Grace for All

You are listening to Grace for All, a daily devotional podcast produced by the people of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee.

This is Scripture Saturday, a time when we pause and reflect on the scriptures we have read throughout the week. If you missed any of our devotionals on these passages, you can find them on our website at 1stChurch.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, we invite you to listen and receive Grace. Welcome and thank you for joining us.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

In this passage, we hear God speaking to Moses, telling him what is about to happen with the Pharaoh of Egypt who is oppressing the children of Israel. In the words of Rabbi Andrew Mandel of Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, God seems to be a Hollywood director and casting agent, and He is giving the role of God to Moses.

Moses, we know from reading through Exodus, has protested to God that he does not want this role. He has a stutter, and he argues with God that this prevents him from being an effective leader. But God counters with the offer to Moses of Aaron, the brother who can, when necessary, speak on behalf of Moses. It is an offer that Moses cannot refuse.

I think this ancient story asks us today, “What role is God offering to us?” Does God simply want us to go about our business, keeping ourselves to ourselves, as they say? Or does God have something in mind – today – for us to do?

Our world is broken, divided, and in pain. So are the people around us. So are we on many occasions. We are prone to ask, “Where is God in all of this?” and then wait for God to show up. In this passage, God is asking Moses to play the role of God. Could he be asking us to do the same thing? Could he be asking us to say the kind word, to offer a loving smile, to give assistance to someone in need, or to present the gift of our time and attention to a person or situation that is right in front of us?

It is not difficult to find those needs and people where we can be a loving and grace-filled God. We can play that role, as Moses did, if we respond to God’s casting call.

What role is God casting you for today?

Dear Lord, help us to hear your voice that calls us to be your voice, your hands, and your feet in the service of those around us. May we respond to that voice with joy and thanksgiving. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Following this, Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God.” This was a high point of faith.

Jesus then says Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed.

Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared. They told Thomas, “We have seen the lord.” Thomas replied, “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.

When Jesus decides to go to Bethany in Judea, it was Thomas who said Let us also go that we may die with him. he was aware of the danger facing Jesus in Jerusalem. These words show his loyalty and solidarity with Jesus.

Several times in the last days, Jesus tells the disciples that he is going away. It was Thomas who expressed what the other disciples were probably thinking. lord, we do not know where you are going. Jesus declared that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and only through Jesus can one go to the Father.

I believe Jesus was in no way attempting to shame Thomas, but giving him what he needed for faith, as he did many times in the gospels.

Over many years, I have had occasions when I felt I needed to see something to believe what someone had told me. Seeing is believing some folks say.

Jesus had told the disciples that he was going away but would return. That probably was hard for them to grasp.

I have at times pondered what group I would have been with during what we now call holy week. Would I have been a believer? There were followers, but were they believers before the resurrection? Where would I have been after the resurrection? Possibly trying to avoid people like Saul, who was persecuting Christians.

I am just grateful that I now believe in the resurrection and am a believer in Jesus. My faith is strong, and I feel more secure than ever that Jesus is my Savior.

Dear lord, help us all to become stronger in our belief in you and to confidently look for those opportunities to share our faith in Jesus. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Emmit Rawls.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

In this passage, an Angel of the Lord is speaking to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Three days have passed since Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, and his followers are devastated and grieving. They have gone into hiding, fearing they will be punished by the Roman leaders because of their association with Jesus.

It is the two Marys, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who have the courage to visit the tomb and to whom the Angel of the Lord speaks the words: “He is not here, for he has been raised as he said he would.”

It is this supernatural event, Jesus rising from the dead, which has continued to impact humankind all over the world since that day over 2,000 years ago.

Three words: “He has risen.”

Throughout his ministry on earth, Jesus had performed miracles and taught lessons that were awe-inspiring, raising Lazarus from the dead, revealing the beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount, and repeating the greatest commandment – love God with all your heart and love others as you love yourself. Many people knew who he was and knew of his works, and they might have recognized him as a Holy man, but this event showed without a doubt that he was God’s son. No human being could raise a man from the dead and enable him to walk and talk and teach his final lessons to his disciples.

