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SERMONS:
Pastor Peg posts her sermons from our most recent sermon series on this page. If you are interested in reading more of her sermons you can go to pastorpeg.wordpress.com. Our last series was an examination of how we can cope with change during these times. Our current series examines the baggage that we carry in life and how it hinders us . Enjoy.
Finding Our Contentment in God
September 27, 2026 18th Sunday of Pentecost
Hebrews 13:5-6 1 Timothy 6:6-12
This week the bulletins at Hobart, Township, and Bloomville have on the cover a set of scales. On one side of the scales is a bag of money and on the other side is a heart which is lower than the bag of money, showing that the heart is stronger than money. This weighing of the heart is actually a very old image dating back to ancient Egypt.
When a person died in Egypt they went before the gods, and your heart was weighed on a scale against a feather. Now this wasn't just any feather; this was the feather of Ma’at the goddess of truth, justice, and balance or order in life. If you had lived a balanced life, attempted to speak the truth as much as you could, and treated others with fairness and justice, your heart would be lighter than this feather, and you would be judged to be a good person. If, however, your heart sank, that showed that you were a bad person and your heart would be fed to the crocodile-lion, which would effectively destroy your soul.
Most ancient cultures actually thought that the heart was more important than the brain. You thought with both your heart and mind. Logic was important, but for human interaction pure rationality was thought to be an abandoning of your human self. Because, although the brain thought, it’s in heart that we feel and value those thoughts. So, all the important memories of what you did in life was kept in the heart. And that was why it was weighed.
Judaism also has this theology. It’s said that we must write the words of God on our hearts, not just know what they are. We must connect them with our emotions; with the love that we have for God, others and ourselves, in order to make them meaningful and valuable to us. If we do this, we will act upon those values with the compassion and grace of God.
Money is often used as a symbol of the material world because that’s how our society gets stuff. It’s what we use to label the value of something. Tribal groups didn’t use money, they just bartered goods for what they needed; so many squirrel pelts for so many arrow heads. But somewhere along the line someone figured out that you could use a substitute for squirrel pelts – whether it was beads, or shells, or pieces of metal – and the concept of money was born.
Money is a convenient thing. It’s how we buy our food, clothing and houses. It’s nice to have enough money to take care of all our daily needs. And it’s understandable that we worry that we won’t have enough money for those needs. I’ve been surprised in the last few years to see ads on television targeted at 20-year-olds that offered services to help with their credit ratings and retirement funds. I don’t remember those kinds of ads targeting me when I was 20. While I don’t disagree with credit ratings and retirement this worries me because you can get so easily caught up in the stress of do-I-have-enough that your focus devolves to: How much money do I have? Do I have enough stuff? Do I have the right stuff? Is my stuff going to last?
You can spiral down into a worry that will drive you crazy. So crazy that it will be the only thing you’ll focus on, and it will become the lense through which you see the world. Do I have enough? Maybe I should work harder to the neglect of those in my life, and maybe even my own health. Do know that the Japanese have a term Karaoshi, which literally translates as “death by overwork?” In Japan, if you can prove that a person worked constantly over 65 hours a week, you can put Karaoshi down as cause of death on the death certificate.
This is why we are warned that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. What happens when you love something? When you fall in love with someone, they become your focus. That person is the one you are thinking about all the time. Even when you’re away from them you think about them, and you want to do things that will nurture your relationship with them. I have to confess that every time I go to Stuart’s for milk that I check to see if there is eggnog, because my sweetie likes eggnog. And, yes, I do buy it for him. That is focusing on love.
We do need food, clothing, and shelter in our lives; we do need money in our lives. And let’s face it most of us really do like to work. Oh, my gosh if you find your passion, if you find the job that or career that you love to do – that’s wonderful, because you are going to have a source of happiness other than just acquiring money. The money is going to be incidental to the satisfaction of your heart. Finding joy is part of fighting the good fight of our faith. But while we’re getting the stuff we need, we need to focus also on our faith.
Timothy reminds people that this world is a fleeting place. We come in without stuff and we exit without stuff. You can’t take it with you, and the person who dies with the most toys is dead. But how do we find our balance between what we actually need and what we don’t need? How much money is enough? And instead of money and the acquisition of stuff, how to we direct our focus to our faith?
Well, John Wesley had a phrase that he gave to people when they asked him these questions: Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.
Earn all you can: It’s understood that people have to earn money to live and that people like to work. Like I said before there is nothing wrong with having a job that you love which pays well. But our commandments are to love God, love our neighbors, and to love ourselves; and work shouldn’t come at the expense of those relationships. Work can be a reflection of our faith because it’s a chance to show our love to the people we work with. But don’t use work as an excuse to neglect your family and friends. We need to find the balance between our work commitments and our relationships outside of work. We need to allow ourselves to have the time to connect to God in worship. We need to understand that earning all we can doesn’t mean sacrificing our relationships to earning more money. All we can means there is a line we need to establish of how much we earn, but still have time to honor our commitments to those we love, and allows us to continue to nurture our relationships.
