Dear Church: A Letter to the Church in Azle

Welcome/Call to Worship

Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley. To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here! 

This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing. 

We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.

There are information cards in the pew in front of you—if you are a guest, or if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship. 

For those watching online or for those who would like to follow along, our liturgy for every service is posted on our website before the service begins.

We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Parlor. There is also a combined children and youth class that meets in the MUB. Godly Play meets behind the sanctuary for our younger elementary students.

To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter on our website. 

We conclude our worship series today: Dear Church: A Study of Philippians. .

Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.

Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.

Litany of Faith

One: The Lord is high, yet the Lord cares for the lowly and perceives the haughty from afar.

All: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe;

One: You stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies;

All: Your right hand shall save me.

One: O Lord, you will make your purpose for me;

All: O Lord, your love endures forever; do not abandon the work of your hands.

(Psalm 138:7-9)

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you.

Join me in prayer.

Great God of our faith, we want to be like the Psalmist who can say so confidently that You are their light and salvation. Even on days when our confidence wavers, we sing this song in hope that it will be true for us once again, that those around us can believe for us. 

We give thanks for the community of faith in this place, for the community that stretches centuries before us, for the communion of saints that is always present, for our place in the long, long story of God. We give thanks for the words of our ancestors, who can give language when our words fail. We give thanks for the words of our friends and family of God, who can articulate our here and now in light of our faith ancestors’ words.

God of blinding light and mysterious salvation, we remember that when Jesus called the disciples, he did not say, “Believe this and that, adhere to this rule, agree with so-and-so, and memorize such-and-such tenets.” Jesus said simply, “Come follow me.” He invited them on a journey, an adventure, an apprenticeship. 

In the same way, when the news overwhelms us, when the circumstances of our lives shout at us, when the things we hear in this room together seem like wishful thinking, you do not admonish us or bully us into belief. You simply say, “Come with me.” You accompany us, You lead us. 

Help us to follow You, to trust that this story You have invited us into is real and worth it. When belief seems impossible, help us to put one foot in front of the other. When we struggle to find our place in Your story, help us to lean on the ones around us to show us the way. 

And now, O God, in the words of the one who bid his disciples come, we pray together in the prayer Jesus taught us to pray…

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. 

Amen.

Sermon

Our text and our sermon today are one in the same. You see, our text was not written by Paul or a student of Paul. No invisible hand of God dropped down to write what we will read. 

No, you have written the text for today. You have written the sermon. 

Over the past few weeks, you have been filling out little scraps of paper with simple prompts about life at Azle. What do you love? What do you see? What do you remember? What do you hope for? What do you pray for? All of your answers have been shaped into a letter from Azle Christian Church to Azle Christian Church. In a succinct and coherent way, this letter captures how you see yourself and what you hope for yourself.

As the church leaders in Philippi did, I will read it in our assembly. While I personally filled out a little scrap of paper each week, none of what I wrote is in this letter. All of these sentiments are yours. Sometimes the very words are yours exactly as you wrote them. References to God in name, in metaphor, in pronoun—they’re all yours. 

Are you ready to hear what you have to say? 

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Azle, Texas, with the elders, the deacons, the acolytes, the board members, the cabinet, the whole host of committees, the coffee makers, the donut diners, the plant caretakers, the nursery workers, the children’s volunteers, the groundskeepers, the choir members, the ukuleles, and the prayer group:

Grace to you and peace from God our Parent and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every single one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from your brush arbor beginnings until now. 

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that your enduring faithfulness is a testament to God’s work in the world around you. From the moment the church began until now, word of your care for the community of Azle has spread and it is a witness to the love of Christ. Some proclaim Christ through word, but you proclaim Christ with deed. 

You have filled the food pantry time and again, you have handed out endless bags of produce, you have paid electric bills and bought gas for people you don’t even know, and for that I rejoice. You alsodivert money away from your own budget in order to further the reign of God in mission work across the state and across borders.

Indeed, you do not regard borders and lines in the sand as relevant to the love of God. It is said that you open your arms, your minds, and your hearts to many diverse groups and individuals. You welcome and nurture and learn from people who are different than you, sharing everything, especially your faith. 

In tender love and understanding, you practice the welcome of the table in all parts of your lives—there is space for everyone and their questions, anyone and their doubts, all with their diverse beliefs and identities. May you continue to be a beacon of love and hope to all who walk through the door.

I see Christ in you, saints of Azle, when you gather, when you share what you have, when you are generous with your tears and your love, when the sounds of your voices swell in worship each time you gather. The Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we live and breathe, is among you every time you care for others and learn new things. You have grown in grace and truth over the past few years in ways your humble beginnings would not believe, but the light of Christ has never shined brighter in you. 

We remember that COVID came and changed the landscape of community, and yet you are still here. We remember that the Big Freeze and the Great Flood came and shuttered your doors, and yet you never missed a Sunday. And even in those tumultuous times, the grace of God, the One who is all around us, who is within us, who is always with us, filled your time together. 

Do you remember the sweetness of those first few Sundays in the Heritage? Do you remember how you stepped into something historic, you, a new thing that God has done, and the joy of being together again after so long filled your hearts to the brim? It was a joy that can only be compared to a child’s baptism, to one’s first mission trip, and to the cold, crisp night of a midnight Christmas Eve service.

For the youngest among you, may you know deep in your bones that everyone here supports you. May you find in this church a safe and friendly place where you can grow and be comfortable in your beliefs and in your doubts. May you not be afraid to ask questions, no matter how silly they may seem.  

And little ones, courageous ones, may you be brave enough to stand up to and challenge dysfunctional systems perpetuated by those who have gone before you. May you be accepted for who you are.

And in all things, may you find an enduring faith in which you are deeply rooted in the love and the community of God. 

For those in midlife, may you share yourself with the church, with the younger and the older among you. May you be available to go where God leads you, knowing you are loved and important. May there be a space for you to cultivate community and nurture friendship, no matter what form that takes, so that you may grow in your faith. May you incline your ear not only to those older, but also to those younger. 

And for the oldest in the church, do you remember the most important thing of all? That you, dear one, are always and still a precious child of God. You are loved and worthy and valued. May this good news not be news to you, but something you know deep in your heart. 

I encourage you, sage saints of Azle, to be not afraid to ask for help. May the blessing you have given to others be given to you, received by you. And may you have abundant opportunities to share your wisdom and see, really see, your value beyond it. 

Let us not forget, brothers and sisters, that God is love. God is love. God is love. If there were a song for Azle, it would be this: God is love. And we are God’s image; whatever he or she looks like, God looks like us. Or rather, we look like God. All of us in our diverse images. 

And so, church of God in Azle, may you stand fast in this love, sharing the responsibility of all it asks of us. May you prayerfully replenish that love by collectively working together to address issues in the church, in the community, and in the world. May you remember our brother Jesus, and how his table draws us together over and over again. 

May this table remind us that Christ brings us together as people with different ideas and backgrounds to do his work in this place, providing sanctuary to all no matter who they are, what they have done, or what they have experienced. May the tradition that has been set continue, the sacred and holy practice of welcome. 

