The Danger of ‘No’

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

The Danger of “No”

August 24, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

But what happens when we say no to God?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is danger in saying ‘no’ to God.

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

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

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

Saying ‘no’ to God is a dangerous thing.

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

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*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.™

Assumptions of the Powerful

July 6, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Aram, assumption, Broadway, Christ, church, Elisha, faith, God, humility, Israel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, King, leper, Methodist, Naaman, obedience, Ohio, power, prophet, wealth

Assumptions of the Powerful

July 06, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

2 Kings 5:1-14 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

For anyone who has taken the Bridges Out of Poverty class, or who has done any reading about poverty, or the disparities of wealth, one of the things that we discover, is that people from different socio-economic classes simply think differently and operate throughout their lives with a different set of assumptions. These disparities are not new to our generation or even new to modernity, but have existed throughout recorded history, and since the beginning of what we might think of as wealth and power. We often see these differences as we read the stories of history, and we see them in scripture as well as in writings from the period such as the books of Josephus and other first century writers.

Our first scripture for today is found in 2 Kings 5:1-14, much earlier than the first century, somewhere between 500 to 600 years before the birth of Jesus. There, we hear the story of how Naaman, a wealthy and powerful leader of the nation of Aram, a major military and economic power, contracts an incurable disease and travels to Israel in search of healing at the hands of the prophet of Israel’s God. But, even before Naaman and the prophet Elisha can meet, we witness the confusion caused by the assumptions made from his position of wealth and power.

^5:1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

²Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

⁴Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. ⁵“By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. ⁶The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

⁷As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

⁸When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed.”

¹¹But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. ¹²Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So, he turned and went off in a rage.

¹³Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” ¹⁴So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

I want to remind you that Naaman is the second most powerful person in one of the most powerful, wealthy, and influential nations in the entire region. He is a person of great power, intellect, wealth, and influence. He is so important, that when he is discovered to have an incurable disease that would normally cause him to be cast out of society and become an unclean pariah, the king of Aram helps him to hide his disease and sends him to Israel, along with 75 pounds of silver (roughly $325,000 US), 1,860 ounces of gold (about $6.2 million), and ten complete sets of clothing, which we will assume are the finest silks or embroidered outfits that would be worn by the king or others in the halls of power in Aram. Historically, we know that some of those sorts of outfits would take a skilled artisan a year, or several years, to make and so, each was worth several years salary of a skilled laborer and thus both rare and highly prized.

Additionally, the king of Aram sends along a letter of introduction to the king of Israel but, this is where the assumptions become apparent. First, it is assumed by the wealthy and powerful that miracles from the prophet of God can be bought. Second, it is assumed that the agent that can command such a miracle is the king of Israel. Despite the power of Naaman and Aram’s king, they do not, in any way, understand how the God of Israel works. Despite being told, by an Israeli servant that they must meet the prophet in Samaria, Naaman travels instead to the capitol of Israel, which would have been in Samaria, and not to Jerusalem, which was capitol of Judah. But even so, the King of Aram says nothing about meeting the prophet of God in Israel and the underlying assumption, as it is understood by both the reader of scripture and by Joram, the king of Israel, is that Israel’s king would be able to order Naaman’s healing in exchange for the payment that had been sent.

Even when that assumption is corrected, still Naaman travels to see Elisha with his entire entourage of horses and chariots assuming that he would need to impress the prophet with his wealth and power. Further, he gets angry when he doesn’t even get to meet Elisha face-to-face and finds that what is required of him is not something difficult, expensive, or otherwise impressive. Instead, what God demands of Naaman is not wealth, power, or influence, but instead is simply obedience and humility.

We see this same upheaval of our own assumptions about wealth and power in Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, where we find Jesus sending out seventy-two of his followers to preach the message of the gospel.

^10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. ²He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ³Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

⁵“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ ⁶If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. ⁷Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

⁸“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. ⁹Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ¹¹‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ ¹²I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

¹⁶“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

¹⁷The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

¹⁸He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

As he sent out seventy itinerant missionaries to the villages and communities ahead of him, Jesus’ instructions are to leave behind everything that might possibly be of assistance to them so that whatever work they did, whatever results that they had, would belong to God and only to God. Further, by requiring these disciples to travel without a change of clothes, or a warm jacket, or money, or water, or even shoes, Jesus forces them to rely upon God for the things that they needed, not only to accomplish the mission and ministry to which they had been sent, but for their very survival.

In addition, Jesus instructs them to stay in one place and eat only what is offered there rather than moving from house to house so that they can get a more generous meal every day. Rather than trying to live better, their goal was to be humble and trust in God’s provision.

As citizens of one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations that has ever existed, even the average among us is influenced by the culture in which we live. And as such, as we are immersed in it, we absorb the assumptions and attitudes that are common to wealth and power. When the king of Aram sent Naaman to be healed, he assumed that the miraculous would be governed by the wealthy and powerful of Israel. Both the king and Naaman assumed that miracles could be bought for the right price. And not only did Naaman assume that he could impress the Elisha, the prophet of God, by his display of strength, his ego was wounded and he was angry that by refusing to meet face-to-face, Elisha did not treat him with the deference that he felt that he deserved, and he was confused that accomplishing Elisha’s instructions would not require wealth, power, strength, or great intellect.

As Jesus sent out his disciple-missionaries into the communities ahead of him, he forced his followers to set aside their own assumptions and the things upon which they were often dependent. They took nothing with them upon which they could rely. No money, no extra clothing, no food, no water, and no weapons. They took only faithfulness, trust, obedience, and the humility to rest in God’s ability to enable, empower, and accomplish their mission.

