faithful

Promise, Proof, Patience

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Promise, Proof, Patience

(Third Sunday of Advent)

December 14, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 35:1-10                        James 5:7-10              Matthew 11:2-11

At the end of last week’s service, we remembered that there is more to the meaning of peace than the absence of war. It is, instead, a place of comfort and an absence of stress and conflict such that we can have peace even in the midst of war. But this week, as we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent, we celebrate joy. But again, what is joy? We talk a lot about joy, especially during the Advent and Christmas seasons, and a great many works of art and music reference or speak openly of joy. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the Ode to Joy in which he describes joy as a beautiful spark of divinity and a daughter of Elysium, the hymn, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, which is also known as the Hymn of Joy, says that all the works of God surround him with joy. All of these teach that joy comes from the power that God has demonstrated, the character of who God is, the love that God has shown to his creation, and the faithfulness that God has demonstrated in keeping his promises. Much of what we read and remember during the seasons of Advent and Christmas focus on that, on the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people. And that is what we see in our scriptures as we begin this morning by reading the promises of God given to his people through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 35:1-10 where we hear these words:

35:1 The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

8 And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness;
    it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there,
    nor any ravenous beast;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
10     and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

God says that the desert will bloom, Israel will become as green and as verdant as the nation of Lebanon which supplied much of the ancient world with the massive cedar timbers that were used to build temples and other important buildings. He says that the eyes of the blind would be opened, the deaf would hear, the lame would be healed, the mute would speak, and Israel would become a place of safety and holiness. And it is precisely those promises that we hear Jesus lift up when John the Baptist began to have doubts and sent his disciples to ask if Jesus is really the Messiah that God had promised. We find that story in the words of Matthew in Matthew 11:2-11 when he says:

2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosyare cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way before you.’

11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

When John asks if Jesus is the Messiah that God had promised, Jesus points back to the words of Isaiah and simply says, “Go back and report… what you hear and see.” The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the incurable is cured, the dead are raised, and the good news of God even reaches the poor. After John’s disciples leave to give him the message, Jesus goes on to say that the mission of John the Baptist had been exactly what the prophet Malachi had foretold, to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah.

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way before you.’ (Malachi 3:1)

Jesus says that if there is any doubt that he is the Messiah, then just look at the proof the everyone could see with their own eyes. Jesus was doing the things that God’s prophets had predicted hundreds of years earlier. But not all of them. Some of the things that God promised through Isaiah did not come to pass in the time of Jesus and have not yet happened in our own time. This was understood in the first century as much as it is today. Israel had not yet achieved the greatness that Isaiah described, the desert has not yet been transformed, and Jerusalem is not yet a place of safety and holiness. But as God’s people considered these things, the Apostle James encouraged them by saying that just because it had not happened yet, didn’t mean that it wasn’t going to happen. In James 5:7-10 he said:

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

James, and the people of the first century understood that while Jesus had not fulfilled all of God’s promises during his time on earth, that he had fulfilled enough to prove that he was the Messiah and would fulfill the remaining promises upon his return. Until then, James said, be patient. Just as farmers must be patient as they wait for a crop that they have planted, we must have faith in the process and wait. We must be patient and stand firm in our faith and trust in God’s character. And as we wait, we must treat each other well and not grumble and complain about what other siblings in Christ are doing or how they do it. James understood the truth that many of those in the church in the first century, and in the twenty-first century, did not have a great life. Many of those who believed in Jesus Christ had endured suffering and few of us can escape suffering as we live our lives upon the earth. As such, James points to the prophets themselves, nearly all of whom suffered even after answering the call to speak for God. But even in their suffering, they were patient because they knew that God would be victorious over evil and they trusted their lives, their futures, their descendants, and their eternity in God’s hands.

The message of joy that we hear during the season of Advent is that our God is faithful and always keeps his promises. He has proven his faithfulness in the life, death, and resurrection of his son, Jesus, and we are called to be patient as we endure the suffering and struggle of our lives on earth until the return of Jesus Christ, and his final victory over sin and death.

In the stories of scripture, and in the stories of Christmas, we have seen the evidence of God’s faithfulness…

…and we are filled with joy.

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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.™

The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

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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:

5 This 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.
6 That 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.
8 They 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.”

9 The 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:

17 He 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, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
22 Blessed 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.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe 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:

12 But 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? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More 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. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But 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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*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.™

Photo by clafouti on Freeimages.com

The Reward of Faithfulness

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The Reward of Faithfulness

December 31, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3                 Luke 2:22-40                          Galatians 4:4-7

The world had changed. The world in which I have worked as an adult bears little resemblance to the working world that my grandfather knew, only some resemblance to the world that my father knew, and I’m certain that the world in which my grandchildren eventually work will similarly be different. Once upon a time, it was common for men, because it was men, to get hired, work their entire lives, and retire from the same company, and get a gold watch or something similarly symbolic after 30 or 40 years of their lives at that employer. That sort of thing is rare rather than common today, although retirees might still get gold watch watches or similar retirement gifts in some places. It was once common for those retirees to receive pensions at their retirement, but again, employers that even offer a pension are rare rather common in today’s working world.

