and full of death. We will be gathering into groups of eight to twelve people and will be asking these three questions: (1) What are some areas of death, grief, loss, or sorrow that we see in our neighborhood or community? (2) How is Jesus at work right now in bringing his life and light into these dark places? (3) How can we as a congregation participate with Jesus in what he is doing to bring his light and life into these dark places?

Have the facilitators break the congregation into groups of eight to twelve persons (5-7 for smaller groups). Announce each question and give the group 5-7 minutes (or more) per question for discussion: (1) What are some areas of death, grief, loss, or sorrow that we see in our neighborhood or community? (2) How is Jesus at work right now in bringing his life and light into these dark places? (3) How can we as a congregation participate with Jesus in what he is doing to bring his light and life into these dark places? At the end of the allotted time, have the congregation regather. Invite each facilitator to share what his or her group has gathered.

(Name of member) will read now read Lamentations 3:1–9, 19–24 (R1).

So often death is seen as an untimely and unwanted end. But in Christ, death has been reforged into a time of new possibilities. We participate individually and as a congregation in Jesus’ transformation of death into a place where the potential for new life is present and real. Today, after participating in this gathering, what might the Spirit be prompting you individually to do as a participation in Christ’s work where he entered into death to bring new life? What are some tangible steps you can take in that direction?

Thanksgiving prayer (P3) and closing song (CS).

Benediction: Now may the God who sends you, sanctify you by his Spirit, keep you from the evil one, and fill you with his inexpressible joy, in Jesus’ name. Amen. (John 17:6-19)

Sermon for April 9, 2023 – Easter

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5020 | Visiting Our Tombs
Greg Williams

Happy Easter!

As you know, each of the four Gospels recounts the story of Jesus’ resurrection, each from the author’s perspective. The general story is the same, but some accounts include details that are left out in others. However, one thing each story has in common is how it begins. All four Gospels begin the story of the resurrection, ironically, with a visit to a tomb.

That tomb turns out to be empty of course, setting the stage for the rest of the story. But I’m glad the Gospel writers were inspired to include the visits to the tomb. Because even though I know Jesus has been raised to life, I still feel the need to visit some tombs.

I think we all visit our tombs in one way or another. Many will literally visit a particular tombstone as part of grieving and honoring a lost loved one. There are two specific graveyards in the community where I grew up where most of my relatives are resting. I typically go with my mother a couple of times a year to freshen up the flowers and dust off the dirt, but we know in our spirit that it is more than a maintenance visit. Some choose to never visit a grave but find other ways to deal with their loss. In one way or another, we all visit our tombs.

But why? Is it not to grieve what we have lost? Do we not need to recount the cherished times we once had with loved ones? Well, I believe so. Tombstones are concrete symbols of memories we want to be restored.

There are other losses we also want to be restored that may not be marked by a tombstone. Maybe some of us are recounting times of good health or companionship that now seem unattainable. Or perhaps you are recounting freedoms that you no longer have. It’s probably safe to say that most of us have a few tombstones we visit every day.

But Jesus’ empty tomb changes everything. He rose from the tomb, and he lives. Because of this, our visits to our tombs are intertwined with his resurrection, which gives us hope. He doesn’t walk past our tombs, but he visits them with us to restore what we have lost. Because of Jesus, we can visit our tombs to grieve in hope. Like those visiting the tomb in the Gospel stories, we too come to find that all the tombs we visit are empty. Our tombstones now mark what the Lord will restore and redeem. We can visit them, not just to recount what we have lost, but to recount what the Lord has done through his resurrection.

Here’s a Psalm to remember for your next visit to a tomb:

“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.”

Psalm 118:14-17 (ESV)

The resurrection we celebrate today is one of the glorious “deeds of the Lord.”

I hope your Easter celebration will be a time of hope and joy as we are reminded once again of our Risen Lord and his steadfast love that endures forever. He is risen. Indeed, he is risen!

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 • Jeremiah 31:1-6 • Acts 10:34-43 • Matthew 28:1-10

This week’s theme is celebration of restoration. The call to worship Psalm invites us into thanksgiving to celebrate the Lord’s victory over the enemy and the restoration of the rejected. The Old Testament reading from Jeremiah anticipates God’s work of restoration for Israel, delivering her from her many troubles and restoring her to a life of rest and rejoicing. The reading from Acts shares Peter’s words that celebrate the redemption Jesus has brought through his resurrection. The Gospel reading from Matthew retells the account of the first Easter with visits to the empty tomb.

Jesus Christ Is Risen

Matthew 28:1-10 (NRSV)

On this day of Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus our Lord by looking at Matthew’s account of the resurrection. Matthew’s version makes it clear he wanted to establish the truth that Jesus Christ is risen. The resurrection is not a myth, but a fact of all facts. The reality of all things is established forevermore because of what happened on this particular Sunday morning. When we embrace this truth, we will come to see all things in a whole new light.

Let’s begin this unbelievable true story.

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. (Matthew 28:1 NRSV)

This story begins with newness. It is after the Sabbath, the very beginning of a new week. The dawning light begins to show us that God has done something brand new in the Resurrection of the Lord. And we are introduced to two ladies, both named Mary, who will help us see the truth of what has happened. Matthew leaves out one of the ladies that appear in John’s account to set up a parallel. He is going to have the two Marys stand in juxtaposition to two guards, each set representing a response to Jesus and the truth of the gospel. Consider this; the two ladies and the two guards in the story appear at Jesus’ tomb. Both see an angel. Both experience fear. Both leave the tomb to inform others of what just happened. And both are told what to say. But note the contrast; the women tell the truth while the guards are told to lie. With that Matthew has put before us the question of who are we going to believe? Do we believe the two ladies who have nothing to gain by deceiving anyone, or the two guards who were paid handsomely by those who wanted to protect their power. We must decide!

The ladies do not know at this point that Jesus has been raised. We are told that they are returning to “see the tomb.” We can relate to this experience by these two ladies as we sometimes return to our various tombs that have left us grieving. We come to revisit our resentment and anoint our anger, perfuming our pain and using the ointment of bitterness and unforgiveness in hopes of preserving what was lost. Sometimes our tombs are thrust back upon us by no choice of our own. In whatever way we find ourselves keeping vigil of past tombs we find that God has a message for us. And it’s a message that is earth shattering. Take note of how the message is set up.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. (Matthew 28:2-4 NRSV)

Matthew has included some details here that prepare us to sit up and listen. The message that the angel is going to deliver comes with some extraordinary build up. First, there is “a great earthquake” that occurs because an angel of the Lord is “descending from heaven.” Whatever is about to be shared with these two women is introduced as a message that will shake up the world. Maybe we have not personally experienced being in a literal earthquake, but I’m sure many of us have experienced times in our lives when it seemed the world was being shaken and tossed about. We may often attribute this shake-up as being initiated from some person, group, or nation pulling strings and pushing buttons. But another picture emerges here. Is it not the inbreaking of the Kingdom that shakes the world to its core. Is not God’s word the most disruptive force that invades our physical domain?

This image is repeated in other ways throughout the Bible. Stories like Jesus casting out demons for example. When Jesus commanded a demon to leave, the possessed individual went into convulsions. Jesus’ death was accompanied by an earthquake, and Jesus’ return portrayed in the book of Revelation includes a mighty earthquake beyond compare. The image conveys that when God breaks in, all hell breaks loose. We should expect no less with the announcement the angel is about to deliver.

Before this angel utters a word, he dramatically sends a message by rolling back the large stone of the tomb and sitting on it. In addition, his appearance was blinding. This is what I call making an entrance. It certainly got the attention of the two guards as they “shook and became like dead men” out of fear. That’s an interesting twist on the scene. The two guards who end up lying about Jesus being raised to life, are pictured as becoming dead. Another contrast! The message that comes to us about Jesus is a message of life. To reject it is to reject life itself.

Now the angel is ready to speak. But his words are directed to the women. Dead men have no ears to hear. May we have our ears open to hear the message of the angel today.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” (Matthew 28:5-7 NRSV)

What he says to them, and to us today, is not a message of condemnation as we return to keep vigil over the tombs of our losses. Rather he speaks to their truest center. He says, “I know that you are looking for Jesus.” Even in our vigil keeping, our resentment and anger, deep down we are searching for Jesus. We are looking for life, the life we were made for. All our pain, suffering, and loss speaks to our souls that something is out of place. We know at some level we are not made for death. We are looking for life, which can only fully be found in Jesus.

But Jesus, “who was crucified,” is not to be found in tombs. The angel tells the ladies that “he is not here, for he has been raised.” Then the angel invites the ladies to observe the tomb so they can see that Jesus is not there.

He didn’t roll that stone away for nothing. It was an invitation to explore the unbelievable. “Come, see the place where he lay,” the angel says. That’s past tense. As we find ourselves keeping vigil over our tombs may we receive such a message that reminds us that Jesus was not contained by death, and our losses are restored in him. When we receive this message, we can hear the angel’s command to “go quickly and tell his disciples.” Knowing our life is restored in Jesus empowers us to “go quickly” from our tombs of death. Our feet are enlivened with hope.

