Freedom’s Surrender

February 4, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, distraction, freedom, God, Gospel, idols, Jesus, Mark, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, rights, Street, surrender, United

Freedom’s Surrender

February 04, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 40:21-31 Mark 1:29-39 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

We’re going to start this morning with a quiz.

Most of you did not expect a quiz on Sunday morning, and some of you may struggle with the question, but here it is:

What idols do we worship in the United States in the twenty-first century?

Anyone who has been in church for any length of time at all, or anyone who has started reading the bible knows that there are many cautions and sermons against committing sin by worshipping idols.

Many of us would argue that our contemporary society doesn’t have any idols simply because you won’t find any temples where people worship Baal, or Jupiter, or Roma, or any of the ancient gods and goddesses. But is that enough of a defense?

It could easily be argued that idol worship is anything that we make so important in our lives that we are willing to sacrifice to it, and put ahead of God in priority, importance, or love. In scripture, God repeatedly makes the point that he simply will not accept second place. When we choose to worship God and his son Jesus Christ, God’s expectation, and God’s demand, is that we make him first in our lives. And if we use that definition, then it isn’t hard at all to see that Americans worship idols all the time. Even those of us who regularly go to church sometimes put God in second place because we are worshiping comfort, or sports, or money, or entertainment, or even the entertainment or indulgence of our children. As we discussed last week, as Americans, we often elevate rights above the importance that God gives to them and there are few other things that American culture elevates, and which may be regarded as idols, if we aren’t careful.

But first, let’s begin this morning by remembering who God is and why it is that we come here each Sunday to worship him. Let’s begin by listening to the words of the prophet Isaiah as he reminds God’s people of what God has done, why they belong to God, and why they really ought to stop complaining. We hear these words in Isaiah 40:21-31:

²¹Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
    and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
    and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³He brings princes to naught
    and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
²⁴No sooner are they planted,
    no sooner are they sown,
    no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
    and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

²⁵“To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah begins by asking why you do not seem to understand the most obvious thing in the world, that God is not just big, but bigger than big. God is not just powerful, but so powerful that humans do not, and cannot, compare to him, nor can our imagination comprehend God’s power. Isaiah then continues by asking why people complain that God is hidden, or that God is ignoring them, or that God has forgotten them. Instead, Isaiah says, God knows exactly what you are doing, God is aware of your problems and cares about their resolution, but because God is all-powerful and all-knowing, God understands your situation better than you ever could. As such, God is not impatient, as we often are, and God waits for the right time to do what needs to be done. Once we understand and accept that this is true, then we also understand that our role is to trust God and as hard as it is to get past our own impatience, our role is to be patient and wait for God.

But then we read Mark 1:29-39. And here we find Jesus, God in human form, powerful beyond all understanding, and yet, what he does with that power staggers our imagination and our understanding. Mark says…

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. ³⁰Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. ³¹So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.

³²That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. ³³The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. ³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him, ³⁷and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” ³⁹So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and driving out demons.

In this short passage, we see Jesus heal Peter’s mother-in-law of an unspecified virus, heal the sick, and drive out demons. Jesus is, at this point, wildly popular and people flock to see him wherever he goes. He is incredibly powerful. He could, at this point, do anything that he wanted to do. He could make a fortune just by performing healings. Can you imagine what Herod or other powerful people would have paid to be healed of their gout, diabetes, heart failure, lead poisoning,meningitis, encephalitis, syphilis, and other unknown and misunderstood diseases from which they suffered? Can you imagine what it would have been worth to Ceasar to know who was trying to kill him? Jesus could have done whatever he wanted. He could have been rich, he could have travelled, he could have had earthly power, but instead he tells his disciples that they will walk to nearby villages so that he can preach, teach, heal, and drive out demons because, he says, “that is why I have come.”

Jesus had the power and the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do, but he chose to do what God had sent him to do. And that feeds into what Paul says in his letter to the church in Corinth. Paul wasn’t powerful like Jesus, but he clearly had other options of what he could do with his life. Paul explains his choices this way in 1 Corinthians 9:16-23:

¹⁶For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. ¹⁸What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

¹⁹Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Paul says that he doesn’t travel from town to town and preach the gospel because of some inflated sense of self-importance but because that is why God has called him, and what God compels him daily to go out and do. Like Jesus, and like generations of pastors, teachers, and evangelists that have followed him, Paul doesn’t preach so that he can gain wealth, or fame, or some other earthly reward, but simply because he is being obedient to God.

Paul says that he is free to do whatever he wants to do. As a Roman citizen, and as a person from a family that had some measure of wealth, Paul is free to go wherever he wants to go, and do whatever he wants to do. Until he chose to follow Jesus, Paul was recognized as a leader within the Pharisees and among the rulers and leaders of Israel and, if it were power and notoriety that he wanted, it is likely that he could have gone back to that life. Paul had the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do, but instead, he gave up his freedom to be obedient to God. He gave up his comfort to suffer alongside the slaves and the poor. He gave up the familiarity of his Jewishness so that he could minister to, and with, the Gentiles. Although Paul had freedom, he gave up that freedom whenever, and wherever necessary so that he could accomplish the mission given to him by Jesus Christ.

Just as we spoke last week about rights, we must be careful as the followers of Jesus Christ and as citizens of the United States in the twenty-first century, to not make an idol of our freedoms. As important, and as wonderful, as freedom is, if we are to answer the call that God has upon our lives, we must sometimes set our freedoms aside in order to accomplish the mission that God has assigned to us.

Our rights and freedoms are not idols to be worshiped, they are tools to be used, set aside, or even surrendered, in pursuit of rescuing the lost as we share the story and the gospel of Jesus.

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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.™

(Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023December 24, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Animal House, Broadway, Christ, Christmas, church, David, Delta House, fulfill, Gentiles, God, insert, Jesus, Mary, Methodist, mission, Nathan, National Lampoon, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, prepare, promise, rescue, Romans, Rome, Street, United, virgin, your name here

(Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Luke 1:26-38 Romans 16:25-27

There is a scene in the 1978 movie, National Lampoon’s “Animal House,” where the new class of pledges for the Delta House are sworn into the fraternity. In it, they are asked to say “I… state your name… “and every single one of them says the words “state your name” instead of saying their name. And we all laughed because we all assume that everyone knows what to do in such a situation. Whenever we fill out forms for our schools, doctors, insurance companies, the Internal Revenue Service, retirement funds, and all sorts of other things, we encounter a box or a line that asks us for our name. At other times, we have been asked to include our names in a script where we take an oath of office, or are sworn into the military, or, in this case, a fraternity, we just include our own names where we are told to do so.

