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HeavenEarth Sunday Conversation

"Where's Jesus-Addendum...Leave our Nets"

Speaker: Emily Holverson

Summary

In this reflective and heartfelt episode, Emily leads the community through an exploration of what it means to follow Jesus in the midst of uncertain times, both personally and collectively. Through storytelling, scripture, and honest dialogue, listeners are invited into a deeper consideration of the challenges and beauty found in pursuing faith within a changing and often unsettling cultural context.

Emily draws on personal family traditions, particularly yearly trips to a special rock at Cave Point in Wisconsin, to illustrate themes of change, risk, and adventure. The rock, once securely attached to the ledge but now separated by years of waves and weather, becomes a metaphor for both the shifting realities around us and the courage to step into new, unknown spaces.

Using the opening chapters of Mark’s Gospel, Emily transports listeners to the moment when Jesus called his first disciples—ordinary fishermen who left behind their jobs and families to answer an invitation they did not fully understand. The episode’s centerpiece is the simple, powerful invitation: “Come, follow me,” and the communal wrestling with what it looks like to respond today.

Three Major Takeaways

1. The Power of Context: “What’s in the Ether?”
2. A recurring question throughout the episode is “What’s in the ether?”—what are the unseen but deeply felt conditions, trends, and pressures shaping our spiritual and communal lives? Emily, together with the group, identifies today’s ether as filled with uneasiness, division, urgency, and uncertainty, echoed by terms like “deconstruction,” “hardship,” and “passivism” raised by the community 09:31. This mirrors the fraught context of Jesus’ original call to his disciples, reminding listeners that every generation must wrestle honestly with the dynamics influencing faith.
3. The Challenge and Cost of Following Jesus
4. Emily clearly outlines that answering Jesus’ invitation is simple, but not easy. For the disciples, following meant leaving behind security—their nets, jobs, and identity 21:06. For listeners today, it might mean letting go of certainty, comfort, control, or even the urge to be “the expert.” The journey is marked by learning through trial and error, embracing communal life (even when it’s messy), and continually engaging in the tension between individual growth and shared experience.
5. Community as a Place of Healing, Hope, and New Beginnings
6. When reflecting on the local community (“Heaven Earth”), contrasts emerge between the negative trends of broader culture and the hope, growth, acceptance, and new beginnings sensed within the group 31:22. Emily emphasizes that meaningful transformation happens when people reclaim ancient values—love of God, love of neighbor, intentional presence, and willingness to hold tension together 34:34. Through personal stories—such as helping her aging father climb the family’s special rock again—Emily powerfully demonstrates how faith and community support each other through life’s risks and challenges.

Final Reflections

At its heart, this episode is a moving meditation on what it means to keep saying “yes” to Jesus’ invitation, even when it demands vulnerability, risk, and openness to not having all the answers. Listeners are encouraged to notice what they might be holding onto for security, consider what’s worth letting go, and trust that transformation is possible—in themselves, and in their community—when they take the next brave step together.

Duration: 44:46

Speakers: 2

Segments: 109

Generated by Castmagic

Father God, I thank you for just your presence with us. I thank you for the ways that you meet us where we are and the way that your Spirit just hovers around us in this room as we go from here. Wherever we are in our day-to-day, your Spirit is hovering at work and present, just like it was at creation. God, would you just keep helping us to be aware of your presence Of what you're doing, of the work that you are doing in us and that you're inviting us into with you. Would you just be in our conversation today, and would you just keep stirring our hearts, Lord? We just pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

We've been in this series called Where's Jesus? And today is a little bit of an addendum to that series. It's a little bit of an extra add-on, but I wanted to share with you a picture from This one right here. So this is from a place that's very near and dear to my heart. So it's a county park actually called Cave Point, and it's in Jacksonport, Wisconsin. So it's right— this is Lake Michigan, and that rock is my rock. It's not actually my rock, I just call it my rock, our rock, my family's rock. When I was little, I've been going to that rock most years of my life. And I was little, that rock was attached to the ledge.

They— it wasn't separated. And I may have shared this picture with you before, or a similar one, but I'm doing it again. Sorry, not sorry. But that rock used to be attached. And so over the years, the wind and the waves have all beaten against it, and the middle part collapsed. But we still— so we'd, when we were little, we'd just walk right onto the big rock. And as it's collapsed, it's obviously a little harder to get Onto the rock. As my kids have grown up, with all their cousins, they go out there every year, so there's 10 of them, and they climb.

