Living Sacrifice. Say What Now?

August 23, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, Exodus, faith, gifts, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Joseph, living, living sacrifice, Matthew, Methodist, Moses, Ohio, Paul, Peter, Pharaoh, Puah, Romans, sacrifice, Shiphrah, worship

Living Sacrifice. Say What Now?

August 23, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

Each month when we celebrate the Lord’s table, which is also known as the Eucharist, or simply as communion, the liturgy that we use includes the phrase, “we offer ourselves as a holy and living sacrifice.” Since this is the pastor’s part of the liturgy, I often emphasize this part and occasionally add a word or two of what it might mean to be a “living sacrifice.” That language originally comes from the words of Paul in his letter to the church in Rome. But what does it mean? And what does it say about how we should live our lives in the modern world? I hope to offer some understanding and some answers to these questions this morning, and we will, near the end, examine Paul’s words for more detail, but before we do, let’s begin with some examples, first from the story of the Exodus, and second from a discussion between Jesus and his disciples. Once again moving forward in our story of God’s people in the nation of Egypt, we rejoin their story several generations after the death of Joseph as we read these words in Exodus 1:8 – 2:10:

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 new Pharaoh was so far removed from those generations that knew Joseph, that they no longer remembered how he had saved the entire nation of Egypt. If any national memory of Joseph remained, it now lay soundly in the realm of fables and mythology rather than that of history. And so, when the new Pharaoh looked at the Israelites, he no longer saw allies, but only potential enemies. Despite living there and calling Egypt home for hundreds of years, the Israelites were still seen as outsiders and not as native Egyptians. And so, the Egyptians oppressed and enslaved the Israelites and worked them without consideration for comfort, well-being, or any kind of compassion or humanity. Even so, no matter how hard they were abused or overworked, the oppression of the Egyptians had the opposite of its intended effect. Rather than reducing them in number, the people of Jacob’s family multiplied even more and now that they were oppressed, became an even greater threat to Egypt’s national security.

And so, Pharaoh orders Israelite midwives to murder any male children at the moment of birth. But two of Israel’s midwives resisted Pharaoh in private and refused to do what they saw as immoral and wrong. At great risk to themselves, these two women, Shiphrah and Puah, refuse to obey the command of Pharaoh, lie to Pharaoh’s face (or at least to the face of his officers), knowing full well that doing these things could cost them their own lives. Interestingly, As Pharoah issues an edict that is the instrument of death for a generation of Israelite male children, God chooses to use Pharaoh’s own daughter as the instrument of rescue for the man that would later rescue the Israelite people and become one of Israel’s greatest heroes.

Next, let us move forward to the moment when Jesus asks his disciples to share the gossip that they have heard about him in Matthew 16:13-20:

¹³When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

When Jesus asks what people are saying about him, there are various answers. Some think John the Baptist, which is silly since they were repeatedly seen together, but also Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets from the Jewish scriptures. But then Jesus asks who the disciples think that he is and something interesting happens because the first to answer is Simon Peter. And here we need to remember who Peter is, and what we have seen of him up to this point. Peter is the man who is rash, impulsive, speaks and acts before he thinks, and because of this has, repeatedly, put his foot in his mouth or otherwise said or done things that made him look utterly foolish, or for which Jesus had to publicly reprimand him. And yet, in this case, Peter is not only first to arrive at an answer, but he is also totally correct in his assessment that Jesus is Israel’s promised Messiah, the savior and rescuer of God’s people that had been foretold by God’s prophets throughout Israel’s history. Moreover, Jesus emphasizes that Peter’s answer isn’t just a result of Peter’s typical impulsiveness but is knowledge that has been revealed to him by God himself. The rest of this, though some parts scholars still argue about, essentially represents the idea that Peter, the apostles, and the church now take the place and the authority of the scribes, Pharisees, and the priesthood in the Jewish faith, for the community of Jesus’ followers that they were building.

And finally, we arrive at the words of Paul that began today’s exploration that we find in Romans 12:1-8 where he says:

^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.

³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

In the words that we hear each month as we celebrate at the Lord’s table, Paul calls God’s people to offer themselves as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God, and Paul goes further to say that our living sacrifice is our true and proper worship. That is both notable and important. Paul is saying that just as worship in the Temple once revolved around the sacrifice of animals, true worship of God still involves sacrifice but now it is the living sacrifice of our living bodies. That seems a little confusing to us, and we wonder what that means, and what that would look like. But Paul understands the needs of his audience, and he continues with an explanation. He says that we must each consider ourselves, our gifts, our education, our abilities, and understand that these are all gifts that God has given to us, but also that each of us are different and have different strengths and weaknesses that God designed to work together.

Paul says that we are called by God to use the gifts that we have been given and that using these gifts is therefore how we give God the living sacrifice of our lives. True worship, Paul says, isn’t going to church, listening to the pastor, and singing some songs. True worship is using our gifts, whatever they are. Prophets should prophesy, teachers should teach, those with the gift of service should serve, those who can encourage should encourage, those whose gift is in giving, should give generously, the merciful should show mercy, and leaders should lead.

Let’s quickly pull all these strings together and see what we have. First, we saw that Shiphrah and Puah used their gifts to actively disobey Pharaoh in order to honor God. Next, we saw Peter being himself and behaving exactly the way we had seen him act. When Peter declared that that Jesus was the Messiah he looked exactly like his normal, rash, impulsive self, and discovered a revelation from God. And finally, we heard Paul’s instruction that we worship God most genuinely, most truly, and properly when we use the gifts, education, abilities, and personality that God has given us to honor God. This is when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, when we use our gifts and expend our whole selves in the service of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

Although we call it worship, what we do at church is only a shadow of true worship. We truly worship when we use our gifts, as a living sacrifice, in service of God. What we do during our weekly Sunday meetings are for the church, the gathered body of Christ, to report back on what we have been doing and plan for what ministry we will do in the future.

The question each of us must answer is this: What does true worship look like for me? How can I use the gifts that I have been given in the service of Jesus Christ, so that I can truly offer my life to God as holy and living sacrifice?

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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.™

Appropriate Guilt?

August 16, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, appropriate guilt, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, evangelism, faith, forgiveness, God, guilt, guilty, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Joseph, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Pharaoh, Romans, Street

Appropriate Guilt?

August 16, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 45:1-15 Matthew 15:10-28 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

If I were to ask you what you knew, or what you thought about guilt, what would come into your mind?

As I considered that, there were a range of things that presented themselves from my memory. There is, of course, the caricature of the old school, old-fashioned, Catholic or Jewish mother who used guilt to motivate the people around her, and according to them, everyone should feel guilty for just about everything. I have also heard the church described with similar accusations, that the purpose of the church is to use guilt to consolidate the power that it has over the people who worship there and to manipulate them for its own profit. At the other end of that spectrum are the people that we see on social media, and in some mainline media outlets, who claim that all guilt is fabricated and that no one has any real need to feel guilty for anything. And, while I think that this attitude goes too far, and is frankly, dangerous, there is truth to the idea that we need not feel guilty for everything, even when we sometimes genuinely feel guilty.