But as common as it is in our everyday lives, we often miss it when the same thing happens as we read scripture. And that’s a point that I want to make today. As we make our final preparations for Christmas tomorrow morning, it’s important for us to remember that we are included in the story of scripture. We aren’t everywhere, of course, because the story is about characters that are so familiar to us. This morning we will hear about King David, the prophet Nathan, the angel Gabriel, Elizabeth, Mary, the Apostle Paul, and… (insert your name here).

We begin with God’s words found in 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 where we hear God’s promise to King David given through his prophet Nathan:

^7:1 After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ²he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

³Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:

⁵“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? ⁶I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. ⁷Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

⁸“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. ⁹I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. ¹⁰And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹and have done ever since the time I appointed leadersover my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

¹⁶Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

David had finally become secure in his leadership of Israel. He has built a palace, united the twelve tribes, settled, and secured the borders with other nations, and at this moment he looks at the tent that houses God’s tabernacle and imagines that it is time to build a permanent dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant and for Israel’s God. But God isn’t having any of that just yet. God’s words to David are that he is not the one who has been called to build God’s house. Instead, God reminds David of his roots and humble beginnings, how God brought David to this place, how God will place the name of David among the greatest men on the planet, and how God has plans that extend far beyond David’s lifetime. God promises that David’s family, and David’s kingdom will endure forever.

God’s message to David is, “Look how far you have come. Look at how far I have brought you. And I’m not even close to being done yet.”

And that leads us back to the Christmas story in Luke 1:26-38 where God sends the angel Gabriel to visit Mary and announce her pregnancy.

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be calledthe Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary wonders how this could happen. She knows where babies come from, but she also knows that she and Joseph have not yet slept together. Given that their two families do not live in the same town, the chances are good that she and Joseph rarely, if ever, see one another, and it’s quite possible that she hasn’t seen him at all since the contract was signed pledging them to be married. But as difficult as it is to believe, Mary accepts her role in this unfolding drama saying, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

It is important to notice that Gabriel also affirms God’s promise to David, and Mary understands that she will be a part of the fulfillment of that promise. God promises that Mary’s son will inherit the throne of King David and become a part of a kingdom that will never end. And so, Mary clings to God’s promise. If God has come this far, over thousands of years, to fulfill his promise to David, Mary’s prayer is that God will do the same for his promise to her, saying, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

But what does that have to do with us?

Where is the fill in the blank part?

And as we often do, we find the application in Romans 16:25-27, in the very last words of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome where he says…

²⁵Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, ²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes fromfaith— ²⁷to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

And there it was. Did you hear it, or did you miss it?

Paul says that God has revealed his salvation, through his son Jesus Christ, through the writings of the prophets of Israel… so that… all the nations, or in another translation all the Gentiles, might come to obedience and faith. God says that the entire journey of the people of Israel, through Abraham, David, and to the Christmas story, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, the entire story was commanded by God for the purpose of bringing hope to the world and calling the Gentiles, and all the nations of the world, to faith in Jesus.

That is where you can insert your name.

Paul said, “the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, ²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that (insert your name here) might come to the obedience that comes fromfaith…”

But the story isn’t over.

The story wasn’t over when God brought David from herding sheep to unite the twelve tribes of Israel, and the story wasn’t over with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God did all these things so that all nations, and all people, might come to obedience and faith in Jesus Christ.

There is still work to do.

And God is calling each one of you, (insert your name here) to finish the job.

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Faith in the Flood

November 5, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, ark, boy scout, Broadway, Christ, church, covenant, crossing, death, demonstrate, example, faith, flood, God, Jesus, Jordan, Jordan River, Joshua, Matthew, Methodist, mission, national guard, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, promise, promised land, river, Street, United, work

Faith in the Flood

November 05, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Joshua 3:7-17 Matthew 23:1-12 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

There is an old joke about a flood and a faithful saint of the church. The weather forecast was for torrential rains and flooding and people were advised to evacuate. But when two sheriff’s deputies came to the door of this faithful saint asking them to leave, they simply replied that “God will provide.” And so, the rains came, and the flood waters rose. Soon the first floor of their house was under water, and they moved all their valuables up to the second floor. About that time, a Boy Scout came by in a canoe and offered to carry them to safety, but they refused and simply said, “God will provide.” It continued to rain and to flood waters continued to rise, and soon, this faithful saint of the church was sitting on their roof. And, as they were sitting on their roof, the National Guard arrived in a helicopter and offered to lift them out of their distress, but they again declined saying, “God will provide.” Not long after that, the flood waters carried that saint away and, when they were welcomed at the pearly gates of heaven they cried out, “God, why didn’t you save me?” And God replied, “Well, I sent two sheriff’s deputies, a Boy Scout, and the National Guard. What more did you want?”

I have always liked that joke because it’s funny and because it points us toward one of the church’s common failures. Well-known Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf said, “There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” The question isn’t whether our lives will have storms and floods, the question is what we will do when we face them. That is what we see in Joshua 3:7-17, because as the people of Israel prepare to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land, Joshua commands the priests to take a step of faith… right into the middle of the flood.

⁷And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. ⁸Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”

⁹Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. ¹⁰This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. ¹¹See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. ¹²Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

¹⁴So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. ¹⁵Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So, the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

The Jordan River is at flood stage and is a raging torrent. So violently does it flow that Jericho isn’t even watching this border as closely as they might because Baal is the god of rivers and storms, and this was the season that they could see his power and knew that he was protecting them. After the adventure with the spies, Israel almost certainly knew that as well. Further, as one of the two spies who had lived through the 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua was personally aware of this. Nonetheless, God commands Joshua to tell the priests who carry the arc of the covenant, to “go and stand in the river.” Just go and stand in the middle of the raging torrent of the harvest flood. Worse, the banks of the Jordan are often not gentle slopes but rapid drop-offs that would be invisible in the muddy floodwaters. I’m sure that those priests had some concerns, but they also had faith in God and faith in Joshua. With the weight of the ark on their shoulders, and almost no chance of catching themselves if they stumbled, the priests do as they were asked and boldly step into the rushing water.

And the water stopped.

