You have to be a certain age to know what “Call for Phillip Morris” means. And to some still young, the name MLK, Jr. is only vaguely familiar in our U.S. history (his birthday is remembered January 15). His voice shaped a nation in transition toward civil rights for all. He called for justice and for true freedom. But, to EVERYONE their own name is impressed upon them early on and frequently and most turn their head toward any call of their name.

We are called for numerous reasons throughout life. Roll call, dinner call, call to go to work, call to attention. We hear our name and we respond. Sometimes we resist in hearing as well! “No, that call must be for someone else….thanks tho for trying!”

God calls too…..we are known by God from cradle to the grave…and beyond. God wants to get our attention, but the call is not always clear to every ear. Or it is clear and we decide to not “hear.” And day in and day out the call is very much embedded in all the necessities and cares of our earthly toil and glad joys!

God calls to individuals even if we are in a ten thousand seat stadium. Samuel heard the call but it took repeating. Nathaniel was called by Phillip and then by Jesus. The call is important. It leads to the fullest, most meaningful life even if shortened, stunted, or only dimly understood! And it can be sent to you strongly once, twice, thrice, but most assuredly throughout life even as a “still small voice.”

What are you hearing from God when you read these Bible passages? Rest assured, it is not just to the people in the past e.g., young Samuel, Nathaniel, or Phillip, or those in Temple or synagogue who sung Psalm 139. It is meant for YOU and for all. Today.

This Sunday’s worship will be a call to listen to God in your own unique way, your own remarkable life, and your own unfolding spiritual path. But, we will be together and always walking side by side as the church. In that togetherness we will more fully understand our own personal call. Jesus’ work of calling was always with his rag tag group of disciples as they became “one in Christ Jesus.”

Hey! Listen up everyone! Your name is being called! “Call for…….!”

Blessings in this New Year~!

Pastor Barry

This Sunday is a preacher’s trifecta! The pastor’s three-in-a-row. The Sunday that loads the bases! I exaggerate a little but not by much.  It is also something of a challenge to do justice to a worship service which speaks to Epiphany/Visitation of the Magi (Jan 6), first Sunday Holy Communion, AND Baptismal Renewal Sunday. They really all do come together this weekend. Any time you bring The Three Magi in for our two Sacraments you have a full, full hour of Christian worship!

The texts are wonderful and span so much Bible history and revelation. Isaiah can hardly restrain himself in praise for what is to come, the visitors from the East are like so many today, seeking Truth, and Paul in Ephesus gets to clear up the matter of Baptism with some local disciples. The results in all these texts are impressive. Might we have results of discipleship and commitment and thanksgiving as we in turn receive from the Lord in our own time!

Hear the Word, Remember your Baptism, and partake of The Lord’s Supper. Can it get any better?!

Blessings as we enter 2018!

Pastor Barry

So….as we count time, another year comes to a close. We actually have Sunday worship on the last day of 2017. New Year’s Eve! As much “new” as we might hope for, there will be plenty of the “old” to take with us into 2018! Some good, some not so good. Some a blessing, some more like a burden to bear (and both to be shared by the brothers and sisters in the faith). However, to God, who is eternal, the message(s) will be both the same yet ever fresh full of hope! God’s word is for all times in all places for all peoples.

In my absence, Bro Rob Dunbar will bring the message at Kedron and Carol Reynolds, Lay Speaker from Wartrace UMC, will speak at Locks. Our “connectional” churches and life together in the Stones River District make this collegial mutual support possible.

Pray for one another as we enter the opportunities and challenges and surprises of a New Year. May God be in all your “making plans and doing ministry!” Isaiah the prophet calls out for a “year of the Lord’s favor!” May it be so!

Pastor Barry

2 Samuel 7:1-16, Romans 16:25-27 and Luke 1:26-38.

These Bible verses are all about the mystery of God, immortal, invisible, infinite, wholly Other, Holy.  Yet, this God shows up! With us! In a really nice Garden, wilderness burning bushes, pillars of fire by night, tents, temples, and a young woman Mary!

