Street

Losing Focus

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Losing Focus

October 11, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 32:1-14          Matthew 22:1-14       Philippians 4:1-9


As I was growing up, there were several things that happened consistently on Sunday. There was always church, followed by our family Sunday dinner, and then Dad would watch golf and take a nap. It was quite a few years before I realized how well naps paired with watching golf on television. Golf has a pace that is different than nearly every other sport. If you fall asleep watching any other sport, you wake up wondering what important things you missed. But in golf, once they flash the current scores, you’re pretty much caught up. As a spectator, focus seems to be less important for the sport of golf than for any other.

But for many other things, focus is critical. I used to work with welders, and you learn quickly not to interrupt them while they are controlling an arc and running a bead. You can’t weld and hold a conversation at the same time. If their attention is required, they stop welding, say what needs to be said, and then return their focus to what they were doing. Farming is similar. To plow a field straight you have to focus on the path ahead. Jesus once said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) And farmers will tell you that this makes sense because once you look away from path ahead, the line that you are plowing goes crooked. And it is this same loss of focus that we see as we return to the story of Israel’s escape from Egypt in Exodus 32:1-14 where we hear this:

32:1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

As we heard in last week’s message, there was a gap between what was familiar and what was not. Learning how God wanted the people of Israel to live was new and unfamiliar. Moses, who had been raised in Pharaoh’s house and had been absent for forty years, was unfamiliar. But Aaron, who had grown up among them, and had lived among them for the forty years that Moses had been absent, was known to the people and was familiar to them. Likewise, worshiping idols that represented the gods of Egypt was familiar, even if they hadn’t personally worshiped those gods.

And so, when Moses goes up the mountain to speak with Israel’s God and does not come back for days and even weeks, the people grow impatient and afraid. They lose focus. Rather than focusing on the path forward, on what God had done for them, the miracles that they had seen, and the leadership that Moses had shown them, they focused instead upon their fear. And reacting in fear, they demanded that Aaron make them gods that were familiar. But this loss of focus led them all to stray from God’s path and God became angry enough to destroy them all and start over with Moses as he had with Abraham. Thankfully, Moses appeals to God on behalf of the people, reminds God of his promises to them, and God relented and did not bring disaster.

Then, in Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus offers a parable that gives us a glimpse into eternity and the Kingdom of God.

22:1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

A group of people were invited to the wedding of the king’s son. They all knew about it. They knew when it would be. They had time to prepare and make whatever arrangements they had to make. But when the king’s servant came to tell them it was time to attend the banquet, they refused to come. That stops us short. While we live in a constitutional republic with democratically elected leaders and are thousands of miles and hundreds of years separated from any kind of monarchy, we understand saying ‘no’ to the king is not a good plan. Even today, the king or queen of England has an annual Royal Command Performance for which even American entertainers are loathe to refuse despite not being under any obligation to a British ruler.

But not only do those who were invited refuse to attend, when the king sends more servants to be more insistent, and tell them that the dinner is being prepared, they mistreat and even kill some of the king’s servants. As one might expect, this did not go over well with the king. In the end, the king not only destroys those who refused to attend the banquet, he fills the banquet hall with people off the streets who would normally never set foot in the king’s palace. At some point, the people who had been invited lost focus. They forgot that they had an obligation to the king. They assumed that their business was more important than doing what the king had called them to do. And their arrogance cost them their lives.

A similar thing happens in real life in the church at Philippi and causes Paul to write a letter to remind them of the things that were of real importance. We hear this in the words of Philippians 4:1-9 when Paul says:

4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Paul reminds everyone in the Philippian church that he loves them all, longs to return to see them again, is proud of them, and holds them up as one of his greatest achievements. But then he immediately begs two leaders of the church, women with whom he has labored alongside for the cause of Jesus Christ, and who he knows he will see in eternity, to please stop fighting. But notice how Paul began that request. Before Paul pleads with Euodia and Syntyche, he says, “stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends.”

Of course, the original texts did not include punctuation. Our modern translators have added it to help make our reading easier. But I wonder, in this case, where the translators have concluded that sentence with an exclamation point, if we wouldn’t understand it better if it were a colon. That first sentence really doesn’t include an object. Paul says, “stand firm in this way” but doesn’t say in what way. But if we read that sentence as ending in a colon, then what we hear is “stand firm in this way: please stop arguing with one another and be of the same mind in the Lord.”

