"Because I Hold You In My Heart" - a farewell sermon on Philippians 1:3-11

Philippians 1:3-11
“Because I Hold You In My Heart”
Preached on June 18, 2023 - last Sunday

I want to talk to you this morning about beach glass. Although I lived in Vermilion for 6 years, I really only started collecting beach glass about a year ago, when my daughter was old enough that spending several hours on the beach was the best way to pass the afternoon. And, as I collected beach glass, I’ve thought about looking for beach glass as the perfect sermon example.

I have been thinking about beach glass as a sermon metaphor for a long time now but a lot of preachers will shoe horn examples into sermons. You know what I mean, we’ve all heard it. The example that kind of fits but not really. The preacher wants to tell a story and so they tell it, no matter how loosely it fits to the sermon theme. So I’ve held on to this idea of preaching on beach glass until the sermon was right. But as it is my last week preaching on the shores of Lake Erie, and preaching to people who - well, how many of you here have beach glass in your home or collect beach glass or regularly look for beach glass or have a family member who does? Hands? Yeah, almost all of you. So as it’s my last week preaching to all of you here, I started to think about beach glass again. Now, there are a lot of things about looking for beach glass and faith that don’t fit the theme of my sermon today.

We could talk about the process of making beach glass - of taking trash and taking something ugly (littering) and making something beautiful and prized and wonderful out of it - and that’s what God can do in our lives.
We can talk about how looking for beach glass is a lot like looking for God in our lives: You know it's right there, it surrounds you...and sometimes you see it easily and other times you look and look and look and don't see what is right in front of you. When you see it, it sparkles and shines - but sometimes we can get distracted by other things - a rock that shines, a piece of trash, a rotting fish…But the more we look for it, the more we train our eyes to spot it amidst everything else…

We COULD talk about those things…but that would be shoe-horning a sermon example in.

But what fits my sermon this morning, what I want to tell you about beach glass is this jar… When I first started collecting beach glass, I kept it in the upper cup holder of the stroller…until one day a big Lake Erie wind came and blew the stroller down a hill (no kid in it) - and the first beach glass collection was lost (there is a sermon example there too but we’re not gonna delve into that any deeper.)

So then I moved my beach glass collection to a mason jar - a very small one. Like this. And of course, that filled up quickly. And then I filled up a second. So, naturally, I decided to go ahead and move my beach glass collection to this, much larger, mason jar. And I poured it in and realized - wow. That’s not as much as I thought. (There is a sermon example there too but we’re not gonna delve into that any deeper.)

And then I found out I was moving. Methodists are itinerant preachers, going back to 1771 when Francis Asbury, one of the first Methodist bishops, went to America and ordained circuit rider preachers, riding their horses from church to church, preaching and administering the sacraments and then moving on to the next church on their circuit. Asbury himself rode his horse enough miles across America that he could have circumnavigated the world 10 times. And when I was ordained, following the tradition of Asbury and generations of Methodists in-between, I took a vow of itinerancy to go where sent. And so, after six wonderful and blessing filled years in Vermilion, I got the call to move. That was January. Not beach glass finding season. And so I said, I am not going to even worry or think about this until after Easter - which is beach glass finding season…give or take the ups and downs of early Spring weather in Ohio. And so, as the weather warmed, and I started thinking about transition a lot more, I felt this insatiable need to go to the beach and look for as much beach glass as I could.

And as I searched for beach glass, I thought and prayed a lot. About my faith, my relationship with God, my relationship with all of you, my family, where God was taking me, where God was taking you…admittedly, I also did a lot of listening to audiobooks. And I would come back from the beach, and I would put my beach glass in this jar and I would think, “if I could only fill up this jar before I leave…” I would think that time and time again and yet, I couldn’t finish that sentence. If I could only fill it…then what? Everything would be magically okay? There wouldn’t be any grief or pain in leaving? What?

So this week I was looking for beach glass and praying and processing and I realized - why do I need to fill this up all the way now? There will be future times at the beach. It’s not like I move from Vermilion and all beaches everywhere cease to exist. I have a whole life ahead of me - this jar will be filled…and maybe another one too.

But it’s not really about the beach and beach glass, is it?

It’s about my trust in God for the future.

How many of us have thought, “If I could only…fill up this jar of beach glass. If I could only…get it right. If I could only…pray more, pray right. If I could only…do more.” If I could only…then everything would turn out alright. If only we could… then we won’t go through the grief and pain of transition. If we could only… then our spouse would be healed. If we could only… then our relationships would be fixed. You get the idea. As if God was some kind of magical vending machine and we just have to push in exactly the right code to get exactly what we want…

We know God doesn’t work that way. Prayer doesn’t work that way. Life doesn’t work that way. It’s not about filling the jar of beach glass. It’s not about praying more or right. It’s about trust in God for whatever the future holds - that whatever the future holds, God will never abandon you. God will always be with you. God will always love you - and there is nothing we can do about that. And that’s a good and wonderful thing.