Two thousand years later, scripture speaks to us just as it did to the citizens of Israel and the great empires of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Rome and message remains just as clear as it has throughout the ages. When we seek to do the work of the church and the kingdom of God, the things that we need to accomplish the mission set before us is not more money, more power, more influence, more strength, more talent, more equipment, more people, or more of anything else. Those are the assumptions of the wealthy and the powerful. Instead, we must set aside the assumptions of our culture and rely instead upon obedience, faithfulness, trust, and the humility to fully rely upon God.

The recipe is easy.

As Naaman and the disciples of Jesus discovered, it can sometimes be a struggle for us to get past our assumptions long enough to do the things that God asks. But when we do, we can witness the miraculous power of our God as work.

May we, as the followers of Jesus Christ, and as the church, have the humility to trust.

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What Do You Think You’re Doing?

March 24, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, call, Christ, church, gift, glory, God, hosanna, Jesus, Karen, Methodist, mission, obedience, Ohio, Palm, Palm Sunday, Partridge, question, Street, United, what do you think you're doing?

What Do You Think You’re Doing?

March 24, 2024*

(Palm Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Mark 11:1-11

Have you ever been caught doing something that you shouldn’t have been doing? For some of us it was something that we were told not to do, or something that we were doing wrong, or something that may have been unsafe, or just something that someone thought we shouldn’t have been doing or something that they thought someone else should have been doing. I’m sure that one of those things has happened to you. Whichever of those things happened, the person that caught you doing it may well have said something like, “Just what do you think that you are doing.” Or, if you were in the military, or in some industrial settings, there might have been one or more expletives inserted into that sentence for emphasis.

The point is, we’ve all been there. Moreover, we’ve all been there both as the person who is asked that question, and as the person asking the question. We’ve all caught our children, or our co-workers doing something that they shouldn’t have been doing, or at least something that we needed to know more about before we walked away. We’ve all been there. And that’s why the story just before the beginning of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is so memorable. In that story, Jesus sends two of his friends ahead to make some preparations and, in the middle of doing what Jesus told them to do, they get stopped, with a perfectly legitimate question that amounts to, “Just what do you guys think you are doing.” But it’s not just a question heard in the first century, it’s a question that flows down through history to us. But before we get to that, let’s begin by reading the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry contained in Mark 11:1-11 which says:

^11:1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ²saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

⁴They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. ⁷When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

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

¹⁰“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹¹Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

If we flash back to the beginning of the story that we just read, we realize that Jesus fully anticipated that his friends would be asked what they were doing. Jesus told them exactly what was going to happen before it happened, and he told them how to answer the question. It happened, they answered, and it all worked out. But what do we take away from the story? Typically, the thing that we talk about is how Jesus saw the future. Jesus knew that there would be an unridden colt tied up at the edge of town, Jesus knew that his friends would be questioned, and he knew what kind of answer would satisfy the owner of the house. Some folks will say that Jesus must have obviously pre-arranged these things but many of us will point out that there is no evidence of this in scripture and instead point to this as evidence of Jesus’ divinity.

But what else do we take away from the story?

Other than recognizing that Jesus was divine, what else can this story tell us, and what is it about this story that can make a difference to us as we live our lives in the twenty-first century?

For that, I want to take a minute to look at the role that is played by Jesus’ two friends and disciples. Our story doesn’t name them and for our purposes this morning it doesn’t matter because what I am suggesting is that these two men represent us in this story. As we consider that, let’s break down, step by step, what happened: These two men were walking with Jesus, minding their own business, when Jesus called them out and sent them forward with a mission. Before they left him, Jesus told them where to go, what to do, what would happen there, and how to answer any questions with which they might be presented.

So far, that’s absolutely straightforward stuff.

But then what happened?

The disciples were obedient to Jesus, they went where Jesus told them to go, and they did exactly what Jesus told them to do, and then…

…someone yells at them and asks them what the absolute heck they are doing.

Even if Jesus told them to expect that this would happen, this had to have an emotional impact on these two followers. They were in the place that they were supposed to be, they were doing exactly what Jesus had told them to do, and they are asked “Why are you here, and why are you doing that?” If this were an internet meme, the person asking that question would, without question, be described as a “Karen” that was butting in bothering the people who were only doing their job. But to be fair, it’s a question that any of us would ask if it was our horse or our property, or even our neighbor’s property. But from the perspective of the Jesus followers, they were just doing what they were told to do, and they get accosted for it.

Jesus knew all that before it happened, and that’s why he told his friends what to say, and that’s why it all worked out so that Jesus could ride that colt into Jerusalem.

But what does it mean for us? How does this story flow down through the church and through history in such a way that it matters to us? What is it in this story that connects to what we are doing in church and in ministry today?

It’s this: We talk a lot about listening for God’s voice and for God’s guidance. We talk about listening for God’s call upon our lives and upon the mission of the local church. We talk about these things, and we talk about them often, because they are important. But what happens when we do those things? What happens when we listen, we hear and feel God’s call, and we obey? What happens when we move in new directions, go to new places, and do new things?

If we learn anything from this story, we learn that even when we are fully obedient, even when we go where Jesus calls us to go, and do what Jesus calls us to do, things may not go perfectly or smoothly. Even when we are doing the work that God called us, and sent us, to do, people will stop us and ask us what the heck we are doing in that place. Opposition to our work is to be expected. Push back and criticism are to be expected.

But what we must also learn from the story is what should happen next. In the story, the disciples who were questioned did not stop doing what they were doing. The followers of Jesus did not give up. They did not allow the questions or the criticism to prevent them from doing what Jesus had sent them to do. They were asked a question, they answered that question, they continued doing what they were doing, they completed the mission, and Jesus entered the city just as the prophets of the Old Testament said that he would.

