June 13th Virtual Worship
Music Ministry Team: Kristin Petty, Dwight Huntley, Matthew Leone, Rene Vazquez, Jenna Crafts
Worship Team: Sarah Haas, Marc Hayden
Technology Team: Michael Kendall, Mark Raker, Jerry Weissinger
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Key Notes from the reading & sermon:
This We Believe: We Trust God, the Creator
From the UCC Statement of Faith
In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior, you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself.
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
[Reading above - Romans 5: 1-8]
In the opening chapters in the Letter to the Romans, Paul made a clear case for the mess we humans have made of the world by our disobedience to God’s way of Shalom and the terrible consequences that produces. In the middle chapters Paul gives testimony to the good news of the Divine clean-up of the mess we have made. Today’s passage is a beautiful example of this good news. In abbreviated form the Divine clean-up is being justified by faith. Paul’s longhand form is justification by grace in the faith of Jesus Christ. The clean-up or reconciliation of Creator and creation is a matter of grace, God’s unconditional and unmerited love, which is proven in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. This grace is activated by the faith of Jesus, whose trust in and obedience to God was so great that he walked a path to a cross he did not deserve. This act of obedience to Divine love justified or put things right between the Creator and creation.
Questions for Reflection:
The UCC Statement of Faith describes Jesus as one who shared our common lot. What difference does it make to you that Jesus understands our human condition?
How have you experienced God’s grace in your life? How has God’s grace changed you?
How can gracefully saved and transformed communities of faith put into place systems and institutions that reflect Divine grace?