themes: bodily-resurrection apostles-creed eternal-life theology-of-the-body new-creation grace-not-merit

text:
**Scripture:** Isaiah 25:6-9; John 3:16; Romans 6:23; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Romans 6:5; Philippians 1:20-26; 2 Corinthians 4:1-2; 2 Corinthians 4:7-9; Luke 23:43; John 20:24-28
**Series:** 2022

> Closing sermon in a series on the Apostles' Creed, treating the final clause 'I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.' Pruitt argues that the early church and creeds emphasized bodily resurrection rather than the popular cultural notion of disembodied souls going to heaven. Drawing on Isaiah 25's physical feast imagery plus Romans, Philippians, and 2 Corinthians, he insists bodies matter, salvation cleanses body and soul, grace is not works-righteousness, and the new creation has already begun and is offered now.

**Illustrations:** coffee-shop-evangelist, creeds-omit-heaven, elysium-olympus-pagan-afterlife, wedding-at-cana-wine, party-that-never-gets-old, group-chats-vs-hugs, special-forces-faith-tests, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, treasure-in-clay-pots, thomas-resurrection-scars, bee-creek-discernment

---

# February 5
## I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

“On this mountain, the LORD of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of choice wines, of select foods rich in flavor, of choice wines well refined. He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples, the shroud enshrouding all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The LORD God will wipe tears from every face; he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth, for the LORD has spoken. They will say on that day, “Look! This is our God, for whom we have waited— and he has saved us! This is the LORD, for whom we have waited; let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!””
-Isaiah 25:6-9 CEB

When I was in high school, i was studying at a coffee shop, and a man came over to my table and asked me; “if I died right then, where I would go.” I said, “I hope!I would go to heaven.” We ended up having a nice conversation about God and church and life. I don’t usually like that confrontational form of evangelism, but the question is valid in its own way, even if the method is not.

What happens after you die? My hope is to be with God through the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. Heaven is a short hand for that. Christians all over the world believe in heaven, but the language of heaven was surprisingly limited in the early church.

The apostles creed talks about heaven in two places. At the very beginning, when God creates everything. And in the middle, when Jesus ascends to heaven. Heaven is not mentioned at the end of the story. This is not a mistake. The same goes for the two other early creeds, the Nicene and Athanasian. They don’t mention heaven as a place you go to when you die. It is just not there.

The near total focus of the early church was on bodily resurrection. It wasn’t on spirits ascending to heaven after they die. It was that this flesh will be healed and made whole and holy for all eternity. Heaven as the resting place of those who die, to early Christians, would sound like Elyssium or Olympus or another pagan cosmological afterlife location.

Yet over the last 1700 years, the primary Christian vision of life after death is not one that comes from the Bible but from cultural imagination.

What do we do with this? The Bible talks about heaven, but heaven is not the important thing or the dogmatic thing. What does it mean to believe in the resurrection of the body.

## Series Intro
My friends, we are finishing our series on the apostles creed, that historic doctrinal statement of the faith. We are going to look at how the creed encapsulate scripture and offers it to us in a way that shows us what has been revealed from God about who God is, how the world is, why we are in need, how Jesus saves us, and what we should do about it.

Today, I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Bible talks about eternal life on a number of occasions. We have great passages like John 3:16:  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.” Or Romans 6:23 - The wages that sin pays are death, but God’s gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Peter 1 says “You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you.” Jesus is in heaven, but it says nothing of where we go. Peter continues, “Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time.”

Jesus also tells the thief on the cross, today I will see you in paradise. The language of paradise is material in the bible. It is the language of the Garden of Eden. It is not the language of an ethereal place with clouds.

The history of why contemporary christians speak more of going to heaven than bodily resurrection is a long story with an excessive number of tangents from which I don’t believe I could ever return. My hope is not to tell this story, nor paint a picture of an either/or, that is, either going to heaven or bodily resurrection.

My hope is to point out that the Bible and the early church had a certain emphasis on the bodily nature of eternal life that has a deep impact on how we treat our bodies and our world. And how we treat other people.

## Isaiah 25
The Bible talks about resurrection and eternal life in a number of places and it gives us a number of images. These images are almost universally physical. Isaiah 25 is my favorite version of this.

>On this mountain, the LORD of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of choice wines, of select foods rich in flavor, of choice wines well refined.”

So we have wine in the resurrection. I don’t know how Teetotalers read this passage, but it is there. Choice wine. Jesus’s miracle at the wedding of Cana is not just about a wedding but about this, about the good wine we will have eternally with God. By turning water into wine, Jesus was pointing to the life of abundance that awaits us.

The new creation is a party that doesn’t get old. That’s the image I hold onto. Imagine the best party you’ve ever been to, but it doesn’t get old. You don’t get tired. You don’t get bloated. Conversation is never boring. The music is always fresh.

A party without bodies is not a party. Group chats are fun. They are not the same thing as celebrating. It is one thing to face time with a family member. It is another to hug them tightly.

There is never a point in the Bible when our bodies don’t matter. Our will matters. Our heart and spirit matter, but our bodies also matter.

## Our Future with God
Our future with God is not just as disembodied spirits freed from the shackles of this world. Paul, in Romans 6, states clearly the way of salvation.

“Because if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart you have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” If you confess that Jesus is Lord, you are not saved from your body, your body and your soul and everything about you is cleansed. It all goes back to Easter and resurrection. As Paul says earlier in Romans: If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his.” - Romans 6:5.

To say, I believe in the resurrection of the body is to believe in Christ’s resurrection. It is to believe that Christ’s resurrection also points to the possibility of our own. To believe in life everlasting is not just to believe in something in the future but that that future has already begun and we can be a part of it.

To believe in the resurrection of the body is to believe in what the Bible says about our future. A Christian’s hope is not simply consolation for the pain of this world. As if the brokenness and sin of this world is simply a testing ground to see who is good enough or not to make it to the next level. Sometimes faith is presented in a way similar to Special forces training.

The life of faith is not simply a series of qualifying tests to see if we have what it takes for our heavenly reward. Humans have an amazing ability to sneak in works-righteousness by any means necessary. Grace is such a radical thing.

“Okay, you have accepted God’s forgiveness, but what have you done for me lately?” This is not how God looks at us.

But even more radical is the notion that our future with God is not just in the future. Our life and our bodies can already begin to be healed and redeemed. And we need our bodies. We are not ourselves without our bodies. They are not simply prisons in which our real self is trapped. There are other religions that believe that. Not Christians of the Bible.

## The Tension of Bodies
Alas, we are stuck in this tension because our bodies show the fallenness and brokenness of this world. It seems to be simpler to forsake our bodies and this world.

In Philippians, Paul articulates this tension:

>It is my expectation and hope that I won’t be put to shame in anything. Rather, I hope with daring courage that Christ’s greatness will be seen in my body, now as always, whether I live or die. Because for me, living serves Christ and dying is even better. If I continue to live in this world, I get results from my work. But I don’t know what I prefer. I’m torn between the two because I want to leave this life and be with Christ, which is far better. However, it’s more important for me to stay in this world for your sake. I’m sure of this: I will stay alive and remain with all of you to help your progress and the joy of your faith, and to increase your pride in Christ Jesus through my presence when I visit you again.[^1]

Notice he is talking about his body in this: “I hope with daring courage that Christ’s greatness will be seen in my body.”

As well, we are in this world for the sake of others. Our bodies, our spirits, our minds, they are not made for ourselves and our own benefit. God saves us for a purpose. In baptism, we die in Christ’s death in order to rise in Christ’s life.

That life of a party that does not go old. That life of praise and love where our hope is found in Christ and not ourselves. In Christ’s word, and not our own preferences or experiences.

in 2 corinthians 4 Paul lays this out for us plainly.

>This is why we don’t get discouraged, given that we received this ministry in the same way that we received God’s mercy. Instead, we reject secrecy and shameful actions. We don’t use deception, and we don’t tamper with God’s word. Instead, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God by the public announcement of the truth...

>But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.

Our bodies are clay pots that will crumble and yet be remade. They are dust. They will return to the dust, but they will be remade in a glorious way.

To say “I believe in the resurrection of the body,” is to believe not only in the resurrection of Jesus, but your own resurrection. Christ is making all things new, including you and your body and our neighbors and their bodies.

God will save you and heal you to share in praise and love eternally, the treasure of Divine love we will renew and remake the dust of which we were made. This is our hope.

## Conclusion
The creed begins with the beginning of everything and God’s power there. The creed ends with our ultimate hope, not in ourselves, but in Christ’s resurrection that points to our own future.

