Month: November 2016

Season Meets Reason

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“Season Meets Reason”

November 27, 2016

By John Partridge*

 

 

Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5                        Romans 13:11-14                               Matthew 24:36-44

The other day, Patti and I were traveling along the freeway when traffic suddenly came to a complete stop.  We immediately wondered what had happened because normally, even in the worst of construction zones, traffic keeps moving at least a little.  But this time we stopped dead and we were there long enough that I put the car in park.  As we sat there, we guessed that it might have been an accident and, sure enough, once we started moving again we saw two cars, a tractor trailer, and a police car all blocking the right lane.  Thankfully, even though there was a baby seat in one of the cars, everyone seemed to be okay.

As simple as it was, this common experience reminds us of the ripple effects of human events.  Traffic backs up because there was an accident.  Railroad gates drop because there is, somewhere down the line, an oncoming train.  One event causes another, and sometimes those ripples cascade far into the future.  We live here in North America because men like Amerigo Vespucci, Leif Erikson, Christopher Columbus, Henry Hudson, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Jacques Cartier, Hernando de Soto, John Cabot, and many others dared to cross the Atlantic and explore the New World.  What they did changed the world, and the ripples caused by their actions continue to impact our lives today.

And so, as we celebrate Advent, and begin the season of Christmas, we often talk about Jesus being the “reason for the season.”  We recognize that a huge part of our entire world has set aside time, religious or not, to celebrate this particular season of the year and we know that a ripple that enduring has to have had a cause.  But what we often miss, is that the reason for Christmas started long before the birth of Jesus, and the ripples caused by those events continue into the future, and impact our lives, far more than we appreciate.

We begin this morning by reading the words of the prophet Isaiah who lived nearly eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus. (Isaiah 2:1-5)

2:1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.

3 Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Generations before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah proclaims that a day will come when God himself will live in Jerusalem, rule over the earth, and judge disputes between nations.  In those days, weapons of war will be reshaped into instruments of agriculture, and the world will finally know peace.

Isaiah not only saw the coming of the Messiah that we celebrate at Christmas, but also the messiah’s ultimate rule and reign to which we still look forward.  The ripple in time that we celebrate at Christmas did not begin with Jesus, and in fact did not begin with Isaiah.  What we remember when we read Isaiah is that the birth of the Messiah was God’s plan from the beginning of time itself.  All of creation was leading up to that moment, and continues to look forward to the ultimate conclusion of God’s story.

We all know the Christmas story.  We will spend plenty of time in the coming weeks remembering the stories about angels and shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and wise men from the East.  But while remembering the characters is important, we must also take time to remember that such a pivotal event in human history didn’t happen by accident.  The birth of Jesus, God’s Messiah, Savior, and rescuer of all humanity, happened for a reason.

In Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus tells the disciples about the day of his return.

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Jesus reminds his followers, that his birth, life, death and resurrection were just the beginning.  Just as God’s people had looked forward to the arrival of the Messiah for thousands of years, we now look forward to his ultimate return.  And as we look forward, Jesus warns us to be prepared, to “be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Jesus’ warning is two-fold.  First, we must keep watch for his coming and second, that we must be prepared for his arrival at all times because he will come when we do not expect him.  But what does it mean to “be prepared” for his arrival?  Honestly, it’s the same message that God has been telling his people since the very beginning.  In Romans 13:11-14, Paul puts it this way:


11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Paul reminds us that “being ready” is all about the way that we live our lives every day.  If we believe that Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, and we believe that his purpose for coming to earth was to live, die, and rise from the grave to pay the debt for our forgiveness, then our belief must not just be an abstract idea that we carry around in our heads, but a belief that is lived out every minute of every day.

The coming of Jesus was an event that sent ripples through time and that event was a part of God’s plan that began with creation itself.  While we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we love to decorate our houses, our churches, shopping centers, and office cubicles, but if we fail to decorate our lives by living the way that Jesus taught, then all the trees, all the presents, all the worship services, and all the other trappings of Christmas are no better than wrapping tinsel around a cow pie.

At Christmas, it is vital for us to remember the reason for our celebration.

Jesus did not come to earth so that we could buy presents and decorate trees.

Jesus came to earth to transform lives.

Jesus came to transform my life.

Jesus came to transform your life.