As soon as their feet touched the water, the water stopped flowing and piled up in a heap upstream of them and, as the priests stood in the middle of the riverbed, the entire nation of Israel crossed the river on dry ground. The people of God, and especially those priests weighted down with the ark of covenant on their shoulders, didn’t just pray for God’s deliverance and their entry into the Promised Land, they acted on their faith, and they stepped out into the flood.

But the priests and the leaders of the church aren’t always that faithful and aren’t always the best example for people to follow. That was the case in Matthew 23:1-12 when Jesus tells the people to live their lives differently than Israel’s leaders.

^23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ²“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. ⁴They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

⁵“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacterieswide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁶they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁷they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

⁸“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. ¹¹The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Jesus says that although the teachers of the law and the Pharisees hold important leadership positions, and although the people must be careful to follow their instructions and do as the leaders teach, they should not live by the example that those leaders provide. Those leaders lived a life that was all about the show. They wore flashy religious vestments and large phylacteries, which were prayers or scriptures that were etched in silver, copper, or even on baked clay tablets. While rabbis routinely wore tassels on their robes, these leaders had to had bigger, and longer tassels then everyone else. And, whenever there was a banquet, or when they went to church, they had to have the most visible, and most important seats in the house so that everyone could see how important they were. But while they put on a good show, they didn’t live lives that demonstrated the things that they taught. Jesus said that the people who would be the greatest among them, would first be a servant to others. Following Jesus, honoring God, and living a life of faith wasn’t about looking good, it was all about having the humility to live a life that acted on faith and did the work of the kingdom of God.

That’s exactly the message that we hear Paul telling the people of the church in Thessalonica in his letter that we read in 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 when he says…

⁹Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. ¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you who believed. ¹¹For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, ¹²encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

¹³And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.

Paul asks the people of the church to remember the example that he and his fellow missionaries provided for them as they lived among them. They worked, and they worked hard, day and night, so that they would not be a burden to the church, but they also lived lives that were holy, righteous, and blameless. They did not rule over them as some leaders do, but encouraged and comforted them, and treated them as if they were their own children so that they could urge them to live lives that were worthy of the God who called them into his kingdom. Paul says that he and his associates continually thank God because the people of the church not only received the word of God but allowed God to work through them. They didn’t just accept Jesus and have faith in Jesus, they lived out their faith through their actions.

The people of Israel had faith in God and believed that he would lead them into the Promised Land, but the evidence of that faith was visibly seen when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant boldly stepped forward into the raging flood waters of the Jordan River.

While Jesus acknowledged that the people should be obedient to their leaders, he also told them that in order to honor God, they had to do better. Rather putting on a good show, a true life of faith is a life that serves others and demonstrates God’s love through the actions of the believer.

And Paul says much the same thing. The proof of the message that they taught was found in the way that they lived, and the proof that the church had believed was seen, not in the words that they spoke or in the worship of their people, but in the work that they did among those who did not believe.

We may laugh at the imaginary saint of the church that prayed to God but ignored two sheriff’s deputies, a Boy Scout, and the National Guard, but the truth is that faith demands that we do more than pray.

Real faith is found in the actions of the church.

Real faith is when we roll up our sleeves and get to work.

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Finding Nebo

October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, crossing, death, Finding Nebo, Finding Nemo, God, Gospel, Jesus, lead, Matthew, Methodist, mission, Moses, Nebo, Nemo, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, promise, promised land, Street, United

Finding Nebo

October 29, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Matthew 22:34-46

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Many of us are, by now, familiar with the 2003 Pixar animated movie “Finding Nemo” in which Marlin, an overprotective, single, clown fish father, pursues his son, Nemo, across the dangers of the vast Pacific Ocean in hopes of rescuing him from the scuba divers that captured him. It’s a good story. But despite the similarity of the name in the title, Nemo is not what we are looking for. Our story for today begins with an ending. At the end of Moses’ life, knowing that he will never set foot in the Promised Land that he has pursued for most of his adult life, he finds himself, not in the Pacific Ocean with a small clownfish named Nemo, but at the top of a mountain named Nebo. And, in an odd sort of way, we discover that, as the followers of Jesus Christ, we too are spending ourselves in pursuit of finding Nebo. As I said before, we begin this morning with an ending in Deuteronomy 34:1-12 where it says:

^34:1 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, ²all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, ³the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. ⁴Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”

⁵And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. ⁶He buried himin Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. ⁷Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, nor his strength gone. ⁸The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.

⁹Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spiritof wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So, the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹⁰Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, ¹¹who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. ¹²For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

When you make the journey to visit Israel, once the present violence ends and peace returns, you will find that Israel is surprisingly small. For us in the United States we can compare it in our minds knowing that Israel is smaller than Massachusetts and slightly smaller than New Jersey. If you could make a non-stop road trip along its main highway, you could travel its entire length in less than six hours. And so, while there is, perhaps, some exaggeration in the account that we read in Deuteronomy, probably not much. From the top of Mount Nebo, with good visibility, Moses would have seen a great deal of the Promised Land that Israel was about to inherit. But Moses wasn’t going. He had come this far, but his time on earth was finished and, although God allowed him to see the land of Israel, he would never cross the Jordan River and set his feet upon it. Instead, Moses would be buried somewhere in Moab on the slopes of Mount Nebo and make a different crossing into his heavenly inheritance with God. Moses never crossed over into the Promised Land, but Moses’ legacy was that he listened to the call of God, obeyed the instructions of God, and led his family, his tribe, his community, and his people into God’s promise.

