How Can This Be?

December 19, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Christ Church, church, disbelief, miracle, Ohio, skeptic, skeptical, skepticism, struggle, trust, United Methodist

How Can This Be?*

December 20, 2020

By Pastor John Partridge

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Luke 1:26-38 Romans 16:25-27

If we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, and from the last couple of decades of our national politics, it should be an overdeveloped sense of skepticism. I once had an engineering co-worker say that if our management said that the sky was blue, he would have to look out the window to check. And lately, that describes how many of us are consuming the news about both the coronavirus and politics. As Ronald Reagan once told Mikhail Gorbachev as they negotiated a new nuclear drawdown, “Trust, but verified.” If you think about it, our suspicions aren’t limited to politics and pandemics. You have probably noticed that many of our non-church friends view the stories of scripture with that same sort of skepticism. And, if we’re honest, even as believers, some of those stories strain our ability to believe them. But we aren’t alone. The stories of scripture remind us that the main characters of the story often wondered how such things were possible. And as our first example, let’s begin with a story found in 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, where we find King David having just completed his ascent to power as the king of a united twelve tribes if Israel, and the construction of his new palace in Jerusalem.

^7:1 After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ²he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

³Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:

⁵“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? ⁶I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. ⁷Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

⁸“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. ⁹I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. ¹⁰And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹and have done ever since the time I appointed leadersover my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you:

¹⁶Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

David rests from his warfare with Israel’s neighbors, from his political battles, and from his palace construction project, and how his attention turns to the idea of building a temple for the God of Israel. But God denies his request, vetoes his idea, and says that David is not the man for the job. But, rather than allowing this to be a discouraging word, God continues by reassuring David of his love for him and makes him an impossible promise for the future. God promises David that his kingdom will endure forever, and his throne will be established before God… forever.

And, although it doesn’t say so, and although we know that David was a great man of faith, and we know that David trusted God and was a man after God’s own heart, we also know that David was not naïve. David had been around the block more than once. He had been a part of King Saul’s inner circle and then fled for his life after Saul turned on him and sent his entire army into the countryside to hunt him. He had lived for a time as an advisor to the king of one of Israel’s neighbors, he had been betrayed by his friends, by his wife, and would later be betrayed by his own son. David understood that kingdoms do not last forever. And so, it isn’t difficult to imagine that even though David trusted God to keep his promise, he had to be wondering…

… “How can this be?”

And the same thing is true at the beginning of the Christmas story. In Luke 1:26-38, God sends the angel Gabriel to tell Mary that she would be the one whom God had selected to be the mother of the messiah that would fulfill God’s promise to David, as well as many of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Luke says…

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be calledthe Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

God specifically selects Mary to be the mother of Jesus because of her great faith. But even so, when she is told that she will bear a child, and she has never been with a man, she wonders aloud, “How can this be?” And I suspect that even after Gabriel’s explanation, Mary still didn’t really understand how a woman could have a baby without a man, but she trusted that God could find a way.

And that sense of wonder, and of faith, continues in the amazing works of God today. In Romans 16:25-27, Paul says this:

²⁵Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, ²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes fromfaith— ²⁷to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

What Paul is saying, is that God is the one who can do things. God was the one who could create a reality in which one of David’s descendants, Jesus, would rule over Israel, and over all the world, forever. God was the one who could make a way for a virgin to have a baby and carry the creator of the universe, and the hope of the world, in her womb in the form a tiny baby human and, at the same time, fulfill hundreds of ancient prophecies and promises that he had made to his people. And that same God is able to draw us toward him, to bring us to a relationship with him, and to establish us in faith and trust as he did with David, and with Mary, with the disciples, with Paul, and with countless others who now gather as a great cloud of witnesses to the unfolding of history. As difficult as it is to believe, and as often as we ourselves might ask, “How can this be?” God is the one who is able to reveal the truth and to unveil the mysteries of the Old Testament, to rescue all of humanity, and to give strength to his people as they struggle through the twenty-first century. But as he always has, God does these tings so that all the Gentiles, all the people of the world, everyone, might come to faith and obedience to the God of creation and to his son Jesus Christ.

The answers to our question of “How can this be?”, is the same as it has always been, “Because God is able,” and “Because God cares for you,” and “Because of God’s great love for all people.”

How can this be?

Because… God.

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/q5ywQknu4os

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U*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Passing the Joy Test

December 12, 2020December 12, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, chaos, Christ Church, Christmas, covid-19, disaster, disrupt, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, joy, United Methodist

Passing the Joy Test

December 13, 2020

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

It is probably no surprise to anyone to hear that we are living in an unusual time in history. But what I mean in saying such a thing, is that we are living in a time when we can see the freight train coming. We are as an American society in the twenty-first century, very much in the position of the damsel Nell Fenwick who has been tied to the railroad tracks by Snidely Whiplash and is desperately hoping for the arrival of Dudley Do-Right to come and rescue her. We can see the freight train of rising virus cases caused by Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year gatherings and we can anticipate the terrible consequences but there is little, or nothing that we can do to stop the train. The only things that we can do… is hope.

But, as unusual as this might be, it is not unique in history. As I have mentioned in recent weeks, the prophet Isaiah lived in just such a time. In about 700 BC, Isiah and the people of Israel watched as the Assyrian Empire grew in power, influence, and military might and the Assyrian King Sennacharib had already brought his armies to the gates of Jerusalem. Through God’s grace, Israel was saved, but Isaiah knew that those armies would be back, that Israel and Judah would be captured, marched to Babylon, and held in captivity for seventy years. They saw the train coming down the tracks, they could anticipate the terrible consequences, and they were tempted to despair. But, as difficult as it must have been to hear about God’s judgement and the impending destruction of their nation, because Isaiah also prophecies their eventual return to Israel and proclaims Israel’s rescue and the coming Messiah, Isaiah’s message is ultimately a message… of hope.

