September 7th: Honest Evangelism

September 7th: Pastor Jim will be celebrating the 50 anniversary of the merger of Centenary UMC and Trinity UMC in Lebanon. He was there when the vote was taken and will return with his siblings to the successor church where they all spent some formative years. Millard Fisher will be our “guest” preacher and consecrate the elements for the sacrament of Holy Communion.

In today's gospel lesson, Jesus does a very unusual thing. He shows that he is much more interested in honesty than He is with getting the responses He wants. How might following His example change ourselves and our culture? Our Scriptures are Psalm 139:7-12 and Luke 14:25-33. The sermon title is "Honest Evangelism", and we will celebrate Holy Communion together.

See you Sunday.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim

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Psalm 139:7-12

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?    

Or where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;    

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

⁹ If I take the wings of the morning    

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,    

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,    

and the light around me become night,”

¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;    

the night is as bright as the day,    

for darkness is as light to you.

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Luke 14:25-33

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵ Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them,  ²⁶ “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.  ²⁷ Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  ²⁸ For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?  ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him,  ³⁰ saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’  ³¹ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?  ³² If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.  ³³ So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

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August 31st: The Good Guest and the Good Host

Labor Day Weekend: Showing hospitality to strangers is not always easy, but it is our Christian obligation. In the book of Hebrews, we are reminded of our obligation. In the Gospel recorded by Luke, Jesus gives us a lesson on how to be a good guest. Between the reading from Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 and Luke 14:1, 7-14, we should be able to discover how to be hospitable. Our message will be “The Good Guest and the Good Host.”

See you Sunday.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim

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Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Service Well-Pleasing to God

13 Let mutual love continue.  ² Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.  ³ Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.^[a]  4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.  ⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  ⁶ So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper;    I will not be afraid.What can anyone do to me?”

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  

 ¹⁵ Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.  ¹⁶ Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

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Luke 14:1, 7-14

Jesus Heals the Man with Dropsy

14 On one occasion when Jesus^[a] was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.  

Humility and Hospitality

⁷ When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.  ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;  ⁹ and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.  ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.  ¹¹ For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

¹² He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  ¹⁴ And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

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August 24th: Acceptable Worship

What makes our worship acceptable to God? This week, we will be reading form Hebrews 12:18-29 and Luke 13:10-17 to see if we can more fully understand what is acceptable to God and what is not acceptable. Our message will be “Acceptable Worship.”

See you Sunday.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim

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Hebrews 12:18-29

¹⁸ You have not come to something^[a] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,  ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.  ²⁰ (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”  ²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”)  ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  ²³ and to the assembly^[b] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵ See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!  ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”  ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.  ²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;  ²⁹ for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

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Luke 13:10-17

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman

¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.  ¹¹ And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.  ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”  ¹³ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  ¹⁴ But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”  ¹⁵ But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?  ¹⁶ And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”  ¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

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