Canceling the Gospel of Grace

"Canceling the Gospel of Grace" - a sermon by Dr. J. R. Norwood

Today, so called "cancel culture" has run amuck!  Anyone goes against popular opinion or fads is quickly shut down... they get "cancelled" by the public.  Any who challenge the momentary fashionable "group think" becomes ostracized and outcast. 

As Jesus proclaimed the truth of salvation... the very people who should have been happy to hear it were instead offended by it... instead of embracing it, they walked away from it... instead of rejoicing over it, they attempted to cancel it.... they shut their ears and turned their backs and left. Unbelievers turned away from the true Gospel of Jesus Christ then and they still do today... they still try to cancel the true Gospel of Grace.

John 6:66-69 (ESV); 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Your Primary Identity

"Your Primary Identity" - a sermon by Dr. J. R. Norwood

This sermon is based on Jude 1:1-2 (ESV); 1  Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2  May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

A person's immediate, gut level response to the question of “who you are” is their primary identity. It is the foundation upon which other aspects of a person's life are based. It is the underlying chief value that orders decisions and behavior. A person's primary identity guides the way they live, the way they think, the way they view the world, the way they interact with others. 

Because your primary identity is the way you view yourself, first and foremost above all other things, then - for a disciples of Jesus Christ - being a servant of Jesus Christ, a follower of Jesus Christ, a worshiper of Jesus Christ, one who has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ… must be, in an ever-increasing way, your primary identity.

Indigenous People's Day Flag Raising at Philadelphia City Hall

Trinity Norwood was one of the speakers during the Indigenous People's Day Flag Raising Event at Philadelphia City Hall on October 7, 2021.  Her comments, and those she shared from her father, are below... 

Columbus Day: A Celebration of Genocide, Colonialism, and Fake News

by Trinity Norwood (Op-Ed from the Philadelphia Inquirer, October 9, 2020)https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/columbus-day-philadelphia-indigenous-peoples-day-parade-20201009.html  

Columbus Day idealizes a murderer who was lost and minimizes the negative effects of colonialism on America’s Indigenous Peoples. In the same way Germany does not have a national holiday or statues to memorialize Hitler because of his deplorable actions against humanity; Christopher Columbus should not be celebrated either. The actions of Columbus and the colonizers who followed him sparked the two greatest crimes in the history of the Americas: The Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the systematic genocide of Indigenous Peoples. 

Re-Thinking the Meaning of Christopher Columbus

 This audio recording* is from the American Myths Symposium held at the Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, PA on October 7, 2015. The moderator and second speaker is Dr. David M. Krueger who invited Dr. John Norwood to also speak at the event.  Why are so many in the U.S. preoccupied with the notion that America was discovered? Columbus’s exploration of the Caribbean is often understand as discovering a “New World.”

What God Requires - Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, Walking Humbly with God

What God Requires - Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, Walking Humbly with God

Dr. J.R. Norwood 

Preached on June 7, 2020 - Ujima Village Christian Church

12th Online Sermon during Coronavirus Pandemic Lock-down

The Prophet Micah lays out a charge against the sinful hearts and actions of his people…  He tells them that God himself has indicted them… Micah 6:2 (ESV); “2  Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.”

 

Micah not only lists the charges against his people, but also proclaims the will of the Lord.  He not only condemns their sin, but also summons them to faithfulness… In the dog-eat-dog days of the privileged elite ignoring the plight of the oppressed downtrodden… when people of every station point out the faults of others but justify their own fault… when we shout about the sins of others but don’t repent of our own sin, the words of our text ring out… Micah 6:8 (ESV); “8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

I Can't Breathe

by Dr. J.R. Norwood

"I can't breathe!" These words have been said by both Eric Garner and George Floyd while they were being restrained by police in a manner that caused these panicked utterances to be some of their last. The murder of George Floyd happened during the same week that Christopher Cooper was able to avert what could have been a similar situation perpetrated against him as he simply asked that a white woman obey the laws of the park they both were enjoying and keep her dog on a leash. Her response was to use her privilege to threaten him and then call for the police with the lying claim that she was being attacked by an African-American man. Thank God that Mr. Cooper was video recording the event and that he kept his cool throughout. 

Sadly, these are not rare occurrences. Many people of color, perhaps most, have experienced injustice at the hands of both authority figures and by our white brothers and sisters acting out of a sense of superiority and privilege that is based in the entanglements of the backdrop of racism that permeates so much of our society.