But if we agree that there are legitimate things for which we should feel guilt, then somewhere in the middle of that continuum between feeling guilty for everything, and feeling guilty for nothing, there is place where we should, legitimately, feel guilty. But where is that place? And still, the answer to that is complicated and not everyone agrees, but we can learn something from what we find in scripture as we examine the guilt of the people, and in what Jesus, and the writers of scripture, had to say about it. We begin by reading from

Genesis 45:1-15 where our story has skipped several years ahead in telling the tale of Joseph’s slavery in Egypt. Since his brothers sold him to a traveling caravan of merchants, Joseph was sold into slavery, proven himself to be conspicuously honest and faithful, as well as being a skilled manager. He was falsely accused of rape, thrown into prison, but rescued by Pharaoh himself when Joseph was able to interpret the nightmares that had been plaguing Pharaohs dreams. As we rejoin the story, Joseph is now second in authority only to Pharaoh and is overseeing the survival of all Egypt during a seven-year famine. It is then that Joseph’s brothers had come to Egypt to buy food, had not recognized him because by now he looked thoroughly Egyptian, and had been manipulated by Joseph, on an earlier visit, into bringing along Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, who was born to the same mother. I apologize for the long introduction, but our lectionary skipped forward at least a decade, past nearly the entire story and the background is helpful to our understanding.

^45:1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So, there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. ²And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.

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

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

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

¹²“You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. ¹³Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”

¹⁴Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. ¹⁵And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

And all of that brings us to what we heard in the first lines of that passage, that once the brothers learned that this powerful Egyptian ruler was actually their brother Joseph, “they were terrified in his presence.” As we heard last week, the brothers had sold Joseph into slavery, fabricated evidence that he had been killed by wild animals, lied to their father about what had happened, and then lived with what they had done for at least a decade or so. With the exception of Benjamin, who wasn’t there, they all knew exactly what they had done, they all realized that Joseph’s dream in which all of the brothers bowed down to him had come true in spectacular fashion, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine what he could do to them now that he had nearly unlimited power over them.

It wasn’t difficult at all to imagine that he would want revenge for what they had done, but instead of being angry, he immediately tells them not to be distressed or even to be angry with themselves for what they had done. Rather than offering his brothers a cold dish of revenge, Joseph instead offers them forgiveness and his understanding that, through their actions, and through his time of slavery, God had sent him ahead of them so that he could save the lives of his family, and tens of thousands others through the preparations that he had directed in the nation of Egypt before the famine struck.

It was obvious to everyone that the brothers had good reason to feel guilty and had need of Joseph’s forgiveness. But what if the circumstances aren’t as clear? How do we know what sorts of things are appropriate for which to carry guilt and require forgiveness? While they do not offer a clear guideline or rule, the stories of Jesus in Matthew 15:10-20-28 do offer us some clarity as he explains why it isn’t a sin for his disciples to eat without washing their hands:

¹⁰Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. ¹¹What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

¹²Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

¹³He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

¹⁶“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. ¹⁷“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

²¹Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²²A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

²³Jesus did not answer a word. So, his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

²⁵The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

²⁶He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷“Yes, it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

First, Jesus calls the people to both listen to his words, and to understand them, which are two separate things. Jesus continues by saying that what we eat, whether that is eaten with washed hands, or implying even suggesting prohibited foods, are not the things that make us guilty, sinful, corrupt, or defiled. What marks us as sinful and defiled are the words and language that come out of our mouths. The Pharisees, who had a great many rules about what observant Jews were, and were not, allowed to eat, were offended by what Jesus had said, but Jesus accuses them of being blind and teaching things about which they had no real knowledge. And then Jesus explains more clearly that food does nothing more than go into your mouth, pass through your stomach, and come out the other end. But that the words that come out of our mouths are the product of what is in our hearts. It is the heart that is the source of evil such as murder, adultery, immorality, theft, perjury, false witness, and slander. These are the things that require forgiveness and should cause appropriate guilt but eating with unwashed hands is not at all in the same category.

In the next story, Jesus is asked to heal a daughter that is demon possessed. We do not know if these were real demons, or if the girl had something that the ancient world blamed on demons but was a sort of disability or disease that we would recognize as something different. In either case, when the woman demonstrates her great faith and understanding to Jesus, knowing that even a healing miracle such as this is just a crumb of the power that he possesses, Jesus heals the girl without ever meeting her. In this case, there is no guilt at all. Jesus does not blame the girl or her mother for her suffering, though some in that culture may well have done so.

But what do we do with what we have learned? And what do we do with the knowledge that we have? In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, in Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, he says:

^11:1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.

²⁹for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³²For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Paul makes several things clear. God did not reject the Jews. God’s gifts and God’s invitation are permanent and never rescinded. Paul also clarifies that God never compels anyone to disobedience or sin but has declared, as a judge or jury would, that some are guilty so that they might see their need for forgiveness. But an important bit for all of us is that the Jews have now become disobedient so that they might see their need for forgiveness and can receive mercy from God because of God’s mercy to us. What does that mean? It means that because we have received God’s mercy, because we have confessed our guilt and sin, and because we have been forgiven, we can now pass that blessing on to others. The Jews brought about the faith and the nation of Israel, and that in turn brought about the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was then shared with the Gentiles, with us, and now Gentiles are called to share Jesus and his forgiveness with the Jewish people and with everyone who does not yet know him.

There are several things to take away with you today. Yes, there are things for which we should feel guilty, and for which we are in need of forgiveness. But we need not feel guilty for everything. With that said, because we have been forgiven by Jesus, we are called to share that opportunity with others who haven’t yet heard the message of the Gospel.

The question you must answer for yourselves is this: Will the words and actions that come from your heart be ones that require forgiveness, or will they be ones that lead others to Jesus?

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The Chasm Between Theory and Practice

August 9, 2026August 9, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, chasm, Christ, christianity, church, evangelism, faith, gap, God, Good News, Gospel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Joseph, Matthew, Methodist, Mike Tyson, mission, Ohio, Paul, Peter, plan, practice, punch, Romans, theory, walk on water

The Chasm Between Theory and Practice

August 09, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

In my high school marching band, there was a phrase that we used whenever we learned new shows. We would learn the music in the band room or wherever else we practiced, but to learn the movements on the field, our director would have charts that plotted everyone’s movements. Once we were in position, the director, charts in hand, would move from squad to squad and explain how we were to move during the next section of the music. Once everyone knew what we were supposed to do, we would begin playing, or just begin marching, and proceed to follow his instructions. That sounds straightforward, right?

And it was… except when it wasn’t.

You see, the director’s movement charts only mapped the beginning position of each squad and the place where they would end. But sometimes, during the movement from one place to another, there would be a conflict in which two or more squads attempted to move through the same location. When that happened, we would stop, shake out heads, and say, “Well… it worked on paper.” It worked on paper, but not on the field in practice. It wasn’t a huge problem, and we always found a way to work through, or around, it, but you can see how such things can happen. There is always a gap between mapping things on paper and an actual marching band on the field. There is a chasm between theory and practice.

