How do we see Jesus

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on December 22, 2019

^NIV Matthew 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us"). ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

The Christmas story is a story of obedience and faith. Prior to this chapter of the story, an angel has visited Mary. The news that the angel has given her was life shattering. Here is Mary, 14 years of age, in a culture where being pregnant out of marriage is a death sentence, being told that she is about to bear the struggle of motherhood at a young age and with everything in her world against her. I think that all too often we cannot fathom this message well. Mary was about to do the unthinkable. We hear the story each year but I want to ask, how many really believe in their hearts that Mary could have a child and still be a virgin. You see, just saying it that way makes many struggle with the concept of a virgin birth. We accept it because it is Mary. But would you accept it if it was Gabby Vtipil or Brianna Hawthorne or Abigail Mottern? You see what I am saying, it is easy to hear the Christmas story and not have it resonate about how much of an impact this event is going to have on Mary’s life. Better yet, we hear the story and we just say, hey, that’s nice, but do we really really deep down believe that it could possibly be true. Do I believe that the power of God is so great that God can do anything?

Let’s say for a moment that we do believe with that kind of conviction and I hope and pray that you do. If we truly believe that God can do anything can we then sympathize with Mary for the journey that she is about to debark on. Mary takes this all in, at the age of 14, and then says to God, joyfully I might add, bring it on. Mary realizing that God is calling her to a higher purpose believes that God can do anything and is obedient to that call. I used the names of young girls in our congregation because I want to make this story real to you. Suppose one of them came to us and said, God has said that they are going to have a child that is God’s. Would we believe them? Would we even accept that it was possible? Yet, Mary not only accepts it but also is obedient to it joyfully.

Then we have the story of Joseph, engaged to be married to Mary. Suppose for a moment that your bride to be came to you with this story that she was pregnant with God’s Son. Would you believe it possible? Would you doubt? Joseph did the story tells us and decided to shun Mary which could have resulted in her death. But the angel comes to Joseph in a dream and he is illuminated to the message that Mary had received. If you were Joseph, would the doubt have gone away? And what we see is that Joseph is obedient to that call. He takes Mary as his wife and cares for her, loves her, nurtures her and as we see from the little we learn of Jesus early days, he cares for Jesus as if He were his own. That is precisely what adoption is all about my friends. Loving a child that is not yours biologically but treating them as if they were. Joseph believes in the power of God and therefore becomes obedient to the call God places on his life.

In a few short days, we are going to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the world, some two thousand plus years ago. Jesus came into the world to bring God’s love face to face with humanity that we might see what perfect love physically looks like. That we might share in the experience that God intended in Eden. That we might learn something because we would listen to a man, say it, but maybe not if God set it down for us in a dream. Am I right? The question comes back to this very basic question we have before us today. Do we believe? Can we fathom the miracle of conception by God into a young girl that brings to the world God in human form? We are here because of this event that will lead to the cross and resurrection. If we cannot get past the birth, who do we have in Jesus? I am asking deep questions today before Christmas Day because I want us to believe in the impossible. I want us to recognize the power of God to do miracles. On this weekend that ends with the beginning of Hanukah, the celebration of a miracle of God to bring light where there was no oil, do we believe?

When I first felt called to ministry I was so sure that God was wrong I ran the other way. I kept running even though I felt that call grow stronger over the years. I am here today because I believe with all my heart, mind and soul that God is real, that God wants to love me and wants me to love all of you. Did I have doubts, more than a handful! Do I believe that Mary could conceive a child and yet never had a relationship, yes I do. I believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God, who existed before time and will exist long after this world is gone and a new creation has come upon it. Christmas is about believing in the impossible. Christmas is about believing that there is a God who loves us unconditionally. There is power in that belief. There is also responsibility once we come to believe it. We are called to share witness to the awesome power of Jesus whose birth we celebrate this season. We are called to share the love of God with the whole world.

So I am going to circle back around here for a moment. Do we deep in our hearts believe that this Christmas story is real, that the characters in it are real people who lives are forever changed by the power of God? We believe that Jesus was real because we have a great cloud of witness stories that we follow. But deep down, do you have the faith that says that God is a God of incredible ability to do anything, anywhere and anyway? Christmas is about believing the spirit of the God, which is love. We spend this whole season feeling better than the rest of the year. We believe in this season that miracles can happen, even if they are only on the Hallmark channel. But deep down where the truth in you lives, do you believe in the power of God? A power that could bring a human being into the world just by thinking it. The power to bring a human being into the world for the sole purpose of transforming you and me into believing, faithful followers of God. That is what Christmas is all about.

How do you see Jesus? Do you see the tiny child laying in a feeding trough for animals, defenseless, vulnerable and yet God? Do you see Jesus as the man who would give up everything so that you and I might see that we are truly, deeply, authentically loved? Do you see Jesus as the person in whom our faith finds the answer to life’s deepest questions and our salvation is available to be received by us? If the answer to these questions is yes, then say Amen and Praise be to God. If not, then let us explore together the complexities of this story so that you might come to this altar and ask Jesus to be in personal relationship with you. The Christmas story is a story of obedience and faith, to believe that the spirit of Christmas can cause miracles to happen. So I ask you one more time, do you believe?

Discipleship and Ice Cream

As I sit here this morning, having done my own spiritual disciplines, my thoughts have moved to the young man who is having surgery today for an aneurysm in his heart. He is very fearful and his wife is very concerned. Bonnie and I will be sitting with her during the surgery this morning. Sometimes the best that I can do is be present which is very difficult sometimes with a busy church.

I am also thinking about the Carter family who today is in Indiana sharing in another funeral service and laying their father in his final physical resting place. We know where his spiritual body is and he was such a man of faith. He reminded me that  true discipleship is about being kind, generous and love. Loving our neighbor in such a way that their lives are better for knowing us and have the ability to know God through our love. Being generous that allows us to take our abundance and make the world better. And finally, loving one another, especially our family by making time for them. He also reminds us that yes, there is always ice cream.