When Israel got impatient, they lost focus and they moved away from God and were rescued from destruction by Moses. When the people who had been invited to the king’s banquet became selfish and self-focused, they lost sight of their obligations to the king and brought about their own destruction. And in the church in Philippi, people were losing their focus on God by focusing instead on their personal differences. And that is the same sort of thing that happens in churches every day. We would do well to take Paul’s advice to heart. Rather than allowing our neighbors to witness our arguments, let them instead see gentleness, prayer, thanksgiving, and the peace of God. Rather than finding ways to divide us, think about things that are pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

You can’t weld and hold a conversation at the same time.

You can’t plow a straight furrow through your field if you shift your focus from the path ahead.

And we cannot be effective at doing the work to which we have been called if we lose focus.

Let’s keep our hands on the plow… and focus on Jesus.

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

New Birth

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New Birth

Age and Maturity are Not the Same

October 2026

by John Partridge

In this Sunday’s bulletin, we welcomed three new babies (children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren) to our extended church family. And, especially since one of those is my own grandson, this got me thinking about new birth in a spiritual sense as well as in the physical sense. Physical new birth is easy to understand because we can see it, touch it, feed it, and hear it cry when it’s hungry. But spiritual new birth is trickier. Unless we are physically present when someone puts their faith in Jesus (and even then, only if they did so out loud), we don’t automatically know that anything happened. Being born of the spirit doesn’t present physical evidence. No one’s hair changes color, Hebrew or Greek symbols or tattoos don’t magically appear, nor any other outward and visible sign.

This can be a problem because when visitors come to our church, and when those visitors return and become regular in attendance, we can’t determine how grown up or mature they are spiritually simply by looking at them. And because we can’t, we often assume that visitors and new members are more mature than they really are. If we knew that they were only exploring the idea of faith, or that the had only recently chosen to follow Jesus, or had little spiritual teaching or education, we might guide them to appropriate classes, books, and other resources. But often, because many of us grew up in church, we assume a level of spiritual maturity based on their apparent physical maturity, because that is our lived experience. That assumption of maturity then causes us to miss the opportunity to offer guidance, and the lack of guidance can cause new Christians to feel overwhelmed or lost and drift away or lose their faith.

But the trouble isn’t just that newborn spiritual babies don’t look like babies. It’s that our spiritual growth isn’t tied to our physical growth at all. So, not only are we ignorant of the spiritual maturity of our visitors, but we are also similarly ignorant of the people in the church that we’ve known for years. Just because someone grew up in the church, went to Sunday school and youth group, doesn’t necessarily mean that they developed spiritually as they developed physically.

At the beginning of my career as a pastor, someone asked me why I build so much scripture into the text of my sermons rather than just referencing the appropriate scripture and then preaching on it. My answer, both then and now, is that although earlier generations may have been able to assume that church members read the Bible at home and knew the stories, my experience is that many folks today simply do not. When I taught the morning children’s message, I occasionally turned to the congregation and asked the adults if they knew this or that story, and most often, a great many did not. And so, rather than assume that the congregation knows the stories well enough to skip them with a passing reference, I prefer to teach it all, build up foundations for those who need it, and reinforce older learning for those who do not.

So, how do we become spiritually mature?

It really isn’t that difficult in principle. We grow in our faith much as we do physically. We eat healthy food, exercise, live in a healthy environment, and growth comes naturally. But doing those things spiritually is not as straightforward as doing them physically. Physically, when we aren’t eating often enough, we get hungry. And when we fill ourselves with food that isn’t healthy, we get tired, sluggish, and out of shape. But there are no obvious signs if we cut corners spiritually. We don’t get physically hungry when we don’t eat spiritual food regularly and we don’t notice that we’re out of shape when we continually fill up on spiritual junk food. And that disconnection is why many churches are filled with physically mature, spiritual children.

How do we avoid becoming one of those?

Easy. And not so easy. To grow, and become spiritually mature, we need to be just as diligent with our personal growth, as the mother of newborn is with their baby’s physical growth. We need to make sure that we eat regularly by going to church, attending Sunday school or Bible study, and going beyond that to read scripture and spend time with God more often than once each week. We wouldn’t dream of trying to eat dinner after church and then skipping dinner until the following Sunday, but “eating” once a week spiritually won’t work either.

