Sermon – Page 13 – Princeton UMC Blog

August 13, 2016October 6, 2020

Erik ‘Skitch’ Matson on ‘Stories We Tell’

Erik ‘Skitch’ Matson — our new youth pastor — will be in the pulpit on Sunday, August 14, to preach, based on Hebrews 11:29-12:2. His topic is “The Stories We Tell” so here is his biographical story, in his own words:

“Prior to coming to Princeton Seminary, I spent 5 years working with youth in San Diego, CA, and am grateful to lead in this role again. I was born and raised in northern California but headed south to Point Loma Nazarene University for a B.S. in Physics. It was during this time that God pulled my heart towards ministry, and I haven’t looked back since. I enjoy listening to and playing music, exploring the great outdoors, playing sports, and reading a good book. I also enjoy being around young adults, which fits nicely into the second part of my two-point charge as the Director of the Methodist college ministry at Princeton University, the Wesley Foundation.”

July 21, 2016August 26, 2021

Sunday July 17. Rev. Catherine Williams “Vacation Tweets: #this is the Life”

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This is the Life! Now this is what I call living! How many of us can remember the last time we said or thought something like that? Can you give me a word or a phrase that describes a moment or scenario that would elicit that kind of response?

Some of the descriptions others have given about the good life include: Being financially independent and secure; winning the lottery and/or not having to work; being able to just pick up and go – travel to anywhere, anytime; pleasure and satisfaction 24/7; and similar states of euphoria and perfection. One of my millennial friends said she thought a good life was different than the good life, where the former was all about quality, and the latter was more concerned with quantity. So I asked her if that meant it was possible to be poor and have a good life. That set her thinking. What do you think?

th-6 Our society is mired in materialistic values. Thanks to the capitalist foundation, upon which the hypothetical American Dream is built, our culture makes it seem only natural for us to think of the good life as something we deserve. Our commercials and advertisements faithfully and feverishly indoctrinate us in this kind of entitlement. Small wonder then that we spend so much of our lives, our time, energy, and resources in pursuit of those moments when we can look around and say – yep, this is the life! This entitlement ideology is what theologian, Walter Brueggemann, might call the dominant consciousness. That prevailing way of being, where we are numbed and satiated by consumerism. Brueggemann challenges preachers to counter this dominant consciousness with what he calls an alternative consciousness.

One of the many reasons we gather weekly as people of God is to remind ourselves that even as we function day by day within this dominant consciousness of materialism, we are a community with alternative values, grounded in the heart of God. God, whose intention for all of creation from the very beginning has been good. But God, who is good, gets to define good. And thanks to Jesus and his teachings we have several illustrations of this good life. He called it the Kingdom/Realm/Reign of God.

10-beatitudes That parable of the two builders, that was read for us this morning, summarized a lengthy set of teachings Jesus gave to his disciples on what life in this kingdom or realm was like. If you have read Matthew 5, 6, and 7 you have either struggled bravely to keep up with its demands, or else you have rationalized it away – far away. Christians have asked, Are we really supposed to live like this? Well let’s take a quick look, since these are the sayings, which, according to Jesus, the wise builder heard and did. It begins with the beatitudes – the blessing statements. That word blessed conveys the idea of being fortunate or happy, so happy as to be envied actually. But the blessings that make us enviable are different – there’s nothing in there about beaches or cruises; no talk in these beatitudes about wealth, fame or fortune. Instead Jesus calls blessed those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, the peacemakers, the merciful, the pure in heart, and so on – When we look up the word good or happy in God’s dictionary, this is the stuff we find. That’s pretty radical.

images-8 I mean, these sayings, or teachings of Jesus talk about some rather difficult things: keeping all of the commandments, what counts as murder or adultery, grounds for divorce, and loving our enemies. What’s so good about this, many have asked, and, finding no answer, they have closed their Bible and put it on a shelf, right next to their volume of Shakespeare’s works. But wait, what about the instructions for how to give to the needy, how to pray, how to forgive, and how to fast? What about the teaching on worry, and not judging others? Yes, I’ll be among the first to acknowledge that, taken as a whole, these teachings set an impossibly high ethical bar. But may I share with you something I learned as a young Christian? I think it may have been my own Dad who shared this with me as a teenager. “Catherine,” he’d say, “there’s enough of what God has said in God’s word for you to spend your entire lifetime working on. Some of it you’ll take to naturally, some of it you’ll need a little extra courage and faith to follow, and some of it you may never understand; but there’s enough for you to at least begin. Work on the parts you understand and trust God to help you grow into the rest.” I can say with gratitude today this has proven to be some of the best advice I’ve listened to, because like any rationally developing adult, there are some things only growth in the faith can help us fully understand. Like God’s goodness in the midst of an evil world. (Don Brash is really good at explaining this by the way…)

Among the several perspectives of life in God’s kingdom or realm, there is one bedrock aspect of this good life I’d like us to stay with just a bit this morning. Nothing you haven’t heard before, but maybe you didn’t know when you heard it that this was the life! Remember in the creation story there was one thing God said was not good? God had said let there be light – God saw that the light was good. God made the dry land and the waters, and saw that it was good. God set the lights in the sky to give light upon the earth – and God saw that it was good. God filled the air, the waters and the land with living creatures of every kind – “I like this,” God said, “this is the life!” Finally God stepped back and surveyed everything and said, “Awesome – this is VERY good!” But then over in Genesis 2, we hear God saying, “Uh-oh, this is NOT good. “It is not good that the man is alone, I will make a helper suitable for him.” What’s so bad about being alone? I hear my introvert friends asking. Because the God in whose image we were made is a God of community. A God who, according to our understanding, is represented by a community of three, which has opened up to include all of creation. Believe me, this matter of community and relationships is huge when it comes to the good life.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has tracked the lives of 724 men, their wives and their children over the course of 75 years. Last year Robert Waldinger, the current director of this study gave a TED talk where he shared the most significant discoveries they made about human happiness over these decades. The most conclusive finding, says Waldinger, is that “social connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills.” Sounds to me like evidence that we are designed by God to thrive in community. We understand who we are in community; we learn social and survival skills in community; we discover our abilities and passions in community; little wonder then that so many of Jesus’ teachings have to do with how we relate to God, and how we relate to one another.