Save all you can: This is where you can find the balance between necessary spending and unnecessary indulgence. When you’re actively saving for something, like a car or a trip, you budget what you can spend and sacrifice unnecessary things to save your money towards that goal. You find out what you need, and don’t need to have, to get by. You become more aware of the stuff that you have, use it to your advantage, as opposed to wasteful spending and consumption. I once gave myself the challenge to NOT by any new clothing for one year, except for socks and underwear. (I deemed those to be a necessity.) This meant that I had to go through my clothing and see what I actually had to use. Which also meant that I found some clothing that I had forgotten about, and some clothing that didn’t fit anymore, or was worn out. But I didn’t buy to replace any of the stuff that I got rid of, I just learned how to more effectively mix and match the clothing that I had. Saving all you can is not just putting money in the bank – it’s learning how to efficiently use your assets and resources.
Give all you can: Since we’re talking about money, we automatically think about giving money. But although it’s nice to be able to write a check to a charity, what most local charities need is people to give their time to help them. CORE VALUES, Angel’s Attic, the Christmas Feeling Fund, the Fire Department, and our churches, are all organizations in our area that cannot function without people giving of their time and energy. And think of what happens when you do give of your time to those charities. You make friends; you connect with the community; and you know that you are helping beyond your circle of contact. You are nurturing the love and good will in your community, and anytime you give someone or something love, you are also giving love to God through His creation.
When we put our relationships as the focus of our lives; when we work for joy and connection; when we live with necessity, not the gain of surplus; and when we give what we can, when we can, to help our neighbors; then we find ourselves living a content life with and in the intentions of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And then, instead of money being our shield against the world, we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”
Living With Abundance
September 20, 2026 17th Sunday of Pentecost
Acts 11:19-30 Matthew 6:24-34
Today we're going to start a new sermon series on generosity. Being the English nerd that I am, I started with the definition of the word generous, which is: Showing a readiness to give more of something, such as time or money, than is considered to be necessary. And the word generosity is the action of being generous.
So, a person is generous when they give more than what is normally expected. I tend to be very generous when it comes to baking for bake sales. I always seem to end up making double batches of cookies, pies or cakes. Personally, I'm not sure if that's being generous or anxious, because I’m always sure that we will never have enough to sell so I end up making more than is expected of me.
But my generous-anxiety illustrates an aspect of generosity; the motivation behind our actions. We do acts of generosity for a variety of reasons. Maybe a person just likes to do something, like baking, and so they give more of their time and energy to it. Maybe a person has a certain cause or organization that speaks to their life experience, such as someone whose parents died of cancer, so they give to, or work for, a cancer research organization. Maybe a person wants to help out in their community because they know that their neighbors are in need, so they donate to the food bank or the Christmas feeling fund. Or maybe they are a person who wants to look good in society, so they give money and time to certain causes that they think will give them some status.
Some of these reasons are altruistic, some are self-serving, and some of them might be a little mercenary. But you know what? I don't think the motivations really matter, because generosity, whether it is for a belief in a cause, just wanting to help neighbors, or even seeking social status, is going to help someone. Any blessing, no matter what the motivation, is still a blessing. Let’s let God worry about people's motivations. He can handle them a lot better than we can.
But I do think that there’s a condition that exists before people can be generous. I think many of us feel that we need to have enough to take care of ourselves satisfactorily before we can be generous. And I’m not necessarily talking about having a level of stuff or money. It has to do with what you can donate of and from yourself. I volunteered at the school radio station when I was in college, and I liked it and I learned a lot, but I had to give it up because it interfered with my classes and study time. I just couldn’t be that generous with my time at the radio station.
This memory hit me when I was reading the Matthew scripture. We actually read this same scripture a few weeks ago when we were talking about worrying. At that time I said that Jesus was trying to keep his disciples from worrying about the present and future to the point that they would freeze and not do anything. And I wondered, “Why is this scripture here in a sermon series about generosity? How does this relate?”
I thought that maybe one of the beliefs of the disciples that caused them to worry, was that they were surrounded by scarcity, and they feared that they wouldn’t be able to find enough for themselves, or what they needed wouldn’t be provided for. There was a thought in the back of their minds that they didn’t have enough to get by on. Yet, they are listening to Jesus preach a gospel of generosity of spirit. Jesus said that if you have two cloaks give one to your neighbor who doesn’t have one. But I think the disciples probably only had one cloak. How can you be generous when you only have the basic necessities?
I think that besides worry, Jesus was trying to turn the disciple’s minds from an outlook of scarcity to one of abundance.
When I was living in Japan a friend gave me a collection of motivation tapes by Tony Robbins, a 90’s motivation guru. One of his comments that has really stuck with me was his claim that we are very lucky to be living in a country of abundance. He pointed out that all of us have access to many public facilities like libraries and public parks that we can enjoy for free. He encouraged people to see the abundance that they had in their lives in terms of their resources and opportunities.
Often in stress-filled times we tend to focus on what we don’t have. We say to ourselves: If only I had enough money, or enough time, or enough education, or enough tools, or enough talent, I would be better off. I would be able to fix whatever problems I have and live a more stress-free life.
Now I don’t want to belittle the fact that very often we don’t have all the resources we need to fix our problems. Sometimes we get stuck because we’re looking at what we have and not considering that there is stuff that can help us that lies beyond the little circle we’ve been staring at. One of our big resources are the people who surround us. Look around you – this includes your family, friends, and neighbors, plus the greater community of organizations, like our church, that can be utilized.