But if there aren’t gold watches and pensions given at retirement, then what is the reward for thirty or forty years of faithfulness? And, since we’re asking the question, what reward do we receive for a lifetime of service and faithfulness to God? We gain some insight into this as we read the words contained in Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 where it says:

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

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.
2 The 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.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Isaiah says that God has deliberately set the people and the nation of Israel apart from the rest of the world and clothed them in salvation and righteousness. God’s mysterious and irresistible spirit is at work planting a garden of righteousness and praise throughout the nations of the world so that one day, Israel will be exonerated and declared innocent of all accusations that have been made against her and she will be called by a new name, given to her by God. On that day Jerusalem will be a jewel in the crown of God almighty. But, given the news from Israel that we see each day today, that day has not yet come. But God is not done with human history, and we see signs in Luke 2:22-40 that foreshadow the future as we meet several characters of the Christmas story, see their faithfulness before God, and hear how God rewards them:

22 When the days for their purification were completed according to the Law of Moses, they brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, 23 as it is prescribed in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord,” 24 and to offer a sacrifice in accordance with what is stated in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

25 At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This upright and devout man was awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not experience death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

27 Prompted by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was required by the Law, 28 he took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Now, Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace,
    according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31     which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples,
32 a light of revelation to the Gentiles
    and glory for your people Israel.”

33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, 35 so that the secret thoughts of many will be revealed, and you yourself a sword will pierce.”

36 There was also present a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very advanced in years, having lived with her husband for seven years after their marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment, she came forward and began to praise God, while she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

39 When they had fulfilled everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was upon him.

The first people that we encounter in this story are Mary and Joseph who, being the faithful people that we already know them to be, bring Jesus, their firstborn son, to the temple to present him before God. There, the law required the sacrifice of either two doves or two young pigeons. One thing of which we can be certain from history, is that Mary and Joseph were poor. They, and 90 percent of Israel’s population, existed at a subsistence level. They earned, or grew, just enough to stay alive. It is likely that the purchase of two doves was more than they could have afforded, and even two common street pigeons was probably a financial stretch unless there was a way for them to catch their own but, given the corruption that we see surrounding temple sacrifices during Jesus’ adult ministry… probably not. But in any case, despite the financial strain that it placed on the family, Mary and Joseph do whatever needs to be done so that they can follow the law and start their son off right before God.

Next, we meet Simeon who had been a faithful, upright, and devout follower of God for his entire life, in whom God’s spirit rested, and to whom God’s spirit had revealed the coming of the promised Messiah. Simeon is led, by God, to the temple courts on this specific day, for this specific moment, and when he sees Mary and Joseph, he takes their baby in his arms, gives thanks, and praises God for keeping his promises to Israel, to the world, and to him personally.

Likewise, Mary and Joseph also meet Anna, a woman who had tragically been widowed only seven years after her marriage, left destitute and penniless, and, as was sometimes done in charity, had moved into the temple as a servant. But somewhere along the way, her faithfulness to God had been rewarded by God with the gift of prophecy. And she also was led by God, at that specific moment, to meet this holy family and lift praises to God for sending the Messiah, deliverer, and rescuer of Jerusalem.

Each of these people had arrived at the temple because of their faithfulness. Simeon and Anna were both rewarded by being among the first people on earth to see the fulfillment of God’s promises and to meet, in person, the Messiah, rescuer, and redeemer of Israel. Mary and Joseph were able to hear, and to witness, these saints of God proclaim the truth of who their son would become, and they later witnessed their son grow in strength, wisdom, and in the favor of God.

But again, what about us?

What does all this mean to us two thousand years later?

To put it simply, now, as it was then, there is a reward for our faithfulness to God. In Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia (Galatians 4:4-7), he writes this:

4 However, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying out “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if you are a son, then through God you are also an heir.

The Messiah, rescuer, and redeemer that was promised in the words of Isaiah, who was born to Mary and Joseph, and who lived, died, and rose again, whose story is contained in the gospels, came to earth so that we might be adopted into God’s family. Because of him, our relationship with God is not the relationship of a master and a servant, or boss and employee, or military leader and a subordinate. Our relationship is one in which we can call on God as our Abba, Papa, or Daddy, a beloved father who loves us so much he was willing to give his life for us. We are no longer strangers or slaves, but children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, and heirs who will inherit the kingdom of God.

Like Mary and Joseph, Simeon, Anna, and countless millions who have gone on to glory ahead of us, we rest in God’s promise, and in the examples that he has given to us. Because of these witnesses we find comfort and assurance that there is, and will be, a reward for our faithfulness.

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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.™ Photo by user danjaeger on Freeimages.com

Faithful, Trustworthy, and Wide Awake

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Faithful, Trustworthy, and Wide Awake

November 19, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

This week our nation sets aside a day to celebrate Thanksgiving. We will gather with family, probably eat too much, likely gain a little weight, and hopefully pause for a few moments to consider those things for which we have to be grateful, to whom we should be grateful for those things, and give thanks for what we have been given. This morning’s message is not specifically a Thanksgiving message. Instead, this morning’s message looks at three stories of faith and thanksgiving, but each is different from the other. None of them specifically mention thanksgiving, or giving thanks, or gratitude, but the idea is found there all the same.