Even though they saw the train coming, and they knew that hard times were coming, they knew that God cared about them and that God had a plan to rescue them. We hear a part this message in Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11:

^61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, ²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. ⁴They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

⁸“For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

¹⁰I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

Isaiah speaks about the coming Messiah, we hear a message that we will hear again from John the Baptist, and we hear a message from a God who loves justice, and who loves and cares for his people. And that message, given to a people who watched as the freight train of the Assyrian army grew ever closer, shined like a beacon on a dark night and for hundreds of years, through invasions, captivity, destruction, suffering, sorrow, and death, this was a place where they could find hope.

And then, in John 1:6-8, 19-28, Isaiah’s vision becomes reality as John the Baptist announces the imminent arrival of Jesus.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

¹⁹Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

²¹They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

²²Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

²³John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

²⁴Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

²⁸This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John proclaimed that the time had finally come for the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, and that while he was not the messiah that God had promised, that messiah was already standing “among” them. After hundreds of years and many generations, the prayers of Israel’s people were being answered. God’s rescuer and redeemer had arrived, and the hope of the people was transformed… into joy.

Well, at least it did for some of them. John rejoiced, as did many of the people, but not everyone. It was the people that Isaiah had talked about who found joy in the coming of the messiah. It was the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, prisoners, those in mourning, the grieving, the people who suffered from injustice, robbery, and wrongdoing, it was the outcasts, the least, and the lost who rejoiced. But the wealthy, and those whom the system served, and whose success had been tied to the success of the system saw the coming of the messiah as a threat to their success and to their way of life. This disconnect between the haves and the have-nots grew until it exploded into violence, crucifixion, and death in the Easter story as the system struggled to maintain the status quo.

And later, long after the resurrection of Jesus, the church remembered the lesson of joy and in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica and gives them these words of instruction:

¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray continually, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹but test them all; hold on to what is good, ²²reject every kind of evil.

²³May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Rejoice always. Find joy in the story, in the message of Good News, and in the prophecies of God. Give thanks, at all times, for the things that God gives you, even when those times are difficult. Do not cast aside the prophecies and promises of God just because you think that God is taking too long, or that there is too much pain, or too much suffering, or that your circumstances are too hard. Instead, test the prophecies of God to find the truth. Test them against what you know about God. Hold on to what is good because we know that God is good. Reject every kind of evil, because we know that God is never found in any kind of evil deeds. Our God is a god of peace who is always faithful and who always keeps his promises.

In some ways, our joy is a test. The coming of Jesus was intended to upset the apple cart and to disrupt the status quo. We are called to rejoice in that disruption and not be so married to our success, to our wealth, our culture, and to the status quo that we become like Israel’s leaders and reject Jesus simply on the basis that his existence will be disruptive and make our lives more complicated. Secondly, we are invited to test all of God’s prophecies because we know that God is always good and so we know that what God wants for us is good and that we can reject anything that is evil as not being godly.

The coming of Jesus at Christmas is intended to bring good news of great joy.

Let us rejoice.

But let us remember to find joy in the right things.

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/0s49_c1xx5E

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Caring for Your Christmas Heart

December 7, 2020 PastorPartridge Blogs care, Christmas, covid-19, heart, Scrooge, self-care

Ohio has now raised our county’s COVID-19 alert level to “purple, or level four. We are now, more than ever, feeling threatened by the pandemic as this invisible virus threatens to overwhelm doctors, hospitals, caregivers, nursing homes, and even the coroner and the county morgue. Many of us had already felt isolated and alone, and now reason, good sense, and caution urge us to retreat even further from human contact. We are staying in contact with our families and friends by mail, by telephone, social media, Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and anything else that we can think of, but there are no handshakes, hugs, or kisses on the cheek but we can feel our hunger for human contact gnawing at us.

Our holiday traditions are being upset, upended, and overturned at every turn. Certainly, no one has seen such an unusual Christmas season since the Spanish Flu swept around the world, twice, in 1917 and again in 1918. Our company Christmas parties, as well as traditional gatherings at church, social clubs, service clubs, scouts, school, sports teams, and other groups that we normally enjoy, are probably all cancelled and, as a result, we’re spending more time at home than we have since we were in diapers.

But how will we use this time?

Some of us have rediscovered crafts and hobbies that we had left behind years ago. Many have rediscovered a love for the outdoors and for anything that can be done, away from crowds, outside of our homes. Stores were sold out of fishing tackle and kayaks for months because everyone was trying to get out on a lake somewhere. And I’ve heard stories that this might be a banner year for Christmas lights because everyone had time to dig things out of the attic and put them up.

But what will you do for your heart?

I’m not talking about walking or running, or any kind of cardiovascular exercise. In the middle of our physical isolation from other human beings, I’m talking about doing what we can to prevent spiritual isolation. In a normal year, and in a normal Advent and Christmas season, we can often rely upon our patterns of living, our habits, and our traditions to help us feel Christmas-y. Even if we aren’t regular in attendance during the year, we often return to church in the fall, or at least after Thanksgiving, so that we can get into the spirit of Christmas. We know that seeing the church decorated for Christmas, hearing the music, and singing the songs of Christmas stir something inside of us that we need to be stirred. I have often been deliberate in listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving to help me feel less like Scrooge and more like Bob Cratchit. At church we can rely upon our Sunday school teachers, our pastor, and even our friends wearing festive sweaters, to help us feel a stirring in our souls and a closeness with God?

