Israel

At What Cost?

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At What Cost?

September 17, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…or we’re out.


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

Get Out of the Boat!

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Get Out of the Boat!

August 13, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28                        Matthew 14:22-33                 Romans 10:5-15

During my last several years at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio, I tended bar at night at the Station House Inn downtown. Since I worked there for several years, I naturally got to know, and became friends with, many of our regular customers. And it was through some of these regular customers that I got invited to join what was jokingly referred to as the “Dunkirk Ski Team.” My friend Don Spar owned a small ski boat and, along with Gary, and several others, he would take his boat out to the abandoned Dunkirk quarry (that had filled with water when quarrying had accidentally struck a natural spring) and went water skiing around the quarry. At the time, I did not know how to water ski, but this did not deter my friends and they were determined to teach me. And they did. As they told me, it isn’t hard, all you have to do is stand up once the boat starts moving, and if you fall, you just fall into the water.

I fell a few times, but I did learn to ski.  Perhaps not well, but I could do it, and we had a good time. But the very first thing to know about learning to water ski is that you can’t do it from shore, and you can’t do it from inside the boat. If you’re going to ski, you have to get out of the boat. 

That seems obvious, and even a little silly. But that is an important lesson that we find several times in today’s scriptures. We begin with the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, but while we often focus on Joseph when we read this story, today I want you to listen, and pay attention to the actions of Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben.

37:1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornaterobe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”

So, Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekelsof silver [eight ounces @ $23.19/ oz = $185.52] to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Most of you are familiar with Joseph’s story, and you can be sure that we’ll be hearing more about him in the coming weeks. But to cut right to the heart of today’s lesson, what did you hear Reuben do? Out of all of Joseph’s brothers, only Reuben thought that killing Joseph was wrong. Or, if he wasn’t the only one who thought it was wrong, then he is the only one who had the courage to act on his beliefs. Reuben convinced his brothers not to kill Joseph and hoped to return and set him free. Joseph still got sold into slavery, but he owed his life to Reuben.

More than one brother might have felt that murdering their brother was wrong…

…but Reuben was the one who got out of the boat.

An even more obvious example is Peter in the story of when Jesus walked on water in Matthew 14:22-33 where we hear this:

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

I cannot count the number times that I have heard this story read and at some point, someone tries to discredit Peter for his lack of faith. Pastors preach that Peter didn’t have enough faith, or that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus, or that Peter allowed himself to be distracted by the things of the world, or some other commentary that makes Peter somehow look like the bad guy. But folks, I’m here to tell you that I am completely impressed by Peter’s faith because, outside of folks in Minnesota in January, Peter is the only person in the history of our planet, other than Jesus, to walk on water. At the end of the day, fear or not, sinking or not, crying for help or not, Peter walked on water.

And the reason that Peter walked on water is that…

…Peter got out of the boat.

There were at least eleven other people on that boat, and more than one of them might have been wishing that they could do what Jesus was doing. More than one of them may have been wondering if they could walk on water. But Peter was the one who acted. Peter was the one who got out of the boat.

And hopefully, now that this idea of getting out of the boat is firmly implanted in your mind, I want to move on to Paul’s letter to the church in Rome as he teaches them something about the need to share their faith in Romans 10:5-15:

5 Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one, of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Paul enumerates the story of our faith and how we were rescued by Jesus and reconciled to God, but then he insists that the only way that the people around us will ever know the joy of rescue and reconciliation that we have already found, is if we get out of the boat. How can they call on a God that they don’t know? How can they believe if no one tells them? How can they hear if no one preaches?

In the time of the New Testament, feet were ugly. Walking outside meant that by the end of the day, or any time that you came indoors, your feet were covered in dust, animal droppings, trash, and whatever filth had been laying or decaying in the streets. Many houses had special basins of water by the door for foot washing as soon as you came in from the street. But even then, Paul says “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” The news of Jesus Christ is so good, that the people who hear it will love you… and your ugly feet.

Just as we hear in the message of the Christmas story, the Good News of Jesus Christ is “good news of great joy that is for all the people.”

But all the good news in the world won’t make any difference if we don’t get out of the boat.

If we’re going to change the world, if we’re going to make a difference, if we’re going to grow our church, if we’re going to save the souls of the lost…

…We have to get out of the boat.

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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.™

Choosing to be Alone

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Choosing to be Alone

August 06, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 32:22-31                   Matthew 14:13-21                 Romans 9:1-5

A great many books have been written and many movies have been made about being stranded on a desert island. Stories like Robinson Crusoe, The Lord of the Flies, Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon, Harrison Ford’s “Six Days, Seven Nights,” Tom Hanks’ “Cast Away,” and even Sigourney Weaver in “Alien” only scratch the surface of stories in which the characters are stranded and alone.