And some years it's beautiful and it's easy to get onto the rock, and some years it's not. Jake, can you go to that next picture for me? Some years it's more like this, where it's crashing and it's slippery and it's wet. And those rocks are not— they're not smooth. They're kind of jagged. So when it looks like this, we generally opt not to go onto the rock for safety purposes. And we're getting older and understand realities of medical bills, and our joints don't heal quite as quickly. So we don't go on the rock when it looks like that. But this year when we were up there, the lake was calmer than I had seen it in a long time.

It was just crystal clear, flat, calm, utterly gorgeous. And so there was climbing onto the big rock, but there was also climbing on the ledge. So if you see that, that the one picture is the rock and people out on the rock, and the other picture is actually my daughter, who's told me I could share this picture, shared with permission. But she was— she and her cousins were out climbing on, on the ledge, and that was something they hadn't— they haven't gotten to do a whole lot of. And so what was interesting about that is they had this gleam in their eye when they asked, like, Mom, can we climb on the ledge? And I was like, sure. Because on this day, if they fell in the water, quite frankly, it wasn't like a life or death sort of situation. We weren't going to have to grab them from big waves. And there was this sense of adventure that you could see in them of, like, we get to leave the known path, and we get to go out and we get to make our own path.

And it's a little hard, and it's a little dangerous, and maybe a little scary, but we're going to figure it out as we go, because that's kind of what rock climbing is. You kind of feel your way around the ledge. And I remember when I was little, similar experiences where I'd be like, Dad, can I climb on the— can I climb around on the ledge? And be like, okay, you can go this far. And my mom would be like, that's too far. Like, no, it's okay, Mom, it's fine. And now I'm Mom saying that to my children. Or they're saying it to me, Mom, it's fine. Okay, we're fine.

But anyways, the point is, right, the conditions were such that they were excited about taking this new adventure. The conditions were such that they were like, we're going to try this new thing. We're feeling confident and good that we can step out into this new journey and kind of forge our way. And they did it together. them and their cousin, or Kaylee and her cousins, and Jamin was doing it too. And so they were on this kind of cousin adventure all along the, all along the ledge. What on earth does this have to do with anything? Well, there's been this question in my mind all week as I've been looking at the scripture passage we're going to talk about today. It's in Mark.

But this question is, what's in the ether? It's kind of a weird question, I understand, but Is that phrase weird to anybody, what's in the ether? I'll explain it. Some of you are like, no, I totally get it. I know what that means. But it's like, what is— what are the conditions? What are we sitting in? What's the stuff kind of floating around that maybe we're not even talking about? Maybe we are talking about it, but we're just— it's this sense of what's in the air. So I just want to— I want to offer that as we kind of dig into Mark. So we're going to go— go ahead, Jamin, to the next slide, please. And we're going to look at Mark chapter 1. We're just going to look at 6 verses total today.

We're going to break it up a little bit, but this is Mark chapter 1 starting in verse 14. So we're going to read this in a couple of sections. So here we go. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news. Okay, so that first Those first 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, those first 6 words are a little bit of a— they're kind of poignant, right? After John was put in prison.

So who is John? Does anybody know which John this is referring to? I realize I'm just throwing scripture at you out of context, but— John the Baptist. Yeah, John the Baptist. So John was kind of known for being a little bit of an eccentric guy. He lived in the wilderness, he ate locusts and wild honey, he wore camel's hair, like scratchy clothes. His dad was a priest. So we see the story of John in his early life a little more in the Gospel of Luke, but John's dad was a priest, and he and his wife couldn't have children and then wound up miraculously having John. And John is actually the cousin of Jesus. He's a cousin of Jesus.

And so John had just gotten put into prison. So If you think about this question of what's in the ether, what's in the air, what's floating around as we kind of start this story, this Gospel of Mark, we're in Roman occupation, right? The Romans are in charge. There's oppression going on. There's this sense of what was ours, what was known, is being taken from us. We can't completely do life the way we want to. There's suppression. There's literal danger. For believing what we want to believe, for living the way we want to live.