Anticipate

Sermon to be given at Sydenstricker UMC on December 14th and 15th, 2019 (hope you caught I am doing something new by posting before preaching)

^NRS Isaiah 9:6 For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Advent is the season of anticipation. It is what it is named for. Wikipedia says this about Advent. Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas and the return of Jesus at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year. Therefore, as Eric did to you several weeks ago on the first weekend of Advent, Happy New Year. We celebrate the Christian year at Advent because it makes sense to start the year with the anticipation of the celebration of the birth of Christ. Some people go over the top and refuse to put baby Jesus in the manager and the Magi in the Christmas scene until we celebrate those specific events. I am not one of those people by the way.

What did the Hebrew people anticipate and in some ways, why did they not get the connection between the prophetic message that we just heard and the birth of Jesus? First and foremost, I think they were looking for a royal birth from a royal family. They were looking for King David to be born again if you will. Someone who would rise up the people against Rome and make Israel a great nation again. All of these things are part of the Messianic prophecies that the Hebrew people are still looking to be fulfilled today. Imagine for a moment that you are living under intense conditions not unlike those of our ancestors who lived in Egypt. Conditions that make day-to-day living difficult and oppressive. Those are the times of the life of Jesus and the Hebrew people of that day. Their lives in some ways have not dramatically changed in the last two thousand plus years as evidenced by the tragedy in New Jersey this week. But if you imagine that then you can make the connection to how they were looking for one thing while God was doing something new. Yes, we have much to anticipate in this celebration of birth.

Jesus came into the world in such a humble way that many missed it. Herod certainly understood what was happening and within the next two years would have all the male children of Bethlehem put to death under the age of two in order that he could stop this rise to royalty. Even in that is a great hypocrisy is it not. If God was doing, an incredible thing and fulfilling Hebrew prophecy why then would a Hebrew King try to stop it. That has always been one of my questions and it leads to how then could the Hebrew people have missed it. Jesus’s birth fulfills 41 of the prophetic messages of God; some of them in Psalms and Isaiah were given as much as 700 years before His birth. He would go on to fulfill over 351 prophecies in His lifetime. Jesus was proclaimed by God to be born of a virgin young girl, born in Bethlehem, David’s birthplace and then spirited to Egypt where He would then come to fulfill His ministry. Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection did cause Israel to rise as a great nation in the form of Christianity, which now permeates all the known world. Yes, we have much to anticipate in this celebration of birth.

So let us explore this a little today.

·       We know that He is from the line of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Numbers 24:17: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.”

·       From Isaiah 11:1 we know He is from the line of Jesse, the father of King David: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.”

·       From Jeremiah 23:5-6 we know He is from the line of King David: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land … This is the name by which he will be called: the Lord our righteous savior.”

·       From the prophecy of Micah, 5:2 we know He was born into the tribe of Judah in the region of Ephrathah, in the town of Bethlehem: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

·       From Isaiah 7:14 we know that He was born from a virgin: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you will call him Immanuel.” The name Immanuel means “God with us” and indicates the divinity of Jesus.

·       That Jesus would be worshipped by shepherds from the desert, and that foreign kings would present gifts to Him is revealed in Psalm 72:9,10: “May the desert tribes bow before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the Kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the Kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts. May all Kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.”

·       When Jesus was born, King Herod slaughtered a number of children in an attempt to kill Him. This is predicted in Jeremiah 31:15: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

·       In response to this attempt on the life of Jesus, Joseph is warned in a dream to take Jesus to Egypt, where they stayed until Herod died. This is predicted in Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Yes, we have much to anticipate in this celebration of birth.

So how do you and I view this birth?

·       We celebrate it every year and every year His importance for the season seems to become less and less a factor. We celebrate with the giving and receiving of gifts.

·       Yes, we do give more eagerly to those less fortunate than ourselves but we give extravagantly to ourselves first. Did that hurt? Not sorry!

·       Do we celebrate with our children on Christmas morning by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus or have a cupcake or birthday cake for Jesus at our Christmas meal? Not usually! Do we truly appreciate what God has made new for us in the birth of God’s own son in this humble birth?

·       Do we sense the changing of the old guard for something new in the birth of Jesus that will overturn Hebrew leadership and tradition and the whole world order by the time we have reached this place in our lives, some two thousand years later? We should!

We should realize that God wants us to appreciate what God was and is doing in the humble setting in Bethlehem with a birth to two ordinary Hebrew people who are of the lineage of David. God proclaimed over 700 years before the birth where it would happen and to whom and we still do not get it or appreciate even though it becomes more obvious the more we study it. God is making the world anew in the midst of corruption, violence, oppression, hate and hurt. And we are the instruments of that desire to make the world a world of peace, compassion and love. Yes, we have much to anticipate in this celebration of birth.

We come to this moment, at least I hope that you do, a little humbled by what we have just heard about what God is doing in this season. God is proclaiming to you and to me how important we are to God, how much God loves us and how we are to proclaim the Good News to the world. God in this season is calling us to learn new things, new ways and new attitudes about our fellow human beings. God sent us God, as a newborn baby in a humble cave, laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals so that we might know that God is doing a new thing. Yet, for all of this God is not done with the world or with you and me. God is calling us even now to share this story to the world. Not through the commercialization of gift giving and receiving though at Epiphany, I will elaborate more on that, but by sharing love. It is my message today, tomorrow and the rest of my life. I wonder as I wonder what the world might look like if we celebrate this birth by renewing our desire to reach out to the world in love. God is reaching out to us to say to us, I love you beyond your deepest understanding and I want you to love one another the same way. Jesus arrived in a humble way, in human form that we might see God’s love in a way we could understand it. Jesus died on the cross that we might experience that love in our lives and receive the greatest gift or all, a promise of eternal love. Jesus will come again to transform the world into the peaceful kingdom God intended from the beginning. But between His death and resurrection and His coming again, we have been passed the mantle to share love in the world. Yes, there is much to anticipate in this season.