As we are on our way, we take upon our lips the message given to us, “He has been raised from the dead.” That’s the message the angel gives us to share. In addition, the angel tells the ladies to let the disciples know that Jesus “is going ahead of you to Galilee” where they will see him. When our brothers and sisters are struggling to move forward, we can remember what the angel has said: “Jesus is going ahead of you.” We do not move into the future alone and we do not need to fear what awaits us because we know Jesus is already there. What comfort we can give one another in our journey of faith to know that Jesus has gone ahead of us!

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:8-10 NRSV)

The ladies represent the response of receiving the Gospel and living according to it. They “quickly” run to carry out the mission they were given. Notice that as soon as the ladies respond in obedience, they are “suddenly” met by Jesus. Jesus interrupting their original mission can show us that he is more concerned about encountering us with himself than only having us carrying out an efficient and effective mission trip. Mission and ministry bring us to encounter the Good News himself as the person Jesus. As we live in faith, we will have our faith renewed. With only a simple “Greetings,” from Jesus, the ladies respond in worship. They have been found by the one they were looking for.

In their worship of Jesus, Matthew records the detail of the ladies embracing “his feet.” This reference is one of the reminders we are given that Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily resurrection. It seems Matthew is consistent throughout the story to emphasize this important point. The entire story is full of physicality. For example, the message that comes to the ladies is first a message that is felt. The earthquake announces the arrival of God’s messenger. Then the message is seen. This angel puts on a display of blazing lightning and shimmering garments. Then the message is heard as the “angel spoke to the women.” Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus is not resurrected as some ghost that can be spiritualized away. He comes back as resurrected flesh and blood. This imparts great dignity to being human with all its physicality. We do not treat our “humanness” as something that should be discarded in favor of something “more.” God’s creation of us, and his ultimate destiny for us, is to be fully human, which is given to us in his Son Jesus Christ.

Our story concludes with Jesus himself telling the ladies, and us, to go share the message with the other disciples. Only, he says, “Go and tell my brothers and sisters.” As we are encountered by Jesus, we will see all our relationships in terms of brothers and sisters, as Jesus has made us all adopted children of the Father. This is a message that we first receive, and then in response, go out and share with the whole world.

I hope this Easter Season will lift you up to experience more fully the new life the Father has for us in his Son Jesus. May we leave our empty tombs and meet Jesus as we share the message, “He has been raised from the dead.”

Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W2

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April 9 – Easter Sunday
Matthew 28:1-10, “Don’t Be Afraid”

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Program Transcript


Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W2

Anthony: Let’s transition to our next passage of the month. It’s Matthew 28:1-10. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Easter Sunday on April the 9th.

Mandy, would you read it for us, please?

[00:13:14] Mandy: I love Easter Sunday. I get to read that passage. So yes,

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

[00:14:24] Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God. It is resurrection Sunday, and I don’t know if you struggle with this, Mandy, but I sure do. When it’s holy week, I get a sense of just this feeling of I’m an imposter. Imposter syndrome.

How do I ever preach a sermon on Easter Sunday? How is that done? Of course, it’s by the Spirit, but it’s always quite intimidating and overwhelming. But there is so much to say and so little time in a sermon (and of course in a podcast like this), but we try.

So, what Christological thoughts would you like to share in light of this passage?

[00:14:54] Mandy: Yeah, I’m just struck when we are reading, in tandem with the previous passage that, again, the good news comes from something that’s just the opposite of what human beings do. Again, if I was going to be God, I would do something much more spectacular than just leave an empty space.

And I think there’s something really beautiful about God’s willingness, his true trust, in what happens in the small things, in even the emptiness, that he sees the miracle of what can happen.

It’s not spectacular in the way that we would expect spectacular things. Although of course, it is spectacular that soon they’re to see his risen body. And what an amazing thing! We can’t even wrap our heads around that, beyond just if you had a friend who died and then came back to life.

That’s one thing—just to see someone that you love again. But then to think, okay, and we believe this person to be the Son of God, and what does this mean for everybody, not just those who’ve been friends with him?

I love to try when I do enter into preaching this passage—and I hear you on that, who am I to speak such a wonderful truth? But I think in some ways—I have a friend who says, awe can lead us—no, he says anxiety can be expressed either it can devolve into this wrestling, or it can also be an invitation into awe. And so, I think what we feel in that lead up to Easter Sunday is a sense of the weight of what this thing is.

And that weight can press us down and say, I’m just a small human being. Who am I to carry this message? Or it can move into a space of awe, of this is massive and I’m only small but the mystery of it! I think in some ways that’s an invitation—a little bit of an invitation into a small part of the experience of what they experienced on the day, of what on earth have we been given to carry on this day?

We don’t even understand it, but we’re going to proclaim it anyway. And those women didn’t have a chance before they ran to tell the disciples to figure out what on earth they had just seen and to fully understand it. But they spoke with the joy of it anyway. And that’s the only thing I can do on Easter.

[00:17:16] Anthony: You were mentioning the context that aligns with Philippians, the emptiness that is there. And I think it was Barbara Brown Taylor—I once read her talking about how new life often starts in the dark, whether it’s a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, Jesus in the tomb, right? So even when it’s dark about us, that may not be the true reality because beyond it is something beautiful.

And I sometimes hear people say, Mandy—and maybe you’ve heard the same—that the disciples abandoned Jesus at his death. And there was abandonment, of course, but I also see the women going to him and being the evangelist, if you will, sharing this great message. Tell us about it.

[00:17:59] Mandy: Yeah. I know a lot of women who feel called to proclaim the good news are very encouraged by this passage, especially if they’re in contexts that don’t affirm them in their calling.

I’m really hesitant to say—because I always want to be welcoming to my brothers. And I never want to communicate from the pain of my experience as a woman in the church. And it’s hard for me to communicate from that because I also want to bring healing between men and women, and I don’t want to perpetuate all of the brokenness between men and women.

And at the same time, I think it is really good to share it is really painful to feel that calling and to not always be given an opportunity to share it.

But the interesting thing for me because I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you, but the denomination I was a part of in the US did not ordain women for leadership. And that was the seminary I went to and also the churches I served.

And so, I was the first female lead pastor among a communion of 6,000 congregations, which put me in a really, really difficult space as a young adult in college and then in the process—and I’m not an aggressive person. I’m not an ambitious person. I hate the limelight, I hate conflict. I’m a nine on the Enneagram if you care about those things. So it’s been incredibly painful for me.

But all of that is to say, the ways that—and I think if I’ve ever had abuse, it has come from ways that people have treated me in that whole context. But every single time somebody has not received me or has not treated me in the way that Christ would treat me or has not recognized what God is doing in me—and I’ve had some really painful experiences—every single time, it has been an invitation for me to talk to the Lord again and to say, who are you again? What are we doing here again? Who do you say I am again?

And for anyone who’s marginalized—which is not just along gender lines, but many different ways people are marginalized—it can be a really empowering experience if it becomes an opportunity for us to say once more, who are you again? Who am I again?

And so—I saw this in Covid too—when everything hits the fan, it’s often those who have been on the margins, for whom the system has not been functioning anyway, who actually have real leadership to offer in that space. And that’s how I see this passage. These women were not given much of anything really in the system. And so when the status quo falls apart, they have something that enables them to press through.

And so I think that’s just what wisdom for us to look for when—because at the moment, I think everything is hitting the fan, not just because of Covid, because of all kinds of factors that are bringing us to a place of crisis in the church and around the world.

So how do we listen to the voices who are saying, you know what? Before you were aware that the system was falling apart, it wasn’t serving me anyway, and I’ve had to function within the system according to the kingdom. How can we invite those people to be leading, as these women had the opportunity to, when Jesus was dying and coming back to life?

[00:21:18] Anthony: Amen and amen. And I want to say to you, Mandy, we don’t know each other, but I sure am thankful for you and admire you for especially saying yes to the invitation to be the first ordained women in your space. It’s a beautiful thing, and we thank God for your ministry.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Why do you think it was important for the Gospel writers to include the visit to the tomb in the story of Jesus’ resurrection?
  • In what ways do we visit tombs in our lives?
  • How does knowing Jesus is raised from the dead change how we visit our tombs?

From the Sermon

  • In what ways are the two ladies in the story more reliable witnesses than the two guards?
  • What is indicated by an earthquake accompanying the message of the angel of Jesus’ resurrection?
  • What tombs do we sometimes visit in our attempts of “looking for Jesus?”
  • What did you make of the angel’s instructions to let the disciples know that Jesus “is going ahead of you to Galilee” where they will see him? How can knowing that Jesus “goes ahead of us” be encouraging?
  • What details in the passage indicate that Jesus’ resurrection was bodily?
  • Why do you think the angel refers to the other disciples as “brothers and sisters”?

Sermon for April 16, 2023 – Second Sunday of Easter

Program Transcript


Speaking Of Life 5021 Stop Doubting and Believe
Michelle Fleming
 
Have you ever heard someone being referred to as a “Doubting Thomas”? If you have, then you were probably aware that this was not meant as a compliment. It is typically used to describe someone who is a skeptic. Someone that is known to utter, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” 

Shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples locked themselves away in fear that the Jewish officials might come for them next. But Jesus appeared to them in their locked room. To prove that he was real, he showed them his nail-scarred hands and feet.

One of the disciples was missing, however, and here is where Doubting Thomas comes in. John shares the story:

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So, the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

John 20:24-29

We can relate with Thomas, can’t we? As excited as the other disciples were that they had seen Jesus, Thomas was skeptical. For whatever reason, he was not present when Jesus showed up and he got quite specific about what it would take for him to believe. 

