What's Happening at Pilgrim this week?

Monday, Jan. 31st...7:00 PM Pastoral Meeting - Parsonage
Tuesday, Feb. 1st... 7:00 PM Bible Study
Wednesday, Feb. 2nd ...7:00 PM Pilgrim Circle - Parsonage
Thursday, Feb. 3rd ... Choir Practice
Friday, Feb. 4th ... Cards - Parsonage

Please keep those of our church who are ill or facing surgery in your prayers!
Birthdays this week

Monday, Jan. 31st ... Hugh Everhart

Wednesday, Feb. 2nd ... Patsy Miller

Thursday, Feb. 3rd... Reid Black

Friday, Feb 4th... Joanna Gibby, Johnette Davis, Bruce Everhart & Alex Hege

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

There are many professions where one individual must put his safety and even life in another person’s hands. You might say “it goes with the territory.”

Our nephew, Robert, was a jet fighter pilot who flew the F-15e Strike Eagle He has recently retired from active service although he still flies them as a reservist. There have been many people in his life in whom he needed to have absolute trust every time he took off. Many of them were the people responsible for maintaining his aircraft. You just can’t pull one of them over to the side of the road if the engines quit running. In flying combat missions other members of a flight formation are trained to look out for each other. We know of the importance of the “wingman.”

Firemen and police officers constantly rely on their “buddies” or partners to protect them when things get dangerous and I certainly remember looking at the initials of one who packed my parachute each time I jumped and thinking, “Partner, I sure hope you did it right.”

I thought of these things on Wednesday when I came across Psalm 25:5b in my daily Bible reading. David wrote, ”All day long I put my hope in you.” David put his trust in God “all day long” and we can assume that it was all day long every day.

It wasn’t just when things got tough. It wasn’t just when things got dangerous. It was “all day long,” from the moment he got up to the time he went to bed…and even then he was trusting that God remained, on duty, by his side while he slept.

How often we Christians cry out, “Jesus, help me” when we’re in trouble and forget him when everything is going smoothly. How often our hope is in our own efforts rather than the presence, strength and promise of our Lord.

We forget that each day we fly out into a world where we are constantly in harms way, and just like Robert, we need to be aware that we too, have a wingman in whom rests our hope. How comforting it is to know he is there all day long.

Sermon for Sunday, January 30, 2011

BETTER IGNORANT THAN UNCARING
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #5
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But the man who loves God is known by God.
4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
I don’t know which is worse to have so much knowledge that you come across as arrogant or too little knowledge so that you come across as dense.

A lady made her first visit to Yellowstone National Park. She asked her
guide, “Look at all those big rocks. Wherever did they come from?”
“The glaciers brought them down,” said the guide.

“But where are the glaciers?” asked the persistent tourist.
“The glaciers,” said the guide in a weary voice, “have gone back for more rocks.”

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, it’s been said, but what about a little ignorance?

A man working in the operations department in the central office of a large bank receives calls from employees in the field having problems with their computers. Since their computers are tied in to a central server, he is often able to help them online.

One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch banks who had this question. She said, “I’ve got smoke coming from the back of my terminal.” Then she added, “Do you guys have a fire downtown?”

Well, that makes sense, I guess. If they get their information via the phone lines from downtown, why couldn’t they also get smoke? Which is more dangerous a little knowledge or a little ignorance?

Some of you are familiar with Judge Judy on television. As presiding jurist on national television, Judge Judy Sheindlin draws more than ten million viewers to her show. If you’ve seen Judge Judy you know she is not one to accept ignorance as a defense.

As Sheindlin became a lawyer and then a judge, she saw what happened to people who didn’t use their heads.

“The fallout of their poor decisions was the daily parade of misery that marched through family court,” says Sheindlin. “I’ve heard it all before: ‘I didn’t think, I didn’t mean to . . .’ Ignorance of life is not an excuse in my courtroom.”

I think she’s saying that a little ignorance is worse than a little knowledge.

