Promise, Proof, Patience

December 14, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Baptist, Beethoven, Broadway, Christ, Christmas, church, faith, faithful, fulfill, God, Isaiah, James, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, joy, Methodist, Ohio, promise, prophecy

Promise, Proof, Patience

(Third Sunday of Advent)

December 14, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…and we are filled with joy.

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

The Danger of ‘No’

August 24, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, blessings, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, consequenses, danger, faith, God, Hebrews, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, no, obedience, Ohio, Saying no, worship

The Danger of “No”

August 24, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 1:4-10 Luke 13:10-17 Hebrews 12:18-29

How familiar are you with the word… ‘No?’

I mean, certainly we all know it and use it. Some of us are better at using it while others of us say ‘yes’ more often than we should. But other than that, there are different kinds, or different levels of saying no. The repeated refrain that we hear in public, and that we teach our young people, is that “No means no.” That healthy and respectful relationships require both parties to consent. The concept of “No means no” applies not only to romantic relationships, but also to group dynamics such that peer pressure should not unduly compel individual members of a group to do things that they are not comfortable doing.

In these situations, saying no, and hearing and accepting no, are important. But there are other situations where no is not as meaningful, and where saying no can cause problems. If your boss gives you an assignment, saying no may not mean anything at all. Your boss may simply ignore your refusal and assume that the task will be done regardless and, if it is not, then you can expect that there will be consequences. In the military, there are obvious situations where ‘no’ is simply not an acceptable answer. In my own career, in which the bishop appoints itinerant pastors to move where and when they say, the unwritten rule of thumb is that you can say no… once… in your career, and even then, saying no to the bishop may have significant career implications.

But what happens when we say no to God?

Sometimes, it may not seem as if there are any consequences at all. We say no to God and stay home from worship, we don’t read scripture, we live in ways in which we know God would not approve, and we do our best to ignore the call that he has on our lives to do his work in our community and in the people around us. But the operative word here is “sometimes.” Scripture is filled with warnings about the potential consequences of ignoring God or saying ‘no’ too often. Some of those warnings tell us that God will withhold his blessings, others that God may punish you, but often it is that God will simply allow you to suffer the natural consequences of your actions, or in today’s language, God will allow what goes around, to come around.

In any case, today we will look at three case studies from scripture and we will begin in Jeremiah 1:4-10, where we hear God call Jeremiah, possibly only twelve years old, to speak for him as his prophet, we hear Jeremiah attempt to say ‘no,’ and finally we hear God command Jeremiah’s obedience anyway. Jeremiah begins by saying:

⁴The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born, I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

⁹Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

God tells Jeremiah that even before he was born, God had a purpose and mission for his life. Despite that, Jeremiah makes excuses, saying that he is too young to do anything useful for God, but God isn’t buying it. Rather than even consider Jeremiah’s objections, God simply reaches out and equips Jeremiah with the things that he needs to get the job done.

And then in Luke 13:10-17, we hear the synagogue leaders say ‘no’ to Jesus because, in their mind, Jesus isn’t following the rules correctly.

¹⁰On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Just to be clear, Jesus was teaching, on a sabbath day, in church, and paused to heal a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. Rather than be excited that they had witnessed a miracle, or simply happy that the woman had received healing after a lifetime of pain, the synagogue leaders get upset because, somewhere along the line, someone decided that healing is work. As such, since faithful people were taught to refrain from working on the sabbath, Jesus should have waited until the following day, and made this woman wait yet another day, before healing her. But Jesus isn’t buying it. Jesus reminds them that even his accusers feed and water their animals on the sabbath because, clearly, decency and kindness shouldn’t be restrained by deciding that they are work. The leaders of the synagogue said ‘no’ to God and defended their refusal in language that sounded both religious and traditional.

Our final case study is found in the book of Hebrews, current scholarship believes that this was written by Barnabus or Apollos, and reminds the people of the church that we have good reason not to say no. We hear these words in Hebrews 12:18-29:

¹⁸You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, ²⁰because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” ²¹The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our “God is a consuming fire.”

First, we are reminded that we do not live in the time of Moses when God lived on the top of a mountain and everyone was terrified of his presence. Instead, because we have chosen to follow Jesus, instead of coming to the foot of a scary mountain, we present ourselves to God in the new heavenly city of Jerusalem. There, we come to God where Jesus stands as our mediator and speaks on our behalf. Because of that, we should not refuse the commands of God and say ‘no.’ The writer then reminds us of how it often did not end well for those persons in scripture who had said no to God. And so, since we are receiving the kingdom of God, we should be thankful and worship him with reverence and awe because our God consumes those who refuse him, but we are consumed with passion for his kingdom.

There is danger in saying ‘no’ to God.

Jeremiah said ‘no’ and God equipped him for his mission and ministry and sent him out anyway.

The leaders of the synagogue said ‘no’ to God and made up a bunch of traditional and religious sounding reasons why, but Jesus called then out on their hypocrisy and explained that God doesn’t place limits on kindness, decency, and compassion.

And the writer of Hebrews reminds us that it often didn’t end well for those in scripture that said ‘no’ to God. If we don’t want to be consumed by God, we should worship him with reverence and awe, be consumed with a passion for his kingdom, and say ‘yes’ to his calling, his vision, and his mission as he sends us out into the world.

Saying ‘no’ to God is a dangerous thing.

Let us do our best to say ‘yes’ instead.

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Greed, Death, and Finding Purpose

July 20, 2025July 20, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon A, abuse, Alliance, Amos, Broadway, Christ, church, death, faith, God, greed, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, punishment, purpose

Greed, Death, and Finding Purpose

July 20, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Amos 8:1-12 Luke 10:38-42 Colossians 1:15-28

Every language has its own quirks, and English is known to go through the pockets of other languages to collect those quirks. But one thing that is common to every language is words and phrases that originate from agriculture. Sometimes these phrases, known as idioms, are difficult to translate because they can be borrowed from their original contexts and used in other places in ways that have other meanings. For example, saying that your mortgage or your car loan is “underwater” had nothing to do with being underwater, but means that your home or car is currently less valuable than the amount that you owe on the loan. Similarly, we understand that when Jesus says that the fields are “ripe for harvest,” he means that the people are ready to hear the gospel message. But, in English, the phrase saying that people are “ripe for the picking” often means that those people are gullible and ready to be hoodwinked and defrauded in some way. However, if the people at the orchard say that the apples are “ripe for the picking” it means something entirely different and completely what you would expect it to mean.

