The Future and Fear

June 1, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, fear, future, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, safe, safe place, safety, United, United Methodist

The Future and Fear

(Sixth Sunday after Easter)

June 01, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

John 14:23-29 Acts 16:9-15 Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5

Where is your “safe place?”

Many creatures, including humans, have a safe place to which they retreat when they are frightened or stressed. Our cats can usually be found in predictable places, our dogs vary a little but, depending on the dog, it might be in their crate, or under the bed, under our feet in the living room, or on the sofa pressed as close to Patti’s lap as possible. Horses will often head for the barn, birds will huddle in their nests, rabbits in their underground warrens. For us humans, our safe place is usually somewhere at home, but it might also be in a boat out on the water, hiking in the woods, somewhere out on the golf course, or somewhere else. For each if us it’s the place where we retreat from the world, put our problems and fears behind us, and where we can just be comfortable being ourselves.

The trouble is that our safe places of retreat from the world do not protect us from our fears of the future. When we retreat to our bedroom, close the door, and hide under the covers of our bed, we still cannot shut out our fears of homelessness, financial ruin, sickness, violence, and other concerns. But what if there was such a place where our fears could be erased? What if there was a way to put our concerns and fears aside and know that our future was going to be okay after all?

The good news for today, and always, is that scripture tells us that there is such a place, and there is a way to know the future. We begin this morning reading the words of Jesus found in John 14:23-29 where John tells us this:

²³Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

²⁵“All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

²⁸“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

Jesus begins by describing an “if-then” transaction, if you love me, then you will obey my teaching. But, if you love me and obey me, then God will love you, his spirit will enter into you and make his home with you. And the gift that we receive when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us is a gift of peace, and a heart free from worry, concern, and fear. My friends, we worship a God who goes before us and prepares a way for us. An example of how God goes before us can be found in Acts 16:9-15 in which God calls Paul and his companions to travel to Macedonia. Paul doesn’t know how he will get there, who he will meet, how he will find them, where he will stay, what he will eat, or anything else that we would normally worry about, and yet, God has it all covered.

⁹During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

¹¹From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. ¹²From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that districtof Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

¹³On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

In this example, Paul’s primary concern is obedience to God, but we remember the message that we just read in John where Jesus says, if they obey by teaching, then God will love them, and the Holy Spirit will go with them. Paul receives a call from God and sets out to obey. I am certain that he still had questions about where he was going but he goes anyway. They eventually arrive, spend a few days in the district of Macedonia and then find their way to river to pray on the Sabbath. Because it was the practice of the Jews to bathe, if possible, in living water, or moving water, as a means of purification, it was common for the followers of God in distant places to gather by rivers and other streams of water. And so, on the Sabbath, Paul and his companions find their way to the river to worship and pray, and to seek out any others in that place who might also share their faith in God. And so it is that they meet Lydia, a businesswoman, and as they share the gospel message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, Lydia believes, and she, and her entire household, are baptized. And, having done so, Lydia invites Paul, and his companions, to stay in her home and to eat her food while they are in Macedonia.

Paul heard God’s call and was obedient even though he had no idea what he would do, where he would live, or much of anything else. But even before God called him, God was already preparing a way for Paul and his companions and, by the time Paul arrived, there was a heart that was open to hear, a place to stay, and food to eat. The example of scripture tells us that we can trust God if only we have the faith to be obedient to his calling on our lives. But what about the future? What can we know about our eternal destination? In the end, God isn’t just calling us to ministry in Macedonia, but to a lifetime of faithfulness. Jesus promises us a life of peace without fear, but death, and what lies beyond the veil of death is a source of fear for many people and our worry about what comes next can destroy our peace. So, what can we know about what awaits us on the distant shore of eternal life? In Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5, John was able to see our future home and he described his experience this way:

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

^22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Every city that has been built with walls for protection has included gates that could be closed to prevent the enemies of the people from entering. It was common, even normal, for the gates to be closed after dark when the guards were unable to see well enough to defend them properly. But John says that the gates of the new Jerusalem will never be shut because the light of God’s glory illuminates the city so well that it is always in daylight. Moreover, it is always safe in God’s city, no enemy, no impurity, no shame, deceit, or anything else will never enter it so that all who dwell within its walls will always live in peace and safety.

But John also tells us that the source of the river of life, which we heard about last week when Jesus said that all who are thirsty will drink the water of life. The source of life, John says, flows out from the throne of God and, as the river flows through the center of the street, the food from the tree of life grows abundantly, the leaves of the trees are able to heal the nations so that all may live together in peace, all curses are removed, and God’s people will be purified, forgiven, fed, healed, and blessed so that they can live without fear in safety and freedom for all time as they serve God.

Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” And, anyone who is obedient, will be blessed by God, in both this life and in the next. God will dwell within us, prepare a way for us in this life, and prepare a home without fear for us in the next. We need not have any fear for our future; we only need to listen for God’s voice and obey his call on our lives.

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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.™

Year in Review: 2024

March 6, 2025 PastorPartridge Blogs 2024, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, difference, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Methodist, neighborhood, Ohio, outreach, United

2024 Year in Review

by John Partridge

Once again, our “End of Year” reports have been filed with the East Ohio Annual Conference office. And so, as always, this seems like a suitable time to look at how we did and how things are going. Of course, numbers don’t tell us everything, but I think we had a good year overall.

We began 2024 with 281 members. Over the course of the year, we lost only one member to death and one to transfer, which is much less than in most previous years. In addition, we added six new members, which again, is one more than the previous year. So, we ended the year with 285 members. As I mentioned last year, our survival as a church depends upon us inviting new people to worship, connecting them to small groups and other ministries of the church, so that they eventually feel that becoming a member is an easy decision.

I had expected that our attendance would increase, and it did, but perhaps not as much as I had hoped. But, regardless of my expectations, our average attendance did increase from 70 to 72 and it is always good when we move in a positive direction. Our online attendance via YouTube fell from 36 to 20, likely because we were not streaming during the Advent and Christmas season which normally have more viewers. And our United Women in Faith saw a modest decline in membership falling from 55 to 53. Once again, we saw an increase in attendance with the number of children and youth in attendance increasing from 11 to 13 and overall, Sunday school attendance increasing from 44 to 46. Overall, given our average attendance in worship, the number of persons attending Sunday school is astounding in comparison to national averages.

After seeing a seven percent decline in giving last year, this year we stayed almost flat with a 63-dollar decline. This is good news compared to last year, but as we all know, our expenses aren’t going down any time soon, so this remains a concern. Worse, since our church will no longer sell our burgers in the park during the Carnation Days festival, we can already project a decline in that income for this year.