I know of one woman who was going through a rough time with cancer. She lived far from the hospital that she went to for treatment and couldn’t make the support groups that they offered. She advertised that she was going to start a cancer support group using her local church as the meeting place. She was hoping for a small number to start with, maybe 3 or 4 people. She had 24 that first meeting! Using the resources around her – beyond what her hospital offered – she started a vital program for herself and others which went on for years and helped many people, not just herself.
Abundance and generosity doesn’t have to be huge – they just have to be what we need right now, at this moment, that we can share with others. And remember that enough-list that I just gave you? The one with money, time, education, tools, and talent? We all have those things. Maybe not enough to solve our problems at this moment, but we all have enough to build a base to get more of what we need.
Jesus tells his disciples: But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? Later in Matthew he will urge his disciples to ask God for what they need because God will not deny them. I admit that sometimes I am of little faith because I have a reluctance to ask God to help me with resources that I need. My reluctance comes from an independent-streak that makes me believe that I should be able to handle everything by myself. Wrong! I have to really step on my ego when it gets like that because I KNOW that I’m not a superwoman who can do it all. Why shouldn’t I ask for help if I need it? We all need help at some point or another and there is nothing wrong with asking God! In fact, I’ve found that if I ask God for help first, it’s easier for me to ask for help from others.
If I believe that I have the necessities to live, and I practice seeing the abundance around me, then I am well on my way to having the right mind set to be generous to others. Because when we believe that we have everything we need, we also believe that we can share it with others. I can share my money, time, education, tools, and talent. Maybe not all of them at once, but the ones that are needed when they are called for.
Look for the abundance that you have around you. Go ahead and take some time to make a list of your money, time, education, tools, talent and especially our love. And don’t be afraid to ask God for more. With our little faith, our hearts in Christ, and our generosity to share our resources we can do much. All it takes is a willingness to live in abundance, not scarcity, and we’ll be living in in a world of generosity that is building the Kingdom.
Packing for the Journey
September 13, 2026 14th Sunday of Pentecost
Galatians 5:16-17, 22-26 Matthew 7:16-20
The last few weeks we've been talking about the baggage we carry; the stuff that weighs us down in life. We've talked about the worries that we have now and in the future. We’ve talk about the unforgiveness we carry, about things that have happened to us, or to people that we know, and how that can keep us from being loving people. We’ve also talked about our regrets of things that we haven't done, or things that we have done that we’re ashamed of.
Spiritual baggage burdens our lives. We all have worries, emotions from unforgiveness, and regrets that we would like to get rid of to lighten the load of our life-journey. All the negative emotions like anger and resentment, and the regrets take up real estate in our brain. Think about it – do you really want those negative tenants taking up room in your mental and emotional property? It might be healthier to just evict those nasty tenants and get a better night sleep. You’ll be making a lot more space for better thoughts and feelings.
But there's another image that baggage calls to mind when we use its synonym luggage. Luggage gives us a much more positive image, don't you think? When I say I’m getting out my luggage, it implies that I’m going to go on a journey that will take me to some place that’s exciting, or relaxing, or social. Also, we carry the luggage of positive emotions and responsibilities that we want to take on. Partners in romantic relationships take on the responsibility of caring for their significant others. Parents take on the responsibility of caring for their children. Children might take on the responsibility of taking care of parents later on in life. If you're an animal lover, you take on the responsibility of caring for your animals. Sometimes my two cats make my life a little cumbersome, but I love my fur-babies dearly and so I'm going to keep on with that loving burden.
The idea of life being a journey has been used by every religion on this planet, and Christians use the journey image and metaphor a lot. Christians say our life is a journey to God. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are walking with us, supporting us, and guiding us on our journey.
We use travel images to express the easy times and the hard times. We ask God to make the rough places plain; the crooked path straight; and we talk about the mountaintop highs and the valley lows. We say that God leads us to peaceful places beside still waters.
When I think of the Christian journey, I often picture a very long road, starting at the beginning when I'm born, and moving through an incredible series of landscapes, until I end up at the river Jordan which signifies the end of my life. And then I will cross that river, and enter into a new land. Isn’t that a nice image?
But think about when you go on a trip. We don’t just walk out the door. We pack a bag with some provisions that are going to help us along the way. Usually for a trip I bring clothes to wear – tailored for various situations – toiletries for my personal care, and often something to eat to nourish myself along the way. Think about the journey of life. We clothe ourselves with attitudes for the situations that we encounter; we have routines for our self-care; and we do things, like read books or learn new skills, to nourish our minds, hearts, and spirits so that we can become better people, which will help us to get better at traveling through life.
In our Galatians scripture, Paul is talking about our journey through life as Christians with the teachings and heart of Jesus Christ. I don’t know why this series left out a middle chunk of this scripture. Maybe because they wanted to just get to the positive parts that we needed for our journey, as opposed to the negative parts that we want to leave behind. But I'm going to give you the negative part anyway, because these are things that a Christian is supposed to leave by the side of the road. Paul calls the negative parts the works of the flesh and the positive parts the fruits of the spirit.