So now here’s this parable of the two builders, which Matthew uses to close out this lengthy, weighty discourse on life in the kingdom of God, aka the good life. These two men are engaged in the same occupation; one would think the foolish builder would know better. But Jesus is making a point here by having the foolish man build his fine mansion on a foundation of sand, while the wise builder puts up his mansion on a foundation of rock. Two great looking homes. You can hardly tell the difference in value – that is, until the weather changes. And here is Jesus’ point #1 – the good life does not preclude bad things happening to us. Rain is rain, it falls wherever, storms will forever behave like storms, and flood waters are no respecter of houses. “Really?” someone may ask. “So while following Jesus my investment portfolio may take a dive, my health may take a turn for the worse, my children may develop chemical dependencies, and I may fail all the prerequisite classes in my college major?” Umm – yes. God’s definition of good does not preclude bad things happening to us. Which leads to Jesus’ point #2 – the good life teaches us how to weather the storms.

One of the major resources for weathering storms is the communities we are part of: families, churches, fraternities or sororities, professional associations and so on. But what excites me about this good life is the presence of The Life himself within each one of us who has professed our faith in him. For each of us born by the Spirit of God from above has access to a divine resilience Jesus was good enough to demonstrate for us at the end of his earthly life. Remember now, he is the one who said, “I have come that you may have life more abundantly.” The one who said of himself “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” The one who said to his friend Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” What does that mean for us? What difference does that make when the pain medicine doesn’t work, or when after months of rehab that son or daughter is back on drugs, or when a routine visit to the doctor changes the rest of our lives? What does Jesus statement mean in our current, fearful national context of death by politics, or death by racism? Maybe these are some of the times the Resilience factor can kick in. It is kind of ironic that after saying that he was the life Jesus died and was buried in a tomb that was sealed and guarded. But I have to tell you – resurrection and life together make for a powerful combination. In just a matter of days that divine life flexed itself and exploded right out of that tomb in full resurrection power. That’s how THE GOOD LIFE behaves!

images-5 That’s what gives me hope for the rebound when I find myself in situations that close me in, that back me into a corner, that knock the wind out of my sails as I take a hit from one of life’s deadly punches. It’s the properties of resurrection life that keep us persevering – not the promises of well-intentioned politicians; not the security of a tenured job; not the forecasts of the economic analysts; no – we, who arepeople of the Resurrection, believe that because we have the life of Christ we can face the storms, the winds, the raging floods with the blessed assurance that with us in this storm is an Emmanuel kind of God who is GOOD and who is LIFE. So we can sing with utmost sincerity, “when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.” It is well because we have built our lives on the solid foundation of Christ, his example, and his word. And in the end my sisters and brothers, we may tremble as we stand on that Rock, but the Rock will never tremble under us. This is the life! Thanks be to God. Amen.

Images Source: google Images

Written by Isabella Dougan

July 21, 2016October 6, 2020

Message from Bishop Schol

bishop schol back

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Karen Oliveto, a gifted leader, was elected a bishop in the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church. She is a lesbian. This is not the first time a gay or lesbian has been considered for bishop. Bishop Oliveto will serve the Denver area, which includes 386 United Methodist congregations in the states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Last week, she was one of 15 people who were elected as bishops in Jurisdictional Conferences across the United States. Her service as a bishop has been challenged and will be heard before our Judicial Council (the UMC’s Supreme Court).

We elect bishops in the United States in five regions called jurisdictions. Outside the United States, in Europe, Africa and the Philippines similar elections are also held in what are called Central Conferences. It takes 60% of the delegates to elect a new bishop. Delegates are an equal number of clergy and lay persons from annual conferences within the jurisdiction or central conference. There are 66 bishops leading conferences around the world and more than 70 retired bishops.

During the Jurisdictional Conferences, each of the five jurisdictions considered legislation and four of the five jurisdictions in one form or another voted to recommend that the denomination allow for theological diversity and ministry with LGBTQ persons. At the General Conference, a special commission was empowered that would completely examine and possibly recommend revisions of every paragraph in the Book of Discipline related to homosexuality.

There is deep disappointment and even rage within the church that a lesbian was elected bishop. For others, there is profound appreciation and joy. For most there is concern. What will this mean for our beloved United Methodist Church? Will it create a schism? Will it sidetrack us from our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? Some want to know, what does it mean when people openly disobey our rules contained in our Book of Discipline?

Right now we are faced with more questions than answers. A lot of questions are not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus often led with questions and used questions as part of his teaching. Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) “Can any of you by worrying add a single day to your life?” (Matthew 6:27) “Why are you afraid?” (Matthew 8:26) and “Why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). These are just a few of the questions Jesus asked.

Having questions right now is appropriate. Like Jesus’ questions, they give us the opportunity to dive deeper into faith or to turn to a different direction. For me I want to reflect on the questions to deepen my commitment to God, recommit to follow Jesus, grow in my love for the church and reflect so I may become a better disciple in the world. Like other adaptive questions and challenges we face, there is not one right answer but different answers based on scripture, reason, tradition experience and context.