We begin with the story of Deborah the prophet, the undisputed leader of Israel during this part of the period of the Judges. During that period, Israel would wander from God, and then, in times of trouble and distress, cry out for God’s help, follow one of God’s leaders, grow close to God again, and then repeat the cycle… over and over again. And so, in Judges 4:1-7, we read this:

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

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

Ehud had rescued Israel from their domination by the king of Moab, but now that Ehud had died, Israel had again fallen away from God. This time, it was the Canaanites who began to oppress Israel, with Sisera as the commander of their army. The wealth of Canaan was displayed in their ownership of nine hundred chariots and their widespread use of iron during a time, during the Bronze Age, when bronze was the common metal used in weapons and tools. Steel had not yet been invented and iron was relatively rare and expensive. Canaan’s possession of nine hundred chariots fitted with iron was a display of wealth, power, and superior technology.

Horses were, and are, expensive to maintain, and Israel had very few, and no chariots at all. They wouldn’t have any until hundreds of years later in the time of King Solomon. But Deborah was smart, and this passage is evidence that she knew a thing or two about military tactics. Chariots are great weapons on the plains but not so good on rough terrain or mountains where they can’t maneuver. And so, her plan was to send an Israelite army of ten thousand to the top of Mount Tabor, and then draw Sisera and his chariots to the river at the bottom of that same mountain. In so doing, she created a battle in which the chariots have a difficult time maneuvering, can’t easily retreat across the river, and are forced to fight a superior force that is fighting from the high ground.

But the point that I want to make is that when much of Israel fell away from God, Deborah remained faithful. Deborah’s way of giving thanks to God is found in her faithfulness. She remembered what God had done, and she remained faithful to God, even when many others did not. And it was her thankfulness, and her faithfulness, that saved her entire nation.

We find an entirely different story of thanksgiving in Jesus’ parable of the ungrateful and unfaithful servant in Matthew 25:14-30. Once again, Jesus is telling a story of what things will be like on the day of judgement and says this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We could say all kinds of things about our relationships with employers and employees and most of these that would likely be wrong… if we didn’t first remember that Jesus began this series of illustrations by saying “the kingdom of heaven will be like…” And so, as we read this parable, we must remember that the man who went on a journey is God, or perhaps Jesus, and the servants to whom he entrusted his wealth, are us. Next, it is important to note that the wealth entrusted to these servants is not a small amount. The New International translation obscures this by measuring the gold by the “bagful”, which I dislike, but other translations are only a little more helpful by using the original measure of “talents.”

This is one of those cases when reading the footnotes is helpful. A “Talent” is a measure of weight, and one talent is approximately 75 pounds. When we measure gold, we measure by the Troy ounce and there are 12 Troy ounces per pound. I checked at the beginning of this week and the current spot price of gold is $1,941.96 per ounce. That means that, in today’s dollars, each talent, or “bag” of gold would be worth $1,747,764, three talents are $5.2 million, and five talents are $8.7 million. I think it’s worth doing the math so that we understand that this is not chump change. These are sizable investments and even the servant who is given one talent has been entrusted with a lot of cash. Clearly, all three of these servants were highly trusted and believed to be capable of handling these substantial investments.

You may not be able to do much with a few tens of thousands of dollars, but there are a lot of investment options $1.7 million. You can buy land, buy businesses, hire caravans, start your own business, invest in other people’s businesses, or, as the man said upon his return, the very least that you could do is put it on deposit with the bank and collect interest.

But he didn’t. The unfaithful servant did nothing. He did zero work. He did no planning. There is no evidence that he asked for help. He only thought of himself. And, chances are, even though he didn’t spend the gold, he continued to draw his salary or otherwise live off the wealth of his master. And these are the reasons that the servant was, and is, considered to be untrustworthy and unfaithful.

It is also important to note that when Jesus says, “Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them” he is not talking about the poor. He is talking about those that have buried what they have been given. Faithful servants demonstrate their faith, and their thankfulness, by being trustworthy.

We find our last example of thanksgiving in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 as Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, where he says:

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

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

In this short passage, Paul has three pieces of advice for the church. First, always live and act as if everyone can see you. Second, don’t sleepwalk through life. And third, always encourage one another and build each other up.

And so, what did we hear about thankfulness today?

First, Like Deborah, demonstrate your thankfulness to God by being faithful even when your culture and all the people around you are losing their faith.

Second, like the two faithful servants, demonstrate your thankfulness for what God has given you by being trustworthy and using whatever it is that God has given you, whether that is talent, money, skill, education, perseverance, compassion, love, health, or anything else. Do not bury the gifts that God has given you, but always use God’s gifts to expand his kingdom.

And third, demonstrate your thankfulness by being awake. Never sleepwalk through life. Every minute of every day, act as if the world is watching. And remember that life is hard. You aren’t the only person with problems so always encourage the people around you, encourage the people in your church and in your family of faith. Instead of being critical, do whatever you can, whenever you can, to build each other up.

I hope that you will think about these things as we gather with family and friends and sit around our Thanksgiving tables this week.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

I Will Go… Or Will I?

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I Will Go… Or Will I?

