by Marcia Mount Shoop
Luke 24:13-35
“Jesus is the model of courage and compassion and truth, he’s the liberator, the freedom-maker, the one who is not afraid to provoke the oppressor, to challenge the transgressor.
And he asks us to trust that the Spirit can empower us to heal and to be real about what it is the church is supposed to be about.
We’re not about institutional clout–we’re not about buildings and endowments and structures and such. We’re about the God that always comes through in the clutch.
That’s the God we follow and trust–the God whose bumper stick is “Freedom or Bust.”
It’s a destination more precious than gold, more sturdy than pews all in a row. It’s a place where all can breathe, where there’s room to stretch out and be, it’s a way of seeing the world in all its possibility–it’s the glory of God in each person’s face, in the blessing of place, in the slowing of pace.
It’s the place where we can stop hurting each other for another’s gain, it’s a place where we can finally sit down and be honest about our pain.
The rock and the hard place can become one–so we’re no longer propping up an institution that got overrun by the powers the church is supposed to transform, the church who needs to never shy away from our own reform.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 4/23/23 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 31:45)