It’s that deep trust in God for the future that, in the words of St. Julian of Norwich, “all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” “Well” - not that the future won’t hold grief or change or loss of hard things…but “well” as in, we shall always be with God.

So it’s not about beach glass, it’s not about filling this jar - it’s about trusting in God that there is still work to be done. Good work in my life. Good work in the life of the Church universal. Good work in the life of this church, of Grace United Methodist. Good work in the life of Pastor Mikayla.

In the words of Paul from our reading this morning: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, for all of you are my partners in God’s grace.”

And another reminder from Paul, from 1 Corinthians, as we think about continuing good work and trust in God during this time of pastoral transition: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor. For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.”

Or, in the words of cliche Facebook memes: Don’t put a period where God puts a comma.

Moving forward, instead of seeing this not quite half-filled jar of beach glass and thinking of “there was more beach glass to be found..” “There was more work to be done..” “If only we did this…” Instead I want to look at it and give thanks. In the words of Paul, again, from this morning’s Scripture: “I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” I can give thanks because I hold you in my heart. I can give thanks that we were and are partners in the Gospel. I give thanks for the ways you all have enriched me - helped me grow as a person and a pastor. I give thanks for the Good Works you have done. I give thanks for the Good Work that I know God will still do and bring to completion within you. I give thanks because while this is the end of a chapter, it’s not the end of the story. For Grace or for me - God has so much in store for us. Let us trust God that all shall be well.

I know that there will be beach glass in all of our futures - but it’s not really about the beach glass. It’s about love and beauty and trust and God’s love that will always be present.

Thank you. I love you all.

And to close, my prayer for all our you is the prayer that we heard from Paul today: “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

Amen.

Celebration of over 500 Invites for Grace United Methodist Church

(Read Matthew 28:16-20)

Grace United Methodist Church…what is your mission?
To invite all into a joyous and caring Christian community.

On August 7, 2022, just under a year ago, I stood here on the shores of Lake Erie and shared our vision goal with you. That vision goal was this:

In order to build, strengthen, and renew connections with Grace, we will extend 500 invitations with the hope that 50 or more will be accepted.

I am now beyond joyous and grateful to tell you that over the last 10 months, we extended 567 personal invitations for people to build, strengthen, and renew connections with Grace. Did you hear that number? Five hundred and sixty-seven personal invitations extended! Invitations to worship, invitations to Belonging Groups, invitations to serve alongside and with us, invitations to join the church, invitations to be baptized, invitations to go deeper with God. Invitations to family members, invitations to friends, invitations to neighbors, invitations to strangers met in Vermilion, invitations to ALL we meet.

Repeat after me: Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God!

Of those invitations extended, we had hoped and dreamed that with God’s help, that at least 50 - maybe more - would be accepted. Friends, 101 of the invitations were accepted. 101 invitations accepted to worship, invitations accepted to Belonging Groups, invitations accepted to serve alongside and with us, invitations accepted to join the church, invitations accepted to be baptized, invitations accepted to go deeper with God. Invitations accepted by family members, invitations accepted by friends, invitations accepted by neighbors, invitations accepted by strangers met in Vermilion, invitations accepted by so many different people.

Repeat after me: Thanks be to God! Thank be to God!

In the past 10 months, we also tracked visitors to Grace who found their way to us without an invitation. Now, every visitor might not have identified themselves as such, but in the last 10 months, we had 16 first time visitors. Which, don’t get me wrong - is awesome! AND, I want the impact of extending invitations to really sink in with you. It is plausible, that without us doing the work of living out our mission and pushing ourselves and empowering each other to invite ALL…we would have only had 16 visitors over the last 10 months. But BECAUSE you all have taken seriously living out our mission to invite all into a joyous and caring Christian community, because you all took seriously our vision of extending 500 invites, because you all took seriously Christ’s commandment to us to make disciples of all the nations…Because of this, that number is not 16…but over 100.

Repeat after me: Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God!

For the last 10 months, you have heard me say every Sunday - unless I forgot or was off, to turn in your hands, your hearts, and your flowers to the offertory plates. Hands, tracking invitations extended. Hearts, tracking invitations accepted, flowers tracking visitors. From this point on…you won’t hear about hands, hearts, and flowers anymore. The work of tracking invitations, of meeting our vision goal of 500 invitations, has been completed by you and by The Holy Spirit working through you! AND - while our vision goal is completed, the work of inviting, the work of sharing our faith, the work of making disciples and baptizing in the name of the Son, the father, and the Holy Spirit has just begun. Don’t stop inviting! Don’t stop sharing your faith! Don’t stop meeting your neighbors! Keep on inviting! Keep on sharing your faith! Keep on meeting your neighbors! You have all proven to yourselves that you can do it! That you can live out your faith, you can live out The Great Commission, you can live out our mission! Keep on inviting all into a joyous and caring Christian community.

Repeat after me: Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God!

We will now hear from two members of our church - one who did some inviting, and one who did some accepting…and then some inviting too. And we will celebrate and give thanks to God. Let us sing our praise chorus.