Why are there breaks in sermons

Some one asked me why there are breaks in sermons from week to week. I am not alone here now at Sydenstricker, thankfully being joined with an Associate Pastor, Eric Kleppinger. He preaches at least once a month and you should enjoy his sermons on our website as well. We also have had a wonderful cantata for the second week of Advent.

Greatness of God

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on November 23rd and 24th, 2019}

^NRS Psalm 8:1 <To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.> O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. ² Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. ³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; ⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? ⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. ⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, ⁷ all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, ⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. ⁹ O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Have you ever pondered about God? What is God like? How can we interact with God? Has God ever talked with me and I missed it? David was a favored child with God and yet in all the stories of David we never see one on one interaction with God. Moses had one on one interaction with God throughout the exodus story. Abraham had one on one interaction with God throughout his journey to what is modern day Israel. Yet David never did. His interaction with God came through the prophets that were instrumental in his rise to being King. Samuel and then Nathan shared the messages of God to David. Yet, David loved God with all that he was. We see that in the Psalms that David wrote. David shared the ecstasy of God’s loving relationship and the sorrow when David did not feel God’s presence. Our Psalm today is all about the glory and majesty of God that David knew and understood.

Why my focus on David? Because like David, the majority of us have never had a one on one encounter with God. We have received God’s messages in our lives from Pastors, Sunday school leaders, our own reading in the Bible and numerous other sources that bring us what God wants us to hear. How many of us use those encounters to enrich our lives and those around us? How many of us ponder the events of our life as God inspired and then praise God in the ways of David?

Have you ever gone out on a starry night in places where you can truly see the beauty of the heavens above? Have you ever wondered at all that is there and how it got there? If not, then maybe one day soon take a trip west of here to get away from the city lights and spend some time gazing up into the heavens. Have you ever watched a hummingbird work a flower or the feeder you placed on your deck? Have you ever marveled at the grace of fish swimming under the water while watching birds fly through the air? I ask all these questions because I am hoping to open you senses to the glory of God that is all around us everywhere. God created all that we are and all that we know. God created the heavens, the earth, the plants, the trees and of course, you and I. What a magnificent creation it is. Have you ever pondered how the intricacies of the body all work together for the common good of each of us. All those parts interrelating, interacting and constantly changing as we grow from child to adult. God created all of that and yet we all too often fail to give God the praise and glory that God deserves for it.

Some might even say, there is no God or that we came into the world by chance. Buried deep inside of us is a recognition or knowledge that there is a God. If not, why then when ancient cultures all looked into the vastness that is the universe, the blooming of a flower or the taking of a breath to live, did they acknowledge God? Every ancient culture, every human being that has ever lived has at one time or another acknowledged that there is a higher power that exists. Why not acknowledge that higher power as the creator of everything? David understood that. He acknowledges God in his words, which are great poetry. How majestic is your name he says.

Paul encounters the living on the road to Damascus. What must that have been like? Here he is thinking he is carrying out the work of God by persecuting these followers of Jesus. Here he is standing to the side as they stone Stephen to death. Then, on the road to persecute even more Christians, he encounters God one on one. We can only imagine the tremendous shame, guilt and even fear that would overwhelmed him. During the time when he cannot see, he has time to reflect on all that has happened in his life and what the encounter on the road means. We don’t get any additional information that God interacted with him one on one from that moment, but it changed everything about him. From that point on, we see God encountering with Paul through others.

This last week I spent time with two events that spoke to what being a Pastor is supposed to do. We are supposed to speak truth and bring the truth of the Bible to the people we serve. We are not God. We are simply human beings that have given a wonderful opportunity to share God’s unconditional love with the world around us. God’s greatness is not the earth we walk on or the air that we breathe, though the critical balance of those two things is greatness in itself. God’s greatness is that grace, mercy and love that God extends to you and me unconditionally. What that means is that no matter what we do, no matter where we go and even if we turn our backs on God, God never stops loving us and seeking a relationship with us. That is incredible to me. That God would love me even when I least deserve it.  

David understood that God’s greatness was that love and he struggled the most when he could not feel that love. When Saul was searching for him to put him to death, he questioned why God had deserted him. Yet, David realized that things happen in this world that we cannot understand. David understood that even when the darkness, that is often human persecution of one another, is not the work of God but rather that when those dark moments are upon us; God’s love is shining down through us. Have you ever experienced that? I have. I love the 46^th Psalm. God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. I carried this passage with me during a dark period of my life, a trial that cost me more than just money, but my current life at the time. What prevailed was not what I hoped for but it was what I needed most. A reminder that even in the darkest moments God is with us, loving and caring for us.

Today I hope that you can encounter the majesty of God in your life. That you can see that God is real and constantly loves you and that everything you have in your life is God at work. I invite you to read the Psalms and hear the words of David. They are much alive today as when he wrote them. They have given me comfort in the darkest times of my life as I hear the message that God is with me. They can work for you as well if you let them. Let it begin by taking a moment from your busy schedule and open your eyes to the majesty of God all around you. Enjoy the night sky, enjoy the flowers and the trees, enjoy the harmony of breath and air as you encounter God.

We are called by God to be the instruments of God’s grace and mercy here on earth. We do that when we encounter the least of creation, the homeless, the oppressed, those who are ill and struggling and those who do not feel loved. When we spend our time, our hands and feet, doing the work of God, we begin to see the grace, mercy and love of God move through us and into the hearts of those we are helping. When we begin to surrender to the power of that love, our lives are forever changed and God begins to use us to transform the world around us.

