Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things….”
2 Corinthians 5:7 “Walk by faith…..”

We as both citizens of the USA and “citizens” of the world have a “ways to go” before we are clear of this pandemic and on more solid economic ground. For many, they are literally passing through the valley of the shadow of death. We are moving toward an uncertain future at an uncertain speed. We are walking not running. And we walk by faith not by seeing.

I noted today is the anniversary of opening the great Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was open only to pedestrians that May 27, 1937 with vehicular traffic commencing the next day.
To walk it required crossing a 4,200 foot main span. The world renowned bridge is one of the most visited sites in the world. An engineering feat for its time and a dazzling view of land, water, and sky ever since. But it does feel like a “long way across” when you start out whether by foot or by vehicle! Still….it will get you across the bay!

For us today, to get to some future better than where we are at present many types of “bridges” will be needed. For the Christ Follower we know Him as our ultimate Bridge not only to God’s future but also to experience the presence of the Kingdom of God in our midst! So, we walk and so we find strength to walk. And we are supported as we walk. Underneath the Bridge the Solid Rock holds.

I’ve mixed some Bible images, but I hope you get a sense of both the confidence of making our life journey forward and across with the exhilaration at times of the wonder of the things we see and do and feel as we find our way in a rough and troubled world!
Blessings each day of your walk! Trust our Bridge!

Pastor Barry

Psalm 68:1-10, Acts 1:6-14 and I Peter 5:6-11

The movie Back To The Future opened in 1985 and has been watched by many ever since. A 17 year old gets time traveled back to the Fifties and he meets his parents before they were married! An adventure-comedy to say the least!

This Sunday’s worship themes include past, present, and future scenes of God’s work from beginning to end of all time. We will time travel! And we will celebrate the Ascension of Jesus who now dwells fully with the heavenly glory of God the Father. We will remember our wonderful heritage as congregations founded in the frontier 1800s. We will remember those who served our nation well on another Memorial Day weekend.

In the present, we do these celebrations and remembrances and we do it with full confidence that the future is in God’s hands regardless of our struggles and troubles.

Blessings,

Pastor Barry

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, healers, helpers…..I Corinthians 12:28

I have my list of stresses and you have one also. Many of the stressors now come from the coronavirus pandemic. Other issues may appear that are unrelated to masks, social distancing, hygiene, and staying home! Issues that might come up in any time in life, e.g. financial stress, employment challenges, interpersonal relationship struggles, health changes. What’s a person of faith to do when the going gets tough?

Reach out. Look for “healers and helpers.” And in some instances, trained professionals in counseling and therapy should be contacted. To that end, let me offer some resources that help and do so in confidentiality and privacy.

If stress or other factors are leading to undue anxiety or deepening depression or that range of emotions from sad to mad, and any are affecting family, work, or faith, consider seeking help. And it might not be you under duress but it could be a family member, friend or coworker.

I can recommend Insight Counseling Center which is located in offices in First Baptist Murfreesboro, as I have benefitted from a pastoral counselor there. I personally know two therapists in Nashville who are available if one wanted to have even more privacy outside our community. And all three are currently providing on line or phone counseling.

Feel free to contact me for counsel, for information on any of the above or other possible resources. Look for the “healers and helpers.” They are there! And don’t forget: you can be a helper and healer to someone else as well! Lending an ear and then perhaps pointing in a direction for further help.

If you have any joys or concerns please email them to me at pastor-barry@kedronumc.org

Please remember your tithes and offerings. They can be sent to Naomi Lee.

We will live stream on Sunday at 11 am. Bookmark the link https://www.facebook.com/KedronUMC/

Blessings in these unusual times!

Pastor Barry

Acts 17:16-34, I Peter 3:13-22 and John 14:15-21

If you are like me and a host of others, your witness, your being a Christian before others is more deed than words. We try to live out the stories of God’s work in Christ in our daily walk with others.

For the most part, we interact with other believers although of different paths of expressing the common faith. Different styles of worship are found in our multiple denominations and differences in practice can also be found. Still we are likely to be in the midst of Christians of some conviction and practice.

Our Acts text is almost unimaginable for most of us in that Paul is in ancient Athens with a “sea” of different philosophies, religions, and unfamiliar spiritual practices. He sets out to witness in all that and he tells the story of Jesus resurrected. And what God is revealing now!