Can you see why these things can be difficult for translators?

But it is this kind of phrase that we encounter as we read the first of our scriptures for today and as we read, we will need to think a little bit about what it is that God, and Amos, and the bible translators intend for us to understand. And so, we rejoin the story of Israel, recorded in the book of Amos, as God describes his people as a basket of fruit in Amos 8:1-12 where we hear this:

^8:1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. ²“What do you see, Amos?” he asked.

“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

³“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,

⁵saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
⁶buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

⁷The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

⁸“Will not the land tremble for this,
    and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
    it will be stirred up and then sink
    like the river of Egypt.

⁹“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
    and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
    and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
    but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹²People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.

God points Amos to a basket of fruit and compares it to the nation of Israel saying that Israel is “ripe for the picking” or that the “time is ripe.” But what God means is that just as the orchard manager waits until the fruit is ripe before going out to pick it from the trees, God has waited until this time to bring his judgment upon his people. Israel has trampled the needy and chased the poor from their land. They have defrauded their customers in the marketplace and used their profits to defraud the poor even further. God declares that he will never forget the harm that has been done to the poor and intends to turn Israel’s greed into sadness, bitterness, and death. Just as the wealthy have tormented the poor and the needy, God intends to make even the wealthy and powerful suffer in many of the same ways that they have made others suffer.

But even if we make better choices than the leaders of ancient Israel, and even if we do a respectable job following Jesus and doing the things that he has taught us to do, we still must recognize that not all choices are equal. As we read in Luke 10:38-42, we see that some choices are better than others.

³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I want to be sure that everyone understands that no one made a bad choice, and no one did anything wrong. Martha saw Jesus and a house full of guests and shifted into her role playing the part of a good host. But Martha expected that her sister Mary, who also lived in their home, would also focus on the tasks and preparations of hosting. But Mary did something different. Rather than do the work of preparing for, and serving guests, Mary stopped what she was doing and listened to what Jesus was teaching. Meanwhile, Martha was upset that Mary did not comply with her expectations and complained to Jesus that Mary should be helping her to prepare food and serve their guests. But Jesus says that while both choices were good, Mary’s choice was better. Jesus doesn’t suggest that Martha was wrong in choosing to function as host, simply that Mary’s choice to take a break from legitimate work and responsibility was the better of the two options. As such, this story of Mary and Martha’s interactions with Jesus reminds us all that while it’s often acceptable for us to focus on what we think needs to be done, or the things that our culture tells us we should be focusing on, sometimes it is the better choice to temporarily ignore our responsibilities so that we can focus on something even better.

And that brings us, once again, to Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae where Paul reminds us that sometimes the best choices may take us to unlikely, and even uncomfortable destinations where we may have experiences that appear to be bad, and even disastrous. Reading from Colossians 1:15-28, we hear this:

¹⁵The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

²¹Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of^[g] your evil behavior. ²²But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

²⁴Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— ²⁶the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. ²⁷To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

Paul begins this passage by declaring that Jesus is the image of God, the firstborn of all creation, the creator of all that exists, and the power that holds the universe together. If you hear modern folks say things like, “The disciples didn’t think that Jesus was God,” or “The New Testament doesn’t claim that Jesus is God,” this is just one of many passages that you can go to that unequivocally makes that claim.

But having made that point, Paul reminds the church that it was Jesus that, through his life, death, and resurrection, made it possible for us to have a relationship with God. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are brought back into a relationship, reconciled, with God after being alienated from him because of our sin. But Paul also notes that because of the choice that he made to follow Jesus, he is has suffered for the sake of the church so that he could make God known to the Gentiles (and that’s us), by telling them about Jesus. Paul has made the better choice, but that choice has not always been pleasant. He could have gone back to his life of studying the Torah and enjoying the wealth and privilege of his family, but instead chose to follow Jesus, and share the message of the Gospel with the Gentiles. But even though that choice often led Paul to be afflicted, whipped, beaten, and imprisoned, Paul knows that he is doing the work that God has called him to do and is changing the world, one life at a time as he points people to reconciliation with God and a new life in Jesus Christ.

More importantly, Paul says that this is not his calling alone, but the calling of the whole church. It is the whole church who is called to proclaim, admonish, and teach so that we may present everyone around us to God as mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

At one time the ancient leaders of Israel chose to abuse the poor and focus on their greed, and those choices led God to bring about punishment that caused them to suffer in the same way that they had made others suffer. But even when we make good choices, like Martha did, we may still have the option, such as that we saw in Mary, of making an even better choice to listen to Jesus and learn from him. But like Paul, and like the church in Colossae, we may also choose to obey the call of Jesus so that we may proclaim, admonish, and teach the people around us so that on the day of judgment we do not arrive at the throne of grace alone but instead, surrounded by all those to whom we have witnessed and who we present to God as mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

I pray that each of us will make the better choice, and that God will be at work in us so that we may have the faith, commitment, and courage to pursue God’s mission, vision, and purpose for our lives.

Photo by mcleod on Freeimages.com

Focus

June 26, 2025 PastorPartridge Blogs Bible, Christ, christianity, church, disability, faith, focus, forgotten, Gospel, inclusion, Jesus, John, John Partridge, neglected, overlooked, United Methodist

Focus

July 2025

by John Partridge

I was forgotten at Annual Conference… again.

It wasn’t the first time.