May this community be a soft place to land for anyone who has experienced exclusion or spiritual harm. May we continue to discern what our sacred text tells us of God and ourselves, and may we practice the inclusiveness of God’s love always. 

Greet every saint in Christ Jesus with hope and joy. You are not alone and you are not the end of the story. 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 

Amen. 

Sharing Our Resources

There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song. 

Invitation 

We are delighted to welcome Dora and Jason McDonald and Kilian McDonald-Boyer to the Azle Christian Church family. They have been among us for some time, but they are making it official today and joining as members. What a great day for the church! Dora, Jason, and Kilian, will you come to the front please?

I invite all of you to turn to #341 in your Chalice hymnals for our affirmation of new members. The affirmation will also be on the screen for us to read together.

Join me in this welcome:

Reaffirming our own faith in Jesus the Christ,

We gladly welcome you into this community of faith,

Enfolding you with our love

And committing ourselves to your care.

In the power of God’s Spirit

Let us mutually encourage each other to trust God and strengthen one

Another to serve others,

That Christ’s church may in all things stand faithful.

Dora, Jason, and Kilian, we welcome you with joy in the common life of this church.

We promise you our friendship and prayers

As we share the hopes and labors of the church of Jesus Christ.

By the power of the Holy Spirit

May we continue to grow together in God’s knowledge and love

And be witnesses of our risen Savior.

Welcome, and amen.

If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.

Benediction:

Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.

Our benediction for this series comes from the first chapter of Philippians. It’s our last time to receive it. Here it is:

This is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. Amen. 

Dear Church: Keep on doing the things you have learned (Philippians 4:1-23)

Welcome/Call to Worship

Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley. To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here! 

This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing. 

We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.

There are information cards in the pew in front of you—if you are a guest, or if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship. 

For those watching online or for those who would like to follow along, our liturgy for every service is posted on our website before the service begins.

It’s Children’s Choir Sunday! Hooray! We can’t wait to hear what they have prepared. 

We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Parlor. There is also a combined children and youth class that meets in the MUB. Godly Play meets behind the sanctuary for our younger elementary students.

To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter on our website. 

We kind of conclude our worship series today: Dear Church: A Study of Philippians. This is our last Sunday to read from Philippians, but next week, our text will be what you have been writing all summer. We’re taking all the little slips of paper you’ve been turning in each week and crafting a letter from Azle Christian Church to Azle Christian Church. But today, we’re looking at Paul’s last word.

Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.

Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.

Litany of Faith

One: Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill?

All: Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart.

One: There is no guile upon their tongue; they do no evil to their friend;

All: They do not heap contempt upon their neighbor.

One: In their sight the wicked are rejected,

All: But they honor those who fear the Lord.

(Psalm 15)

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you.

Join me in prayer.

God of twilight visits, we confess that we are tired. You have asked us to keep our lamp lit, waiting for you expectantly, ready to receive You when You arrive, having prepared everything for Your visit. But it’s getting late. We go back and forth between playing games to stay awake and worrying that something has happened. Did you return already and we missed You? Have You decided not to come back after all? We seem to be the only ones awake now—everyone else has turned out their light and turned in for the night. We return to the activities that keep our hands busy, our minds occupied. 

God of little flocks and a mustard seed kingdom, no one told us that waiting felt so busy. What are we supposed to be doing? we ask ourselves. Establish the work of our hands, the Psalmist prayed, and we pray that prayer, too, as our thumbs twiddle and our foot taps quietly. We think of those who got tired of waiting and went to bed. We think of those who have given up hope that You are coming. We want to believe that You are close at hand. Help our unbelief. Help us wait a little longer.

O Holy One who is just around the corner, God of whom we catch a glimpse every once in awhile, God whose Spirit burns faithfully and persistently like the lamps we have lit, help us to stay alert and awake. Keep our minds on what matters, the poet wrote, which is mostly paying attention and learning to be astonished. Astonish us, O God. Take our breath away. 

And so we pray together the prayer that Jesus, our brother and redeemer, taught us to pray…

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. 

Amen.

Sermon: Keep on doing the things you have learned

Philippians 4:1-23

1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.

10 I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it. 11 Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through the One who strengthens me. 14 In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.

15 You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone. 16 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account. 18 I have been paid in full and have more than enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 In return, our God will fulfill all your needs in Christ Jesus, as lavishly as only God can. 20 To our God and Creator be glory forever and ever. Amen.

21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me greet you. 22 All the saints greet you, especially those of the emperor’s household.

23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

This week, NASA released the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and I’ve spent the better part of the week stunned with wonder. Language is inadequate for what these photos depict and the effect they have had not just on my heart, but the world’s. They have captured the imagination of many. If you’ll indulge me for a second, we’re going to look at a few of the pictures together.

First, there is this picture of a planetary nebula, which I learned is clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Can we just sit with that sentence for a second? Clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. WHAT.

And then there’s the photo of the five interacting star galaxies. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and regions of fresh star birth. That is a real sentence on the NASA website. How does a human heart comprehend fresh star birth?

Then there’s the picture of the star-forming region in the Carina Nebula known as NGC 3324. What looks like a mountain range is actually the edge of a giant gaseous cavity where stars are born, also known as a star nursery. This picture is capturing something 7500 lightyears away, which means what we see in this photo happened 7500 years ago. Again I say, “WHAT.”

I’ve been staring at these photos for the past 5 days. 

As I’ve tried to wrap my own head around these pictures, I’ve shown them to Annie, too. We’ve talked about what a galaxy is, what a solar system is, and we’ve used fruit to illustrate how our planet orbits the sun, and how there are other planets that orbit the same sun. We talked about gravity, and how a gravitational pull to the sun keeps us all orbiting around and around.

Galileo Galilei, the famous astronomer from the 17th century, was the first one to conclude the sun did not revolve around the earth, but rather the earth, along with the other planets, revolved around the sun. He was led to this conclusion after noticing that Venus changes places in our night sky—a tell that its orbit is around something else. By noticing a peculiarity about one orbit, he was able to see how all of the known planets in our solar system orbited the sun, how his planet, our planet, orbits the sun. 

If you know the story of the astronomer Galileo, you know that the Roman Catholic Church did not take kindly to this view and punished him until the end of his days, forcing him to recant and imprisoning him for life. 

Centuries later, the Catholic Church issued an apology, nearly two centuries after more scientists confirmed what Galileo had suspected. But Galileo’s boldness in naming that the universe worked differently than the world, than the church had proclaimed, had serious consequences.  

Many centuries before Galileo was imprisoned, the apostle Paul was imprisoned for his views about the way the world works. We’ve been reading his letter from prison to the church in Philippi this summer, and today, we wrap up this piece of mail.

Paul concludes his correspondence with the Philippians by addressing a couple of things: an inner church conflict, some final reminders, and an acknowledgement of a financial gift he received from them.

So he calls out two women in the church: Euodia and Syntyche. If you remember, we assumed at the beginning of our study that their particular beef along with the beginnings of the church in Philippi was evidence that this was a woman-led church. That Paul is calling out two church leaders for some conflict they’re having. We don’t have the details. The church knows what Paul is talking about, but we have no idea.