I choose this path because I believe it is a faithful route to the Gospel and because I love the values of The United Methodist Church. I love that our founder John Wesley shaped our values to be:

Grace and accountability
Evangelism and social witness (mercy and justice)
Order and liberty
Scripture and experience
Discipline and permission

Here are a few quotes from John Wesley that may give you a deeper sense of who we are as United Methodists:

God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergy or laity; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.

We should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.

Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.

I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God’s creational intentions.

The best thing of all is God is with us.

I call you into deeper prayer, conversation about our questions, and living our values.

To assist you with this call to action, we have opened a website for you to post your important questions for the church to discuss. Also, we have trained facilitators/coaches in the Circle Process to lead conversations in your congregations, clergy groups, organizations and district groups. For both of these resources you can go to www.gnjumc.org/conversations.

Our beloved United Methodist Church is changing. Since its earliest days, it has been changing. During the last half of our denomination’s history we have worked through serious controversies, slavery, women’s ordination, segregation, divorce and now homosexuality. The best thing of all is God is with us.

I call you in the midst of change to center yourself spiritually, keep the mission the main thing and ask God regardless of your view of human sexuality, how God is inviting you to change.

As we work through our differences, I pledge to continue to strive to lead by teaching, keeping a steady hand, creating space for difference, honoring those who disagree and not using divisive language like homophobic or unchristian to dismiss someone else’s theology and commitments. I will also not force any pastor to do something against her or his conscience and never force a congregation to receive a pastor who is not a good theological fit. I am a steward of the church that values all people who are gifted, creative and whole.

I call you to be a leader that offers a steady hand, honors people in the midst of difference while maintaining your own convictions and working toward unity for the witness of Christ and the sake of our mission in the world.

I do ask that you pray for me as I am praying for you and our church right now.

Best of all, God is with us.

John

John Schol, Bishop
The United Methodist Church
Greater New Jersey

June 29, 2016October 6, 2020

Sunday June 26. Resident Theologian Donald Brash “Tweeting the Message: Did we forget anything?”

This morning we begin a new series of sermons on the one-liners we may read on people’s Twitter messages, or TWEETs. Twitter is one of the cyberspace ways that people stay connected. The question before us as we proceed weekly through this series is how do we stay connected to God, even with our more casual inclinations during the summer months

Today’s one line TWEET is, “Did we forget anything.”

Jana thought, thinks I am well suited to address this topic. We won’t repeat that conversation here. Envision with me a family one hour into a ten-hour drive to their vacation destination. One parent turns to the other and asks: Did we forget anything? My own answer to this question is realistic: I assume that I did… Experience has taught me that I will have forgotten something. So far, I am glad to say, that something has not been a some-one.

You probably will not be surprised when I say that Jana is the queen of list makers, and advanced planners. She often brings on our trips what she thinks I might forget. So, when I need that item, and she hands it to me, I lower the volume of my complaining about the quantity and weight of her luggage. It’s an artful tactic that works for her… and – for us.

In Joseph and Mary’s day, planning ahead for a trip was not merely an operational preference made by disciplined people, like Jana: It was a necessity. Nothing could be wasted, and forgetting to take something needed could be fatal. Ancient journeys required careful planning. It was best to travel in groups, because rogues and brigands haunted some regions, despite the Pax Romana. There likely would have been discussions about who would bring what, and in what order they would walk or ride, where they would stop for the night, and who would take the first and second and third watches.

Let’s start TWEETING our responses to this week’s question: Did we forget anything? Not as likely if we made a list and started preparing early.

We forget more than things, and not only on vacations. I refer first to those many, many times each DAY when perhaps I should speak for myself – when I give credence to the phrase, “absent-minded professor.” You may be able to relate to some of the following examples, in question form, even beyond the stereotype of walking into a room and forgetting why you entered it. Do you look at your cell phone and wonder why you took it from your pocket or purse? Do you sit and stare at the icons on the phone hoping to remember the one you should press? Do you drive down the highway and, at some surprising moment realize you do not remember driving from point a to point b? Do you ever get a phone call from the bank asking you to return the canister to the drive-thru. (That may be just me. It was an embarrassing moment.)

Ours is a forgetful generation, and it is not just because some of us spend too much time with our minds elsewhere. We are drawn toward lifestyles that are mentally fragmenting. Television and radio, cellphones, computers and so much more are over-stimulating; and so, overwhelmed, we disassociate from the present, and we forget. I suggest that (I am working on this one now) in order to reduce mental fragmentation and enhance our focus on the here and now we may benefit from pausing, just pausing: perhaps before beginning our day in earnest, or between tasks, or in the evening, or all of the above. We read in the gospels that Jesus often went into the wilderness to be alone. He knew that rhythm is essential to nature. It is written in the fabric of this world. That we will benefit from taking a few minutes regularly to reflect on where we were, where we are, and where we are heading probably is in our DNA.

SECOND TWEET: Did we forget anything? Not as likely if we paused before we left. (SUBTWEET: Even less likely if we have included pausing in the rhythm of our days.)

Still beyond things and vacations alone: Forgetting has consequences both for individuals and communities. There are three journeys in our lesson from Luke’s Gospel, and they are interesting as they were motivated by community memory. I begin most days with a reading from the Christian Testament, the New Testament, if you prefer. I read it in Greek, which is the language of composition for most of its documents. I am not special in this: Many professors of theology are able to read an ancient language. When reading in Greek, I often discover something new to me, a detail I did not see before, one that both stimulates and focuses my thinking. Sometimes I relearn something I once knew. Have you noticed that life’s lessons are easily forgotten and must be relearned many times? Like individuals, a community with amnesia repeats the mistakes of the past. Just two generations from the holocaust, anti-semitism is on the rise again in Europe, along with anti-“otherism.” (Europe is a not-so-distant mirror.) Fascism is an expression of anarchy disguised as nationalist loyalty. Fear is the great enemy – the demonic force behind hatred and scapegoating.

