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throughout our liturgy we speak and call and response. For example, when a leader says the Lord be with you all would say and one says the word of God for the people of God, odd would

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normally say thanks be to God. Now some of you may know this one, one would say God is good and the response might be all the time And for the advance one the callback would be and

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all the time and all would say God is good . Oh, nice, nice, nice. Yeah . So this morning I would like to introduce to some and to affirm for others. Another call in

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response one that you may hear in church or among church folk. Now this one goes like this one was saying, won't you do it? And the response is yes, he will. Now you have

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been very good with this whole Colin response thing so far. So I'm going to ask you to try this one with me. Okay, are you ready ? Won't he do it? Yes, he will

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. Yeah. What he do. It is a call given to punctuate a testimony. You see, a person will share a quick story where they saw God's hand at work in a situation and in praise

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to God. For God's grace, the person will end their testimony with. Won't he do it now in a king listener and a well educated person in the call and response liturgies? Or they just remember

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the sermon, would affirm that testimony with the joyful . Yes, you will. Last summer I began my journey from Nashville Tennessee to my eventual move here to Austin. Now, soon after the Board of

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trustees voted my appointment to the faculty of this fine institution, I called my realtor kate about selling my beloved home. I asked her how soon I needed to have it ready so that I could move in

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the fall. And her answer was two weeks ago . Mhm. So my eyes stretched wide and I could feel my heart beating. Getting my throat is the first I've ever tried to sell a home before

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. I almost called dr warlock Warlock. Because then that's what I was calling you to a doctor War law to say. I don't know if I can make it. What? Yes. Mhm. Well

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, plans to be in ST louis at general Assembly in june for 10 days. The earliest I could have that house ready was mid july and while usually perky and patient and tone, kate said, okay

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, in a way that seemed to belied her faith that I will find a buyer for my modest home within this respectable period. But God, on the day the photographers came to my house to take the

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photos for the listing. I had a contract And then I closed in 30 days. Now, if you're familiar with the buying and selling process, you can understand that. The only explanation that I had

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for everything that happened so quickly was God. And with that, all I have to say is, won't he do it anywhere? Now? In addition to giving glory to God, one could also give

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credit to the Holy Spirit, the Rua, the Spirit of God, as she is also known in the Hebrew scriptures. You see her Grace notes led the faculty of me to discern my call here at

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a Pts. Her skill for improvisation nudged a realtor of a young buyer to immediately think that my home could be an affordable solution for this. Frustrated clients have been searching for so long and that's the Ruak

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. The spirit of God and the Hebrew scriptures is linguistically feminine. We will acknowledge her power as an end the trinity and proclaiming, won't she do it ? Yes, she will now. Yes, she

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will. Is a profession of a gift and a promise. The Holy Spirit work in our lives personally and collectively is a gift of God's immeasurable grace. And when we take time to look at our stories

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and try to explain gaps filled with love and joy and peace and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, we learn to see the ink of the Holy Spirit revising and editing and adding in other words. Read acting

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all of our stories, you see. Yes, she will assures us that just as the Holy Spirit was with us then she is with us now and she will be there ahead of us preparing our path

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, you see. Yes, she will affirm that the Holy Spirit is the Promise and for Ephesians, the Promise of our salvation, Our Scriptural Lesson from Ephesians two is a testimony. It's the writers not

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so short story about God's gift of Salvation, written to a majority gentile audience of believers. The jewish writer, most likely a disciple of Paul, begins this chapter, summarizing a period when the first here's

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were spiritually dead, in their ordinary wrongdoings and in sins against God and one another. They were once living according to the whims of lesser spirits. Then the writer makes a turn from his outward focus of

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the audience sins to looking at his own sinful past . He writes in verse three, we once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the will of our flesh and our thoughts, And in verse

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four we see a but God moment. They hold . Stay off moment. Exactly. But God being rich in mercy and in a great love for which God loved us, made us alive together with christ

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and by Grace we were saved, says the appalling disciple. And the most amazing part is that this Salvation has nothing to do with us except as recipients of God's great love and grace. God did this

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not us, No one amongst us, not a near single one of us kim boast because our salvation is God's victory. It's a demonstration of God's immeasurable riches of grace. It is God's kindness towards us

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in christ, jesus and won't God do it. Yes, God will. We are reconciled with God through a new life given to us by the Holy Spirit. Earlier in the first chapter of Ephesians,

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we learned that God marked us with the sale of the Holy Spirit when we not only heard, but also understood the truth of the gospel of our salvation . The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives

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is a constant reminder of the redemption that God has given us through christ and every day when we look for God's handwriting and the stories of our lives, we see the ink of the Holy Spirit on the

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page telling our story, remind us that right, reminding us of whom we once were unfolding God's great mystery before us, and guiding us with wisdom and courage to move ahead in the Kingdom. Work.