In military circles, there is an often-repeated quote from 19th-century Prussian field marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder that says, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” And this principle is so common that even boxing great Mike Tyson has summarized it by saying, “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”

In other words, there is a chasm between theory and practice.

And we see that gap, that chasm, in scripture as well. We begin this morning with a story about Jacob’s second to youngest son, Joseph that we find in Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28.

^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 ornaterobe 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.

And here the lectionary skips ahead for brevity, but it is worth noting that in the passages that are skipped, Joseph tells his brothers about a dream in which they all bow down before him, and he is the ruler over them. Obviously, this does not go over too well.

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 shekelsof silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

As one might expect when there are ten brothers plotting against the eleventh brother, things get complicated quickly. As a group, they plot to kill Joseph because of his dreams, because he is their father’s favorite, and because he ratted them out and told their father that they had been slacking off in some way. But Reuben, the eldest brother, determines to save Joseph’s life and return him to their father. And, while he manages to save Joseph’s life, before he can rescue Joseph from the bottom of an empty cistern, Judah, the fourth eldest, convinces everyone to sell Joseph into slavery. They then sell Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, about two and a half years wages for a shepherd, and that amount is further divided by ten, so they each end up with about a three-month bonus for selling their own brother. Purely in terms of the raw silver involved, they each take away about $40 at today’s silver prices. No matter how you slice it, it isn’t much for the life of your own brother. In theory, getting rid of a troublemaking, dreamer of a brother sounded good. But there was a chasm between the theory and the reality of actually going home, lying to your father, and living with what they had done.

Although it is a little less dramatic, we see something similar in the story of Jesus, and Peter, walking on water in Matthew 14:22-33, where it says:

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.”

We’ve all heard this before. Jesus finally gets the chance to be alone and pray, waits until dawn, and then walks on the lake out to his disciples who are still struggling against the wind. The disciples are afraid, Jesus calms them, and Jesus invites Peter to get out of the boat and join him. Peter, to his credit, immediately does so, and he does, incredibly, walk on water with Jesus. But Matthew says, “when he saw the wind, he was afraid.” Peter thought it was a good idea. He asked Jesus to invite him, Jesus did so, and Peter eagerly accepted the invitation, got out of the boat, and physically walked on water. And then reality punched him in the mouth. It sounded like a great idea in theory. If Jesus can do it, and if Jesus invites me to do it, then I can walk on water. And it works… right up until he realizes that he is walking on water, in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, during a storm, and he sees the wind and the waves… and he panics because reality was much different than how he imagined it.

There is a chasm between theory and practice.

And this chasm, this separation, is what Paul is pointing to in Romans 10:5-15 when he explains, to the church in Rome, the difference between grand ideas of spirituality and the practical reality of true faith. Paul says:

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 righteousness under the law means following all the rules, but righteousness by faith is different. It is not some lofty aspiration to ascend into heaven because of your meditation, or study, or fervent desire, and it is not some grand pilgrimage or crusade like the labors of Hercules. Instead, genuine faith is near you. It lives in your mouth in the way that you speak, it lives in your heart in the way that you live and in the way that you treat others. Believing in Jesus, truly, in your heart, is all that is necessary to be justified before God and that is true for every person on the planet. There are no divisions within the followers of God. There is no separation between Jews, Greeks, Romans, or Gentiles, no separation between nationalities, no division because of race or gender, no classification by class or wealth. ““Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

But once again, we must be careful of the chasm between theory and practice because Paul doesn’t stop with nice thoughts about unity and being together in one family with Jesus. All that is true, and it is all important, but Paul immediately points out what that all means. Paul asks us, that if there is no division between Jews and Gentile, and if everyone from every nation and every race are brothers and sisters, then how will the world call on a Messiah that they do not know? How can the people from every nation, tribe, and race believe in Jesus if no one has told them who he is?

The answer is so obvious that Paul doesn’t even say it. The answer if that if you have faith, if you believe, if you have been made righteous before God by the blood of Jesus Christ, then a part of your calling is to do what you can so that the people of the world can hear the good news.

Faith isn’t just pie in the sky by and by, it is dirty, boots on the ground, evangelism.

There is a chasm between theory and practice.

Theory is easy… until reality punches you in the face.

What will you do so that the world can hear the good news of Jesus Christ?

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When Plans Fail

August 3, 2026August 3, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, compassion, detour, did not go according to plan, Esau, fail, faith, Genesis, God, Gospel, hopelessness, Jacob, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, life, Matthew, Methodist, mourn, Ohio, Paul, plan, plans, Romans, Street

When Plans Fail

August 02, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

Most of us have seen an abundance of memes on the internet. One that stands out and matches the theme of today’s message is one that simply said, “If I had to describe my life in one sentence, it would be, “Did not go according to plan.” And the meme is funny because that resonates with our lived experience. We missed an interview because of a flat tire, a missed airline connection meant that our cruise ship sailed without us, our late flight meant that we spent the night at the airport so we could catch our connecting flight on the next day, we cancelled our family vacation because we spent the money at the orthodontist, or because one of our children had to stay home to attend summer school, or any one of a thousand other things.

The only rule that seems predictable is that life is not predictable and rarely goes according to plan. I once added an additional year of college because while I had planned to attend a summer class at Ohio Northern after four weeks of training for the Army, when I arrived in Virgina I was told that my orders were incorrect and the class was not four weeks, but six. It was frustrating, but life is like that, and we learn to adapt or we end up bitter and angry about things that we have no power to change. And, as we read our scriptures for today, we are reminded that the people we meet in the Bible had the same sorts of problems that we have experienced. Even God’s prophets, the patriarchs of the Old Testament, the disciples, and Jesus himself were not immune. We begin today by rejoining the story of Jacob and Esau as Jacob hopes to spend the night alone, thinking and planning how he will meet his brother Esau the next morning. But even that does not go according to plan. Reading from Genesis 32:22-31, we hear this:

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

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

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

“Jacob,” he answered.

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

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

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

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

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

Jacob clearly did not plan to spend the entire night wrestling with a stranger. It is frustrating that scripture tells us nothing about where the stranger came from, or how the two decided to wrestle, but by morning, Jacob had decided that the stranger must have been God himself. If this was indeed God in human flesh, as we noted in another story a month or so ago, this might well be a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. In any case, rather than spending the evening in thought and meditation before his meeting with Esau, Jacob exhausts himself wrestling with God physically rather than emotionally or spiritually. Worse yet, as he fears his confrontation with Esau, and worries what his brother’s reaction will be to their meeting, after spending decades believing that he had swindled his brother out of his inheritance, or at least believing that Esau believed that he had been swindled, Jacob now arrives at their meeting with a distinct limp and permanent physical disability. Even for Jacob, who was known to manipulate the people and the circumstances around him, life did not go the way that he had planned. Instead, he followed God’s plan, and received not only his father’s blessing, but God’s as well.

And, as we read the introduction to the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand in Matthew 14:13-21, we discover that the entire encounter was an accident.