ANOTHER TWEET: Did we forget anything? Not as likely if we are attentive to our lessons.

Forgetting is not always a problem. We need to be able to forget in order to make room for what our conscious minds can hold. On the other hand, some forgetting damages our ability to enjoy the present. Memories that are repressed sometimes contribute to our driven-ness, our sense of urgency and fragmentation, our diving in and swimming with very little if any sense of direction. Repetition compulsions (neurotic habits) are another subject for another day – I’ll not share any of mine today…

I WILL TWEET this much: Not as likely if we look for what we may have overlooked.

The first journey is about Jesus’ birth – a familiar story. Jesus’ father and mother traveled to Bethlehem. Upon their arrival, there was no place to stay, and Mary was giving birth. We may relate to their fear and anxiety. Some journeys include dramatic events: illness, hospitalization… we might substitute in Mary and Joseph’s case updated language. Instead of no room in the upper room, where guests were lodged, we might say there was no room at the hospital, no room in the maternity ward, or there were no medical facilities nearby.

TWEET: Did we forget anything? Not likely if we anticipate possible surprises along the way. (Of course, we cannot anticipate them all.) Still beyond things and vacations alone.

The second journey in our story was motivated by the covenant God is said to have made with Abraham, and detailed through Moses at the giving of the Law. The newborn male child would be circumcised as a sign of belonging to the people of the covenant: God’s chosen, God’s elect; and if he was the first boy, he also went through the rite of cleansing at Jerusalem; hence the journey [It is interesting that rites so essential to Jewish identity were set aside by the Apostle Paul. Christians typically believe that in this he understood the spirit of the law. There has been much argument over the centuries about the status of the law, even to this day.]

TWEET: Not a response to the question but an insertion – Remember why you went on the journey. (Don’t let arguing over the route spoil the trip.)

The third journey is the trip made by an apparently large contingent from Nazareth to Jerusalem for an annual festival. The journey was an annual event; perhaps this year Jesus’ coming of age also was celebrated. As we have heard it read, at the end of the festival the contingent began their return journey to Nazareth. We read that Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, discovered after a few days’ on the road that Jesus was not with other family members, as they had assumed. Can you imagine their panic? Perhaps theirs was a unique panic? Now, according to Luke, the parents had been through a lot of convincing experiences, enough to say to themselves, perhaps, something like this: “Dear God we’ve lost the Messiah!” What a Tweet that would be… going viral wouldn’t even begin to capture the power of that one.

I think, though, that they really were just worried about the boy they loved. I remember my parents, with five children, counting heads in order to avoid a personalized “yes” answer to today’s question: Did we forget any… one? Mary and Joseph returned quickly to Jerusalem and looked frantically for Jesus, only to find him astonishing the elders by his wisdom, which is evidence that this was his “bar-mitzvah” year.

TWEET: Did we forget anything? Not likely if we keep our minds on what matters most.

The story of this journey is a little vexing. Jesus responded to his parents: “You should have known I’d be about my Father’s business.” Never mind he had worried his parents half-to-death.

Upon hearing, “Oh, I stayed behind to do God’s work,” I might have responded, “Maybe God will do your extra chores when we get home to Nazareth. It may have been that Jesus felt a tension at this, a tension we too encounter: to attend to the need of the moment, perhaps a mundane need in which people are depending on us, or to do pursue our calling, Do I leave my Sabbath moment in order to respond to the urgent, or do I stay? A word of caution: I have heard excuses that put a veneer of prayer on a matter that required action. Pausing, even if for prayer does not necessarily make holy things or holy people. On the other hand, not pausing to reflect and think and pray potentially leads to undiscerning commitments, and unholy alliances.

TWEET: Did we forget anything? Not likely if pausing leads to more meaningful and timely action.

I have mixed metaphors with some license today. It’s been a fun frolic for me. Suffice it to say that we are on a journey, individually and all together. Love for God, love of neighbor, and a healthy love of self. On these commandments lie all the law and the prophets, that is also, all the memory of community identity and meaning. The fruits of the spirit are faith, hope, kindness, welcoming the stranger… against these there is no law.

FINAL TWEET: Above all – remember love – Love should be on our list! Then it will not be likely that anything really necessary will be forgotten.

Did you forget anything? Are we forgetting anything? This summer, let’s take the time for a second look at our packing list.

June 23, 2016October 6, 2020

Hashtags: Vacation Time!

VacationTweetsSermonSeriesSlider-943x345 (1) — Photo by Robin Birkel

It’s vacation time!Join us for worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our Vacation Tweets sermon series. These phrases, such as “are we there yet” and “this is the life” are so universal. We’re looking forward to how our pastors relate them to our growing as disciples of Christ. If you have a Twitter account, feel free to use the hashtags! (Hint: our Twitter handle is @PrincetonUMC)

June 26: #didweforgetanything Donald Brash

July 3: #imtooexcitedtosleep Jana Purkis-Brash

July 10: #arewethereyet ASP Team

July 17: #thisisthelife Catherine Williams

July 24: #itsraining Jana Purkis-Brash

July 31: #idontwanttogoback Jana Purkis-Brash

Come early to join in the hymn sing (9:45). A nursery is available and children will enjoy the Summer Sundays: Fun Plays program. Everyone is welcome and, yes, the church is air-conditioned!