And so, the best way that we can “decorate” for Christmas is to live every day of the year as if Jesus was real, as if we knew for certain that he was coming back tomorrow.

The best gift of Christmas is for each of us to actually do the things that Jesus taught us to do.

God’s gift to the world at Christmas wasn’t just a baby in a manger.

God’s gift to the world is a world full of followers who live like Jesus everyday.

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Politics, Veterans, and Thanksgiving

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“Politics, Veterans, and Thanksgiving”

November 13, 2016

By John Partridge*

 

Scripture: Deuteronomy 26:1-11                   Philippians 4:4-9                            John 6:25-35

None of us could have missed the fact that Tuesday was Election Day.  Thursday was the 241st birthday of the Marine Corps, Friday was Veterans Day (formerly Armistice Day – and my Mom’s birthday), and although the Thanksgiving holiday isn’t officially until next week, Trinity Church will celebrate our Thanksgiving dinner together this evening (except those of us who are attending Charge Conference).  All of these things are important and I could easily discuss any one of them, but our calendar isn’t going to give us time to divide them up this year.  And so the challenge for me this week has been how do I say something about all of these in one message?

Surprisingly, it really wasn’t that hard.

As I read over the scripture passages that are recommended for today, took notes, and considered the events of the last week, I quickly saw theme that binds all of these ideas, and all of us, together. Let’s begin this morning with Deuteronomy 26:1-11, where, moments before the nation of Israel ends its forty years of wilderness wandering, begins its final journey across the Jordan River, and into the Promised Land, God reminds them of where they came from.

When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, 2 take some of the first fruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name 3 and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.”4 The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. 5 Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. 7 Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. 8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; 10 and now I bring the first fruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. 11 Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.

Given some of the themes that circulated during the election, some of this resonated with me.  God was concerned that once his people reached their new home and settled down, they would forget where they came from.  God tells them to begin their prayers before God by proclaiming that they are the children of a wandering Aramean, that they are in fact, the children of nomads, migrants, and immigrants.  Next, God reminds them that only a generation earlier they had lived, as slaves, in Egypt where they suffered and were worked mercilessly.  They were a people who needed to remember so that they could have sympathy and compassion for those who similarly suffered such abuse and oppression.  God rescued them because he hated such abuses and he wanted to make sure that the suffering of Israel would make them care about others.  In the end, God brought these suffering migrants to a new place that they could finally call home and for that, God asked that they remember and give thanks.

During the presidential election we heard a lot about migrants and immigration and so, particularly in a country where 58 percent of the population claims at least one grandparent was an immigrant, we too ought to remember where we came from.  Ultimately, with the exception of Native Americans, our entire nation is a nation of wandering migrants.  Each of our families has stories to tell about how they survived the Great Depression, or Ellis Island, or World War I, or World War II, or Vietnam, or unemployment, or homelessness, or something else.  Few of our families have escaped hard times.  And so, much like the people of Israel, this time of year ought to be a time for us to remember where we came from and the thankful.

But more than just being generically grateful, we must also remember to whom it is that should give thanks.  In John 6:25-35, we hear Jesus remind the crowd of that very thing.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jesus asks the people following him if they are following him because they have come to believe that he is from God, or because they want him to feed them and care for them.  Jesus says that instead of investing our lives working for money, power, pleasure and possessions (in his words, “food that spoils”), we should instead use our strength and resources to grow God’s kingdom.  For us to do the work of God, Jesus says that we must “believe in the one he has sent.”  And finally, as the people ask again for food, because Moses gave their ancestors food, Jesus reminds them that the food never came from Moses.  It has never been the religious or political leaders who have given you what you have.  Instead, all that you are, all that you own, and all that you have, is a gift from God.

And finally, in Philippians 4:4-9, we hear Paul addressing a church conflict that should, once again, teach us something in the aftermath of this presidential election.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

These two women, Euodia and Syntyche, were church leaders who were having a disagreement.  Their dispute had grown to the point where it was damaging the church and someone must have written to Paul to help heal it.  And Paul’s reply is to plead that both of them would be of the same mind and remember that they had worked together in the cause of the gospel.  What was of utmost importance was not their personal differences, but the work that the church must do… together.  We are not who we are because of our differences, but because of what we have in common.  In the church, we are rich and poor, black and white, men and women, Republican, Libertarian, and Democrat, and everything in between, but here, none of those things are supposed to define us.  The thing that defines us is our belief in Jesus Christ and our commitment to grow the kingdom… together.