"A Theology of Creation" a sermon on Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Genesis 1:1-2:4a
“A Theology of Creation”
Preached Sunday, June 4, 2023

Wow! That was a long Scripture reading! When it came up in the lectionary, which are the assigned Scriptures texts for a given Sunday, often used among churches, and knowing that it was my last lectionary sermon at Grace (two more! Just not lectionary based) - I didn’t want to pass up another opportunity to preach on creation here in this setting, in God’s beautiful creation on the shores of Lake Erie. One of the best venues to preach on the beauty and wonder inherent in God’s creation. And so today, we read the entirety of the first creation story.

Notice I said the first creation story. Because there are two creation stories in the book of Genesis. The first Genesis 1:1-2:4a and the second picking up at Genesis 2:4b through 2:25. The first creation story is the one we just heard where God speaks creation into being. The second is what I consider the more hands-on version of creation, where God is molding in clay and breathing life into nostrils.

Now, my very first day of Hebrew Bible class in Divinity School, we read these two narratives of creation side by side and we were asked to list out the similarities and the differences between them - and there are differences, in the way and order things are done…and after that we were asked by the professor, “Which one is True?”

Let’s dig into that question a little this morning, “Which is True?” And what does it mean to be True?

First, a disclaimer, by our theology, United Methodists are not Biblical literalists, that is, those who claim that the Bible is the literal and infallible Word of God that is without human error or bias. There are United Methodists who are Biblical literalists, we have been a big tent church that covers Christians holding lots of different theologies. However, the official stance of The United Methodist Church on Scripture is that it is our primary source and criteria for Christian doctrine. AND, reason, tradition, and experience are lenses through which we read, understand, and interpret Scripture and means through which God reveals Godself to us. We hold that the Bible is inspired by The Holy Spirit, and written by humans who are not without error and bias, and yet it still contains all this is “sufficient” and “necessary” for salvation and is the “true rule and guide to faith and practice.”

If you want to read our full official view on Scripture, google “UMC theological guidelines Scripture” and read the excerpt from the 2016 Book of Discipline on the UMC website.

All that being said, when asked “Which one is True?” Biblical literalists say “yes.” And they say things like “Well, these two creation stories don’t really contradict each other” and gloss over that or combine Scriptures in different chapters and make it so they can say yes, this is true - true as in a literal 7 day creation.

Now, when asked which story is true, I also answer that with a one word answer - “yes.” Even though I am not a Biblical literalist and I don’t hold to a literal 7 24-hour days creation narrative. And yet I say, yes, both creation stories are True. True with a capital T.

We can talk about truth, lowercase t, and Truth, capital T. Truth with a capital T is about the deeper sense of what is True and right, True with our souls. While truth, lowercase t, deals with the facts - who, what, where, when, why, how. And in our age of misinformation, truth with a lowercase t, the facts, are important. I am not denying or diminishing that at all. AND, as a minister, I often deal more with Truth with a capital T.

That’s how I can be a person of faith, a Christian minister, who believes that the world was not created in a literal 7 days but most likely through a process that science calls the Big Bang and evolution - and I can still say that the creation stories in Genesis are True (capital T). Because those stories impart Truths to us - Truths about God, Truths about us as humans, and Truths about all creation. In fact, there are so many Truths present in this first creation story, let alone both of them - more Truths that can be fit into a single (short) sermon at Worship by the Water. More Truths than most humans can spend a lifetime uncovering. And so, with that said, let’s look at just two of those many Truths today:

One Truth: The Triune God was present in and responsible for the creation of everything. Everything! From the light and dark, night and day. The waters and land and sky. Plants and flowers and seeds and fruit and everything that grows. The sun and moon and all the planets and all the galaxies, the entire universe. All creatures, swimming and flying, cattle, creeping, and wild. And us, humans, made in the image of the Triune God.

God’s fingerprints, God’s presence is all over ALL of creation. In whatever way the actual creating was done - it was done by God. God was in it, with it, shaping it - creating all that is. And God saw it and called it good. And that’s why, when we see it, we can’t help but wonder at the Divinity and Beauty of God in all creation because all creation reflects the One who created it. All creation is covered with traces of their Divine creator.

Now, a second Truth: Creation is a gift to us, humankind, created in the image of God - a very good gift. A very good gift with which we, who have been made in the image of God, need to care for. To care for that which has God’s fingerprints all over it - to care for it as God would have us care for it. With respect, reverence, gratitude, and humility. To recognize that what we have been given, the whole world and all within it, is a gift - and as it was gifted to humans many, many generations ago, we are called to pass on this gift for many, many generations to come - to continue to pass on God’s gifts of creation to all of God’s beloved children. And when we pass on the gift of creation, we also pass on the gift of the Creator, the Divine written into every aspect of Creation, passing on that ability for future generations to see and wonder and know God through creation.

There is so much more Truth in this passage - Truth about community, about love, about rest and sabbath and wonder…

For today, given our summer worship setting and the pressing issues of our use and misuse of Creation in our world...I would ask us to sit with these Truths: To see God’s fingerprints and presence all around us and to treat all of creation as a holy and treasured very good gift.

Amen.