But before we just shrug our shoulders and dismiss this mention as irrelevant, let’s remember these letters from Paul were read out loud to the assembly. It’s reasonable to assume that these letters were read in worship, as part of worship. Paul does not seem to regard such matters of church leader conflict as private, to be settled outside of church. No, in Paul’s view, this is precisely the nature and function of a congregation as partners in ministry. Being in a covenant community such as a congregation, means belonging to one another, being each other’s business, which necessarily involves laying before one another your joys, your sorrows, your burdens, and issues needing to be settled. 

According to Paul, hard conversations are essential to the life and health of the church. Working things out is the business of the church. For him, a healthy relationship is not the absence of conflict or disagreement, but rather the commitment to one another through the conflict. 

And then Paul goes on to say things that I like to classify as needlepoint Christianity. You know, the stuff you see embroidered on pillows or in frames. Things you might see plastered on a something in Hobby Lobby. You know what I’m talking about.

Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say rejoice!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

And the best for last: 

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

They can seem quaint, trite even. 

But what if I told you that this verse, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable…” is actually not a Christian thought. It’s pagan. 

This cute little saying that we may have up in our house right now or have used to admonish ourselves into a better state of mind, would actually have been known to be a pagan concept. 

This line is a well-known list of ethical concepts developed not by Jesus or Jewish religious leaders or Paul, but by the Stoics. They are virtues prized in Greek culture. 

Now perhaps that doesn’t seem scandalous to you. But for a fledgling religious movement that is fighting for its life and longevity, the idea that we can learn from philosophies and religions broadly classed as pagan is kind of revolutionary. Imagine that I have brought in wisdom from Buddhist thought or the Quran, and said, “Take this to heart.” For some of us, we would be like, “Cool, yeah, let’s do it.” But, for others, it might be hard to see what relevance they had in our lives, or perhaps, for others, it might be heretical to do that. 

But for Paul, the idea that God created all things, helps him be open to the ways and works of God whenever and wherever they appear, even in religions and philosophies that are different than ours. Here’s some early interfaith work. 

Paul quoting this Stoic concept and opening us up to the wisdom outside our own interpretation of Christianity, of the Divine, illustrates how much bigger our world is. How much longer the table is. 

But I’ll come back to that in just a second. First, we need to finish this letter.

So Paul finishes his letter in a weird way. When we’re reading Paul’s letters if we can just think that he is kind of weird sometimes, it helps.

So Paul talks in a roundabout way about this financial gift that the church sent him. We’re not sure why he doesn’t just simply say thank you, which seems like the logical and polite thing to do. Perhaps he can’t talk much about it because the government officials reading his letter may try and rob him. That’s a valid concern.

Or we know from other letters that Paul doesn’t like to receive financial gifts because it makes him feel beholden to a group, and he likes his independence. Solid theory. 

Or maybe he’s just being weird about it. I’m not saying that every incomprehensible thing in scripture can be chalked up to odd human behavior, but humans behave oddly and in nonsensical ways a lot, so statistically, there’s bound to be some human error here somewhere, and maybe this is one of those times. 

Really, it doesn’t matter. What we can see from here is that though he knows how to be hungry for Christ, how to be well-fed for Christ, that he can live all circumstances in Christ—it’s a nice sentiment, it really is— he feels cared for by the church in Philippi. That’s the thing to take from this section. 

And this is in part because of the financial gift, but also because of all the reasons he has listed already in his letter. Their partnership in the gospel, their solidarity with him in his suffering, their practice of mutual reciprocity with one another and with him. I really feel like this is a “Aww, y’all. You shouldn’t have!” kind of moment. 

So this whole chapter, these three things that Paul addresses here as he’s wrapping up, bring us back to the table. 

And perhaps we always bring it back to the table because we’re just cutie pie Disciples and we can’t get enough of the table. Or perhaps it’s because Diane Clark got to preach on communion when my family had COVID and I still feel sad that I missed that opportunity to talk about my favorite thing in the world. Or maybe it’s because it’s always about the table. 

Hear me out. 

The table is a point of gravity for us in this text, not because Paul talks about the Lord’s Supper at all, he does not. But because it is a practice for us that grounds us, that brings us back to our center, that is always informing our lives away from the table. 

I like to call the way the table influences our life “thinking Eucharistically.” The Eucharist is a fancy term that some denominations use for communion. And I like it because it sounds more elegant than “thinking communionly” or “thinking Lord’s Supper-ly.” So to think Eucharistically means that we are always working the perimeter of the table, we’re always circling it, assessing it from all angles. The idea is that it is our center. 

This all going to come together, I promise. Trust me, we are landing this plane.

So if the table is our point of gravity, how does it interact with these three issues that Paul addresses—the conflict, the pagan saying, and the financial gift.

Let’s think of the table as a place of sharing, as sharing ourselves, our resources, the love of Christ.

If we agree with Paul that the church is a place we stick around and work things out rather than quietly ignoring our differences, then we believe something radical about the table. The table of Christ is not merely a place for us all to get along. It’s main purpose is not for us to set aside our differences or agree to disagree. It’s not meant for us to put aside who we voted for, what we believe about heaven, or which worship style is best. 

The table is much deeper than sameness. It’s much deeper than polite conversation. 

If the table is not a place for us to forget our differences, then it is a place to celebrate them, to wrestle with them, to run our hands over the fractures and the cracks and the ruptures and the brokenness of Body of Christ, which lucky for us is the very sustenance we are given. 

And when we do this, Christ is revealed, and we find ways to re-member what was dismembered. We find ways to put ourselves back together in a unity that is stronger than before. We discover a gentleness as we tend to the breaches with great love and attention. 

And at this table, this long, long table, that we cannot see the end of, we cannot where it begins or where it ends, we are guests of our most gracious host Christ. That is who brings us to the table. We say every week with conviction, “All are welcome here. Because it’s not our table. It’s God’s.” And in this conviction, we practice an inclusivity that goes beyond even Christ. 

It may seem innocuous that Paul includes this nice little pagan saying in his letter, but it’s important for us to note that the practice of eating around the table to worship and celebrate and lament and gather is something shared by many major religions in the world. It is a crucial part of those with faiths different than our own and those with no faith. We don’t own this table. We’re not the bosses f it. We don’t get to see the guest list. And we worship a Christ who is still very much a mystery to us. 

And this table calls us to the sharing of ethical, spiritual, and moral work with those around us, an ecumenical and interfaith movement as exhibited through this little phrase, “whatever is true, whatever is noble…” It prompts us to consider what we can learn from those different than us. Who live differently? Who worship differently? Who pray differently? How do we already benefit from their generosity and care, and how can we share with them?

And finally, this financial generosity that Paul dances around. This is perhaps the easiest for us to get. But it reminds us that no work of solidarity, no matter how small, is inconsequential. We see by the mere fact that we are reading Paul’s mail millennia later, that radical sharing and generosity of love and resources and spirit, reverberates across time. Its ripples are felt beyond us. 

It is precisely for and because of our work of solidarity with one another that we tend to the broken places. It is for and because of the way we interact and share with those in the world who are very different but perhaps not so different than us that we tend to the broken places. 

Because we believe in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

This final chapter in Philippians reminds us that our faith is not about us. It’s not some privatized, individualized endeavor. To echo Galileo Galilei, “We are not the center of the universe.” Our faith is communal, it is one of mutual reciprocity, of radical solidarity. We are in each other’s business. We are each other’s business.

