SERMON | Jonah 3:11-4:10 & Matthew 20:1-16 | MENDED - 2. "Gratitude" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

Grace is hard.

Grace isn’t just—by definition it is not just.

But…I wonder…

If maybe the whole point of our faith is to help us let go of our own idea of justice so that we can come to see that God’s justice is basically just grace.

Nobody here deserves what we have, if we really think about it…

And I am not just talking about God’s grace in our lives.

I made choices along the way, sure, but so much of my life is a product of grace.

I am blessed with my talents, desires, and abilities.

I am blessed with the opportunity to explore, develop, and make a career of sharing them with others.

Plenty of things have gone wrong.

Plenty of tragedies have occurred.

Plenty of my days are stressful, hard, and frustrating.

But it’s all a gift.

• My best days are had when I remember to have gratitude.
• My best seasons are when I am not keeping track of what I’ve done compared to someone else.
• My greatest moments of peace come when I remember just how blessed I really am: health, family, friends, food, shelter, a community that isn’t being bombed by some outside nation or group, a faith that continues to open me up to a much deeper and more fulfilling humanity, and the ability to serve and serve alongside others.

When I start with what I’m grateful for…my troubles don’t feel as heavy.

When I remember that all I’ve come to know and see about God, myself, and my world and how much it has truly allowed me to let go of so many things that could never offer me what I’ve found in faith…I am so grateful.

This is where I START…but it’s good for my soul if I don’t stop there:

Now…the extremely blessed place in which I now reside in the world affords me the opportunity to do something with my blessings. I can use my voice and experiences to help serve and share and bless in return.

I can take what I’ve been given, which is everything, and offer it back in a multitude of gifts and offerings—in EVERY way in which I am given the opportunity.

Giving back is where we truly find fulfillment.

Giving back is where we truly find meaning.

Giving back is where we truly experience a mending of our hearts.

Giving back is really just holding my gifts in proper relationship…because they aren’t mine in the first place.

Giving back is founded upon GRATITUDE

But if you’re like Peter…and keeping score…

If you’re like Jonah…and determining worthiness…

Then there will be frustrating days ahead when you will reject just how gracious our God really is—and that will affect your ability to truly connect with God.

Let’s choose gratitude.

Let’s be grateful for all we have and not worry about what someone else has or what we might or might not be given.

Let’s use our gifts to help make the world a better place so that those who aren’t afforded the same opportunities might encounter the grace of God personified in the landowner in us.

This means we must personify God’s mercy the best we can—especially to those who simply don’t know any better.

We allow the grace GIVEN to us to be the foundation upon which we stand when we live our lives among others.

• grace always disarms entitlement, ignorance, and hatred
• Grace allows us to live in a world of Peters and Jonah in such a way that we don’t get caught up in their game…and, perhaps, they can get caught up in our attitude of gratitude.

May we see those who are less fortunate, for whatever reason, and shower them with grace so that they might always have what they need.

May we love those who are less aware of how mixed up they really are in their own sense of humanity, entitlement, ignorance, and gratitude.

Let us choose…every day…to start with gratitude…

…So that our gratitude may lead us forward into the fullness of the grace that God longs to show us.

We can be SO OBSESSED with hunting down the splinters in each others’ eyes instead of dealing with the log in our own.

This obsession is a symptom of a wounded heart.

This obsession is a symptom of a life in need of grace.

Are we willing to let go?

Are we ready to live our lives on the path to a heart mended by beginning with understanding just how much we are already forgiven?

A good place to start is our own sense of self-identity with the truth of God’s grace?

Do we understand the our God has compassion for us?

Because God understands that we have lived our entire lives in a mixture of broken systems.

• we’ve been born and raised in a world that keeps track
• We are surrounded by leaders and messages and even theologies that tell us it’s okay to keep track—that the best way to live is with ledgers.

But there IS another way.

God already relates to us in that other way.

God’s grace is present with us to lead us into that other way if we are willing to let go of the way of ledgers and keeping track.