Our Facebook page has stayed the same with 298 followers and, despite our current livestream hiatus, our YouTube channel has increased from 123 subscribers to 137. Our online sermon webpage gets about 71 visits per week with a slight increase over last year, those same sermons are sent out to 447 subscribers by email, which is an increase of 147 over last year. Of those, about 10 percent actually open the emails, which is about 45 people, and that’s down a little from last year.

So, what does all that mean?

It means that we are still relevant, and people are still finding value in what we do. It means that Christ Church is connected to 13 ministries for outreach, justice, and mercy for the poor and the socially marginalized. One of the informal questions that has been used for years has been, “If your church disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in your neighborhood notice?” And clearly, the answer to that is a resounding “Yes.” Many of our neighbors rely on us to get through each week and that means that what we are doing is important. It also means that, through our online presence, we are having an impact far beyond the walls of our church even if we might never meet the people with whom we are connecting. And in a world where declining attendance is normal, our attendance is increasing, and the average age of our congregation is shifting younger.

These are all good things. But we still have challenges in front of us. Our expenses will continue to go up and the loss of many older givers has hurt us. If attendance and giving does not increase, we will soon be faced with the necessity of cutting our budget and staff. We hope that we will not need to make these hard choices. But I know that the people of Christ Church believe in what we are doing so I hope that each of us will continue to invite our friends and neighbors and spread the word about how we are making a difference in downtown Alliance.

Overall, the good things that we are seeing outweigh the negatives. We are doing good. We are growing. We are making a difference and changing the world one life at a time. There is good reason for us to have hope for a brighter future.

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The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, blessing, Broadway, Christ, church, curse, faith, faithful, faithfullness, God, happiness, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, power, resurrection, trust, United, United Methodist, wealth

The Curse of Wealth and Happiness

February 16, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 17:5-10 Luke 6:17-26 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

How many of you, at one time or another, have watched some of the television preachers or televangelists? Most of us have. Although the names have changed over the years, televised church services, and sometimes even just pre-recorded Sunday school lessons, remain a staple of national programming. The problem is that what motivates television stations to air a particular church, or a particular pastor isn’t whether their message is theologically sound or morally edifying, their motivation is based almost entirely on popularity and the ability to sell commercials or, in some cases, to be paid by the churches themselves in such a way that the television station makes money.

And so, as many of you may have noticed, the messages that air on television are often flawed theologically. In particular, many television preachers promote what is referred to as prosperity theology, which is, simply put, if you are prosperous, God must have blessed you, or put another way, if you are genuinely faithful, then God will make you rich. And just in case you haven’t heard me mention this a dozen time before, that message cannot be found in the Bible and is entirely contrary to much of what the Bible actually teaches.

We begin this morning by reading a message from Jeremiah, in which God’s prophet pronounces what might just be one of the most anti-political, and anti-cultural messages of all time. Here, Jeremiah speaks out against anyone who believes that their king, president, political party, or military might will make their lives better, happier, or more prosperous. Worse, Jeremiah declares that anyone who believes those things will be cursed by God. The good news is Jeremiah also teaches us what we need to do if we genuinely want to be blessed by God. We begin this morning by hearing the words of Jeremiah 17:5-10 as Jeremiah declares to the people:

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

¹⁰“I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”

Jeremiah declares that anyone who trusts that the actions of human beings, such as governments or people in positions of power, will make their lives better, or who looks to those people for emotional strength, will be cursed and not blessed because, in most cases, putting our trust in humans is a path toward losing our trust in God. When we do that, God says, we become starved like a bush in the wasteland that never sees prosperity even when it comes to everyone else. However, blessing comes to the people who put their trust and confidence in God. When we do that, we live as if we were a tree planted by a river so that we gain strength and courage even in times of heat and drought.

In the end, God says that what matters is your heart condition. If you trust God, that is what matters. God isn’t going to judge us by which human being we followed but at whether we behaved the way that God has taught us to behave. Moreover, God’s blessing doesn’t come to us because we said the right words, or because we believed the right sorts of cultural things, but because we lived the kind of life that God taught us to live and did the things that God has taught us to do.

And, as much as people sometimes try to dismiss the Old Testament, this is much the same message that Jesus preaches in his sermon in Luke 6:17-26that we now refer to as the beatitudes, where it says:

¹⁷He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, ¹⁹and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

²⁰Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
²²Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴“But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
²⁵Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
²⁶Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

If we look at this well-known message of Jesus with the words of Jeremiah in mind, we can understand the first section about blessings almost as one long, run-on sentence that says that if any of these things that sound bad happen to you because of your faith and trust in Jesus, or because you are doing the things that Jesus taught us to do, then God will bless you. Your blessing might not happen here on earth, but God will give you a reward in heaven. Jesus points out that all these sorts of mistreatment are exactly the sorts of things that happened to the prophets of the Old Testament.

And then, in the second half of the reading, Jesus lists a bunch of things that sound like they would be good things, things that Israel’s culture, and our culture, normally think of as blessings. But these things, wealth, prosperity, comfort, abundant food, laughter, and the admiration of others, Jesus says are warning signs that you are in trouble with God. Why? Because, once again, if we examine Jesus’ words in light of what we read in Jeremiah, it’s because our trust has been misplaced, and we have come to trust humans instead of God. Like Jeremiah, Jesus warns us all that the comforts and temptations of wealth, prosperity, happiness, and the admiration of others can distract us from our faith and obedience to God while the situations that we think of as misfortune, such as poverty, hunger, sadness, and the hostility of others are precisely those things that often shift our focus towards God and compel us to trust God for the things that we need.

And finally, in his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul adds one more thing upon which our faith pivots. Jeremiah preached that we needed to put our trust in God and to live and act the way that God has taught us. Jesus preached that those things that draw us toward God, even if we often think of them as undesirable, are good simply because those misfortunes will become the source of heavenly blessings when God examines our faith. And to these important things, Paul writes to the church in Corinth and adds this pivotal belief in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20:

¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Paul says that our entire faith, as the followers of Jesus Christ, hinges on the central belief that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Although there have been those throughout the centuries that have taught that Jesus did not physically die, or that rising from the dead is impossible, Paul says that our entire faith hinges on this one point. Because if Jesus only swooned, or passed out, and didn’t really die, then our entire faith falls apart. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we believe in nothing because Jesus was a mortal human being the same as us and has no power to rescue us from sin and death. Jesus’ death and resurrection is a core doctrine and belief of our faith and so, that faith must be combined with our faith and trust in God, and our rejection of those things, like wealth, prosperity, comfort, abundant food, laughter, the admiration of others, and the influence and power of politicians, and persons of power that would tempt us to trust in anything other than God.