All those stories are about characters who were stranded accidentally or in some way against their will, but sometimes people seek out isolation and solitude deliberately. In the study of Christianity, or history, we encounter those who are referred to as “the desert fathers.” These were early Christian hermits whose practice of self-denial in the Egyptian desert, beginning in the third century, formed the basis of what would become Christian monasticism. Some of their writings have survived into the modern era and continue to inform our study and our faith. As we toured the fortress of Masada in the Judean desert, we saw the remains of many of small huts, caves, or shelters that had been made, and lived in, by some of these early Christian hermits. Their hope was that by choosing to be alone, their voluntary isolation would allow their study, meditation, and prayer to draw them closer to God and to see his truth more clearly.

Such monasticism isn’t for most of us, but there are times when we just want to be alone. There are times when being alone helps us to think, to pray, to study, to collect our thoughts, to make sense of our feelings, and, just as the desert fathers hoped, to draw closer to God. But the desert fathers were far from the first people to seek solitude to find God. We often see the prophets of the Old Testament wander off to the desert or to other lonely places for the same reason, and this is exactly what we see in Genesis 32:22-31. In this story, Jacob contemplates his reunion with Esau after decades of separation.  He has already sent gifts ahead of him, as well as all his flocks, herds, and servants. And, as we rejoin that story, Jacob even sends his family ahead of him so that he can remain in that place… alone.

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” [Israel means he struggles with God.]

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, [Peniel means face of God.] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Jacob’s intent may have been just to enjoy the solitude and to collect his thoughts about what he might do, or say, when he finally encountered his brother, whom Jacob had swindled out of his inheritance. But, since we also know that Jacob is one of the patriarchs and founders of the faith of Israel, we should also consider that his intent was to stay behind, meditate, pray, and meet with God. And, as it happens, that’s exactly what happens, though in a much more real sense than Jacob anticipated. Jacob wrestles all night with a man who Jacob believes is more than just a man and at daybreak, demands a blessing before releasing him.

Jacob is wealthy. He has herds of camels, sheep, and goats, he has servants and a family. Jacob has all that he needs, but he knows that the blessing of God was more important than having more material things. And so, he demands a blessing from God, and he gets one, along with a limp that he will have for the rest of his life as a constant reminder of his encounter with God.

I want to pause here for a moment and illuminate this point. Jacob clearly wrestles with a flesh and blood man, but Jacob also knows that this is more than just a man and afterwards names the places Penial because “I met God face to face.” When we put these two things together, we concluded that Jacob met God in human flesh. Meeting God is, theologically speaking, a theophany. But, as Christians, we already have a name for God in human flesh and that is… Jesus. And so, this passage brings us a curious question. Does God have more than one human manifestation? Is there more than one way that God can choose to appear in human flesh? Or was this a theological “Christophany”? Was the man with whom Jacob wrestled, Jesus, two thousand years before Jesus’ earthly, physical birth? Honestly, I have no idea, and neither does anyone else, but it is an interesting thing to think about.

Fast forward those two thousand years, and in Matthew 14:13-21, we find Jesus trying to find that same solitude that Jacob was seeking.

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Jesus was teaching and preaching, and news finally reaches him that his cousin John the Baptist had been beheaded, and Jesus is just done. He leaves the place where he has been preaching, gets in a boat, and heads for a quiet place where he can grieve the loss of his family member, come to grips with his emotions, and get his head together. Jesus knows that he needs some time alone, and he knows that he needs some solitude to spend in meditation, prayer, and meeting with God just as Jacob did.

But the people follow him. His work follows him. The needs of the people follow him. And despite his disappointment at his failure to find some solitude, Jesus responds not in frustration, but from a spirit of compassion. As tired as he was, as grief stricken as he was, as frustrated as he was, Jesus responds by attempting to meet the needs of the people and he heals the sick. For hours on end, Jesus heals the sick, until they start running out of daylight and everyone is getting hungry for something to eat. But because the day had started by deliberately traveling to a solitary place, there wasn’t anything nearby.

But, after inventorying every scrap of food that they can find, they produce five loaves of bread and two fish. Life is like that, and so is our life of faith. As much as we’d like to start out our adult life like we do in the game of Monopoly, with a few million dollars, some property, a house, and a car, most of us do not. We can only begin where we are with what we have. And that’s what Jesus does. He begins where they are, with what they have. He begins in the middle of nowhere, with five loaves of bread and two fish. He begins there… but he doesn’t end there. Jesus gives thanks to God for what they have and starts passing it out… to five thousand men, plus the women and children, so in my estimation, at the very least, there are ten or fifteen thousand people gathered in this remote place. And everyone eats, not just until everyone has had a nibble of something, but until every person has eaten and was satisfied. When they were finished, they had twelve basketsful of food leftover.  And, in case you forgot, not only did fifteen thousand people eat, but there was still more food leftover than the five loaves and two fish with which they had started.