And that future of life abundant is offered now. The light that shines in the darkness is shining still. It is shining here. In the midst of the discernment conversations at Bee Creek,

I believe in the resurrection of my body. This body of mine will be made new. These broken joints. These sin stained hands. These eyes and skin and hair. Because I believe in the resurrection of Christ’s body. He rose from the dead in flesh and sinew and bone.

Our history is also on our bodies. Our scars will not be erased, as Thomas saw in the upper room after the resurrection. The past was not erased or forgotten or moved on from. The past was healed.

I believe in the resurrection of this body. God is doing great things here

Life after death is more than a continuation of the status quo. It is our broken bodies being remade and resurrected. This is offered to you. Take a step onto the resurrection path Christ has blazed for you. Let go of preconceptions of your body and the future. Hold fast to God’s promise of love overcoming fear.

Let us pray,

>Heavenly Father, may your resurrection inspire our hope in new life here and now. May our faith be in your transformation and not in our own. May our life be in your image and not our own. Help us to live boldly into your new creation and abundant life this day. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[^1]: Phil 1:20-26


site: sermons

title: Lead Us Not into Temptation

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: bee-creek-umc

themes: lords-prayer temptation humility the-devil grace-not-merit

scripture: Matthew 6:13

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 6:13
**Series:** 2023

> The final sermon in a Lenten series on the Lord's Prayer, preached on a day of congregational discernment/voting at Bee Creek UMC. It examines the petition 'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,' treating temptation as the deceptive power of evil disguised as good and naming restraint and endurance as grace-given virtues to resist it. It distinguishes the prayer's two endings (the abrupt biblical ending versus the later doxology), wrestles with belief in the devil and the radical demands of faith, and uses Edwards' imagery to stress that only grace saves. The prayer ultimately teaches us to be needy and to begin and end every day with God; a keepsake prayer is shared for the congregation's day of decision.

**Illustrations:** aunt-laura-premature-amen, cake-vs-chips-and-salsa, refusing-to-ask-for-advice, jonathan-edwards-sinners-angry-god

---

# March 26
## Lead Us Not into Temptation

And don’t lead us into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. - Matthew 6:13

Ever since I was ordained, I became the designated food blesser at family gatherings, both because of my seminary training and my succinctness. Before that, my aunt would often bless the food. My Aunt Laura is a very lovely and holy woman. I love her dearly. She would often bless the food in a rather thorough manner. Once, when I was a child, Laura was in the middle of a prayer, she took a breath and I blurted out Amen. She had not intended to finish at that moment, but everybody else said Amen with me and laughed and we ate.
How to end a prayer is often trickier than how to begin one. When we begin a prayer, we go from not praying to praying. It is clear.

But when is the right time to stop praying? It rarely feels enough. We can never say all that we need to say to God. If we rush through it, like I did as a child, it seems like we're not paying God enough attention. And yet if we linger too long, our mind is no longer present with God and we cease to pray: we just go through the motions.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the prayer ended abruptly with the reading from earlier. Christians later came in and added a little bit to Jesus' words. Which is the right ending? How should we conclude a prayer?

## Series Intro
My friends, for this season of Lent, we are going to be slowly reading and praying through the Lord’s Prayer. These familiar (or unfamiliar words) are a radical call to seek God’s will in this world. And to understand God’s vision for ourselves and those around us. Today, And don’t lead us into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

None of the early manuscripts of the New Testament include the familiar lines: for thine is the kingdom and the power, the glory forever and ever. This is called a doxology and it is universally absent in early biblical manuscripts, whether in Greek or Syriac or any other language.
It's not wrong to say for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. It's just not how Jesus ended the prayer in the Gospels. And so as we conclude our series on the Lord's Prayer, as we conclude this period of discernment for Bee Creek UMC, we are going to look at these two endings of prayer and how they can each guide us in how we pray and in how we live.
### First Ending
The first ending is much more direct. In the standard version, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. That's how the manuscripts have it. I don't know if it is just my person habit of saying this prayer that always makes me want something more or want a different ending than this. There is an unsatisfying flavor with just stopping a prayer at that moment.
But it does.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Full stop. Wait, what? You can’t leave the prayer on a questioning note. But that is what happens
Let’s go through these slowly. Lead us not into temptation, these are some strange words. In general, God is the one who loves us. God doesn't lead us into any temptation. Temptation is about our own hearts. I think we should understand this phrase as following in an aspirational way, seeking after God's will. May the path you have for us, oh Lord, not pass by temptation that is too strong for us.
We ask it. We seek it. This doesn’t mean there won't be temptations. Just as when we pray, give us this day our daily bread, that doesn't mean that we will never be hungry. We may go hungry from time to time. That is not a weakness on God's part. But when we pray in such a way as Jesus taught, we look forward to a life following God. We seek to follow God in a way that does not increase our temptation.

As a teacher of mine wrote,
>temptation is the deceptive power of evil. Because evil is inseparable from what is good, it  always has the appearance of what is good. Evil is always disguised as good, and so becomes the object of our desire.

Temptation is tempting. It is about what tempts you. For instance, let’s think about food. Cake does not tempt me. Chips and salsa does. In the moral life, each of us has our own temptations we must confront. They are always disguised as good. We can rationalize and lie to ourselves about anything. And yet Jesus shows us through this prayer, to admit our need for God to guide us away from temptation.

There are two virtues which which God infuses in us to resist temptation: restraint and endurance. Restraint keeps us from over-indulging in something good. Endurance let’s us stay faithful during hard times. Restraint keeps us from the temptation of abusing the good. Endurance keeps us from losing faith and hope when circumstances change. Both are tempting at different times. And both require the Grace of God, not simply will power.

We need help. Which is why we call on God again and again.

And deliver us from evil.
There are two ways for us to understand this part of the prayer. The first way: deliver us from evil or misfortune. The second way: deliver us from the evil one, from the devil, from Satan, from the enemy. The first way is straightforward for all of us. Keep evil away from me. Save me from evil. Protect me from evil things. This is clear. When we get to the Devil, things are a little less clear.

Some Christians are more comfortable in talking about the devil than others are. I think it's similar to how some Christians are more comfortable talking about giving away everything they have and following Jesus than others are. I mean that seriously. I think it's a comparable metaphysical understanding of the call of faith. We can think to ourselves: is it easier to believe that devil is real or that Jesus sincerely calls us to give away every single one of our possessions, let go all worldly power, comfort and influence, and follow him. Honestly, i think we should believe both. We should fear the devil and that God is asking us to do something radical like give everything away, even our pension or 401k. Where is the limit of our faith? Is found in our culture? Our expectations? Our philosophy? Our bank accounts? The Lord’s Prayer addresses all of this every time we pray it.

The evil one is the Lord of this earth and offers brokenness, selfishness, and pride. The evil one offers rationalizations and justifications and left lived for pleasurable pursuits at the expense of others. The evil one offers a life where we are not burdened by having to think of others. When we pass someone in need and say to ourselves, not my problem, we can thank the evil one. Or we can stop and help and worship Jesus Christ. This is the depth of claim found in the Lord’s Prayer.

And we’re not done.

The language of deliver us from evil is similar to the language we will sing next week on Palm Sunday: Hossana. Hoshona, which means save us now.

It's also a phrase that can be translated as snatch us out of the jaws of the evil one.
It makes me think of the powerful imagery of Jonathan Edwards in his sermon Sinners in the hands of an angry God sermon. Many of us have read it in a secular setting that whose imagery is still profound with its imagery of hanging by a thread, there but for the grace of God go we.

“And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s word and providence.”

I don’t agree with Edwards’ view of God’s wrath, but the contingency he illustrates is super biblical. Only grace saves us. Only grace can deliver us from the evil one. The structural powers of evil in this world are too much to face alone. They are too tempting. The devil is too tempting.

To really pray this is to admit that we are in need. We are in need of being saved. We're on the verge of falling. We are in need of deliverance.

It is humbling to admit a need. It cuts against pride directly. I don’t know how many of you like to ask for advice. I do not. If I come across a problem at home with the plumbing or with technology and I try everything I possibly can before asking for advice. Part of it is stubbornness. Part of it is pride. I don’t like the feeling of being needy. All of us have things we think we should have figured out by now.

When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he teaches them to be needy.  When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we admit to God that we are needy. We need God to save us from the evil one.

The gospel writers end it there. The Christian tradition continues with the doxology. What the church has taught through the centuries, through the doxology, is that we should center prayer on God. We start with God and we should end with God.

The Lord’s Prayer is not simply a set of words or a pray to repeat again and again. Jesus offers us a way of life. It is a vision of the world to which we have become numb through repetition, but that doesn’t make the vision of this prayer less true.

This is a long day in the life of this church. May it start with God and prayer. May it end with God and prayer.

