Author: PastorPartridge

Motives and Goals

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Motives and Goals


April 07, 2019*

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Isaiah 43:16-21                      John 12:1-8                Philippians 3:4b-14

 

What are your goals?

We have all kinds of goals.  We have life goals, we have career goals, every year at charge conference time we set aside time to talk about church goals – and we’ve set some fairly ambitious one this year – and sometimes our only goal is to make it through the week until Friday or just to make it through the day that we’re having.

When we were kids, our goals were to be movie stars, or fire fighters, or to be like Evel Knievel, or Clint Eastwood.  As we got older, we started to think about what major field of study we wanted to pursue in college, or what trade school or other training that we wanted to have.  Still later, we thought about getting married and starting a family, buying a house, relocating because of a job, and all sorts of other things.  Some of our goals change as we grow, mature, and develop and others stay the same.  Without thinking about it, many of us have set goals to stay in love with our spouses and families, to stay in touch with the people that we care about, to save for retirement, to leave the planet a better place for our grandchildren, and maybe even leave a little something behind for our family members, and for the causes, that we care about when we die.

But goals are not always noble.  Sometimes people’s goals are simply to get rich, to be more powerful, to be like the prodigal son and spend themselves in the pleasures of the world and “wild living.”  Those goals and motives can be dangerous for the people that have them as well as for the people around them.  It’s easy to be hurt by someone whose motivation has nothing to do with compassion and everything to do with getting ahead, climbing the ladder of success, and “looking out for number one.”  And we’ve all probably lost count of the number of Hollywood stars and starlets, politicians, rock stars, and others who overdosed, or otherwise flamed out because of the excesses that they pursued.

So, what goals should we set?  Is there such a thing as a spiritual goal?  Sure, there is. 

And so, we begin this morning in Isaiah 43:16-21, where God begins by reminding the people of his resume so that they will remember his character, his heart, compassion, and love for his people.

16 This is what the Lord says—
    he who made a way through the sea,
    a path through the mighty waters,
17 who drew out the chariots and horses,
    the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
    extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
18 “Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
    the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21     the people I formed for myself
    that they may proclaim my praise.

These first few verses are simply God reminding the people of Israel who he is and what he has done for them, but once he reminds them of where they once were, God tells them that they need to lay aside the past so that they can be prepared to accept the future.  God declares that even though the people were familiar with thirst after living in the desert wilderness for forty years, God is the god who creates streams in the desert and provides water for his people to drink.  God makes it clear that his motives are simply the love and compassion that he has for his people.

And then in John 12:1-8, we hear a story that is familiar, but if we pay attention, we can see that everything in it revolves around the motives of the characters in it:

12:1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

There is a stark contrast between the motives of Mary and the motives of Judas in this story.  I spoke more extensively about their motives this past Monday at the Lenten luncheon at Vine Street United Methodist Church, in my message “Extravagant Motives,” but for today I just want to point out that although Judas was the one to protest, Mary probably shocked everyone in the room when she poured out what, in the twenty-first century United States, would be about $55,000 worth of perfume onto Jesus’ feet.  Judas, of course, only wanted his piece of the pie.  He complained about how many poor people they could feed with that kind of money, but what he really wanted was to dip his hand into the money bag and get some of that for himself.  Judas’ motivation was “looking out for number one.”  But Mary is held up as a role model for all of us who would follow Jesus because her only motivation was her love for Jesus and her desire to honor him.

And then in his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 3:4b-14), the Apostle Paul writes in a way that is similar to what we heard in Isaiah.  Paul begins by discussing his credentials or his resume, and then proceeds to throw it all away and start over.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul says that he has every reason to be proud of who he is.  He was born into the right family, knew all the right people, followed all the right religious and doctrinal requirements, rigorously followed all the laws of God as dictated by the strict rules of the Pharisees, and, as far as anyone can testify, he lived, in every way, in compliance with God’s law.

But that wasn’t enough.

Paul declares that his motives and his goals are at the core of what he is doing.  From the very beginning, even as a Pharisee, Paul has always been motivated by a desire to honor God and do what was right and that motivation didn’t change after he met Jesus.  While his goals changed because of his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus, his motives remained the same. 

But, once Paul met Jesus, everything on his resume, and all of the things that he once thought to be important, he now considers to be a loss to him, these things that were once important are now useless, in fact, the Greek word that Paul uses for “garbage” (sku-ba-lon) was rarely used in the ancient world and seems only to be used for effect and shock value much as we might use the profane word for poop, but this was the word that was used for the vilest of stinking, excrement filled, cast-off garbage in the downhill garbage pit of the city where the sewers emptied out which was also the place where the remains of sacrificial animals and butcher store leftovers were thrown.  Compared to the immense value of Jesus Christ, Paul says that everything that he once held to be valuable was now left behind as something that was utterly disgusting and despicable.

Paul knew that everything that he once held dear, was totally unable to save him and only through faith in Jesus Christ, and the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, was able to offer him anything of value.  With that in mind, Paul’s new goal was to become more and more like Jesus.  He freely admitted that he wasn’t there yet, he was still far from perfect, but his goal was to press on, straining toward what was ahead and leaving behind everything that was past so that he could reach the prize that was only to be found in Jesus Christ.