What happened was that despite a lot of talk about accessibility, our conference staff has, more than once, forgotten that wheelchairs and walkers aren’t the only disability. As a result, while significant efforts are usually made to ensure that the facilities that we use have ramps, elevators, and golf carts to shuttle delegates to and fro, the facilities that are used do not have assistive listening devices or, if they do, no one knows how to use them. The result was that I heard only a handful of words during the entirety of the half-day clergy session on Wednesday. The regular session on Thursday, likewise, did not have any assistive listening systems, but the sound system was significantly better. This was especially surprising since the Thursday venue was held in the indoor track facility at the College of Wooster. The improved sound quality, combined with my use of a voice transcription app on my cell phone, enabled me to keep up reasonably well (though still imperfectly) with the business of our conference.

I don’t mean to beat up on our conference staff. I know many of them personally, they’re great people and they aren’t mean, or particularly forgetful. I know that my exclusion wasn’t deliberate. But neither was my experience at Annual Conference unique. It happens at churches, lecture halls, and businesses everywhere. And, as I think about such things, the problem is one of focus.

It happens to all of us.

We’re busy.

And, because we’re busy, we focus on what’s in front of us. We focus on work. We focus on our families. We focus on our hobbies. We focus on the causes that we support. We focus on the things that are important to us. And all that focus causes us to miss what is going on outside of our focus. Our architecture reminds us that handicap accessibility was not in focus for previous generations. People unable to climb stairs simply could not go to church, or to the post office, or many other places. But now that we are doing better at remembering to include accessibility in our planning, we still have a way to go. It is easy to remember to include wheelchair ramps, elevators, and golf carts into our planning when, every week, we go to church alongside folks that need those things. But disabilities like hearing and vision are less noticeable and so churches with braille or large print bulletins, assistive listening systems, or sign language interpreters are far less common because they are easier to overlook.

These disabilities remain outside of our focus.

But that means something for our ministry to the world and I’m not talking about disabilities (although that’s a part of it). It is common for us to “stay in our lane,” pay attention to the things that are inside of our focus and ignore most of the things outside of it. Unintentionally and without any malice, we neglect to include people with disabilities, but the middle class finds it easy to ignore both the poor and the rich. We notice what is happening locally, but it’s easy for us to ignore hunger, violence, and natural disasters that are hundreds, or thousands, of miles away. We notice what happens to people to look like us, think like us, act like us, and vote like us, but it’s easy to ignore the people that don’t.

But that is not the call of Jesus.

The message of the gospel is to include the excluded and to invite the outsiders to come in and join our family. My experience this week was inconvenient, but it is a reminder of how easy it is to focus too narrowly on the things in front of us. If we are to do the work of the church, the work that Jesus has called us to do, we need to consciously widen our focus. We need to pay attention to the needs of the people around us, to notice the people who don’t look like us or think like us and worry about the problems of people who live far away.

Yes, there are pressing matters in front of us and focus is important, but the call of Jesus, the message of the gospel, and the work of the church requires us to step back from time to time and make sure that we haven’t narrowed our focus and forgotten the people that Jesus wants us to include, invite, and welcome.

Focus is important.

Where is yours?

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The Power of Belonging

May 18, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, belong, belonging, Broadway, Christ, church, Dorcas, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, Methodist, miracle, Ohio, Partridge, Peter, power, resurrection, spirit, Tabitha

The Power of Belonging

(Fourth Sunday after Easter)

May 18, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

John 10:22-30 Acts 9:36-43 Revelation 7:9-17

If you watched television, read newspapers or magazines, or even saw any roadside billboards between 1987 to 1996, you will remember the successful advertising campaign used by American Express. Everywhere you went, you were confronted with the message, “Membership has its privileges.” It was successful at high levels because it was a message that stuck in people’s heads, built brand awareness, drew new customers to their products, and became such a part of our culture that despite the end of the advertising campaign by American Express in 1996, the phrase is still widely remembered in the public consciousness, and is being used by other companies and organizations almost thirty years later.

The message that American Express wanted to communicate was that possessing their card conveyed advantages that their competitors’ cards did not. Amex card holders could get preferred travel arrangements, access to exclusive lounges, free travel insurance, global emergency services, free checked bags, concierge service, and all sorts of other things. For many people, the benefits given to Amex card holders may not be especially valuable but, if you are a frequent flyer or regular international business traveler, some of those rewards are worth having. But, what many of us have learned is that, aside from credit cards, there are advantages to belonging and having membership in any number of groups and organizations. If you want to be involved in eradicating global disease and contributing to local causes, groups like the Rotary Club, Lions Club, and Kiwanis can provide a place to do that while, at the same time, also providing a place to meet other people in your area and network with other businesses and community leaders.

But all of us have realized by now that there is a deeper kind of belonging. We made jokes when we were in our twenties and thirties that you can know who your friends are by watching who shows up to help you load the moving truck, or, who shows up when you build a deck, or paint your house, or who sits with you as you mourn the loss of a parent or child, or takes care of your cat when you are unexpectedly hospitalized, or shows up at your door with food when you return home. When we start to list the people in our lives who do those things, our list starts to get incredibly short. But it is that list of people, often family, and sometimes our closest friends, among whom we feel as if we truly belong. And it is this sense of belonging that we should keep in our minds as we read our scriptures for today because you will see it, hear it, or feel it in each of them. We begin this morning by reading from John 10:22-30 where we hear Jesus tell the people who had gathered around him one of the benefits of following him and belonging to God.

²²Then came the Festival of Dedicationat Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one.”

This passage begins with people in the temple courts asking Jesus to tell them plainly whether he was or was not the Messiah promised by the prophets, and Jesus’ answer was that he had already done so, but they had chosen not to believe him. Jesus continues by saying that to anyone that was paying attention, the things that he had done were a testimony to who he was. The people who did believe in him saw clearly what he was doing and what he was, and because they did, they also listened to what he was teaching. Jesus points out that whatever he does, and has done, he gives the credit to God and not to himself, and this action also indicates who he is regarding his being, or not being, the Messiah.

