The Way of Love: All Saints -God's Vision of Love for Every Nation

Way of Love November 2023
Join us as we continue our spiritual formation class and journey, The Way of Love.

In this insightful and powerful sermon, Rev. Mako Nagasawa takes a look at the history of Anglo Saxon Christianity and God's Vision of Love for Every Nation, Tribe, and Tongue.

Mako shares insights on our own longing for community. Contending with what "whiteness" has meant and learning to embrace "ethnicity" so that we can get Christian faith back in a new way.

Historically, Anglo Saxon Christian leaders abolished slavery in the 800s, again in the 900s, and in 1102 they finally succeeded for a season. William Wilberforce drew on this past history when he AGAIN spoke out against slavery in his ministry in England in the 1800s.

Where does our longing for community lead us?
It points us to our own need to mature, and then to our own need for Jesus... Jesus calls us to hope for a community founded on Him, that is partly now, and partially coming in the future, because we are not yet perfected...Our hope in Jesus allows us to travel together now...

We persevere in truth telling, and we identify with the people of God around the world in every nation, tribe and tongue; and in all of our Christian history. We honor all the faiths, not just the latest ones trotted out by the American church.

Always remembering that Jesus is the foundation.
He has a new humanity for all humanity.

We share all things on this planet, and we share one another...

Journal questions:
At one point Mako mentioned how “whiteness” [and we might add “blackness”] are social realities invented to justify the Atlantic slave trade, displacing the natural and not-inherently-unhealthy recognition of different ethnicities. How might this realization help “white folks” realize the depths of the social ill here overall, without taking naming “whiteness” as a problem as a personal criticism?

Mako asserted that historical entanglements (intractable or massive injustices) are:

1. Important to face and deal with,

2. Best faced in the context of working towards the future Jesus has accomplished and will bring.

How do you feel about this?

One thing I reflected on during Mako’s sermon was that there is much of the history of our nation which we are not taught (at least I know I wasn’t, and this seems to be generally the case). This is not a happy thought, but there it is. This realization made me grateful for God’s love and patience and perseverance. Is this reality difficult to balance with your faith?

Join the Way of Love on our website: https://www.trinitynorthshore.org/way-of-love-main

Get involved in one of our home groups as we journey together this year.

Join us Sunday Mornings at 10 am.
Indoors this season, on the beautiful and scenic campus of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary 130 Essex St, South Hamilton, MA 01982.
Or in case of rain or weather, we will move indoors.
Follow the purple signs for Trinity North Shore along the main road.
Or online on our Services Page.

Connect with us at https://www.trinitynorthshore.org, follow us on our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/trinitynorthshore, on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/trinitynorthshore/ or enjoy this sermon on on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwu5Xy7uzRUFrBKZ01MNyRw

May the peace of God be with you today.