And John had been this guy announcing the kingdom of God was coming. He was saying, repent and believe. There's somebody coming after me who's even greater than I am. So he's preparing the way. This is the narrative that we hear about John all throughout the New Testament. John is preparing the way for the one who's going to come after. And he had recently baptized Jesus. So right before these verses, we actually see the baptism of Jesus.

So Jesus had gone out to John and baptized him. And as the story goes, he baptizes Jesus, and as Jesus comes up out of the water, there's this voice from heaven that says, this is my Son. With him I am well pleased. And then John calls out the unsavory behavior of some local leaders. He's like, you guys are doing things you're not supposed to be doing. And the result is he winds up in prison. He never actually leaves prison, but he's in prison. He's beheaded, actually, after he's there.

But John— that's not a small thing, right? John had his own disciples. He had people who were following him. He was influential in the community. He was— He was known. He might have been seen as kind of weird, but he was known. And so this shift happens, and when we see these shifts happen, right, there— I would imagine there's this unsettling nature, like, what is going on? Are we safe? John's not safe. John spoke out, John spoke up, and now look what happened to John. There's a sense, I imagine, from his disciples of, like, well, what do we do now? We were following him, and now this.

Where are we going to go? And then you have Jesus enter the scene who says, guess what? I'm the guy, the person that you've been waiting for, the person John was preparing the way for. This is the time, guys. This is the time to repent, to believe the good news that the kingdom is actually coming near. And so I want to ask you this morning, what do you feel like is in the ether of our 2026 American context? If you think about it, like, what is, What is the stuff, the ideas, the trends, the cultural feelings, like, what is swirling around the spaces that we inhabit wherever we are all day, all week, day in and day out? Uneasiness.

Uneasiness. Division. Phones. AI.

Say that one more time. Social acceptance. Urgent. Sense of urgency.

Yeah.

Hardships.

Hardships.

A general passivism that nothing's going to get better.

Depression.

Medication. Medicating. Yeah, I think there's a lot, right? I feel like there's kind of an aggressiveness to things too. Maybe that's similar to the urgency. Like, it just— everything feels very aggressive right now and sectarian, kind of like, if you agree with us, excellent. If you don't agree with us, go away, or we'll fight you, or we kind of have these— our own little groups.

So, yeah.

Yes, is God a universalist idea or the Christian God? Yeah, there's a, there's a lot floating. I had written down deconstruction. There's, there's a lot, kind of a lot of questions about faith and what is real and what is not, and what have I experienced and what do I do with that, and how do I sort through it, and how do I maybe For some, maybe, how do I hold on to some of these beliefs that are really important to me, but how do I square those with others? And for others, that's a whole spectrum of things, right? But that questioning and what is certain and what can I hold on to, what can I grasp, I think is floating out there too. So this is our context. The disciples had their context, their ether, but this is what happens when, when right after Jesus says, repent, come and follow, or he says, repent, believe the kingdom's near. So, Jay, can you go to the next slide for me? So our story goes on. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.

At once they left their nets and followed him. Keep going. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Is there anything in that story that is surprising to you?

Yeah.

Yeah, Christy's saying, like, they just, they went. They didn't have— the way the story's told to us, they didn't have a whole bunch of questions. Like, it was just, they got up and went. Today we might have a few more questions. Anything else that's surprising to you in that?

Yeah.

Yeah, Jen wonders about Dad, right? Was it hard to— Zebedee. Was it hard for Dad to lose his crew? Yeah, Lucy. Yeah, so Lucy's sharing about like the, that tension between family and calling and how this almost seems against how she, how she processes it. Yeah, and kind of wondering about what's going on there for them.

Yeah.

I was struck in this story by how they follow, right? We have these 2 sets of brothers. Andrew and John were actually just 2 of the disciples of John the Baptist. So we kind of get that story in the Gospel of John. They had followed John the Baptist.

Yeah.

Likely, they would have been present at Jesus's baptism. I don't know that for sure, but likely they would have been. It's at least a possibility. So there's something going on, this sense of anticipation, this sense of frustration, this sense of discontent perhaps with their current situation and what they're seeing and what their options are and how do we do life. We're fishing, and we're just trying to, like, do the things we know how to do as we sort through what happened with John the Baptist, and, like, what do we do now? And then here comes Jesus with an invitation. It's not a lengthy invitation. It's a very simple one. He just says, come and follow me.

