Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from long-time member of Grace and vocalist in the praise band Joe Dani. Enjoy!
The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Chad
Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from our praise band leader and A/V guru Chad Hernandez-Cole. Enjoy!
Sermon for Sunday, July 11
Day of the Church Year: 7th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passages: Amos 7:7-15, Mark 6:14-29
I think the average Christian is pretty familiar with the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the narratives of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We are also aware of the basic stories of Genesis and Exodus: God’s creation of heaven and earth, Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Sarah and Abraham, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, and then Moses, the burning bush, the plagues, let my people go, the Red Sea crossing, and the Ten Commandments. We each likely have a favorite verse, psalm, or story from years of coming to worship, reading the Bible at home, attending Bible study, or going to camp, confirmation, or prayer retreat. Beyond that, except for those of us who have done concentrated Bible study or Bible reading, the Bible is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Today’s Old Testament story is from one of those short books at the end of the Old Testament, one of those books we can’t find unless we turn first to the Table of Contents in our Bibles. Amos is between Joel and Obadiah, near the beginning of the minor prophet section of the Old Testament. The minor prophets are minor not because they lack importance but because their writing is short—compared to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel whose writing is much longer.
Amos writes and prophecies in the 700s before the common era, before the Babylonian exile, during a time of relative peace and security in Judah and Israel. Amos writes after the time of the united kingdom of Israel, after King Saul, King David, and King Solomon, writes after Israel is divided into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Amos writes from Israel, the northern kingdom, where Jeroboam reigns as king. For the record, in today’s prophetic passage, Amos declares that he is no prophet but instead an ordinary person, a shepherd, a gardener, but nonetheless a person chosen by God at this particular time to share a message with the nations and more specifically the leaders of Israel.
Notice the heading at the beginning of Amos chapter 1: Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors, neighbors like Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, and Moab. And then, notice the next heading: Judgment on Judah and then, Judgment on Israel. Amos writes short speeches of punishment to the neighbors of Israel and Judah. For these neighbors betray kinship and fail to show grace and bring violence onto enemy nations. Per Amos’ prophecy, God judges Judah because they reject the law of God. But God’s judgment of Israel, God’s declaration against Amos’ own people and especially the leaders of Israel, is most severe and continues throughout the rest of the book of Amos. The leaders of Israel “sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals,” meaning they thoughtlessly exploit others in order to obtain silver and footwear. They “oppress the poor” and “crush the needy.” The nation of Israel had created systems of injustice, widening the gap between those who are wealthy and those who are poor. By the time we get to Amos chapter 7, today’s reading, the priest in Bethel named Amaziah warns King Jeroboam of this fiesty prophet Amos and tells Amos: Leave! Go to Judah. I don’t want to hear what you have to say! For what Amos has to tell the leaders of Israel is very difficult. The priest Amaziah assumes that the words Amos shares are his own, not God’s word, but Amos tells him differently: “The Lord said to me: Go, prophecy to my people Israel.” And the prophecy is judgment because of injustice. Indeed, Amos 5:24, the central message of his prophecy reads: But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
No nation is perfect as has been made crystal clear in the prophecy of Amos where he shares a running list of other nations’ sins, but the judgment on a nation that practices systemic, socio-economic injustice is most severe. And both the priest Amaziah and the king Jeroboam don’t want to hear it. Nearly to the end, Amos shares the hard truth of God, news of destruction that is a consequence of the systemic injustice they practice. Only in the last chapter does God remember all that God has done for the people, the ways God had rescued them time and again, and God promises to do so again one day. Then, the word of the Lord comes to Amos, a word of repair, rebuilding, restoration to the nation of Israel.
In today’s gospel, we hear the story of John the Baptist’s murder by King Herod. And the gospel writer Mark makes clear that Jesus’ ministry is so similar to John’s that a consequence akin to John’s murder will result. Both John and Jesus come in the line of the Old Testament prophets. They question systemic injustice, and Jesus teaches and preaches more about wealth and poverty in the gospels than any other topic including the kingdom of God. Both John and Jesus build community with people hurt by injustice and blatantly identify not with those who hold power but with those most vulnerable.