Our presidential election has given us much to think about and much to remember.  But we should also remember to be thankful that we had the opportunity, and the freedom to vote, in a world where a great number of people do not.  We should remember to be both grateful and thankful for our Veterans who sacrificed and gave of their time, family life and health, not only for themselves, but for all of us.  We should remember that, like the people of Israel, all of our families were once “wandering migrants,” all of us have endured suffering and hard times of one kind or another, and God desires that we remember that history so that we, like him, will have sympathy and compassion for people who are struggling with those same things today.

And the rest of Paul’s advice is a beautiful prescription for us to help speed the healing of broken people, broken churches, and broken nations alike: Rejoice and give thanks for everything, always.  Do not be afraid, but lift your concerns, and your thanks, to God in prayer.  Live the kind of life so that the thing that everyone around notices is… gentleness.  Guide your thoughts so that you dwell on thinks like truth, noble causes, righteousness, purity, beauty, excellence, and the admirable, and praiseworthy qualities of others.

Do these things, and “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

We are indeed blessed, because of our ancestors, because of our veterans, because of our freedom, and for a great many other things.

Let us give thanks to God.

Amen.

 

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Fear Not?

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fearEarlier today, my friend John Thro posted a question that, in light of this election, is worth taking the time for all of us to consider.  He said…

“I have gay relatives, relatives with gender identity issues, relatives with mental health issues. 

I have friends and coworkers who are immigrants, friends and coworkers who are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, atheist.

How should they feel this morning?”

First off, I want to point out that throughout this election cycle I have not supported either candidate.  Professionally, I try very hard (with varying degrees of success) to keep my political opinions (though strongly held) to myself.  What I have to say, and what we do, on Sunday morning, and inside the walls of the church are far more important than whatever political differences that we might have.  Personally, I found both major candidates to be so deeply flawed that I could not, in good conscience, support either of them.  What button I pushed inside the election booth is not something I care to post publicly.

With that in mind, here is my perception. Despite the efforts of the opposing campaign to smear him, Mr. Trump’s history is not as bad as some would lead you to believe. Many of the things brought up were things that he had said, 20 or 30 years ago. People change. In general, as we age, we mellow.   For every accusation of hatred, there were employees, friends, associates, and others who countered with a story demonstrating the opposite.  Even so, I do not discount that some of the things said by Trump were troubling, some should not have been said, and these are things that we must watch for, and guard against.

What I fall back on is that we still live in a nation of laws, a nation in which the violent crime rate has been dropping for the last twenty years, and a nation that is full of good people. No laws will be enacted that violate anyone’s Constitutional rights, violence against minorities or others will be not tolerated under our laws any differently than it has been, and the law will be upheld. In the end, as it has almost always been, to the man or woman on the street, there will be little or no perceived difference.

You are as safe today as you were yesterday.

The Gallup research organization says that 58 percent of all Americans claim to be third generation Americans, the grandchildren of immigrants.  I am one.  Our conversation about immigration is not only important, for more than half of us, it is deeply personal.  For that reason alone, as well as others, there will be no gigantic shifts in immigration policy.  We will not ban immigration.  We will not hate immigrants.  How can we when half of us claim that as our heritage?  What we will (or at least should) have, is a discussion about what legal immigration ought to look like, what reasonable limits we should put in place, and how we can do it better.

Similarly, we are already such a culturally, religiously, and racially, diverse culture that I do not expect any huge, or dangerous, changes in public policy.  And, despite those who would seek to attack our neighbors with gender identity issues, or those whose gender identity is different than the mainstream, I really don’t see any significant changes happening.  As a nation, we are a good, kind, compassionate, generous, and yes, tolerant people… even if it doesn’t always seem that way.

I said many of these things to John in my reply to his post, but I also added something else.  We must remember that President Obama, even though he was well liked and widely supported by the Democrat members of the United States House and Senate, occasionally proposed legislation that went too far.  In those cases, even his friends and supporters could not agree with him, and that legislation did not pass.  What President Trump will face, although there will be a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate, is a Congress in which many establishment representatives neither like him nor support him.  I believe that they will be more than willing to oppose him on issues that they believe cross the line and go too far.