We are circling around, perhaps orbiting around, the most Holy One of whom we can only catch glimpses. But we can see that Christ is our center in how the church takes care of itself, how the Big C church keeps connected, how faith is so much bigger than what we can see. These are overlapping orbits remind us of our center of gravity. 

Who is Christ, who keeps drawing us around and around, pulled as if by gravity toward the One in whom the universe holds together and expands and stuns. 

These closing remarks by Paul are our beginning. They are a glimpse of something beautiful that began thousands of years ago. And it is as beautiful as fresh star birth. 

In just a moment, we will fill out our last prompt as Nicole plays music for us. You’ll be able to drop it in the offering plate as it goes by after communion. 

May your final remarks for ACC be a prayer as you write.

Sharing Our Resources

There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song. 

Invitation 

If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.

Benediction:

Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.

Our benediction for this series comes from the first chapter of Philippians. Receive this benediction:

This is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. Amen. 

We Call Ourselves Disciples: Charity (John 13:31-35)

Welcome/Call to Worship

Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley Dargai To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!

This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing. 

We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.

There are visitor cards in the pew in front of you—if you arrived during the pandemic or later, of if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship. 

A couple of announcements before we begin: 

We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Fellowship Hall. There is also a children and youth class that meets in the parlor.

This Wednesday, May 11, we’ll have our next Gospels and Groceries. Be sure to grab some nonperishables for our Little Free Pantry and a request for our hymn sing that night.

Over the next few weeks, you will receive an email from us to join our church directory platform called Realm. It’s going to make a lot of our lives easier and streamline communication and make information a lot more accessible. We invite you to follow the directions on the email, which will have a link that takes you to Realm to set up your account. 

On May 22 immediately following service, we will have a tutorial on how to do that and how to access the church directory and customize how you receive church announcements. Lunch will be provided. We’ll have a screen up walking you through it as well as people milling about who know what they’re doing and can help you. 

On Sunday, June 5, at 2 PM, there will be a dedication for a bench in honor of Glenda and Wendal Hoover, who many of you know, were long time members here at Azle Christian Church. You are invited to come and mark this momentous occasion.

To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter on our website. 

We continue our worship series We Call Ourselves Disciples this morning. 

Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.

Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.

Litany of Faith

One: Hallelujah! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise the LORD in the heights. 

All: Praise the LORD, sun and moon; praise the LORD, all you shining stars.

One: The LORD made them stand fast for ever and ever and gave them a law which shall not pass away.

All: Young men and women, old and young, all of us together: let us praise the name of the LORD,

One: For the name of the LORD only is exalted, and the splendor of the LORD is over earth and heaven.

All: Hallelujah!

(Psalm 148)

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you.

Today on Mother’s Day, I share this prayer written by Amy Young and adapted by Rev. Heidi Heath. Whether this day is your greatest joy, or deepest heartache, know you are loved.

Join me in prayer.

God who is like a Mother to us, 

We pray for those who are like Tamar, struggling with infertility, or a miscarriage.

We pray for those who are like Rachel, counting the women in their family and friends who year by year and month by month get pregnant, while they wait.

We pray for those who are like Naomi, and have known the bitter sting of a child's death.

We pray for those who are like Joseph and Benjamin, and their Mom has died.

We pray for those who are like Hagar, raising a child alone.

We pray for those whose relationship with their Mom was marked by trauma, abuse, or abandonment, or she just couldn't parent them the way they needed.

We pray for those who are like Moses' mother and put a child up for adoption, trusting another family to love the child they birthed into adulthood.

We pray for those who are like Pharaoh's daughter, called to love children who are not their by birth (and thus the mother who brought that child into their life, even if it is complicated).

We pray for those who like many, are watching (or have watched) their mother age, and disappear into the long goodbye of dementia.

We pray for those who are like Mary and are pregnant for the very first time and waiting breathlessly for the miracle of their first child

We pray for those who, also like Mary, have watched their beautiful baby killed by violence and empire. 

We pray for those whose children have turned away from them, painfully closing the door on relationship, leaving them holding their broken heart in their hands. 

We pray for those for whom motherhood is their greatest joy and toughest struggle all rolled into one.

We pray for those who are watching their child battle substance abuse, a public legal situation, mental illness, or another situation which they can only watch unfold.

We pray for those who don’t fit into traditional family molds whether through circumstance, gender or sexuality, or co-parenting set-up.

We pray for those who like so many women before them do not wish to be a mother, are not partnered, or in so many other ways do not fit into societal expectations.

We pray for those who carry the beautiful, exhausting, maddening, heart breaking, wonderful labor of mothering even though they do not have children of their own.

We pray for those who see themselves reflected in all, or none of these stories.

This Mother's Day, wherever and whoever we are, may we walk this journey together. May we affirm that all people who find themselves somehow pulled into this day that they are loved, they are seen, and they are worthy.

And may we rest in the deep love without end of our big, wild, beautiful God who is the very best example of a parent that we know.

We ask this is the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught us to pray…

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. 

Amen.

Sermon

John 13:31-35

Once Judas left, Jesus said, 

“Now is the Chosen One glorified

And God is glorified as well.

If God has been glorified,

God will in turn glorify the Chosen One

and will do so very soon.

My little children,

I won’t be with you much longer.

You’ll look for me,

but what I said to the Temple authorities, I say to you:

where I am going,

you cannot come.

I give you a new commandment:

love one another.

And you’re to love one another

the way I have loved you.

This is how all will know that you’re my disciples:

that you truly love one another.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. 

I have said a couple of things from this pulpit that I have been nervous to say. But none so much as what I’m about to say. 

So go ahead and take a deep breath, clutch your pearls, brace yourselves.

I watch The Bachelor. I know, you’re speechless.

It’s true. I am a part of Bachelor Nation, which is what the fanbase is called. I watch all the iterations of the show: The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise. I follow a lot of Instagram accounts dedicated to dissecting these shows and following the contestants and investigating fan theories. I listen to podcasts recapping the show. I pay literal money each month to listen to the premium edition of a podcast so that I can hear their recap and opinion of the show.  

And while I know that Bachelor Nation is big, I somehow felt like I was above it all for so long. Going on a show to find love? That’s dumb. I thought I was too good for it—too smart, too refined, too cultured, and right now I sound like I’m too full of myself. But truly, I was not in the world of Bachelor Nation and I couldn’t understand it from the outside. 

I am relatively new to the franchise—I began watching at the start of the pandemic because as you all know, there was not much content being made. Reality shows where everyone could quarantine together were pretty much our only option for awhile.

And so began my foray into this brave new world. 

If you’re not familiar with the franchise, the premise is this: You have an eligible and very attractive Bachelor or Bachelorette. And then there are 20-30 contestants vying for their shot at love. It’s cheesy. Some of the group activities are weird and uncomfortable. There’s always a villain and lots of drama—mostly scripted, I’m sure. 

And then usually, not always, the show ends with an engagement or at the very least, a serious relationship. The Bachelor or Bachelorette narrows down their choice to just one lucky contestant and they ride off into the sunset together. The success of these relationships is chaotic, but made for our consumption and we eat it up.