I hardly need describe the ways Amos, John the Baptist, and Jesus’ urgent concern about socio-economic injustice remains relevant to us in Phoenix, Arizona in July 2021. Lack of affordable housing, sky-rocketing rent and home prices, and the ways our criminal justice system impacts a person’s socio-economic viability after conviction or imprisonment are just the beginning of a long list of current problems. I am not an economist and do not claim to understand the full complexity of how socio-economic inequality has developed in our nation, but we all know that, in the United States, we have long privileged some over others, suppressed, enslaved, compelled into indentured servitude, and straight up killed people of particular groups. As a nation, we have practiced legal discrimination in countless ways, ways that add up to systems that continue to favor white, well-educated people from economically privileged backgrounds. Even as our leaders pass legislation that tries to repair our broken system, even as progress is made, even as we the people of the United States more fully engage in the democratic process and work to end discrimination and inequality in all its forms.
Today, the stories of Amos, John, and Jesus compel us, simply, to hear the hard truth of socio-economic inequality, to not avoid it, and to hear also God’s urgent desire for justice. God sends Amos to the leaders of Israel, to king Jeroboam, to the priest Amaziah because they have the capacity to change a broken system. Amos and those who truly hear him and act on the word of the Lord are part of God’s response to the cries of those who hunger and thirst in that age. And we, when we hear both the hard truth of injustice in our world and God’s urgent desire for justice for all people, we too become part of God’s response to the cries of the world. People of God, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Prior to the sharing of this sermon, I invited our community to put our faith in motion by signing up for the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Arizona newsletter (Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona (lamaz.org)) and ELCA Advocacy Action Alerts (Advocacy - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)) which help us communicate with our state and federal lawmakers about particular legislation and matters of public policy on issues we value as people of faith, in particular caring for those most vulnerable in our society. We get to be part of God’s response to the cries of the world.
2021 Heat Respite Update
The first full month of Heat Respite has come to an end. Please continue to pray for the people in need of relief. Thankfully, we are experiencing little miracles and lots of love at Grace. For the people who rely on the space we provide, we are continuing to actively have an impact. In this unique community program, volunteers are welcomed to show up on any day and get involved. Daily, Heat Respite participants are also willing to help organize and keep the peace. Please enjoy pictures from some of the activities during week 4. To share needed items or help out, please contact our Outreach Coordinators (Phyllis and Adrienne) at outreach@graceinthecity.com or (602)258-3787.
Brondos Missionary News
The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Ruth
Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from Ruth Erdmann who lifts up the hymn Children of the Heavenly Father, hymn #781 from Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Enjoy!
Sermon for Sunday, July 4
Day of the Church Year: 6th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passage: Mark 6:1-13
Several years ago, I had a conversation with a young adult who had struggled mightily in her early life, someone who had legitimately caused trouble for her parents and teachers, someone who made choices that caused her suffering and difficulty. At the time of our conversation, she had decided to finally be honest, to make different, healthier choices, to listen to those who were trying to help her. And I remember her being frustrated because, she said, “People won’t let me be different. Even when I am trying to do the right thing, people expect me to do what I’ve always done. They don’t believe me when I say that I am trying.”
When others have hurt us, the cynical, wounded part of each of us probably has a hard time allowing for the possibility of real growth and change in the person in question. Just like everyone else, I hate to be disappointed when people tell me they are ready for change...but then continue in their old, hurtful, harmful patterns. We want to wise and realistic and keen to others’ tricks. Sometimes, it is not just others but we who hurt ourselves, who disappoint ourselves, who continue in old, hurtful, harmful patterns. Yet how do we or others make change, grow and thrive, and follow the call of God if we expect only that we humans will take the same, broken path we “always” have?
If any of this sounds familiar, you will understand the people of Nazareth from today’s Jesus story. As we well know, Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but he grows up in Nazareth, a village in the backwater of Galilee. The people of Nazareth cannot understand how Jesus says what he says, does what he does, claim what he claims. The people of Nazareth have known him from the beginning. They know his mother Mary, his brothers James and Joses, Judas and Simon, and his sisters. They know he is a carpenter by trade. And while the gospel writer Mark does not say so explicitly, the Greek word that is translated as “take offense” implies that the people of Nazareth remember the scandal of Christmas 30 years earlier. They remember—or maybe their parents told them the local gossip about how Mary was pregnant prior to marriage. They remember the ridiculous story about the so-called angel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit. They remember the shame brought to this family. And now, this illegitimate child is teaching in the synagogue on the sabbath. This carpenter is preaching about the kingdom of God, healing people, and raising people from the dead. This hometown kid is countering the wisdom of the Pharisees and outrightly breaking the sabbath. The good, faithful people of Nazareth, the ones who knew Jesus as a child, as a teenager, as a young man, take offense at him. They are scandalized. Though Jesus cures a few sick people among them, the gospel writer Mark tells us that Jesus does no deeds of power there, that he is amazed at the people’s unbelief. (But, honestly, doesn’t the people’s unbelief make sense?)
