Leader: We come together to worship the God who is Love.
People: Who created the universe and knit us in our mother’s wombs with Love and out of Love.
L: We worship Jesus, God’s Beloved Son.
P: Who showed us how much we are loved by God.
L: We worship the Spirit, who proceeds from the Love of God the Father and Jesus the Beloved.
P: Who guides us in loving one another.
L: May we be transfigured and transformed by the Love of God.
All: Let us worship our Holy Triune God. Amen.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Call to Worship Based on Isaiah 58:1-12 & Matthew 5:13-20
Leader: Family of God, welcome to worship! God has a message for you today! Listen to it now: You are salt of the earth.
People: May I live as such.
L: You are a light on the hill.
P: May I live as such.
L: You are called to to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.
P: May I do as such.
L: You are called to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin.
P: May I do as such.
L: May we all live as salt of the earth and lights upon a hill, our actions and whole lives reflecting God’s love.
All: May we live as God’s beloved. Amen.
People: May I live as such.
L: You are a light on the hill.
P: May I live as such.
L: You are called to to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.
P: May I do as such.
L: You are called to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin.
P: May I do as such.
L: May we all live as salt of the earth and lights upon a hill, our actions and whole lives reflecting God’s love.
All: May we live as God’s beloved. Amen.
Monday, January 19, 2026
“Called to Be Saints” a sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
“Called to Be Saints”
Preached Sunday, January 18, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church
Our Burritos & Bibles Bible Study just started 1st Corinthians this week. We meet at a local Mexican restaurant, read the Scripture together, and discuss. It was fitting that this week we discussed the first chapter of 1st Corinthians - of which the first 9 of the 31 verses in the first chapter are the assigned New Testament reading for this week.
When we consider the context of 1 Corinthians as a whole, we know Paul is writing to them because they are a church that is in conflict. They are deeply divided - divisions of theology, social class, and more have wreaked havoc among them. And they generally aren’t behaving or treating one another as they should be treated.
Does this sound anything like our world and our church today?
“Called to Be Saints”
Preached Sunday, January 18, 2026 at Boardman United Methodist Church
Our Burritos & Bibles Bible Study just started 1st Corinthians this week. We meet at a local Mexican restaurant, read the Scripture together, and discuss. It was fitting that this week we discussed the first chapter of 1st Corinthians - of which the first 9 of the 31 verses in the first chapter are the assigned New Testament reading for this week.
When we consider the context of 1 Corinthians as a whole, we know Paul is writing to them because they are a church that is in conflict. They are deeply divided - divisions of theology, social class, and more have wreaked havoc among them. And they generally aren’t behaving or treating one another as they should be treated.
Does this sound anything like our world and our church today?
Our world and especially our country is increasingly seen as more divided than ever. A 2022 Pew Research study showed that “72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats viewed the opposing party as more immoral than other Americans—up dramatically from 47% and 35% in 2016.” And that was three years ago. Look around - I can imagine it’s only gotten worse. In fact, we’re seeing a rise not just in polarization but dehumanization. It’s not just that “the other side” is more immoral - it’s that they are less than human, not like you and me, and therefore whatever happens to them - up to and including their deaths - should not be a moral concern.
Our hearts and souls should be deeply, deeply troubled over this. And I don’t like to use the word “should” in sermons and yet in this case, I feel I must. We are to remember that all humans were made in the imago dei, the image of God, all humans are beloved by God, and we are called to treat one another with love, basic human dignity, and kindness. We are to remember, as The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber says, whenever we draw a line between “us” and “them” - God is always on the other side of that line.
People have often wondered, if Paul wrote a letter to the church in America today, what would that letter contain? What would he lament? Where would he call us to repent? What teaching or wisdom would he have to correct our course?
For today’s consideration, I would wonder…would Paul start the letter to us, like he started the letter to this deeply divided and conflict-filled church in Corinth?
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together will all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…”
He starts his letter to the troubled church by reminding them that they are sanctified in Christ and called to be saints.
He goes on, before he brings up any conflict, before he offers any criticism, before he calls them to repent and be and do better, to say he thanks God for them - always. He reminds them that, through Christ, they already have everything they need to be saints, to partner with Jesus Christ, in the work of the Gospel, which is love of God and love of neighbor.
And this, friends, is what I want to say to each of you today.
Our hearts and souls should be deeply, deeply troubled over this. And I don’t like to use the word “should” in sermons and yet in this case, I feel I must. We are to remember that all humans were made in the imago dei, the image of God, all humans are beloved by God, and we are called to treat one another with love, basic human dignity, and kindness. We are to remember, as The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber says, whenever we draw a line between “us” and “them” - God is always on the other side of that line.
People have often wondered, if Paul wrote a letter to the church in America today, what would that letter contain? What would he lament? Where would he call us to repent? What teaching or wisdom would he have to correct our course?
For today’s consideration, I would wonder…would Paul start the letter to us, like he started the letter to this deeply divided and conflict-filled church in Corinth?
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together will all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…”
He starts his letter to the troubled church by reminding them that they are sanctified in Christ and called to be saints.
He goes on, before he brings up any conflict, before he offers any criticism, before he calls them to repent and be and do better, to say he thanks God for them - always. He reminds them that, through Christ, they already have everything they need to be saints, to partner with Jesus Christ, in the work of the Gospel, which is love of God and love of neighbor.
And this, friends, is what I want to say to each of you today.
I am thankful for you. And all those who are sanctified in Jesus Christ, all those who call on the name of Jesus Christ, who call him Lord - all of those who are called to be saints. And that was the church in Corinth, us here today, Christians across America, and around the world.
Now - what do we think of when we think of Saints? Most Methodists - or Protestants in general - aren’t too into saints - they think it’s too Catholic-y. Personally, I love reading and learning about the lives of the saints and appreciate the beauty of icons. But that’s one way we think of saints right? As 1.) A Catholic thing that doesn’t concern us and 2.) We think of saints as these...OTHER people, these high and holy people who are just a step below Jesus basically and pretty high for us to reach.
If we are familiar with any specific saints at all we might think of saints like St. Teresa of Avila who spent her whole life in a monastery, praying, subsiding only on the Eucharist, and having visions.
Saints like Mother Teresa, a woman who gave her whole life to ministry of the poor, the least of the least of these, living among them.
Saints like St. Maximilian Kolbe, a franscian friar who offered to die and did die in the place of a stranger in Auschwitz.
Saints like Bishop Oscar Romero who in El Salvador, sided with the oppressed landless poor against an increasingly violent and authoritarian regime - and he also preached to the soldiers who also claimed Christ, telling them they didn’t have to follow orders to kill and torture. He was assassinated while presiding over Holy Communion.
We might even think of individuals who aren’t officially sainted in The Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions but whose lives and service of Christ has offered them near saint-like status.
We might think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. - fitting as tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - a pastor and civil rights activist who fought using non-violent methods for equality across divisions of race, especially for Black Americans.
We might even think of people like Fred Rogers, who’s quiet Protestant faith led him to be an example of kindness and gentleness and what it means to be a neighbor for an entire generation.
These are some of the saints that come first to my mind and they’re like...it seems like they’re up here - you know? And I’m...more here-ish. Like -- Paul says we are all called to be saints? But...well...my life is nothing like this. I am not good at fasting, I live a fairly comfortable life, I am often afraid to stand up for social justice causes - especially as a mother who has children to take care of at home. I have no desire or plan to die a martyr's death.
And yet - Paul says we are called to be Saints -- all who call on the name of Jesus are called to be saints.
Now, in the United Methodist Church, we do observe all Saints Day and recognize those who have led Christian lives, who have shown us the way of Christian living, who have died in the past year. We say their name, ring a bell, and light a candle for them. And while I do think it is helpful to widen the definition of saints as to those who lived their lives as followers of Christ...I think we also relegate this day and sainthood in this sense, to those who have died. And while my life has been deeply touched by saints who have gone before me...I also wonder if we don’t sentimentalize the idea of what it means to be a saint. In our loss, we assign sainthood to others - without the understanding of what it means for us to be called to be saints while we are yet alive in the here and now. Saints are not only these people who we view as having lived extraordinarily holy and selfless lives. And saints are not only the dead. Paul is talking to a church full of ordinary people - ordinary Christians like you and me. You and I. Here and now. While we are yet alive - are called to be saints.
So what does this mean for us?
Martin Luther (not Martin Luther King, Jr the civil rights advocate but Martin Luther the Protestant Reformer) is credited with saying that we are all simultaneously saint and sinner. This is a statement primarily about our identity in God’s eyes. That yes, we are all sinners. We have all failed and fallen short. We have all messed up.
I’ll be honest with you, as I wrote this sermon I was planning on saying, “I don’t think we need much convincing in our world today that are all sinners.” And I wrote that line. And I deleted that line. And I wrote that line. And I deleted that line. I think we are often very aware of what we would call the sin of others without being aware of the sin we are complicit in through action or inaction. What we have done. What we have left undone. It’s the old “speck in your neighbor’s eye, plank in your’s” deal. Part of it might be how we define sin. My go to definition of sin comes from the Greek word for it that is a word about archery - a word that means “missing the mark.” We sin when we miss the mark of loving God and loving neighbor as self. And that’s called...being human. So yes, we are all sinners.
So the question is, how can a messed up sinner, an ordinary human, like you and me, simultaneously be a saint? Luther said: “The saints are sinners, too, but they are forgiven and absolved.” We are ordinary humans, sinners - but because of God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives - we are also saints - capable of so much, restored and made right in God’s eyes - called to live out our lives in light of God’s gifts to us - called to love as God would love - called to be saints.
So, that’s what Luther says about being a saint in this life and this Methodist would agree! And, I think John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, has something else to add to the picture.
One of Welsey’s more controversial theological positions was that Christians can reach perfection in this life. Being perfect in this life does not mean that your life is not without errors or mistakes. Christian perfection means reaching a state of perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbor as self - fulfilling God’s greatest commandment with your whole life. Wesley never claimed this for himself, claiming he may have only met one or two people who reached it in this life...but that isn’t supposed to stop us or deter us from trying to reach Christian Perfection - loving God and loving neighbor as self. We are supposed to ever be on a journey, working on ourselves, working on our relationships - with God and with others - ever trying to reach this state of perfection - ever answering God’s call on our lives to be saints.
So when we consider Paul - that all who call upon Christ’s name are called to be Saints
And when we consider Luther - that we are simultaneously saint and sinner
And when we consider Wesley that we are called to ever strive towards perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbor in this life…
It is here that we find a beautiful and convicting truth:
Now - what do we think of when we think of Saints? Most Methodists - or Protestants in general - aren’t too into saints - they think it’s too Catholic-y. Personally, I love reading and learning about the lives of the saints and appreciate the beauty of icons. But that’s one way we think of saints right? As 1.) A Catholic thing that doesn’t concern us and 2.) We think of saints as these...OTHER people, these high and holy people who are just a step below Jesus basically and pretty high for us to reach.
If we are familiar with any specific saints at all we might think of saints like St. Teresa of Avila who spent her whole life in a monastery, praying, subsiding only on the Eucharist, and having visions.
Saints like Mother Teresa, a woman who gave her whole life to ministry of the poor, the least of the least of these, living among them.
Saints like St. Maximilian Kolbe, a franscian friar who offered to die and did die in the place of a stranger in Auschwitz.
