My dear friend, Rev. Chris Martin, heard that our son Jonah and his girlfriend would be visiting from Texas, took me aside, and essentially told me that he would be preaching this week so that I could take the time to enjoy being with my family and not worry about preparing a message. As it turned out, there would be another, more tragic reason that I would need to be with my family that week. My sincere thanks to Pastor Chris as he was not only listening to his heart as he made his generous offer to preach, but must also have been listening to the whispers of the Holy Spirit who knew that our family would need it.
Click on the links below to watch this worship service or listen to the podcast as Pastor Chris explain why…
The last year and nine months has been, and continues to be, a long, strange, whirlwind of constant changes, news stories, changes, adaptations, and continued hope for a return to something approaching the “normal” that we remember. Because of the threat of the coronavirus, and the statewide lockdown, we were unable to meet in person for Christmas Eve and so we did the best that we could to “meet” one another virtually. Due to the hard work of our church staff and volunteers, and the amazing video editing of Bob Wallace, we produced a Christmas Eve video that I think surpassed almost any other similar attempt.
But as good as it was, it just wasn’t the same.
No matter how well we celebrated the arrival of the Christ child individually, there was still something missing. Christmas wasn’t the same without being together.
Families are like that. When we are apart, we can mail our gifts to one another, but it isn’t the same as being together. In fact, for many of us, giving and receiving gifts has lost the urgency and the sparkle that it had when we were children. What’s important, and treasured, now is just being together, seeing one another, sharing our stories and our lives, and just spending time together.
And Christmas Eve is all of that, and more. Because the Spirit of God dwells within each one of us as the followers of Jesus, when we are together, we feel the presence, not only of other people, but also the presence of God himself. That’s true every Sunday, and any time that we meet in groups that are large or small, but if you are like me, we feel that sensation of closeness to God most keenly only a few times each year and one of those times is on Christmas Eve.
This year, many of us will, once again, meet together, in person, for Christmas Eve, but we will also be livestreaming that worship service for anyone who is unable to attend or who still feels uncomfortable being around a crowd of people. Rest assured, however, that we continue to encourage mask wear for everyone in attendance and remember that there is ample room to find seats with plenty of “social distance” between you and others. In fact, if this year looks like others in recent history, you can probably have the balcony all to yourself.
But, whichever, option you choose, I hope that you will join us. Moreover, I hope that each one of you will invite at least five others to join us. Christmas Eve is easily one of the most attended worship services of the year in almost every church in North America and, for that reason, is a time when friends are most willing to accept an invitation to attend.
Christmas Eve and Christmas are a time when we draw close to one another, and draw close to God, in a way that is both special and memorable not just because of the people, but because it is a time when we encounter the Spirit of God in a special way. Of course, we will share the extraordinary experience of hearing our choirs, bell choirs, pipe organ, and singing traditional and meaningful carols of Christmas together. But most importantly, we will remember the story of God’s invasion of the earth and the arrival of the Christ child, who would become the rescuer and redeemer of all humanity.
I hope that you will join us as we draw closer one another, and closer to God, together.
There are several well-known phrases that we’ve probably all heard.
We’ve all heard that “money can’t buy happiness” and we’ve probably all heard the Beatles sing “Can’t Buy Me Love” in which Paul McCartney sings: “I don’t care too much for money, Money can’t buy me love.”
Let’s be honest, money is powerful and can do many things, but there are things that all the money and power in the world can’t change. And that idea is an integral part of what today’s scriptures have to say. We begin in Job 23:1-9, 16-17, as Job complains that as he is suffering with the loss of his family and his fortune, he cannot seem to find God.
23:1 Then Job answered:
2 “Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. 3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! 4 I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. 6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. 7 There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 “If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; 9 on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; 17 If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!
If we listen, Job’s words hold some interesting contradictions. Job insists that he wants to find God, to give voice to his arguments about his innocence and insist upon hearing God’s answers. But, at the same time, he understands that while he expects that God would listen, he knows that God is not likely to engage in an argument and he hopes that God would acquit him of any guilt. We also hear Job insist that he has been searching everywhere and wants to find God, but at the same time finds the idea of meeting God a terrifying prospect that makes him wish that he could be invisible and disappear into the darkness. Job essentially says that he can’t find God but he’s afraid that he will.