July 09, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67         Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30      Romans 7:15-25a

Throughout our lives we must decide in whom we will put our trust. When we are children, we trust our parents.  In school, we often trusted our teachers. In college we trusted that the curriculum and all the agony that it put us through, would be useful and valuable to us upon completion. When we accepted employment, we put a lot of trust in the company that hired us, as well as the supervisors and managers that trained us and oversaw our work. And any of us who served in the military entrusted our lives to those persons who made our duty assignments and sent us to places down the street and around the world.

In recent weeks we have studied how Abraham was repeated tested by God. First God called Abraham to “go to a place that I will show you,” and then we read about Abraham’s conflicted emotions, and his trust in God, as he sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness, and then again when God tested his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. And those are just a few of the many examples from Abraham’s life. But, as we continue reading the story of Genesis, the family of Abraham continues to be tested by God. As Isaac matures to a marriageable age, his father worries that Isaac’s faith might suffer if he were to marry a Canaanite woman. And so, Abraham sends one of his trusted servants to go back to his home country, to find the descendants of the family that he left behind, and among them find a wife for Isaac.

It is almost certain that Abraham’s servant has never been to the place that he has been sent but he trusts that his master would not send him into great danger. At the same time, Abraham and Isaac trusted that this servant would be a good judge of character as his mission was, literally, to select the person with whom Isaac would spend the rest of his life. And so, in Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, the servant finds Abraham’s extended family, meets a girl, and this happens…

34 So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. 36 My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. 37 And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, 38 but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.’

42 “When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. 43 See, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” 44 and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’

45 “Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

46 “She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So, I drank, and she watered the camels also.

47 “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’

“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milkah bore to him.’

“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, 48 and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”

58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”

“I will go,” she said.

59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“Our sister, may you increase
    to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
    the cities of their enemies.”

61 Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So, the servant took Rebekah and left.

62 Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. 64 Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“He is my master,” the servant answered. So, she took her veil and covered herself.

66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So, she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

And so, not only did Abraham’s servant trust his master, and not only did Abraham and Isaac trust the servant, but Rebekah was asked to trust a man that she had just met, to leave her home, journey to meet a total stranger, whose family she had never met, so that she could get married and spend the rest of her life with them and almost certainly never see her parents, family, or friends, ever again.

That’s a lot of trust.

But trusting is hard.

And sometimes the people in whom you are asked to place your trust are not trustworthy. And that was, in large part, the situation that Jesus finds in the story of Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. Although Jesus and the disciples were faithful Jews who attended services in the synagogues and observed the prescribed feasts and festivals at the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus also knew that following God was hard and not everyone had the faith of Abraham. And worse, Jesus knew that many times, the people who ran the Temple, and who led God’s people, were not the most trustworthy people.  And in that story, Jesus speaks into the situation this way…

16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

17 “‘We played the pipe for you,
    and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
    and you did not mourn.’

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus says that many of the people in that generation were like the children that demand that strangers play a game with them. Only they know the rules, they won’t explain the rules, and then they are angry that you didn’t play their game according to their rules. Jesus continues by explaining that the religious leaders of Israel have behaved exactly that way. They saw John refraining from food and drink, and they criticized him for doing so, but then Jesus came and did not refrain from eating and drinking, and they criticized him for that. Just like children in the marketplaces, the religious leaders of Israel were angry because John and Jesus had refused to play their games.

But Jesus also knew that many people really wanted to follow God and to have a good relationship with God, but the leaders of Israel had made the rules so confusing that it kept people up at night. The leaders had created a system of worship that was overly burdensome, time consuming, and still left people unsure of their standing before God. And into this confusion, Jesus says, ““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus says, “Following God, and having a good relationship with God is not as hard as you’ve been told. All that you need to do, is… trust me.”  Trust me, and I will take away the burdensome rules and the sleepless nights. Trust me… and find… rest.

But Paul finds that even following Jesus can still be difficult. As we read just last week, Paul knows that even though we have grace and forgiveness because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are not free to sin, but must still strive live a life of righteousness. But doing what is right can be hard. In Romans 7:15-25a Paul says…

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

When we read these words quickly, we find that these might almost be unintelligible gibberish. But, if we slow way down, read slowly, think about what we’re reading, and consider the meaning, we can dig down into it and get a better sense of what Paul was trying to communicate. And, if we’re honest, this is how Paul intended it to be. This isn’t a comic book, or even a newspaper, that has all the imagery and ideas distilled down into their simplest form that we can skim over, past, and through with little effort and no intellectual engagement. These are transformational ideas that require the focus of our minds and spirits.

And, when we do that, we discover that Paul is saying several things that create a logical progression of thought. First, Paul says that he keeps doing the things that he doesn’t want to do, and so he agrees that the law is good because the law helps to keep him righteous.  For example, we know, intellectually, that driving too fast is dangerous, but without speed limits, we will almost certainly do so. We might not always obey the speed limits, but that boundary helps us to be conscious of our speed and keep everyone on the road safer. In the same way, the boundaries given to us in the law help us to be righteous.

Second, after a lot of confusing language about what he wants to do in comparison to what he actually does, Paul concludes that because of the sin that lives inside of him, he is incapable of consistently doing good.

Simply put, we just can’t do it by ourselves.

