Unexpected Rescue

April 14, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, cross, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Palm Sunday, rescue, thief, United Methodist

Unexpected Rescue

(Palm Sunday)

Evening Community Worship

First Christian Church

April 13, 2025^*

By Pastor John Partridge

Luke 23:32-43

I gave up watching the television news many years ago, though I am still an avid reader of the news through other sources. As such, while I am online, I sometimes watch a fair number of short YouTube videos that pop-up into my news feed. Among these, I have seen quite a few stories about unexpected rescues of one form or another. This week I saw a fisherman in New Zealand who, while he was out in his kayak, came upon two teenagers who had been out fishing, had trouble with their gear, somehow gotten a hole in their own kayak, and possibly lost one of their paddles as well. He loaned them a knife to cut away their fouled gear and took them under tow until he came upon a fisherman with a motorboat that could more easily assist them. These young men could have been in a lot of trouble if the first man had not come along when he did.

But this isn’t the only story like that on the internet. I have also seen stories of fishing charters in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico who rescued a dog that had gotten swept off his own boat and had been swimming, out of sight of land, for at least two days. I have also seen fishermen who rescued a stray kitten swimming in the bayou in Louisiana, or even wild animals that had no business being as far from shore as they were. In these cases, both humans and animals could very easily have lost their lives if the right person had not come along at just the right moment.

And it was those sorts of stories that came to mind as I read the scripture for this evening that is found in Luke 23:32-43. In this story, we find Jesus and two other men, hanging on three crosses, one on either side of him. All of them have been arrested by the appropriate authorities, all of them have had at least one trial, been convicted, and sentenced to death. But the conversations that we hear in this passage can teach us many things if we think carefully about them. As we join the story, we hear this:

³²Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.³³When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar³⁷and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

³⁹One of the criminals who hung there, hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

While this is not the main point of tonight’s message, the first thing that I noticed about this story was that it immediately describes the men on either side of Jesus as criminals. Even though all three men have been arrested by the legal authorities (at least once), tried and convicted in court, and sentenced, the other two men are labeled as criminals, but Jesus is not.

Isn’t that curious?

Of course, Jesus is the hero of our story, and we believe that his arrest, trial, and conviction were all unfair and unjust, and so while we are willing to take Luke’s version of the story at face value and believe that the other men were criminals, we don’t think that Jesus was. In any case, we should perhaps consider the difference in the way that we describe Jesus and these two men when we think about our own judicial system and perhaps even the current rush to deport people who have been labeled as criminals but whose trials, if there were any, may have been unjust and unfair. Are we as willing to give modern persons in our judicial system the same grace that we give to Jesus as we read the story of the crucifixion? Again, this isn’t really the focus of my message, but it seems like something that we should think about.

The next things that I noticed in this passage, and this certainly is the focus of tonight’s message, is that three times Luke tells us that others press Jesus to save himself. First, people in the crowd watching the crucifixion say that if Jesus is really the Messiah, and since Jesus saved others, that he should now miraculously save himself. The second time it is the soldiers and the third time it is one of the criminals openly mocks Jesus and tells him to save himself and the two of them as well.

And that is where we begin to find the story of the unexpected rescue because, immediately after one of the two men hurls out insults in this way, the other comes to Jesus’ defense saying that while they are being punished justly for the things that they had actually done, Jesus had done nothing wrong. Having said that, the same man asks Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom.

It is here that we find the first unexpected and surprising thing, and that is that despite having the obvious understanding that all three of them were going to die before the sun set that evening, this man still has some expectation that Jesus would still come into his kingdom. That means that this man who was so easily labeled as a criminal has some understanding that Jesus’ kingdom lies beyond the boundaries of life and death. And that depth of understanding is something that Jesus had tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to those had come to hear him preach in the countryside, repeatedly to his disciples, and even to Pilate. It isn’t until well after the resurrection, and at least two meetings with the risen Jesus, that the disciples begin to understand what this thief grasps as he hangs on the cross.

The second unexpected and surprising thing is Jesus’ answer, “today you will be with me in paradise.” Not only did this thief understand something about Jesus that few, if anyone else really did, Jesus accepts his request and tells him that his rescue has already been accomplished and he will stand with Jesus in paradise before the day is over. Just like the dog in the Gulf of Mexico, this man was certain to die before sunset, but suddenly, unexpectedly, his life was saved, he was pulled from the water and taken to a new home. Moreover, it is notable that the man on the cross did nothing else. Despite the attempts by any number of denominations and countless theologians to explain how it is that we can live with Jesus in paradise, this man does almost none of the things that are usually listed. He isn’t baptized, he doesn’t make any particular speech declaring his love, trust, or faith in Jesus, he doesn’t proclaim Jesus, or his love or faith in Jesus, in public or even to any of his friends in private. Jesus’ rescue of the thief on the cross breaks nearly every rule written by every denomination of what each of us must do to receive eternal life and live in paradise with Jesus.

Now, to be clear, I agree with many theologians who point out that just because there is an exception to a rule, doesn’t necessarily mean that the exception becomes, or defines, the rule. Just because the thief on the cross did nothing doesn’t mean that everyone else is accepted by God by doing nothing. Even so, we are struck by this story in which this man is unexpectedly rescued simply because he was in the right place, at the right time, and with the right attitude, even if it is extraordinarily odd that the right place, in this case, was hanging on a cross.

But, even if the exception doesn’t become the rule, there are still some things that we can, and should, take away from Luke’s story. First, no matter what you have done, no matter how many people have written you off, no matter how many times that you have been accused and even convicted, you are never so far from God that you cannot be rescued. Second, no matter how late it is, no matter how old you are, no matter how much that you have done, no matter how far that you have wandered from God, no matter how many times that you have turned your back on God, on the church, on your pastor, on your family, or anything else, it is never too late to return to God. God always stands ready to love you and accept you back into his family no matter what you have done or how long that you have done it.