Job knew that he was a faithful man who had once had money, power, and the blessings of God. But he also knew that his money, power, and faith, amounted to nothing in comparison to an all-powerful creator God. Job understood that no matter how much he demanded his day in court there was nothing that he could do to sway God’s opinion.
We often forget that. We forget how powerless we really are and how powerful God is. In our modern era of spaceflight and computers, a time when we have bent creation to our will by moving mountains and stopping the flow of rivers, we are persuaded to think too much of ourselves. We have lost Job’s fear of the power of God and have come to believe in a domesticated God that bends to our will. To be fair, we aren’t the first to have done so. In Mark 10:17-31, Jesus meets a man of wealth, and probably some power, who has become so accustomed to getting what he wants that he has become arrogant and blind to his own shortcomings.
17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it isto enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
It might be reasonable for you to wonder why I said that this man was blind to his own shortcomings. And, in answer, I would point to how Jesus answered his question about eternal life. Jesus begins to recite the ten commandments, from the middle. He skips past the parts about honoring God, lists almost all the rest, and then deliberately skips one. Remember that this is exactly the sort of thing that people memorized in the synagogue in preparation for adulthood, so we can be reasonably certain that everyone listening was silently reciting the ten commandments to themselves as Jesus recited them. But rather than taking note of the commandment that Jesus skipped, the man arrogantly declares that he has kept all the commandments since he was a youth. But the commandment that Jesus skipped is the one that the man stumbled over. Do not covet. Don’t covet your neighbor’s wife, and don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff. And to make that point even sharper, Jesus tells the man that to find eternal life, to prove that he didn’t covet money, he would need to give away his wealth.
The disciples, I think, got Jesus’ point because they are terrified by his answer. Jesus is teaching that it is easy for money to tempt us away from God. Money has a way of making us want… more money. The disciples knew that while it was easy to say that we didn’t steal or kill, everyone wants more money. If Jesus is going to use that as a measuring stick to get into heaven, then no one can get in. Peter protests by saying that even though he likes money, and may even covet the money of others, he has demonstrated his love for Jesus by leaving behind his family, friends, and his job to follow him. And Jesus agrees. This was the point he was trying to make. But Peter had the humility to see and acknowledge that he fell short of God’s standard.
The disciples realized that they could of great wealth and great power do not. They are deceived by the illusion of control that is brought by wealth and power and they become arrogant and blind to their own shortcomings. That is why Jesus says that many who are first will be last and the last will be first. The people who have everything, and who get to be first in line for everything, will have deceived themselves into believing that they are right with God, but the people who have little, and who are often last in line, are aware of their faults and their need for God.
The writer of Hebrews describes God’s judgement this way in Hebrews 4:12-16:
12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Peter and the other disciples were terrified when they realized that the desire for money and power, something that almost all of us want at least a little of, was a sin that could keep us out of the kingdom of God. God is the righteous judge.
Because our faith is in Jesus Christ, and because he was tested and lived his entire life without sin, we rest in knowing that he is our high priest. Jesus stands between us and God, and between us and judgement. Because of Jesus, we approach the throne of God, not with fear and the terror of judgement, but with boldness and confidence in the grace of Jesus. We know that through Jesus Christ we will find mercy and grace in the place of judgement.
Sir Paul was right. Money can’t buy me love.
Money can’t buy happiness.
It can’t buy peace, cheat death, find God, calm fear, buy forgiveness humility, repentance, righteousness, or admission to heaven. God will not be domesticated. All the money and power in the world won’t do us any good on the day of judgement and many people will discover that they put their trust and faith in the wrong places.
We will all render an accounting of our lives. Not only for our actions but also for the intentions of our hearts. Perfection is the standard of God and not one of us is perfect. The only thing that will save us on the day of judgement, is the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.
Job searched for God but was terrified of what he would find when he met him.
But we look forward to meeting Jesus with humility and boldness… because in him, and in him only, do we find…
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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 John 6:51-58 Ephesians 5:15-20
You should always be sure to read the fine print.
You know what I mean. Department stores do it all the time. You get an ad in the mail that says there is 75 percent off “everything” but in the tiny print at the very bottom, it says that the sale doesn’t apply to clothing, toys, housewares, and just about everything else in the store. I read one of those once and I was hard pressed to think of anything that wasn’t excluded in the fine print.