I am sharing a prayer with you all in the bulletin. This is for you to keep and say today. Whether you are voting or not. No matter what happens, it is a prayer for us all to say at the beginning of the day and at its end, whatever may be in store for us.

God of us all, your love never ends.
When all else fails, you still are God.
We pray to you for one another
in our need,
and for all, anywhere, who grieve with us this day.
To those who doubt, give light;
to those who are weak, strength;
to all who have sinned, mercy;
to all who sorrow, your peace.
Keep true in us
the love with which we hold one another.
In all our ways we trust you.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: Maundy Thursday

themes: new-commandment foot-washing holy-communion servanthood

text:
**Scripture:** John 13:1-15; John 13:34-35; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18
**Series:** 2023

> A Maundy Thursday meditation on John 13, where Jesus gives a 'new' commandment to love one another. The preacher shows continuity with the love commandments (Shema and Leviticus 19) while noting what is new: the comparative 'as yourself' drops away, replaced by Christ's own self-giving example. The two gifts of this day are the Lord's table (both memorial and recapitulation of Christ's offering) and foot washing (humbling ourselves with and for others, even in dirty, shameful places). The commandment doesn't change God; it changes us, freeing us from sin and pride for love. Closes with the preacher's own children's song and a prayer that the difficulty is not in knowing but in doing.

**Illustrations:** mandatum-etymology, dirty-feet-hard-places, childrens-foot-washing-song

---

# Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-15, 34-35 CEB

Something new is taking place this day. Something that none of the disciples have ever experienced.
Christ leaves for his friends a new commandment, a new mandate. This is why the day is called Maundy Thursday. It is from the Latin mandatum, a translation of the Greek entôle
A new commandment I leave to you love one another.
Earlier in the gospels, Jesus was asked: What is the greatest commandment? He responded with the Shema: Here, Oh Israel. The Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength. And this is also the greatest. He then quotes from Leviticus 19, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
When Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you, he's not making something up from scratch. There is clear continuity between the love commandments and John 13. What is absent is the self. We no longer have any comparative in love. We no are longer asked to love as ourselves.
We have, instead, the example of how Christ lived and loves. This is what we are given at the table of the Lord.
It is an action for us to do in a remembrance of Christ. In one sense, it is a memorial. In another sense, it is a recapitulation of Christ's offering for us. Christ is present in a fresh way every time we receive at the table, and Christ will be there for us.
He gives us an amazing treasure in the table of the Lord. He also gives us an amazing treasure in the practice of foot washing, of burying ourselves with others.
Our feet go in dirty places. Our lives go in hard places. We’ve all had times of disappointment. Our expectations have been shot through, and we have had times when we have disappointed others and that shame is hard to bear. Only by grace can we reveal it. Sometimes it is revealed by the simple act of taking off our shoes.
Christ offers himself to us. He's freely given to us. He gives us a command to love one another in a concrete way. He shows us how to do it: he washes his disciples’ feet. We have to let Jesus wash our feet. We have to open up to him, even the dirt. We have to accept him at the table. We have to follow him even in strange places.

I wrote a children’s song about this and it gets to the heart of the matter
>If you want to follow me.
I have to wash your feet
You have to walk with me
Even in on the sea.
This bread is my body
This cup is the blood of me.
I offer it all to you.
I offer it all to you.

On this day, may we see that the commandment that has been offered in a new way does not change God. It changes us. We are asked to live to a far greater level. And that commandment is not a burden, but a gift. A gift of a life not chained to sin. A gift of a life not chained to pride. A gift of a life freed for love, freed in order to love one another.

Let us pray,
Oh Lord, you call us to wash feet and serve in the hard and the messy. You call us to serve others without glamour and without acclaim. You call us to leave the table where we might be served and to do for others instead. And not just to serve those who love us. You ask us to serve my enemies with equal compassion and humility. Lord, you know this is not our nature.  You know how we seek the comfortable and the lovely and the self-affirming. But you have not only modeled it; you’ve command it.  “Now that you know these things.” Now we know. Knowing isn’t so hard. It’s the doing. Help us, Lord, to do. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name

themes: lords-prayer name-of-god fatherhood-of-god spiritual-discipline prayer

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 6:9; Luke 22:42; Luke 23:46; Acts 17:28
**Series:** 2023

> Opening a Lenten series walking slowly through the Lord's Prayer, this sermon dwells on the first line, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.' It argues the prayer's strangeness can renew its power. Calling God 'Father' names God as the source and basis of our existence through a generative relationship in Christ, not procreation or gender; God is also described with motherly imagery, so gender is the wrong question. 'Heaven' simply means sky, clarifying we pray to the transcendent God. To 'hallow' is to set apart God's name as holy, a habit cultivated repeatedly, especially in Lent. Prayer is about God, not our external wants (intercession-as-desire) or internal wants (mindfulness-for-productivity); even Jesus in crisis begins with the Father. The plural 'our' makes prayer communal, calling us out of ourselves into the messy church and toward God's vision.

**Illustrations:** halloween-hallowed, tetragrammaton-hashem, pagan-sexualized-gods, workplace-mindfulness, sky-daddy-genie, learned-prayer-language, closing-prayer-song

---

# February 26, 2023
## Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Then in this way you should pray.
Our Father in heaven. Sanctified be your name.

If you grew up as a Christian, the Lord’s prayer might be so familiar that it has lost its power. If you didn’t grow up in the church, the words of the Lord’s Prayer are strange. ‘Our father who art in heaven? This is strange. If you say the Lord’s prayer in a non-King James Version way, it is also strange. “Our Father in Heaven.”

It is all strange. It should all be strange.

Strange is not bad. Something strange can help us see something in a fresh way. The problem with something that is too familiar is that it no longer has the power to change us. The problem with something that is too strange, is we can’t take it seriously.

## Series Intro
My friends, for this season of Lent, we are going to be slowly reading and praying through the Lord’s Prayer. These familiar (or unfamiliar words) are a radical call to seek God’s will in this world. And to understand God’s vision for ourselves and those around us. We are starting with the first line today: Our Father in heaven. Sanctified be your name.

For us to go deeper into the Lord's Prayer, we need to talk about the name of God, the location of God, and what it means to make God's name sacred. First, we start with the name of God, our Father. These are the words of Jesus. These are the words Jesus tells his disciples to say. In other places, he says Lord in prayer, but mostly it's Father.

Now, there is some controversy today about gendered language in the Bible, but i don’t think any argument comes to the issue of what to call God in prayer.
Jesus uses the language of Father when he teaches his disciples to pray.
The word Father for Jesus is about a relationship. It's not about a genetic or sexual connection. Most pagan religions have gods whose sexual activity is a part of their identity. The immediate neighbors of the Jews, the Greeks and the Sumerians, both had highly sexualized pantheons.
This is not the case with Christianity or Judaism. In the prophet Isaiah, especially, God is referred to as Father, but throughout most of the Jewish Scriptures, God is transcenentally distant from humanity. Jesus consistently calling God the Father, Father, in prayer, is one of the starker breaks with classical Jewish religious practice.
The name of God is super important in the Jewish faith. It is something that is not said. There's a name in Hebrew, I just call it the four letters. Sometimes it's referred to the Tetragrammaton, which just means four letters. Sometimes it's translated as Yahweh or Jehovah, but it would never be spoken in a Jewish context.
When Jews are praying to God, they would say, Adonai which means Lord. When Jews are talking about God, like at the bar, they would say Hashem, which means “the name.” Everybody would understand what name is being talked about.
Jesus calls God, Father, based on a generative relationship that Jesus, the Son of God, has to God the Father. As well, it is a generative relationship that we have to God the Father through Jesus Christ.
God is our Father. Not in the sense of procreation, but in the sense that God is the source and basis of our existence. The new covenant given to us by Jesus Christ offers us a relationship with the source and basis of our existence. There is an an analogy to earthly fathers that is not connected to procreation, it's not connected to gender, but to relationship and love and support.
The complex thing about gender and the language of God is that God is also referred to with motherly analogies. Multiple times, as well, Jesus is referred to in language like a mother. There isn't a gender fluidity to God. There is not a gender to God. It is the wrong question to ask.
To call God father is to name God as the source of our existence, the foundation, the very basis of prayer, which is what we are doing by saying ‘our Father.’ The ‘our’ is so important. Not ‘my’ Father. It isn't about my one-to-one relationship with God, but our connection to the source in whom we live and move and have our being. All prayer is based on community, on this relationship. “With the words “Our Father who art in heaven” we name, we claim that relationship which God offers us through his Son, who became our brother.” Christ has given us his Spirit so that we may enter into familial relationship with his Father.

Our father in heaven, in the sky.
Heaven is not this cosmological term, it's an astronomical term. It's just sky. Our Father in the sky. Even in Greek, it's strange because there's a pagan God named Uranus, but that is not who we are talking about. We are referring to our father in heaven, not our Father on earth.