Jesus goes on to say: “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” He calls the disciples and sends them out two by two to cure and to proclaim a message of repentance. Jesus warns them that some of the folks they’ll meet on their journeys will not accept them—just as Jesus himself is not accepted in Nazareth. And there are some good reasons others might take offense at them. Jewish tax collectors worked for the Roman empire, exploited the poverty of their countrymen, and skimmed profits from the people’s taxes. Fishermen, though more honorable in their profession, stank to high heaven of fish. Despite the offense the disciples know they will cause, they go two by two anyway because Jesus calls them, and Jesus sends them.
This Jesus story is easier than the stories of our lives. For we can trust that Jesus is legit. Despite his scandalous conception and birth, his law-breaking, his counter-cultural teaching, Jesus is finally revealed to be Son of God and full of honor. Even the motley crew of disciples can be trusted because Jesus trusts them. Even though they are constantly getting it wrong, at least they are trying to follow Jesus, trying to heal, trying to proclaim the message of repentance. Two thousand years later, we might scoff at the people of Nazareth, shake our heads, and wonder how they could possibly question the words, deeds, and claims of Jesus Christ and his disciples.
But the stories of our lives make judgment and cynicism hard to avoid. For probably all of our lives are populated by broken promises, lies, and hurts too big to forgive and forget. Not only perpetrated by others but perpetrated by ourselves. I know this is a hard sermon, and I’m not usually so dour. But there is good news coming.
No matter what we’ve done to ourselves or others, no matter what has been done to us, no matter the stories of our past, we are called by God, and we are sent by God into ministry. I am not saying: stop being wise. I am not saying: stop practicing good boundaries. I am not saying: forget the past; no need to learn from it. Please, please be wise, set and hold good boundaries, and learn from the past. But no matter our past, no matter what we’ve done, no matter what’s been done to us, God calls us, and God sends us. Every one of us. God does not give up on us. God does not give up on anyone. Even when we cannot rally any more hope or any more chances for the people who have hurt us, God does. Even when we despair of our own choices, our sordid pasts, God does not. God calls each of us and sends us into ministry. God gives us purpose, work to do, people to serve, regardless. If today you are wondering if you are worthy to serve God and God’s people, the answer is yes. If today you are wondering if there is any hope for a person you love but can no longer help, the answer is yes. For the endless hope we know in God, we can say: Thanks be to God! Amen.
Quarterly Pizza & Ministry Night 7/20 @ 6 pm
Join us for Quarterly Pizza & Ministry Night on Tuesday, July 20 at 6:00 pm for pizza and at 6:30 pm for the meeting in the North Room—or Hope Hall if more space is necessary. We will be discussing the organ electrical relay system for those who have questions about the issue upon which we will be voting during our congregational meeting the next Sunday, July 25. We will also discuss the continuing re-opening and re-formatting of our various programs, hear updates on collaborative ministries, and discuss any questions YOU bring. Anyone interested in the ministry of Grace is most welcome!
The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Fran
Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from Fran Fry who lifts up the hymn Thine The Amen, hymn #826 in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal.
2021 Heat Respite Update
Stretch & Breathe Yoga
July Birthdays & Anniversaries
Suggested Bible Readings for July
Funeral & Memorial Service Support
Congregational Meeting: July 25 at 10 am
Sermon for June 27, 2021
Day of the Church Year: 5th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passage: Mark 5:21-43
We are not strangers to illness and death. Many of us struggle with grief and various ailments, me included. We might be having strange symptoms or currently getting tested. We might be awaiting surgery or recovering from surgery. We might live with a chronic illness and chronic pain that we have managed for years. We may be grieving the death of a mom, a coworker, a partner, a friend or the loss of a home, a job, or an opportunity.