You see commercials on television selling amazing new drugs that say that they can cure all sorts of things, but in the fine print warn you about side effects that sound a lot worse than the thing you want a cure for. Military recruiters promise that they’ll put you into a particular school, or job, but we all know that the fine print in your contract basically says, “we promise to give this to you… unless we can’t, and then we can do anything we please.”
So common is this experience with fine print, that we often have our own lawyers look over important contracts so that we can discover and understand what has been hidden in the fine print. And so many of us have seen it, or been burned by it, that we all understand what it means when people describe the fine print by saying, “The devil is in the details.”
But if we read carefully, the strange thing is that sometimes God is in the details too. Sometimes God makes us promises that come with some fine print, and it is important for us to read and understand exactly what God is, and is not, promising. We begin this morning as David dies and is buried with his ancestors, and as his son Solomon takes his place on the throne of Israel. And, at that moment, Solomon receives one of history’s greatest and well-known blessings. But if we pay close attention, that blessing came with some fine print. (1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14)
2:10 Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.
3:3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” 15 Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream.
This exchange between Solomon and God is well-known even among people with no religious background. God tells Solomon to ask for whatever he wants, and rather than asking for money, power, or a long life, Solomon asks instead for a discerning heart so that he would be able to rule well. God is so pleased with Solomon’s request, that he chooses to not only give him the thing for which he asked, but also all those things for which he did not ask. God promises to give Solomon wisdom, but also wealth, honor, and a long life.
And right there is the fine print.
God promises to give Solomon wealth and power no matter what, but his promise of a long life comes with fine print. God says that he will give Solomon a long life… IF he obeys God and keeps his decrees and commandments as well as his father David had. Of course, we know that David wasn’t perfect, so God isn’t requiring Solomon to be perfect, but God has an exclusion clause. If Solomon doesn’t keep his part of the deal, God can end his contract and find another king that will.
And if you are tempted to think that this is a unique case, we discover that Jesus does the same thing in John 6:51-58 when he says:
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Jesus says, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” And then, a little bit later he says, “the one who feeds on me will live, because of me” and, “whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” This is exclusionary, small print, language. Jesus doesn’t say that because he came to earth, everyone will live forever. Jesus doesn’t say that anyone who has communion once, or who comes to church once, or who comes to church for a while and then quits, or who choose to follow him for a while and then quits, all get to live forever. Jesus says, “the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” The implication of this language is that eating and drinking the flesh of the Son of Man is an ongoing, continuous action and not something that we do once and then coast. This is almost exactly like God’s wording in his promise to Solomon when he said, “if you walk in obedience.” These are a future tense that implies a continuous action and not something that is accomplished once and completed.
Paul emphasizes this in his letter to the church in Ephesus when he says in Ephesians 5:15-20:
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says, don’t be foolish. Don’t just get drunk to dull the pain and then allow yourself to get drawn into sin. Instead, fill yourself, and your time, with spiritual things so that you will… always give thanks to God… for everything. Paul echoes what we heard from the stories of Solomon and Jesus and emphasizes that following Jesus isn’t something that we do once, or for a little while, and then coast. Following Jesus, being filled by the Spirit, caring for one another, worshiping together, and giving thanks to God are things that we are to do continuously or, as Paul said, “always.”
They say that the devil is in the details, but so is God.
From Solomon, we learned that we must not just be obedient, but that we must keep on being obedient and continuously keep God’s decrees and commands throughout our lives.
From Jesus, we learned that we must continue to share in the Lord’s supper, to continue to feed on the word of God and remain in love with Jesus.
And from Paul, we learned that we must always fill our time, and our souls, with spiritual things, and always give thanks to God.
Following Jesus has never been “one and done.” We cannot claim Jesus once, or follow Jesus once, or go to church once, and say that we’re done. Even the verb “to follow” is a continuous tense. It is a thing that we begin to do, and never stop.
Because, when we read the fine print, we understand that what Jesus said was, if you do this… continuously, you will… truly…
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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
We would never dream of putting up a sign that said, “Unvaccinated? Keep OUT.”
But that’s exactly what we’re doing.
It’s become a cliché to ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” But this week, I’ve been thinking church should be asking itself what Paul would do. Of course, anyone who has spent any time in church or Vacation Bible School has heard about Paul the Apostle. Paul was born in Tarsus which was a part of what is now the nation of Turkey. But despite being born far from Rome, Paul was born to parents who were both Jews and Roman citizens.