And we must be expected to have that same attitude. Once we spend the time to study scripture, to pray, and to listen for God’s voice, once we discern that Jesus is calling us to go to a new place, or to do something new, then we must expect that there will be naysayers who criticize us and who ask us what the heck we are doing. But when they do, we must not allow their questions or their criticism to prevent us from doing what Jesus sends us to do. We must, like the unnamed followers in the story, continue doing what we are doing until we have completed the mission so that Jesus can take the next step.

Too often, the church allows questions and criticism, from inside and out, to derail its mission.

But that is not the example that we have in scripture.

When we are asked what we are doing, we must give an answer. “We are doing what our master has called us to do.” And then continue doing our work until it has been completed.

Stay on task.

Finish the mission.

And trust that Jesus will take care of everything else.

Because it was the obedience of the disciples at the beginning, that led to the hosannas at the end.

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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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Lent is For Us

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 PastorPartridge Blogs closeness, Easter, fasting, gifts, God, heart, Lent, obedience, prayer, prepare

Lent is For Us

February 02, 2021

In just a little over two weeks, we will celebrate Ash Wednesday and begin the church season of Lent. But what is Lent? The dictionary definition says this:

noun: Lent

the period preceding Easter that in the Christian Church is devoted to fasting, abstinence, and penitence in commemoration of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. In the Western Church it runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday and so includes forty weekdays.

In remembrance of Jesus’ forty days of fasting and prayer in the wilderness as he prepared to begin his ministry, we spend forty days in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Of course, as the dictionary definition pointed out, that is forty weekdays and not forty consecutive days because, traditionally, Sundays are each a “little Easter” and are not counted.

But what difference does it make?

Or, a better question might be, what will you do differently for these forty days?

In our modern era, the most well-known thing to do is to “give up” something for Lent. For many of us who grew up Protestant, giving up something for Lent might be well-known, but it tends to be poorly understood. To put it simply, giving up something for Lent, is a form of fasting. We give up coffee, or chocolate, or buying takeout food as a substitute for fasting, or giving up food entirely, for forty days.

But still, what’s the point?

The dictionary is not helpful. The dictionary definition of a fast says, “abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, especially as a religious observance.” And, as I noted, simply saying that a fast is a “religious observance” is not helpful in understanding its purpose. A fast is supposed to be a mechanism to draw us closer to God. Usually, fasting and prayer are twins of a sort, or something that we would normally do together. The point of fasting is two-fold, I think. The first part comes closer to the dictionary definition that it is a part of a religious observance, in that it demonstrates our obedience to God and our desire to know God better. But as the first twin of the pair, fasting also is a reminder to us to spend time in prayer. As we fast, whether it is from food, from chocolate, from television, or whatever, we will be reminded to pray whenever we have a desire, out of hunger or out of habit, for the thing from which we are fasting. Whenever we are hungry, we are reminded to pray. Whenever we habitually reach for a chocolate bar, or for the television remote, we are reminded to spend time in prayer instead. During our time of fasting, we fill the time we would have done something else, eating or watching television, etc., with prayer, Bible reading, devotional time, or some other thing that draws us into God’s presence and into a closer relationship with him.

So, do we have to fast during these forty days of Lent?

No, we do not. While I have, I typically do not. But, that said, Lent remains a season that is deliberately set aside for us to prepare our hearts, minds, and spirits, for the celebration of Easter. It is a time for us to reflect, repent, and draw closer to God. Fasting is just one way of doing that (and it’s a good one).

As you read this, I urge you to use this season of Lent in the way that it is intended. If you choose to fast from something, that’s great (but if you want to fast from food, please have a conversation with your doctor before you do). But whether you fast, I hope that you will find some way of drawing closer to God. Take the time to reflect, to repent, and to draw closer to God. Find a good Lenten devotional and spend time, each day, reading it, reading the scriptures that it recommends or suggests, reflecting, repenting, and praying.

Rather than turning the calendar on Easter Sunday morning and saying “Happy Easter” to friends and family like someone crossing the finish line without running the race, I urge you to spend some time in preparation. I hope that we will each take the time to run the race and spend the season of Lent drawing closer to God and preparing our hearts for Easter.

Lent is not something that God requires of us. It is a gift that has been given to us.

When we take the time to draw closer to God and prepare our hearts during the season of Lent, Easter becomes even more meaningful and affects us even more deeply.

Lent is a gift.

What will you do with it?

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Reversal of Fortune

September 30, 2018October 9, 2018 PastorPartridge Sermon faith, obedience, peace, repentance, rescue, restoration, sacrifice, suffering, surrender

“Reversal of Fortune”

September 30, 2018*

By Pastor John Partridge

Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22 Mark 9:38-50 James 5:13-20

Have you ever watched a gigantic reversal in a game that you were watching? The Browns are losing but in the last seconds of the fourth quarter the Cardiac Kids would score two touchdowns and squeak out a win. There have been games when the Indians drive in several home runs, or one grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Or some player on Jeopardy! Is in dead last, but then sweeps two or three entire categories, hits a daily double, bets everything, wins, and then put it all on the line in Final Jeopardy, and wins again, to come from behind and take home the prize money.

Hugh E. Keough once said, “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but that is the way to bet.”

But sometimes the betting pool is wrong. Sometimes, the unexpected happens. Sometimes the underdog wins. And that has everything to do with our stories from scripture today.

