Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise

Dear Church Family

   Here we are on March 24 and continue to hear from our State leadership that we need to practice social distancing and more stores and places of gathering are being closed to help keep us safe and well. I pray you are doing those things so that others will not make you sick, or you make others sick, by passing this along without even knowing it. It is hard to quarantine ourselves, but in this time of the pandemic we need to do so.

   I thought I would share some hymns that offer comfort at a time like this with a meditation on one a day. I hope this will give you some encouragement as we await the day of freedom to move about as we wish. I also ask for your prayers of patience for me. I’m trying to research and learn about as many ways to connect with you using modern technology as I can. It’s a tough learning curve, but I want to be able to encourage you and connect with you anyway I can. I still can’t be two places at once, but with Zoom and Facebook I might be able to reach out to many of you to encourage and bless you. Thank you for your support.

  Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

2 Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

3 Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render; O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!      UMH # 103

Smith, Walter Chalmer, D.D., was born at Aberdeen Dec. 5, 1824, and educated at the Grammar School and University of that City. He pursued his Theological studies at Edinburgh, and was ordained Pastor of the Scottish Church in Chad well Street, Islington, London, Dec. 25, 1850. After holding several pastorates he became, in 1876, Minister of the Free High Church, Edinburgh.

   May you know that God provides the clouds, which become fountains of goodness and love. In these cloudy days, May God’s Holy Spirit, and the support of the prayers of your church family help you to remember “He rulest in might”

   God’s peace be with you all.  

Pastor Jeff

Wisdom for other places

Dear Church Family

Seth Godin’s blog for today is very relevant. For those who don’t know him, he is a business guru with many published books, many with crazy titles. The Dip, Purple Cow, Poke the Box, We Are All Weird, Leap First: Creating Work That Matters. One of the most sought after Business thinkers out there.

Here is Today’s Blog:  Day Trading Emotions

“When the stock market is on an upward tear, day trading becomes popular. You sit in your basement, surrounded by terminals and tickers, searching for the latest bits of information, hoping to make a profit buying and selling based on what’s happening in this very instant.
It’s pretty tempting to day trade your emotions.
We’ve piped the voices of a billion people directly into our brains. The loudest, angriest, most frightened people are the ones that are amplified the most.
Everyone sharing what’s breaking. The visceral angst of this very moment, over and over.
Just as it’s almost impossible to make a profit as a day trader, it’s difficult to be happy when you day trade emotions. But there’s an alternative:
Buy and hold.
Stand for something.
Stick with it.
Long-term contributions matter. Today ends tonight and tomorrow starts again, but we only get one long-term life.
Add up the sum of our days and that’s who we are. We get what we repeat.”
So I’m encouraging you to do what he says. We will survive if we remember we are God’s Creation, all God’s children. We will find stability in prayer. We will find strength in remembering our blessings. We will remember that God says to us just before each challenge, “Fear Not” or “Do Not Be Afraid.”  The idea is that God is with us, God knows exactly what we are going through and offers us the help we need through this pandemic. It’s often out of Chaos, that creativity comes. Read Genesis 1 again. Out of trauma, comes new appreciation for what we do have.
It’s my prayer that we see this is what is needed for today and each day we wrestle with social distancing. We will zoom the worship tomorrow. Check your flash email. Check the Facebook pages and there are a couple of them for NBUMC or North Bethesda UMC. Read my blog, WWPJB.blogspot.com for a new word for the day.   Pastor Jeff

St Patrick & Blessings

Hello Church Family

   Here it is St. Patrick’s Day, and we are mostly home, rather than out celebrating with something Irish or green. St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal and I’m glad so many remember it, but probably not for the reasons they should. It’s about St. Patrick, one of the greatest missionaries the world has ever known. But we don’t hear about that much today. So let me share some ideas.

   As I said on Sunday for our Children’s Brown Bag time, Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave to landowners in Ireland. He rediscovered his dormant faith while out minding the sheep. So he began to pray, he worked at remembering the things he had been taught by his parents back in England, who had been active in their faith. He was a typical teenager and wasn’t too interested in that at the time. But for most of us, being around the faith, can seep in and help us in times of trouble and this is one of those times. With time on his hands, he began to pray, and according to his confessions and records, he found he prayed a lot, both day and night. He discovered how close God was to him in those times.