There were privileges that came with being a Roman citizen. It was as if the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights only applied to citizens, and you carried those rights wherever you went, anywhere in the Roman world. Non-citizens didn’t have the same rights and slaves certainly did not have them. Romans could not be beaten or treated harshly, and while they could be arrested, they couldn’t be tried in any court outside of Rome but had to be returned to Rome, or to a Roman court, for trial. In modern language, citizens were privileged.
But Paul didn’t always use that privilege. Paul found that sometimes his privilege, his rights, his citizenship, and even his freedom, was a disadvantage when sharing the message of Jesus with the people around him. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul said:
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Even though Paul was not a slave, he sometimes gave up the rights that he had so that he could be heard by the slaves and share the message of Jesus with them. Even though Paul knew that following Jesus released him from some of the dietary restrictions and rules of the Jewish faith, he would follow those customs when he was with the Jews so that they would be able to hear his words when he shared the gospel. But when Paul was living among the Greeks and other people who were not Jewish, he would follow their customs for the same reason.
Wherever Paul went, he did whatever he could to allow people to hear his message. And that often meant giving up something important. Paul found that his rights, his privileges, and even his freedom, got in the way of people hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. Slaves wouldn’t hear a message that was preached by someone who used their citizenship and their freedom to act better than them. Jews wouldn’t listen to someone who was an outsider and violated their religious laws. And people everywhere feel more comfortable around a person who respects their customs.
But what does that mean to us? What would Paul do if he lived among us today?
As we near what we hope is the end of this pandemic crisis in the United States, we are hearing a lot about rights and privileges. We have a right to move about freely. We are free to choose whether we will wear a mask. And those persons who are vaccinated are being granted special rights and additional freedoms.
But is exercising those freedoms the right thing to do?
I’ve seen churches advertising that they are “Open and Mask-less.” Vendors are selling signs saying that vaccinated persons are welcome in their church. And I’ve seen churches that say things like, “All are welcome. Unvaccinated persons must wear masks.” I understand that these are the rights that are given to us under the United States Constitution, and the privileges of having access to the Covid-19 vaccine. But will exercising these rights prevent us from sharing the message of the gospel?
It was once common for churches to ask visitors to stand up and introduce themselves. That custom made me so uncomfortable that I vowed never to return to any church that made me do it. And so, I worry that requiring unvaccinated persons to wear masks will make them feel unwelcome. We would never dream of putting up a sign that said, “Unvaccinated? Keep OUT.” But that’s exactly what these signs are saying. Anything that draws a line between “us” and “them” is exactly what Paul spent his life trying to avoid.
If Paul were writing today, I wonder if his words wouldn’t be, “Though I am vaccinated, and am free to do as I wish, I have made myself to be unvaccinated, to win as many as possible. To the unvaccinated, I have become unvaccinated to win the unvaccinated. With the mask wearers, I have worn masks, to win those that wear masks.” I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
We have rights. But what if using them turns people away? In the twenty-first century, like Paul, we must be careful that our rights, privileges, and freedoms do not get in the way of people hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.
It’s a question that every parent understands and it’s one that Jonathan Honey, a father of three from Carbon County, Pennsylvania answered last week as he died trying to save his family from a house fire. One child jumped from a second-floor window and was caught, barely, by a neighbor that jumped to meet him in the air, Kierstyn, the mother jumped out of a window cradling and protecting their baby, and Jonathan rushed into the house, found the third child, and put them in a closet before being overcome by carbon monoxide. Kierstyn and the children are all in the hospital with broken bones or burns, but Jonathan lost his life trying to save his family.
It’s tragic, but nearly every parent has imagined what they would do in a similar situation, and nearly every one of us know that we would, without hesitation, risk our lives to save the life of one our children. It difficult as it is to think about, we accept this reality, and we understand that there is no mystery to it. We would risk our lives for our spouses or for our children… because we love them. Our lives change when we have children. We do everything differently. We grocery shop differently, we drive differently, we dress differently, we spend our money and our time differently, we do without things that we like, that we want, and that we are accustomed to having so that our children can have the things that they need. And we do all these things, we turn our adult lives upside down, because we love them.