But again, the people who do not follow Jesus do not recognize this evidence even when it stares them in the face. Just as each sheep knows the voice of their shepherd and can find him or her in a group of shepherds, those who follow Jesus know him, listen for his voice, and can pick him out of a crowd both literally and figuratively. This is often what we are doing when we ask, “What would Jesus do?” or when we question one another, or ourselves, and ask, was that action, or that decision, something that represents Jesus. Likewise, when we see and hear religious or political leaders who claim to be representatives of Jesus but who do and say things that are clearly not things that Jesus would do, then the sheep that follow Jesus can know that this is not someone that we should be following. But, this is also why it is so vitally important that we study, and know, scripture for ourselves so that we can know what Jesus looks and sounds like when we hear others who claim to speak for him.

It is at this point that Jesus offers one of our reasons for belonging. Jesus says that the sheep who follow him, who do more than offer him lip service and really follow him, listen for, and hear his voice, are given eternal life. Moreover, Jesus himself will guard them so that no one else can take them away and they can never lose their membership in God’s family so that they will always belong. But we should notice that Jesus goes a step further because he not only says that “no one will snatch them out of my hand,” he amplifies that statement by saying that anyone who follows him has been given to him by God and that “no one can snatch them” out of God’s hand because “I and the Father are one.” This clearly is a claim to being the Messiah, to being sent from God, to being a part of God, and that if you follow Jesus that you automatically belong to God. We see from Jesus’ own words that there is no separation between following Jesus and belonging to him and belonging to God’s family. These two are one and the same.

But belonging to Jesus is more than eternal life and a home in the sky, by and by. Belonging to Jesus also offers us gifts, graces, a mission, and a purpose during our mortal lives here on earth and some of those gifts can exceed our expectations and imagination. We witness this as the people of Joppa reach out to Peter and ask for his help while he is traveling in the city of Lydda in Acts 9:36-43:

³⁶In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. ³⁷About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. ³⁸Lydda was near Joppa; so, when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

³⁹Peter went with them, and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying, and showing him the robes and other clothing, that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

⁴⁰Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. ⁴¹He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. ⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. ⁴³Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

There are many things that can be said about this passage, but for today I just want to focus on what Peter has just done. Tabitha’s friends did not seek out Peter because she was sick. It was too late because Tabitha was dead. I’m not certain what the widows of Joppa hoped that Peter would do, but I suspect that they may not have expected Tabitha to be raised from the dead. Given what they knew of Jesus, resurrection was certainly a possibility, but they also knew that Peter was not Jesus. Perhaps they hoped that he would mourn with them, or be an encouragement to them, or to pray that God would raise up another woman like Tabitha to become the kind of leader that she had been, but I doubt that they were certain of what Peter would do, or what he would be capable of doing.

But Peter does the most powerful, most extreme thing that they could have imagined. He prays, and then commands Tabitha to get up, and she does. Remember that Tabitha has, at this point, been dead for at least the better part of the day, and possibly more. She had already been stripped, washed, redressed, and taken upstairs in preparation for her mourners and her funeral. But while Jesus had walked with the disciples, taught them, given them the power to heal, cast out demons, and had even given them the gift of the Holy Spirit, this goes a step further. By raising Tabitha from the dead, Peter is demonstrating that he has, and by extension the disciples and all of Jesus’ followers (including us), have been given the same power as we had previously witnessed only in the person of Jesus Christ. When we choose to follow Jesus, when we put our trust in him and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are given the power to heal the sick, cast out demons, and even to raise the dead.

We are reminded that when Peter gives his speech at Pentecost in Acts 10:37-38, he explains to the crowd that Jesus’ power to perform miracles was power that was given to him by the Holy Spirit because he says:

³⁷You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— ³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

And then after his resurrection, Jesus gave the gift of the spirit to his disciples in John 20:21-22 when “Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And of course, we remember the story of God pouring out his spirit on the followers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, after which they spoke in foreign languages and preached to a crowd that had gathered from all over the known world.

Taken together, we are reminded that following Jesus has never been a spectator sport where we look over the fence or down at the playing field to watch our heroes play the game and do the work of God’s kingdom. Instead, following Jesus requires our active participation down on the field where God shares with us the same gifts that he gave to Jesus and the disciples so that we can continue the work that Jesus began. Because we have been baptized and given the gift of the Holy Spirit, we share with Jesus the power to transform lives, heal the sick, and even to raise the dead.

We aren’t just outsiders looking in, we belong to God’s family.

Membership has its privileges……and its responsibilities.

That is the power of belonging.

How will you use your power this week?

The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, blessing, Broadway, Christ, church, curse, faith, faithful, faithfullness, God, happiness, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, power, resurrection, trust, United, United Methodist, wealth

The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 17:5-10 Luke 6:17-26 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

How many of you, at one time or another, have watched some of the television preachers or televangelists? Most of us have. Although the names have changed over the years, televised church services, and sometimes even just pre-recorded Sunday school lessons, remain a staple of national programming. The problem is that what motivates television stations to air a particular church, or a particular pastor isn’t whether their message is theologically sound or morally edifying, their motivation is based almost entirely on popularity and the ability to sell commercials or, in some cases, to be paid by the churches themselves in such a way that the television station makes money.

And so, as many of you may have noticed, the messages that air on television are often flawed theologically. In particular, many television preachers promote what is referred to as prosperity theology, which is, simply put, if you are prosperous, God must have blessed you, or put another way, if you are genuinely faithful, then God will make you rich. And just in case you haven’t heard me mention this a dozen time before, that message cannot be found in the Bible and is entirely contrary to much of what the Bible actually teaches.