I think this is the whole point of the location. It's clarifying which Father are we talking about when we pray. We are not praying to our genetic or procreative father, but to the God beyond where we are. We are praying to the transcendent one.

Hallowed be thy name is the standard King James translation. Hallowed is not a word we use at all anymore. Halloween is the only other time you used the word hallowed. So we use it on the Lord's Prayer and on October 31st.

The word means to make sacred, to make holy, haggs, haggs, um, set apart.
And this is where we start getting into what we are doing with prayer. It is setting apart who God is and God's name, setting apart our understanding of who God is in God's name. And we need to repeat this again and again and again. We cannot settle and think we've made the sacred God's name enough. “Our thinking and speaking, and acting become holy when we cultivate holy habits by living in the company of the spirit.” This is what Lent is for. We have a time of year set aside to cultivate holy habits, like prayer.

As one of my teachers wrote, all prayer is about God. We, however, are often tempted to make ourselves the centerpiece of our prayers. This temptation goes both ways. It happens sometimes with intercessory prayer. When our prayer to God is solely based on things we want, we turn prayer into our own desires. They might be good things we are asking God for, but it's still centered on us.

Or on the complete opposite side, prayer as meditation or mindfulness. In the contemporary world, companies promote mindfulness in the workplace, not really for the betterment of the people, but to make people more efficient workers. If if you give your worker some meditation time, maybe they'll be a little more productive during the rest of the day, kind of like giving a lunch break. .
But prayer is neither about what we want external to ourselves or what we want internal to ourselves. From beginning to end, prayer is about God. Jesus begins prayer with God in a concrete way. There is nothing vague about it. “Christian prayer takes its stand on the solid ground of the revealed Word and has nothing to do with vague, self-seeking vagaries.”

So often, as well, prayer is something to do when we don’t know what to do. When tragedy strikes. When life changes directions. Jesus also prayers in those moments. Jesus prayers the night before he is arrested. Father, if it be your will, take this cup from me. . From the cross, Father, into your hand I commend my Spirit. He begins the same way. To say Father in prayer is not simply a social convention but a declaration of relationship. We call to God in times of stress not to be a sky daddy and answer us like a genie in a bottle. God is our source and in prayer we return to our source to seek to align our will with God’s will. Before that, we have to begin with God’s name.

Our Father in heaven. May your name be sacred, may your name be holy.
May your name be venerated.

The Lord's prayer begins with our calling to God and seeking that God's name be sanctified. Another way to look at it is to seek to enter into God's vision.
Yes, that is what making God's name holy is about. Entering in to God's vision. God's vision for ourselves, God's vision for the world, for us here, God's vision for the church.
What is the name of God to you?
I like to pray saying, heavenly Father. For a long time I said, Father God, in part, because I was around a lot of people who said ‘Father God’ when they prayed. For most of us, the way we pray connects back to the people around us when we learned how to pray. It is intimate.

In that connection of relationship, most often the language of our prayer, the language with which we refer to God, comes from where we come from, where we learned to pray. We must realize we don't learn prayer in a vacuum, there are people whom we heard, whom we model ourselves after. What is God's name to you? How are you making God's name holy?

It is a powerful claim to call God father. It is a powerful thing to sanctify God’s name. To claim that you are doing that. What are ways we can sanctify God’s name? The Bible gives us a lot of good ideas about what to do. And this, as much as anything, should help us to understand that prayer is not a passive thing. This is what Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer. Of course, we humans love to make things passive. We love to pass the buck

Over the next few weeks, we're going to slowly go through this prayer, these words of Jesus, to try to deepen our understanding of what prayer is, but also what God's vision for us is. Our Father, not my father. God calls us out of our own lives into the messiness of the world. The messiness of the church. The church has always been messy. If we think we can worship God apart from others, we deceive ourselves into thinking we are better than them and that we can rest secure in our salvation apart from them. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in community. Lent can be a time ti remember that.

Lent at its best is a time to slow down and see where we are in connection to God, our relationship to the source, and who we live and move and have our being. It is a time to prepare ourselves for Easter, a time to prepare ourselves for the future.
May this prayer be a little stranger to you this day, but may it lead you closer to God's vision. May you see that in praying as Jesus taught, we can be the people Jesus called.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, thank you for being our Heavenly Father. You are our source, the giver of life. May we honor your name. Maybe sanctify your name in all we do. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our father in Heaven.
On a scale from one to ten your love is eleven.
Our father in Heaven.
When we are feeling sad or lost we sing to you, we sing to you

Holy be your name
May we never talk about you, God, with words that bring you shame.
Holy be your name, may we remember that your love for us has truly changed the game.

Holy be your name.


title: Pentecost

themes: holy-spirit mercy trinity faith-and-science transformation holy-spirit-as-advocate

text:
**Scripture:** John 20:19-23; Jeremiah 29:11; Acts 17:28
**Series:** 2023

> A Pentecost sermon on John 20:19-23 arguing that the Holy Spirit is not a 'God of the gaps' answer to unanswerable questions (a deist, Unitarian distortion) but the transformative power of mercy, the love between Father and Son sent to be Advocate and Comforter. Wilson contrasts thinking deeply about God with treating church as a feel-good boost, and urges hearers to 'receive the Holy Spirit' by saying yes to God, mercy, and growth. Jeremiah 29:11, read in its harsh exile context, shows God is faithful within brokenness rather than denying pain. The sermon closes with a benediction and prayer to receive and offer the power of mercy.

**Illustrations:** aquinas-faithful-old-woman, engineer-wont-think-at-church, god-of-the-gaps-science, car-wreck-unscathed, jeremiah-29-11-exile-context, peter-preaching-pentecost

---

# May 28, 2023
## Pentecost

It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.” John 20:19-23

How do you explain God? This seems like it would be my job, and I will get to it in a way. But I want to start by thinking about how you would answer that question. It is not a trick question. If we don’t know how to talk about God, what is anybody doing here. I mean, this isn’t a quiz. The Christian faith is not a series of exams leading to eternal approval from God.

The great theologian, Thomas Aquinas, said that all of his written theology (which is vast) was just an attempt to write down what the faithful old woman already knows in her heart. I think that that is as true today as 800 years ago. There is no reward in heaven for the person who reads the most books, but there is a way that Christians can use that as a cop out to avoid thinking deeply about God.

Some folks have high stakes careers in engineering or business or another highly complicated field, and then they go to church and don’t want to think too hard. Thinking seems like work and we don’t come to church to work. Gonna get a boost of feeling good on Sunday morning and then go back to thinking during the week, keeping track of our finances, my golf game, plans for the future, etc. If you love someone, you think about them. Your partner. Your children. Your friends.

And yet, if we don’t want to think about God now, why would we ever want to spend time with God in eternity?

How do you explain God?

One of the ways that God became discussed during the rise of modern science, in the 16th and 17th century, was a filler of the gaps of our knowledge. New observational techniques were able to discern certain movements in the stars and the planets and the clouds, and God would explain everything else that couldn’t be explained by those techniques. This became known as the God of the gaps theory. I've heard this very thought described today by well-intentioned people. God is the answer to tough questions. As well, when anyone has a tough question for God, you can just throw your hands up and say, “It’s a mystery!”

The God of the gaps is the foundation of deism, not Christianity. It is about God as this divine power, not the word made flesh, not the Holy Spirit, present with us. God is this impersonal divine power that can kind of explain things when something good happens that you otherwise could not explain.
You get in a car wreck and you walk away unscathed, so you give credit to God because you don’t have any other reason.

It is deist. It is Unitarian. It is not Trinitarian. It is not about Jesus Christ, and it is especially not about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an answer to the questions we don't know.

The Holy Spirit is the presence and assurance and grace and mercy that connects us to God and to each other. This connection to God is also God.
After the resurrection, Jesus said he was going to send the Holy Spirit. There's a procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. Jesus is the Message from God the Father. The Spirit is the Messenger, and all three are God equally.

The Apostle John calls the Spirit, the Advocate and the Comforter. These are two powerful qualities. The Advocate speaks for us, the Comforter speaks to us.
It can be easy to fall into this tempting idea that the Holy Spirit and God fill in the gaps of our experience in a passive way, but this is not who the Spirit is in the Bible. The Holy Spirit offers power, not explanations. Power in mercy, not power in control. Power in mercy. It's a transformative power, not a passive power.
On this Pentecost Sunday, we need to remember that this power is here offering mercy. God is offering you power. This is what Jesus sends us at Pentecost. The power of mercy. Mercy is transformational.
Forgiving someone truly changes you. Truly receiving forgiveness changes you. It doesn't just answer questions. It brings about new questions.
Who am I? How should I live? What should I do?