But Jesus stands ready to walk with us, and to help us to do better and to overcome the natural evil that lives within us.

Like we saw with Moses, his servant, Isaac, and Rebekah, scripture repeatedly tells us stories about trust. Our relationship is built on our ability to trust in God.

Paul admits that trusting is hard, and that the sin and evil that is inside of us makes it impossible to be consistently good. We, like Paul, must admit that we simply cannot do it alone. We must surrender control, offer our lives as a living sacrifice to God, and trust Jesus to transform us into something better.

It is Jesus who says, trust me, and I will take away the burdensome rules and the sleepless nights.

Trust me… and find… rest.

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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.™

Unreasonable Demands

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Unreasonable Demands

July 02, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 22:1-14                     Matthew 10:40-42                 Romans 6:12-23

Have you ever had a bad boss?

At my last secular job, the company president, and one or two others, were known to publicly chastise, criticize, and even berate employees, and even supervisors and shop foremen, for mistakes they believed those employees had made. The first time I saw such a thing, I remembered that one of the very first, foundational, and fundamental rules that we had been taught in Non-commissioned officer school, was to always praise your subordinates in public, but criticize and correct them in private. The results were what you would expect, such encounters lowered morale for entire departments and even for the entire shop floor. Worse, some of those employees, especially shop foremen, soon found other employment for fewer hours and more money. Would they have started looking for a job if they had been criticized in private? Maybe, but I’m sure that such encounters helped them to make up their minds to leave.

But stories about bad bosses can be found all over the internet. The Reddit website has entire forums dedicated to the stories of employees, and their bad bosses. Of course, many of those stories end with the employees quitting and telling those bosses to “get stuffed.” But those stories resonate with us, especially if we had a bad boss, and especially if we felt that we had to put up with it because of the economic or other conditions in which we found ourselves.

But what if God is the one who is being unreasonable?

That’s what we appear to be seeing in the story of Genesis 22:1-14. This is the story about God’s command that Abraham sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. But the story is all kinds of wrong, in all kinds of ways.  We’ll get to that, but first, let’s read the story…

22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ramcaught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Those of us who are familiar with this story, through regular repetition, have likely made our peace with it, but there’s still something about it that bothers us. In this case, it is our familiarity with the story that blinds us to some of the problems that present themselves in it and, as such, it’s likely that anyone who is unfamiliar with this story will take issue with several things while they read it. First among these is that God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but this is the same God that throughout the Old Testament, strongly, and repeatedly prohibits any kind of human sacrifice. Second, God promised Abraham children, and now asks that Abraham sacrifice the only child that he has left. Third, as we heard last week, God promised that Abraham would have heirs through Isaac and that Isaac’s descendants would become a great nation. Fourth, again as we heard last week, Abraham had already sent Ishmael away, so Isaac is all that he has left. And fifth, at this point, Isaac must be nearly in his teens, so Sarah, who was already over one hundred years old when Isaac was conceived, must now be somewhere between 110 to 120 years old. Although all things are possible with God, if it was unlikely for a 100-year-old woman to have a baby, having a second one at 120 would seem to be even more unlikely.

For all these reasons, it seems like God’s command to sacrifice Isaac is not only unreasonable but violates God’s agreement with Abraham in a several different ways.

And yet…

Abraham does not complain. Abraham knows all about all these issues and I am certain that all of them had to be swirling through his mind. But Abraham does not object or rebel against God. Abraham knows that the death of Isaac would break God’s promise, destroy his marriage, cancel his future, and erase his legacy.

But Abraham obeys and is faithful. Even though obeying God violates everything that Abraham knows to be true, destroys everything that he holds dear, and erases everything that he has spent his entire life building, Abraham obeys anyway. Even though Abraham can’t see a way that God can possibly make this insanity work, Abraham trusts that God is faithful, will honor his promises, and will find a way through.

But if we look at Matthew 10:40-42, we find something that is the same, sort of a test. Jesus says…

40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Jesus says that if you offer hospitality to those who are doing the work of God, potentially in your home, but also in small acts of kindness like sharing your food and water, that you will share in the rewards that God will give them for their faithfulness.  Welcoming the servants of God, is a gift to God and hospitality given in the name of God is rewarded by God. But doing so comes at a risk, and at a cost to you. The people to whom you offer hospitality may well be strangers, and you might not understand their mission. But your understanding and your comfort are not prerequisites to your obedience.

And finally, we return to Paul’s letter to the church in Rome exactly where we left off last week in Romans 6:12-23, as Paul connects our behavior and our actions to our faithfulness, and to our indebtedness, to God. Paul says…

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord.

Paul’s point is that we are called to offer our lives as a sacrifice to God. How we live, how we act, and how we behave are all sacrifices and gifts that we give to God as acts of faithfulness and obedience. Further, Paul emphasizes that while we were once slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness. This isn’t just a useful turn of phrase for the purposes of illustration. In the Roman world, Paul, and everyone else, lived in a culture of honor and patronage. In that culture, when a patron, or other wealthy person, aided you in a business transaction that you could never have put together for yourself, or paid a debt on your behalf that you could never have paid without their help, you became, as a matter of honor, indebted to them.