June 22, 2016October 6, 2020

Sunday, June 19. Rev. Catherine E. Williams “Lessons from the Toy Box: The Rocking Horse”

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbor as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’

I do not remember my first encounter with a rocking horse. But I do remember the last time I rode one. I had taken, David, my grandson to the park and he was his energetic self, running all over the playground going from this fun to that fun to the next… After some time I looked over at the empty rocking horses; they were the most appealing toy to a tired grown-up who needed a break. I held David’s hand and excitedly pointed, “Look,” I said, “a rocking horse, let’s go for a ride.” I sat him on one horse, and straddled the one next to him and we began riding, well…rocking actually. Ten seconds later he was scrambling to get down. “No,” I encouraged him, “let’s ride some more.” But he could not dismount that horse fast enough. This was NOT his idea of play. Why do you think? It was going nowhere! It was all show and no go!

I guess I could just get right to the point of this rocking horse sermon and say that as Christians we need to stop merely going through the motions, get off our rocking horses, and get about the business of spreading our salt and shining our light. But not so fast. The trajectory on which this sermon began to travel two or three weeks ago was tragically disrupted by a horrific mass shooting in Orlando last Sunday morning. It wasn’t the kind of event that I could keep calm and go on preparing my tidy little rocking horse sermon. No, the rocking horse took on more significant proportions as I read the Scripture, and read the news, and re-read the Scripture, and heard more news. The increasingly dissonant and mournful soundtrack against which I read Mark 12 could not be dismissed.

At first Jesus’ conversation with the religious leader looks pretty mundane – of course we are to love the Lord, our God with everything we are, and of course we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Except that…God doesn’t change. We can learn and grow in our love for God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can begin to think we are masters of that love (especially if you’ve earned anything like a Master of Divinity degree.) But our neighbors change. So just as we think we’ve learned to love our neighbor, we look over and someone else has moved in. Do we have to love them too?

Well let’s just reflect together for a bit on this two-part commandment: love the Lord your God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. For us, as children of God, this is not an option. For us, as disciples of Christ, loving God is no more an option than breathing is for a human being. 2015-12-21 19.49.45-1 Love is who God is; and if we spend any amount of time in God’s company, through prayer, through meditation on the Scriptures, through worship, through study and service, through fellowship with other people of God, love is something that we become, even more than something that we do. God is love, and all who are born of God are born of love, and learn to love. Love is in our DNA as children of God, born of the Spirit, born from above.

Which makes the second greatest commandment flow quite naturally from the first. Let me say this a few different ways. We love our neighbor, because we love God. We can’t really grow in our love for neighbor unless we are growing in our love for God. It is our loving response to God’s love for us that teaches us how to love our neighbor. We love as God loves us; we forgive, as God forgives us; we include those who are not like us, as God includes us, we who are not like God. We’re following a Divine model here. There’s so much that can be said about this Divine model of love on any given day, but there are three aspects about it that I find instructive as I slowly emerge from the shock of yet another tragedy, and wonder what can I possibly do that will be of any significance.

First is that God’s love happens in and for the benefit of community. God, who has every reason to be narcissistic, has chosen instead to be represented by a community of three (Parent, Son, and Holy Spirit,) and has opened up that community to all that is not God. God so loved the world that God gave God’s only begotten son that whosoever believes in him, should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Anyway you unravel or interpret that Scripture it boils down to God opening up God’s self to include all of creation. When we love in – and for the benefit of – community, we are patterning God’s love.

Then, God’s love is also sacrificial. If in loving God and loving our neighbor we don’t
experience some degree of inconvenience, we may want to look at the model again. The ultimate Divine ‘inconvenience’ happened to be death by crucifixion, and some of God’s people have suffered similar inconvenience throughout the ages, up to today! But the inconvenience of loving isn’t always extreme. It may call for giving up some of our time, some of our resources, some of our precious beliefs and ideologies, some of our prejudices, and even some of our rights. Whatever the cost, love that reflects God’s love comes with some degree of inconvenience and sacrifice.

The final aspect of God’s love that I find instructive is that it’s stubborn. It’s persistent, it’s tenacio gettyimages-539767802 us, and it’s dogged. It suffers long, and is kind. It does not envy, does not parade itself, and is not puffed up. It does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not easily provoked, and thinks no evil. (Is this sounding familiar?) God’s love is stubborn because it bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things, God’s love never fails!! When people ask for this passage to be read at their weddings, I remind them that this is not human love. We may rightly aspire to this, but in actuality the apostle was holding up a model of Divine love to a bunch of folks who needed a radically different model of getting along.

When violence and tragedy strike again, and again, and again, with blunt numbing force, we need a stubborn love that never fails. When leaders and aspiring leaders advance models of division, bigotry, prejudice, and cowardice, we need a stubborn love full of courage that does not behave rudely and does not seek its own interest, but the interests of others. As disciples of Jesus we have a different model of being community. The challenge before us is whether in the face of evil we will respond in kind or in love. My brothers and sisters in Christ, the love we are and the love out of which we operate is not defined in any dictionary, it is modeled for us in Jesus the Nazarene carpenter who loved enough to lay down his life for his friends. And as one pastor has said, “You’ve never locked eyes with anyone who doesn’t matter deeply to God.”1

When we get weary of loving like this, because it does take a toll on us, we yearn for some reprieve. In such an instance a rocking horse is a fine thing. It keeps us in motion without going anywhere. It may even hypnotize us so we don’t feel the pain and the anger as much. But it is not the vehicle of God’s salvation, nor is it the way of the cross. It is all show and no go. As the apostle reminded the Corinthian Christians, going through the motions of speaking with a silvery tongue without love means nothing; going through the motions of demonstrating high intelligence and understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge without love means nothing; going through the motions of demonstrating faith, without love means nothing. We can even go through the motions of feeding the poor, and exhausting ourselves in service to those less fortunate than us – the apostle calls it going through the motions unless there is deep motivating love behind it all.