   Patrick was able to discover the beauty and creativity of God in all of nature around him. He saw God at work in all of this and began to be joyful for seeing God be such a provider. When he returned to Ireland to share the good news of Jesus, he already knew the area, the language and the outlook of the Irish. He was able to translate Jesus and God the creator into their whole world. We really need the awareness of the presence of God now. God is everywhere, and we should learn to see how awesome the whole creation and the gifts God gives to us more dramatically.

   So for our thought for the day, look around you and count your blessings. Go back over your life, try reviewing your life and see what God did in the different decades of your life and give thanks to God for that. I’ll talk more about the influence of St. Patrick on our world tomorrow. But for right now, give thanks.

   Take a few moments and tell God you are grateful for all of this. Creation itself demonstrates the creative power. Look up Psalm 8 and read it through several times and you will see what I mean.

   May the peace of God bless you. Christ

“Sleep, O sleep in the calm of all calm, Sleep, O Sleep in the guidance of guidance, Sleep O sleep in the love of all loves; Sleep O beloved, in the Lord of life, Sleep O Beloved, in the God of life!”  Irish Prayer.

Pastor Jeff

Another food for thought during Coronavirus Challenge

Dear Church Family

   Today March 16 is another day of growing concern for how we are handling the coronavirus among us. Gatherings of 50 or maybe 10 according to the CDC, is limiting our getting together physically. But thanks be to God, we have an unseen cloud of witnesses reaching out and praying for us in times like these. St. Paul talked about running a spiritual life in a stadium full of supporters, rooters, and prayer warriors. Even though we can’t go to our own local stadium, the image of being surrounded by the love of God is a very good one. Think upon these things.

   I dreamed last night of the story in 2 Kings 6, beginning with verse 15, Elisha was being hounded by the king to get rid of him. His village was surrounded by chariots and soldiers ready to capture Elisha. His servant was petrified when he saw the village was surrounded. But Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened to discover that there are more of us than there are of them. The hills were crowded with more angels of the Lord, than the soldiers in the field. We need an attitude like Elisha’s, God is with us and there is more of God than there are of fears and worries and the challenges we are facing. Time will come when we will see what God has done.

   We had a funeral for one of our long-time members turn into a private family graveside service only because of all of this. We hope to have service for them later. So we are being influenced some by these events. Keep praying for one another.

   I promised I would share resources for your spiritual journey of Lent while we are absent one from another. Here is a good one, I’ve known about this for over 20 years, a great source of inspiration.

   As someone who has supported online ministry in the past through Heartlight.org and VerseoftheDay.com, we wanted you to know about a resource we have put together for families, friends, and individuals to have worship at home during this time of social distancing.

This new resource is called ToGather. You can find this Sunday's worship segment online now online: ToGather March 15, 2020. All you need is laptop, tablet, or phone, and some bread and fruit-of-the-vine (wine or grapejuice), and we supply the devotional thought, communion meditation, songs, and closing blessing.

   So if you get a chance, here might be something to think and pray about.

   As always, send me your prayer requests and I will lift you and yours, in my prayer time. Blessings to each of you.

I’ll share some tomorrow, on St. Patrick’s Day, a great spiritual feast day to be sure.

Pastor Jeff

Inspiration during Coronavirus Challenges

Dear Church Family

   We could use a dose of the healing touch of Jesus right now. For some it is to be over the Covid-19 physically. Thanks be to God some of our neighbors in Montgomery County are recovering. For some the healing touch needs to be for our grief and loss related to our pattern of living, missing church, not being able to enjoy sports, keeping our distance from friends and loved ones to be appropriately apart socially. For some the healing touch needs to be for our spiritual connection to God. It seems so much has been lost and the end is not in sight. We need lots of prayers. More reason to join our adventure through the Story, we begin the ministry of Jesus and move through the rest of the New Testament, starting tomorrow.

   There are many resources to help us during a time like this. Prayer at any level or style as a conversation with God is appropriate. There are countless resources on the internet and during this self -quarantine I’ll share some resources in the days ahead. Sometimes good can come out of this overwhelming challenge. We can begin to recognize how important community is, and when this too has passed, we can reconnect with greater appreciation.  It might remind us that we may recognize that we have gotten a little selfish, now when our lives are rearranged like this. This might renew our Lenten commitment and walk with Jesus, to be more Christlike and considerate moving forward.

