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Senior Pastor’s Letter:

FEBRUARY 2012

“But strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” [Matthew 6: 33, NRSV]

As I announced in last month’s partner, during the month of January this year I did a four week sermon series entitled, “Do Miracles Still Exist Today?” In that series I lifted up three specific miracles that do indeed still exist today and which are highlighted in the writing of St. Paul to the Church at Corinth in the conclusion of chapter 13 of his first letter to them, the so-called “Love Chapter”. In that verse, Paul writes, “And now faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” Love is the greatest, I noted in my final sermon, because it is what leads to our ultimate healing, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” And so, each week I lifted up these three miracles that still exist today: “The Miracle of Baptism (Faith)”, “The miracle of Giving (hope)” and “The Miracle of Love”, the latter of which set up my final sermon in the series, “The Miracle of Healing”.

In my Pastor’s letter this month, I want to lift up to you, especially those of you who weren’t able to be in church the Sunday that I preached it, the second sermon in the series, “The Miracle of Giving- Hope”! This sermon, not coincidentally, was preached on our annual Stewardship Sunday, January 15th.  The point of it was that the result of what we give to God through our devotion to God and treatment of our brothers & sisters is what returns to us as our “Hope”. Now let me interject here as I did that day and have so many times, that “hope” in the Biblical sense is not a wish like, “I hope it doesn’t rain or snow today,” or anything else that we may hope for without any certainty of happening, but, rather, in Scriptural terms is a certainty- an unbreakable promise from Christ himself, the promise found in Matthew 6: 33, quoted at the beginning of this letter and my text that day Now to understand what our Lord is meaning here in this portion of his famed “Sermon on the Mount”, the greatest sermon ever given by the greatest preacher who ever lived, we need to unpack it a bit.  Jesus had begun that famed sermon with “The Beatitudes”, eleven teachings about life in his kingdom that literally turns human logic upside down.  Then, a little further down in the sermon, Chapter 5, verse 24, he gives this stern warning, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.” Wow, I said that day,  If that was tough teaching to these ancients who probably knew little of wealth, what is it saying to we who live in a society that tells us that our worth is solely based upon what we accumulate- that old axiom- “He (or she) who dies with the most toys wins”?

Jesus explains this radical statement by going into a lecture on the futility of worry.  You see, beloved, if there is one common denominator between the rich & poor of the world it is both of there penchants for worry.  The poor & homeless, for example often worry where they will find shelter from the elements or even where there next meal will come from. The rapidly declining middle-class worries about the security of their job, if lucky enough to still be working in today’s economy, how they will provide for their children, let alone their children’s education or their own retirement and either by design or necessity begin cutting both their spending and giving, which results in the vicious cycle of the economy going further south and more & more job and investment loss, particularly for the retired.  Business responds by raising prices & cutting benefits.  This, in turn, worries even the rich and super rich as they watch their net worth, which they have often come to worship, decline as does any false god.  And yet, this radical preacher speaking to a people worrying about many things and through the ages speaking to us today tells them and us- not to worry- verses 25-34.

“Do not worry…” What?   If this were some human preacher telling us not to worry, instead of Jesus, we would say, “What are you nuts?” and then go into a whole litany of what we have to worry about. But what if, instead, we actually took our Lord’s words to heart?  Now I am not, and neither is Jesus, suggesting that we become irresponsible.  No, we need to be good stewards of what God gives us, but it is when we think that we are in control of what we get and give instead of God that we get into trouble.  What our Lord is saying and what I was echoing, on that “Stewardship Sunday” was that we need to replace our worry with faith, which will give we of little or no hope (because we are using the human understanding of it) the true or Biblical hope that God knows our needs and as long as we are doing his will and putting our trust fully in him our needs, not necessarily our wants, but our needs will be met, both individually and as a church.  Yes, the prophet Jeremiah said it best, Jeremiah 29: 11, “For surely I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not to harm you (plans to prosper you says the KJV) to give you a future with (here it comes) hope!

“A future with hope” isn’t that what we really want out of this life beloved?  Well the good news today is that we can have it because this “hope” is not a wish or a fantasy but “the gospel truth”! Because of “The Miracle of Christmas”- God becoming human to pay the price for our human sins out of his great love and plans for us, and through “The Miracle of Baptism“- which is the starting point of our faith journey, we who were “no people” are now “God’s people” and we who had no hope now have “a blessed assurance” of eternal hope; which is rooted in “love”- “Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love” because  it leads to our ultimate healing.

Yes, my friends, “The Miracle of Giving” (of ourselves and our gifts) are what bring that “hope” that “blessed assurance” about.  And so, on that “Stewardship Sunday”  we were given the opportunity to show our gratitude for “The Miracle of Christmas” that made possible “The Miracle of Easter” that gives us our eternal hope to show where we were at on our faith journeys as we were blessed with, not the burden, but the joy of experiencing “The Miracle of Giving”!

My friends that same miracle, that same hope is there for you by the grace of God through your faith which John Wesley believed should manifest itself in the giving of yourself and your gifts.   I hope that you will remember that when you contemplate your service and giving this year.

In Christ,

Rev. Rick

Lenten Season begins February 22nd:

With Christmas fast becoming a blurred memory and as hard as it is to believe, Lent is just around the corner.   The season begins on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd this year and as with our past practice John Wesley will hold an evening worship to commemorate it with the traditional imposition of ashes.  The last several years we have done this as a joint service with our sister church Asbury.  At this writing plans are still being formulated and we will announce through the bulletin and the media which church will host it.  Beginning the First Sunday in Lent I will be starting my second sermon series.  Right now I am looking at doing one of two, both by Adam Hamilton, “24 Hours that Changed the World” or “The Final Words”- Christ’s seven last words from the Cross.  We may also offer a short term study during the SS hour for our new short term SS class and others who are interested to coincide with it.

Come Holy Week our UMW will once more offer a daily luncheon, Monday through Thursday to complement our hosting of the annual Hagerstown Area Religious Council’s daily services.  We are in the process of recruiting this year’s speaker.

The season will conclude with our annual Maundy Thursday Communion Service here at the church.  The Area Religious Council (HARC) is then planning a community Good Friday Observance, with plans to do something different this year.

Be sure to watch the bulletin, the March Partner, and local media for updates as plans are finalized.

Rev. Jewell