But here’s the thing you gotta know about The Bachelor. They swear up and down that everyone is there to find love. But that’s just not true. And if you watch it thinking that’s true, then the show is wildly disappointing. 

Because most of the contestants and even The Bachelors and Bachelorettes themselves don’t sign up for the show to find love. They sign up to be famous. 

We’re not talking movie star famous, but influencer famous. Doing ads on Instagram, going on tours, being on Dancing with the Stars, basically being paid to live their lives for our consumption. 

So if you go into the show with the framework that everybody is there to get their shot at fame, then everything starts to make sense. The petty drama, the commodification of past trauma for sound bytes, the participation in humiliating group activities and kissing multiple people on national television—all of that makes sense if the person doing it is looking to be remembered and followed. 

I could talk for hours about how The Bachelor franchise is a generative and fascinating look at the human condition and state of society, but I won’t. However, if you do want that, you should join our Marco Polo group where some members of this very congregation exchange opinions about Bachelor Nation and similar shows. 

I offer this vulnerable confession to you all today because this shifting of mindset is crucial for our John text. It’ll make sense, stay with me.

This charge offered by Jesus to the disciples today is sandwiched between the Last Supper and the Farewell Discourse in John. Right before Jesus starts talking about love, he is washing his disciples’ feet, he is acknowledging that he will betrayed by a close friend, he is breaking bread and pouring wine with his friends, all while anticipating the mortal danger he will find himself in in just a few hours.

This monologue on love begins his final words to his disciples and his final prayer to God, some of which we read last week. 

So after Judas leaves, Jesus talks about being glorified in the immediate future, presumably by what will happen on the cross. And then he gives a new commandment to his disciples: love one another the way I have loved you. Now this is not a new commandment in that it is some revolutionary commandment that’s never been heard of in the history of humankind. Remember Jesus was Jewish through and through, and he is sharing a commandment from his sacred scriptures. Leviticus, specifically and other rabbinical teachings. 

It’s a new commandment in the sense that Jesus is inviting them into a new life. According to Jesus, in this new framework for being, this is how you live: 

Love one another. Like I’ve loved you. This is how people will know you are my disciples. If you love one another.

This commandments is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate. My 4 year old daughter could recite this and understand it. But it is also profound enough that most of us are repeatedly embarrassed by how poorly we understand it and put it into practice. 

We’ve been talking about what it means to be in the denomination of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We talked about liberty in belief two weeks ago, and we talked about unity last week. And this week our focus is charity, or love. 

And the charge is simple: above anything else that divides or unites us, that distinguishes us or assimilates us, what matters most is our love for one another. Easy on the delivery, tricky on the execution. 

It would be easier if Jesus said this is how people will know you are my disciples: if you believe x, y, and z. 

Or this is how people will know you are my disciples: if you say this prayer and click your heels three times. 

Unfortunately, that’s not what Jesus said. 

He said we are his disciples if we love one another like he has loved us. He said that right after washing his friends’ dusty, grimy feet at the dinner table. He said that after breaking bread with the man who would break his heart. He said that after years of frustrating discussion with them about who he was and what he was doing there. He said that knowing that his life was likely coming to an end that very night. 

This love is willing to give everything away for the sake of the other. Everything we hold dear and precious. Everything that makes us feel secure and successful and sane. 

This love that gives everything away does not come from a place of self-denial, but rather, it is an act of fullness, of living our our life and identity fully, even when that living would ultimately lead to death or demise. 

The apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians addresses their squabbling about how they’re living out their lives of faith. They’re arguing about which group is the rightest. One says, I follow Paul. The other, I follow Apollo. I’m Disciples. I’m Lutheran. I’m Baptist. I’m a universalist. I’m trinitarian. Whatever.  And Paul said, “You know, quit your squabbling. Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. We are fools for the sake of Christ.”

This kind of living that Christ calls us to does not make sense in the way our world is structured. Dying to live. That sounds counterintuitive. Losing your life to find it? What does that even mean? 

But if our framework is not survival, but love, the love that transcends even death, this life starts to make a little more sense.

You see, the love that Jesus embodies is grace, not sacrifice. He’s not looking for nice people, but agents of God’s love for the world revealed in Himself. 

But we can’t live in such a way unless this foolish and reckless love of Christ has rooted itself in our hearts, unless it has sunk down deep into our very being. 

This love does not make us might; it makes us vulnerable. It doesn’t give us certainty, but it requires trust. It does not set up borders, but spills over the margins and walls we have erected. It does not come at first sight or through cheesy group dates or as a perk to becoming famous on national television. It cannot be easily produced or consumed. It does not fit into sound bytes or promos. 

It requires time, effort, discipline, transformation. Love so amazing and so divine demands my soul, my life, my all. 

This idea from our unofficial motto, “in all things, charity,” doesn’t mean that we’ll get to avoid all the mess and arguments. It doesn’t mean we won’t get fired up at each other or hurt each other. 

But it does mean that we will keep coming around the table. That we will keep passing the bread and wine to each other. We will keep saying, “This is Christ’s body for you and for me. This is Christ’s abundant love, enough for all of us.” 

It means that we will keep giving our lives away, chipping off all the rough edges that keep us from seeing each other, from hearing each other, from seeking to know each other. It means that when we wash our hands, we’re not washing off our complicity like Pilate does before Jesus is crucified. If means that when we wash our hands, we’re remembering our baptism, the act that has planted us in this Christian community that transcends time and space. That is a means of grace and an opening for Christ’s Living Spirit to speak to us again and again.

If we go into faith, in the broad sense and in our specific iteration as Disciples of Christ, with the mindset that faith is about believing the right things and looking a certain way and having the right ministries and hymns, we’re going to be wildly disappointed and do a lot of damage. 

But if we go into faith with the mindset that it’s about the love of Christ and imitating that kind of foolish, extravagant, prodigal, reckless love, then the painstaking work of sticking together and being transformed by the day-in-and-day-out interactions and work with one another is going to make a lot more sense. 

Amen.

Benediction:

Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.

May God guide us in the path of discipleship,

so that, as we have been loved,

We may love others,

bringing the promise of the kingdom near

by our words and deeds. Amen.

We Call Ourselves Disciples: Unity (John 17:20-26)

Welcome/Call to Worship

Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley Dargai To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here! 

This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing. 

We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.

There are visitor cards in the pew in front of you—if you arrived during the pandemic or later, of if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship. 

A couple of announcements before we begin: 

We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Fellowship Hall. There is also a children and youth class that meets in the parlor.

On Wednesday, May 11, we’ll have our next Gospels and Groceries. Be sure to grab some nonperishables for our Little Free Pantry and a request for our hymn sing that night.

To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter on our website. 

We continue our worship series We Call Ourselves Disciples this morning. 

Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.

Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.

Litany of Faith

One: The LORD is Sovereign; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!

All: Clouds and darkness are round about you, righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne.

One: A fire goes before you and consumes your adversaries on every side.

All: Your lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.

One: The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the LORD of all the earth.

All: The heavens declare your righteousness, O LORD, and all the people see your glory.

(From Psalm 97) 

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you.