Since that day, Christians have endeavored to share the message, teach God’s word, and fulfill the great commission – go and make disciples of all nations. Sometimes, both in history and in current events, those efforts have caused harm. When the words of the Bible are twisted, and the message is distorted by our limited human understanding, the result is suffering and death, war and oppression. That was never Jesus’ message nor his intent.

As Christians, we should ask ourselves some hard questions.

• How has believing that Jesus is the Son of God affected my life decisions?
• Have I fully embraced the gifts of salvation and the Holy Spirit and allowed my life to be an example to others?
• Do I pray for guidance every day and seek the counsel of other mature Christians?
• Do I strive to live as Jesus did?

You may have heard that following Jesus is a radical choice. His ways are not the ways of modern society, which tells us we have to be strong and protect our own interests, we have to accumulate wealth to be respected and admired by others, we have to sometimes look past the sick, the hungry, and the needy, in order to accomplish our personal goals.

These are difficult things to think about and difficult decisions to make. We can only follow Jesus and his commandments if we truly believe the Angel’s message: “He is not here. He has risen.” That belief changes everything.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending us your Son, for his sacrifice on the cross, and for the gift of salvation. What a momentous event that was when the Marys realized that Jesus was not in the tomb but was risen and lived still as the Son of God. Give us the strength to boldly proclaim the message just as two ordinary women did upon leaving the tomb all those years ago. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Pat Scruggs

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Imagine you are a woman in the time of Christ, around 4 BC to 34 AD. You have experienced serious mental illness in a time when this health problem is viewed as possession by demons. Your chances of recovery are zero. Then one day a traveling prophet named Jesus comes by and casts out your inner demons, whatever they are.

You are overcome with gratitude and become a follower of this Jesus. Apparently, even though you are a woman, you have material wealth, and you are able to help bankroll the prophet’s ministry.

For the rest of his life, you are a devoted follower and supporter. In that tragic moment when Jesus has been condemned to death by the religious leaders of the day, when Jesus is hanging on the cross, you are there, standing with Jesus’ mother and other women. All the male disciples have fled and gone into hiding. But you would not be anywhere else in Jesus’ darkest hour.

On the morning after the Sabbath, in deep grief, you walk to Jesus’ tomb to prepare his body with spices, and you find the stone in front of the tomb rolled back. You run to tell the male disciples, and Peter and another disciple run to the tomb. When they find it empty, they leave.

By now, you are beside yourself. Through a veil of tears, you see a person you think is a gardener and ask him where they have taken Jesus so that you can find him and prepare his body. And then Jesus speaks and says, “Mary.”

Jesus speaks your name. You are filled with unspeakable joy and rhapsodic recognition, but Jesus cautions you not to touch him for he has not yet ascended to the Father. You are the first human being in the presence of the risen Lord.

In that moment everything changes. In that moment, tears turn into laughter, despair turns into joy, death turns into resurrection and life. God’s love overcomes hate and embraces humble humanity. No matter how dark the world seems, God is alive. Like Mary, we can hear his voice today, if only we listen.

We thank you, dear God, for your voice in dark times. We thank you for resurrection and the eternal power of love over hate. Amen.

This devotion was written by Laura Derr and read by Judy Wilson.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

I love Holy Week and Easter. It provides us a remarkable time to reflect on the unimaginable gift we have been given, the gift we didn’t earn and could never repay, the gift of Christ dying for our sins. It is a time to reflect upon the power and the glory and the majesty of our God, and it is a time to recognize his triumph over death in Christ Jesus.

With all of that going through our minds, we sometimes miss part of the story. Caught up in the miracle of resurrection — and with good reason — we fail to recognize an aspect of Christ’s humanity. No, in this case, I don’t mean his suffering and death — again, an important part of the story and one to focus on.

But what I’m referring to is contained in today’s verse, when the newly resurrected Jesus appears to the disciples. He has been raised from the dead to new life. But the way he reveals himself is to show his hands and side. He shows them...his wounds.

