Paul

Unexpected People in Heaven

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Mystery Explained!

(or Unexpected People in Heaven)

January 07, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 60:1-6              Matthew 2:1-12                     Ephesians 3:1-12

Whether it’s reading Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, or watching NCIS and FBI dramas on television, many of us enjoy a good mystery. Since Patti spends much more time in her car than I do, she regularly listens to audio books, and whenever I go with her, she is always listening to a mystery of some kind. Good authors keep us guessing. What will happen next? What plot twist lies in store for us? Among the many characters that we’ve met, who is the perpetrator of the crime in question?

It’s just our human nature to be curious, and for our curiosity to be inspired by a good mystery story. But whatever it is, we look forward to the end of the book, movie, or television drama where all is revealed, and the mystery is solved. And that’s the part of the biblical story that we will dig into today, it is the moment that Paul proclaims the mystery “has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets,” and of course, to us. But before we get to the big reveal, let’s dig into the back story and understand some of the history of the mystery. Let’s begin with the prophecy and promise contained in Isaiah 60:1-6 where we hear this message:

60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you:
    All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
    and your daughters are carried on the hip.
5 Then you will look and be radiant,
    your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
    to you the riches of the nations will come.
6 Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

Through Isaiah, God tells of a coming day when the Lord’s rising will overcome the darkness of the human soul in the same way that the sun overcomes the darkness of night. And on that day the people of Israel will return from the four corners of the earth to which they had migrated, Israel will be filled with wealth, symbolized here by camels, and all who come will bring gold, incense, and other gifts that would be fit for a king.

And then, as we anticipate the celebration Epiphany, we hear of the coming of the Wise Men and we hear how their coming echoes the prophecies of Isaiah. They come to Israel from afar bearing gifts of gold and incense and, as we hear that echo, we understand how much else of Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled. A light has come into the darkness of the world and into the darkness of the souls of humanity.

Reading from Matthew 2:1-12, we hear these words:

2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magifrom the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

We’ve lost count of the times, and the Christmases, that we have read, and heard this story. We know the story of the magi. But where is the mystery in that? The mystery is found in the “why.” These men were not Jews and so, why did they come? They were not Jewish, they did not share the faith of Mary and Joseph or the nation of Israel, and yet they worshipped the baby in a manger.  Moreover, they were not the first to present this puzzle. In 2 Kings 5, Naaman, the great military commander of the nation of Aram came to Israel to be healed of his leprosy and, after God healed him, he asked the prophet Elisha,, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.”

Before that, the prophet Elijah fed the widow of Zarephath with a miraculously never-ending supply of oil and flour during a famine. And of course, there was the prostitute who hid the spies in Jericho, and Ruth who followed her mother-in-law Naomi, married Boaz, and became the great-grandmother of King David. And long before that, we know that not everyone who fled slavery in Egypt were from Abraham’s family, but all of them, of every race and nationality, became known as the children of Israel. All of these were Gentiles. They were not the children of Abraham; they were not born into the covenant of Abraham, they were not a part of God’s contract with Abraham, and they did not inherit the promise that God had made to Abraham’s descendants. And so how is it that they could have faith in Israel’s God? How is it that God would accept them?

And, like the end of our modern-day detective stories, that is exactly the mystery that Paul reveals as he writes to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 3:1-12, saying:

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

The mystery, as Paul explains it, and as we have already discussed, is how God could love Gentiles and invite them into his family. Even in the Old Testament there were occasional examples that, despite having made an eternal covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and those who later became the people of Israel, there were hints that God loved Gentiles and would accept them into his family. But now, through the story of the gospel, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Gentiles are invited into God’s family, adopted by the creator and king of all that exists, and are now heirs, together with Israel, members of one body, and together with the people of Israel and Abraham’s family, share in the promises of Jesus Christ.

That’s the big reveal. That God has always loved the Gentiles, that the Gentiles were always welcome to join his people, and that God always had a plan to invite the entire world into his family. But now that the mystery has been revealed, God’s plan to rescue the world includes us, the church. Paul says that God’s intent, God’s plan, is for the church to spread his word, to act as God’s agents in the world and to tell the rulers, the authorities, our neighbors, our friends, and the entire world the story of the gospel, the message and the Good News of Jesus Christ, and to invite them all to join God’s family. Because, as Paul said, “in him, and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

God commands us to share the story, and to spread the Good News. But it is a story that’s worth sharing because it’s our story.

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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.™ Photo by user carlohh on Freeimages dot com.