A week later Jesus reappears, and this time Thomas is there. Jesus tells Thomas to go ahead and touch him. Then he tells Thomas to stop doubting and believe. With the exclamation, “My Lord and My God!”, Thomas becomes the first to acknowledge who Jesus really was and is. 

Like Thomas, we all have those moments of doubt. Moments where we wonder if God can hear us, or if he sees what we are going through. Does he really care about me? We want to believe, but doubt enters in. 

In another place in Scripture, a distraught father of an afflicted child blurts out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This is beautiful because it describes us so well. We believe, and we ask Jesus to help us where we doubt. He can be trusted to answer that prayer. Because he is the one who has perfect belief, and believes on our behalf.

Thomas didn’t stay a doubter. Tradition says that Thomas was the first missionary to India. In 52 A.D. he sailed from Palestine and arrived on the Kerala coast. He was martyred twenty years later, but not before founding seven flourishing churches. In India today, there are nearly 70 million believers.  

Doubt did not have the last word in Thomas’ life, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it will not have the last word with us either.  

I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 16:1-11 • Acts 2:14a, 22-32 • 1 Peter 1:3-9 • John 20:19-31

This week’s theme is tongues of praise. In our call to worship psalm, David declares that in God, his heart is glad, and his tongue rejoices. In Acts, the Holy Spirit falls on the disciples and they begin to speak in tongues of praise to God in various languages. In 1 Peter, the apostle writes to persecuted believers, telling them that the refining of their faith would result in them uttering praises to God. And in John’s gospel, a doubting disciple shouts his praise, “My God and My Lord!” after encountering the risen Savior.

The Truth, the Trials, and the Triumph

1 Peter 1:3-9 (NIV)

Last week we celebrated Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. Today is considered the Second Sunday of Easter. This is also known as Thomas Sunday, as it is the day when Jesus appeared to the disciples and where Thomas physically encountered the risen Christ. [You may want to reference the Speaking of Life episode here concerning the tradition of Thomas’ success in India, which then saw him being martyred.]

From the years between 2005 to 2015 it was reported that 900,000 people were martyred for their faith. The average since then has been at the rate of 100,000 people per year who have lost their lives for the sake of Christ.1

Persecution is certainly nothing new. It has been with us nearly since the very beginning of the church. And it’s to this early persecuted church that the apostle Peter, moved with compassion, chooses to write to in today’s text.

We want to focus in on the beginning of this letter, and although most of us may not be going through anything close to what Peter’s original audience was experiencing, there are some valuable lessons for us as well. Lessons that focus on the truth, the trials, and the triumph.

Read 1 Peter 1:3-9

In Peter’s Day, believers were fleeing from persecution coming out of Rome. Many people had left their homes, families, jobs, everything they knew. And it’s to these people that Peter writes this letter.

If you were writing to friends who were undergoing persecution and trials, what would be the first thing that you might write? I am guessing that most of us would offer words of comfort, to let them know that we are praying for them and that we are so sorry that they are having to go through such trying times. But surprisingly, these are not the words Peter chooses to open with.

The truth

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:3-5 NIV)

At first glance, Peter’s words may come across as an early form of the apostle’s creed, or a statement of beliefs. Is this really what Peter thinks his audience needs to hear right now; a refresher course on Christianity 101?

When things look their darkest, when we experience the pressure and squeezing of this life, it’s easy to forget what we have in Christ. The temptation is to think that our present situation is all there is or ever will be.

Our feelings about our circumstances can sometimes overshadow everything else in these difficult moments. Perhaps Peter knew this all too well and decided to remind his audience of the truth. The truth that Peter shares with them was meant to keep them grounded. To put their present sufferings in perspective.

Peter reminds them of their inclusion into Christ’s death and resurrection; that through this they have been born anew, to live lives full of hopeful expectation. Someday their salvation will come to its full fruition and on that day, they will receive their great everlasting inheritance. And Peter reminds them to count it as already fulfilled. We are just a week away from Easter, and it’s easy to forget that Easter was not just an event – a resurrection – it was a new beginning. Because he lives, we have tomorrow, as the song goes. It is good to keep the resurrection in our heart and mind every day. It reminds us that we have new life in Christ, that there is an inheritance for us, that we are shielded by God’s power.

No matter what happens to us, we have that same new and lasting life of Christ. As he was raised, so were we. No one and nothing can take away what Christ has provided. Our great hope in Christ and the inheritance that is ours should inform us on how to process our present sufferings in this life.

Whatever we go through now is temporary. Our gaze is on the eternal reality where we dwell with Christ even now. In the midst of everything going on, we are reminded by Peter to not just grudgingly put up with our circumstances, but to rejoice in them! This is the appropriate response. How is your response at this moment? Are you keeping the truth at the forefront of your situations?

The trials

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7 NIV)

Peter indicates here that suffering is bound to happen; it is unavoidable. But he then quickly reminds us that God uses these trials and suffering to refine our faith through them. He tells us this would be the vehicle by which our faith would become pure and mature.

While it is not God who causes the trials, he will use those opportunities in much that same way that gold is tested by fire. As a result, our faith will be shown to have far more value than the purest gold. No amount of money can purchase a life transformed by Christ.

At the end of suffering, we are found to be more and more like Christ. We have more in common with our Savior, who also suffered on our behalf. Our faith comes out of this stronger and more assured.

Have you ever found yourself persecuted? Have you lost friends or family due to your faith? Are you keeping quiet hoping to avoid suffering? Remember, Peter reminds that us that our present suffering will not last and will certainly not have the last word.

The triumph

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV)

Peter walked closely with Jesus for three years as one of his closest disciples. He had seen Christ’s transfiguration, he had seen Jesus crucified and had been restored by Jesus. He had encountered Jesus and spoken with him on at least a few occasions after the resurrection. Few were more acquainted with Christ Jesus than Peter.

In these verses, Peter is expressing how impressed he is by the fact that these believers hadn’t even seen Jesus before believing in him, and that even now, in spite of everything they have had to endure, they still believed. Their faith was triumphant!

So much of the truth in our lives remains hidden from our sight. Like the early church, we also believe in Christ, though we have not touched his hands or side. And yet, we are filled with hope and an assurance that our trials and suffering will not last. Christ will triumph.

This life will continue to throw various trials our way. We cannot avoid them, and most will not just merely be prayed away. But we can rejoice like the early believers, who endured far more than most of us will ever have to.

Peter tells the persecuted believers that their salvation was evident by their joy. Our rejoicing in the midst of trials is something that is not understood by an unbelieving world that bases its happiness on its circumstances and successes. Rejoicing in the midst of trials is a powerful witness of our faith and our hope. Who is watching you in your trials? Who is waiting to see a faith that has been refined like pure gold?

Brothers and sisters, let’s start by keeping our minds and hearts grounded with the truth. Let us remember everything that Christ has provided us with. He put to death our old selves, and he gave us new life that was raised with his. We are assured that our inheritance is safe in the hands of God and will not be taken away.

In the midst of our trials and suffering, let us keep the perspective that this too shall pass, knowing that our faith will become even more precious to us as a result. And in the meantime, it is working to our benefit.

And finally, let us choose to believe in the One whose truth holds us through our trials. Let us triumph in our joy, knowing that our salvation is already here, but will also be fulfilled at the end of time.

We start with and continue in the truth as we endure the trials, triumphing through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Be you strong and of good courage, you are already in his eternity. That’s good news worth sharing.

Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W3

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April 16 – Second Sunday of Easter
1 Peter 1:3-9, “Living Hope”

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Program Transcript


Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W3

Anthony: Let’s move on to our next passage. It’s 1 Peter 1:3-9. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the second Sunday of Easter, April the 16th, and it reads,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

“By his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Wowzer!

I believe theology Mandy should lead us to doxology, that our God-talk should lead to God-worship. So, help us worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by exegeting this staggering statement from verse 3.

[00:23:16] Mandy: So, let me read verse 3 again here. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Yeah. It’s the center of everything that we are about, right? I love how the writers of the New Testament just break into praise and I love to imagine them—even though we are reading it on a screen or on a nice white piece of paper printed in beautiful text. I just love, if they’re writing it themselves or if they’re reading or speaking it aloud for an [inaudible] to write it all. Try to keep up and write it down as they go. I just love the thought of them, either way, the pen not being able to keep up with the words. They’re not just reciting a written doxology here. They are breaking into to genuine praise and being willing to share that.

If you received a letter with this kind of language, you would feel behind it the real worship of the person who was writing it. And even if I did receive a letter like this from somebody that I loved and trusted, I’m coming in after the end of a hot day, and I’m tired and I’ve got a letter in the mailbox and I’m opening up and I’m reading their words of rapture. And I’m like, oh my goodness, there’s some bills in the pile here as well. I think it’s good for us to give ourselves permission to not always be there with the person who’s writing these wonderful letters in the New Testament, but to choose to believe.

Oftentimes, I think that we have our theology backwards because we say, I’m going to try and think and think and think about this thing that I’m told in scripture is true: that we’ve already been given a new birth into a living hope, that because Jesus rose from the dead I should break into this kind of praise. We don’t feel the wonder of that on a regular basis, and it’s really hard for us to get our heads around it.