This healer, who restored sight to the blind, healed the leper, gave mobility to the one who couldn’t walk, and even raised the dead, is still wounded. In fact, just after this passage is the famous interaction with Thomas, in which he says he won’t believe it really is Jesus unless Thomas touches the wounds himself. And let me be clear: I think that Jesus has the power to heal himself, but he chooses not to, similarly to how he chooses not to end his suffering on the cross.

To me, the message here, my friends, is that Jesus heals, Jesus saves, and Jesus sends us not just in spite of these wounds, but in fact, he recognizes and empathizes with us because he understands what it is to be wounded. We worship a wounded healer. And we are all wounded. Our scars give us understanding. The pain of our wounds allows us to share in the pain of others. Jesus didn’t come to earth to be a god among men, but to be one of us. He came to know what it is to be truly human. May we take that lesson with us, acknowledging that just as our Lord was wounded, so are we, and so are all whom we meet. May our sharing of that knowledge allow us to meet others with even greater love.

God, we thank you for the gift of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, who teaches us to share the burdens of others. Through the knowledge of our humanity, our scars, may we be able to help others through this life just as you help us. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Dwight Dockery.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Sometimes people read this story and wonder how Mary could possibly have mistaken Jesus for the gardener. How could she not recognize someone she knew so well?

I had an experience last week that helped me understand.

I was conducting the funeral for one of our longtime church members. During the service, I invited people to stand and share a memory or two. A woman stood up in the back of the sanctuary, and I said, “Go ahead, ma’am.”

Only after she started speaking did I realize it was someone I knew well—someone I simply hadn’t seen in quite a while. After the service I apologized. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.”

She smiled and said, “I knew you didn’t.”

I laughed and replied, “If I’d recognized you, I wouldn’t have called you ‘ma’am.’"

Recognition isn’t always as simple as we think. Sometimes we don’t recognize someone because we aren’t expecting to see them.

Mary certainly wasn’t expecting to see Jesus that morning. Three days earlier she had watched him die a horrible death on a cross. Even after hearing his voice, she still didn’t realize who he was.

Then everything changed with one word.

“Mary.”

Whenever I read this passage aloud, especially around Easter, I always pause there for just a moment. I imagine the tenderness in Jesus’ voice as he spoke her name. It wasn’t simply that he knew her name. It was the way he spoke it, I’m sure—with love, with compassion, with complete understanding. In that moment, Mary knew exactly who was standing before her.

I’m convinced Jesus knows each of us that way. He knows our names. He knows our stories. He knows our joys, our failures, our fears, and our hopes. And he still calls us with love.

It’s one thing to know about Jesus. It’s another thing entirely to realize that he knows you.

Sometimes all it takes is hearing your name spoken by the One who has known you all along.

Father, thank you so much, not only that Jesus knows us to the depth of our being, but that we can know Jesus, not just know about Jesus. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Donn King.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Thank you for joining us for today's Grace for All podcast.

On Saturdays, we pause for a few moments to look back on our week and to review the scriptures that we have used in our podcast.

We encourage you, after listening to this episode, to go back and listen to the episodes you missed, or to review the ones that were particularly meaningful for you.

We trust that the thoughts that we have shared with you this week have provided a full portion of the joy, peace, and love of Jesus Christ.

Now, listen to this week's scriptures.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

We are all on the clock from birth. We are also challenged to face our fate without flinching. But not right now, we say.

How would you live knowing death was imminent? Seek a miracle cure? Do a bucket list? Or just hunker down and dedicate time with family and friends? Our Christian faith would be tested as we seek God for the answer to “why me?”

There are role models to admire who offer unparalleled courage, not giving in to pity or sorrow. The late theologian and pastor, Timothy Keller, wrote his book “On Death” as he was dying from pancreatic cancer at age 72. He writes: “I have no fear of death as much as dying in pain (most of us don’t get to die in our sleep). There is no downside for me leaving this life, not in the slightest. Death is a reminder of the temporary nature of life and the importance of faith in God. I believe in resurrection, a restoration of hope, and a better life. It is what Jesus’ example taught us.”