So, the works of the flesh are: Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Now as you can see by the ending and things like these that Paul probably had a more extensive list in mind, but these were the biggies. I don't think any of us want any one of these things in our lives at any time. This is baggage that we could definitely leave by the side of the road.
The fruits of the Spirit are: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The fruits of the spirit are the attitudes and mental states that we want to clothe ourselves in as we make our way through the world. Not only do we carry them with us, but by practicing these attitudes and mental states we produce these states of being in our lives for others.
Before I gave you the idea of a journey as a life-long image, but our journey is also made of small trips that we take. Every day you go on a small journey. Every activity that you do is a small journey. If I go to a soccer game, or visit someone, even if I am just at home working on my sermon, I am going on a journey. I’ll be meeting people and listening to their stories. Maybe I will hear about some new endeavor that they have. Maybe I’ll be offering sympathy about a problem. Maybe I’ll end up solving a problem. Maybe, even being alone and working on that sermon, I’ll come across some new information that will reveal something about myself, or the world around me.
But my attitude and mental states of mind are going to affect how I approach and process those little trips that I'm taking. If I walk into a situation burdened with anger, jealousy or suspicion, I’m not going to have a very good time or learn very much. I’m not going to see benefits for myself or others. I’m only going to see obstacles and impossibilities.
However, if I walk into a situation carrying patience, kindness and generosity, I’m probably going to have much better time with the experience and probably learn something that I can take forward into my life. I’m going to see benefits, opportunities and possibilities that I can move forward into.
As Christians we believe that our life-journey is worth it because we have been assured that there is an end that is worth it. Our faith is not nihilistic. Our faith is continuous throughout eternity. We are told that there is a place for us in God’s house. And that Jesus went before us to prepare a place for us.
Jesus tells us that we will know the good people of faith by their fruits; by the attitudes that they clothe themselves with, and by the production of loving actions in their lives. But in order to be positive people of faith we need to lay our down our negative attitudes that lead to despair and pick up the positive ones that lead to loving actions of Grace.
But laying down our burdens is tough. They WANT to live inside our heads. They want to slow us down and keep us from moving forward. And it’s hard to evict them by ourselves. But if we ask Jesus to help us get rid of them, we can find the strength and courage to stand up to those negative attitudes. We can take a stand against them and put forth the positive ones. We can counter fornication, impurity, licentiousness with respect and faithfulness. We can counter jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envy with kindness and generosity. We can counter drunkenness, carousing and strife with patience and self-control. For every bad attitude there is an equal, if not greater, positive attitude that we can call upon with our faith.
So, what are you going to pack for the journey? Baggage or Luggage? I think we should pick the one that isn’t as heavy and will make our trip a lot more enjoyable. The one that allows us to hear our travel guides, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, more clearly. The journey might be long, but we can have a wonderful time on it when we open our hearts to love.
Leaving Regret Behind
September 6, 2026 15th Sunday of Pentecost Communion
Proverbs 4:25-27 Philippians 3:12-14
I think once you get past the age of 10, you're going to start having regrets in your life. My first big regret came as a freshman in high school. There was a poetry contest for students at our local library, and I didn't enter it because I figured that there would be a lot of older students entering who were better at writing poetry. My friend did enter and actually won the contest. But here's the catch: Only two people entered the contest, so if I had also entered the contest, I would have won either first, second, or third place, along with a monetary scholarship that came with the prize.
Fast forward to the end of university and I didn’t take advantage of a special course that was offered in England at the end of my college career. I was pretty burned out on university, and I just didn't think that one more education class was going to do me any good. I should have gone anyway. After the week-long class I could have spent the rest of the summer seeing England as a tourist. Opportunity missed.
There's nothing wrong with regret because it teaches us that we should consider taking risks on new opportunities when they present themselves to us. And we will have to learn to live with the possibilities of those moments that we passed by. I'll be honest, I regret not entering that contest. I should have at least tried, even if I thought I couldn’t win. I learned: Don’t psych yourself out before you even start, because you never know what the odds are when you enter a contest, or apply to college, or apply to a job, so you might as well go for it.
And sometimes I do wonder: If I had gone to England how would my life have been different? What experiences would I have had as opposed to the experiences that I did have? But when the opportunity to go to Japan came along, I didn’t hesitate to look at my options. I eventually ended up there and I had a great time. So, I did learn something from that regret.
But these regrets are pretty benign. Nothing compared to the regrets that the disciple Paul went through.
Paul was a trained Pharisee. Now you just didn’t decide to become a Pharisee. You had to know your Jewish law and customs backwards and forwards, because your job was to instruct people in how to obey and apply the laws and the customs. You were often called upon to be a mediator in matters that affected the Jewish community. You were expected to live a life of holiness; to be a living example of a good and holy Jewish person.
Now I know that John the Baptist and Jesus both criticized Pharisees, but they were criticizing those who were taking advantage of their positions to enrich themselves and not setting a good example for their community. Remember: In every profession there are good practitioners and bad practitioners.