We begin this morning by reading a message from Jeremiah, in which God’s prophet pronounces what might just be one of the most anti-political, and anti-cultural messages of all time. Here, Jeremiah speaks out against anyone who believes that their king, president, political party, or military might will make their lives better, happier, or more prosperous. Worse, Jeremiah declares that anyone who believes those things will be cursed by God. The good news is Jeremiah also teaches us what we need to do if we genuinely want to be blessed by God. We begin this morning by hearing the words of Jeremiah 17:5-10 as Jeremiah declares to the people:

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

¹⁰“I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”

Jeremiah declares that anyone who trusts that the actions of human beings, such as governments or people in positions of power, will make their lives better, or who looks to those people for emotional strength, will be cursed and not blessed because, in most cases, putting our trust in humans is a path toward losing our trust in God. When we do that, God says, we become starved like a bush in the wasteland that never sees prosperity even when it comes to everyone else. However, blessing comes to the people who put their trust and confidence in God. When we do that, we live as if we were a tree planted by a river so that we gain strength and courage even in times of heat and drought.

In the end, God says that what matters is your heart condition. If you trust God, that is what matters. God isn’t going to judge us by which human being we followed but at whether we behaved the way that God has taught us to behave. Moreover, God’s blessing doesn’t come to us because we said the right words, or because we believed the right sorts of cultural things, but because we lived the kind of life that God taught us to live and did the things that God has taught us to do.

And, as much as people sometimes try to dismiss the Old Testament, this is much the same message that Jesus preaches in his sermon in Luke 6:17-26that we now refer to as the beatitudes, where it says:

¹⁷He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, ¹⁹and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

²⁰Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
²²Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴“But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
²⁵Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
²⁶Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

If we look at this well-known message of Jesus with the words of Jeremiah in mind, we can understand the first section about blessings almost as one long, run-on sentence that says that if any of these things that sound bad happen to you because of your faith and trust in Jesus, or because you are doing the things that Jesus taught us to do, then God will bless you. Your blessing might not happen here on earth, but God will give you a reward in heaven. Jesus points out that all these sorts of mistreatment are exactly the sorts of things that happened to the prophets of the Old Testament.

And then, in the second half of the reading, Jesus lists a bunch of things that sound like they would be good things, things that Israel’s culture, and our culture, normally think of as blessings. But these things, wealth, prosperity, comfort, abundant food, laughter, and the admiration of others, Jesus says are warning signs that you are in trouble with God. Why? Because, once again, if we examine Jesus’ words in light of what we read in Jeremiah, it’s because our trust has been misplaced, and we have come to trust humans instead of God. Like Jeremiah, Jesus warns us all that the comforts and temptations of wealth, prosperity, happiness, and the admiration of others can distract us from our faith and obedience to God while the situations that we think of as misfortune, such as poverty, hunger, sadness, and the hostility of others are precisely those things that often shift our focus towards God and compel us to trust God for the things that we need.

And finally, in his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul adds one more thing upon which our faith pivots. Jeremiah preached that we needed to put our trust in God and to live and act the way that God has taught us. Jesus preached that those things that draw us toward God, even if we often think of them as undesirable, are good simply because those misfortunes will become the source of heavenly blessings when God examines our faith. And to these important things, Paul writes to the church in Corinth and adds this pivotal belief in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20:

¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Paul says that our entire faith, as the followers of Jesus Christ, hinges on the central belief that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Although there have been those throughout the centuries that have taught that Jesus did not physically die, or that rising from the dead is impossible, Paul says that our entire faith hinges on this one point. Because if Jesus only swooned, or passed out, and didn’t really die, then our entire faith falls apart. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we believe in nothing because Jesus was a mortal human being the same as us and has no power to rescue us from sin and death. Jesus’ death and resurrection is a core doctrine and belief of our faith and so, that faith must be combined with our faith and trust in God, and our rejection of those things, like wealth, prosperity, comfort, abundant food, laughter, the admiration of others, and the influence and power of politicians, and persons of power that would tempt us to trust in anything other than God.

Prosperity theology and far too many television preachers teach that if you are prosperous, God must have blessed you, or that if you are genuinely faithful, then God will make you rich.

But what the truth of scripture teaches, is that the people who are blessed, trust in God and have confidence in God. But those who put their trust in other human beings, and anything else that distracts us from God will be cursed like a bush in the wastelands and will not see prosperity even when it comes to everyone else.

May we always keep Jesus Christ in the center of our lives and trust only in him.

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Hearing What We Didn’t Know

January 26, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, Ezra, faith, gifts, God, hear, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, Methodist, Nehemiah, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, unique, weirdness

Hearing What We Didn’t Know

January 26, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Nehemiah 8:1-10 Luke 4:14-21 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Have you ever relearned something that you forgot, or had to learn something that you should have learned much earlier? There are a host of videos on the internet in which college students or the “average man or woman on the street” are embarrassed by failing to answer questions about history, government, fractions, cooking, or other things that most of us learned, or should have learned, in high school or from our parents. Personally, I cringe whenever people ask, “Why don’t they teach how to fill out tax forms in high school?” But also insist that “Learning algebra was useless.” Because, from my perspective, our tax forms are one giant algebra test where we calculate the value of ‘x’ and then add that to the value of ‘y’ where ‘y’ is something that we calculated two lines earlier and then insert that sum on line 17. It is frightening to watch these videos online, or sometimes to see the results of nationwide surveys, and see the lack of understanding some people have of truly basic things that many of us take for granted. I’m thinking about people who insist that New York is a city and not a state, or who seem to have absolutely no awareness of any event that happened prior to 1980.

Granted, there are a lot of things that can be known, and which are taught, that we do not need to know. But some of the things that we never learned, or which were taught but to which we weren’t paying attention, turn out to be critically important. Many common conspiracy theories are rooted in a fundamental lack of understanding, or misunderstanding, of general principles of science, law, or government. And while we might just be irritated at the people who believe the earth is flat, some of these misunderstandings can be fatal to us or to our children.

It is this sort of thing that we observe as we read the story in Nehemiah 8:1-10. After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, the scrolls of the Law of Moses, likely at least the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Torah, and others, were brought out and read aloud because Nehemiah wanted to be certain that the people understood. And this appears to be, for many people, the first time that they had heard it. And this is the story that we hear:

^8:¹All the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

²So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. ³He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

⁴Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.

⁵Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. ⁶Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

⁷The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. ⁸They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clearand giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.

⁹Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

¹⁰Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

In many readings, the mechanics or the logistics of this passage are skipped over, but I find them interesting enough and important enough to include them. In an era that was thousands of years before any kind of electronic amplification, Ezra brings out the Law of Moses and reads it aloud to the gathering of hundreds, even thousands of people. Of course, there is no way that Ezra could have shouted loudly enough for everyone to hear him, and so Ezra stood on a raised platform and the Levites, thirteen of which are named here, were out in the crowd. As Ezra read, the Levites repeated and interpreted, so that everyone could hear and understand.

And having heard and understood, again possibly for the first time, the people began to weep, not from joy, but from grief, when they realized how far from God they had wandered and, without realizing they were doing it, how sinfully they had been living. In this case, it wasn’t because the people had been deliberately disobedient, but because they had not heard the words of God read and taught. But Nehemiah instructs them not to mourn or weep, but to celebrate because although it was true that they had fallen short of God’s commands because of their ignorance, now they knew better so tomorrow they could do better.

Tomorrow would be different. The world had changed because of what the people had heard and what they had learned.

And, although the situation is different, the same thing happens when Jesus makes an announcement at the synagogue in Luke 4:14-21, where we hear this:

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

¹⁶He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

When Jesus says that the prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled, he is making an incredibly exclusive claim. Everyone knew that the prophecy of Isaiah pointed to Israel’s expected messiah, and so when Jesus says that the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, he is making a claim that the Messiah had come and that he was that messiah.

For the people who believed him, tomorrow would be different. The world would change because of what the people had heard and what they had learned.

And then in his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul explains how the church, filled with people who were all so vastly different from one another, could work together for the greater good. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Paul says:

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized byone Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Most of us are familiar with this passage. And although we live in a culture that talks a lot about diversity and inclusion, this is a reminder to us that we are far from the first to grapple with the differences of the people around us. In many ways, the people of the Roman empire may have done it better. There were generals in the Roman army from nearly every nation in the empire and Caesars from nearly as many nations. Travel and migration throughout the empire was common, as evidenced by this letter in which Paul writes to Christ followers in Greece that were both Jew and Gentile, slave and free. And there were many stories, such as that of Pentecost, in which people from all over the Roman world were gathered in one place. In fact, such things were quite common.

But like people everywhere, the church in Corinth was a collection of people with different skills, interests, and abilities. As such, there were disagreements from time to time and some of them wondered how they fit. Paul explains that despite our differences and abilities, not only do we all fit in, but every one of us is necessary. For the last two weeks we have been talking about the gifts of the spirit that God gives to us when we choose to follow him and we learned that God’s purpose in giving those gifts is for us to use them for the greater good, which is to use them for the benefit of the people around us and to make our communities, and our world a better place. With that in mind, Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth tells us that we can’t use our weirdness or our uniqueness as an excuse. Each of us has gifts, and although some of us have gifts that are different, or weird, or unique, Paul tells us that somehow we still fit, that somehow God still has a calling and a purpose for us, and that somehow God wants us to use our weirdness and our unique gifts so that there would be no division in the body of Christ.

And now that we have heard the story, we cannot ignore it.

Tomorrow should be different from today. The world should change because of what we have heard and what we have learned.

Do not grieve or mourn for what we might have done differently yesterday but let us celebrate because although we might have fallen short of God’s commands yesterday, today we know better, and tomorrow we can do better.

Let us go out from this place, use our gifts for the greater good, to help the people around us, and make our communities, and our world…

…a better place.

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A New Name, A New Purpose

January 19, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Cana, change, Christ, church, faith, Galilee, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, Methodist, mission, name, new, Ohio, Partridge, purpose, wedding

A New Name, A New Purpose

January 19, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 62:1-5 John 2:1-11 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Names mean something.

Most of us can name several large American corporations that have changed their names to better reflect their business. The National Cash Register Corporation long ago stopped manufacturing cash registers and is now known as NCR, “Brad’s Drink” became Pepsi-Cola, “Pete’s Super Submarines” became Subway, “Kibble” became Netflix, Kentucky Fried Chicken is now officially just KFC so that there isn’t so much emphasis on the word “fried” in a culture that is more health conscious, International Business Machines sells software and other services as well as computers, and so their legal name is now just IBM.

But people do the same thing. Women, and sometimes men, change their names when they get married, I know a number of people who legally changed their names because the names that their parents had given them didn’t match their personality, and we all know a few people who have chosen to go by their middle names, or nicknames, instead of the first name on their birth certificate. Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he changed religions and so have many others. Thousands of immigrants have changed their names to fit into the culture of their new homeland and to let everyone know that they belonged here and had left their past behind. And, of course, none of that counts the people who are in the witness protection program or who have changed their names so that they can run away from their past or to hide from abusive spouses.

Whether it is a corporation or a person, changing your name is a statement to the world that something different is happening. Either your original name didn’t match your personality, or it doesn’t match your present reality, or you want your name to better reflect your goals, purpose, and future mission. In ancient times, and in the world of magic and mysticism, names were often seen as the heart of a person’s power and an insight into their soul. And all those ideas are at play as we read Isaiah’s message to the nation of Israel in Isaiah 62:1-5 when God says:

^62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.
²The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
³You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
⁴No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah, [Hephzibah means my delight is in her]

and your land Beulah; [Beulah means married]
for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married.
⁵As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

God says that he will not keep silent until Jerusalem is vindicated, and the world sees the truth of God’s blessing and the glory that he has given to Israel. When that happens, God says, Israel will be given a new name from God to reflect its goals, purpose, mission, and connection to God. Once, Jerusalem was called deserted and desolate, but on that day, it will be known as the delight and the bride of God himself because God rejoices over her in the same way that a groom rejoices over his beloved.

With that in mind, we move to John 2:1-11, where we see Jesus beginning for the first time, to move and to live into the purpose for which he had been born and to the mission to which God had called him and sent him into the world.

^2:1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ²and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴“Woman [Greek usage here denotes no disrespect], why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so, they filled them to the brim.

⁸Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, ⁹and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

¹¹What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Even though Jesus tells his mother that the time of his ministry has not yet come, Mary knows that God has sent him for a purpose. Did Mary know that Jesus could perform a miracle? I don’t think so. Did she know that Jesus could do… something? I think yes, but I doubt that she had any idea what that something would be. In any case, Mary, who must have been well known and respected in the household and by the household servants, simply instructs the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. And so, Jesus changes 120 to 180 gallons of water into wine. That’s a lot. It must have been a big party, but still, that’s a lot. Think about that in terms of containers that are more familiar to us. That’s between two and a half to three and a half 55-gallon drums full of wine. Or, more than two hundred refrigerator wine boxes, or nine hundred standard size wine bottles. Again, that’s a lot.

But more to the point of today’s message, this moment, as the Apostle John notes, is the first time that Jesus performs a sign that reveals who he really is. And this is a suitable time for a quick refresher about the meaning of Jesus’ name. In Hebrew, Jesus’ name is Yeshua, which is the same Hebrew name that we translate as Joshua. But, in Hebrew, Yeshua means “Yahweh saves,” or “God saves.” And so, at this moment, Jesus not only reveals who he is and begins his earthly ministry, but he begins to live into the meaning of his name.

Remember that I said, names mean things.

And that brings us to the present day and to our relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. What does all this naming, and calling, and purpose stuff mean for us? And much of this is explained by Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth as he explains some of the gifts that God gives to those who love him. Reading from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, we hear this:

^12:1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of languages, and to still another the interpretation of languages. ¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Paul says that the gifts that God gives are not all the same. Each of us was made differently by God and as such we have each been given different gifts that suit our lives, our personalities, and the mission and calling that God has put upon our lives. Some of us have been given gifts of wisdom, some knowledge, and some faith, others are given discernment, or gifts of languages but all the gifts come from God. But Paul is clear that the reason that we have been given gifts is not simply to satisfy our curiosity, or to provide an income, or to make us rich, or famous, or powerful, or influential. The reason that we have been given gifts by the Spirit of God is for the common good. Just as Jesus was called by God to rescue others, and to save the world, we are called to use our gifts for the common good and to make the world a better place.

If you think about it, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for a company to have a name like the National Cash Register Corporation if they didn’t make cash registers any longer. Having a name that matches your mission makes much more sense. It is the same reason that many people change their names. They want their names to match their personalities, to let the world know that they have a new life as a married person, or that they’ve changed their religion. And we should include ourselves among that last one even if our name has stayed the same. When we chose to follow Jesus, then we identified our lives with Jesus, with his mission, and with his purpose. If you want to think of it that way, at the moment we chose to follow Jesus our name changed. Where it once was John Doe or Jane Doe, it became John Doe Christ Follower or Jane Doe Christ Follower.

And with our new name, we received gifts from the Spirit of God, a new mission, and a new purpose. We are called to use the gifts that we have been given for the common good, to help the people around us, to make life better for everyone in our community, and to make the world a better place. We have been called to change the world.

Let us live into our purpose and live into our new name. As John Wesley said, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can”.

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A Promise Kept. But Why?

December 24, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, Christ United Methodist, Christmas, Christmas Eve, church, death, faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, keep, kept, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, peace, promised land, Titus, United, United Methodist, war

A Promise Kept. But Why?

(Christmas Eve)

December 24, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 9:2-7 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

We’ve had a great evening of celebration, and we all know that Christmas is a time of joy, wonder, gratitude, and thanksgiving. We give thanks for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, who was and is the rescuer of the world. In the scriptures that were read this evening we heard God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah that the Messiah would bring light to the darkness, freedom to the captives, and peace to the world. When we turn on the news and we hear messages of missiles, bombs, bullets, and warfare around the world, and as our nation spends trillions of dollars to maintain the largest military ever seen on the face of the earth, hearing God’s promise that every warrior’s boot, and every blood-stained garment will be thrown into the fire is a powerful message. It is for us, just as hopeful, and just a powerful as it must have been for the people of Israel so many years ago. But God’s promise didn’t stop there. Isaiah continues by saying that the coming Messiah would take over the government, that he would govern in greatness, that the peace under his rule would never end, and that he would establish, and uphold, justice and righteousness forever. That sounds just as fantastic, impossible, and hopeful in the twenty first century as it must have sounded in in the time of Isaiah eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus.

But Luke tells the story about God keeping the promise that Isaiah had proclaimed. A story of how the savior, Israel’s messiah, had been born, how an angels had announced his arrival to lowly shepherds on a hillside rather than in the halls of the palace, and how an entire choir, a host of angels, had praised and given glory to God, and how, having heard the message, and seen for themselves, the shepherds became the first preachers, heralds, and missionaries and spread the word about the messiah’s arrival.

But why?

Why did these things happen? Why did God promise, and why did God keep his promise? Why did God go to all that effort? Why did God send his own son to earth? Why did God care?

And this evening we heard the answer from God in the words of Titus. It is because of God’s grace that he sent the Messiah. It was and is grace that offers rescue to the people of the world. It is grace that teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and the passions of the world. It is grace that teaches us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while the world spirals into selfishness, lust, greed, and depravity. And it is grace that empowers us as we wait for the fulfillment of our hope in the coming of Jesus Christ because it was Jesus who gave us the gift of himself to redeem us from wickedness, to rescue us from sin and death, and to purify us so that we could become his people. It was Jesus who gave himself so that we could become a people who were eager to do what is good.

The story is just as amazing, fantastic, impossible, hopeful, and wonderful as it has always been. And our mission is the same as that of the shepherds who heard the story from a host of angels on a hillside two thousand years ago. Let us go out from this place glorifying and praising God for all that we have heard and seen and tell the world the good news of our rescue, of God’s grace, and of Jesus’ gift.

