The Mission

18^th Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 20:17-19. Jesus predicts his own death and resurrection a third time.

• Three weeks ago I ran the Charleston Distance Run, a 15 mile run along either side of the Kanawha in downtown Charleston. Weather was cool to hot. There were large hills from mile 3-7, then long flats. One picture of me taken along the route shows me fresh and energetic, victory in my eyes. A second picture shows me tired but still going. barely. somehow.

When do you think encouragement was needed most?
At beginning, when there’s a long way to go?
Near end, when only a little left? 

When do you think it was received?

• Today’s gospel reading in Matthew is the third time Jesus talks about going to Jerusalem to be killed, and I think in part he’s expressing need for encouragement.
In today’s reading we’re just a week from Palm Sunday.
He’s 13 miles in.

Jesus knows his purpose
(to do the will of his father (Jn 6:38),
to seek & save (Lk 19:10),
to call sinners to repent (Mk 2:17),
that they may have life (Jn 10:10))

Three chapters and many miles and stories earlier, (Matt 16, which we read in April) Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ.
Jesus celebrates he has a running partner! 

And then says his plan: This ultramarathon leads directly to death.
Says Pete nuh-uh. Rough way to begin a hard race,
but Jesus does it anyway.

• CDR had hills at the beginning and then a long flat.
What’s at tail end of Jesus’ race?

Handed over. To our religious leaders. Condemned to death.

Handed over. To THEM. For ridicule, torture, death by crucifixion.

Jesus faced this at the end of his race. Shame. Stripped of dignity to boot.

• Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel.

2 Samuel 6:22 I will become more undignified than this… I will celebrate the Lord.

• Discipleship may mean suffering. Don’t shirk. Represent.

• Be an encourager. Especially @end of race. Represent.

• And thank God. And Philippians 1:27 whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

• Hymn insert Jesus Paid It All

Matthew 20:17-19 (CEB) 09/27/15

¹⁷ As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve aside by themselves on the road. He told them, ¹⁸ “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and legal experts. They will condemn him to death. ¹⁹ They will hand him over to the Gentiles to be ridiculed, tortured, and crucified. But he will be raised on the third day.”               (here ends the reading)

The First Shall Be Last? What's Up With That?

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

On Matthew 20:1-16, the parable of the vineyard workers

• A dozen years ago I found myself watching Home Shopping Network late at night (is there any other time?) and I became enamored by a particular sale – it was a bunch of proof sets, coin collector stuff, and it was a deal that couldn’t be beat, hurry before it’s too late, you don’t want to miss this deal, once they’re all sold the deal is gone!

You’ve heard that kind of sales pitch before, I’m sure.

Thankfully I was able to return the coins a week or two later.

Sometimes there’s deals that are too good to miss,
other times too good to be true, often with the same advertising:
hurry before it’s too late…

One time I received a mailing that proclaimed This Opportunity Won’t Come Again! …and I got two in my mailbox that day.

Is it that way with the kingdom of heaven?
Is God’s grace an offer like the Home Shopping Network or whatever it was I got in the mail?

• I had a conversation with a friend about meaning of this parable of the vineyard workers; my friend was troubled by the economics, the unfairness. A filthy rich landowner taking advantage of hand-to-mouth workers who can’t afford to unionize. Selective generosity is an abusive act of power, like a drug dealer offering a bit of bonus drugs, to keep your loyalty.

• But suppose it’s a story of coming to faith late in life vs. early in life: there’s the assurance for the latecomer that God’s grace is available and sufficient, even late in life. Well the early comers ask what’s to prevent a person from a lifetime of debauchery followed by deathbed repentance? And I say tell me the kind of accident you’ll have and I’ll tell you what kind of helmet to wear).

There's something eternally satisfying about life in Christ, and that whether you choose it early or whether you choose it late, it is a worthy choice. And if you choose it late, it won't be held against you. And if you choose it early, it doesn't earn you special treatment.