Paul was like most of the people in the twenty first century world around us.  He had tried getting ahead, climbing the ladder of success, and “looking out for number one.”  Paul had been born in to the right family, knew all the right people, followed all the laws, played by the strict rules of the Pharisees, and lived, in every way, in compliance with God’s law.  But none of that was enough. 

None of that was enough.

Once he met Jesus, he considered all of his accomplishments to be of no more value than the piles of crap and rotting carcasses in the garbage dump.

Once Paul met him on the road to Damascus, the only thing that made any sense was the goal of becoming like Jesus.  And that one goal drove absolutely everything that Paul did for the rest of his entire life. 

What did you say were your goals again?

Let us, together, press on toward the goal of Jesus Christ.  Let us forget what is behind us, and strain toward what is ahead.  Let us press on toward the goal, to win the prize, for which God has called us heavenward in Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

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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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Extravagant Motives

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Extravagant Motives

Monday Lenten Luncheon

Vine Street UMC

April 01, 2019

 

If you watch any of the crime dramas on television, and I mean any of the crime dramas, anything from Perry Mason, to Murder She Wrote, to NCIS Los Angeles or Evening Shade, one of the things that you often hear about is “motive.”  Characters often ask, as real law enforcement officers do, “What motive did that person have?”  What reason did they have for committing a crime, what motivation would they have for doing such a thing?  But crimes aren’t the only thing that requires motivation.  Some days we spend more time on the couch than we probably should, simply because we can’t seem to find the motivation to do anything different.  We put off filling out our tax forms until the deadline unless we think we’re getting money back, we procrastinate cleaning the house until it annoys us or until we know that we have guests coming over.  Just about everything we do has motive assigned to it.  We go to work because we need to make some money because we like to have a warm place to live and food to eat.  We eat cookies, because, hey, this isn’t hard, we eat cookies because they taste good.

But sometimes we need to look at what motivates our spiritual lives as well.  That’s a big part of the story that we hear in John 12:1-8, as Jesus shares a meal at his friend Lazarus’ house:

12:1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Jesus arrives in Bethany and stops in the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.  John, and probably everyone else, notices that Lazarus is the guy that used to be dead.  It’s almost funny, but you must admit, even today that’s the sort of thing that people would talk about.  “Look, Fred!  That’s the guy I told you about.  He’s the one that woke up at the cemetery and climbed out of the casket, three days after the funeral!”

But anyway, between Jesus and Lazarus, this was probably a prominent and well discussed (gossiped) event.  But during the dinner, Mary comes into the room, walks over to where Jesus was reclining (remember that it was traditional at that time to eat in a reclining position, much like sitting in a beach lounger), broke open a bottle of expensive perfume, and poured it over Jesus’s feet.  As you can imagine, the entire house was filled with the smell.  Just imagine if you poured out an entire bottle of Chanel No. 5.  A little dab smells nice, but a whole bottle would almost certainly be overpowering.

There are many ways to interpret what Mary did, and why she did it.  It can be interpreted as symbolic of burial as well as an anointing and consecration to royal service.  But I don’t want to dwell on what it meant today, instead I want to point out that Jesus highlights Mary’s motives as a stark contrast to Judas’ protests about the expense.  Jesus says, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”  Essentially, Jesus is saying, I think, honoring God, at the right time, and for the right motives, is an important value.  There was a limited time to honor Jesus while he was on earth, and Mary chose to do so while he was living rather than save that expensive perfume for his burial.

Chale No. 5But let’s also look at the motivations of Judas.  John calls him a thief whose greed caused him to want that money in his purse, and I think we should take his word for that, but even if he wasn’t, most of us would have been shocked at the extravagance of what Mary did, and I’m certain that many others, besides, Judas, were just as shocked.  Scripture tells us that the perfume that she poured out was worth 300 denarii, or since a day’s wage was one denarius, that’s about a year’s wages for an average laborer.  If we do that same math if modern American economics, we discover that in 2015, the average wage for an average American worker, was $56,516.  Can you imagine how you would feel if you watched someone pour fifty or sixty thousand dollars’ worth of Chanel No. 5 onto the floor?  Even though we may not be thieves, I think that many of us, despite our love for Jesus, would be just as shocked as Judas was.

It’s a difficult thing to compare these two attitudes, the extravagance of Mary and the greed of Judas.  But the comparison comes down to the motives of these two people.  Mary was motivated by her love for Jesus and her desire to honor him in the best way that she could.  Judas’ motives were to honor himself and to put some of that money in his own pocket.

And, as we think about these two people, and as we reflect on their motives, it reminds us that we often need to reflect on our own motives in much the same way.  Honoring God is an important value, but when do we cross a line from honoring God to honoring ourselves?

When we build church buildings, and I admit Christ Church is an enormous and incredibly beautiful building, are we building them to honor God or to honor ourselves?  Do we want to impress people with the awesomeness of God, or are we trying to impress them that we are the ones who attend church in that awesome building?  And what about us personally?  Are we getting dressed up on Sunday morning to honor God in his house or to impress other people?  Do we attend church to worship God, or are we there to “see and be seen,” to network with other local business people, and to make sure that the people in our community see us going to church because it’s good for business or good for our reputation?  Are we putting money in the offering plate because of our love for God or because we’re trying to impress someone?  But, at the same time, if our motivation is that we are truly trying to honor God, are we being extravagant enough?

