During the course of the next 11 weeks, we will focus on what reconciliation is, why it is so vitally important, and how we put it into practice and action.
A great starting point is the definition of reconciliation featured in GraceCity’s summer book club selection: Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0: Moving Communities Into Unity, Wholeness and Justice.
“Reconciliation,” author Brenda Salter McNeil writes, “is an ongoing spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance, and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect God’s original intention for all creation to flourish.”
Since the beginning, despite our defiance, shortcomings, and missteps, God has pursued reconciliation with us. Even when we didn’t – even when we don’t – deserve it. Especially then. Shakespeare expressed far more eloquently what a mess we so often make of God’s incomprehensible grace. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, / Rough-hew them how we will.”
So we know what God desires. But what about us? What do we want? The awe-inspiring theologian, spiritual director, and psychiatrist Gerald G. May had this to say on the subject: “Spiritual longing often takes the form of a desire to reunite with the ultimate Source of being, as if we know vaguely that at some primeval level we are in and of God, and God is in and through us.” Just a little more proverbial food for thought as we head into our new series, “Why Reconciliation? A Gospel Story.”
God’s Determination Charts the Course for Reconciliation: Part I
Pastor Corey Barnes
Genesis 3:1-12
January 15, 2023
God’s Determination Charts the Course for Reconciliation: Part II
Pastor Corey Barnes
Genesis 3, Genesis 33:14 and Romans 5:9-11
January 22, 2023
Dance with the One Who Brought You
Pastor Bob Bingham
Romans 5:9-11, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, 2 Corinthians 3:18,
Galatians 3:26-28 and Colossians 3:9-11
January 29, 2023
Uncommon Church: Relentless Reconciliation
Pastor Bob Bingham
Luke 10: 29, 31-33, Ephesians 2:14
February 5, 2023
Inclusionary Reconciliation–Part I
Pastor Corey Barnes
Romans 11:11-22
February 12,2023
Inclusionary Reconciliation-Part II
Pastor Corey Barnes
Galatians 3:26-29
February 19,2023
The Practice of Reconciliation, Part I
Pastor Bob Bingham
Hebrews 10:19-25, Nehemiah 1:5-7, Philippians 2:3-5,15
February 26,2023
The Practice of Reconciliation, Part II
Pastor Bob Bingham
Matthew 6:9,14-15, Luke 7:40-43
March 5, 2023
A Divine Pursuit of Reconciliation, Part I
Pastor Corey Barnes
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
March 12, 2023
A Divine Pursuit of Reconciliation, Part II
Pastor Corey Barnes
Luke 15:11-32
March 19, 2023
Masterpiece: Reconciliation’s Extended Run
Pastor Bob Bingham
Philippians 3:20, Hebrews 13:14-16, Revelation 7:9
March 26, 2023