Prosperity theology and far too many television preachers teach that if you are prosperous, God must have blessed you, or that if you are genuinely faithful, then God will make you rich.

But what the truth of scripture teaches, is that the people who are blessed, trust in God and have confidence in God. But those who put their trust in other human beings, and anything else that distracts us from God will be cursed like a bush in the wastelands and will not see prosperity even when it comes to everyone else.

May we always keep Jesus Christ in the center of our lives and trust only in him.

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A Promise Kept. But Why?

December 24, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, Christ United Methodist, Christmas, Christmas Eve, church, death, faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, keep, kept, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, peace, promised land, Titus, United, United Methodist, war

A Promise Kept. But Why?

(Christmas Eve)

December 24, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 9:2-7 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

We’ve had a great evening of celebration, and we all know that Christmas is a time of joy, wonder, gratitude, and thanksgiving. We give thanks for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, who was and is the rescuer of the world. In the scriptures that were read this evening we heard God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah that the Messiah would bring light to the darkness, freedom to the captives, and peace to the world. When we turn on the news and we hear messages of missiles, bombs, bullets, and warfare around the world, and as our nation spends trillions of dollars to maintain the largest military ever seen on the face of the earth, hearing God’s promise that every warrior’s boot, and every blood-stained garment will be thrown into the fire is a powerful message. It is for us, just as hopeful, and just a powerful as it must have been for the people of Israel so many years ago. But God’s promise didn’t stop there. Isaiah continues by saying that the coming Messiah would take over the government, that he would govern in greatness, that the peace under his rule would never end, and that he would establish, and uphold, justice and righteousness forever. That sounds just as fantastic, impossible, and hopeful in the twenty first century as it must have sounded in in the time of Isaiah eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus.

But Luke tells the story about God keeping the promise that Isaiah had proclaimed. A story of how the savior, Israel’s messiah, had been born, how an angels had announced his arrival to lowly shepherds on a hillside rather than in the halls of the palace, and how an entire choir, a host of angels, had praised and given glory to God, and how, having heard the message, and seen for themselves, the shepherds became the first preachers, heralds, and missionaries and spread the word about the messiah’s arrival.

But why?

Why did these things happen? Why did God promise, and why did God keep his promise? Why did God go to all that effort? Why did God send his own son to earth? Why did God care?

And this evening we heard the answer from God in the words of Titus. It is because of God’s grace that he sent the Messiah. It was and is grace that offers rescue to the people of the world. It is grace that teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and the passions of the world. It is grace that teaches us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while the world spirals into selfishness, lust, greed, and depravity. And it is grace that empowers us as we wait for the fulfillment of our hope in the coming of Jesus Christ because it was Jesus who gave us the gift of himself to redeem us from wickedness, to rescue us from sin and death, and to purify us so that we could become his people. It was Jesus who gave himself so that we could become a people who were eager to do what is good.

The story is just as amazing, fantastic, impossible, hopeful, and wonderful as it has always been. And our mission is the same as that of the shepherds who heard the story from a host of angels on a hillside two thousand years ago. Let us go out from this place glorifying and praising God for all that we have heard and seen and tell the world the good news of our rescue, of God’s grace, and of Jesus’ gift.

Jesus is the greatest gift of all.

It isn’t a story that we could keep to ourselves, nor is it a story that we were ever intended to keep for ourselves. As the angels said, it is good news, of great joy…

…for all the people.

Merry Christmas.

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The Promise of Hope, Peace, and Love

December 22, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, baptism, Baptist, Broadway, Christ, church, Elizabeth, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John the Baptist, love, Luke, Mary, Methodist, offering, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, peace, sacrifice, United, United Methodist

The Promise of Hope, Peace, and Love

December 22, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Micah 5:2-5 Luke 1:39-45 Hebrews 10:5-10

We have often spoken about the grand themes of scripture and, not surprisingly, each week we have focused on one of those themes during the season of Advent, and this week is no different. While we have already, in the first week, mentioned the theme of hope, we visit that theme again as we consider this week’s theme, and look forward to a season of peace both as a nation and as individuals. But one of the consistent messages of scripture that brings hope to the people of God, is God’s reliable character and integrity, and the love that he has demonstrated to us by keeping his promises.

And so, we begin this morning by reading a part of God’s message that was spoken through his prophet Micah. Micah is yet another lesser-known messenger who warned Israel of its coming destruction at the hands of the nation of Babylon seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Micah lived and preached before the time of Jeremiah and at the same time as the prophet Isaiah. Much as we heard in the message of Zephaniah last week, Micah wrote a book with messages of God’s judgement but included among them were messages of restoration, peace, and hope for the future. And that message is what we hear this morning as we read Micah 5:2-5 where God says:

²“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clansof Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.”

³Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.

⁴He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth.

⁵And he will be our peace.

Through his prophet Micah, God declares that the small town of Bethlehem will one day produce a son who is already ancient, a ruler whose origins are from ancient times. And although God speaks of how the nation of Israel will be abandoned, he also promises a time when the people will return. And it is in that day, God says, that this future ruler will rise up, lead his people in the strength and the majesty of God himself, and under his leadership the people will live in security and peace.

And that is the picture and the promise of God that we should have in mind as we remember the story of Mary, already pregnant and carrying Jesus, as she arrives to visit her relative Elizabeth who will soon give birth to John the Baptist. We hear this story in the words of Luke 1:39-45:

³⁹At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

I am certain that those who are skeptical of the claims of the Bible will remind us that it is common for third trimester babies to move about in their mother’s womb. Some move about so often, and so forcefully, that their poor mothers are left a bit battered, bruised, and exhausted. But in Luke’s story, Elizabeth’s baby didn’t just move about, he chose the exact moment of Mary’s arrival and greeting to do so. Elizabeth understands that this is a sign from God that Mary is carrying the savior that was promised by God through the words of Micah and many other of his prophets. And clearly Luke accepts this interpretation and so he includes this story as proof that God keeps his promises, that Jesus is the promised savior, and that God has given us hope for the future.

But aside from hope, what did the coming of Jesus bring to the people of God? What did God hope to accomplish? What were God’s goals? And not only that, what does all of that have to do with us, what does God expect from us, and how is any of that supposed to bring us peace? In Hebrews 10:5-10 Paul explains it this way:

⁵Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;
⁶with burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you were not pleased.
⁷Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
    I have come to do your will, my God.’”