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus hadn’t planned to preach. He hadn’t planned to gather a crowd. He wasn’t even planning to work. Instead, Jesus was trying to escape the business of his ministry, find a quiet place, pray, and rest. But the crowd had other plans. Since the people on foot could travel faster than the disciples in a boat, they watched Jesus leave the shore, followed the boat as it sailed, or rowed, estimated where Jesus was going, and arrived there before he did. And rather than send them away, Jesus had compassion on them and healed whatever sick persons that they had brought with them.

And because no one had planned to be in the middle of nowhere at dinnertime, no one had planned to feed fifteen or twenty thousand people. And so, one of Jesus’ greatest miracles happened, not because Jesus or his disciples planned it, but simply because life had not gone according to plan. Or at least, not according to the plans of humans, but completely according to God’s plan. But, as we read Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, in Romans 9:1-5, we realize that even when things go according to God’s plan, we may sometimes mourn that things cannot go another way. Here, Paul says:

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

Paul says that, if it were up to him, he would accept curses upon himself and give up his salvation in Jesus Christ, if by doing so he could convince the Jewish people to accept Jesus and follow him. Instead, he mourns with great sorrow and anguish because his people had made their own choices and had chosen another path. As much as he wanted a different result, no amount of planning or sacrifice on his part could change the choices that his people had made, or the harvest that they would reap for turning their backs on Jesus.

Our own lived experience has taught us that life often does not go according to plan. Jacob’s meeting did not go according to plan. Even Jesus’ time of quiet and rest did not go according to plan. And we find that though we might sometimes be frustrated when that happens to us, we realize that we rest in God’s hands, and trust that his plans are always better than ours. Like Jacob, God often chooses to bless us through our times of unplanned struggle. But we also find that sometimes, as much as we trust in God’s plan, we may mourn over the choices that our friends, family, and coworkers make for their own lives. No matter how hard we work, we cannot make the choice to follow Jesus for anyone other than ourselves. We cannot rescue another for eternity, no matter how much we love them, by sacrificing ourselves or taking their place.

And while we may mourn for those who reject Jesus, we are not powerless.

Our strength lies in living a life that follows the teachings of Jesus and in sharing the message of hope, compassion, and rescue that we have found in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We cannot decide for others, but we can tell the message of Jesus, give them hope, and pray that they will make that choice for themselves.

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Through the Impossible

July 5, 2026July 5, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, Genesis, God, impossible, isaac, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, make a way, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, possible, Rebekah, rescue, Romans, Star Spangled Banner

Through the Impossible

July 05, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Romans 7:15-25a

In September 1814, during the War of 1812, American lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key traveled to Baltimore on a truce ship. His mission, authorized by President James Madison, was to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, an American civilian who had been captured by the British. While Key successfully negotiated Beanes’ release, he and his companions had overheard the British planning their upcoming attack on Baltimore, so they were detained for their own security.

On September 13, 1814, the British Royal Navy launched a massive assault on Fort McHenry, the military stronghold guarding Baltimore Harbor. For 25 hours, Key watched in captivity as rockets and bombs rained down on the fort. Because of the heavy smoke and the darkness of the night, Key could not tell if the fort had fallen or if the Americans had surrendered. The only proof that the fort was still holding was the occasional flash of the “rocket’s red glare,” briefly illuminating the skies.

At the break of dawn on September 14, the smoke began to clear. Through his spyglass, Key looked toward Fort McHenry and saw a giant American garrison flag waving triumphantly over the ramparts.

Elated and moved by the fierce American resistance, Key pulled a letter from his pocket and began crafting a poem that would later be set to music and become our national anthem.

O say, can you see
By the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

– Francis Scott Key

During the dark night of September 13^th, 1814, while watching the continuous violence of the British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry, it must have seemed impossible for the American defenders to survive. Only brief flashes from the exploding shells gave occasional hints that the American flag still flew over the fort until, finally, the dawn revealed that twenty-five hours of sustained British bombardment had been unsuccessful in dislodging the defenders.

That, I think, sets the tone for the theme of today’s message. When have you witnessed the impossible unfold before your eyes? In my career as a pastor, and even before we went into ministry, Patti and I have witnessed quite a few impossible events that I cannot help but describe as miracles. And while we might not describe all the stories contained in today’s scriptures as miracles, certainly they all describe God working to bring his people through impossible situations… including you and me. We begin this morning by returning to the story of Abraham as he seeks to find a bride for his son Isaac. Not wanting his son to be misguided and led astray by a Canaanite woman from their new home, Abraham sends a trusted servant to his father’s family in search of a bride in Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, he finds one, and this is how he explains his search to her family:

³⁴So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. ³⁶My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. ³⁷And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, ³⁸but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.’

⁴²“When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. ⁴³See, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” ⁴⁴and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’

⁴⁵“Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

⁴⁶“She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So, I drank, and she watered the camels also.

⁴⁷“I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’

“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milkah bore to him.’

“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, ⁴⁸and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. ⁴⁹Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”

⁵⁸So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”

“I will go,” she said.

⁵⁹So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
the cities of their enemies.”

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So, the servant took Rebekah and left.

⁶²Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. ⁶³He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. ⁶⁴Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel ⁶⁵and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“He is my master,” the servant answered. So, she took her veil and covered herself.

⁶⁶Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. ⁶⁷Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So, she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Think about what happened. Abraham’s trusted servant, a man who does not share Abraham’s faith, is sent to place he has never been, to find a woman among a people that he has never met and, out of respect for his employer, prays to Abraham’s God that he would be led to the right woman, and specifies the conditions so that he might know that God had chosen that particular woman. And everything unfolds, exactly as he prayed that it would. What Abraham asked was difficult. What the servant prayed for was impossible. And yet, God moved through the impossible and the servant meets Rebekah in exactly the way in which he had prayed.

In an entirely different way, Jesus addresses a crowd of people who are likewise faced with impossible and insurmountable problems and many of these problems are still faced by the people around us today: Poverty, hunger, unemployment, sickness, violence, uncertainty, difficult employers, and more. On top of these daily worries, religious leaders piled on mountains of rules that made life even more difficult and more expensive. And Jesus speaks these words of comfort in Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30:

¹⁶“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

¹⁷“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

²⁷“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus said that this generation was just like the children who played games in the marketplace and made rules that found fault no matter what choices you made. Life was already difficult, but Israel’s leaders, instead of making things easier, chose instead to make things harder in people who were already struggling. And Jesus calls to these hurting people and declares that he will help them to move through the impossible, saying, “²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

And finally, in his letter to the church in Rome, Paul describes a struggle that every Christian has faced throughout history. No matter how strong our intentions are to do better, we always seem to fall short of our aspirations, and often our failures are even more dramatic. In Romans 7:15-25 Paul writes:

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin.

Paul admits that he simply cannot help himself. As much as he intends to do what is right and good, as much as he intends, and desperately wants, to do the things that he knows that he should do, he cannot. Worse, the things that he knows, and wants not to do, despite his best efforts, he does those things anyway. “I desire to go good, but I cannot carry it out.” And in this, Paul describes not only his inner being that delight’s in God and in doing God’s will, but also his inner human sinful nature such that good and evil live side-by-side inside of him. His point is that we fall too easily into temptation, and even when we try to do good, we often fail. But as discouraging as that may sound, Paul’s conclusion is to give thanks to God who delivers us through Jesus Christ regardless of our sin and failure.

