Nov 22

The New Covenant and Thanksgiving

Jeremiah 31:31-33

The prophecy from Jeremiah this week takes us to the Lord’s Supper.  When Jesus said of the cup, “This is the new covenant in my blood.”   When they finished the supper, they sang a hymn.  We often don’t reflect on that, other than singing “Bless Be the Tie” when we finish Communion.  Yet, they sang a specific Psalm, one of the Songs of Ascent, which are Psalms of Thanksgiving sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem and the Temple.

As Jesus heads to the garden and his betrayal, he sang a thanksgiving to his Father.  In our thanksgiving, we don’t ignore the challenges and the trials we are going through, but we do reflect on the presence of our God that has promised “Never to leave you or forsake you.” 

Thanksgiving as a national holiday began in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War.  In his proclamation of Thanksgiving, President Lincoln wrote:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have
been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown
in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us.
We have vainly imagined . . . that all these blessings were produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success,
we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming
and preserving graced, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

Thanksgiving focuses on God and blessings we enjoy from God.  Take this as your focus this week.

Pastor Greg

Nov 14

Send Me?

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the World War II movie Fury, Shia LaBeouf’s character, appropriately nicknamed as “Bible,” because of his penchant for quoting biblical verses, sits at the gunner position of a Sherman tank during the final weeks of World War II.1

As the crew awaits near-certain death from an approaching German battalion, “Bible” quotes to the crew:

“There’s a Bible verse I think about sometimes; many times; it goes, ‘Then I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ (Troubled, LaBeouf’s character pauses and clears his throat). And I said, ‘Here am I; send me.’”

The sermon’s text this week is often called the “Call of Isaiah.”  Isaiah is probably in despair and confusion.  The righteous king has died and the future does not look as good.  But instead of looking at the circumstances, God gives Isaiah a vision of his holiness from the Temple.  Then God asks who will go and speak for God.  Isaiah, with his failures and flaw volunteers to be God’s messenger.

How many times are we are so caught up in our circumstances that we can not look up and see the greatness of our God?  Yes, God wants to use us, to use you.  Even with all our lacking, we are the ones that God wants to fulfill the tasks that need to be done.  The real question is, “Are you a willing volunteer?”

The character from the movie realizes that he and his crew are the ones that are called to face the enemy and keep them from advancing.  Jesus quotes Isaiah 6 in Luke 4:17, and says his task is the call of Isaiah 6.  So, each one of us that follow Christ, must also face the call if Isaiah 6.

Pastor Greg

Nov 08

When God is too Gracious

Jonah 3

This is the third sermon dealing with God’s acceptance of those beyond Israel.  Human conflict is often fueled by a fear of “the other.”  And it was easy for the ancient Israelites to assume that God approved only of them.  Yet, over and over again, God breaks the barriers down that keep God’s love and God’s grace from reaching those that are not, in our opinion, worthy of God’s love. 

Jonah’s experience again is another challenge to God’s intention to send his grace to those beyond the pale of God’s light.  First, he refuses to go, then he gets mad when he is successful, then he has to be taught a lesson by God in the end.  Then we are not told if the prophet changed his mind about God.

Again, our church’s decision to be Open and Affirming is a difficult position.  Not because it conflicts with the gospel (which it doesn’t), but because we must be continually searching our heart to root out any prejudices against someone different from us.  This is the hardest position for us to live up with: because it requires us to continually to be humble.  Humility is a character of Christ that we are invited to also take upon ourselves.  Matthew 11:28-30:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Pastor Greg

Oct 31

Jesus Shows God Does Not Fit in a Box

“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.  [Luke 4:25-26 (NLT)]

Last Sunday’s sermon was noticing how God breaks out of any boundary we try to impose on him.  Solomon said that the Temple in Jerusalem was a place for those outside of Israel.  This week’s story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:1-16) shows God’s provisions beyond the borders of Israel.  This was so significant that Jesus noted it in a sermon at his home synagogue in Nazareth.  His inclusion was so radical that his hearers took him out of town to push him off a cliff. 

That is often the reaction that inclusion provokes from even the faithful church attenders.  But this is not a “them” problem (the people opposed to inclusion), but it is a “us” problem.  We fall into this trap too often.  We have our views of who God loves, and who is doing it the right way, and those who don’t do it the right way, we judge and even condemn. 

When we practice getting God out of the box, it calls us to have compassion on those who are demanding God get back in the box.  I see that only God can change their hearts and their attitudes.  We must have an inclusive attitude toward them too.  This calls for humility.  Only through humility can we throw away all the boxes we demand God to fit into and allow God to do the amazing work of grace in this world.

Pastor Greg

Watch for closings and delay messages
during the winter months on TV Channels 3, 5 and 8.

Twinsburg First Congregational Church