But in Romans 9:1-5, Paul considers an entirely different kind of solitude. Here, Paul mourns for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saying…

9:1 I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying; my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

What Paul is mourning is that the people of Israel have followed God for so many years, through all sorts of battles, disasters and triumphs, destruction and rebuilding, through good kings and terrible kings, through a host of different occupying nations and armies, and through all these things continued to follow God. But now, because their focus was on the status quo, remaining in power, and maintaining their relationships with Rome, they refused to see the fulfillment of scripture and accept the arrival of the promised messiah in the person of Jesus Christ. Despite their history, their adoption by God, their covenants with God, the laws of Moses, the temple, the patriarchs, despite all of the promises that God had given to them, and despite the Messiah tracing his family tree through them, they now were lost because they refused to follow Jesus.

Jacob chose to be alone with God and he was blessed.

Jesus set out for solitary place so that he could be with God, and he performed miracles that began only with what he had.

But the leaders of Israel were lost because despite all that they had, they chose to be alone, without God.

And God let them go.

The choices that you make can change everything. You can begin with what little you already have.

God drew Jacob closer, and he let Esau walk away.

God will give you what you want.

You can choose to be alone with God, or alone without God.

Choose wisely.

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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.™

Beersheba Unexpected

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An overview of most of the remains of ancient Beersheba

Beersheba Unexpected

Each day, as we rode on our tour bus toward a new destination, our class took turns preparing a short biblical history lesson of what had happened in that place. Sometimes these were recorded in the Old or New Testaments but sometimes the events of interest to us were to be found in the writings of Josephus, or in rediscovered texts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, or other archeological explorations. And so, on our way to Be’er Sheva (biblical Beersheba) we were reminded of the many biblical references, which are entirely in the Old Testament for reasons that I will explain shortly.

The first reference to Beersheba comes as early Genesis 21 when Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away and they “wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.” Just a few verses later, Abraham makes an oath (which amounts to a modern treaty) with Abimelech and exchange seven lambs as a part of the agreement. The name “Beersheba” therefore is said to stem from that event either because the word Beersheba is similar to the Hebrew root of “made an oath,” or because it is similar to the root word of “seven” (or possibly both).

The well at Beersheba

Later, in Genesis 46, Jacob stops in Beersheba to offer sacrifices to God on his way to Egypt, Elijah stops there while running for his life in 1 Kings 19, and almost all of the other occurrences simply use Beersheba as an expression to say all of Israel from north to south as we see in Judges 20:1 when it says, “Then all Israel from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came together as one and assembled before the Lord in Mizpah.” This expression is used simply because Dan was, for the most part, the farthest north that Israel grew, and Beersheba was its farthest southern extent.  To the north of Dan was the nation of Aram (which is modern day Syria) and to the south was… well, sand.  Beersheba was, and is, at the northern edge of the Negev desert, which scripture often describes as “wilderness” and the Sinai Peninsula. Continuing south brings you to the borders of Egypt. When the Jews returned to Israel after the Babylonian captivity, Nehemiah records that some returned to Beersheba, but, perhaps because there were so few, and because that territory is no longer controlled by Israel, there is no other mention of that place in scripture.

Looking down into the (deep) well

And so, while Beersheba is well attested in the Bible, compared to many of the other places that we visited, not a lot happened there. And yet, I was struck by the presence of the place in a way that I wasn’t in many of the others. Beersheba may not have had a central role in the stories of scripture, but it was present. The reason that Beersheba was important to Abraham and Isaac was because of the well that was there. Here, at the northern edge of the desert, there isn’t much water other that what flows down the wadi (dry riverbed) during the infrequent rains. And so, this well is very likely the same well that Abraham knew. Moreover, even though it may not often be mentioned by name, anyone who traveled through this region was almost certain to have stopped here.

A model of the Horned Altar found at Beersheba

It is also believed that Beersheba was one of the places of worship that had been built so that people wouldn’t have to travel the many miles north to Jerusalem. If so, this is one of the temples that King Hezekiah ordered torn down in 1 Kings 18. During archaeological digs here, a four-horned altar, often described in scripture, and typically used for sacrifice, was discovered here in secondary use. “Secondary use” means that after the temple here had been torn down, someone reused the stones as a part of wall. The stones from that wall have been moved to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and reassembled into an altar.

Finally, during those times that Israel controlled Beersheba, it was a military outpost. This was the border between Israel and the wilderness, and between Israel and any enemies, such as Egypt, that might come from the south. Duty here was probably far from home, and certainly hot, unforgiving, and generally miserable.

A city street

Still, what is it about Be’er Sheva that unexpectedly struck me? Why does it have a presence that I could feel? For me, it’s because, like just a few other places, this is where it happened. In other places, over the last two thousand years, the places described in scripture have moved, walls have been torn down and rebuilt, whole cities have been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed again, over and over until the places that we read about are tens of meters below the surface. But wells don’t move. While the stones surrounding this well at the surface may have been replaced many times, this is the place where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, invading Pharaohs, Mesopotamian generals, Roman armies, Israelite kings, and so many others have stood, draw water, and had a moment of rest.