This is the miracle that we see every day as the followers of Jesus Christ. Just as God made a way through the impossible so that Abraham’s servant could find the bride that God had chosen for Isaac, God continues to make a way through impossible circumstances for us today. No matter how hard life can get, no matter what difficult circumstances we may find ourselves in, no matter the struggles that we face, Jesus calls to hurting people and declares that he will help them to move through the impossible, saying, “²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Likewise, when we are tempted to criticize and beat ourselves up because of our failures, Paul reminds us that our failure only reminds us that we are human. The good news is, as it has always been, that this is why we follow Jesus and why Jesus gave his life to save us, because despite our failures, despite the drama, despite our overwhelming shortcomings, God delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

No matter what we face, no matter how impossible, God always makes a way.

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Choosing Slavery

June 28, 2026June 28, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, death, faith, God, isaac, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, politics, rescue, Romans, sacrifice, sin, slave, slavery, Street, surrender

Choosing Slavery

June 28, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 22:1-14 Matthew 10:40-42 Romans 6:12-23

This morning, I want to begin with two questions which are, in the end, really only one question.

First, what does it mean to surrender? Not the kind of tepid negotiated peace that we often see in modern political conflict, but the absolutely dominating peace that follows what is known as unconditional surrender. What sort of treatment would one expect, and what would it mean to surrender… unconditionally?

Second, under what conditions would you choose to become a slave? And again, I don’t mean the lighthearted sort of slavery that we see in high school fundraisers where you must do the bidding of an upperclassman for a day. I mean absolutely surrender your life, liberty, choice, and freedom for the rest of your natural life. As Americans, our national and cultural core clings to things like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But under what conditions would you give that all up?

This was not an uncommon choice in the ancient world. Remember that I have said that in places like Israel, as well as many others in the first century Roman world, approximately 90 percent of the population lived at a subsistence level of poverty. Subsistence level means that, while they may have owned land, or even possessed valuable skilled trades, they earned just enough to feed themselves and their families, and no more. They were, perpetually, one bad harvest or one bad debt from starvation. Worse, those persons to whom you owed money were entitled to recover what was owed from whatever personally belonged to you… including your life and your liberty, as well as that of your family.

And so, some people, faced with an insurmountable debt, might occasionally sell their freedom, possibly to someone that they knew would be a humane master, so that their debts would be paid and their family would not be sold along with them. At other times, there were historically recorded instances, when people would work to pay off a debt, more as indentured servants, and would then ask to become slaves to their employer so that they would not have the constant worry and fear of daily earning enough money to remain free. There were still other similar cases that involved romantic relationships between a free person and a slave in which the free person chose slavery so that they could stay together.

And so, as we read our scriptures for today, we find Abraham who, while not a slave, has a relationship with God that checks all the same boxes, we have a teaching from the Apostle Paul that insists that everyone is a slave, and there is a brief word from Jesus who explains how his followers should treat one another. While these may not seem to have a lot in common, bear with me and, hopefully, you will see how this all fits together. As I noted, we begin with the story of Abraham in Genesis 22:1-14, when God asks him to do something that, given the path that Abraham and Sarah traveled to parenthood, is absolutely inconceivable.

^22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

²Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

³Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

⁹When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹²“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

God commands Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, who is, you will remember from last week, Abraham’s only son because Abraham was forced into an impossible position and compelled to divorce his wife Hagar and send both Hagar and his other son, Ishmael, away. And now, having done that, God commands Abraham to offer Isaac to God as a sacrifice on an altar on top of a mountain. And Abraham collects Isaac, and he goes. We don’t know what Abraham was thinking. I suspect that he didn’t tell Sarah where he was going, because this was Abraham’s test, and because I don’t think she would have let him go. But Abraham does tell his servants that “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham was fully committed to sacrificing Isaac but, at the same time, believed that, somehow, Isaac would be restored to him at the end of the day.

But, in the end, after being brought to the razor’s edge, where the knife was already aimed for his son, and Abraham completely ready and willing to take his life, God stops him and then says, “Now I know that you fear God.” This is God acknowledging that Abraham was completely sold out, completely surrendered to God. Abraham was, by all definitions, a slave to God who was willing to do absolutely anything that God commanded him to do.

Next, we come to the words of Jesus regarding welcome and hospitality in Matthew 10:40-42, that, at first, seem ridiculously out of place in a discussion about slavery, but if you bear with me, I think it will all fit together in the end. Jesus said:

⁴⁰“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴²And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

And, once again, you are thinking that this is all about hospitality and cannot possibly have anything to do with slavery. I can understand that, because that’s what I was thinking the first several times that I read through these scriptures. But hold on to that, and I think you will understand how it fits in few minutes after we read Paul’s explanation of our own relationship to slavery in Romans 6:12-23 when he says:

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

¹⁹I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul explains that because we are now under the grace of Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, and thus sin is no longer our master. But that means that we are now slaves to Jesus Christ because we have given ourselves to God and he has purchased us with the life of his son, Jesus. Moreover, Paul says that everyone that you know, whether they follow Jesus or not, is a slave to something because “you are slaves of the one you obey.” If we were not slaves to Jesus, we would be slaves to sin, wickedness, impurity, or pleasure, or money, or power, or influence, or charisma, or politics, or knowledge, or… something else. But because we have offered ourselves to Jesus, and because we have been rescued from sin and death, we are now slaves to God and slaves to Jesus Christ. As such we should be just as sold out, just as committed, and just as completely surrendered to the will of God as Abraham was.

And once we understand that then this also explains how we connect to Jesus’ words about hospitality that we read from the Gospel of Matthew. If we recognize that we are all slaves to Jesus Christ, then how can we not act hospitably and welcoming to others that also belong to him. Can you imagine that a slave owner would be pleased with one of his slaves mistreating another? It would follow that it would please a master for his slaves to care for one another and do everything in their power to encourage and equip them to do the work that the master had given them to do and not to discourage or impede them from doing it.

Just as Abraham was, we are called to be fully committed, sold out, and completely surrendered to the will of God just as if we were slaves to Jesus. And having accepted Jesus as our master, then we must not only do everything we can, with all that we are, to accomplish the work that he has given us to do, but we must also welcome others who follow him, and do whatever we can to aid them in doing his work as well.

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Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026June 21, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, death, faith, Genesis, God, Hagar, Ishmael, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, life, life and death, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Romans, Sarah, Street

Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 21:8-21 Matthew 10:24-39 Romans 6:1-11

Have you ever been in a position where you were compelled to make a choice, but none of the choices were good ones? One of the most famous of these is that of Socrates who, in 399 BCE was convicted of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens with his philosophy and was given the choice of exile or death by poison. Neither was a good choice, but Socrates felt that exile was a fate worse than death and thus chose poison. In the modern era, being confronted by bad choices remains common. In combat, soldiers and sailors are often faced with choices that have terrible results regardless of what they choose. Likewise, the homeless, those in poverty, and many others are faced with choosing between multiple bad choices with no good options. What do you choose when faced with a fine for $300 or three days in jail, when you don’t have $300 and will lose your job if you miss three days of work?