And it is that understanding of parental love, and risk, that Jesus uses to describe God’s radical and sacrificial love for us in John 10:11-18 when he says:
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
After thousands of years of Jewish and Christian influence, in the twenty-first century, we miss the radical nature of what Jesus was saying. The gods of the world, in the cultures that surrounded Israel were selfish, arrogant, violent, and uncaring. The gods of the Philistines had routinely demanded that parents sacrifice their children for the fertility of their fields and good harvests, the gods of Greece and Rome considered humans to be inferior, unimportant, and without consequence except for use as pawns as they battled against one another. It was common in many of the world’s religions to consider human worshippers to be resources to be spent rather than treasure to be valued. But in that culture, and within that understanding of the relationship between gods and humans, Jesus proclaims a radical idea that he, and Israel’s God, love us in the sacrificial and selfless way that parents love their children. Jesus says that he, like a true shepherd, is willing to lay down his life to protect his sheep.
And in Acts 4:5-12, Peter also preaches that because our God is a god of compassion and love, his disciples and followers are willing to risk their own security to care for those in need. Luke writes this story:
5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Peter and John are legally detained by the authorities and forcibly brought in front of the high priest, his powerful family, and the rulers, elders, and teachers of Jerusalem. All the movers and shakers and powerful people were there. And the question that they ask is, who gave you the power, or permission, to heal a man who was born lame? Peter knows that these men have the power to convict them, punish them, or imprison them if they don’t like their answers. This is a speech that is filled with risk. And yet, Peter does not mince words and without hesitation, proclaims that they have been dragged into court in retribution for an act of compassion. Peter goes on to preach and proclaim the name and the power of Jesus Christ and states, unequivocally, that there is no other name than Jesus, there is no other man, and no other god, on the face of the earth that can rescue humanity before God.
Peter and John knew that healing the lame man carried risk. They knew that telling the truth in front of the power brokers of Israel risked their health and their freedom. But Jesus taught and demonstrated that love and compassion were always worth the risk.
And in his letter to the churches and believers in Asia, John explains this idea of love and risk in more detail in 1 John 3:16-24 saying:
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
John boils it down to the simplest of terms. Jesus demonstrated to us what love is supposed to look like and Jesus gave up his life for us. That example means that that we should be prepared to give up our lives, for the people around us. We must be prepared to risk everything for others. We can’t hold too tightly to any of our material possessions or even to our own lives. If fellow believers are in need, we cannot just heartlessly keep what is ours and allow them to do without. Instead, we must be prepared to risk, to give up some of our possession, some of our creature comforts, some of our rights, or whatever else it might take to meet their needs because Jesus has taught us, and shown us, that this is what true love looks like. Loving with our words and making grand and eloquent speeches is not enough if we don’t risk the things that we have and demonstrate our love through our actions.
Love, real love, true love, isn’t an idea and it isn’t just a feeling.
True love is an action.
And because actions have consequences, we can’t play it safe.
Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
Our current environment of pandemic has returned the word “Vaccine” as a regular term of discussion in ways that it hasn’t since the national fight against Polio in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Everyone is talking about the safety of the various vaccines available, when and where a person might be able to get one, whether they have started, or finished, the vaccination process yet, and how soon vaccination rates might it possible for our lives, and our churches, to return to something resembling the “normal” that we had a year and a half ago. Vaccines are something that are designed to protect us and keep us safe. If we are vaccinated, we hope that they will either keep us from contracting the disease or, if we do contract it, will prevent us from becoming as sick as we otherwise might have.
But as we think about immunizations, it might also be useful to remember that Christianity is not a vaccine. Our Christian faith is not something that we take once, or occasionally, to protect us from evil, from misadventures, or even to protect us from God’s condemnation. Bad things do happen to good people. Christians are afflicted by the forces of evil. And Christian faith means more than periodically showing up to church, or putting money in the offering plate, or memorizing Bible verses. Instead, Christianity, and Christian faith, is a lifestyle to which Jesus calls us and, having accepted that call, it becomes a way in which we choose to pattern our entire lives. Christian faith shapes how we make friends, how we go on vacation, the clothes that we choose to wear, the places that we choose to spend our money, the occupations, and careers that we consider for our life’s work and influences nearly every aspect of our lives. Christianity is less about what we do, and more about who we are as human beings. When we choose to follow Jesus, we announce our intention to pattern our entire lives upon the life that Jesus modeled and taught.