It was unexpected.  I was surprised.

Beersheba city gate

But here, on a smallish hill on the edge of the desert, I felt as if I was in the presence of history.

And, having done so, it is so much easier to imagine what those people were feeling. The panic of Hagar as she is cast out to almost certain death in the desert, the relief of Israeli merchants returning home from Egypt, the apprehension of outpost soldiers knowing that Egypt’s army was on its way towards them, the anticipation of Pharoah as he moved north towards larger, more well-defended outposts and cities, and the courage of those settlers who dared to make this remote place their home.

It is that insight, out ability to imagine what it must have been like, that allows us to better understand, explain, teach, and preach the stories of scripture. Because understanding those people, and their feelings transforms dry words into real people.

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Moving on Up… to Caesarea

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View of the Mediterranean Sea from Caesarea

Moving on Up… to Caesarea

I remember watching situation comedy, “The Jeffersons” on television in the late 1970’s. The show was a spin-off of All in the Family and centered around the lives George and Louise Jefferson after George builds a chain of dry cleaners and his newfound upper-middle class income allows him to move into a luxury high-rise apartment instead of the old neighborhood in which he had grown up. The show was reliably funny but, for me and many others, one of the memorable things that stuck with us was the theme song, “Moving on Up.” (I hope you’ll forgive me if you get that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day.)

Theater at Caesarea

It was that song that has been stuck in my head as I think about the things that I saw in Caesarea by the Sea, or Caesarea Maritima, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Israel. I had been there before but having spent a significant amount of time over the last couple semesters reading and studying, seeing it all again from this new perspective, and touring those ruins with other students, led by our professor,Dr. David deSilva, I saw many things differently. But while travel always changes us, we can’t always anticipate how we will be changed.

During this visit, the thing that struck me at many of the sites we visited, but particularly at Caesarea, was the incredible gulf that existed between the rich and the poor before, and during, the New Testament period. I’d read about it, and I thought that I understood it, and prior to this trip I certainly could have explained and even preached about it. But this time something was different.

The inner harbor at Caesarea by the Sea

Certainly, Caesarea has a lot going for it and King Herod had every reason to want to build a city, and a palace, here. Being on the sea it has a beautiful view, and an agreeable climate, and with the construction of one of the ancient world’s largest seaports, Caesarea became a center of trade and travel, a center of government, and along with those things became quite wealthy. Caesarea had a beautiful theater, concert hall (an Odeon), an almost impossibly enormous temple of Augustus that dominated the city, an oval track for horse (or human) racing (known as a circus), and even a 10 mile (15 km) long aqueduct to fill the ornate public fountains, flush the toilets, and make sure that no one would ever run out of drinking water. Many buildings were architecturally, over the top gorgeous, and some were known to be covered in imported marble. Fish, wine, and delicacies imported from around the known world were available.

Caesarea Aqueducts

Herod built his palace on a spit of land protruding into the sea just around the corner from the theater and had every luxury available including a cold pool, sauna, and an almost Olympic sized, freshwater swimming pool that was carved out of solid bedrock. After Herod’s death, his palace was used by the governors, procurators of the Judaea Province. Among these were the prefect Pontius Pilate, and Governor Antoninus Felix, that we read about during Paul’s trial in Acts 23, and Governor Porcius Festus who heard Paul’s defense there in Acts 25.

Ruins of Herod’s Palace with mosaic floors and pool.

It was the goal for local and provincial elites to move up to places like Caesarea. There was an enormous disparity between the “haves” and the “have nots” and even between the “wealthy” and “average.” Most of the population were rural peasants that eked out a subsistence level of survival, farming, and fishing in rural areas like Nazareth. There, it wasn’t uncommon for a house to only have one room for an entire family, while larger families might have two, or even four. In Jerusalem, the home of an important, and somewhat wealthy person, might have four rooms and possibly a little larger. Wealthy rulers and government officials made up only 2 percent of the population. Perhaps another 5 percent were “retainers,” career military, lower government functionaries, and household servants for the 2 percent. Merchants and most of the priestly class were basically just “less poor” than peasants, but not anything close to wealthy, and artisans may have had even less income than the peasants.[1]

While we might consider the accommodation in Caesarea to be primitive, and they certainly would not meet our standards of sanitation, many of us would still find it to be nicer than many twenty-first century cities. Caesarea was the place that important and wealthy people dreamed of living. But the lifestyle of the wealthy was so far removed from the experience and expectation of the average person, that it wasn’t even a dream. There was no “middle” class. Two percent were fabulously wealthy and lived a life of luxury, five percent lived well in service to those wealthy people, and everyone else barely made enough money to eat. There was no upward mobility. There was no “moving on up.”

There was only grinding poverty.

Seeing that, understanding that, and grappling with what that means, changes the way that we read the gospels, the stories of the New Testament, and all of scripture.