Luke describes these men as criminals, and we often just refer to them collectively as the thieves on the cross, but I am not certain that we really know which crimes for which they may have been convicted. They may have been thieves, but they might also have been cutthroats, rapists, tax evaders, rebels, murderers, or any number of other things. The point is, once this man came to Jesus and, with sincerity, asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom, God stood ready to forgive him, accept him, and welcome him into paradise.

What about you?

God loves you.

It’s never too late to change the direction of your life. You can never be too far from God.

You can never be too bad, or too sinful, or too anything that God won’t welcome you back to his family.

All that you need to do to change the direction of your life and gain your invitation into paradise, is to come to Jesus and ask.

All the rest, as theologically important as they might be, are just details.

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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.™

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Testing the Status Quo

April 13, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Palm Sunday, status quo, triumphal, United Methodist

Testing the Status Quo

(Palm Sunday)

April 13, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Luke 19:28-40

Are you familiar with the word, status quo? It’s used in English, although it is one of those terms that came into our language unchanged from its original Latin. Status quo simply means “the way that things are.” Referring to the status quo often refers to how the politics of power and bureaucracy exist and function in our world. This term can be used to describe everything from the World Bank to the United Nations, the government of the United States, or even the way that chores are divided in our homes. It can be difficult to fight the status quo to reorganize our household chore chart if everyone has done the same thing for a long time. But using this language of changing the status quo might also be a part of the conversation when we remember that the United States Constitution does not enshrine a two-party system, and we are free to elect people from as many parties as we wish. There are no rules against dividing power differently than we currently do, as it relates to the number of political parties that we have, but any sort of change would require a major upheaval of the status quo. And you can be sure that those people who currently benefit from the current system, the current status quo, would fight tooth and nail to preserve things the way that they are.

What does any of that have to do with our remembrance of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday? If we’re honest, it has everything to do with it, and understanding the status quo is almost required if we are to understand what is happening in the story of Luke 19:28-40 where we read this:

²⁸After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ³⁰“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.”

³²Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

³⁵They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. ³⁶As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

³⁷When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

³⁸“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

⁴⁰“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

One of the first things that you notice is the emphasis on trust. Jesus sends two of his disciples ahead into the village of Bethpage, tells them what they will find, what to do, and what to say if anyone questions them. We’ve read it so many times that it is familiar and comfortable to us, but if we read it as if it were happening the first time, it is incredibly weird. Jesus hasn’t been to this place, as far as anyone knows, and yet he knows everything about it. But, despite the strangeness of it all, the disciples choose to trust Jesus and do what he asks of them. Once they get there, and they find the colt just as Jesus had said, as expected the owners of the colt ask them what they’re doing, and they say what Jesus told them to say, “The Lord needs it.” Oddly enough, the owners accept this as an explanation and we find that the owners of the colt, who had no advance warning or explanation that this was going to happen, simply choose to trust that this weirdness is okay and let the disciples take the colt for Jesus to use. Thus, from the very beginning of this story, we are led to understand that the entire story, regardless of where it goes next, is a story about trust.

And so, let’s look at where it goes next.

As Jesus, riding the colt, begins the descent down the Mount of Olives, which is the last bit before starting up the road into the city of Jerusalem, and from which the Temple and it outer courts were not only plainly visible but would have completely dominated the view, and it is here that the people begin to shout praises to Jesus. The problem, however, is that the praises that are being shouted are the praises of a king and a conqueror and not that of a wandering rabbi and teacher. As such, some Pharisees confront Jesus and demand that he quiet his disciples and stop saying those things.

But the whole reason that the Pharisees wanted Jesus’ disciples to stop shouting was because they wanted to protect the status quo. The status quo, in this case, was that the Romans controlled the government of Israel while sharing a small portion of their power with the ruling elites of Israel, most notably many of the Sadducees, and also allowing a mostly free practice of the Jewish religion which was overseen by the Pharisees. If Jesus were to be accepted as the king, or as much of anything more than a wandering rabbi and teacher, then the Romans would be unhappy, they might change the status quo, and the Sadducees and Pharisees might not have the power, authority, and freedom that they currently had. And so, the Pharisees were intent upon doing everything that they could to maintain the status quo and keep hold of the power that they had in the existing system.

But Jesus replies to them that if the people kept quiet, then the stones themselves would cry out. Looking deeper, what Jesus tells them, is that it is more important that God be obeyed than for the status quo to remain the same. And that, my friends, is a question that we must constantly be asking ourselves, even in the twenty first century.

How often do we do the things that we do simply because that is what is expected, or how we’ve always done it, or because it’s traditional, or because our political leaders say that this is how things should be done? Maintaining the status quo and satisfying our political leaders, or church leaders, or the school board, or even our laws and our law enforcement officers should not be our primary objective. Instead, our first, foremost, and overarching goal should be to obey God.

As I noted a few moments ago, the story that we just read began with a story about trust, indicating that the entire story would be something that we should connect to that theme. And so, as we think about the status quo, we should think about our trust in God. Should we trust God, or our political party? God or our favorite politician? Should we trust God or the status quo?

If our local schools or libraries enact policies that are contrary to the teachings of God, we are called to stand against them. If our government acts unjustly we are called to oppose it. If our political party, or our favorite politician acts unjustly or acts in other ways that do not follow God, then we are obligated to stand in opposition or to violate those laws as an act of justice. We cannot support authority, tradition, or the status quo if doing so causes us to take a position in opposition to God.

If Jesus and the disciples trust God so much that they were prepared to disobey the law, tradition, and church leaders in defiance of an unjust and ungodly status quo, how can we do any less?