We begin in the book of Esther at the climax of her story. Prior to where we begin, Haman, a high-ranking advisor to King Xerxes (pronounced Zerk-sees), convinced the king to sign an edict that would allow everyone in his kingdom to kill any Jew that they found and take their wealth, whatever it may be, for their own. What Haman didn’t know, was that King Xerxes’ queen, Esther, was a Jew and she wasn’t about to sit idly by while this atrocity played itself out. And so, she invited both Haman and the king to dinner, but chickened out and couldn’t bring herself to make the big announcement. But then, she invited them both to a second dinner, and that is where we join the story. (Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22)

^7:1 So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, ²and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

³Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. ⁴For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”

⁵King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

⁶Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. ⁷The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

⁸Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. ⁹Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits [75 ft.] stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

The king said, “Impale him on it!” ¹⁰So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

²⁰Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, ²¹to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar ²²as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

Haman was descended from a tribe of people that had been almost wiped out by the people of Israel when they fought over, and settled into, the land that God had given them. His hatred was for Ester’s uncle, Mordecai specifically, but also for all Jews everywhere, and he allowed his hatred to propose something truly evil and make it sound palatable and convincing to the king. But God had put the right person, in the right place, at just the right moment. As Mordecai had said, Esther was chosen by God “for just such a time as this.” And suddenly the tables are turned, and the hunter becomes the hunted. To make matters worse, Haman throws himself on the feet of Queen Esther to beg for his life just as the king returns to the room and it looks as if he is attacking her. And before Haman leaves the room, they have already put a blindfold or a hangman’s hood over his face, and he is sentenced to die by being impaled on the same pole with which he had intended to kill Mordecai.

If you read the rest of the story, King Xerxes is unable to retract his earlier edict, but instead issues a second one that allows the Jews, wherever they are, to gather together and use whatever means necessary to defend themselves and, if anyone attacks them, the Jews get to keep the wealth of their attackers. The moment that Haman had intended to watch his enemies die, became the moment of his own death and he dies on the pole that he had built for his enemy. In the end, a day that was intended for the destruction of the Jews becomes a great victory instead. It was a great reversal of fortune. The unexpected happened, the underdog won.

This type of reversal of fortune is somewhat common in scripture because it is in the unlikely, the improbable, and the outright impossible that we most easily see the hand of God. But, as we read the stories of the New Testament and the Gospels, we also see moments when the unexpected is not found in the miracles of God, but in the unexpected and expansive grace of God. In Mark 9:38-50, the disciples come to Jesus because God has players on the field that aren’t on the team that the disciples thought they should be on.

³⁸“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

³⁹“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, ⁴⁰for whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

⁴²“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. ⁴³If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. ⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸where

“‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁹Everyone will be salted with fire.

⁵⁰“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

First off, Jesus does the unexpected when he tells the disciples that there are others who follow Jesus, and who perform miracles in Jesus’ name, but who are not among the twelve disciples or among those that they know. How can this be if Jesus told Peter that “on this rock I will build my church”? How can followers of Jesus not follow Jesus? But Jesus says that anyone who preaches the gospel is not their enemy. Moreover, anyone who does good in the name of Jesus will be rewarded by God.

Conversely, Jesus says that God will punish those who do things that cause others, even children, to go astray. We all know, many of us from painful experience, that it’s better to shut up, and be silent, than to say something stupid. And Jesus make the same sort of point. It’s better to lose a hand, or an eye, than to suffer in hell so even though doing the will of God and following the example and the teachings of Jesus may occasionally be inconvenient, or even painful, or costly, being inconvenienced is far better than being condemned to hell.

Jesus says, “everyone will be salted with fire.” And the best way to understand that is to remember that gifts to God, sacrifices made to God, were burned on the altar. And so, what Jesus is saying is that our inconveniences in following him, the sacrifices that we make, the trials that we endure, the pain that we suffer, in the name of Jesus are sacrifices that burn on the altar before God which ultimately purify us.

But what is that thing about salt losing its saltiness?

Remember that Matthew 5:13-16 says,

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

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

Taken together these scriptures tell us that the sacrifices that we make, in order to follow Jesus, the inconveniences that we experience, the suffering that we endure, these are the things that make us different than the people around us. These are the things that reveal the works of God to the world around us. These are the things that make us the salt of the earth. And if we lose our saltiness, if we become just like everybody else, and look, and act, just like everyone else, then we also lose any ability that we had to change our culture, to change our world, for the better.

Those are lessons that were unexpected.

But why is all of this important? Why do we want to be salted with fire? Why do we want to be the salt of the earth? Why do we want to change the world? And in James 5:13-20, we find the answer.

¹³Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

¹⁷Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

¹⁹My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

This passage if full of the miraculous and the unexpected.

Saying a prayer to an invisible and unseen God, whose temple doesn’t even have an idol, and that prayer has the power to heal the sick. Expose yourself to potential pain and ridicule by confessing your sins in public, so that you can be healed. And, James says, we do all of these things so that one life might be changed. All of this is worthwhile, a multitude of sins can be erased, if just one person is rescued from death and returns to the ways of God.

This is the ultimate reversal of fortune.

The sinner, condemned to death, repents, returns to God, and is saved. Life comes from death. The world is changed for the better… one life at a time.

And all of that happens because the followers of Jesus Christ are willing to lay their comfort, convenience, pain, and suffering on the altar and give it to God. When we are willing to live our lives differently than the people and the culture around us, when we are willing to be salty, it is then that we can be seen. It is then that the world, and the people around us can see God at work in us. It is then that we are able to change the world, one life at a time, and be a part of God’s greatest reversal of fortune ever. Rescuing the lost, restoring the condemned, and literally bringing life out of death.

That is certainly worth a little inconvenience and suffering.

Our inconvenience, pain, and suffering, in the name of Jesus, is the salt that will change the world.

Don’t ever be afraid to be salty.

“Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

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

Fear, Respect, and Posers

October 8, 2017 PastorPartridge Sermon change, church, fear, leadership, obedience, truth

“Fear, Respect, and Posers”

October 08, 2017

By John Partridge*

Exodus 20:1-20 Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46

This morning I want us to begin by using our imagination for a moment. Imagine if you met someone who referred to themselves as a professional race car driver, but who never drove a car. Imagine someone who owned a steel company but the factory that they owned never produced a single ton of steel. Imagine someone who bragged about owning a vineyard but that vineyard never produced a single grape. In each of these cases, you would quickly begin to doubt their credentials and would suspect that they were posers, faking their way through life trying to make themselves feel important.

At the same time, imagine living in a place where the police department was prohibited from making arrests, had no handcuffs, no jail, and had nothing more than balloon animals and water guns to enforce the law. Instead of stopping criminals, the police spend their time entertaining children at birthday parties. Obviously, they wouldn’t be much of a police department and no one would take them seriously.

With these ideas in mind, we return to the story of the Exodus and the people of Israel. Today we hear the words of God as he handed down the Ten Commandments to Moses and to the people. (Exodus 20:1-20)

^20:1 And God spoke all these words:

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³“You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

⁸“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³“You shall not murder.

¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵“You shall not steal.

¹⁶“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

¹⁸When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance¹⁹and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

²⁰Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

I could present a sermon on each one of those, but for today I wanted to stress the last sentence. First, Moses tells the people that they should not be afraid, but then immediately says that these commandments were given so that the people would have a “fear of God” that would keep them from sinning. Doesn’t that sound like two conflicting ideas? How can we be unafraid, and yet fear God?

The simple answer is that although these words translate the same, these two uses of the word fear, and afraid, are used to express two curiously different ideas. When Moses says “Do not be afraid” that is exactly what he means. He is telling the people that they needn’t run from God, that they do not need to keep their distance from God, and that simply being in the presence of God is not a life threatening situation in which they must worry, from moment to moment, that God will strike them dead with a thought, a look, or a bolt of lightning.

On the other hand, God has given these commandments, and has revealed his presence on earth, so that we might be prevented from continuing in our sin. As I noted in my earlier example, imagine what would happen if everyone knew that the people charged with law enforcement were prevented from, and totally incapable of, enforcing the law. In that case, law breakers would have free reign to do whatever they wanted, and even decent people would be sorely tempted to do things they shouldn’t do. How many people would follow the speed limit if it were announced that the State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement officers would no longer patrol the interstate highways or give out tickets? In this case, what Moses is saying is that God is real, God is powerful beyond imagination, but that God is a good god who loves you beyond measure. At the same time, there is a list of things that humans do that offend God and we would be wise to avoid doing them. When they are functioning correctly and when our relationship with the police department is the way it’s supposed to be, we are not afraid to meet a police officer on the street. We know that they are there to protect us and to keep us safe. But we also have a healthy respect for them and for what they do, and their presence reminds us that it is wise for us to obey the law. This deep, abiding, and healthy respect for the presence of God is what Moses describes as “the fear of God.” We need not be afraid of him, or fear to be in his presence, but we should be stopped in our tracks by the thought of offending him and breaking his laws.

God’s intent is not to destroy us, but to prevent us from violating his law and thus bring harm to ourselves.

By the time of Paul, the commandments and the laws of God had been elevated in status by people, like the Pharisees, to become an object of worship. The laws became so important that they became idols that distracted people away from the will of God instead of pointing toward the will of God. And, before his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was one of those people. But afterward, Paul understood the law in an entirely different way. In Philippians 3:4b-14 he described his new understanding this way:
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.¹⁰I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul had spent his life learning the rules, following the rules, respecting the rules, teaching the rules and then enforcing the rules. The rules were his life’s mission. And then, after his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul says that he considers everything that he ever did to be garbage, filth, because he now understood that following the rules can never make us good enough, but that we can only become pure because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He now understood that we can never, on our own, be good enough, but we must continually work to get better, to become worthy of the gift that we have been given by Jesus.

But how do we know when we are doing the right thing? If following a bunch of rules isn’t good enough, then how do we know when we are following Jesus the way that Jesus desires for us to follow him? And for that, at least in part, we can turn to Matthew 21:33-46, where Jesus tells his disciples what we now call the parable of the landowner.

³³“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ³⁴When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

³⁵“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. ³⁷Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

³⁸“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ ³⁹So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

⁴⁰“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

⁴¹“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. ⁴⁴Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. ⁴⁶They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

Once again, this entire parable was told as a criticism of the leadership of Israel and of Israel’s religious leaders. They were, in opinion of Jesus, leadership posers. They were standing in front of the people telling them what to do and how to do it, but they weren’t doing any of the right things themselves. They were the race car drivers who never drove a single race, steel makers who never produced a single pound of steel, and vineyard owners who never produced a single grape. Jesus said that the measuring stick to measure a race car driver was to watch him, or her race. We judge steel makers by how they produce steel, and we measure vineyards by how many grapes are grown. Likewise, Jesus says, the leaders of the church, and the church itself, are measured by the fruit that they produce. You can talk about rules all you want, you can talk about churchy stuff all you want, but in the end, the important thing is to measure how many lives have been changed because of what you are doing.

Although the Ten Commandments are of obvious importance, the question has never been about how well we follow them, but about why we follow them, and about the results that we get from doing so. Our calling is to follow the law, not because that’s the most important thing, but because we want to be obedient in order to express our gratitude for what Jesus has done for us. We cannot be posers who pretend to do the work of God in order to make ourselves feel better. We must measure our success by the people who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, the lives that have been changed, and the souls that have been drawn closer to God.

This is our vineyard.

This is the fruit that we are called to produce.

And Jesus warns us that if we fail, he will move us out and bring in someone else who will.