I believe with all my heart that God is working through this church to change the world around us. There are forces that desire to stop that work, subvert it and even destroy it. But no matter how much they try, like Saul trying to destroy David, in the end God’s grace and love will prevail. God’s greatness is available to everyone every moment of every day. We need to praise God for all that God is doing in our world and all that God has promised us, whether we deserve it or not. God is great, God is God, and God loves you and me.

Are We Truly Thankful?

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on November 16th and 17th, 2019}

^NRS Matthew 6:19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ²² "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! ²⁴ "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, what have I to be thankful for? In this world we live in today, we are bombarded with so much stuff that we often struggle to keep from being deeply depressed. I spent the week last week playing golf, which in today’s terms meaning I am spending time with my lovely wife trying to help her become proficient at the game. I have to keep reminding her and me that she is just beginning and that I need to cut her some slack and she needs to do the same with herself. She on the other hand likes to get under my skin. The other morning I was doing my medical assistant role that, she requires at least every five days and I remembered all the stuff we have gone through to get to this point. That she is playing golf is an incredible journey of doctors, nurses, hospitals and operations. So yes, there is much to be thankful for in the Jamison house these days.

I find that I am serving a wonderful loving savior who pushes me in ways that are sometimes euphoric and sometimes downright depressing and painful. Each day I start anew with a reminder that we are to be thankful for all that God is giving us, even the pruning that each of us must endure from time to time. I listened to a good sermon at a very nice church but I want to tell you, no one talked with us as we sat in the pew and no one invited us to the hospitality time between services, even though their announcements said they had one. Now maybe it is because they have so many visitors that they have become immune to how to reach out to them. Or maybe they, like most churches, have become so inner focused they have forgotten what it is like to be a stranger in the land. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the service and left to go explore more golf. It was not our original intention on that day, but the Outer Banks in November is more closed than open and the temperature was in the 60’s, outdoors seemed to be the place to be. We got to finish eighteen holes of golf just as the sun went down and saw the glory of God in a beautiful sunset. We have much to be thankful for in the Jamison house these days.

So what about you? I invited you to make a list of things you are thankful for. How are you doing with that? Why do I ask, glad that you asked me that question. Because the truth is that, we can be so bogged down in the world around us that we forget to look up, smell the flowers and be thankful. God is shining the light of salvation upon us and we have a future in a place where pain and suffering will be lost in our memories forever. That is not what Jesus wants us to know. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is nearby, close at hand, available for the reaching out and taking hold of it kind of understanding. Surprisingly, the term Kingdom or Kingdom of God/ Heaven is found 63 times in the Old and New Testament. Jesus talks about almost constantly in His teachings and I believe that He wants us to understand what it means. The Kingdom of God is all around us, every moment of every day. The Kingdom of God is not just the promise of eternal paradise, but the promise of salvation that is offered to everyone every moment from the moment you are conceived. We talk about grace, but that grace is the greatest gift that God has to offer us. We are moving rapidly, sometimes faster than I want to go, into the Advent and Christmas season when the Kingdom seems ever closer than any other time of the year.

Can’t you feel it? We seem to be nicer to each other, seem to reach out in mission more rapidly and with open arms unlike any other time of the year. We hear Christmas music, yes, Virginia, Christmas music is real and it comes to you earlier and earlier each year. But when you hear it do you imitate the Grinch or do you have that wicked little hidden smile start to form within you? Come on now, fess up. It opens up that memory place, you start to think about Christmas long past when time was simpler, and life seemed easier. I do, how about you? Or we remember loved ones that are no longer here and begin to think about how much fun they were to be around. Christmas I think, is a glimpse into the promised place. We get to experience the mystery and even some might say magic of the power of love, given by a God of grace, mercy and love.

I wonder though, have you considered how thankful you are and then because you begin to be thankful, how fortunate you are and how beautiful the world really is? Jesus talks about the Kingdom because He wants us to experience the Kingdom every day of our lives. He wants us to find the joy in life that is missing from most of us. I read the other day the 12 things that lead to depression in Pastors. Oh my. What it did not say is the immeasurable number of things that bring a pastor joy. The baptism of a baby, the profession of a new believer, the love of a congregation, all of these things keep us going each day. At Sydenstricker, we have great love and I know that a visitor in our doors is going to be greeted not just at the door but also in the pews and welcomed. If they are at the 8:30 AM service, they are going to be invited to come to the hospitality time or to visit your Sunday school class. Why do I know that? Because we have been working hard to be a loving, welcoming church and it would crush me to hear otherwise.

I listened intently as the Pastor of the church talked with us about sin. Now I thought for a moment he wanted us to hear that we are saved and beyond sin, but that was not his message. What he did say was that Jesus wants us all to know how much we are loved and then to become Jesus to the world. That resonates with me because it is my message, today, tomorrow and forever. If we really want to be thankful, then we must learn to love one another regardless. We cannot say that we love this person but not that one. I hear a lot of hate, anger, fear and non-love in the world around us every moment. We have to love our enemies, isn’t that what Jesus taught us? We have to love the alien in our land, isn’t that the message God tells us in the Old Testament? We have to learn to love one another.

What I want you to get out of this message today is this. Each of us has much to be thankful for. Each of us has an abundance. Now maybe you have much more debt than you want, right there with you. Maybe you have more illness than you want to deal with, been there too. Maybe you feel like the world is against you at times, yep, that one too. But I promise you with all that I am if you will go to the Bible, if you will read it every day, you will find that there are plenty of stories of folks just like us. And yet, when we worship a loving, caring and nurturing God who loves us back unconditionally, nothing is impossible. There will always be enough; there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. That is what the Kingdom is. It is not something to hope for at the end of your life, but something to strive to enjoy and experience in the time of your life. Right now, right here. But it requires some effort on your part to look, to listen, to taste and to feel the love of God that is all around you.

