Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6 and John 13:31-35

Weeks after Easter Sunday, on the verge of full swing into the 2nd half of 2022, the scriptures this Sunday are a veritable “greatest hits” list! Given the state of much of our world and perhaps our troubled personal lives, it’s good to hear and feel the joy and Good News in these verses.

The Psalmist can’t sit still! Everything in all creation is to praise the Creator. This matches well with many days and weeks in Spring season in Tennessee! John the Revelator presents us a vision of all things new where death, grief, crying, pain will be no more.

And Jesus in the farewell address to his disciples reassures them of the glory of God revealed in the Son of Man. Part of that is to love one another as Jesus has loved them! The glory of God in genuine care and compassion for each other.

Indeed, scriptures to pull a chair up to on your front porch and read or hear recited. Scriptures to record on your media devices and play as you go for Spring drives in the beauty of Creation. Scriptures to be put to music so as to sing with joy.

These are ways to contend against all that seems to be against us and God’s children everywhere in 2022. We must not believe that the worst wins out. The Psalmist and the two Johns won’t allow that!

Read on faithful people! Listen to God’s greatest hits playlist!

Pastor Barry †

Acts 9:1-20, Revelation 5:11-14 and John 21:1-19

Those forty days after Jesus’ Resurrection were just packed with “quality time” with the disciples. And then for the rest of the first century the early church told the stories of Jesus to the world.

It has not stopped yet. Peter and Paul, John the Revelator on the Isle of Patmos, the women bearing the first witness to the Risen Lord: the list goes on and is impressive still after 2000 years.

We ask ourselves if we are still open to God’s revealing on our Damascus roads? We hear Jesus tell us to “feed the flock” to go “fishing for more.” We are asked to trust that God will truly bring Heaven to Earth when all is finished.

It’s a powerful true story and it’s good to tell it Sunday after Sunday, during the weekdays, and to show it to others in deeds not just words alone. Such a retelling is helped when we come upon slight oddities in Scripture like the number 153 in John 21. The number of fish caught after Jesus instructed the disciples to cast the net. We will explore that number as well as the “numbers” in Acts 4 and the “thousands” of angels and earth creatures” in Revelation 5.

Interesting, engaging, and ultimately an enthusing of our spirits to be about the sharing of Good News and pointing to the Kingdom of God!

And the Table will be prepared as well so we will have spiritual nourishment for the mission week ahead!

Join us as we go fishing and feeding!

Pastor Barry †

Psalm 150, Revelation 1:4-8 and John 20:19-31

On April 24th, Second Sunday of Easter, our sermon title is A Change Is Going To Come. The scriptures are Psalm 150, Revelation 1:4-8 and John 20:19-31.

If you are inclined to make lists, then our Second Sunday in Easter scriptures are full of things and events to fill a spiritual list!

First of all, praise is to spill out even in the form of loud banging cymbals! Talk about getting your attention! After that start, “peace, the Holy Spirit, us as priests, being loved and free from sin, and even doubt” have high profiles in the early church of the Resurrection!

We are more settled now (maybe?!) in church life than in the first century CE, but the same list of “things of the spirit after Jesus’ Resurrection” are present and “at play” in the fields of the Lord!!

And it’s more than just talk, it’s about action. A better word describing action for us “the priests of the new Kingdom (Revelation 1:6)” is mission! We are about mission both local and beyond!

In worship this Sunday, as we praise the gift of Eternal Life and Resurrection over Death, we will be reminded of our ministry as “priests” in a new Kingdom appearing all around us. What are we all about as a congregation? Let’s check our list! And add to it as the Lord guides!

Happy Easter ongoing!

Pastor Barry †

The angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Matthew 28:5-6

Indeed….the faith begins in words shared about Jesus even if he is not seen. Children learn from being told the stories of Jesus. And hearing leads to “looking around.”

Holy Week, Good Friday, Easter. They are all about hearing and looking. “Seek and ye shall find…” God can be found everywhere, but it’s a good idea to seek him where there are reports about him: worship, feeding the hungry, examples of caring in homes and health care facilities, disaster relief, weddings and funerals, the workplace. Any of these could and do happen during Holy Week. And they are present year in and year out.

Sunday’s worship will have multiple voices telling the stories of Jesus and encouraging us to keep “looking around!” And in the “finding” we will discover Life Eternal in our midst and in that of our neighbor.

Join us this Easter and the weeks up ahead!

Pastor Barry †

Psalm 118:19-29, Luke 19:28-40 and Matthew 27:29

Palm Sunday lends itself to excitement and enthusiasm for Jesus as the coming King and Messiah. His entry into Jerusalem is dramatic, visual, full of declaration of Hope.

Growing up as a child in church, it is often the one Sunday worship you get to move your arms, hold something in your hands other than a hymnal, and possibly process to and fro in the sanctuary outside the pews!

But, it is also the Sunday which leads into the week referred to as The Passion. A stretch of days involving struggle, betrayal, sadness, pain, and death. One of the great symbols of this Passion is the crown of thorns. So, we move from the thrill of waving palm branches in our hands to imagining the pain of having thorns pressed into the flesh of Jesus.

Our faith encompasses all of life, from joyful excitement to the depths of all that which hurts us. God’s story meets our stories and we are made glad even in our sins and troubles. God makes a way when our way comes to darkness and shadows; When palm branches and thorns are both found throughout our life. Jesus has been there and knows us and says “trust; there is a way that leads to life eternal. Trust me!”

And so, we begin Holy Week~~~

Blessings in that week ahead!