When we pray for the Holy Spirit to come, it changes the status quo of our lives. When Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, it changes the status quo of his followers. They will not look the same.  God doesn't just answer our questions. God shapes us into asking new questions, into living new lives continually. The Christian faith is not a completed thing. God meets you where you are but God doesn’t leave you there.
The people in the upper room that night with Jesus had heard his message before, but they received the Holy Spirit and they were different. At Pentecost, Peter preached on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many had heard the message before, but they were transformed by the Spirit.

Many of you may have heard the message of Jesus before. This phrase, Holy Spirit, might be familiar to you. You might have some kind of cognitive understanding of what the Holy Spirit means. You may connect to it. There may be stories you heard as a child, or you may be from traditions of the church that talk more of spiritual gifts. But don’t you want to go deeper? Why be satisfied with the surface of the heart of the faith? Why stand outside the temple when the Holy of Holies has been opened up for us?
The Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son sent to us to be with us. God is with us. The love of God is not so distant as to be un unknown or unknowable to us. The Spirit is moving and present, conveniently present, offering life.
Jesus says, receive the Holy Spirit. We have been given the authority to receive the Holy Spirit. Receive it, take it. Receive the power. God, remember that God is not just about making you feel good, but transforming you into who you need to be.

What does it mean to receive the Holy Spirit? Say yes to God. Say yes to mercy. Say yes to growth. Say yes to stepping out in faith. Say yes to God because God has said yes to you.

So we come back to this question of how to talk about God. To speak about God as a Christian is not to speak of God as a filler of gaps or a divine wish-maker, but as Paul says, the source in whom we live and move and have our being. God is not really big and really far away, but present with us as the Comforter, for us as the Advocate.

A Bible verse that brings a lot of comfort to a lot of people is Jeremiah 29:11. It's a great verse: for I know the plans I have for youth as the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm. It is a beautiful verse that is found in a really hard and challenging part of the Bible.
Jeremiah is a prophet of exile. Jeremiah tells the people of Israel, the people of Judah, that the exile is coming because they have disobeyed God. He tells them that they are about to suffer because they have disobeyed God. It is a hard book to read. Jeremiah 29 is not the end of the book.
The prophet doesn't offer this verse and then ride off into the sunset. It is in the middle of things. Worst things happen after. Jeremiah 30 talks about all the tears and pain that is going to happen.
But what Jeremiah 29:11 points to is that God is faithful in the midst of the brokenness of this world. The faithfulness of God is not found in denying pain and suffering. Oh no. We see that especially in the cross. Jesus came not to deny pain and death, but to defeat it. And not just for a moment, but for all time. We live now in the in-between, between his resurrection and coming again. Death has been defeated, but the game is not up.
This is why the Holy Spirit was sent to be our advocate and to be our comforter, to be God with us and for us. God is not just the answer to a question, but the presence in which we move and live and have our being. The Holy Spirit is not just an answer to a question, but the giver of the power of mercy, the full presence of God for us.
This Pentecost Sunday. May you receive the power of mercy. May you be unafraid of mercy. May you offer mercy. May you hold close to the God who holds close to you.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, you sent your spirit not just to be with us but to empower us. May we receive your spirit. May we receive your power. May we offer mercy to our neighbors. May we offer mercy to our friends and former friends. May we offer mercy to those who have hurt us. May we offer mercy to ourselves. In the name of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.
Amen.


title: Revival

themes: revival continuity-with-the-past methodist-history new-life-in-christ god-uses-the-overlooked sanctification

text:
**Scripture:** Acts 2:14; Acts 2:22-32; John 9:1-25
**Series:** 2023

> Opening a Heart Full of Love series on Acts (themed 'What do we do now?' for Bee Creek UMC in Easter), this sermon on Peter's Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:22-32) defines revival as God making the dead alive again. Its central claim is that revival requires continuity, not rupture: Peter links David to the risen Jesus, and historic revivals (Azusa Street, the Methodist movement) grew out of older traditions fulfilled rather than discarded. Through the stories of his wife Alina's conversion chain, Wesley's failed Georgia mission and Moravian encounter, and Peter the denier, the preacher argues revival comes through unlikely, flawed instruments and looks different in every age but needs the same conditions: people unashamed to share the fullness of Jesus. It closes by inviting the congregation into 'Revive' conversations and insisting revival starts personally with each hearer.

**Illustrations:** jesus-revolution-film, alina-family-conversion-chain, azusa-street-revival, wesley-georgia-mission, wesley-moravians-storm, when-harry-met-sally, jonathan-edwards-awakening, wesley-not-a-great-hang, peter-denier-at-pentecost, man-born-blind-john-9

---

# April 23, 2023
## Acts 2:14, 22-32
## Revival

Peter stood with the other eleven apostles. He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone living in Jerusalem! Know this! Listen carefully to my words!
“Therefore, let all Israel know beyond question that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Fellow Israelites, listen to these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man whose credentials God proved to you through miracles, wonders, and signs, which God performed through him among you. You yourselves know this. In accordance with God’s established plan and foreknowledge, he was betrayed. You, with the help of wicked men, had Jesus killed by nailing him to a cross. God raised him up! God freed him from death’s dreadful grip, since it was impossible for death to hang on to him. David says about him, “I foresaw that the Lord was always with me;” “because he is at my right hand I won’t be shaken.” “Therefore, my heart was glad” “and my tongue rejoiced.” “Moreover, my body will live in hope,” “because you won’t abandon me to the grave,” “nor permit your holy one to experience decay.” “You have shown me the paths of life;” “your presence will fill me with happiness.” “Brothers and sisters, I can speak confidently about the patriarch David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this very day. Because he was a prophet, he knew that God promised him with a solemn pledge to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Having seen this beforehand, David spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that “he wasn’t abandoned to the grave, nor did his body experience decay”. This Jesus God raised up. We are all witnesses to that fact.”
Acts of the Apostles 2:22-32 CEB

The recently released movie, Jesus Revolution, tells the story of Chuck Smith, who was the pastor of Calvary Chapel in California, and the circumstances that led to a great revival of the church in Southern California. The emergence of the Calvary Chapel movement and the Jesus Freak movement. I have heard good things about the movie. I don’t agree with the theology of Chuck Smith, but I am grateful that this story has been told because the revival, begun in 1968, became personal for my family.
In 1977, a young quaker pastor named John Wimber in Southern California left the Quakers and planted a Calvary Chapel Church in Yorba Linda. Five years later, they were disenchanted with Calvary Chapel and became the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship.
The ministry there changed the life of a young aerospace engineer who worked in Southern California. His company had contracts with the Israeli Defense Force and he would travel to Israel.
On one of those travels, this man named Bill Arder, who had had his life changed because of God through the vineyard movement, met a young engineer working for the Israeli Defense Force named Yoni Adonyi.
Yoni was a very charismatic young man. He spoke English well and could talk intelligently about many topics. He was an interesting guy. And this young engineer from southern California took a liking to Yoni. He recommended that the young Israeli officer pursue his studies in America and move his family to America. His wife and he had a young daughter. And so eventually it worked out. This man from California, paid for the family’s immigration, got them over, got Yoni into an Ohio State PhD program in materials science.
About six months after they moved, Yoni and his wife went to California to visit this man who had helped them so much and his family. They asked him, “why were you so nice to us? It doesn't make sense.” And the man said, it's because of Jesus. Jesus changed our life. We have love to share in this world. Yoni and his wife went to church with Bill and Monica and became Christians that day. They went home to Columbus, Ohio, and their daughter, my wife, Alina, became a Christian as well.
Revival can change the world. Revival changes lives. Revival doesn't always look like the movies. It doesn't have to look like big tents. It doesn't have to look like Pentecost. It is where God is making new life. And that is amazing. And that is beautiful

 ## Series Intro
In the season of Easter, we're going to take the time to look through the beginning of the Book of Acts where the disciples are left with the question:What do we do now?
For Bee Creek United Methodist Church, that is the season that we are in: What do we do now? And as we worship together over the next few weeks, I want us to be praying and thinking through and responding actively to God's movements as we not only ask this question, but answer this question, what do we do now?

The series is called a Heart full of love, that is not only a line from the musical, Les Miserables,

It is also the whole point of the Methodist movement and the point of the Christian life. We are saved by grace through faith for a sanctified life and heart full of love not just in the future, but starting now. Today we are looking at Revival.

Acts 2 is a long chapter. It covers a lot of different parts. Peter gives a long sermon a we have a portion of it today outlining the life of Jesus Christ. Not only outlining, but connecting the life of Jesus with the history of the the Old Testament including many  quotations from the Old Testament.