   We are also going to have to recover our sense of gratitude for the little things and learn also to be more flexible than we have. Most of us don’t like change, unless we chose it for ourselves. We are going to try some modern technology on Sunday, using Zoom, an online collection of people for our worship. There will be bugs to fix, and you will have to forgive us for the struggle. It may mean we work harder to go livestream or podcast or other forms that we weren’t quite ready for, since this emergency came up so quickly.

   We invite you to join us and connect spiritually. The Holy Spirit can link us together far better than we can link ourselves. The Holy Spirit can interpret our groans to deliver the message to God, and from God to us. Hang in there.

   Now may the peace of God that passes all understanding, be with you over these next few weeks. If you have any prayer requests, or questions, don’t hesitate to email me with them. macpastor@gmail.com. If I get email prayer requests before 8 am on Sunday 3/15 we can pray for your during our online time of prayer.

   May God bless you with a sense of healing and encouragement during these most interesting times. God’s love can be like the Good Shepherd. It is well with my soul, and hopefully with yours.

Blessings, 

Pastor Jeff

Prayer of St. Francis Sermon Series #4

   This is the fourth installment of our summer series on the prayer in the spirit of St. Francis. I felt that with all the news reports, and the struggles we were having with heat and other issues, a need arose for a giving of a new source of peace. This prayer was first developed in a congregation in France in the aftermath of World War 1. It was shared in a church newsletter. It quickly became such a blessing it was shared everywhere. Like going Viral before Viral was a thing. So in the spirit and in the wisdom and life experience of St. Francis, we are working on being the instruments of peace for our world now.

   The goal of our claiming the potential for instruments of peace is for us to gain the ability to put joy and light into our world where there is so much sadness and darkness. I'll bet you know people or even yourself, who has had moments of sadness or darkness, that could surely appreciate the peace. I would even guess that it would not take long for your to remember your darkness moments or your sadness times. It would have come with the loss of a loved one, or the bad news from a doctor about tests you've taken. Maybe it was a dream that you had, that did not pan out the way you wanted.

   Our sadness and darkness can come and go, often triggered by an event that reminds us of our own struggle or pain.

   In reading a number of books on the Prayer of St. Francis, I've learned that Sadness has two components and both can lead to a deep desire for God's Peace.

   The first sadness is a worldly sadness - a sense created by looking around you and realizing you don't have the things that make for happiness, according to the Advertising industry. You feel sad because you know you don't have a lot of what is being proclaimed as a source of happiness. I can't watch any TV at all without being inundated by what I don't have. It's about the right car, or the right clothes or the right place to live, or the right windows or the right vitamins. They now have supplements for everything, even supplements for what I can't mention in the message.

   The sadness is created by the world around us trying to convince us that the offer for worldly things is even more important that a basic life experience. It goes against what our faith has been trying to do to share the message of simplicity and generosity so we can bless others, because we don't owe our souls to the company store.

   The second sadness is more a godly sadness, and is more often felt among God's people. The sadness is created because we can see how far off the world has become from what God had planned for our planet. The godly sadness is related to issues of poverty and hunger, especially as we see how difficult life is in the rest of the world. The godly sadness is related to people who treat other people so badly. Some who could do better, put people in fear for their lives because others are being stirred up to hate. Godly sadness knows that we should love all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, love the little children of the world.

   For those who attend church regularly we know the godly sadness because we know a lot more about what the Kingdom of God looks like, or could be. We know that the world we live in is far from the place where the earth is protected, where people have their basic needs met, where there is respect, and recognition and reconciliation and welcome for all of God's children. The godly sadness is felt because our theology teaches us that Jesus came to bring healing and wholeness and peace to our world, and that us that we should be different from the world. "You have heard it said,... but I tell you" You can see the whole idea is in the sermon on the mount. Read it and see if it is truly applied to the life we have here and now.

   To move toward instruments of peace, we have to deal Distraction and find a way to move away from that. We have to develop Determination we want to be Instruments and creators of peace. Finally we will need Development of our abilities to bring light and joy into the darkness and sadness. We must learn to recognize and resist those distractions, we need determination to change our direction and focus so we can be good instruments of peace. The commitment to development of a Christ like spirit will make it easier for the Peace of God which Passes all Understanding, to flow through us to the world that so desperately needs peace. Now more than ever.

   Part of our distraction comes from thinking and confusing, happiness with joy. Happiness is fleeting and often connected to possessions. We are surrounded by that influence, it's no wonder this distraction is hard to counter. Sometimes, like medical prevention, when you recognize where the illness is coming from, you can take measures to fight it off. So be aware of your distractions.

   Determination is a desire to make life better for ourselves and others, better in the way we imitate Jesus in our daily lives. For St. Francis, the moment of determination to live differently came on his way home from his imprisonment as a soldier when he was trying to be a hero. His father waited a year to pay his ransom for his release. Returning home to Assisi riding on a horse and contemplating his spiritual influence while in prison, he saw a leper begging outside the wall of his city. His first and trained response was to look the other way. But this time something happened and he was determined that he would reflect Christ at this moment. He dismounted, walked over to the leper offered him some help and before leaving the leper, he bent over and kissed the leper's hand. He felt the spirit of Jesus in him at that moment. He became determined at that point that he wanted to do something more for them, going forward. Legend has it that when he turned around to see the leper again, he was gone. But St. Francis felt the spirit of Jesus powerfully in him at that moment. From then on the would do great things for the lepers of his world.

   Development of a Christ like spirit will take some work on our part. We need to decide to know Jesus more deeply, to be able to reflect his actions. We need to chose to learn as much as we can of God's ways to be light and joy in our world. The world we know will spot phoniness in a short order. We need prayer time for listening to God open our eyes and our minds to that ability to give light and joy.

   Developing a Christ like spirit is like deciding to play an instrument. It takes practice, practice, practice. As any of our talented musicians here among us will tell you, you don't just pick up an instrument and play. You really have to spend hours and hours at it. Instruments of peace involve a lot of work.

   When I was a pastor just starting out from seminary, our ecumenical fellowship in Manchester would sponsor every summer a two week in-depth experience to teach peace to teenagers from Ireland. Host families would include Protestant and Catholic boys and girls, hoping that the two weeks in America could help shed some peace in the long haul, back in Ireland.

   This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first graduating class of Africa University in Zimbabwe, a project of the United Methodist Church to teach all the nations and tribes of Africa a way to find peace in their education. A way to solve problems and end darkness and sadness. The hope and dream was that eventually the leaders of one nation would realize that the leaders of the other nations had gone to Africa University and that maybe they could work together for peace.

   My father Ken Jones, was one of the first Volunteers in Mission, to work at converting chicken coops on the donated farm, so that class rooms could be created. That was in 1992. In 1997, I went with him and we took several members of our church to work on putting on the roofs of faculty houses. This is a lot like the project this congregation supports with AHEAD. building medical facilities in Africa. Africa University is one of our own Baltimore Washington Conference connections.

   If we wish to be instruments of peace, bringing joy where there is sadness and light where there is darkness, we need to develop our Christ like spirit, and bring joy into our world. We need to develop our ability to love, even those we don't find so lovable, to bring peace and turn darkness into light. Jesus in the scripture read this morning, John 15:9-17, reminds us that we can have his joy, and we can make a difference by loving God, loving Jesus, loving the teachings and commands of Jesus, so that Joy might be complete. Wow, what a great opportunity this can be. Over come those distractions, Determine to focus in a new direction, and develop the love of Christ to share with others.

   Our working together on the Story this year will give us an overview of God's love and equip us to be instruments of peace. Stay tuned for more information on The Story, beginning this fall on Septeamber 8.

Be an instrument of peace

Blessings

Pastor Jeff

Instrument of Peace sermon series # 3

   Remember how it felt to have doubts or be in despair? Maybe it was more like being uncertain about an outcome or endeavor you were working hard on or for a long time? It might have been a loss of strength or energy or motivation for the project, or a loss of relationship or new opportunity at work? The despair could come from the death of a loved one, or a broken relationship or divorce. Even faithful people have experienced what some call the Dark Night of the Soul.

   Our world seems to turn to the negative quickly as well. You may feel a Woe Is Me, and the response around you is pilling on, you think you have a woe, you should see my woe. If you think you have  trouble, you ain't seen nothing yet, see my trouble. We can be competitive in our successes and in our difficulties. It's human nature.

   Even in the sports world, that is supposed to help take our minds off of our doubts and despair, there is doubt and despair. Just a month ago, the press seemed to be ganging  up on the Washington Nationals manager because they were playing so poorly, ready to dump him, ready to criticize his decisions and the one who decided he should be the manager. Well what a difference a month can make. They are playing very well and are the hottest team in the National league. There are some examples of doubt and despair turning around.

   It's easy to jump on the band wagon of despair and doubt. Mob Mentality is very much a real thing. Even reasonable people who have great responsibilities can get swept up in negative thoughts. "Send her back" can make many people move into even more doubt and despair.

   Having faith does not excuse us from this struggle with the dark night of the soul, and St. Francis is no exception. He was in a dark period for almost two years before he was able to break free of the struggle and turn doubt into faith and despair into hope. His dark period was because he was afraid that his success and influence on his faith would dissolve after he was gone. He was afraid that the impoverished people he was relating too would be forgotten as his movement increased in influence. 

   John Wesley had the same fear that the movement to transform people would lose it's momentum and become like a monument to religious zeal, rather then continue to bless others with new found faith and discipleship. He said he was worried the people called Methodists would lose their vitality and have the form of religion without the power.

   God understands our despair and doubt and as we celebrate Christmas in July and sing carols and read scripture, it is to remind us of what the Prophet Isaiah said from exile in Babylon 700 years before Jesus came along. "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in pitch-dark land, light has dawned."  Isa 9:2 (CEB).

   Jesus knew our every circumstance, which makes him such a great Savior. His mother's reputation was destroyed when they found she was with child before the marriage. Taxes were imposed and his family had to travel 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the registration and taxation and there was no room for them in the Inn, so Jesus was born in a manger with animals.

   As a young child the King decided to kill all the boys in town, so Joseph and Mary fled with the boy Jesus and they became refugees to Egypt. After Herod's death they went back home. Jesus worked in a carpenter shop, and fulfilled the family obligation of first born, to work until all his siblings were out of the house. So he began his ministry at age 30.

   It went well at first, but as time went on he continued to challenge the way people lived the  faith life in his day. He ended up being betrayed, abused, false accused, condemned to death and crucified. Talk about doubt and despair. Faith and hope came back at the Resurrection.

   Do you remember ever being rescued? Some one came along and helped you to find your way when you were lost? Or someone, a grandchild perhaps, got your phone working again? Do you remember the feeling of the turn around, of renewing your faith? Do you remember a restoring of hope? It usually came by the help from another who was able to turn your despair to hope and your doubt to faith.

   Faith can have two components. One is Faith-trust, accepting who Jesus is as God's Son and a resource for forgiveness and new life. The second is Faith-Belief, where you begin to recognize that what God has to offer you is going to be good. Hope is accepting God's future and provision for your direction and guidance. 

   Jesus said as much in the sermon on the mount, and one of my life shaping passages of scripture, shared by my parents, so often. "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than the birds.

  Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch> ( it was such a shock for me to hear this, because I have tried to be taller for a long time as a teenager.) All this time and money wasted on fashion - do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

   If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You' ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."   (Matt. 6:25-33 Message)

   The secret to turning doubt to faith and despair to hope is in following Jesus's example and seek first what God wants.

   Sister Clare, the leading woman who helped other women follow St. Francis's teachings finally found a way to help Francis out of his doubt. She prepared a feast for him and his brothers to remind him of all that God has provided for him. Like the above passage. Remember the resources of Jesus are available to you. His resurrection shows us that God can overcome every circumstance, including removing the fear associated with death, because there is Resurrection and eternal life.

   Do you remember how good it felt to help someone else? A time you rescued someone, a time you helped another? Did you tutor? or serve a meal, or gather clothes to share with a refugee family? The secret to the Instrument of peace is to SOW again, a small step that turns despair into Hope and doubt to Faith.

   Remember St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, reminds us that Faith and Hope are important, but the greatest of these, is Love.

   I'm reading a book by Alice Connor How to be Human, a book about her ministry with young college students at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. She urges those who are just growing in their faith to "Try It, You'll Like It!" a bold move to do what God shows us to do. Yoda even said this "No Try, Just Do!"

   So as you develop your instrument of peace, do, the sowing of hope and faith. Do reach out to those who are in despair and doubt. Bring rescue and renewal to the very people you know could use the Peace that is proclaimed in this prayer. Get involved in doing good. Correct a wrong. Grow in your faith and understanding, so you will have the right motive and direction to offer faith and hope. The knowledge of God is not to swell your head, but to help swell your heart. "Try It, You'll Like It!"

Pastor Jeff