But all the tools that we have used throughout our lifetimes are being taken away from us as we stay home and insulate ourselves, and others, from a virus that wants to do us harm. And so, what will we do to feel Christmas? What will we do to feel a familiar stirring in our souls? What will we do to draw closer to God without parties and Christmas carols? What will we do without seeing the decorations at church, or hearing the pipe organ, seeing a parade of ugly sweaters, or lighting a candle on Christmas Eve?

Don’t panic.

Remember that while your church may not be doing things in the same way that we’ve always done them, we are trying to bring Christmas to you in other ways. At Christ Church we decorated the church so that you can see it in our videos and we’ve already begun recording portions of our Christmas Eve service and invited you to record yourself so that we can all “see” one another, our Sunday school classes are meeting online via Zoom, and we’re doing whatever we can to make Christmas as normal as possible.

But that may not be enough.

Many of those folks who bought kayaks discovered that to get across the lake, you may need to paddle a bit, and sometimes paddling can be hard work. Likewise, although your pastor, church staff, and volunteers are doing what they can, much of what you feel at Christmas is up to you. But that’s always been true. When I started to feel too much like a Humbug, I knew that it was time to start listening to Christmas music. What will it take to move you from Scrooge to Cratchit? What will it take to stir your soul? What will it take for you to draw closer to Jesus this Advent and Christmas?

Just as we bought board games, kayaks, and fishing equipment in the spring, we may need to invest something of ourselves this Christmas. For me, it may be listening to Christmas music and watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” But it will also mean joining with our church family on YouTube and singing hymns, sharing communion together on Zoom, and opening my Bible to the book of Luke and reading the Christmas story for the hundredth time. Be prepared to go out and do whatever it is that you need to do to stir your soul and draw closer to Jesus this Christmas.

As much as we are starving for human contact, our souls are starving for closeness with Jesus.

Don’t push away from his fire and allow your soul to grow cold like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Do whatever you need to do to stir your soul and draw close.

As Tiny Tim said, “God bless us… every one.”

Merry Christmas.

Blessings,

Pastor John

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

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Peace in the Present Promise

December 5, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Assyrian, Babylonian, captivity, Christ, Christ Church, covid-19, destruction, empire, followers of Jesus, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Ohio, pandemic, peace, Prince of Peace, promise, prophet, Roman, safe, slavery, United Methodist

Peace in the Present Promise*

December 06, 2020

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 40:1-11 2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8

How can a pandemic possibly be a good thing?

Certainly, current events will give us much to complain about and mourn over for years to come, but we also get glimpses of the occasional silver lining in our ongoing battle with the coronavirus. Certainly, among these are an array of new medical technologies that have been brought to bear as our doctors and scientists seek new medications and new life-saving treatments, as well as new technology that has allowed us to develop multiple vaccines in just 18 months when the previous speed record for such an accomplishment was five year long rush program with the Ebola virus that was only recently approved. But another important silver lining may be the attention that our forced lockdown and resulting isolation and seclusion has brought to those among us who suffer from depression, suicidal thoughts, and a variety of other mental illnesses. While isolation is difficult for all of us, it is harder for extroverts, and disastrous for many people who suffer even in ordinary circumstances. And while today’s message isn’t going to solve these difficult mental health issues, perhaps by shining a light, and continuing to raise our awareness of these problems, we can begin to make a difference in the lives of the suffering.

But for the rest of us, as we struggle with our isolation and lack of human contact, many of us, the midst of a pandemic, and the resulting upheaval of everything familiar, which is, of course, piled on top of our normal level of change and upheaval, are wrestling with how can we possibly find… peace. Our minds are constantly pulled in a hundred directions at once, we worry about our employment, we worry about our families, we worry about our health, about our church and other institutions and business that we care about, and in the midst of our whirling, dizzying, wrestling match with fear, worry, depression and despair, we hear the prophet Isaiah calling to us as we prepare for the arrival of the Messiah. In Isaiah 40:1-11 we hear these words, spoken to Israel as their nation, their religion, and everything they knew, faced destruction at the hands of the Assyrian empire.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem

and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
⁵And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
⁷The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
⁸The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

⁹You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”
¹⁰See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
¹¹He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Even as the disaster they are expecting approaches, God promises to bring comfort after Israel’s hard service was completed and her sin paid for on the day God would send the messiah to rescue them. God declares that people are like grass because we fade, fail, and fall away. Our failure comes because our faithfulness fails and not because God has failed. We know that God never fails, and that God endures forever. And that is why in this dark hour, Israel could find hope in God’s promise to send a messiah that would make the world right again. Like us, Israel looked forward to the day that God would return their world to normal. Best of all, was knowing that God wasn’t doing to do fix things with floods, fires, earthquakes, or destruction, but like a shepherd gathering his flock and carrying his lambs close to his heart.

And, because we get to read their story, we know that after their time of suffering in Babylon, the people of Israel, at least the few that had remained faithful, returned home to rebuild their nation just as God had promised. And much later, in Mark 1:1-8, we hear the story of the coming of God’s promised messiah. As Mark writes:

^1:1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, ²as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—
³“a voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”

⁴And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I baptize you withwater, but he will baptize you withthe Holy Spirit.”