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Forward from Worthless

April 6, 2025April 6, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon

Forward from Worthless

April 06, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

Have you ever had a time when everything went wrong. Maybe you got laid off, or fired, or maybe it was a health problem, or bankruptcy, or any one of a few hundred other situations where you just felt like things couldn’t get any worse and you felt like the world thought you were worthless. One form of conventional wisdom is that when you find rock bottom, the only direction that you can go is up, but the more cynical conventional wisdom is that no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse. And so naturally, a worthwhile question arises, “When I find myself at the bottom, where should I go next?”

As we begin this morning, we read the words of the prophet Isaiah who, at the time, was writing to the people of Israel who had been carried off into captivity in Babylon. Their nation had been defeated, their cities destroyed, their Temple and their worship had been demolished, and many of the people, especially anyone who had any nobility, royal blood, or even demonstrated leadership skills, had been carried off into slavery. The only people left in Israel were peasant farmers and shepherds that Babylon needed to generate tax money.

It isn’t hard to imagine that the people were, at this point, highly discouraged, without hope, and struggling with a feeling of utter worthlessness. And so, it is at this moment that God, through his servant Isaiah, send this message to his people in Isaiah 43:16-21:

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

God says, Remember who I am. I am the one who made a path for Israel to walk across the sea and defeat the army of a superpower at the same time. I know that things are terrible, but let’s forget how things used to be and look forward to something new. Just as I led your nation through forty years in the wilderness and led you into the Promised Land, I am making a path for you through the desert today. If captivity feels like being lost in the desert, then I want you to know that I am the one who will bring you water, food, and protection from the wild animals. I am the God who cares for his people, I have a plan for you, and I am, even now, making a path for you into the future. In this way, despite their feelings of worthlessness, God was declaring Israel’s value.

But there is another kind of worthlessness that we should consider this morning but to understand that we must begin with a story about someone who believed that they were worth more than the people around them. We find that story in John 12:1-8, where we hear the story about Jesus’ betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot as it is contrasted with the selflessness of Lazarus’ sister Mary.

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

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

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

The story begins with Mary pouring out a bottle of perfume that cost the equivalent of a year’s wages just so that she could honor Jesus. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were not wealthy. This was an extravagant gift that they certainly could not afford. That bottle of perfume was, quite likely, a part of Mary’s retirement saving’s plan or other long-term investment rather than trusting her money to the bankers, moneylenders, or the priests at the temple. But she poured it all out on Jesus’ feet as a demonstration of trust, loyalty, and honor.

In contrast, John shows us the reaction of Judas to Mary’s gift. Judas immediately complains that if Mary was going to give Jesus such an expensive gift, then they should have sold it rather than pouring it out so that they could use the money to help the poor. But John editorially tells us that Judas really didn’t care about the poor, Judas only cared about himself. If they had sold the perfume, then Judas, as the club treasurer, could have embezzled a bunch of it without anyone noticing.

As we look at these two characters, we see that while Mary was selfless, giving, trusting, and honorable, Judas was disingenuous, selfish, and self-centered. Even from a superficial reading of this story, it is obvious that Mary is the person that is supposed to be the hero, and whom we are supposed to admire, and after whom we are to model our lives. But even so, as we look at our culture, both in the first century and today, the people that our culture admires have more in common with Judas than Mary.

Paul addresses this cultural flaw in his letter to the church in Philippi and explains that while he once followed the self-centered path modeled by Judas and admired by his culture, he has found a different path in Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3:4b-14 Paul says:

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised 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; ⁶as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What 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 ⁹and 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. ¹⁰I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not 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. ¹³Brothers 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, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul says that if anyone had a self-absorbed, narcissistic reason to be confident in who they were and in what they had accomplished, it would have been him. He was, and had done, everything that a good Jew aspired to do be and to do. He was born into the right family, had the right pedigree, went to the right schools, had the right teachers and the right training, was associated with the right people, had the right resume, was known for his enthusiasm and passion, was found to be faultless in understanding and in obeying the law in every aspect, and was even a Roman citizen.

And yet, no matter what things he had and his record of accomplishments, once he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and had chosen to follow him, Paul considered everything else to be a stinking pile of garbage. He understood that a resume of righteousness built on what “I” have done, the family from which “I” came, and who “I” am because of how I have studied, understood, and obeyed the law, was utterly and entirely worthless. Paul realized and understood that, in Christ, the “I,” “me,” “my,” of everything in my life became worthless except as it leads us to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection and in our participation in his suffering so that we can receive the gift of resurrection from him.

Once he recognized how following Jesus changed his life, and once he understood how following Jesus made his narcissism, self-confidence, and self-reliance worthless, only then did Paul begin a new life in which he could move forward toward the goal for which God had called him through Jesus Christ. As humans, the more that we crow about who we are and the things that we have done, the less that we are useful and valuable to God. It is only when we realize the worthlessness of our pride, selfishness, and narcissism that we can move forward towards our calling in Jesus Christ.

It is said that addicts cannot accept help and begin to heal until they find themselves at rock bottom and this has much in common with our journey in faith as we follow Jesus Christ. We cannot begin to move forward towards the life to which God has called us, until we understand the worthlessness of trying to do it ourselves. How we were born, who we know, and what we have accomplished mean nothing. Our righteousness and value to God comes from Christ alone. And, until we understand that, we cannot begin to move forward.

May we, like Paul, understand that we need to surrender our resume if we want to gain our resurrection in Christ.