The Reward of Faithfulness

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The Reward of Faithfulness

December 31, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3                 Luke 2:22-40                          Galatians 4:4-7

The world had changed. The world in which I have worked as an adult bears little resemblance to the working world that my grandfather knew, only some resemblance to the world that my father knew, and I’m certain that the world in which my grandchildren eventually work will similarly be different. Once upon a time, it was common for men, because it was men, to get hired, work their entire lives, and retire from the same company, and get a gold watch or something similarly symbolic after 30 or 40 years of their lives at that employer. That sort of thing is rare rather than common today, although retirees might still get gold watch watches or similar retirement gifts in some places. It was once common for those retirees to receive pensions at their retirement, but again, employers that even offer a pension are rare rather common in today’s working world.

But if there aren’t gold watches and pensions given at retirement, then what is the reward for thirty or forty years of faithfulness? And, since we’re asking the question, what reward do we receive for a lifetime of service and faithfulness to God? We gain some insight into this as we read the words contained in Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 where it says:

10 I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your vindication,
    and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Isaiah says that God has deliberately set the people and the nation of Israel apart from the rest of the world and clothed them in salvation and righteousness. God’s mysterious and irresistible spirit is at work planting a garden of righteousness and praise throughout the nations of the world so that one day, Israel will be exonerated and declared innocent of all accusations that have been made against her and she will be called by a new name, given to her by God. On that day Jerusalem will be a jewel in the crown of God almighty. But, given the news from Israel that we see each day today, that day has not yet come. But God is not done with human history, and we see signs in Luke 2:22-40 that foreshadow the future as we meet several characters of the Christmas story, see their faithfulness before God, and hear how God rewards them:

22 When the days for their purification were completed according to the Law of Moses, they brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, 23 as it is prescribed in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord,” 24 and to offer a sacrifice in accordance with what is stated in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

25 At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This upright and devout man was awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not experience death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

27 Prompted by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was required by the Law, 28 he took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Now, Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace,
    according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31     which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples,
32 a light of revelation to the Gentiles
    and glory for your people Israel.”

33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, 35 so that the secret thoughts of many will be revealed, and you yourself a sword will pierce.”

36 There was also present a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very advanced in years, having lived with her husband for seven years after their marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment, she came forward and began to praise God, while she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

39 When they had fulfilled everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was upon him.

The first people that we encounter in this story are Mary and Joseph who, being the faithful people that we already know them to be, bring Jesus, their firstborn son, to the temple to present him before God. There, the law required the sacrifice of either two doves or two young pigeons. One thing of which we can be certain from history, is that Mary and Joseph were poor. They, and 90 percent of Israel’s population, existed at a subsistence level. They earned, or grew, just enough to stay alive. It is likely that the purchase of two doves was more than they could have afforded, and even two common street pigeons was probably a financial stretch unless there was a way for them to catch their own but, given the corruption that we see surrounding temple sacrifices during Jesus’ adult ministry… probably not. But in any case, despite the financial strain that it placed on the family, Mary and Joseph do whatever needs to be done so that they can follow the law and start their son off right before God.

Next, we meet Simeon who had been a faithful, upright, and devout follower of God for his entire life, in whom God’s spirit rested, and to whom God’s spirit had revealed the coming of the promised Messiah. Simeon is led, by God, to the temple courts on this specific day, for this specific moment, and when he sees Mary and Joseph, he takes their baby in his arms, gives thanks, and praises God for keeping his promises to Israel, to the world, and to him personally.

Likewise, Mary and Joseph also meet Anna, a woman who had tragically been widowed only seven years after her marriage, left destitute and penniless, and, as was sometimes done in charity, had moved into the temple as a servant. But somewhere along the way, her faithfulness to God had been rewarded by God with the gift of prophecy. And she also was led by God, at that specific moment, to meet this holy family and lift praises to God for sending the Messiah, deliverer, and rescuer of Jerusalem.

Each of these people had arrived at the temple because of their faithfulness. Simeon and Anna were both rewarded by being among the first people on earth to see the fulfillment of God’s promises and to meet, in person, the Messiah, rescuer, and redeemer of Israel. Mary and Joseph were able to hear, and to witness, these saints of God proclaim the truth of who their son would become, and they later witnessed their son grow in strength, wisdom, and in the favor of God.

But again, what about us?

What does all this mean to us two thousand years later?

To put it simply, now, as it was then, there is a reward for our faithfulness to God. In Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia (Galatians 4:4-7), he writes this:

4 However, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying out “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if you are a son, then through God you are also an heir.

The Messiah, rescuer, and redeemer that was promised in the words of Isaiah, who was born to Mary and Joseph, and who lived, died, and rose again, whose story is contained in the gospels, came to earth so that we might be adopted into God’s family. Because of him, our relationship with God is not the relationship of a master and a servant, or boss and employee, or military leader and a subordinate. Our relationship is one in which we can call on God as our Abba, Papa, or Daddy, a beloved father who loves us so much he was willing to give his life for us. We are no longer strangers or slaves, but children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, and heirs who will inherit the kingdom of God.