And I was raised in a tradition where we basically thought if you just keep thinking about it, if you just keep reading about it, then one day you might really understand it and then you’ll start to step into heartfelt worship. But what I actually have found is better, is to go in reverse: to live as if it’s true, to choose in practical ways to worship, to serve, to give as if these things have already been done for me. And somehow, it falls into place. Like the discomfort of living as if it’s true, actually allows you to experience it in a more genuine way.

Not all the time, of course, but it goes backwards (or it feels backwards) to say, how would I live if I really did believe that I’m already in this living hope through Jesus’ resurrection? And how might my stepping into it actually help me? The discomfort of that experiment might actually help me embrace it in more ways than hoping to understand it first.

[00:26:13] Anthony: Yeah. It often brings me to the Greek word for repentance. Metanoia is to think your way into a new way of acting. Whereas the Hebrew concept, teshuvah, is to act your way into a new way of thinking. And I think they work together. Sometimes we do need to have our minds renewed—to think our way into a new way of acting.

But I agree, sometimes you just have to do it. And it’s not necessarily “faking it till you make it”, but it is just stepping into that reality and seeing the miracles of God at your side.

Verse 6 informs us to rejoice while suffering. And sometimes, that’s a challenge, right? And so, my question is, can lament and rejoicing be held together without contradiction? How does that work?

[00:27:02] Mandy: Yeah. I don’t know if we’re—I think you can do them at the same time, in a way, because my lament is usually growing from the joy that I have, that I can see what could be, that I’ve been promised—we’ve been promised.

God is making all things new, and we can see all the ways that things aren’t new yet. And so, our lament somehow grows from our joy, from our desire to see that joy fulfilled. So I think there are always two sides of the same coin.

But for me, oftentimes, it comes in the order of what we see in the Psalms. That we are given permission by so many Psalms to just say, where are you, Lord? Are you even listening? Don’t you see the injustice? Don’t you see the brokenness? Are you watching? Are you hearing us?

And that is a kind of an emptying too. There’s a theme here, I think, that can feel like a kind of emptying. And if we don’t really believe in the filling that happens after we empty, then it just can feel like we’re just going into darkness. We’re just talking about hard things and we’re never going to emerge again.

And I often see this tension of, oh, we’re going to lose control if we lament, if we let people say what they’re really feeling then it’s just going to go down in a dark hole, and everyone’s going to be depressed. But I think when we lament in God’s direction especially, it’s not just complaining, it’s releasing. It’s emptying.

It’s trusting that there is somebody who actually cares about this stuff, who maybe even cares about it more than we do and who can take it when we beat on his chest, he’s not going anywhere.

And so something beautiful happens in that space because we do learn: oh, I’m not alone in this. Oh, God is not surprised by this. Oh, there is a space for me to be safe, to actually be honest and to share all the stuff that I’m just holding in. It’s really painful to feel a lot of pain, to feel frustration and anxiety, and to feel like God’s expecting us to just push it down.

To be able to release that, actually then (as we see in the Psalms of lament) they often turn into praise. They often return into natural rejoicing that was down there all along. Maybe it’s like I was saying before that we squash the Holy Spirit. Maybe the joy of the Holy Spirit is in us all the time, but it’s just so weighed down by the lament and we can access it once more when we let that lament come and be released to the Lord. And trust he can hold it and we don’t have to carry it on our own.

[00:29:33] Anthony: Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Emmanuel, God with us. That to me, that’s so reassuring and even in times where it feels like the fire is hot and the trials are coming fast and furious that God is with us, and he understands. We have a high priest who understands what it’s like.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • What are some things that cause you to doubt God?
  • What can we do that would help eliminate certain doubts?
  • Where has Jesus entered the “locked rooms” of your life?

From the Sermon

  • What would you say to someone who is being persecuted for their faith?
  • Have you ever been persecuted? Talk about how that impacted your life.
  • How has God used suffering and trials to purify your faith?
  • How does embracing the truth of what Christ has done for us impact our lives?
  • Name a time when you were able to rejoice through your trials.

Sermon for April 23, 2023 – Third Sunday of Easter

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5022 | Born Again
Greg Williams

As a Christian, you are probably familiar with the metaphor of being “born again.” Jesus used it when talking to Nicodemus to try to explain the radical difference that one must undergo to enter the kingdom of God. Peter later used the same image to encourage a church that was being treated as exiles because of their faith in Christ.

The image of being born again works on both fronts. Certainly, entering the kingdom of God is like being born again as one becomes a new creation filled with life. But have you ever considered that this metaphor also speaks to the experience of believers being exiled from their old way of life?

Peter did. When he began his letter to a church that was being ostracized because of their faith, he chose to use the “born again” image to encourage them not to conform to their former ways of living.

Let’s read how he uses this image in these verses.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV)

Did you catch the picture? Being “born again” involves being born into something – “a living hope.” It also includes being born out of something – “from the dead.” Like a newborn baby, the new life it has after birth will be completely different than the life it had in the womb. Can you imagine a baby trying to live as if it is still in the womb? That would be nonsensical.

But, as Christians, we live with the constant temptation to return to a life that conforms to our old ways of moving and breathing. Especially since we are surrounded by a culture that resists and even persecutes those that live in such a way that challenges and calls into question the status quo. Being a Christian in this world is to live in exile. We are no longer at home in the womb of this world.

But that does not mean we do not belong. We belong to our heavenly Father, and we belong to a new family of brothers and sisters who live together in his love. Our new life of freedom lived in the light is beyond compare to the dark and restrictive life we once had.

So, if you sometimes feel like an exile in this world. Take courage and live in hope. It comes with the territory of being born again.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 • Acts 2:14a, 36-41 • 1 Peter 1:17-23 • Luke 24:13-35

This week’s theme is receiving salvation’s new orientation. The call to worship Psalm reflects on the psalmist’s experience of deliverance and his offering of himself to live a life of devotion in thankful response. The reading from Acts records the final section of Peter’s sermon on Pentecost where he urges repentance and baptism as a response fitting to receiving forgiveness. The text from 1 Peter is a reminder to those who have already been saved by the blood of Christ to live accordingly. The Gospel reading from Luke recounts the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus who opens the hearts of two disciples, who at first did not recognize him, prompting them to return to Jerusalem to share the story of their encounter with the risen Lord.

Living In Exile

1 Peter 1:17-23 (ESV)

Today marks the third Sunday of our Easter season celebration. Easter day is now in the rearview mirror, yet we still celebrate. In fact, even after the season of Easter is complete, the church will continue to celebrate the risen Lord every Sunday hereafter. And that is as it should be on account that Jesus’ resurrection has changed everything. There is now a new creation, the old has passed away. We cannot go on living as if Easter did not occur. And that is what Peter will aim to remind us of today. Even as believers in the risen Lord, we need constant reminders that Jesus is alive as Lord and Savior.

We encounter a constant barrage of messages from our experience in this world that tell us the lie that Jesus is still in the tomb, and his Father has abandoned us as well. We are tempted to believe the lies of the guards who circulated the message that Jesus was still dead. We must remember that they were paid off by those who were threatened by Jesus and his Gospel. They were paid handsomely to accuse the Lord’s disciples of stealing Jesus’ body in order to create a false narrative.

The guards of power and control were also at work when Peter wrote the letter we will read from, and these guards have been repeating this pattern up to the present day. So, we would be naïve to think that a single celebration of Jesus’ resurrection would immune our ears from such lies. These lies often speak to confirm our experience of being exiles, left to find our own way in the world as if Jesus was no longer with us, and his Father had moved on to live without his dear Son. But it is indeed a lie. The truth we will be reminded of again today is that Jesus has risen, and we belong to his Father. We are not alone, we are not abandoned, and we are not without hope.

A bit of context

Peter is writing a letter to scattered Christians who live in Asia Minor under the control of Rome. The letter begins by identifying these people as those who were formerly Pontians, Galatians, Cappadocians, Asians, and Bithynians. These groups all once had their identities embedded in the very strong social, political, and religious ties to those regions, and now were trying to live under Roman rule.

The recipients of Paul’s letter are now Christians, and had severed these regional ties, choosing to no longer participate in the cultural expectations of paying homage to multiple deities, and more costly, choosing to renounce emperor worship which was encouraged by Rome in these societies. We could rightly label them as a minority of minorities. When Peter addresses them as “exiles of the Dispersion” he was speaking directly to their very real status and experience of living under foreign rule as well as living as Christians. By doing this he not only speaks directly to their real situation, but he also speaks to all of us who feel out of place, living as strangers in whatever context we find ourselves in. Feeling like an exile is common to all people even when you belong to the dominant culture or in-group. There is still a longing within us that urges us to seek deeper belonging.

We seem to know at some level that we are made for more, that we belong to something, or someone, that we have not yet fully encountered. So, we search, desperately seeking approval, acceptance, and belonging in the next circle we think will give us a meaningful identity.

As Christians, we face a paradox. We have found the source of our belonging in Jesus Christ, who has brought us into his fellowship with the Father by the Spirit. We know the mystery of our being, that we were created to belong forever in the life and love of Father, Son, Spirit, and by grace this is given to us in Jesus alone. However, this truth is not received well in a world still bent against God, a world resistant to grace, settling for its own self-defined identity and self-determined destiny.