⁸First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

In this, Paul reminds us of Jesus’ own words, that although the laws of Moses required offerings and sacrifices, those were not the things that God desired. Instead, what God wanted was obedience. And so, Jesus said that the reason that he had come was not to make sacrifices on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem, and not to make a lot of money so that he could give offerings to God, but instead the reason that he had come was to do the will of God. Israel’s God was not like the gods of the Greeks and the Romans that needed the gifts and sacrifices of the people to make them powerful.

Instead, Paul explains, that no matter how rich or abundant they might have been, God was not pleased with offerings and sacrifices. Instead, Jesus came to set aside sacrifices so that he could establish a people who would love him enough to be obedient and do the things that God had called them to do. Moreover, Paul says, it is through the will of God, that we have been made holy because it was through the obedience of Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, that we were made holy, were adopted into Jesus’ family, and invited into God’s kingdom.

And so, as we pass through the season of Advent and prepare ourselves for the arrival of God’s messiah, let us consider just a few of the ways in which God has demonstrated his love for us.

We know that we worship a God who always keeps his promises.
We worship a loving God who always cares about the needs of his people.
God’s messiah is described as a loving shepherd who leads his people in strength and majesty to a place of security, safety, and peace.
God does not desire an abundance of sacrifices or expensive gifts and offerings.
God sent his son so that we could be made holy, become members of his family, and enter his kingdom.
Because what God wants is our obedience, he places no priority of rich over poor, or royalty over common peasants. Before God, we are all equal. He only asks that we do what he has taught us and calls us to do.

For these reasons, and many others, we have hope for the future, hope for a day when all nations can live in peace with one another, and find peace within ourselves in the present. But most of all, we can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God loves us, cares for us, watches over us, and wants what is best for us.

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Rejoice: God’s Promise or Restoration and Joy

December 15, 2024December 19, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Advent, Alliance, Baptist, Broadway, Christ, Christ Church, church, faith, fruit, God, imperfect, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, joy, judgement, love, Luke, mercy, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, politicians, religion, rescue, restoration, Rome, suffering, United, United Methodist, Zephaniah

Rome, Religion, Remove, Rejoice

December 15, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Zephaniah 3:14-20 Luke 3:7-18 Philippians 4:4-7

For much of Israel’s history, including today, things were not perfect. While there were lengthy periods of peace, those periods of peace were often under the rule of foreign empires or less than ideal kings. And, if we’re honest, the same thing can be said about much of the world and about much of history. Although we often speak fondly of American history, we also admit that those periods struggled with slavery, discrimination, and the mistreatment of women, minorities, and anyone who failed to fit the mold that society had declared to be normal, as well as denying opportunity and accessibility for persons with disabilities. Whenever we become wistful for “the good old days,” it is always worth considering for whom those days were good.

But all that is simply to say, that throughout history, we nearly always find ourselves looking forward to something better. No matter how good or how peaceful a time each generation finds itself in, there is almost always something that needs to be improved upon and some segment of that society that has been left out of whatever peace and prosperity everyone admires. But in looking forward to something better, we are reminded of the promises that God made to the nation of Israel, to the world, and to us.

We begin this morning reading one such promise recorded about seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, by the prophet Zephaniah, a fourth-generation descendant of Israel’s King Hezekiah and likely a member of Israel’s royalty and frequent visitor to the halls of political power and the king’s court. But the message that Zephaniah delivers is not good news. It is, instead, an announcement of God’s judgement against Israel and the destruction that would come at the hands of the Babylonian empire. And yet, included alongside harsh and explicit descriptions of the suffering that Israel would endure, Zephaniah also proclaims God’s promises of mercy and restoration. And we find these as we read from Zephaniah 3:14-20:

¹⁴Sing, Daughter Zion;
    shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
    Daughter Jerusalem!
¹⁵The Lord has taken away your punishment,
    he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
    never again will you fear any harm.
¹⁶On that day
    they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
    do not let your hands hang limp.
¹⁷The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

¹⁸“I will remove from you
    all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals,
    which is a burden and reproach for you.
¹⁹At that time I will deal
    with all who oppressed you.
I will rescue the lame;
    I will gather the exiles.
I will give them praise and honor
    in every land where they have suffered shame.
²⁰At that time I will gather you;
    at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
    among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes
    before your very eyes,”
says the Lord.

Although Zephaniah proclaims God’s judgement and Israel’s future destruction, he also tells of a time when God will take away their punishment, turn back their enemies, and once again brings peace to his people. Zephaniah says that a day will come when God will deal with all those who oppress the people of Israel, a day when God will rescue the lame, return the exiles from the four corners of the earth, restore their fortunes, and give them praise and honor among the nations of the world.

And God’s people remembered the words of Zephaniah as they waited for the fall of Babylon, and then again during the rule of the Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Romans, and then a dozen other empires throughout history. But clearly, as Luke describes the ministry of Jesus, it is Rome that the people would have had in mind. And in that time, we hear these words in Luke 3:7-18:

⁷John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

¹¹John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

¹²Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

¹³“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

¹⁴Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. ¹⁶John answered them all, “I baptize you withwater. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you withthe Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

Calling the people a brood of vipers is a harsh way of beginning a conversation, but I suspect that although John had been preaching and baptizing for some time, the moment that Luke records for us here is one in which it had become… shall we say… “popular” for people to say that they had seen John. If that is the case, then this is the moment when the politicians, religious leaders, and others who didn’t really care that much about repentance or renewal came to hear John. They hadn’t left their comfortable offices because they were particularly interested in John’s message but had done so because everybody was talking about him, their curiosity was aroused, and because they didn’t want to feel left out of the conversation because they were the only ones who hadn’t seen him.

And so, John sees those who were merely curious mixed in with those who were honestly seeking and he asks then, “Who warned you about the judgement and destruction that is coming?” John tells them that the thing to do is not to wander out into the desert to hear him preach, but to produce the real fruit of real repentance instead of resting on your family history because family history and faithful ancestors is not a plan that’s going to work. John says that God is already moving to cut down the family tree in which you live unless he finds that tree producing fruit.

