Joy was a very small person, a midget. Dawn was large for her age all through elementary school. Roy was known to wear a pajama top to high school and kept to himself. Guy moved into our small community as a Junior and was slow to find friends.
Riki was an African American one of maybe two in our graduating class in the late Sixties! Dan and his parents were the only Jews I knew of in our small town until I moved away to college. I always had to wear “husky” size jeans! Well, almost always…..

All of the above felt excluded from others at times for a wide range of reasons. All were often in the minority in social situations at pivotal ages of development. All had their character shaped by either social, physical, mental, economic factors very much out of their power to quickly change or adapt to. And that brings us to the “larger than life” Zaccharus in Luke 19. Small of stature, in a job most local people despised, and an admitted sinner, he was living life on the margin and needed a life change! He sought it by climbing a tree so he could see over taller people than he! And the “tallest” of Men came his way. Jesus of Nazareth In every age, every place people feel left out, overlooked, disadvantaged, different, and down! Jesus NEVER excluded anyone for the above reasons! Jesus knew all were sinners but that all had come into a Fallen world, affected by temptations, hurt by social injustices, impacted by the sins of others. Jesus came to all and invited life change and a “abundant life” (John 10:10) in spite of all the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and our sinful nature.

Jesus loves us! Jesus saves! We have heard this and believe this! May we share this to others in word and in deed who feel left on the “outside of life.”

Blessings on our way to All Saints Day! Be a “Saint” to somebody today!

Pastor Barry

The next three weeks are leading up to a momentous election….maybe! And three Sundays ahead we will arrive at a momentous Sunday worship that remembers the Saints. In our case, that is all the faithful that have gone before us. Those dear departed. Friends and family, neighbors and colleagues, saints that were also sinners!

The people that helped make us who we are today as individuals, communities, and Church. Gone but not to be forgotten. We will remember and honor. On November 6 we will celebrate All Saints Sunday. But to get there we will have some preparation. We will hear about some history of our churches, the past and the foundations that were laid for us to continue to build upon.

We rightly hear from the prophet Joel about God’s intentions centuries ago and how we are still connected to those promises. We will hear of the fundamental attitude to have before God as Jesus tells us about a “righteous” Pharisee and a “sinful” tax collector. Paul will look both backward and forward to the “race he has run” and will also name his teammates that he ran with!!

We are indeed surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses.” Let’s recall them and others for the next three Sundays! Remembering some of the most momentous members of our marvelous God Given moments on earth!

See you for all Sundays three….I hope!

Pastor Barry

While watching various news updates tonight, I turned to my son and said, “It can’t be any worse in four years can it than it is now?” I was referring to the current ugly election cycle. And way ahead to 2020. But I was also thinking of the flooding in North Carolina, violence around the nation, and anxiety visited upon many locally with illness and family concerns.

For most of us, we get “down” over current events as well as anxious about the future. It comes and goes. If one stays in such states of mind for too long, medications or counseling are often necessary! Thank God for both when required.

The scriptures that address us this Sunday could have been written this past week! They are about persistence in prayer (Luke), sound teaching (2 Timothy), and hope in God’s promises (Jeremiah). I would like to think we are a gathered people who hear such words often enough that we have real hope in the future regardless of changing circumstances. And with hearing the Word, “cometh faith.”

It should make a difference in how we live in the present and how we approach the future whatever the “news” tells us! I think I will switch over to a different “news reporting”…..Good News channel!

As Paul often says: “Grace and Peace to you!”

Pastor Barry

“What could be more exciting than an October day? It’s your birthday, 4th ofJuly, and Christmas all rolled into one!” – Peggy T. Horton

I think Ms. Horton is very fond of October. It sure seems an exaggeration, but I agree there are reasons to be excited about that middle month of Fall. At least in Tennessee, the weather of day and night nears perfection, frost will take care of ragweed pollen, and trees will break into color! Plus, we get football, the World Series, pumpkins, and school and community festivals of all kinds.

And for the Church, she has a month bordered by World Communion Sunday and lastly All Saints Eve. These are well placed to remind us of our Christian worldwide fellowship in the midst of all our Endings. The saints commune and serve on earth and rejoice eternally in Heaven at the Kingdom Banquet Table. That combination is hard to beat!

There is still “much trouble afoot” and we need days like Halloween to help us take both seriously as well as “lightly in costume” our mortal condition.

Try to make the most of a month that shows us and speaks to us of the depths and heights of life made possible by the Creator in Psalm 148 who revels in all Creation! Enjoy the month!

See you in church as well as your “being the church!”

Fall Blessings!

Pastor Barry

This Sunday October 2 is World Communion Sunday. As we receive the Bread and the Cup at our familiar communion rails, we might want to recall times when we were visitors in other churches in other states or perhaps in other nations. And even in a different faith community other than Methodist! Do you remember both an anxiety to not “mess up” as well as a curiosity to see how others “do this great sacrament?”

Or at least use your imagination and see yourself alongside the Methodists at communion in Haiti. Or with the few in Russia. With the persecuted church in South Sudan or in the numerous house churches in China. Or with service men and women stationed on the border between North and South Korea! If you can, you are also foreseeing a future Heaven. And looking back at a lost Garden of Eden longed for!

The Heavenly Banquet anticipated in our humble receiving wherever we are and with whomever we break Bread and drink the Cup.

Come this Sunday to Kedron and Locks Memorial or any of the other 93 congregations in the Murfreesboro District or maybe find yourself visiting with Presbyterian or Pentecostal friends and saying to one another, “Peace to you” and “Thanks be to .God!”
We walk by faith……with Bread for the Journey and Fruit of the Vine for drink along the Way….