As we move through this season of Lent and come ever closer to the resurrection and the celebration of Easter, let us look deep inside of our selves and consider our own motives.  Just who am I trying to impress?  Does my life honor God?  Does my giving honor God?  And do I honor God with…

…extravagance?

 

 

 

 

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Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Vine Street 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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

The Return of the Rejects

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The Return of the Rejects


March 31, 2019*

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Joshua 5:9-12             Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32              2 Corinthians 5:16-21

 

How often in our lives have we heard phrases like, “You aren’t good enough,” “You aren’t rich enough,” “You aren’t smart enough,” “You aren’t pretty (or handsome) enough,” “You aren’t one of us,” “We don’t want you here,” “Why don’t you and your friends sit… over there.”

Almost all of us, at one time or another, were one of the outsiders.  We didn’t “fit” in the popular group.  We weren’t wanted.  We didn’t measure up to whatever standards that group thought were important.  This sort of thing is so common that the famous comedian Groucho Marx once reversed the whole situation by saying, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”

But even though we make jokes about it, being on the outside looking in is not a fun place to be.  And when we stop talking about social clubs or high school cliques and start talking about whole groups of people that are excluded from entire societies, this isn’t at all funny and can, in fact, be deadly serious.

At the conclusion to the story of the Exodus of God’s people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the new Promised land, we hear this story in Joshua 5:9-12.

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So, the place has been called Gilgal to this day [“Gilgal” sounds like the Hebrew for “roll.”].

10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, and after entering into the Promised land, and after harvesting crops that they didn’t even plant, God tells Joshua that he as “rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”  God says that he has taken away their label as outsiders, and that the world can no longer say that God’s people are anything less than everything that God wants them to be.  And, on the day after they begin to harvest food from the land of their new home, the manna, that they had seen every day for forty years, suddenly stops.  It is as if God says, you no longer need this miracle, I have brought you home, you have become everything that you dreamed of becoming, you have received everything that you ever wanted, I have fulfilled my promise.

Even though God’s people had lived in Egypt for four hundred years, they were never considered to be Egyptians.  They were never good enough, they were never on the inside, but were constantly persecuted, tormented, and enslaved as perpetual outsiders. 

But no longer.

As they arrived in the Promised Land, God’s promise of redemption is fulfilled.

The outsiders are no longer on the outside but have been invited in by God himself.

But even though this is a foundational story of God’s people, the political and religious leaders of Israel still manage to divide their own people into insiders and outsiders.  Those who were “good enough” and those who weren’t.  But Jesus begins his ministry and immediately sets to work tearing down the barriers between these two groups and regularly invites the outsiders to join him on the inside.  And these actions of Jesus cause the leaders of the insiders to complain about his behavior.  And in response, Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.

15:1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable:

11 “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So, he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So, they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So, his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Many sermons have been written about this passage.  In fact, I just preached about it on Monday at the Lenten luncheon at the Vine Street United Methodist Church, but what I want you to see this morning is that Jesus made it his mission to seek out the rejects of the society and the people who had been rejected by the church, and invite them back in again.  The father in the story wasn’t focused on the bad things that his son had done, or the many ways that he had personally insulted and hurt his father, his family, and his culture, the father’s single concern was the love that he had for his child and that he desperately wanted him back.  Jesus’ point in telling this parable was to explain that this is how God feels about us.  The message that Jesus wanted the world to hear is that we’ve never gone too far wrong.  We’ve never been too bad.  We’ve never been too far outside.  As soon as we come to our senses and ask for his forgiveness, God’s single concern is his love for us and how much he wants us to rejoin his family.

But what does that have to do with us?

Honestly?  Everything.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, contained in this passage of 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, we are reminded, once again, that the mission of Jesus Christ has been passed down and is now the mission of the church.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul immediately instructs us to view no one in the way that the world sees them, but to see the world, and all the people in it, the way that Jesus sees them.  Everyone who comes to Jesus and asks for his forgiveness is a new creation and must be reconciled, redeemed, restored, and returned to the family.  And that family, is the church, the gathered body of Christ.  Moreover, Paul says, that Jesus has given us the message of reconciliation, we are Christ’s ambassadors, “as though God were making his appeal through us.”  Our mission, our job, both as believers in Jesus Christ, and as his church, it to bring people back to God.  Our calling, each and every one of us, is to go out into the world and find the rejects and the outsiders, the people that have been hurt, turned away, cast out, ignored, slighted, and rejected by our culture and by the church. 

Our mission is to find them all and restore them to the family of the father that never stopped looking for them, and never stopped loving them.

So, this week as you go out in our community, and out in our world, try to see the world the way that Jesus sees the world.  Try to see the people around you the way that Jesus sees them.  Not at outcasts, freaks, weirdos, derelicts, or drunks, not as people who aren’t good enough, or smart enough, not as people who don’t work hard enough, not as rejects from a society that lacks compassion, or a church that often alienates the very people that Jesus invited in, but simply try to see them all as family members who are in need of redemption, restoration, reconciliation, and in need of a family who can love them back to wellness and wholeness.