Like Mary and Joseph, Simeon, Anna, and countless millions who have gone on to glory ahead of us, we rest in God’s promise, and in the examples that he has given to us. Because of these witnesses we find comfort and assurance that there is, and will be, a reward for our faithfulness.

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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.™ Photo by user danjaeger on Freeimages.com

(Insert Your Name Here)

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 (Insert Your Name Here)

December 24, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But what does that have to do with us?

Where is the fill in the blank part?

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

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

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

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

That is where you can insert your name.

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

But the story isn’t over.

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

There is still work to do.

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

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

*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.™

A Fool’s Errand

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A Fool’s Errand

November 12, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25         Matthew 25:1-13 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

A great many years ago and likely still today, scouts attending their first year at scout camp, like me, would be sent to another troop and instructed to ask to borrow their left-handed smoke exchanger. There were snipe hunts, of course, but even then, most scouts were wise enough not to fall for that one. In high school upperclassmen would try to sell elevator passes to the freshmen, and in the Army, soldiers might be sent to the motor pool for some blinker fluid or other imaginary or non-existent gadgets or parts. These sorts of adventures as well as other more serious, but equally impossible, tasks, can be referred to as being sent on a fool’s errand.

The dictionary definition is simply: a needless or profitless endeavor.

As silly as it might sound, being sent on a fool’s errand, or sending ourselves on one, can be deadly serious. In Shakespear’s Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, Prince Hamlet discovers that two of his friends, Rosencranz and Guildenstern, are a part of a plot to assassinate him, and so he secretly makes a change to the letters that they are carrying so that they will be executed when they arrive in England. They are on a fool’s errand. They now carry a sealed message that, when opened, will result in their deaths. And these are the sorts of serious fool’s errands that we find in today’s scriptures. There are two, and each is different, but in each we discover the necessity of making good choices so that we can avoid the most devastating foolishness. We begin by returning to the story of Joshua and the people of Israel as they have entered the Promised Land and now face a fork in the road at which they must choose the direction that their lives will take. In Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 we hear this:

24:1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.

14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

23 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”

25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws.

In the last forty years, Israel has escaped captivity in Egypt, been rescued by God from Egypt’s army, survived forty years fed by God’s hand in the wilderness, and now crossed the raging waters of a flooded Jordan River on dry ground. But now that they have arrived, they are faced with a choice. They can choose to either throw away all the gods that their parents brought with them from Egypt and serve God alone, or they can abandon God, take up the worship of the Amorite gods, blend in, merge, and disappear into the culture and the people that are already there. The second would be the easy choice. They would, effectively do as many people did, say that one god is as good as any other, and worship the god of the nations that were already in that place.

But the people of Israel, despite knowing that the first option is the harder of the two, choose to follow the God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and their forefathers. They choose to follow Yahweh because they have seen, with their own eyes, that the god of their ancestors is the real deal. Some of them were there when they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, all of them had eaten the manna that God had provided in the wilderness, they had witnessed God’s protection from their enemies, and everyone there had watched the waters of the Jordan River pile up in a heap so that they could cross the river on dry ground. They knew that the God of Abraham and Moses was the real deal, and they knew that worshipping any other god was a fool’s errand. And so, they reaffirmed their commitment to follow God and to obey his decrees and laws.

And then, in the story of the ten virgins contained in Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus warns his followers that there is another way that we risk running a fool’s errand when he says…

25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

The tradition of the Jewish people was for the bride and groom to be betrothed, and then the young man would return to his family and begin the construction of a home for his new bride, often as an addition to his parent’s home. And, only after construction was completed would the groom return for his bride and carry her away to the wedding and the wedding banquet. Obviously, the construction of a home does not have an entirely predictable timeline. The groom is likely working for his father or at some other trade each day, and then working on his new home in the evening or as time permits. The size of the addition might vary, as would the availability of building materials, how much help he might get from his father, siblings, or extended family, as well as the cost of any materials and his ability to afford them. All that to say that no one really knew when the groom would return.

Certainly, rumors would swirl, and the bride would hear that the groom’s family had begun preparations for the wedding guests, but the specific day and time of the groom’s arrival was unknown. And so, ten virgins, bridesmaids, or other young women who hoped to accompany the bride to the wedding took lamps with them while they waited. But only five of the ten were truly prepared. They considered that they might be waiting for a while, and they brought along extra oil for their lamps so that they could keep watch all night long. And so, while half of them dashed off in search of more oil, the groom and his friends arrived, gathered up those who had been prepared, and departed for the wedding. Those who were unprepared got left behind. Their journey to retrieve more oil had become a fool’s errand.

Jesus says that this will be how things are on the day that he returns. The groom, Jesus, has gone to prepare a place for his bride, the church, and he has been gone a long time. There may well be rumors that forewarn the world of his return, but we must not be caught unprepared. We cannot say that “I will put my trust in him… later.” And we cannot say that we will do the work of God’s kingdom… later.” Because, on the day of his return, there will be no second chances. We must be prepared, and we must be caught doing his work on the day of his return. Failing to do so… is a fool’s errand.