• Maybe that story flies for folks in 21^st century America, land of opportunity and relative safety, land where Christianity has been in our water for generations. But in Matthew’s community, the story is different. Consider Matthew's audience, a few decades after the death of Jesus. Paul is dead, and the Temple ransacked. There are some perhaps disturbing economics going on here, which may be an indicator that it's not about economics at all, rather the kingdom of heaven is not a you-better-hope-you-got-in-on-the-ground-floor-else-too-bad-so-sad kind of situation. 

Did we miss our chance to respond to God? This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity won’t come again? We didn’t see Jesus like the apostles did, and now the apostles are dead, too. What's going to happen to us?

God's kingdom is still available, and it's not in the "Last season's rejects" discount box, no, its rewards are as good as they were at the beginning.

• And there is a reflection on economics… GOD’S economics, in which what God gives is perfectly sufficient and in no ways lacking, and we don’t get it…

World economics ruins our perspective and says that if one hour of work is worth one coin, 12 hours of work is worth 12 coins. Never mind that God always gives enough. (recall the gathering of manna in the wilderness... Sufficient, and anything extra spoiled. God gave enough).

Also remember the “other” son in the story of the prodigal… he had it all, but he was upset because he felt he deserved special reward for not wasting his father’s resources.

• God is the vineyard owner, ever interested in a crop of righteousness.

Early in history God “hired” some workers…
also God also hired some workers late in the day.

The latecomers didn’t miss the chance.

God’s promise to each is the same:
work for me and I will give you what is right.

• God looks for workers (not legacy – you don’t get “in” just because your ancestors did) and you can say “yes” today.

• Reception of new members (in bulletin)

Matthew 20:1-16               (CEB)                                                  09/13/15

20 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² After he agreed with the workers to pay them a denarion -- a day’s wage for a laborer, he sent them into his vineyard.

³ “Then he went out around nine in the morning and saw others standing around the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ And they went.

“Again around noon and then at three in the afternoon, he did the same thing. ⁶ Around five in the afternoon he went and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you just standing around here doing nothing all day long?’

⁷ “‘Because nobody has hired us,’ they replied.
“He responded, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’

⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and moving on finally to the first.’ ⁹ When those who were hired at five in the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. ¹⁰ Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarion.  ¹¹ When they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, ¹² ‘These who were hired last worked one hour, and they received the same pay as we did even though we had to work the whole day in the hot sun.’

¹³ “But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I’m generous?’ ¹⁶ So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”              (here ends the reading)

What's In Your Wallet?

• Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

On Matthew 19:1-15. Jesus schools some Pharisees about divorce.

(Title a knock off of the Capital One commercial, “What’s in your wallet?”… if you have their credit card, you’re best equipped to handle life’s situations.)

After a month or two off we return to Matthew. A reminder that Matthew was written maybe 40 or 50 years after the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the Jewish-Christian community at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. Jesus has not returned, and the first generation of disciples and eyewitnesses is dying off, Paul is dead and his letters circulating, and the Temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed.

In the previous chapters, Matthew has shown Jesus talking to the crowds about living in community, how Christian community, discipleship, The Kingdom of Heaven is in contrast to the selfish and hedonistic ways of the world. In chapter 19, Jesus narrows his focus to the disciples as he takes the final steps before the crux of his mission: the Passion, the salvation of humankind.

In fact, the previous section on discipleship ends with the first verses of today’s reading, that Jesus left Galilee and headed toward Jerusalem; large crowds followed him, and he healed them.

What was in Jesus’ heart? The healing of people, the salvation of people, particularly the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the powerless. (recall Jesus and Isaiah 61 in Luke 4)

• Side note: when folks interact with the communities of Jesus today, they should find that same desire for healing and salvation, that same advocacy for the disenfranchised and oppressed and powerless…
what’s in Jesus' heart should be what’s in our hearts.