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^* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, 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 may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

When Legal is Wrong

August 27, 2017 PastorPartridge Sermon disobedience, evil, faith, God, good, obedience, politics

“When Legal is Wrong”

August 27, 2017

By John Partridge*

Exodus 1:8 – 2:10 Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16:13-20

Have you ever watched your local, state, or federal government, your employer, or some big business, do something that just didn’t seem right? Of course they assured the public that everything they were doing was perfectly legal, but regardless of its legality, it just smelled bad and people grumbled because what they were doing seemed wrong.

Just because something is legal, doesn’t mean that it’s right. It is fairly common for us to open the newspaper or turn on the news and find a story about a district court, or appellate court, or even the Supreme Court overturning a law because it is unconstitutional. But sometimes, even laws that are constitutional are still wrong. In 1793, the federal government passed the Fugitive Slave Act as an enforcement tool of Article 4 Section 2 of the United States Constitution which required the return of runaway slaves.

Did you hear that?

The US Constitution required that fugitive slaves, even if they were found in free states, be returned to their masters. The thing is, a great many people in northern states completely ignored this provision as well as the requirements of the Fugitive Slave Act. Some state and local governments passed laws that prohibited their law enforcement agencies from enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. However, by the mid 1800’s this defiance of the law on the part of many in the north caused so many slaves in border states to attempt escape, that the entire institution of slavery was close to collapse and southern slave holding states were angered at their northern neighbors’ failure to uphold the law.

And so, the southern states went to Congress and attempted to fix their problem. In their eyes, the problem was that the northern states were acting in defiance of the United States Constitution and if their compliance could not be enforced, then secession would become a serious possibility. As such, a new Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850 that would penalize government or law enforcement officials who refused to arrest runaway slaves, even those who were accused, without proof of being runaway slaves. Further, any person who aided a runaway slave “by providing food or shelter was subject to six months’ imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.”[1] And, although a $1,000 fine doesn’t sound too bad, if we adjust for inflation, this becomes almost $30,000 in 2017 dollars. Accused slaves had no right to speak for themselves in court, no proof or documentation was required, and only the word of the accuser was needed to take someone into slavery. In fact, in this way, a great many free blacks were taken illegally into slavery simply by a slave holder, or fugitive slave hunter, claiming that they belonged to them.

But still, many people, even at the risk of losing their homes, their businesses, and all that they owned, refused to comply with the law. It was not only the Underground Railroad, but many people who harbored, protected, and transported fugitive slaves, as well as free blacks, in defiance of the law because they knew that the law was unjust and wrong.

We have similar discussions today about a number of subjects, but this is the core of the story that we hear in Exodus 1:8 – 2:10. We rejoin the story of the people of Israel several generations after Joseph has died, and now, no one remembers, or cares, who he was or what he did for Egypt.

⁸Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

¹¹So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³and worked them ruthlessly.¹⁴They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

²⁰So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

²²Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

^2:1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, ²and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

The Egyptians are worried that there are now so many of them, the Israelites might rise up and attack. And so, the solution that the Pharaoh decided upon was to kill every Israelite male child at the moment of his birth. But since there wasn’t a soldier in the household of every pregnant woman, they instead commanded the midwives to do their dirty work for them.

And here is the heart of the story for today. The midwives are faced with this moral and ethical dilemma: Do you obey the law, murder an innocent newborn, or disobey the law, and risk imprisonment, beating, and death? The midwives knew that the law was unjust and wrong, and they knew that obeying the law would be immoral, unethical, and evil. Despite the risk of significant physical and emotional harm to themselves, they lied, and disobeyed the law in order to honor God.

Moses’ mother was forced to make the same moral judgement because although the midwives could lie and refuse to murder newborn baby boys, eventually those baby boys would be discovered by, or be reported to, soldiers who had no moral or ethical problems with obeying the commands of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Moses’ mother hid him for three months, but at that point it became too difficult to keep his existence a secret. Babies make noises, and they create smells, and other evidence that people will eventually notice. And so, Moses’ mother made a deliberate choice to disobey the law and trust God rather than take the risk of him being discovered and murdered by an Egyptian soldier. Instead of keeping him at home, she built Moses a basket made of papyrus reeds that was waterproof enough to act like a boat (interestingly, in ancient times, it was common for boats to be built with bundles of papyrus reeds tied together and we also find that the original language for “basket” might also be translated as “ark”). For her, risking that Moses might be carried out to sea, or drown, or eaten by wild animals, was better than the almost certain death that he faced if she kept him at home.

But all of that brings us to Romans 12:1-8, where the Apostle Paul describes what living the life of a follower of God looks like.

^12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ²Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul says that we should live as if we were daily sacrificing ourselves to God. Paul understood that most of us will, thankfully, never be called upon to die for the sake of God, so instead of giving our lives in one dramatic moment, we called instead to give and to live each moment that we have as a gift to God. Instead of living our lives in the way that others in our culture do, instead of living in order to gratify our desires, we are called to be transformed by studying and learning about God, and becoming the kind of people that God wants us to be.

In the end, the message for today leaves us with two difficult lessons. First, although it might be unlikely, it is possible, that we might one day be faced with the choice of obeying the law and thereby doing something that we feel is morally and ethically wrong, or disobeying that law and facing whatever consequences might befall us because of that choice. The midwives fully understood that they might be imprisoned or killed because of the choice that they made and our disobedience will likewise force us to risk whatever punishment there is for breaking that particular law. We don’t have the time to discuss the specifics of the various people in our modern times that have done so, but the seriousness of this matter adds compellingly to Paul’s encouragement for us to be in regular study because when it happens to you, you had better be very sure of what it is that God wants.

The second lesson is even harder than the first. Whether or not we are not asked to disobey the law in some dramatic fashion, every morning we are called to sacrifice that day to God. We are called to live that day in a way that honors God. The old saying, “What would Jesus do?” is just a start. Every day we should live as Jesus would ask us to live. At the end of every day we should ask ourselves if we have represented God, as ambassadors of his kingdom, in ways that would please God.

