What Should We Remember?

April 6, 2023June 1, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, communion, eucharist, God, holy, Jesus, love, Maundy, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, Passover, remember, Street, Thursday, United

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What Should We Remember?

April 06, 2023*

(Holy Thursday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14 John 13:1-17, 31b-35 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Even a cursory glance at our history books reminds us that there are a great many things that we are supposed to remember. We have been told that we should “Remember the Alamo,” “Remember the Maine,” “Remember the Lusitania,” remember Pearl Harbor, remember 9-11, and those don’t even count the movies that asked us to “Remember the Titans,” or political slogans like “Remember the Dreamers.” Probably a good percentage of the people in this room could not tell me why we’re supposed to remember the Maine and even less what we should remember about the Lusitania even though most of those things happened less than 100 years ago and all of them happened within the last 200 years.

But some of the things that we are called upon to remember in church happened two thousand years ago, and others closer to 3500 years ago. So, what is it that we should remember? Specifically, as it relates to Holy Week and Easter, the first, and oldest, of these things is found in the story of Passover and the rescue of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, roughly speaking depending on whether you believe in an early or a late date, around 1300 BCE. We find God’s command to remember that event in Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14.

^12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ²“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lambfor his family, one for each household. ⁴If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.

¹¹This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹²“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

After Israel is rescued from eight hundred years of slavery in Egypt, God commands them to celebrate that rescue every year so that they can remember it forever.

But then, more than a thousand years later, while Jesus and his disciples were celebrating Passover, Jesus gave them a new thing to remember. We find that command in the story found in John 13:1-17, 31b-35.

^13:1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

²The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

³¹Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³²If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus didn’t repeal God’s command to remember Passover, he added to it. Jesus said that just as they remembered God’s grace and the rescue of Israel from slavery, his followers should always remember how much he loved them. But the way that they should remember his love was to love the people around them the way that Jesus had loved, to love with such an extravagant love, that everyone would know that they were his followers.

But that wasn’t the only thing that Jesus asked them to remember. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, the Apostle Paul remembers something else that Jesus wanted his people to remember forever. Paul says…

²³For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

And so, much like “Remember the Alamo,” but far more urgent and enduring, God commands us to remember. What God wants us to remember is that although it took longer than they expected, God never stopped loving his people and rescued them from their slavery and distress. God wants us to remember that his Son loved the people around him, and us, with an extravagant kind of love. Jesus calls all of us who follow him to remember how much he loved, and calls us to love the people around us with the same extravagant, costly, even life-threatening love with which Jesus loved. And finally, in place of sharing an annual Passover meal, Jesus asks us to regularly share this meal, the Eucharist, or communion, to remind us of all these things. We share this meal together to remember the life, death, resurrection, and crazy, extravagant, costly, love of Jesus Christ and to remember that the love with which Jesus loved us, is the love to which he calls us to love others.

And that, is what we are supposed to remember.

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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.™

Eulogy and Obituary for Paul R. Cope

April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 PastorPartridge Eulogy Alliance, Broadway, Chris Martin, Christ, church, Cope, Eulogy, faith, Jesus, John, Methodist, Obituary, Partridge, Paul

Eulogy for Paul Cope

March 31, 2023

by John Partridge

(Note: You can find the live stream of this memorial service here: https://youtube.com/live/X8K5O0xwOwY?feature=share )

Paul Cope was born in Alliance, Ohio on August 31^st, 1926, to Paul and Mabel Cope. He graduated from Alliance High School, and although he was not mechanically inclined, started driving a city bus in Alliance when he was only 16 years old. Paul served in the Navy for two and a half years during World War II, first at the Great Lakes Naval Station, our nation’s largest Navy base, and the basic training facility for every sailor we’ve trained since 1911 and then was stationed not far away at the Glenview Naval Air Station outside Chicago, which, until 1995 was a naval aircraft training facility. Paul eventually rose to the rank of Seaman First Class. After the war, Paul got back to work. He was married to Kathryn and then widowed with two children when she died suddenly at the age of 24. Not long after that, Paul met Shirley at her place of employment, which was possibly the electric company. Shirley said that her first impression of Paul, was that his ears made him look “like a taxicab with both doors open.” That may not be the most positive first impression, but they were married in September of 1951. Shirley immediately took over the care of Paul’s children, who were then 3 and 5, and eight or nine months later, added Cindi.

Paul was always busy. As the president of Cope Furniture, Paul consistently worked 12 hours a day, every day, except Sunday, where you can be sure that you’d find him at Christ Church. And, after church, you would find him having a Sunday lunch with his grandparents followed by a game of UNO. That tradition of making Sunday a family day still runs in the family because of Paul’s inspiration and guidance, but with everyone’s busy schedules, it’s gotten harder to do.

In the few years that I’ve known him, I knew that Paul was kind of quiet guy, but his family told me that he’s never really talked much because Shirley always did it for him. One day last year, Paul surprised Cindi and Andy when the normally quiet Paul suddenly announced from the backseat, “You know, men and women don’t think alike.” No one is sure what inspired such an announcement, but clearly, he was thinking about something profound. Paul was always a bit of a ladies’ man, and although he settled down and was faithful to one woman, he still liked to look at pretty girls and did not apologize for it.

As a family, they often went camping in the summer or they went to Florida together. Amy remembers spending Spring Break with her grandparents at Jensen Beach in Florida and Paul could almost always be found relaxing during the popular neighborhood cocktail hour holding a martini with one green olive. At home, despite Shirley being unable to swim, Paul had a boat and often took the whole family water-skiing on Berlin Lake. At one time, Paul also had an automatic shift motorcycle with matching gold helmets for he and Shirley. I’m told that, whenever Paul wanted something, he would pursue it, relentlessly, until Shirley, or Cindi, or whomever, gave in and he got it. This is how he got his motorcycle, his motor-home, his boat, new cars, assorted toys, and even a leaf blower when he already lived at Copeland Oaks that has its own groundskeepers.