Jesus is the greatest gift of all.

It isn’t a story that we could keep to ourselves, nor is it a story that we were ever intended to keep for ourselves. As the angels said, it is good news, of great joy…

…for all the people.

Merry Christmas.

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The Promise of Hope, Peace, and Love

December 22, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, baptism, Baptist, Broadway, Christ, church, Elizabeth, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John the Baptist, love, Luke, Mary, Methodist, offering, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, peace, sacrifice, United, United Methodist

The Promise of Hope, Peace, and Love

December 22, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Micah 5:2-5 Luke 1:39-45 Hebrews 10:5-10

We have often spoken about the grand themes of scripture and, not surprisingly, each week we have focused on one of those themes during the season of Advent, and this week is no different. While we have already, in the first week, mentioned the theme of hope, we visit that theme again as we consider this week’s theme, and look forward to a season of peace both as a nation and as individuals. But one of the consistent messages of scripture that brings hope to the people of God, is God’s reliable character and integrity, and the love that he has demonstrated to us by keeping his promises.

And so, we begin this morning by reading a part of God’s message that was spoken through his prophet Micah. Micah is yet another lesser-known messenger who warned Israel of its coming destruction at the hands of the nation of Babylon seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Micah lived and preached before the time of Jeremiah and at the same time as the prophet Isaiah. Much as we heard in the message of Zephaniah last week, Micah wrote a book with messages of God’s judgement but included among them were messages of restoration, peace, and hope for the future. And that message is what we hear this morning as we read Micah 5:2-5 where God says:

²“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clansof Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.”

³Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.

⁴He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth.

⁵And he will be our peace.

Through his prophet Micah, God declares that the small town of Bethlehem will one day produce a son who is already ancient, a ruler whose origins are from ancient times. And although God speaks of how the nation of Israel will be abandoned, he also promises a time when the people will return. And it is in that day, God says, that this future ruler will rise up, lead his people in the strength and the majesty of God himself, and under his leadership the people will live in security and peace.

And that is the picture and the promise of God that we should have in mind as we remember the story of Mary, already pregnant and carrying Jesus, as she arrives to visit her relative Elizabeth who will soon give birth to John the Baptist. We hear this story in the words of Luke 1:39-45:

³⁹At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

I am certain that those who are skeptical of the claims of the Bible will remind us that it is common for third trimester babies to move about in their mother’s womb. Some move about so often, and so forcefully, that their poor mothers are left a bit battered, bruised, and exhausted. But in Luke’s story, Elizabeth’s baby didn’t just move about, he chose the exact moment of Mary’s arrival and greeting to do so. Elizabeth understands that this is a sign from God that Mary is carrying the savior that was promised by God through the words of Micah and many other of his prophets. And clearly Luke accepts this interpretation and so he includes this story as proof that God keeps his promises, that Jesus is the promised savior, and that God has given us hope for the future.

But aside from hope, what did the coming of Jesus bring to the people of God? What did God hope to accomplish? What were God’s goals? And not only that, what does all of that have to do with us, what does God expect from us, and how is any of that supposed to bring us peace? In Hebrews 10:5-10 Paul explains it this way:

⁵Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;
⁶with burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you were not pleased.
⁷Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
    I have come to do your will, my God.’”

⁸First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

In this, Paul reminds us of Jesus’ own words, that although the laws of Moses required offerings and sacrifices, those were not the things that God desired. Instead, what God wanted was obedience. And so, Jesus said that the reason that he had come was not to make sacrifices on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem, and not to make a lot of money so that he could give offerings to God, but instead the reason that he had come was to do the will of God. Israel’s God was not like the gods of the Greeks and the Romans that needed the gifts and sacrifices of the people to make them powerful.

Instead, Paul explains, that no matter how rich or abundant they might have been, God was not pleased with offerings and sacrifices. Instead, Jesus came to set aside sacrifices so that he could establish a people who would love him enough to be obedient and do the things that God had called them to do. Moreover, Paul says, it is through the will of God, that we have been made holy because it was through the obedience of Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, that we were made holy, were adopted into Jesus’ family, and invited into God’s kingdom.

And so, as we pass through the season of Advent and prepare ourselves for the arrival of God’s messiah, let us consider just a few of the ways in which God has demonstrated his love for us.

We know that we worship a God who always keeps his promises.
We worship a loving God who always cares about the needs of his people.
God’s messiah is described as a loving shepherd who leads his people in strength and majesty to a place of security, safety, and peace.
God does not desire an abundance of sacrifices or expensive gifts and offerings.
God sent his son so that we could be made holy, become members of his family, and enter his kingdom.
Because what God wants is our obedience, he places no priority of rich over poor, or royalty over common peasants. Before God, we are all equal. He only asks that we do what he has taught us and calls us to do.

For these reasons, and many others, we have hope for the future, hope for a day when all nations can live in peace with one another, and find peace within ourselves in the present. But most of all, we can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God loves us, cares for us, watches over us, and wants what is best for us.

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Pastor Partridge

Sermons, blogs and other things from Pastor John Partridge

John

Promise, Proof, Patience

Promise, Proof, Patience

(Third Sunday of Advent)

December 14, 2025*

The Danger of ‘No’

The Danger of “No”

August 24, 2025*

Greed, Death, and Finding Purpose

Greed, Death, and Finding Purpose

July 20, 2025*

Focus

Focus

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The Power of Belonging

The Power of Belonging

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The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025*

Hearing What We Didn’t Know

Hearing What We Didn’t Know

January 26, 2025*

A New Name, A New Purpose

A New Name, A New Purpose

January 19, 2025*

A Promise Kept. But Why?

A Promise Kept. But Why?

(Christmas Eve)

December 24, 2024*

The Promise of Hope, Peace, and Love

The Promise of Hope, Peace, and Love

December 22, 2024*