And I will make you fishers for men, fishers of people. And I just, I wonder if there's, if it's close enough for them that they're like, I get what you mean. I don't know what you mean, but I understand it enough to get out of the boat and take the step to come walk with you. Jamin, can you go to the next slide for me? I think that Jesus saw them in their everyday. He saw them where they were at. He saw them in the— like, work, work, I feel like, is this— it's this beautiful thing, this gift that we have to do. And it's also— it can become really mundane, right? And it's just— it's work, and it's what we— sometimes it's what we have to do just because we need to survive and we need money and we need income. And so there's this whole— and even if you love your job, right, there's good days and bad days.

Right.

Jesus comes to them in the middle of what they're doing, and he says, I see you where you are, and there's more than what you're doing. Like, I think there's a validation and also a call to something bigger. And the disciples believed enough— well, Peter and James and Andrew and John, right? They believed enough. In the hope. I think they had enough hope that Jesus was offering something enough better that they were willing to get up and go. That maybe they couldn't quite put their finger on it. Maybe we don't really totally know what's going on with this guy named Jesus. There was this baptism, this voice from the sky said some things that's weird but really cool.

John's in prison. I don't know, but maybe there's something here that's worth hanging on to. And I think that Jesus gives us— he's giving us the same invitation today. Jamin, can you go to the next slide for me? We are in a different cultural context than the first-century disciples were, right? Our ether is not the same as theirs, as what was in their ether, but there's stuff going around, there's stuff swirling, there's questions, and how do we sort through all of these things? And his invitation is really simple. It's really simple and really complex and really difficult, but the initial invitation is really simple. It's just, it's the same one. It's, come and follow me. He's inviting us to know God, to know God's love for us, that God is compassionate, and that his compassion and his, who he is, his character includes justice and mercy.

And sometimes there's tension in how we sort through that, right? We've been talking about some of that these last weeks. Like, there is tension in kind of trying to sort through words and phrases and understanding, and how do we, how do we do life with God and Christianity? And there's a whole lot out there in the mix of things. But even in the mix of all of that, there's this simple invitation to follow him. And I think he's inviting— I say this, I say this a lot, it's a prayer of mine a lot, but I think he's really inviting us to see with his eyes and to hear with his ears and to understand with his heart. And there's something about that and the depth and the way that he sees people that's bigger than me, that's bigger than how I see people, that's bigger than my ups and downs and good days and bad days and days that I get frustrated. And he's bigger. This picture It's not from Cave Point. Does anybody know where it is? What did you say? Cheer? No, I'm just kidding.

Where is it at, Kaylee? Acadia.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, this is at Acadia National Park. Yeah, this is Maine. And it was interesting, actually. I picked this picture before I had this thought, and I had this thought this morning. When I was at Acadia National Park, I was struck by how similar in some ways it felt to Door County. So there were— there's elements of the rock and the trees and the shore and the cragginess, but Acadia was so much bigger, so much bigger than what I had experienced in Door County. And I love Door County, but there was something about the vastness of what you were looking at on this beach and in the different rocks that we were on in Acadia, that I think maybe that's what the disciples sensed. We have this understanding, but Jesus is offering us something that's so much bigger than what we thought it was.

That there's— that this life with Jesus is bigger and more beautiful and more complex and harder than we thought it might be. And that hardness, like, there is a cost to following Jesus. It's not all like sunshine and roses. The disciples, you know, Christy kind of, she brought this up, when they— I was struck by the disciples leaving their nets because their nets were their security. They were their— if you think about like your job, that was their job. That was their sense of security. That was how they fed their families. That was— That's their identity.

That was what they knew as security, and so they left that. That's a cost when you step out into the unknown. Like, there's a cost to doing that. You leave security, that kind of security behind. You leave control behind. I have a tendency towards control freakishness. I really like plans. I really do.

I really like plans. And some— You're good at it. Thanks, Christy. Christy says I'm good at it, so— but I really like them. But also, like Jesus says, hey, Emily, guess what? I have a bigger— I have, I have a bigger, a bigger story for you if you, if you're willing to, to see it. You know what else is hard about following Jesus is that we have to learn as we go. When my kids are climbing on those rock faces, right, they reach— sometimes they reach for something and they, they slip because that handhold actually wasn't as solid as they thought it was. Or their foot might— they might have to reach for a while to find the right foothold because that one is just a little too small, or it didn't— they can't quite get the angle to get up the side.