Revival needs continuity. Revivius. To make alive again: Revival cannot happen with total discontinuity, though oftentimes it's portrayed in that kind of way. The Azusa street revival where Pentecostalism began in 1906, came out of holiness traditions, which came out of Methodism.

In the reading from the Book of Acts, Peter is holding up these continuities between David and Jesus, between the words of David and Jesus. Revival is not sparked by saying the old is bad, but by saying the old has been fulfilled. God has been faithful and God is faithful today.
Even those times when we thought God wasn't faithful, God has been faithful. That is the powerful message of revival. Even in those times when we thought God had forsaken us, God was faithful.
The new context in which we find ourselves has a response from God in Jesus Christ. This is the power of Pentecost. This is the power of the church. This is why we celebrate the birthday of the church at Pentecost. We don't celebrate it in the upper room when they drew lots to make a bureaucratic decision. It's the first thing they did, but it's not the one we celebrate. We celebrate Pentecost when the church scales up.
And part of it is this continuity that Peter is holding on to and offering to the people: they can be a part of what God is doing in a new and radical way. Because what is God is doing in a new and radical way is not different from what God did before. The God who resurrected the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt resurrected from slavery to sin and death and has saved us from sin and death so we can live as new people together.

While John Wesley was at Oxford in the early 1730s and while he was keeping his diary and, and helping to lead the Holy Club and the Oxford Methodist, a man named Thomas Oglethorpe, who was a member of parliament, started to organize a new colony in the United States between the Carolinas and the Spanish Florida territory. Now, the Carolinas were a colony started in the late 17th century by allies of Charles II that was focused on profiting from slavery and Indian wars. Thomas Oglethorpe was from a very different generation. He wanted to offer a place for moral uplift to those who could not find a spot in English society. He also wanted to help bring Jesus to the natives.
John Wesley got on board with this aim and he came to Savannah, Georgia, in the 1730s to preach the gospel to the Native Americans of Georgia. He came with high hopes. He failed. He did not start a revival in North America.
On his way Georgia, Wesley met some Moravians, who were a type of Lutherans focused on spirituality. There was a storm. John Wesley thought he was going to die. He was scared. The Moravians in the middle of the storm were not scared. They were smiling. They were singing hymns. Like in “When Harry met Sally, he wanted what they were having.
Wesley wanted that kind of faith. He started talking to them, learning about their faith practices. He thought that it was fascinating how so much of it was based around these small group gatherings and sharing the faith together. And he noticed ave a high similarity between what was going on at Oxford with the Holy Club, and what these Moravians did.
So when he came back to England, he became more involved in these different religious societies.
Another key factor at this time was that John Wesley received a book by an American preacher named Jonathan Edwards about a great awakening in New England. This account transformed Wesley. He didn't agree with Jonathan Edwards' theology, but the revival drew him in. If it could take place in New England, why not in England?
Wesley tried to preach a message of revival. He worked for Oxford so he didn’t have a church. He needed the permission of the priests officially to preach in their church. But he decided that God's movement could not be confined to the walls of the church. So he started preaching outside.
John Wesley was not a super charismatic preacher. This is important. Nobody heard him preach and was like, “Wow, that is an impressive dude.”
And I think that's one of the most powerful things of what happened and how the Methodist movement started. John Wesley was not a guy who you would want to have a beer with. He would probably judge you. He was not a great hang. He was not a very personable fellow who would tell lots of funny stories and keep you relaxed and easy He was probably pretty snooty and very morally upright, surely judgmental, no qualities that people are like super drawn to.
“You know, my friend John, he's super judgmental. I just wanna spend time with him every day.”
Nobody says that. Nobody said that in 18th century. Nobody says that today.

Yet despite that, revival took place. Despite the character of John Wesley, revival took place in the same way despite the character of Peter, revival took place at Pentecost. Peter was a fisherman who had denied Jesus three times and yet at Pentecost, God spoke through him and transformed the world.
John Wesley was a prudish English priest. And yet through him God changed the world. a revival today will look different than it did 300 years ago than it did a hundred years ago.

People have seen the big tents. A lot of people who are not in church today have already heard about Jesus and have chosen not to follow him. There are also people who grew up in the church and experienced trauma and don't want a part of it anymore; church only brings up negative feelings.
What it will take for revival here are the same conditions at Pentecost, the same conditions in England, the same conditions at Azusa Street. The same conditions anywhere that it has taken place. It may not have the same results, but it needs the same conditions.
Those conditions are people who are unashamed of Christ's good news. People who are willing to share the fullness of Jesus, not the presentation of Jesus, not the culture of Jesus, not the politics that have been presented widely of Jesus, but the fullness of Jesus And in that the possibility of transformation.

Revival is not just about a bunch of people becoming members of a church or converting to Christianity. It's about people who are dead coming alive again; people dead in their soul coming alive again. And that is and always has been the future of the church. It's not about bringing in people from other churches. It's not about building new buildings. It's the miracle of John 9. It's the miracle of the man who was born blind. And when they come to him, ask him if this Jesus who healed him is a sinner. And he says, I do not know if he is a sinner or not. What I do know is I was blind, but now I see that's it.
## Conclusiony

My brothers and sisters, as we go forward, we need to be open to the fact that God may change us. God may change you. The direction of your life may change. That is revival. Whether it's one person or a hundred people or a thousand or a million, that is revival, that is living again. It is a continuity with what God has been doing from the beginning.

## Revive
I want to ask all of you here to be a part of Revive conversations. These aren’t revivals with big tents. These are chances to meet and talk about what has happened here and dream about what God can do. If you follow this QR code, it will take you to a Google form to sign up for one of the slots. Revival here will have continuity with the past, but it will also be a new thing. The greatest point of continuity is Jesus Christ. This is the season of resurrection, where Christian’s celebrate God coming back from the dad. If Jesus really came back from the dead, than anything is possible.

May God bless us with revival. May we have faith that God is doing a new thing. That is the old thing transformed. And may you remember that it starts with you. It's not about other people, it's about your life, your faith, your journey, your revival. May you be live again. May your spirit be aflamed. You are loved. You matter. Your mistakes can forgiven. You don’t have to walk the same path. You are free to have a heart full of love and to share that with others.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, give us the faith of Peter to stand up for you even after we have denied you. Let us remember that revival does not look like movies. Living again starts with us. May we receive your spirit anew. May we receive Christ’s story anew, and may we share with our words and our deeds. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: The Holy Club

themes: servant-leadership god-equips-the-called methodist-history holiness gift-of-the-heart

text:
**Scripture:** Acts 1:15-26
**Series:** 2023

> Opening a season-of-Easter series tracing Acts alongside the origins of Methodism, this sermon reads Acts 1:15-26, where the early church's first act is mundane governance: filling Judas's vacated slot by casting lots for Matthias. Wilson argues church leadership has no skill or experience requirement because God, not credentials, equips and qualifies servants, so 'I'm not qualified' is an excuse, not reality. He then narrates John and Charles Wesley at Oxford forming the Holy Club through journaling, scripture study, communion, and prison/poor visitation, with 'Methodist' and 'Holy Club' beginning as insults later embraced, claiming holiness is offered to all, not a select few. He closes inviting every hearer, even first-time visitors, into a heart full of love that displaces anger, fear, and self-doubt and into a role in what God is doing at Bee Creek UMC.

**Illustrations:** matthias-casting-lots, day-after-christmas-decorations, emmaus-thomas-recognition, samuel-wesley-job-commentary, wesley-coded-journal, william-morgan-prison-visits, galen-vs-methodists, holy-club-insult-appropriated

---

# April 16, 2023
## The Holy Club
During this time, the family of believers was a company of about one hundred twenty persons. Peter stood among them and said, “Brothers and sisters, the scripture that the Holy Spirit announced beforehand through David had to be fulfilled. This was the scripture concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. This happened even though he was one of us and received a share of this ministry.” (In fact, he bought a field with the payment he received for his injustice. Falling headfirst, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines spilled out. This became known to everyone living in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Hakeldama, or “Field of Blood.”) “It is written in the Psalms scroll, Let his home become deserted and let there be no one living in it; and Give his position of leadership to another. “Therefore, we must select one of those who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus lived among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when Jesus was taken from us. This person must become along with us a witness to his resurrection.” So they nominated two: Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. They prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s deepest thoughts and desires. Show us clearly which one you have chosen from among these two to take the place of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” When they cast lots, the lot fell on Matthias. He was added to the eleven apostles. - Acts 1:15-26

The season of Easter lasts for a few weeks, all the way up to Pentecost. Like a lot of holidays in America, most of us try to move on rather quickly from it. There may be 12 days of Christmas, but many people the day after Christmas, are cleaning up their Christmas decorations; moving on and getting ready for New Year's: getting ready for the next thing.
It's hard to stay in the moment when everybody else is moving on. Easter lasts this long because the season of Easter marks the time that Jesus walked the earth after his resurrection. It is the time that he ministered in a radically new way.
He was a man that many people knew, but even the people who knew him best couldn't recognize him after the resurrection. Thomas didn't recognize him until he touched Jesus’s wounds. The disciples on the Emmaus road didn't recognize him until Jesus revealed himself to them, until they broke bread together.