There is also the story of Paul’s riding lawn mower. Paul liked mowing his yard, I think, but one day, before the advent of safety interlocks, he got off of his mower to pick up some sticks, with the mower still running, and managed to mow a toe or two. With blood streaming from his foot, Paul calmly walked into the kitchen and, Cindi tells me, this image of her father is why, to this day, that she does not care for the sight of blood.

Paul was always a part of his grandchildren, and great-grandchildren’s lives. When Shirley worked at Cutty’s Paul changed diapers and babysat his great-grandchildren. The funny thing is, that before his grandchildren were born, and maybe before his great-grandchildren were born, Paul had never one changed a diaper. And so, on his first try, and Cindi never quite figured out how, while he got it on, it was on completely backwards. Paul was supportive of his family at every activity that he could and he had season tickets to their football games just so that he could watch the band at half-time at all the home games.

In the last few months there were many changes to Paul’s life. He wasn’t too happy about giving up his car and despite the explicit orders of his doctor, he complained about it and insisted that we go ask Bobbi Wright because, Paul said, “She will tell you that I’m a good driver.” And, shortly before this most recent decline, Craig asked Paul if he was okay with moving from his villa to an apartment in the assisted living building. Paul answered that he knew that it was coming, and probably should have happened sooner.

In the end, Paul was a man who loved his life, who lived it well, and had fun doing it. He loved his family and would do almost anything for them. He knew what he wanted, he worked hard at whatever he did, and was faithful to his wife, to his family, to his friends, to his Jesus, and to his church. The old joke is that you should live your life so that the preacher doesn’t have to lie at your funeral, and Paul Cope did that and more. We often say that the mission of the church is to change the world, and if those of us who remember Paul can live our lives as faithfully as he lived his, we will do exactly that. Paul Cope was just one man, he could not change the world by himself, but he definitely changed his corner of it and made the world a better place for everyone who knew him.

Memories of my Dad

(by Marsha Miller)

My Dad was one of a kind! Without him and Mom, I would be what I am today.

They took very good care of me, Cindi, and Howard. They taught us how to be obedient to everyone, no matter what. They taught us how to respect and treat everyone as we wanted to be treated!

We always had food on the table to eat and you had better eat it or go hungry! Mom always made sure we not only had clean clothes to wear and that we had clothes to wear.

Dad was a great grandfather and a great great-grandfather. The all loved him very much.

Paul R. Cope

“A Sweet and Gentle Spirit”

March 31, 2023

by Rev. L. Chris Martin

Dear friends in Christ:

We gather here in this sacred and familiar place to worship the God of the ages in loving memory of Paul R. Cope. As I have thought about Paul’s life since his passing into eternal life a little over two weeks ago, I realize that what stands out as most memorable about this kindhearted and considerate man, over the fourteen years I have known him, was his sweet and gentle spirit. Paul was almost always the first person to arrive for the Searcher’s Class, the adult class I have been privileged to teach for the past twelve years. Paul was a man of few words so that when he did have something to say, we all listened. It was a true delight to share the classroom with him.

Paul was a reliable and predictable sort of guy, the kind of person one could count on to do whatever he agreed to do and to follow through on whatever responsibility he knew was his. Having served as a Seaman First Class in the United States Navy in World War II surely helped to teach Paul the need of completing the tasks before him in an efficient and reliable manner. It was a lesson that he never forgot through his long and fruitful life.

Paul had been married to the love of his life, Shirley, for 59 years at the time of her passing in March of two-thousand eleven. Shirley was so full of life, living each moment of each day fully, and loving and caring for every member of her family in ways that cause the precious memories they have of her to this day. Paul’s memories of the years of their married life sustained him through the last twelve years of his life where Paul lived each day remembering the happiness of the years he spent with his beloved Shirley. Paul thoroughly enjoyed his two daughters and their extended families, and his son, Paul Howard, who preceded him into eternal life.

In addition to what I have shared to this point about Paul and the life he lived, Paul was also a treasured child of God, loved by God with an unconditional love. Just a few days before he passed into eternal life, Paul said to me while he was hospitalized in Alliance, “I really don’t understand why I am here, I’m not sick.” That was a day that Paul seemed to rally, after which his health began to fail. I am convinced beyond any doubt that Paul realized in those last few days of his life that it was time to go home to God, where he could be reunited with his treasured Shirley and the others that preceded him into eternal life.

One of the songs that sustained Paul and the members of his family in recent days was a song first written by John Newton in 1779. The song is “Amazing Grace.” In 2006, Chris Tomlin wrote an addition to the original song. After the second verse, that reads: “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.” Tomlin added these words: “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free, My God, My Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood his mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace.”

The last verse reads: “The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine. But God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.” To this verse, Paul would add: “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood his mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace.” Paul now lives for all eternity, wrapped in unending love and amazing grace. But his sweet and gentle spirit lives on in our memories.

Amen.

Obituary for Paul R. Cope

August 31, 1926 – March 15, 2023 (age 96)

Paul R. Cope, age 96, passed away on March 15, 2023.

He was born on August 31, 1926, in Alliance, to Paul W. and Mabel (Roath) Cope.

Paul graduated from Alliance High School in 1944. He was the owner and President of the former Cope Furniture. Paul served honorably in the United States Navy as a Seaman First Class in WWII.

Paul was a member of Christ United Methodist Church where he was in the Hallelujah Bell Choir, the church choir and was a member of Searchers Sunday School Class. He also helped make peanut brittle at the church for many years and was a Boy Scout Master of Troop 50 for three years. Paul was a former member of Alliance Rotary Club, Washington Ruritans and BPOE #467.

Those left to cherish his memory are his daughters, Marsha Miller of Arizona, and Cindy (Andy) Magda of Alliance; nine grandchildren, eighteen great-grandchildren; great-great-grandchildren; a sister, Patricia Ludwig; and two nieces.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Shirley G. Cope, whom he married September 16, 1951, and who passed on March 12, 2011; and his son, Paul Howard.

A celebration of life will be held at Christ United Methodist Church on Friday, March 31st at 11:00 a.m. with a visitation one hour prior. The service will be co-officiated by Pastors John Partridge and Chris Martin.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Christ United Methodist Church Music Department, 470 E Broadway St. Alliance, Ohio 44601, or the Copeland Oaks Foundation, 715 S. Johnson Rd., Sebring, Ohio 44672.