I don’t have the answer because, obviously, there are no good answers. But this is what Abraham faces as we read from Genesis 21:8-21. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, had grown enough to be weaned from his mother, possible at the age of three, or perhaps a bit older, but when that happens, Sarah forces Abraham to make a choice that he doesn’t want to make, and in which someone will be hurt no matter what he chooses.

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. ⁹But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

¹¹The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹²But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. ¹³I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

¹⁹Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So, she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

There are several things that might be helpful as we try to understand this. First, as revered of an ancestor as he may be, Abraham was just as flawed and just as human as the rest of us. He made mistakes, and we cannot argue that this interaction, as painful as it is, was anything close to perfect. Second, culturally, despite Hagar being owned by Abraham, once she bore him a child, she legally became his wife. Therefore, although Isaac was the child of Sarah, and the child that God had promised to them since this entire adventure began, it can be argued that Ishmael was, legally, the firstborn male child and would therefor inherit the lion’s share of Abraham’s estate. Third, because Hagar was legally his wife, Abraham could not sell her, or give her away, or set her free, or simply throw her out as it appears that he did. Instead, legally, what we are witnessing is a legal divorce proceeding. Although the details are not included in the writing of Genesis, in order for Abraham to send Hagar away, there had to be some formal stuff that legally satisfied the requirements of divorce.

With all that in mind, Sarah forces Abraham to make a choice that has been coming ever since he chose to make a baby with Hagar. The choice to do nothing results in Ishmael being declared as the firstborn son, and displacing Isaac as the child of God’s promise. The second choice is to divorce Hagar, send her away, but raise Ishmael for himself, again resulting in Ishmael being understood as the firstborn son, The third option was to divorce Hagar, and send both her, and Ishmael, away leaving Isaac as the only son. Abraham didn’t want to do any of those things. Not surprisingly, as his son, he had feelings for Ishmael, and likely for Hagar as well. But Abraham also had feelings for Sarah and for Isaac, didn’t want to hurt them, and also wanted to honor God’s gift by allowing Issac to receive the inheritance that had been promised to him. No matter what Abraham chooses, something gets broken and someone gets hurt. Could Abraham have done better by Hagar and Ishmael? Should he have done better? Yeah, probably. But as we all know, it’s easy to sit in judgement when you don’t have all the facts.

In any case, Abraham is forced into a life-or-death choice, with nothing to ease the pain and loss except for God’s promise to care for Ishmael. But, like it or not, all of us face life-or-death choices. Hopefully, the choices that we face have some good mixed with the bad and, like Abraham and many others, we will not be forced to choose between several bad options. But, in Matthew 10:24-39, Jesus describes one of those choices we will have to make, when he says:

²⁴“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

²⁶“So, do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ²⁷What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

³²“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn…

“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

³⁷“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus says that it is enough for us to be like our teachers and like our master, Jesus. We should not be afraid of those who criticize or condemn Jesus, and to an even greater degree, us. In the end, Jesus says, the truth will be made known. Everything that has been hidden will be revealed, everything that has been deliberately concealed will be made public. Nothing will linger in the shadows, all conspiracies and secrets will be brought into the light, all lies will be exposed. And so, Jesus urges us to put away our fear of those who can only kill us, but who cannot take away our life with an eternal God. Rather, we should choose carefully whom we would rather have as our enemy. Should we ally ourselves with those who might attack our credibility, tell lies about us, conspire against us, or even kill us, but whose schemes will be revealed on the day of judgement? Or should we ally ourselves with the creator of the universe, the champion of truth, the bearer of all wisdom, and the keeper of our souls for all eternity? It is a life-or-death choice.

When Jesus says, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” He isn’t talking about silly internet memes that demand that you repost if you really love Jesus. He is saying that we must choose a side. We must put Jesus first, above our parents, above our families, and above our own well-being. But by choosing Jesus, and placing him first, we will find life.

Paul reinforces this teaching as he writes to the church in Rome in Romans 6:1b-11, saying:

^6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul says, “Shall we go on sinning?” and point out that we have choices to make. We chose to follow Jesus. We chose to be baptized and make a public statement that we were following Jesus. And, Paul asks, if we have been baptized, and we have died to sin and raised to a new life in Christ, then shouldn’t we live as if we are following the example, and the teachings, of Jesus?

The story of Abraham tells us that although we have many choices to make, sometimes we will be faced with choices that have no good options. Sometimes our choices will hurt people. Sometimes our choices may be the pivot between life and death for ourselves or for others. But Jesus reminds us that our choices also decide with whom we will ally ourselves. Will we choose to be God’s ally, or God’s enemy? Will we choose to put Jesus first, even ahead of our family, our jobs, our wealth, and our well-being?

Will we choose to life as if following Jesus means something?

As Joshual once said, “choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)

And having done that, we must live as if that choice means something.

But… choose wisely, because these really are… life and death choices.

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Unexpected, Undeniable Miracles… and You

June 15, 2026June 15, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christophany, church, demonstration, faith, freedom of navigation, God, grace, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, ministry, miracle, miracles, mission, obvious, Ohio, Paul, Romans, theophany, undeniable, undeserved, unexpected, United Methodist, unmerited

Unexpected, Undeniable, Miracles… and You

June 14, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 18:1-15 Matthew 9:35 – 10:8 Romans 5:1-8

If you haven’t occasionally read about such things, there is a territorial dispute between China and the rest of the world in the South China Sea. While everyone typically recognizes a nation’s right to a 12 mile exclusion zone as their territorial waters, in the South China Sea, the nation of China has repeatedly claimed some shallow waters, shoals, and sketchy manmade islands in order to push their claim of territory past what the rest of the world, and international law, recognizes as international shipping lanes. While China and other nations occasionally lift diplomatic and legal protests against one another, sometimes the United States and its allies employ a more… visible demonstration. By that, I refer to what is called a “freedom of navigation” cruise. Because China can, and often does, threaten and bully smaller, neighboring nations like the Philippines, occasionally the British, or the United States, and others with more powerful navies, will deliberately sail several ships through these legally recognized, international waters just because they can, because they want to make a point, and because they know that the small Chinese Coast Guard ships really can’t do anything about it.

While I don’t have anything much to say, politically, about such things, I mention this because it is a real-life demonstration of the principle that while talking and posturing might be important, sometimes a more tangible demonstration is required. And that is what we see God doing as we read today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning in Genesis 18:1-15, where three men, with God among them, visit Abraham and Sarah, both now well advanced in years, Abraham near one hundred years old and Sarah something over ninety.

^18:1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. ²Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

³He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,^] do not pass your servant by. ⁴Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. ⁵Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahsof the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

⁷Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

⁹“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he said.

¹⁰Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

There is a lot here that we could easily dig into. First, at least two of the three men who appear must be messengers of God, or angels, and one of them may be God in human flesh, because the passage begins by saying that “the Lord appeared to Abraham.” Theologically speaking, this is a theophany, a moment when God appears to humans on earth, but may also be a Christophany, because if we are to understand that Jesus’ role in the trinity is God in human flesh, then this may very well be him, two thousand years before he is born. But we don’t know for sure, so don’t hurt your head trying to understand that.