We today are in a different time and place with the need to demonstrate not just Christian compassion but also tell the stories of Jesus to those who are living out of a lot of very different ways of “seeing” the world. In other words, how do we witness in 2020, in the midst of a global crisis of health and economy?! What ultimately gives us hope and a motivation to help others?

We’re not unlike the early American explorers Lewis and Clark, who we are reminded, set out on May 14, 1804, to explore the unknown Northwest part of the USA. More to the point, how exciting it must have been to hear of their discoveries when they returned to share with those already settled in the Eastern USA! They described much that was new whether landscape, animals, natural resources or possibilities for an expanding nation.

We are about something similar in that we have many before us in our communities who need to hear and see what new thing God has done and IS doing in Christ Jesus. And how life AS the church is evidence of our discovery of something new and life sustaining in the midst of uncertainty and anxiety. Paul had an audience…..and so do we! Let us find ways to both TELL and DO the stories that make all the difference in the way our lives are made meaningful and made Eternal!

“See” you Sunday in worship. “Tune in” at 11am! Let this be a way to prepare for the week ahead in these uncertain times waiting for ways to be discovered to find hope and an abundant life!

In preparation for live stream viewing at home, please look at the Apostles Creed as we will recite that as one of our Acts of Praise this Sunday. It is # 881 in The United Methodist hymnal or below. It is used as an historic confession of our faith and recited by millions over the centuries as a witness to the summary of our faith.

---

Apostles Creed (Traditional Version)

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The Holy catholic Church, the Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

---

If you have any joys or concerns please email them to me at pastor-barry@kedronumc.org

Please remember your tithes and offerings. They can be sent to Naomi Lee.

We will live stream on Sunday at 11 am. Bookmark the link https://www.facebook.com/KedronUMC/

Blessings,

Pastor Barry

The Lord is my coach.
I have all guidance and support.
He makes me rest when I should.
He leads me to refreshment.
He restores my will to do.
He leads me to excel for the sake of God.
Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of defeat;
I will fear nothing bad; his voice and strength comfort me.
He prepares good nutrition for me in the presence of those against me.
He always welcomes me with a pat on the shoulders.
Surely goodness and kindness will come from him all my playing days and then I will be welcome at his house always.

Blessings,

Pastor Barry

Hopefully some return to “routine” has begun in our homes and communities. I said “some!” There is still much disruption, re-direction, and general anxiety caused by the threats and changes due to the coronavirus.

We ask, “what can we depend upon? What is still solid rock on which I can stand?” Perhaps parents ask this question as much as anyone and perhaps mothers most of all! Mothers (and many dads too) have found themselves doubling as “home bound teachers” and “day care providers” while still holding jobs outside the home! It’s tasking. They ask, “does my foundation hold?” Will we get through this?

The Bible answers with a resounding comforting YES! Because the foundation stones are forever in place! We are reminded we stand upon a “living stone and become spiritual stones ourselves building a solid spiritual house” (I Peter 2:4,5).

This Sunday we celebrate families and honor mothers. As crazy and difficult as families can become, our life is based on what goes into and comes out of family! Pray for life together!

We will live stream on Sunday at 11 am. Bookmark the link https://www.facebook.com/KedronUMC/

Blessings on the coming Lord’s Day!

Pastor Barry

Psalm 23 and John 10:1-10

We find ourselves in the month of May now. And we are still “at a distance” but still in hope for a coming relief from this season of threat from coronavirus and the necessary public health precautions. We are Easter people of faith and we persevere with God’s help.

We may get a partial return to our sanctuaries the next two Sundays as we will attempt to “live stream” the worship from Kedron on May 3 and from Locks on May 10. Once again, we won’t gather together but we will be visually reminded of our “worship space” and our eventual return “home.”

This fourth Sunday in Easter has traditionally been known as Good Shepherd Sunday as the scriptures are all about the Good Shepherd. We are in need of shepherding in these “lost and difficult days” where we have felt the “valley of the shadow.”

Pray for one another and look to The Good Shepherd to guide us!