But God’s promise to his people was about more than land. As Israel had struggled during their captivity in Egypt, they cried out to God for a rescuer that would carry them out of Egypt to freedom. And God heard the prayers of his people, and sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt, across the desert, through the years of wandering in the wilderness, and right the edge of the Promised Land. But throughout many years of suffering, in the land of Israel, under the yoke of other oppressive nations such as Babylon, Greece, Egypt, and Rome, the people of Israel again prayed to God and looked for a rescuer, a messiah, that would, once again, bring them freedom and prosperity. The seeds of that hope for a messiah were contained in the writings of the prophets, but it was not always understood how it would happen, or who the messiah would be. And that’s how Jesus can ask a question that stumped the biblical scholars of his day when they come to him to present a question with which they hope to test him in Matthew 22:34-46 where we read this:

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴²“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

⁴⁴“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’

⁴⁵If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ⁴⁶No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

The puzzle that Jesus puts to the Pharisees is the kind of a problem that often causes us to get stuck in the twenty-first century. While Jesus’ question seems simple to us it was a serious problem to these biblical scholars because it required that they get past their own cultural biases to answer it. In a culturally patriarchal system of honor, it was understood that fathers were always greater in prestige and honor than their sons. If a grandfather or great-grandfather could have, somehow, come back from the dead, that elderly person would automatically become the head of an entire clan of his descendants and all his sons, grandsons, and everyone else would be expected to defer to them and honor them. But although the scholars know that the Messiah would be a living descendant of David, referred to as “the son of David,” their cultural bias prevents them from understanding how, in Psalm 110, David refers to his descendant as his Lord, and thereby gives his descendant honor and defers to him as someone greater than the greatest king that Israel ever had. The Pharisees could simply not understand how a son of David could be greater than David and so, they misunderstood what, and who, the messiah would be. For us, although we have our own cultural blind spots, we understand that Jesus was, and is, God’s promised Messiah, he is the son of David, and he is David’s lord because he is the son of God.

But, twenty-one centuries later, what does that mean for us? If we follow God as Moses did, and we accept Jesus as our lord, and follow him, then what why does all that matter? It matters because, like Moses, we are trying to find our mountain top, our Nebo, but like the Pharisees, we can’t quite figure out what that means. But Paul did, and he explains it to the church in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, saying…

^2:1 You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. ²We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. ³For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. ⁴On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. ⁵You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. ⁶We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. ⁷Instead, we were like young children among you.

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, ⁸so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.

Paul’s message is that life wasn’t perfect. Everyone knew that sometimes the lives of Paul and his associates had faced some significant suffering. They had been arrested, beaten, and thrown into prison on many occasions. But despite their suffering, with the help of God, they dared to continue telling others the story of the gospel regardless of the opposition that they faced. Their motivation wasn’t to trick anyone, to get rich, or for any other impure motive, but simply to share the message with which they had been entrusted by God. Their goal was to share the gospel, and their lives, with the people to whom God had led them.

Moses, Paul, Silas, Timothy, and many others were seeking to find their Nebo, to lead their family, their tribe, their community, and their people into God’s promise, which they now understood as the promise of Jesus Christ. And that’s the mission that has been passed down to us. Because we are the people who, like Paul, have been entrusted with the gospel, the people who have met Jesus, and who have believed in him and have put our trust in him, we too are seeking our Nebo. As we have been reminded on this All-Saints Day, our time on earth is short and won’t last forever and one day we too will cross over into God’s promise as Moses did, and as these saints of the church have done.

Our mission, our hope, and our calling is to lead our people to God’s promise through the message and the gospel of Jesus Christ…

…before it’s our turn to cross over.

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Light, Incognito

December 25, 2022January 5, 2023 PastorPartridge Blogs Advent, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, Christmas, church, God, hidden, incognito, Jesus, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, Street, submission, United, witness

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Light, Incognito

December 25, 2022*

(Christmas Day)

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 52:7-10 John 1:1-14

It is well known that Keanu Reeves, despite his stardom, lives an almost ordinary life. Despite living in an eight-million-dollar home in Hollywood Hills (that he bought for five million dollars in 2003), he is regularly seen riding his motorcycle to run errands, doing ordinary chores like grocery shopping himself and, when in New York, regularly rides the subway with everyone else, without bodyguards or entourage, rather than hiring a car service or a limousine. At the other end of the spectrum are the stars that are so overcome by their stardom, and so overwhelmed by their fans, that they rarely go out in public without trying to do so incognito, or in disguise.

We can all picture the old movie trope of traveling incognito by wearing a trench coat, floppy hat, and dark sunglasses, but what if more movie stars did what Keanu Reeves does? What if they traveled incognito, as themselves, and just disappeared into the crowd by setting aside their stardom and being ordinary?

The idea of traveling incognito is really at the core of the Christmas story. We begin this morning with the promise of the coming messiah found in Isaiah 52:7-10 where we hear these words:

⁷How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!”
⁸Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
⁹Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.

Isaiah and the prophets told Israel, and the world, that the messiah would come to bring good news, peace, glory, grace, and truth. There was no reason for anyone to miss the arrival of something so well announced, anticipated, and expected. But that’s exactly what happened. In the gospel of John 1:1-14, we hear John’s telling of the story of Jesus’ arrival.

^1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John says that the Word came, that word was with God, and that was word was indeed God in human flesh. Jesus, the Word, was with God at creation, was the agent of creation, and personally made everything that exists. He was the light of the world that God sent to shine light into the darkness. But before he came, just to make sure that no one missed it, God sent John the Baptist to announce his arrival. But despite centuries of prophecy telling of the Messiah that would come, despite the angel of God announcing his arrival and a heavenly host singing praises on the hillsides of Bethlehem, and despite the announcements of John proclaiming that the long-awaited messiah had arrived, the world still missed it. The savior and rescuer of the world was not incognito any more than you can say that a light in the darkness is hidden. And yet, the world that he created completely missed him.

But not everyone missed him. The creator of the universe came to earth and lived among mortal human beings. Some of them saw. They witnessed his light, his glory, his grace, and his truth. And those witnesses spent their lives telling others what they had seen. But today the world has the same problem. The rescuer of humanity still travels in broad daylight but incognito from the world. He is not hidden just as a light in the darkness is not hidden, and yet the world does not see him.

And so, as it was before, the mission of telling the world falls to his witnesses. We who have witnessed his grace, his glory, his gentleness, compassion, care, and love are still called to tell the world what we have seen and heard. Every day, Jesus lives among us. He is not incognito. He should not be missed by the world around us. Our mission is the same as those who witnessed his birth and his life two thousand years ago, to spend our lives telling others what we have seen.

Merry Christmas everyone.

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Finding the “You” in Prophecy

December 18, 2022January 5, 2023 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Ahaz, Alliance, appoint, appointment, Broadway, call, Christ, Christmas, church, enlist, Gentile, God, Jesus, Methodist, mission, obedience, Ohio, Partridge, Street, United

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Finding the “You” in Prophecy

December 18, 2022*

(4th Sunday of Advent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 7:10-16 Matthew 1:18-25 Romans 1:1-7

There are two words that I want to talk about this morning. The first is “appointment.” The appointment of which I am speaking, is not the like a doctor’s appointment, but used in the sense that the President of the United States appoints members of his cabinet. Our church has an appointment system. Pastors serve under appointment and every year the bishop of each Annual Conference sets the appointments of all the pastors under their supervision. We sometimes have some say in the matter, but whenever, and wherever the bishop appoints, that is where we will serve.

