In the movie Casablanca, the local police Captain Louis Renault utters the memorable line, “Roundup the usual suspects,” after the Nazi Major Strasser has been shot. One of the memorable movie dramas of the Nineties was The Usual Suspects where five career criminals meet in a police lineup and then come together for more crime and a twist of an ending!

The phrase “usual suspects” can be used as well in ALL of our texts for Sunday. The prophet Malachi lists several bad behaviors in 3:5 and John the Baptizer rails against those who have certainly “missed the mark” in both religion and society.

On the other hand….. Paul gushes over another group of “suspects” guilty only of love and growing in the grace of God in this letter to the “saints” at the church in Philippi.

Our Advent season has many “suspects” even today and we will look at which “groups” we can have some concern about and which “groups” we can congratulate! Of course, there may be a bit of BOTH in all of us! But, the whole drama ultimately points to the One who calls all to the gift of New Life at Christmas and declares forgiveness on all suspects from the Cradle to the Cross!

Pastor Barry

Here’s hoping everyone had a calm and relaxing Thanksgiving Day. Thanks to all who were perhaps not as calm and relaxed since they were preparing food and table! Let’s hope the weekend will be more restful for you!

And here’s to hoping most of you did not have a lot of family “drama” around the table or in the den! Drama in the sense of tension and at worst conflict! There is enough to go around in the rest of the world, much less in the home!

The scriptures speak to the drama surrounding both Advent Season which in turn speaks to our present salvation and that final salvation which is yet to come.
And the conflict, drama, and tension which inevitably has to come before Heavenly Peace on Earth arrives.

What’s just as amazing is Paul’s expectation in I Thessalonians 3:9-13 that WE can be “strong, perfect, and holy” while getting through the conflict on our way to Peace. It’s a promise we should hold onto and this Sunday we will hear and see (in others) the potential for that to keep happening!

God Bless! See you soon!

Pastor Barry

I suppose every Age of Mankind has been full of drama, conflict, and urgency. Fights, wars, violence, intrigue. On the other hand, most people do what they can to lead a life which has these elements at a minimum! A lifetime as peaceful as possible! Yet……..deep down, as we age and mature, we become increasingly aware of how fragile life and a goal of peacefulness can be.

After our District Ministers’ Meeting at Manchester First, there was much discussion about the worship we enjoyed together that morning. The scriptures were anticipating Advent as were the three preachers who shared meditations. And the hymns and congregational responses were joyous. All came together to make for faithful worship….and lively discussions over lunch at Coffee Cafe in Manchester!

One of the questions that emerged from the meditations was, “Could Mary have been stoned to death for her pregnancy if Joseph had divorced her?” I previously thought that the likely outcome was a shaming and a life of poverty as a single mother. Was it legal to execute a pregnant woman?” How might the Teachers of the day handled the matter HAD Joseph followed the permissible law?

It made for my “digging into” scripture later and a great sense of all the preachers thinking hard and maybe differently about Mary and the Law as we approach Advent in a few weeks!

The question before all of us is this: when we hear and see and respond to our scriptures IN COMMUNITIES OF FAITH is anything different? How might the actual difference be an increase in faithfulness and discipleship? A difference that anyone might notice!?

Let’s be about this question this Sunday. Mark tells us about a widow who gave all…out of her poverty. What might be different when this is heard?

Blessings as you pray your way toward Sunday!

Pastor Barry

Homecoming time~! In the 21st Century it looks quite a bit different than a generation or two ago. Through smart phones, email, texts, Skype, Facebook, Interstate Highways, and other means of rapid communication and transport people stay “in touch” more than ever. Yet, there is still something about Place. A returning to a place that shapes us, transforms us, loves us, and grows us! Church as home is just that kind of place! Place as experience and memory. And with one another we are one in Christ! We are the Body of Christ. Until He comes again.

Homecoming at Kedron is this Sunday! Join us and be glad!

Bro Barry

I so wanted to preach upon last week’s texts from Psalm 146 and Mark 7, but time and circumstance wait for no one! The “moving finger having writ, moves on.” I did keep Psalm 146 but thought Romans 13 and Revelation 13 have a lot to say about Sept 11, Rowan County, KY, church, and love.

The events around us have moved from immediate painful personal losses to the events of the nation and world. We walk with BOTH our personal concerns as well as those of the world and community. We are both private and public Christians. We are both local and worldwide. We are both “in the world and not of it.”

Go figure…most of us are not hermits nor monks nor Presidents nor Senators. Somewhere in between! Citizens in community and in church. For some things….against some things.
The texts from Psalms and Romans and Revelation are just “packed” and no single sermon nor worship do them justice….. But we will try. We will pray and listen to the Word. May God give the increase.

Bro Barry

Luke 10:42  “One thing is needful…..”

If you are like most of us at Thanksgiving, you make a list of people, places, and things to be thankful for. They will be uttered in prayerful thanks around the dinner  table surrounded by family or friends, co-workers, teammates, or other social groups. You will be “counting your blessings.” All good and well and a right thing to do.

I propose, as a slight variation of giving thanks for many received blessings, that in your private moments of prayer during this Thanksgiving Season you think upon giving thanks for one specific Being. Our God, Creator and Maker, Savior and Lord. Don’t go over what the Giver has given you but rather just pause in devotion to the One who makes all things, all gifts possible. Quietly focus your silent moment on God and God alone. As if you had virtually nothing else at all….but God.

I know we can’t just quietly  stay in that place of “one thing needful” for we are called to enjoy, use, and share what gifts we have received. But……God alone for one lone moment this Season. Find your prayer closet….wherever that might be and take a full 5 minutes.

Think upon “one thing needful”….. and be glad.  The Mary of Luke 10:42 did……….