It’s important that we get this right. Failure to get it right means working hard but only pursuing a fool’s errand. But getting it right has an entirely different outcome. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Paul says…

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Lately, many of us have felt that we have been attending far too many funerals. But although we experience grief because of the loss that we feel, when we say goodbye to our friends and family that know Jesus, we know that our goodbyes are temporary. Paul reminds us that the dead are not lost to us forever but only lie in the sleep of death until the day of Christ’s return, and on that day, the groundskeepers at our cemeteries will have a front row seat to the most amazing sight in all of history. The dead will rise, and then they, and all who remain alive in Christ, will follow them to join with Jesus and live with him forever.

This is our great hope.

Like the Israelites did as they entered the Promised Land, we remember the might acts of God that we have seen. We may not have witnessed the parting of the Red Sea, the daily sustenance provided by God’s manna, or the piling up of the waters of the Jordan River, but we have seen God provide in other ways. Each of us here can tell of times when God provided money to pay bills, or a shoulder to cry on, or a kind word, at just the right time, that changed our lives, or miraculous healings, or a frustrating delay that later prevented us from being in an automobile accident,. We each have our own stories, but like the Israelites, we know that following God, and following Jesus Christ, is the only path forward. Any other path…

…is a fool’s errand.

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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.™

Faith in the Flood

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Faith in the Flood

November 05, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the water stopped.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Real faith is found in the actions of the church.

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

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*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.™

Finding Nebo

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Finding Nebo

October 29, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The son of David,” they replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…before it’s our turn to cross over.

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

The Tax Trap

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The Tax Trap

October 22, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 33:12-23                    Matthew 22:15-22                             1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Leadership is intimidating.

That is to say, leadership can be intimidating if you have the humility to pause and think about the impact of what you are doing.

The first time that I recall having any real leadership was in the early 1990’s when I had returned to my Army Reserve unit from my advanced training in my MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) and was expected to lead one of the monthly classes that were held to keep everyone fresh on our required skills. Since I had so recently returned from training, I was therefore the most qualified to teach one or two of the classes. I was still a Private First Class, and I had sergeants, staff sergeants, and just about everyone else in “my” classroom for fifteen minutes. As I continued to do this over the years, my rank, and my skills, advanced and I became more comfortable doing it.

But then on July 4th, 2004, I stood in front of the gathered people of the Johnsville United Methodist Church for the first time as their pastor. This was, once again, entirely new and, at that time, despite being over 40 years old, I had very little training as a pastor. But, once again, with time, experience, and more training, leading God’s people became a little easier.

But regardless of whether it was in the early 1990’s or in 2004, I always knew that I wasn’t alone. There were senior noncommissioned officers who could help me if I stumbled while I was teaching classes in my reserve unit, and in every church that I have served, there have always been patient, competent, congregations, volunteers, and staff to help me do what I do. Leadership is always intimidating, but the idea of leading… alone… would be terrifying.

But that is exactly what is foremost in Moses’ mind as he has a conversation with God in Exodus 33:12-23.

12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name.”

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

The first thing out of Moses’ mouth is, “I can’t do this alone.” Those aren’t his exact words, but that is clearly the idea when he says, “whom will you send with me?” And God’s response is, I will go with you, and I will give you rest. God promises that his presence will be so tangibly real, that Moses will never feel as if he is alone and he will be comforted, and be able to sleep at night, because he knows that he is not alone.

Why does that matter?

Well, if you are in any kind of leadership position, you can find comfort in that. But there are other reasons that we’ll get to in a few minutes.

Next, we come to yet another story of the Pharisees trying to trick Jesus into saying something stupid that would either be a criminal offense or would be offensive and reduce his popularity with the people. There’s some back story to this that helps us make sense of that, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let’s look at this story from Matthew 22:15-22:

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial taxto Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So, they left him and went away.

This was the tax trap. First, you will note that the Pharisees don’t come to see Jesus in person. Instead, they send their lackeys that are less well-known so that Jesus might not recognize this as a trap, and second, they send along with them the Herodians. Which may cause us to ask, who the heck were the Herodians? And that’s a good question that the bible doesn’t answer very well, but which history does. We know that the ruler of Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth had been Herod the Great, and the current ruler was one of his sons, Herod Antipas. And so, the Herodians were Jews, who had sold out to the Romans, to the culture of the Romans, and to the plan that Herod had for their nation. To make a connection to the United States of the twenty-first century, these were the people who were more interested in conforming to the culture of Hollywood, and to their political party than they were in conforming to the laws of Moses and the prophets. They were born Jews but were culturally Roman. The plan clearly was that if Jesus said that good Jews shouldn’t pay Roman taxes, which was a prominent idea in some Jewish circles, then the Herodians would charge Jesus with a crime. The argument in some Jewish circles was that because Rome was immoral and acted counter to the beliefs of Israel, that paying taxes to Rome was therefore immoral. Further, because Rome circulated coinage that bore graven images that were prohibited by scripture, that using such coinage was sinful and a corrupting influence.

