The Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost 2023

This week we’ll conclude our study of Bishop Ken Carter’s book, Unrelenting Grace, looking at the Christ’s ministry of healing the world.  The gospel writers agree that as Jesus travelled from place to place, he proclaimed the coming of God’s Kingdom, pointing to God’s better way, and he healed people.  As Bishop Carter notes, “Where Jesus is, all people are healed, not all are always cured, but all are healed and made whole.  Where Jesus is, relationships are restored.  Where Jesus is, life flourishes.  Where Jesus is, there is wholeness.  Where Jesus is, there is integrity.”(75)  Christ heals and restores the world.  Many of us can think of an individual, or family, or community, or relationship, or even church in need of healing.  And healing takes place in many ways.  In May, our church leaders unanimously voted to become a Lighthouse Congregation.  There are places in the United Methodist Church where division and disagreement have led to a congregation leaving the United Methodist Church, and there are members in all of those congregations who want to remain United Methodist and who now grieve the loss of a church community they once called home.  As a Lighthouse Congregation, DUMC pledges to offer those who’ve experienced grief and loss over division and separation a safe space, a place of healing, a place to come and worship and find their way to their next church home, whether that’s here or somewhere else.  This is one way we seek to offer an alternative to Babel, to the fragmentation and division, and share in Christ’s ministry of healing and reconciliation.