We know that! I know that! I have prayed to this God in hundreds of common earthly places from mountain to plains, in cars and planes, in hospitals and wedding chapels, in clearest of days and darkest of nights. God is a circle whose circumference is everywhere! God is That which is greater than whatever we can conceive!

Advent and Christmas, in spite of all the visible flash and stir of shops and meals, giving and receiving, is about the Mystery showing up in our regular and irregular lives. A Mystery NOT to be solved like a good murder mystery novel but to exalt in and to enjoy! To be comforted by and to be saved from Sin and Death by.

The Mystery is often celebrated best by seeing and listening and not explaining. There is a place for explaining and teaching but we often learn over a lifetime by just looking around and listening to the sights and sounds of Creation and creatures.

Enjoy the Season of sights and sounds which point toward God the great loving Mystery! God is indeed Everywhere!
Blessings of Christmas to all!

Pastor Barry

John the Baptizer called the Jews of his day back to the wilderness, the place where God traditionally informed and shaped His people. There, in the wild, a way was to be prepared for the Coming One, the Messiah. John the camel hair dressed prophet, eating locusts and wild honey, baptized synagogue attending Jews! It was close to someone telling the regular “church goer” to Get Right With God. Who, ”ME?”

Since we are all in an unexpected “wilderness” at some points in our life perhaps we should listen in! And what better time than the Advent time of waiting for Christmas joy and peace and hope. Advent is really more than cards, parades, parties, and shopping! Any of the latter can express The Reason For The Season but can also “hide” the great need for spiritual introspection, preparation, and personally meeting God again and again throughout our life’s journey. God always accepts us where we are but doesn’t want to leave us as we are!

John the Baptizer is a good one to listen to but because he is pointing to the One to come. Jesus brings the Spirit to our wildernesses, our finding our way forward, and all our relationships both in family, community, and nation. Prepare a way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:3)! Make this 2nd Sunday in Advent a time of preparation for your spiritual renewal with God in Christ!

Pastor Barry

“Hurry up and wait.” This is an expression often associated with troops waiting in drudgery, boredom, and routine until suddenly they are called to action, to the fury of battle. The texts of Isaiah and Mark warn of the coming Day of the Lord filled with awe and destruction, apocalyptic world changing events. We are called to wait. But called to be alert in the waiting. Advent as alertness!

Paul in 1st Corinthians 1:3-9 also speaks of the End and revealing of our Lord Jesus but in that time of waiting Paul says we “have all we need, e.g. wisdom, knowledge and spiritual gifts.” And he tops off all this encouragement by saying we are in a “partnership” (CEB) with Jesus (!). That says a lot about how our Lord sees us: if not equals we are still valued as partners working together. Imagine going into the office or whatever workplace and there is a fellow partner… Jesus! Certainly THE Senior partner but nonetheless a partner. Maybe that’s why we often refer to one another in church as a “prayer partner.” We are in this together. We’ve “got each other’s back!” We “saddle up together” and ride toward the horizon, the future, the Sunset.

Pick your favorite image! The point is we go together with each other and with Jesus. Perfect “partnership” casts out fear, if I can paraphrase I John 4:18. Partner up with the best!

Blessings on this First Sunday in Advent!

Pastor Barry

Between a Sunday whose emphasis is giving thanks and a Sunday when we rejoice in a baby born in Bethlehem, we get a Sunday packed with both cosmic joy and…Judgment! And if we are not intentional, all of the above can get lost on something called Black Friday! Shop till you drop?! It’s a wonder the church can get anybody’s attention this weekend! But we do because there is a loud Truth about both joy and judgment held together in one Person both a Shepherd and a King; Christ the King Sunday; it is the last Sunday in the cycle of the Christian Year.

Next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, we begin anticipating 2018 and the 12 month cycle of retelling the old, old story from the cradle to the grave to the glory! If there is a beginning to the story of Jesus there is also an ending followed by…..the whole mystery of an Eternal Kingdom “not made by human hands.” An arrival of Cosmic Joy and Judgment; thus we celebrate the texts in Ezekiel, Ephesians, and Matthew all focused on a “wrapping up” of All Things! But, since we are living in between the Times we still need to hear “what saith the Lord” for our current day. We still have to shop (!), make decisions, tend to the relationships at hand, and find ways to enjoy what good things are given to us! God is not finished with us yet! Let us “jump for joy” and “flee from the wrath to come (Wesley)!” We CAN do two things at once!