But Jesus’ interpretation was different.

Jesus said that if Ceasar’s face was on the coin, then pay Ceasar what was due to Ceasar, but pay to God what belonged to God. In Jesus’ interpretation, the scriptures demanded that faithful people should follow God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength. That is what was owed to God. It is your choices and your morality that are important.

Hold on to that idea because we’re going to come back to that in a minute, but this connects us to Paul’s message to the church in Thessalonica that we hear in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10:

1:1 Paul, Silas,and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you.

2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 For we know, brothers and sistersloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

What Paul says is important, but I also think that how Paul said it is important.  You will note that Paul does not simply say that we remember you because of your work, your labor, and your endurance. What Paul says is that we remember you to God because of the work that we have seen in you that was produced by faith, because of the labor that you have done that was prompted by love, and by the endurance that you have shown that was inspired by hope. This is the work that God is doing because his people love him with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind and with all their strength. They are doing the work of the kingdom because of their faith, because of their love, and because of their hope and not because it was what was culturally expected, or because of some other sense of ethical, moral, or cultural obligation. When we remember James’ teaching that faith is revealed by works, this is that. Faith came first, but because the people had faith, it inspired them to work, labor, and hope.

So, how do we tie this all together and make sense of it?

Jesus’ challenge to the tax trap points us toward self-reflection in several directions. Two thousand years ago the fear was that taxes, especially using money with graven images on it, was a corrupting influence that faithful Jews should avoid. But Jesus says that it isn’t. Paying taxes isn’t inherently sinful, nor are we automatically guilty of the sinful or immoral acts of the government. Of course, this is held in tension with several other scriptures that say that we will, as a people, be held responsible for the sins of our nation. There’s no way we have the time to even try to sort that out so I’m not even going to try.

But our point of personal self-reflection and struggle is to remember that a sinful government doesn’t necessarily corrupt us personally. But the reverse is also true, such that the righteous acts of government do not make us personally righteous. It is a good thing for the government to feed the poor, but the Roman government did that. It is a good thing for the government to care for the elderly and a host of other things, but none of the things that the government does, relieves us of doing the things that God has commanded us to do. Whether our government is good or evil, we are still obligated to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the widows and orphans, speak for the immigrants and the voiceless, and to do the work of the kingdom of God. On the day that we stand in judgement before God, we will be judged by what we have done, and what we have left undone and that includes how we voted, and when we chose not to vote.

But the second point of connection here is that, like Moses, and like the pastor of a church, God knows that we cannot do all these things alone. We are a part of a community of faith. We can do great things, sometimes impossible things, because we work together… and because God promises to go with us.

We are not alone.

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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.™

Addicted to… Rules?

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Addicted to Rules

October 08, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20                 Matthew 21:33-46                             Philippians 3:4b-14

In 1985 radio stations everywhere were playing the debut of Robert Palmer’s new hit song, Addicted to Love. That song will be familiar to those of us in a particular age group, but it begins like this:

The lights are on, but you’re not home
Your mind is not your own
Your heart sweats, your body shakes
Another kiss is what it takes
You can’t sleep, you can’t eat
There’s no doubt, you’re in deep
Your throat is tight, you can’t breathe
Another kiss is all you need.

Whoa, you like to think that you’re immune to the stuff, oh yeah
It’s closer to the truth to say you can’t get enough
You know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to love.

Robert Palmer may have taken a certain amount of artistic license, but just this week I had a conversation with a friend about how some people simply can’t stand to live alone, and that can lead them to making bad choices and being in a relationship with someone who isn’t good for them, and sometimes one bad relationship after another.

Addiction, of any kind, even an addition to something that is normally good, can be a bad thing. Addiction, even to something good, takes things too far and winds up being harmful. And that’s one of the things that we will find as we read and think about today’s scriptures. We begin with what God intended for good, the ten commandments. Most of these commandments are regarded as good things, even by people who do not share our faith, and even by people who have no faith at all. Prohibitions against theft, murder, adultery, and false witness, just to name a few, are almost inarguably good things. But can such prohibitions go too far? Before we get into that, let’s begin at the beginning and just read the words of Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20.

20:1 And God spoke all these words:

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

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

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

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

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

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

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

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

18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

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

Saying things like, “don’t take things that don’t belong to you,” “don’t murder or hurt other people, or that it’s not good to even wish you had the nice things that your neighbor has,” are not that controversial. Even honoring your parents, when they deserve it, is something that most of us can generally agree on. But we can understand why people who do not share our faith, or who don’t believe in God, would take issue with rules about gods, idols, taking God’s name in vain, or keeping the sabbath. Other than those rules that are specific to our worship of our God, I think most people would agree that these are reasonable rules and, in fact, most of these rules end up being codified in the laws of cities, states, and nations around the world.