• So Jesus heads towards Jerusalem, and crowds follow him, and he heals them, and he has drawn the attention of the Pharisees, the ruling class of the Jews, who are threatened by his popularity, his authority and his challenge to their authority. & we read in verse 3 that some Pharisees came to “test” him. What’s in their hearts? It’s not the healing or salvation of people, particularly the powerless… and actually the word “test” is the same as the word used in chapter 4 when Satan leads Jesus into the wilderness to tempt him. They want to trip him, to shame him, to discredit him.

• The Pharisees ask whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife just because. (it was, btw).
Jesus rightly sees it not as a question of interpretation of law, but once again as a conflict between the kingdom of people and the kingdom of heaven. Like last week’s reading from Ephesians 6, there are spiritual forces at work here, not just questions of law.
& Jesus points to the establishment of marriage as God’s ideal for people from the beginning: we’re designed to be in partnership, it’s a gift of God to be in human relationship, and those who love God naturally want to honor the gift and the giver in their marriage.
“Divorce just because” is selfish and dishonoring both gift and giver, PLUS it disenfranchises women, and Jesus is NOT about that.

What is in Jesus’ heart? Honoring God, healing and saving people, and lifting up the powerless.

The same should be in the hearts of disciples.

• Now. Two current events on my mind.
What’s in the hearts of people, and what’s in our hearts.

• Ashley Madison hack a few weeks ago, personal information about 37 million accounts released: AM acct. holders are about 85% men, about half in US, so say 10million men in the US taking steps to have affair. (it’s legal). I read that there were 3 zipcodes in US that did not have associated accounts. That means there are Bville men registered.

There is a battle between kingdom of people and kingdom of heaven here, there are 10 million men hoping to get away with dishonoring the gift from God. 

What’s in their hearts?
Right now, fear. There have been suicides.

What should be in our hearts? To be a place for healing for broken marriages. To be a place for healing for wounded women. AND be a place for healing for broken men.

• Kentucky Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses. Seems to me to be an abuse of power and hypocrisy to boot. She was elected to serve the public -- Christian, atheist, Muslim, straight, Jewish, divorced, everybody -- not just people she approves of.
My hope is to live in society as a representative of Jesus
who lifts up the oppressed & disenfranchised,
who brings hope and healing

• Jesus goes on with a mysterious statement about eunuchs in verse 12. I don’t fully know what to make of it, and I’ll leave it up to you to consider possibilities about the different kinds of eunuchs ("born that way," made that way by others, chose that way) but will ask what is in Jesus’ heart in v. 12? Lifting up the disenfranchised & bringing dignity and wholeness of life.

• I think you can see what I see is at the crux of today’s reading, it’s that Jesus’ heart is for the oppressed, Jesus’ hope for marriage is that the gift of God would be honored and treasured, and Jesus’ hope for the disciples is that they (we) would be witnesses and bearers of the saving love and grace of God, whatever the situation may be.

• What’s in your heart?

• Hymn 2149 Living For Jesus

Matthew 19:1-15                 (CEB)                         08/30/15

19 When Jesus finished saying these things, he left Galilee and came to the area of Judea on the east side of the Jordan. ² Large crowds followed him, and he healed them. ³ Some Pharisees came to him. In order to test him, they said, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

⁴ Jesus answered, “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the creator made them male and female?^{[Gen 1;27] 5} And God said, ‘Because of this a man should leave his father and mother and be joined together with his wife, and the two will be one flesh.’^{[Gen 2:24] 6} So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, humans must not pull apart what God has put together.”

⁷ The Pharisees said to him, “Then why did Moses command us to give a divorce certificate and divorce her?”^{[Deut 24:1]}

⁸ Jesus replied, “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives because your hearts are unyielding. But it wasn’t that way from the beginning. ⁹ I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

¹⁰ His disciples said to him, “If that’s the way things are between a man and his wife, then it’s better not to marry.”

¹¹ He replied, “Not everybody can accept this teaching, but only those who have received the ability to accept it. ¹² For there are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from birth. And there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by other people. And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of heaven. Those who can accept it should accept it.”