Echoing Isaiah’s message, John the Baptist preaches a message of baptism, repentance, and a return to faithfulness. And this time, the people are ready, and Israel answers John’s call. Mark says that the entire city of Jerusalem, and the whole Judean countryside went out to hear John, confess their sins, and be baptized by a man who spoke like, and dressed like, the ancient prophets. Of course, we understand that Mark is exaggerating. We know that the entire city of Jerusalem and the entire countryside of Judea did not go out to hear John preach and to be baptized, but the numbers must have been so large, that it seemed as if everyone was going. And we can certainly understand that so many people went to hear John that almost everyone must have known someone who had done so. But even though the people came, and even though John looked, dressed, and acted like a prophet, John’s message is that the people must be prepared for imminent arrival of messiah that God had promised.

God’s redeemer had arrived, and in the middle of an enemy occupation, and their struggles with Rome, the people were reminded of God’s words that they had heard from the prophet Isaiah, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed.”

But then what? Two thousand years have passed between them and us, between then and now. What can those two-thousand-year-old words have to tell us during a modern pandemic? But that isn’t a new question. The church has been asking that question from the beginning and Peter wrote to his church friends and explained it this way (2 Peter 3:8-15a):

⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

¹¹Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

¹⁴So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

Peter wants the church to remember that God hasn’t forgotten us. What seems like a frightfully long time to us, is not a long time to God. Rather than hurrying, God is being patient and giving people time for a second chance. We are reminded that Christ’s return, and his judgement, are still unpredictable and may come at any time, like a thief in the night. As such, we must be prepared for his arrival by living godly lives, to watch, and look forward to his coming. On that day, everything physical will be destroyed but we are more than physical. What is physical will be destroyed, but what is spiritual will remain. It is for this reason that we must do everything that we can to be as blameless and perfect as we possibly can. On that day we will see a new heaven and a new earth, where everything will be right once again. Finally, the world will return to normal, and we will live in peace with one another the way that God intended. And it is for this reason that we look forward with hope.

God’s promise, given through the prophet Isaiah, to the people of Israel came eight hundred years before the arrival of Jesus in Bethlehem. And, since then, we have waited another two thousand years. But God’s promises remain. The people of Israel held on to God’s promises as they endured the loss of their homeland, the loss of their freedom, and the loss of God’s temple and their freedom to worship. But God kept his promise and many people returned to Israel and rebuilt it. As we endure a pandemic and wrestle with our feelings of separation, fear, depression, worry, and despair, we too hold on to the promises of God. As we celebrate Advent, we are especially reminded of God’s promise of redemption and rescue and we look forward to celebrating his arrival both at Christmas and upon his return someday in the future. God’s promises are not just something that we read about in the distant past, but an ever present, immovable rock upon which we build our lives, safe from the storms that swirl around us. God’ promises are not a thing of the past, but an anchor for our present lives in which we find hope…

…and peace.

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/NHijitBg6cY

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Reframe, Restart, Re-imagine

December 2, 2020 PastorPartridge Blogs Christ Church, Christmas, Christmas Eve, hope, new year, newsletter, pandemic, year end

As I write this, we are less than two weeks from Thanksgiving. When you read this, it will likely be almost, or already, December and we will be counting down to Christmas. We, both individually and collectively, have been trying to manage, and cope with, the constantly changing restrictions on our lives brought on by the Coronavirus since March. And the latest resurgence and new peaks of COVID-19 are forcing change on us yet again.

As I met with our Worship Committee and our staff, I had hoped to find a way for us to hold on to some of our Advent and Christmas traditions. We talked about a drive through service, and even began designing a Christmas Eve service that would travel from station to station, in small groups, through the church and still light candles in the sanctuary. But with the latest surge in virus cases, and the newest recommended restrictions, I doubt that we will even be able to do that. Instead, we will pivot, again, and try to find a meaningful way of celebrating Christmas Eve together while we are apart.

Few of us imagined a Christmas quite like this one in March and, if we’re honest, we’re having a hard time imagining it now. But as we rush toward the end of what has probably been the strangest year any of us has ever seen, we also struggle to imagine what the new year will bring us. We have hope that new vaccines will successfully conclude their clinical trials, be approved, and begin distribution but, at this point, we are told that widespread availability probably won’t happen until mid-summer. Sigh. That means we probably should prepare ourselves for Coronavirus to dampen our plans for yet another Easter.

But a new year still encourages us to image a new beginning. A new year now, as always, presses us to reflect on the year we leave behind and envision a better, brighter, bolder, future. Perhaps this year, more than ever, we look forward to leaving 2020 behind and hoping for something better. But as we do, let us also grapple with what lessons, however difficult, that we have learned.

I believe that this pandemic has taught us, or at least boldly reminded us, that “church” is not a building and “mission” is not what happens inside of that building. We are learning that “community” and “family” are bigger ideas, and stronger ties, than just the people with whom we can shake hands each Sunday and we are finding ways to stay connected to the people we care about, the people in our church family, and the people in our communities in other ways. We are learning that the “reach” of our church, and our worship, is bigger than just the people who show up in person, on Sunday morning and we are learning, I hope, how to reach out to, and to connect with, the people around us in ways that we hadn’t considered before. We are already seeing “new faces” in our church that have joined us on the internet and haven’t yet attended a single “in-person” worship service, and despite not having what we might have, a few months ago, considered to be an essential element, they now consider themselves to be a part of our church.

And so, as we hurtle toward the end of one year and the beginning of the next, I hope that we will continue to reframe our ideas of what some of these words mean. For some of us, words like church, mission, outreach, community, and even family will never be the same even after things return to “normal.” As we grapple with these new meanings, and with our new knowledge, and yes, new skills, let us also continue to re-imagine what we could be, what we can be, and what God is calling us to be as individuals, as a people, and as a church. Clearly, the situation that we have is not one that we wanted, or even one that we ever imagined, but I am certain that through it, God is trying to teach us something incredibly valuable…

…if we are willing to listen… and learn.