When I was an engineer, I discovered that if tuned my radio to Moody Bible Institute, I could listen to Bible teachers in my office all afternoon as I worked. And so, while Patti and I regularly attended church, attended a weekly Bible study in the home of a friend, and read the Bible, suddenly I was at least half-listening to two or three Bible lessons every day. Obviously, that isn’t going to work for everyone, but that was a period of significant growth for me. Even though it only lasted for two or three years, it was only a few years after that when I recognized a call to ministry and began attending seminary.

As I said, that formula isn’t going to work for everyone. And clearly, not everyone is going to hear God calling them into full-time ministry. The point is, that each of us needs to find what works for them and recognize that spiritual maturity doesn’t “just happen” any more than children grow and become responsible adults by accident. We are deliberate in how we raise our children. We feed them on a regular schedule, make sure that they get an adequate amount of sleep, play, cuddle time, and we structure their development in many other ways as well.

Growing into spiritual maturity is no different. It needs structure and deliberate action.

Maybe it’s time for a checkup. Is your soul growing and thriving? Or is it struggling, starving, and barely getting by?

What will we choose?

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Keeping God at a Distance

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Keeping God at a Distance

October 04, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

Long before I ever heard a call to ministry, I was persuaded to co-teach a new Sunday school class at our church for a bunch of us who felt like we just did not “fit” into either of the two existing adult classes. Brian Baer and I shared the responsibility for teaching because he was occasionally required to travel for work, and although I travelled regularly, I was usually, but not always, home on weekends. And so, we had an arrangement that if Brian was teaching and got called away, he would leave our study guide on the table with a bookmark where we had left off, and I would pick it up in Sunday morning and continue. And if I was traveling, the reverse was true. In any case, during that period, one of the lessons that Brian taught struck a chord with me and has stayed with me ever since.

The title of the reading for the week in question was, “Just a thimble-full of God, please.” What the study described was a fire hose sized faucet or Niagara Falls from which believers would receive blessings from God. Such a faucet could pour out the Spirit of God and God’s blessings in unimaginable abundance. And yet, too many believers came to that spigot carrying only thimble and asking God only for a tiny blessing instead because they were afraid that to ask God for more would mean that God’s abundant blessing might cause them change something about the way that they lived. Too many of us would rather live on a starvation ration of God’s blessing, receiving a thimbleful at a time, rather than being immersed in God’s abundance and risk whatever a deeper relationship might require of us.

Too often we think of God’s arrival on earth through Jesus Christ as a sort of kindly visitation, like having an old friend over for tea and scones. But that is not the picture that scripture paints for us. Rather than sharing a table for tea, the arrival of Jesus on earth is described as something more akin to a beachhead at Normandy at the invasion of France. Jesus’ arrival on earth is the beginning of God’s invasion to take back the world from the control of Satan, and the business of his church is to capture as much territory and save as many people as we possibly can. None of that fits into the idea that we have of sharing a quiet cup of tea. But the calmer image, much like the image of a “thimbleful of God” allows us to keep God at arm’s length and not get so close that something might be required of us. This isn’t new. We see this same image early in scripture and we find it as we continue reading the story of Exodus in Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 where it says:

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.”

We are all familiar with the ten commandments, but what I find interesting considering today’s discussion is that no one had any issue with God laying down some rules. No one complained about God restricting their freedom or anything else. The thing with which people took issue was in meeting God personally. They told Moses that the rules were okay, but they wanted to use Moses to meet God so they didn’t have to it themselves, so they could keep God at arm’s length, and insulate them from God’s presence. But Moses sees through their maneuvering, understands that the root of their negotiations was fear, and says, “Do not be afraid.” God’s purpose was to equip the people to live in such a way that sin would not be so easy and automatic.

But there is danger is keeping God at a distance. As we read the story of the landowner and his vineyard in Matthew 21:33-46, we see how doing so can affect our attitudes toward God. Jesus said:

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.

We know that the landowner in the story is God. He plants a vineyard, builds a winepress, a wall, and a watchtower, and then rents the whole thing out so that someone else can reap the harvest and return a little back to the builder. But the tenants hadn’t seen him for a long time. It may have been for a season, but it may have been several years if it took a while for the vines to mature enough to produce fruit. In any case, the rent was due. And rather than collecting a monthly or yearly rent at a flat rate, even while the vines were not producing grapes, the rent was due as a percentage of the crop.