But that’s where the trouble starts. Or, perhaps, if we think of it another way, perhaps that’s where the addiction starts. In an attempt to ensure that the people of Israel would always follow these ten rules, the leaders of Israel wrote more rules that regulated life, or put fences around the rules, so that people wouldn’t, even accidentally, break these ten commandments. (pause) But even that wasn’t enough for some people. After Israel had been carried into captivity in Babylon for seventy years, returned to Israel, and rebuilt their nation, the leaders began to understand that their exile had been caused by Israel’s disobedience to God. And so, at some point, the people that we know as the Pharisees in the time of the New Testament accumulated an even longer list of rules that built fences around the fences that had been built around the rules. And while some of the Pharisees were legitimately trying to keep Israel on the straight and narrow and stay close to God, others began to become more devoted to the rules than they were to the God they were supposed to worship.  And it was exactly that sort of thing that had the Pharisees up in arms about the popularity that Jesus had with the common people and the background to exchanges such as the one we find in Matthew 21:33-46, (which immediately follows our passage from last week in which Jesus said that Prostitutes and tax collectors were getting into heaven before the Pharisees)where we hear Jesus say:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of the first things that we should probably notice is that Jesus may very well be foretelling his own death in this parable since it isn’t hard to understand that as the son of God, he is the son of the landowner of Israel. The second thing to notice is that, even though the priests and the Pharisees may not have understood Jesus’ allusion to being the son of the landowner, they clearly understood that he was talking about them and that they were the ungrateful tenants in the story. Everyone understood that Jesus was accusing Israel’s leadership of not giving to God what was expected and due. The accusation is clear that the leaders had violated several of the commandments, that they had put themselves ahead of God, that they had made money, power, and influence into an idol, and that they were, generally, unfaithful.

The contrast to the priests and the Pharisees is found in the life of Paul, after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. After Paul’s conversion, he sees the rules, and his former addiction to the rules, in an entirely different light. In Philippians 3:4b-14 he says…

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

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

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

Paul was a Pharisee. He followed the rules, he was born into the right kind of family, went to the right kind of schools with the right kind of teachers, he, and his family, followed all the prescribed rituals, he dedicated his life to enforcing the rules, he hunted down Jews who had chosen to follow Jesus and prosecuted, and imprisoned them for their failure to follow the rules. He was there watching the coats of the men who stoned Stepehen in Jerusalem and, I think we can safely say, that he was addicted to the rules. But, after he met Jesus, his addiction was broken, and he saw the rules in an entirely different light. I don’t want you to misunderstand, Paul still followed most of those rules. He still thought that they were an important part of his faith, but the rules were no longer an addiction, and they were no longer something that was more important than faith. His addiction, and the value that he once put on the rules, money, power, and influence, he now valued no more than garbage. In fact, the word that we translate as “garbage” is the name of the valley below Jerusalem where the sewers emptied, where dead animals were thrown, and where the remains of sacrifices were burned. It was a place of disgusting filth and that was the value that Paul now placed on his former addiction.

Addiction, of any kind, even an addition to something that is normally good, takes things too far and winds up being harmful, and that’s true whether you’re addicted to love, rules, tradition, sex, money, power, politics, authority, fame, fortune, comfort, prestige, sports, hobbies, family, or anything else that you might put ahead of God.

God said ““I am the Lord your God… You shall have no other gods beforeme.”

Even if those gods seem like good things, we cannot put them ahead of God.

It’s important that we get it right.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

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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.™

This IS That Day

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This IS that Day

September 10, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 12:1-14                      Matthew 18:15-20                             Romans 13:8-14

Near the end of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the few forces that remain from the nations of Rohan and Gondor march to the gates of Mordor, the center and capitol of Sauron the undead who is spreading a plague of evil across Middle Earth. The forces of good have been fighting in pitched battles for weeks and are hopelessly outnumbered, but here they will take what may just be their final stand against evil. But before the battle begins, Aragorn, the future king of Gondor, gives this speech:

Hold your ground! Hold your ground. Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

It is a rousing speech, even though it doesn’t appear anywhere in the original books by J.R.R. Tolkien. But Aragorn’s emphasis is that a day may come when everyone’s fears are realized and evil overcomes the world.

But this is not that day.