Paul was relatively young, and probably had a few years of experience in his job, when he came to Jerusalem to work for the Temple. When he gets to the Temple, he realizes that the big problem for those in authority is this new cult of Jews who are following the teachings of a Rabbi called Jesus. This man was crucified for sedition with the blessings of the Temple because they felt his preaching was too radical. Good heavens – Jesus’ followers are saying that he was raised from the dead, and that he made the final blood sacrifice for everyone with his death!
Now I want you to think about what those Proverb verses meant to Paul: To keep your focus on the path ahead, to not swerve to the left or right, and to keep away from evil. I can imagine that Paul, who was raised in a family of Pharisees, took that to heart when he was young. He set himself a goal to become a Pharisee, a defender of the faith. He was going to keep his eyes forward, and not look to the right or the left, as he instructed people in how to be a good Jewish person.
To Paul, these followers of Jesus were the ones who had strayed and who needed to be put on the right path, and he was going to be the one to do it. And he used some pretty ruthless methods: Imprisonment, torture, confiscation of property, and even execution, when people wouldn’t repent of following Jesus. He was so effective that people fled Jerusalem, and he followed them to Damascus, with the goal of finally putting a stop to this crazy cult.
Well, Jesus put a stop to that: Struck him down with light and blinded him for three days to give him time to think, and to make him feel as helpless as his victims had felt. During those three days I bet there was a lot of denial: I didn’t mean to cause all that pain to all those people. Anger: Why didn’t you tell me sooner that you didn’t want me to do this? Bargaining: Look, if you just give me my sight back, I’ll make it up you and everyone. And depression: Oh, my God! What I did to all those poor people in God’s name! I am such a horrible person. Finally, he gets to acceptance: Okay, Jesus, you are real. You’re everything they’ve been telling me you are. You are my Lord and savior. And God restored his sight.
Paul’s focus has now moved to Christ. Now his focus is on love, not condemnation; on mercy, not on dominance; and on evangelism, not on control.
Does Paul have regrets? I think he has huge regrets until the day he dies about what he did during the years that he was the Temple’s inquisitor and enforcer. We never truly lose the bad things that we regret in life; we carry them with us always. But Paul says to us: because Christ Jesus has made me his own . . but this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I don’t think Paul ever forgot the horrible things he did, but he didn’t let his past define his future. And he was able to do that because he put his eye directly forward on Christ.
What Christ did for Paul redefined his heart. Jesus, by stopping him and then forgiving him, gave him a mission that would be a life of atonement, in and through love. A life of showing people how they could be better through Jesus’ teachings, forgiveness, and salvation. A life that moved him through and beyond his despair and into a life of good purpose.
I’ve had a lot of regrets in my life, some of them worse than the two I shared with you today. But I have never regretted believing in Jesus. Even when I wasn’t calling myself a Christian – because I was working out what salvation meant to me – I never said that Jesus didn’t exist. I never said that his teachings were worthless. I feel that they are very good teachings to live by, and I have never regretted that life-style choice. I have never regretted being called “a goody-two-shoes.” It’s better than being called some other things. I have never regretted standing up for justice when it was called for.
My life is in Jesus Christ. And it’s because of my life in Christ that I can look back on my regrets, learn from them, and move on from them.
What do you regret in your life? We often don’t want to think about our regrets because they do weigh us down. But when you give your regrets to Jesus, he will give back to you his forgiveness and show you a way forward from them, and they will become a lighter load. The question is: Are we going to accept that forgiveness and take the gracious path that Jesus lays out for us of kindness, justice, and love?
Don’t let your regrets define you or keep you from moving forward. Every Christians goal is working toward the kingdom of God. Keep straight on that path and your way will be sure, and you will have joy on your journey.
The Weight of Worry
August 30, 2026 14th Sunday of Pentecost
Philippians 4:4-7 Matthew 6:25-34
I had a good friend who could get worked up about things that never happened. One day he called me because he had just finished reading a book about the Russian mob in New York City and how they terrorized Russian Orthodox priests as a means of social control. Somehow, he had convinced himself that because I was a minister I was going to end up on the front lines of this war. And after explaining everything that was horrible about this situation he ended by saying, “Peggy, please promise me that you will never get involved with any of this.”
I took a breath and I said, “OK. Is there any chance of this happening to me? I don't work in New York City; I certainly don't work with the Russian Orthodox Church. Why would you suppose that this is going to be a problem for me? He paused said, “Well, I don't know, but it could be a problem in the future.”
I took a breath and lovingly said, “You are wasting a perfectly good rant and worry on nothing.”
Jesus said: Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's troubles are enough for today. But I kind of get my friend, because we all worry about things that could possibly happen, but maybe never will.
God built us that way. I don't know what God looks like physically, but I believe that the idea that we are made in God's image means that God gave us some of His abilities. First of all, like God, we are creative beings. We can look at something and see how it can be used differently or be used to make something else. Second, we are given the ability to see ahead. To imagine what our actions might produce, and what reactions might result. We can see the possible good or bad consequences of our actions. So even though I think my friend was really overreacting, he was just being who we all are. He saw a situation, saw the minute possibility of my future involvement and that caused him to worry. So, he called me up and he shared his worries with me. And in some ways, it was very nice that he was thinking of me.