We dream of a world without outsiders.

Let us be the agents of mercy and reconciliation that seek out the rejects of the world and bring them inside.

 

 

 

 

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Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

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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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

God Ran

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God Ran

Monday Lenten Luncheon

Vine Street UMC*

March 25, 2019

 

How much do you love your children?

Have you still loved them even when they have done things that hurt you?

So why do we have such a hard time believing that God might still love us after all of the things that we have done to hurt him?

If your church follows the lectionary, one of the passages of scripture that we encounter every year during the season of Lent is a parable of Jesus that we often describe as the story of the prodigal son, or more accurately, the story of the loving father.  In that story, we find a picture of two entirely disagreeable sons who both resemble people with whom we are familiar in both the ancient and the modern church.  But we also gain a better understanding of just how much God loves us.

We begin with the story that we find in Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.

15:1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable:

11 “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So, he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So, his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Most of us who are here today have heard a dozen or more sermons about this parable.  We know that the younger son’s demand for his inheritance was an enormous insult to his father and practically equivalent to saying, “I wish that you were dead because all that I care about is your money.”  We know that the older brother behaved exactly as the Pharisees of the ancient world reacted to Jesus’ ministry to the tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, and other outsiders and exactly like the grumpy old men and women of today’s world who grumble at exactly the same kind of ministry.  How dare we hold a Bible study in a bar, or our church have a float in a gay pride parade, or open our homes to pregnant teenagers?  How dare we be like Jesus?

But you’ve probably heard all those things.

What I want to look at today is the father of those two sons.  We all know that the father in this parable is the part that is played by God, right?  So, I want to look at how the father reacted when his younger son wished him dead, took a third of all that he owned, left him for a foreign country, never wrote or sent a telegram or an email, and was totally estranged for what was probably several years.

What our scripture tells us is that, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.”

I would suggest that the father didn’t see his son by accident, but that this was a deliberate act.  Despite the insults, despite the abandonment, despite the hurt, despite the years that he had been gone, the father was in the habit of keeping watch on the road.  The father watched, and hoped, that one day his beloved son would come home and return to his father and to his family.

But if that doesn’t give you the “feels,” the next part should.

Our scripture says that the father “was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

That’s nice.

But our twenty first century, Western, North American and European culture and attitudes have dimmed and dulled the impact of that sentence. So that father ran.

So what? 

You see, in Eastern culture, both in the ancient world and in many places still today, men simply do. Not. Run. Ever.

Children run.  Young men might, occasionally run.  But mature, grown, men do not run.  And the more responsible and respectable that you become, the less you might ever even consider the possibility of running.

I recall reading a story by Tom Clancy or another writer of books in that genre, in which a South Korean general was inspecting an installation on the Demilitarized Zone.  All day long he moved at nothing faster than a dignified walk.  And suddenly one of the soldiers saw him running, and it seemed strange to him because he’d never seen a South Korean officer, especially not a general, run unless something was on fire.

That is the kind of world in which the father lived.  In addition, the men of Jesus’ era wore robes and in order to run, or to do battle, those robes had to be gathered up.  We have heard scripture use phrases like “gird your loins” or “gather your robes” because in order to be physically active, the hem of your robe had to be gathered and pulled up to your waist so that your legs were unimpaired and freed so that you could move.  But outside of combat and firefighting, respectable men simply didn’t do that.

Running was undignified and possibly even humiliating.  

For a grown man to run was to act like a child.

But that is exactly what Jesus said that the father did. 

The father ran.

God ran.

He didn’t care about propriety.  He didn’t care about maturity.  He didn’t care about looking foolish or being embarrassed.  He didn’t care that others might make fun of him.  He didn’t care about respectability.

He only cared about his child. 

Despite the hurt, the insults, the pain, and the abandonment he only cared about the love that he had for his son, and the joy that he felt to have him back in his family.

We all know that we’ve made mistakes.

We all know that we have sinned against God.  We know that we have hurt him, insulted him, and even abandoned him.  We know that we are surrounded by people who have done what we have done, and some of them have done worse things than we have done.  They are… we are, sinners.

But God doesn’t care.

God wants us back and is willing to forgive us for the things that we have done whenever we are ready to ask for forgiveness and return home.

Never forget that we worship the God… who ran.

 

 

 

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*You have been reading a message presented at Vine StreetUnited 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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

I’m Not Going

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If you were in church a few weeks ago, this is going to sound familiar, but I think it bears repeating.  Amid all the stories, confusion, hurt feelings, media attention, angst, frustration, and speculation about the future of the United Methodist Church after our recent General Conference, I hope that everyone remembers something.  Many of us have watched the ongoing discussions about human sexuality at the General Conference for over a decade.  This latest dispute is something that we have anticipated for a long time.  But, like many other things, despite the national and international media attention, I don’t think that it changes much at our level in the local church.

 

What I reminded our congregation a week or two ago, and I repeat here, is that “All ministry is local.”  The General Conference never brought anyone to faith in Jesus.  Our East Ohio Annual Conference never stood by the graveside of a mourning family and shared words of comfort or offered a hug.  Although the mission and ministry of the General and Annual conferences may contribute to those things, in the end, the people that did them, and the people that do everything in our denomination, are ultimately people who belong to local churches.  Nobody will ever care about the people in and around Alliance, Ohio like the people who live here.  And the same applies to every local church, of every denomination, all over the world.  The ministry of Christ United Methodist Church in Alliance, Ohio is to the people around us, and to the people that we care about, and are passionate about, in the mountains of Kentucky, in Sierra Leone, in Liberia, and in other places where the people of our church have made personal relationships with others. Nothing that happened at General Conference changes that.

When I was asked to move to Alliance a year ago, I was keenly aware that the scheduled 2019 Special General Conference could easily be a pivotal moment in the United Methodist Church.  I had no idea what would happen, but I was already reading about the work of the Commission for a Way Forward as well as blogs and denominational magazines that were filled with commentary and speculation.  There was every possibility that our church might vote to go in one of a variety of directions and might even split in one direction or another.  And my decision, even before I agreed to move, was that, most likely, I wasn’t going anywhere.  My calling, mission, and ministry is with the local church.  Whichever path that the General Conference chose, I knew that if my congregation and I were happy together, I would find a way for us to stay together.

I learned a long time ago that our churches are filled with single, divorced, remarried, and happily married people who disagree about marriage.  They are filled with Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, and all kinds of other political affiliations and we disagree about a lot of things.  But regardless of our disagreements, we’ve agreed to be a part of this big church family and do everything we can to be the body of Jesus Christ.  Even though this is a divisive issue for the General Conference, it isn’t all that different.  We have people in our church who are conservative, progressive, moderate, and apathetic and we’ve still managed to be friends and work together for the Kingdom of God. Why? Because, in the end, mission and ministry is always local.

I’m not going anywhere.

Let’s just keep doing what we’ve always done.

Together.        

 

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Reward, Rejection, and Role Models

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Reward, Rejection, and Role Models


March 17, 2019*

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18                      Luke 13:31-35                        Philippians 3:17 – 4:1

 

Have you ever made a plan for your life?

You know what I mean.  At some point many of us have sat down with a parent, school guidance counselor, or career counselor, faculty advisor, or mentor and mapped out how to get from where we were, to where we wanted to be.  If you want to be a nurse or a doctor, the classes that you take and the experiences that you need, are very different from those needed to become and engineer or a tool and die machinist.  Some of us sat down with a military recruiter and discussed our skills and education, and what training options were open to us.  In some cases, in both our civilian and military careers, there were rewards that were promised for reaching our goals or at various points along the way. 

But in real life, the path from here to there is never as easy as it looks when you sit down to plan.  We fail required classes, lose time because of circumstances that are beyond our control, school takes longer, and costs more than we planned, and recruiters are known to be less than truthful or to omit important information.  Through it all, reaching the promised goals and rewards that we had in mind at the beginning, can be a lot harder, cost more, and take a lot longer than we probably imagined when we started.  And on top that, along the way we sometimes face detours brought on by marriage, divorce, children, tragedy, unemployment, disaster, and other things.  We might even decide to change our career destinations and goals along the way, causing us to take several steps backward and start a part of the plan over again.

Life is like that.

It’s complicated.  And our spiritual life is no different. 

So how do we get from here to there?  From where we are, to where we want to be?

And for that, let’s begin with the story of Abram, who would later become Abraham, a man who, for three for four thousand years, the followers of God have lifted up as a hero of the faith and a role model for our spiritual lives.  And, as we look, we discover that even for Abraham, the path from here to there was anything but a straight line.  We begin this morning as we read a story from Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 as God repeats a great promise to Abram.

15:1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.
    I am your shield,
    your very great reward.”

2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so, a servant in my household will be my heir.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

God reminds Abram of his promise to give him a great reward, and Abram’s response is very much along the lines of, “What can you possibly give me that I care about?”  Even if God blesses Abram with land, and animals, and riches, what good is it if he has no children to inherit it when he dies?  And God specifies that he intends for Abram’s descendants to be as countless as the stars in the night sky. 

And Abram believed.

But even in his belief, Abram had doubts, and he asked God how he might know… for certain… that God would do as he had promised.  And in reply, God follows a formula that was well-known in the ancient world.  It was the formula for the execution of a covenant (a binding contract on steroids).  This sort of covenant was often made between parties of differing strength such as a dominant military power and a much weaker nation.  And God was making this same sort of binding agreement with Abram to reassure him that God intended to keep his promise.

Abraham would receive the reward that God had promised and the covenant that was established between them would continue to bless his descendants for thousands of years.  But not everyone was interested in keeping the covenant, maintaining their part of the contract, or being faithful in the way that Abraham was faithful.  Despite their power, position, and authority, some of Israel’s leaders were renegades that refused and rejected their covenant with God and Jesus points to those types of renegades as we remember the story contained in Luke 13:31-35.

31 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

32 He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ 33 In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

The differences that we see in this passage are sharp and the are intended to be so.  Jesus is warned that Herod wanted him dead and Jesus responds by saying that he would continue to do what God had called him to do until he reached his goal of entering Jerusalem.  But Jesus continues by reminding the Pharisees that it was the leaders and the people of Jerusalem that had already established a reputation for killing God’s prophets and stoning the people that God had sent.  This is exactly what is happening again.  God had repeatedly wanted to gather the children of Israel together to comfort them and protect them, but they weren’t interested. 

The people did not want what God had to offer.

They had rejected the covenant.

And Jesus says that the house that they had inherited, God’s house, was an empty house.  The people of Israel would not see the blessings of God until they recognized the messiah that God sent to them.

But what does that mean for us?  If Abram or Abraham was a role model of faith, and if the leaders of Israel were examples of what not to do and how not to live, then what teaching, or what advice, can we follow to prevent us from rejecting God’s blessing?

And in answer to that question, we read Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 3:17 – 4:1) where we hear these words:

17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

4:1 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!

Paul’s answer is simplified and boiled down about as far as you can get.  Just as you have looked up to us, find other role models that live like we do and watch how they live.  That’s simple.  Find good quality role models that look like Paul and his friends and watch how they live.  But Paul also warns that there are a lot of people out there, and we can probably assume that he also meant that there are a lot of leaders out there, that live as the enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ.  Notice that he did not say that they represented themselves as the enemies of Jesus, but that the proof was to be found in how they lived.  Just as the leaders of the people of Israel, including the leaders of the church, had rejected Jesus and turned their backs on the covenant that they had with God, in the same way we know that sometimes the leaders of the church in the present day wear the label of Jesus Christ and claim the name of Jesus Christ, but live as enemies of Jesus.  The people that we are to follow, and after whose lives we are to pattern ours, are the people who look like, and who live like Paul, the disciples, and Jesus.  The enemies of the cross of Christ have their minds set on earthly things like food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, pleasure, and the things of earth.  But the followers of Jesus know that their true citizenship is in heaven and as a result, they live lives that reflect the values of that nation and not the values of the nations of earth.

We live in a time and a culture that is far removed from that of Abraham and from that of Jesus and Paul, but the lessons that we learn from them remain the same.  God wants to bless his people and, as he always has, God continues to keep his promises.  But God will not bless those who reject him and turn their backs on him.  And so, if we want to receive the blessings of God, then we must search for, and choose, role models who live their lives like Paul, the disciples, apostles, and Jesus.  Stand firm in your faith.  Do not sell-out to the desires and lusts of the human body.  Do not set your mind on earthly things but remember that heaven is our home.  And the citizenship of our hearts must be revealed to the world through our lives and our actions every day.

It all boils down to this:

You are a child of God.

Act like it.

 

 

 

 

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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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Rescued and Grateful

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Rescued and Grateful


March 10, 2019*

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Deuteronomy 26:1-11                        Luke 4:1-13                            Romans 10:8b-13

 

How many of you watch cute cat videos on the internet?

 

How about stories about dogs that almost make you cry?

I saw one of those this week.  It was about a long-distance truck driver who had recently lost one of his favorite dogs and he simply wasn’t the same afterward.  He said that his heart was no longer whole.  But his wife sent him a photo of a dog that was about to be put down, and somehow, in a way that he couldn’t explain, he connected with that dog.  The problem was that he lived in California and the dog was on the east coast.  No matter, he called the pound, paid a deposit so the dog wouldn’t be put down, asked his boss for a haul to New York, and set out, driving over 1,500 miles, to rescue that dog.  And, as strange as it may seem, it appears that the dog knew exactly what that man has done for him.  That dog simply adores his new human and his new life.  He rides in that truck every day, loves on his owner, and gives kisses and hugs to anyone and everyone that he meets.  He is, or at least as much as is possible for a dog, truly joyful and truly grateful.

Now, I know that some people will accuse me of anthropomorphizing, which is attributing human characteristics to an animal that can’t necessarily “feel” the same emotions that we feel.  Maybe.  But as a life long animal lover who has lived with eight dogs, at least six cats, and a whole pile of other animals, it seems obvious to me that even if they aren’t the same as ours, animals clearly feel emotion.  In any case, this is about us, and not my dogs.

Why is it that we do things for our parents and grandparents for free?  My brother and I once drove from Akron to East McKeesport, Pennsylvania (which is just outside of Pittsburgh) because our grandmother needed to have her garage painted.  The two of us were willing to spend an entire day, drive three hours one-way, spend the day in the hot sun scraping and painting an old garage, get home in time to go to bed, hot, sweaty, and tired.  And we were willing to do it all for nothing (but of course grandma insisted on giving us “gas money”).  Why? 

Why were we willing to do this for free, when ordinarily we probably couldn’t be persuaded to do that same thing if someone was willing to pay us?  And the answer is threefold: relationship, love, and gratitude.  We were willing to go to all that effort because of the relationship that we had with our grandmother, because of the love that we had for her, and she for us, and because of the gratitude that we had for all the things that she had already done for us, for our parents, and for our entire family.

And its those same three things that I want you watch for this morning as we read and discuss today’s scriptures for the season of Lent.  We begin in Deuteronomy 26:1-11, where we hear these directions for the people of Israel as they entered the Promised Land:

26:1 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 firstfruits 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 firstfruits 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.