I pray that, years from now, rather than mourn over the things that we lost during the pandemic of 2020, we would instead rejoice over the things that we learned, and what that new knowledge, and that new understanding, allowed us to achieve.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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We Need YOUR HELP for Christmas Eve

November 30, 2020December 2, 2020 PastorPartridge Blogs Advent, candles, Chiristmas, Christmas Eve

As I mentioned in the announcements yesterday (if you missed them click here), we are working on several things to make our Virtual Christmas Eve service as special, and as “normal” as possible. But to do that, we NEED YOUR HELP. Both of these things are a part of the candle lighting that we traditionally have at the end of the Christmas Eve service.

Each Christmas Eve we look forward to seeing our sanctuary fill with light. But, if you can’t physically BE there, how will we do that? Let’s just say that we have a plan and we intend to light a candle in the sanctuary for EACH ONE OF YOU in a way that you can watch. But to do THAT, we need to know how many of you will “attend” our Christmas Eve service. So, whether you have attended our worship services in person, or if you’ve been worshipping with us virtually from wherever you live, or if you have visited for Christmas Eve in the past, or if you intend to visit for the first time on Christmas Eve, please DO THIS: a) Send an email to Pastor@CUMCAlliance.org and tell me that you are coming. b) Tell me how many will be with you, and c) tell me their names, or at least a name for your family group (ie. “the Schultz family”). Names may not be strictly necessary, and we may not use them for anything, but it will help me to keep track so I don’t count people twice. Then, when we record the candle lighting portion of our service, we will light a candle for EACH ONE of you to represent that you ARE THERE with us.
This one is harder but I hope that you will try. Record a ten second (more or less) video of you lighting a candle. Maybe even dress up a little like you would if you were there. Start with a lit candle in front of you on a table (or chair, or whatever you have) and then, holding a second candle, light it from the first one and hold it in front of you. Click here to see a short video from Bob Wallace demonstrating what we have in mind. If there are more than one of you, feel free to make a video for each of you or, record everyone taking a light at the same time or, pass the light from one person to the next just like you would have if you were standing in “your” pew at church. The plan is to edit all of your videos together so that on Christmas Eve we get to SEE one another lighting our candles. I hope that we will get to see ALL of you. If you need help, ask a friend of help you, but PLEASE send us a video. When you’re done send your completed videos to: rlwallace@mac.com and put <Candle Light Video> and YOUR NAME in the subject line.
DEADLINE: In order for us to have some time to record and edit these videos, please try to send your emails and videos by DECEMBER 15^th.

Obviously, we’ve never done this before, so it may not turn out exactly like we planned, but if it’s going to work at all, we will certainly NEED YOUR HELP.

We literally cannot do this without you.

Blessings,

John Partridge

Pastor

Christ United Methodist Church

470 East Broadway Street

Alliance, Ohio 44601

www.CUMCAlliance.org

www.PastorPartridge.com

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Watch… and Hope

November 28, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Gospel, hope, Jesus, judgement, Messiah, watch

Watch… and Hope

November 29, 2020*

By John Partridge

Isaiah 64:1-9 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:24-37

Have you met anyone that you know lately?

Many of us have been so isolated because of the coronavirus that we don’t get to talk to very many people but when we do, one of the common thoughts that we share is, “what a strange time this is.” Our isolation, in fact, is one of the big worries that we have about quarantines, self-isolation, and social distancing. Social, isolation amplifies our feelings of loneliness, abandonment, depression, and hopelessness which, in turn, increases the likelihood of alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and suicide. And all these things, as well as our fear of disease, sickness, and death, are what makes living through a time of pandemic so hard.

But the people of scripture were familiar with hardship.

At the time of Isaiah, the Assyrian empire was on the rise and its armies were marching across the region toward Israel and Judah exactly at a time when those nations were declining in influence and military power. Worse, Isaiah carries a message from God that Israel will be defeated, destroyed, and her people carried off into seventy years of captivity and slavery in Babylon. Life was about to get more difficult than anyone had imagined, and everyone’s plans and dreams for the future were about to be erased and dramatically rewritten. But before Isaiah ends that bleak message, he also includes these words (Isaiah 64:1-9):

¹Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!
²As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you!
³For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
⁴Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
⁵You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
    who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
    you were angry.
    How then can we be saved?
⁶All of us have become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
    and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
⁷No one calls on your name
    or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have given us over toour sins.

⁸Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
⁹Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
    do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
    for we are all your people.

As doom approaches Israel, the prophet Isaiah prays that God would come down and reveal his power to the world just as fire unleashes its power and is revealed to anyone, and anything, that comes close to it. Fire cannot hide the effects of its heat and, Isaiah knows that likewise, God’s power is so great that its effects cannot be hidden from the world. When God comes down from heaven, nations quake and mountains tremble. But Isaiah also knows that our God is different than other gods. The God of Israel does not use power to bring death and destruction, but to help and to heal people who do what is right and who remember to follow and obey the ways of God.

But God’s love and care for the righteous is exactly the thing that has brought judgement and destruction to Israel’s doorstep. Isaiah confesses that for too long, Israel has persecuted and sinned against the true followers of God and brought harm to them. It was that sin against the good and the righteous that angered God against his people and caused him to turn his face from them. Israel had entered a time when God simply refused to rescue them from themselves and allowed them to stew in the mess that they had created. As such, Isaiah’s prayer both confesses their guilt, but also begs that God would not stay angry at them forever. Despite their guilt, Isaiah has hope for the day that God would once again return to rescue them because, regardless of what they had done, they remained God’s chosen people.