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Reconciliation, Restoration, and Prejudice

March 30, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, Moses, Ohio, Paul, prejudice, reconciliation, restoration, transfiguration

Reconciliation, Restoration, and Prejudice

March 30, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

Have you ever done major, even irreversible damage to a relationship? You said the wrong thing, spoke hastily in anger, didn’t show up when you needed to be there, failed to stand up for a friend, or walked out when you should have given a hug instead? There are many things that we can do, or fail to do, that can damage our relationships with the people that we care about. But if we want those people in our lives, then we need to find a way to make amends, to apologize, mend fences, and rebuild the trust that was broken. Sometimes that isn’t possible, but you can never know for sure if you don’t try. But sometimes the relationship that was damaged was the one between us and God. And when that happens, we have some choices to make about how we go about restoring our relationship and rebuilding trust. And so, this morning, we take a look at several scriptures that speak to restoration, reconciliation, and the obstacles that can stand between us, distance us from God, and cause damage to our relationship.

We begin this morning reading from Joshua 5:9-12 and we hear about the return of Israel to the land that God had promised to them from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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

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

On the day of Passover, everyone eats a meal that is laid out in the tradition of that celebration: green vegetables or potatoes symbolizing the coming of spring, Haroset, a combination of fruits, wine or honey, and nuts, symbolizing the mortar that the Israelites used to built the temples in Egypt, bitter herbs symbolizing the bitterness of slavery, boiled eggs symbolizing hope, a roasted beet symbolizing the blood of the Temple sacrifice, and matzah or unleavened bread symbolizing the bread of affliction that the Israelites ate during their time in Egypt. But as the people celebrate Passover, and the fulfillment of God’s promise seen in their arrival in the Promised Land, the very next day, the manna that had fed them for forty years in the desert… stopped.

And now, rather than eat the manna that God provided, the intermediate necessity given to aid in their survival, the people now ate the food that God provided by means of the land itself. No longer were they wandering in the desert, now they were home in a fertile land that could provide them with the food that they needed. Now, God had fulfilled his promise, and the people were restored to the land. The ending of God’s daily provision of manna represented their restoration to the land and the restoration of their relationship with God.

The problem that we have, as the people of God, is when we get in our own way and decide that groups of people aren’t good enough even when God hasn’t said any such thing. Jesus makes this point in Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 and exposes the prejudice of the Pharisees as he tells the parable about the prodigal son saying:

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

³Then Jesus told them this parable:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s review the highlights of that conversation. The Pharisees accuse Jesus of consorting with the wrong kind of people whereupon Jesus tells them a story in which the son that was always faithful and who did everything right, and the son who clearly represented the Pharisees in this case, got angry because the father, who represents God, chose to be merciful to the son that made mistakes, repented, and returned to his father. The elder son goes as far as to declare that the younger son is not his brother, but his father gently reminds him that his brother was once dead but is alive again. The critical piece is that while the father is willing to forgive and reconcile with his lost son, the older brother’s prejudice corrupts his heart into excluding the people that don’t fit into the roles that he expects them to fill. It is his prejudice that excludes his brother and not the sins of which he believes his brother to be guilty.

By means of this story, Jesus was telling the Pharisees that their attitude towards those that they labelled as sinners was the same prejudice seen in the older brother. It was that prejudice that prevented them from extending God’s grace and forgiveness to the people who wanted to repent and return to God. But how does that extend to us? In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Paul tells us how this applies to the work of the church and how it applies to us in our modern day lives. Paul says:

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

Paul says that we all need to stop looking at the people around us the way that the world looks at people. Instead, we must see the people around us as the new creations of Jesus Christ. Each person who repents and comes to Jesus is reconciled to God because of the sacrifice that was made on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice made it possible for all of us… and the emphasis here should not be missed, all of us… to become the righteousness of God.

But as Paul warned the church in Corinth, we must be careful that we see the people around us as new creations in Jesus Christ and not to judge them with the prejudice of the world. We cannot see people as sinners and outcasts as the Pharisees did, or as traitors and scoundrels as the older brother did, or even as Democrats, Republicans, poor, rich, immigrants, or any other label that our modern culture wants to use, but instead we must see the people around us as the Jesus and as the prodigal son’s father did, and be open to forgiveness, grace, reconciliation, restoration, peace, and love. Holding on to our prejudice, as the older brother did, will prevent us from receiving the grace, forgiveness, and the blessings that God intends for us.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

May the people around us see God in us… and not our prejudice and bias.

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Not Just Average

March 16, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, excellent, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, tranformed, transform, water, wine

Not Just Average

March 16, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 62:1-5 John 2:1-11 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

It’s no secret that some of us do better than others when it comes to things like standing in front of a crowd to speak, or even to make an announcement. We have members of our staff-parish relations committee that are happy to do work behind the scenes, even if that is most, or even all of the real work, as long as someone else stands in front of the church to make the announcement and present appreciation gifts to the staff. The same is often true whenever your pastor, or church growth consultant, or anyone else suggests that you invite your friends to church or share your faith in Jesus with your friends and neighbors. Even for many of us who are comfortable speaking in public, suddenly, we freeze up and don’t want to do it.

There are a lot of reasons for that, and I’m sure that a psychologist or behaviorist would have a lot to say about it, but much of it boils down to it being the fear of the unfamiliar. But of course, that isn’t what we tell people, or even what we will admit to ourselves. At some level, that fear is felt as an innate shyness that we try to explain away. We don’t want to admit, even to ourselves, that we are afraid.

And so, we tell ourselves things like, “I’m not anybody important.” “Nobody wants to hear what I have to say.” “I don’t stand out. I am not one of the beautiful people. I am not particularly smart. I do not excel at anything. Nobody will listen to me. I don’t speak very well.” Or even, “I’m just kind of average.”

But we need to stop doing that.

We are not average.

You are not average.

God’s people were never intended to be average even though the people around them sometimes saw them as average, or worse. In Isaiah 62:1-5, God explains that there is a day coming when the world will see his people the way that they really are. While Israel’s neighbors and enemies saw them as defeated, destroyed, and desolate, God saw his people differently.