Today we celebrate life. Today we celebrate the abundance of it that we have within us. Even though we cannot know how many hours we have left, we can have an attitude to enjoy them. That is what Jesus wants us to experience. When we learn to love one another, life becomes different. Jesus is calling us to discipleship. That means that He is calling us to become students of His teachings, to learn to imitate Him in our everyday lives and to change the world around us through that love. We may not stop the insanity that is our world today, but we can create a pocket of love, a safe haven for those who are broken and healing for those who are sick. That is what Jesus is calling you and me to do and to be. Jesus did not say we would be perfect, rather that in our imperfection we can be instruments of healing for those who are broken. I am thankful every day for what God has given me. Somedays I need to be reminded of that. We have much to be thankful for in the Jamison household today. How about you?

Facing our Giants

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on November 2nd and 3rd, 2019}

^NIV 1 Samuel 17:1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. ² Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. ³ The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. ⁴ A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. ⁵ He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; ⁶ on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. ⁷ His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. ⁸ Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. ⁹ If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."

Are you facing giants in your life today? Many of us are. We face financial crisis, living from paycheck to paycheck, we face emotional giants, we face cultural and societal giants and we face fear, anxiety and concern every single day. God wants us to know that God is with us as we face those giants. So I pray that today you will find the strength, courage and armor to face the giants in your life.

One of the things that each of us must face are the obstacles, the adversities and the challenges of life. They are always there and we cannot sometimes seem to find ways to get beyond where we are to get to where we want to be. We may not think of those things as giants, but the Bible shares with us that our fears, our anxieties and the things that keep us from achieving what God wants for us are just that. I love the story of the spies that are sent into Canaan by Moses to see the land that God wants them to have. They come back all fearful and convinced that they cannot achieve what God intends for them and so they share the stories of the giants. By the way, a neat nuance about the exodus story. The spies enter the land of Canaan we believe around 11 days into the journey from Egypt. 11 days! So if it were not for their fear and anxiety that causes them to not be willing to follow God they are forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 long years. When was the last time you did not do something because of the fear and anxiety of failing and it caused you to prolong or even miss out on something incredible and wonderful?

God gives us instructions in the form of stories to help us along the way. David is the youngest of sons of Jesse. David has spent his life as the person responsible for tending the sheep. Now in those days, a shepherd had a difficult responsibility. His job put him in danger often, protecting his sheep from wolves and other wild animals. He had to learn who to nurture and care for them when they were wounded and nurse them back to health. He would teach them to come when he called their name and was constantly looking for the lost sheep that had wandered away from the flock. So David had grown up learning how to defend himself and his flock from danger. But David had a weapon more powerful than the stones in his sling. David had learned to rely on God and to trust that God was going to bring him through whatever storm the world threw at him. So it happens that David arrives on the scene bringing supplies from his father to his three brothers when he encounters the fear that Goliath is causing the forces of Israel. This story is given to us to show us how trust in God can lead us to victory in so many struggles.

The first thing we must do is have a willingness to do the work that needs to be done. In first Samuel 17: 34-35, David tells Saul, I have fought the bear and the lion and with God’s strength, I have saved my sheep from the slaughter and killed the bear and the lion. Is Goliath any different? David tells Saul, my trust is in God and if it be God’s will I will prevail no matter the size or strength of the enemy. When we are facing our fears and anxieties, we must be willing to show ready to trust God with the power to overcome. It may be the illness, which has caused us to be set back, or the need to have financial balance so that we can live or the emotions to get through a difficult life event. All of them require that we trust God to get us through. God never says that God will not give us more than we can handle. That is a myth. What God says is that God will gives the strength, courage and tools to get through.

We must believe that God will restore what we have lost or had taken from us. I love the story of Job that reminds us that faith is not about what we have in the good times, but what believe in the worst of times. When we build our faith around God, we find that when the storms come, we have a peace and calm that often makes little sense. Proverbs tells us that God will restore sevenfold what we have lost. I have seen person after person who has struggled with illness find peace and restoration in the power of God.

We must learn to stay in the game. We cannot run every time the battle gets a little tense or we think we might not prevail. Being a great disciple of Jesus Christ, a follower of His teaching and His message of hope and love is not an easy thing to do. But when we truly work on building our trust and faith in Him in the good times, we can weather the rough times. But only if we stay in the battle. I think about the anxieties and fears that many have about the future. We cannot know what tomorrow will bring so Jesus teaches us not to worry. Is not the smallest of birds and the most beautiful plants taken care of by God and if God will do that for them, will God not do so for you and me. I think about the residue of a forest fire. During the storm of the fire, things do perish and there is great destruction. But after the fire, God’s wonderful creation begins to return and blossom in wonderful ways. So too, our lives when facing the giants of illness, tragedy and even death, can then blossom into great ministries of courage and faith.

God reminds us that during the storm, we are not to be afraid. The term, “be not afraid” is in the Bible 365 times. Interestingly, that is one time for every day of the year. God tells us that God has got this. No matter what we are facing, no matter what we have to deal with, God wants us to know that God has us in the palm of God’s hand. So we have nothing to fear. Now that is easy to say and hard to convince ourselves when faced with illness, crisis and even death. But it is true that time after time, God has gotten us through these events and when we come out on the other side, we are stronger.

God is with us every step of every day. Our giants are simply the growth of our own fears. God has this. Now I am not saying that we will not face our own Goliath’s in our lives. There is cancer, job loss, emotional heartbreak and even death that all of us must deal with on this journey we are on. But what I am saying is that God is with us every step of the way. God has our back. If we trust in the power of God, we can overcome every obstacle and though we may suffer along the way, the promise is that we will be lifted up by the power of the one who created us.