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[1] Sakari Häkkinen, Poverty in the first-century Galilee, Department of New Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Five Thousand Years of Megiddo

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Five Thousand Years of Megiddo

(and counting)

by John Partridge

A panoramic view from the top of Mount Megiddo

Whether you have read the New or the Old Testaments, you are likely to have encountered a story about the fortress of Megiddo. Its strategic location has already made it a place of importance in 3000 BCE, and long before the arrival of Joshua and the Israelites in 1400 BCE. As most ancient fortresses were, even into the Medieval period, Megiddo lies at the top of a rise that might be a big hill or a small mountain. That alone might not have made Megiddo a good location for a fortress, but its geographic location certainly did.

Iron Age City Gate (built under Solomon or Ahab)

The fortress, or more properly the historic succession of fortresses, overlooks the Jezreel valley, which is not only one of the most fertile plains in the Ancient Near East, but has within it, the Via Maris, the road that connected Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia which was important to many ancient empires including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians, Israelites, Canaanites, and many others. And not only did Megiddo overlook this important highway, but it did also so in the place where the Via Maris narrowed through the pass at Mount Carmel on its way to the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea.

Granary

The archeological digs at Megiddo have unearthed a temple that was built by the early Canaanites, one of the largest structures in the entire Ancient Near East, as early as 3000 BCE. This was the place where Egyptian soldiers of Thutmose III fought between 1450 and 1400 BCE, and then Joshua and the Israelites between 1400 and 1375 BCE as seen in Joshua 12:21. Here, Solomon established one of his great chariot cities to stable his horses (1 Kings 4:12), and it was here that both King Ahaziah (2 Kings 9:27) and King Josiah (2 Kings 23:29) met their deaths. Much more recently, this was the place where British troops fought the Ottoman army during World War I and where the apostle John envisioned the great battle of Armageddon in Revelation 16:16 (Armageddon is a mistranslation of what John almost certainly wrote as “Har Megiddo,” meaning mountain, of Megiddo).

“Solomon’s stables”

In my recent trip to Israel, we walked through the ruins of Megiddo and saw the layers of the cities that had been built there over the course of thousands of years.  We saw the monumental city gates built in the Bronze Age by the Egyptians and in the Iron Age by either King Solomon or by King Ahab, the ancient temples, the buildings where Solomon’s horses were stabled (or which might have been warehouses), a granary silo that once stored the city’s supply of wheat, barley, or other grains, a monumental southern palace (once again dating to either Solomon or Ahab), and an amazing tunnel that connected the city to it’s spring outside the gates of city which protected it from invading armies.

Stairs to the spring tunnel
Tunnel to the spring outside the walls

The impressive views of the Jezreel Valley from the walls of Megiddo are amazing. Looking out over the valley, it is easy to imagine the battles that were fought here. One can easily picture invading armies marching along the valley toward this fortress and feel the quiet anticipation, or outright dread, of the soldiers watching from those walls. It is in these places that we not only learn history, but that history comes alive as you touch it and feel it with your hands as well as with your imagination and with your soul. And, having been in this place, having walked the paths of so many biblical figures, seen the walls and buildings where they lived and worked, and easily imagined what they might have looked like so many years ago, my understanding and appreciation of scripture has changed. No longer is Megiddo just a set piece in a story of long ago, but a real and tangible place that will forever change the way that I read history, and how I understand, interpret, and preach the stories of the Bible.

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Where in the World is Pastor John?

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If you haven’t already, some of you will certainly be wondering what’s going on by the end of May. I didn’t preach for two Sundays in April and missed (or will miss) three more in May.  

I’m fine… Really.

In April, I was in church for United Women in Faith Sunday, as well as the following week when I asked Pastor Christ to preach so that I could finish my research paper and other work that was due at the end of spring semester. Then, in May, I participated in the Great Day of Music Sunday (but didn’t preach) followed by two more Sundays in which Pastor Chris preached again. On the first of these, I was on a summer semester study trip as our entire class was in Israel to see all the places that we’ve been studying and writing about for the last 30 plus weeks. I returned on a Friday (if I was on schedule) but, again, Pastor Chris was kind enough to preach so that I didn’t have to worry about writing a sermon while I was traveling.

Of course, I’m writing this before I leave for Israel so that Dolores can put it in the newsletter, but by the time you read this, I should be back. I plan to be here through June, but I’ll miss a week or two in July when I will once again be serving as chaplain for the 2023 National Scout Jamboree. After that, I think I will be around for a while. There is a chance that I’ll be out again later in the year to perform a church wedding for our son Jonah and his wife Kylie after their private back yard service this past January.

Other than that, I don’t have any definite plans, but at some point, Patti and I might like to go somewhere… together.

I want to say thank you to all of you for allowing me the flexibility to go to school and serve in ministry in other capacities such as scouting and missions.  I also want to say thank you to Pastor Chris and Susan Haddox who almost always say ‘yes” when I need to be somewhere else. And of course, I want to say thank you to my wife, Patti, for putting up with all my travel (and other shenanigans).

