Message from Will McLeane on March 25, 2018

-Peacemaking in the world...confirmation Sunday

-Peacemaking not same thing as peacekeeping.

-Peacemaking for God's Kingdom. For the restoration of shalom. For the flourishing of the world. "Beloved Community" by MLK (koinonia).

-From the security of knowing the peace of who we are before God, we are called to go to places of brokenness and pain to be peacemakers in the world....part of our UM tradition.

-Christianity thrives on the margins, because we know that when we are on the margins we are with Jesus (where he always chose to place himself).

-The outside transforming the center, not the center pushing into the outside.

-Images of Peacemakers from Civil Rights movement (dogs biting the guy), Metoo Movement, Student Walkout Movement.

-Sometimes we have to disrupt the "peace" (what Jeremiah said was "false peace" or 1 John calls "false prophets") to make true peace.

-Peacemaking very often demands a disruption of politeness (i.e. protest).

-Spirits, forces, and the enemy tries to disrupt the peace we have with God and each other.

-How to we test the Spirits and discern the voice of God?

-How do we resist the lies and live in the promises of God's peace?

The Practice of Forgiveness

You don't want to be the kind of person who dies with a life full of grudges

What really stops us from pursuing peace with others? Pride and Pain

Pride: Of wanting to be in the right

Pain: Of willingly moving into the darkness

1 John lets us know of the imperative of forgiveness and living in peace with your brothers and sisters.

Resentment destroys...its a participation in death

Forgiveness gives life...its an imitation of Christ...dying and being raised to life again

-With all the light/dark imagery, "Here I am to Worship" would truly be great. I know its an oldie but the lyrics are good.

-Bible leads us to this terrifying revelation: your life could actually be a lie.

-1 John tells us the one true life is to walk as he walked...to in the words of John 1, live "full of grace and truth."

-1 John outlines how we can live a life of grace and truth: confessing sin, asking God for forgiveness, walking in the light.

1) Making peace with God

2) Making peace with others

3) Making peace with the Church

Acts 27:27-28:5

-What happens when you royally screw up?

-When for all intents and purposes, your life is shipwrecked.

-Grace makes us new, but grit is what is required to live into this newness of life. You have to hear the hard truths, crawl out of the hole, and fight like hell for a new shot at life.

-God parts the red seas, but you have to have the trust and grit to walk through.

Message from Will McLeane on February 4, 2018

The toughest kind of grit is the grit that binds us to people. Its the commitment to be with and for people. The people you love and adore, the people who rip your heart out and stomp on it, the grit that demands the most courage and perseverance is the kind that commits us to people.

Within the context of last week's question...how can we get gritty about developing people of virtue....or the church's BETTER question....how can get more gritty about working with the Spirit to build people who reflect the character of God....who are holy.

Preface it with a quotation by David Brooks concerning the greatest builder of virtue is commitment. He says commitment to a partner, a vocation, a place, and philosophy. Yes, and I would add that as Christians, God's love commits us to people.

Naomi's question: Why would you want to commit to me when I'm of no use to me? You are in your prime, the world is before you, why would you want to sign up for this?

Offer all the cultural context and background for this question.

Ruth's response: "your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you go I will go."...of all the great kings and heroic warriors of the Old Testament, I think Ruth might be the most gritty.

God is committed to us far before our usefulness to God. God commits and pursues after us with an "everlasting love."

Ex. from marriage vows...we ask couples to pledge before the covenant community that they will love their spouse even when its not useful or beneficial to them....again....not because we know this will make them happy in the long run, but because the purpose of Christian marriage is to make us holy....to reflect God's covenantal love in a world that shuns commitment.

Share the story of why the pastors chose "grit" to define the essence of ESUMC. We are a church committed to seeing the gritty love of God take hold of all the people of our parish. We see the love shared in the Trinity, the love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as full of grit. We see this as a congregation full of "grit."

Pastoral Challenge(s): Who have you given up on that you could recommit to? Praying for? Being with?

-The only way you grow is with grit. No pain, no gain....weve heard them all.

-But how do you grow as a virtuous culture in a world that loves everything quick, easy, and efficient. Is there a shortcut to growth in virtue and Christ?

-Virtue does not necessarily equal victory. Quotation about the long defeat from Paul Farmer.

-Peter calls it "the genuineness of a faith that is tested by fire." Key verses are 1:6-8.