Pastor Barry

Most of us have stuff. Some more than others. Either money, possessions, or property. Kids like stuff; “Seniors” like stuff. Some more than others, yes; some stuff is necessary. Some is not and to divest oneself of the latter for the common good may be a virtue uncommon except amongst…..??

You might have thought I was going to say Christians, but you saw that coming! We do have within the Church all levels of socio-economic wellbeing. And multiple levels of sharing and self-sacrifice.

In the parable Jesus tells us of poor Lazarus and the Rich Man.
We get a stark story of extremes that have consequences. Jesus wants our attention! And from that “gotten attention” we might actually live into the “abundant life” (John 10:10).

At no point does the Bible ever say the Christian life would not be challenging but Jesus did say “come follow me. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.”

At the very least, we have a community of examples of people making the effort to be faithful with their gifts and possessions and a community where we live out these struggles in the presence of our Creator and Savior.

Hope to see you soon with both Lazarus and the Rich Man+

Blessings!

Pastor Barry

Thomas Wolfe famously wrote the novels Look Homeward Angel and You Can’t Go Home Again. To which I would ask, “OK, which is it? Look longingly for home or realize you can’t ever go home?!”

Home is defined ultimately in the heart. Many are homeless but make a family with others who are experiencing the same plight. Some move around constantly but have a location that they clearly would say, “bury me there for that’s where I feel most at home.”

Homecoming is one way to express that sense of being grounded in a location or place but realizing that for many it is not a place that one can stay for long.
The Bible is the greatest depiction of life in community and life as a journey which often separates one from community under difficult circumstances. From the family lineage described in Genesis to the nurturing of Timothy by his mother and grandmother to the itinerant ministry of Jesus who went from house to house and had nights with “no place to lay his head,” we see an endless story of God at work with people in a multitude of relationships.

Yet, it is easy to describe Jesus as committed to the family! A much broader sense of God’s family than we often understand.
This will give us the ultimate joy, tho, when all is said and done as well as realizing that often a brother or sister in Christ is often closer than blood kin.
So, at our church homecoming we come with many notions of home and family, but where all should feel a welcome and “rejoice and are glad in it!”
Happy Kedron Homecoming!

Pastor Barry

9/11 is now 15 years behind us. It was a world crime as much as one for the USA. It is hard to imagine anyone not being impacted by this act of terror. It is hard to imagine ever forgetting it and putting it behind us completely. Who would want to NOT remember and honor both the dead, the wounded, the grieving, and the heroes from that day?! It is a part of who we are as much as December 7, 1941 and November 22, 1963 are in our history.

Our scriptures today bear upon this national occasion in several ways.
(1) God is always before us and is always addressing us as both sinful and as beloved.
(2) God wants no one left out. No one lost. Just as first responders look for each and every one who is in trouble, so does Jesus look for everyone to be found, everyone to be safe. Even one sheep out of 100 is worth finding even though 99 others are secure.
(3) When in doubt and questioning the pain and suffering in the world it is of great encouragement to think upon that which is “eternal, immortal, invisible, wise, deserving of honor and glory forever,” that is…..GOD. I Timothy 1:17.

In such experiences as 9/11 and in hearing the scriptures we are both realists in a fallen world, but also are people who believe that faith, hope, and love will have the Last Word.

Peace be unto you as we Remember and as we leave no one behind in our care and concerns.

Pastor Barry

Preachers, on any given Sunday, may well earn their wages! Some scriptures just may have no “happy” ending as we are left with more questions than answers. There is a rough “kernel” in the Luke text and Jeremiah is…well… a prophet and as usual points out failings! Philemon, tho, is a breathe of fresh air but I don’t know (yet) why the Lectionary Committee included it with these others!? Perhaps because it is a book with one chapter!

So, we are facing parables in Luke 14:25-33 that challenge us to the point of making our commitments to family and possessions a “relative thing.” If they cause us to not be committed to Christ……let them go? Give ALL away?! Choose?

Luke does not say family and possessions ALWAYS lead us to being forced to choose Christ over them but…. Again we feel the pressure, the “pebble in the shoe” that hurts to think about the possible cost of discipleship.

Perhaps missionaries and martyrs and saints are the ones who best show us the way in such matters.

This Sunday’s sermon may well be a display of a “hall of fame” of those who did see themselves called to count the cost. St Francis? Wesley? Mother Teresa?

I am glad it is a Communion Sunday as well. Perhaps the sermon will be a bit shorter!

So, please read these texts so you will be praying for the one who preaches. And about choosing…if it comes to that!!

May the God of Peace and Grace go with us all+

Pastor Barry

When you check out at Kroger, Publix, pharmacies and the like, you always have a last minute opportunity to purchase a weekly magazine. Or at least read the headlines. These usually are about a celebrity or public figure. And they are either being praised or humiliated! The magazines are appropriately named e.g. PEOPLE or ENTERTAINMENT!

Our scriptures for Sunday include lots of thoughts about people in both high and low places in society as well as “entertaining.” At least the idea of entertaining as “hospitality.”

Many hospitals now have employees in charge of “hospitality.” They are to render services of assistance, respect, convenience, and comfort in addition to medical and nursing skills! One should not have to be miserable in finding parking, seating, and directions while feeling sickly as well! Hospitality. Seems fitting doesn’t it in a place called “hospital.”

Jesus instructs those “better off” e.g. the Pharisees, about both hospitality and humility. The two Hs in our scriptures! Celebrity status and social pride have their limits!! Just read your magazines at Kroger!

And also be aware that at your house and table or….church ….someday….you might just happen to “entertain angels unaware!”

Peace and Grace to you brothers and sisters….and to your neighbors+

Pastor Barry