In answer to several specific questions about what producing fruit looks like, John says that it looks like sharing what you have, not padding your billing, not stealing from others or using your power to extort money from others but to be content with what you are paid honestly. But John goes on to say that the long-awaited messiah is already on the way, and it is he that will bring in God’s harvest and burn up the chaff. And this is important. Everyone there had some idea of who the chaff would have been as God sorted through the people of Israel. They probably assumed that the chaff would be the military that occupied their nation, the politicians that constantly divided the people, and the religious leaders who divided into factions and confused the people about what God taught. But John’s message continued and in it he encouraged the people to repent and change their lives, to follow God, to produce fruit, and proclaimed the good news of God’s rescue.

And while we need to take all of John’s message to heart, today, as we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent, we particularly take note of that last bit about the good news of God’s rescue. It is this good news that the angel spoke of when appearing to shepherds saying, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

And Paul expands upon that in his letter to the church in Philippi and gives all of us some advice on how we are to live as the followers of Jesus Christ. In Philippians 4:4-7 Paul says:

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

Rejoice. Doesn’t that fit with the theme of joy that we remember on this third Sunday of Advent? Rejoice! Rejoice that we have heard the good news of Jesus Christ. Rejoice that we have been rescued from sin and death. Rejoice that we have been forgiven. Rejoice that we have an intimate relationship with the creator of the universe. Rejoice that we can lift our thoughts and our voices in prayer. Rejoice that we are not, and will never be, alone. Rejoice that we have been adopted as the sons and daughters of the king of the universe. Rejoice that we are God’s people and the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. We have ample reason to rejoice.

But, as God’s people, as a people who are called to rejoice and to live lives that are filled with joy, what does that look like? And to that, Paul says, be gentle. Be so gentle that it will be evident and obvious to everyone around you. Live your life so that the world will know that God is near to you. Do not be anxious, don’t let your life be filled with worry, but always take your concerns to God in prayer, always give thanks to God for what he has given to you, and always feel free to ask God for the things that you need. Be filled with God’s peace and guard your hearts and your minds so that you never allow yourself to turn away from Jesus, or from the path and the calling to which he has called you.

Rejoice. Be filled with joy. And live a life that honors God, produces fruit, and reflects your relationship with Jesus Christ so that through you, and through your actions, the people around you can see Jesus…

…and feel his love.

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Church is a Team Sport

September 29, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, Esther, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Methodist, Mordecai, Ohio, Partridge, Purim, sport, team, Team Jesus, United, Xerxes

Church is a Team Sport

September 29, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22 Mark 9:38-50 James 5:13-20

What makes you think less of yourself as an individual, and more as a part of something larger than yourself? When we join scouting, we sometimes think of what is good for the troop rather than what is best for our individual gain, but sometimes we think beyond the local troop and think of scouting nationally, or even internationally as the scouting movement. If we join the military, we are taught to think in terms of what is good for the squad, platoon, company, and the mission beyond what is good for me personally. During World War Two, troops were reminded that “Loose Lips Sink Ships” and that the actions of individuals could have consequences beyond their own lives. At home, civilians were reminded to “Buy War Bonds,” to plant Victory Gardens, to reduce consumption, and to recycle to aid the war effort. On a national scale, our friends in the United Kingdom were reminded to sacrifice “For King and Country” and Americans to do our duty to “Make the world safe for democracy.”

And, as we read scripture, we are reminded that none of these ideas are new. England, as a nation, is obviously much older than the United States. But the idea of patriotism and sacrificing the needs of the individual for the needs of the king, or of the nation, is far older still. We begin by reading from the story of Esther, in which we find the queen preparing a banquet where she will reveal a plot in which King Xerxes’ closest advisor, Haman, has secretly and covertly had the king sign an edict that would allow all the people of the kingdom, which spanned most of the known world, to kill their Jewish neighbors and take any and all wealth, property, and belongings for themselves. With that in mind, we join Esther’s story in Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22 where we hear this:

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

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

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

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

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

⁹Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits [75 ft, or 6 stories, almost certainly an exaggeration]stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

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

^9:20Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, ²¹to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar ²²as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

This has always been a powerful story but this week it is also a reminder that it is useful to read the footnotes. In the footnote for verse four, which says, “I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king” has an alternate version that has appeared in some ancient manuscripts. That alternate version offers us some additional understanding of the intent of Esther’s statement. In English that alternate version says that this action would cost the king money, or specifically, “I would have kept quiet, but the compensation our adversary offers cannot be compared with the loss the king would suffer.”

What Esther is saying means that Haman is acting in his own selfish interests, and not acting in the best interests of the king. I think that helps us to understand why King Xerxes is so quickly angered. Not only are the lives of all the Jews threatened, and not only is Xerxes’ queen among them, but in sum, this action would cost the king money. Haman’s crime, therefore, is in plotting to steal wealth from the king, to put his personal interests ahead of the interests of the nation and of the king, and of simply not being a team player.

As an aside, the celebration of the Jew’s rescue that we just read about, is now known as the Jewish holiday of Purim.

We see something similar in Mark 9:38-50 where John complains that there are people acting in the name of Jesus who are not the disciples that we read about in the gospel stories.

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

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

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

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

⁴⁹Everyone will be salted with fire.

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

At the beginning of this passage, we find John complaining to Jesus that there are others, who are not among the twelve disciples or other close followers of Jesus, who are driving out demons in the name of Jesus. For John, this broke the rules. In his mind, clearly, ‘Team Jesus’ was limited to the twelve and to those others that were likewise sort of joined at the hip with Jesus. But Jesus tells John to let them keep on doing what they were doing. For Jesus, anyone who was not working against them was on their team and, by extension, anyone who was doing good in the name of Jesus must certainly be a member of ‘Team Jesus.’

But just to be sure that everyone understands, Jesus expands on his explanation saying that if you give someone a cup of water because you follow Jesus, then you will be rewarded as a team member. Likewise, anyone who chases believers away from Jesus will be cursed and brought to account on the day of judgement. When Jesus says that it is better to cut of your hand if it will cause you to stumble, what he is saying is that nothing in our lives can be allowed to make us lose our place on the team. Spiritually, we must care for ourselves, but we must also care for one another, and care for everyone on ‘Team Jesus.’

Jesus says, “Everyone will be salted with fire.” And then talks about salt and saltiness. For us in the modern world that’s a little confusing and I want to unpack that a little. Salt, in the ancient world, was used for a couple different things. One, to flavor our food, we still understand. But the second common use of salt was as the floor of an oven, much like modern pizza ovens use a piece of hearthstone. But, after enduring the heat of the oven for some length of time, the salt would lose the qualities that had originally made it work. At that point, it was no longer good for use in the oven and stopped tasting salty. It was at that point that it would just be used to fill potholes or be used as gravel or something. And so, what Jesus is saying is that everyone will be tested for usefulness. When Jesus says, “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another” what he is saying is that we should be found useful in our church and in our community.

