It Won't Be Easy
Acts 17:1-9; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Recently, I was sharing some perspective on preaching and teaching here at Faith and I referred to the Big God Family and the Big God Story. I have adopted these terms from a colleague, the Rev. Katie Bishop, pastor at Middletown UMC here in Maryland. When I talk about the Big God Family, I am talking about the long lineage that we claim as followers of Jesus Christ. That lineage, in many ways, is defined by the creation story in Genesis – the understanding of God’s hand in the bigness of all of creation. That lineage is further defined by Abram’s call to go where God sends him and Abram and Sarai’s obedience to that call. The descendants of Abraham become the lineage of Jesus, who we understand as God’s only son who is both fully human and fully divine. Jesus promised his followers that when he could no longer be with them in the flesh, the Holy Spirit would accompany them. The Big God Family grew as those who heard about Jesus lived into h