¹³ Some people brought children to Jesus so that he would place his hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded them. ¹⁴ “Allow the children to come to me,” Jesus said. “Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children.”
¹⁵ Then he blessed the children and went away from there.

A Methodist Loves Others

•Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

On Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper

Mark #5 of 5, A Methodist Loves Others

With Matthew 22:34-40 and Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2

Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2       (NRSV)       

32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 5 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

• Current series on Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper, based on the teachings of John Wesley. Really, Five Marks of a Disciple.

“When the lights are on, the king is in the castle.”
Five indications that God is king of your castle.

A Methodist Loves God (receives God’s love);
A Methodist Rejoices in God.
A Methodist Gives Thanks.
A Methodist Prays Continually.
The lights are on in the castle. 

Did you put yourself in a position to receive from God this week?

•Christian = “little Christ” or “Christ-like”
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

Really, a person could spend their life by this rule.

It doesn’t happen often but sometimes I don’t like someone.
Those people and I usually clash somehow difference of opinion or maybe I feel they’re judgmental or sarcastic.
But Jesus doesn’t say like but love, and that’s interesting to wrap head around.

I might be self-serving, which is pretty un-Christ-like. Yet somehow God loves me perfectly anyway, and I sometimes glimpse the truth that if I aim to be Christ like, if I aim to love others as Christ loves me, I become closer to God’s design for me! And how does Christ love me?

Frank Burns said “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.”
Ephesians says “Love others as Christ loves us.”

•Be imitators of Christ, this is our aim, our goal, our target,
and what did Christ do but live for others, selflessness
and what is the first sin but selfishness

Therefore the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all heart soul mind and strength AND neighbor as self. Three recipients of love: God, neighbor, and self.

•“The second commandment becomes the conduit for God’s love to flow through us after it has flowed into us. It is a love, Wesley says, ‘full of love to all humankind, to every child of the Father of the spirits of all flesh.’ And lest we think he was only thinking of fellow Christians, Wesley hastens to say it extends to people we don’t know, and to people whose lives we don’t approve of.
It extends even to our enemies…”
 - p. 50 Five Marks of a Methodist, emphasis mine.

Sound radical? Yup. Regardless.

How might this apply to your political world, your view of “the other side”?

• “As with the first commandment, to love God with our whole heart, mind, and being, we are brought back to the necessity of grace if we are to love in this way. Apart from grace, we will love other people conditionally, and worse still, we will set the conditions for giving our love!”
 – p. 51 Five Marks of a Methodist, emphasis mine.

•By no means is it “love those who think like you”… you love them anyway. How about love your opponent, think charitable thoughts about them, pray for their welfare…

Loving others is the aim, the goal, the target.
We have been loved, therefore we are to let love flow through us, not to gather it and store it, for it will stagnate, but let it flow through and give life to others!

•Story of a man named Frank, whose funeral I did a few years ago: Every weekend Frank and his wife of 50 years would assemble two dozen bag lunches – sandwiches and fruit and drinks and hardboiled eggs – and go into the city and hand ’em out to hungry people, with words of Christian witness as well. What a great way to simply show thanks to the Lord and keep active and make a difference in people’s lives.

•When Jesus called the disciples, to fish for people, he was taking what they knew and understood, their ordinary lives, and saying take what you normally do, and do it for me.

& that’s discipleship, that’s receiving God’s love and letting it flow through.

• Into hymn 560 Help Us Accept Each Other

A Methodist Prays Continually

•Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

On Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper

Mark #4 of 5, A Methodist Prays Continually

with John 15:4-8 and 1 Peter 2:1-6

You cannot produce fruit unless you remain in me…

My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples.

– Jesus, in John 15:4, 8

• Current series on Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper, based on the teachings of John Wesley. Really, Five Marks of a Disciple.

“When the lights are on, the king is in the castle.”
Five indications that God is king of your castle.

A Methodist Loves God (receives God’s love)

A Methodist Rejoices in God.

A Methodist Gives Thanks.

A Methodist Prays Continually

• Story of rising waters, jeep, boat, helicopter.
Prayer is putting ourselves in position to receive.
Like old television rabbit ears.