This is what it means when we say that we are called to be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is what it means for us to worship God daily.

Are you prepared to do the will of God… every day?

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[1] Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850

^U You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, 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 may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Jealousy, Hate, Betrayal, and Faith

August 13, 2017August 13, 2017 PastorPartridge Sermon betrayal, faith, jealousy, obedience

“Jealousy, Hate, Betrayal, and Faith”

August 13, 2017

By John Partridge*

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

Have you ever been angry?

Of course you have.

But have you ever been so angry that your passions boiled over, smothered your good sense, and caused you to behave in ways that you shouldn’t have behaved and probably later regretted?

Most of us, at one time or another, have done things, or at least said things, in the heat of the moment that we knew we shouldn’t do or say and that we later regretted and for which we probably had to apologize. Some of the things that we have done may well have permanently damaged relationships in such a way that no amount of apologizing will ever make it right or repair what we once had. Our anger, our passions, our emotions, are all God given, but if we allow them to control us they can take us places that we never wanted to go. This contrast between emotion and good sense is a major part of the story of Jacob, his sons, and especially, his son Joseph. (Genesis 37:1-28)

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

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

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

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

⁵Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

⁸His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

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

“Very well,” he replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

²⁸So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Joseph was born to Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachael, who, for most of their marriage had been unable to have children while Jacob’s other wives, and their servants, had many children. Rachael was obviously Jacob’s favorite, and so for this reason, and because she wasn’t having children, the others mocked her and made her life miserable. And so when she finally got pregnant and had a son named Joseph, he became the favorite of Jacob’s eleven sons. And his favoritism caused problems.

Because Jacob favored Joseph so much, and because he was the youngest child, his brothers were jealous of him and grew to hate him. But when Joseph had a dream in which he saw his brothers and his entire family bow down to him, and when he shared that dream with his family, his father was annoyed with him, but his brothers just hated him even more. And when they were far from home, and were given the chance to do away with Joseph forever, Joseph’s brothers allowed their emotions and their passions to overtake their good sense and they betrayed him, and betrayed their father, and they sold him into slavery and told their father that he was dead.

The power of this story is not just in the story of Joseph and how God walks with him; the power of this story also lies in the striking contrast that is drawn between Joseph and his brothers. Although Joseph may well have been spoiled and deliberately rubbed his favored status in the face of his brothers, he is portrayed as the innocent, honest son, who is only being obedient to his father. In this story, there is little that Joseph can do to change the course of events. The emotions and the passions of his brothers overtake him, he is captured, stripped, thrown into an empty cistern and sold into slavery. There is nothing that Joseph could do, his life has spun completely out of his control, and all that he had left… was faith.

This first part of Joseph’s story is remarkable because it sets up this enormous contrast between the powerful and the powerless. Joseph, although the favorite, becomes completely powerless to change his own story and is at the mercy of his brothers, the slave traders, and later his Egyptian slave owners. But what none of them can take away from Joseph… is his faith in God. No matter what happens, Joseph remembers that God loves him, cares for him, and is ultimately in control of his life, as well as the lives of his family, his brothers, his powerful owners, and even in control over the life of the Pharaoh of Egypt.

In Romans 10:5-15, Paul also teaches by using contrasts.

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

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

Paul says that living under the law is a life of always trying to do things in order to live by it and therefore, be declared righteous. But being righteous by faith doesn’t require all the doing on our part because Jesus has already done all that needed to be done. There is no need for us to climb up into heaven to find Jesus, or to descend into the depths of the sea, the depths of the earth, or into the depths of hell in order find Jesus because Jesus is always as near as the next spoken word, the next beat of your heart, or the next thought in your mind. All that we need to do, is believe that Jesus is Lord and accept him in your heart, and we are given the righteousness of Jesus, and rescue from our sin, as a gift.

For that reason, one of the biggest contrasts of the ancient world was utterly erased. Jews had always pointed at the Gentiles, the non-Jews, as a contrast to themselves. The Gentiles lived differently, they did not keep the law, they were not circumcised, they did not live under the promise of God, and were not a part of God’s covenant with Israel. For the Jews, there was no one else that they could describe as being more different. But Paul says that there is now no difference between Jew and Gentile because all of us worship the same God and God chooses to bless everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, who puts his faith in Jesus Christ and calls on his name in the hope of salvation and rescue.

Where we come from doesn’t matter. What we look like doesn’t matter. How we worship doesn’t matter. What we eat doesn’t matter. Our culture doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters… is our faith in Jesus Christ.

And with that in mind, we come to Matthew 14:22-33, where we remember the story about Jesus walking on the water.

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

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

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

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

²⁹“Come,” he said.

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

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

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

First, we should remember from last weeks’ message, that Jesus was tired, and grieving the loss of his cousin and friend John the Baptist but because the crowd had followed him, he never had the chance to be alone. This time, Jesus sends the boat ahead so that if the crowds follow, they’ll follow the boat and then he goes off, by himself, to be alone and pray. When he is finished, his friends on the boat were a considerable distance ahead, as you might expect, but had not yet arrived at their destination as they might have, because they were forced to row the boat against the wind rather that sail. For those of you who know sailing, this was long before the invention of the jib sail, which made sailing against the wind possible.

What I want to point out is this: Peter walks on water. That is totally astounding. Peter walks on water. But when all is said and done, Jesus summarizes the story by asking Peter why he had so little faith. The disciples’ obvious conclusion is that Jesus is God, but we are left with a single nagging question: What are we capable of doing, if we only had enough faith?

What are we capable of doing, if we only had enough faith?