And so they have to figure it out. As they go. Man, for anybody who wants to be an expert, that's difficult because we like— I— we say a lot here, Ross says a lot, there's no experts here, right? That's a very intentional statement because we're all figuring it out as we go on this journey with Jesus. But that can be hard because you get bumps and you get bruises, and perfectionist people like me, we don't like to be wrong. And Jesus is like, guess what though? That's part of the journey, is we make— we try and we make mistakes, and we learn better because we took the risk and we stepped out. You know what else is hard about following Jesus is that we don't actually get to do it alone. Why is that hard, you ask? Why do you think I would say that's hard?

Because you're not alone.

Come on, introverts. Why is it hard that we don't get to do it alone? You have to rely on other people. You have to rely on other people. I don't like to do that because other people let me down, because I can do it better. There's compromise. Yeah, we have to learn how to— incidentally, I'm not saying I do it better, right? Just so So that's all clear. But that's the thought that goes through my head. Yeah, we have to compromise, right? People are hard.

It's hard to work with people. When I was in school, I hated group projects with a passion. Do you know why I hated group projects? Because why? Because they weren't good. Why weren't they good, Melissa?

Because they weren't good.

Well, this is my person. Yeah, 'cause my partners sucked, right? Like, I wanted my A. So if I wanted my A, I had to do more work 'cause my partners didn't care as much. That's a really arrogant statement, guys. I realize that, I'm sorry. My college roommate literally said to me, I love group projects 'cause there's always that one person who does all the work.

Me.

She— anyways, so we were good friends. We were. But I learned not everyone thinks the way that I do about group projects. Okay, good to know. But like, community is hard work. It just is. Because when we're in the midst of doing life with other people, we just, we kind of have to deal with our stuff. And if we don't deal with our stuff, it will deal with us.

It's hard. It takes commitment. And people— I love people, and people are hard, right? We know this. We interact with people all day, every day. There's one more reason I had that makes it hard to follow Jesus, and this one is that my ego might get offended.

Amen.

All right, I already said I like to do things my way. I don't like to rely on other people. My ego might get offended when I follow Jesus because he might be like, Emily, let's keep working on this. And I'm like, Jesus, we already worked on that one. He's like, mm-hmm, I know. We need to do some more work on it.

Yeah? We like black and white rather than gray.

And we like black and white rather than gray. Black and white is very clear. It is very clear. Black, white.

Got it.

Gray is a whole lot messier. It's a whole lot messier. It takes a lot more processing, a lot more work to get through, a lot more like, well, what shade of gray? Is it smoky gray? Is it light gray? Is it heather gray? I don't know what shade of gray it is and which one I like better in this lighting, right? Gray is harder. It's also more complex, and there's also like nuance in the beauty of it, right? White is actually like all of the— right? Light people. White is all of the colors, and black is like the absence of all color, right? That spectrum where they exist in between, there's so much beauty in that when we learn how to see it. So then I ask myself, is this invitation, is Jesus's invitation— it was compelling for Peter and Andrew and James and John. They got out of the boat. They went.

It was compelling for them. So however they were processing all the ether, the excitement, the fright, the fear, like, they got out of the boat. So this— but this question is for me too. Is Jesus's invitation to follow him, to learn his way, is it compelling enough for me to say yes? That's the same question. Yeah, Lucy. I just feel like Everyone put your hands out and touch, touch the, touch whatever is in front of you. Not a person, you don't have to touch other people, but like touch the pew in front of you. Right, like, what do you feel? Say it louder, guys.

Jason, don't share that one! Let me get the dust spray out. Jason's pew is sticky. Okay, but, but yeah, it's firm, it's tangible, you can like feel it and see it and touch it, right? Like it's right here in front of you. Like, and we We have lives full of things and people that are real and in our face and in front of us and, like, whatever, like, that are right here that we're trying to navigate. And so this energy, this effort, this invitation might seem, like, distant or even just not as pressing as so many other things that seem so urgent in front of us every day. Yeah.

Yeah.

I wonder— so I don't know why this keeps coming up today. When we came here 3 and a half years ago, we were in a place where I was legitimately asking that question, like, is this invitation still compelling for me? And even asking that question was really scary. It was really scary because it was what I had known and what I had built my life on and my career on. And so many things were wrapped up in that question. And my answer had always been yes, like, this is it. And 3 and a half— well, it was 5 years ago, but my answer was, I don't know anymore. And I wonder, If maybe— well, I don't wonder. I feel like where I'm at now is that I see enough truth and beauty to believe and hope enough to stay and keep following and keep learning and keep letting him gently heal and show me that things are so much bigger than I thought.