I begin with Aragorn’s speech this morning because, although the emphasis is different, it bears a striking similarity to God’s message in today’s scripture passage in Exodus 12:1-14. For eight hundred years Israel had lived in the nation of Egypt and, for many hundreds of those years, Israel had been enslaved by their Egyptian masters and subjected to backbreaking labor. For hundreds of years the people of Israel had prayed that God would rescue them and although God had heard their prayers, finally, as we read last week, God sent Moses to deliver them from Egypt and lead them to God’s promised land. And this is God’s speech:

12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs, and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

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

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

God’s speech to Moses and Aaron was to be passed on to all the people in much the way that Aragorn gave his speech to the troops under him. God said that this is the day. After hundreds of years of slavery, prayers without number, cries to God for mercy, and an unending and undefeatable hope in God’s rescue, now is the time. This is so important that it will reset the clock and the calendar, and this singular event will now mark Israel’s new year. God’s people are called to be ready, eat as if their departure might be at any moment, to have their bags packed, their shoes on, and be ready to walk out the door into their new lives in an instant. And in this moment, as a part of their preparation, they are to paint the blood of their sacrificial lambs on the doorframes and lintels of their homes as a sign of their faith and trust in the God who was rescuing them from slavery and death. Israel had prayed for a day of rescue and redemption, and this was that day.

But before they could cross over from the old and into the new, before they could cross over from slavery to freedom, they had to show God a sign of their faith. They had to physically perform an action that revealed their faith in God before being welcomed into the new order of things. And that’s a part of what Jesus is describing to the disciples in Matthew 18:15-20. It isn’t anything as big and as impressive as the speech that God gave to Moses and Aaron, but it represents an action that the followers of Jesus Christ needed to perform as a demonstration of their faith. Jesus said:

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Jesus said that as his followers, and as his church, he knew that we were not always going to get along and weren’t always going to get things right. And so, when we hurt one another, or whenever we crossed lines of sin or behavior that we shouldn’t, Jesus commands us to call each other out, to help one another to correct our mistakes, and get back on the right path. This passage is all about church discipline. Jesus says that we are to make every effort to correct the behavior of our fellow believers, but whomever we throw out of the church would be out of his church. In other words, our actions here, especially in church discipline, have eternal impact.

But how we behave isn’t about following rules, it’s about the way that we live our lives in much the same way as God commanded the people of Israel in the days before the exodus. In Romans 13:8-14, Paul explains that how we live our lives, and the actions that we take, are an outward sign of our faith just as it was when the people of Israel painted the blood of their lambs on the doorposts of their homes. Paul says:

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

We are to live as if the commandments of God matter. Rather than painting blood over our doorposts, the mark of our belonging should be seen by the people around us in the way that we live. Get out of debt, stay out of debt, don’t loan money to one another, pay your debts off, or forgive the debts that you hold against others, but do what you need to do to zero it out. Paul says that because the law is intended to prevent harm, then love is the fulfillment of the law. We are to obey the commandments, not by making ourselves crazy following hundreds of rules, but by simply loving others as much as we love ourselves. I don’t like to be hungry, so I understand that I should take action when the people around me are hungry. I don’t like injustice when it happens to me, and so I fight against injustice everywhere. This applies to everything that we do, from injustice, to unfairness, to discrimination, and flowing through every area of our lives. If we haven’t liked it when it happened to us, or if we wouldn’t like it if it were done to us, then it is our duty and our mission to make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone.

Simply because that’s what love looks like.

The last part of this passage is a wake-up call much like we use on children as we get nearer to Christmas. In February, none of us give a lot of thought to Christmas. We aren’t Christmas shopping, and our children aren’t thinking that it’s necessary to behave because Santa “sees you when you’re sleeping” and “knows when you’re awake.” As far as Christmas is concerned, in February we’re just going through life on autopilot. And it’s that kind of awake, but unconscious, living from which Paul is trying to shake us awake. We cannot allow ourselves to function on autopilot and go through life in a fog because we’ve convinced ourselves that the day of judgement will be months, years, or decades in the future. As the calendar pages flip, we are ever closer to judgement and salvation than we have ever been. For that reason, we must prepare ourselves by living lives that we wouldn’t be afraid to see projected on the jumbotron at a stadium or broadcast live on the television evening news.

Because even though we’ve been waiting for a long time, one day, sooner than we think, we’re going to wake up and hear God say…

…this is that day.

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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.™

I’m Not Worthy

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I’m Not Worthy!

September 03, 2023*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 3:1-15                        Matthew 16:21-28                             Romans 12:9-21

I’m almost certain that you are familiar with the phrase, “I’m not worthy.” It’s been used in the Marvel superhero movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, cartoons like The Simpsons, quite famously in the Wayne’s World sketches on Saturday Night Live, and in the movie of the same name. But of course, though re-popularized in our culture in movies and television, this phrase, or words like it, is hardly new. It appears in ancient literature from a host of time periods. Medieval monks were known to say that they weren’t worthy, and we even hear words a lot like it in scripture.