And finally, after hearing James, in our scriptures last week, say that our prayers were not answered because our motives were wrong, this week we hear him tell us what things are appropriate for which to pray. In James 5:13-20 he says:

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

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

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

The message that we should hear is that we should not pray for things that would satisfy our selfish pleasures, but for those things that help to accomplish the goals of the kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ. Pray in times of trouble. Pray to give thanks. Pray for the healing of the sick. Pray for the forgiveness of sin. James calls us to confess our sins to one another, and then to pray for one another for healing. James reminds us that Elijah prayed that it would not rain because the lack of rain was a way in which God would be revealed. The goal, James says, is to advance the mission of God’s Team and ‘Team Jesus.’ If someone wanders away from the team, do what you can to bring them back on the team.

The story of Esther reminds us that all those who serve the king must look out for the interests of their king and their country, and not try to use the king’s resources to serve their selfish desires.

The story of the John and the disciples that we read in the gospel of Mark reminded us that our team is bigger than just the people that you see in church on Sunday morning. We do not serve ‘Team Church,’ or ‘Team Denomination.’ Rather, we serve ‘Team Jesus’ and are called to care for ourselves, as well as all those, children, and adults, regardless of church or denomination, who worship him. We are called to care for others, and to be useful to our church and to our community.

The goal isn’t to enrich ourselves personally, or to satisfy our selfish desires. The goal is to serve the team and to help the team to accomplish the goals of the king of creation. But to do these things, we need each other, and we need to care for one another. We are called to be the church. We are called to be Jesus to the people around us.

But what we have learned from all of our scriptures today is that being the church…

…is a team sport.

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Is Your Religion a Spuddle?

September 1, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, answer, boondoggle, Broadway, Christ, church, counts, disciples, evil, fight, fudgel, God, good, Jesus, John, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, party, point, religion, Solomon, spuddle, Street, Street Alliance, United

Is Your Religion a Spuddle?
or, Whose Religion Counts?

September 01, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 James 1:17-27

Okay, this morning we’re going to do something different. We’re going to begin today’s message with a vocabulary quiz.

I’m serious. Sort of. Go ahead and get a pencil or a pen or get your phone to a place where you can take a quick note or two. It’s okay if you can’t, I only have three questions. If you can, write down the definition of the following words:

Fudgel.

Spuddle.

And the last one, which is likely to be more familiar… Boondoggle.

Did you get that? Let me repeat it. Fudgel, Spuddle, and Boondoggle.

The secret here, is that the meaning of these three words is almost the same.

Fudgel is an 18th century English word that means “to pretend to be busy while actually doing nothing.”

Spuddle is a 17th century word that means ‘to work ineffectively’ or to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing.

And finally, Boondoggle is a modern word that describes doing work of little or no practical value for the purpose of simply keeping or looking busy.

How did you do?

All these words attempt to describe work that doesn’t matter or work that isn’t work at all. The use of these words is not to be confused with a great word like ‘putter’ or ‘puttering’ because when you putter, you might be doing several small things, but any or all of them might be needed and necessary.

Why is any of that important? Because as we read our scriptures for today, we will discover that, if we aren’t careful, our religion might be described as a fudgel, a spuddle, or a boondoggle. We begin in the Song of Solomon, in which the bride describes her beloved and, it might be supposed, that this is also an allegory that describes God’s love for us. Reading from Song of Solomon 2:8-13, we hear this:

8 Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
    Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke and said to me,
    “Arise, my darling,
    my beautiful one, come with me.
11 See! The winter is past;
    the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
    is heard in our land.

If, in these words, we hear a description of God’s relationship with us, then when we hear, “Arise, my darling,my beautiful one, come with me.” We hear God calling us to be with him. The winter is past, the rains are over, flowers appear on the earth, the season of singing has come. The darkness, the cold, and the gray ugliness is over and hope returns.

The coming of God, or the following of God, is described as the arrival of hope.

Keep that in mind as we listen to Jesus describe the religion of the Pharisees, men who had dedicated their lives to doing everything the way that God wanted them to do it. Hear what Jesus says in Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

^7:1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus ²and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)

⁵So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

⁶He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
⁷They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’

⁸You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

¹⁴Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

²¹For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. ²³All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

The intention of the Pharisees was to reform Judaism. They believed that for Israel to be blessed by God, that they must follow the law to the best of their ability. But with those good intentions, what they did was not to just teach the law so that everyone knew where God’s had drawn the lines around their behavior, but to draw boundaries and write rules that would prevent them from ever coming close to those boundaries. Two weeks ago, I said that rather than just avoiding sin, we should avoid the offramps that lead us to sin. And while that is good advice, and that might have been the original intention of the Pharisees, what they did instead was, over time, establish rules and traditions that went much farther than that, and applied those rules to everyone regardless of whether they had a problem with a particular sin. And then, after more time had passed, those rules, as well-intentioned as they might have been, became even more important than the original commandments of God. As a result, Jesus calls them hypocrites that honor God with their lips but whose hearts are far away. In other words, their religion had become a spuddle. It kept everyone extraordinarily busy but failed to achieve the intended goal.

Jesus’ brother James offers similar advice to the Jewish Christians who were spread across the Roman Empire and the known world in James 1:17-27.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

¹⁹My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

²⁶Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James reminds the church that God does not change like shifting shadows. But we were created to be God’s firstfruits, a gift from creation itself to God, and a gift that represents our hope for the future harvest. Like a gift of firstfruits, we are not the whole gift, but a gift at the beginning of the harvest that represents our hope in the abundance of the full harvest that is yet to come. But what does that look like? James says that our gift of hope does not look like anger, immorality, and evil but instead looks like the words of Jesus Christ that have been planted within us.

James says that anyone who listens, but does not do what they are taught, is fudgelling. They’re busy, but they are uselessly busy like someone forgets what they looked like in the mirror. Real religion, real faith, is looking at the law and the words of Jesus Christ and then… doing something about it. The religion that God accepts isn’t the religion of studying, listening and learning, it is the religion of caring for widows and orphans, keeping ourselves pure, being careful about what comes out of our mouths and careful to avoid thoughts of immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

Real religion isn’t a boondoggle that keeps us busy without producing anything of value.

Solomon said that the arrival of God, and the following of God, produces hope.