In Matthew, when Jesus tells his disciples that they shouldn't worry too much about life, I’m pretty sure that he’s responding to their worries. We know the disciples were always asking him, “Can I sit at your right or left hand when you come into your Kingdom?” thinking of course that Jesus was going to become the next king of Israel during their lives and that they were going to have important positions. But they probably also had day-to-day worries. Where were they going to sleep that night? What town was next on their itinerary? Did they have enough money to buy food? Would the local authorities accept them or were they going to get chased out of town?
We all worry about the logistics of our lives, and we all plan for how we want to move forward in our lives. But sometimes we over-plan, because we feel that our lives should unfold a certain way, at a certain time, and when things don’t go according to those plans, we can get very stressed out.
We all carry stress. And we carry it in three ways: We have past stress, present stress, and future stress. Past stress is connected to regret and guilt. We all have things we wish we had, or had not, said or done. And sometimes we regret those actions, thinking that our lives would have turned out differently – maybe better or maybe not – if we had done things differently. And sometimes that regret comes with guilt, especially if people were hurt.
Present stress is the current anticipation of how we’re managing what’s happening to us now. Do, you all remember that song from 1988, Don’t Worry, Be Happy, by Bobby McFerrin? The one that topped most of the music charts in the world, and won a grammy for the Song of the Year? Essentially the song says what Jesus and Paul were saying. Although life gets us down and we have problems we should stop worrying and try to be happy. Because when we worry our worries become double and, by trying to be happy we put ourselves into a positive state of mind. This doesn’t mean that we should go through life not dealing with our problems, but we should approach our problems with a positive outlook, not a negative one.
Future stress is our worry of how our past and present is going to influence our future. Our past does creep up on us and sometimes we are looking over our shoulders for imaginary problems that might arise from past events. But I think the more stressful worry is thinking about those false expectations that appear real. We can get so caught up in thinking about all the ways we can fail in the future, all the ways that things can go wrong, that we just worry ourselves into inaction and/or ulcers.
Also, on top of all the baggage from our past, our stresses of the present, and our worries about the future, is the knowledge that no matter how much we plan, that life is chaotic and often uncontrollable. That’s a lot to carry, and it weighs us down and can make us crazy if we let it. So, how do we keep ourselves from going crazy? How do we let go of the past baggage and the constant worry and uncertainties that plague our lives? How do we lighten our load and lay down some of those burdens by the riverside?
Jesus was trying to get his disciples into a more positive frame of mind, by giving them an assurance: That God was taking care of everything in the universe, so of course God would take care of them too. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. If we take care of being good people who are working on our own connection with God, and we are trying to create and live God’s kingdom on this earth then we will be given what we need.
Now that’s not a magic poof the BMW is going to appear in your driveway. We still have to work for things, and there’s nothing wrong with having goals in your life, but God’s time of fulfillment is not our time of fulfillment. What we need to do is have faith that while we are working that God is working with us.
I was seriously reminded that God is working for me during my spiritual retreat. After talking with my spiritual counselor and doing research I found a book/workbook that intrigued me and seemed to be what I needed. But when I was talking to my grief counselor she recommended another book along the line of thought processing, and I ordered it to check out later. The thought processing book was actually what I needed right now. The other book is fine and I intend to use it. But if you think about it: A spiritual retreat is supposed to help you understand yourself better so that you can connect to God better. And that’s what that book did. If we put out the energy God is going to work with us, in surprising ways.
But we’ve got to get specific with our requests and we’ve got to be open minded to accept the way our problems are going to be solved. There is nothing wrong with asking God to help you get college applications together, clean out your garage, or help you straighten out a sticky financial situation. There is nothing wrong with asking God to help you try to put something in your past to rest. There is wrong with asking God to help you to keep thinking positive and to help you avoid the stinking-thinking of negativity and future failure.
Faith is not always easy to hold onto We can lose it. And when we do lose it, it is very hard for us to take Paul’s advice and Rejoice always, I say rejoice. But Paul reassures us, like Jesus did that: The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Have faith that God is near. Have faith that you can ask God to help you out. Trust that you can be thankful, even in times of difficulty, and that will keep up your spirits and see you through the storm. And believe that God wants you to connect with him in prayer and thanksgiving. And when we connect with God and remember our blessings we will find strength.
Have faith. You are of more value to God than you know. His eye is on the sparrow, and he watches over all of us.
Unpacking Unforgiveness
August 23, 2026 13th Sunday of Pentecost
Colossians 3:12-15 Luke 6:27-37
Today’s message from Luke is one of the hardest lessons of Jesus to follow. How are we supposed to love our enemies? How are we supposed to forgive them? Feeding the hungry, tending the sick, and basically helping people get through life is sometimes frustrating and often rewarding, but loving and forgiving enemies is just plain difficult. And often it’s something that we don’t want to do. So how do we get to the point of loving and forgiving the enemies in our lives?
The dictionary definition of an enemy reads: A person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something. A thing that harms or weakens someone or something.
In other words: An enemy is someone who threatens, or harms, our wellbeing, and the wellbeing of those we love.
So, I started to think about who or what threatens me. I came up with a few ideas, but I had to ask myself: Are many of those people or situations a real threat, or are they a threat that I think might happen? And this made me think: Perhaps we often classify people (or some things or situations) as enemies when they’re really not. It’s quite possible that we create enemies in our lives that aren’t enemies at all.