While, legally and technically, your debt had been paid, you now owed your life and your honor to your new patron. While you could ignore their requests, doing so would be dishonorable and would mark you as an ungracious scoundrel. This is the language that Paul uses in several of his books because it was language that is seen in many Greek and Roman texts and so we know that it was common language that everyone in the ancient world would have readily understood and accepted.

I could explain at some length, but the summary is that because Jesus paid a debt for us, because he substituted his life in place of ours, we now owe him a debt of honor. We owe God our gratitude, our faith, and our obedience. And so, we are expected to behave like Abraham, to obey even when doing so seems impossible and to have the faith that God can, and often does, accomplish the impossible.

Set aside sin.

Obey God.

Trust that God is faithful, will honor his promises, and will find a way through.

And offer your entire life as a living sacrifice to the glory of Jesus Christ and to the building of his kingdom.

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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.™

An Adulterous Wife

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An Adulterous Wife

July 24, 2022*

By Pastor John Partridge

Hosea 1:2-10              Luke 11:1-13                          Colossians 2:6-19

I want to be clear that despite the title, today’s message applies to both women and men.  My title could have easily been, “An Adulterous Spouse” but aside from being admittedly more “clickable” on the internet, there are scriptural and linguistic reasons that it can, and should, be gender specific.  And I hope that by the time we’re finished, everyone will understand why.

With that out of the way, for those of you who are already married, I want you to remember what it was like when you were still looking for a spouse.  And for those of you who are not married, and who wish to eventually be married, or even if you can’t ever imagine wanting to be married, I invite you to imagine what it would be like to search for a person with whom you can share your life and build your dreams.  So, whichever group you might be in, think about what qualifications you might look for in a life-partner.  As a group, we would have a wide variety of potential requirements or at least highly desirable traits that we would be looking for in another person.  But, without much difficulty, I would imagine that among those qualifications, absolutely none of us would list “likely to cheat” among the dreams and ambitions that we have for our future spouse.

But that is exactly what God told the prophet Hosea to add to his list.

As shocking as that might be, let’s read the story and find out why.  We begin in Hosea 1:2-10 as God uses a highly unusual method to make a point, over the span of a generation, and send a message to the people of Israel that includes illustrations with whom they must live and interact on a regular basis.

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”

8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’

God’s instructions to Hosea, as he searched for a wife, was to choose a woman who already had a reputation for cheating and who was likely to cheat on him after he married her.  This was hardly what Hosea expected when God had called him to be his spokesman and prophet.  I am certain that Hosea expected that following God would include living a godly life that followed the Law of Moses, living a righteous life and, one would assume, having a wife that was similarly righteous.  But God’s call, in this case, is for his prophet to marry a spouse that will cheat, leave him for extended periods of time, sleep with other men, and bear children with questionable parentage.  And, despite the unexpected nature of God’s command, and despite how unusual, difficult, and complicated that it would make Hosea’s life, he did as God instructed.

This wasn’t a project that Hosea could complete in a week’s time.  This wasn’t the usual kind of mission that God gave to his prophets of “Go to this place and say these words to this group of people.”  Instead, God’s words were coming to the people of Israel as a demonstration, or an illustration, which was seen, every day, in the lives of Hosea and his family.  God’s point was that Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea represented Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, and so every time that she wandered off, or was missing from Hosea’s life, or was carrying a child that may, or may not, have been fathered by Hosea, everyone was reminded of their unfaithfulness to God.

Worse, the names of Hosea’s children were a daily reminder of Israel’s failures.  The name of Hosea’s first son reminded the people of Israel that when Jehu was anointed as king, he took it upon himself to massacre the previous king, the king’s mother, and his entire family.  Hosea’s daughter reminded the people that they were no longer loved by God, that God had withdrawn his blessing from them and would now give his blessing to the nation of Judah.  And Hosea’s second son reminded Israel that because they had abandoned God, God would now abandon them.  Every day, in ordinary, daily interactions from school to grocery shopping, to gossip, the people were confronted with their sins against God simply in the act of speaking or remembering the names of Hosea’s children.

That is a sad story, but it is also a warning.  King David certainly knew that story and the lessons of that story were on his mind when David chose not to act on opportunities to take King Saul’s life.  Even for us in the twenty-first century, it reminds us that our God is not just a god of love that loves everybody but is also a God of judgement, with high standards, who will remove his blessing from those who turn their backs on him.

I’m sure that someone will want to remind me that God’s standards of judgement changed with the coming of Jesus.  But they didn’t.  After the birth death and resurrection of Jesus, God did not change.  God’s standards did not change.  God’s definition of sin did not change.  What changed is that when we stand before the judgement seat of God, Jesus has already paid price for the sins that we have committed.  And it is because of that change that we are indebted to Jesus and why we live our lives in ways that express our gratitude to him.