The second word that I would like for you to consider this morning is “enlistment.” I served as an enlisted soldier in the Army. It was my choice to sign my contract, and it was my choice to take my oath of service, but once I did so, once I chose to enlist, there were obligations that came as a part of that package. You cannot enlist, and then afterwards refuse to obey legal and proper orders from your superiors. Once enlisted, you become a part of a hierarchy and a cog in the machine that makes up the military system. Enlistment is voluntary, but once enlisted, you become a part of something bigger than yourself and owe an obligation of service to that system.

Why are these definitions important? Well, eventually I hope that will be clear, but first, let’s begin with the story of Isaiah 7:10-16, where the prophet Isaiah meets with King Ahaz. Ahaz, the king of the southern tribes of Judah, is afraid because he has refused to ally himself with the northern tribes of Israel, Syria, and several other countries that had decided to fight against the nation of Assyria which was, at that time, a world superpower. Because Judah had refused to join their alliance, they worried that Judah would fight with the Assyrians and attack them from behind when they were busy fighting the Assyrians from the north. And so, before that happened, they marched together to attack Judah even though Judah had never threatened them.

¹⁰Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹“Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”

¹³Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. ¹⁵He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, ¹⁶for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

Ahaz had already decided what to do and he didn’t really want God’s opinion. He covered for himself by saying that he did not want to put God to the test, even when God commanded him to ask for one. Ahaz didn’t want to know what God wanted because, like many of us, he didn’t want God to tell him something that he didn’t want to hear.

Ahaz had already decided what to do before he asked God. He had already stripped his palace, the temple, and all of Jerusalem, for anything valuable, and had sent a gigantic bribe to the Assyrians to convince them to send an army to defend him. Ahaz had already decided what to do, and he didn’t want to hear God’s plans because he was afraid that God might want something different than what he wanted. But instead, God promises that before a child, born in that year, perhaps to a young woman who was Isaiah’s fiancé, was old enough to eat curds and honey, and old enough to know right from wrong, the kings of Israel and Syria would be defeated, and their nations destroyed.

As you might already suspect, this prophecy was eventually also thought to apply to the messiah. And we hear echoes of Isaiah in the birth story of Jesus contained in Matthew 1:18-25.

¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Joseph had a problem. His fiancé was pregnant, and he wasn’t the father. It might have been two thousand years ago, but everybody knew how babies are made. What made that a problem was that Joseph lived in a patriarchal culture of honor. That means that first, since he was the man, it was his responsibility. If he did it, it was his fault. If he didn’t do it, it was his responsibility to fix it. The second problem is that in a culture of honor, having a pregnant fiancé before the wedding causes you, and your entire family to lose honor. That, in turn, means higher prices at the market, whispers behind your back, and lost customers for your business. Since it wasn’t his fault, the expectation was that Joseph would divorce her for breach of contract. Being a nice guy, he had, in fact, already decided to do this quietly rather than calling her out for being a woman of loose morals in public, shaming her, and causing a loss of honor for her family.

But hearing from God in a dream, Joseph, unlike King Ahaz, chooses obedience. Joseph chooses obedience over honor, over family, over business, over money, over convenience, over practicality, and over expediency. There were a dozen, or two dozen, reasons Joseph to divorce Mary, but rather than doing so, Joseph chooses obedience as the higher calling.

But why is any of that important to us outside of being a nice traditional story about the birth of Jesus?

And the answer to that comes from the words from the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:1-7 where he says:

^1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— ²the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, ⁴and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. ⁶And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

In this passage we encounter the words whose definitions we discussed at the beginning. First, Paul has been called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel. Second, we find that Jesus has been appointed with the powers of the Son of God through his resurrection from the dead. And third, that because we have chosen to follow him, Jesus has given us grace and appointed us as apostles of the gospel message. When we enlisted as his followers, we were appointed to call all the Gentiles, that is, to call just about everyone that you know, to the work of obedience that come through faith.

If you read the title of this message, this is where we find the “you” in prophecy. God proclaimed that a virgin would conceive and bear a child… and she did. God declared that he would send a messiah into the world… and he did. And God promised that he would send good news of great joy for all the people to the ends of the earth… and then he called you and I to do it.

The message of Christmas isn’t just that a baby was born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago.

The message of Christmas is that God sent his Son, with the intention of sharing the good news of the gospel with everyone so that he could save the entire planet. But the work that began on Christmas morning two thousand years ago isn’t finished. God has called us, and that includes every one of us who has enlisted in his service. And God has appointed us to share the good news of the gospel, and to call all the world to the work of obedience that comes through faith.

When I enlisted in the Army, I submitted to the authority of the Army. I did not retain personal authority to decide what I would do. I would go where the Army said that I would go and do what the Army said that I should do.

When I chose to be ordained, I submitted to the authority of the bishop of the East Ohio Annual Conference. I go where the bishop says go, and I serve where the bishop appoints me to serve.

And the same is true of us when we choose to follow Jesus Christ. Once we have chosen to follow him, he is the one who appoints and so, as his followers, we must go where he calls us to go, and do what he calls us to do. And if we are to be obedient to that call, then we must carry the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth and call the entire world to the work of obedience that comes through faith.

Christmas was never intended to be an ending. It isn’t just a nice story. It is instead, the beginning of an adventure that calls all of us into a life of obedience to God.

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Which Shepherd Are You?

November 20, 2022November 21, 2022 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, Christ the King, church, faith, flock, God, good, hell, Jesus, Luke, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, shepherd, Street, under-shepherd, United, wolf

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Which Shepherd Are You?

November 20, 2022*

(Christ the King Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Luke 23:33-43 Colossians 1:11-20

I saw a cartoon the other day about pyramids. The joke was simply that instead of thinking that aliens were needed to explain why cultures around the globe chose to build pyramid shaped structures, maybe it was just because everyone figured out that this shape allowed them to make an enormous building that didn’t fall over. It wasn’t aliens. It was physics.

