Natalie's Grace Notes

  After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, Peter got a big promotion amongst the disciples, and started a new job, as “the rock upon which Jesus would build the Church.” No pressure, though. The book of Acts, that we’re getting these verses from, was written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke. We know that because both books begin with a special thanks to some dude named “Theophilus”. We have no historical records of anyone ever being named Theophilus, and no other books, save for these two, dedicated to Theophilus. Theophilus was either a wealthy patron of Luke with a crazy unique name, OR, we can take a look at what “Theophilus” means in Greek–lover of God–and go with the alternate theory, that Theophilus wasn’t one specific person, but rather the author’s way of giving a nod to all people who will read these stories as he intended, with love for God. Either way, dedicating your book to Theophilus is right up there with “call me Ishmael” as an easily identifi...

  Good morning, friends. It’s good to be back in the pulpit. I’ve missed y’all. And, naturally, the day I picked to be back from post-Easter vacation is this day that’s odd, wondrous, and challenging: Mother’s Day. This can be a hard day to preach, because the word “mother” is an emotional one that carries so much weight for us, both good and bad. For some of us, this day is simplistically joyous. You were raised by an exemplary mother, an angel walking among us. Maybe y’all are so close, like besties. Maybe you brought her with you to church today, and after the service, as long as I don’t drag this sermon out too long and make you miss your reservations, you’ll go out to lunch together. I’ll do my best. Some of us are blessed beyond measure to be mothers, and our little darlings drive us up the wall like a chair lift sometimes, but that’s just life and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Some of us started this day with flowers, or breakfast in bed, and y’all I promise I didn’t ju...

  If you were in the company of all your closest friends at the same time, and you knew it would never happen again, and you had just a minute to say something important, something you hoped they’d remember, what would you say? Now, it’s Maundy Thursday, and there’s an obvious place our minds will take this little thought exercise. Straight to Jesus, and his passion and death. We read these chapters every year, we sing “Were You There?”, we undress the sanctuary, and we go home, and those of us who have young children engage in conversation with a certain bunny.  I’m always going to invite us to slow down, and not go straight to the obvious. Because we need to see this moment the way Jesus’ disciples did. For just a moment, try not to think of Jesus as the guy you’ve seen depicted on Tiffany stained glass windows and portrayed in film by Jim Caviezel. Because it wasn’t that Jesus who invited himself over to someone else’s house, and then had dinner with his closest friends. It...

  MESSAGE “Invitation to Transforming Mystery”  Friends, this is the last week of this Lenten sermon series I’ve put together, utilizing the book “Invitations of Jesus” by pastor and author Trevor Hudson. In every chapter of this short, devotional work, Hudson explores a few verses from the Gospels where Jesus is “inviting” the reader to a spiritual experience. This week, the last week in the season of Lent, this Palm/ Passion Sunday, Hudson suggests we explore Jesus inviting us to holy mystery. This week brings us right to the edge of what we, as people, think we know and understand about life and death, and then pushes us over it. Jesus knew that, and knew that each decision he made this week had to be measured and intentional, because many people would see him in these vulnerable moments for the last time–at least for the last time as a man who has never faced death. He begins the week by achieving a traveling goal that was a year in the making–get from Nazareth to Jerusale...

  Friends, we’re now in the second to last week of this sermon series I put together for the season of Lent, based on “Invitations of Jesus” by pastor and author Trevor Hudson. This week’s “invitation” that Hudson asks us to consider is Jesus inviting us to share in mission.  Oof. Mission is one of those Church Words that makes me feel bad, because I always feel like no matter how I’m working at it, I’m doing it wrong. It’s also one of those Church Words that fills me, your pastor, with cold dread because I think “oh no, here come the charge conference forms.” But I’ll say more about that in a minute.  Most of this is because of my own perspective. We don’t join Jesus in his mission by working hard at it. We get there by thinking and feeling like Jesus. Then it comes naturally. When I started ruminating on this, I was thinking of the Casting Crowns song “Jesus, Friend of Sinners”: Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away We cut down people in Your name But th...

  Friends, we’re now in the third Sunday of Lent, as, because of that, the third week of this sermon series I put together for this season, where we’re taking a look at a book called Invitations of Jesus by author and pastor Trevor Hudson. Every week, we’re looking at a verse from the Gospels where Jesus extends some kind of invitation to the folks around him, and we’re looking at what we learn from that invitation.  This week’s invitation, and the only Gospel passage I’m going to have us look at, comes from Matthew’s Gospel, and it’s Jesus calling Matthew, the man, to be his disciple. Now, to be clear: many folks who interpret the Bible more conservatively assume that Matthew the disciple and Matthew the author of this Gospel are the same person, and, therefore, that this Gospel is an eyewitness account of Jesus’ life, miracles, and teachings, written by someone who spent every day and night with him for a year. Since nearly all of the disciples died young and tragically, th...

  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...