I don’t know how anyone stays focused! We have so many sounds, images, thoughts, memories, and desires flooding us constantly. Except when we sleep! Well…even then….here comes that strange wacky dream!

It’s a wonder (or miracle) that God gets our attention. Sunday worship is one thing; the other six days are something else!

In spite of our “attention deficit” to things of “The Kingdom of God” our Teacher Jesus has so many ways to bring us back to focus. He gives us powerful stories and images that can compete with sports, politics, celebrities, and social media.

In Luke 12….”lilies of the field…that neither spin nor toil!” “Ravens that neither sow nor reap….but they are fed!” Images of old lamps that need oil to keep burning. Who uses oil lamps anymore?! Everything runs on batteries…..or solar! (See…you had to think for a second didn’t you!?). God’s way of saying things important to us CAN stay with us and impact our way of living 24/7 in a world of competing images and messages. And “do not worry,” Luke 12:22…. “Seek the Kingdom….God will give you the Kingdom….” V. 32.

See, Don’t you feel a bit better already? See, you don’t have to get all your “information” from the newspapers and television and your neighbors opinions!

Now, go figure out a way to share that with someone who doesn’t have a church yet or doesn’t read the Bible as often….as you do! Fire up the lamps in your life whether oil fed or….battery powered! You have a Far Country to keep watch for (Hebrews 11:16)!

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God~~

Nobody said it would be easy! But guess who already did the heavy lifting for you!!? You just need to prepare….and share! Shine your light!

Pastor Barry

In the famous movie CASABLANCA, Claude Rains plays the local police chief in Casablanca and has a line that goes, “Round up the usual suspects.” This has to do with local crimes AND with the death of a Nazi officer!

I use the term “usual suspects” for us Christians when it comes to earthly temptations and stumbling blocks to faithful discipleship. These are the “criminals” that we carry with us inside ourselves. Both Jesus and Paul speak to these in our scriptures for July 31.

Greed. Piling up so called riches. Paul even calls this a “form of idol worship.” (!). Paul adds a few more e.g. “anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language…lying to each other.” Sounds like election year talk doesn’t it! But, I don’t want to get distracted here!

You can read these scriptures for yourself and not need a sermon, but allow me to try and see what the Spirit says to each and all this Sunday.

And I feel as though Jesus’ Parable about the Rich Fool may be just enough to make the point! Or you could watch Casablanca and get a good illustration as well. The movie speaks to evil and self-interest and finally to “doing the right thing.” Paul says doing the “right thing” is not so much battling the temptations head on with our resolve but more how close we live to Christ! How much we long to have Christ dwell within us. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” Colossians 3:3.

Something to ponder, something to receive as God’s constant work in our lives. Colossians 3:10.

Thanks be to God!

Pastor Barry

It is good to hear different voices sharing our common story together in God. Or rather God in Christ!

Eric is our preacher for this 10th Sunday after Pentecost. Eric’s personal story was shared with us months ago as he now finds himself on a journey of exploration for extending his ministry, another part of his life story.

As you may remember, Eric is by training both a commercial truck driver and a teacher with a PhD! He is our UMC neighbor as well over at Fellowship. And as God leads he will continue to pursue opportunities to offer more pastoral leadership in our UMC congregations.

Every person’s life is worth a novel! All have their beginnings and endings, comedies and tragedies, victories and defeats. In the fullness of Christ all our lives WILL come together. Christ is the “head of the church and we are the Body.”

Let’s always strive to tell our personal stories in the light of the Big Story of God. And in the telling AND listening we see and hear what gifts we are to each other! Be that gift this week.

Welcome Eric as he proclaims the Word and through the week ahead the Living Word goes with us!

Peace and Grace,

Bro Barry

Nothing ruins a good meal more than a family fight. One minute, all is well, everything tastes great, an Uncle is going on about his years in WW II, or his farm, then…..out of the blue someone gets aggravated, says something, and someone storms off or it gets REAL quiet around the table! Been there…..who hasn’t?!