But when servants of the landowner arrive to collect the rent, the renters act as if they own the land. The landowner had been distant for so long, they felt justified in treating the landowner’s servants as if they were trespassers, or worse. And then, when the landowner’s son comes, they threw him out and killed him. The story is obviously outrageous. But one might imagine that, at this point, the renters assumed that the landowner had been gone for so long that he was never coming back and that they could do whatever they wanted. Because the landowner had been distant from the renters for so long, they made assumptions that were totally wrong.

And speaking as someone who had dedicated their life to being a Pharisee, Paul understood exactly what those wrong assumptions looked like from the inside. But Paul’s assumptions got scrambled, thrown out, and rewritten when he met Jesus on the road to persecute Christians in Damascus and he explains what the realignment of his values looked like in Philippians 3:4b-14 as he writes to the church in Philippi, Greece saying:

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 in Christ—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 says that he threw out his entire value system and everything that he once built his life upon he now considers worth less than garbage. Instead, he has found that following Jesus is so incredibly valuable, that nothing he had before can even come close. Any goodness that we have in the eyes of God comes only from our faith in Jesus Christ and not because of anything that we have done, and not because of how well we were able to follow the rules. But, Paul says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” God has called us to follow him for a reason. God has a purpose and a mission for each one of us. The birth of Jesus Christ was the beachhead upon which God was invading the world and our mission is to take back control from God’s enemies, capture as much territory as possible, and save as many people as we possibly can.

God never intended for us to keep him distant at arm’s length so that we could forget who he was. Jesus’ arrival on earth was a reminder to us that God is present in the here and now and his spirit has taken up residence within each one of us. We can’t subcontract our faith. God would not allow the people of Isreal to make Moses a spiritual intermediary, and neither can we use pastors to insulate us from getting close to God. With the coming of Jesus, and his sending of the Spirit of God at Pentecost, our relationship with God is as personal as it could possibly be.

God cannot be kept at a distance or at arm’s length.

Each one of us has a calling and a mission to advance the kingdom of God.

We must do whatever is possible to change the world, capture territory from the enemy, and save as many people as we possibly can.

And neither Moses, nor your pastor, can do the work that God has called you to do.

*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.™

Fear, Cowardice, and Moving Forward

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Fear, Cowardice, and Moving Forward

September 27, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 17:1-7            Matthew 21:23-32     Philippians 2:1-13

Today we start out, not with a quiz, but with a question that cannot be answered except for in the moment that you experience it. The question is this…

… What do you do with your fear?

How do you react when you are afraid? The famous scientific insight that everyone knows about human physiology is the “fight of flight” reaction. As soon as the amygdala of our brain detects a threat, our fear triggers a rush of adrenaline and cortisol, our heart beats faster, blood flows away from the higher thinking parts of our brain, away from our skin, away from our stomach, and instead flows to provide more oxygen to our major muscle groups. The result primes our bodies to either run for our lives or to fight like it’s the end of the world.

But which will it be?

Planning and training can have an influence, but every individual is unique and it is difficult to know how they will react until faced with a particular situation. Instinct certainly plays a part just we know that adults of many species, especially parents, are famous for protecting their children, even when facing impossible odds and almost certain death.

In the movie True Grit, John Wayne famously said, “Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway.”

In the end, fear is not a theoretical question. At some point, we all face it. In many ways we face it every day. We experience fear when we go to school for the first time, or on the first day of a new school year, or the first day of new job, or when meeting a new boss, or signing legal forms that obligate us for decades into the future, or just reading or listening to the days news, or trying to balance our checkbooks after buying gasoline and groceries. Fear is not theoretical, it is very real, and we face it, in some form, every day.

But what do we do with it?

And that’s where we rejoin the people of Israel in the story of their exodus from Egypt, this time, having had God provide both quail and manna to eat, they once again grumble against Moses because of the lack of water. We hear this in the words of Exodus 17:1-7:

17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So, Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah [quarrelling] and Meribah [testing] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

You should remember from last week that the people complained about not having enough food and, once again, God provided. Rational people might expect that after being rescued from slavery, walking across the Red Sea on dry ground, being rescued from the pursuing Egyptian army, and then being fed, daily, with quail and bread from heaven, or manna, that the people would begin to trust that God had a plan to provide for them. But no. Instead, they doubled down on their complaining and now they grumbled and escalated their complaining into outright quarrelling and arguing and accusing Moses, again, of bringing everyone out into the desert to die, this time because they did not have enough water. And, once again, God provides.