Saints like Bishop Oscar Romero who in El Salvador, sided with the oppressed landless poor against an increasingly violent and authoritarian regime - and he also preached to the soldiers who also claimed Christ, telling them they didn’t have to follow orders to kill and torture. He was assassinated while presiding over Holy Communion.
We might even think of individuals who aren’t officially sainted in The Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions but whose lives and service of Christ has offered them near saint-like status.
We might think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. - fitting as tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - a pastor and civil rights activist who fought using non-violent methods for equality across divisions of race, especially for Black Americans.
We might even think of people like Fred Rogers, who’s quiet Protestant faith led him to be an example of kindness and gentleness and what it means to be a neighbor for an entire generation.
These are some of the saints that come first to my mind and they’re like...it seems like they’re up here - you know? And I’m...more here-ish. Like -- Paul says we are all called to be saints? But...well...my life is nothing like this. I am not good at fasting, I live a fairly comfortable life, I am often afraid to stand up for social justice causes - especially as a mother who has children to take care of at home. I have no desire or plan to die a martyr's death.
And yet - Paul says we are called to be Saints -- all who call on the name of Jesus are called to be saints.
Now, in the United Methodist Church, we do observe all Saints Day and recognize those who have led Christian lives, who have shown us the way of Christian living, who have died in the past year. We say their name, ring a bell, and light a candle for them. And while I do think it is helpful to widen the definition of saints as to those who lived their lives as followers of Christ...I think we also relegate this day and sainthood in this sense, to those who have died. And while my life has been deeply touched by saints who have gone before me...I also wonder if we don’t sentimentalize the idea of what it means to be a saint. In our loss, we assign sainthood to others - without the understanding of what it means for us to be called to be saints while we are yet alive in the here and now. Saints are not only these people who we view as having lived extraordinarily holy and selfless lives. And saints are not only the dead. Paul is talking to a church full of ordinary people - ordinary Christians like you and me. You and I. Here and now. While we are yet alive - are called to be saints.
So what does this mean for us?
Martin Luther (not Martin Luther King, Jr the civil rights advocate but Martin Luther the Protestant Reformer) is credited with saying that we are all simultaneously saint and sinner. This is a statement primarily about our identity in God’s eyes. That yes, we are all sinners. We have all failed and fallen short. We have all messed up.
I’ll be honest with you, as I wrote this sermon I was planning on saying, “I don’t think we need much convincing in our world today that are all sinners.” And I wrote that line. And I deleted that line. And I wrote that line. And I deleted that line. I think we are often very aware of what we would call the sin of others without being aware of the sin we are complicit in through action or inaction. What we have done. What we have left undone. It’s the old “speck in your neighbor’s eye, plank in your’s” deal. Part of it might be how we define sin. My go to definition of sin comes from the Greek word for it that is a word about archery - a word that means “missing the mark.” We sin when we miss the mark of loving God and loving neighbor as self. And that’s called...being human. So yes, we are all sinners.
So the question is, how can a messed up sinner, an ordinary human, like you and me, simultaneously be a saint? Luther said: “The saints are sinners, too, but they are forgiven and absolved.” We are ordinary humans, sinners - but because of God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives - we are also saints - capable of so much, restored and made right in God’s eyes - called to live out our lives in light of God’s gifts to us - called to love as God would love - called to be saints.
So, that’s what Luther says about being a saint in this life and this Methodist would agree! And, I think John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, has something else to add to the picture.
One of Welsey’s more controversial theological positions was that Christians can reach perfection in this life. Being perfect in this life does not mean that your life is not without errors or mistakes. Christian perfection means reaching a state of perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbor as self - fulfilling God’s greatest commandment with your whole life. Wesley never claimed this for himself, claiming he may have only met one or two people who reached it in this life...but that isn’t supposed to stop us or deter us from trying to reach Christian Perfection - loving God and loving neighbor as self. We are supposed to ever be on a journey, working on ourselves, working on our relationships - with God and with others - ever trying to reach this state of perfection - ever answering God’s call on our lives to be saints.
So when we consider Paul - that all who call upon Christ’s name are called to be Saints
And when we consider Luther - that we are simultaneously saint and sinner
And when we consider Wesley that we are called to ever strive towards perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbor in this life…
It is here that we find a beautiful and convicting truth:
That we, yes WE are called to “Come and See” the glory and life of Jesus. The way to live. And then WE, yes, WE are called to emulate it. We are not an exception. There is no such thing as “ordinary people” as Christians - our ordinary is a journey to sainthood, to the extraordinary - to invite all to come and see the one who is Jesus, the teacher, the Anointed one, the Messiah, the Lamb Who Takes Away the Sins of the World.
What it means that John declared Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world - is that, through Jesus, we can hit the mark. We can love God and neighbor as self. We can love like Jesus loves. We can be and do better. We can be saints, partners with Jesus for the good of the world, the good of all.
Saints are not those we place up on some pedestal.
Saints are not just those who have died.
Saints are not other people out there, far removed from us.
We - you and me - are saints - are called to be saints.
Saints are ordinary people - human, sinners, too.
Saints are those who live their lives doing the best they can to follow Jesus.
Saints are those who are doing everything they can to reach perfect love of God and neighbor in this life.
So friends, today, proudly take up the title of saint. In a world that is ever divided. In a world that ever seeks to diminish the image of God. In a world where love is so sorely needed…It is never too late, to come and see Jesus, to follow Jesus, to live the life of a saint. Leave from this place, refreshed, renewed and strengthened, to answer God’s call to be saints.
Amen.
What it means that John declared Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world - is that, through Jesus, we can hit the mark. We can love God and neighbor as self. We can love like Jesus loves. We can be and do better. We can be saints, partners with Jesus for the good of the world, the good of all.
Saints are not those we place up on some pedestal.
Saints are not just those who have died.
Saints are not other people out there, far removed from us.
We - you and me - are saints - are called to be saints.
Saints are ordinary people - human, sinners, too.
Saints are those who live their lives doing the best they can to follow Jesus.
Saints are those who are doing everything they can to reach perfect love of God and neighbor in this life.
So friends, today, proudly take up the title of saint. In a world that is ever divided. In a world that ever seeks to diminish the image of God. In a world where love is so sorely needed…It is never too late, to come and see Jesus, to follow Jesus, to live the life of a saint. Leave from this place, refreshed, renewed and strengthened, to answer God’s call to be saints.
Amen.
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Fruit of the Spirit Congregational Hymn Sing - A Three Week Series
This Hymn Sing is in three parts, meant to be a mini "series" over three seperate Sundays. It can be done at any time in the church year and may be perfect for when a minister is taking vacation or renewal leave as it can be lay lead.
Large parts of this Hymn Sing were also inspired by the book Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” by Eugenia Gamble and I highly recommend it as a resource.
Call to Worship:
Leader: As we gather for worship, we pray that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us.
Leader: As we gather for worship, we pray that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us.
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Love.
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Joy.
People: Come Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Peace.
All: Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Amen.
Introduction: Fruit of the Spirit
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” - Galatians 5:22-23
For three weeks we are exploring the Fruit of the Spirit as Paul shares them in Galatians. This is a well-known passage of Scripture - used in children’s songs, Vacation Bible School themes, devotionals. It is worth re-visiting. Because I feel like we often dismiss the Fruit of the Spirit or treat it like a moral character trait checklist that we may or may not have. But the Fruit of the Spirit is not about our character - they are about the character of God.
The Holy Spirit is loving, joyful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control. And because, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you, you also have the seeds of these traits inside of you. When we open ourselves up to let the Holy Spirit take deeper root in our lives, we are capable of bearing the fruit of the Spirit. So that whenever we are the embodiment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are being the embodiment of The Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God.
We are not called to “achieve” these characteristics, like a summit we climb or trophy we win, we are called to make room within us for the Spirit to shine forth and foster growth. This Fruit of the Image of God inside of us - we are capable, through the Spirit, of bearing this fruit. My prayer for us in this series is as Eugenia Gamble says in her book, “Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” that “we can discover anew what it means to be a Spirit-indwelt, deeply loved child in whom God makes God’s home.”
Today we will look at Love, Joy, and Peace.
Let us sing, “The Fruit of the Spirit” (Insert)
https://www.carolynshymns.com/the_fruit_of_the_spirit.html
Love
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”- 1 Corinthians 14:3-7
Love. How does a preacher talk about love? Indeed talking about love is all we ever do as, as 1 John tells us, God is love.
There are many words used for love through the Bible, in the New Testament, agape, is the most common, used over 300 times. During the time of Jesus, agape, was an outdated antiquated word. The followers of Jesus, the writers of Scripture, picked up and dusted off this un-used word to get to the heart of God’s love for us. Agape love is the unconditional, unconquerable love of God for us.
The famous love passage as it’s known from 1 Corinthians 13 is about agape love. While often read at weddings, this passage is not describing love between two humans but it is describing the Love that God has for us. Indeed, it is describing who the God of Love is. You could take every time the passage says “Love” and replace it with “God.”
God is patient; God is kind; God is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It starts to sound a little bit like the Fruit of the Spirit, doesn’t it?
We are called to let God’s agape love change us so that the love of God would transform not just our inner lives but overflow to all those around us - our family, our friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies. This love is more than just a feeling or passion - it is a choice, a muscle that we can learn to engage. The more we are attuned to God’s great agape love for us, the more we accept it, dwell in it, meditate upon it, and let it change us - the easier it comes to draw from the well of love in our treatment, attitudes, and words towards all others.
Perhaps Paul put love first in the list of Fruit of the Spirit because it is primary. After all, God’s two greatest commandments to us, which sum up all the law and the prophets are “Love God” and “Love neighbor as self.” Love is primary. It is the soil through which the rest of the fruit will grow. It is also perhaps the hardest to cultivate. There is much in our world that is antithetical to God’s love: fear, injustice, oppression, violence, apathy, hate…
And yet, and yet. The Light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. The God of Love is the light of the world and we are capable of great love - experiencing the love of God and bearing its fruit.
Let us sing, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 384
Joy
“Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.’” - Luke 2:8-11
Our God is a Joyful God!
Somewhere along the way we lost sight that the Gospel literally means Good News - and it is Good News of Great Joy! Our faith, church, worship has often become a serious, somber affair while perhaps we should be making room for more laughter, more levity, more dancing, more joy.
Now, happiness and joy, when referring to the theological concept of joy, are not synonyms. Happiness is often related to our outer experiences - what happens to us. Joy, on the other hand, is an inner reality that is based on the presence of the God who is Joy living inside of us.
There is an old camp song that has a verse: “I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul. I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul.” A fountain is an apt comparison for the joy that is found within our souls through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Like a fountain, joy does bubble out and burst forth from within us, we can’t contain it. But this isn’t some fountain that is built into concrete and is shallow - no, joy is a fountain that bursts out of a deep body of water. For joy has depth within our souls. And the body of water that the fountain is in is trust in God. What joy is, is deep trust and deep faith. Joy is an undercurrent flowing through our lives, assuring us that, ultimately, everything is going to be alright. That, in the scheme of things, the eternal scheme of things, in the words of Saint Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well. All shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well.” Joy is trusting in the words of Saint Paul in the letter to the Romans that nothing, absolutely NOTHING in this life or in death, can separate us from the love of God. Joy is knowing that we are awash, a float in the deep waters that are God’s love and there is nowhere we can go that we will not be in God’s care. Eugenia Gamble sums up Christian joy like this: “Joy is the result of a deep conviction that, no matter what, God and life are good.”