•I’m always amazed at Jesus’ prayer life. 
John 15, Jesus knows the will of God,
is in the will of God because of Jesus’ times of prayer,
Jesus’ positioning himself to receive from God.

• “Prayer is the way we create and sustain our relationship with God.”
– p.38, 5MoaM

• Prayer is intentional, & may be rote, may be scripted.
John Wesley was priest in Church of England,
and the Book of Common Prayer was daily bread.
He had a habit that maintains health
like brushing teeth and showering.
Rich in scriptures.
Structured for both individual and corporate prayer.
BCP created an establish pattern,
and could get you through the dry times.

• “John Wesley prayed with words and in silence. He prayed alone and with others. He prayed when he felt like it and when he felt as if his prayers were making no difference. He prayed with the inspiration and guidance of the Bible and with the instruction of tradition. He prayed with the full range of emotions.” – p. 40

• Brother Lawrence, 17^th century French monk. BL was noted for his continual prayer (practicing the presence of God), notably in his assigned duties in the kitchen, which he didn’t particularly care for.
Commit moment by moment.

At the beginning of my duties, I said to God with a son-like trust, “My God, since You are with me, and since it is Your will that I should apply my mind to these outward things, I pray that You will give me the grace to remain with You and keep company with You. But so that my work may be better, Lord, work with me; receive my work and possess all my affections.”

Finally, during my work, I continued to speak to Him in a familiar way, offering Him my little services, and asking for His grace. At the end of my work, I examined how I had done it, and if I found any good in it, I thanked God. If I noticed errors, I asked His forgiveness for them, and without being discouraged, I resolved to change and began anew to remain with God as if I had never strayed…-- Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God. p. 37

• My favorite / recommended prayer:
The Jesus Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
It's a breath prayer, to be repeated again & again.
Yet another way of positioning.

• However you do it, do it. With sincerity,
and with intention when you haven’t the feeling.

• Story from p. 42 on Larry’s journey to prayer.

• “This is true prayer, lifting up the heart to God.
This is the essence of prayer, and this alone.”
– John Wesley, qtd on p. 41

• What can you do this week to position yourself
for intimacy with God?

• Into hymn 496 Sweet Hour of Prayer

A Methodist Gives Thanks

•Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

On Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper

Mark #3 of 5, A Methodist Gives Thanks

with 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Give thanks in every situation
because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

•Current series on Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper, based on the teachings of John Wesley.
Really, Five Marks of a Disciple.

“When the lights are on, the king is in the castle.”
Five indications that God is king of your castle.

A Methodist Loves God (receives God’s love)
A Methodist Rejoices in God.

•A Methodist Gives Thanks.
Consider this little verse that says so much: 1 Thess 5:18
“Give thanks in every situation
because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Give thanks… 

...in every situation… 

...because this is God’s will for you.

EVERY SITUATION.

Author Steve Harper points out John Wesley’s words:
“Good is the will of the Lord.”
But Harper asks “How are we to give thanks in every situation when some situations seem to come not from the will of God but from the pit of hell?”

•For one, Harper suggests Gratitude is the response to grace.
There are two times to give thanks:
when you feel like it, and when you don’t.
Therefore make a plan to give thanks,
because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

•John Wesley made it a part of his weekly prayer plan to reflect on gratitude every Saturday:

1- Have I allotted some time for thanking God for the blessings of the past week?

2- Have I, I order to be the more sensible of them, seriously and deliberately considered the several circumstances that attended them?

3- Have I considered each of them as an obligation to greater love, and consequently, to stricter holiness?  (qtd on pp 27-28)

He did this for 60 years.

Can you imagine, weekly for 60 years?

Would you try this for August?

•Gratitude reflects God, not circumstances.
(Check out Philippians 4, where Paul has learned
to be content in all circumstances).

God is love, and God is not the author of evil.
God is good to sinners!

Consider Adam & Eve, who did what when they sinned?
They hid. 