That there's beauty in what I knew, but there's so much more. And I wonder— In this old building, right, with these beautiful windows, this building that's sometimes kind of smelly— not this morning, knock on wood. So guys, knock on that wood in front of you. It's not smelly this morning. But if maybe there's something about not so much this building, but something about this place and these people and this soil that is compelling, that says, hey, this thing that we call community We— it really— it's a real deal thing, and that brings me hope. So I want to just— I want to ask you this question. Next slide, Jamin. What do you feel like is in the ether at Heaven & Earth? I know I have the windows up there.

Not— I don't necessarily mean this building, but like just at Heaven & Earth, what do you feel like is in our ether here?

Goodness.

Goodness, Joe says. Love.

Love. Growth.

Say again. Growth.

Growth. Acceptance.

Acceptance. What'd you say over here? I thought I heard one of them.

Maybe not. Safety.

Safety.

New beginnings. Knowledge.

A bit of mystery. A different path.

Sharing.

A willingness to hold tension. Togetherness.

Yeah. I think one of the reasons the people said yes to Jesus's invitation so quickly is because John the Baptist had done his job well preparing the way for Jesus. He was planting seeds. And I think that's what's happening here. Seeds are being planted in the earth.

If you didn't hear him online, Ralph was talking about seeds planting and how John the Baptist prepared the way and did a good job and did it well. And that a similar thing he feels like is happening here with seeds being planted in people. Are those the same words or different words than how we kind of describe the broader cultural context we exist in?

Different.

They're different, right? They're pretty different. I don't say that to be like, we're amazing, we have the best church ever, just we're— Right? We have all the answers. That is not what I'm saying. But I was pretty confident that if I asked both those questions, we would get different sets of answers, partly because that's what I've experienced here, that I feel like there's something to what the Spirit is doing in this place that we get to be a part of, that, that it looks and feels different than what we're experiencing other places.

Yeah, Christy.

Yeah, Christy said, in here, it feels okay to not know the answer, and out there, it feels like you have to know the answer. Otherwise, we Google it, right? If we don't know, we just Google it, and then Google tells us. I said to my daughter recently, my older daughter, I don't even remember what it was, but she was— it was something that I said, well, I heard this one time, but I never actually looked at it. And she's like, oh, you could Google it. I'm like, yeah, that was before we did that. Like, there was a time When we didn't just Google everything we didn't know. We just kind of were like, okay, I don't know. That was okay to not know.

We didn't have to have the Google answer to everything. Right, or you look at the encyclopedia off the shelf, right? We have other sources of information. Google was not always a verb. It was a noun first.

Well, parents would say, look it up in the encyclopedia.

Look it up. Do some work. Find it. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder— Jay, can you go to this next slide for me?

Mm-hmm.

We talk— Ralph uses this phrase that we're reclaiming an ancient way here. We're trying to. And I wonder that if maybe we can reclaim this ancient way of Jesus, that's of simply loving God and loving others and living by the Spirit, that we can really experience transformation in ourselves and really experience the joy and goodness of doing life together. And I wonder if we can embrace the mystery and wrestle with the hurt, not just, like, set it aside or cast it away, but, like, wrestle with the hurt and wrestle with the hard things, that we can experience real healing and safety to step out and trust again. And I wonder if maybe we experience the reality of the presence of God with us and know in new ways that we're seen And we're valued, and we're loved, and we're not alone. And I wonder if maybe we find purpose and beauty in being part of something bigger than ourselves. That's part of being— of bringing the kingdom near and being part of the big good news. We talk about that here, and building this community together.

So this Question that we've been wrestling with, right, is really important. Where's Jesus? Jay, can you go to that next slide? Where's Jesus? Finding and following Jesus when much of Christianity doesn't look like him. That's an important question. There is stuff to wrestle through. There's confusion and all, all of the things we've talked about this morning and, and more, right? It's hard, but in the midst of all of that is this I always imagined Jesus being like, come, like, with his hand, like, come follow me. That's how I picture it. I don't know if that's what happened or not, but that's how I see it. But I feel like that's what Jesus does to me again and again and again, is he's like, come follow me.