^62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
²The nations will see your vindication,
    and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
³You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
⁴No longer will they call you Deserted,
    or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
    and your land Beulah
for the Lord will take delight in you,
    and your land will be married.
⁵As a young man marries a young woman,
    so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
    so will your God rejoice over you.

God says that a day will come when Israel will be vindicated, and people will see them the way that God sees them. Rather than seeing the nation of Israel as a defeated, destroyed land full of desolation, the world will see them as God’s splendorous crown, the royal gemstone in the scepter of God. And new names will be upon the lips of the nations, instead of being named as deserted, God’s people will be known as God’s delight, and the land as the land of God’s family. God will rejoice over his people in the same way that a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

I also offer as evidence of the standards that we see in God’s creative power, the story of Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee that we read in John 2:1-11:

^2:1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ²and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so, they filled them to the brim.

⁸Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, ⁹and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

¹¹What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Once again, this story is well known to us and a great many sermons have been written about it, but for today I want to focus simply on the quality of the miracle, or expressed another way, the quality that we see in this expression of God’s creative power. When the wine was taken to the master of the banquet, he declared that what he had tasted was “choice wine” and he was so struck by the quality of it, that he called the bridegroom aside and complimented him on it, and noted that it was ordinary for cheaper wine to be brought out at this stage of a banquet because the guests would have already had too much to drink and wouldn’t notice the difference. In this case, cheap wine of inferior quality would have been both ordinary and acceptable. Wine of even average quality would have been more than was expected and likely would still have received praise from the master of the banquet and good quality wine would have made a positive impression. But the wine that Jesus made was not inferior, was not average, and was beyond even that of a good quality vintage. The wine that Jesus created was top shelf, top tier, premier, choice quality wine, the best of the best.

Just like we heard from Isaiah, God did not create his people to be average, God created them to be his delight and a gemstone in his scepter. Likewise, God’s creation is not something of average, or even of good, respectable quality. God’s creation is choice, premier, and the best of the best. This is what I want you to keep in mind as we read Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth as he reminds them where they came from, what God has done for them, and how God is transforming their lives. In 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 we hear this:

^12:1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of languages, and to still another the interpretation of languages. ¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Paul spells out the idea that although the people of the church had once been pagans, they could now easily say things like, “Jesus is Lord.” That alone, Paul says, is evidence that they have been transformed from a life devoted to pagan gods, filled with the Holy Spirit, and transformed into a new creation in Jesus Christ. And, because they are a new creation of Jesus Christ, every one of them have been given gifts by God’s Spirit. Although the gifts that they have been given are different from one another, Paul says that each of them should be seen as a manifestation, an embodiment, or an outward and visible sign of the working and the presence of the Spirit of God in them. All these gifts are from the same God, from the same Spirit, and all of them are to work together to accomplish the mission and ministry of God.

But just to make sure that you all see my point, I want to remind you of what Paul said, “There are different kinds of working, but in all of them, and in everyone, it is the same God at work.”

In everyone.

Quite simply, that means that you… have gifts. The God who created the universe has given you gifts. Moreover, the God who said that his people are a delight and a cherished treasure, and the God who creates, always and everywhere with excellence even when average would be more than good enough, that God has given you gifts. It is that God who has sent his spirit to live in you, it is that God that has transformed your life, and it is that God that has called you into his service.

You are not average.

You were never intended to be average.

We need to get out of our own heads, and we need to stop saying things like, “I’m not anybody important.” “Nobody wants to hear what I have to say.” or “I’m just kind of average.”

You are important because the God of creation, who never created anything less than wonderful, has chosen you, has taken up residence inside of you, and has transformed your life to become his new creation.

You are not average. You were never intended to be average. You… are a saint of God, renewed, transformed, and empowered to do God’s work.

Let us put behind us any pretense that we aren’t good enough, live into the reality that we are a part of God’s magnificent excellence, and get busy telling the world that God can transform their lives too.

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Invite or Die

March 11, 2025 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, attend, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, conversations, faith, grow, intentional, invite, Jesus, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, United Methodist

The Importance of Being Invitational

March 01, 2025

by John Partridge

This past week (February 23^rd), the Sebring United Methodist Church held their last worship service. Shortly, they will turn the keys to their building over to the East Ohio Annual Conference and next week their congregation will begin to worship with the neighboring Presbyterian church. Officially, the United Methodist congregation will still exist, but as a partner to the Presbyterian congregation and with a single pastor that serves both paper churches in the same sanctuary. I don’t know if this will be listed as a church closure at Annual Conference or if they will name it something else, but from a conversation that I had with one of their church members, for some of them, it sure feels as if the church has ended and they are grieving a death.

I am also aware of another local congregation that will soon make the decision to close. No public statement has yet been made so I will not provide any more details beyond the following. They might make it until Easter or might stretch until summer, but financially, the writing on the wall seems to be clear that soon they will be unable to pay their bills. Here at Christ Church, it appears that we are continuing to grow, but slowly. Even so, the losses that we have seen in recent years are being seen in our budget and in the offering plate. If we had not inherited our endowment from the faithful members of earlier generations, we might well be facing a similar crisis.

Rather than wring our hands, and worry about the future, there are things that we can be doing. Separate from church, I would like to show you two examples. You may know that Troop and Pack 50 are both doing well. Monday evening six more Cubs received their Arrow of Light award and crossed over into our scout troop. But every year, our Cub scouts, scouts, and scout leaders have recruiting drives. During this time of year, every elementary school will be visited, flyers are sent home, presentations are made, questions are answered, and children and their parents are invited to join the Cub pack. Scouts also regularly invite their friends from school, an open house(s) is held, more parents are invited, more questions are answered, and our scout troop sometimes even holds a campout at Silver Park to demonstrate scouting skills to the public and invite young people to join the pack or troop, as appropriate.

Two years ago, the Sebring Model Railroad Club, where I am a member, decided to do something different in the way that they promoted their annual open house. A generation ago, they would run an advertisement in the local newspaper, distribute a few flyers around town, and a thousand or more people would visit and donate to the club. But, as we have seen in the church, in recent years fewer people subscribe to, or read, newspapers. One result has been that attendance at the club open house fell from well over a thousand, to just over a hundred. But two years ago, the club decided to try something different. We printed two thousand business cards that invited folks to our open house. Every club member was expected to pass out 75 to 100 cards over the span of a few months, inviting friends, coworkers, and anyone they met throughout their day. We also purchased yard signs for members to put out along the streets where they lived. And attendance increased. What’s more, as we’ve done a better job advertising ourselves, our membership has increased as well. We still have a long way to go before we see the kind of crowds that were common a generation ago but, so far, we’ve been able to double our attendance. This year, we’re trying something else that is new to us. We know that it’s going to take time, but we’re willing to innovate and experiment. Our survival depends upon it.

I am convinced that Troop and Pack 50 are healthy and growing, in part, because of the efforts that they make to be invitational. I am certain that the Sebring Model Railroad Club would not be doing as well as they are if they had not decided to innovate, experiment, and be more personally invitational. What may have worked a generation ago, doesn’t necessarily work today. There are many reasons why the members of Christ Church choose to attend here. The people are great, the music program is strong, the building is gorgeous and well maintained, and the pastor might be okay as well. But no one is likely to know that unless someone tells them. Even people who know something about us probably won’t come unless someone invites them.

At the model railroad club, two thousand invitations (last year) increased our attendance by one hundred guests. That works out to be a success rate of about one in twenty. What if we did that at Christ Church? What if every regular attender invited twenty people over the course of the year? If we had that same kind of success at the train club, the result might be eighty first-time visitors each year and some percentage of those might choose to attend more often or even join the church. If we all choose to innovate and experiment, it is entirely possible that we could double the size of our congregation in five years. Doing what we’ve done for generations doesn’t guarantee success.

It is important that every one of us becomes more invitational. Maybe that means we have more conversations with the people that we meet in the community, or that we become more intentional about passing out invitation cards. But it is important that we do something different.

Our survival may depend upon it.

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Year in Review: 2024

March 6, 2025 PastorPartridge Blogs 2024, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, difference, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, neighborhood, Ohio, outreach, United

2024 Year in Review

by John Partridge

Once again, our “End of Year” reports have been filed with the East Ohio Annual Conference office. And so, as always, this seems like a suitable time to look at how we did and how things are going. Of course, numbers don’t tell us everything, but I think we had a good year overall.

We began 2024 with 281 members. Over the course of the year, we lost only one member to death and one to transfer, which is much less than in most previous years. In addition, we added six new members, which again, is one more than the previous year. So, we ended the year with 285 members. As I mentioned last year, our survival as a church depends upon us inviting new people to worship, connecting them to small groups and other ministries of the church, so that they eventually feel that becoming a member is an easy decision.

I had expected that our attendance would increase, and it did, but perhaps not as much as I had hoped. But, regardless of my expectations, our average attendance did increase from 70 to 72 and it is always good when we move in a positive direction. Our online attendance via YouTube fell from 36 to 20, likely because we were not streaming during the Advent and Christmas season which normally have more viewers. And our United Women in Faith saw a modest decline in membership falling from 55 to 53. Once again, we saw an increase in attendance with the number of children and youth in attendance increasing from 11 to 13 and overall, Sunday school attendance increasing from 44 to 46. Overall, given our average attendance in worship, the number of persons attending Sunday school is astounding in comparison to national averages.

After seeing a seven percent decline in giving last year, this year we stayed almost flat with a 63-dollar decline. This is good news compared to last year, but as we all know, our expenses aren’t going down any time soon, so this remains a concern. Worse, since our church will no longer sell our burgers in the park during the Carnation Days festival, we can already project a decline in that income for this year.

Our Facebook page has stayed the same with 298 followers and, despite our current livestream hiatus, our YouTube channel has increased from 123 subscribers to 137. Our online sermon webpage gets about 71 visits per week with a slight increase over last year, those same sermons are sent out to 447 subscribers by email, which is an increase of 147 over last year. Of those, about 10 percent actually open the emails, which is about 45 people, and that’s down a little from last year.

So, what does all that mean?

It means that we are still relevant, and people are still finding value in what we do. It means that Christ Church is connected to 13 ministries for outreach, justice, and mercy for the poor and the socially marginalized. One of the informal questions that has been used for years has been, “If your church disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in your neighborhood notice?” And clearly, the answer to that is a resounding “Yes.” Many of our neighbors rely on us to get through each week and that means that what we are doing is important. It also means that, through our online presence, we are having an impact far beyond the walls of our church even if we might never meet the people with whom we are connecting. And in a world where declining attendance is normal, our attendance is increasing, and the average age of our congregation is shifting younger.

These are all good things. But we still have challenges in front of us. Our expenses will continue to go up and the loss of many older givers has hurt us. If attendance and giving does not increase, we will soon be faced with the necessity of cutting our budget and staff. We hope that we will not need to make these hard choices. But I know that the people of Christ Church believe in what we are doing so I hope that each of us will continue to invite our friends and neighbors and spread the word about how we are making a difference in downtown Alliance.

Overall, the good things that we are seeing outweigh the negatives. We are doing good. We are growing. We are making a difference and changing the world one life at a time. There is good reason for us to have hope for a brighter future.

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Doing What’s Right… As IF.

March 5, 2025 PastorPartridge Blogs act, Alliance, Ash Wednesday, Bible, Broadway, christianity, faith, God, injustice, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, justice, Lent, Methodist, Ohio

Doing What’s Right… As IF.

A Meditation for Ash Wednesday

March 05, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

In Isaiah 58, I hear the prophet Isaiah use what I can only describe as a really dark sort of sarcasm. God says, “Day after day they seek me out and they seem eager to know my ways, as if the were a nation that did what is right.” The use of the term, “as if” is almost that same as my generation used as sarcasm in the 1980’s. We would negate entire sentences by ending them with the phrase “as if” or “not.” I think you understand, but as an example, we would say something like, “That’s really beautiful… not.” Or “The government of the United States is very efficient and productive… as if.” Isaiah’s complaint is that the people of Israel, apparently as individuals and perhaps collectively as a nation, act as if they seek God, but complain that God doesn’t seem to notice their fasting and humility.

But in response, God says that it isn’t enough to seem like you want to know God. It isn’t enough to pretend that following God is important. You cannot fast and pray, and, on the same day, commit your favorite sins, abuse and exploit your workers, argue, and get into fights. If you want God to take you seriously, your life must look like more than an act.

What God really wants from us isn’t a good religious show.

What God wants is to fight against injustice, to rescue the oppressed, to share what you have with the hungry, to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and care for your family.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹²Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.(Isaiah 58:9-12)

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Fear and the Unexpected

February 23, 2025February 23, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, blame, Broadway, call, Christ, Christ Church, church, fear, forgiveness, frightening, God, grace, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Joseph, Methodist, Ohio, Pharoah, terror, unexpected

Fear and the Unexpected

February 23, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 45:3-11, 15 Luke 6:27-38

What kinds of things scare you?

It might be things that jump out at you, or strange noises at night, or it might be those worries that keep you awake at night. We worry about our children, about our finances, insurance, taxes, and all sorts of other things. But in our story this morning, the fear that is unlocked begins with a fear of hunger and starvation, but ultimately shifts into a nightmare when the sons of Jacob, also known as Israel, discover that the brother they had nearly murdered, left for dead in an empty cistern, and then sold into slavery, is now standing in front of them and is the second most powerful person in Egypt. As Joseph reveals himself in Genesis 45:3-11,15, we feel the fear in the room as we hear this:

³Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! ⁵And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. ⁶For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. ⁷But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

⁸“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. ⁹Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. ¹⁰You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me; you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks, and herds, and all you have. ¹¹I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’

¹⁵And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

Our storyteller says that Joseph’s brothers were terrified and, truthfully, without exaggeration, they had every reason to be terrified. As soon as they learned that Joseph was the man in front of them, a man who ruled over the nation of Egypt second only to Pharaoh and surrounded by armed guards. All that Joseph had to do was to give the order and all of them would simply disappear into the desert… or worse. He had every reason to hate them and to want revenge for what they had done to him. Their terror was real. It was as if their worst regret and guilt married their worst nightmare and jumped out at them in the dark of night. They were totally doomed, and they knew it.

But then, Joseph tells them a story about how God had sent him to Egypt so that he could save his family and protect them. Even more than the surprise and fear of discovering that this powerful ruler was their brother, Joseph’s grace and forgiveness was far more unexpected.

And this is the same sort of unexpected grace that Jesus teaches in Luke 6:27-38 as he teaches how his followers ought to behave towards the people around them, the people that abuse them, and even the people who hate them and try to kill them. Jesus said:

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

³²“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Jesus teaches that being nice to the people who are nice to you is neither remarkable nor admirable. Anyone can do that, and some of the most evil people on earth have done so. But being a follower of Jesus Christ takes us on a different, unexpected, and sometimes frightening path upon which Jesus calls us to show grace and forgiveness to those that don’t deserve it. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you are not the things that our culture, and ordinary human nature, wants us to do. Giving a shirt to someone who has already taken your coat runs entirely against our instinctive response to fight back, and giving to everyone who asks goes far beyond the nature of even the most generous among us.

Our culture has trained us to blame others, to paint those who disagree with us with a broad brush and assume a list of prejudices that they must have. Surely, everyone who voted for the candidate you supported is good, and everyone who voted for their opponent is evil. Surely, my friend lost their job because of immigration, or because of big business, or because taxes are too high, or because government is inefficient, or something else, because we feel we absolutely must point blame away from ourselves. But Jesus commands us not to judge people, or to condemn them, but instead to forgive because the way that we judge, the way that we condemn, the way that we give, and the way that we forgive, is the way that God will judge, condemn, forgive, and give to us on the day that we stand before him in judgement. If we want the blessing of God, then we must be the people who give, and who show grace and forgiveness to the people around us.

God’s love and grace is often unexpected. We live out our lives and sometimes we find ourselves in situations that frighten us. We worry about our children, our grandchildren, our finances, our health, our future, our safety, and all sorts of other things. But no matter where we go, and no matter what frightening situations that we face, God goes with us. And, like Joseph and his brothers, sometimes God uses those frightening situations to reveal his grace and bring about our rescue. And, like Joseph and his brothers, sometimes God uses our trials and suffering, sometimes some of the worst experiences of our lives, to prepare us to be instruments of God’s grace, forgiveness, and rescue to others. If Joseph had not been sold into slavery by his brothers, and later thrown into prison because of the false accusations of rape by Potiphar’s wife, he never would have met Pharoah, never would have interpreted Pharoah’s dream, never would have become Pharoah’s second in command, and never would have been able to rescue his family, God’s people, and all of Egypt. God’s grace was revealed, and made possible, by Joseph’s suffering.

And that unexpected grace is passed on to us. Sometimes, like Joseph, we might become instruments of God’s grace because of what we have suffered, experienced, endured, or learned from our past. But sometimes, we become instruments of God’s grace and forgiveness because we do the unexpected thing and follow Jesus instead of our culture and human nature. We become Jesus to the people around us when we love our enemies, do good to the people who hate us, bless the people who curse us, pray for the people who mistreat us, turn the other cheek, do not judge, and do not condemn, but instead become the people who are known for their forgiveness, their generosity, their compassion, and their love.

Because, in the end, we must remember the unexpected, and frightening, call of Jesus.

“For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

May we be so filled with God’s grace and forgiveness that the people around us will see and experience the love of Jesus through us.

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The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, blessing, Broadway, Christ, church, curse, faith, faithful, faithfullness, God, happiness, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, power, resurrection, trust, United, United Methodist, wealth

The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 17:5-10 Luke 6:17-26 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

How many of you, at one time or another, have watched some of the television preachers or televangelists? Most of us have. Although the names have changed over the years, televised church services, and sometimes even just pre-recorded Sunday school lessons, remain a staple of national programming. The problem is that what motivates television stations to air a particular church, or a particular pastor isn’t whether their message is theologically sound or morally edifying, their motivation is based almost entirely on popularity and the ability to sell commercials or, in some cases, to be paid by the churches themselves in such a way that the television station makes money.

And so, as many of you may have noticed, the messages that air on television are often flawed theologically. In particular, many television preachers promote what is referred to as prosperity theology, which is, simply put, if you are prosperous, God must have blessed you, or put another way, if you are genuinely faithful, then God will make you rich. And just in case you haven’t heard me mention this a dozen time before, that message cannot be found in the Bible and is entirely contrary to much of what the Bible actually teaches.

We begin this morning by reading a message from Jeremiah, in which God’s prophet pronounces what might just be one of the most anti-political, and anti-cultural messages of all time. Here, Jeremiah speaks out against anyone who believes that their king, president, political party, or military might will make their lives better, happier, or more prosperous. Worse, Jeremiah declares that anyone who believes those things will be cursed by God. The good news is Jeremiah also teaches us what we need to do if we genuinely want to be blessed by God. We begin this morning by hearing the words of Jeremiah 17:5-10 as Jeremiah declares to the people:

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

¹⁰“I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”

Jeremiah declares that anyone who trusts that the actions of human beings, such as governments or people in positions of power, will make their lives better, or who looks to those people for emotional strength, will be cursed and not blessed because, in most cases, putting our trust in humans is a path toward losing our trust in God. When we do that, God says, we become starved like a bush in the wasteland that never sees prosperity even when it comes to everyone else. However, blessing comes to the people who put their trust and confidence in God. When we do that, we live as if we were a tree planted by a river so that we gain strength and courage even in times of heat and drought.

In the end, God says that what matters is your heart condition. If you trust God, that is what matters. God isn’t going to judge us by which human being we followed but at whether we behaved the way that God has taught us to behave. Moreover, God’s blessing doesn’t come to us because we said the right words, or because we believed the right sorts of cultural things, but because we lived the kind of life that God taught us to live and did the things that God has taught us to do.

And, as much as people sometimes try to dismiss the Old Testament, this is much the same message that Jesus preaches in his sermon in Luke 6:17-26that we now refer to as the beatitudes, where it says:

¹⁷He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, ¹⁹and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

²⁰Looking at his disciples, he said:

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

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

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

If we look at this well-known message of Jesus with the words of Jeremiah in mind, we can understand the first section about blessings almost as one long, run-on sentence that says that if any of these things that sound bad happen to you because of your faith and trust in Jesus, or because you are doing the things that Jesus taught us to do, then God will bless you. Your blessing might not happen here on earth, but God will give you a reward in heaven. Jesus points out that all these sorts of mistreatment are exactly the sorts of things that happened to the prophets of the Old Testament.

And then, in the second half of the reading, Jesus lists a bunch of things that sound like they would be good things, things that Israel’s culture, and our culture, normally think of as blessings. But these things, wealth, prosperity, comfort, abundant food, laughter, and the admiration of others, Jesus says are warning signs that you are in trouble with God. Why? Because, once again, if we examine Jesus’ words in light of what we read in Jeremiah, it’s because our trust has been misplaced, and we have come to trust humans instead of God. Like Jeremiah, Jesus warns us all that the comforts and temptations of wealth, prosperity, happiness, and the admiration of others can distract us from our faith and obedience to God while the situations that we think of as misfortune, such as poverty, hunger, sadness, and the hostility of others are precisely those things that often shift our focus towards God and compel us to trust God for the things that we need.

And finally, in his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul adds one more thing upon which our faith pivots. Jeremiah preached that we needed to put our trust in God and to live and act the way that God has taught us. Jesus preached that those things that draw us toward God, even if we often think of them as undesirable, are good simply because those misfortunes will become the source of heavenly blessings when God examines our faith. And to these important things, Paul writes to the church in Corinth and adds this pivotal belief in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20:

¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Paul says that our entire faith, as the followers of Jesus Christ, hinges on the central belief that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Although there have been those throughout the centuries that have taught that Jesus did not physically die, or that rising from the dead is impossible, Paul says that our entire faith hinges on this one point. Because if Jesus only swooned, or passed out, and didn’t really die, then our entire faith falls apart. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we believe in nothing because Jesus was a mortal human being the same as us and has no power to rescue us from sin and death. Jesus’ death and resurrection is a core doctrine and belief of our faith and so, that faith must be combined with our faith and trust in God, and our rejection of those things, like wealth, prosperity, comfort, abundant food, laughter, the admiration of others, and the influence and power of politicians, and persons of power that would tempt us to trust in anything other than God.

Prosperity theology and far too many television preachers teach that if you are prosperous, God must have blessed you, or that if you are genuinely faithful, then God will make you rich.

But what the truth of scripture teaches, is that the people who are blessed, trust in God and have confidence in God. But those who put their trust in other human beings, and anything else that distracts us from God will be cursed like a bush in the wastelands and will not see prosperity even when it comes to everyone else.

May we always keep Jesus Christ in the center of our lives and trust only in him.

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Pastor Partridge

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The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

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