In the end, I also have faith.

I have faith that the ultimate power is not the man or woman who sits in the Oval Office.  God is in control.  And our God is a god who is passionately concerned about the poor, the outcast, the voiceless, immigrants, minorities, and every kind of oppressed people.  What is left to us is not to be afraid, but to choose what we will do.  We must not wait for the President, or the Congress, or the government at any level to do what we should do.  I have always, regardless of political party, committed to pray for the President of the United States and all of our leaders at every level and I will continue to do that.

I encourage you to do the same.

But we must also busy ourselves doing what is right, good, and just, particularly if we are people of faith. We must commit ourselves to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the outcasts, being a voice for the voiceless, showing mercy and compassion for immigrants and the oppressed, and seeking justice for everyone.

I believe that our nation is full of good, decent, hardworking, compassionate, faithful, and generous people.

I believe that we will do these things.

We will be vigilant.

There is no reason to fear.

 

 

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Doing What is Hard

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This past week my wife, Patti, and I traveled to Parris Island, South Carolina with other members of our extended family to watch our son Noah graduate from Marine Corps boot camp.  After graduation, we spent a day on the beach and then headed home.  During those twelve hours in the car, he shared some of the stories of how he had spent the last three months, of what he had done, and some of the things that happened during his training.  While I well remember the difficult things that we did during my eight weeks of Army basic training, what he did goes well beyond many of the things that I experienced.  For thirteen weeks these young men (the Marines also have women, but men and women train separately) did things that most of them, as well as their parents, would have thought impossible only a short time earlier.  But as I listened to Noah share his stories, I began to think of how this mirrors our walk with God and I thought of several lessons that would be good for us all to remember.

  • We are capable of more than we think we are – All of these young men accomplished things in thirteen weeks that they never dreamed they were capable of doing. And yet, all of them succeeded.  Why?  They were capable all along.  They had the ability all along.  All they needed was a little training, some encouragement, and the assurance that they could succeed.  We are exactly like them.  The only reason that we do not rise to the challenges that face us is our belief that we are not capable.  We may need a little training and a little encouragement, but it is often our failure to believe in ourselves that holds us back.
  • We don’t do what we can simply because we do not try – Similarly, when we allow our challenges to intimidate us, we retreat. We fail because we are too afraid to try.
  • We often shy away from doing what we can because it sounds difficult – Not everyone is cut out to be a United States Marine, but even fewer will attempt it because what they do sounds difficult. Make no mistake, it is.  What those young men did in thirteen weeks was almost certainly the hardest thing that they had ever done.  For some of them, it will, for the remainder of their lives, be the hardest thing they ever did.  But they will always remember that they succeeded and the memory of that success will make them less afraid to attempt other difficult things.  The worst thing that can happen if we attempt something difficult is that we might fail.  But if we do not try, we fail anyway.
  • We accomplish more as a team than as individuals – From the very beginning of boot camp the Marines are repeatedly reminded that they are a team. As platoons, as battalions, and whole of the Unites States Marines they are a team.  They succeed and fail together.  And together they regularly accomplish things that others believed to be impossible.  We regularly see thing play out in church as well.  There are many things that I could never do by myself but we regularly do together.  From Vacation Bible School, to Sunday worship, to mission projects and everything in between, our success comes only through all of us working together.  This is equally true of our larger church connection when many thousands, even millions of us work together to reduce poverty, build hospitals, and even reduce the death rate from malaria by fifty percent in continent of Africa.  We may not be the United States Marines, but our team is accomplishing amazing things every day.

I’m sure that there are more parallels that I could point out, but I hope that you will remember this:

You are capable of more than you imagine.

Never be afraid to try. Don’t be afraid to attempt big things, or try new things, because they sound difficult.  We often discover that the most worthwhile things are not easy.

But together, with God, we can accomplish the impossible.