Blessings

Pastor Barry

Acts 2:36-41, Luke 24:13-35

Spring is upon us in its beauty, promise, and unpredictability! Our scriptures for this coming Sunday contain some of these “Spring” features as well. Two disciples on the road to Emmaus presumably in Spring/Passover weather, are suddenly with a companion who walks and talks with them, surprises them at a meal together, and leaves them with anticipation of His always being with them. And the two go tell the others what they have seen and heard. Spring excitement starts to build! The new covenant church grows!

We live in a difficult time where so much of what we see and hear lead to anxiety and fear. We need to hear another voice as well. A voice that comes from God through scripture and within a community that says to each other, “Look! Listen! God has been with us and will be with us! The Lord gives us gifts and graces to get through this and walk the roads we must walk.”

Until we are guided to worship in our sanctuaries once again, we gather on the “airwaves” to worship together. And other worship through your prayer life and scripture study and connection with each other through letters, texts, calls, FB, and emails.

The Lord says, “You can do this! Fear not!”

Though we are to “stay at home,” we can still keep “moving in faith!” Pray for one another especially those who continue to work and must be about on the roads helping others.

On to Sunday!

If you have any joys or concerns please email them to me at pastor-barry@kedronumc.org

We will live stream on Sunday at 11 am. Bookmark the link https://www.facebook.com/KedronUMC/

Blessings and Encouragement~~†

Pastor Barry

Easter is a season in the life of the church’s worship not just a Sunday.
And, in spite of a wide range of emotions during the pandemic, the people of God always include Easter joy and its companion humor. As we like to say, “the joke on the Devil is the Empty Tomb.”

So, here are a few jokes and such for helping express your Easter joy. Please share with others. Some will elicit laughter and others will just bring a groan!

James, age four, was listening to a Bible story. His Dad read, “The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee from the city without looking back, but his wife couldn’t resist. She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.” Concerned, the little boy asked, “What happened to the flea??!”

WHAT KIDS HEAR WHEN THE BIBLE IS READ OUT LOUD:
-The great miracle in the old Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.
-The Epistles were the wives of the Apostles.
-“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us some email.”
-In the first book of the Bible, Guinness, God got tired of creating the world so he took the Sabbath off.”

One liners:
-He who laughs, lasts!
-Middle age is when you burn the midnight oil at about 8pm.
-If all is not lost, then where the heck is it?!
-I’ve reached the age where any train of thought often leaves the station without me!
-Why are a wise man and a wise guy the very opposite?
-Christmas is an odd holiday when you can sit in front of a dead tree inside your house and eat candy out of your large socks!
-How does Moses make tea? Hebrews it.

Try one or two of these on your family or coworkers or neighbors. And send me any jokes you have found to be amusing to you!
Hope humor helps!

Pastor Barry 😄

Acts 2:22-32 and John 20:19-31

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Well, we are far into a month of absence from our sanctuaries of worship, fellowship halls, Sunday School rooms, and the strange way of doing mission and community life at a “social distance.” Who could imagine!? Snow and ice keep us away and inside, but not a virus! Really?!

So, we learn different ways of following our Resurrected Lord without being with each other like always. We are almost like Thomas in our John text, we can’t see and touch so we are likely to have doubts creeping in. Jesus gave Thomas the opportunity to touch but still said to all disciples, “blessed are those who can’t see and touch but still believe!”

Doubt and belief often sit beside each other but belief “gets up and walks!” That’s where the Holy Spirit comes alongside us as Jesus bestows the Spirit upon us so we can find the strength and effort to live the new life of renewing hope and love to neighbors.

In this odd season of separation and interrupted routine, we are like the early disciples “leaning into a new life.” Let’s lean together even we don’t see each other quite like we used to! Pray as you lean forward!

And, like in years past, this Sunday after Easter Sunday is Bright Sunday in which the whole church rejoices with good humor and smiles with laughter. We tell jokes to remind ourselves that the Empty Tomb is a joke on the Devil! Be sure to check your email before Sunday to find some good humor coming your way. And if you can send me a fine, clean joke to share with others. I’ll post those soon and give you credit as well!

If you have any joys or concerns please email them to me at pastor-barry@kedronumc.org

Please remember your tithes and offerings. They can be sent to Naomi Lee.

We will live stream on Sunday at 11 am. Bookmark the link https://www.facebook.com/KedronUMC/

Blessings and Encouragement~~†

Pastor Barry