Come follow me. Come sit with me for a while. Let me show you my way. Let me show you how much God loves you. Let me show you The truth. Let me heal those broken parts of you. Let me, let me teach you how to be a person who can do that for others, how to be a bringer of light, how to be a healing presence, how to be somebody who points other people toward God, to tell them how much he sees them and he loves them and he wants them. That invitation Is the same.

And the question for us is, what are— what are— what is he asking us to leave behind, right? What are our nets that maybe we're holding on to? What's our security? What is— what is the thing that maybe is pulling us in a different direction? Maybe it is simply security. Maybe it's certainty. Maybe it's hurt. Maybe it's resentment. Maybe it's pain. Maybe it's comfort. There's all kinds of things that we can hold on to instead of Jesus. But he keeps asking and inviting.

He doesn't force us. He never forces us, but he keeps inviting. Jay, can you go to that last slide? I think that Peter and Andrew and James and John wanted the Messiah. I think they were looking for the Messiah. I think there was stuff in the water that they were paying attention to, and when they saw Jesus, they saw enough to think, I don't know all the things, but I want to be a part of what he's doing. And I think they learned who he really was and what it really meant to be the Messiah. He taught them, and it involved a whole lot of shaking of paradigms for them. They were expecting something and someone very different, and he was like, actually, This is what it means to love God with all of who you are.

This is what it means to bring the kingdom near. It means looking at the poor and the widow and the hurt and the oppressed and paying attention to the downcast. It means loving God with all of who you are, not just following a set of rules. It means learning how to sit and be, not just do all the time. And I think they figured it out as they followed him, and they learned how to find those footholds along the way. So what is this— you guys get the last word today. We're just about done here, but you guys get the last word. What does this stir in you this morning?

Hope.

Hope and peace I heard so far. Travis is talking about the gray area and how, how it kind of forces us to trust and believe in him, and there's, there's a, there's a lot in that. And Joe was talking about just that, you know, the presence of God really is here. It's just a different experience. Our experience of it is a little different than the disciples had it. Yeah.

Yeah.

There's something a lot more important than where I am and what I am.

Yeah.

I had a colleague who used to say, it's all about me and it's not about me at all. Like, it is about us and it is about— like, it is about me and it is about us, like, all of us. Both— it's this individual choices and experience, and it's this communal process that we experience together.

Hmm.

My dad is 76. Yeah, he's 76 and has had some health issues the last year, just has been really dizzy. And when we were out here— I don't have this picture up here for you guys— but when we were out here this year, he really wanted to go climb on the rock. He's been really dizzy. Yeah, thanks, Jay. He's had a lot of dizziness issues and just has been feeling more and more unsteady. And he really wanted to climb onto the rock and was really unsure. And he just, he kind of said to me and my brothers, he was like, what do you guys think? And we're like, Dad, we can do it.

We can help you. We can get you out there. And there was something almost holy about walking with my dad and helping support him and steady him so he could climb out on that rock again. And just to see the joy in his face when he made it is a palpable thing. And I just think about that for us here too. Like, when it feels hard to get on that rock and take those steps, and maybe we've been burned and broken and hurt. Like, there's a beauty that is deep and profound when we take the chance to do it again, and when we find people who are willing to walk with us. So I pray you experience that this morning, and I pray that you can be that person for somebody this week.

So would you pray with me? Father God, I thank you so much for who you are, and I thank you for the ways that you don't give up on us. And I thank you, Lord, that even in the midst of the reality of whatever it is we're facing, God, and just there's so much that we, that we walk through and wade through and climb through on a day-to-day basis, Lord, that you are still just saying, just come be with me. I see you and I know you and I love you where you are, and I have so much more for you. God, would you just help us to believe just enough to take the next step with you?

Amen.

Would you keep helping us to heal? Would you just see those places of hurt and brokenness and just keep working on them? Would you just help us to have a picture of what you're calling us into, Lord, and the bigness, the vastness of who you are, and the depth of your love and goodness?

Amen.

God, would you just help us to be sensitive to your leading and your Spirit in this place and as we go? Thank you for continually inviting us. I just pray, Lord, that you would help us to be, be open to your voice and to your leading. And as we're ready, when we're ready, help us to say yes to you. I j