What did God do? God called to them.
God provided clothing for them to cover their sin and their shame. God acted in love.

And so we pray Deliver us from evil, and we confess that there is nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:38).

God does not tire of us,
neither does God ever need a break from us.

•So take a moment to write thanksgivings.

•And those situations when you can’t imagine giving thanks?

I’m not exactly going to re-frame those griefs, but hold them in prayer, and trust God.
Pray to see God, to submit to God
(recall God’s will is good, there is no bad in God’s will…
Any bad that happens is not God’s will.
God does not abandon nor is God author of evil.)
Pray to “fully rely on God” regardless of circumstances

•Pray Immanuel God-Is-With-Us…

• Into communion liturgy (eucharist = give thanks)

A Methodist Rejoices in God

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

on Five Marks of a Methodist, by Steve Harper

Mark #2 of 5, A Methodist Rejoices in God

With Philippians 4:4-13 and Exodus 15:1-18

Exodus 15:1-3 (CEB)

15 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

I will sing to the Lord, for an overflowing victory!
    Horse and rider he threw into the sea!
² The Lord is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.
This is my God, whom I will praise,
    the God of my ancestors, whom I will acclaim.
³ The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.

Two people were walking down a country road.
One said to the other “Ah, the king must be home!” 

“How do you know?” said the other. 

“The castle is all lit up.”

When God lives in you, your castle is lit up.

And that’s what this book is about,
Five Marks of a Methodist, by Steve Harper.

Five marks that indicate “the king is home”.

• Who are we, and what are we about,
John Wesley asked and taught 300 years ago.

For one, we are people who receive the love of God –
the first mark: A Methodist loves God.
And last week we considered how God seeks us,
how we love because God first loved us.

We are people who receive the love of God,
and therefore we are people who rejoice:
A Methodist rejoices in God.

Why do we rejoice? Because of the love of God.
Nehemiah 8:10
(Don’t be sad, because the joy from the Lord is your strength), 

Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation.
This is my God, whom I will praise.

We rejoice because we’ve been unlovable,
we’ve done unloving things…yet God loves us.

• DISCUSS: How do you feel when you’re driving along and a police car turns behind you?

Suppose the police pull you over to inform you [there’s something wrong with your car]
How do you feel now? Relief. Release. Joy.

•WHAT IS JOY?
In Exodus reading it is the song that results from the Lord victorious. It is praise.
In Philippians, it is the nearness of the Lord, eradicating anxiety. It is belonging to God.
John Wesley writes that Joy flows from God. It begins in happiness, produces peace and love… no fear. Joy facilitates shalom.
And btw, you can have sadness and joy at the same time… deep and long confidence in God, in spite of present circumstances which may produce sadness.

• DISCUSS: What is *opposite* of joy?

Despair, complacence, boredom, fear, anxiety, dread, bondage, cop-in-the-mirror

•Joy is response to Grace. A disciple rejoices because the prodigal son’s relationship is restored, because what was broken is made new. John Newton wrote I once was lost but now I’m found – rejoice! Charles Wesley wrote Amazing love, how can it be that Thou my God should die for me?!

It’s remembering Romans 5:8, that God proves his love in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us & for our salvation.

Read John Wesley’s journal after his Aldersgate experience:

In the evening I went unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter to nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and death.

•A Methodist loves God, and a Methodist Rejoices in God.
The second mark of a Methodist is joy. The king is home, and the castle is lit up.

•If you are wondering about or lacking a sense of joy, read today’s readings.
Respond to God’s grace, plus think on these things.
Read today’s readings. Pray to know God’s reconciliation.

• Into Hymn 371 I Stand Amazed in the Presence

Philippians 4:4-13     (CEB)

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. ⁶ Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. ⁷ Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.

⁸ From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. ⁹ Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. The God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰ I was very glad in the Lord because now at last you have shown concern for me again. (Of course you were always concerned but had no way to show it.) ¹¹ I’m not saying this because I need anything, for I have learned how to be content in any circumstance. ¹² I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor.
¹³ I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.