If I were to offer a counter idea to the rocking horse, it would be the idea of horsepower! The term was originally coined when the steam engine was being marketed in the late 18th century. People didn’t understand how engines could work, but they knew about the kind of work horses could do. If we want to talk about efficiency and effectiveness in our mission as Jesus’ followers, then I suggest we begin with the horsepower of love. And I am bold enough to proclaim this morning, that there is no engine, no weapon, no demonstration of power or energy that can outperform love. How many of us this week have heard, watched, and read so many amazing stories of love in action in response to the Orlando tragedies? There’ve been stories of kindness, compassion, courage, bravery, sacrifice – stories of God’s love in action through the community of humankind, and yes, even through comfort animals.

Friends, these are not the times for high horses, dark horses, wild horses, hobby or rocking horses. Sin and evil abound in our land, but we believe that Where sin increased, grace increased even more. (Romans 5:20) In the end, after evil has taken its best shot, after hatred has gone its distance, after insanity has expended all its energy, there remains the everlasting horsepower and the enduring legacy of the love of God – that community-enriching love, that sacrificing love, that stubborn love – channeled into the world through you and through me right where we are, every day that we live. People of God, may we rise to the challenge! AMEN.

1 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/columnists/os-the-sermon-on-pulse-you-didn-t-hear-in-church-20160612-story.html. Accessed June 18, 2016.

June 12, 2016August 26, 2021

Sunday June 5. Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash Lessons from the Toy Box: “Legos – It All Begins with Connecting”

Pastor Jana started the sermon series “Lessons from the Toy Box” using the connection with the popular children’s toy LEGO and its interlocking bricks to illustrate our connectivity to God, to one another and to the world. She based her text on John 6:26-35.

We can say that the message from today’s scripture is Jesus saying that the people who have a relationship with Him shall never hunger or thirst. They will receive real time bread from Heaven, for example, through hunger as shown in the abundant food given to the hungry multitude or through thirst, as illustrated in the story of the water given to the Samaritan woman at the well. After Jesus fed 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fishes, the people kept coming back, hungry for more of His teachings – for a relationship with God and with each other. When Jesus told the Samaritan woman that He will give them Living Water and they will never be thirsty again, the people kept coming to see Jesus, the Giver of Living Water.

The people of God have received great gifts, one of them being the gift of connecting with God as well as with brothers and sisters in Christ. The Holy Communion is one such amazing gift. A real present that we can touch and be nourished by the Bread of Heaven – the bread of life – and the Cup of Salvation. This is an opportunity to align ourselves with God, connect with everything Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. At the Communion Rail, as a family in Christ, we share the Supper side by side with our own family as well as with our extended family at PUMC, connected through Christ as brothers and sisters, shoulder to shoulder. We come to Jesus’ table hungry and thirsty and open our hearts to God who alone supplies our needs.

Jesus desires to have personal connection and personal relationship with each and everyone of us – from the youngest to the oldest, from someone who has worked with Jesus to someone who has been away from Him for a long time. This is the salvation that only Christ offers. Jesus is the Bread of Life who has come to give life to the church of God, for our relationship with God is the foundation of everything that we do.

The Lego toy and its building bricks can be seen as a great analogy for what it means to build a big church. A Lego creation starts with one single brick to which we keep connecting more and more bricks, one connection at a time. Lego bricks are at their best when we see the whole structure rather than the individual bricks. The higher we can build the better. Yet, Lego bricks don’t form with each other just by chance. They are all different types, yet each individual piece is interconnected with other pieces. Similarly individuals are designed to be interconnected. Our relationship with the Church starts with our connection with Christ and that lays the foundation we can build on, with God above and our brothers and sisters below. As all Lego bricks are compatible with each other, so here at UMC as well within the Church Universal, we have our DNA as christians and part of our connectivity comes from our gift of compatibility.

How compatible are we to connect with each other given that we are all different from each other? God made us to be compatible to be able to fit together and connect, for He said we are all one: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. Legos therefore bring to mind how we connect to God at the top, and to each other at the bottom. True life, abundant life begins with connection, connection with Christ first and foremost, connection with other brothers and sisters, connection with the church at UMC and of course, connection with the world.

Lego is a timeless toy to be created into something new every time. So also, we as humans have the ability to be created into something new and excited every day. Lego therefore reminds us of our connectivity, new relationship and new life. The question now is, are we willing to connect at the rail? Are we open to be made into a new creation in our minds? Let us therefore find a way in the Church to bring love and hope to those in need and to strengthen relationships with Christ and the world as we connect. We must also take time to give thanks to God for the people we are connected to. As we come for Communion, may each of us use our time with God to discern how we can build on our connectivity with God, each other and the world.

Written by Isabella Dougan

May 24, 2016October 6, 2020

Youth Sunday May 22: Sermon Rebecca Koblin

“God is Leading us toward a Future with Hope”

My life right now seems to be a series of questions. As I answer one 2 more pop up in its place. It all started with college. Where are you going was the question that depa GetAttachment.aspx-3 rted from everyone’s lips, asking with muted excitement. Then it was which campus, what’s your major, where are you staying, who is your roommate, which classes are you taking, etc etc. As I look at my life I see a lot of uncertainty. I am not going to lie. I am afraid of the future. What ifs have clouded my mind with doubt and I’m afraid that for a little while I was a seed that fell into the weeds, choked by my own fear of what is to come.

You see when you have spent your entire life in one school where all the questions are answered for you and your comfort was laid in the hands of your parents, your teachers, your friends, you start to think that maybe what’s next, the things that have been left to be decided only by me, are mistakes. So I spent a lot of time worrying that I was choosing the wrong future. I strongly believe that I am still discovering who I really am so how am I supposed to choose the next four years which will affect the next ten years and so on of my life when I don’t even really know who I want to be. You can see why I might have been afraid.