 

 

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Blessed Are Those Who Weep

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“Blessed Are Those Who Weep”

(Seeing the Invisible)

November 06, 2016

(All Saints Sunday)

By John Partridge*

 

Scripture: Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18            Ephesians 1:11-23                             Luke 6:20-31

 

I saw a story this week about an 18 year old that got a birthday letter from her long dead mother.  Apparently, as she was dying, her mother had the chance to write down some things that she wanted her daughter to know, but they were words of wisdom that she knew she wouldn’t live long enough to share.  So, she put pen to paper and began to write down the things that she wanted her daughter to know as she approached adulthood, graduated from high school, and headed for college.  It’s the sort of message that is bound to make an impression.

We wonder what it would be like to be on the receiving end of that sort of message.

But imagine.

If you could send a message to your 16 year old self, what would you say?

We might tell our younger selves to avoid some of our poor choices, or reaffirm some of our best ones.  We might tell them to eat better, or exercise more because of the pain we experienced or the heart attacks we survived.

But, imagine that you could go back in time.  Imagine you could walk into FDR’s, or Harry Truman’s Oval Office and tell them what the future held.  Imagine you could tell the American Indians what lay ahead of them as the Europeans began to land on their shores.  Imagine that you could talk to Amelia Earhart before she left on her attempt to circumnavigate the world, or Abraham Lincoln before he went to Ford’s Theater, or the Donner Party before they left on their journey west.

What would you tell them?  What would you tell them if you had to compact your message into one or two sentences?

Even more difficult, what would you tell George Washington about the Civil War that lay one hundred years in the future?  This is the challenge presented by many of the Old Testament prophets.  They could see what was to come, but in many cases what they saw was generations in the future.  What they saw was sometimes difficult to understand but the message that they carried, although often short on details, emphasized the most important pieces.

In Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18, God’s prophet, who is living in captivity in Babylon, is given a vision of Israel, hundreds of years in the future.  And while it isn’t specific enough to build armies, or develop battle plans, or to change the course of history, it is enough to carry a message of hope to God’s people.

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.

2 Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

15 “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. 16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this.

“So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18 But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.’

The future that Daniel saw would bring four great beasts which would arise.  Simply by his describing them as beasts implies that they were both large and frightening.  And when he asked who or what they were, he was told that these were great kings, with great empires, that would arise over the earth.

If that alone was the end of the prophecy, everyone would have reason to be afraid and to fear the future.  But Daniel is also told that despite the rise of these great kings, God’s people will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever.  Despite Babylon, despite Persia, despite Rome, despite the rise of human empires and kings, God rules over all the earth and the people of God will prevail in the end.

In a moment when Israel’s best days would seem to be behind them, God proclaims that the future will be better.

In the same way, during a time when Christians and Jews were not in the mainstream of society and even outcasts in some ways because of their belief in only one god, and also a time when increasing pressure from society and government was suggesting that open persecution may not be far away, Paul writes a message of hope.  In this case, instead foretelling the future, Paul explains what the coming of Jesus Christ means to the future. (Ephesians 1:11-23)

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul says that you were included, you were chosen, to be a part of God’s eternal kingdom at the moment that you believed.  As proof, Paul says that the Holy Spirit was given to us as a deposit in order to demonstrate God’s goodwill and intent to fulfill his promise.  Just as we make a deposit on a large purchase in order to seal the contract and to demonstrate our intent to complete that purchase, God has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment to demonstrate his commitment to fulfill his promise.  Paul continues by saying that he is praying for three things, 1) that you may know how rock solid, how trustworthy, the future will be, 2) that you may understand how wonderful and how glorious our future will be, and 3) that you might know how powerfully God watches over us.

In a moment when the future seems dark, God says that it’s really better than anything you could have imagined.

And then in Luke 6:20-31, Jesus says this:

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

As crowds gather to hear him speak, Jesus tells them that the world is not as it appears.  The poor will inherit the kingdom of God, the hungry will be satisfied, those who weep will laugh, and when people hate you, or insult you, or reject you, or say that the good things you do are evil, in all those times, you are, in God’s reality, blessed and not cursed.

In the day when the world tells you that you should be sad, rejoice instead because you know that your reward in the kingdom of heaven, is enormous.

But Jesus also warns that those who are well off must be careful because their world is not as it appears either.  When you are rich, or comfortable, or well fed, or surrounded by laughter, you may well be setting up a future that you will weep over.