To help us cultivate joy in our lives, we have to trust that joy has already taken root inside of us because of the presence of a joyful God within us. Meredith Miller says this about joy in her book “Woven:” “Perhaps our hesitancy about joy reveals that we don’t think God actually delights in us, so we can’t imagine a God who is fine with our just plan having a good time.” Just as God delights in us, may we delight in God. Delight in the joy of worship. Delight in the joy of the sacraments. Delight in music and Christian fellowship. Delight in nature and all its wonders. Delight in the noises of small children. Delight in how all of creation points back to a God who is joyful. This delight helps open us up to the Spirit’s joy.
Friends, God loves you. God delights in you. The God who came to bring joy to this world, who holds us in the palm of God’s hands, who was there when we were formed in our mothers’ wombs, will be there when we take our last breath, and will carry us beyond life into eternity has planted the seed of joy within you. Let it burst forth like a fountain.
Let us sing, “Joy to the World,” vs. 1-2, UMH 246
Peace
“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” - John 14:25-27
The word Paul uses for peace is eirene. Gambles defines that word for peace like this: “It refers to harmonious relationships between peoples, between nations, between a person and God, and within all the various aspects of a person that tend to war with each other. It has the connotation of quietness, freedom from oppression, rest, and contentment. It is the word used to describe internal coherence where all the pieces of our lives are knit together to fit into a new whole.” Eirene is the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word Shalom which we know to mean peace but also wholeness.
Our understanding of God’s peace cannot be separated from our understanding of wholeness. To live in peace is to live into the wholeness of the world as God created it and the wholeness of all things that will be restored at the New Creation when God comes to make all things new.
Introduction
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” - Galatians 5:22-23
This is our second week exploring the Fruit of the Spirit as Paul shares them in Galatians. This is a well-known passage of Scripture - used in children’s songs, Vacation Bible School themes, devotionals. It is worth re-visiting. Because I feel like we often dismiss the Fruit of the Spirit or treat it like a moral character trait checklist that we may or may not have. But the Fruit of the Spirit is not about our character - they are about the character of God.
The Holy Spirit is loving, joyful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control. And because, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you, you also have the seeds of these traits inside of you. When we open ourselves up to let the Holy Spirit take deeper root in our lives, we are capable of bearing the fruit of the Spirit. So that whenever we are the embodiment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are being the embodiment of The Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God.
We are not called to “achieve” these characteristics, like a summit we climb or trophy we win, we are called to make room within us for the Spirit to shine forth and foster growth. This Fruit of the Image of God inside of us - we are capable, through the Spirit, of bearing this fruit. My prayer for us in this series is as Eugenia Gamble says in her book, “Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” that “we can discover anew what it means to be a Spirit-indwelt, deeply loved child in whom God makes God’s home.”
Last week we looked at Love, Joy, and Peace. Today we will take a closer look at Patience, Kindness, and Generosity.
Let us sing, “The Fruit of the Spirit” (Insert)
https://www.carolynshymns.com/the_fruit_of_the_spirit.html
Patience
“May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” - Colossians 1:11-12
I feel like it is at this point in the Fruit of the Spirit that I hear a record scratch. Love, Joy, Peace….Patience. Ugh. For many of us, patience is not a strong suit. We live in a culture of instant gratification where even if a webpage takes several seconds to load, it feels like a long time and we can get impatient. Amazon built a whole empire over the promise of two day shipping. We don’t even have to go to a restaurant anymore, it can be dashed to our door. We as a culture are certainly not patient. In fact, the word used here for patience in the Greek also has a connotation of forbearance of even “long-suffering.” Gee. That sounds…fun. (Not)
But put aside our individual and cultural struggles with patience for a minute and consider how this patience, this forbearance, and yes, even this “long-suffering” are attributes of God. It brings to mind the passage in 1 Corinthians when it says Love is slow to anger…the God who is Love is slow to anger. God is patient. God bears with us. For God loves us, God is ever patient, in both caring for the span of humanity across all of time and for waiting for us to come to God. God will never tire of the work of millennia in shepherding God’s people. God will never tire in waiting for you to return to the embrace of God’s arms. God is ever patient.
And through the Spirit that patience is within you as well. How do we tap into this deep well in a world of instant gratification?
Part of practicing patience is making our fuses longer. Just as God is slow to anger - we must be too. Slower to retaliation. Slower to nurse grudges. Slower to judge. We must purposefully slow down to allow God’s ever present Spirit to work within and through us. A story that has always stuck with me was shared by Nadia Bolz Weber in her book “Pastrix.” As a pastor she said there were many times when parishioners came to her angry and threatened to leave the church over what that incident of the week was… She would always say something like, “You are free to leave. But if you do, you will miss out on what happens when the Spirit of God works between us to reconcile us to one another.” If we aren’t patient, if we don’t lengthen our fuses, if we don’t forebear one another…we will miss how the Spirit is at and will be at work in our lives.
Another part of cultivating patience is cultivating the awareness and appreciation of the Now. This Moment. Every moment. Right where we are and what we are doing. And who is with us. And how God is with us now. Right now. Not waiting for what will come next. Not wishing for one more thing to make it right. Not hurrying past what is for what will be.
Patience isn’t just about not hurrying to the future. It is also about not rushing back to the past because the road ahead is long. The Israelites were not long in the desert, freed from the bonds of slavery in Egypt, when they were tired, hungry, and thirsty and they said they should go back to Egypt for while they were enslaved at least they knew where their next meal was coming from. This is so human. God had amazing things planned for them. In God’s eternal, steadfast, patient love - God was already at work in bringing them to the Promised Land - but the Israelites lacked patience.
So can we all, just take a deep breath. Patience can be hard to access in our world that is ever more quick to lash out but we can access it because the Spirit is within us, inviting us to breath deeply, and appreciate the gift of the present moment, trusting that the God who is steadfast and patient in love and commitment for us, is already at work in our lives.
Let us sing, “Take Time to Be Holy,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 395
Kindness
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” - Micah 6:8
The word often translated as kindness in Hebrew is hesed. It’s translated this way in Micah 6:8 where it says: “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Hesed has a deeper meaning beyond kindness as it is often used today. This kindness is not what I call “Southern hospitality” or “Midwest niceness.” This kindness is not simply not saying something rude or hurting people’s feelings - this kindness comes from a steadfast commitment to walk alongside one another with love. In Isaiah this word is used to describe how a mother feeds her nursing infant: “Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” It is most often used to describe an inherent trait of God towards us: Never ceasing to walk alongside us and shower us with loving-kindness.
The Greek word used for kindness in the Fruit of the Spirit has the same connotation. This kindness is one that is full of compassion and usefulness, to support what is good and full of integrity in one’s self, and to lift that up in others.
To say that God is Kind is to say that God is Good, Compassionate, Merciful, Never-Ceasing, Faithful, Loving.
To say that the Fruit of the Spirit of kindness is within us is to say that we have the capacity for that same loving kindness in all of our interactions.
The good thing about kindness is there is no shortage of ways to let it flow through us in this world and in our relationships. The Spirit’s kindness is ever ready to flow through us.
We can express kindness by going to a friend in grief and simply being with them, holding their hand, crying with them, offering support with the weight of the presence of our body.
We can express kindness by paying attention. To what makes people light up. To express little moments of gratitude. Taking the time to give someone your full, undivided, listening presence. Kindness is expressed in seeing the full humanity of all around you. Kindness is expressed in being an encourager, a cheerleader, using words and actions to uplift the goodness and kindness in others. Kindness can also be fierce and courageous action taken to protect another. We must also not forget to be kind to ourselves. We are beloved children of God. There are countless ways to let the kindness of God flow through you to other beloved children of God.
Let us sing, “Jesus’ Hands Were Kind Hands,” UMH 273
Generosity
“For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the favor of partnering in this ministry to the saints, and not as we expected. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you. Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.” - 2 Corinthians 8:3-7
Perhaps you did a double take when you heard “Generosity” instead of “Goodness” in the list of the Fruit of the Spirit - all those old children’s songs have goodness as the word here. The translation of Scripture that is being used for the list of the Fruit of the Spirit is the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition which is generally considered a scholarly translation of high regard. But almost every other translation out there is going to have “Goodness” as the translation instead of “Generosity.”
What does this difference in translation between generosity and goodness, the space between these two words, tell us about the Fruit that the Spirit bears within us?
Both goodness and generosity require openness. Whereas goodness and the aforementioned kindness might seem to overlap in our minds, generosity implies that we take the goodness inside of us, we take the kindness inside of us, and we openly share it with others. We move from that which lies within to that which we share without. In our church we recognize that generosity comes in many forms: generosity of prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Sharing all these things requires and brings forth goodness.
It is good and kind to see the person who is hungry. It is generosity that feeds them. It good and kind to notice the oppressed and marginalized, it is generosity that puts one’s body on the line with them or to give funds to support their cause. It is good and kind to sit with a friend who is sad, it is generosity that keeps showing up time and time again as grief continues.
Generosity allows us to partner with the Goodness and Kindness and Love of God in the world. You might start to realize that all the Fruit of the Spirit are connected to one another. As those in the church of Macedonia were eager to partner with God in ministry by supporting Titus so that it overflowed with generosity, when the Spirit abides in us, we too can become eager to give all that we can to partner with God for the all Good that can be done in this world.
It is as the famous quote attributed to John Wesley goes: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Goodness is about how we choose to use what we have -- our resources, yes; our time, yes; our talents, yes. The goodness and kindness given to us by God, yes. Generosity requires action from us - it will not just happen, we have to choose to follow the Spirit’s leading, to open our hearts, move our hands and feet - and generously share God’s goodness with others.
Our next hymn will be our final song as part of our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing today. Next week we will engage three more Fruit of the Spirit.
Let us sing, “Take My Life, and Let It Be,” vs. 1-2, UMH 399
Fruit of the Spirit Congregational Hymn Sing - Part 3
Introduction
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” - Galatians 5:22-23
This is our third and final week exploring the Fruit of the Spirit as Paul shares them in Galatians. This is a well-known passage of Scripture - used in children’s songs, Vacation Bible School themes, devotionals. It is worth re-visiting. Because I feel like we often dismiss the Fruit of the Spirit or treat it like a moral character trait checklist that we may or may not have. But the Fruit of the Spirit is not about our character - they are about the character of God.
The Holy Spirit is loving, joyful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control. And because, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you, you also have the seeds of these traits inside of you. When we open ourselves up to let the Holy Spirit take deeper root in our lives, we are capable of bearing the fruit of the Spirit. So that whenever we are the embodiment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are being the embodiment of The Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God.
We are not called to “achieve” these characteristics, like a summit we climb or trophy we win, we are called to make room within us for the Spirit to shine forth and foster growth. This Fruit of the Image of God inside of us - we are capable, through the Spirit, of bearing this fruit. My prayer for us in this series is as Eugenia Gamble says in her book, “Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” that “we can discover anew what it means to be a Spirit-indwelt, deeply loved child in whom God makes God’s home.”