And…forgiveness is not only about the past.

There’s also foregiveness:

Romans 14 is Paul’s appeal to the churches in Rome who have differing ideas about what it means to be faithful

• they don’t agree!!

Paul says, “You don’t have to agree. That is not what we are called to do.”

What matters to God is not if you agree with each other, but if you are living as faithfully to God as you can in your own heart so that we can live together as family.

If a particular practice or behavior is truly right or wrong for you in your own heart, then act accordingly.

And…trust others to act accordingly, too.

(Trust God’s grace in your own life…and in others’ lives, too)

This doesn’t mean we permit anything and everything…

This isn’t an argument by Paul that everything is relative…

This a way to live right HERE and NOW that doesn’t keep track.

This about how to trust God’s grace through the Holy Spirit to get us all where we need to go.

Some people in our church are less developed in their faith:

They are new…

They are young in their faith…

They are growing…

They simply haven’t had the experience to understand all that they WILL one day when they have more experience and understanding.

So…until then…we are all to welcome each other into our space as we are…

Doing EVERYTHING we can to help each other learn and grow in our faith.

Those who are more experienced…more developed…more capable…stronger in their faith are to enter this space with less expectation of everyone…

…focused more on how to nurture unity than uniformity…

…giving of themselves to show love and grace and encouragement…

This is FORE-giveness.

This is how to live with a heart being mended.

And it all begins with understanding our own reality in God’s grace.

God has been at work through the Holy Spirit in all of our lives from the beginning.

God has worked in countless ways—some of which we are aware and some of which we are not.

Regardless…

A life of faith inevitably brings us to the awareness of God’s grace at work for us.

My siblings, when we can start our day…

Start a conversation…

Start the discernment process about someone who has wronged us…

Start an interaction with other people being founded upon God’s grace in our own lives, it changes everything.

SERMON | Romans 13:8-14 | "Put On Christ" by Rev. Ceciliah Igweta-Keega at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

SERMON | Romans 12 | "Transformed" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

I appeal to you therefore, dear siblings, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.,

For the Word of God…

My dear siblings in Christ,

We’ve spent our entire lives immersed in a world where humanity caters to power, privilege,

ego,

and playing prosecutor and judge.

• Having our minds renewed takes time.
• Our renewed minds transforming our daily lives takes time.

Praise God for grace!!!

Praise God for mercy!!

But know that following Jesus with our whole lives LEADS to a life transformed.

May we say “yes” this day to following Jesus with our hearts, minds, and actions—allowing how we live out our faith to be our constant act of worship:

• Saying “yes” in your own daily faith walk…
• Saying “yes” to each other in your faith community—offer yourself and your gifts/talents…we need you
• Saying “yes” out there to people who are your neighbors whether they know it or not—love on them…love on them…love on them…so that everything you say or do is a reflection of the goodness of God shown to us in Jesus and grown in us through the Holy Spirit.

Keep saying “yes,” my siblings in Christ knowing that in saying, “yes” we are truly worshiping our Lord while we also are led toward a life TRANSFORMED.

SERMON | Matthew 16:13-20 | "The Church Jesus Builds" by Rev. Ceciliah Igweta-Keega at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

SERMON | Matthew 15:10-28 | "When Christ Breaks Our Boundaries" by Rev. Ceciliah Igweta-Keega at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

Jesus does so with mercy and grace and invites us (to follow him beyond the boundaries) into the wideness of God's mercy.

SERMON | Matthew 14:22-33 | "Looking Past the Storm" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

What we see in this passage are a few important points to consider about the foundation of faith and how Jesus lived it:

1. Jesus lovingly got the disciples out of the chaos of the crowd
1. The crowd could see Jesus was a powerful king
2. They vastly misunderstood both his power and his kingship

• Not everyone is committed to learning and unlearning from Jesus
  

1. Jesus took time to pray
1. Even as the Son of God, he was constantly finding time alone to recenter
2. Even he needed to remember who was and what he was called to be and do
   
2. Jesus came to the disciples on the water—something only God can do
1. He showed a dominance over the chaos of the sea; a divine sign
2. He identified himself as “I Am”
3. He revealed himself in a new way to the disciples
   
3. Jesus welcomed Peter’s desire to be a good disciple/student

• Peter knows he is called to do and be what his rabbi does and is
• He continues to respond to the original calling, “come follow me.”
  