As we look at the pattern, we begin to suspect that the reason that the people of Israel complained and argued with Moses was not only because of their lack of trust, but also simply because they were afraid. Yes, Moses was born to Israelite parents, but he was raised in Pharoah’s house and then had been banished from Egypt for forty years. He was unfamiliar to nearly everyone and they had good reason to be hesitant with their trust. Likewise, the people had prayed to the God of Israel for hundreds of years and had little or no experience with God speaking to them in return. Although the acts and miracles of God were powerful and amazing, this too was all a new experience for them. Trust is not something that happens overnight, but hunger, thirst, and death in the desert were things with which they were all familiar. And so, when they tested God and asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” What they were also asking was, “Do we have reason to be afraid?”

But then, keeping this in mind as we read the story surrounding Jesus’ parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:23-32, we once again see fear as an underlying cause, but in it we see an entirely different reaction to that fear.

23 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”

24 Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

As the chief priests and the elders of Israel talk among themselves, they admit that they are afraid of the people and that they know that the people believe that John’s baptism was a gift from God. But everyone on both sides knew that the priests and elders did not believe in John’s message of repentance. But believing John’s message carried its own flavor of fear. If the leaders of Israel believed John’s message, as well as the message of Jesus, then they would have to change. Change how they behaved, change how they acted, change how the Temple did business, change their relationships with the people, change their relationship with the Romans, and each of those changes felt just like change feels today. Scary. The leaders of Isreal were not only afraid of the people, not only afraid that the people’s beliefs did not align with their own, but they were deathly afraid of change.

And then Jesus tells them the parable of the two sons and accuses them of being the son that promised obedience but did nothing. Worse, Jesus confronts them with the fabulously insulting truth that tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the Kingdom of God ahead of Israel’s leaders because even when they witnessed how tax collectors and prostitutes were redeemed and brought back to a right relationship with God, they cowardly clung to their fear of change and still refused to believe.

But as we look at these two stories of fear, how should we understand our own? And once again, we find wisdom in the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Philippi recorded for us in Philippians 2:1-13 where he says:

2:1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Paul concludes an earlier argument with a series of statements that begin with “if you have any” meaning that if you have gained any benefit at all from belonging to Jesus and this community of faith, then find a way to act in unity, to love one another and the people around you, and to set aside selfishness or conceit so that you can look out for the interests of others instead of your own. The people of the church should aspire to treat one another as Jesus would.

But then, as if that wasn’t hard enough, Paul says something even more difficult. He says that we should continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And sometimes when we read this, we wrestle with what he meant by the words “fear and trembling.” And so, here I want to go back to the kinds of fear that we just talked about for the last fifteen minutes and the differences between them. The people of Israel were afraid. They were afraid of starving, they were afraid of dying of thirst in the desert, and they complained about it, and they argued with Moses about it, and they asked what God was going to do about it. We criticize them for complaining, and so does Moses, and so does scripture. But when we compare it to the fear that we saw in Israel’s leaders when they confronted Jesus, there is a stark difference.

When Israel faced Moses, they confronted their fear, they asked God what they should do about it, and together they worked through it. But centuries later when Israel’s leaders faced Jesus, they were just as afraid, they faced similar life changing, culture altering shifts in the world they lived in, but the leaders in the time of Jesus simply refused to believe what they were seeing. They didn’t believe John’s message, they didn’t believe Jesus, and it never occurred to them to ask God what they should do about it or attempt work through it together. Instead, they ignored what they saw in front of them, pretended that the miracles that they witnessed never happened, and moved to protect the status quo.

And that difference, I think, is what Paul means when he says that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Faith isn’t always easy. Sometimes life throws stuff at us that makes us afraid, and sometimes outright terrified, and sometimes our fear makes us face our doubts. But working out our salvation with fear and trembling is a mirror of Israel’s confrontation with Moses. Yes, we are afraid. Yes, we have doubts. But rather than pretending that we have never received good from God, rather than pretending that we have never received benefit, or love, or compassion from being a part of this community of faith, and casting aside our salvation, we should ask God what we should do about it, whining and complaining if necessary, and find a way to work through our fear and our doubts together… with fear and trembling.

“For it is God who works in you” so that you can think and act in ways that fulfil his good purpose for your lives.

It is normal to experience fear.

It’s okay to be afraid.

But what you do with your fear makes all the difference if we are to move forward.

Will it be fight or flight?