Over the last two weeks we have looked at Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, and Generosity. Today we will finish this series by taking a deeper look at Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Let us sing, “The Fruit of the Spirit” (Insert)
https://www.carolynshymns.com/the_fruit_of_the_spirit.html
Faithfulness
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
For the first things have passed away.’” - Revelation 21:1-4
We often think about faithfulness as us being full of faith, in that we are full of the right beliefs about God. I would ask us to consider instead, what it means for God to be faithful. Not a faithfulness of a theology checklist but a faithfulness of unceasing commitment. I often describe the drumbeat of the Old Testament and really the whole Bible as it says in Exodus 6 and other places in the Bible, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God’s faithfulness means that God is always working to draw God’s children into God’s embrace. Through making a way of out of no way, from the Exodus in Egypt, to the law, to the cries of the Prophets to “return to God,” to Jesus coming so that we would have relationship with God, to that relationship being open to all peoples - a new covenant of water and the Spirit.
“We can trust God that God is always going to be faithful to God’s creation. God has told us how all this, all of creation will end in that vision from Revelation 21 where there is a new heaven and a new earth and there is no more pain, no more crying, no more death. God and humans dwell together and all things are made right, all things are restored.
We can trust God. God is faithful. It is as Saint Julian of Norwich said, “All shall be well. All shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well.” (Which we talked about when we talked about Joy - it’s amazing to see how all of the Fruit of the Spirit are connected to one another.)
God is faithful to us in all circumstances. Even when our love fails, God’s love remains steadfast. Because God is faithful to us - we have the capacity to be faithful to God. We won’t always get it right - and yet, we can trust God and reflect the fruit of faithfulness.
What does it mean for us to be faithful? It means for us to be humble before God and realize how much we need God. We are not self-reliant. We are not independent beings. We need God and God’s goodness in our lives. We need to put aside our own egos and desires, to listen carefully to the kind of life God is calling us to live - a life that bears the fruit of the Spirit. Our faith deepens the more we trust in God’s faithfulness to us and to all of God’s creations. When we trust that God is always holding us in God’s hands - we can ask questions of our faith, we can be bold in service, we can take big leaps to go where God is calling us. To be faithful is to trust that God is God and faithful to all of humanity - that God is offering us a deep well of grace and love, and when we drink from that well, we are called to let that living water, that grace and love, overflow to ourselves and all others in our lives. The details of what faithfulness looks like will be different for each of us - but at it’s core it will be the same - do we trust in God’s faithfulness? Does that trust cause us to follow God that through our actions and the goodness of God that shines through us, others will come to trust in God too?
Let us sing, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” vs. 1 & 3, UMH 140
Gentleness
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.” - Psalm 23:1-3
This may be the most mystifying of the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul writes about. Gamble says this about the Greek word used for gentleness: “Prautes in ordinary Greek is the word used for an animal that has been brought under control, trusts the leader, and therefore can relax in the feeling of security and knowing its place in things.”
In this series on the Fruit of the Spirit we have talked a lot about God’s goodness and a lot about trust. Not to be labor a point but it all comes back to this - God is GOOD. And we can trust that God is good.
Have you ever had an animal, a pet, sleeping at your feet? A dog or a cat that is totally relaxed, safe, the literal definition of warm and fuzzy because that pet knows that their owner loves them, cares for them, and will always watch out for them?
This is the fruit of gentleness - we are the animal at the feet of God. The cat, the dog, or perhaps even the sheep sleeping at the feet of the Good Shepherd.
This is the same word used in the Beatitudes when Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Gentleness and meek are the same Greek word. The Common English Translation translated meek as “humble” but they have a similar connotation here.
When we trust in God’s goodness, we can humble ourselves before God, following God’s will, God’s way - which is a way of gentleness. Jesus was the lamb who was led to the slaughter. The Good Shepherd who guides sheep besides still water. The teacher who taught us to turn our cheeks and walk the second mile.
The thing is, our world will harden us. The gentle and the meek are seen as pushovers. People to take advantage of. We may feel we have to harden our hearts and toughen our skin just to survive in this world… We need to be reminded that gentleness can be a kind of strength too. To hold on to the absolute core that God is good in a world filled with violence, hatred, trauma, death, senseless…it takes strength. It takes resolve. It takes trust and a deep, meaningful relationship with God that is regularly tended.
Gentleness in a decidedly not gentle world can also be an asset. Without it, we will sink into despair and become a part of the injustices of the world. A spirit of gentleness allows us to hold tight to God, to get a bird’s eye perspective that God is in charge, and leaves our hearts open to God and to one another.
Before we sing our hymn, I just want to return to that beautiful imagery of gentleness that is a loving and loved pet falling asleep at their master’s feet…may we be so at peace with our good God.
Let us sing, “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH 351
Self-Control
“For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. 8 For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 2 Peter 1:5-8
It is appropriate to end our three week series on the Fruit of the Spirit - or perhaps we could say it was appropriate for Paul to end his list of the Fruit of the Spirit - with self-control. Self-control in the spiritual sense is not about setting a strict schedule, waking up at the same time every morning, keeping a good workout routine or anything like that. Self-control as a Fruit of the Spirit is consistently making choices that are consistent with our and God’s highest values.
In other words, are we choosing to live lives that tend the Fruit of the Spirit? Are all our decisions reflecting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness? Perhaps exercising self-control is the opposite of being a hypocrite - our words, our actions, our hearts, our minds, and our souls are aligned. Not only are they in alignment within us - but they are in alignment with God as well.
This is, of course, easier said than done. I think it’s why Paul resonates with us so much when he says in Romans: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” For it’s easy to choose, well - the easy way. The way of anger, of lashing out, of self-service, greed, selfishness, jealousy, quarreling, envy, gossip…all those “ways of the flesh” that Paul warns about. We could also call it what it is, sin. A go-to definition of sin means to miss the mark. The mark is love of God and love of neighbor as self. So anytime we fail to love or our actions are actively non-loving, that is a sin. Another definition of sin that I recently heard is that sin is whatever stops the spirit's work within us. The Spirit’s work within us is bearing the fruit of the spirit.
And that’s where self-control comes in. The Spirit who resides within us, gives us the ability to hold fast to what is good and what is right and what is true. And when we fail, because we were human, we are offered forgiveness and the chance to try again.
Self-control is about letting everything in one’s life reflect the love of God. Self-control is about bearing fruit.
And so, friends, as we bring to an end this series on the Fruit of the Spirit, let us remember that the Fruit are just as much about who God is as they are about what we are called to be - for we are called to become Christlike and Spirit-filled.
Each and everyone of you here has the capacity, the ability, to abide in the Spirit and bear good fruit - fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
May it be so, Amen.
Let us sing, “Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” UMH 420
Introduction: Fruit of the Spirit
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” - Galatians 5:22-23
For three weeks we are exploring the Fruit of the Spirit as Paul shares them in Galatians. This is a well-known passage of Scripture - used in children’s songs, Vacation Bible School themes, devotionals. It is worth re-visiting. Because I feel like we often dismiss the Fruit of the Spirit or treat it like a moral character trait checklist that we may or may not have. But the Fruit of the Spirit is not about our character - they are about the character of God.
The Holy Spirit is loving, joyful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control. And because, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you, you also have the seeds of these traits inside of you. When we open ourselves up to let the Holy Spirit take deeper root in our lives, we are capable of bearing the fruit of the Spirit. So that whenever we are the embodiment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are being the embodiment of The Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God.
We are not called to “achieve” these characteristics, like a summit we climb or trophy we win, we are called to make room within us for the Spirit to shine forth and foster growth. This Fruit of the Image of God inside of us - we are capable, through the Spirit, of bearing this fruit. My prayer for us in this series is as Eugenia Gamble says in her book, “Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” that “we can discover anew what it means to be a Spirit-indwelt, deeply loved child in whom God makes God’s home.”
Today we will look at Love, Joy, and Peace.
Let us sing, “The Fruit of the Spirit” (Insert)
https://www.carolynshymns.com/the_fruit_of_the_spirit.html
Love
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”- 1 Corinthians 14:3-7
Love. How does a preacher talk about love? Indeed talking about love is all we ever do as, as 1 John tells us, God is love.
There are many words used for love through the Bible, in the New Testament, agape, is the most common, used over 300 times. During the time of Jesus, agape, was an outdated antiquated word. The followers of Jesus, the writers of Scripture, picked up and dusted off this un-used word to get to the heart of God’s love for us. Agape love is the unconditional, unconquerable love of God for us.
The famous love passage as it’s known from 1 Corinthians 13 is about agape love. While often read at weddings, this passage is not describing love between two humans but it is describing the Love that God has for us. Indeed, it is describing who the God of Love is. You could take every time the passage says “Love” and replace it with “God.”
God is patient; God is kind; God is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It starts to sound a little bit like the Fruit of the Spirit, doesn’t it?
We are called to let God’s agape love change us so that the love of God would transform not just our inner lives but overflow to all those around us - our family, our friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies. This love is more than just a feeling or passion - it is a choice, a muscle that we can learn to engage. The more we are attuned to God’s great agape love for us, the more we accept it, dwell in it, meditate upon it, and let it change us - the easier it comes to draw from the well of love in our treatment, attitudes, and words towards all others.
Perhaps Paul put love first in the list of Fruit of the Spirit because it is primary. After all, God’s two greatest commandments to us, which sum up all the law and the prophets are “Love God” and “Love neighbor as self.” Love is primary. It is the soil through which the rest of the fruit will grow. It is also perhaps the hardest to cultivate. There is much in our world that is antithetical to God’s love: fear, injustice, oppression, violence, apathy, hate…
And yet, and yet. The Light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. The God of Love is the light of the world and we are capable of great love - experiencing the love of God and bearing its fruit.
Let us sing, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 384
Joy
“Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.’” - Luke 2:8-11
Our God is a Joyful God!
Somewhere along the way we lost sight that the Gospel literally means Good News - and it is Good News of Great Joy! Our faith, church, worship has often become a serious, somber affair while perhaps we should be making room for more laughter, more levity, more dancing, more joy.
Now, happiness and joy, when referring to the theological concept of joy, are not synonyms. Happiness is often related to our outer experiences - what happens to us. Joy, on the other hand, is an inner reality that is based on the presence of the God who is Joy living inside of us.
There is an old camp song that has a verse: “I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul. I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul.” A fountain is an apt comparison for the joy that is found within our souls through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Like a fountain, joy does bubble out and burst forth from within us, we can’t contain it. But this isn’t some fountain that is built into concrete and is shallow - no, joy is a fountain that bursts out of a deep body of water. For joy has depth within our souls. And the body of water that the fountain is in is trust in God. What joy is, is deep trust and deep faith. Joy is an undercurrent flowing through our lives, assuring us that, ultimately, everything is going to be alright. That, in the scheme of things, the eternal scheme of things, in the words of Saint Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well. All shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well.” Joy is trusting in the words of Saint Paul in the letter to the Romans that nothing, absolutely NOTHING in this life or in death, can separate us from the love of God. Joy is knowing that we are awash, a float in the deep waters that are God’s love and there is nowhere we can go that we will not be in God’s care. Eugenia Gamble sums up Christian joy like this: “Joy is the result of a deep conviction that, no matter what, God and life are good.”