But then I realized… God makes no mistakes. And so as I plan my life I can be certain that even if I don’t have a clue what I am doing, he does. You see God has a plan when I don’t, God has everything I need. He has taught me about loyalty, hope, endless love, how to be a good friend, how to survive pain and heartbreak and disappointment and he will teach me many things in the future. So as I look towards my future I now think about all the things god has in store for me, all the lessons he’s going to teach me, and I know that with every lesson, new obstacle, and amazing moment that god has in store, I will become the person that God always planned for me to be, because he knows me inside and out and I can trust that he will never disappoint.

Change is scary because it is unknown. I am excited for my future, for what life has to offer me, but I don’t want to let go of the things that the past has given me, my friends, my teachers, who I am now. I realized though that all of those things are what has created the person I am now. My family, my friends, my experiences in this very church have taught me more lessons than I ever expected to learn. I’ve grown here, sprouting up like the seeds in the story, but this is just the beginning of my growth. As I continue on in my life going to college and finding a job, making new friends, I will continue the journey that god has planned for me, growing with a flourish, and producing an amazing harvest.

So I want to thank you all for being a part of my journey. I won’t forget what I have learned here.

March 4, 2016October 6, 2020

Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash: “I am the true vine” – John 15:1-8

Branches bear fruit, they don’t make fruit, said Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash in her sermon on Sunday, February 21, 2016. So if Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, we need to remember that we are empowered to do our good works only through Him. She explained other fascinating Biblical references to wine making on February 21, 2016, as below.

I need to preface this sermon by saying, I know nothing about wine. Here we are this morning focused on a passage where Jesus compares himself to a vine, and biblical scholars agree that vine would have been a grapevine, and the grapes would have been used to make wine.

In my research for this sermon, I found out that one foundational principle that applies to both Old World and New World winemaking is that great wine is always a reflection of a particular vineyard. If you want to pick a good wine, in other words, you have to know the source.

Jesus obviously knew a little about wine himself, we see him at social gatherings in the gospels and he knew exactly what kind of wine would impress the guests at the Cana wedding feast. So it shouldn’t be a big surprise that he used the metaphor of a vineyard to describe his relationship to his disciples. Jesus knew that the best way to tell what kind of product you were getting would be to look at the label and see from where in the world it came. In this case, the source isn’t a place but a person — Jesus himself.

Jesus is the Vine. Jesus begins by saying that he is the “true vine”, the source of growth and fruit-bearing, in a vineyard that is tended by God.

God is the Winemaker: The Creator God is the real winemaker, the one who tends the vineyard and assures its quality.

The Vineyard has a history: Turns out, that this vineyard has a long and storied history. The metaphor of the vineyard is used several times in the Old Testament to describe God’s relationship with Israel. In Isaiah 5:1-7, for example, God plants and tends a vineyard but it yields “wild grapes” or inferior fruit — a metaphor for the apostasy of Israel and Judah. The same vineyard imagery is used in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea. In each of these cases, however, Israel is the “vine” and the ultimate source of poor “fruit.”

In the Old Testament, “fruitfulness” was another way of saying “faithfulness,” thus, a lack of good fruit meant that God’s people had failed to be the true, nourishing vine that would bolster God’s reputation in the world as the ultimate fine winemaker. That being the case, it was the winemaker’s job to do some pruning and replacing, which is what the prophets saw the exile as being all about.

Later, God would replant the vineyard with a new stock and that new vine, the “true vine,” would be Jesus himself who embodied the new Israel, God’s Chosen One, the One through whom the whole world would be saved and blessed.

The Branches are the focus: But while the vine is the source for good fruit, there’s a vital link between the vine and its fruit. The “branches” are thus the focus of Jesus’ teaching with his disciples. “I am the vine,” says Jesus to his followers, “you are the branches.” Notice that the disciples of Jesus aren’t the “fruit,” the end product, but the conduit for the vine’s nourishment. The quality of the fruit thus depends on the branches’ connectedness to the vine itself. What Jesus is describing here is the necessary interrelationship between himself and his disciples, us — a relationship characterized by mutuality and indwelling, but one that is also focused on bearing great growth for the whole world.

Look closely at a grapevine, though, and one of the first things you notice about its branches is that it’s very difficult to tell them apart individually. All the branches twist and curl around one another to the point that you can’t tell where one starts and another stops. Jesus’ use of branch imagery is a way of expressing that it’s not the achievement of an individual branch or its status that matters. The quality of branches and fruit depends solely on the quality of their connectedness to the vine. When it comes to discipleship, each “branch” or individual gives up his or her desire for individual achievement in order to become one of many encircling branches — a community that is rooted and nurtured by Christ and points to his reputation and quality, not their own.

With that understanding of branches in mind, there are a couple of things that we branches must remember in order to stay effectively and fruitfully connected to Jesus. First, we have to remember that branches are fruit bearing, and not fruit-making. “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me … Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing.” We’ve heard these words of Jesus many times, but we also hear the call of a culture of workaholism, achievement and success that can lure disciples of Christ into thinking that we can be fruitful as a result of our own efforts. Many are the pastors, for example, who have built large churches and famous reputations only to crash and burn as a result of moral failure, which is frequently the result of a failure to stay intimately connected to Jesus. When a branch gets the idea that it can make fruit, make wine, on its own, it dries up, withers, and is no longer useful. The mission of a branch isn’t to look good or to call attention to itself, but to give all the glory to God, the one whose name is on the label.

