Anybody could've told you right from the start it's 'bout to fall apart
So rather than hold on to a broken dream I'll just hold on to love
And I could find a way to make it, don't hold on too tight
I'll make it without you tonight
---"Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart”, by Alicia Keyes
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
---Aboriginal Activist Lilla Watson
"In all our affliction, he was afflicted; and the angel of His presence saved them.”
---Isaiah 63:9
Note: Sunday worship at 10:15 AM
In-person worship and live stream
Christian Formation Hour is at 9am
Dear Grace Family,
This Sunday and the next will be my final two sermons, (insert sad emoji here) with you all and I wanted to make some space from the pulpit to preach on things core to my heart as a minister of the Gospel.
My use of the word “heart” is intentional here as I titled the message, “Ministering From a Broken Heart”. It is my conviction that God uses our pain, our heartbreak, as a platform for His gospel to be spread in the world.
Obviously we see this grace in famous passages from Paul that speak of God’s power being displayed through “jars of clay”, (2 Corinthians 4:7-9); and how God’s power “is made perfect in weakness”, (2 Corinthians 12:9). While there is a robust theology which undergirds the truth that God blesses His people with competencies and abilities that we bless others with, there is equally a wide breadth of Biblical understanding that supports the truth that God loves to display His power through our pain and frailty.
This phenomenon is true of us individually, but also as a community. It is not just for individuals to grapple with this tragic and glorious truth, it is for the church corporately to embody in an age of great discouragement and disillusionment.
So many of us today are dealing with suffocating grief and disillusionment—especially disillusionment in the Church. I find that Scriptures of lament speak to this reality powerfully and provide a window into how our pain is a platform for blessing. More incisively, our heartbreak becomes a holy place that speaks to our local contexts in powerful ways.
This Sunday, we will look at Psalm 137 and focus on this theme of serving the Lord from the place of our pain and loss. Where our tendency is to push through our pain, (or away from it), the Good News is that the Lord’s song can be sung today in our places of exile and disillusionment. Hallelujah!
This is something I have seen in my personal life, and it is something I’ve seen bless communities when considered congregationally.
May the Lord bless us as we consider these things!
This Sunday: Psalm 137
"Ministering from a Broken Heart”
Here is the Order of Worship.
Blessings to you,
Jason
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