To help us cultivate joy in our lives, we have to trust that joy has already taken root inside of us because of the presence of a joyful God within us. Meredith Miller says this about joy in her book “Woven:” “Perhaps our hesitancy about joy reveals that we don’t think God actually delights in us, so we can’t imagine a God who is fine with our just plan having a good time.” Just as God delights in us, may we delight in God. Delight in the joy of worship. Delight in the joy of the sacraments. Delight in music and Christian fellowship. Delight in nature and all its wonders. Delight in the noises of small children. Delight in how all of creation points back to a God who is joyful. This delight helps open us up to the Spirit’s joy.
Friends, God loves you. God delights in you. The God who came to bring joy to this world, who holds us in the palm of God’s hands, who was there when we were formed in our mothers’ wombs, will be there when we take our last breath, and will carry us beyond life into eternity has planted the seed of joy within you. Let it burst forth like a fountain.
Let us sing, “Joy to the World,” vs. 1-2, UMH 246
Peace
“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” - John 14:25-27
The word Paul uses for peace is eirene. Gambles defines that word for peace like this: “It refers to harmonious relationships between peoples, between nations, between a person and God, and within all the various aspects of a person that tend to war with each other. It has the connotation of quietness, freedom from oppression, rest, and contentment. It is the word used to describe internal coherence where all the pieces of our lives are knit together to fit into a new whole.” Eirene is the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word Shalom which we know to mean peace but also wholeness.
Our understanding of God’s peace cannot be separated from our understanding of wholeness. To live in peace is to live into the wholeness of the world as God created it and the wholeness of all things that will be restored at the New Creation when God comes to make all things new.
But how, in our world that has been broken by sin, do we live into this wholeness of peace now?
We must let the God of Shalom weave together an inner peace of contentment, calm, acceptance, and wholeness in our souls. And while that may be easy enough to say, we know that it is not an easy task while living in contexts that are anything but peaceful. For as long as we look for the answer to our peace outside the Spirit’s presence within us, we will not find it.
We must do the hard inner work of, together with the Spirit, of healing our own inner hurts, wounds, egos, resentments, and anything that holds us back from the inner peace given as a gift from God. Through a lifetime of doing this inner work, we will catch glimpses of the wholeness that God desires for each and every one of us.
This work does not need to be completed to be a proponent for peace in our larger world but it is inner work we need to be engaged in for the good of ourselves and the whole world. We let the God of peace work within us, trusting in God’s vision of wholeness not just for our own lives but for all of creation, so that, grounded in the peace of God, we would become the blessed peacemakers that Jesus preaches about in the Sermon on the Mount “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.”. That the peace that the Spirit has wrought within us, would be a peace that we would partner with the Spirit, to bring to the world.
Our next hymn will be our final song as part of our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing today. Next week we will engage three more Fruit of the Spirit.
Let us sing, “Let There Be Peace on Earth,’ UMH 431
Fruit of the Spirit Congregational Hymn Sing - Part 2
We must let the God of Shalom weave together an inner peace of contentment, calm, acceptance, and wholeness in our souls. And while that may be easy enough to say, we know that it is not an easy task while living in contexts that are anything but peaceful. For as long as we look for the answer to our peace outside the Spirit’s presence within us, we will not find it.
We must do the hard inner work of, together with the Spirit, of healing our own inner hurts, wounds, egos, resentments, and anything that holds us back from the inner peace given as a gift from God. Through a lifetime of doing this inner work, we will catch glimpses of the wholeness that God desires for each and every one of us.
This work does not need to be completed to be a proponent for peace in our larger world but it is inner work we need to be engaged in for the good of ourselves and the whole world. We let the God of peace work within us, trusting in God’s vision of wholeness not just for our own lives but for all of creation, so that, grounded in the peace of God, we would become the blessed peacemakers that Jesus preaches about in the Sermon on the Mount “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.”. That the peace that the Spirit has wrought within us, would be a peace that we would partner with the Spirit, to bring to the world.
Our next hymn will be our final song as part of our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing today. Next week we will engage three more Fruit of the Spirit.
Let us sing, “Let There Be Peace on Earth,’ UMH 431
Fruit of the Spirit Congregational Hymn Sing - Part 2
Call to Worship:
Leader: As we gather for worship, we pray that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us.
Leader: As we gather for worship, we pray that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us.
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Patience.
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Kindness.
People: Come Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Generosity.
All: Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Amen.
Introduction
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” - Galatians 5:22-23
This is our second week exploring the Fruit of the Spirit as Paul shares them in Galatians. This is a well-known passage of Scripture - used in children’s songs, Vacation Bible School themes, devotionals. It is worth re-visiting. Because I feel like we often dismiss the Fruit of the Spirit or treat it like a moral character trait checklist that we may or may not have. But the Fruit of the Spirit is not about our character - they are about the character of God.
The Holy Spirit is loving, joyful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control. And because, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you, you also have the seeds of these traits inside of you. When we open ourselves up to let the Holy Spirit take deeper root in our lives, we are capable of bearing the fruit of the Spirit. So that whenever we are the embodiment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are being the embodiment of The Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God.
We are not called to “achieve” these characteristics, like a summit we climb or trophy we win, we are called to make room within us for the Spirit to shine forth and foster growth. This Fruit of the Image of God inside of us - we are capable, through the Spirit, of bearing this fruit. My prayer for us in this series is as Eugenia Gamble says in her book, “Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” that “we can discover anew what it means to be a Spirit-indwelt, deeply loved child in whom God makes God’s home.”
Last week we looked at Love, Joy, and Peace. Today we will take a closer look at Patience, Kindness, and Generosity.
Let us sing, “The Fruit of the Spirit” (Insert)
https://www.carolynshymns.com/the_fruit_of_the_spirit.html
Patience
“May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” - Colossians 1:11-12
I feel like it is at this point in the Fruit of the Spirit that I hear a record scratch. Love, Joy, Peace….Patience. Ugh. For many of us, patience is not a strong suit. We live in a culture of instant gratification where even if a webpage takes several seconds to load, it feels like a long time and we can get impatient. Amazon built a whole empire over the promise of two day shipping. We don’t even have to go to a restaurant anymore, it can be dashed to our door. We as a culture are certainly not patient. In fact, the word used here for patience in the Greek also has a connotation of forbearance of even “long-suffering.” Gee. That sounds…fun. (Not)
But put aside our individual and cultural struggles with patience for a minute and consider how this patience, this forbearance, and yes, even this “long-suffering” are attributes of God. It brings to mind the passage in 1 Corinthians when it says Love is slow to anger…the God who is Love is slow to anger. God is patient. God bears with us. For God loves us, God is ever patient, in both caring for the span of humanity across all of time and for waiting for us to come to God. God will never tire of the work of millennia in shepherding God’s people. God will never tire in waiting for you to return to the embrace of God’s arms. God is ever patient.
And through the Spirit that patience is within you as well. How do we tap into this deep well in a world of instant gratification?
Part of practicing patience is making our fuses longer. Just as God is slow to anger - we must be too. Slower to retaliation. Slower to nurse grudges. Slower to judge. We must purposefully slow down to allow God’s ever present Spirit to work within and through us. A story that has always stuck with me was shared by Nadia Bolz Weber in her book “Pastrix.” As a pastor she said there were many times when parishioners came to her angry and threatened to leave the church over what that incident of the week was… She would always say something like, “You are free to leave. But if you do, you will miss out on what happens when the Spirit of God works between us to reconcile us to one another.” If we aren’t patient, if we don’t lengthen our fuses, if we don’t forebear one another…we will miss how the Spirit is at and will be at work in our lives.
Another part of cultivating patience is cultivating the awareness and appreciation of the Now. This Moment. Every moment. Right where we are and what we are doing. And who is with us. And how God is with us now. Right now. Not waiting for what will come next. Not wishing for one more thing to make it right. Not hurrying past what is for what will be.
Patience isn’t just about not hurrying to the future. It is also about not rushing back to the past because the road ahead is long. The Israelites were not long in the desert, freed from the bonds of slavery in Egypt, when they were tired, hungry, and thirsty and they said they should go back to Egypt for while they were enslaved at least they knew where their next meal was coming from. This is so human. God had amazing things planned for them. In God’s eternal, steadfast, patient love - God was already at work in bringing them to the Promised Land - but the Israelites lacked patience.
So can we all, just take a deep breath. Patience can be hard to access in our world that is ever more quick to lash out but we can access it because the Spirit is within us, inviting us to breath deeply, and appreciate the gift of the present moment, trusting that the God who is steadfast and patient in love and commitment for us, is already at work in our lives.
Let us sing, “Take Time to Be Holy,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 395
Kindness
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” - Micah 6:8
The word often translated as kindness in Hebrew is hesed. It’s translated this way in Micah 6:8 where it says: “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Hesed has a deeper meaning beyond kindness as it is often used today. This kindness is not what I call “Southern hospitality” or “Midwest niceness.” This kindness is not simply not saying something rude or hurting people’s feelings - this kindness comes from a steadfast commitment to walk alongside one another with love. In Isaiah this word is used to describe how a mother feeds her nursing infant: “Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” It is most often used to describe an inherent trait of God towards us: Never ceasing to walk alongside us and shower us with loving-kindness.
The Greek word used for kindness in the Fruit of the Spirit has the same connotation. This kindness is one that is full of compassion and usefulness, to support what is good and full of integrity in one’s self, and to lift that up in others.
To say that God is Kind is to say that God is Good, Compassionate, Merciful, Never-Ceasing, Faithful, Loving.
To say that the Fruit of the Spirit of kindness is within us is to say that we have the capacity for that same loving kindness in all of our interactions.
The good thing about kindness is there is no shortage of ways to let it flow through us in this world and in our relationships. The Spirit’s kindness is ever ready to flow through us.
We can express kindness by going to a friend in grief and simply being with them, holding their hand, crying with them, offering support with the weight of the presence of our body.
We can express kindness by paying attention. To what makes people light up. To express little moments of gratitude. Taking the time to give someone your full, undivided, listening presence. Kindness is expressed in seeing the full humanity of all around you. Kindness is expressed in being an encourager, a cheerleader, using words and actions to uplift the goodness and kindness in others. Kindness can also be fierce and courageous action taken to protect another. We must also not forget to be kind to ourselves. We are beloved children of God. There are countless ways to let the kindness of God flow through you to other beloved children of God.
Let us sing, “Jesus’ Hands Were Kind Hands,” UMH 273
Generosity
“For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the favor of partnering in this ministry to the saints, and not as we expected. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you. Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.” - 2 Corinthians 8:3-7
Perhaps you did a double take when you heard “Generosity” instead of “Goodness” in the list of the Fruit of the Spirit - all those old children’s songs have goodness as the word here. The translation of Scripture that is being used for the list of the Fruit of the Spirit is the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition which is generally considered a scholarly translation of high regard. But almost every other translation out there is going to have “Goodness” as the translation instead of “Generosity.”
What does this difference in translation between generosity and goodness, the space between these two words, tell us about the Fruit that the Spirit bears within us?
Both goodness and generosity require openness. Whereas goodness and the aforementioned kindness might seem to overlap in our minds, generosity implies that we take the goodness inside of us, we take the kindness inside of us, and we openly share it with others. We move from that which lies within to that which we share without. In our church we recognize that generosity comes in many forms: generosity of prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Sharing all these things requires and brings forth goodness.