The path that we must follow into the future, whether we are rich or poor, hungry or well fed, weeping or laughing, hated or loved, is exactly the same. The path that we are to follow into the future is not a path of despair, but a path of hope.  Love your enemies.  Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you.  Give to those who steal from you.  Give to everyone who asks and do for others the things you would like others to do for you.

The way forward, the path that we are to follow into the future has always been a path of hope and a path of compassion.

In a moment when Israel’s best days would seem to be behind them, God proclaims that the future will be better.

In a moment when the future seems dark, God says that it’s really better than anything you could have imagined.

This is a message for All Saints Day as we remember those that we have lost, but also, perhaps, a message for all of us as we approach one of the ugliest, and gloomiest, presidential elections in history.  The message of Daniel, and Paul, and Jesus is that the world has never been quite as it appears because in the end, God wins.

Scripture invites us to see the invisible, to see that in reality, God owns the future.

To see that everyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ and believed in him is greatly loved by God and the promise of our future has been backed by the deposit of God’s Holy Spirit.

To see that those believers that we have loved have already moved forward into God’s future, and that same future awaits the rest of us.

To see that it doesn’t matter if our nation’s best days sometimes seem to be behind us.    It doesn’t matter if the future seems dark.  It doesn’t matter if our present is unpleasant.  What matters is that God owns the future.

And Jesus tells us that the path from where we are to where God wants us to go is a path on which we must show love, compassion, and generosity to everyone…

…even those who don’t deserve it.

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Eulogy and Obituary for Joy Reed

PastorPartridge Eulogy , , , ,

Eulogy for Joy Reed

October 31, 2016

by Rev. John Partridge

 

From the stories I heard in the past few days, I think that with the loss of Joy Reed our world got a little less fun.  But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s review a little.

Joy Price was born 84 years ago, graduated from Lincoln High School in 1950, and by all accounts, met the love of her life in third grade.  She and David were married on October 12, 1952.  Also playing into this story are the Genoa girls, some of whom I have met because several of them have attended, or continue to attend Trinity Church.  The Genoa girls are women like Joy, Audrey Fish, Pearl McKnight, and several others who have been close friends since first grade.  These women grew up together, vacationed together, raised their kids together and, in recent years, formed the ‘card club’ that met once a month.  On top of that, some of them are still going out to eat together on a regular basis.  Joy really liked to go out to eat.

Along the way, of course, David and Becky became a part of Joy’s story.  Becky remembered the family taking vacations together to Virginia Beach and Chesapeake Bay and other places but no matter what they did, or where they went, Becky said that Joy always had a way of making life fun.

But unlike the kind of fun we sometimes see, Joy didn’t just do things so that she could have fun, Joy did things so that everyone around her had fun.

And again, before I go any farther, I have to introduce you to Nellie Phelps.  Nellie was Joy’s best friend and they did everything together.  They worked together as the “lunch ladies” at Reedurban School and Joy worked for a while at Peifer School as well.  But whether they were at school or at church, or almost anywhere else, the two of them were almost always up to something.  Together they collected food for the food bank, organized funeral dinners at church, helped out at Vacation Bible School, (where Joy would do anything except teach), visited shut-ins, and more often than not, were working on a joke of some kind.

In one way, it’s a bit odd really, but in another it’s not.  I can’t really tell you a lot about Joy Reed without telling stories about Nellie Phelps.  They really were that close, and they really did that much together.  They were inseparable.  They did everything together.  Nellie would have ideas, and Joy would make them bigger.  The folks at church tell me that the two of them were an important part of the church.  They were in the women’s society together, and as I already mentioned, they did VBS together and volunteered to help with dinners, but they also created their own job description as church greeters.  At first, that doesn’t sound all that unusual except that the way Joy and Nellie did it wasn’t to greet people coming into church the way that everyone else did, they appointed themselves as the greeters for people coming out of church.  And they did it in such a way that everyone who came felt that they were really welcome.  In fact, when someone new came to Trinity, one of them, either Joy or Nellie, was sure to call them and invite them to come back.  We still have a number of people who became members of our church because of the work that these two ladies did.