Lately I’ve been reading about the history of immigration in this country. Did you know that in the late 1700’s there was a smear campaign against Germanic people immigrating to America? The stated reason was that, although they were mostly protestant, they didn’t speak English and their cultural customs were very different from people of English descent. (They ate things like sauerkraut, and bratwurst.) Since they didn’t speak English, so they were obviously not going to be able to assimilate with the American population. A few years later the Irish were vilified because many of them who were coming to this country were Catholic, and it was believed that they were going to take their orders from the Pope, not from our government. This argument was trotted out with the Italians a generation later. And a generation later the Chinese and Japanese had to be restricted because they were going to corrupt our young children by exposing them and converting them to Buddhism. Plus, their languages were so different from European languages that they could never assimilate.
You probably noticed that there was a theme going here. Each of these smear campaigns – and some of them were very vicious – presented the other culture as the enemy to our way of life.
This got me thinking about the political climate of Jesus’ day. Jewish people were living as a cultural island surrounded and occupied by a Greco-Roman culture that threatened their way of life. To help keep their culture pure, every neighbor who was Greek or Roman was portrayed as an enemy – someone who was going to bring harm to them.
Now if you think that someone is going to bring harm to you, you’re not going to trust them, and you’re always on the defensive with them. Which is why people would freak out when Jesus would willingly interact with Greek philosophers, or Samaritans, or Roman Centurions, or Siro-Phonecian woman. They were classified as the enemy, and you do not talk to an enemy because you can’t trust them.
Jesus preached a doctrine of love, but I’m sure that most of his followers thought that loving your neighbor only applied to the Jewish family who lived next door to you. But remember the story of the Good Samaritan who helped a Jewish traveler when a priest and Levite wouldn’t? That story was a challenge for people to think of Samaritans as someone who was human, who wasn’t the enemy or untrustworthy. Jesus was trying to get his followers to think about loving other people outside of their cultural sphere: Greeks, Romans, Samaritans, and Siro-Phoenicians.
What happens when you love, or even like someone? You are willing to talk with them; find out who they are; and view them as a human being who you can relate to, not someone that you have to make sure you have a weapon on hand with because you don’t trust them.
By removing someone as an enemy in our mind, we can start to see them as a human being and not as a symbol of something to be feared. That doesn’t necessarily mean that a person, or group immediately becomes your bosom-buddy. It just means that you can start to get to know them a little without all the baggage of prejudice that we carry with the enemy classification.
What group of people do you carry around in your mind, who you might classify as an enemy? People from certain countries; immigrants; circus performers? What do you fear about them? And is that fear real? Often our fears are just false expectations that appear real. And those fears are understandable. The Jewish people of Jesus’ time really thought that all those foreigners were going to wipe out their culture and religion. They carried that fear and it made enemies of individuals who weren’t their enemies, but who were part of the “enemy” group.
But of course, there is another type of enemy who is closer to home – the person who actually threatens you or causes you harm. How do we start loving someone who has harmed us and how to do we start to forgive them? And why should we!!! They harmed us, we should be allowed to hate them, or even to hurt them back.
Two years ago at Mine Kill, I did a children’s sermon where I took a backpack and I asked the kids to imagine hateful thing that people did to each other. For small angry things we put small stones in the pack and for large angry things we put in bigger rocks. Eventually the backpack got to be really heavy and hard to walk with. Anger and hate weigh us down and make it harder to move through life. It takes away our focus on good things and keeps us in the negative.
One way to let go of anger and hate is by forgiving those who have hurt you. I know that’s hard but one way to start is to forgive your enemies that are way back in your past and then to move forward. Start with the kid who stole your snack money in first grade. Then the one who broke your bike when you were twelve. How about the kid who ruined your homework in junior high, or the person who dumped you in high school. The colleague who was just mean to you and everyone else at your first job.
Are they now your enemy? And why did they behave that way? Could something have been happening in their lives that made them act that way? When Jesus says to love our enemies, he’s challenging us to see them as humans, not as monsters who are going to attack us.
If you start to see that enemy from the first grade as a human with problems, then the hate and anger might not matter anymore. Why are you holding onto it? Go ahead and forgive them. Take that stone out of the backpack and let yourself feel a little lighter. And then try and forgive the next person on your list. I agree that it will be harder to forgive the closer you get to the present, but maybe you’ll be surprised. Forgiveness is like any other action – the more you practice it the better you get at it.
Unpack your hate and anger with forgiveness. Take it out of your backpack, put it on the ground and leave it there. Jesus tells us that when we forgive that our reward will be great, that we will become his children and become more like Him. And that’s a good thing to work towards, don’t you think?
Hymn Sing Explanations
August 16, 2026 Psalm 98
I was on vacation so my churches had hymns sings. These are brief summaries that were read about each of the hymns chosen.
HYMN UMH 145 Marning Has Broken
Morning has Broken was first published in 1931. The words are by English author Eleanor Farjeon who was inspired when she viewed the village of Alfriston in east Sussex at sunrise. She wanted to write a hymn that could be sung every day, and she wanted it to be set to a simple tune so that everyone could sing it. She chose a traditional Scottish-Gaelic tune called Bunessan, which people already knew because of a popular Christmas Carol called The Child in the Manger.