## Series Intro
In the season of Easter, we're going to take the time to look through the beginning of the Book of Acts. Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus makes a small appearance at the very beginning of the book, but then he ascends to Heaven and the disciples have to figure out what to do now.
What do we do now?
For Bee Creek United Methodist Church, that is the season that we are in right: What do we do now? And as we worship together over the next few weeks, I want us to be praying and thinking through and responding actively to God's movements as we not only ask this question, but answer this question, what do we do now?

Beyond the Book of Acts, I want us to also hold together the beginnings of the Methodist movement in general.
What does it mean to be a Methodist? There are all these names of churches out there, you know, unless you go to seminary, a lot of people, it's like this church is pretty similar to the next church. There's some ways to differentiate it.
The word denomination is kind of icky, but I so take the time to dig into what does it be to be a Methodist and what do we do now. This Sunday, we're starting at the beginning of the Book of Acts and at the beginning of the Methodist movement with the Oxford Holy Club

Beginning with the Book of Acts, we have this moment where Jesus ascends to heaven and the disciples are left with what to do now. This is the reading that we have for today. And the first thing they have to do with their religious organization is not a worship service. It is not a revival. They don't ask for money. They fill a committee slot. That is what happens. They fill a committee slot. Judas is off the team, for obvious reasons. They have 12 slots to fill, and they only have 11 people. So there's two candidates they have to choose between.

I think it's very interesting on the first level that this is the first thing they do. And it's not often lifted up. The actual work of governing the church is not very sexy, but this is what scripture tells us to do and shows us to do: we start with bureaucracy, with filling the slots, and then we go from there.
The next interesting thing about this passage is that it does not have requirements to be a disciple. Mateus and Barsabbas don't interview for it. Nobody's checking out their cv. Nobody's seeing if they've had any experience in business or leadership or finance or the church. They draw lots. Basically they flip a coin to see who it's going to be. They don't flip a coin out of apathy or indifference as we might understand it today.
The point of leadership in the church is not that it should only go to the most gifted people, but that God is the one who equips the leaders of the church. We can never train enough for what we are faced with in the leadership of the church. Just ask any of our current board members. There are some things that may make it easier or harder, but there's nothing you can really do that can prepare you for it. God is the one who prepares us. God is the one who equips us.
The only requirement in Acts is that it be someone who had been with them the whole time from the beginning. That a disciple not be a new convert to the faith. This is what is asked of those who lead.
One thing we should take from this is that all of you are qualified for leadership in the church. The issue of serving the church is not one of certain aptitudes or skills or experiences. All of us are qualified to lead the body of Christ because it is Christ who qualifies us. So if there is a need in the church, to say “I am not qualified” or “I am not gifted,” is an excuse, not a reality. None of us are qualified: only God can prepare us to serve. But we are all able to serve and grow in holiness together.
## Holy Club
In 1728, John Wesley was living in the north of England. He was a curate for his father, Samuel Wesley. Samuel Wesley was the rector of Epworth and Wroot. And that means he was appointed to those positions by the bishop and he had the rights to the tithe for the area. The tithe was basically a tax that he would receive. But he also had responsibilities for the church. And Samuel Wesley was a scholar as much as a priest. He was working on an extended Latin commentary of the Book of Job for much of his life. He wanted to spend most of his time doing that. And so he had hired out young Church of England priests to serve as curates, especially in Wroot.
After John Wesley finished his Masters, Samuel wanted his son to come closer to home and to serve. At the same time, John was getting frustrated at Oxford. And so he came home. John was still officially a fellow of Lincoln College Oxford, and would return every once in a while, but the rest of the year he stayed in the north of England and served as the curate of Wroot.
Now about this time, John's younger brother, Charles matriculated to Christ Church Oxford from the Westminster School.
At first, Oxford was a challenge to the young Charles, very different from life in London, but then he got used to it and got some close friends. He had conversations with his brother every time they went home

John was also eventually asked by the dean of Lincoln College to return and be in residency since he was basically getting paid to be a professor at Oxford, but he wasn't living in Oxford or teaching in Oxford.
So John was returned to Oxford and began to spend more time with Charles.  Some of Charles' friends started sporadically meeting to talk about the Bible and talk about books of divinity and talk about the classics, John had given Charles a reading list before he got to Oxford, of the books he should be reading. And Charles wanted to ask his brother to help him and his friends to read through them.
So they started in a disorganized manner to do this.
As well, before John became a priest, about four years prior to this, he had started journaling at the recommendation of his father and keeping what was called at the time a commonplace book. And so he wrote down what happened during his day. He wrote down quotes of things he was reading. Eventually it became more of a devotional diary that included temptations that he faced. He also started writing it in code so that nobody could read it and nobody actually could read it until about 50 years ago, when the code was finally broken by my teacher, Richard, Heitzenrater.
Journaling became a practice that he recommended to the friends. One of the other young Oxford students, named William Morgan, started going to visit people in prison. And John and Charles liked this idea. It seemed very biblical to them. So they added this to what they were doing. Eventually people started calling it a holy club or a godly club. They didn't name themselves, they didn't have a name for it.
It was friends gathering together once or twice a week to talk about God and hold each other accountable in those conversations.
And over the next two years, not only were they called the Holy Club as an insult, they appropriated it. They said, sure, we're trying to be holy. Call us the holy club. That's not gonna hurt us. Oxford was a very snooty place then, as now. And the education requirements meant that a lot of your studies were not only in Greek, ancient Greek and Latin.
Most testing included oral recitations in Greek or Latin or oral answers to questions in Greek and Latin. So to actually be in Oxford, you had to know your Greek and Latin fairly well and understand Greek philosophy and, and science. So a lot of people in Oxford understood the different competing medical movements of ancient Greece in a way that we don't really today.
The most famous one was the school of Galen, but there was a competition, around that time, between Galen and a group of people called Methodists. Now, Galen thought that doctors could only come from the best bred people, from the wealthy, basically from the upper crust. And the Methodists thought that anybody could be a doctor if they were trained well, if they followed a method.
This was also an insult that was thrown at John and Charles Wesley and their friends. They were called Methodists because they were trying to be holy and they thought anyone could be holy. And this also was a term that began as a term of abuse and then was appropriated. To be a Methodist was to claim that God offers holiness and righteousness to all of us, not just for a select few. That loving God and loving our neighbor has no limit and we should all
Seek to love God and love our neighbor in concrete ways. Not just by this generic language of love, but by the actual studying of scriptures, the actual praying together, the actual going to communion.
Visiting the imprisoned, visiting widows and orphans, caring for those in need, holding each other accountable to that, not letting it slip or slide. Not letting excuses be used. “Oh, I'm not into that. It's not easy for me, it's not a comfortable thing for me.” To the  holy club and to the church in acts, it is not about you but what God can do through you.
As we move forward in this season, as we discern these questions, may we remember that the questions matter, the questions of structure matter. The questions of who is going to lead matters. But leadership in the church, service in the church, is not limited to select few. Service to God is not limited to just those who have time for it.
You are each offered the opportunity of a heart filled with love. That's not limited. It's not an extra burden. When your heart is filled with love, that means that the other things in your heart that are not love are displaced and pushed out. Anger, frustration, self-doubt, fear is pushed out by the heart of God.
May you receive his love. May you see your inclusion in God's plan in this state. May you realize that you right now, even if you're a visitor for the first or second time, have a role to play in what God is doing here and your life will never be the same.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love and Grace in giving us the questions: what do we do now? Help us to answer boldly with you as you change our community and world for the better. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: The Line: Jesus and the Inversion of Our Moral Expectations

themes: sermon-on-the-mount letter-versus-spirit magnificat-reversal self-justification repentance jesus-is-lord

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 5:21-25; Matthew 5:3-6; Matthew 5:27-28; Matthew 21:12-13; Matthew 7:7
**Series:** 2023

> Preaching on Matthew 5:21-25, the pastor argues that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus throws out our boundary-seeking instinct — the way children and adults alike push to find exactly where the line is. Jesus takes narrow moral categories (murder, adultery, false oaths) and expands them to the broadest possible scope (anger, lust, all swearing), so that everyone becomes suspect and no one can console themselves with 'at least I didn't cross the line.' This radical ethic only makes sense if Jesus is Lord: honesty, freedom from anger, and conversion of desire are acts of faith that trust God's justice rather than our own systems. Even Jesus cleansing the temple is read as un-angry. The call is not legalism ('anything goes') but constant repentance and turning the heart toward the God who is love, living Christ's kingdom now by grace through faith.