And here in Luke 10:38-42 we get the point, but we don’t get the whole family drama played out. We don’t know how Mary reacts nor how the hard working irritated hostess Martha reacts. Jesus is teaching and at that moment, in that house, on that day, that was the “one thing needful.” To Mary. And to Martha….we don’t know if she left several things unbaked and sat down beside her sister and listened to Jesus too. We don’t know if the next time when visitors appeared Mary helped out in the kitchen!

Sometimes there is just one thing needful. It may take years of Christian practice and prayer to realize that moment, that need, that one thing on a given day.

The Amos passage shouts at us and asks us to tremble and surely repent. The Colossians text asks us to ponder the majesty and mystery of God in Christ. Can we do both those things at the same time?! Is “one needful” at the right time, the right experience while much better to “wait to address the other?”

Which of these three scriptures speaks to YOU more….right now? Are you Mary or Martha or trying to be both? Do you need a swift wakeup call from a Prophet? Are you in need of joyously getting lost in the wonders of God’s revelation in Christ?

Well, that’s the good thing about discipleship in that it has many, many moments in a lifetime when we each hear from Jesus: “one thing is needful. Pay attention. It will not be taken from you.”

What needs OUR undivided attention as disciples of Jesus ? Good question. Pray for the answer in YOUR life, pray for the answer in OUR life together as church.

Hope to see you in worship this Sunday! There might be “one thing needful” present in that hour for you!

Pastor Barry

Jesus is a Great Communicator partly because he accepts questions from the audience and poses questions TO his audience. The Old Testament prophets are inclined to simply “tell it like it is!” Or better……”shout it like it is!”
Jesus CAN raise his voice but so often in the Gospels he simply enters into dialogue with those around him. Here in Luke 10, Jesus lets the learned man of laws ask questions, give a correct answer, but then will not let the “lawyer” get away with an evasive question about “then who is my neighbor?” Jesus gives a description of “neighborliness” in a most dramatic fashion while also naming names! Suddenly the most “neighborly” is a despised non-neighbor, a Samaritan! And Jesus echoes the 82nd Psalm (and numerous Prophets) by using a vivid story followed by another question to the “lawyer.” Point made!

We could learn a lot from Jesus “style” of communicating the right way at the right time to the right audience. Might take us a lifetime…..But what else are we here for??!!

“Go and do likewise…” Luke 10:37. Join together in this spirit as you are “Spirit enabled” (Colossians 1:9) this Sunday…this week….this…… lifetime!

Pastor Barry

The more dramatic the better! These two scriptures give us all the drama of sickness and healing, prophets and kings, going on exciting, tension filled missions, and…..a dig at Satan! Who doesn’t like reading the Bible!?

Sadly, few seem to read passages such as these and even fewer make the effort to study them! Partly because 1) they ARE difficult and 2) they seem so removed from our own experiences and our contemporary world.

Well….regardless of the differences between the time of Elisha, the First Century, and 2016, we today still encounter sickness, seek healing, have powerful people in governments, and have to deal with rejection from others and our own pride (Satan falling from heaven!).

So, fear not! The difficult, eye opening Bible passages still have a message for us if we but sit with them awhile, share together in study, and “go on mission” to experience their message in our 21st Century world! “All things are possible with God.” Call a neighbor today and invite them to church where Word and Sacrament are celebrated this Sunday! Dramatic in the best sense of the word!

See you there!

Pastor Barry

At whatever age, we each have someone we look up to, someone we consider an example or a mentor. Someone we might even say that, we “want to be like him or her!” Think of the golfer who wants to be the next Tiger Woods. The next Michael Jordan! The next beloved Jack Kennedy or Ronald Reagan. (It IS an election year!). Or someone as close as a parent, a teacher, a good friend, a coach, an exemplary citizen.

And then we think of the challenge to even come CLOSE to being like that person.

In young Elisha’s case….he wanted a “double portion” of the power and spirit of his mentor prophet Elijah! He came real close! In the situation, tho, of the misunderstanding but earnest disciples…..Jesus is very straight with them: follow me…but at a cost! No looking back. Hand to the plow forward. Let the dead bury the dead!