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Christian Extra-Terrestrials?

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Christian Extra-Terrestrials?

February 20, 2022*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Luke 6:27-38

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Many of you are old enough to have watched the Steven Spielberg movie, E.T. the Extraterrestrial and, even if you haven’t watched it, you probably at least know something about it.  There’s also a good chance that E.T. is what you thought of when you saw today’s sermon title, “Christian Extraterrestrials.”  But despite Elon Musk’s goal of establishing a colony on Mars, interplanetary Christians is not what I have in mind… at least for today.  What I have in mind, however, is just a little bit different linguistically.  I thought about using Superhuman, or Supernatural, but those words bring up mental images of Superman from the planet Krypton, or a couple of brothers on television who fight ghosts, demons, and other non-human creatures, so neither of those words really work either.  But the definition of the prefix “extra” means “beyond” and so while “extra-terrestrial” can mean a person, or a creature, that is from beyond our planet, it might also mean someone from this planet whose abilities lie beyond the those of normal, or expected, people. 

And besides, it made you curious.

In any case, “beyond terrestrial” is a legitimate translation of the language that is used in our scriptures today.  But, before we get to that, let’s begin with the story of Joseph.  Nearing the end of Joseph’s epic in Genesis, we join his story at the point where, having once been sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph is now, after Pharaoh, the second most powerful man in all of Egypt if not the second most powerful man on the planet.  But at this moment, Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers, the same men who years earlier had beaten him, thrown him in an empty cistern, and sold him into slavery.  And, understandably, when his brothers realize who he is, they are terrified.  We rejoin that story in Genesis 45:3-11,15:

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

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

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

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

Joseph’s brothers were terrified that, because he was now the most powerful man in Egypt, and not the pesky younger brother, they expected that he would take his revenge on them for what they had done.  And, honestly, no one would be surprised if that had happened.  Joseph had every right to be angry and it would have been fair for him to sell his brothers into slavery as they had done to him.  But Joseph’s relationship with God gave him a different perspective.  Rather than seeing this as an opportunity for revenge, Joseph sees that God has been intervening in human affairs, influencing events, and moving him into position so that he could rescue the entire nation of Egypt, and his family, the people that would one day become the nation of Israel.  Joseph behaves in a way that is unexpected because his relationship with God has given him a vision of the world that is beyond human.

And we can see that same vision as Jesus teaches his disciples in Luke 6:27-38, as he says:

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

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

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

Jesus says that being ‘just as good’ as the evil people around you isn’t good enough.  And being just as good as average and ordinary people isn’t good enough either.  The standard for his followers is to do good even when no other reasonable person would do good, to be unreasonably good, or… beyond humanly good.  Jesus wants his followers to love the people around them more than other reasonable people would love, to love in a way that is beyond humanly loving or, beyond earthly love. 

And the examples that Jesus gives are so far beyond our understanding of normal, that they are understandably difficult.  Jesus says that we should loan money, not just to people that we trust, and not just people that we believe can pay us back, but to loan money to people we don’t even like, people we regard as our enemies, and that includes people that we might be confident have no means, and possibly no intention, of ever paying us back.  Jesus says that we should loan them the money with no expectation that we should get it back.  In other words, just give money away to people that you hate, and who probably hate you back.  Loving in ways that are beyond human, or beyond terrestrial, is exactly the point that Jesus is making.  Our calling isn’t to love the people around us like ordinary, average, or even exceptional people love, our calling is to love the people around us the way that God loves.  God is loving, kind, and merciful to the ungrateful and the wicked who neither like him nor even know him.

It’s worth noting here that “Do not judge” is currently one of the most commonly misquoted and misinterpreted verses of scripture.  It most certainly does not mean that we should… never… judge.  Matthew includes this same quote from Jesus, but records Jesus’ statement as saying, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1) To make this clear, some translations record this as “Do not judge unfairly” rather than simply do not judge.  There are many times when Jesus asks, even commands us to judge between good and evil, honor and dishonor, to be discerning in all that we do, and other things.  What Jesus clearly means is that we will be judged in the same way that we judge others.  Don’t rush to judgement.  Don’t judge without evidence. Or, as the translators have said, don’t judge unfairly.  Likewise, we can expect to receive the generosity of God with the same, or better, generosity that we show others.  Give and it will be given to you in an even more abundant and generous measure.

But why?  Why is the standard for love, mercy, and compassion so much higher for Christians than it is for everyone else?  Why does God demand that our behavior be beyond human, whether we call that super-human or extra-terrestrial?  We find the answer to “why” in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth where he says (1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50) …

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam [aka Jesus], a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man [Adam], so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man [Jesus], so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall webear the image of the heavenly man.