The point that I want to highlight from this exchange is that God is honoring his promise of children to Abraham and Sarah in the most visible and miraculous way possible. Rather than just allowing them to have children, when ordinary people have children, usually somewhere between the ages of 15 and 45, God allows so much time to pass that even Sarah no longer believes that it is possible. And to be fair, why would she? It becomes increasingly rare for women to have babies after the age of forty, and even rarer if they haven’t already had children. The oldest woman on record to have a baby naturally, is Dawn Brooke, from the United Kingdom, who in 1997, had a healthy baby boy at the age of fifty-nine. But just to be sure that everyone knows that this is a divine miracle, God waits until Sarah is ninety.

A little closer to home is a message that informs our present-day mission and ministry, and that is the story of Jesus sending out his twelve disciples to do ministry without him in Matthew 9:35 – 10:8.

^9:35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. ³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

^10:1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. ⁷As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Jesus begins by asking the disciples to pray for workers that would go out into the harvest field, but immediately equips, and sends them out into the countryside to do exactly that. First, just as we saw in the story of Abraham, Jesus makes sure that the work of the disciples, raising the dead, healing incurable diseases, and driving out demons will leave no doubt that God is doing miracles. But we cannot miss that when we pray for God to help us do the work of mission and ministry, that the very next step is for us to get our hands dirty and get started doing the work.

And finally, as Paul writes to the church in Rome in Romans 5:1-8, he explains how God has performed a visible and unexpected miracle in each of our lives, saying:

^5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

First, Paul reminds us of the message that we heard just last week, that God has justified us through our faith and has given us peace with God through his son Jesus Christ. And it is through Jesus that we have gained access to the grace of God. But the miracle is this: when we were powerless, when we had done nothing to earn the blessings or the grace of God, while we were still the enemies of God, Christ still died for us. The gift that we have been given, purchased at the expense of Jesus’ very life, was completely un-merited, and un-deserved.

Just as we see in “freedom of navigation” cruises, there are times when powerful nations do things in a highly tangible and visible way rather than exercise simpler, safer, and quieter legal and diplomatic options. And, as we have seen in our scriptures today, God sometimes does the exact same thing. God could have kept his promise to Abraham and Sarah by giving them children when they were much younger but chose instead to allow Sarah to bear a child in her nineties when her husband was over one hundred years old. Jesus could have sent his disciples out into the countryside to preach and teach, but he chose to bless them with the power to raise the dead, heal the sick, cure the incurable, and cast out demons so that everyone would know that God himself walked with them. But we should never sell ourselves short in this regard because the salvation and rescue of each and every one of us is a visible and tangible miracle. When we were unlovable, God chose to love us. When we least deserved favor, God blessed us. When we were God’s enemies, God chose to forgive us and welcome us into his family, his life, and his home.

Never forget that you are a walking miracle.

Whenever we pray for mission and ministry, we are not praying for God to send others to do that ministry for us, but for God to send others to join us.

Never forget that when we pray for mission and ministry, the very next step is to get our hands dirty and get started doing it.

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Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 7, 2026June 7, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Abram, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, credits, directions, faith, Genesis, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, rules

Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 07, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 12:1-9 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Romans 4:13-25

How do you explain Christianity to the people around you?

I think that you know what I mean. Your friends certainly know that you are a Christian, or that you regularly, or… occasionally, attend church. And, if they are comfortable in their relationship with you, they may eventually ask a question like, “How does that work… exactly?” How does one become a Christian, and what do you have to do because you are a Christian? Some of that we know, and if we’re honest, we spend years of our lives working out some of the other parts of it. But we also know that many people who claim the name of Jesus Christ, and who call themselves Christian, get a lot that wrong. But, as confusing as that is, I think, or at least I hope, that our study of today’s scriptures should help clear away some of our confusion.

But before we jump into our scriptures, I want to read two quotes that will frame our discussion.

First, Margaret Mead, a well-known American anthropologist who spent her life studying human behavior, once said, “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” This explains an awful lot about politics but reveals the truth that we see in our everyday lives. “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” The second quote, from Sir Winston Churchill, is similar, but the focus is different, and will lead us very well into today’s scripture, and that is, “I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”

“I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”

That really is powerful.

And so, I want you to keep these ideas in mind as we read and think about today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning reading from the story of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-9 which says:

^12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

²“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringI will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

I pause here to do something that Engineers rarely do. I pause here to teach a little English. You are all familiar with the past, present, and future tenses, but English also has an imperative, which we use in instructions and commands. This is important, because while every sentence typically requires both a noun and a verb to make sense, in the imperative, a noun is only implied and not required. This is why commands like “Jump” or “Get out” make perfect sense even though they don’t have a noun in them. The noun, typically “you” is implied. And this is what we see when God commands Abram. If we include the implied noun in the first verse, God says “You go” or “I command you to go” from the places, people, and things that you know, and to the place that I will show you. But, then in the second verse, God explains that Abram’s obedience is not pointless, but that God is offering a transaction. Verse one says “You go” but in verse two, God says that if Abram goes, then “I will” do these things. And this becomes God’s promise to Abram.

But as we noted earlier, regardless of what Abram might have said, which is not recorded, it is important for us to watch what Abram does. And as we read the story, we see that Abram does several things. First, Abram goes. He is seventy-five years old, well-established, and reasonably wealthy, and he leaves it all behind, family, friends, and everything familiar, and heads off into the unknown. But on the way to the place that God is leading him, he stops, twice, both in Shechem, and in Bethel, and builds an altar to worship God and to give thanks, while he is still on the way to the blessing that he has not yet received. And, after giving thanks to God, Abram packs up and continues the way toward wherever it is that God is leading him.

And we see something similar in the gospel of Matthew as Jesus calls the disciple Matthew to follow him. But we also see something quite different, even the opposite, in the same story. In Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, we read this:

⁹As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹²On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. ²¹She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, ²⁴he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. ²⁵After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ²⁶News of this spread through all that region.

So, where we saw God and Abram in the previous story, here we have Jesus and Matthew having a similar conversation. Jesus says, “Follow me” and Matthew gets up and follows. But as soon as Jesus arrives at Matthew’s house, the Pharisees complain that Jesus is socializing with the wrong kind of people. Jesus says, “It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” But where Matthew did what Jesus told him to do, the implication of the story is that the Pharisees surely did not. Jesus said, “go and learn” and the Pharisees ignored his instructions.

But to add contrast to the contrast between those two stories, the gospel writer immediately follows that story with two more in which people act in ways that demonstrate their faith through their actions. First, by a woman who gave herself directions to touch Jesus’ cloak, and second by a synagogue leader who asked Jesus for help, and then did whatever Jesus asked him to do even when the crowd of people, in his own house, laugh at Jesus, and by extension, the synagogue leader himself, for even imagining that the girl could be alive.