See you this Sunday, Christ the King Sunday!

Pastor Barry

It’s that time in the year when individual talents, giftedness, and strengths really begin to be noticed and appreciated. In school work, Fall sports, and election years! Gifted people get noticed! Talent in people, at whatever level, is applauded.

The scriptures, no less, speak to the talents each person has. Deborah is recognized as a leader in the early years of Israel’s becoming a nation of united tribes. Jesus tells his disciples and followers a parable about the faithful use of what each person has been entrusted with. Paul in First Thessalonians encourages us to “build each up and encourage one another.” People of faith have the “talents” to do just that! Young and old all have gifts to share with the community, eg, wisdom, knowledge, strengths, creativity, attributes of all of us being “made in the image of God!”

Imagine also that just being “loved by God our Creator” will bring out the best in each of us for the benefit of each of us! Quite a different way of viewing ourselves with less of an emphasis on competition as our culture tends to glorify.
Be the best that God has in store for you whatever your gifts and talents! Play as though unto the Lord!

Run hard, serve in the elected office, aim for the A+, go long, plant the seeds, be….all you can be while you can be!
Thanks be to God!

Pastor Barry

Well, the news lately has not been so good. Local, national or international events….not so good. O, there are still many good days and moments with joy and laughter, work and leisure, but they seem dulled by violence, tragedy, and death. Innocence seems to come to a close a lot earlier in life than in The Good Old Days (which is what we all, of a certain age, look back to and then realize….really didn’t exist!). Since we live in a Super Information Age, we find out quickly about all the misery and suffering from the East to the West.

With this in mind, we get scripture this Sunday which points to both the bad and the good in the Day of the Lord (Amos), the “Rapture” (First Thessalonians), and The Wise and Foolish at The Final Wedding Feast (Matthew). The bible is both realistic in how it sees the suffering and evil in the world, and the wonderful hope that God will end that suffering and evil. The bible is about us staying alert, waiting, and participating in what God is doing and God will do. We can sleep…or stay alert. We can be Wise….or we can be Foolish. We can grow in faith….or we can be “content” to stay the same, but miss out on God’s call to be an ongoing New Creation in Christ!

I admit that having lived long enough to have gone through probably over ten predictions of the End of the World; I am weary of End Time “prophets.” I am NOT weary of seeing God continue to bring forth faithful people in spite of gloom and doom. People who “persevere to the end,” people who “are not just hearers of the Word, but are doers of the Word” as well!

This is the greatness of faith: we believe and experience God Now, to the End, and Beyond.

Praise be to God on Sunday and beyond! See you Sunday and beyond!

Pastor Barry

As C.S. Lewis, the writer of the Chronicles of Narnia, once said:  “Aim just for earth and that is all you will get. Aim for heaven, and you get both.”

The person of faith is not earth bound. Dust we are and to dust we return, but that is hardly the end of our Christ story. On All Saints Sunday we remember all those faithful departed, family, friends, influences, examples of love and being loved, forgiven and being forgiven. And as we read and hear these scriptures we have reason to rejoice and be glad in what God brings forth in the people of the Kingdom both here and forever. But words fail us at the threshold of death. We can only go so far in description and vivid images since the bible goes into some detail but is often constrained and says “this far…but no further.” We do, however, build upon what we do know and what we have seen exemplary in the lives we remember today. People that lived in faith, hope, love, and in forgiveness. These must continue especially the greatest of these….love.

So, when the 10 year old asks about heaven and pets and games and houses and clothes “up there” we can simply say “we don’t have many pictures of all that but God is good and will do what’s right for His beloved people.” You can fill in some blanks as your faithful imagination allows, but always remember…”we see through a glass darkly.” But then….someday….!”

Praise be to God!

Pastor Barry