But while Christianity is not a vaccine, our churches, and their members, can, sometimes, act a vaccine against it. While we are good about bringing our children, grandchildren, to church, and even occasionally inviting friends and neighbors, we often fail to “make the sale” and ask them to follow Jesus and become his disciples. The result is that having come to Sunday school a few times, memorized the occasional Bible story, and otherwise had a “little bit of Jesus,” rather than becoming committed followers and disciples of Jesus, they become vaccinated against Christianity instead. Rather than discovering a Jesus that is worth following, they spend their lives thinking that, like a flavor of ice cream, they tried it, but didn’t find it to their liking.
In my mind, it’s a bit like our daughter Lina’s adventure with bananas. When we first met her in China, we tried feeding her bananas, she smiled, she liked them, and wanted more. But one day, as we attempted to give her some bitter tasting medicine, we tried to hide it in a spoonful of bananas. She could taste what we were doing and rejected both the medicine and the banana. And after that single experience as a ten-month-old infant, she wouldn’t eat bananas again for almost two decades.
Too many of our churches, or their members, do this same thing to the children, grandchildren, and visitors that come through our doors. They come to church, or meet church members in secular places, and come away with an experience that leaves a “bad taste” in their mouth. And those bad experiences, whether they happened in church, at work, at school, or anywhere else, can prevent them from returning to church, or to faith, for decades, and sometimes forever.
As we celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, let us recommit ourselves to being true disciples who look and act like Jesus seven days a week, everywhere we go, and in everything that we do. Let us live so that others will want what we have, and not be vaccinated against it, or are left with a “bad taste” that might keep them away. After all, it was Jesus who commanded his followers this way:“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(John 13:34-35)
I pray that we may be known for our love.
Blessings,
Pastor John
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Imagine that you are driving a fifty-three foot long, fully loaded, tractor trailer, weighing thirty-five thousand pounds empty, loaded with forty-five thousand pounds of cargo, for a total of eighty-thousand pounds. Now imagine that, as you are driving over the mountains of West Virginia, constantly shifting through ten to eighteen gears as you ascend and descend the various mountain ridges along the turnpike, that some critical component of your braking systems fail, and as you steadily gain speed going down one of the biggest and steepest grades on the highway, you now have no ability to slow down.
Quickly your speed passes the posted legal limit, and you move to the passing lane to avoid crushing a family in a minivan. You try downshifting but your speed is already too great and still your speed increases. First eighty, then ninety miles per hour, and now you are desperately flashing your lights, honking your horn, and shouting on your CB radio for other trucks to get out of your way as, despite attempting everything that you can think of, your speed continues to increase. You do everything that you can to keep your mind on the task at hand and not to think about how this will inevitably end.
Still your imagination easily pictures mangled cars and a long plummet down the side of forested mountain valley… and then you see it. A sign along the far side of the road announcing that only a mile away, is a runaway truck ramp. You see it in the distance and quickly shift your truck back into the right lane as you race towards it… and almost before you think about what will happen, you leave the highway, race up and impossibly steep slope and feel your truck sink into the loose sand as it tears away at the tires and undercarriage. Small plants, bushes, briars, and grass fly as you plow up the hillside but… finally… your slow… and come to a stop. Your truck is probably totaled, and it will almost certainly take several wreckers, and maybe a bulldozer and a crane to get your truck off the side of this mountain… but you are alive.
Your day might have ended very differently if it hadn’t been for that small sign at the side of the highway. That small sign gave you the warning that you needed to be. That small sign was the symbol of the rescue that waited silently at the side of the road. It saved your life.
It was the sign of your rescue.
For the rest of your life, whenever you see that sign, or one like it, you will remember. And you will give thanks, not just for the sign, but for your life that you live, and the rescue that it represents.
Sometimes signs are more than just symbols.
Keep that in mind as we read the conclusion of the story of Noah in Genesis 9:8-17 where it says…
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
As God prepared to destroy a corrupt civilization, he warned the righteous and offered a way in which they might be rescued from the coming flood. Today, although we argue whether that flood was truly a global event, nearly every culture, on every continent, has tales about a flood that destroyed the world. But just as God provided a way for Noah and his family to survive, he also promised that there would never be another flood with the same destructive power. And you can be sure, that every time that Noah and his family saw the sign of God’s rainbow in the sky above them, it was more than just a symbol. They remembered their rescue… and gave thanks.
But years passed… first decades, then centuries, then millennia, and people forgot. They forgot the flood, they forgot the ark, they forgot the rescue, and they forgot the promise. Eventually, a rainbow was just a rainbow. And then, Jesus began his ministry by submitting to his baptism with John in the Jordan river. We read that story in Mark 1:9-15.