Arrangements are entrusted to Cassaday-Turkle-Christian Funeral Home 75 South Union Ave Alliance, Ohio 44601.

How Will God Change You?

April 3, 2023 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, Broadway, change, Christ, church, Easter, God, Jesus, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Partridge, transform, transformation

Ancient Meaning – Modern Application

Easter 2023

For the last several years, I have mentioned in this letter, that “this is an unusual time.” But, for the most part, we are putting the unusual-ness of the pandemic behind us and accepting what’s left as a new normal. We are going out to eat, holding church dinners, attending plays and concerts, and doing almost all of the things that we were doing before we first heard the acronym COVID-19.

But why does it matter that we are returning to normal?

It matters because a return to normal means that we can be done focusing only on surviving for the next few months or even for the next year. Returning to normal means that our focus once again shifts to look farther into the future. How do we envision Christ Church five years from now, a decade from now, or fifty years from now? Shifting our focus requires that we imagine how Christ Church might be different and how it might change. And imagining how Christ Church might change means that we must consider how we might change. And considering how we might change must include both the plural and the singular, both we collectively, and each of us individually.

But those things are also a part of the message of Lent and Easter. As we hear the familiar stories from scripture, as we read and listen to the story of Lazarus’ resurrection and his unprecedented second chance, as we hear the wonder in the voices of the crowd of witnesses, of the women who find an empty tomb, of the men walking to Emmaus with Jesus, of Thomas as he puts his hand in the Jesus’s wounds, and of the disciples who witness Jesus appear in a locked room, we must imagine with them, how our lives will be changed.

The resurrection of Jesus changed everything. It changed the direction of the lives of everyone who knew him. Peter and the others would never go back to their fishing boats because God had a different future planned for them. And twenty-one centuries later, the resurrection of Jesus is still transforming lives. As we celebrate Easter and move into the season of Eastertide, let us once again consider where God is leading us, how God intends to change us and transform us so that we are fit to do the work and the mission of the future that he has planned for us.

We are the disciples of Jesus Christ.

And God is still calling us to do his work.

Let us listen to his voice, consider what we must do, and how we might need to change in order to receive his blessings and arrive at the future that he has planned for us… for our children… for our grandchildren… and beyond.

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Storm Clouds

April 2, 2023April 6, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, clouds, death, donkey, entry, God, Jesus, Lazarus, lining, Methodist, Ohio, Palm, Partridge, pharisee, resurrection, Sadducee, Sanhedrin, silver, storm, Street, Sunday, triumphal, United

Storm Clouds

April 02, 2023*

(Palm Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

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Matthew 21:1-11 John 11:45-57

Last week we read the story of Lazarus together. It is an amazing story. Jesus returns to the house of his friends, Mary and Martha, four days after their brother, and Jesus’s friend, had died and was sealed inside of his burial tomb. At Jesus’ request, despite warnings that, after four days, the smell is going to be bad, they roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb and Jesus calls out to his friend and commands him to come out. At Jesus’ command, Lazarus climbs out of the tomb still wrapped from head to toe in his grave clothes.

As I said, it is an amazing story.

But as we follow the recommended readings for Lent, these readings often seem to tell a happier story than the scriptures do. Following the recommended lectionary readings would have us jump directly from Lazarus’ resurrection to Jesus’ triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. The alternative reading would have us jump from Lazarus’ story directly to the story of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. But, as I mentioned at the end of last week’s service, there is an important part of the story that gets skipped over. And so, today we’re going to begin right where we left off last week, with the story of Lazarus, and then follow Jesus into Jerusalem because both of these pieces are important to our understanding of how things were set in motion for the events that lead up to Good Friday and Easter.

So, let us rejoin Lazarus’ story right where we stopped last week. Lazarus rises from the dead, climbs out of his tomb, Jesus asks folks to help Lazarus’ take off his grave clothes, everybody is amazed, and our scripture said, “⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”

That’s nice, but that isn’t the end of the story because if we continue reading, this is what we hear in John 11:45-57.

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

⁵¹He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, ⁵²and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. ⁵³So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

⁵⁴Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

⁵⁵When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” ⁵⁷But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

Sometimes, when we read the story of Jesus entry into Jerusalem, we wonder if anyone really noticed all the cheering, and shouting, and waving palm branches and this is especially true when we skip over the end of Lazarus’ story. But when we read the second half of the Lazarus story, we see that the chief priests and the Pharisees were waiting and watching for Jesus’ arrival. They had already decided that Jesus needed to die, and all the waving palm branches, and the shouts of Hosanna, only confirmed their decision and cemented their determination.

But, from the point of view of the disciples and other followers, Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem was a joyous occasion. They had a completely different perspective. So different in fact, that it almost seems like different story. The people saw Jesus as a prophet, and they hoped that he would be the military messiah that would overthrow the Roman occupation and lead Israel to a renewed greatness, prominence, and notoriety. We hear this story in Matthew 21:1-11.

^21:1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosannato the Son of David!”

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

“Hosannain the highest heaven!”

¹⁰When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

These acclamations tell us two things, first, they tell us about the expectations of the people and who they thought Jesus was, and second, they explain to us why the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other members of the ruling council saw Jesus as both a problem and a threat.

“Hosanna,” means “Save” or perhaps “Save us.” It is the kind of thing that you would shout to a military or political leader in order to praise them, but also to express your hope in their leadership. “Son of David” was often used as the title for the kings of Israel, and was used both figuratively for leaders that were not related to David, and literally for Kings that were genetically descended from David. Waving palm branches may have also made a political statement. Again, this was something that you did to welcome kings, royalty, conquering heroes, or other important persons. Palm branches, in particular, may have been seen as a nationalistic symbol of Israel. These sorts of demonstrations were sometimes specifically organized by local leaders to welcome Roman generals, Senators, or Caesars so that they were appropriately welcomed and would see that subjugated nations loved Rome and were obedient to Caesar.