It is good and kind to see the person who is hungry. It is generosity that feeds them. It good and kind to notice the oppressed and marginalized, it is generosity that puts one’s body on the line with them or to give funds to support their cause. It is good and kind to sit with a friend who is sad, it is generosity that keeps showing up time and time again as grief continues.
Generosity allows us to partner with the Goodness and Kindness and Love of God in the world. You might start to realize that all the Fruit of the Spirit are connected to one another. As those in the church of Macedonia were eager to partner with God in ministry by supporting Titus so that it overflowed with generosity, when the Spirit abides in us, we too can become eager to give all that we can to partner with God for the all Good that can be done in this world.
It is as the famous quote attributed to John Wesley goes: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Goodness is about how we choose to use what we have -- our resources, yes; our time, yes; our talents, yes. The goodness and kindness given to us by God, yes. Generosity requires action from us - it will not just happen, we have to choose to follow the Spirit’s leading, to open our hearts, move our hands and feet - and generously share God’s goodness with others.
Our next hymn will be our final song as part of our Fruit of the Spirit hymn sing today. Next week we will engage three more Fruit of the Spirit.
Let us sing, “Take My Life, and Let It Be,” vs. 1-2, UMH 399
Fruit of the Spirit Congregational Hymn Sing - Part 3
Call to Worship:
Leader: As we gather for worship, we pray that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us.
Leader: As we gather for worship, we pray that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us.
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Faithfulness.
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Gentleness.
People: Come Holy Spirit!
Leader: May we bear the fruit of Self-Control.
All: Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Amen.
Introduction
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” - Galatians 5:22-23
This is our third and final week exploring the Fruit of the Spirit as Paul shares them in Galatians. This is a well-known passage of Scripture - used in children’s songs, Vacation Bible School themes, devotionals. It is worth re-visiting. Because I feel like we often dismiss the Fruit of the Spirit or treat it like a moral character trait checklist that we may or may not have. But the Fruit of the Spirit is not about our character - they are about the character of God.
The Holy Spirit is loving, joyful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control. And because, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you, you also have the seeds of these traits inside of you. When we open ourselves up to let the Holy Spirit take deeper root in our lives, we are capable of bearing the fruit of the Spirit. So that whenever we are the embodiment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are being the embodiment of The Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God.
We are not called to “achieve” these characteristics, like a summit we climb or trophy we win, we are called to make room within us for the Spirit to shine forth and foster growth. This Fruit of the Image of God inside of us - we are capable, through the Spirit, of bearing this fruit. My prayer for us in this series is as Eugenia Gamble says in her book, “Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit” that “we can discover anew what it means to be a Spirit-indwelt, deeply loved child in whom God makes God’s home.”
Over the last two weeks we have looked at Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, and Generosity. Today we will finish this series by taking a deeper look at Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Let us sing, “The Fruit of the Spirit” (Insert)
https://www.carolynshymns.com/the_fruit_of_the_spirit.html
Faithfulness
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
For the first things have passed away.’” - Revelation 21:1-4
We often think about faithfulness as us being full of faith, in that we are full of the right beliefs about God. I would ask us to consider instead, what it means for God to be faithful. Not a faithfulness of a theology checklist but a faithfulness of unceasing commitment. I often describe the drumbeat of the Old Testament and really the whole Bible as it says in Exodus 6 and other places in the Bible, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God’s faithfulness means that God is always working to draw God’s children into God’s embrace. Through making a way of out of no way, from the Exodus in Egypt, to the law, to the cries of the Prophets to “return to God,” to Jesus coming so that we would have relationship with God, to that relationship being open to all peoples - a new covenant of water and the Spirit.
“We can trust God that God is always going to be faithful to God’s creation. God has told us how all this, all of creation will end in that vision from Revelation 21 where there is a new heaven and a new earth and there is no more pain, no more crying, no more death. God and humans dwell together and all things are made right, all things are restored.
We can trust God. God is faithful. It is as Saint Julian of Norwich said, “All shall be well. All shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well.” (Which we talked about when we talked about Joy - it’s amazing to see how all of the Fruit of the Spirit are connected to one another.)
God is faithful to us in all circumstances. Even when our love fails, God’s love remains steadfast. Because God is faithful to us - we have the capacity to be faithful to God. We won’t always get it right - and yet, we can trust God and reflect the fruit of faithfulness.
What does it mean for us to be faithful? It means for us to be humble before God and realize how much we need God. We are not self-reliant. We are not independent beings. We need God and God’s goodness in our lives. We need to put aside our own egos and desires, to listen carefully to the kind of life God is calling us to live - a life that bears the fruit of the Spirit. Our faith deepens the more we trust in God’s faithfulness to us and to all of God’s creations. When we trust that God is always holding us in God’s hands - we can ask questions of our faith, we can be bold in service, we can take big leaps to go where God is calling us. To be faithful is to trust that God is God and faithful to all of humanity - that God is offering us a deep well of grace and love, and when we drink from that well, we are called to let that living water, that grace and love, overflow to ourselves and all others in our lives. The details of what faithfulness looks like will be different for each of us - but at it’s core it will be the same - do we trust in God’s faithfulness? Does that trust cause us to follow God that through our actions and the goodness of God that shines through us, others will come to trust in God too?
Let us sing, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” vs. 1 & 3, UMH 140
Gentleness
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.” - Psalm 23:1-3
This may be the most mystifying of the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul writes about. Gamble says this about the Greek word used for gentleness: “Prautes in ordinary Greek is the word used for an animal that has been brought under control, trusts the leader, and therefore can relax in the feeling of security and knowing its place in things.”
In this series on the Fruit of the Spirit we have talked a lot about God’s goodness and a lot about trust. Not to be labor a point but it all comes back to this - God is GOOD. And we can trust that God is good.
Have you ever had an animal, a pet, sleeping at your feet? A dog or a cat that is totally relaxed, safe, the literal definition of warm and fuzzy because that pet knows that their owner loves them, cares for them, and will always watch out for them?
This is the fruit of gentleness - we are the animal at the feet of God. The cat, the dog, or perhaps even the sheep sleeping at the feet of the Good Shepherd.
This is the same word used in the Beatitudes when Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Gentleness and meek are the same Greek word. The Common English Translation translated meek as “humble” but they have a similar connotation here.
When we trust in God’s goodness, we can humble ourselves before God, following God’s will, God’s way - which is a way of gentleness. Jesus was the lamb who was led to the slaughter. The Good Shepherd who guides sheep besides still water. The teacher who taught us to turn our cheeks and walk the second mile.
The thing is, our world will harden us. The gentle and the meek are seen as pushovers. People to take advantage of. We may feel we have to harden our hearts and toughen our skin just to survive in this world… We need to be reminded that gentleness can be a kind of strength too. To hold on to the absolute core that God is good in a world filled with violence, hatred, trauma, death, senseless…it takes strength. It takes resolve. It takes trust and a deep, meaningful relationship with God that is regularly tended.
Gentleness in a decidedly not gentle world can also be an asset. Without it, we will sink into despair and become a part of the injustices of the world. A spirit of gentleness allows us to hold tight to God, to get a bird’s eye perspective that God is in charge, and leaves our hearts open to God and to one another.
Before we sing our hymn, I just want to return to that beautiful imagery of gentleness that is a loving and loved pet falling asleep at their master’s feet…may we be so at peace with our good God.
Let us sing, “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH 351
Self-Control
“For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. 8 For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 2 Peter 1:5-8
It is appropriate to end our three week series on the Fruit of the Spirit - or perhaps we could say it was appropriate for Paul to end his list of the Fruit of the Spirit - with self-control. Self-control in the spiritual sense is not about setting a strict schedule, waking up at the same time every morning, keeping a good workout routine or anything like that. Self-control as a Fruit of the Spirit is consistently making choices that are consistent with our and God’s highest values.
In other words, are we choosing to live lives that tend the Fruit of the Spirit? Are all our decisions reflecting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness? Perhaps exercising self-control is the opposite of being a hypocrite - our words, our actions, our hearts, our minds, and our souls are aligned. Not only are they in alignment within us - but they are in alignment with God as well.
This is, of course, easier said than done. I think it’s why Paul resonates with us so much when he says in Romans: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” For it’s easy to choose, well - the easy way. The way of anger, of lashing out, of self-service, greed, selfishness, jealousy, quarreling, envy, gossip…all those “ways of the flesh” that Paul warns about. We could also call it what it is, sin. A go-to definition of sin means to miss the mark. The mark is love of God and love of neighbor as self. So anytime we fail to love or our actions are actively non-loving, that is a sin. Another definition of sin that I recently heard is that sin is whatever stops the spirit's work within us. The Spirit’s work within us is bearing the fruit of the spirit.
And that’s where self-control comes in. The Spirit who resides within us, gives us the ability to hold fast to what is good and what is right and what is true. And when we fail, because we were human, we are offered forgiveness and the chance to try again.
Self-control is about letting everything in one’s life reflect the love of God. Self-control is about bearing fruit.
And so, friends, as we bring to an end this series on the Fruit of the Spirit, let us remember that the Fruit are just as much about who God is as they are about what we are called to be - for we are called to become Christlike and Spirit-filled.
Each and everyone of you here has the capacity, the ability, to abide in the Spirit and bear good fruit - fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
May it be so, Amen.
Let us sing, “Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” UMH 420
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
“What Does The Lord Require of You?” Congregational Hymn Sing
This hymn sing can be used when Micah 6:8 is in the lectionary (4th Sunday after Epiphany, Year A) or at any time in the church year.
“What Does The Lord Require of You?” Congregational Hymn Sing
Introduction: “What does the Lord Require of You?
“With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God? - Micah 6:6-8
What does the Lord require of you?
What do I have to do, what do we have to do, to make things right with God?
What can I do to possibly please God?
To make it so that I deserve God’s loving kindness?
So ask the people of God in the book of Micah. In this passage today they are using extreme hyperbole. They start with a modest offering: a burnt offering, a calf - and then it drastically increases: thousands of rams, then ten thousand rivers of oil - or even a beloved first born. It sounds abhorrent to our modern ears but there were many ancient cultures that practiced child sacrifice.
These questions raised in Micah echo throughout Scripture. As Christians and adherents to the New Testament we believe that God sent Jesus so that might be saved through his grace, justified, and made right with God. Paul echoes this sentiment throughout his letters that there is nothing we can ever possibly do to earn God’s love and forgiveness - Christ has already done that for us! We are already loved and grace is freely given. We could never do enough, never offer up enough, never sacrifice enough to make it so that we have earned our salvation, made ourselves worthy of God’s love. We will always fall short. But that’s the Good News! God’s grace is offered to us - unmerited, undeserved - and yet - still given.
And yet as Scripture so wisely states in the book of James, faith without works is dead. And while God’s love and grace are freely given, we are called to be transformed by that love and grace, made more holy, more like God, through love of God and love of neighbor as self.
The question raised in Micah 6:8 - “What does the Lord require of us?” is not the question of what we need to do as a part of a transactional salvation - it is a question of what our lives, forgiven through the grace of Jesus Christ, should be transformed to look like.
And so what does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Let us sing “What Does the Lord Require of You?,” FWS 2174
Do Justice
“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” - Luke 4:16-21
In order to understand what it means to do justice, we must first understand what it means when we say that our God is a Just God. When we talk about the justice of God, that is not a justice of punishment or retribution. It is not a justice that is concerned with human laws, our courts, our prisons, and our “justice system.” It is not a vigilante justice, like some superhero who pursues their own justice.
