Rev. Missy Turbeville *Excerpt from April 2023 FUMC Newsletter
“...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“What a wondrous time is spring when all the trees are budding. The birds begin to sing. The flowers start their blooming. That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it, you want to sing, it’s fresh like spring. You want to pass it on.” Pass It On UMH #572
As you read this, Easter is fast approaching and we are finishing a three month sermon series on living out our Baptismal vows. It began with the Wesleyan Covenant when we declared, “I am no longer my own, but thine” and asked to be used by God in the ways God sees fit. The next week, we reaffirmed our baptisms and recognized that we are claimed by God, initiated into the body of Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to participate in God’s loving will at work in the world. We then considered if we are good neighbors, how we live into God’s justice, and how we witness to Christ both near and far.
We continued on this journey together, meeting Christ at the table, partaking of the bread and cup, and going forth as the redeemed body of Christ in the world. And then… as transformed people who are part of the body of Christ, we looked deeper at living as Christ followers being strengthened by the Holy Spirit as we pray; are present to God’s presence; respond to God’s gifts; serve God and others as Jesus has shown us; and are witnesses to the Good News of Christ with the entirety of our lives.
For most of us, none of this is new. In one way or another, this is the ongoing life we live in Christ. We live a life that celebrates who we are as people claimed by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit in our Baptism. And we live a life that aspires to ever closer relationship with God in Christ that leads us to be ever more like Christ in our daily walk. We look to Jesus’ example of sacrificial love that culminates in Holy Week and push on toward the goal– a goal of new life, a God’s-love-saturated-life that we both experience and want for others.
This is what Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus to understand in John 3. This is the impossibility the women are trying to get the disciples to grasp that first Easter morning. This is what confuses the crowds in Jerusalem on Pentecost when believing the disciples drunk in the morning makes more sense than God’s power rushing through those gathered. This is God eating with sinners. This is the creator of the universe entering history and washing the feet of the one who will be betray, the one who will deny, the ones who will run and hide. This is love that saves us from ourselves, from our worst moments, and that empowers us for repentance and reconciliation.
This is love that looks death in the eye and says, “No, you don’t win.” This is love that takes hurt, grief, confusion, fear, greed and all those things that seek to kill us slow and fast and says, “Peace, be still” This is love that speaks from a cross offering paradise to a thief and forgiveness to all. This is the perfect love that drives out all fear, is light in the darkness, and the simultaneously impossible and powerful reality of Easter morning.
This is the love that we both seek and share through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. This is the love we claim and aspire to live completely. This is the love of our resurrected, saving God who is with us. This is Christ in whom we live and move and breathe. This is the invitation to new life Christ offers to all.
Jesus committed his entire being to loving and redeeming us. Let us commit our entire lives to being part of Christ’s redeemed body loving the world.
With love in Christ,
-Pastor Missy
“...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“What a wondrous time is spring when all the trees are budding. The birds begin to sing. The flowers start their blooming. That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it, you want to sing, it’s fresh like spring. You want to pass it on.” Pass It On UMH #572
As you read this, Easter is fast approaching and we are finishing a three month sermon series on living out our Baptismal vows. It began with the Wesleyan Covenant when we declared, “I am no longer my own, but thine” and asked to be used by God in the ways God sees fit. The next week, we reaffirmed our baptisms and recognized that we are claimed by God, initiated into the body of Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to participate in God’s loving will at work in the world. We then considered if we are good neighbors, how we live into God’s justice, and how we witness to Christ both near and far.
We continued on this journey together, meeting Christ at the table, partaking of the bread and cup, and going forth as the redeemed body of Christ in the world. And then… as transformed people who are part of the body of Christ, we looked deeper at living as Christ followers being strengthened by the Holy Spirit as we pray; are present to God’s presence; respond to God’s gifts; serve God and others as Jesus has shown us; and are witnesses to the Good News of Christ with the entirety of our lives.
For most of us, none of this is new. In one way or another, this is the ongoing life we live in Christ. We live a life that celebrates who we are as people claimed by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit in our Baptism. And we live a life that aspires to ever closer relationship with God in Christ that leads us to be ever more like Christ in our daily walk. We look to Jesus’ example of sacrificial love that culminates in Holy Week and push on toward the goal– a goal of new life, a God’s-love-saturated-life that we both experience and want for others.
This is what Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus to understand in John 3. This is the impossibility the women are trying to get the disciples to grasp that first Easter morning. This is what confuses the crowds in Jerusalem on Pentecost when believing the disciples drunk in the morning makes more sense than God’s power rushing through those gathered. This is God eating with sinners. This is the creator of the universe entering history and washing the feet of the one who will be betray, the one who will deny, the ones who will run and hide. This is love that saves us from ourselves, from our worst moments, and that empowers us for repentance and reconciliation.
This is love that looks death in the eye and says, “No, you don’t win.” This is love that takes hurt, grief, confusion, fear, greed and all those things that seek to kill us slow and fast and says, “Peace, be still” This is love that speaks from a cross offering paradise to a thief and forgiveness to all. This is the perfect love that drives out all fear, is light in the darkness, and the simultaneously impossible and powerful reality of Easter morning.
This is the love that we both seek and share through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. This is the love we claim and aspire to live completely. This is the love of our resurrected, saving God who is with us. This is Christ in whom we live and move and breathe. This is the invitation to new life Christ offers to all.
Jesus committed his entire being to loving and redeeming us. Let us commit our entire lives to being part of Christ’s redeemed body loving the world.
With love in Christ,
-Pastor Missy
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Worship on Sundays at 10:30AM both at the sanctuary and streamed online on our Facebook page.
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BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY