Pastor’s Report 2023

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Pastor Report 2023

by Pastor John Partridge

Note: Every year, I am asked to present a report of the year for our annual Charge Conference. It’s really sort of a “what I did last summer” kind of report that asks, “What did your church do for the last year?” Long ago I decided that my answers should not be seen as any kind of a secret, and so I publish them here, and in our church newsletter. I’m excited about the future of Christ Church and its people and I hope that by talking more about it, others might learn about it and join us in our mission to care for the people around us, and around the world, the way that Jesus cares for us. So, what follows is this year’s report:

In 2023, Christ Church did what we have always done, survived, endured, persisted, explored, and innovated. As in life, things change and while some of those changes are good, others can challenge us. This year, after a particularly strong Spring storm, our scouts discovered that one of our tower windows had been sucked out of the building and shattered in the street. Further investigation showed that our roof had taken some damage in that same storm. But, as they have done for over a century, our trustees are managing, and repairing the damage to maintain our facilities. Similarly, we’ve lost a number of members to death, as well as several non-member family and friends, and our members have had their share of falls, surgeries, and other setbacks.

But through it all, we continue to do what we’ve always done. Christ Church has been, and remains a visible presence in our community through our semi-annual basement sales, the Habitat for Humanity Apostle build, our continued support of our Scouting youth ministry, contributions to school scholarships in Sierra Leone, the construction of a high school in Liberia, ongoing support for the missions in the Red Bird missionary conference, the bread ministry and Tuesday community dinners with the Alliance of Churches, the Salvation Army food pantry and Christmas “giving tree” programs, domestic violence shelter, coordinating and hosting the delivery of nearly a thousand Thanksgiving dinners, as well as our ongoing support of the Alliance community food pantry, and probably others that I’m forgetting.  We also have continued to live stream our weekly worship services and offer our sermons online in both text and audio formats. These online platforms now connect to more than 600 subscribers, though of course, not everyone connects every week.

At the same time, Christ Church has been doing some new things and exploring new possibilities for the future. This year saw the installation, and refinement of a new sound system that will allow an “autopilot” mode for days when our sound engineer cannot be present as well as our participation in the return of the Ministerial Association’s community Good Friday service (after Covid) in a re-imagined format. That service, in its new format, returned to a packed house at the First Christian Church.

Christ Church has also seen continued growth in our scouting ministry which now has four full patrols and continues to be one of the only troops for female scouts on this end of Stark County. This growth in the scouting program resulted in our church trustees giving the scouts a second room in the church in which they can store all the additional camping equipment and other things that these active troops need. We have also seen continued growth in the number of children attending Sunday worship which has resulted in a restart of a long-dormant children’s Sunday school program, and a collection to purchase all new toys for our nursery, in addition to our continuing children’s church program during worship.

As we look forward to 2024, we hope to continue to do what we’ve always done, but we are also exploring our partnership with the Coalition for Christian Outreach and the possibility of hiring a full-time campus ministry staff person. We also continue to work through the lessons that we learned during our strategic planning sessions and set goals for ministries that align our strengths with the needs of our neighborhood and the community of Alliance.

While our Sunday morning church attendance has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic levels, it does seem to be headed in the right direction and the signs that we see every week give us every reason to hope for the future.

As it has often been said, “We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.”

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The Tax Trap

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The Tax Trap

October 22, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 33:12-23                    Matthew 22:15-22                             1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Leadership is intimidating.

That is to say, leadership can be intimidating if you have the humility to pause and think about the impact of what you are doing.

The first time that I recall having any real leadership was in the early 1990’s when I had returned to my Army Reserve unit from my advanced training in my MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) and was expected to lead one of the monthly classes that were held to keep everyone fresh on our required skills. Since I had so recently returned from training, I was therefore the most qualified to teach one or two of the classes. I was still a Private First Class, and I had sergeants, staff sergeants, and just about everyone else in “my” classroom for fifteen minutes. As I continued to do this over the years, my rank, and my skills, advanced and I became more comfortable doing it.

But then on July 4th, 2004, I stood in front of the gathered people of the Johnsville United Methodist Church for the first time as their pastor. This was, once again, entirely new and, at that time, despite being over 40 years old, I had very little training as a pastor. But, once again, with time, experience, and more training, leading God’s people became a little easier.

But regardless of whether it was in the early 1990’s or in 2004, I always knew that I wasn’t alone. There were senior noncommissioned officers who could help me if I stumbled while I was teaching classes in my reserve unit, and in every church that I have served, there have always been patient, competent, congregations, volunteers, and staff to help me do what I do. Leadership is always intimidating, but the idea of leading… alone… would be terrifying.

But that is exactly what is foremost in Moses’ mind as he has a conversation with God in Exodus 33:12-23.

12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name.”

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

The first thing out of Moses’ mouth is, “I can’t do this alone.” Those aren’t his exact words, but that is clearly the idea when he says, “whom will you send with me?” And God’s response is, I will go with you, and I will give you rest. God promises that his presence will be so tangibly real, that Moses will never feel as if he is alone and he will be comforted, and be able to sleep at night, because he knows that he is not alone.

Why does that matter?

Well, if you are in any kind of leadership position, you can find comfort in that. But there are other reasons that we’ll get to in a few minutes.

Next, we come to yet another story of the Pharisees trying to trick Jesus into saying something stupid that would either be a criminal offense or would be offensive and reduce his popularity with the people. There’s some back story to this that helps us make sense of that, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let’s look at this story from Matthew 22:15-22:

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial taxto Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So, they left him and went away.

This was the tax trap. First, you will note that the Pharisees don’t come to see Jesus in person. Instead, they send their lackeys that are less well-known so that Jesus might not recognize this as a trap, and second, they send along with them the Herodians. Which may cause us to ask, who the heck were the Herodians? And that’s a good question that the bible doesn’t answer very well, but which history does. We know that the ruler of Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth had been Herod the Great, and the current ruler was one of his sons, Herod Antipas. And so, the Herodians were Jews, who had sold out to the Romans, to the culture of the Romans, and to the plan that Herod had for their nation. To make a connection to the United States of the twenty-first century, these were the people who were more interested in conforming to the culture of Hollywood, and to their political party than they were in conforming to the laws of Moses and the prophets. They were born Jews but were culturally Roman. The plan clearly was that if Jesus said that good Jews shouldn’t pay Roman taxes, which was a prominent idea in some Jewish circles, then the Herodians would charge Jesus with a crime. The argument in some Jewish circles was that because Rome was immoral and acted counter to the beliefs of Israel, that paying taxes to Rome was therefore immoral. Further, because Rome circulated coinage that bore graven images that were prohibited by scripture, that using such coinage was sinful and a corrupting influence.

But Jesus’ interpretation was different.

Jesus said that if Ceasar’s face was on the coin, then pay Ceasar what was due to Ceasar, but pay to God what belonged to God. In Jesus’ interpretation, the scriptures demanded that faithful people should follow God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength. That is what was owed to God. It is your choices and your morality that are important.

Hold on to that idea because we’re going to come back to that in a minute, but this connects us to Paul’s message to the church in Thessalonica that we hear in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10:

1:1 Paul, Silas,and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you.

2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 For we know, brothers and sistersloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

What Paul says is important, but I also think that how Paul said it is important.  You will note that Paul does not simply say that we remember you because of your work, your labor, and your endurance. What Paul says is that we remember you to God because of the work that we have seen in you that was produced by faith, because of the labor that you have done that was prompted by love, and by the endurance that you have shown that was inspired by hope. This is the work that God is doing because his people love him with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind and with all their strength. They are doing the work of the kingdom because of their faith, because of their love, and because of their hope and not because it was what was culturally expected, or because of some other sense of ethical, moral, or cultural obligation. When we remember James’ teaching that faith is revealed by works, this is that. Faith came first, but because the people had faith, it inspired them to work, labor, and hope.

So, how do we tie this all together and make sense of it?

Jesus’ challenge to the tax trap points us toward self-reflection in several directions. Two thousand years ago the fear was that taxes, especially using money with graven images on it, was a corrupting influence that faithful Jews should avoid. But Jesus says that it isn’t. Paying taxes isn’t inherently sinful, nor are we automatically guilty of the sinful or immoral acts of the government. Of course, this is held in tension with several other scriptures that say that we will, as a people, be held responsible for the sins of our nation. There’s no way we have the time to even try to sort that out so I’m not even going to try.

But our point of personal self-reflection and struggle is to remember that a sinful government doesn’t necessarily corrupt us personally. But the reverse is also true, such that the righteous acts of government do not make us personally righteous. It is a good thing for the government to feed the poor, but the Roman government did that. It is a good thing for the government to care for the elderly and a host of other things, but none of the things that the government does, relieves us of doing the things that God has commanded us to do. Whether our government is good or evil, we are still obligated to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the widows and orphans, speak for the immigrants and the voiceless, and to do the work of the kingdom of God. On the day that we stand in judgement before God, we will be judged by what we have done, and what we have left undone and that includes how we voted, and when we chose not to vote.

But the second point of connection here is that, like Moses, and like the pastor of a church, God knows that we cannot do all these things alone. We are a part of a community of faith. We can do great things, sometimes impossible things, because we work together… and because God promises to go with us.

We are not alone.

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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 quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

It’s That Time Again

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It’s That Time Again

Pastor’s Letter – October Newsletter

It’s Fall, school has started, and most of our church folk have concluded our summer activities though it’s hard to grasp that June, July, and August passed by so quickly. As always, I thought that I would manage to get more done than I did. In any case, this is the time of year that our church begins to make plans for next year. Our fantastic finance team, led by Julie, our treasurer, has already completed a draft of our budget for next year and only needs to finalize budget numbers that are given to us by our Annual Conference. But that means that our Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development (aka the Nominating Committee) has also begun to meet and to consider who will lead our church in 2024.

I admit that this is sometimes tedious. Much like summer, our entire year passes so quickly that it seems as if our committee just finished the last list before we begin on the next one. But, at the same time, our work is sometimes a little exciting. We talk to many of you, imagine how things might change, and preview the new list of leaders before anyone else. Of course, since our church is not bursting at the seams with new members, many members of our committees are “recycled” from last year, and that’s not a bad thing either. As long as many of our experienced and highly capable leaders are willing to continue their work, we’re glad to have them do so. But, at the same time, we understand when they get tired and need to do something different.

But all that introduction leads me to two things that I probably say every year. First, I want to thank everyone who has served in leadership, not just in 2023, but over the 130 plus years of Christ Church (and First Church) in this place. All the time, effort, skill, and experience of all those leaders, as well as the power of the Spirit of God, are the reason that we’re still here and still in ministry to the people of Alliance. Over the past few years, our church has navigated a pandemic and other changes that the church members of the past could hardly have imagined, and we did it with the help of our amazing leadership team. So, again, thank you.

Second, I want to encourage everyone who isn’t currently serving, or who hasn’t ever served on a committee, whether you are a member of Christ Church or not, to consider how you can be a part of leading our church in 2024. While there are some restrictions on what leadership positions that nonmembers can hold, there are a great many that are open to anyone who attends worship and who wants to contribute. Please be in prayer and consider what God might be leading you to do. Your opinion, and your contribution, matter.

Finally, even though our Nominating Committee has only had one meeting (at the time I’m writing this), there are already some exciting developments because of the people who have already said ‘yes.’ I remain convinced that God has big plans for Christ Church, and I hope that you will be a part of it. Please let me, or any member of our Nominating Committee know what it is that you are interested in doing.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Eulogy and Obituary for C. Dolores “Dee” Lapp

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Eulogy for C. Dolores “Dee” Lapp

October 6, 2023

by Rev. John Partridge

I met Dee a little more than five years ago when my family and I were appointed to serve at Christ Church. Since that time, Dee has always been one of those folks that was, whenever possible, a “willing worker” who enthusiastically did whatever she was asked to do. Of course, we saw one another on Sundays, but I began to know her better a few years back when I visited her at the hospital after she tripped over a tree root in the back yard while taking her dog out to go to the bathroom.

In the hospital then, and every time I have seen her, whether at church, or at Copeland, or during other visits to the hospital, Dee was always untiringly optimistic. Never once did she ever doubt that she would recover, return home, and return to church. For some time, Dee was at Crandall Medical Center just down the hall from my mother, and so, whenever I came to visit one, I visited both. But sometimes my mom was harder to find. Dee was almost always in her room, but my mom would sometimes be in the dining room, or someplace else. And so, in the end, I probably visited Dee a few more times than I visited Mom, and each time it was as if I had walked into a little piece of home. Even though I was visiting her in a nursing home, she just had a way of making me feel as if I was family, and that I was home. As I read the stories that I will share with you today, written by people who knew Dee for far longer than I did, I heard the same sentiment, and could feel the same feelings that Dee had shared with me. The compassion and love that I felt, was just who Dee was, and no matter how long you knew her, that never changed.

From Donna Smeltz:

I can’t say anything that’s different from what we’ve all been thinking.  Dee was a great person who had people who loved her in every generation.  Young, old, or somewhere in between, we were there, wishing the best, praying for her, and loving her as she endured so much.  Dee lived through the deaths of her daughter, husband, and son, but continued to live her life to its fullest.  I think that is a testimony to her and her love of life, and love for those around her.  Dee, we’re so sorry to see you leave this physical life, but know/ or hope we were good enough to meet you in eternity, We love you, and hope you have enjoyed your reunion with Unk, your kids, your family, and all those who have gone before you who you loved and missed.  

I can’t remember any particular memory, but what has always warmed my heart was your love for Unk.  You became the most important person in his life and filling a void that I feel was there for a long time.  I thank you for that.  He and you both deserved to know true love.

I was pregnant with Matt when you and Unk got married.  It was a small wedding; I think only you and Unk and the witnesses were present.  You stopped at Mom and Dad’s before your ceremony, and Zack and I were there.  I was so happy for you both, I found out what restaurant you were going to celebrate your nuptials, and I got ahold of them and paid for your meal.  Since we couldn’t be there, I hoped that you knew that Unk’s family welcomed you into ours with open arms.  We’ll always miss you, and hope to be together again in eternity. 

Thank you for being you, and for accepting all of us when you married Unk.

We love you,

Donna and family

From Melissa Graham:

Aunt Dee was so giving to me. When Noah and Bella were young, Aunt Dee would pick up Meme at her house, nearly every Tuesday, and the two of them would come to my house. They would prepare lunch and help me catch up on laundry. They entertained the kids, and Aunt Dee loved to rock Bella. She gave of her time and gave me her support. I will miss her smiling face at our family functions. 

From Robert Graham:

Dee and Elda (Lapp) Tate were school friends and Dee remained in the Alliance area through her adult life, so as Debby, born in 1951, grew up, Dee was in and out of the (Tate) family experience and Debby was good friends with Dee’s daughter, Sharon. Mom Tate and Dee were in a card club that lasted for decades. Debby married Bob Graham in 1970 and they birthed their family from 1976 to 1980. Their eldest, Jessie, was 10 years old in 1986 and served as the guest book attendant for Dee’s marriage to Richard, “Unk”, Lapp on October 24th. From that time on, Dick and Dee were part of many of the family gatherings held at the Tate, Graham, and Sahli residences.

Dick had always been a generous Uncle and Dee showed herself in just the same way. Dee was creative and knowing that we enjoyed our boating on Lake Erie, she made us some beautiful pieces of counted cross stitch of Sandusky Bay and the islands area of the lake.

As our children grew into middle school athletics, the Lapps joined the family support of our runners and found themselves at the track or course frequently. When we became Mount Union Raider football fans, Dick and Dee joined us for Saturday afternoon games along with Elda and John, plus several trips out of state to follow the team on their way to national championships.

Because of her association around them, our kids knew Aunt Dee and her care for them. In 2004 our daughter had a special need for childcare, and Dee stepped up to be one to lend a significant hand. So, it was through 2017 when her husband, Dick, passed into eternity. It would have been easy for Dee to part ways with the growing Graham family, but instead even as her own health issues began to present themselves, she allowed, even welcomed our family’s involvement in her life as a single senior. She did not shy away from invitations that were offered, to join in the exuberance of family gatherings of any size. Dee added generational depth to our celebrations that went beyond grandparents and great grandparents. Our kids and theirs have been exposed to what it means to be family, sharing in both the ups and downs that come with life.

Dee had to live through the bumps and difficulties that a long life inevitably presents. We are glad that as sporadic as it might have seemed, we were there as encouragement for her as throughout our lives, she was there for us. God be with your soul, Aunt Dee.

Memories from nieces Debbie, Sandy, and Cheryl:  

Visiting Aunt Dee was always something we looked forward to when we were kids.   The anticipation of getting our hair cut and styled at Aunt Dee’s salon was the highlight of our trip. She always made us feel special. We have carried those memories with us all these years ❤️

From Britt: 

Gram also cut my hair from the time I was a baby until I was a preteen. Every month since I could remember I would spend a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We would spend the days bird watching, playing Mexican Train, and watching the Lawrence Welk Show.

Once, I tripped over a box of records in the basement and found an old record player. I asked Grandpa if we could set it up, and of course he obliged. That weekend became one of my favorite memories of them. I spent the day playing through old records of people I wasn’t familiar with and watching them dance through the house. No one made my Gram happier than Grandpa Dick. Years later I found out he had contacted someone to have the old record player refurbished as a gift for me. He and Gram planned a trip to see the tulips in Holland, Michigan and meet with the gentleman who would repair it.

Everything was about making and sharing memories together and they passed that on to so many of their loved ones. These acts of pure love and genuine kindness are why she was loved and deeply cherished by many and also why I am who I am today.

From Rev. Chris Martin:

Letting Her Light Shine – In Memory of Dee Lapp

In the Emmaus Community we often sing a song that has the following words: “Let your light… shine before… others so…they may know our God of love is in the land and let your light… shine before… others so… they may know, the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

The song is based on the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, verse 16, where Jesus says: “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.”

While many things can and will be said about the life, character, and daily disposition of the extraordinary woman we memorialize here today, the sum and substance of all that is said will reveal that throughout the whole of her life Dee “let her light shine, illuminating her own good works and the good works of others, that the heavenly Father might be glorified.”

Membership and participation in Christ United Methodist Church were always Dee’s most treasured possessions. It was where she drew strength to go out into the world to spread the brilliant light and love of Jesus Christ. Nothing kept Dee from spreading that light! Nothing! Those of us privileged to know and love her did so because Dee showered each of us with a love that knew no ending. Heaven’s light shines more luminously because of its newest angel, Dee Lapp. “To God be the glory for the things he has done!”

The Reverend L. Chris Martin

Minister of Visitation

Christ United Methodist Church

Alliance, Ohio       

Obituary for C. Dolores “Dee” Lapp

C. Dolores Lapp

September 21, 1930 — October 1, 2023

C. Dolores “Dee” Lapp, age 93, passed away on October 1, 2023.

She was born on September 21, 1930, in Wheeling, WV, to Clarence and Louella (Hawkins) Greek.

Dee graduated from Alliance High School in 1949. She was a beautician and beauty school instructor. Dee operated her own shop in Alliance for several years.

She was a lifetime member of Christ United Methodist Church where she was recently honored as a co-founder of “Threads of Love”, a community outreach program. Dee was a talented artist who also enjoyed knitting and Mount Union Football. She was an active community member at Copeland Oaks.

Those left to cherish her memory are her great-granddaughter, Brittany Powers; grandson, Derek Gates; granddaughter, Alexandra Shott; sisters, Sally (Jim) King, Nancy (Walt) McCormick and Joyce Davis; brother, Robert (Marilyn) Greek; and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews and great-great nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Richard C. Lapp; beloved aunt and uncle, Raymond and Dorothy Hawkins; two children, Sharon Lewis Shott and Gary Lewis; brothers, Kenneth and Wilmer; and a sister, Patricia.

Visitation will be held at Cassaday-Turkle-Christian Funeral Home on Thursday, October 5th from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

A funeral service will be held at the funeral home on Friday, October 6th at 11:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 E. Broadway, Alliance, Ohio 44601.

Addicted to… Rules?

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Addicted to Rules

October 08, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20                 Matthew 21:33-46                             Philippians 3:4b-14

In 1985 radio stations everywhere were playing the debut of Robert Palmer’s new hit song, Addicted to Love. That song will be familiar to those of us in a particular age group, but it begins like this:

The lights are on, but you’re not home
Your mind is not your own
Your heart sweats, your body shakes
Another kiss is what it takes
You can’t sleep, you can’t eat
There’s no doubt, you’re in deep
Your throat is tight, you can’t breathe
Another kiss is all you need.

Whoa, you like to think that you’re immune to the stuff, oh yeah
It’s closer to the truth to say you can’t get enough
You know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to love.

Robert Palmer may have taken a certain amount of artistic license, but just this week I had a conversation with a friend about how some people simply can’t stand to live alone, and that can lead them to making bad choices and being in a relationship with someone who isn’t good for them, and sometimes one bad relationship after another.

Addiction, of any kind, even an addition to something that is normally good, can be a bad thing. Addiction, even to something good, takes things too far and winds up being harmful. And that’s one of the things that we will find as we read and think about today’s scriptures. We begin with what God intended for good, the ten commandments. Most of these commandments are regarded as good things, even by people who do not share our faith, and even by people who have no faith at all. Prohibitions against theft, murder, adultery, and false witness, just to name a few, are almost inarguably good things. But can such prohibitions go too far? Before we get into that, let’s begin at the beginning and just read the words of Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20.

20:1 And God spoke all these words:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Saying things like, “don’t take things that don’t belong to you,” “don’t murder or hurt other people, or that it’s not good to even wish you had the nice things that your neighbor has,” are not that controversial. Even honoring your parents, when they deserve it, is something that most of us can generally agree on. But we can understand why people who do not share our faith, or who don’t believe in God, would take issue with rules about gods, idols, taking God’s name in vain, or keeping the sabbath. Other than those rules that are specific to our worship of our God, I think most people would agree that these are reasonable rules and, in fact, most of these rules end up being codified in the laws of cities, states, and nations around the world.

But that’s where the trouble starts. Or, perhaps, if we think of it another way, perhaps that’s where the addiction starts. In an attempt to ensure that the people of Israel would always follow these ten rules, the leaders of Israel wrote more rules that regulated life, or put fences around the rules, so that people wouldn’t, even accidentally, break these ten commandments. (pause) But even that wasn’t enough for some people. After Israel had been carried into captivity in Babylon for seventy years, returned to Israel, and rebuilt their nation, the leaders began to understand that their exile had been caused by Israel’s disobedience to God. And so, at some point, the people that we know as the Pharisees in the time of the New Testament accumulated an even longer list of rules that built fences around the fences that had been built around the rules. And while some of the Pharisees were legitimately trying to keep Israel on the straight and narrow and stay close to God, others began to become more devoted to the rules than they were to the God they were supposed to worship.  And it was exactly that sort of thing that had the Pharisees up in arms about the popularity that Jesus had with the common people and the background to exchanges such as the one we find in Matthew 21:33-46, (which immediately follows our passage from last week in which Jesus said that Prostitutes and tax collectors were getting into heaven before the Pharisees)where we hear Jesus say:

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

One of the first things that we should probably notice is that Jesus may very well be foretelling his own death in this parable since it isn’t hard to understand that as the son of God, he is the son of the landowner of Israel. The second thing to notice is that, even though the priests and the Pharisees may not have understood Jesus’ allusion to being the son of the landowner, they clearly understood that he was talking about them and that they were the ungrateful tenants in the story. Everyone understood that Jesus was accusing Israel’s leadership of not giving to God what was expected and due. The accusation is clear that the leaders had violated several of the commandments, that they had put themselves ahead of God, that they had made money, power, and influence into an idol, and that they were, generally, unfaithful.

The contrast to the priests and the Pharisees is found in the life of Paul, after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. After Paul’s conversion, he sees the rules, and his former addiction to the rules, in an entirely different light. In Philippians 3:4b-14 he says…

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 inChrist—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 was a Pharisee. He followed the rules, he was born into the right kind of family, went to the right kind of schools with the right kind of teachers, he, and his family, followed all the prescribed rituals, he dedicated his life to enforcing the rules, he hunted down Jews who had chosen to follow Jesus and prosecuted, and imprisoned them for their failure to follow the rules. He was there watching the coats of the men who stoned Stepehen in Jerusalem and, I think we can safely say, that he was addicted to the rules. But, after he met Jesus, his addiction was broken, and he saw the rules in an entirely different light. I don’t want you to misunderstand, Paul still followed most of those rules. He still thought that they were an important part of his faith, but the rules were no longer an addiction, and they were no longer something that was more important than faith. His addiction, and the value that he once put on the rules, money, power, and influence, he now valued no more than garbage. In fact, the word that we translate as “garbage” is the name of the valley below Jerusalem where the sewers emptied, where dead animals were thrown, and where the remains of sacrifices were burned. It was a place of disgusting filth and that was the value that Paul now placed on his former addiction.

Addiction, of any kind, even an addition to something that is normally good, takes things too far and winds up being harmful, and that’s true whether you’re addicted to love, rules, tradition, sex, money, power, politics, authority, fame, fortune, comfort, prestige, sports, hobbies, family, or anything else that you might put ahead of God.

God said ““I am the Lord your God… You shall have no other gods beforeme.”

Even if those gods seem like good things, we cannot put them ahead of God.

It’s important that we get it right.

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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 quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Is The Lord Among Us… Or Not?

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Complaints and Test Questions

October 01, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 17:1-7                        Matthew 21:23-32                             Philippians 2:1-13

Have you ever had a time in your life that you just wondered what God was up to? I’m thinking about a time in your life when things were weird, difficult, or nearly impossible, and you wondered why you were there, why God was allowing those things to happen, or how those things could possibly fit into God’s plan for your life. There is a curse in Deuteronomy 28:23 that calls up an image of the heavens being made of bronze so that prayers just bounce off without reaching God and some of us have had times that felt like that too, that our prayers went nowhere and remained unanswered. And, because we have passed through difficult times, we appreciate the pain and the struggle of others that are facing those trials today. And that’s why, as much as we spoke last week about the whining and complaining of the Israelites in the desert, we completely understand how they might struggle with a lack of faith when facing that kind of hardship. It is during these difficult times that we ask hard questions and that’s exactly what God’s people did in Exodus 17:1-7.

17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So, Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah [which means testing] and Meribah [which means quarrelling] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Is the Lord among us… or not?

If we’re honest, that’s a question that we have asked before, personally, as a church, and as a denomination.

Is the Lord among us… or not?

During our personal struggles with divorce, drugs, alcohol, physical or emotional abuse, unemployment, the loss of loved ones, physical illness, mental illness, depression, and a host of other things, we may well have asked ourselves if God had forgotten us. As we have watched our denomination tear itself apart, we may have asked if we had gone so far wrong that God no longer cared, and certainly, as a church that once worshiped hundreds every Sunday, and that had to build an education wing just to make room for all their children, at some point, or at many points along the road to having only fifty in worship some Sundays, we have probably asked… Is the Lord among us… or not?

But you will notice that the story of God’s people did not end when they asked the question. The story didn’t end in the desert, but neither did God miraculously rescue them before they had spent forty years in the desert and learned a few things about faith and trust. Despite their questions, and despite their struggles, God never abandoned his people, and we have confidence that God has not, and will not, abandon us either.

But in Matthew 21:23-32, the chief priest and the elders asked Jesus a different sort of question.

23 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”

24 Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Do you see the difference in the kind of question that the elders are asking in comparison to the question that God’s people were asking in the story of Exodus? In Exodus they just wanted to know if God had abandoned them, but here, the priests and the elders are asking “who gave you permission” to say the things that you are saying? They aren’t concerned about God being with Jesus as much as they are concerned about power structures, and who gave permission. Worse, having asked the question, the elders are so concerned about how the people would react to their answer, that they refuse to answer Jesus’ question at all. For them, politics, power, and appearances are more important than honesty and integrity. And when Jesus sees that, he tells a parable that reveals the truth. Because the elders of the church love politics and power more than they love God, the tax collectors, prostitutes, and other outcasts who repent are moving up the line and entering the kingdom of God ahead of them because the outcasts understood that a life of obedience to God was more important than money, power, politics, or appearances.

This understanding is the key to the message of Paul that we find in Philippians 2:1-13 when he says…

2:1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Paul says that he would be filled with joy if the church would just work together, love together, and look to the interests of others rather than their own.  The key to a healthy church, and to healthy relationships is to have the same mindset as Jesus, to live and to love like Jesus. We work out our salvation by allowing God to work in us and through us.  God works in us as he transforms us into the likeness of Christ, and through us as he works in the world to accomplish his mission and purpose.

Despite our questions, despite our struggles, and despite our complaining, we have confidence that God has not, and will not, abandon us. But we must fight against our culture and the way that we are told that world works, and remember that a life of obedience to God is more important than money, power, politics, or keeping up appearances. Our goal is not to be important, influential, powerful, famous, rich, or to be adored and admired. Our goal is to be obedient so that God can transform us into his image, and work through us for the transformation of the world.

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Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

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 quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Suck It Up!

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Suck It Up!

September 24, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 16:1-15                      Matthew 20:1-16                               Philippians 1:21-30

How long does it take you to get a bad attitude?

For example, if you had an absolutely great day today, on par with getting a great promotion at work, getting married, watching one of your children being born, or maybe the ribbon cutting for your own business or the completion of a project in which you invested years of your time, blood, sweat and tears, how long do those good feeling last? After you have one of those “mountain top” experiences, how long can it be before you get grumpy and have a bad attitude again?

I know that sometimes, it doesn’t take much.  Sometimes you can have an absolutely awesome day, come home, step in dog poop in the front yard… when you don’t even own a dog, and before you even get in the door you are on a collision course for a full-on grump.

And that seems to be exactly what we’re looking at in our scripture lesson today from the story of the Exodus. The official lectionary selection skips the first verse, but I put it back in because it tells us just how long much time has passed between the really awesome things that happened to the people of Israel, like the Passover, their rescue from slavery, their journey out of Egypt and into freedom, witnessing the physical manifestation of God in the pillar of cloud and fire, the parting of the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptian army. These were all awesome and amazing things and, if you recall from last week, everybody swore that because of what they had witnessed, they would choose to follow God.

But those things began on the fifteenth day of the first month of their new year and as we read together, I want you to notice that the part of the story that we’re reading today from Exodus 16:1-15, happens on the fifteenth day of the second month. Only one month after Passover, and maybe a week after the crossing of the Red Sea.

16:1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning, you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”

9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”

10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.

11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning, you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

Once the pressure was gone and the excitement wore off, just as it does for the rest of us three thousand years later, the realities of ordinary life slapped the children of Israel right in the face. Once they had crossed the Red Sea, they were still in the middle of a desert and much like human beings have always done, even in the best of situations, and even after one of the most incredible mountain top experiences in the history of the world, they started to complain. Our scripture said that the entire community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (reading with the most whiney voice you can imagine) “It’s too hot. There’s not enough water. We ate better when we were slaves. We would be better off if we were dead. You only brought us out here to die.”

But apparently God was still in a good mood because he heard their whiney complaints and, in the evening, he sent flocks of quail that covered the camp, and in the morning, he sent flakes of dew that dried like bread. No one had ever seen anything like it before and so they asked, “What is it?” which has been transliterated from the Hebrew as… manna. Manna literally means, “What is it?”

God had promised to care for the people of Israel, and he fully intended to keep that promise even if they whined about it.

Whining, grumbling, and complaining seem to be part and parcel of human life and have been since before humans developed language. The Israelites grumbled within a week or two of witnessing one of the most amazing rescues in the history of the world and, in Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus tells a parable in which he predicts his followers will grumble and complain about heaven itself. This is important because this parable is literally about us, about our church, and about how we feel entitled to tell God how to conduct his business.

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The owner of the vineyard goes into the marketplace around six o’clock in the morning to the place where day laborers congregate looking for work and he hires everyone that he can find. He still doesn’t have enough people to get the work done as quickly as it needs to be done, and so he returns every three hours for the rest of the day and, each time, hires everyone that he can find. His only promise to them is that “I will pay you whatever is right.”

At the end of the day, the guys who worked for one hour were given a denarius, which was the common amount for a full-day’s wage. So, of course since these guys got a full day’s pay for one hour of work, the men who had been there longer, and especially the ones who had been there for fourteen hours, simply assumed that they would get more. But they didn’t. And they grumbled, whined, and complained about it. And, if we’re honest, you would certainly hear the same complaints today about fairness, favoritism, and preferential treatment, and all sorts of other accusations.

But the landowner said, “Didn’t you agree to work for one denarius? And didn’t I pay you one denarius? And don’t I have the right to pay my employees generously if choose to do so? So, are you angry because I am generous?” And that message kind of sticks in our craw and rubs our twenty first century, American sensibilities wrong. To us that sounds unfair. But what’s worse, is that at the beginning of the story, Jesus said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out…” That makes our discomfort over this apparent unfairness worse, because basically Jesus just told us that the landowner is God and it’s God who is acting in ways that we perceive as being unfair.

There’s more, but hold on to that for a bit until we read two paragraphs from Paul’s letter to the Philippians 1:21-30 where he says:

21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

By this time in Paul’s life, his health is failing. As he writes this letter, he is most likely on house arrest in Rome, but he has, on quite a few occasions, been imprisoned in far worse places like Caesarea, Ephesus, and a few others. Some of those prison cells were just cold, damp, dark, pits in the ground. Paul’s eyesight was failing, and his health was poor, and he says that he can either live and work, or he can die and be with Christ. But whatever happens to me, you should quit complaining and live lives that are worthy of Jesus Christ. Paul says, you are going through the same struggles that I had, and still have. You are not the first to suffer or struggle. Get over it.

The message of Exodus is that God sees us when we struggle. Yes, God sent food, but no, God did not rescue the people of Israel from the desert for another 40 years.

The message of Jesus’ parable of the workers is that God can, and will, do what he wants regardless of whether we perceive that as being unfair. The convict at the penitentiary who chooses to follow Jesus moments before his death sentence is carried out, may well get the same reward as some of us who have followed him, worked for him, and sacrificed for him for our entire lives.

And the message of Paul is that we aren’t the first people who struggled from time to time. But when we face struggles and suffering, we should do our best to live up to the examples of the people who have gone before us.

In summary, the message of scripture is to get over it, quit complaining, quit grumbling, stop acting as if we’re entitled to more than we are, trust God to be generous, and just get on with doing the work of God’s kingdom, “striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.”

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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 quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

At What Cost?

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At What Cost?

September 17, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 14:19-31                    Matthew 18:21-35                            

I would guess that everyone here probably recalls the story in Luke chapter 14 in which Jesus challenges the crowd to count the cost of choosing to follow him and that choosing to do so means that they must take up their cross when they do. In that story, in Luke 14:28, Jesus says:

 28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

That’s simply good advice for a great many things. Before we go on vacation, we should have a good idea of what it’s going to cost and what we might spend on souvenirs, snacks, drinks, and other incidentals. Before we choose a college major, we should consider how much that education will cost and what kind of a career, and salary, is likely to come from that career.

But although Jesus saying “take up your cross” is the story that springs to mind when we think about counting the cost of following Jesus, it isn’t the only scripture in which counting the cost is an important part of God’s message to us as his followers. We begin this morning in Exodus 14:19-31 as the people of Israel flee from their abuse at the hands of the Egyptians, and escape across the Red Sea.

19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so, neither went near the other all night long.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing towardit, and the Lord swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

Remember that although Israel was enslaved to the Egyptians, they had lived there for eight hundred years and, other than Moses, who had lived in Midian for forty years, there was no one who had known anything other than a life in Egypt. Following Moses, even in pursuit of freedom, meant leaving behind everything that they had ever known other than the family and the faith that they took with them. In this reading, the account of the exodus says that the pillar of cloud came between the armies of Egypt and Israel, and we must understand that describing Israel at this point as an “army” is figuratively describing Israel’s size and nothing else. No one on the side of Israel, again except for Moses, had any training with weapons other than farm implements and the slings that shepherds used to drive off wild animals. Egypt brought an army of soldiers and warriors, but they faced an Israel that was little more than a rabble of untrained men, women, children, and farm animals that had fled with little organization into the night.

As they did on the night that they painted the blood of lambs on the doorposts of their homes, the people of Israel faced a choice as they stood on the shores of the Red Sea. They had chosen to follow Moses into the wilderness, but now they were faced with the first accounting of the choice that they had made. They realized that the cost of following Moses might just be death at the hands of the Egyptian army. But at that moment they witnessed the presence of God, physically present as a pillar of cloud and of fire, standing between them and the Egyptians. And during the night, God divides the sea and makes for them a place to walk across the bottom of the sea on dry ground. And after they had reached the other side, they witnessed the destruction of the army that that, only hours earlier, had filled them with fear.

Witnessing these events was a turning point for the people of Israel. Before they had chosen to pursue freedom from their cruel taskmasters and from slavery. But now they chose to worship God and to put their trust in him, and in his servant, Moses.

Considering how long some of us have been following him, sometimes we still wonder just how much it’s going to cost us to follow Jesus. I’m not kidding. Even the disciples, after spending years with Jesus, were still trying to find the boundaries and limits to the cost of discipleship. That’s exactly what we see happening as Peter asks Jesus a question that has become famous in Matthew 18:21-35 where we hear this:

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Peter asks a question about forgiveness, but Jesus knows that he is really asking about where the limits are and so he answers the first question, but he elaborates with the parable that follows. The parable that Jesus tells, expands our understanding of forgiveness, but also disabuses us of any thoughts that Peter, or us, might have had about limiting the cost of our choice to follow Jesus.

The example that Jesus used would have been, at least in principle, similar to what the disciples knew, understood, and witnessed every day in their culture as a part of the Greco-Roman system of patronage. In that system, almost everyone was a client of some patron, and clients were expected to mirror and emulate the values of their patron. If your patron was generous, and you wanted to please him, and you always wanted to please your patron, then you would also be generous to the same causes that he supported but at the level that would be expected for a person of your status. And so, in Jesus’ parable, it is unsurprising that the king, as well as the servants, all expected that the client who was shown mercy would, in turn, show mercy to someone who owed him money after being shown such extraordinary mercy by his own patron.

What may have been surprising to the disciples, and to anyone else hearing this story in the first century, was that our relationship with God was so much like the cultural system of patronage. Because we have chosen to follow Jesus and, pledged our loyalty to him as our patron, we are expected to adopt, and to mirror, his values. Because our God is merciful and forgiving, we are not just asked, but expected to be merciful and forgiving. So strong is this expectation, that Jesus says that he will reject us, and revoke his forgiveness of us, if we fail to be forgiving of others. That is not only a big deal regarding forgiveness, but if that is that standard by which we are judged regarding forgiveness, then it isn’t difficult to imagine that this is how God wants us, sorry, expects us, to mirror the other values that we have witnessed in God and in the life of Jesus Christ.

The people of Israel discovered that there was a cost to following Moses out of Egypt and that having done so, God expected something of them. There was a cost to following God.

Even though the disciples had known Jesus, walked with him, talked with him, listened to his teaching, and lived their lives with him for several years, they still sometimes grappled with what it meant to be his followers and to understand the cost of choosing to follow him.

As we read scripture, we discover the same things that the Israelites did as they crossed the Red Sea with Moses, and that the disciples did as they learned from Jesus. We discover that, like them, we cannot follow Jesus part-time or halfway. Following Jesus demands that we invest everything that we have, that we are 100 percent sold-out, and go all-in. We are expected to be as forgiving as Jesus, as merciful as Jesus, and in every other respect, model our lives after him and mirror his values.

Jesus expects nothing less. Because in the story we read from Matthew, Jesus was deadly serious. We’re either all in…

…or we’re out.


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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 quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

This IS That Day

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This IS that Day

September 10, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 12:1-14                      Matthew 18:15-20                             Romans 13:8-14

Near the end of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the few forces that remain from the nations of Rohan and Gondor march to the gates of Mordor, the center and capitol of Sauron the undead who is spreading a plague of evil across Middle Earth. The forces of good have been fighting in pitched battles for weeks and are hopelessly outnumbered, but here they will take what may just be their final stand against evil. But before the battle begins, Aragorn, the future king of Gondor, gives this speech:

Hold your ground! Hold your ground. Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

It is a rousing speech, even though it doesn’t appear anywhere in the original books by J.R.R. Tolkien. But Aragorn’s emphasis is that a day may come when everyone’s fears are realized and evil overcomes the world.

But this is not that day.

I begin with Aragorn’s speech this morning because, although the emphasis is different, it bears a striking similarity to God’s message in today’s scripture passage in Exodus 12:1-14. For eight hundred years Israel had lived in the nation of Egypt and, for many hundreds of those years, Israel had been enslaved by their Egyptian masters and subjected to backbreaking labor. For hundreds of years the people of Israel had prayed that God would rescue them and although God had heard their prayers, finally, as we read last week, God sent Moses to deliver them from Egypt and lead them to God’s promised land. And this is God’s speech:

12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs, and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

God’s speech to Moses and Aaron was to be passed on to all the people in much the way that Aragorn gave his speech to the troops under him. God said that this is the day. After hundreds of years of slavery, prayers without number, cries to God for mercy, and an unending and undefeatable hope in God’s rescue, now is the time. This is so important that it will reset the clock and the calendar, and this singular event will now mark Israel’s new year. God’s people are called to be ready, eat as if their departure might be at any moment, to have their bags packed, their shoes on, and be ready to walk out the door into their new lives in an instant. And in this moment, as a part of their preparation, they are to paint the blood of their sacrificial lambs on the doorframes and lintels of their homes as a sign of their faith and trust in the God who was rescuing them from slavery and death. Israel had prayed for a day of rescue and redemption, and this was that day.

But before they could cross over from the old and into the new, before they could cross over from slavery to freedom, they had to show God a sign of their faith. They had to physically perform an action that revealed their faith in God before being welcomed into the new order of things. And that’s a part of what Jesus is describing to the disciples in Matthew 18:15-20. It isn’t anything as big and as impressive as the speech that God gave to Moses and Aaron, but it represents an action that the followers of Jesus Christ needed to perform as a demonstration of their faith. Jesus said:

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Jesus said that as his followers, and as his church, he knew that we were not always going to get along and weren’t always going to get things right. And so, when we hurt one another, or whenever we crossed lines of sin or behavior that we shouldn’t, Jesus commands us to call each other out, to help one another to correct our mistakes, and get back on the right path. This passage is all about church discipline. Jesus says that we are to make every effort to correct the behavior of our fellow believers, but whomever we throw out of the church would be out of his church. In other words, our actions here, especially in church discipline, have eternal impact.

But how we behave isn’t about following rules, it’s about the way that we live our lives in much the same way as God commanded the people of Israel in the days before the exodus. In Romans 13:8-14, Paul explains that how we live our lives, and the actions that we take, are an outward sign of our faith just as it was when the people of Israel painted the blood of their lambs on the doorposts of their homes. Paul says:

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

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

We are to live as if the commandments of God matter. Rather than painting blood over our doorposts, the mark of our belonging should be seen by the people around us in the way that we live. Get out of debt, stay out of debt, don’t loan money to one another, pay your debts off, or forgive the debts that you hold against others, but do what you need to do to zero it out. Paul says that because the law is intended to prevent harm, then love is the fulfillment of the law. We are to obey the commandments, not by making ourselves crazy following hundreds of rules, but by simply loving others as much as we love ourselves. I don’t like to be hungry, so I understand that I should take action when the people around me are hungry. I don’t like injustice when it happens to me, and so I fight against injustice everywhere. This applies to everything that we do, from injustice, to unfairness, to discrimination, and flowing through every area of our lives. If we haven’t liked it when it happened to us, or if we wouldn’t like it if it were done to us, then it is our duty and our mission to make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone.

Simply because that’s what love looks like.

The last part of this passage is a wake-up call much like we use on children as we get nearer to Christmas. In February, none of us give a lot of thought to Christmas. We aren’t Christmas shopping, and our children aren’t thinking that it’s necessary to behave because Santa “sees you when you’re sleeping” and “knows when you’re awake.” As far as Christmas is concerned, in February we’re just going through life on autopilot. And it’s that kind of awake, but unconscious, living from which Paul is trying to shake us awake. We cannot allow ourselves to function on autopilot and go through life in a fog because we’ve convinced ourselves that the day of judgement will be months, years, or decades in the future. As the calendar pages flip, we are ever closer to judgement and salvation than we have ever been. For that reason, we must prepare ourselves by living lives that we wouldn’t be afraid to see projected on the jumbotron at a stadium or broadcast live on the television evening news.

Because even though we’ve been waiting for a long time, one day, sooner than we think, we’re going to wake up and hear God say…

…this is that day.

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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 quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

I’m Not Worthy

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I’m Not Worthy!

September 03, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 3:1-15                        Matthew 16:21-28                             Romans 12:9-21

I’m almost certain that you are familiar with the phrase, “I’m not worthy.” It’s been used in the Marvel superhero movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, cartoons like The Simpsons, quite famously in the Wayne’s World sketches on Saturday Night Live, and in the movie of the same name. But of course, though re-popularized in our culture in movies and television, this phrase, or words like it, is hardly new. It appears in ancient literature from a host of time periods. Medieval monks were known to say that they weren’t worthy, and we even hear words a lot like it in scripture.

“I’m not worthy” is a phrase that could easily come with a warning label because while it can be used as an honest expression of humility, it can also be used, and frequently is used, as an excuse to avoid doing work that we don’t want to do. And so, as we read today’s scriptures, I want you to listen for the phrases that sound as if someone is saying “I’m not worthy,” though not in exactly those words, and then we will consider whether they are genuinely not worthy of the thing that has been asked of them, if they’re just trying to get out of doing something they don’t want to do, or if the answer is somewhere in between. We begin by returning to the story of Exodus, this time skipping from the infant Moses that we saw last week, all the way to the story of Moses and the burning bush eighty years later in Exodus 3:1-15.

3:1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, youwill worship God on this mountain.”

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
    the name you shall call me
    from generation to generation.

When God calls Moses to return to Egypt after forty years in Midian, Moses’ answer is, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” Who am I, that I should go, which, in other words, means I’m not worthy to go, I’m not important enough to go, nobody knows me there any longer, I’m wanted there for killing a man, or just more plainly, I don’t want to go or, I’m afraid to go.

Whether Moses’ actual words were, I don’t want to go, I’m afraid to go, who am I that I should go, or I’m not worthy… what Moses is doing is just making excuses to avoid doing what God was calling him to do. But God knew that. And so, God calms Moses’ fears and sets aside his excuses, and simply says “I will be with you.” Of course, Moses isn’t done making excuses, but God patiently responds, teaches Moses what he must do, and what he must say, so that he is prepared and equipped to do God’s work.

And when we read the story about Peter’s rebuke of Jesus in Matthew 16:21-28, and put it in context, instead of just reading a few verses at a time as we often do on Sunday morning, we discover that the motivation of Peter’s famous rebuke of Jesus could easily have had roots in his feelings of unworthiness. We remember that this story immediately follows the passage we read last week when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter and declared that “on this rock I will build my church.” And with that in mind, let us continue reading with where it says…

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Knowing that Peter’s actions immediately follow the events we discussed last week in which Jesus told Peter that “on this rock I will build my church,” it isn’t hard to imagine that at least a part of his knee-jerk response to Jesus teaching that he must die, is a reaction to his understanding that without Jesus, Peter would be the one responsible to take charge of the other disciples and of Jesus’ ministry in general. It’s one thing to consider what might happen in the future, but our reaction, even to those events for which we planned, can be quite different when faced with the reality of them happening. It was one thing for Jesus to tell Peter that one day he would be in charge, and quite another to announce that he was on his way to Jerusalem to make that happen. In the latter case, Peter reacts by saying, “This shall never happen!” Peter says, ‘No way Jesus! I want you to always be in charge.’

Peter, like Moses, despite planning for the day when Jesus would no longer be with them, doesn’t want the responsibility of carrying out those plans and rebukes Jesus for saying that it was about to happen. No way Jesus, I don’t want to be in charge yet. But Jesus’ reaction to Peter is much sterner than God’s was to Moses. While God patiently told Moses that he would be with him, and answered many of his questions, Jesus calls Peter’s resistance an attack of Satan and calls Peter himself a stumbling block to Jesus and his ministry. Whether we say that Peter’s resistance was hesitancy, or reluctance, or making excuses, Jesus condemns his actions as being focused only on human concerns and not being sufficiently mindful of the concerns of God.

But once again, we ask ourselves, why does this matter? What do Moses’ excuses, or Peter’s reluctance, or any of this have to do with us? And that is what Paul is getting at in his letter to the church in Rome as we hear these words in Romans 12:9-21:

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul emphasizes that love simply isn’t love unless it is sincere. Love that is faked might be beneficial, but it isn’t love and the recipients of that fake love will know the difference. Real love, honors others above ourselves. We cannot just be motivated; we must be zealous for our cause so that we can maintain our spiritual fervor. 

Do you hear the words that Paul is using here? They aren’t average, common, boring, monotonous, or plain vanilla. Paul uses words like love, sincerity, hate, cling, devotion, zeal, and fervor. These are words that express strength, power, energy, and excitement. Our faith was never meant to be boring, and it shouldn’t be, if we’re doing it right. Paul encourages us to bless the people around us, even if they aren’t nice to us in return, to share life with others, to live in harmony and not to be proud or conceited, but to be willing to associate with “people of low position” who are often looked down upon by our culture.

But don’t be misled by Paul’s encouragement to honor others above ourselves, to not be proud, and to associate with people of low position. We should not misunderstand these instructions to mean that we are not worthy. Jesus often set aside his own needs so that he could care for the needs of others. He wasn’t proud, and he wasn’t afraid to associate with all sorts of outcasts.

Rather, it is because we are worthy, because God has chosen us, because we have been adopted into God’s family, that we should engage the people around us regardless of their social class. Like Moses and Peter, God will not allow us to use “worthiness” as an excuse to get out of the work he as placed in front of us.

It is because we are worthy that we must never be lacking in zeal and be continually motivated to serve others so that we can overcome evil with good and call all the worlds’ people to repentance.

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