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being temptedby Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
4 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Jesus didn’t need repentance or forgiveness, but he submits to baptism as a sign of his ministry, and as a sign of God’s rescue, to the people of Israel and to the world. The baptism of Jesus is a sign to the world that God was keeping his promises and that, as he had done for Noah and for his family, God was making a way for us to be rescued from the judgement that was coming. The Apostle Peter describes it this way in 1 Peter 3:18-22:
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him.
And so, the disciples themselves understood the connection between the sign of Noah’s rescue and the sign of our rescue with the arrival of the Good News of Jesus Christ and his baptism. Just as Noah and his family passed safely through the waters of the flood, God promises to bring us safely through our life in this strange, difficult, and sometimes hostile world in which we live. Just as the ark carried Noah through the flood to the dry land that eventually followed, the gospel message, and our rescue through our baptism into a new life as a part of God’s family is a sign and a symbol of God’s promise to carry us safely through to the other side through the power of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As God prepared to bring judgment upon a corrupt civilization in the time of Noah, he warned the righteous and offered a way in which they might be rescued from the coming flood. And now, as God prepares to bring final judgement upon all of humanity, he once again brings a warning to anyone who will listen and offers a way in which we might be rescued. We remember that long ago, when Noah and his family looked into the sky and saw the sign of the rainbow above them, it was more than just a symbol. They remembered their rescue… and gave thanks. Like them, as we remember our baptism, while it is a sign and a symbol, it is also so much more than that because we see that sign, and we remember our rescue… and give thanks.
As humanity hurtles down the side of the mountain toward certain doom, there is in baptism, a sign at the side of the road pointing toward one last chance to see tomorrow. It may not be the most impressive, amazing, or artistic sign, but it is a sign of rescue, a sign of belonging… and a sign of hope.
Let us remember our rescue and give thanks but let us also point as many others toward that sign as we possibly can so that they too can find Jesus, find rescue, find hope, and arrive, with us, on the shores of a new life on the other side.
Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
The other day I looked, and I had pickles on my feet.
Okay, they weren’t really pickles. What I had, was a pair of socks that looked as if they said “PICKLES” written on the toe. What they really said, or were supposed to say, was “DICKIES” but, because of a particular choice of font, the way that the ink had been applied, and a little wear, what had been intended as a brand marking suddenly reminded me of cucumbers in brine. Obviously, the two things are in no way similar. Or at least they shouldn’t be.
But it got me to thinking (and that’s always risky).
How often are we mistaken for something that we are not?
We’ve all heard stories about people who were assaulted, or worse, because they were mistaken for someone, or something else. We’ve seen national stories about people of color who simply decided to go running in the “wrong” neighborhood, innocent young persons who were assumed to have bad intentions because of the clothing that they wore, or even new reporters on assignment who were attacked by police. Many of those incidents were racially motivated, and inexcusable for any reason. But those situations, and pickles on my feet, illustrate how easy it can be to be mistaken for something, or someone that we aren’t… or at least, that we shouldn’t be.
How often are we, as Christians, mistaken for something, or someone, that we are not?
Or, to think of it in another way, how often do we appear to be someone that we should not?
It happens. We get tired. We get angry. And our impatience, anxiety, exhaustion, and frustration cause us to look different. These normal, human, emotions, especially in times of stress (like we might experience during a pandemic), can cause Christians to say and do things that do not represent the church, or Jesus, well. A harsh word, and angry email, forgetting to tip an overworked and underpaid server, mistreating an employee, an angry or short-tempered reply to a store employee, or a hundred other ways we can act, poorly, because of our frustration and impatience.
And so, I hope that all of us will occasionally take a moment to breathe. I encourage all of us to pause for a moment, whenever necessary, before we speak. And, in that moment, let us consider how we will look when we “wear” those words. Let us ask ourselves if those words and actions will make us look like Jesus, or as his followers, or will they cause the people around us to mistake us for someone, or something else.
It doesn’t take much.
A little wear around the edges and suddenly “Dickies” looks like “Pickles.”
Now, more than ever, we should commit ourselves to doing everything that we can so that our friends, family, employers, employees, coworkers, and everyone around us can look at us and see Jesus… and not someone else.
