Bone Grafts in Far, Far Away

January 02, 2022*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12

Merry Christmas.

Of course, you’re thinking that Christmas was more than a week ago, but that’s only because our tradition, that was handed down to us through the Protestant and Catholic churches, celebrates the birth of Jesus as the appropriate time for celebration. But today, the first Sunday of the new year or, more specifically January 6^th, is Epiphany, the celebration of the arrival of the Magi, or the Wise Men. In the Orthodox tradition, Epiphany is the day that is celebrated as Christmas. And, if we’re honest about our theology, there’s a good case to be made in favor of the Orthodox tradition as, perhaps, a better choice. At the very least, Epiphany is a day that is worthy of both remembrance and celebration. But before I dig too deeply into theology, let’s begin with the story. It is a story, like many of our stories, that began in the Old Testament with the words of the prophet Isaiah where we hear these words in Isaiah 60:1-6:

^60:1 Arise, shine; for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
²For darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will appear over you.
³Nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴Lift up your eyes and look around;
    they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
    and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
⁵Then you shall see and be radiant;
    your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
⁶A multitude of camels shall cover you,
    the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
    all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

Isaiah tells of the Messiah that will one day come to rescue Israel, just as he does in other passages that we have read over the season of Advent. But in today’s reading he speaks of how other nations will be drawn to the light of Israel’s messiah. Not only will the coming messiah be a king for the nation of Israel, but Isaiah says that he would also be worshiped by other kings and other nations. Gifts of gold and incense would be given to him from nations in southern Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula, Israel’s southern neighbors, and Saudi Arabia and they would bring so many camels, that thousands of them would cover the hillsides of Israel.

And those stories were remembered as an entourage of magi from far, far away entered Jerusalem along with what was most likely a significantly sized, well-armed, military security and logistics force that would have been sent along to protect, and care for, these important government officials. The magi were, after all, at least ambassadorial level officials, if not what we would think of as presidential advisors or even cabinet level officials. They would certainly not have traveled through wilderness and potentially hostile countries without adequate protection. This is, in my opinion, why we hear Matthew say that King Herod, and all of Jerusalem, was frightened. Reading from Matthew 2:1-12, we hear this:

^2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people, Israel.’”

⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” ⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

It’s a story that has become familiar to us after years of repetition, but we still have questions. Did the magi come from the East, or did they see a star in the East, which would mean that they came from the West? Were these emissaries from far, far away ambassadors from nearby Egypt to the West or were they, as is often supposed, the philosophical and scholastic descendants of Daniel from the Persian Empire and this from the area of modern-day Iran or Iraq to the East? Honestly, I don’t know and, as far as I know, there isn’t a definitive answer anywhere in scripture. But what we do know, is that these scholars came bearing gifts from a land far away and became the first Gentiles, the first non-Jews, to worship the newborn Jesus and that is the most important part of the story and begins to tell us why today’s celebration is a big deal. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul explains it this way (Ephesians 3:1-12):

^3:1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— ²for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, ³and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, ⁴a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. ⁵In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

⁷Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. ⁸Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, ⁹and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; ¹⁰so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. ¹¹This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹²in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him ¹³I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.

Paul says that by God’s grace, he was called to reveal a mystery of prophecy, scripture, and the workings of God among his people on earth. Although it had been hinted at in moments of history, like the one that we saw with the coming of the magi, many, if not most, of God’s people missed what God was doing. But with the coming of Jesus, and the calling of Paul who had once hunted and persecuted Jesus’ followers, the mystery was finally being revealed and explained to everyone, and that mystery is that the Gentiles, people who are not now, and have never been, Jewish, were not only being invited into God’s family, but were being adopted as family members, becoming not only sons and daughters of God, but heirs of his gifts and of his kingdom.

Now, anyone in the world, whether they were Jewish or not, or came from a Jewish family or not, could hear the good news of Jesus Christ and become a part of his family, kingdom, mission, ministry, and join him in his eternal home. The revelation that Paul received, and was called to proclaim, was that this was God’s plan all along. This is the message that God was revealing to the world with the coming of the magi. At that moment, God threw open the doors of heaven and invited the Gentiles, invited us, into his family.

And that’s why today, Epiphany, is a big deal worth celebrating. Certainly, the birth of Jesus was big deal because the Messiah that had been promised to the Jews had finally come to rescue them. At the moment of his birth, Jesus was a Jewish messiah for the Jewish people. But with the coming of the magi, God reveals that Jesus was not just a Jewish messiah for a Jewish people but was instead the savior and rescuer of the entire world. The coming of the magi is the moment when… we… were invited in.

Although Paul says that this was God’s plan all along, it was at that moment, at least symbolically, when we were adopted by God and grafted into the family of Abraham so that we, the people from far, far away, could become, in the words of Samuel, God’s own flesh and bone.

And that is definitely something worth celebrating.

So…

…Merry Christmas everyone.