Taken together, this probably looked like the sort of thing that could start a popular uprising against Roman authority, and the potential for that sort of uprising was exactly why a Roman fortress, the Fortress Antonia, was physically attached to the Temple courts. Worse, the Romans stored the vestments of the high priest in that fortress, and if they were sufficiently perturbed, they would withhold access to the high priest, and there would be no holy day sacrifice.

And just in case you needed confirmation that the Sanhedrin knew about all of the shouting and the palm branches, Luke’s description of this event in Luke 19:39-40 includes this conversation:

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

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

It’s a little odd that the selected scriptures that we read during each season of Lent always include the story of Lazarus, but skip the part where we hear the angry voices of Jerusalem’s leaders. It is precisely because the resurrection of Lazarus, and the way in which that causes even more people to follow Jesus… it is precisely because this angers the Sanhedrin, and spurs them into action, that the story of Lazarus become a vital element of the Easter story. In the minds of Jerusalem’s leaders, Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, and what is often described as his “triumphal entry,” only confirmed and solidified the decision that they had already made.

If they were going to keep the peace…

If they were going to keep the Romans from using violence to insure peace…

If they were going to maintain the status quo…

If they were going to keep their jobs, their positions, their influence, and their power…

If they were going to retain control of their temple and their nation…

Jesus must die.

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A Cup Full of Jesus, Please

March 30, 2023 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, blessing, Broadway, Christ, church, cup, expectation, followers of Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Methodist, waterfall

A Cup Full of Jesus

by John Partridge

In my New Testament Culture class discussion this week, we noted that today’s church, and its people, often bears a striking resemblance to the ancient Jerusalem temple and its Jewish congregants. Like us, they had priests and Levites who were the professionals that led worship, nearby were the faithful “serious lay scholars” that were the Pharisees. These folks were lay people, but nearly all of their free time was dedicated to the church and to the study of scripture. Neither of these groups were large and, together, only represented a small percentage of Jerusalem’s population. The people in the temple courts were, like today, divided among the regular attenders, the occasional visitors, and those, both local and from far away, that only showed up for the big holy days and festivals.

Two thousand years of history hasn’t changed human behavior much. Then, like now, many of the people in the temple and in the church, were folks who were just trying to get by, survive, and get through life. But all of that reminded me of a Sunday school lesson that my friend Brian Baer used in our class something like thirty years ago. In that lesson, much like I mentioned during our Sunday morning prayer time recently, Brian reminded us that we worship a God of miracles. Our God is the god who spoke the universe into existence, set the stars in place, created the earth and all that is in it, and knit us together each with our own skills, talents, and abilities. We follow Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead, healed incurable diseases, rose from the dead, and changed the course of human history forever.

And yet, how many of us come to church expecting little or nothing? How many of us are so focused on getting by, or so focused on stability, repeatability, and maintaining the status quo of our lives, that we ask nothing more from God than absolutely necessary. We come to the foot of a raging waterfall of miraculous power and blessing that dwarfs Niagara Falls, and in our hand is nothing more than a teacup.

I’d like a cup full of Jesus, please.

The only thing we ask is enough of Jesus to get by, to get us through the next week, and for only enough of Jesus to survive.

Why is that? What are we afraid of?

Are we worried that too much of Jesus would overwhelm us? That asking, and expecting, more from Jesus would be transformative and force us to change? Are we worried that if God’s Spirit and blessing really poured out upon us that we would have to deal with changes in our church, our families, or our personal lives? Are we worried that God might change how we think about the people around us and how we act around them? Or are we worried that God might ask something of us in return? Would God pour out his blessing on us and ask us to go on a mission trip, or teach, volunteer, go into ministry, or do something, anything, outside of our comfort zone?

God is waiting to pour out a Niagara Falls of his Spirit and blessing into your lives.

Don’t be afraid to ask for big things. Don’t be afraid of what a loving God might want to give you, how he might want to transform you, or how he may intend to change us both personally, and as a church.

At the very least, let us come to Jesus with expectation and hope and not, teacup in hand, asking only for another cup of Jesus.

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Death Sandwich

March 26, 2023March 28, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, Davy Jones, death, eternal, Ezekiel, God, Jesus, Lazarus, life, Methodist, middle, Ohio, Partridge, Pirates of the Caribbean, resurrection, sandwich, Street, United

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Death Sandwich

March 26, 2023*

(5th Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Ezekiel 37:1-14 John 11:1-45 Romans 8:6-11

It has been painfully obvious to those of us in this room that death has been an all too frequent visitor to Christ Church over the last few months. And, despite our awareness that human life is short and that none of us are immortal, that knowledge and awareness does not lessen our grief in any way. Life is short and one day, and absent the return of Jesus Christ in our lifetimes, death will come for every one of us. My brother Dean used to tell a story about the ridiculousness of human life.

He said, “Think about the events that we look forward to, when we’re young we look forward to being five or six and going to Kindergarten, then to ten because it’s double digits, then thirteen and becoming a teenager, then sixteen so we can drive, then eighteen so we can vote, then twenty-one when we legally become an adult, then maybe twenty-four when we can rent a car…

… and then what? Sixty-five and retirement!

At every stage of life we look forward to the next big thing, and sometimes we become so focused on the next big thing, that we get tunnel vision and fail to enjoy the gifts and the joy that we have in the present moment. But, at the same time, particularly as we attend the funerals of our friends, we notice that the time that we have left is escaping us like the sands in an hourglass.

But if death is a common experience for all humanity, how do we feel about that? If we’re honest, most of us try hard not to “feel about that,” to keep our minds on other things, and to ignore the passage of time. As much as humanly possibly we try not to think about death.

But, surprise, that’s the subject of today’s conversation. So, what should we think about death?

And as we think about that, we begin this morning by considering the story of the valley of dry bones contained in Ezekiel 37:1-14. In that story, which you will find in today’s bulletin, but which I will not read, God calls Ezekiel, while he and the people of Israel are in captivity in Babylon and are grieving the loss of their freedom, their nation, their temple, and their worship. And God’s call to Ezekiel gives him a vision of an enormous valley full of bones and calls upon Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones. First he calls to the bones in the name of God and, as he did, the bones came together, tendons and muscles formed over them, and skin covered them. And then God called Ezekiel to prophecy breath to the dead and to call upon the four winds to breathe into them and give them life. And the winds came, and breath entered the bodies, they came to life and stood on their feet and became a vast army.