Real religion, the religion that God accepts as pure and faultless, does that. It is not an academic exercise. It is not something that keeps us busy listening and learning. It is a religion that looks after orphans and widows, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, houses the homeless, speaks for the voiceless, protects the vulnerable, and otherwise does the things that Jesus taught.

Real religion is not just a religion of hearing, but a religion of doing, so that we become agents of hope.

Anything else is just a spuddle.

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What’s the Point?

August 25, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, answer, Broadway, Christ, church, disciples, eternal life, evil, fight, God, good, Jesus, life, Methodist, mission, Ohio, Partridge, party, Paul, point, politics, prayer, quit, Solomon, Street, struggle, temple, United, what's the point?

What’s the Point?

August 25, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

1 Kings 8:1, 22, 24, 27-30, 41-43 John 6:56-69 Ephesians 6:10-20

We have all experienced it.

Whether we were watching a politician’s speech, or reading a book or a scholar’s paper, or listening to the ramblings of a corporate executive whose meeting we got sucked into, or even the occasional pastor’s sermon, we have all, at some point, found ourselves drifting off into our daydreams and wondering… “What’s the point?” Too often we have felt like our time was wasted because the book that we were reading, or the speaker to whom we were listening, just couldn’t seem to find the point that they were seeking. If we’re honest, there are scripture passages that feel like this from time to time, although sometimes those same passages lay the groundwork for others that do make profound and important points… but not always.

As we read the story of 1 Kings 2, we are listening in as Solomon, who is simultaneously his nation’s king, chief politician, and a religious leader by virtue of being king. And in this story, we hear Solomon give a speech and offer a prayer for his nation as the Arc of the Covenant is moved out of the tent in which is has been housed for generations, and into its new home in the newly completed temple in Jerusalem. Solomon’s speech is a bit long because it repeats for the people some important history, but for our purposes, I’m skipping a bunch of it so that we can focus less on history and more on the point that Solomon makes towards the end. Bear in mind that I’m skipping a lot, so if you want to hear the whole thing, you’ll need to read it yourself. We begin in 1 Kings 8:1, 22, 24, 27-30, 41-43 where we hear these words:

^8:1 Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Zion, the City of David.

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven ²³and said:

²⁴You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today.

²⁷“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! ²⁸Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. ²⁹May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. ³⁰Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

⁴¹“As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name— ⁴²for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, ⁴³then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

The points that I want you to notice are in verses 30 and 37. Solomon asks if it is possible for God to dwell on earth since even heaven cannot contain him. As simple as this is, it is a distinctive feature of Judaism and a deliberate poke at the religions of Israel’s neighbors. Israel’s neighbors all had temples with strikingly similar architecture from which Solomon borrowed, and in the holy place of each of those temples was an idol. In each of those idols, it was said that the spirit of that nation’s god resided and lived among that god’s people. But Israel’s holy of holies was startlingly empty because Israel knew that their God could not be contained.

Solomon follows that statement about the magnitude of God by praying that wherever God might be, whenever anyone prayed in, or even toward this new temple, that God would hear their prayer, and offer forgiveness. Solomon and the nation of Israel knew that, unlike their neighbors, God did not physically live in their temple, but their prayer was that God would establish his name and hear the prayers of his people wherever they might be. Second, Solomon asks that whenever foreigners would come to that place, and offer prayers, that God would hear and answer their prayers so that all the peoples of the earth would know Israel’s God and choose to follow him.

That was the point. Like Solomon, our prayer is that God would hear our prayers, offer us his forgiveness, and also that God would hear, and answer, the prayers of unbelievers so that they would know God and choose to follow him.

Next, we return for what I think is the third consecutive week that we hear Jesus invite us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. But this time, it is not the grumbling of the crowd, or the teachers of the law, or the Pharisees, but Jesus’ own disciples that we hear in John 6:56-69…

⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶²Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spiritand life. ⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

⁶⁶From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

⁶⁷“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

It turns out that Jesus’ disciples didn’t like this teaching about his flesh and blood any more than the Pharisees did and our scripture says that it was not some, but “many” of Jesus’ disciples turned back and stopped following him. Even those who didn’t leave admitted that this was a hard teaching. But in the end, they got the point. When Jesus asked them if they didn’t want to leave like everyone else, Peter said, “to whom shall we go?” They knew that Jesus was the one whose words gave eternal life, so leaving was not an option no matter how difficult it might have been to stay.

The disciples who stayed got the point. If we believe that Jesus holds the words of life and death, then we don’t have to like everything that he has to say. We can admit that some of his teaching is hard. We can admit that we don’t like it, that we don’t really want to do it, or that it restricts our selfishness more than we would like, but in the end, we must make every effort to follow him anyway.

And finally, we come to Paul. Who, as always, delivers a message that applies to churches throughout history. Why? Because two thousand years later we’re still asking, “What’s the point?” Of course, there are many ways that we could answer that question, but listen to how Paul sums it all up in Ephesians 6:10-20 saying,

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

The point, Paul says, is that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Full stop. Let me repeat that. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” We have not been put on earth to be in combat with the rich, or with the poor, with people of other races or from other countries, with people who disagree with us, with political parties, or any other organization made up of human beings. Our struggle is not with other people, except when it is. Our struggle is with rulers, authorities, and powers of the dark world that are aligned with the spiritual forces of evil. In other words, our fight is not against people, it is against evil and only becomes a fight with people when those people have aligned themselves, consciously or unconsciously, with evil. That means that we fight against the politics of evil regardless of party. We fight against the Republicans where and when their policies are evil, we fight against the Democrats when their policies are evil, we fight against the Libertarians, and the Socialists, and the Communists, and anyone else when they choose evil. We fight against the church when it chooses evil because it is our purpose to fight against evil wherever we find it.

The point is that it is not people against which we fight. Our mission is to stand up for what is good and to fight against evil. Put on the whole armor of God, stand firm, and pray. Pray for the church, pray for your pastor, and remember that all of us here are pastors and priests. So, pray for one another, that whenever we speak, words may be given so that we will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

Solomon knew that the point of building the temple was that all the people of the world would come to know and to follow the God of Abraham.

The disciples knew that if Jesus was the Messiah who holds the keys to eternal life, then we must obey his teaching even when it is difficult, even when it squeezes us personally, even when we don’t like it, and even when we think that Jesus should have done things differently.

And Paul wanted us to know that the point of the church and its people is not to fight against people, but to stand against evil wherever we find it. And that means to fight against evil even when we find it in people, and in organizations that we like.