Since it is the first Sunday of the month, we will sing the Lord’s Prayer together. It’s #310 in your Chalice Hymnal and will also be on the screen.

Join me in prayer

Merciful Love of Justice,

We hear the wisdom of the psalmist:

The heavens proclaim your holy righteousness,

And all the peoples behold your glory.

You love those who hate evil,

You preserve the lives of the saints,

And deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Light dawns for the righteousness, and joy for the upright in heart. 

We celebrate your promise:

The light that shone in Christ is in the world today,

Calling us to a life of faithful witness and celebration.

There, O Holy One, we come to worship,

Rejoicing in you and giving thanks together

For we are gathered as part of the living Body of Christ.

Healing Maker of Easter,

We come because you call us to a covenant of care.

We come to share the mix of joy and sorrow

That is our life together.

We come with heavy hearts,

Burdened by a world that looks as though

Too many have forgotten

That their lives must rest in you for meaning.

Our dreams of peace 

Are troubled by memories of war and hatred.

We know so many whose nights are haunted 

by the agony of violence within their home, their family, their country.

Great Potter of us all, 

We trust that you made each one of us unique

From elements that are so much alike.

You came among us in the human Jesus

To let us see what life can mean

When it is fully rooted in your love.

Help us lift the crosses lying in the streets.

Help us reach out in love across the tiny fissures

That seem to separate us from each other.

Help us be Christ to those to whom you send us.

Hear now our prayers for those in need,

For those we know,

And those whose stories pile high upon the fires of our compassion.

God of all creation, we lift our prayers to you,

Counting on the power of continuing creation

You showed us in the life of Jesus, who is for us, the Christ,

Who brings good news of reconciliation and forgiveness and peace. 

We ask this is the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught us to pray…

Sermon

John 17:20-26

20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

I’ve got a pop quiz for you birders out there. 

What do you call a flock of crows? A murder. 

What do you call a flock of cranes? A siege. 

What do you call a flock of owls? A parliament. 

What do you call a flock of ravens? A conspiracy. 

What do you call a flock of starlings? A murmuration. 

This stuff is poetry. 

Now what do you call a flock of Christians?

I’m not gonna answer that just yet because it could get dicey depending on the punchline.

But it’s a worthy question. 

It’s one that Jesus considers in John 17, our text for today. We read a portion of a prayer from Jesus recorded in John, and according to this testimony, Jesus prayed this prayer on the night before his death. John 17 is a long prayer for different groups of people. This particular prayer is not really so much for the current disciples but the future disciples. Those who would come to follow Jesus because of the way the current disciples lived their lives in love. 

So this excerpt is sort of a final charge for followers of Jesus, but Jesus isn’t addressing them. He’s addressing God. He is entrusting the hope for the future of his followers to God in prayer after washing the disciples’ feet. 

In his prayer, he prays for the oneness of his followers, that they be one as he is one with God. And this oneness, this unity of his followers, grows out of this love that Jesus shares with his Father.

And it is this oneness, this unity, that will be a witness to the love of God. Essentially, this oneness that Jesus prays for is part of the mission he is charging them with. To attend to the well-being of community and to nurture unity is a form of witness to the love of God in the world. No pressure, right?

We’re in a series about our Disciples identity. And last week, we considered our unofficial motto: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things charity.” And we talked about what it means to ascribe to liberty of belief within our denomination. What does it really mean to interpret scripture in freedom within community? How do we hold different understandings while also holding to our covenant with one another, to be mindful of each other, to commit to walking this faith road together despite our disagreements? It’s tough. 

Belonging in our cultural framework is often shaped by uniting with those who hate the same people we do. But here, in the context of our faith, something that infuses our whole lives, we’re called to reach across those lines and tend to the gaps and find Christ in the fractures. To be repairers of the breach, as the prophet Isaiah said.

And today, we consider unity. Our founders were troubled by the sectarianism and the division of 19th century American Christianity. They wanted us to be Christians first, above all. Above any other signifier. Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Disciples—our founders thought those were fine adjectives but poor nouns. They wondered how to bring together those who proclaimed Christ. And wouldn’t you know it, 200 years later, we’re still working on it. It’s a question followers of Jesus have been wrestling with for millennia. How do we follow Christ according to our convictions and understandings while being a part of the diverse Body of Christ?

Have you ever watched a flock of birds fly in the air? Maybe you’ve seen a murmuration or a conspiracy or a siege make their way across the sky, forming shapes that ebb and flow. You’ve watched how the flocks forms their own dark clouds as they move toward the horizon at a breathtaking pace.

Physicists marvel at how an individual bird operates within a flock. A flight pattern is a delicately unified system always on the brink of chaos. The birds are intimately attuned to one another, sharing in near-instantaneous transformations like a well-choreographed dance. 

Physicists are still not sure how they do it—one model says the birds don’t detect each other’s directions, but rather, the pay attention to any flinch of a turning movement. Another model says birds take turns being leaders, so that the ones calling the shots in the flight patterns changes for every flight. The birds are born knowing what to do. 

I mean, flight itself is miraculous. Birds are dinosaurs, let’s remember, and they are still the masters of the air. But micro-synchronized flying done on a scale of thousands?  We shouldn’t even try to comprehend it—we should just sit still and be astonished, jaws hanging open. In the words of the poet Rumi, “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”

I wonder if the flight patterns of birds have anything to say to us as Christians seeking unity. I think the line “always on the brink of chaos” goes without explanation. But being intimately attuned to one another, detecting the changes, taking turns, changing shapes as needed? There’s something there, right?

According to the gospel of John, the unity of Christians is not simply one item on our to-do list as a church—it is the heart of the gospel, that we may be one in Christ. Above all, this unity is our mission. 

We are not called to uniformity. Jesus doesn’t call for doctrinal or political unity. We’re not called to be an organization of like-minded individuals who can avoid uncomfortable conversations. 

You know, I don’t mind being united with people I like. But I don’t like seeking unity with people who don’t recognize my ordination as a woman. I don’t like seeking unity with churches who have very different understandings of the book of Genesis than I do. I bristle in situations like that because the unity Christ is talking about can be prickly.

But this unity calls me out beyond my preferences and my lines in the sand. It calls me to take a better look around the table of Christ to see who else is seated there.

Our unity is not something we can achieve by willpower or consensus. It’s a divine gift from God. It’s in our spiritual, evolutionary DNA. 

Unity not what we do, you see; it’s who we are. 

It’s the answered prayer of Jesus.

And I don’t know about you, but a call to live into the prayer of Jesus for us on his final night before his death calls me out beyond my own B.S. 

And as a side note, I really tried to find a sayable synonym to B.S. But thesaurus.com yielded results like tomfoolery, poppycock, hogwash, malarkey, baloney. And while these words are hilarious, they don’t carry the same punch as the word I’m not saying. 

Because it’s the rough edge that I’m talking about. The elbows out front, the defenses up, the weapons drawn—that’s what Jesus is praying against. That we would lay down our arms, our petty hatreds, and seething trivialities. That we could, in the name of Jesus for the good of the world God loves, deal with our tomfoolery, poppycock, hogwash, malarkey, and baloney so that we might be one. 

So that we would be united in Christ to be a witness to the love of God manifest in Jesus Christ to the world, for the world. 