Pastor Barry †

Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:10-14 and John 12:1-8

Table conversation during and around holidays can be fun, interesting, and potentially conflictual. You put together the host family, siblings, uncles and aunts, and friends from all walks of life, and you never know where the talk might go!

Our Gospel text from John has a family of sisters and a brother, a “prophet/rabbi,” a deceitful disciple, and a question about the proper use of a very expensive perfume and you can sense the tension. Add to this the fact that the brother Lazarus was previously dead for days!

The Isaiah passage boldly declares that God is about doing New Things when all we thought was that nothing will ever change. Paul adds the fact that Resurrection changes our perspective on what is most important in guiding us through our earthly days.

Yes, such “table talk” is uncommon and when it does occur both awkwardness and excitement are likely to appear! It’s always conventionally safer to just talk sports, weather, and work! The talk and the presence of Jesus has a way of leading us to ultimate concern about our lives and relationships.

Sunday we will hear, respond, and share together at the Lord’s Table. It is difficult to imagine we will remain unchanged or unmoved in some way.

God’s blessings upon us as we prepare for worship!

Pastor Barry †

Psalm 32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The parables of Jesus are prominent in the middle chapters of Luke. The one about the lost son is perhaps the most memorable to most of us. Poignant and painful because we know it happens today as in every age. And perhaps we know it all too personally!

What’s also interesting is the wide range of the audience who first heard this parable: tax collectors, sinners (?), Pharisees, teachers of the law. And the parable’s list includes a son, father, older brother, and servants! And then there is us!

What, if anything new, can be discovered in this story of a family struggling and in recovering relationships? Sunday we will look at the cast of this human/spiritual drama and see who and what is going on! Can it still speak a fresh Word of God to us who are within the family of God?

As Paul instructs in the II Corinthians passage, we do well when we “regard no one from a worldly point of view” but rather from the way Christ sees us.

That should help us a lot as we hear the ever endearing Parable of the Prodigal! Yes, we and those we relate with are ever within that story!

Blessings as you hear this Word!

Pastor Barry †

Isaiah 55:1-9, I Corinthians 10:1–13 and Luke 13:1-9

We have a dog and two cats. I suspect they can’t repent for behavior we find bad. But at least the dog will look away or look remorseful if we scold her for unacceptable behavior. Now the cats……no remorse. No sense of guilt. They do what they like! They might run from threat of punishment……but no repentance whatsoever.

Our scriptures for Sunday have a lot of examples of at least a call to repentance. The Israelites knew better but sinned while in their Wilderness wanderings. Jesus has to strongly caution others about comparing sins. ALL have reason to repent. Paul points out that Corinthian behavior wasn’t something to shrug one’s shoulders to and just ignore.

Who needs to repent? All. And it’s not just outward behavior but thoughts and words as well.

Few of the offenses mentioned in our texts may apply to us today, (after all, we are Christians yes?), but there will be some “issue” that needs to be personally addressed to God.

Let’s not be cats or dogs on this matter, either “faking” remorse (dog for fear of getting a “talking to”) or cats “we do what we want to do!” After all, we “know” better! We just have a hard time admitting that!

By the way…….there is Good News somewhere in all this!

Don’t despair over sin!

Pastor Barry †

Psalm 27, Philippians 3:17-4:1 and Luke 13:31-35

For better or worse, people belong to nations: Lands with boundaries, distinct cultures and practices, and governance. With the current crisis in Ukraine impacting economies and peace around the world, our scriptures this Sunday are timely speaking to individuals, churches, and nations.

Paul tells the churches that our “citizenship is in heaven.” Other translations say “commonwealth” or “citizens of heaven.” And that we have a “Savior, from there, The Lord Jesus Christ.”

Luke 13 reminds us as well, that Jesus teacher from Nazareth, ministering and teaching under the reign of both Galilee’s Herod and Pilate, the occupying governor of Rome’s Province of Judea, has to deal with earthly authorities. Jesus is of Heaven but for our sake is a citizen of earth in a specific time and place!

Followers of Jesus are “citizens of heaven” but reside as members of certain nations while on earth. From this situation comes both joy and conflict, blessings and struggle.

Jesus even has a sly remark about Herod being a “fox.” And the critical Pharisees have warned Jesus that Herod was out to “get him.” Jesus takes this as another opportunity to teach about God’s Kingdom and goes to a prominent Pharisee’s house even though those “fellow citizens” usually opposed him!

Our uneasy task but missional priority is to live in the two worlds of Heaven and Earth. And we are never asked to do this without heavenly help! Just listen to Psalm 27: “wait, be strong, take heart. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Citizens of heaven, indeed!

Stay in prayer!

Pastor Barry †

Psalm 91:1-16, Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13

K.I.S.S. The classic Keep It Simple Stupid. Certainly for the Church a variation on this would be Keep It Simple Sinner. “Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved,” says Paul in Romans 10. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.

Truth. But “lived Truth” over a lifetime is more full and complex. Our Bible is far from simple to understand and practice. Psalm 91 raises as many questions as it does in providing confident answers about God’s care. And Jesus sets for us an example of question and answer with our Adversary (temptations and the like) which is ongoing for daily living with ups and downs, valleys and mountains.

But with many practices in life, we often return to the “basics” from time to time to recapture our footing! Stay grounded in where you started! Believe the Gospel! Don’t let the complexities of Christian living overwhelm you!

The season of Lent moving toward Good Friday and Easter is as good as any time to remember the basic Gospel but also live into the challenges and hard questions of a life of faith.

Let us do this together over the next Forty Days. May our journey be both a path through Paradise and the Wilderness!

Blessings upon your journey here and now!

Pastor Barry †