And God said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹²Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

Figuratively, the people of Israel were dead. They had lost their homes, families, freedom, their nation, their temple, their worship and, by their way of thinking, maybe even their God. They were a people who were as good as dead, but God calls to them, through his prophet, and declares that he will bring them up out of their graves, return them to their lands, and that they will live again. God declared that exile was not the end, but that their lives would, one day be returned to them.

And that’s a nice story about grief, sadness, depression, exile, and God overcoming a figurative death. But that’s not the end of the story. In John 11:1-45, we hear a story about Jesus overcoming the very real death of his friend Lazarus. That story is a little long but it’s worth reading, and I’m going to skip some of it, but it sounds like this:

^11:1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²(This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) ³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

⁴When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, ⁷and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. ¹⁰It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

¹¹After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” ¹³Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

¹⁴So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

¹⁷On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

²¹“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

²⁸After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” ²⁹When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

³²When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴“Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹“Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

As an aside, we remember that in the timekeeping system of these ancient people, any part of a day counted as a day. And so, if Lazarus was buried in the evening, that counts as the first day, and if Jesus stood in front of his tomb at the crack of dawn, that still counts as the fourth day, but even if both of those are true, Lazarus was sealed inside the tomb, without food or water, for something like sixty hours. There is no way that Lazarus wasn’t really, completely, and entirely… dead.

⁴⁰Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

While Ezekiel was wrestling with figurative death, and received God’s promise of restoration, Jesus overcame a very real death when he restored Lazarus’ life, and also on several other occasions, and ultimately when he rose from the dead after his crucifixion.

But why is that important for us as we mourn the loss of our friends and family, and as we grapple with our own mortality in the twenty-first century. It’s important, and it matters because of the power that Jesus repeatedly demonstrated over death, and it matters because of the resurrection on Easter morning. It matters because those things point us toward an understanding of death that Paul articulates for us in Romans 8:6-11 when he explains that…

⁶The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Paul sums up all of today’s conversation by reminding us that Jesus Christ has the power over life and death. God returned life in their home nation to the people who were exiled in Babylon. Jesus restored the life of Lazarus and several others, suffered on the cross, died, and rose to life again after three days in the grave. And Paul reminds us that if the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives in you, then death is not the end. Like Israel, like Lazarus, and like Jesus, death becomes only the middle between one life and the next. A ‘death sandwich’ if you will. Death is not the end, it is only a transition while we become something new, different, and eternal.

In the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, Davey Jones famously asks, “Do ye fear death? Do ye fear that dark abyss?”

And the answer of scripture is, no. We need not fear death. Mostly because we don’t plan to be there very long… if at all. Our transition may be so fast, perhaps as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “in the twinkling of an eye,” our transition from this life into the next may be so fast that we won’t even notice.

… if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

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Half-Truths and Lies

February 26, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, death, deceive, deception, devil, forgiveness, God, Good News, grace, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, pattern, rescue, serpent, sin, snake, spin, Street, United

Half-Truths and Lies

February 26, 2023*

(1^st Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Matthew 4:1-11 Romans 5:12-19

In Star Wars – Return of the Jedi, Luke encounters his mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, and asks him why he lied and told him that Darth Vader had killed his father. Obi Wan answers by saying “So, what I told you was true… from a certain point of view.” When Luke presses the issue, Obi Wan continues by saying, “Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” We all find that history is often told by the victors, and that the same events, when recounted by participants and authors from opposite sides, are often described very differently.

But what makes matters worse, is that in an effort to make themselves look good, many writers and public speakers not only tell stories from differing points of view, they resort to telling those stories and filling them with half-truths, lies, and outright fabrications. As sad as this situation may be, it isn’t new. We see that very thing in the story of creation and the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 when the serpent twists the truth to his own purposes. In that story we hear this:

¹⁵The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The story is sadly familiar to us, and we have seen the process repeated every day in our news media. God made a simple statement explaining the rules of living in the garden, “you are free to eat… but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” But when the serpent quotes God’s instructions, he twists the words to say that God had forbidden them from eating the fruit of all the trees. Eve argues, but having heard the serpent’s exaggeration, she also exaggerates, misunderstands, or misinterprets God’s instructions and claims that they cannot even touch the tree or God will strike them dead. The serpent then escalates to outright lies and more half-truths, saying that surely, they would not die, but that by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would become like God.

Having believed the lie, sadly, after eating the fruit, Adam and Eve discovered that they were not like God. Their eyes were opened, they gained understanding, but they had lost their innocence, their home, and their relationship with God. And that was Satan’s intent all along. His goal was, and is, to destroy the relationship between God and his people and true to form, we see him attempting to do exactly the same thing, using exactly the same methods, in the story of Jesus’ wilderness temptation in Matthew 4:1-11 where it says…

^4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temptedby the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Knowing that Jesus is too smart to believe his lies, but willing to try anyway, Satan begins by twisting the truth, and attempting to play on Jesus’ pride. He challenges Jesus to prove who he is by saying “If you are the Son of God…” then prove it. If you are who you say that you are, if you are who you believe yourself to be, then do this thing to prove it. But Jesus doesn’t have anything to prove, and has the humility to realize that pride is a trap. Instead of walking into that trap, Jesus replies that the scriptures that describe the Messiah and the Son of God, also say that he is obedient. The Son of God doesn’t need to live on bread but genuinely needs to live on the word of God. The Son of God may be protected by the angels of heaven, but he is wise enough to know that it would be sinful to test God by deliberately putting himself in danger.

Once again, Satan appeals to pride and to impatience, by offering Jesus the kingdoms of the world that are, by God’s grace, at his disposal. But Jesus knows that all these will be his eventually, and in any case, regardless of Satan’s temporary control of the principalities of earth, God is the true king who creates, controls, and rules over the universe and everything in it, including Satan and his minions. Jesus knew that the words of Satan were half-truths and lies, and so his enemy leaves him in hopes that he might try again at another time.

