When people talk about March Madness nowadays, are they talking NCAA basketball or presidential candidates!? And sadly, those two will be more likely table conversation topics rather than Word and deed in the Christian journey for many; sports most likely since “religion and politics” are often avoided in public group conversations!

But, the people of God will still find ways to bear witness to our God, our Risen Savior. We will gather to worship, take the bread and cup, hear the Word proclaimed and go the rest of the week seeking to help and serve others. By the power of God we will speak and do our faith. By our own sinful limitations we will fail also!

But those experiences, good and not so good, are still under the loving embrace of our God whose costly grace brings forth “spiritual fruit” as well as “covers a multitude of sins!” So, the bottom line is we can rejoice and be glad: God is God and we are not!

That gets us back to March Madness, or better the wild and powerful story of Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection; the madness of those who opposed the ministry of His love, mercy, and grace; the resistance and rebellion that ALL people go through in spite of the Good News! Madness indeed!

What I see happening,tho, in April is not so much “madness” but rather April Gladness! Our scripture this Sunday is exuberant with gladness! Something happened and now we see! We see and hear a more important conversation about life that sports and politics merely “hint at.” Yes, sports and politics have their place but only in light of the bigger picture, the much bigger Kingdom of God at work in the world now and someday to be complete!

This is something to take with us as comfort and strength as we go about being “April Ambassadors” for the Risen Lord! So, in a few days we can leave behind SOME of the March Madness e.g. NCAA basketball, move on with our American democracy, and still attend to being Ambassadors for Christ in April….and, of course, year round!!

April blessings all!

Pastor Barry

Easter has been the Christian’s ultimate answer to the earnest seeker’s questions about Life and Death. But even the scriptures frame the answer around tough questions that are ongoing throughout life:

Job: “If someone dies, will they live again?
Paul: “How can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life”
John: “Woman, why are you crying?”

Powerful questions. How would you like to be driving on vacation to Florida and from the back seat someone keeps asking you these three questions?
We are all like children wanting answers on our journey in life. Since the answers STILL require faith rather than out and out proof, we must live with the questions at the same time that we celebrate the answers of faith.

To me, this makes for an exciting, challenging, honest, genuine life.
This weekend from Good Friday to Easter Sunday we will have the questions and answers before us in Word and deed, in song and prayer, in fellowship and service.

Keep in mind we have many opportunities to worship this weekend. Good Friday is shared at Kedron 6:30 pm and Easter Sunrise is at Locks Memorial 6.30 am. Kedron’s Easter Egg Hunt is Saturday morning and Locks is after worship on Sunday. Kedron has a Choir and Reader Sunday worship and Locks has a sermon and a special Children’s Time. Just think….what if you tried to go to all of these! I suspect I may be the only one but I always ask….”What if….?”

Thanks be to God!

Pastor Barry

If you committed to reading 2 Psalms per day, you will read the 150 Psalms in about a year. Add the exciting passages about Jesus entering into Jerusalem, and then Paul’s hymn like praise of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11, you would likely cover the width and depth of all emotions! It’s difficult to pack all human-divine emotion into just a Sunday worship hour….but over a year’s time…it could be done!

If we could somehow share this with the millions (or hundreds within our local communities) of those who “avoid” church each week, I predict they would come back or, for some, start attending for the first time…ever!

Our Biblical message is exciting and addresses every human joy and sorrow. It speaks to all of our Human Condition! It brings purpose to living and a freedom to live into whatever the Future holds!

Now if only….If only we in the church could say to ourselves and those staying at home each Sunday, “Hey, don’t worry, be happy!” Or also, “Hey, I am for you! I want the best for you!” Or whatever words speak “Life” to those who ask, “How can I make it through today or …..tomorrow?”

We can answer, “The church is here to help and point to Someone who WILL help, to The ONE who makes “”all things new!” Maybe then all the human emotions we express will find a Home to safely dwell in! A Home where you say and feel what needs to be said and there Someone who will hear you in all your joys and sadness!”

