Natalie's Grace Notes

  Friends, we’re now in the second Sunday of our Lenten journey, and the second week of this sermon series I put together for this season, where we’ll be taking a look at Invitations of Jesus by pastor and author Trevor Hudson. This week’s invitation is “invitation to transforming intimacy”, and Hudson bases it on Matthew 22: 34-40: The Greatest Commandment 34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, in yet another story where the Pharisees are trying to publicly mess with Jesus, make hi...

  Y’all know I’m a liturgy and history nerd. This Sunday is another of those church holidays that most folks don’t think about, but that I love preaching on. It’s Transfiguration Sunday. It’s the very end of the season of Epiphany, and the last Sunday before we go into Lent. It’s a “white stole” Sunday, too, in honor of the special glimpses of God we observe today. We have 2 stories this morning about a once in a lifetime encounter with divinity. We hear the story of Moses descending Mount Sinai after one of his conversations with God about the Law. Unbeknownst to Moses, talking to God made him glow. But the light was so striking that even his brother Aaron was afraid to go anywhere near him. I mean, I think I understand. If one of my sisters suddenly looked like a Glow Worm I’d have questions, too. When Moses realized he shimmered after talking to God, he started wearing a veil around the Hebrews as base camp, for their comfort. Then he’d take the veil off to go back up Mount Sina...

  It’s “love your enemy” Sunday, y’all. The most uncomfortable words ever to come out of Jesus’ mouth. This teaching happens immediately after last week’s Gospel passage–the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. Jesus is still standing on flat land, on eye level with everyone standing around him. The words he just said really dressed down a few key groups of people–the wealth hoarders, the food hoarders, and Jesus’ perpetual frenemies, the Pharisees. If any of those words describe you, should you bother to stay to hear more? And if none of those words describe you, if you are in the groups Jesus just called blessed–the poor, the food insecure, and the mourning–now what? If Jesus tells me that I’m blessed and woe will come to you, does that make you my enemy? And, if so, how am I supposed to treat you? Bringing up the word “enemy” in a spiritual circle is a great way to halt a conversation. That word makes us very uncomfortable, and that discomfort is coming from a ...

  The words we’re hearing today in our Gospel reading are words that sound vaguely familiar, but like they’re coming from the “wrong guy”. I’ve preached these sentiments many times before, and I quote them at nearly every funeral I preside over. You all have doubtless heard these words many times over, too, and heavily quoted in the public sphere for all kinds of reasons, good, bad, and otherwise. But most of us aren’t used to hearing these words coming out of Luke’s pen. Instead we prefer to hear these words as adapted by his near predecessor Matthew.  First, you get some background information on biblical scholarship and criticism, courtesy of your nerdy pastor who needs to fully utilize that master’s degree, because it was very expensive. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are what we call “the synoptic Gospels”, literally meaning that you can “look at them together”, and you’ll see giant chunks of words written exactly the same. We’re pretty sure that Mark, the shortest and hastiest ...

  Today’s sermon was brought to you by a typo. When I sent the bulletin information to Mary, I was struck by the two uses of the word “before” in the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah, and I didn’t have any other plans for the sermon, I was waiting for the Saturday afternoon surge of inspiration to hit me, likely between scoops of cookie dough ice cream. But when Mary sent out the bulletin, I took a close look at it, and noticed that she added something to my sermon title–a question mark. So, suddenly, the title of my sermon was no longer “Before”, statement, but “Before?” question. Huh. Then I realized…it’s perfect. This passage from Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah’s call narrative, has long been a favorite passage of mine. But I’ve preached it several times before, and 13 years deep in this line of work, coming up with new things to say about multi-thousand year old words can be a challenge. Not always, but certainly this week. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And b...

  In order to prepare myself for this sermon, I needed to rewatch the 1984 film, The Neverending Story . Now, this is going to be a reference that will instantly split us all up into generational groups. Some of us have a few pivotal scenes from that movie permanently seared into our memories, some of you may have watched at least part of that movie with your kids, and some of you have never heard of The Neverending Story and have no idea what I’m talking about. Don’t worry, I’m going to get everyone on the same page. At the start of the film, we meet a little boy named Bastian. He’s in a vulnerable, grieving place. His mother recently passed away, he’s being bullied at school, his dad doesn’t really “get” him, and his grades at school are lagging because he’s not so concerned with math tests and homework right now, he’s more focused on the dreams he’s been having about his mom. Then a bookstore owner shows him a new book he might love, but that isn’t a “safe” read like the many o...