And that’s where we get to us. In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he explains what following Jesus means, how we become followers, or what we now name as being Christians, and also covers how many Jews of his day, and Christians today, get the whole thing wrong. Reading from Romans 4:13-25, we hear this:

¹³It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Paul reminds the Jews of the first century that while Abraham was the father of their tribe and of their religion, he did not possess the writings of the Law or the prophets in which the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and so many others placed so much importance. Paul says that it wasn’t the ten commandments that made Jews righteous, nor was it the Law, or the prophets, nor the adherence to the hundreds of rules that regulated the behavior of obedient Jews. Instead, Paul explains that the thing that made Abraham righteous, and the thing that lay at the core of what made people righteous for all time, was that they had placed their faith in God. Paul says that now, for us, this is what we have as believers in Jesus Christ. It isn’t because we adhere to the ten commandments, or because we follow a bunch of rules about alcohol, tobacco, snake handling, how we say our prayers, how we dress, how we speak, how we worship, or dozens of other rules that people say Christians are supposed to follow, but that God credits us with righteousness, God sees us as righteous, simply because we believe in Jesus Christ.

Just as the Pharisees thought that Jesus’ faith was wrong because he ate with tax collectors and sinners, lots of people, church people, and non-church people alike, often get this backwards. We aren’t Christian because we follow a bunch of rules. We are Christian because we have put our trust in Jesus.

But then why do we follow some of the rules and behave in certain ways? The example that springs to mind is the reason that I do not ride motorcycles. I like them. I once thought that I would surely own one. But the idea of me riding a motorcycle would worry my wife to no end. I stay away from motorcycles, not because Patti has made some kind of rule, or because she has forbidden me from doing so, but because I love her, a choose to behave in ways that give her comfort and not worry. And the same can be said for why Christians do many of the things we do. We do not follow rules because following rules makes us Christian. Putting our faith in Jesus is what makes us Christian. We follow certain rules, and adopt certain behaviors, not because we must, but because we choose to do so because we love Jesus and want to honor him.

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Gifts of Spirit, Wind, and Fire

May 24, 2026May 31, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Acts, Alliance, Bible, breath, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, Corinth, faith, family, fire, God, history, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Pentecost, Shavuot, spirit, wind

Gifts of Spirit, Wind, and Fire

May 24, 2026*

(Pentecost)

By Pastor John Partridge

John 20:19-23 Acts 2:1-21 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

Every family, and every family member, has a story. Our stories tell us who we are, and where we come from. In my family, there are stories, or at least speculation, about the first of the Partridges to come here from England, stories about my grandfather’s time fighting for Germany in World War One and his immigration to the United States afterward. We tell the story of his marriage to my grandmother on the docks of New York after he sent for her to join him, and there are stories of how my parents met in college, of Dad’s time in the Navy during World War Two, his brothers that served in other branches, Dad’s call to ministry, my brother Steve being drafted during Vietnam, my volunteer service in the Army Reserve and eventual call to active duty for Desert Storm and my own call to ministry. There are many more stories from Patti’s side of the family, stories about the miracles that we have seen, how our children joined our family, and many, many more. But it is the telling of those stories that anchor us in history and tell us who we are and how we got here.

Churches have the same stories. Christ Church has stories of beginning downtown, buying property on the hill and, eventually, building the church in which we now worship. There are stories of the Glamorgan family and how they came to donate the bells in our bell tower, stories about how the bells were hoisted, using horses and ropes long before the era of hydraulic cranes. Like biological families, our church has countless stories, passed down from generation to generation, and those stories tell us something about who we are and how we got here. But Christianity itself has stories that are a part of us, some that date back to the very beginnings of our faith, and some which, again, tell us about who we are and how we got here.

In recent months, as we have worked our way through the liturgical year, and through the scriptures highlighted by the lectionary, we have walked through many of those stories. You will remember hearing John the Baptist in Luke 3:16, when he said, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” And those words had to echo in the mind of Jesus disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection when this happened in John 20:19-23:

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

We remember that the words that we translate in English as wind, spirit, and breath, are all the same word in Greek. And so, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the holy breath” but also, as the NIV translated, “receive the Holy Spirit,” but also leaving us the option of “receive the holy wind,” which we will see as important in just a moment. Before Jesus ascended into heaven and left the earth, he reminded the disciples of John’s words by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. But he wasn’t done. In Luke 1:4-5, Jesus also told his disciples “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

And so, as we read in recent weeks, the disciples and other followers of Jesus did just that. They stayed together in Jerusalem, worshiping in the temple each day, praying, and sharing meals together until, in Acts 2:1-21, this happened:

^2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own languages!” ¹²Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

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. ¹⁵These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷“‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
¹⁹I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
²⁰The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
²¹And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

On the day of Pentecost, the believers and followers of Jesus Christ were gathered eating, socializing, praying, or otherwise being together and suddenly there was wind as Jesus had said, and there was spirit, and there was fire just as John had said several years earlier. But what is also notable, beyond the fulfillment of the words of John and Jesus, was the result of the infilling, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the followers upon whom the flames of the spirit had fallen. Filled with the spirit of God, the followers of Jesus went out into the streets just as the people in the streets gathered and crowded to search for whatever had made the sound of a violent wind on what was likely a calm and quiet day. And each person in the crowd of people who had come to Jerusalem from all over the know world for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which is also known as the Festival of Weeks, heard the retelling of the story of the good news of Jesus in their own languages. And this from men and women who were uneducated, rural folk, who were considered to be country bumpkins.

The speakers certainly did not know the languages in which they were preaching… and yet they did so because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through them. Peter explains to the crowd that what they were witnessing was not a crowd of drunks, but the miraculous fulfillment of God’s prophecy for the last days of creation, that God was, even now, pouring out his spirit upon the people so that those who called upon his name could be saved.

But still, it was not always clear what the filling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit meant, and the people of the church had questions about what indwelling meant, or what it meant to be baptized by the spirit, or what God’s purpose was in doing so. And so, in 1 Corinthians 12:1-13, Paul writes to the believers in Corinth, and he explains it this way:

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

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

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

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized byone Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

First, Paul clarifies that anyone that says that Jesus is cursed is not a follower of Jesus and is not filled with the Spirit of God. Second, Paul says that anyone who says that Jesus is Lord is indeed permitted to say so by the Holy Spirit. I would caution, however, that other scriptures still indicate that saying this does not automatically ensure all of what they preach is trustworthy. In any case, Paul continues by saying that the gifts that are given to each believer, when they are filled and empowered by the spirit of God, are not the same for each person. There are some common types and some common groupings of gifts, but each person is just as unique as one part of the body is from another. Just as the parts of the body work together to allow humans to do amazing things, our different gifts allow us, as the body of Christ, to work together and accomplish amazing, even miraculous things for the kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Pentecost is one of our key stories that we repeat each year because, just like family stories, it tells us where we came from and who we are, both as a church, and as individuals. We are the body of Christ as we use our gifts, together, to do the work of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Each of us are unique and different from one another, but each of us has been given a specific set of gifts and talents, and then filled with, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, so that we can do our part as God calls us, and leads us as we work to accomplish his mission and ministry.

Remember the stories.

Remember where we came from.

Remember who you are.

And never forget whose you are.

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