“When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose”

One God or Many

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on October 26th and 27th, 2019}

^NRS Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known, to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared. (Deut. 32:17 NRS)

^NRS Exodus 20:1 Then God spoke all these words: ² I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³ you shall have no other gods before me. ⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, (Exod. 20:1-5 NRS)

Today we are going to explore the question that was asked, is there more than one God? Or put in another way, are the God’s of the ancient world the same as the God of Israel, the God the Christian church worships? I had youth years ago, that came back from an English class where the teacher had told them that the Christian God was no different than the Greek and Roman mythological Gods and was not real. So today, we are going to explore that concept and light of the scripture that you heard today.

So is there more than one God? The Bible certainly indicates that God believes that we think so. God does not say, I am the only God. Rather what we glean from the scripture is that God is acknowledging that we have other God’s. Therefore, God says to us that we are not to set any of them as more important than the God of Israel, Abraham and each of us. That God is a jealous God and will not have us worshiping these other deities. If God acknowledges other God’s, then who might they be and where did they come from?

Every ancient culture has its understanding of God. Whether we are talking about the Hindu people and Buddha, Krishna and Shiva, the Greeks with Zeus, Apollo, and Aphrodite, the Romans with Jupiter, Mars and Venus, the Egyptians with Osiris and Re and the Norse people with Odin and Thor, all of them have deities they revered as God. Some of the them, in fact, most of them were creatures with powers beyond that of humans, they reside in places not of the earth though they frequent the places where humans exist and they interact with humans in mostly malevolent or mischievous ways.

The Bible also shares the names of other God’s as we encounter the people who inhabit the land where the people of Israel go. There is Baal, the God of the Canaanites, Ashur, the God of the Assyrians, Marduk the God of the Babylonians and Moloch another one the Canaanite Gods. In fact, there are quite a number of God’s mentioned in the old and new testaments.

There are in the stories of the ancient world, numerous names for the supreme God, the one central figure often associated with creation itself. Ahone is the God creator of the Powhatan people who populated this part of the country long before Caucasian people arrived here. Makemake is the creator of the Polynesian people while Huracan not only created the Mayan people and all the earth but also called forth a flood when displeased with the people that Huracan created.

In Exodus, God, Yahweh, or Jehovah decrees that God will execute all the God’s of Egypt. Now some might suggest that God is talking about human beings since Pharaohs and then Caesar self-proclaimed themselves God’s. In this passage, God implies that God is not the only God but that God will conquer all the others. Since Human beings die, this clearly is an indication of some other type of being. In Isaiah, we are introduced to a cosmic battle that takes place before time itself and there is one who seems to be above the rest, the Shining One or the son of Dawn. We know this figure as Satan but we will return to this a little later.

So where does that leave us? Clearly the world has known God’s, whether they are deities that were created from their own minds trying to explain things they could not understand. Or as some say, all mythology is based on some basis of fact; there is in fact beings that we humans have interpreted as God’s that interact with human beings in the past and maybe in the present as well. Is there one more important than the others or are they all the same as the English teacher once told some of my youth?

Here is a matter of faith and then another theory. We believe in the one Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. As a matter of our historical interaction that we learn about through scripture, this One God, called Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord, etc. is in fact the God of creation. Why other cultures decidedly use other names might well be how their historical traditions received that information and from whom.

Which leads us to another theory that is biblically supported. If we were to meet an Angel, what would we think? In the Bible, when human beings interacted with angels they were in such awe that they bowed down to them only to be told to rise up, that they were not to be worshipped but simply messengers of God. So we then are to think that if we suddenly were in the presence of an angel that we would think them a God. What then about the peoples who populated the earth thousands of years ago. Is it possible that many of the God’s are simply angels that for whatever reason enjoyed the worship of human beings so much that they created different versions of creation, different understandings of God and yes, different cultures where humans worshipped them rather than the one True God? Is it not possible that all of the stories of different God’s are simply Angels of God’s creation that interacted with human beings?

In Genesis and Ezekiel, there are references to the Nephilim. These are the offspring of Angels and human beings. The scriptures indicate that they had powers that exceeded those of normal human beings. Here this from Genesis 6: “When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” Is it possible that these are the giants that the spies that Moses sent into the Promised Land saw? In Ezekiel the word that is often translated into Nephilim is often also translated into fallen. So we would understand that the Sons of God would in fact be the fallen after the great cosmic battle of good and evil. If that were true, who are these angels? They are the angels, created by God that desired to be God. They follow the Son of Dawn, we know as Satan. And they were thrown down from heaven and given dominion or power and control of the world, we live in. They are a mischievous bunch who believe their role is to convince you and me that they are God, that their answers are true and that we are to ignore the Words of the One True God. Hmmmmm! Doesn’t this sound a lot like the Greek, Roman and Norse God’s of old.

My friends, I hope that I have given you much to think about today. God tells us that there are other God’s. Some of them are the things we worship like money and material things, idols in sports and entertainment. Some of them might well be the fallen who work in the world to subvert the efforts of God to bring love into fulfillment in your life and mine. But regardless of what you come to believe, there is only one True God of creation, redemption, sustaining power who gave of God to become human, went to the cross, and gave up that human life so that you and I may know love for eternity.

Feast on the Mountain

^{GIven at Sydenstricker UMC on October 5th and 6th, 2019}

^NIV Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

^NIV Psalm 34:17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. ¹⁸ The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. ¹⁹ The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; ²⁰ he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

^NIV Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. ⁷ On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; ⁸ he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

We come to this place and this hour preparing for communion. There is so much history and tradition within this service. So I thought I would start today with a little background. Jesus is in Jerusalem with the disciples and even though they are unaware of what is about to happen, Jesus, I believe, is fully aware. Jesus has come to this moment to set the world on a new path, to start a new church or should we say, resurrect the original intent of God. But on the night before all this will transpire, Jesus is doing something old, traditional and familiar. They are celebrating the Passover. Passover is the story of God’s unconditional love for the people we call “Hebrews” or “Jews”. It is the story of bondage and slavery, of being in the wrong place and under incredible oppression. They have come to Egypt 400 years before because of treachery and jealous emotions. They came because there was a great famine and they were hungry. They came because God wanted to reconcile a terrible act with a loving one, the reuniting of Joseph with his father and brothers.