In 1971 English pop musician and folk singer Cat Stevens recorded it for his album Teaser and the Fire Cat. When Cat Stevens originally sang the song it was so short that his producer said it couldn't go on the album unless it was closer to 3 minutes. So, Cat Stevens created the version that we hear today on the radio. It reached number six on the US billboard charts and number 4 in Canada.
HYMN UMH 314 In the Garden
In the Garden is a gospel song written in 1912, in America, by C Austin Miles. Miles was a former pharmacist who served as editor and manager at a publishing house. It was written for the Lent-Easter season and reflects on Mary Magdalene's witness at the resurrection of Jesus at the garden tomb; humanity’s communion with God in the Garden of Eden; as well as the arrest of Jesus when he prayed beneath the trees in Gethsemane. Ironically, according to Miles’ great-granddaughter, the song was written in a cold and leaking basement in Pitman, New Jersey, that didn’t even have a window in it, let alone a view of the garden. It quickly became a very popular hymn especially among the traveling evangelism circuit. Many famous artists have sung this song such as Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Rogers, and Rosemary Clooney. People seem to connect to this song because it talks about a private time that they have with Jesus.
HYMN UMH 374 Precious Lord, Take My Hand
The words to Precious Lord, Take my Hand were written in 1932 by Thomas A. Dorsey, an African-American blues musician. The words are in response to Dorsey losing both his wife and son in childbirth. Dorsey set the words to the tune Maitland which people knew from an older hymn, but he gave a blues feel to it.
Dorsey’s father was a minister and his mother a musician, so he grew up with church music. When he was eight his family moved to Atlanta, but the move was difficult, and he ended up dropping out of school at age 12. He was fascinated with vaudeville and wanted to be musician, so he worked at the theaters and taught himself how to play the piano and other instruments, and to read music. Eventually he became a paid musician and, in 1919, he moved to Chicago, became immersed in the Jazz-Blues scene, and began to compose and play songs for nightclubs. He had a religious conversion and started to compose church music in the blues style, seeking to convey the emotions of religious experiences.
His music slowly began to catch on, although there was controversy because the older generation wanted to stick to traditional music. But the younger generation found his music to be expressive and exhilarating. Gradually his “gospel music” became accepted and now, with over 1,000 religious songs to his name, Dorsey is considered to be the father of gospel music. The historian Horace Boyer has said, “Dorsey was skilled at writing songs that not only captured the hopes, fears, and aspirations of the poor and disenfranchised African Americans, but also spoke to all people.”
Precious Lord has been sung at the funerals of Martin Luther King Jr. and many other noted activists. It has been translated into 50 languages. It’s included in the list of the essential songs of the 20th century by the National Endowment of the Arts, and in 2026 was listed as one of the 250 essential songs of America over its 250 years.
HYMN UMH 369 Blessed Assurance
Blessed Assurance was written in 1873 by two women of faith, Fanny Crosby and Phoebe Knapp. Fanny was visiting her friend Pheobe at the Knapp home and Pheobe played a new melody that she had just composed. When she was done, she asked Fanny, “What do you think the tune says? Fanny replied, “Blessed Assurance; Jesus is mine.”
Fanny Crosby was a prolific author and hymn writer. During her life it’s believed that she published 8,000 hymns. Back then the publishers of hymn books only liked to include one or two hymns from a person, so she invented 200 pen names so that she could have more hymns included in a book. She also published four books of poetry. The amazing thing about this was that she was blind from about six weeks old when she developed an infection that inflamed her eyes.
Pheobe Knapp was the Sunday School superintendent for the 200 children in her church. She wrote the curriculum and collaborated with Fanny on simple children’s songs to help the students remember their Bible lessons. She wrote over 500 tunes for her church and Sunday school hymns. Both women were members of the John Street Methodist church in New York City, although Fanny didn’t attend regularly because she and her husband moved a lot for his work.
Fanny Crosby said that the song reflected her walk of faith as expressed by the apostle Paul in Philippians 1:21: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
HYMN UMH 451 Be Thou My Vision
Be Thou My Vision is one of the oldest hymns in our hymnal. It was originally an Irish hymn dating from around the 10th century, and it is still sung in old Gaelic in Ireland today. The original hymn has about seven verses. These were translated from Old Gaelic into English in 1905. Then in 1912, another more modern translation was made with only five verses. The original five were used in Methodist hymnals in the early 20th century but were then shortened to three in later publications. Today we only sing the 1st, 2nd and 5th verses. (But you can look up the other verses on-line.)
The music we used for the hymn is also an old Gaelic tune. No one knows how old it is and it’s a good bet that it’s probably derived from the original tune. The tune is called Slade because that is the town nearest to where the hymn is believed to originate.
The lyrics follow the structure of an Irish prayer of protection called an Iorica. In the verses we don’t sing, the symbolism talks about God protecting us with His sword and shield. Military symbolism was common in the Middle Ages because of clan warfare. Also, God as the High Chieftain or High King is traditional in Irish medieval poetry, casting God as a heroic protector. So, when we sing this song, we are singing a song that monks and laity sang 1,000 years ago.