God being Just means that when God sees the world get off track, sees injustices, God works and calls us to work alongside God, to make things right again. Right as in how God created the world to be before sin entered it.
Examples of God’s justice in Scripture include God leading the people out slavery in Egypt. God saw people enslaved, humans owning other humans, and saw how unjust it was. How wrong. And so God worked through ordinary people, like Moses and Miriam, to lead them out of Egypt and to break the bonds of slavery.
Now, after leading the Israelites out of slavery, we have these books of the Bible that we refer to as the Law - Leviticus and Deuteronomy and really books we struggle to read straight through because we don’t get them all. But in those books God issues the decree of Jubilee. Every fiftieth year there is a reset where things are made right - where all people rest, lands return to original owners (such as those who may have had to sell them because they fell on hard times), and any enslaved people were also to be made free.
Meredith Miller, the author of the book Woven, puts it like this: “It’s as simple as this: Our God is an Exodus God, so we will be Jubilee people. God goes first to rescue us; we respond by being restorers for one another.”
Basically, every 50 years, things were supposed to be made right. The playing field was leveled back out. Sadly, the commandment of Jubilee has been long left unpracticed in our world and would certainly not be a popular take with politicians, wealthy land owners, those who exploit the work of others, and all the economic systems of the world that put profit over people.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism once wrote: “Solitary religion is not to be found there. “Holy Solitaries” is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than Holy Adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love, is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.”
We are called to practice social holiness. To see the world through God’s eyes, to enter into our world marred by injustice, and to be restorers - restorers of human dignity, restorers of freedom, restorers of Love, restorers of all that is good. This involves, for example, not just making sure that the hungry have a meal to eat but addressing system injustices such as food deserts. This involves not just treating all humans with equality, but fighting against systems which seek to diminish the humanity of whole groups of people. To not just help pay for a medical bill, but to work for a system where people don’t die because they can’t afford care. This is Holy Work.
This is what it means to do justice.
Let us sing, “Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service,” vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH 581
Love Kindness
“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;” - Psalm 136:1-4
The Hebrew word translated here in Micah 6:8 as "kindness" is hesed. The Bible Project says this word “combines the ideas of love, generosity, and loyal commitment all into one. Hesed described an act of promise keeping loyalty that is motivated by deep personal care” This word is translated many different ways in the Bible: kindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyal love, loving-kindness. It is used occasionally to describe a person, like Ruth who swore to stay by the side of Naomi, pledging “where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people” - she is said to have shown steadfast, loyal loving-kindness. Hesed. Most of the time, however, overwhelmingly, it is used to describe the character of God.
God shows loving-kindness by never abandoning God’s people. The entirety of Scripture is the story of God’s loyal love for the people of God and ever expanding outward to all creation. God’s loving-kindness, God’s loyal love, for the people of God, never fades.
So just as God is a Just God and we are to do justice, God is hesed, God is Loving-Kindness, and we are to be exemplars of loving-kindess. We are called to treat one another with love, generosity, and loyal commitment. We are to keep our promises to God and to one another to love one another by showing deep personal care for one another.
When the Scripture says we are to love kindness it is not talking about politeness or good manners. This is not simply not being rude to one another or “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” This is not Southern hospitality or Midwest niceness. Loving kindness, hesed, goes much deeper.
Loving kindness is about treating one another as God would treat each of us - with kindness that reaches down deep into a well of mercy and care. Treating each other with loving-kindness means to be people who treat each and every person they come across as one fashioned in the image of God, as inherently beloved.
Let us sing “When We Are Living,” vs. 1 & 4, UMH 356
Walk Humbly with Your God
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?’” - Matthew 16:24-26
To be humble is to not think of one’s self higher than what one ought. To walk humbly with God is to never think of one’s self as on equal par or knowing better than God. Such is the downfall of humanity - we always think we know better than God. That we know better than God of who is in and who is out. That we know better than God of how much wealth and material possessions we need. That we know better than God of how independent and self-reliant we can be. No, walking humbly with God is not an easy path. It is the path that Christ talked about when he said that we must deny selves, take up the cross, and follow him.
When we submit ourselves to God’s ways and walk with God, that is the path of what we call sanctification. To be sanctified is to be more holy. To let the Spirit work within us to model us after Christ. When we let God have all of us, when we daily walk with God, we will become more like God - which includes becoming more Just and becoming more like God’s loving-kindness.
Becoming more like Jesus is the path to fulfilling the two greatest commandments - Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
This is what the Lord requires of us - to humble ourselves to walk with God, to day after day, choose to continue walking with God so that we might become more like God. This is pleasing to God. Jesus wants us to walk with him. God desires for us to be in relationship. The Spirit wants to work within and through us for a more just, kind, loving world.
May it be so.
Let us sing, “Where He Leads Me,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 338
“What Does The Lord Require of You?” Congregational Hymn Sing
Introduction: “What does the Lord Require of You?
“With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God? - Micah 6:6-8
What does the Lord require of you?
What do I have to do, what do we have to do, to make things right with God?
What can I do to possibly please God?
To make it so that I deserve God’s loving kindness?
So ask the people of God in the book of Micah. In this passage today they are using extreme hyperbole. They start with a modest offering: a burnt offering, a calf - and then it drastically increases: thousands of rams, then ten thousand rivers of oil - or even a beloved first born. It sounds abhorrent to our modern ears but there were many ancient cultures that practiced child sacrifice.
These questions raised in Micah echo throughout Scripture. As Christians and adherents to the New Testament we believe that God sent Jesus so that might be saved through his grace, justified, and made right with God. Paul echoes this sentiment throughout his letters that there is nothing we can ever possibly do to earn God’s love and forgiveness - Christ has already done that for us! We are already loved and grace is freely given. We could never do enough, never offer up enough, never sacrifice enough to make it so that we have earned our salvation, made ourselves worthy of God’s love. We will always fall short. But that’s the Good News! God’s grace is offered to us - unmerited, undeserved - and yet - still given.
And yet as Scripture so wisely states in the book of James, faith without works is dead. And while God’s love and grace are freely given, we are called to be transformed by that love and grace, made more holy, more like God, through love of God and love of neighbor as self.
The question raised in Micah 6:8 - “What does the Lord require of us?” is not the question of what we need to do as a part of a transactional salvation - it is a question of what our lives, forgiven through the grace of Jesus Christ, should be transformed to look like.
And so what does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Let us sing “What Does the Lord Require of You?,” FWS 2174
Do Justice
“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” - Luke 4:16-21
In order to understand what it means to do justice, we must first understand what it means when we say that our God is a Just God. When we talk about the justice of God, that is not a justice of punishment or retribution. It is not a justice that is concerned with human laws, our courts, our prisons, and our “justice system.” It is not a vigilante justice, like some superhero who pursues their own justice.
God being Just means that when God sees the world get off track, sees injustices, God works and calls us to work alongside God, to make things right again. Right as in how God created the world to be before sin entered it.
Examples of God’s justice in Scripture include God leading the people out slavery in Egypt. God saw people enslaved, humans owning other humans, and saw how unjust it was. How wrong. And so God worked through ordinary people, like Moses and Miriam, to lead them out of Egypt and to break the bonds of slavery.
Now, after leading the Israelites out of slavery, we have these books of the Bible that we refer to as the Law - Leviticus and Deuteronomy and really books we struggle to read straight through because we don’t get them all. But in those books God issues the decree of Jubilee. Every fiftieth year there is a reset where things are made right - where all people rest, lands return to original owners (such as those who may have had to sell them because they fell on hard times), and any enslaved people were also to be made free.
Meredith Miller, the author of the book Woven, puts it like this: “It’s as simple as this: Our God is an Exodus God, so we will be Jubilee people. God goes first to rescue us; we respond by being restorers for one another.”
Basically, every 50 years, things were supposed to be made right. The playing field was leveled back out. Sadly, the commandment of Jubilee has been long left unpracticed in our world and would certainly not be a popular take with politicians, wealthy land owners, those who exploit the work of others, and all the economic systems of the world that put profit over people.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism once wrote: “Solitary religion is not to be found there. “Holy Solitaries” is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than Holy Adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love, is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.”
We are called to practice social holiness. To see the world through God’s eyes, to enter into our world marred by injustice, and to be restorers - restorers of human dignity, restorers of freedom, restorers of Love, restorers of all that is good. This involves, for example, not just making sure that the hungry have a meal to eat but addressing system injustices such as food deserts. This involves not just treating all humans with equality, but fighting against systems which seek to diminish the humanity of whole groups of people. To not just help pay for a medical bill, but to work for a system where people don’t die because they can’t afford care. This is Holy Work.
This is what it means to do justice.
Let us sing, “Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service,” vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH 581
Love Kindness
“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;” - Psalm 136:1-4
The Hebrew word translated here in Micah 6:8 as "kindness" is hesed. The Bible Project says this word “combines the ideas of love, generosity, and loyal commitment all into one. Hesed described an act of promise keeping loyalty that is motivated by deep personal care” This word is translated many different ways in the Bible: kindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyal love, loving-kindness. It is used occasionally to describe a person, like Ruth who swore to stay by the side of Naomi, pledging “where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people” - she is said to have shown steadfast, loyal loving-kindness. Hesed. Most of the time, however, overwhelmingly, it is used to describe the character of God.
God shows loving-kindness by never abandoning God’s people. The entirety of Scripture is the story of God’s loyal love for the people of God and ever expanding outward to all creation. God’s loving-kindness, God’s loyal love, for the people of God, never fades.
So just as God is a Just God and we are to do justice, God is hesed, God is Loving-Kindness, and we are to be exemplars of loving-kindess. We are called to treat one another with love, generosity, and loyal commitment. We are to keep our promises to God and to one another to love one another by showing deep personal care for one another.
When the Scripture says we are to love kindness it is not talking about politeness or good manners. This is not simply not being rude to one another or “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” This is not Southern hospitality or Midwest niceness. Loving kindness, hesed, goes much deeper.
Loving kindness is about treating one another as God would treat each of us - with kindness that reaches down deep into a well of mercy and care. Treating each other with loving-kindness means to be people who treat each and every person they come across as one fashioned in the image of God, as inherently beloved.
Let us sing “When We Are Living,” vs. 1 & 4, UMH 356
Walk Humbly with Your God
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?’” - Matthew 16:24-26
To be humble is to not think of one’s self higher than what one ought. To walk humbly with God is to never think of one’s self as on equal par or knowing better than God. Such is the downfall of humanity - we always think we know better than God. That we know better than God of who is in and who is out. That we know better than God of how much wealth and material possessions we need. That we know better than God of how independent and self-reliant we can be. No, walking humbly with God is not an easy path. It is the path that Christ talked about when he said that we must deny selves, take up the cross, and follow him.
When we submit ourselves to God’s ways and walk with God, that is the path of what we call sanctification. To be sanctified is to be more holy. To let the Spirit work within us to model us after Christ. When we let God have all of us, when we daily walk with God, we will become more like God - which includes becoming more Just and becoming more like God’s loving-kindness.