**Illustrations:** madeline-doorframe-line, curly-city-slickers-day-aint-over, swearing-oaths-in-court, english-common-law-christian-origins

---

# February 12, 2023

“You have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago, Don’t commit murder, and all who commit murder will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. If they say to their brother or sister, ‘You idiot,’ they will be in danger of being condemned by the governing council. And if they say, ‘You fool,’ they will be in danger of fiery hell. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift. Be sure to make friends quickly with your opponents while you are with them on the way to court. Otherwise, they will haul you before the judge, the judge will turn you over to the officer of the court, and you will be thrown into prison. - Matthew 5:21-25

I think all children have a natural ability to try and find out where the line is. Now, some kids are not as big line pushers as others. You tell them what to do and they do it. I mean, I hear rumors of this existing, out in the wild. I don't know for sure. Otherwise, children want to push the limit: how far do you mean? How far are you willing to take it?
My niece, Madeline, who is about to graduate from Notre Dame, when she was a child, her parents told her to stay in her room after bedtime. She would come out to the doorframe and lay under the doorframe just to go right up to the line
Grown ups do this too. We try and clarify: what are the lines we need to follow up?
What are the boundaries? What are the actual boundaries? Boundaries at our job? What are the things we have to do? Prioritize? What are the things there's a little more flexibility around? I mean, I think in honesty, we do this with God, with sin, in a lot of ways. What are the things we need to focus on about being a good person and following God? What should our priorities be? Should we beat ourselves up over every little thing? Yet what Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount is kind of throw all of that boundary seeking out the window. It starts off in the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew five with famous, beattitudes ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
 and on and on.

The beatitudes work with these inversions of expectations, blessed are the poor in spirit. Wait, what? And the word Jesus used is Macarios, for which a better translation is happy: Happy are the poor in spirit. People never want to go talk to the poor in spirit at a party, but that’s what Jesus says.

Happy are the meek? Happy
are those who mourn? It's jarring. That one especially is jarring. Happy are those who mourn Jesus. You're being a little insensitive right now. Happy are those who mourn for they will be comforted. It's an inversion of expectation. Happier. Those who mourn, not those who move on with their life and pretend that nothing happened. They are not the ones who will see joy. Happy are those mourn.

In Matthew 5:21, we have another example of Jesus inverting our expectation. You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, you shall not murder and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment. It was not just a Jewish thing or Christian thing. It's a pretty much human thing. Society's all over the world don't often condone killing.

But with killing or murder, we have a clear boundary. People may think, “well, if I can't kill, if I do everything except killing, I'm okay. If I beat this person half to death, but not all to death, I’m okay. I'm not killing him. I'm okay. I'm cool.”

Jesus says,” You've heard it said” to people who go up to the line but take consolation in not crossing it. but I didn't kill him?,

“But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable for judgment.” So Jesus takes this fairly narrow category, murder. I mean, a lot of people have been killed over the years. People, I'm sure you all know people who have been killed and the tragedy of that, but it's far narrower than anger.
Anger is a much more common human phenomenon. I hope that most of us don't have to consciously debate about whether we're going to kill people during our day. We don't wake up and it's like, “who am I going to kill today? And that kind of thing. Maybe, maybe you guys have different minds than I would think, but that's my assumption.
And yet Jesus expands this narrow category to include probably the broadest one imaginable. You have heard that it was said, those of ancient times, you shall not murder.
But I say to you, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. So it's the first one. If you insult a brother or sister, you'll be liable
To the council. We have a higher level of authority. And then if you say “you fool,” You'll be liable to the hell of fire..

So Jesus takes our expectations of how to be a good person, of what that looks like, and he points out how our expectations have a lot to do with the moral lines we draw. And we have this one category that most of us can feel like we’re not concerned about. We don't have to worry about murder in our day to day life.
And then he expands it. He flips it and expands it into something that we do have to worry about. We may get off the hook with murder. I don't think any of us can get off the hook for insulting others at some point. Calling others, fool.

Jesus continues this with lying and with adultery. He takes narrow categories and broadens  them so that we all become suspect.

 You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. There's a nice clear line there that Jesus completely runs over.
He does this with divorce, it has this with oaths and swearing.
We have expectations and he flips them.

The oaths one i I think is always very interesting. Every person who serves in our, our military, every person who serves in in state government or federal government, who swears an oath. To do that goes against Jesus' words here. They didn’t design the system, but Jesus is direct here and makes no exceptions.
Anyone who testifies in court, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God,” goes against the words of Jesus here.  The words of Jesus are pretty straightforward here.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. And we may say, “that's good enough for you, Jesus, but we live in the real world. And if people don't swear on something, they're just gonna lie. What then?”
The answer to this and every question that is begged by the Sermon of the Mount is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in the kingdom of heaven. We can only let our yes be yes and our no be no if Jesus is Lord. If Jesus is not Lord, we do need a complicated system to determine the veracity of people and consequences for lies. If Jesus is not Lord, swear all you want, keep those moral lines crystal clear, and be satisfied in the life you are living on your own.
If Jesus is Lord, then that system smacks in the face of faith in Jesus.

English common law, which makes up the backbone of our legal system, was formed and created in a very Christian environment. I don't think that they were trying to disobey the words of Christ when they started having people swear in court. And when the early US court system developed ways of swearing, they weren't intentionally opposing the words of Jesus. There were practical and pragmatic reasons for which they needed a way to hold people accountable. And yet the words of Jesus here challenge those practicalities.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no is an act of faith because it believes more in the God of truth than in our own ability to adjudicate the truth, to solve of it and be responsible for it.

But this form of of faith works for all of these situations. Murder is not just limited to the discreet taking of another's life, but it also refers to anger in your heart.
And this only works if you believe Jesus is Lord. If you do not, it makes no sense whatsoever.
Adultery is what we know it to be unless Jesus is Lord. Then it is any lust in our hearts because any lust in our hearts is a lack of faith in the God who is love. A lack of conversion of our desire in our hearts.

These expanded moral categories seem like it would make life more difficult. If I can’t help from sinning, what is the point of the language of sin?

If we are stuck in a binary conception of sin. That is sin is bad, non-sin is good, we miss what Jesus doing here. Jesus shows us that a radical life of love is possible in this world if we seek God. A life oriented towards God by grace and faith. We don’t need to settle for half-sins. We don’t need to console ourselves by saying, “at least I didn’t kill anyone today.” As Curly from City Slickers would respond, “Day ain’t over yet.”

Our consolation can only be found in Jesus Christ.

We are only facing in the direction of God by grace through faith, only because of faith. Only because of stepping beyond ourselves and beyond our certainty. not by knowing which rules to follow, which rules to break. Only by faith.
Anger is a lack of faith. Anger is an attempt to take justice into my hands and take it from God's hands. If justice is on God's side, I do not need to be angry.
And every act of anger towards another is like murder because I am forsaking God’s justice by taking my own.
Many people say that Jesus speaks against anger in the temple, later, when he turns over the tables. He shows no signs of anger there.
From Matthew 21

>Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’

He overturns the tables, but he’s not angry. We like to imagine anger here. We like to imagine Jesus overturning tables in anger so that we can justify our own anger. But he’s not. In another version, Jesus makes a whip in order to whip the animals out of the way, not the people. So Jesus doesn’t contradict himself by condemning anger in Matthew 5 and then later overturning the tables.

What we are left with is encouragement for a life of faith that we can truly follow God. We can only truly do this by faith. We need to let go of our expectations that we're going to save ourselves and we all have 'em. Those clear moral lines are tools for us to save ourselves and they are all going to fail. This doesn’t mean anything goes. It means we all must repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all must constantly convert our hearts away from our own desire and self-satisfaction towards the God who is love. And this takes faith.

We've gotta let go and take a step of faith. And that means looking at our hearts often, what do we desire? What do I desire? What do I hope for? Is it towards God or away from God? If it is away from God, I need to turn around. There will be mercy, but I need to turn around. I can't keep going backwards. If I say I love God, I need to be going forwards, towards God and towards my neighbor in love and hope and peace and neatness. This is the promise of the sermon on the Mount. This path is open to us. Christ’s kingdom is here for us to live out on earth. Not in some ideolistic future but now. All we must do is repent and believe that Jesus is Lord. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, your word is lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. May we follow your path and not our own. May we let go of ourselves and enter into your kingdom. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.