I tend to draw my hand back at that! The cost of discipleship is….well….there will be a cost. But we never have to go it alone. If we all know we each will “bear each other’s burdens,” we can endure and even transcend the cost. At least this is our prayer. Pray for one another! Be the friend of faith to another And come to worship on Sunday! That will help also!
See you there!

Bro Barry

Elijah was a mighty prophet. But he had his moments. Here in I Kings he is ready to quit. He says, “that’s enough!” “I am no better than my fathers!” v. 4 (KJV). He has doubts; he has questions.

The Psalmist echoes Elijah when in v. 5 these words haunt him: “Why am I so sad? Why am I troubled?”

Jesus, centuries later, addresses the suffering of a man possessed by demons- a “Legion” of them! More misery and the man even asks Jesus “What do you want with me?! I beg you, don’t punish me!”

And on it goes. This past week has been full of questions after a horrific mass shooting. The inexplicable killing of a talented 22 year old singer. And so many other sadness’s. Perhaps a rush to answer any of these questions of sorrow is not the way forward. Of course, if asked we will make the effort, but quick religious answers may not help.

Maybe like Elijah we sit with the questions….for a while….and hope for that “still small voice” to come to us and at least say go forward. Don’t get stuck on the question or the answer that may not satisfy. Sit…wait….listen.

Perhaps faith is the only way. On this Father’s Day we will examine ourselves only in terms of faith not so much in how good an answer any of us have come up with when we suffer, when we doubt. The step forward is in trusting God WILL be there in our questioning and promises to stay with us over “the long haul.”

That seems right when we have a God we call Abba, Father, “Daddy!” The Parent who never leaves nor forsakes.

Praise be to God…..even while we sit in silence.

See you in worship!

Pastor Barry

We are on the eve of our Methodist conferencing once again. Gathering in Annual Conferences around the world some 10 million still under the Methodist “umbrella!” 54,212 pastors and 42,195 congregations in the USA, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Each conference will worship, ordain, send forth in service both lay and clergy, memorialize the saints triumphant, celebrate missions and outreach, and pray a lot!

However…..our common Lectionary scriptures for Sunday worship before conference remind us how BAD we can be, how fallen we are, and how great a salvation we have received! King Ahab, Jezebel, and us! Paul included! And a sinful woman in the house of a hypocritical Pharisee who invited Jesus for a meal!

The Bible stories and teaching are really about us only a few thousand years or so removed. Maybe we are not THAT bad but we do need to look In the mirror after every reading of scripture!

And so we will look in the mirror, so to speak, while at Brentwood UMC, this coming week for Annual Conference . We will see Saint and sinner, forgiven and freed people all together because of God in Christ!

Thanks be to God! See you in church being the church throughout the week!

Pastor Barry

On June 6th many will honor the memory of those who landed on the beaches in Normandy to begin the final purge of Nazism from Europe. Sacrifices were made by thousands.

On June 9th one of the greatest English writers, Charles Dickens, will be remembered in ceremonies and tributes on the anniversary of his death in 1870. He had just returned from an exhausting tour of America. He famously said in the opening line of a Tale of Two Cities, “It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.”

Just as D-Day June 6, 1944 was “the worst of times and the best of times” our scriptures reflect that very feeling. Here Elijah the prophet goes hungry, is fed by Ravens provided by God, then later fed by a poor widow. The widow’s son dies and cries out to Elijah who raises the son from death.

In Luke, Jesus acts with compassion upon a widow whose son has just died. And in Galatians, Paul tells of his highly unexpected conversion and radical transformation over a period of 3-14 years (depending on how you count!).

In these Biblical accounts we hear the echo of Dickens….”the worst of times, the best of times.” Faith is the path we take to go from Promise through Pain until we arrive at Fulfillment. Let us encourage one another this week in the Faith! The path is terribly hard at times but God will provide!

Pastor Barry