The contrasts that we see between Joseph and his brothers are given to us in a deliberate way so that we understand the difference between the brother that has faith, and the ones whose faith is not mentioned. Joseph’s life is totally out of control until all that he has left is faith. But his brothers, whose faith is not considered, are selfish, jealous, angry, hurtful, and hateful.

Joseph’s faith is not just something that makes him stronger; it is the one thing that makes his life different.

Paul’s lesson is that faith is the thing that pushes aside our differences and draws us all closer together.

And Jesus’ message is that, with faith, we are capable as individuals, and as a community, of doing far more, through our faith in Jesus Christ, than we ever imagined was possible. But we are called, not only to have faith, but to share it with others.

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^* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, 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 may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

A Resurrected Heart

May 7, 2017May 7, 2017 PastorPartridge Sermon Easter, Jesus Christ, life, love, obedience, resurrection

“A Resurrected Heart”

(Easter, So What? – Part 3)

May 07, 2017

By John Partridge*

Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Luke 24:13-35 1 Peter 1:17-23

Have you ever seen the Loch Ness monster?

What about Bigfoot, a Yeti, the Abominable Snowman, or a chupacabra?

I’m going to guess not. But even if you saw proof tonight, their existence probably wouldn’t change your life. Their existence, or non-existence, is only of academic interest to us.

When we learn things that are interesting, but not life changing, we are intellectually stimulated; we take note of the information, think about it, file it away, and go on with our lives.

But how we react to news that has the potential to change our lives is different.

If we heard on the news that there was another terrorist attack in France, it would be of academic interest. But if we had family or friends that lived there, we evaluate the information in a completely different way, and if a member of our family, or one of our friends was present at the time of the attack, or was the victim of the attack, our thinking would take place on an entirely different level that is far from academic.

This is exactly the difference that we witness this morning, as we read the story about the walk to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35.

¹³Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶but they were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. ²²In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

²⁵He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

²⁸As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³²They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

³³They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ³⁴and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” ³⁵Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

As we read this story we can recognize a four-step process to the thinking of the disciples. The story begins with them already at the first step. In that step the disciples simply know the facts about the events that they had experienced. They knew what had happened in Jerusalem and so did everyone else. So widespread was this knowledge that they were surprised when they met someone who didn’t seem to know what had happened. But as they walk, Jesus walks them through the scriptures and brings them to the next level which is an academic understanding of what had happened. Instead of merely knowing what had happened, they now understood the context of what had happened, they understood how the events of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion fit into the prophecies of Israel and the Messiah for whom Israel had been waiting.

But as Jesus broke bread, they arrived at step three. Their eyes were opened, they recognized Jesus, and suddenly a connection was made between their minds and their hearts. Suddenly, what had happened was no longer simply an academic exercise, but a deeply personal experience that made a difference in their lives. The fourth step came immediately afterward. Now that they knew academically, and understood in their hearts what had really happened, they also knew what had to be done about it.

What they knew was no longer something that was merely of academic interest. What they knew was no longer held back by the dangers of traveling a road that was awash with bandits at night. What they knew was so important, so transformative, and so life changing, that they had to immediately take action and go out into the night, regardless of the danger, to tell the other disciples, and everyone that knew Jesus, what they had seen and heard.

In Acts 2:14a, 36-41, we see the crowd moving through the same steps, but in this case, with the help of Peter’s explanation, they do so much more quickly.

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

³⁶“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

³⁷When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

⁴⁰With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

The people begin by knowing facts of the story. But as Peter speaks and explains to them that Jesus was indeed the long awaited Messiah of Israel, the people were “cut to the heart.” They immediately understand academically, and they connect deeply and personally with what has happened. What remains, and what they do not understand, is what action that they must take because of it. And so Peter explains that because they understand, the action they must take is that every one of them must repent of their sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus.

But beyond that, as we sit here today, we wonder what happens next. Many of us have already been baptized and we might wonder why Easter is still supposed to be such a big deal. The answer to that, at least in part, is also answered by Peter in his letter to the church in Asia Minor. (1 Peter 1:17-23)

¹⁷Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²²Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart ²³For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Peter spells it out for the church this way: Because we belong to a God who is truly and completely impartial, we should live our lives as if our legal status is as tentative as a foreign citizen travelling in the United States with only a passport, or perhaps even without one. We must live in “reverent fear” by appreciating what we have, but understanding that we must conform our lives to the law and, at the same time, appreciate that we might, at any moment, be called upon to return home and take nothing with us. We know that our rescue from sin and death has been purchased at the highest possible price with nothing less than the blood of the Son of God. It is through him, and because of him, that we believe in God and put our faith and trust in him. We purify ourselves daily by obeying the truths that we have been taught by Jesus and through the scriptures and we obey them so that we can learn to love sincerely, so that we can learn to love one another deeply, and to love from the heart. Peter reminds us that believing in God, and in his son Jesus, is a heart condition that requires daily attention just as much as those who have medical conditions must pay diligent, daily, attention to their diets and to taking their medication. In our case, we must work daily to study and obey the word of God, to love one another, and to tell the world what we have learned so that they might also be rescued from death.

The story of Easter is far more than a fairy tale, and Jesus is much more than a mythical creature like the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. Scripture and history tell us clearly that Jesus is real and we believe that the story is true. But knowing the story is much more than an academic exercise. When we come to faith, we connect with the story at a deeper level and we understand with our hearts as well as with our minds. This heart connection makes us realize that the story of Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, death and resurrection is so important, so transformative, and so life changing, that we must take action. We must do something with what we have learned. Believing in Jesus is a heart condition that requires daily attention.

The Easter story isn’t a “one and done” kind of a story…

…It’s a transformative moment in history that changes us, shapes us, directs us, and calls us to take action every single day of our lives.

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^* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, 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 may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.