How we do that, as well as warnings about how not to do that, are what Paul is talking about as he writes to the church in Colossae in Colossians 2:6-19 where we hear these words:

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Paul reminds us that receiving Jesus as our savior and choosing to follow him is just the beginning.  We must also continue to live lives in him that are rooted in him, built up in him, and which are strengthened in faith and overflowing with thankfulness.  Next, Paul warns us about where our life and discipleship can go astray.  He says that we can be taken captive by our dedication to traditions that flow out of deceptive philosophy and spiritual forces that are not godly and which do not point to Jesus Christ.  It was Jesus who saved us, and it is Jesus who is in authority over every senator, president, king, prime minister, emperor, czar, ayatollah, or anything else and it is Jesus who has authority over every angel, demon, ghoul, ghost, goblin, or any other physical or spiritual creature.  Our sins condemned us to death, but we are alive because of the sacrifice, and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.  

Christianity is more familiar and more recognizable to the people around us than it was in Colossae in the time of Paul.  Our holidays and our celebrations are not as alien and strange to our neighbors and friends than they once were, but still, people often find what we do to be out of the ordinary.  They don’t understand why we pray, or why we fast, they think we’re weird, or even lazy because we don’t want to do certain things on Sunday, or at Christmas, or Easter.  They think it’s a waste for us to give gifts and offerings to the church when we could use them to buy a car, or jewelry, vacations, or fun toys. 

But Paul says that we should ignore their judgement because the little things that we do as a part of our worship are shadows of a larger reality.  They remind us that that the world is bigger than what we see and that the governments and powers of this world are not ultimate powers of the universe, that the physical world still bends to the reality of the spiritual world, that God is in control, that Jesus sits on the throne of heaven, and that all that we are, and all that we have, belongs to him.

Paul reminds us that there will always be false teachers who think too much of themselves, who claim to have visions, or claim special spiritual insight, and who will lead us toward the worship of angels and other false beliefs.  Those people, Paul cautions, have lost their connection to Jesus, the head of the church, and the head of the body of Christ.  And like our physical bodies, when the head is disconnected, growth stops, and death soon follows.

The accusation of Hosea three thousand years ago remains relevant.  The adulterous wife that he was talking about wasn’t ever a woman, it was always the church.  Both then and now, it was always us.  Because the church is the bride of Christ, we can see ourselves as the wandering Gomer as we wander, become faithless, and pursue other interests and put other gods, other hobbies, money, cars, houses, work, or anything else in first place instead of Jesus.  To put anything other than Jesus in first place, with priority, is to risk losing our head.

Stay close to Jesus.  Live your lives in Jesus.  Stay rooted and grounded in him, be strengthened in the faith that you were taught, and be overflowing with thankfulness.  Test everything.  Don’t hold on to traditions that aren’t godly.  Keep hold of worship, and all our little spiritual rituals, holidays, and practices because each of them reminds us of who we are, and whose we are.

God hasn’t changed.  God’s standards haven’t changed.  God’s definition of sin hasn’t changed.  And the need for us to remain faithful, and the importance of faithfulness, hasn’t changed.  Because when we stand before the judgement seat of God, the only thing that will save us…is Jesus.

We are the bride of Christ.

Don’t leave him at the altar.

Don’t be… an adulterous wife.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

This is Not Barbecue Day

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This is Not Barbecue Day

by John Partridge

(Revised and reprinted from Memorial Day 2012)

    Today is not barbecue day.  It is not “just” a part of “just another” long weekend.  Today is not dedicated to automobile races and baseball games.  Today is not another excuse to go camping.  Today we have gathered to remember.  We have not come to thank our veterans (we do that in November), but to remember those who have fallen, and given their lives, so that we might have freedom and liberty.  We gather to remember men and women for whom words like duty, honor, and country had meaning, and because of whom, these words are themselves more meaningful.

    During the War in Vietnam, Marine Private First Class Gary Martini, braving intense enemy fire, raced through an open field to drag a fallen comrade back to a friendly position.  Seeing a second fallen Marine just 20 meters from the enemy position, Martini once again risked his life to bring the man back to safety.  Upon reaching the fallen Marine, Martini was mortally wounded but continued to drag his comrade back to his platoon’s position, telling his men to remain under cover.  As he finally struggled to pull the man to safety, Private First Class Martini fell and succumbed to his wounds.

     Sergeant First Class Paul Smith, while under enemy fire in Iraq, organized the evacuation of three soldiers who had been wounded in an attack on their vehicle.  Sergeant Smith manned the machine gun mounted on their vehicle, maintaining an exposed position as he engaged the enemy forces, allowing the safe withdrawal of wounded soldiers.  He was mortally wounded in the attack but not before killing as many as 50 enemy fighters in order to save his injured comrades.

    During the Second World War, First Lieutenant Jack Mathis, flying a bomb run over Vegesack, Germany, was hit by enemy antiaircraft fire.  His right arm was shattered above the elbow, and he suffered a large wound on his side and abdomen.  Knowing that the success of the mission depended upon him, Lieutenant Mathis, mortally wounded, dragged himself of to his sights and released his bombs on target before he died.

    These few examples give us only a flavor of the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform have made for our freedom and for the freedom of others, often total strangers, in other nations.  So highly do we value this gift we call liberty, that we are willing to expend the blood of our own sons and daughters so that others might enjoy this gift also.