Hey! It even explains all the excitement of March Madness, the joy of Gardening, the thrill of Spring and Summer, the Struggles of our deepest longings in any Season.

Well….I could go on! Come to worship (or be with us in spirit) and let’s try an hours’ worth of Joys and Concerns, our feelings and emotions in the living of our faith and hearing and then doing the Word!

† Palm Sunday blessings †

Pastor Barry

I follow the Lectionary, the 3 year cycle of scripture, so that I don’t just drift toward texts I WANT to preach on. Some preachers are inclined only toward John 3:16 and Revelation 3:20 and similar passages. Others seek to highlight Psalm 23 or Revelation 21 with frequent sermonic visits!

Indeed the Lectionary helps us move through the width and depth of the Bible. But this week I venture into a leading from both the Spirit and our Lenten Study group. Clearly healing is a major part of Jesus’ ministry. And he sends forth both the Twelve apostles and later another 72 disciples to do likewise as they proclaim the Kingdom of God (Luke 9 and 10). Healing is in the Gospels…in Acts….in the Epistles. And all throughout the OT, e.g., Psalm 103.

So…..on the Easter journey to Ultimate Healing in Resurrection what can we make of healing between Birth and Death? “Good question,” you hopefully will ask!

Sunday’s scriptures and sermon will hopefully show us something about healing for TODAY!

Pray for the preacher and all those gathering together off Rocky Fork/Almaville Road. And in a million other places in this earth we have been given….on the road to a New Heaven and a New Earth (Rev 21:1)!

Blessings and peace

Pastor Barry

As the old saying goes, “There are two sides to every story.” Really!!? That saying hardly holds up in criminal court case decisions. The judge or jury will rule one way rather than the other: “The court holds for the complainant ….” Or the defendant!

In our scripture for Sunday, both Luke and Paul indicate two ways of reacting to God’s grace, two ways of seeing another person, another sinner like……well….each one of us. God has chosen the better way for us!

The struggle is also inside us and plays out in ways we may not like and ways that certainly others don’t like! Pro and con. Guilty and not guilty. Responsible and someone else’s responsibility. Who hasn’t had those feelings when trouble comes down??!!

Well, the Parable of the Prodigal Son ( and just as much, the stay at home brother!) is the memorable story version of Paul’s great passage on being a New Creation in Christ and seeing ourselves and others differently after what God HAS done!

A story that bears repeating since we tend to forget! The Big Brother in each of us wants us to forget the Father who welcomes the returning Prodigal. Grace is almost unbelievable!! I suppose that’s why it is “amazing!”

See you on Sunday!

Pastor Barry

Christians do well not to find fault with one another! There is certainly a need to be faithful to the Gospel and to be people of integrity, but the less quick to criticize within the “family”……the better. After you read the three scriptures I have listed, you may indeed believe that “[God’s] thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not [God’s] ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Actually the Isaiah text is a great invitation to come to God for a new blessing! But, the apostles Luke and Paul sound as though the wrath of God has come and will come again!

But then again….read Luke and Paul closely: Such GOOD promises from God in Christ after the Tower has fallen and killed, after the snakes have bitten, and after the temptations and sins have done their worst!

What is our need today that these passages speak to any of us?
By their end, I do find a word of love and compassion from a God who knows we “miss the mark” way too often! A word of salvation in spite of sin and tragedy.

It’s like the old Paul Harvey line: “And now….for the rest of the story!” Whatever the first part of an incredible story he would relate, he had even more amazing things to reveal in the second “half.”

That’s why we never give up on anyone…not even ourselves, you and me. God’s not “finished with us yet.”
Thanks be to God! It may be a rough Friday (or whole horrible week!), but remember…Sunday’s coming!”

Keep the faith!

Pastor Barry

Christians do well not to find fault with one another! There is certainly a need to be faithful to the Gospel and to be people of integrity, but the less quick to criticize within the “family”……the better.

All will stumble at some point. Name calling and finger pointing don’t help much since eventually the fallen, the stumblers will be YOU and ME!