In this world, the evil one is still shooting his poisoned darts of lies that tell us we are not loved, that we are not good enough, that our past forever taints our future. Once the poison from these lies sets in, we begin to live as if the lie is true, treating others in ways that conform more to the ways of this present evil age than to the Kingdom of God in which we now belong. Peter knows this so he writes to remind these exiled believers of who they really belong to, encouraging them to live out the truth of their belonging in Christ. It’s a reminder we also will all need to resist the lies and the temptation after Easter to return to living as if we do not belong to Christ and his Father by the Spirit.

Peter will give these believers some ethical instructions later in his letter, but in this section, he is going to remind them of the reality of their community in Christ – a good place for most letters or sermons to begin.

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. (1 Peter 1:17 ESV)

Peter knows that these believers live in an environment that no longer feels like home, even in their own households. He knows they will be tempted to search for a sense of identity and belonging which will pressure them to return and conform to old patterns, attitudes, customs, and behaviors that belonged to their life before conversion.

It is easy to return to what we know when feeling alone and isolated. Isolation will tempt us to conform to the dominant group in order to gain a sense of belonging, even when that means going against our own values and convictions. We want something of normalcy, something that seems familiar.

What Peter wants them (and us) to see, is that we belong to a new family. He reminds them that they belong to the “Father who judges impartially.” Obeying one’s father was a high expectation in Greco-Roman society. Peter wants them to see their true Father, their heavenly Father who gave them life, and therefore their allegiance and obedience belong to him. Peter has already established that the Father is holy, and on that foundation, they are to be holy. He is not giving them a raw command to do what God tells them.

He is grounding their call to holiness in the character of the one they now belong to, their holy Father. This is who they belong to, and therefore they can conform to him rather than to the pagan culture around them. What’s more, Peter reminds them that their Father judges impartially. He does not show favoritism to anyone. This was unlike the Romans, who would give special treatment to those who were citizens, while ostracizing and disadvantaging those who were not, or were not “born” citizens. In contrast, the judgment the Father has for his children is also the same judgment he has for the Romans and everyone else. He is the true Father worthy of worship and these believers belonged to him. Peter can go on to say from this reality that they should conduct their lives with “fear” while they live as exiles.

What does Peter mean to “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile?” That’s a question we should answer for ourselves in a time where Christians in more and more countries are considered the “fringe” group, the outsiders, and even the troublemakers of the world. This is certainly the environment the early church found themselves in. Considering this environment, we may live in “fear” of the dominant culture and their authorities and be tempted to bow down in worship by conforming to their ways in order to avoid the shaming and persecution that could come to us if we don’t.

But Peter reminds us know that we live in “fear” because we belong to the Father. This is not the same kind of fear that we may have of those who aim to do us harm. This is a reverent fear that takes seriously who God is. Our heavenly Father is the true ruler. This means believers can embrace a lifestyle that makes one an exile in this present evil world because they know they belong to the only world that will last, God’s Kingdom. The behaviors and ways of thinking that were once common to our old way of life must now be seen as foreign and outside the borders of the new Kingdom we are brought into. There is now a deeper belonging that comes to the believer. We belong to that which will never fade away and which has always been. This is a lasting and life-giving belonging.

Living in this kind of reverent fear will enable us to be the witnesses we are called to be, even in a dark world. Christians do not withdraw from the dominant cultures in which they live, but they can engage in them while living according to the holiness they have in Christ. This may make us stick out like a sore thumb, but it enables us to point to Christ, who is not only our hope, but the hope of the whole world.

Peter will go further to remind us of some other things we should know.

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21 ESV)

Peter reminds us that Christ’s blood has the power to redeem and liberate us from our past, empowering us to live out the new life we have in Christ. We are not being called to live on some form of willpower. That belongs to our old futile ways, from which we have been “ransomed.” And the ways of this world are indeed “futile.” We are in a whole new situation now. Peter uses a comparison to show the difference. Our “futile ways” were inherited from our “forefathers,” not our heavenly Father. Our heavenly Father predates our forefathers by an eternity.

In Greco-Roman culture, one’s tradition and way of life gained weight by being grounded in antiquity. The further in the past your way of life could be traced, the more legitimate and substantiated it was considered. So, Peter goes all the way back before creation by grounding our inheritance in Jesus who was “foreknown before the foundation of the world.” Not only that, but he also compares the price of “ransom” between “silver or gold” and “the precious blood of Christ.”

In the society Peter was writing in, it was a common understanding that the world was invaded by all sorts of real and perceived evil powers and spirits. So much so that people would often wear amulets, presumably made of silver or gold, to protect against these powers and to bring good fortune. Peter, making the comparison of silver or gold as “perishable things” with that of the blood of Christ, has invited us to think differently about how we live our lives in exile. Living in the reverent fear of God with an awareness of the precious price paid for our redemption, we can live free from the fear that tempts us to resort to the various means of protecting ourselves, or insuring our future by placating to human or supernatural enemies. We know who is in charge and how valuable we are to our Father. As the Apostle Paul stated more succinctly, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

Considering all this, Peter wants to affirm that their “faith and hope are in God.” That will make all the difference living as exiles. It is through Jesus and his resurrection, according to Peter, that has made us “believers in God.” Notice Peter’s focus on being a “believer.” It is “in God.” Everyone is a believer one way or another, but it is what or who we put our belief in that really matters. Thanks to the Father’s plan from the beginning to bring us into fellowship with him through his Son, we now can be “believers in God” as we come to know him as our loving Father who will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Peter will now leave us with these concluding words:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (1 Peter 1:22-23 ESV)

In light of the disruption that will take place for believers who dismiss the ways of the world as “futile,” Peter concludes by using familial and affectionate terms to describe what it means to live as exiles. Believing in God the Father means we know we are not orphaned or homeless. We belong to the belonging that exists in the Triune God from all eternity. This belonging is one of purity and love – a purity and love that will never fade as it finds its source in the “living and abiding word of God.” Since we are “born again” into this reality, we can turn and renounce our former ways and embrace a life that is characterized as “brotherly love.”

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we belong to the same Father, and we can love one another with the same love he lavishes on us. In this way we belong to the only belonging that lasts and has meaning. As we live this out in our relationships with one another, we glorify the Father and participate in his calling of others to join us in exile. This is why Jesus tells us to love others as he has loved us. Think about this as you go through the week. Am I loving others as Jesus loves me? And let’s pray, Lord, help me be the disciple you have called me to be, so I can join you in sharing your love with others.

Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W4

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April 23 – Third Sunday of Easter
1 Peter 1:17-23, “Mutuality Through Kinship”

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Program Transcript


Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W4

Anthony: Mandy, let’s go to our next passage of the month. It’s 1 Peter 1:17-23. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday of Easter, which is April the 23rd. Would you read it for us, please?

[00:30:06] Mandy: Yes. And this is my birthday, so it seems fitting that I would read this passage. Yeah, alright, here it is.

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. 22 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

[00:31:11] Anthony: As I was listening to you read verse 19 about the Lamb of God, I was thinking about how I often want Jesus to show up as the roaring lion of Judah, the victor—which he is. But often the way that I experience him is as the lamb, broken for the world and for me. And I’m encouraged by that.

I just want to ask you what does it mean that God judges, all people impartially? And maybe as a tag onto that, how do we join in how he does this?

[00:31:40] Mandy: I think we often come to the word judge through our lens of the judicial system, that you’re engaging with an institution. And this is the judge’s job to do this. And in the Old Testament, the judges were spiritual leaders, people who sat in the gateway of the city. And if anybody had a dispute or a question or a problem, they sought the judges for their wisdom and for their discernment and for their mediation.

And I think we see God in a different way when we see God through this lens of judge, that this is not judgment in the sense that we think of it as in a legal sense. There’s a relational piece and a spiritual piece and a wisdom that we want truth. We want to be seen according to who we truly are.

And there are sometimes where I have been judged really harshly by human beings, and I want God’s judgment in that space because he knows what my heart really was. And there are other times where maybe I have got away with something when my motives were not good. And I need God to come.

This is the judgment he gives us even as we’re living, not just when we die. I want God to say, Mandy, that was not a good motivation right there. So, either way it’s truth, and either way, it’s not for our damnation, but bringing us to the fullness of who God’s truly created us to be, to be our true selves and to reflect his goodness and his glory in ourselves.

So, it brings healing. This is the kind of judgment that ultimately brings healing and makes all things new. That’s how I try to see judgment.

And I think those who are in times of suffering as we see in books, especially in the New Testament, where there are people in oppression, they want to hear that those who oppress them—and we’re talking, blood’s flowing in the streets here. This is not just somebody teasing them. They want to know that there is a God who sees it and who will bring things to order. And so, I think we can judge them for writing such intense kinds of passages. And we see it in the Psalms too, where the psalmists are saying, God, will you come down from heaven and will you bring about judgment on this person who is oppressing me?

But maybe we don’t really understand what it feels like to be in that place of having someone who is a wolf at the door. And maybe if we were, we would also want that kind of God who can judge and make things right.

[00:34:09] Anthony: Yeah. We want judgment that’s healing, and therefore we see the vivid judgment of God at the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, and he didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it through him. Hallelujah. Praise God.

Our theologian for today, Mandy, the apostle Peter, seems to believe that the purification of our soul should lead to genuine mutual love, experienced in kinship. So, my question for you is, how are we getting this right and how might we be getting it wrong?