Will you cast God aside, or will you work through your fear with him?

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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.™

God Provides, People Complain

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God Provides, People Complain

September 20, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Exodus 16:2-15          Matthew 20:1-16       Philippians 1:21-30

It is said that the only things in life that are certain are death and taxes. But, in my own experience, I suggest that there is a third certainty in any situation that involves humans, and that is… complaining. At every employer for which I have worked, including churches, regardless of how bad or how well, things were going there at the time, if you listened, pretty much everyone had something that they could, and often would, complain about. There is both humor and tragedy in that, and we can, with certainty, know that this is not simply a recent, or even a cultural development, but something that is common to all of humanity throughout time. As proof, we return to the story of the people of Israel 45 days after God freed them from their captivity in Egypt, and probably not long after God parted the waters of the Red Sea and destroyed the Army of Egypt that sought to recapture them. As we return to the story in Exodus 16:2-15, we hear this:

16:1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning, you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”

9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”

10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.

11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning, you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer [about three pounds] for each person you have in your tent.’”

17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

No sooner had God rescued them, and they stopped running for their lives, God’s people started complaining. As many of us have done, they minimized the negative and exaggerated the positive. In this case, they immediately minimized the suffering that they had endured at the hands of the Egyptians and exaggerated the abundance that they had, complaining that, as slaves, they had pots full of meant and all the food they could eat. And so, God decided to test the people of Israel by providing them with food to eat in the form of quail in the evening, and thin flakes of bread that they called manna, which literally means “What is it?”

Our next example is a story that Jesus told as an example of what God’s kingdom is like in Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus said:

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So, when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last, the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Since this is a story that describes the kingdom of heaven, we can understand that the landowner in the story is God himself. And as Jesus tells the story, he is well aware that the nature of human beings is to complain, even when God is honoring his promises, doing good things, and benefiting everyone involved. In the story, each worker is given exactly what they were promised, and yet they complain that the workers who were hired early in the day were paid unfairly.

In both the example from Exodus and from Jesus’ own story explaining what God’s kingdom is like, what we find is that even when God provides for his people, they will still find a way to complain about it. But in both cases, the example is given not to tell us that complaining is acceptable and normal, but that even though it is common, it is inappropriate, rude, and ungrateful. But if that is the case, then what is the right way to respond to God’s generosity and how we live our lives? And that is exactly what Paul explains to the church on Philippi as we read from Philippians 1:21-30.

21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved – and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Paul says that although he lives in Christ and is able to do fruitful labor for God as he does so, he would gain from death because he would go to live with Jesus in the kingdom of God. That said, he knew that his life was a benefit to church so that the people could grow in Christ because of his words and actions. But Paul notes that the people of the church should conduct themselves in a manner that was worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ no matter what circumstance, good or bad, that they found themselves in. Paul desired that the people of the church would stand firm in their faith, work together in unity, and not be frightened by anyone who might oppose or stand against them. Paul said that even though we have been called to believe in Jesus Christ, we have also been called to suffer and struggle for him.

Life isn’t always going to be perfect, and it isn’t always going to be neat and tidy. Sometimes it is going to be uncomfortable, sometimes, we will suffer, and sometimes life will be messy. But in each case, complaining about God’s choices and God’s provision is not the best choice. Although we all know that complaining is a deep-seated part of our humanity, it does not contribute to our growth. Worse, complaining about God’s provision is, rude, ungrateful, and inappropriate.

No matter what we face in life, regardless of whether we are showered with blessings, or whether we struggle and suffer, our calling is to stand together in unity, do the work that God has set before us, stand firm in our faith, and live lives that are worthy of Jesus and the gift of life that he has given to us.

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

Appropriate Guilt?

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Appropriate Guilt?

August 16, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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*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.™

When Plans Fail

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When Plans Fail

August 02, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Jacob,” he answered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.™

Choosing Slavery

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Choosing Slavery

June 28, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Here I am,” he replied.

