One message, two rooms -Tuesday Toast

by Reverend TJ Lucas

Note: When I don't have time or I take off, like I did to recover from a long day Monday, our regular Monday Manna is called Tuesday Toast. For the comedy.

The banner pictured above was painted for this sunday's message, it’s a massive iron chain caught right at the moment of impact—one central link creating the first break of that which binds us. This past Sunday, I carried that picture into two very different spaces. In the morning, I stood in our sanctuary with you. That evening, I was next door preaching a Service of Hope for brothers and sisters recovering from addiction, long-term trauma, and years on the ragged edge of survival.

Two rooms, two very different crowds--the same loving God setting them all free and calling them into community.

I noted how before God handed down a single commandment, He reminded the people of the freedom He brought. He broke the chain of slavery so they could flee for the promised land. In that, he guided them to the wilderness where for the first time they felt hunger and the weight of freedom. They did not know how to care well of themselves so of course they also did not know how to care well for each other or others. I believe that is why they had to wander in the wildnerness first. God broke that first part of the chain but other links needed to break away too.

In naming this freedom before the commandments He shows his heart is not in control but in freedom and authenticity.

Look back at the banner. God shattered that main link—the heavy structural bondage of sin, death, and inherited fear we couldn't touch on our own. But the rest of the chain was still trailing behind them. Israel walked into the desert wearing those extra links in their bodies. Hypervigilance. Jumpiness. That protective voice whispering, don't hope, because hoping hurts. When quiet sand replaced the chaos of Egypt, they panicked. They actually started romanticizing the big pots of meat under Pharaoh's whip. Why? Because the human brain under stress will choose predictable pain over an unknown outcome every single time.

We do it too. We step into the peace God opens for us and immediately start building the same old cage out of new materials: overworking to prove we belong, refusing to set boundaries, and controlling every detail because trust feels like negligence.

How do those trailing links come off? Slowly. Daily manna—just enough bread for today, resting on the Sabbath, and recentering your life in the way of God instead of empire. Healing happens when your nervous system finally realizes today’s grace is sufficient, and you're allowed to stop overproducing. We live in a world of overproduction on every level. God wants to free us from that.

Sunday evening, I looked into a room of folks who know the wilderness from the inside.

I started by naming the sentence so many of them carry: "If I walked through those church doors, the roof would fall in."

I told them plainly: that voice isn't God. That's the damage done by toxic institutions acting like Pharaoh—places that weaponize guilt, demand performance, and claim you have to fix yourself before you're allowed near the altar. That is not the way of God even if it is the way of many churches. I lament not every building with a cross will treat people well but I known there is nothing that seperates you from the love of God. That is why every Sunday our first slide up says Welcome, No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.

When you're coming out of active addiction, quiet ground feels dangerous. Nostalgia edits out the overdoses, the mugshots, and the cold shame, whispering that the old cage wasn't really that bad. Just like the Exodus people thinking the pots of meat in Egypt were better than the freedom in the desert. God didn't ask a single person in that room to get clean before He broke the primary link of what enslaved them. Grace met them in the mud. Dismantling the rest is just the daily work of recovery: on day at a time, clear boundaries that protect your life, and a community that knows what it costs to fight for sanity.

Church, let me be clear, there are no perfect people allowed here. They don't exist. Your past isn't a badge of shame to hide under a religious mask. It's a resource of hope. The sheer strength it took you to survive the dark is the exact resilience God will use to pull the next person through the door.

Whether your trailing links were forged by generational anxiety, a substance, or a pattern you inherited without asking for it, the story moves the same way. God sets us free, feeds us on the road, and hands us to each other. We were never meant to journey alone. Praise be to God.

Join us this upcoming Sunday for the next message in our sermon series Grace and Gratitude, entitled Managing Fear Without Idols. As I noted Sunday in both sermons, fear of the unknown keeps us bond to things that enslaved us. Let's dig a little deeper in that emotion and unpack the divine power of God we have when we listen to his command to fear not. I often point out its told to us 365 times in the bible--enough for every day! So with our daily provison of bread, God's love, and each other we are to live without fear. Easier said than done.

Prayer: God, you are a being outside of the emotions that bind our spirits. At times we may think that creates a wedge between us and you, to the point where we wonder if you are even here with us. What a blessing it is to know that you are not only outside of us, you are beside us and inside us too. You are the God who stands beyond everything that holds us captive, the God who walks next to us through the valley, and the God who breathes in us with every breath we take. Some will say that can't be true, that a God who is all of that at once is a contradiction and so cannot exist. But you are the paradox that does. It is exactly because you are outside of the chains that you can break them, beside us in the wilderness that you can feed us, and within us that you can heal what no one else can reach.

Meet us in our fear of the unknown. When the road ahead feels quiet and unfamiliar, we are tempted to reach back for the cages we know, or to build something we can see and hold in your place. Remind us that you have already gone ahead of us, that you are with us now, and that you dwell in us still. Give us today's bread and let it be enough. Replace our anxiety with thankful prayer, and teach us to hear you when you say, do not be afraid. Hand us to one another so that none of us walks this road alone. Amen.

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Dwelling in the Word Practice

Please remember that this way of reading the text is a spiritual practice. It is not reading it for historical context or theology or anything that is academic. This is purely trying to tune your ear to hear a word from God. It is supposed to deepen your relationship with God and make reading your Bible less daunting.

Steps:

Lectio — the Inhale

Read the passage through once, slowly. This is your lectio. I like to think of it as a holy inhale of the Word. Remember the Divine breath of God carries and sustains each of us through our whole day. So just breathe it in. Let the words settle into you before you do anything else with them.

Meditatio — the Word That Shimmers

Read it a second time. This time, you're listening for one word or phrase that shimmers for you — something that catches, that stands out, that you can't quite let go of. You don't have to search for it. Just notice what finds you.

Oratio — Talking It Over

Now sit with whatever shimmered, and talk to God about it, openly and freely. You can read the text again before you do this, but you don't have to. This is your practice. Take these instructions and adapt them to whatever feels most natural to you. Let the prayer come out of you however it wants to. If we're doing this with other people this is also when we share out loud what stood out to us and what it's stirring in us.

Contemplatio — the Exhale

And finally, let it go. Rest in it. This is your exhale, your contemplatio — you're done working the passage now, you're simply resting in God's presence and letting whatever shimmered for you do the work in your daily life. You will find that whatever stood out to you in your time with God. In this practice, we'll find a way to speak to you as you go by your regular day. Just don't force it. It will come as you deep in and strengthen this practice.

Below are the scriptures for this upcoming week summarized in one line so you can select one more easily or you can find them in their entirety here

• Exodus 32:1–14: When the Israelites grow impatient and fashion a golden calf to worship, God threatens to destroy them until Moses intercedes and successfully asks for mercy.

  
  

• Psalm 106:1–6, 19–23: This psalm praises God's enduring love while recalling Israel's history of idolatry at Horeb and how Moses stood in the breach to turn away God's wrath.

  
  

• Isaiah 25:1–9: Isaiah praises God for subduing ruthless enemies and foretells a glorious future feast where God will wipe away all tears and destroy death forever.

  
  

• Psalm 23: David describes God as a faithful shepherd and generous host who protects, restores, and guides believers through every danger.

  
  

• Philippians 4:1–9: Paul encourages the church to resolve conflicts, rejoice always, replace anxiety with thankful prayer, and focus their minds on whatever is honorable and pure.

  
  

• Matthew 22:1–14: Jesus tells a parable about a king who opens his son's wedding banquet to anyone in the streets after the original guests refuse the invitation, emphasizing that all are invited but must come prepared.