Guidance, instruction, counsel, example, and I Corinthians 13 are the best referees in a church wrestling match! Or in public discourse!

If you are wondering what this is about, have you not heard? The Pope and presidential candidate Mr. Trump exchanged words! About being Christian! I might have worded it differently had I been either one’s advisor! Not a great example of Christian witness from either side…in my humble opinion. Maybe they will work it out in prayer and sitting at table together!

However, both our Lord and St Paul are not hesitant to speak to both people in power and to those who are “straying.” In our texts for Sunday, we will see how the Word speaks to us in our differences, diversity, and “diversions.” Let us hear and see the Lord and the Apostle at work when seeing things in others that fall short of God’s Kingdom in our midst.

Lord…. Make us One on our journey to Easter, on our journey to our Eternal Home! Let us walk together, all forgiven and forgiving.

Lenten Blessings,

Bro Barry

Pick one:

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.” Traditional Proverb.

“It’s Deja Vu all over again. “Yogi Berra “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to its circuits.” Ecclesiastes 1:6

This Sunday’s worship will encompass a wide range. Past and present and future! For two Februaries now our Ash Wednesday services have been snowed out. So, Sunday we will have a brief moment to “remember we are dust and to dust we shall return.” “Repent and believe the Gospel.” And our guest preacher from Sunday Jan 24th….snowed out if you recall….will try to be with us once more. Eric Ross comes to us from our sister UMC at Fellowship. He will speak to “Changes.” How timely! Valentine’s Day is the 14th as well. Scout Sunday is observed too! And the 40 Day Journey to Easter we call The Season of Lent has its first Sunday.

I don’t think we have to pick one over the other! We worship God who richly blesses us in so many different ways! Come and participate in the gifts and graces we have received from the Gracious God who blesses us with this extended family in Jesus!

Pray for one another in All Seasons!

Pastor Barry

One could hardly ask for a scripture with more contrasts! Luke (and Matthew and Mark but not John) describes The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt Hermon or possibly Mt Tabor. Jesus’ face “glows” and his garments are white as “snow” or as “lightning.” It may have well been in the dark of night since his disciples were “sleepy.” Jesus brings the New Covenant, but Moses and Elijah of the Old Covenant appear! A cloud envelopes them all but a Voice says Jesus is the Chosen one! They can’t see but they hear!

Peter wants to build shelters and stay on the mountain, but scripture says “he didn’t know what he was saying” (v 33). They see all these wonderful things on the mountain but come down to town the next day and can’t be of any practical help to a man and his sick, only son!

What about us? We will go to church and celebrate Good News that saves us but will soon receive Ashes on Ash Wednesday acknowledging our sinful past and that we are dust and shall “return to dust.” At Communion we will receive the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation but only through the Death of the Son of God!

Contrasts everywhere! But necessary to receive the full truth about ourselves…. And God!

Buckle up it could be a rough ride off the mountain! Scary enough to make you close your eyes for a second! But should be an “eye opening” experience to be sure!

Blessings on the eve of the season of Lent!

Pastor Barry

No one ever really wants to go to church on Sunday and see a fight breakout! Few expect that! And thanks be to God it is rare. But, the Luke text for this Sunday has Jesus in his home town synagogue reading from Isaiah, making a few remarks, and the next thing he knows….the “congregation” is ready to toss him over the cliff! Sure….in the world, one can go to a number of places, e.g. a hockey game, and a fight is the standard! But, in a gathering place called to worship and love??! How can that happen?! Must be something about the Human Condition. As one wag recently said about a certain person running for office, “he’s an Old Testament politician running in a new Testament world!” (I will elaborate a bit on that in the sermon). If you stick around for a while, one can see that love is at work, yes, but conflict is the “workplace!” So, we are left to call upon God as our guide to see HOW love can overcome conflict. And the practices and habits that might just help make it happen!

If it doesn’t snow and ice…see you Sunday! Wear your gloves…the warm kind…not the boxing kind!

Blessings!

Pastor Barry