1. Jesus was there when Peter faltered
1. He encourages Peter when he inquired about his doubts
2. He brought a peace to the situation as a sign for them in the future amid other storms—that they might learn to look past the storms

What keeps you going in your faith?

What drives your life and actions?

What steers your thoughts and wills?

What helps you look past the storms of life so that they don’t distract us from our path?

We don’t have to understand every detail of who Jesus is to follow him.

Instead, we can try to follow his example and allow a lifetime of doing so to teach us what we need to know:

1. Loving and providing for others
2. Taking time to pray and recenter ourselves
3. Respond to the call to do seemingly impossible things—even if we might falter
4. Inviting each other to keep growing in our faith and not be dismayed when we struggle
5. Accept the peace of his presence with us no matter who we are or how much we might doubt

Peter had a little faith, but it was enough to get him out of that boat.

His little faith led him to try—and, for a moment, succeed!!

Jesus’ response to him wasn’t one of ridicule—that wouldn’t fit with who we know Jesus to be.

Jesus addressed his little faith knowing full-well that Peter was committed and would keep getting out of bed, keep following, and keep climbing out of different kinds of boats in order to do things he never thought possible.

Jesus isn’t so short-sighted that he condemns us for our doubts and falters today.

In a sign of God’s grace Jesus looks beyond our doubts to where they might take us.

Jesus meets us where we are and invites us to keep following so we can put our faith in him…

…and learn to look past the storms of life we will face.

That’s what we all committed to with our newest members—to faithfully participate in the ongoing work of the church acknowledging the grace of God already given in our past while committing to trust in the grace of God moving us forward in our future.

If we are committed to keep going in our faith…

Keep trying…

Keep learning…

Keep unlearning…

Keep trusting him…

Keep following…

Then we can have faith Christ leads us to where he intends us to be.

No amount of wind or waves can keep us from getting where God wants us to be—yes?

The question is…will we trust that truth when we feel them all around us?

Will we commit ourselves…prepare ourselves…stay centered, so we’re ready when the winds and waves come?

And when times ARE tough and scary…

let us remember who it is we serve and the absolute fact that he has authority over all of it?

Friends, let us pursue a faith so deep and secure that we can look past the storms we face as we learn and unlearn.

Let us press on, even with our doubts, trusting that today’s struggles and sinking may just be the only way for us to get where Jesus intends for us to go.

SERMON | Matthew 14:13-21 | "More Than Enough" by Rev. Ceciliah Igweta-Keega at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

SERMON | Romans 8:26-39 | "More Than Conquerors" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

We are called to share in this victory, beloved ones of God.

To be more than conquerors;

To be obedient to God’s bigger plan…

To be the BELOVED of God, forgiven and graced…

To be the glorified people of God—alive in full humanity 

who never lose our own humanity or cease to see the humanity in the inhumane around us.

When we truly see the love of Christ displayed on the cross…

When we truly understand its power…

We learn there is nothing to fear.

We become fully aware that we are granted a power unlike any other power.

We begin to accept the truth that absolutely nothing can stand against us…

Absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord

And that, my friends, changes how we live every single day as God’s beloved community called to bring humanity back to this world through the same love which continues to renew us.

We can face the sufferings and trials of today and tomorrow because of our hope AND…because we have each other.

The church is vital to the hope which we share together.

There are days when some of us will be feeling the weight of despair and we will NEED others around us to lean up, cry with, and remind us of the hope we have.

We were meant to walk this path to glory together…

as more than conquerors.

SERMON | Genesis 28:10-19a | "The Lord Is In This Place" by Rev. Ceciliah Igweta-Keega at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana