One day St. Francis of Assisi, invited a young monk to join him on a trip into town to preach. The young monk was so honored to get such an invitation from St. Francis that he quickly accepted. All day long he and St. Francis walked through the streets and byways, alleys and suburbs, and they rubbed shoulders with hundreds of people.

At the end of the day, the two headed back home, however, not even once had St. Francis addressed a crowd, nor had he talked to anyone about the gospel. The young monk was greatly disappointed, and he said to St. Francis, “I thought we were going into town to preach?” St. Francis responded, “My son, we have preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We were seen by many and our behavior was closely watched. It is of no use to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere as we walk!”

It’s no secret that we, the church, have forgotten what it means to preach the gospel, what it means to bring to others the good news, what it means to evangelize. The word evangelism has become a dirty word in some churches, and if it isn’t outright dismissed altogether, then it is relegated as a task for only those who have been ordained, or for those who are the professional speakers, who make a living giving their testimonials and asking for altar calls, or for those who are missionaries overseas.

Evangelism is the calling of everyone here at St. Peter. Going in peace to “love and serve the Lord” means (among other things) that we live a life of peace, joy, love, and acceptance. All of these attributes listed is what everyone is looking for, but many can’t seem to find. We need to find a way to share what we have in abundance, and let people know where they can find it also. When we figure this out, and put it into practice in our daily lives, that is when we truly “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!” Thanks be to God!

As always, I welcome your comments.
Pastor Cory

Christ is Risen, Alleluia! He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia! Jesus quoted the words of the Psalmist: “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner…” (Ps. 118:22) Later Simon Peter would quote these words to the rulers and the elders in testimony concerning the good news of Christ. (Acts 4:11) Later he would cite those words again in his epistles. (I Pet. 2:7)

There was a legend that was well known in New Testament times that in the building of the temple of Solomon most of the stones were of the same size and shape. One stone arrived, however, that was different from the others. The builders took one look at it and said, “This will not do,” and sent it rolling down into the valley of Kedron below. The years passed and the great temple was nearing completion, and the builders sent a message to the stonecutters to send the chief cornerstone that the structure might be complete. The cutters replied that they had sent the stone years before. Then someone remembered the stone that was different than all the rest that somehow did not seem to belong. They realized that they had thrown away the cornerstone. They hurried into the valley to retrieve it. Finally, under vines and debris they recovered it and with great effort rolled it up the hill and put it in place so that the great temple would be complete. The stone that had been rejected
had become the chief cornerstone. Jesus, who had been rejected now reigns at the right hand of the Father. From rejection to rejoicing. Christ is Risen!

As always, I welcome your response,

Pastor Cory

In my devotions this morning, I was reading for the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus sent his disciples, giving them “authority over unclean spirits.” He instructed them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick. No food, no money, not even a change of clothes.

Jesus’ mandate to his disciples is to travel lightly and keep moving. Nowhere do we see him sitting down with the twelve and a map, or a snakebite kit, or a store of provisions, or a feasibility study, or a specific set of “goals,” “strategies” and “objectives.” Jesus gives the disciples (at times as confused and uncomprehending a lot as ever there has been) only what they need most: a mission and the authority to carry it out. All he recommends they take in addition to this is a walking stick a personal goad to keep them moving when the terrain gets rough or when they get weary.

Today the church would never dream of starting on such a significant journey without what we now envision as “adequate provisions.” Yet for all our carefully considered plans, it is doubtful that we are ever as prepared as either David (who we have been studying in our Tuesday bible study group), or the disciples for what the future may offer. David was prepared through his willingness to sit before the Lord in prayer. The disciples were prepared through their certainty that they went out with the matchless authority of Jesus.

Does the church have confidence in that authority or in that power of humble prayers? Does the church, in fact, even remember that it is called to embody a mission, not just live out a survival plan?

How are we doing? I just filled out a questionnaire sent by our conference’s Justice and Mission Team, asking about our commitment to Jesus’ mission mandate, and what resources they could provide for us to get us moving.

While we are doing many things to reach out to the community (and I’m very grateful for this church’s response to the needs of our neighbors), there is still much more to do.

I will be in contact with the Justice and Mission Team soon to see how we can keep our momentum going. I hope you all will come with me.

As always, I welcome your comments,

Pastor Cory

Many of you have seen this before. I used this in both the Tuesday and Thursday bible study, in my Tuesday morning devotion, and in our Saturday afternoon worship. I was excited to see this survey and think these twelve quality factors in the life of a congregation are good for us to evaluate based on our gifts, talents, and passions. How are we doing?

A survey of hundreds of pastors reveals the measurable quality factors in the life of a congregation in ranking order. The twelve factors are:

12. Social justice. Either through the congregation as a whole or through specialized Christian agencies, members are striving to make changes in sociopolitical structures that will contribute to a
more moral and just society.

11. Social service. Members are serving others outside the congregation. This includes direct personal involvement with the poor and needy, or in programs designed to help the needy.

10. Attitude toward religion. Church members regard their involvement in the church primarily as a service to God rather than a means to fulfill personal needs.

9. Distinctive life-style. Members generally manifest their faith in Christ by living a life-style clearly and noticeable distinct from that of non-Christians in the same community.

8. Fellowship. Members are growing in their personal relationships with each other through regular participation in church fellowship groups of one kind or another.

7. Giving. Members give an appropriate portion of their income to the local church and/or to other Christian causes.

6. Missions. The church actively supports missions, organizing and sustaining a strong program for recruiting, sending, and financing home and foreign missionaries.

5. Lay ministry. The lay people of the church are engaged in such ministries as teaching and discipling. In some cases this happens through consciously discovering, developing, and using their spiritual gifts.

4. Witnessing. Members regularly attempt to share their faith in Jesus Christ with unbelievers.

3. Worship. Members regularly participate in the worship services scheduled by the church.

2. Personal devotions. Members spend time daily in prayer, Bible reading, meditation, and other personal spiritual exercises.

1. Bible knowledge. Church members are increasing in their grasp of the teachings of the Bible. They can integrate this with a theological system that enables them to apply the Bible’s teachings
to their life situation.

I believe we do well in many of these quality factors. Concerning a few of these, we do very little. In all of these, we can improve. I will remind you of this survey all year long. It will be my focus to help you discern your spiritual gifts and how they may be used for the kingdom. I hope all of you are up for this. Let’s make 2025 the year we strive to be the best church, and the best children of God we can be.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Pastor Cory

For years folks have complained about that “XMAS” abbreviation. They shout, “Keep Christ in Christmas,” decrying the commercialization of the whole season as much as the use of “X.” Half of the complaint is valid. No one would deny that the season has been taken over by the wizards of mass marketing in their quest to be the “first-est with the most-est.” Most of us remember the not-too-distant past when Christmas advertising began on the day after Thanksgiving. Now we get it in late September. I am told that buyers for the major retail chains begin their search for Christmas merchandise in February and March. There is no question as to the over-commercialization of Christmas.

As to the other part of the complaint…the X…there is less validity. To the English-speaking world, X is simply the twenty-fourth letter of the alphabet. But to the Greeks, the ones in whose language the New Testament was written, those diagonally-crossed lines are the letter “Chi,” the first letter in the name “Christos,” which in Greek means Messiah. Through the years it has been an acceptable abbreviation for Christ. The early Church used it as an abbreviation for Jesus. If you look at the lecture notes I took years ago in seminary, you will see it all over the place. Perhaps next time you tell someone Merry Christmas you could wish them Happy Chi-mas.

To backtrack a moment, I am less than accurate when I say that “X” to us is only a letter of the alphabet. Any math student would happily correct me. In algebra, it represents an unknown: 2+3=X, 3×3=X. But in Christianity X represents someone you do know.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Pastor Cory

Luke 21:25-36

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

This is the Word of the Lord! Thanks be to God!

I find it interesting that the first reading in Advent, a season of preparation for the coming of our Lord, warns us of the trials associated with the SECOND coming of our Lord. This reading, and this season is a reminder that, as Christians, we are not supposed to be comfortable.

If you are comfortable in this world, then I encourage you to ignore Advent. Christmas is the holiday for you. Waiting and hoping are just not worthwhile, so jump to the fun stuff. Advent only makes sense if you want something else to hold on to. If you need to believe that as wonderful as the sun, the moon, and the stars may be, when they fall away it will be because a new, brighter, more perfect light has come and we no longer need those things.

Advent is a special time when we anticipate our favorite stories about Jesus’ birth, but if we do it right, it’s also a time when we look at ourselves and our world and decide that we shouldn’t be comfortable. We shouldn’t be comfortable that people are starving a stone’s throw away and that their starvation will last long past the holiday season when people are feeling generous with canned goods. We shouldn’t be comfortable that we stand on the brink of World War III on many fronts.

The alternative is to trust in the kind of king who gets born in a feeding trough, who teaches that people who trust in God should not be concerned about their status or well-being in this world, and who gets strung up on a cross for telling the truth to people who were completely comfortable with the world as they knew it. That’s the Lord, whose birth we celebrate!

As always, I welcome your feedback!

Pastor Cory

As we enter into the holiday months of November and December we are reminded of the many gifts that we have, by the grace of God, to prepare us for the holidays, allow me to share some of Jesus’ words with you. – Matthew 6:25-34

‘Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 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? Therefore, do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

This is the Word of the Lord! Thanks be to God!

It’s a very nice thing to be full of thanks. When you’re full, thanks is easy to say. But what if you hadn’t a turkey to eat on this Thanksgiving Day? What if there were no yams or potatoes, no fixings, cranberries and such. What if there were just barely a little, instead of so all-fired much? Would you then speak your words of thanks to the Father who provided this bountiful earth, and gave us so great a share of it by accident only of birth? There are those in the African deserts and in Asia with little to eat. And in India, where there are millions to whom not being hungry is a welcome treat.

When it comes down to real thanksgiving, remember that part of the word is that very important word, “giving,” not just being full of turkey. There are multitudes here on this planet who today will have nothing to eat, who have only a shack for their shelter, and nothing to wear on their feet. These poor ones of earth are our sisters and brothers, all loved by the Lord. And when we feed them, we feed Jesus. For that we have Jesus’ own word. So, let’s have a real thanks giving and give out of thanks to the One who gave for our use his creation and for our salvation, his Son.

Amen?

One day St. Francis of Assisi, invited a young monk to join him on a trip into town to preach. The young monk was so honored to get such an invitation from St. Francis that he quickly accepted. All day long he and St. Francis walked through the streets and byways, alleys and suburbs, and they rubbed shoulders with
hundreds of people.

At the end of the day, the two headed back home, however, not even once had St. Francis addressed a crowd, nor had he talked to anyone about the gospel. The young monk was greatly disappointed, and he said to St. Francis, “I thought we were going into town to preach?” St. Francis responded, “My son, we have preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We were seen by many and our behavior was closely watched. It is of no use to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere as we walk!”

It’s no secret that we, the church, have forgotten what it means to preach the gospel, what it means to bring to others the good news, what it means to evangelize. The word evangelism has become a dirty word in some churches, and if it isn’t outright dismissed altogether, then it is relegated as a task for only those who have been ordained, or for those who are the professional speakers, who make a living giving their testimonials and asking for altar calls, or for those who are missionaries overseas.

That’s right! I used the “E” word. We freeze in terror when the subject comes up. Many have the mistaken notion of what evangelism really is. One does not have to be an accomplished speaker, an expert in theology, or specially trained to share God’s love. All God asks of us, as the previous story suggests is to love God and love each other.

Let’s get one thing straight. Evangelism isn’t MY job. Oh, it’s not YOUR job either. It’s OUR job!

Let me explain. Our church works best when some member identifies a friend who has needs, loves this person/family enough to suggest that there is help and answers when someone is connected to a faith community, and invites them to check us out.

It could be that their friend/family needs some pastoral care, or needs our community to rise up and use our resources, or both. When we work together to reach out into the community, showing God’s love for everyone, then great things happen.

People are seeing how we have become a community-minded church. We are known as a church that cares, not just in words, but in actions. It is beginning to reap dividends, not just for St. Peter UCC, but for the Kingdom of God!

As always, I welcome your comments.

Pastor Cory

In the last several weeks, our Sunday Gospel passage led us to discuss Jesus as living bread. Finally, last Sunday, Jesus speaks in graphic, flesh and blood language. He also suggested that eating his flesh and drinking his blood was the only way to come to the Father. It is a very difficult teaching; so much so, that many (perhaps most), of His followers left him.

Do you also wish to go away? He asked this question to those followers who remained. I wonder sometimes how I would have responded to the question. Because at times the truth is I do wish to go away. I don’t like thinking this about myself. But in times of temptation, in times when I deceive other people to avoid trouble or get what I want, in times when I deliberately close my eyes to the sight of those who are poor or  marginalized because I don’t want to feel guilty or bother to help. I too am one of the ones who wish to go away.

Do you also wish to go away? Peter’s response is striking. He doesn’t say yes, of course, but he doesn’t quite say no either. Instead, in good Jesus-style, he answers back with another question: To whom else can we go? It is not, perhaps, the most flattering answer in the world, but it is honest. It’s a little reminiscent of Winston Churchill’s famous description of democracy as the worst form of government except for every other form that has ever been tried. Following Jesus may not always be easy or pleasant, or even totally comprehensible, but when it comes to peace, joy, love, and compassion, or when it comes to the eternal-life business, to tell the truth there’s not much out there in the way of alternatives.

As ethicist Lewis Smedes said, “This is where the trolley stops. . . Without Jesus we are stuck with two options: utopian illusion or deadly despair. I scorn illusion. I dread despair. So, I put all my money on Jesus.”

Our Gospel reading for last Sunday was John’s version of Jesus feeding the five-thousand. In this narrative, we see three different responses to Jesus’ question. Jesus sees the large crowd and puts the question to Philip of how the crowds are to be fed, in order to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do” (6:6).

Thinking logically, Philip responds with a plausible retort: “Six months wages won’t pay for the food needed to feed these people.” Philip was a little flummoxed. Not only was there no store or bakery anywhere in sight, and no cell phones to order take-out, but there was no way we could buy enough bread.

Andrew, perhaps with a little more faith, dares to jump into the conversation by the presence of one boy’s lunch, even though he says it’s not much.

Interestingly, Jesus does not rebuke either Philip or Andrew, he simply takes control of the situation, gives instructions to the disciples, distributes the loaves and fish, and then has the disciples pick up the leftovers. Jesus’ answer to these disciples “closed” appraisals (Andrew’s perhaps less closed), is a demonstration of divine power that just blows realism away. The point is that cautious calculations that operate only on the basis of possibility (calculations both revered and depended upon in out world), ignore the One who redefines what is possible.

Finally, we see a young boy, who, perhaps saw an opportunity. He didn’t have much to offer, but he brought and gave everything he had. He saw a chance to help, he offered himself and his gift and we know the rest of the story.

I believe that we were created to respond like the boy. If we receive love, we should give love. If we have financial blessings, we should share from our bounty. Even if we don’t have much, we are blessed, and are called to share our blessings in return.

Our challenge is to bring OUR loaves and OUR fishes no matter how meager or small and put them into the hands of Jesus. Our challenge as children of God and as a church is to always be on the lookout for a CHANCE to help. Then we will see how God could multiply and use whatever we bring.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Pastor Cory