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Certainly, some of you said yes, but the truth is that we all have some sort of heart condition. Some of our hearts are strong, others are less so. Some of our hearts are giving and generous, and others less so. Some hearts are warm, and others are cold, and so on. The average person has a resting pulse rate between 66 and 72 beats per minute. Athletes in endurance sports can commonly have pulse rates between 30 and 40 beats per minute. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps’ was said to be 38 beats per minute at his peak, and
Miguel Indurain, an Olympic cycling gold medalist in 1996, and a five-time winner of the Tour de France is said to have registered a resting pulse rate of only 28 beat per minute. Those athletes were likely in the peak of health and we would probably never describe them as having a heart condition, and yet, if you are I were to go to the doctor with a pulse rate anywhere close to 30, we would probably be in an ambulance before we could blink. The condition of an athlete’s heart is medically and numerically different than the average person and their doctors understand the difference.
But throughout scripture, we discover that God has a keen interest in the condition of your heart. In story after story, the message that we hear is much like the messages that we hear from our doctors, and that is, having the wrong kind of heart condition can be both dangerous and fatal. And in John 14:15-21, Jesus points our that just as we wouldn’t expect someone with a pacemaker to compete in the Olympic games, neither should we expect someone with a spiritual heart condition to be the same as those who do not. Jesus said,
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus says that the world cannot accept God because they can’t see God. We can’t expect the world to obey God and act the way that we do, because they don’t have the same heart that we do. But because we do know God, because we do have a heart for God, then we are expected to obey the commands of God. And, by loving God, and by obeying God’s commands, we receive the gift of life. When we obey God, we know that God loves us back and reveals himself to us.
But although it seems like it’s a popular thing to do in our modern culture, simply loving and obeying “some” god, or “some” spirit, and just being generally “spiritual” isn’t enough. In Acts 17:22-31, Paul explains it this way:
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So, you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Our modern culture would not be that unfamiliar to the people that Paul knew in Athens. Many people were very spiritual, they each chose a god, and a style of worship that they liked, and Paul even found that they had built a place of worship for an “unknown god” just in case they missed one. But in a message that might just resonate with us while we worry about our safety during this pandemic and shelter in place, Paul’s message is that none of these gods, and indeed none of these places of worship, were necessary. The God who created the universe doesn’t live in temples or churches, or in anything built by human hands, and doesn’t need anything from us. But although God doesn’t need anything, he desires that the people of his creation would look for him, find him, hear his voice, repent, and return to a relationship with him. God doesn’t need us, but what he wants, is a relationship with us, and for us to have a heart for with him. What God wants, is for us to have the right kind of heart condition.
But what difference does it make?
What difference does it make if we have a heart for God, and the kind of a heart condition that God wants?
The difference has everything to do with fear, freedom, rest, and being comfortable in your own skin and is described by Peter in 1 Peter 3:13-22, where he says:
13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
First, Paul notes that people usually notice when you are trying to do good and, most often, no one wants to stop you from doing good. But, even if you suffer for doing what is right, you can find comfort in knowing that you are blessed. If you get arrested for feeding the homeless or get beat up because you stopped a bully from beating up the new kid, God still knows that you were doing the right thing. But Paul also knows that when these things happen, people are going to want to know why you did it and, when they ask, we should be prepared to tell them why we have hope, and why that hope makes us want to do what is right, even when doing right causes us suffering. And, if you noticed, Paul says that the reason that we do it is that our hearts revere Christ as Lord. We have a heart condition, but it’s the right kind of heart condition.
If we have hope, if we revere Jesus as Lord, if we do what is right, if we are prepared with an answer, and if we answer with gentleness and respect, then we will have a clear conscience and the people that slander us will ultimately bring shame upon themselves. The example that we follow is the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered for doing what was right. He suffered to make a path for us and bring us to God. It is because of Jesus death and resurrection that baptism has become the symbol of our rescue and rebirth into a new life and into a new kind of heart condition. Baptism, Paul says, was never about washing the dirt from our physical bodies, but about our heart condition. Once we have our hearts in the right place, once we begin to have the heart of Jesus, then our conscience toward God becomes clear. We live at peace and are at rest because we have a clear conscience toward God. We become fearless, and experience true freedom, because our conscience is clear. We become comfortable in our own skin, and with who we are, because we have the right kind of heart condition.
Our goal isn’t to have a resting pulse rate of 40 beats per minute, but like those elite athletes, our goal is to have a different kind of a heart.
Our goal is to have a clear conscience toward God.
Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
Pastor Partridge 