“I’m not worthy” is a phrase that could easily come with a warning label because while it can be used as an honest expression of humility, it can also be used, and frequently is used, as an excuse to avoid doing work that we don’t want to do. And so, as we read today’s scriptures, I want you to listen for the phrases that sound as if someone is saying “I’m not worthy,” though not in exactly those words, and then we will consider whether they are genuinely not worthy of the thing that has been asked of them, if they’re just trying to get out of doing something they don’t want to do, or if the answer is somewhere in between. We begin by returning to the story of Exodus, this time skipping from the infant Moses that we saw last week, all the way to the story of Moses and the burning bush eighty years later in Exodus 3:1-15.

3:1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, youwill worship God on this mountain.”

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
    the name you shall call me
    from generation to generation.

When God calls Moses to return to Egypt after forty years in Midian, Moses’ answer is, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” Who am I, that I should go, which, in other words, means I’m not worthy to go, I’m not important enough to go, nobody knows me there any longer, I’m wanted there for killing a man, or just more plainly, I don’t want to go or, I’m afraid to go.

Whether Moses’ actual words were, I don’t want to go, I’m afraid to go, who am I that I should go, or I’m not worthy… what Moses is doing is just making excuses to avoid doing what God was calling him to do. But God knew that. And so, God calms Moses’ fears and sets aside his excuses, and simply says “I will be with you.” Of course, Moses isn’t done making excuses, but God patiently responds, teaches Moses what he must do, and what he must say, so that he is prepared and equipped to do God’s work.

And when we read the story about Peter’s rebuke of Jesus in Matthew 16:21-28, and put it in context, instead of just reading a few verses at a time as we often do on Sunday morning, we discover that the motivation of Peter’s famous rebuke of Jesus could easily have had roots in his feelings of unworthiness. We remember that this story immediately follows the passage we read last week when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter and declared that “on this rock I will build my church.” And with that in mind, let us continue reading with where it says…

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Knowing that Peter’s actions immediately follow the events we discussed last week in which Jesus told Peter that “on this rock I will build my church,” it isn’t hard to imagine that at least a part of his knee-jerk response to Jesus teaching that he must die, is a reaction to his understanding that without Jesus, Peter would be the one responsible to take charge of the other disciples and of Jesus’ ministry in general. It’s one thing to consider what might happen in the future, but our reaction, even to those events for which we planned, can be quite different when faced with the reality of them happening. It was one thing for Jesus to tell Peter that one day he would be in charge, and quite another to announce that he was on his way to Jerusalem to make that happen. In the latter case, Peter reacts by saying, “This shall never happen!” Peter says, ‘No way Jesus! I want you to always be in charge.’

Peter, like Moses, despite planning for the day when Jesus would no longer be with them, doesn’t want the responsibility of carrying out those plans and rebukes Jesus for saying that it was about to happen. No way Jesus, I don’t want to be in charge yet. But Jesus’ reaction to Peter is much sterner than God’s was to Moses. While God patiently told Moses that he would be with him, and answered many of his questions, Jesus calls Peter’s resistance an attack of Satan and calls Peter himself a stumbling block to Jesus and his ministry. Whether we say that Peter’s resistance was hesitancy, or reluctance, or making excuses, Jesus condemns his actions as being focused only on human concerns and not being sufficiently mindful of the concerns of God.

But once again, we ask ourselves, why does this matter? What do Moses’ excuses, or Peter’s reluctance, or any of this have to do with us? And that is what Paul is getting at in his letter to the church in Rome as we hear these words in Romans 12:9-21:

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul emphasizes that love simply isn’t love unless it is sincere. Love that is faked might be beneficial, but it isn’t love and the recipients of that fake love will know the difference. Real love, honors others above ourselves. We cannot just be motivated; we must be zealous for our cause so that we can maintain our spiritual fervor. 

Do you hear the words that Paul is using here? They aren’t average, common, boring, monotonous, or plain vanilla. Paul uses words like love, sincerity, hate, cling, devotion, zeal, and fervor. These are words that express strength, power, energy, and excitement. Our faith was never meant to be boring, and it shouldn’t be, if we’re doing it right. Paul encourages us to bless the people around us, even if they aren’t nice to us in return, to share life with others, to live in harmony and not to be proud or conceited, but to be willing to associate with “people of low position” who are often looked down upon by our culture.

But don’t be misled by Paul’s encouragement to honor others above ourselves, to not be proud, and to associate with people of low position. We should not misunderstand these instructions to mean that we are not worthy. Jesus often set aside his own needs so that he could care for the needs of others. He wasn’t proud, and he wasn’t afraid to associate with all sorts of outcasts.

Rather, it is because we are worthy, because God has chosen us, because we have been adopted into God’s family, that we should engage the people around us regardless of their social class. Like Moses and Peter, God will not allow us to use “worthiness” as an excuse to get out of the work he as placed in front of us.

It is because we are worthy that we must never be lacking in zeal and be continually motivated to serve others so that we can overcome evil with good and call all the worlds’ people to repentance.

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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.™