A Story Worth Sharing: From Persecutor to Preacher Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12–17This week at Central, we continued our series A Story Worth Sharing. Pastor Sarah reflected on Paul’s powerful testimony — a story that begins not with triumph, but with failure. Before he became the great missionary of the early church, Paul (then Saul) was a persecutor of Christians, complicit in violence against the followers of Jesus. Yet rather than hide his past, Paul put it front and center. He called himself “the biggest sinner of all,” not to wallow in shame, but to magnify the endless patience and transforming grace of God.In a world that prizes highlight reels and carefully curated stories, Paul’s example reminds us that God doesn’t want the edited version of our lives. Grace shines brightest in the broken places, and our most painful chapters can become powerful testimonies of hope. By leading with vulnerability, Paul shows us that no one is beyond God’s reach — and that our stories, even the hardest ones, can open doors for others to encounter mercy and healing.🌀 Reflection Questions:What part of your story have you found difficult to share because of shame or fear of judgment? How might sharing these honest parts of your journey open the door for healing and transformation by God’s grace?How can acknowledging our shared experiences of failure and brokenness strengthen our relationships within the church community? In what ways can we create a safe space for one another to tell these whole stories without shame?Paul’s testimony reminds us that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. How does knowing that God’s redemption includes the totality of your story influence how you view yourself and your journey with Christ? Support the show
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The Unknown God Revealed
A Story Worth Sharing: The Unknown God RevealedScripture: Acts 17:16–34This week at Central, we began a new worship series, A Story Worth Sharing. Pastor Sarah reflected on Paul’s visit to Athens, where the city was filled with shrines, altars, and philosophies — including one altar marked “to an unknown god.” Rather than debate or condemn, Paul began with the Athenians’ spiritual hunger. He connected their searching to the God already at work in their lives, the God revealed fully in Jesus Christ.This is the Methodist story of prevenient grace: God’s love goes before us, stirring in our lives even before we recognize it. Like the Athenians, we may have “altars to an unknown god” — seasons or moments when we longed for something more but didn’t yet have the words or story to name it. Paul shows us that evangelism isn’t argument but invitation, telling the story of God’s grace in a way that meets people where they are.Each of us has a story worth sharing — a story that reveals God’s presence and love in our lives. By telling those stories, we offer others not debate, but light.🌀 Reflection Questions:When you look back at your life, where do you recognize God was already at work in your story before you fully knew it? What were some of your own “altars to an unknown god”?When you think about the people in your life who don’t share your faith, what are they already seeking or longing for? How do you see God at work in those desires? Support the show
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Go Down, CUMC
Singing Our Faith: Go Down, CUMC Scripture: Exodus 5:1–6:8 (CEB)This week in our Singing Our Faith worship series, Central UMC welcomed guest preacher Rev. Lemuel Pearsall, Jr. to reflect on the story of Moses, Pharaoh, and God’s unshakable promises. Standing before Pharaoh, Moses demanded freedom for God’s people, only to see their burdens grow heavier — bricks without straw, beatings without mercy, despair without relief. Pharaoh’s arrogance, the Israelites’ frustration, and even Moses’ own doubt all reveal how unbelief takes root in the face of suffering.Yet God’s response is steadfast: I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. I will take you as my people. I will be your God. Seven promises of covenant love, each later fulfilled in Christ. Rev. Pearsall reminded us that faith is not the absence of questions, but where we bring them. Like Moses, we are invited to groan in the right direction — to lay our pain, doubt, and longing before God, who is faithful even when we are not.The legacy of the spiritual “Go Down, Moses” echoes this truth: God stands with the oppressed, delivers the enslaved, and calls us to confront the Pharaohs of our own time. Our hope is not in our strength, but in the God who has already said yes and amen through Christ Jesus.🌀 Reflection Questions:How does the legacy of the Spiritual “Go Down Moses” deepen our understanding of God’s solidarity with the oppressed?What does it mean for us, like Moses, to confront the “Pharaohs” in our lives and communities today? Support the show
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Tambourine Theology
Singing Our Faith: Tambourine TheologyScripture: Exodus 15:1–21 (CEB)This week at Central UMC, Rev. Sarah Harrison-McQueen invited us to stand on the shores of the Red Sea with the Israelites, who had just witnessed the impossible. Behind them, the waters closed over Pharaoh’s army. Ahead of them stretched wilderness, uncertainty, and freedom. In that liminal moment, the first sound was not a command or a quiet prayer, but music — tambourines and dancing led by Miriam the prophet.Rev. Harrison-McQueen reminded us that throughout history, music has been the language of liberation. From the songs of enslaved Africans in America to the freedom anthems of the Civil Rights Movement, from the rubble of the Berlin Wall to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, rhythm and song have always carried the power to resist oppression and proclaim hope.Miriam’s tambourine teaches us that celebration is not frivolous — it is prophetic. Her embodied praise declared that oppression did not have the final word and that God’s deliverance was real. Even in the wilderness, the people carried tambourines because they expected to celebrate. This is tambourine theology: a faith that insists on joy, even before the full story of freedom has been written.We are invited to live this same way today. Our worship can be resistance, our joy can be a witness, and our embodied praise can become a proclamation that God is still making a way where there seems to be none.🌀 Reflection Questions:When has God helped you through something that felt really hard or impossible?How can your praise become an act of witness or resistance?What “tambourines” — symbols of joy or hope — are you carrying with you on your journey of faith? Support the show
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The Best Is Yet to Come
Singing Our Faith: The Best Is Yet to ComeScripture: Isaiah 43:15–21 (CEB)This week at Central UMC, we welcomed guest preacher Rev. Michelle Holmes Chaney, Director for Leadership and Church Vitality for the Northern Virginia District. Rev. Holmes Chaney reminded us that even in the midst of uncertainty and reflection, God is constantly doing something new—sprouting, emerging, and unfolding in our lives and in the world around us.Through personal stories, memories, and even a Frank Sinatra song, she showed how hope can emerge in both the ordinary and the extraordinary. Like seeds that inevitably sprout when nurtured, God’s new things are always at work, even if we cannot yet see the full bloom.Rev. Holmes Chaney encouraged us to pay attention to God’s perpetual “now”—a present that is always imminent and filled with possibility. Through trust, faith, and expectation, we are invited to perceive God’s transformative work in our lives, in the church, and in the world. The refrain is simple yet profound: The best is yet to come, and the sun has yet to shine its brightest.🌀 Reflection Questions:Where in your life, or in the life of the church, do you sense God inviting you to let go of the past in order to make room for something new?What helps you remain hopeful when the future feels uncertain or delayed?What is one thing you can do this week to actively cultivate hope, either in your own life or in someone else’s? Support the show
About Central United Methodist Church (Arlington, Virginia) Sermon Podcast
An audio podcast of the weekly message preached at Central United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. You're invited to join us online for worship on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Visit us on the web at cumcballston.org to learn how to join us for worship via zoom or facebook live. You're invited to join our congregation where we worship God, serve others, and embrace all.
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