Honestly, when I first opened the Bible to discover this week’s Jesus story, I sighed grumpily. An unintentional healing story within a raising-a-young-girl-from-the-dead story just seemed...unfair. While so many people I know are still sick. While so many people I know are grieving the death of loved ones. Why does one touch of Jesus’ robe heal the woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years but not heal the ones among us who have received rigorous medical treatment and much prayer on their behalf? Why does Jesus raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead but not our beloved ones?
In an attempt to make sense of Jesus healing stories, contemporary biblical scholars routinely delineate between curing and healing. Curing involves the end of a debilitating illness, relief from pain, a definite medical shift. Healing, by contrast, involves connection to other people, peace and joy, freedom from fear. Healing may or may not include a cure. A cure may or may not include healing. In today’s Jesus story, Jesus cures, and Jesus heals.
You see, the ancient people of New Testament scripture saw the world in categories of pure and impure, clean and unclean, honor and shame. Men talking with and touching women beyond their immediate family stained them much in the same way that touching a dead body required ritual cleansing at the temple. The recipients of Jesus’ compassion in today’s story were, in the eyes of their culture, impure, unclean, shameful. The woman who touched Jesus’ robe who spent twelve years of her life receiving ineffective treatment, spending all she had, enduring much suffering, also suffered because her illness isolated her. And the daughter of Jairus, upon her death, became untouchable, even by those who came to mourn her. Death in the ancient world was yet a mysterious phenomenon, one people sought to avoid.
Despite its impurity, uncleanliness, and shame, Jesus, far from reviling the woman who touches him, praises her faith: Daughter, he says, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. In the middle of a crowd of people, Jesus names her one of his family, legitimizing her touch, saving her from public ridicule. When Jesus arrives at the home of Jairus to find the daughter already dead, not only does Jesus raise her from the dead. He takes her by the hand!
The truth of this life is that we don’t always get better. Treatments sometimes fail. Some diseases cannot be cured. Despite amazing advancements, medical science does not answer every question. And even when we pray, sadly, confusingly, and perhaps unfairly, God does not always intervene with the hoped-for miracle. But healing is possible, and Jesus shows us the way with a declaration of relationship and a touch of his hand.
Quite simply, dear people of Grace, Jesus calls us into strong, healthy, loving relationships as a way of participating in his healing ministry. We can’t cure others’ illnesses, and we can’t prevent death. But we can be there for one another, be there to listen without offering fixes, be there to have fun together, be there just to be there so that we and others don’t have to be alone. This means nurturing friendships, now, today, not just when things get tough. This means risking asking people to hang out, people we find fun or interesting or who share common interests. This means, on a really practical level, doing stuff with other people, showing up for our conversations with one another, being fully present and listening deeply to what others are sharing. This means allowing others to know us. A cure is not always possible, but even when we are sick and grieving, God reaches through us to others to share healing, to be connected, to know peace and joy, to free us all from fear. Empowering us to build strong, healthy, loving relationships is not only God’s way of healing the world; it is God’s way of healing us. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Phoenix Fusion Racial Justice Book Study
Book Study on The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Thursdays, July 8 & 29, 6:30 pm, via Zoom
For two evenings in July, the Phoenix Fusion Racial Justice Team will host, and Pastor Kristin Rice will facilitate discussion on the book The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration written by Isabel Wilkerson.
In this beautifully written New York Times bestseller, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
Please read parts one through three before the first discussion night. Click here to join.
The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Pastor Sarah
Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from Pastor Sarah who loves, among many other hymns, Soli Deo Gloria, hymn #878 from our Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal.
Sermon for Sunday, June 20
Day of the Church Year: 4th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passage: Job 38:1-11
The book of Job asks the perennial and age-old question, the one we ask in many different ways, the one question that, finally, seems to matter more than almost any other: why do bad things happen to good people?