And then, in Mark 13:24-37, at a time that was nearly as familiar with difficulty and hardship as in the time of Isaiah, Jesus picks up the Old Testament theme discussing the day of judgment and the coming of the Messiah. At that time, Israel was no longer captive in a foreign land, but they were ruled by a foreign government, watched over by a hostile army, and paid heavy taxes to Rome. And in that time, just as they had in the time of Isaiah, the people of Israel prayed for God’s Messiah to rescue them. And Jesus said…

²⁴“But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

²⁶“At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

²⁸“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that itis near, right at the door. ³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

Jesus reinforces God’s promise that the Messiah would return in judgement and declares that at that time, God would finally reveal his power and glory to the world and would gather his people from the ends of the earth. But until then, Jesus reminds us that although no one can know the day or the hour of his return, the end of the world will not come completely without warning. Just as we watch the trees during the winter, and we recognize that Spring is coming when the trees begin to bud, in the same way we will know that judgment and the end of the world is coming if we are alert and watch for the signs.

Similarly, Jesus warns his followers, and us, that we are like the servants that have been left in charge while the owner of the house is away. We do not know when he will return, but we must watch for his return, remain at our posts, and continue to do the work that he has given us, so that we will not be found slacking when he returns.

And so, once again, God’s promise and prophecy bring hope to his people, both in the time of the New Testament and in the twenty-first century, as we look forward to the return of God’s messiah the rescue of God’s people, and the final redemption of the world.

But as is often the case, as we look forward, we often worry about how which side we will find ourselves on Judgement Day. And so, the very passages of scripture that were intended to give us hope, are the very passages that cause us concern and steal our joy. But Paul knew that people in the church were going to worry about that and so as he wrote to the church in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, he reassured them by including this reminder:

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— ⁶God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. ⁷Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul reminds us that it in, and through, Jesus Christ that we are enriched in every way and given our abilities to speak, to preach, to tell stories, and to carry the gospel message to the people around us. It is through God’s gifts of speech and knowledge that God confirms the truth of our testimony. Further, while we wait for the return of Jesus Christ, we are given all of God’s spiritual gifts to aid us in sharing the gospel and in carrying out the mission and vision of Jesus Christ. What’s more, Paul says, is that it is Jesus, and his power, that hold us steady and firm in the against the temptations of the world, so that we will be found blameless when Jesus return and we stand in judgement. And finally, Paul reminds us of the faithfulness of the God who called us to follow Jesus and who adopted us as his children. If God has done all these things, and if we continue to diligently work for him while he is away, then we have nothing at all to fear when he returns because we know that on that day, the world will finally be put right, justice will be done, the broken will be repaired, the lame will walk, the blind will see, disease, suffering, poverty, and death will come to an end, and the world will finally know… peace.

And that is why, from the time of Isaiah, to the coming of Jesus, and even until today, the consistent message of scripture is that the coming of the Messiah, and the day of judgement, is not a message that should cause us fear or concern. Instead, the message of the power of God, the birth of his Son Jesus, and the promised day of judgement was, is, and has always been…

…a message of hope.

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/9XG6erKs3go

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Thanksgiving Overflow?

November 25, 2020December 2, 2020 PastorPartridge Blogs blessing, generosity, gratitude, overflow, thanks, thanksgiving

Click here to watch the video, or scroll down to continue reading.

Thanksgiving Overflow?

November 26, 2020

By Pastor John Partridge

Deuteronomy 8:7-18 Luke 17:11-19 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

In the middle of a global pandemic, we are taking a day out of our schedule to give thanks. For many of us, our traditional celebrations have been dramatically changed, reduced, or even cancelled, and yet still we pause to give thanks. And that’s a good thing. Despite all the weirdness, difficulty, hardship, and yes, even death, when we pause long enough to reflect, we remember that we are, indeed, blessed. That busyness causes us to forget our blessings is not new. Almost as soon as the people of Israel had escaped their 400 years of slavery they already knew that once a better life came, that they would begin to forget just how blessed they were to have a better life. In Deuteronomy 8:7-18 we hear these words:

⁷For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws, and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

God tells the people that once they had arrived in the Promised Land, and once their lives were better, they needed to occasionally pause from their busyness and remember that it was God who had given them that life. Despite their sweat and hard work, they would not have been where they were had it not been for God. Yes, they busted their guts, and yes they invested their sweat and their hard work, but if it had not been for God, they would have been doing all those things for the benefit of Egypt’s Pharaoh, and not for themselves.

They were indeed blessed.

And God simply asked them to occasionally pause and remember that it was God who gave them the ability to do the things that they did and to have the things that they had. But Jesus tells us that thanksgiving is more than something that we put on the calendar to do one day each year. In Luke 17:11-19, we hear a story that should resonate with us during a pandemic, as Jesus meets ten men who were afflicted with an incurable disease.

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

God has given us gifts. God has granted us health, and healthcare workers who struggle to make us well when we fall ill. But how often do we say thank you to those to whom we are indebted? Do we return to God and give thanks? Do we appreciate, and give thanks to our healthcare team? Do we bother to simply say “thank you” to the people around us who work to make our lives better, and easier?

It isn’t a question of setting aside a day to give thanks.

But do we live lives of thankfulness?

And, as you consider that, let us also remember Paul’s words in his letter to the church in Corinth that we find in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15.