Now they find themselves slaves for the Pharaoh, forced to labor in the heat of the day and to build the things that Pharaoh wants. There is a side story here too. Moses who supposed to be put to death as an infant has survived. Not only survived by was raised in the very court of those who wanted him dead. Moses, exiled now to the plains is called by God to come back and set the people free from bondage and slavery. God sends him back to Egypt and there he encounters some believe, the half-brother he grew up with. Pharaoh does not want to lose the workers so of course he says no. God sends plague and pestilence into Egypt that causes great disruption and harm but Pharaoh Stays the course and says no. God remembered that day when the Hebrew firstborn were killed. So God’s final answer is to tell the Hebrew people to take a perfect lamb or goat, to sacrifice it and place the blood of the animal on their doorways and lentils. That night, God sends the angel of death who goes throughout the land taking the lives of all the firstborn, except those who have the mark upon their doorways and lentils. This is the first Passover and the Jewish people celebrate this every year. Jesus sits with the disciples to celebrate this event and then changes it.

Jesus knows what is coming. So at the end of the Seder meal, Jesus takes the bread and passes it among them saying, “take eat, for this is my body given for you.” He also takes the cup of forgiveness and passes it among them saying, “Take drink of this, for this is the blood of my body shed for the sins of the world.” Sound vaguely familiar? It should, it resembles the Passover itself thousands of years before. What God did for the Hebrew people God is about to do for the world. Jesus sets up a meal for us to share with us what God’s unconditional love looks like that we might share it together until that day when we will share it with Him.

Communion is so sacred, so important that we have been celebrating this meal this way for over two thousand years. If you add in Passover, we may well have been celebrating this meal for twice that time. In the early days of Methodism, the circuit rider would appear every 90 days of so. Upon his arrival, he would share the news of towns far away or the village next door. He would baptize those who had been born since his last visit, share a sermon with the people and then they would celebrate communion together. It was and will always be a sacred event within our understanding. It is a mystery, we do not believe that the bread and juice is really the body and blood of Christ, but we do believe in the mystery that Jesus is present here with us in the moments when we partake of the bread and juice. We believe that this meal can be a converting experience for some and we invite all to God’s table, regardless of where we have been, what we have done and what iniquities, I love that word, we may have committed. God is offering us forgiveness, redemption and eternity in this meal.

I am a sacramental kind of person. I believe with all my heart that this meal is sacred and today we celebrate it across the world together in every nationality, every language, every culture and every understanding. Part of the sacrament is to understand that prophecy is important. God says it, and then makes it happen. God is right 100 % of the time. So in the Psalms God makes a point that the savior of the world, will be bruised, will be hurt, and ultimately killed for our transgressions. He will be suffer greatly that we might share in eternity free of the death from sin. Hear these words, The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; ²⁰ he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. HIS BODY WILL NOT HAVE A BROKEN BONE IN IT. When prisoners are crucified, their legs are broken to hasten death. But Jesus legs were never broken; He had already given up His life for you and me. So when you hear the communion message, we say that the bread is His body, given for us, because to say it was broken for us is to say He was not the Messiah at all.

I have shared this story before that some years ago a woman asked me a pointed question. She said she had been operated on some years back and had died on the table according to her doctors. She remembered that she was in a place where she could sense people she knew even though she could not see them. She was behind people who were clearly at a table but she was not allowed to come to the table. She was turned around and woke up in recovery. She wanted to know where she had been. Isaiah lived during a time when the people called Hebrew, had turned their backs on God. They had turned away and God sent them Isaiah to attempt to turn them back. It is an interesting read if you never have read it. In the prophetic voice of Isaiah, God lets us see that there is a path to redemption through one that God will send into the world. I love the words that Isaiah says about a feast on the mountain. Here them again: ^NIV Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. ⁷ On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; ⁸ he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

With all my heart, I believe that this woman was at that table but because God still had work for her to do, she was not allowed the feast yet. Her story convicted me of the truth of this scripture and how God’s promises will be fulfilled in our eternal lives one day. This meal we are about to take is a foretaste, a teasing if you will, of the real meal that will come one day.

So here we are today, about to take of this wonderful meal that Jesus has set before us. But there is something important I want to share with you today. As you come prepared to take the bread and dip the bread into the juice and consume it, prepare your heart. What Jesus established two thousand years ago, what God put in place in Egypt is an opportunity to be free. It is an opportunity to experience God’s unconditional love in your life. It is more than just bread and juice; it is the gift of God that hung on a cross that we might spend eternity at a feast on a mountaintop. All you have to do is open your heart to God and be transformed by the power of love. Next month, why not invite a friend to come with you and share with them the story I have shared with you today. God’s meal is open to all. Come; be filled with bread and juice that you may never thirst again, that you may spend eternity without suffering or pain. Come, rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, even though as He says these words, He hangs upon a cross that we might be free. Come!

Let's start over

It has been a while since I posted on my blog and I am not sure who if any of you are still following. If you are it would be nice if you left a comment or two to let me know. My life is wonderful and complicated as a Senior Pastor of a mid size church in Northern Virginia. We have been growing steadily over the last three and one half years, from 207 average worship attendance to 297 as of this week. We Methodist are anything if not methodical. There is much turmoil in who we will be after general Conference in May and my prayers are that we find a way to stay united, even if we disagree on issues. The Methodist Church is my home and I love it beyond measure. It is a place of compassion and love, not hate and anger as some would desire. It is a place where all can feel welcomed, at least in the churches that I serve and have served.