[00:34:42] Mandy: Interesting. So actually, along the lines of what I was just saying as well, I’ve been really encouraged in recent years to be reading a little bit about the difference between the guilt gospel and the shame gospel.

So, folks who do ministry in places outside of Western culture often have to know this distinction between a culture that understands guilt and then the resolution of that is to have your sins forgiven in that usual sense that we talk about, the cross shaped bridge. We’re far from God because we’ve sinned and that’s definitely scriptural.

But in an honor, shame culture, which is often eastern cultures. And I think our culture. There’s been studies that have shown that our own Western culture is also becoming more this way. So, this is not just something to learn when we go overseas anymore. They’re more—and this is getting to your question here—they’re more interested in shame and honor, which is a more relational thing.

So, the guilt thing, as I said earlier, can be more institutional. This is my personal sin, and I have been called up before this judge, and I have to be convicted or found guilty or innocent which is a personal, an individualistic kind of thing, whereas the shame on a culture is mostly to do with being outside of the community, being unacceptable somehow.

And this is actually how a lot of people come to understand their need for the gospel, that they feel not good enough for God. And so, if we are only evangelizing through the lens, oh, you know how you’ve sin. You’re a horrible person and you’re far from God. If they’re already feeling shame and excluded, then we have just made them feel even more that way by telling them they’re horrible people.

And there’s actually a great website, I think it’s just unashamed.com, where they’ve shared a lot of research along these lines, that the kinship is the thing that we are inviting people into. That scripture has lots of different ways of communicating what the gospel is to different cultures, and I think we’ve got stuck in that one way, in the guilt / innocence way.

But to understand the honor / shame way is to say, they often use more relational language, more communal language and family language. There is a family that you are being adopted into, and to be saved is to be welcomed once more. Again, you thought you were excluded, but you are included.

I think this is not just, oh, let’s all be friends so that we can feel warm fuzzies. But this is a salvation issue. This is a way that many people I know and myself as well, especially people who are marginalized. I think this is meaningful because they feel the shame of being excluded, of being marginalized. And for them salvation is Jesus has made it possible for you to be welcomed in and for you to be seen and known.

And kinship then is not just, let’s make friends but a salvation thing.

[00:37:33] Anthony: Yeah. I’ve often thought that salvation is best understood as belonging, which is relational. That you belong to God. And it’s good. He can be trusted. Come on in. The fire’s burning. Coffee tastes good. You belong here.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Using the metaphor of being “born again,” discuss what we are born out of.
  • Discuss what we are born into.

From the Sermon

  • Why do we need constant reminders that Jesus is alive as Lord and Savior?
  • In what ways can everyone, believers and unbelievers, identify with living as exiles?
  • In what ways do believers specifically experience living as exiles?
  • What does Peter mean to “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile?”
  • What are some of “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” that we have been freed from?
  • In what ways are we tempted to return to these futile ways of thinking and behaving?
  • How might we embrace our belonging in Christ by how we belong to one another as Christians? Or, in other words, what does living as brothers and sisters in Christ look like?

Sermon for April 30, 2023 – Fourth Sunday of Easter

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5023 | Empty Tomb and Open Gate
Jeff Broadnax

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Easter Sunday, one of the most significant days in the Christian calendar. Many of us likely spent a lot of time hearing about and meditating on the Empty Tomb. This is good because the Christian faith is based on the fact that Jesus is not dead — his tomb is, indeed, empty. Jesus is alive and we are reconciled to God and each other because of it.

The Empty Tomb means that our sins have been forgiven and that humanity has been made new in Christ. As Christians, we should give a lot of our attention to the empty tomb. The empty tomb helps us understand Jesus referring to himself as the open gate.

In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus describes himself as the gate by which the sheep can find pasture. In the parable, those who follow Christ are his beloved sheep. The passage says:

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:7-10

In this season of Easter, let’s focus on what it means to live in the reality of Christ’s resurrection. In other words, we have an opportunity to give our attention to why we were saved, and how we are being invited to respond to God’s gift of grace. According to this passage, part of the reason that Jesus rescued and redeemed us is so we can experience a full, abundant life in him.

Jesus is depicted as the gate that leads to life and because of his sacrifice, the gate is wide open to all. No matter our current circumstances, abundant life is available to us in Jesus. This does not mean that our lives will be perfect once we start following him, however, it does mean that in every situation, Jesus will be with us and our relationship with him is the richest of blessings.

It also means that one day believers will experience eternal life — an existence where there will be no more pain or suffering and there will be rejoicing without end. We have been saved by Jesus to live an abundant, full life in Christ — a life where Jesus fills all our moments with his life-giving presence. The gate to this life has been opened wide by Christ when he left that tomb, so what are we waiting for? Let us not hesitate to run away from things trying to steal our joy and into Christ’s wide-open arms. There he is offering us an abundance of forgiveness and love.

I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 23:1-6 • Acts 2:42-47 • 1 Peter 2:19-25 • John 10:1-10

This week, we mark the fourth Sunday of Easter. In this season, we focus on what it means to live in the reality of Jesus, our risen Lord. Among many other things, he has revealed himself to be a gentle caregiver and guiding light. The theme for this week is Jesus is our shepherd and guardian. In arguably the most famous Psalm, David identifies the Lord as his shepherd. In Acts 2, we see the way in which a community cared for and nurtured by Christ behaves. In 1 Peter, we read how to bear up under suffering by relying on Jesus, the shepherd and guardian of our souls. Lastly, in John, Jesus reveals that he is the means by which sheep can find safety, nourishment, and abundant life.

The Example of Christ’s Suffering

1 Peter 2:18-25 NRSV

In 1987, John Lewis was elected congressman from Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, and he served in the House of Representatives until he died on July 17, 2020.  Lewis was a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement and served as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963-1966. He was a key leader of the March on Washington in 1963 and spoke at the historic event.

On March 7, 1965, Lewis was one of the leaders of a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama to stand up for voter rights. As the 600 peaceful marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were met by a wall of state troopers and dozens of spectators holding Confederate flags. Alabama governor George Wallace had ordered the state police to “use whatever measures are necessary to prevent a march.” Despite the right to peacefully protest, the 25-year-old Lewis and his co-leader Hosea Williams were told by the troopers that the march was unlawful.

When the leaders tried to talk to the commanding officer to explain the group was within their legal rights, the troopers set upon the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized, including Lewis, who suffered a fractured skull in the brutal violence. March 7 is now remembered by many as Bloody Sunday. In speaking of his experiences in the Civil Rights Movement and the tragedy on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Lewis said, “I accepted the teaching of Jesus, the way of love, the way of nonviolence, the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. The idea that hate is too heavy a burden to bear…I don’t want to go down that road. I’ve seen too much hate, seen too much violence. And I know love is a better way.”

For many of us, this is a terrible and a beautiful story. It is terrible because John Lewis and the other citizens on the Pettus Bridge were unjustly brutalized by those who should have been protecting them. We lament the fact that the Civil Rights Movement was necessary and that racial inequities still persist. Yet, the story is a beautiful example of the power of the gospel. John Lewis suffered injustice at a level most of us can only imagine, yet he was convinced that Jesus showed us a better way. Lewis was transformed by Christ and rejected the way of anger, bitterness, and revenge. Instead, he chose to forgive because of who Jesus is and how he loved humanity.

It is hard not to marvel at John Lewis’ ability to love and forgive those who caused him to suffer. Truth be told, many of us will never experience true unjust suffering. Those in marginalized groups may have some regular experience with injustice; however, few will experience prolonged, persistent unjust suffering. At the same time, the majority of us are outraged by the slightest inconvenience. For flawed human beings, it is natural to wish harm on those who hurt us at some level, especially when our pain is caused unjustly. Think about your reaction the last time someone cut you off in traffic, rudely disagreed with you on social media, or blamed you for something you did not do. Was your response to lovingly forgive the one who wronged you? I would guess that most of us would say “no” to that question. Would you consider what happened to you true suffering on the scale that John Lewis experienced? I suppose most of us would say “no” to that question as well; however, even minor slights can cause us to feel something like suffering. And it is difficult to move past those feelings to find the better way John Lewis spoke about. As Christ-followers, how are we to love our neighbors, even those who treat us unjustly? How can we keep minor slights and inconveniences in perspective? How do we forgive those who cause us to suffer?

There are no easy or quick answers to these questions. At the same time, we know that in order to find the way forward, we need to turn to Jesus. In this season of Easter, we remember that Christ came to heal our brokenness and to show us how to live in a world that sometimes causes us to suffer. In the first epistle of Peter, we read:

Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:18-25 NRSV)

For many of us, this passage can cause discomfort, which can get in the way of us understanding what Peter is trying to help us understand. First, Peter addressed this section of his letter to people who were enslaved, including those harshly treated by their masters. While slavery in ancient times was far less brutal, not race based, usually temporary, and with other key differences from slavery in America, the idea that enslaved people were told to endure unjust beatings does not sit well with most of us. Second, verse 21 suggests that his audience was called to suffer. Is Peter suggesting that it is the will of God for some people to suffer in slavery? Finally, Peter talks about the heinous treatment Christ endured to set us free. As people who love Jesus, it is hard to think about the particulars of Christ’s suffering. While we know he suffered and died for us, dwelling on the details of his pain can make many of us uneasy.

We will talk about each of the challenging aspects of this passage so we can learn what wisdom Peter may be passing on to us.