And although Paul takes a while to get to his point, the answer really is simple.  The reason that the followers of Jesus Christ are commanded, and empowered, to behave in ways that are beyond human, and the reason that it isn’t okay to just be the same as other people, is because earth and heaven are not the same.  Adam and Jesus are not the same.  When we choose to follow Jesus Christ, we become image bearers of God.  Our calling is no longer to look like everyone else and reflect the image of the world in which we live, but rather to reflect the image of a merciful, just, compassionate, and loving God and to reflect an entirely different reality.

As the image bearers of God, we must love more than humanly possible, be impossibly forgiving, extraordinarily generous, inhumanly merciful, and in every other way that we can, be an accurate reflection the goodness and holiness of God.

God has called us, commanded us, and empowered us to behave in ways that are super-human, and beyond earthly.

In other words, we are called to be nothing less than Extra-Terrestrial Christians.

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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.com.  All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

The Expansion

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The Expansion

January 19, 2020*

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Isaiah 49:1-7                          John 1:29-42                          1 Corinthians 1:1-9

 

How many of you know how to drive a stick shift?

I want to be clear, what I mean by that is, how many of you have driven a stick shift truck or automobile?

I make that clarification because when I first got my driver’s license, I thought I knew how to drive a stick.  I had been in the car with my Dad and with my brothers on countless occasions.  I had a driver’s license, and I understood the principles and the mechanics of how a stick shift operated.  But the first time I tried to put that knowledge into practice, I drove my father’s Mustang into our garage door.  Thankfully, I didn’t do much damage to either the garage or the car, so I wasn’t in a lot of trouble.  But this was a great learning opportunity that reinforced the idea that there’s a big difference between knowing and knowing.  There’s a difference between hearing about something, or knowing about something, and having knowledge that comes from doing that thing.  There’s a difference between knowing how to drive a stick shift and physically driving a stick shift long enough to become skilled in doing it.  In the same way, there’s a difference between knowing about a person, and knowing that person because you’ve spent enough time together to genuinely know them.

As I found out when I drove my dad’s Mustang into the garage door, the difference between these two kinds of knowing can be critically important.  A few years ago, while our son Jonah was shopping for a car, a friend from school wanted to sell him one.  Jonah liked it but, since it was a stick shift, and since he didn’t know how drive a stick, Jonah asked me to test drive it with him.  It looked nice enough and to Jonah, the car seemed great.  But when I got behind the wheel, something about the way the clutch worked and the way that it shifted seemed wrong to me.  I admitted that it had been several years since I had regularly driven a stick, but even aside from my slightly rusty skills, something just didn’t seem right, and my hesitancy caused Jonah to look elsewhere.  There’s a between knowing about and knowing from experience and that difference in knowledge often causes a difference in behavior.

It is this difference in knowing that we see in several of our scriptures this morning.  We begin in Isaiah 49:1-7 where we hear the story of how God called Isaiah to be the prophet of Israel and how God intended to use the nation of Israel, and Israel’s messiah, to call the world to repentance.

49:1 Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
    and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

5 And now the Lord says—
    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
    and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord
    and my God has been my strength—
6 he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
    to restore the tribes of Jacob
    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

7 This is what the Lord says—
    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
    to the servant of rulers:
“Kings will see you and stand up,
    princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

 

Isaiah says that God called him before he was born, prepared him, and set him aside to be his servant.  But he did the same for Israel.  Israel was called by God before it was born and was set aside to display the splendor and glory of God to the world.  It was God’s intention to restore Israel, and to make that nation, and her messiah, a light to the Gentiles, a people that would go out, extend itself into the world, and expand the kingdom of God so that the kings, and the people, of the world would bow down and bring honor and glory to God.  It was God’s plan for the world to know him because they had known Israel.

 

And, in a much more personal way, we see this same idea play out in John 1:29-42 when two disciples of John the Baptist, Andrew and (probably) John, meet Jesus for the first time.

 

29 The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

 

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So, they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

 

As disciples of John the Baptist, Andrew and John would have heard stories and preaching about the messiah that God had promised to the nation of Israel.  They would have been told that the arrival of the messiah was imminent, and that John the Baptist had been called by God to prepare for the arrival of the messiah.  But, at that moment, John makes it plain that Jesus is the one about whom he had been preaching and that Jesus was God’s Chosen One and the Lamb of God.  And immediately, those two disciples had a different kind of knowledge.  Knowing that the messiah was coming was different than knowing that the messiah had arrived.  And then, having met Jesus, and now actually knowing Jesus, something else was required of them.  Now that Andrew genuinely knew Jesus, just knowing wasn’t enough.  Now that Andrew knew Jesus the first thing that he did was to find his brother Simon and tell him that they had found the messiah and the very next thing that he did was to bring Simon to meet Jesus for himself.

 

Knowing the messiah was coming, and even knowing that the messiah had arrived, were different than knowing the messiah.  Once Andrew and John had met Jesus, once they knew him, that knowledge changed their behavior and demanded something from them.  It wasn’t enough to know Jesus.  Knowing Jesus demanded an expansion, knowing Jesus demanded that they tell others about what they knew and introduce others to him.