In the vineyards of Jesus’ day, grapevines grew naturally along the ground instead of being propped up on poles or lattices as they are today. The vinedresser would come along to lift and “clean” the vine, pruning away the excess and dead growth. Jesus uses the same image to describe the way the disciples themselves had been “cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.” That “word” was the teaching and commandment of Jesus and the disciples’ meditation on and obedience to that “word” would help them “remain” or stay connected to his “love” — the nourishing flow from the vine. This is how being connected to Jesus changes our lives.

Reading, meditating and praying through the Scriptures is one way in which disciples are “pruned.” The words of Jesus about the kingdom and the story of his life, death and resurrection focus us on what’s truly important for bearing the fruit of his grace and love to the world. When the writer of Hebrews says that Scripture is “sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12), he might have as easily said that Scripture was the ultimate set of pruning shears, trimming us for the life of discipleship we were meant to live. Such pruning can be painful as God uses it to lop off old habits, but it’s absolutely necessary if we’re going to embrace our purpose as conduits of God’s grace. Again being changed by Jesus.

Great wine is the reflection of a particular vineyard, be it from an Old World tradition or an eclectic New World experiment. God wants to tend the finest vineyard ever, here and now. May we, as disciples of Jesus, the true vine, embrace our role as branches — channels for God’s grace, so that when the world samples the fine vintage of God’s love and grace, they will want to know the winemaker!

February 11, 2016October 6, 2020

Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash: Healthy Spirituality: Inside Out – Joy and Sadness

Sunday, January 31, 2016

How can joy and sadness be spiritually healthy?

For many, joy and sadness would be an unlikely partnership. However, for Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash the exact opposite is the case. Happiness is healthy, so is sadness and both need to go together. She based her text on Psalm 139 and John 16:16-24 and concluded: “My prayer for us is that Joy and Sadness are woven together in such a way that we are spiritually healthy and that our joy is rooted. “

Inside-out-d150_13cs.sel16.101 Inside-Out-Joy-Sad

There is a small part of me that is thankful for the blizzard last week. Let me explain. As I moved through the week preparing my sermon on Joy, I became more and more concerned that Joy and Sadness really needed to be together. In order to fully understand the healthy roles of these two emotions, they need to be brought together as a team. So because of the storm and canceling worship last week, I have been able to do just that. We will see how this unlikely partnership helps us as we seek to be spiritually healthy and whole.

A focus of Inside Out is the grounding of happiness. In a society that seeks joy in comfort, silliness, and diversion, Pixar presents a different picture of the full life. Being happy is not about eliminating or even minimizing emotions not named Joy. No one in history has ever succeeded with that approach. Inside Out refreshingly declares that the good life is not free from sadness or anger, but allows joy to live in a harmony with those other less comfortable emotions.

As we’ve mentioned previously the film enters the mind of a preteen, Riley, whose life has been disrupted by a cross-country move. The film’s brilliance is in embracing the brokenness we all face. We all experience it, and yet so few stories on TV and on the big screen help us process and endure it. In Inside Out, life is hard, but not hopeless. Grief and sadness are meaningful, even valuable experiences.

We see Joy as the irrepressible “Pollyanna” of the emotions at work within Riley—she flatly refuses to let life’s problems get her down and by extension, bring Riley down, so when Sadness comes on the scene during Riley’s infancy, Joy sees her as a problem to be overcome. As Riley grows, so do Joy’s frustrations with Sadness, particularly when she discovers that Sadness has the capacity to turn the glowing golden orbs of Riley’s happy memories sad by touching them. When Sadness causes herself and Joy—along with Riley’s core memories—to be sucked into the larger world of Riley’s mind, the two emotions must work together to make their way back to Headquarters and set things right.

It is on this journey through Riley’s mind that Joy begins to see the need for Sadness, and more importantly, comes to a deeper understanding of what joy really is. To this point, Joy has seen herself as a cheerleader—the one around whom the other emotions rally in order to help Riley make happy memories, leading (as Joy describes it) to perfect days, weeks, months, years, and ultimately, a perfect life.

Joy in comfort, in silliness, in sports can be happy for a time, but there are no roots, at least not strong ones. It’s fragile. One embarrassing moment in front of the class and it all comes crashing down. If life is about preserving that simple, child-like, playful happiness, then we’re all lost and helpless.

Eventually — and sometimes very early on — life removes its kid gloves — the unexpected move, betrayal, divorce, sickness, failure, loss. Life will steal a child’s happiness at age seven or seventeen or thirty-seven, and if we don’t have a plan for joy after sadness comes, we’ll be left frustrated, confused, and bitter. The film displays the futility of shortsighted, over-protective happiness.

The story begins with Joy frantically — though relentlessly cheerfully — micromanaging the team of emotions, striving to keep everything and everyone calm, predictable, and happy. The simplicity of a child’s life lends itself to lots of simple and repeatable pleasure. By the end, though, Joy cherishes and cooperates with the others, seeing their inevitable and even critical roles in Riley’s life.

Inside Out grounds joy — which in and of itself sets it apart from so many other movies — but still leaves it rootless. The joy is real and even mature, but it’s not safe or reliable. It’s not made or even expected to last the stormy waves that will crash into our lives. When one island of personality falls — whether silliness or hockey or friendship — we’ll start building another.

The message of Inside Out says that joy in this life can be real even when mixed with darker, harder memories and experiences. The film creatively and effectively protects us from thinking life is meant to be easy, fun, and carefree. True joy, the kind that survives suffering and endures pain, is not cheap or easy. It’s laced — woven through and through — with sadness. So it is with Christ in an even more profound way. We are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,” and our joy is all the deeper and more enduring because of the grief.

Joy is a frantic (albeit happy) character trying to run the show. She vigilantly guards against Sadness getting too much time at the control panel and from touching any of the memories and turning them blue/sad.

Check out this clip where Joy tries to keep sadness in her place.

To continue, click https://princetonumc.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Rev.pdf for full text.