    Brave men and women wearing the uniform of the United States have fought and bled and died in places like Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Concord, Lexington, Saratoga, Bazentin Ridge, Belleau Wood, Manila Bay, Guantanamo, Gettysburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Beruit, Okinawa, Pork Chop Hill, Hamburger Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, Pusan, Inchon, Bastogne, the Ardennes Forest, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Saipan, Medina Ridge, Al Busayyah, Wadi Al-Batin, Baghdad, Kandahar, Khaz Oruzgan, Musa Qala and thousands of other places most of us have never heard of as well as places so remote that the places don’t even have names.

     On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania four and one half months after the Union victory over the Confederate Army in the Battle of Gettysburg.  On this day or remembrance, it is good to remember the words that President Lincoln spoke.

    Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
    Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
    But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    This day is much like the hallowed ground of Gettysburg.  There is little that our feeble efforts or words can do to consecrate this day beyond what the blood of patriots has already done.  As we gather today, our task is to heed the words of Abraham Lincoln.  It is for us, the living, to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work for which these brave men and women have given their lives.  We must be resolved that these patriots did not die in vain.  It is too painful for us to remember their sacrifice each day, but on this precious and hallowed day we must take the time to remember.  We honor their sacrifice by appreciating the things that they have purchased with their blood. 

     Avail yourselves of the freedoms their sacrifices have purchased.  Vote.  Don’t just vote for the politician that promises to give us the most stuff. Vote for the men and women who hold dear the ideals of freedom and liberty.  Honor the flag that they fought for. It is more than a piece of cloth because it stands for the things those patriots fought, and bled, and died for.  Stand when the flag passes by, sing the national anthem, and teach your children to stand, teach them to take their hats off, and to hold their hands over their hearts.  I have been at sporting events where far too many are oblivious to the national anthem. While others are standing, they sit. While others are standing at attention with their hats held over their hearts, these others are busy talking on their cell phones.  We honor the blood of heroes by being courteous and respectful. 

I realize that all of us who put on the uniform of the United States did so to defend your rights not to stand, not to sing and not to hold your hand over your heart.  That’s fine.  If you are one of those who takes issue with it, what I ask of you is that you do so respectfully and that while the rest of us are standing and singing, you share a moment of silence and remember those brave men and women who gave you that right.

    Finally, I ask that you honor the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform with your prayers.  You don’t have to pray to the God I worship, feel free to pray to whatever deity you choose, but pray for all of the men and women who, even now, are away from their families, friends and homes.  Pray for those who today, instead of attending backyard barbecues and swim parties with their friends, are far out at sea, standing guard or even laying in a bunk half-way around the world, or eating cold Meals Ready to Eat out of a foil envelope while they huddle in a foxhole in the sand waiting for the next mortar round to drop on their heads.  Pray for the families of those who are away from home.  Today wives and husbands of these brave soldiers are doing what they can to hold their families together and their children are growing up wondering when, or if, their fathers or mothers are ever coming home again.

    Today is not barbecue day.  It is not just a part of another long weekend.  Today is not dedicated to automobile races and baseball games.  Today is not an excuse to go camping.  Today we have gathered to remember.  Today, let us remember the sacrifices that made us what we are and have given us freedom and liberty.  Today has been set aside as a day of remembrance. 

Let us all pause…

                                                   …and may we never forget.

Life is Not a Show

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Life is Not a Show

February 17, 2021*

(Ash Wednesday)

By Pastor John Partridge

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

In William Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It,” the character, Jacques, declares that all the world is a stage.   The first few lines of this soliloquy begin like this:

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts…

But despite Shakespeare’s insistence that the world is just a stage, our life is not a show that is lived for the benefit of other people.  In Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, Jesus cautions us this way:

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus is clear that although we might, as Shakespeare suggested, live our lives on a stage viewed by others, the only spectator that matters is God.  As we live our lives, we do not donate food to impress the people at the food pantry, or put money in the offering plate to impress people, or pray out loud so that people will think that we are religious, or holy, or somehow better than anyone else.  This isn’t an act.  Our lives are real, and our actions have eternal consequences.  Our goal should never be to look good, or to impress people, or to inflate our own ego, but always, and only to do the will of God.  Our goal is to be obedient and faithful and that’s all.

In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, he amplifies this message of faithful living by saying this in 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10:

5:20 We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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

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

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

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

Paul says that no matter what happens, our one, singular goal, is to get our hearts right with God, and to return to a right relationship with God.  That, my friends, is the entire reason that we set aside this season of Lent.  It is a time for us to reflect upon our lives and our actions.  It is a time for us to consider how we have been doing and consider the health of our relationship with God. 

Have we been as obedient as we could have been?

Are we as faithful as we could be?

Are there ways in which we can do better?

Are we doing things that make it harder for others to believe that we are following Jesus?

Or that make it harder for them to believe in Jesus?

Let us consider where we have fallen short and where we can do better.

And let us commit ourselves to using this season of Lent, to draw closer to God, to live in such a way that we look more like Jesus, to be more obedient, and to be more faithful.  Not so that we will look better to the people around us, but so that the people around us will see Jesus more clearly and be drawn closer to him because of the change that they see in us.

 All the world may be a stage…

            …but our lives are not an act.

Let us live lives that carry us into an eternity with God, and which draw as many others as possible along with us

_______

Old Testament Reading: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

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

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

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

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

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

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/ULPY2qwgoek

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.