This entire passage is about gratitude.  Gratitude for a God who keeps his promises and brought his people into the land that he had promised to their ancestors, gratitude for their rescue from slavery, gratitude for a new nation and a new home, gratitude for a successful harvest, and gratitude for the abundance of the land.  And out of that gratitude the people bring to God an offering of the first fruits, the initial and beginning of the harvest, and then, having given a gift of gratitude to God, the priests and the foreigners, the insiders and the outsiders alike, rejoice and give thanks for the things that God has done for them and the gifts that God has given to them.

And with that in mind, we turn to the story of the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4:1-13, where we hear this:

4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

There is a lot that we could learn within these verses, but considering what we’ve been discussing already, we can see that Jesus knew who had given him everything that he had.  And with that knowledge, every time that Satan tried to tempt him with food, power, authority, fame, fortune, greed, other human lusts, Jesus remembered who it was to whom he should be grateful.  And his gratitude to God led him to honor God by living for him, and returning to God his gratitude, thankfulness, love, respect, relationship, and honor.

But what does that mean to us?

And we find a part of that answer in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome as we read Romans 10:8-13.

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Paul says that the word of God is as near to us as our own mouth and our own heart.  If you declare with your mouth, and believe in your heart, the message of Jesus Christ, then you know without a doubt, that you are a saved, rescued, redeemed, child of God.  It doesn’t matter if you are an insider, or an outsider, God welcomes all of us, and blesses anyone who puts their faith in him.  Paul wants to give us assurance and confidence that our future is secure, and that we are loved and welcomed into the family of God.

But with that assurance, there is a question that we ought to be asking ourselves.

The people of Israel showed God their gratitude by bringing gifts of the first harvest to the altar of God and by celebrating together and giving thanks for the things that God had given to them.

Jesus showed God his gratitude by faithfully following God and honoring him by living a life that reflected the instructions and the teachings of God without being distracted or led astray by all the temptations that Satan and the world had to offer him.

Paul and the apostles showed God their gratitude by proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to the people in the world around them so that others who hadn’t heard, the outsiders, could know the joy, comfort, and assurance that was to be found in knowing that we are rescued, redeemed, secure, loved, and welcomed into the family of God.  We can’t really lick God’s face, or drive over and paint his garage, but the question that we still need to ask ourselves, is…

… “How am I showing my gratitude?”

 

 

 

 

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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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Surrender

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Surrender


March 06, 2019*

(Ash Wednesday)

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17                    Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21                        2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10

 

Surrender1It happens every Sunday morning, and it happens in practically every church in the world.  It isn’t peculiar to the United Methodist Church.  It happens in Baptist Churches, Presbyterian churches, Catholic churches, independent churches, and every other denominational and non-denominational church you can find.  It happens in Christian churches, Islamic mosques, Jewish synagogues, and Buddhist temples.  This thing that happens is the offering.  At some point before, during, or after their services of worship, there will be an opportunity for worshipers and visitors to make some contribution toward the organization, for the poor, or at least toward the upkeep of the building.  Despite there being enormous differences between us, one of the things that make us all the same is that no matter where you are, or who you worship, it costs money to maintain the property and keep the lights on.  And so, everywhere we go, even sometimes for secular events, we are asked to sacrifice a little of our hard-earned cash.  It’s so ordinary that we don’t think twice if the American Legion needs to hold a raffle, or the band boosters sell candy bars. 

 

But suddenly we arrive at the season of Lent, and something changes.

 

Because although we will probably still be collecting offerings on Sunday mornings, for the next few weeks an entirely different sort of giving and surrendering becomes the central focus as we spend time preparing our hearts for the resurrection of Jesus.  That change in focus is found today in Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 where we hear these words:

 

2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
2     a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children,
    those nursing at the breast.  Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
    a byword among the nations.  Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Through Joel, God warns his people that the day of judgement will be a day of darkness and despair.  But on the day of judgement, no one is going to be looking at your tax statements or your church giving receipts, and no one is really going to care how much you put in the offering plate.  God said, “Rend your heart and not your garments.”  As we read this, we understand that tearing one’s shirt, or robe, or other garment was a sign of mourning, repentance, and humility, but God declares that these outward signs are not enough.  Instead, what God really wants, is a broken heart.  God doesn’t want us to put on a show.  God doesn’t want us to make grand gestures.  What God really wants, is for us to be genuinely sorry. What God wants, is for us to be so sorry, and our hearts broken so badly, that we become changed people who live life differently.  This is so important that God calls for us to declare a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, and call together God’s people to a meeting of the utmost importance.  Even bridegrooms and priests serving in the temple, people who were ordinarily excused from most everything, will not be excused.  Everyone is needed, because this change of heart is vitally important for the continued existence of God’s people and our inheritance from God.

Paul emphasizes this same level of importance in 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10 where he says:

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.


6:1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.2 For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
    and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Paul encourages us to be reconciled with God, to be forgiven through the power of Jesus Christ and to become co-workers with God, working toward the same goals and objectives as God himself.  More than that, Paul says that as servants of God we surrender ourselves, through trouble, hardship, distress, beatings, hard work, sleepless nights, hunger, purity, understanding, patience, through dishonor, bad reports, and in many other ways.  Few of the things on Paul’s list are situations that we would ordinarily, on our own, seek out, but he encourages us to set aside our own desires, to surrender ourselves, in order to pursue the goals and objectives of the Kingdom of God.