The Bible is a lens on our human dilemma, with more than 100 passages showing that death is not the end but a transition to eternal life with God.

John 11:25-26 “Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life everlasting and anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die’.”

Romans 14:8 “If we live for the Lord and if we die, we die by the Lord.”

Other human expressions in the arts, poetry, music, and literature offer wisdom on the meaning of life and death. The popular folk song from the 1960’s, “Turn, Turn, Turn-for everything there is a season,” has been described as “music as the highest possible grace note.”

“…to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven”

The lyrics are adapted almost entirely from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3. It presents the cyclical nature of life, emphasizing that God is ultimately in control of every season! Each season should be embraced with both joy and sorrow, which is to be expected.

The Book of Ecclesiastes stands as a profound exploration of the human experience in the pursuit of meaning in a world of uncertainty. It invites us to contemplate a deeper examination of what really matters in the human experience. We are urged to think beyond material success and societal norms to have a close personal relationship with God.

Gracious and loving God, we yearn for your timeless wisdom and pray for the courage profoundly shown by Jesus. Help us to remain steadfast in our life’s purpose and mission so that we never die with our songs still inside us. And may we always freely bestow kindness and strive to serve your will, following the way of your son Jesus and the life everlasting. Amen.

This devotional was written by Tim Carpenter and read by Cliff McCartney.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Most of us first encountered Jonah in a Sunday school classroom, probably before we were old enough to read. There was a man. There was a whale. The man ended up inside the whale for three days, and then the whale spit him out. It was a wonderful story, full of drama and a little bit of humor, and it stuck with us. What we may not have understood then — and what we may still be working out — is how much that story contains.

The book of Jonah holds a central and honored place in Jewish tradition. Each year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement — the holiest day of the Jewish calendar — the entire book of Jonah is read aloud in the synagogue during the afternoon service. It is read on that day for a reason. Yom Kippur is devoted to repentance, to self-examination, to what Jewish tradition calls teshuvah — turning back toward God. And Jonah is the story of repentance on the grandest possible scale. The entire city of Nineveh, from the king on his throne to the animals in their stalls, repents in sackcloth and ashes. God relents. Mercy triumphs. But there is a sting in the tail of the story: Jonah himself is furious that God forgave Nineveh. He wanted judgment, and he got grace — and he couldn’t bear it. On the day when Jews are asking God for forgiveness, the assigned text is a story about God forgiving the enemy. The message is unmistakable: God’s mercy does not stop at our borders.

Christian theology has always seen something else in Jonah as well — or rather, something more. Jesus himself pointed to it. When the Pharisees demanded a sign, he told them the only sign they would receive was the sign of Jonah: three days and three nights in the deep, and then emergence into the light. Jesus was reading his own death and resurrection through the story of the prophet. The fish’s belly becomes the tomb. The three days become the silence of Holy Saturday. And the emergence becomes Easter morning.

But here is where the two traditions — Jewish and Christian — do not so much diverge as deepen one another. Both see in Jonah a man who went into the darkness and came out the other side. Both see a God who is present even in the deep. And both, if we look carefully, see the same thing waiting on the other side of that emergence: a mission. Jonah did not come out of the fish and go home to rest. God still wanted him to go to Nineveh, and he went. He preached. The city was transformed. The disciples did not encounter the risen Jesus and return quietly to their former lives. They were sent. To Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

This is the truth that both traditions are reaching toward, each in its own way. The darkness is not the end. The three days are not the conclusion of the story — they are the turning point. What God does in the deep, God does for a purpose. Resurrection is not a destination. It is a sending.

Whatever tomb you may find yourself in today — whatever darkness feels like three days without end — the word of both the prophet and the gospel is the same. You are not abandoned there. You are being prepared. And when the light comes, it will come with a commission.

Our Father, we thank you that the darkness does not have the final word — that even in the deep, you are present, and that you bring us out not to rest but to serve. Give us the courage to go where you send us. Amen.

This devotion was written by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.