That by living into this prayer of Jesus, we might realize the reign and promise of God in our world here and now, bubbling up and sprouting through sidewalks.

Because this unity that our founders ached for, that Christ prayed for is more than playing nice or agreeing to disagree.

It’s a deep earthy promise that we’re born into through our baptism. It is a coming home to who we are, who Christ calls us to be, a witness to the mind-blowing, earth-healing, defense-shattering love of God. 

This unity says that we are Christ’s, and Christ is not divided. 

We are one body, but many parts. A single house with many stones, a single vine with many branches.  

One flock, many birds. Strange birds, loud birds, flashy birds, pecking birds, sure, but one flock.

So what do you call a flock of Christians? Perhaps, a unity.

Amen.

Sharing Our Resources

Our offering of our time, energy, and resources are not merely an individual commitment. Our generosity is for others. Our work of love through stewardship reminds us that we are all connected, partnering in the continued work of Jesus. 

And as children of God, we are also in partnership with God. That’s why we call it a covenant—it’s a promise to each other, to the church at large, and to God, that all we have is God’s. 

You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song. 

Invitation 

If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.

Benediction:

Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.

Our benediction this morning comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans:

May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify God.

We Call Ourselves Disciples: Liberty (John 20:19-31)

Welcome/Call to Worship

Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley Dargai To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here! 

This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing. 

We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.

There are visitor cards in the pew in front of you—if you arrived during the pandemic or later, of if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship. 

A couple of announcements before we begin: 

We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Fellowship Hall. There is also a children and youth class that meets in the parlor.

To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter on our website. 

We new worship series We Call Ourselves Disciples: A Worship Series on Our Identity. 

Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.

Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.

Litany of Faith

One: Bless the LORD, O my soul. You have set the earth upon its foundations. 

All: You send the springs into the valleys; they flow between the mountains.

One: All the beasts of the field drink their fill from them, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

All: Beside them the birds of the air make their nests and sing among the branches.

One: You water the mountains from your dwelling on high; the earth is fully satisfied by the fruit of your works.

All: You make grass grow for flocks and herds, and plants for people to cultivate. 

One: That they may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden our hearts.

All: O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

(From Psalm 104)

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you.

We mourn together with Nancy Robbins, whose husband Frankie passed away unexpectedly this past weekend. His service details are forthcoming.

This past Friday, April 22 was Earth Day, first observed in 1970 — which makes this year the 51st anniversary. Largely inspired by Rachel Carson’s work, among others, the original Earth Day was a widespread, bipartisan response to the negative impacts of industrial development. With close to one billion people now participating annually, Earth Day is considered the largest civic-focused day of action in the world. Jews and Christians, among other religious people, have been involved all the way along in Earth Day’s history — and no wonder, since Genesis so vividly casts humanity as creation’s steward in the first creation story; as Eden’s gardener in the second creation story; and as custodian of creation’s biodiversity in the Noah story.

Our prayer today begins with an adaption of Psalm 8.

Join me in prayer:

God, brilliant Lord,

    yours is a household name.

Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;

    toddlers shout the songs

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,

    your handmade sky-jewelry,

Moon and stars mounted in their settings.

    Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,

Why do you bother with us?

    Why take a second look our way?

Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,

    bright with Eden’s dawn light.

You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,

    repeated to us your Genesis-charge,

Made us stewards of sheep and cattle,

    even animals out in the wild,

Birds flying and fish swimming,

    whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord,

    your name echoes around the world.

Creator of all, thank for giving us life. Thank you creating us as part of a planet that sustains our lives and for entrusting this sacred gift to our care. Help us in our various roles to be good stewards of all you’ve made. Unite us who dwell on the earth as your beloved creatures that we might share your gifts and mutually thrive. Open us to your wisdom not just here but in every bird song, dancing leaf, and flowing wave. May we see you everywhere we look and may we follow the ways of Jesus, living in communion with your Creation. 

We ask this is the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught us to pray…

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. 

Amen.

Sermon

John 20:19-31

19 It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”

24 Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.”

26 After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!”

28 Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”

30 Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. 31 But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

In our text today, the gospel of John tells us of some post-resurrection appearances by Jesus. Jesus first appears to the disciples minus Thomas, showing them his hands and his side. His disciples were hiding because they were scared of the Very Religious People, the VRPs. They had seen what had happened to Jesus, and people had seen them with him. They weren’t taking chances.

So when Jesus appears to his friends, he says not once but twice, “Peace be with you” as they examine the wounds on his body. 

It’s important in the testimony of John that risen Jesus is still very much the Crucified One. The crucifixion was not a blip on Jesus’ timeline, but essential to his identity. The wounds he bore were part of their faith now. Acknowledging and remembering the marks of the crucifixion were crucial to recognizing and remembering Jesus. 

Well, Thomas gets word of this appearance, and he’s like, “Yeah, right. Unless I see with my own two eyes these wounds, I won’t believe this for one second.” 

A week or so passes and Jesus once again shows up to where his disciples are meeting. This time, Thomas is with them. Jesus says for a third time: “Peace be with you.” He offers his body to Thomas for examination, and it is when Thomas sees the wounds that he realizes this is really Jesus. 

Jesus offers no scolding, no history lesson, no Resurrection 101, but rather makes space for the skepticism, the varying levels of understanding in the room, and offers his broken body as an entry point of faith. The very wounds in his body provide more space to enter into this mystery.

This morning, we begin a new series on our denominational identity for the season of Eastertide. As we journey through the post-resurrection stories of John together, we’ll be thinking about what it means that we’re a Disciples of Christ church. To some outsiders, we’re the sleepy church behind El Paseo. To others, we’re the “little church that could” that works the Drive for Compassion golf tournament. We have a passion for outreach. We have a long history and deep roots in this town. 

But one of the most essential parts of our identity is that we are a Disciples church.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at distinctive markers of our identity as a reminder of who we are. As resurrection people, as an Easter people, as Disciples. 

Our denomination has an official motto: “a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.” But we also have an unofficial one that we’ll be walking through for a little while. And it goes like this: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things charity.”

Today, we’re going to begin in the middle of the phrase, “in non-essentials, liberty” and save the others for the coming weeks.

I begin with liberty because there are actually not that many lifelong Disciples here. A majority of us, including myself, come from a different denomination and have somehow ended up here in this quirky congregation. We have our reasons. Maybe Azle didn’t have the tradition you grew up in. Maybe you needed to call it quits with the church you formerly attended. May you’d never even heard of the Disciples of Christ before but liked our style or liked our people and decided to stay. Or perhaps you are one of the few among us who have been taking communion weekly for so long that it runs through your blood. 

For whatever reason you’re here, we give thanks that you are. And though our diversity may seem like a haphazard point of entry to a very specific worship series, it’s actually very Disciples of us to begin here. 

Let me explain.

Our denomination began after the Revolutionary War. The roots of who we are were around in the first half of the 1800s. And because we began post-Revolutionary War, we are considered to be one of the first wholly American denominations. Other big mainline denominations have European origins: Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians—their roots are overseas. 