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

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

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

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

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

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

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

“Here I am,” he replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*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.™

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Life and Death Choices

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Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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*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.™

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Resumé, Request, Blessing, Mission

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Resumé, Request, Blessing, Mission

May 17, 2026*

(Seventh Sunday of Easter)

By Pastor John Partridge

John 17:1-11              Acts 1:6-14                 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

If you are like me, many of you have changed jobs from time to time. As a young person, the first time you apply for jobs, the process is intimidating, unfamiliar, awkward, and uncomfortable. But the second time the process feels more familiar, and by the third or fourth time, you understand the process well enough to feel the flow of it, to anticipate what will happen next, and almost read the minds of the people interviewing you. There is a current that flows between the initial contacts that are made and the work that is performed after you are hired to do the job. And, as I read our scripture passages for today, it is that flow that came to mind, and that process that you will see as we read, digest, and understand the path that the disciples, the followers of Jesus Christ, and we ourselves follow from the time we meet Jesus until he sends us out to do the work of God’s kingdom.  We begin this morning by reading John 17:1-11, as Jesus prays with, and for, his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion.

17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

6 “I have revealed youto those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power ofyour name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

As Jesus prays to his father, it is as if he reads his resume and reminds God of the work that he has done during his time on the earth. And afterward, he requests that God return him to the glory that he had with God before the world began. Next, Jesus prays over the resume of his disciples, as if reminding God of who they are, what they have done, and what Jesus had taught them and given to them. And again, afterward, Jesus requests that God would protect them so that they would be unified in spirit, purpose, and mission for the kingdom work that they would be sent to do.

But, before that could happen, Jesus concluded his time on earth, ascended into heaven, and returned to his father. But only a moment before he did so, he made a promise and assigned a mission to them, both the promise and the mission have been passed on to us. We hear this in the words of Acts 1:6-14:

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walkfrom the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Jesus is plain in saying that there are limits to God’s willingness to share the details of his plans for the future. While he called the disciples in the first century, and calls us today, it is not for us to know when God will choose to do the things that God will do. The important thing is that God promises to give us the power to do the things that he calls us to do, and that our mission is to carry his story and message of hope to the ends of the earth. Like the disciples, we cannot simply stand around, looking up at the sky, waiting for Jesus to return. Instead, we must wait in anticipation, and busy ourselves with the work that must be done until the time of his return.

But doing the work to which God has appointed us will not always be easy. In his letter of 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11, the apostle Peter gives the people of the church some advice on how we should live in order to accomplish the work of the kingdom, saying:

4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Peter reminds the people of the church that they should not be surprised that an ordeal of suffering had come to test them. Instead, rather than complain, flee, or quit, he encouraged them to rejoice that they cold share their suffering with Jesus and be happy that they would be rewarded on the day of Christ’s return. If we are insulted because of our faith in Jesus, Peter says, that is a sign that the Spirit of God’s glory, and the Spirit of God itself rests upon you.

Moreover, rather than being proud, or arrogant, that you are a follower of the Jesus and a follower of the most high, creator God, humble yourself before God and let him lift you in praise as he sees fit at a time of his choosing. Instead of worrying and being anxious about your life, trust the God that cares for you, and let him carry the burden of your anxiety and fear. Your job is to be alert to the manipulations of the enemy because he prowls the earth looking for ways that he can deceive, subvert, mislead, and consume the followers of Jesus Christ. Resist these temptations that are so common in our culture and stand firm in the faith that you share with many who are suffering. In the end, although God may allow you to suffer temporarily, he will ultimately restore you in body, mind, and spirit.

As we have seen in our scriptures today, there is often a process with God just as there is when we seek employment. God has seen our resume and Christ himself has prayed that God would protect you and bless you so that the followers of Jesus Christ might be one with God and be united and unified in purpose. We won’t always know the plans that God has for our future, but God promises to give us the power to do the things that he calls us to do. Our lives, as the followers of Jesus Christ, are not guaranteed to be filled with roses, and rainbows, and unicorns, but may often have its share of discomfort, suffering, insults, and fiery ordeals. But we rest in the knowledge that as we suffer, we share in the suffering of Jesus, and we are invited to humble ourselves, and let him carry the burden of our anxiety and fear.

Our calling is to stand firm in our faith and to resist the enemy of our souls, to be alert for his attempts to deceive, mislead, and tempt us to wander from the path of truth. Our mission is to carry the good news of Jesus Christ and his message of hope, healing, and restoration to the ends of the earth.

Just like finding a new job and building a career, it isn’t something that happens overnight. It is a path. It is a process. And it is a journey that we must choose to travel…

…one step at a time, one day after another, until at last we meet Jesus at the throne of grace.

Until then, let us do as the disciples did so long ago, let us pray together, worship together, and work together to rescue the lost, and do the work of God’s kingdom.

*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 Vexels.com on FreeImages