In any case, while we don’t build as many pyramids as once did, we do use pyramids to describe a lot of things. “Pyramid schemes” are bad because, as investment vehicles, only the people at the top ever make any money. But most businesses, non-profits, not-for-profits, military units, charities, churches, scout troops, and almost everyone else, use some kind of pyramid shaped organizational structure. There is one, or at least a very small number of people at the very top, then more people that report to them, then an even larger number of people that report to them, and so on. Sometimes those pyramids are quite large and sometimes they are flatter. The Catholic Church has the Pope at the top, then cardinals, then archbishops, bishops, and then priests (I think), and our church is a little shorter without a pope, we have bishops, district superintendents, and pastors. But that’s not exactly right, but we’ll come back to it before we’re finished.

Years ago, when I first read The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, I encountered a word that I had never seen used before. While its component parts were all familiar, the assembly was new to me. The word that I met, and have grown to appreciate over the years, is… “under-shepherd.” The idea is familiar to any of us with experience with pyramids and organizational charts. There’s a shepherd, and then there are subordinate shepherds that work for the shepherd who are therefore under-shepherds. The concept is simple enough, but it is a useful, and meaningful, way of thinking about our relationship with Jesus. This is, I think, particularly true as we read God’s words to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 23:1-6 when he says:

^23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ²Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. ³“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

⁵“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for Davida righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.

Obviously, in the time of Jeremiah, Jesus had not yet come, but even so, even as far back as the book of Genesis, God was often referred to as the shepherd of his people. But more to the point, the rulers of the nation and the leaders of the church were called to be, and were known as, the shepherds of God’s people. And some of those under-shepherds were not behaving… shepherd-ly. The leaders of God’s people were scattering and destroying God’s sheep and God was taking it quite personally. Because of their actions, God declares a curse and a punishment upon them for the evil that they had done. God says that he himself will regather a remnant of his flock and will find new shepherds who will do what shepherds are called to do. They will care for the people under their authority, they will have a spine, and will stand up against the enemies and the dangers that face them, and they will protect their flock so that none of them are afraid or go missing. In fact, it is at this point that God declares that he will raise up the good shepherd, a righteous branch from the root of David’s family tree, who will do what is right, who will reunite the nations of Judah and Israel, and who will be called, The Lord, our righteous Savior.

And although it may not seem like it at first, that is the image that we have of Jesus in his last moments on the cross. Although he is dying, the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep. In Luke 23:33-43, we hear these words:

³³When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

³⁹One of the criminals who hung there, hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Even in his last moments, with one of the last breaths that he had left in his body, Jesus was rescuing the lost and, with his dying breath, he gave his life so that he could rescue God’s sheep. Jesus is the good shepherd, the righteous branch of David’s line that God promised to his people. He is the king of kings, the ruler of the nations, and the rescuer of all humanity. But, as I often ask, what difference does it make? How does any of that teach me what I need to know to get through my day today? How does that offer me guidance on how I live my life? And we find the answer to some of those questions in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae in these words from Colossians 1:11-20.

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,¹⁰so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹²and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified youto share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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.

Paul’s prayer for the church was that they would be filled with a knowledge and an understanding of God’s will for their lives, mission, and ministry so that they could live lives that were worthy of God and would please God in every way. Paul prayed that the church would be strengthened with God’s power, have great endurance and patience, and give thanks to God for qualifying the church to share in the inheritance of eternity in heaven. But Paul also prayed that the church would bear fruit through every good work, and daily grow in their knowledge of God. I want to repeat that part for emphasis. Paul prayed that the church would bear fruit through every good work and grow in their knowledge of God.

And then, Paul repeats the resumé of Jesus and reminds everyone that Jesus is the Messiah, the good shepherd who rose from the dead, and sits on the throne of God as he seeks to rescue all people, reconcile all who are lost with God, and make peace throughout all creation.

All of that, from Jeremiah, to Luke, Jesus, and Paul, serves to remind us that our role, our mission, our place in the pyramid organizational chart, as the followers of Jesus Christ and as the members of his church, is to be under-shepherds. It is our work, not to scatter and destroy God’s sheep, but to gather them and protect them with our lives, to grow his flock, to rescue the lost sheep, to risk everything that we have to recover the ones that have wandered, to bear fruit, to grow God’s flock, to do good works, to grow in the knowledge of God, to be filled with great endurance and patience, and to give joyful thanks to God.

As the good shepherd has rescued us, let us, as under-shepherds, spend our lives rescuing others, growing, and caring for his flock, so that we might live lives that are worthy of God and please him in every way.

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To Heaven, Through Hell

November 13, 2022November 14, 2022 PastorPartridge Podcast, Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Cat in the Hat, Christ, church, faith, God, good, heaven, hell, Jesus, Luke, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, purpose, Street, suffering, United, Winston Churchill

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To Heaven, Through Hell

November 13, 2022*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Anyone with more than a few laps around the sun is well aware that sometimes life is not a bed of roses, or a bowl of cherries, or however you want to say it, life is not always all that great. Sometimes it flat-out sucks pond water. Life is filled with pain, sickness, hurt feelings, tragedy, betrayal, abandonment, loss, suffering, and death. But it isn’t always bad. As bad as life can be, and the bad stuff can sometimes last far longer than we’d like, we also know that life can also be filled with joy, healing, excitement, victory, hope, encouragement, friendship, and love.

This understanding is the source of two great quotes that help us to keep our pain in perspective.

Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat said, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

When we struggle with death and loss, and when whenever good things end, it helps to remember that the reason that we are mourning, is because of the good things that happened. But when we are faced with pain in our future, or when we are enduring it in our present, we should remember that Winston Churchill famously said…

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

And it is those perspectives that I would like you to keep in mind this morning as we consider where we are going, what we will pass through on the way there, and how should live our lives in the present so that we can keep moving toward our final destination. We begin this morning reading from Isaiah 65:17-25, as God paints a picture of what life will be like in the world that is to come.

¹⁷“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
¹⁹I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

²⁰“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
²¹They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²No longer will they build houses and others live in them,  or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
²³They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.
²⁴Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
    and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.

God will create a new heaven and a new earth that is fundamentally different from the one in which we live, and we will live there for so long, and our healing will be so complete and enduring, that we will hardly remember the pain and the suffering that we once endured. Life will no longer be a struggle but will be filled with joy instead of weeping. Old age will be normal and there will never be the sorrow of mourning the loss of a child. No longer will people and nations be uprooted by famine, warfare, natural disasters, pestilence, unemployment, taxation, or anything else but God’s people will live, work, grow, plant, and endure in one place, in one home, with their families. Even the animal kingdom will be changed so that we will have no fear of them, they of us, or them for one another. God’s promise is that there is a better future for all those who love him.