Becoming more like Jesus is the path to fulfilling the two greatest commandments - Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
This is what the Lord requires of us - to humble ourselves to walk with God, to day after day, choose to continue walking with God so that we might become more like God. This is pleasing to God. Jesus wants us to walk with him. God desires for us to be in relationship. The Spirit wants to work within and through us for a more just, kind, loving world.
May it be so.
Let us sing, “Where He Leads Me,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 338
Grace Upon Grace Hymn Sing
This hymn sing is a reflection on Wesleyan Theology and prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. It can be used at any time in the church year.
Grace Upon Grace Hymn Sing
Grace Upon Grace
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth... From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” - John 1:14, 16-18
What does it mean to be a United Methodist? What sets us apart in our theology and beliefs from other mainline Christians? These are questions that those new to the United Methodist Church and even those who have been here their whole lives may ask.
There is a long answer to this question. There are books written on this. Powerpoints made. Classes taken. And those are well and good and they should be done.
There is also a short answer and that answer is “grace upon grace upon grace.” The people called United Methodists are a people of grace.
It’s not that other thoughts of Christianity don’t have grace or don’t see grace as important - they do believe in grace and they do think it’s important. Wesleyans, that is Methodists who come from the theological tradition of John Wesley, emphasize grace above all else. An example of this is when John Wesley, arguing against pre-destination, said that while Christ is sovereign king, the crown upon his head is Love. Therefore, it is impossible for God to act outside of that Love
Wait - are we talking about Love or Grace? Yes.
“Grace” is one of those church-y words we sometimes throw around without fully understanding the meaning and one of those words that has lots of definitions - one dictionary had seven definitions. And a dictionary definition of Christian grace might be something like the unmerited and undeserved favor or gifts of God including forgiveness of sins. This is a meaningful definition. Another definition of grace, one which is my favorite, is that grace is simply how God acts towards us in this world. Every action of God for us, toward us, with us - is one of grace.
Today we will sing hymns by Charles Wesley, hymns with words of grace - as we explore what grace means to us.
Let us sing, “Maker in Whom We Live” UMH 88
Prevenient Grace
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” - Romans 5:6-8
Methodists tend to talk about God’s grace in three categories to help us understand how God acts out of love on our behalfs.
The first category of grace we emphasize as United Methodist is “prevenient grace.” Previenient literally means - “comes before.” Comes before what? The grace that comes before we even know there was grace to be had.
I have often described this as the constant voice of God whispering in our ears from the moment that we are born, telling us over and over and over again - “Hey! I’m right here. I love you.”
I was once told that for some, it wasn’t the soft whispering of God but it was God yelling at a megaphone right into their ear - they just weren’t ready to hear it yet.
Prevenient grace might be shared in a lot of ways - a loving church community who surrounds you with love, the baptism of an infant, family and friends who constantly share God’s love with you, the million little or big things that are God surrounding you before you even know to call it God. Basically it means that God has always been and will always be at work in your life - recognized or not.
Another metaphor we often use for grace and a relationship with God is a house. Prevenient grace is the porch, the place where we have not yet made a conscious decision to enter into a relationship with God but we are still in God’s embrace.
God’s prevenient grace is for everyone born and is present throughout our lives - God is always acting in ways yet unknown to us.
Let us sing, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 479
Justifying Grace
“but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” - Ephesians 2:4-8
There comes a time in our lives when we are ready to listen to that voice of God that is constantly whispering love in our ears, trying to get our attention.
There comes a time in our lives when we are ready to walk through the front door, to enter into the house of God, to enter into a relationship with God.
This is what we as Christians call justifying grace - what others may simply called “saved.”
To justify means to make right. When we accept the grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness God has to offer us, we are made right with God. We enter into a mutual relationship - me and God, you and God, us and God.
For many individuals, they may be able to point to an exact place and moment in time where they first experienced God’s justifying grace for themselves - where they learned of God’s love for them and prayed to be made right with God.
And still for others, there may not be one defining moment of justifying grace but countless small decisions, moments unseen by others, but that add up to the culmination of confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
I think that part of being human is accepting God’s justifying grace for ourselves over and over again, always recommitting our hearts and lives to Christ.
John Wesley wrote about an experience of justifying grace in his journal. He wrote, “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Charles wrote the hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” following an experience of justifying grace. “Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me?
Let us sing, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,” vs. 1, 4, 5, UMH 363
Sanctifying Grace
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2
When we walk through the door, when we begin a mutual relationship with Christ, it is not the end of our faith journey - just as a wedding isn’t the sum total of a marriage. We must settle into the home of God and live together. In his sermon Justification By Faith, Wesley wrote that justifying grace, “implies what God does for us through the Son.” Sanctifying grace is “what God works in us by the Spirit.”
Sanctifying means to be made more holy, more like Christ Jesus.
To experience sanctifying grace, we must let ourselves be fashioned more like Christ. We must let go of all that holds us back from perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbor as self. This is not always an easy process - the refining fire has been used as a metaphor. It can be painful to let go of things that keep us from love, that keep us focused on ourselves above others. And we won’t always get it right. Some days we take backwards steps and still others we move forward together with the Spirit.
Sanctifying grace is an untold number of little and big moments of choosing to love like God loves and letting that love work within us so that the grace of the God of Love shines brightly through us. This is our whole life’s work as Christians - we are ever called to Christian perfection.
Christian perfection does not mean that our lives would be without error - but that we would wholly love God and neighbor as self, becoming entirely sanctified through the power of the Spirit. Wesley never claimed this Christian perfection for himself but did believe that we could achieve it in this life.
In other words, saying “I’m only human” to diminish selfish behavior or a failure to love is not a valid excuse. We are only human - but the Spirit works within us to make us more holy, being capable of loving like God loves.
Before we sing our last hymn of our hymn sing, it would behoove me to say that grace is not a one and done deal. God is always at work in our lives. We may label that grace as prevenient, justifying, or sanctifying…but just because we are on the journey of sanctification doesn’t mean that God isn’t working in our lives in yet unknown or unseen ways or doesn't mean that there are still things we need to make right with God. The labels are just guides to help us understand how God cares for us with loving grace. The important thing is that each and every one of us knows that God loves us and is always offering us grace. Grace upon grace upon grace.
Let us sing “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” UMH 384
Today we will sing hymns by Charles Wesley, hymns with words of grace - as we explore what grace means to us.
Let us sing, “Maker in Whom We Live” UMH 88
Prevenient Grace
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” - Romans 5:6-8
Methodists tend to talk about God’s grace in three categories to help us understand how God acts out of love on our behalfs.
The first category of grace we emphasize as United Methodist is “prevenient grace.” Previenient literally means - “comes before.” Comes before what? The grace that comes before we even know there was grace to be had.
I have often described this as the constant voice of God whispering in our ears from the moment that we are born, telling us over and over and over again - “Hey! I’m right here. I love you.”
I was once told that for some, it wasn’t the soft whispering of God but it was God yelling at a megaphone right into their ear - they just weren’t ready to hear it yet.
Prevenient grace might be shared in a lot of ways - a loving church community who surrounds you with love, the baptism of an infant, family and friends who constantly share God’s love with you, the million little or big things that are God surrounding you before you even know to call it God. Basically it means that God has always been and will always be at work in your life - recognized or not.
Another metaphor we often use for grace and a relationship with God is a house. Prevenient grace is the porch, the place where we have not yet made a conscious decision to enter into a relationship with God but we are still in God’s embrace.
God’s prevenient grace is for everyone born and is present throughout our lives - God is always acting in ways yet unknown to us.
Let us sing, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” vs. 1, 2, 4, UMH 479
Justifying Grace
“but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” - Ephesians 2:4-8
There comes a time in our lives when we are ready to listen to that voice of God that is constantly whispering love in our ears, trying to get our attention.
There comes a time in our lives when we are ready to walk through the front door, to enter into the house of God, to enter into a relationship with God.
This is what we as Christians call justifying grace - what others may simply called “saved.”
To justify means to make right. When we accept the grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness God has to offer us, we are made right with God. We enter into a mutual relationship - me and God, you and God, us and God.
For many individuals, they may be able to point to an exact place and moment in time where they first experienced God’s justifying grace for themselves - where they learned of God’s love for them and prayed to be made right with God.
And still for others, there may not be one defining moment of justifying grace but countless small decisions, moments unseen by others, but that add up to the culmination of confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
I think that part of being human is accepting God’s justifying grace for ourselves over and over again, always recommitting our hearts and lives to Christ.
John Wesley wrote about an experience of justifying grace in his journal. He wrote, “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Charles wrote the hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” following an experience of justifying grace. “Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me?
Let us sing, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,” vs. 1, 4, 5, UMH 363
Sanctifying Grace
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2
When we walk through the door, when we begin a mutual relationship with Christ, it is not the end of our faith journey - just as a wedding isn’t the sum total of a marriage. We must settle into the home of God and live together. In his sermon Justification By Faith, Wesley wrote that justifying grace, “implies what God does for us through the Son.” Sanctifying grace is “what God works in us by the Spirit.”
Sanctifying means to be made more holy, more like Christ Jesus.
To experience sanctifying grace, we must let ourselves be fashioned more like Christ. We must let go of all that holds us back from perfect love of God and perfect love of neighbor as self. This is not always an easy process - the refining fire has been used as a metaphor. It can be painful to let go of things that keep us from love, that keep us focused on ourselves above others. And we won’t always get it right. Some days we take backwards steps and still others we move forward together with the Spirit.
Sanctifying grace is an untold number of little and big moments of choosing to love like God loves and letting that love work within us so that the grace of the God of Love shines brightly through us. This is our whole life’s work as Christians - we are ever called to Christian perfection.
Christian perfection does not mean that our lives would be without error - but that we would wholly love God and neighbor as self, becoming entirely sanctified through the power of the Spirit. Wesley never claimed this Christian perfection for himself but did believe that we could achieve it in this life.
In other words, saying “I’m only human” to diminish selfish behavior or a failure to love is not a valid excuse. We are only human - but the Spirit works within us to make us more holy, being capable of loving like God loves.
Before we sing our last hymn of our hymn sing, it would behoove me to say that grace is not a one and done deal. God is always at work in our lives. We may label that grace as prevenient, justifying, or sanctifying…but just because we are on the journey of sanctification doesn’t mean that God isn’t working in our lives in yet unknown or unseen ways or doesn't mean that there are still things we need to make right with God. The labels are just guides to help us understand how God cares for us with loving grace. The important thing is that each and every one of us knows that God loves us and is always offering us grace. Grace upon grace upon grace.
Let us sing “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” UMH 384
Monday, January 5, 2026
Call to Worship based on John 1:29-42 & 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Leader: We come to worship today, to behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
People: Come and see!
L: We come filled with thanksgiving, for every grace that God has given us.
P: Come and see!
L: We come to be strengthened, to be enriched in speech and knowledge of Christ.
P: Come and see!
L: We come to partner with Christ, to be saints, to have our whole lives echo the refrain:
P: Come and see!
L: We come to worship today, to behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
P: Come and see! Amen.
People: Come and see!
L: We come filled with thanksgiving, for every grace that God has given us.
P: Come and see!
L: We come to be strengthened, to be enriched in speech and knowledge of Christ.
P: Come and see!
L: We come to partner with Christ, to be saints, to have our whole lives echo the refrain:
P: Come and see!
L: We come to worship today, to behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
P: Come and see! Amen.
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