To start, let’s look at how Peter approached the evil of slavery. Many critics of the Bible cite the book’s implied sanction of the institution of slavery as a reason to distrust its authority. While we do not have time to fully discuss this complex topic, we can talk a bit about the context for the New Testament writers.

In the first century, the survival of Christianity depended, in part, on Rome’s view that the Jesus movement was a peaceful sect of Judaism. Rome tolerated the Jewish religion because the stable economy of Israel provided a substantial tax base. Christianity could not be distinguished as an independent “nation” for taxation purposes. For these reasons, the full weight of the Roman Empire would come down the on fragile, emerging church. To that end, the New Testament writers were careful not to write things that could be perceived as upsetting the social status quo. At the same time, they could not turn a blind eye to the exploitation of God’s children. So, both Peter and Paul, the two New Testament writers who directly discussed slavery, laid the moral and spiritual foundation for the destruction of slavery without openly challenging the institution. A careful reading of the Bible will show a strong anti-slavery position that manifests itself by attacking the reasons why one person would enslave another.

Peter compared the suffering of people in slavery to the sufferings of Jesus Christ the Lord. This was a radical and disruptive idea. At that time, most people linked financial prosperity with righteousness. It was thought that a person who owned slaves was more blessed, and therefore more righteous, than the person who was enslaved. Slavery was seen as a fair economic solution to the problem of people not being able to pay their debts, so slave owners were looked upon with favor. Peter turned the institution of slavery on its head. He called the enslaved person blessed for their endurance of an unjust institution. He said this after instructing his listeners to honor everyone, especially the family of believers (vv. 16-17).

While the language of the passage was directed to Peter’s enslaved listeners, it seems equally aimed at the believing slaveholders. In essence, the apostle is saying that the Christians who enslaved others were making those who are made in God’s image suffer as Christ suffered. How Christian masters should respond was not openly articulated by Peter, but the message was obvious.

Peter’s approach to slavery tells us something about God. God is not blind to injustice and our suffering. In fact, The Easter Season reminds us of the lengths to which God will go to end injustice and suffering. In Peter’s time, slavery was an accepted institution. Yet, God saw slavery as unjust and worked to bring an end to it. Similarly, God is neither unaware nor idle in the face of the injustice we experience. It is outside of God’s nature to ignore injustice. However, he may address it on a level we may not immediately perceive.

God is not a legislator. He does not address evil by changing laws. He addresses evil by changing hearts and minds. He has a long view of history, and his plans are bigger than our personal story. Yet, he promises that our individual experiences are important, and he will balance the scales of justice in this life or the next. Part of the gospel message is that Jesus Christ is the beginning of the end of all injustice (Luke 4:16-21). We can have the hope that evil can only triumph for so long.

So, what about the harsh treatment and the implication that the enslaved Christian was called by God to endure? On face value, it may seem like God’s will for the enslaved Christian was to suffer and the Creator overlooked the abuse visited upon his creation. However, Peter says three things that show that these are not the messages we should take away from this passage.

  1. He called upon enslaved Christians to accept the authority of their masters (v. 18), but he did not tell them to accept the unjust treatment. Rather, he told them to endure (vv. 19-20) the harsh treatment, which implied the abuse would be ended at some point.
  2. He encouraged his enslaved listeners to follow Christ’s example and entrust themselves to the one who judges justly (v. 23). This suggests that God the Father sees perfectly, and he is the ultimate judge.
  3. Peter referred to Jesus as the shepherd and guardian of their souls (v. 25). Not only does Jesus guide his followers but he protects them. As a shepherd and guardian, he acts to eliminate threats to his sheep and no one or nothing can withstand him.

Putting all of these pieces together, Peter was exhorting his audience to turn to Christ when experiencing injustice, rather than trying to address it in their own strength. Putting their faith in God was not an acceptance of the injustice. Rather, it was an act of faith that God would perfectly judge and make things right, one way or another.

If anyone doubts God’s commitment to our individual and collective well-being, Christ’s death and resurrection provide evidence of the lengths God will go to heal our brokenness. This is important for us to keep in mind. Whether it is a minor slight or true injustice, our natural tendency is to turn within — towards our own pain. We want to stop the harm being done to us and make sure it does not happen anymore. We make judgements and decisions from a place of hurt, which hampers us from seeing clearly.

As Christ-followers, we can pursue a better way like John Lewis said. Instead of turning towards our pain, we can turn towards God and lay our pain at his feet. In Christ, God showed his willingness to bear our pain. We can tell him what happened to us and how we feel, and then listen for his response. If we experience a minor slight or inconvenience, God will bring our situation into perspective. He will reveal character failings in the ones who harmed us and in ourselves.

God causes us to have compassion for our neighbor and view them through his eyes. Oftentimes, we find ourselves praying for those whom we were intent on accusing. If we experience true injustice, God will give us the strength to endure in love. He will cause us to pray like our Lord, “Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.” On some occasions, God may have us take steps to directly address the injustice; however, he will transform our hearts so our motivations are love and reconciliation. Other times, he will call on us to pray and trust him to bring an end to our suffering in the best way possible. In all cases,  when we bring our hurts to the throne of grace, we are greeted with empathy and understanding. We are not made to feel shame for our emotional wounds. Instead, God suffers with us and brings healing to each and every injury.

Finally, it may be hard for us to read about the sufferings of Jesus, and the brutal details may make us uncomfortable. The temptation to turn our eyes away from violence is understandable; however, meditating on the suffering of Jesus is essential for those who seek to follow him.  This is why we celebrate the Easter season. Christ’s scourging and crucifixion prove that God is well acquainted with sorrow and suffering, and nothing we may experience is outside of his understanding. Also, when God asks us to endure the suffering we experience in this life, he is not asking us to do anything he has not already done for us. In fact, Christ has endured more for us than we can possibly imagine, which helps put our present troubles into perspective.

Looking at the suffering of Jesus is necessary for Christians because it is what makes forgiveness and reconciliation possible. As we look at the price he paid to forgive all sin, it is difficult to argue that we cannot forgive our neighbor’s sin against us. Christ died horribly to forgive our neighbors. Therefore, as his followers, we too should turn to God to empower us to love, forgive, and reconcile.

In this world we will suffer. Perhaps we will not experience anything like John Lewis and others experienced on the Pettus Bridge. However, we will all suffer hurts and injustice. The good news is that Christ has overcome the world. God is not blind to injustice, and he promises to bring all things to their just end. He sees our pain and he acts on our behalf. Our job is to trust him — to turn to him instead of our hurt. He is our shepherd and our guardian. He leads and protects, and his ways are perfect. Let us all challenge ourselves to follow the way of love in all circumstances. Let us challenge ourselves to be like Christ even in our suffering.

Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W5

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April 30 – Fourth Sunday of Easter
1 Peter 2:19-25, “Suffering Is Universal”

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Program Transcript


Living Hope w/ Mandy Smith W5

Anthony: Our final passage is 1 Peter 2:19 – 25. It’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the fourth Sunday of Easter, April the 30th.

For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. 22 ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ 23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Jesus Christ, bore our sins in his body so that we could live for righteousness. As a Spirit-empowered response to this reality, Mandy, what does it look like to live for righteousness?

[00:39:19] Mandy: That’s a big question. Again, it’s a strange reality. Again, if I was going to be God, I would not say, oh, the way we’re going to solve this is by me. My wounds are going to be the thing that’s going to solve the problem.

But I remember being on a retreat once in Kentucky, which I think is where you are. Am I right?

[00:39:39] Anthony: I’m from Kentucky. I live in North Carolina now. Very close.

[00:39:42] Mandy: Down there at the Abbey of Gethsemane, which is an amazing place for a silent retreat, and I was really carrying some serious suffering and feeling like this was a sign God had forsaken me.

And in many ways, I think to quote Barbara Brown Taylor again, she actually makes a distinction between pain and suffering. So, pain is the actual experience that cannot be denied, and the suffering is our belief about that experience that God has forsaken us, which we see Jesus wrestling with.

And in many ways, that’s worse than the actual pain. We see that in Job as well. That yes, you can’t argue with what he’s lost. But the question that most of the book of Job is about is: why. What does this mean about your relationship with God?

So, I was in that place when I went to this Abbey, and it’s a Catholic setting, and so there’s crucifix hanging on the walls everywhere you go. And in my Protestant tradition, we don’t usually have a Jesus actually hanging on the cross still.

And so, I just was like, geez, Jesus, you just hanging everywhere, suffering everywhere I go. And it’s a real bummer. And I’m here to try to rest, and I just don’t want to be confronted with your suffering everywhere I go. You’re really spoiling it. I’m trying to enjoy my lunch here, Jesus. And you’re just hanging there on the wall looking at me. And something changed in me, and I came to see—especially people who suffer all around the world have that crucifix on the walls of their homes because (as much as I understand why we want to have an empty cross) because he’s resurrected now.

When we suffer, I need to know I’m not alone. This thing that had been judgment, had felt like, oh, that’s a sign God’s forsaken you because you are suffering and he’s not. Instead, I came to see, the solidarity that he has with me, and I have with him in that place. That, as it says in this passage, if you endure when you do right and suffer for it.

Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father is what took him to the cross. He could have stopped any time. He could have just said, oh, just kidding. I’m not really the Son of God. I’m not really going to do miracles. He could have got out of it anytime he wanted to, but he just kept saying yes every single day to the Father, and even when he knew what was coming. You can feel this heaviness upon him of obedience and of knowing what it’s going to take, where it’s going to take him.