Pray for one another, that we may be discerning and see the evil in the world around us. And pray that whenever we speak, words may be given to us by God so that we will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

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Learning Wisdom for Life

August 18, 2024 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, disciples, God, Jesus, lessons, life, Methodist, Ohio, Partridge, Paul, Solomon, Street, United, wisdom

Learning Wisdom for Life

August 18, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 John 6:51-58 Ephesians 5:15-20

There are several internet memes that have a humorous take on our understanding of wisdom and the one that have in mind says that “The reason that I am old and wise, is that God protected me while I was young and stupid.” I still don’t consider myself to be “old and wise,” but I have realized that somewhere during the years that I have lived and the many miles that I have traveled, I learned a few things. Sometimes that amounts to wisdom, and sometimes I just know stuff, but there are still a great many things that I do not know. The truth of the internet meme is that for most of us, wisdom isn’t something that you can learn in a book, although books can help. Most often, wisdom is the hard lesson that we learn after we make poor decisions, or when we remember the poor decisions that we have witnessed in others.

I have often remembered the scene in our office on Friday the 13, 1989 when there was a significant crash in the stock market. One of our managers, Chuck, who was only a few years older than me, and in is late 20’s or barely into his 30’s, was absolutely panicked and continually tried to reach his investment people on the telephone, but because this was national news, the phone lines were, of course, constantly busy. But while this 30-year-old was freaking out, another of our department members, Charlie, who was at the time only months from retirement, sat at his desk by the window, continued working, and appeared to be completely unconcerned. And this was even though he had, that afternoon, lost more of his invested retirement funds than Chuck had invested or earned in an entire year. But Charlie knew what Chuck did not. Markets are cyclical. They go up, they go down. And Charlie had seen enough stock market crashes and recessions over his 30- or 40-year career, that they no longer excited him. He had learned a little wisdom.

And the lessons of wisdom are what we will search for today in our scripture lessons. We begin today with the end of King David, the beginning of the reign of his son Solomon, the wisdom that Solomon had, the wisdom that God added to his life, and the wisdom that all of us can learn from him. And for that, we begin this morning by reading 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 where we hear this:

¹⁰Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. ¹¹He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. ¹²So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

³Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

⁴The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

⁶Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

⁷“Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. ⁸Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. ⁹So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

¹⁰The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. ¹¹So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, ¹²I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. ¹³Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. ¹⁴And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

The phrase “rested with his ancestors,” is an often-used biblical euphemism that meant that David’s bones had been buried in a common crypt or pit with the members of his family that had died before him. In any case, David had died, and Solomon became Israel’s next king. At this point, Solomon was not a child. If David had ruled for thirty-three years in Jerusalem, Solomon could not have been more than a few years younger than that. We know that David first saw Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, from the roof of his palace, and that David had built the palace after he had conquered Jerusalem, it would seem that Solomon’s age could be estimated by starting with David’s thirty-three years of rule and subtracting the time that it took to build a palace. Based on that, estimates vary from twenty-eight down to twelve, but my guess is that it’s toward the high end of that range somewhere in Solomon’s twenties.

But regardless of his age, Solomon had already distinguished himself by his love of God and his obedience to both God and his father David. The exception, according to the history written by the priests in Jerusalem, was that Solomon offered sacrifices in the “high places,” which were centers of worship and sacrifice for Israel’s God that were outside of Jerusalem (and not under the control of Jerusalem’s priests), often these high places were so far from Jerusalem that it was difficult or inconvenient to travel there regularly. But upon David’s death, Solomon offers a thousand sacrifices to God, and after doing so, God appears to Solomon that night as he slept and told him to ask for whatever he wanted.

And this is where we begin to see Solomon’s wisdom even before God gives him any additional gifts. First, Solomon has already demonstrated his faithfulness, and he recognized that his father had become king only because of God’s kindness. But next, Solomon also recognizes that God’s people are “too numerous to count or number” and by saying so, recognizes, not that it was impossible to count them, but that God had prohibited them to be counted, and that David had sinned against God by taking a census to do so. Thus, Solomon demonstrates his wisdom by learning from one of his father’s biggest mistakes. And finally, as we all know, Solomon shows wisdom by recognizing that he doesn’t know everything and would need wisdom to be a good leader, and so, he asks God, not for wealth or long life, but for wisdom.

The next lesson in wisdom for today is found in John 6:51-58 where we hear Jesus say:

⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵²Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

When the doubters of Jesus asked how he could give them flesh to eat, Jesus simply said that whoever did would have eternal life and that he would raise them up on the last day. His explanation was that those who ate his flesh and drank his blood were the people who remained faithful to him. It is in that explanation that we find another of today’s pieces of wisdom. But if you didn’t quite get that one, there will be a summary at the end.

Our last lesson in wisdom comes from the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:15-20, where he says:

¹⁵Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s warning is that the church in Ephesus, and ours today, was, and is, surrounded by influences that intend to distract us from our faith and lead us away from God. His example is that while getting drunk is easy, and not necessarily a sinful action by itself, getting drunk often leads to debauchery or other sins because it lowers our inhibitions, reduces our self-control, and causes us to make poor choices. His advice then is not just to avoid sin, but to avoid the things that lead to sin.

Taken together we heard at least six lessons in wisdom today.

First, it is wise to live a life that is faithful and obedient.

Second, there is wisdom in remembering what God has done and to be grateful for what God has done for us.

Third, it is wise to learn from the mistakes of others, as Solomon learned from the mistakes of his father David.

Fourth, learning, and practicing, discernment leads us to make good choices.

Fifth, if we want to be the people that eat Jesus’ flesh, drink Jesus’ blood, and receive eternal life, then we must live a life of faith that shares in the ministry and the suffering of Jesus every day. Jesus said that the one who feeds on him will live, and if we are to feed on him, we must be faithful in consuming his word and doing his work.

And finally, because we live in a world, and in a culture, that surrounds us with influences that distract us from our faith, we must avoid the things that lead to sin rather than simply trying to avoid sin. If drinking leads us to sin, stop drinking, if certain friends lead us to do things that we should not do, then we need to start avoid those friends and make new ones, and if going to certain places and doing certain things lead into temptation and sin, we should stop going to those places and doing those things. In short, this sixth lesson says that rather than attempting to avoid evil, we must avoid the offramps that lead to evil.

We aren’t born wise.

Few of us will be given a sudden gift of extra wisdom by God upon our ascension to the throne.

But all of us, with care, persistence, and faithfulness, can learn wisdom and, although few of us are likely to ever be a threat to Solomon, we can, and should, ask for God’s help in doing so.

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Pastor Partridge

Sermons, blogs and other things from Pastor John Partridge

United

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