And finally, in Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, we hear Jesus as he challenges his followers to do good, not just for the sake of doing good, but to do good for the right reasons.

6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus says that we need to have our hearts in the right place.  We must do good, not for the sake of doing good, and certainly not to do good because it is of benefit to us, but simply to do good for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  This is a little weird, but we are not called to be righteous so that we can go to heaven, we are called to be righteous in order to for God to be glorified.  Our motives are everything, because the condition of our hearts is everything.  Our motives for everything that we do should be God’s motives.  We are called to work, to volunteer, to donate money, to live lives of purity and righteousness, even suffer and die, not because we have any expectation that our lives will be wonderful, or even that there will be some earthly benefit to us.  We are to do these things because our goals are becoming God’s goals, our desires are becoming God’s desires, and so we begin to live our lives in ways that benefit to the Kingdom of God and not necessarily in ways that benefit us.

This is the call of the season of Lent.  To “Rend your heart and not your garments,” to remember that the gift, the offering, that God desires, is not money, or time, or sacrifice, although it might look like any of those.  The gift that God desires is for us to surrender ourselves, to surrender our desires, and to adopt, in their place, the goals and desires of God.

These are the things that we must think upon as we prepare our hearts for Easter.

This is what it means to surrender.

 

 

Did you enjoy reading this?

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

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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  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Heroes

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SpacewalkThere was one moment. It wasn’t scripted, it wasn’t planned, and it wasn’t a part of the program or on anyone’s agenda. But for those of us who were paying attention… it was powerful. Many of you know that I just got back from a weekend technical conference with the National Association of Rocketry that was held at Cape Canaveral, Florida.  As an engineer, and as a geek, I had a great time learning all kinds of detailed, specific, stuff about rockets that would bore the snot out of a lot of other people. In any case, because this year is the 60 anniversary of NASA and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this year’s conference not only included tours of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, we invited engineers, technicians and astronauts from the space program to come and talk to us.  And, after our evening banquet at the close of the conference, a panel of NASA astronauts shared memories and stories about their lives and their careers. Sadly, due to my hearing loss, and a big room filled with echoes, I only heard 10 or 20 percent of what was said.  But I didn’t miss one of the most powerful moments… …because there weren’t any words. You see, three of the astronauts on the panel were pilots or technical specialists that had made one, or several, flights aboard the Space Shuttle, but one gentleman, Colonel Al Crews, was from another generation.  He was one of the guys who was training during the Apollo era, and who was an X-20 Dyna-Soar pilot (a space plane 20 years before the dynasoarshuttle) before that program was cancelled.  He was then transferred to work on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project, which was planned to be a space station based on the Gemini launch vehicle (thirty years before the ISS).  But that program was also cancelled before it flew.  But even though Al Crews never flew, his hard work and dedication (and that of many people like him) made it possible to build the space shuttle, and an orbiting space station, and many other things that we take for granted. But after all the jokes, and shared memories, and stories were over, something happened. On the stage, were four men who, to many of us, as engineers, as rocketry hobbyists, as Americans, and as human beings, were heroes.  We all watched the Space Shuttle launches on television, and we wished that we were them.  We cheered their successes and we wept over their failures.  But when the evening’s program was over, something powerful happened. And a lot of people probably didn’t even notice. As the program ended, and everyone in the audience applauded, the astronauts nodded and accepted our thanks.  Eventually, they stood up to leave the stage, and as they did so, every one of those heroes made sure that they found their way over to Al Crews and shook his hand. Saturn VThey knew that they would not have lived the lives they had, or done the things that they had done, without men like Al Crews.  Just as we looked up to them, it was obvious that they all looked up to him. And so, at the end of the day, if you were watching, there was a powerful message. Even heroes, have heroes. Al Crews never walked on the moon, he never even made it to orbit, but his dedication, his reliable, predictable, daily effort, sustained over an entire career, made it possible for another generation of heroes to inspire others. We may not walk on the moon, but each of us can be a hero to somebody. What are you doing to inspire others?  What actions are you taking?  What reliable, predictable, daily effort are you making, to make it possible for others to go places you can only dream about? Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Whose giant will you be?      

 

 

 

 

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A Season of Preparation

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A Season of Preparation

As we begin the season of Lent, much like Advent, we are called to spend some time in reflection.  As a church, we spend 40 days remembering the gospel story that leads up to our celebration of Easter and, as individuals, we are called to do the same.  Easter is wonderful, but the thing that makes it a reason for celebration is contained in the story that leads up to it.  Of course, we will welcome you to our church at Easter even if you don’t, but won’t you also join us in the deeper meaning as we remember the story, study God’s word, and prepare our hearts during the season of Lent?

Our Lenten season begins next week with Ash Wednesday services here at Christ Church at 7:00 pm.  There will also be a weekly Lenten Bible study each Thursday at 7:00 pm entitled “Embracing Uncertainty” by Magrey R. deVega.  Please accept our invitation to come to these, and to our weekly Sunday worship as we prepare our hearts for Easter.  Of course, if you don’t live anywhere near Christ Church (in Alliance, Ohio), we encourage you to visit a congregation near you.