And to just suddenly realize that is our story, that when we do right and we suffer for it, we have God’s approval. It’s not a sign that we are forsaken by God. It’s as even though we see Jesus cry out on the cross, my God, why have you forsaken me? I refuse to believe that was because the Father had actually forsaken him. I believe that it was because Jesus was lamenting, as we were talking about earlier, and that psalm that he’s citing from Psalm 22, I think everybody would’ve known it and would’ve known the whole Psalm.

Which is the wrestling of a person who is in absolute agony and who still chooses to see that God has made things possible. And the end of that psalm sounds very much like he has done it. That gives me great hope and for me to live for righteousness means living in a way that embraces the possibility that even when I suffer—I don’t do right as perfectly as Jesus did, but it often is my desire to serve and to obey and follow that gets me into painful places. And to trust that the righteousness there is knowing, even though I don’t feel it, that we have God’s approval in that place.

[00:43:21] Anthony: I was sitting in a sanctuary once with a dear friend who happens to be a professional theologian, and we were talking about Jesus on the cross that we were seeing in this sanctuary.

And I thought, why don’t we come up with a symbol of life, right? The resurrected life. And he said to me, for a lot of us, we need to know, we need to be able to look up and see this broken, battered body, that he gets us. He understands; we can trust that he knows, and he’s not apart from it. He’s in it with us.

And I thought, that’s hard to argue with. I’m glad that Jesus had his way with you as he was staring at you during this retreat to remind you of who he is and what he’s up to. And what we see he was up to, is he doesn’t return abuse for abuse.

We talk about the kingdom of God being an upside-down kingdom, that looks upside down to our experience. What we often see as abuse leads to future abusers. What can we learn and live as a result of what we see in Jesus?

[00:44:25] Mandy: Yeah, that’s a big question. And actually, I just want to add one thing to what you just said about looking for a symbol. And as soon as you said it, I just thought, I think we are the symbol. You know that?

We carry around the resurrection so that the world can see, and I’m reminded of the passage that says we carry in our bodies, the death of Jesus from Corinthians. We carry in our bodies the death of Jesus so the life of Jesus may be seen our in our bodies. So even though it feels like death, for us, it looks like life.

Most of the people I know who look most alive and who show the resurrection power, have died a lot, have suffered a lot. And that’s where the miracle is revealed, I think.

But yeah, to get back to the second question, oh my goodness, there’s so much I want to say about this, and I don’t think we have time.

But going back to what I was referencing earlier about the real ways that I have experienced abuse from fellow Christians (mostly related to gender stuff), that actually it’s been also the place where I’ve come to know the meaning of the gospel in more and more ways. Because my human tendency is to just push back and to just demand that person apologize or that person change.

And in a particular moment, I felt like there was somebody who was specifically standing in the way of something that I felt God calling me to do. And that’s a deeply painful place to say, yes, I want to obey God. But there are human beings who are saying, no, you are not called to that. And so, I just remember crying out to the Lord and saying, when will he learn? When will he change? Will God change his heart? Fix him. And I felt this almost physical pressure on me saying, Mandy, let it go.

And I was like, oh, not you too, God, not you, not another voice telling me, I just have to adapt to this painful situation, and I just have to suck it up and I just have to take it in. And honestly, it just felt like more of this oppressive, abusive experience that I was already experiencing. And he said, no, no, no, I’m not saying that you should give into this person or agree with this person. I’m saying let it go because I let it go and all of the pain that he experienced, and I suddenly just sensed the story in a different way of what God was doing on the cross because we don’t often give God much credit for having emotions.

And what if our rejection of him brought deep pain in him? That he had created something beautiful and given it to us and we had just ripped it out of his hands and said, we just want it and we don’t want you. And what if that broke his heart? And when somebody breaks our heart, there’s just this natural instinct that wants to take all that pain and roll it up in a ball and just hurl it in their direction.

We do that all the time. And this is what we’re talking about here. The kind of abuse just gets passed on and the violence just escalates. But what if instead God said, I’m going to take all that pain that I’m experiencing because I see how beautiful this was supposed to be, and you have just broken it.

And instead of just rolling it into a ball and throwing at us, he—like the cartoon characters like to swallow it and let it explode like a bomb. You see a cartoon character swallow a bomb and it explodes inside of them. What if he said, no, I’m going to let it just blow up inside of me.

This is real pain. And I felt this is what God was asking me to do. Not to deny the injustice, but to choose to say, I’m going to let go. I’m going to let my sense of indignation die in me. I’m going to let my want, my desire for vindication and revenge, I’m going to let that die in me. And honestly, it did feel like it was going to kill me.

I felt like I’m going to lose myself. I’m not going to exist anymore. Even if it doesn’t kill me physically, it’s going to kill my identity because for us to protect ourselves is a fundamental human instinct. But I felt the Lord say, but because I did it, I’m asking you to set aside your sense of right, of what you deserve, because I did it.

Oh, my goodness. Something happened that freed me from this little script I’d been in and I suddenly realized we were stuck. I’m stuck in a script here. Like you say this to me, I say that to you. We go back and forwards and it just goes round and round in a circle, and I just felt like I was suddenly drawn out of this cycle of whatever the script is that between men and women or between whoever’s always perpetuating. And I was able to say, ah, look at this space we’re stuck in. Look at this thing. I feel freed from it. I don’t need you to approve of me in order to do the things that God is calling me to do anymore. I hope one day you get it, but I’m going to just keep saying yes to God.

And I felt such a freedom and such a release. And it was really good news. Like it wasn’t just now I can do my job. It was like, ah, this is the hope of the gospel. This is the power that God has given us, that he’s asking us to die to what we think we need in order to actually receive what he’s offering us.

And it will feel like death. If you are taking poison, thinking all along that it’s helping you heal, the doctor is going to have a really hard time saying, actually that thing you keep putting in your body is what is killing you. If you believe that’s what you need to live, it’s going to feel like death to say, ah, I’m going to have to choose to stop taking this medication.

And it’s only after you take it that you start to heal, that you start to see, oh my goodness, the doctor was right all along, but it’s going to feel like death first. So that is what I’m learning and living. As I see how he broke the pattern of abuse and how he refused—oh my goodness, what a beautiful thing that this God who had been so wronged by us and continues to be so wronged by us, refuses to take it out on us and chooses to take in himself the pain of all of that so that we don’t have to bear what he would be righteous, what he would be justified in dealing out to us from his own deep pain of us rejecting him. So, praise God that he has taken on that pain within himself and somehow let it die in him so that he can come to us and receive us again.

[00:51:02] Anthony: You said because I did it, Jesus that is. He did it. He’s done it. And it reminded me of a statement that Richard Rohr made, that pain that is not transformed always gets transmitted. And what I hear you saying, (and I praise God for it) is he transformed it because, hey, Mandy, I did it. I did it for you and you get to do it with me. We are going to transform this.

And I’m so grateful for that and grateful for you. Thank you so much for being with us. I saw a statement you made on the socials recently where you said, when I see only seeds, may I speak of gardens. And I’m thinking for you, as you said early on, ministry’s hard.

It’s hard work. It’s tough. But I pray that the Lord will allow you the joy of walking through a lot of gardens with him in the quiet of the evening and see the beauty of what he is doing all around you.

Thank you for joining us, and I certainly want to thank a couple of people, Reuel Enerio, and Elizabeth Mullins, who do such incredible work with this podcast.

And Mandy our tradition here at Gospel Reverb is to end in prayer. And so if you’re willing, would you please pray for those who are listening?

[00:52:15] Mandy: Yes, of course.

God, we thank you for this crazy way that you have come to us, that you have invited us into. Thank you that you are the kind of God that we can trust to not abuse, to not oppress, that your power is the kind of power that empties.

And it’s so much unlike anything we see in the world and in ourselves. And so Father, we pray that you would invite us, that you would teach us, that you would show to us how to be more like Jesus. Thank you for modeling it yourself and not just talking about it, but for saying, okay, let me come and do it; let me be like you and let me show you what it looks like.

And Father, we need your help because we have so many other ways we’ve been taught to fill ourselves up and to be enough in our own strength, our education and our media and our culture. And everything around us says, no, if you empty, you’ll just be left empty.

But thank you, Lord for the miracle that when a human being empties in your direction, that there is something that you are then able to fill. Thank you that your Spirit has been promised to us, that you are already with us, that you are already just waiting to give us the insight and the vision and the direction, and the comfort and the courage that we need—maybe not the things that we think we need, but what we actually need.

So Lord, give us the courage to empty and trust that there is something that will fill us, something better than we were trying to fill ourselves with. We thank you for this promise, for this miracle that we have access to every single.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • The Speaking of Life presenter said a full, abundant life was one in which Jesus fills all our moments with his life-giving presence. What does this mean to you?
  • One of the reasons God saved you and me is so we can experience a full life. What does this say about God?

From the sermon

  • What do you think of John Lewis’ ability to love and forgive in spite of the suffering he endured? Do you know of any similar stories of amazing love and forgiveness?
  • Do you sometimes find it hard to believe that God sees and cares about your suffering? Why or why not?
  • How should Jesus’ suffering on the cross impact how Christians interact with their neighbors?