Job is blameless and upright, fears God and turns away from evil. Job is wealthy in land and animals, goods and family. When God lifts up the righteousness of Job in conversation with Satan, Satan challenges God: Job only serves and praises you, God, because you have blessed him. And God accepts the challenge, allows Satan to take away everything from Job, everything except his life. In all this, Job does not sin or charge God with wrongdoing. When Job’s wife declares, “Do you still persist in integrity? Curse God and die,” Job responds, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” Now, Job grieves his losses, deeply, agonizingly, descriptively. Job’s friends interrogate his faith and trust and acceptance. For over thirty chapters of scripture, Job and his friends go back and forth. And then, God answers Job out of the whirlwind saying: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely, you know!” God continues with what reads to me like sarcastic demands of knowledge and power—knowledge and power that God well knows Job does not possess.
Why do bad things happen to good people? We struggle with this question because we believe God is good—all the time. All the time—God is good. We believe that God is almighty, powerful beyond measure, more powerful than any other force in the universe. We believe that God is omniscient, sees all, knows all, understands all. If God were only good and powerful but not all knowing, evil could result from God’s ignorance. If God were only good and all knowing but not all powerful, God might not have the power to stop evil or suffering. If God were only powerful and all knowing but not always good, God might sometimes take action that allows or even demands suffering. But my guess is that we do not want to let go of our steadfast faith in a good, almighty, and omniscient God. I know I don’t...want to let go of my faith in a good, almighty, and omniscient God.
Some of our sisters and brother in faith read the book of Job and declare Satan the problem. Evil entered the world incarnate in Satan, and the world has been topsy-turvy ever since. An angel at one shoulder, the devil at the other, good and evil influences close at hand. Except that in this view of the world, God’s power is limited. To suggest that evil is a match for God is to suggest God’s hands are tied by a power greater than the creator of heaven and earth.
Reformer of the church Martin Luther read the book of Job and the apostle Paul and declared the bondage of the will the problem. Luther did not believe that we have free will in the sense of the freedom to choose right or wrong, good or evil, God’s way or our way. Rather, he believed we cannot choose not to sin. More simply, we will choose to sin. Not always, not in every situation, but persistently, regardless of our growth in faith because we are not perfect. While I personally find this argument compelling, the argument raises questions about God’s power and goodness. God created us with a capacity to sin, with a capacity for evil, with a capacity for systemic brokenness. Why?
Scholars, theologians, and people of faith from every walk of life read the book of Job today and wonder. The agonizing response to why do bad things happen to good people is simply more questions. Questions about why we were created with a capacity to do evil. Questions like: What is a good person? How do we distinguish “good” people from “bad” people? How do we determine whether an action is good or bad when we don’t know what effect it may have long term? And we live in a world filled with what appears to be bad things. Gun violence here in the valley this week, staggering heat and wild fires that diminish air quality and lead to heat-related illness, illness and death that leave us sad and angry and scared, and a whole variety of injustices. God’s right. We don’t understand—not just the evil in the world but the many mysteries of the world itself. Even as our knowledge of the world grows exponentially, we continue to wrestle with the wisdom to truly understand how our knowledge can and ought to be applied to every aspect of our personal and communal lives.
Job questions God just as we do: deeply, agonizingly, descriptively. We want to know not just why bad things happen to good people but why bad things happen to us. Sometimes, there is a good reason rooted in a series of choices—made by us, others, or a broken system—we can clearly see and understand. Other times, there is no good reason, and we are bereft. Even when there is a good reason, we are led back to the questions raised by Luther’s argument about the bondage of the will. Why give us the capacity and sin and evil in the first place, God?
God’s response to Job’s agonizing inquiry does not answer his questions but instead reveals the depths of Job’s limitations. He won’t understand how God works in the world because he’s not God just as we won’t understand exactly how God works in the world because we’re not God. The expanse and mystery that is God cannot be understood, at least not in its entirety. In the vast sea of all that we do not and cannot know, one thing remains: God answers. God answers Job. The creator of heaven and earth answers Job. The one who laid the foundation of the earth, who laid the earth’s cornerstone, who shut in the sea with doors, who prescribed bounds for the sea, this One answers Job. The One who is good all the time, the almighty, the omniscient, this One answers Job. Which means this One hears Job, listens, considers, loves, cares for Job and each one of us. In the expanse and the mystery of a God and a universe we cannot fully grasp, the One who does understand listens to our cries, our questions, our hearts. And for that, we can say: Thanks be to God! Amen.
The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Mike
Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from Mike Holsten about his favorite hymn Be Thou My Vision. Enjoy!