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When we look at our story and cease the Spirits marks all over it, we can testify to her power and proclaim, won't she do it? Those of us who are members of the Presbyterian Church,

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can testify to the work of the Spirit. Before 2010 we were a denomination, dying over our limited understanding of the gift of God's ordination and the power of the Holy Spirit while implicit and its directive.

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It was clear in our interpretation that the old form of government had an article that served to exclude members of the L B G T Q I A plus community from ordination, especially as Ministers of the word

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and sacrament. The article was so famous or infamous that all one had to say was G601060. And even as we were learning about the expanse and death of the nature of human love and companionship, we

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sacrifice ourselves as well as our L. B G D. Q I A plus family. At the altar of perceived purity. We acted as though we and the church were saved by our works are polity

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, our theology. And when in actuality, the Holy Spirit revealed that we're only compromising our souls because we forgot we forgot that it was not through our intelligence, our studies, our committee meetings or assemblies

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that saved us. We forgot that we were saved by God's love and we forgot that we were saved by God's grace, scriptural interpretations of romans. The first chapter in the 20th and 27 verses particularly versus

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26 27 were toxins to the peace. Usa s rhetoric about God's unconditional love and our messages about God's grace. Hermeneutics of heteronormative itty guided our interpretations, shaped our theologies and informed our denomination's governance and for

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generations many reasons that paul was unequivocally opposed to same sex relations. And yet the letter is unclear about what paul was talking about, what we considered or what he considered as natural and unnatural. Was he

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talking about a particular act? The ancient Greco roman context had a very different understandings of sexuality, gender and human nature. So, pause exact allegations are are actually elusive and therefore so are our interpretations.

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But as christians, we strove We strove faithfully to understand Romans one and in that striving especially now we understand more deeply the cultural context of the biblical text , of the human relationships in God's creative work in

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us. Even with brilliant biblical scholarship written by barely roberts Govinda or Dell PB martin and others who read deeply and critically and faithfully this problematic text, I find it difficult to regain paul's rhetoric in these two

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verses. A struggle. I struggled with this text and preparation for today because christian churches historically taught and preached it in ways that inflicted trauma on all its members, including the lbgt Q. I A plus

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family and many still do. And my struggle with this rhetoric is not me canceling paul or the theological wealth that he brings the christian church, but I still struggle with him in this scriptural text. But

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if we don't struggle with this text and other texts of trauma, our silence may implicitly communicate consent. Our silence is not advocacy, but obligation. This abdication of our call to do the good works,

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which God has prepared us to do, an obligation of our discipleship to teach the good news and an abnegation of the hard work to be present and ready with the text in our christian community when the Holy

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Spirit reveals something new and yet the Holy Spirit for decades, she transformed hearts strengthen people to come out of the closet. Emboldened activists and advocates provided extra jellicle tools for broadening our interpretations and opened us to

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share our stories. The Holy Spirit's handwriting is throughout the piece. You esa's redemption story from the death sustained by a passion for what we got believed to be righteous thoughts to a resurrection of life that shares

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in God's amazing love. In 2011, the Peace USA adopted a new form of government that manifested the work of the Holy Spirit to bring the denomination into new life together with christ while preparation and study and

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prayer pave the way it was the Holy Spirit that sealed our efforts. We were not birth as an inclusive church and with the decades of faithful work as our foundation, we still have much to do to

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live in full inclusion of many throughout the christian church . And if the Holy Spirit can shift the Peace U. S. A. S. Narrative on ordination of the L. B G D. Q

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I A. Plus community, then she can do it for the United Methodist or any other denomination. If she can transform our churches into welcoming communities, then she can move us to become inclusive communities where

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diversity not only appears in our pictures, but shows up with full participation around tables of decision and policy making. To see the Holy Spirit at work, we sometimes have to look back at our stories.

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We have to confess the ugly, confront the traumas with cause reflect on our mistakes and tend to our wounds. And when we do, we begin to recognize the ink that wrote in the courage. To

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be honest, the hope and moments of despair and the love that heals. Then we will see our testimonies and we will proclaim that it was by God's grace, not of works lest anyone Shabbos and you

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know what God is still providing testimonies today as we struggle with difficult texts and come out on the other side and as we become instruments of God's grace and reflections of God's love, we too will be able

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to say, won't she do it? Yeah.