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

¹²This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Paul reminds us that if we are to truly live lives of thankfulness, then we must also live lives of generosity. Our generosity is not a fee that we pay for God’s continued blessing and it is not a tax on the blessings that we have already received. Instead, our generosity should come from a heart that overflows with gratitude.

Generosity is a visible sign of genuine… thanksgiving.

And so, as we take time out to give thanks for the gifts that we have been given, as we give thanks for our homes, our lives, our health, our families, and everything else, let us remember to let out thanksgiving overflow into the lives of the people around us. Say “Thank you” to the people who make your life easier, say thank you to God for his indescribable gifts, and let us not insulate, segregate, and isolate our thanksgiving in one single day. Let us instead live lives of thanksgiving and allow that thanksgiving to overflow as gratitude and generosity.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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* Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

How to be Everyplace at Once

November 21, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon Christ, Christ the King, followers of Jesus, God, God cares, heart, Jesus, Jesus Christ, judgement, omnipresent

November 22, 2020*

By Pastor John Partridge

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Ephesians 1:15-23 Matthew 25:31-46

Have you ever been so busy that you really needed to be in two places at the same time?

We all try not to do that, but on more than one occasion I have accidentally double-booked myself and needed to be in two places at the same time. At other times, District Superintendents, or various committee chairs have changed meeting dates that conflicted with other activities to which I had already committed, and as many of you have experienced, when our children were in school, we often needed to be at soccer, cross-country, cheer-leading, football, band, school, church, or scouting events in different places at the same time.

But we all know that we can’t be in two places at once.

Or can we?

Obviously, God, being omni-present, is everywhere at the same time, but since we are individuals that are bound by the limits of space and time, we can only be in one place at any particular moment in time. But that’s not the end of the story, although it is a good place to begin. Let’s continue by reading Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, where God has just condemned the leaders and shepherds of Israel for misleading and bringing harm to his people, and now, instead, promises to lead and care for his people himself.

¹¹“‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. ¹²As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. ¹³I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. ¹⁴I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. ¹⁶I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

²⁰“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, ²²I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. ²³I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. ²⁴I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.

Throughout this passage, God speaks in the first person. “I myself will search,” I will bring them, I will pasture them, I will tend them, “I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.” But God also promises that he will, personally, bring punishment and destruction to the bullies who used their strength and power to abuse the people and to drive them away from God. Instead, God promises that he, through his servant David, will place one shepherd to watch over his people.

And this prophecy and promise of God is reiterated and echoed in Matthew 25:31-46, as Jesus says, …

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

There are three things that struck me as I read this, and all are worth remembering as we consider the idea of being everywhere at once. First, Jesus reminds us that everyone, Christian, Jew, Muslim, agnostic, atheist and everything in between will one day stand in front of Jesus and be judged. In that moment, the good will be separated from the bad or, as Jesus said, the sheep will be separated from the goats. Sheep and goats are similar, but are not the same, and that is also true of human beings. We might look the same on the outside, but what is inside of us makes us different from one another. And that difference of heart creates the next two distinctions.

The second thing worth remembering is that the good, or the righteous people, had no idea that they had done good. For them, doing good, was so automatic that they did it without thinking and weren’t even aware that they were doing it for, or to, Jesus. Doing good, helping others, and being Jesus to the world, was so ingrained, so natural to them, that it was simply who they were. And the third thing is nearly the same thing. The people who Jesus condemns didn’t really do anything overtly, or obviously evil. Instead, they simply looked past the evil and suffering of the world, they looked, they saw, and they ignored. And when Jesus condemns them, they had no idea who they had ignored, or the pain and suffering that they had ignored. Like the righteous, the behavior of the unrighteous was so ingrained, so natural, and so normal to them, that it was simply who they were.

But what does that have to do with us, or with being everywhere at once?

We are connected to the person, and to the mission, of Jesus, and to his omnipresence, because we are his followers. And, in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus (Ephesians 1:15-23), he explains it this way…

¹⁵For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸I 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, ¹⁹and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹far 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. ²²And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul says that he has not stopped giving thanks for the people of the church and goes on to pray that God would bless them with the wisdom to know Jesus better, enlightenment to know the hope that Jesus brings, to know the riches of God’s inheritance, and to understand the great power that God gives to those who believe. Paul then reminds the people of the church of the God’s great power and the power that God has granted to Jesus Christ and to his church which is the body of Christ.

Paul emphasizes God’s great power, and the power that God gave to Jesus, and then surprises us by explaining that the great power of Jesus Christ has been given to the church which, he says, “is the fullness” of God. I want to be clear that what Paul is saying, is that we are Jesus to the world because we are the body of Christ.

And so, as the body of Christ, collectively, we, as the church, find ourselves, at any moment in time, spread all over the world. Although we are certainly not omnipresent in the way that God is, we are, almost, everywhere at once when we are acting as the body of Christ. But to do that, there is something that we need to do first. We must tune our hearts so that, as much as possible, we have the same heart as Jesus Christ.

There are two steps for us to take. First, we are to shape and tune our hearts to be like the heart of Jesus Christ. Our hearts are to be so in tune with Jesus that we become Jesus to the world around us. And second, we must be the church. We must be the body of Christ and do the work of Jesus.

But it really is easier than that.

The people in Jesus’ parable who did good, did so without even realizing that they were doing good. Being Christlike was automatic. Doing the work of Jesus was a completely unconscious action once their hearts became like the heart of Christ. So, our first step is to do everything we can to be like Jesus, to love like Jesus, to care like Jesus, and to have the heart of Jesus for the world, and for the people around us. Once we accomplish that, the rest is automatic. Once we accomplish that, we only have to go out into the world…

…and be ourselves.