 

And, just in case we are tempted to say that this was only true for the disciples of John the Baptist, or was only true for the first few disciples, in 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Paul explains that knowing Jesus changes the rest of us as well.

 

1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Paul says that once we know him, Jesus pours grace into us and enriches our lives by giving us all kinds of speech and knowledge in order to confirm the testimony about Jesus by the changes that are evident among the people of the church.  Once the people came to know him, Jesus poured out gifts of grace, speech, knowledge and, according to Paul, the church receives every spiritual gift as we wait for the return of Jesus Christ.  And just in case we weren’t sure what every spiritual gift means, Paul provides a list later in this same letter in 1st Corinthians chapter 12, where he lists some of these gifts as being wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, spiritual discernment, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. 

 

Paul is clear that knowing about Jesus, and genuinely knowing Jesus are different things. 

 

Knowing Jesus changes us.

 

When we meet Jesus and get to know him, when we experience the changes that are evident in his people and in his church, and when we receive the gifts that Jesus gives to his people, we are no longer the same people that we used to be.  Knowing Jesus not only changes us, it calls us, and it demands something from us.  Like Andrew, once we meet Jesus, we are unable to keep that knowledge to ourselves and we are compelled to introduce him to others so that they can know him too.

 

From the beginning, it has always been God’s plan for his people to be a light in a dark world.  God has always intended for his people, for his church, to go out, to extend itself into the world, and expand the kingdom of God so that the people of the world would bow down and bring honor and glory to God.

 

We have met Jesus and we have been changed, transformed, and blessed because of it.

 

And now that we know him, we are called to tell others about him so that they can meet him and know him too.

 

 

 

 

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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.

A Plumb Line

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A Plumb Line

A Sunday meditation

July 21, 2019

By Pastor John Partridge

Amos 7:7-17              

 

Have you ever lived in a small town?

On at least three different times in my life I have lived in small towns.  But I want you to understand what I mean when I say, “small town.”  In these places parents often caution their children to behave while they are in the community just as well as they do when their parents are watching, and they do so because you can be quite certain that even though they are out of sight of their parents, someone that they know will see them, and their parents will hear about what they have done, often before they return home from doing it.

This kind of caution is just the message that God gives to the people of Israel through the prophet Amos.  God says that he will measure his people with a plumb line.  A plumb line is simply a metal weight that hangs at the end of a string but thanks to the predictability of gravity, that line is always dead straight. (Amos 7:7-17)

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”

“A plumb line,” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
    and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
    with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:

“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
    and Israel will surely go into exile,
    away from their native land.’”

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say,

“‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
    and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
Your land will be measured and divided up,
    and you yourself will die in a pagan country.
And Israel will surely go into exile,
    away from their native land.’”

God tells his children that just because they didn’t see him, doesn’t mean that their father wasn’t watching.  And not only was he watching, but he intends to measure what they are building with their behavior.  His standard is dead straight and perfect.  Israel knew what the rules were, they knew God’s standards, they knew what he expected, but they didn’t follow his instructions so what they were building wasn’t straight. 

It didn’t conform.

It deviated from God’s standards.

But the rest of the story is also important.  When Amos arrives to declare God’s judgement, the king’s advisor, the priest Amaziah, declares Amos to be an enemy.  They don’t want to hear any bad news even if it comes from God.  Israel’s religious and political leaders would rather ignore God than repent and obey him. 

Not surprisingly, ignoring God and pretending that his judgement isn’t real does not prevent God from doing what he promised to do,  In fact, because Amaziah has refused to recognize Amos as God’s prophet, and refused to listen or respond to God’s judgement, Amos declares a personal curse upon Amaziah in addition to the punishment that God had intended for Israel all along.

But so, what?

What does that mean to us in the twenty-first century?

I see two important lessons for us as the church, as a people, and as a nation.

First, ignoring God and his instructions is does not prevent us from being measured by God’s standards. Every nation, secular, religious, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or otherwise will be measured by the plumb-line of God.  It doesn’t matter if the highest levels of the government or the highest levels of the church pretend that God is dead.  Pretending that judgement will never come will not stop God’s judgement from coming any more than pretending that a freight train is fluffy will stop it from crushing you if you stand on the crossing.

Second, the leaders of the church, and the leaders of the nations, will be held personally, and particularly, responsible for the way in which they lead their nations.

Even as citizens, how we choose to lead, and how we choose to vote for our leaders, and how we hold them accountable, is important.  It is important that we choose leaders who lead well, and who lead us in ways that do not ignore the instructions and commands of God. 

Just like a child living in a small town, even when our father seems to be invisible and out of sight, he knows what we are doing and is measuring what we are building with our behavior.

We are a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6).  We know the standards, instructions, and commands of God.

We need to act like it.

 

 

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