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

Who’s Your Daddy (The Path from Guilt to Glory)

May 29, 2021 PastorPartridge Sermon adopt, adoption, Alliance, atone, atonement, born again, Broadway, brothers, Christ, church, co-heirs, daddy, daughters, gift, glory, go, guilt, heir, heirs, inherit, inheritance, Isaiah, Jesus, John, Methodist, Nicodemus, obligation, Ohio, Partridge, pharisee, prophet, purify, send, sending, sent, service, sisters, sons, speak, Street, Street Alliance, United

Who’s Your Daddy?

(The Path from Guilt to Glory)

May 30, 2021*

(Trinity Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 6:1-8 John 3:1-17 Romans 8:12-17

For a time, there was a well-known taunt that asked, “Who’s your daddy?” That phrase was popular enough to appear on playgrounds, high school hallways, pick-up basketball games, sitcoms, and Hollywood movies. Sometimes it was intended as an insult, often it was used in good humor, but there is truth buried inside of it. If we are to be secure, confident, and comfortable in who we are, is important for us to know where we came from. Likewise, knowing where we came from can help to stay out of trouble, and guide us toward our goals for the future. And so, as the followers of Jesus Christ, it is helpful for us understand where we came from and how we got where we are, so that we can better understand where we are going and toward what goals we should aspire. We begin this morning with God’s call of the prophet Isaiah that we read in Isaiah 6:1-8>

^6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

⁸Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Isaiah knew that he was unqualified to speak for God because of his sin and imperfection. But God came to Isaiah and did for him what he could not do for himself. He purified his lips, took away his guilt, and atoned for his sin so that Isaiah could speak for God. And afterwards, Isaiah relents and says, “Here am I, Send me.”

But as we’ve been discussing for the last couple of weeks, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the coming of the Spirit of God bring about a transformation in the way that God relates and communicates with his people and with his church. We hear Jesus explain a part of that transformation to the Pharisee, Nicodemus, in John 3:1-17:

^3:1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

⁴“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritgives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘Youmust be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still, you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus says that following God is not enough but that the followers of God must be born again by being born of the Spirit by putting their faith and trust in Jesus. This is the extension of what we saw in Isaiah as an individual, to all of God’s people collectively. God came to Isaiah, purified him, and atoned for his sin so that he could serve and speak for God. But through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus atoned for our sins, and purified us, so that we can serve God and do his work. And, with the gift of the baptism of the Spirit of God, we are given the strength of God and equipped for service.

But that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about for the last two weeks so none of that is particularly surprising. We discover the interesting part when we start tracing our lineage, finding our history, and begin to understand how that heritage, a how that path through history, helps us to understand who we are. In Romans 8:12-17 Paul begins to connect those dots for us when he says:

¹²Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Paul says that the coming of the Spirit of God is evidence of our adoption, by God, as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and heirs of God. Which, incidentally, means that God is our Daddy. And that adoption completes the lineage that scripture has been drawing for us since the time of the prophets in the Old Testament where we first discover God at work for, and among, his people. But then God sends Jesus to bring removal of guilt, and atonement for sin and after his ascension into heaven, Jesus, in turn, sends the Spirit and the Spirit brings about our adoption as sons and daughters of God. Put another way, scripture describes how God has moved us from condemnation and guilt and toward our perfection and our eternal home. We are moved from guilt, to adoption, from adoption to inheritance, and from inheritance to glory.

But, Paul says, our adoption also brings us an obligation for the indescribable gift that we have been given. But Paul also notes that this obligation is not an obligation to flesh, that is, not an obligation to principalities, or powers or, people, or priests, or pastors, but it is an obligation to live by the Spirit of God, to live the way that God calls us to live, to do the work of the Kingdom of heaven, to share in the suffering of Jesus, so that we might also share in his glory in our eternal home.

It is that obligation that brings us full circle from where we started because as we move from guilt to adoption, from adoption to inheritance, from inheritance to glory, and from glory to service, we hear God asking us the same question that he asked Isaiah:

“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And because we our guilt has been atoned for, our sin has been washed away, and we have been adopted by God as sons and daughters, with God as our Daddy, as co-heirs with Jesus Christ, and filled, equipped, and strengthened with the Spirit of God, we hear Paul urging us to answer as Isaiah did:

“Here am I. Send me.”

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/0qlBh7ZpXvY

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Blessings, Weeds, and Suffering

July 18, 2020July 18, 2020 PastorPartridge Sermon church, Corona virus, culture, heirs, inheritance, suffering

Blessings, Weeds, and Suffering

July 19, 2020*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 28:10-19a Romans 8:12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

If we can’t have church, how can we be the church?

If I am a member of the church, is there something that I should be doing for the church?

Can my faith in Jesus help me to understand, or even just to cope, with the craziness and suffering that is going on because of the Coronavirus (or anything else)?

In the middle of the chaos caused by the Coronavirus, some of the questions that gets kicked around revolve around the church. What should the church be doing? What should its members be doing? Does our faith in Jesus Christ make any difference in how we ought to respond to the world, to the news, or to our leadership? And, while I certainly don’t have all the answers, and we surely won’t have time to talk about all of the possibilities, or all of the relevant scriptures, today’s lectionary passages are enough to give us plenty to think about. We begin in Genesis 28:10-19a, where Jacob has an encounter with the God of his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham and in which God reiterates a blessing that he had promised to Abraham, and by doing so reemphasizes that the promise had not only been passed down to him, but that it would continue pass through his descendants.