But our Presbyterian and Baptist founders looked around after the war, the air thick with the whiff of freedom, and realized that because everyone was so spread out on this continent, there was a need for a different way for people to practice their faith. A way a bit more localized, a bit more freed up to follow Jesus in ways contextualized for their spaces. Enter the concept of liberty.

Our founders considered liberty, or freedom (I’ll use these two words interchangeably), of interpretation of scripture a key component of this kind of church. In their understanding, people should be free to interpret scripture, using the proper tools and in community, and work together on how to live out that faith as a congregation. Though we have in time constructed regions and we have a General Minister and board, and our denomination has official stances, these structures speak to us at churches, not for us. Congregations practice independence. We are bound not by hierarchy or creed, but by a covenant of mutual accountability and the simple confession that Jesus is Lord. 

In this mindset, Alexander Campbell, one of our founders, called congregations “local outposts of the kingdom of God.”

“Outpost” is kind of a dated word, but I appreciate the sentiment. To modernize it, I like to think of congregations as local pop-up events. In a way distinct to our time and place and to the body of people who make up a congregation at any given moment, a congregation lives out an expression of faith they have collectively decided on to continue the work of Jesus here. 

And so, all of us with our diverse origins of faith, our different memories of what scriptures means and how church functions, make up this particular pop-up event of the reign of God. Who knows how long we’re here, but for now, we’ve set up camp. 

I think of Jesus appearing to his disciples with their array of understandings. Thomas, the bold one, saying, “I’ve got questions. I’ve got doubts. I’m skeptical. I need to walk through this for a second.” There was space for everyone in that room. They could take their time to work out their salvation. 

Our own congregation’s tag line is “Be who you are with us.” Bring your questions, bring your baggage, bring your doubt—we’ll sort through it together. Peace, peace, peace, Jesus says three times in this passage. 

Of course, the picture is not always as rosy as I have made it out to be. 

Over the years, we have wrestled as a country with words like liberty and freedom, and we have come to understand how fraught they can be.

For example, after the Revolutionary War, I am sure the air felt electric with possibility for many. Hearts beating the word, “Freedom, freedom, freedom.” But we know that while that may have been the case for land-owning white residents of what would become the United States, it was certainly not true for everyone. Not for enslaved Africans, not for Indigenous people fighting for their land, and not for various immigrant populations. We understand today that it is not true freedom if not everyone is free. 

Even now, we have seen the way conspiracy theories and vitriol have spread like wildfire in the name of things like liberty, in the age of social media. We get in a way we perhaps wish we didn’t that not every idea is as valid and rooted in good faith as the next. We understand today that true liberty is not a free-for-all.

So how do we come to understand this Disciples’ notion of liberty in light of how things have changed as we have learned more?

Well, thankfully, we don’t have to figure it all out ourselves. Lots of intelligent and faithful people have already been talking about this decades. Thanks be God. 

Our beginning point is that while we were one of the first wholly American denominations, we are first Christians. Sometimes version of American freedom get mixed in with the freedom scripture talks about, but it’s vital for us to parse this out. While a core cultural value is rugged individualism in which we are encouraged to exercise our freedom by pursuing our own end without external constraint, it is not a Christian value. 

The freedom that scripture talks about is freedom in covenant, a very Bible-y word. 

A covenant is like an agreement between parties, but it’s not just an agreement between two humans. It is a living promise that involves our commitment to God through our commitment to one another in love. 

Covenants operate on a because/therefore basis. Rather than saying, “If I love my neighbor, then God will love me,” we carry the responsibility of each other: Because God loves me, therefore I am freed from all that keeps me from loving my neighbor.” Covenants, though at first seeming like containing limitations, actually free us from living for ourselves. We acknowledge our God-given interdependence. 

And because of this freedom in covenant, we are able to be honest about our differences. We don’t have to ignore our differences, but rather, we acknowledge them. We celebrate them. We marvel at them. Just as an ecosystem needs diversity to thrive, so does the Body of Christ. Our differences can make us stronger, and we rejoice in that diversity.

And in this covenant, we consider our differences mindfully, allowing mercy and grace to be the currents that run through us. This doesn’t that we are free from accountability or hard conversations, or free to cross boundaries or cause harm. And neither is our freedom a simple live-and-let-live ethic. 

Our freedom in covenant means that we may not always agree on things, but we have a promised to walk together in an attempt to discern where God is moving and where God would have us go. And this freedom expands our understanding of these little local pop-up events of the reign of God that we call congregations.

Church doesn’t exist only to meet our needs, or to be a source of fellowship, or the occasional inspiration, though church likely does that at least some of the time. No, Church is the place where we are shaped in a way of living that is Christ-like, set apart from the values of our surrounding culture. 

Our liberty that we take so seriously as Disciples, is liberty for each other. For the sake of Christ. We are always considering each other as we work out our salvation.

And this post-resurrection story with Thomas, where Jesus shows his disciples his wounds and allows his broken body to be a vehicle of faith, shows us that perhaps it is in the places that some might say are broken or divided that Christ reveals himself most poignantly. Perhaps it’s our fault lines, our rough edges, our cracks, that are entry points of faith. 

As we journey together with our diverse understandings of scripture, in the freedom of faith, may we do so with the blessing Jesus gives his disciples: Peace, peace, peace. 

Amen.

Table Meditation

Let us begin in prayer over the elements:

Holy One of this table, our generous Host and loving God, may we receive this bread and cup in your mercy, trusting in you who gathers us together. May the space between us grown thinner every time we gather, that we may be one. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

There is an insert in your bulletin of our Disciples Affirmation of Faith. We will read it together a couple of times over the next few weeks. I’ll begin us and you will read the part in bold. 

Now I invite you to prepare your elements.

In the story of Thomas, Jesus shows his broken body to the disciples, and it becomes a source of faith. It was his wounds that he offered as a way to help them trust. And it is at this table that we remember the wounded and broken body of Christ. We break the bread and pour the cup as symbols of his body and blood. We know that broken things are not necessarily bad things. They can be places of love and devotion. They can be places of faith.

I invite you to allow this table to be a place of faith for you over the coming weeks, whatever that looks like. May it be a place that our lives are oriented around, trusting not in a perfect body, but in one given for us.

Words of Institution:

Because on the night he was betrayed, Jesus broke the bread and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 

And then he took the cup also and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

All are welcome at the Table of Christ.

Sharing Our Resources

In the beginning of Acts, the writer tells us that the early Christian community shared everything they had with one another. I like to think that this means they were constantly passing faith and hope back forth to one another like you do with a cake pan and tupperware at church. 

And likewise, they pooled together their material resources. Maybe they didn’t have a coin to spare, but they had an extra cloak, or they had a position open at the local carpenter’s shop. We know that the early faith communities were a hodgepodge of class statuses—the rich and poor all mingled together, defying social etiquette one meal at a time. So the people with financial resources gave in accordance with their wealth and ability, and the people with fewer financial resources did the same. This was their community, doing good, sharing the Lord, and believing the impossible, and they gave what they were able as a way to commit to this faith that had changed their lives forever.

You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song. 

Invitation 

If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.

Benediction:

Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,

Wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness,

Protect you through the storm.

May He bring you home rejoicing

At the wonders He has shown you.

May He bring you home rejoicing

Once again into our doors.

Amen.