Time after time, the enemy of God has demonstrated a regular pattern of behavior that he uses to deceive the followers of God in an attempt to destroy their relationship with God and with one another. The enemy of God is the original master of spin, who twists the truth, speaks half-truths, slander, and distributes lies and total fabrications wherever they might be believed. The good news is that the enemy of God isn’t the only one with a pattern of behavior, and that’s exactly what Paul describes in his letter to the church in Rome that we find in Romans 5:12-19, where he says:

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

¹³To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Paul begins this conversation about sin with Adam and reminds us that it was with Adam and Eve that sin entered the world and into humanity. But he also points out that before they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their actions were not sinful because of their innocence. Because they didn’t know the difference between good and evil, they were not guilty of sin. But afterward, after they ate the fruit, they knew… and that knowledge was passed down from generation to generation into all of humanity. Adam and Eve became the pattern for all of humanity.

And that is why Paul says that, ordinarily, human beings could not have been convicted of breaking the laws of God prior to God giving the law to Moses. You simply cannot be convicted of breaking a law that hasn’t been passed, but we still can be found guilty of our conscience because, in our hearts, we know the difference between good and evil. It is for this reason that all of humanity, from the time of Adam and Eve, is guilty of sin, and this is why, as Paul puts it, death reigned.

But… God sent a gift. Through his grace, God sent his son to break the pattern that had been set by Adam and Eve. Because of the gift and the sacrifice of one man, Jesus, a pathway to forgiveness and righteousness was opened to all of humanity. The lies and half-truths of the enemy no longer need to entangle us, destroy our relationship with God, and drag us down into death. God’s grace is now freely available at all times, to everyone, everywhere.

We must, of course, continue to be aware, and be wary. The enemy of God still roams throughout the earth searching for those whom he may destroy. He is still the grandmaster of spin. He still speaks finely crafted half-truths, lies, and fabrications that are designed to appeal to our egos, our vanity, our impatience, our pride, and all our other shortcomings and vulnerabilities. We will still drift off course. We will still fall into his traps. We will still make mistakes. We will still fall short of God’s commands, teachings, and expectations. But we are no longer doomed to repeat those mistakes and allow them to become the pattern of our lives.

Grace awaits.

At any moment, in any place, we may go to God and ask for forgiveness and know that because of the obedience of Jesus, and his act of righteousness on the cross, our forgiveness is guaranteed.

The pattern of sin and death has been broken.

This is the Good News that we are called to share with the world.

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Scouting is No Coincidence

February 12, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, BSA, Christ, church, coincidence, God, Jesus, life, Methodist, navigate, Ohio, partner, Partridge, Scout, Scouting, skills, Street, troop, United, values

Scouting is No Coincidence

February 12, 2023*

(Scout Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Matthew 5:21-37 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

How do you navigate your life?

If we’re driving a car, we can use dead reckoning, maps, or Google maps, or GPS, or a dozen other methods of finding our way from one place to another. If we’re flying, some of those same methods work, as well as a couple others. At sea, again, GPS works, but it can still be useful to know how to use a compass and sextant to navigate using the stars. But how do we navigate the lives that we live here on earth? How do we get good advice, learn the skills that we need, and learn the values that make us good citizens and decent human beings?

Before I get too far down that road, however, I want to say something about how I chose the scriptures that I am using for this morning’s message. Each week, I generally reference the Revised Common Lectionary which is used by Protestants, Catholics, Episcopalians, and all manner of Christians around the world. There is no requirement to use the lectionary, but it’s just a handy way of keeping things fresh, working our way through the Bible on a regular basis, and it helps for Sunday school classes to often be talking about the same things that the pastor or priest preaches about.

The Lectionary lays out a rotating three-year calendar that works its way through scripture and offers a scripture passage from the Old Testament, Psalms, the four gospels, and one from the rest of the New Testament. Today was no different. There is not a “Scout Sunday” selection in the lectionary, so today’s scriptures are the same ones being used in every other church that uses it regardless of whether they are celebrating Scout Sunday or not. I say that because I want you to know that the connection of today’s scriptures to scouting was not deliberate and could likely be made with almost any scripture, on any given week of the year.

So, how do we navigate life? Obviously, our parents have a lot to do with instilling values and giving us good advice, schoolteachers contribute to that, and so do the people we choose as our friends. But where else do we learn the skills that guide us? From my perspective, two places that can happen are here at church, and in scouting.

We begin our scripture lesson this morning with a reading from Deuteronomy 30:15-20, and as I read, I have asked a few of our scouts to help me point out where our scriptures of the day, cross paths with, and overlap, the values taught by scouting.

¹⁵See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death, and destruction. ¹⁶For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience…

Obedience. There’s our first one… say it with me, “A scout is Obedient.”

…to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings, and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

That’s the second one, it’s a little less obvious, but right there God declares that he will keep his promises and will be loyal to his people if his people are loyal to him. And we know that, “A scout is Loyal.”

In Matthew 5:21-37, Jesus offers guidance to help us get through life saying…

²¹“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sisterwill be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’is answerable to the court.

I break from the scripture reading at this point because this word “Raca” deserves some explanation. This Greek word appears only once in scripture and it is an idiomatic phrase used in Israel at the time of the New Testament, to express derision. “Idiomatic,” words are phrases that have meaning in a particular time and place that may not mean what the words would mean if translated directly. Some examples of modern idioms are words like surfer dude, valley girl, motorhead, and phrases like “under the weather,” “break a leg,” and “on the fence.” We know what “Raca” means, but because idioms don’t translate word for word, we end up with a Greek word in our English language scripture. In any case, translated loosely, “raca” means stupid. But, if we translate an ancient idiom into a more modern idiom, we might think of Moe Howard calling this person a “numbskull,” Yosemite Sam calling them and “idjit.,” or phrases like “his elevator doesn’t go to the top,” or “not the sharpest knife in the drawer.” So, with that in mind, let’s return to our scripture…

²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’is answerable to the court.

And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Again, this isn’t entirely specific, but if we understand that Jesus is teaching us not to call people names, I think that crosses paths with the scout law twice. “A scout is Courteous,” and “A scout is Kind.”

²³“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

²⁵“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

I admit that this one takes a little interpretation, but one implication of this verse, particularly to those of us with any experience with the legal system, is that it’s usually a lot cheaper to settle a court case before it goes to court. And so, our intersection with scouting here is “A scout is Thrifty.”

(I’m skipping a couple verses here in an effort to keep this family friendly.) …

³³“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’

And when Jesus says, “Do not break your oath,” we can hear that echoed in the scout law, “A scout is Trustworthy.”

³⁴But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

And then in 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, we hear Paul encourage the church to get along with one another, and work together, so that they can do the work that God has given us to do. He says…

^3:1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ²I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? ⁴For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

⁵What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

And if the people of the church are described as co-workers, then that intersects with the Scout Law with, “A scout is Helpful,” and if we are doing the work of God’s kingdom then that connects with “A scout is Reverent.”

And so, in the three scriptures from this week’s lectionary selection, having no deliberate connection with scouting, we’ve easily found eight of the twelve parts of the Scout Law. And the only ones we missed were “A scout is Friendly, Cheerful, Brave, and Clean,” and I’m pretty sure that I could have included those if I had worked at it a little harder.

My point is that it isn’t a coincidence that the church and scouting get along so well. I could do something like this every Sunday, and so could you. The values of scripture that we teach on Sunday mornings align with the values of scouting. As a church, our relationship with scouting is no accident. We fit together, and I think it is easy for us to be, in Paul’s words, “co-workers in God’s service.” I don’t, and I won’t, show up at scouts on Monday night and preach, but the values that that are being taught in scouting are many of the same values that we teach, preach, and reinforce on Sunday morning.

Our time together every Sunday morning helps us to navigate the lives that we live here on earth. We get good advice, learn the skills that we need, and learn the values that make us good citizens, decent human beings, and work to be better people that are more like Jesus. But our partners on that journey are teaching many of the same life skills downstairs every Monday evening.

I hope that you will join me in supporting this vital youth ministry of Christ Church with your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness.

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Faithless Faith

February 5, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, fake, God, Jesus, meatless, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, Street, substitute, United

Faithless Faith

February 05, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 58:1-9a Matthew 5:13-20 1 Corinthians 2:1-12

I’m not sure when it was, but at some point, things started to get weird. Maybe it was decaffeinated coffee that started it, or maybe it was wireless phones, but now we have clear Pepsi, sugar-free sugar, driverless cars, pilot-less airplanes, and crab meat without crab. You can go to a planetarium and look at the stars, or climb into a booth to get a tan, without once going outside, you can buy paper that doesn’t use wood, a drum set that doesn’t have drums, eggs that don’t contain eggs, download an electronic file of music from your favorite artist’s latest album without actually possessing, you know, an album, check your calendar that doesn’t exist on an actual calendar, thanks to Zoom we now have meetings without actually meeting, you can buy gift cards that don’t have a card, and of course we can’t forget meatless meat.

But our modern familiarity with these sorts of paradoxes doesn’t change the fact that sometimes having a substitute for the real thing is very different than having the real thing. This is exactly the thing for which God condemns Israel in Isaiah 58:1-9a when he says…

^58:1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
²For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
³‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Just like meatless meat, God calls out the people of Israel for going through the motions of following God, without following God. They fast and they pray, and fully expect God to answer their prayers, but while they’re fasting and praying, they completely ignore the commands and teachings of God and act just like everyone else in the world around them. They say they follow God but make no attempt at all to act the way that God acts. They pray that God would bless them, but they fight with one another and abuse their employees. They follow God without following God. and end up with a faithless faith.

Instead, God says, that the people of God should act the way that he has taught them to act. We should fight against injustice, free the oppressed, feed the hungry, offer shelter for the wanderers and the migrants, clothe the naked, care for every member of our families, and just act like the people of God, and then God will have our backs. Following God requires that we act the way that God acts and do the things that God teaches us to do.

We hear this same message from Jesus in Matthew 5:13-20 when he says…

¹³“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Salt that isn’t salty is fine if all you want is gravel, but it’s completely useless if what you want is salt. Faithless faith, or unfaithful faith, is useless and isn’t faith at all. Like a lamp on top of a lampstand, God’s people were designed to stand out from the crowd and are intended to be noticed by the world around them. God has called us to be obedient and do the things that he has taught us to do, and doing those things, by design, will make us stand out from the crowd. Christians that blend into the crowd of our culture, or who just go through the motions, and have an incognito faith can only do so by not being the kind of people that God has called us to be and ultimately become unchristian Christians, or people with a faithless faith.

Remember that the Pharisees, despite dedicating their lives to rigorously following every letter of the law of Moses, were regularly criticized by Jesus for not having the character of God. In Luke 11:42, Jesus says,“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. They were so scrupulously careful to obey the law that they tithed, not only from their income, but even gave a tenth from the herbs that grew in their garden. But while they were counting the dill and the mint leaves in their garden, they were overlooking injustice and had developed a worship of God that was mechanical rather than loving.

So, if even the Pharisees, who devoted their lives to their strict obedience to God, got it wrong, what should we do so that we can do a better job of having the right kind of relationship with the Jesus that we claim to follow? There is a lot of advice about that, from many different writers of the New Testament, but for today let’s look at the example of Paul that we find in his first letter to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 where he spells out a bunch of things that we don’t need to do:

^2:1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

Paul begins by listing some things that are not necessary to do the will of God, or for ministry to the people around us, and those are things like eloquence, human wisdom, strength, courage, or persuasive words. Paul says that he didn’t have any of those things. He wasn’t good with words, he was filled with great fear when he attempted to speak to the people of Corinth, and he described himself as weak. But God used his weakness, his fear, and his other shortcomings to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit so that the faith of the church would not rest on the wisdom or personality of the preachers, but on God’s power. The wisdom that we have is not human wisdom, but God’s wisdom that has been revealed to us through his Spirit and the strength that we have is not our strength but God’s strength.

The point, however, is that we cannot be the meatless meat of the church. We cannot have a faithless faith that goes through the motions and follows all the rules but forgets the character of God and fail to act the way that God acts.