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/DFz1jUZnWTw

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Use It, Or Else!

November 14, 2020November 21, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon actions, brother's keeper, brotherhood, brothers, campaign promises, faith, faithfullness, gifts, others, trust

November 15, 2020*

By Pastor John Partridge

Judges 4:1-7 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Matthew 25:14-30

Have you ever had trouble making up your mind about something?

It can happen easily as you consider whether you want a red or a blue lollipop, or where you should take your next vacation. Those of us who are musicians had a moment when we had to choose which instrument we wanted to learn. But some decisions get more difficult, and more expensive, as we get older. Choosing between a minivan and a pickup truck has consequences and it’s usually too expensive to choose both or to change your mind once you’ve chosen. Choosing a major in college can be hard but changing your mind after you’ve already invested several years of your life can be expensive. If you move to a new town, finding a church that you like can be difficult, but changing churches after you’ve established yourself and made friends can be painful. We’ve all been through it and, at one time or another, we’ve all wrestled with indecision. But when we read the book of Judges, we discover that the entire book was written during a time when the entire nation of Israel was having trouble making up its mind about God. For a while Israel would love God, but after a generation or two, they would forget God and drift away. And then, as life often happens, things would get hard, and the people would pray for God to rescue them, again, and God would send a judge, or a prophet, people would return to their faith and follow God… for a while, and then the cycle would start over again. That is exactly the story that we see in chapter after chapter of the book of Judges, and that is what we see as we read this passage from Judges 4:1-7 as Ehud, the previous leader of Israel, dies and the people, once again, drift away from God.

^4:1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. ²So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. ³Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leadingIsrael at that time. ⁵She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. ⁶She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. ⁷I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

So, as we joined the story, Ehud, Israel’s previous rescuer, who had rescued them from the nation of Moab, had died and, as they had often done, Israel drifted away from God. Once that happened, they were captured and oppressed by the Canaanites. But after praying for twenty years, God raised up the prophet Deborah to lead the people and to rescue them from their oppressors. God speaks to Deborah, and she creates a plan to trap Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite armies, and all his troops and chariots. In this plan, Deborah will get Sisera to chase her up Mount Tabor and when they reach the top, Barak would be waiting, on the strategic high ground, with an army of men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and would destroy Sisera and all of his troops from that region.

But imagine what would have happened if Deborah had trouble deciding whether she trusted God. Or what if Barak couldn’t decide whether he could trust Deborah? Or what if no one answered Barak’s call to arms so that there was no army waiting at the top of Mount Tabor? At each step, every person had to believe in the power of God, trust that the message that they received was true, and be willing to take action, and risk their lives, based on what they heard.

And that brings us to Jesus’ parable about the unfaithful servant in Matthew 25:14-30 where we hear this:

¹⁴“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[^a^] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

²¹“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²²“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

²³“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²⁴“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

²⁶“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The wealthy man could have easily entrusted his money to the bankers and received a modest profit when he returned. But instead, each servant was given gold because their master trusted that they could manage his money better than the banker could. While he did not believe that they had equal skills, he entrusted them with his money in proportion to the trust that he had in their abilities. But the unfaithful servant was paralyzed by indecision. He was unable to choose how he would invest the money, abandoned the mission, and failed in his duty. Worse, as the master had pointed out, if the servant had so little confidence in their own abilities that they feared losing it, he could have, at the very least, invested the money with the bankers and received some small rate of interest on it until his master’s return. But rather than use what had been entrusted to him, he buried it instead.

So, what should we be doing with our lives? In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, the Apostle Paul explains it to the church this way:

^5:1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ²for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Paul says that, of course, we don’t know exactly the day and time that the world will end, but we know that when that day comes, it will be a surprise to everyone and Jesus will come unexpectedly “like a thief in the night.” And, when that day comes, as there always is, there will be politicians spouting campaign promises about peace and safety, but our calling to always be ready and prepared for the end. We are to be the people who wear our faith, hope, and love where is it visible to everyone around us as if we were wearing armor. Paul reminds us that Jesus died for us so that we could live, together, with him and for that reason, we are to encourage one another, and build each other up.

And if we use this perspective to help us understand Jesus story of the unfaithful servant, we begin to see that his failure was not only due to his lack of faith in himself, and not only due to his lack of trust in his master, but also due to the failure of his friends to encourage him, help him, and to build him up spiritually and intellectually.

We are our brother’s keeper.

Our calling, that that of Deborah, Barak and the people of Israel, is not only to have faith in God, and to trust in his instructions, but to build up the people around us, to call them to Jesus, and to call them to action, so that they are prepared, willing, and ready for action when God has need of us.

We are our brother’s keeper.

We cannot stand idly by and watch as fellow believers, and unbelievers, lose trust in God and fall away from him. We cannot be happy with our success as we watch the failures of the people around us.

Like the servants of the rich man, God has given us gifts, each in proportion to our abilities, and regardless of how much, or how little, we have been given, God expects us to use those gifts for his benefit, and for the benefit of the people around us. We must not be deceived into thinking that we only have a “personal faith” or a “personal relationship” with Jesus. We are called to use our gifts, both as individuals, and as a community, to lift up the people around us, to encourage them, help them, and to build them up emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually.

We must use the gifts that God has given to us or, like the unfaithful servant, God will take what we have and give it to someone else. Instead, we must lift one another up and, work together to rescue the lost, heal the suffering and the hurting, bring hope to the hopeless, and to the build God’s kingdom until our master returns “like a thief in the night.”

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/ZLDcfVPWNp4

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Pastor Partridge

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Author: PastorPartridge

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