Hope That Does Not Disappoint (Romans 5:1-8)

Preaching just days before Juneteenth, Pastor LyAnna Johnson holds up two translations of the same verse (justified by our faith versus made righteous through Christ's faithfulness) to get at a very Wesleyan point: it can be both. From there she moves through prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace into harder territory: the denomination's history with slavery, the church's own reckoning with wealth built on unpaid labor, and how recently women and queer clergy have been allowed to lead. She closes by rewriting Romans 5 in her own words, trading suffering for awkwardness as the thing that, with God's help, still produces hope. Sermon date: June 14, 2026