But that isn’t at all the picture that Jesus draws for his disciples. The future that Jesus describes reminds us that what God showed to Isaiah is the distant “not yet.” In between our now, and the “not yet” is more of the ugliness that we have seen throughout history, and worse. As Jesus and his disciples are walking through Jerusalem, the disciples marvel at the beautiful stonework of the temple and its surroundings. But Jesus uses those stones as a warning of what is to come. We hear these words in Luke 21:5-19.

⁵Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

⁷“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

⁸He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”

¹⁰Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

¹²“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹Stand firm, and you will win life.

Jesus says that his followers will be hated by their families, friends, neighbors, and the entire world simply because of their love for him. But in the end, we will endure because who and what we are in Jesus Christ endures even beyond death. The only way that we can lose is to give up. Stand firm. Keep moving forward.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

But what does that mean for us today? How does that inform us, or teach us, about how we might survive, one day at a time, through the weirdness that is life in the twenty-first century? And that is one of the things that Paul addresses in his letter to the church in Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

⁶In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teachingyou received from us. ⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, ⁸nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

¹¹We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹²Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. ¹³And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

Clearly, this isn’t a prescriptive text that tells us everything about how to live as a church in times of disruption and chaos, but Paul says that one of the things that we need to be to be doing, as we have heard in other passages in recent weeks, is to keep busy, and to stay on task. And one of the ways that we do that is to stay away from people who are bad examples. The first among these bad examples are people who aren’t doing anything. But worse than that are the people who aren’t doing anything and are using their free time to disrupt the people who are doing something. Also, a part of Paul’s description of these disruptors is that they are people who claim to believe, and count themselves among the believers of the church, but do not live as if they believe because they don’t do the things that the scriptures teach.

Paul says that, because he and his ministry team intentionally wanted to be a good example, they did not accept a salary, or gifts, or meals, or anything else while they were in Thessalonica. They didn’t do so because pastors, missionaries, and work teams aren’t entitled to being paid or even being treated well, but because they wanted to be a model for the people to follow.

It is worth noting at this point, that the phrase Paul uses here, has been borrowed, grossly misinterpreted, and misused by a recent political campaign. Apparently, there has been someone, during the most recent election, that was claiming that the phrase, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat” implies that welfare or giving to the poor runs against biblical principles. But that is, frankly, spiritual malpractice. Paul’s statement, and this example, in this case, is for internal church use and is ministry specific. When the church was busy working, and fed its workers afterward, it didn’t make sense to feed people who didn’t do any work. Paul wasn’t saying that the church shouldn’t feed the poor, that would be contrary to the words of Jesus. What he was saying was, don’t show up to eat lunch at the Habitat for Humanity work project if you aren’t doing any work. In that specific case, the food was intended to feed the workers. And so that sentence should not, and cannot, be misconstrued to try to say that Jesus doesn’t want us to feed the poor.

Let’s summarize. What we heard today is that we are on our way to someplace better. God is at work, even now, preparing a place for us to live forever and in that place all the broken things of this world will be fixed. There will be no more mourning, or crying or pain, parents will no longer have to bury their children, no longer will people and nations be uprooted by famine, warfare, natural disasters, or pestilence, and will all live, work, grow, plant, and endure in one place, in one home, with our families forever.

But between here and there, will be pain, and suffering, and death, and all the other terrible things that we have come to expect from our broken world. Not only will those things continue but, at times, they’ll be a lot worse. In the meantime, whether things are better for us or worse, the message is to stay on task, to keep doing the work that God has given us to do. And while we’re doing that, we should stay away from busybodies who keep other people from doing their work. Stay away from people who are idle and disruptive because they’re just going to waste your time and keep you from doing the work that God has given you to do.

The message for today is just to stay busy. God has given us work to do as individuals, and as a church. We can expect to go through difficult stuff. We can expect that the horrors of this broken world will not get better and will often get worse. But through it all, we need to keep moving forward, keep doing the work of Jesus Christ, and keep on calling the world to hear the message of the gospel so that they too can receive healing, rescue, and restoration.

Never tire of doing good.

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Coming Soon!

October 23, 2022October 25, 2022 PastorPartridge Podcast, Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, coming, coming soon, faith, future, God, Jeremiah, Jesus, John, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, soon, Street, StreetAlliance, Timothy, United

Click here to listen to the podcast

Click here to watch the recorded livestream: https://youtu.be/psvtD_P47Lc
Or click here to skip straight to the sermon: https://youtu.be/05dgjGhOKY4

Children’s message: How is Jesus like a steam locomotive? https://youtu.be/iHXcL3eD4O0

This week’s challenge: What does it mean to “be prepared in season and out of season”? https://youtu.be/wL-8uCk8TAw

Coming Soon!

October 23, 2022*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 31:27-34 Luke 18:1-8 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5

For those of us who grew up going to real movie theaters, as well as possibly the Netflix generation in a different format, we remember the movie posters and the movie trailers that would run, interspersed with commercials for popcorn, candy, and soft drinks, for fifteen minutes before the movie started. And the banner under which all these appeared was, “Coming Soon.” “Coming Soon” was meant to inform us that something amazing, spectacular, and wonderful was about to happen and build our anticipation and desire to see it when it came to town. This was, I think, especially true for the golden age movie serials as well as the Star Wars type movies that were patterned after them. Coming soon, is a phrase that is designed to get our attention, to take our focus, of only for a moment, away from our present troubles and busyness, and look forward to the future and the appearance of something new.

And, although we won’t find the words “Coming Soon” anywhere in scripture, the idea that it represents is a common theme of the prophets, Jesus, and the gospel writers alike. We heard the words in the scriptures that Susan used last week, and I’m going to use some of those same scriptures this morning but will look at them from a different direction. The first words that we heard last week from the prophet Jeremiah, and will hear again this week, compare almost exactly to the modern usage of “Coming Soon.” In Jeremiah 31:27-34, we hear…

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord… doesn’t that sound a lot like “Coming soon?”

²⁷“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. ²⁸Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord. ²⁹“In those days people will no longer say,

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.

