Sunday, July 3 – “Part 1: Reconciliation”

View this recorded version of Sunday Worship from July 3, 2022.

Bible Verses

Bible verses: Genesis 3: 1-10

Reflection: “Following Jesus, Part 1: Reconciliation”

Excerpts from the sermon by Rev. Dr. Fred Grewe:

“…many of us, in the world realm of faith or spirituality, are looking for a superman–somebody to come show how everybody else is wrong and we’re really right, and to restore truth, justice, and the American way. We want Superman.

We don’t necessarily want a a messiah or a God and God’s way. What we really want is a genie. We want some supernatural power to show up, to bust all the people up the side of the head, who disagree with me, or what I think is the right way. And then get safely back in the bottle and just wait there until I need him or her again to come back out of the bottle and do what I want. That’s what we want is a genie, not a God, because, well for crying out loud, Gods tell us what to do, tells us how to behave.

We don’t want that and so that’s the human condition. And what astounds me in this passage, which I just think is absolute genius, to think somebody three or four thousand years ago, put this together to try to describe what it feels like to be a human being.

The response of the Creator in this passage is ‘Where are you?’ It is to come as a loved parent that has lost a child, is terrified and screaming out, Where are you? The pain and anguish of this parent that has lost what is most precious and most beloved, I just find, absolutely incredible.

…But all of the Bible can be summarized in one phrase, God in search of human beings.

…If the Bible is to be believed, there is nothing more important than relationships; that’s what the whole book is about from beginning to end.

[God’s] relationships, our relationships with the Creator, our relationships with each other, our relationships we create with all the other sentient beings that are on this planet and with the planet itself.

There is nothing more important in the the Bible then the healing of these relationships. That’s what the whole book is about. God wants us to restore relationships with God, with each other, with creation, and even within ourselves–which is really, really difficult.

…I suggest that the primary thing that we should be about is creating a space that is fertile soil for reconciliation, a place for healing–a place for healing of relationships with God, with each other, with ourselves, and with all of creation.”