FMC Tulsa

Rev. Jessica Moffatt, a native of Tulsa, began her collegiate career at Southern Methodist University, studying music and fine arts, before graduating from the University of Tulsa with a bachelor of fine arts in public relations and communications. She continued her education at Emory University, graduating magna cum laude, with a master of divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology and was presented the John Owen Award for Excellence in Preaching. In addition, she completed the graduate degree program at the Chateau de Bossey in Geneva, Switzerland where she worked with the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Institute in the area of international church relations, addressing intercultural issues of race, violence, and poverty.

Rev. Moffatt previously served at First for twelve years as Minister of Community Ministries, Executive Minister, and Preaching Associate. She was ordained with the United Methodist Church as a deacon in 1986 and as an elder in 1988. Her first appointment as senior minister was to First United Methodist Church of Bixby, where she served from 1997 to 2009, before being appointed to her most recent position as senior minister of Ardmore First United Methodist Church.

Join us in welcoming Rev. Moffatt to First Methodist’s pulpit as our new Lead Pastor!

Three times in the space of eleven verses Peter talks about “glory.” “Glory” is something Peter shares with other Christians, a crown they hope to wear, an eternal glory that they will have in Christ.

Christians and glory just go together.

We think of “glory”” more or less as the same as honor or fame or renown. An athlete wins “glory.” We use it as a verb, a person “glories” in something—that is, we take pride and relish an accomplishment.

The biblical idea of glory is something more profound. “Glory” is part of the very character of God. In the Hebrew the word has the root meaning of “heavy”—God’s “glory” is God’s weight and substance. “Glory” is not just fame or honor but depth and value and worth. When we share in “glory,” we are sharing in the weight and character of God.

And scriptures promise that this is where we are all going: if we are followers of Christ, Christ will lead us into his glory. God is making us into people who share God’s character and value—and that is an amazing future.

I can’t think of a better theme for my last sermon as your pastor. I look forward to sharing with you and to enjoying Father’s Day together with a good hamburger and homemade ice cream. First United Methodist is going to be a fun place Sunday—so join us!

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you."

Every once in a while, I read a scripture that I wish was not in our Bible, and this is one of them. I want Christianity to be comfortable, easy, and fun, and this verse does not sound like fun.

I am not sure what a “fiery ordeal” means, but it does not sound like something that I would choose to run into. However, this is the life that Peter tells us to expect. As a Christian, you will experience a “fiery ordeal,” and it should not catch us off guard. In fact, Peter tells us to rejoice in our sufferings.

How can we rejoice in fiery ordeals and our sufferings? Join us this Sunday as we learn why and how to rejoice when life gets difficult.

We tend to expect the world to give us same for same. We think, if we do the right thing, we will receive good in return. And if something bad happens, we must have done something wrong. If someone is good to us, we will be good in return. And if someone treats us unjustly, then it is okay to respond with anger.

Peter turns around our normal way of thinking. The world is not fair, and the Christian has a call to respond to life differently from the rest of humanity. We give back good things when we are treated wrongly. If we suffer for Christ and for doing the right thing, that becomes a blessing.

When attacked, we normally do one of two things: either run or attack back.

But Peter shows us a third way: when attacked we can bless.

The example we have is Christ--who suffered innocently, but through his death brought life to many. In the same way, if we suffer, God can bless others through us.

This sounds very nice and neat on paper--it is much harder in real life.

Join us as we seek together to learn how to be a blessing in the midst of a world that sometimes seems so unfair.

Peter calls his fellow Christians “living stones” built into a “spiritual house.” He imagines that, in place of the old temple in Jerusalem, God now lives and moves through the faith of Christians. God is present

in the world not in a stone temple, but in the lives of people who believe in Jesus. Instead of offering animals as sacrifices on the altar in the temple our lives become an offering to God. Instead of God’s people being a particular nation living in a particular land, we are God’s people spread throughout the world.

It is exciting to think God is living among us and through us.

It is also challenging to think we are the new temple of God.

We are “God’s own people,” but at the same time Peter calls us “aliens and exiles.” This world is not our home, at least not yet. We live in nations and under the authority of governments, but God is our true home and we are waiting for our true Lord.

We live in the meantime—we live as God’s people in the midst of other people.

And we are called to have a witness to the grace of God and a presence that brings God’s life into the world.

We cannot always expect to be treated fairly and rightly in this world—but that does not stop us from living well.

We are “free” through the grace and mercy of God. But in the moment we may be experiencing all sorts of difficulties.

We can live lives of power even if we have no power.

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the unique calling of all Christians—the calling to be the dwelling of God in the midst of the world.

If you could pick a quality for yourself, what would it be? If someone were to say, “Oh, Joe (or Jane, or whatever your name is) he is a very (blank) person.” What would you hope they would say? I suspect in our culture we might put words like “authentic” or “adventuresome” or “brave” or “fun.” As a culture, we value people who are “themselves”—people who know who they are and live without pretense. We value creative people, brave people and people who have their own values and live by them. Independence, integrity, fearlessness—these are words many might hope for themselves. I suspect very few would say, “holy.” For some that might be a negative word, implying that we are “holier than thou” type people—self-righteous and judgmental. I want to suggest to you that “holy” is an awesome word. In fact, holiness is the key to all those other qualities that we think we want for ourselves. For example, authenticity without holiness is probably going to veer into self-indulgence. Fearlessness without holiness can easily become callous. In order to have the best of life and to be best of ourselves, we need to be holy. If holiness sounds boring and stifling, we don’t understand what it means to be holy. Being holy is the gateway to freedom. Just us as we continue to allow Peter to show us who we truly are as Christians and a church.

Jesus talked about being “born again.”

Paul spoke of the “new creation.”

In this passage Peter tells us Christians have a “new birth” through Jesus.

Everywhere we look in the New Testament the writers talk about the life-changing experience that is Christian faith.

Our church’s vision statement says “First United Methodist Church of Tulsa seeks to bring all people into life-transforming relationships with Christ and other people.” To be in relationship with Christ is to be in a life-transforming relationship. We cannot know Christ without changing.

So what is “new” about the new birth?

It is a life of hope instead of defeat.

It is a life of power instead of despair.

It is a life of joy even in the midst of difficulties.

Peter calls it an inheritance—we receive it from God. And it is the most precious gift we can ever receive.

This is who we are—people born anew through the gift of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. Join us Sunday as we celebrate our life transformation through Jesus Christ!

It’s Mother’s Day so we are going to skip ahead in I Peter to his words to husbands and wives.

In some ways Peter’s words to wives will seem out of touch with modern life. He asks them to be “submissive”—to live a pure and reverent life and to minimize their desire for jewels and clothes. In our modern world this sounds old-fashioned and insulting!

It may help to look Peter’s words to husbands—he tells the husbands to respect their wives and treat them as equal heirs of God. And he warns them that, if they do not, God will not listen to their prayers!

Peter is not in any way giving men the “right” to run roughshod over their wives and claim absolute authority. If there is not a genuine respect and partnership in marriage, then we are falling short of God’s ideal.

I think Peter wanted to encourage marriage as a means of serving each other. Rather than asking, “What is my right?” Peter wanted us to ask, “What does my partner need?” Rather than asking, “How can I get what I want?” Peter hoped we would want to give what the other needed.

I think Christian marriage and Christian families should be counter-cultural. Our goals are different. Our hopes are different.

Instead of being fear-based, we can be love-based. Instead of being about possessing and controlling, we can be about blessing.

Let’s celebrate our mothers and the women in our lives—and let’s think about who we are. We are very different kinds of families because we are people who belong to Christ.