Joy loved Halloween.  And, once again, that isn’t all that unusual, except that when you combine Joy’s love of Halloween, the way that she and Nellie played off of one another, and the way that they loved to help others have fun, what you end up with is a pair of ladies that can cause a bit of a stir.  These were the two who once dressed as clowns in the Hall of Fame parade and cleaned up behind one of the horse units.  I can only imagine.  They went to all of the Perry home football games together… with their cowbell… and they used it.  And everyone knew that they were there.  They tried hard to make every holiday at school memorable for the kids, and that included one Halloween when they somehow managed to get a real, full sized, coffin into the lunchroom at school… and then one of them hid in it… and in the middle of lunch the coffin began to open.  I’m told that they scared some of the kids half to death and the principle came to tell them that they might have overdone thing a little.  It didn’t matter.  There really wasn’t anyone that could stop those two once they got started.

But a big part of their focus was on doing things for other people.  They loved to serve others in whatever way they could.  Joy was a Girl Scout leader and together she and Nellie would go to the Hospitality House nursing home every week, for years, to play bingo with the residents there.  Every week they bought candy to give away to everyone and helped the folks who had trouble playing because of their eyesight or anything else.

Oh, and you remember the card club of the Genoa Girls that met once a month?  Every Halloween, Joy would dress up and go to lunch with her club in costume.  No one else did… just Joy.  But that’s just who she was.  However God arranged it with her parents, “Joy” was exactly the right name all along.

Audrey Fish was another one of those friends that Joy had forever.  They baked Christmas cookies together when their children were small, they saw each other every month at card club, and they saw one another every week at church.  But when Joy couldn’t come to church anymore, Audrey came to see Joy…  every week… for the last five years or so.

Joy just wanted to help.  She was a person who you could call to do almost anything.  I say almost, because there might just have been one thing that she wouldn’t do.  In a conversation at church one day, undoubtedly involving Nellie Phelps, they were talking about the houses that God has prepared for us in heaven and what a wonderful view there would be.  And, somehow, at that point someone thought that if there was such a great view, then there must be a lot of windows and, if there were a lot of windows, there must be someone to clean them.  So of course, Nellie suggested that this might be Joy’s contribution to the heavenly community… washing windows.  Joy was indignant and replied, “No! I’m not going to wash windows.  Not even for God!”  Everyone laughed and Nellie gently assured Joy that, for God, she probably would.

Joy loved to watch basketball, and Ohio State, and anything Perry whether it was sports, or theater or music, or anything else.  Joy was the kind of a person that everywhere she went, always made the people around her smile.  And even now, even in this time of sadness, the people that knew her can’t seem to remember her without smiling.  That is truly a gift that she has given to all of us.

As Becky said, Joy Reed had a way of making life fun.  She always had a smile and will be remembered by everyone who knew her for her sense of humor, her orneriness, warmth, friendliness, and her strong faith in Jesus Christ.  None of us have any doubts as to where she went the moment that she left her mortal dwelling place.  I am certain of her destination.  I am certain that Jesus and Nellie have given her a warm welcome.  I am sure that she is enjoying the view.

But I somehow doubt that she is washing windows.

 

 

Obituary

joy-reedJoy Reed (nee Price), 84, of Massillon, passed away October 27, 2016, at Meadow Winds Health Care Center. A lifelong resident of Perry Township, Joy made many waves throughout the community. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1950, where she met David Reed, whom she was married to for 64 years on October 12, 2016.

Joy was employed with Perry Local Schools for 25 years as “the lunch lady.” Along with raising 2 children and her employment Joy still found plenty of time for her array of extracurricular events. She hosted parties for her card club friends, had lunches with her “Genoa Girls”, was active in both Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts and was president of the Richville School District PTA.

She was heavily involved in the Trinity United Methodist Women’s Club, where she selflessly worked to make sure ill members were provided with food and her ornery humor. After those long weeks with full schedules, you could be sure to find Joy and lifelong friend, Nellie Phelps at the Perry Panthers Football Games on Friday nights.

Joy is survived by her husband, David Reed; son David Reed; daughter Becky (Rick) Osborne; granddaughter Lindsey “sweetpea” Stephen; sister-in-law Gloria Deeser and special friend Audrey Fish.

Family and friends may call Sunday from 2 to 4:00PM at the Reed Funeral Home (CANTON CHAPEL) where services will be held Monday at 10:00AM with Pastor John Partridge officiating.

Interment will take place at West Lebanon Union Cemetery.

The family would like to extend a special thank you to the staff at Meadow Wind and Great Lakes for their love and support.