To do the will of God, we must not have an empty faith but we must be the people who fight against injustice, free the oppressed, feed the hungry, offer shelter for the wanderers and the migrants, clothe the naked, care for every member of our families, love our neighbors, bring healing to the wounded, have compassion for those that are struggling, and act like the people of God.

Following God requires that we act the way that God acts and do the things that God teaches because having a substitute for the real thing is very different than having the real thing. Because when we talk about what we have, there is no doubt that our friends and neighbors will notice the difference between sirloin steak and meatless meat.

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Neighbors Know?

January 22, 2023January 22, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, darkness, fulfill, God, Isaiah, Jesus, joy, light, Messiah, Methodist, neighbors, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, prophecy, spirit, Street, United

Neighbors Know?

January 22, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 9:1-4 Matthew 4:12-23 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Patti and I have a friend who was once talking to his next-door neighbor on his phone while searching for a particular kitchen gadget. His neighbor, looking out her kitchen window, which window was opposite his kitchen window, and only six or eight feet away, told him, on the phone, in which drawer he would find the thing for which he was looking. Yikes. Our friend and his wife bought a curtain for their kitchen window the very next day and they moved to a suburban neighborhood with much larger lots as soon as they were financially able to do so.

Obviously, that’s an unusual occurrence, but few of us could argue that our neighbors probably know things about us that few other people know. They see us come and go, they know our schedules, they know when lights in certain rooms typically are turned on and off, they notice when we aren’t home and when our schedules change from our normal habits. I am almost certain that many of your neighbors know that you are here this morning and that you typically go to church on Sunday mornings because they’ve seen you leave and return, and probably noticed that you were dressed for the occasion. But what else have your neighbors noticed? That’s a loaded question that I want you to think about while we consider our scriptures for this morning. We begin in Isaiah 9:1-4, where we hear God’s prophet share yet another prophecy about the future messiah.

^9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

²The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
³You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.
⁴For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.

In a moment, we will hear many of these same words reflected in the gospel of Matthew, but before we do, notice that God says that the messiah’s arrival will be as if the sun had dawned on a dark and dreary world. Light would come to darkness, joy would come to sadness, enemies would be shattered, oppression would be thrown off, and burdens would be lifted. And by quoting extensively from that passage in Isaiah, Matthew proclaims that Jesus was that messiah, that the new day Isaiah spoke of had finally dawned, that the light had come, and that the future was already looking brighter. Matthew 4:12-23 says,

¹²When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— ¹⁴to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁵“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
    the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
    Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶the people living in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
    a light has dawned.”

¹⁷From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ²⁰At once they left their nets and followed him.

²¹Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, ²²and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Matthew begins by quoting enough of the passage that we read from Isaiah, that every Jew who read, or heard his words would immediately recognize it as a messianic prophecy, but in doing so, Matthew connects Isaiah’s description with Jesus, and therefore identifies Jesus as the promised messiah. But next, Matthew says, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.””

A light had dawned. Hope was reborn. The Spirit of God, working from within the body of Jesus Christ, was at work in the world… and people noticed. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” Simon and Andrew, and James, and John, dropped what they were doing, walked away from their jobs, away from their family businesses and away from their families that depended on them and followed Jesus. And Jesus travelled across the region of Galilee teaching, healing, and proclaiming the news that the rescue of God’s people had come.

When the Spirit of God came, people noticed.

And, as odd as it may seem, I think that is at the core of what Paul is trying to say in his first letter to the church in Corinth. The people in the church weren’t getting along, and Paul’s criticism is that their division is getting in the way of what God was trying to do among them. (1 Corinthians 1:10-18) Paul said:

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Paul’s point is that we should be united in purpose and not be divided in ways that distract us, and distract our neighbors, from our primary mission of spreading the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To those of us who have heard, and have accepted him, that message carries the power of God. This is the power that was seen, and felt without words, by the disciples that Jesus called and by the people who came from all over the region of Galilee to hear Jesus teach, preach, and heal.

But, as we have been discussing for the last several weeks, this is also the same Spirit of God that came upon you on the day of your baptism, that lives within you, and that goes with you everywhere you go. And, just as people noticed, and felt, the presence of the Spirit of God in Jesus, and in the disciples, they are going to notice that same spirit in each one of us. Your neighbors may not know where you keep your gravy boat, but they do know things about you. You can bet that they know whether you go to church on Sunday, they know if church attendance is an occasional or a regular thing, and they know if the way that you live your life reflects the teachings of scripture even if they’ve never opened a Bible.

The problem that Paul was addressing in the church at Corinth was that internal division and arguing was distracting the followers of Jesus Christ from their mission, and at the same time was disguising the Spirit of God from the people around them. Like us, Paul knew that the people in the church weren’t perfect, but his encouragement then, and now, is for the people of the church, for us, to do better. Your neighbors, your friends, and the people around you know things, and notice things about you. They notice when you mow the lawn two days later than usual, they notice when you forget to take the trash to the curb, they notice when you’re caring for your grand-dogs, and they’re going to notice the Spirit of God that lives within you.

The kingdom of heaven has come near… because it lives in each of you.

Our mission is to do the best we can not to disguise his Spirit and screw up what God is doing.

And so, the question we need to ask ourselves is this:

Do your neighbors know?

And if not, why not?

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What Should We Remember?

April 06, 2023*

(Holy Thursday)

Eulogy for Paul Cope

March 31, 2023

by John Partridge

Memories of my Dad

(by Marsha Miller)

Paul R. Cope

“A Sweet and Gentle Spirit”

March 31, 2023

by Rev. L. Chris Martin

Obituary for Paul R. Cope

August 31, 1926 – March 15, 2023 (age 96)

Ancient Meaning – Modern Application

Easter 2023

Storm Clouds

April 02, 2023*

(Palm Sunday)

A Cup Full of Jesus

by John Partridge

Death Sandwich

March 26, 2023*

(5th Sunday of Lent)

Half-Truths and Lies

February 26, 2023*

(1st Sunday of Lent)

Scouting is No Coincidence

February 12, 2023*

(Scout Sunday)

Faithless Faith

February 05, 2023*

Neighbors Know?

January 22, 2023*

(1^st Sunday of Lent)