I have received great love here in Springfield as I have throughout my now 19 years of ministry. I have weathered difficult people and situations during those times, no more so than in the last 12 months from a limited few people bent on stopping what I hope to achieve, love and welcoming for all. I will be posting sermons again starting with those from October forward of this year. To listen to them go to the Sydenstricker UMC webpage. https://www.sydenstrickerumc.org/, where they are posted or our Facebook pages. https://www.facebook.com/SydenstrickerUMC.

Again, if you are following I will attempt to post weekly if not more often, but let me know you are there.

Love you, Shalom!

Where do we go from here?

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 3/3/19

Click here for audio

^NRS Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³ He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." ⁴ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. ⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." ⁷ So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." ¹⁰ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. ¹¹ Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."

I love this scripture. Let me set the stage for you. The people of Israel had not loved God with their whole heart, had not loved their neighbor as God had instructed and for that, they were conquered and scatter to the four winds. Ezekiel has prayed for hope for the people of Israel and God answers that prayer with this vision. Some believe that he was in the Megiddo valley, the sight of numerous battles for control of trade routes and country wealth. There God shows Ezekiel that God is in control and that no matter what, God can reclaim and redeem. Can you imagine this vision? It has been recreated in a dozen horror and/ or science fiction movies as the bones take on flesh and live again. What Ezekiel saw, we will live into if we are both faithful and perseverant?

I want to share with you that I received this week a thank you card from our District Superintendent. He was thanking us for our fruitfulness and our tenacity to keep on going no matter what. He was acknowledging that we now have had three years of sustained growth in average worship attendance and two years in a row where we have increased the number of professions of faith/ reaffirmations of faith. Jeff was also acknowledging the growth in children, youth and young adult ministries in the numbers of growth that we have experienced. In the last year, we have been renovating the church with new air conditioning units, new heating/ AC in the Agape house, new carpet in the chapel, new paint in numerous places and new carpet soon to be installed in the Agape House along with some renovation work in the kitchen there. We have groups focused on defining and implementing discipleship programs in the church, more adult education and small groups than ever before and we are focusing our attention on how to connect with neighbor. All in all, we have been sharing the good news of the Gospel, the love of Jesus Christ with the world around us. I haven’t even touched the surface of the activities and mission we are involved with in our local community, El Salvador and around the world. My friends, as your Pastor, I am excited to share that we are church.

We have much work yet to be done. Many of you have listened to news reports, followed Facebook accounts or spent time following the General Conference. I want to share with you what they outcome of General Conference is as I know it. First, I want to remind us that we are called to love God with all our hearts, all our minds and all souls and then love our neighbors in the same way. Some of you today are happy about the outcome of General Conference. Some of you are deeply hurt and saddened. To both of you I ask that you respect each other with kindness, patience and love. That is what we are called to do. General Conference passed the Modified Traditional Plan. That plan keeps the language concerning LGBTQ as if currently is in the Book of Discipline and adds teeth to the accountability of clergy, Bishops and Conferences to uphold the Discipline. In some ways, nothing changed in who we are and how we operate. It did not address membership, which means that everyone, regardless, is open to membership in the United Methodist Church. We as Pastors cannot marry same-sex individuals and openly LGBTQ persons cannot be licensed, commissioned or ordained as it is currently written in our Book of Discipline. So in simple terms, nothing changed in the way we are allowed to pastor our churches or appoint pastors to churches. What did change is that pastors, bishops, churches and annual conferences that violate those rules now face stricter consequences.

General Conference also passed a less restrictive “I want to leave” clause. John Wesley in his infinite wisdom was concerned that we would become more enamored with our buildings than our mission. Therefore, he instituted a trust clause that says that property, buildings and financial assets of the church belong to the Annual Conference, not to the local church. If a local church no longer desires or is able to be church, then the property reverts to the Annual Conference. That trust clause has been upheld in numerous court battles of churches that wanted to leave the denomination. General Conference passed a less restrictive rule for leaving than is currently in place. Before you ask, I am not sure what the exact language is so we have a little sit and wait in front of us.

All of this is subject to a Judicial Council ruling that decides whether the actions taken by General Conference are constitutional in accordance with our rules and regulations in the Book of Discipline. That will occur April 23-26^th in Evanston, Illinois when the Judicial Council meets. They had previously said that parts of the Traditional Plan, this thing that was passed by General Conference, was unconstitutional. If they find parts of it to be unconstitutional, then the original, language of the Book of Discipline will stay in place. Therefore, we wait and see a bit.

So what does this all mean, really? It means that our denomination is continually going through the pruning and growing process. It means that as a church we are going to be inviting to some and not to all. That part saddens me and should you, regardless of where you fall in this issue. We will likely see some of our denomination split and go in a different direction. We may even have to make a choice one day, which denomination we will live in, much like our Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist and Lutheran brothers and sisters have already done. If and when those decisions need to be made, we will be transparent as we discuss and then discern God’s will for us. For the moment, nothing we have been doing and are currently planning on doing will change.

We are called to love God and love neighbor. Everyone is our neighbor, even those who we struggle to agree with, connect with or like. We are called not to be the church of exclusion but rather the church of inclusion and this decision, though it may be seen by some as exclusionary, is not. At Sydenstricker, our prayer is that we continue to connect with people of all ages, races, genders, and persuasions. Our goal is to follow the Gospel that tells us to love God with faith and trust in God. What we have seen in the past few years, is when we do, we grow. We grow in discipleship, we grow in numbers, and we grow in connection. If we continue to trust God, putting God’s will in front of our own, we will be fruitful. I am calling on each of you to trust that God can even take the dry bones and bring life, that God can take us and make us fruitful and prosperous. We are called to be the church that welcomes all. We are called to love one another. Nothing less is acceptable. Let us move forward in radical hospitality and love.