³¹“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
³²It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband tothem,”
declares the Lord.
³³“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
³⁴No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

God announces through Jeremiah that something new is coming. The days are coming, when God will once again plant his people, kingdoms, and nations and watch over them as they rebuild. In those days, as we heard last week, everyone will be held responsible for their own sin because… in those days, in the days that are coming soon, God will make a new covenant with his people that will be different from the covenant that he made with them when he led them out of slavery in Egypt. This will be a new covenant, a new contract, a new promise that God will write upon the minds and hearts of his people. It will be a new day, a new era, and a new relationship between God and his people. And that day is… coming soon.

No matter how you translate it, whether you say, “the days are coming,” or “coming soon,” or “I will…” God presses his people to look forward, to look past their present suffering, to put their trust in God, and look toward the future. And in the parable that we heard last week, and again this week, this is very much what Jesus is doing as well as we hear these words in Luke 18:1-8:

^18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

⁴“For some time he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you; he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

God promises to bring justice to his people who cry out to him, but Jesus encourages us not to stop, to continue praying, to continue to cry out to God for justice, because prayer is the expression of our faith. Prayer is a mechanism by which we shift our focus, look past our present condition, and look forward, because fundamentally, prayer is an expression of our faith in God and our hope for the future.

But… as we hold on to our faith, and as we look toward the future, how do we live, love, and care for the people around us… today? These are exactly the kind of questions that Paul answers in his second letter to his protégé Timothy as we hear these words in 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5:

¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the servant of Godmay be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

^4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

What should we do today? We should continue to do the things that we’ve been taught to do, to teach the things that we’ve been convinced of by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and continue in our faith. We should continue to study scripture, and use it to teach, rebuke, correct, and train others in righteousness so that the people of God might be fully equipped for every good work.

Paul’s charge, or assignment, to Timothy carries forward to each of us two thousand years later. Preach the word, be prepared, at all times, to tell the gospel story and the message of salvation and rescue. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, and offer instruction, but do these things with great care and patience so that the message that we bring is the message of scripture and not just a modern interpretation that resonates with our culture and makes us feel good. Keep your head, stay calm… no matter what, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and be in ministry, at all times, to all the people around you.

Paul’s instruction to Timothy, much like the words of Jeremiah and the parable of Jesus, remind us that the day is coming, and coming soon, when we will all stand in judgement. Our mission is not to get bogged down in the troubles of today, but to look forward past our present troubled and divisive times, to look past our present condition, and live, love, teach, preach, correct, rebuke, and encourage so that we can bring as many of our neighbors, friends, coworkers, and classmates into the gates of heaven as we possibly can.

No one can know the day or the hour of Christ’s return, but just as God’s people were called in the time of Jeremiah, and just as they were in the time of Jesus and Paul, we are called to look forward, to look past our present struggles, to put our trust in God, and look toward the future. Because even if we don’t know when he’s coming, we know that he is… coming soon.

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

Pastor’s Report 2022

October 18, 2022 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, blog, Broadway, charge conference, Christ, Christ United Methodist, church, future, Methodist, mission, Ohio, outreach, reports, United Methodist

Hipster pointing to a white board that says "Pastor's Report"

Pastor’s Report 2022

Christ United Methodist Church

Rev. John Partridge

Every year, I am asked to present a report of the year for our annual Charge Conference. It’s really sort of a “what I did last summer” kind of report that asks, “What did your church do for the last year?” Long ago I decided that my answers should not be seen as any kind of a secret, and so I publish them here, and in our church newsletter. I’m excited about the future of Christ Church and its people and I hope that by talking more about it, others might learn about it and join us in our mission to care for the people around us, and around the world, the way that Jesus cares for us.

The official question that was asked this year was this:

Explain how the church is fulfilling its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Review the current year and how you plan to meet your congregational goals for the upcoming years. What specific goals relate to your mission field.

An my answer is as follows:

Christ Church has continued to move forward into a new post-Covid world in which many people remain unsure of attending social gatherings and events with large groups, and church attendance seems to sometimes be among these. In addition, some of those who were regular in attendance prior to the pandemic simply fell out of the habit. But, for whatever reason, we continue do everything at Christ Church with excellence so that, as we invite out neighbors, coworkers, and friends, and as those who previously attended test the waters and find their way back, they will all find a community of faith, love, and support that is filled with hope for the future and for an eternity with Jesus.

Christ Church is also considering ways in which we can be more intentional about attracting and inviting others into fellowship and inclusion in our community of faith. To do that we are exploring opportunities that might exist for each committee and small group within the church as well as potential new ways to reach out to our neighborhoods, new ministries, and even additions to staff. We have already launched a new children’s ministry offering Sunday school and children’s church so that these options are available to all families in attendance and give them the flexibility to choose what works best for them.

And, at the same time, we have not stopped doing what we have always done. Volunteers from Christ Church once again provided free concessions each week at the Alliance Chamber of Commerce Concert at the Caboose series of events and raised $737 in donations in support of the Alliance Area Habitat for Humanity, over one hundred meals pass through our doors every Tuesday through the Alliance of Churches, Scouts BSA Pack and Troops 50 continue to mentor and teach valuable skills to young men an women, our United Women in Faith will again teach cooking skills to our neighbors, we continue to support Red Bird missions in Kentucky, provide education for students in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and the list goes on.

Our mission calls us to be a bright shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope to the hopeless, and a place of healing to a hurting world where we can be Jesus to our neighbors and to the world. I believe that Christ Church is not only doing those things, but we are looking for ways to do them better.

I hope that, if you haven’t already, you would join us at Christ Church in-person, or online. Because I have no doubt that together we’re going to change the world.

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Pastor Partridge

Sermons, blogs and other things from Pastor John Partridge

mission

Freedom’s Surrender

Freedom’s Surrender

February 04, 2024*

(Insert Your Name Here)

(Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023*

Faith in the Flood

Faith in the Flood

November 05, 2023*

Finding Nebo

Finding Nebo

October 29, 2023*

Light, Incognito

Light, Incognito

December 25, 2022*

(Christmas Day)

Finding the “You” in Prophecy

Finding the “You” in Prophecy

December 18, 2022*

(4th Sunday of Advent)

Which Shepherd Are You?

Which Shepherd Are You?

November 20, 2022*

(Christ the King Sunday)

To Heaven, Through Hell

To Heaven, Through Hell

November 13, 2022*

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

October 23, 2022*

Pastor’s Report 2022

Pastor’s Report 2022

Christ United Methodist Church