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. ¹¹When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹²He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” ¹⁷He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹He called that place Bethel.

God meets Jacob and he promises that he will give the land, upon which he sleeps, to Jacob and to his descendants. But more than that, God promises that those descendants would multiply, spread out in all directions, and become so numerous that God’s blessing would flow through them and into the entire world. Of course, as Christians, we believe that not only has this prophecy been fulfilled by the growth and expansion of the Jewish nation, but also specifically through Jacob’s descendant Jesus. And therefore, from our perspective, the blessing of God flows through Jacob, down to Jesus, and through Jesus, flows into the world of today… through us.

But so, what? Why does that matter? What difference does it make if we are numbered among the descendants of God’s blessing to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? It matters, and it makes a difference, because the world is also full of weeds. What do I mean by weeds? Listen to what Jesus had to say in the parable found in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43:

²⁴Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

³⁶Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

⁴⁰“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴²They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven, in other words, the world in which we live, is like a field that has been planted. The good seed is the people of the kingdom of God and that seed was planted by Jesus. The weeds are the people who are controlled, or manipulated, or deceived, by the evil one, the enemy of God. In the fields, and in the world, and even in the church, it can be almost impossible to tell the difference between the weeds and the wheat. But as the plants mature, it becomes obvious what kind of fruit they will bear. This is a story about God’s judgement at the end of time. Jesus says that the angels will know which people are bearing good fruit and which are weeds and that the weeds will be pulled out, sorted, and separated from the good fruit, and burned in the fire. As we have seen in other passages, when we become mature, we will be known, and judged, by what kind of fruit we produce.

But what does that have to do with being the descendants of Jacob, and the followers of Jesus?

The “So what” question is answered by Paul in Romans 8 and there he also explains what our faith matters in times when life is difficult, during pandemics, or worse. (Romans 8:12-25)

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that^[^h^] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Paul says that, as the church, we do not have an obligation to live well or to pursue comfort and the satisfaction of our fleshly desires. But we do have an obligation to live according to the Spirit, to live as if our faith really mattered, to do the things that Jesus taught, be the kind of people that Jesus has called us to be, and to do the work that that Jesus has called us to do. Paul reminds us that we are God’s children. We are the adopted sons and daughters of the family of God. We are the heirs, the inheritors, of God’s blessing, and co-heirs with Jesus. But being heirs with Jesus means that we not only share in God’s riches and glory, but that we also share in the suffering of Jesus.

The present suffering of this world, our present suffering in this world, no matter how bad things get (and Paul was absolutely, intimately, familiar with just how bad things could get), simply do not compare to the glory that we will see as our reward and as our inheritance. But for the present, we live in a creation that is the frustrated, tangled, twisted, perverted, and corrupted reality of the creator’s perfect creation. Yes, we are enduring the chaos caused by the Coronavirus. Yes, our culture is in turmoil. Yes, our own denomination is tearing itself apart. Yes, there is unemployment, and suffering. Yes, our lives are chaotic, unsettled, and uncertain. But Paul, and the people of his time, and his world, knew chaos and suffering too. We live in this present, but like Paul and the church that he knew, we live with the hope that creation will one day be redeemed, rescued, and liberated from its bondage to decay. We look forward to the day when, not only the world, but we too will be redeemed and made perfect.

Through Jesus, we are the descendants of Jacob, and the inheritors of God’s blessing. And while we live in a world that is filled with weeds, enemies, frustrations, disasters, bad governments, and outright evil, we look forward to something so much better that we are able to look past the suffering of the present and into a future filled with glory and light. But while we are here, in this present time, we have an obligation to be and to do. We are called to live according to the Spirit of God, to be the kind of people that Jesus called us to be, to live the way that Jesus lived, and to do the work that Jesus did. We are called to live lives that look like Jesus, lives that reveal Jesus to the people around us, to love the people around us like Jesus did, and to do the work that Jesus did. Yes, the fields are full of weeds, but until the time comes for the harvesters to separate the weeds from the wheat, our calling is to nurture the seeds that have been scattered. Those seeds surround us in our families, in our community, in our places of employment, and everywhere we go. Many of those seeds can still be saved.

Although we aren’t meeting together in a church building, we have never stopped being the church. Every day, whenever, and wherever we can, we must look for opportunities to be Jesus to the world. We must do what we can to relieve the suffering that we see; and help the people around us who are struggling in any way that we can.

Despite the chaos that surrounds us, we must keep moving forward.

This week look for ways that you can help. Send a card, call, donate food, mow someone’s grass, buy groceries for an unemployed neighbor, maybe even pay somebody’s rent. In big ways or small ways, let us answer the call to show the love of Jesus to those around us.

And let us keep our eyes…

…on hope.

Have a great week everybody.

You can find the video of this worship service here: https://youtu.be/Y8cHcw79Uuo

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

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Bone Grafts in Far, Far Away