Dr. George Gallup, responding to the request of the Dallas Times Herald, did a survey of students’ knowledge in eight industrialized countries.

Those currently in school in the U. S. ranked either at the bottom or near the bottom of the list in mathematics, science, and geography.

Here are some examples:
* Only one-fifth of the students tested could even locate the United States on a map.
* One-third of the teens did not know that Mexico is the country that borders on Texas.
* Twenty-five percent were unaware that New Jersey is on the East Coast and that Oregon is on the West Coast.
* Only about 40 percent could name California as the most populous state.

Gallup found that these aspiring high school graduates were woefully ignorant in three major fields: trade, travel, and culture. Their answers to three questions illustrate:
* What nation in the world has the largest population? The preponderance of the students answered, “The United Nations.”
* Which were the last two states admitted into the Union? The majority of answers included Florida, Mexico, and Canada.
* What language is most widely spoken in Latin America? The common response was “Latin.”

So, is it better to be knowledgeable and arrogant or lacking in knowledge and be taken for stupid? Hopefully these are not the only two choices, but I confess that for years I’ve tried to get hold of the bumper sticker that proclaims “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
I ask this question because of something St. Paul says in our scripture lesson for today: “Knowledge puffs up,” says Paul, “but love builds up.”

It’s true. Knowledge can puff us up. There are people in our society who disdain anyone who is not as well educated as they are. For example, they turn up their noses at anyone who is not precise in their use of grammar.

They regard anyone as stupid who is not as well read or as sophisticated. Many of these folks are not only elitist in their cultural preferences, but also in their politics, in their social relationships and even in their religion. These people ignorantly believe that education is the sole measuring stick for intelligence.

St. Paul encountered people like that in the early church. Christianity had become a very liberating force in the lives of the earliest followers of Jesus. Most had been drawn from the Jewish faith. They had once lived under the law with the burden of the legalisms of that day. But Christ had set them free from all that. And they were proud of their freedom and flaunted it.
Paul could understand that. He himself wrote eloquently of the freedom that Christ gives. But Paul had a higher vision and an even more tender heart. He knew that freedom had a double edge.

Many of the more recent converts to Christianity had been worshiping idols before they came to Christ. And part of their worship involved sacrificing food to the idols. Afterwards they would feast on that food. This was a social event as well as a religious duty. Should they continue to patronize these feast events after giving their hearts to Christ?

Certainly, said some. After all, idols are an illusion. There is no reality to them. But the food and the fellowship are still good. What possible harm could it do for them to continue participating in the social part of these events even though they were now followers of Christ?

Well, Paul saw the possibility of a great deal of harm. What if a new believer, still insecure in their faith, saw them eating food offered to idols and thought they still believed in idol-worship even after becoming Christians? Then these newer believers might fall back into worshiping idols themselves.

So, says Paul to Christians in Corinth, don’t let your superior understanding of faith cause you to be a stumbling block to others. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Christians are people who build up others. It is not our intellect that marks us as a follower of Christ, but the love in our heart.

This does not mean that a Christian needs to park his or her brain at the door. Just the opposite is true. God gave us our good minds. God intends for us to use those minds to the fullest extent possible.

What it means is, that the highest use of our intellect is to find a way to build up other people. As we have often noted before, Jesus was an encourager. He lifted people up he did not put them down. And that is our task as well. It is not enough that we do not hate people or that we do them no harm. We are to be sensitive to the needs of others and find ways to do good for them.
In the book Letters to Phillip by Charlie Shedd, tells of a woman who suffered a car accident. She called her husband as soon as she could to tell him.

Seemingly oblivious to her condition, he asked, “How much damage did you do to the car?” His second words were “Whose fault was it?” Following this, he suggested, “Listen, darling, don’t admit a thing! You call the insurance company and I’ll call the lawyer. We can beat this thing.”
His wife said little until this point.

Then, she asked, “Well, do you have any more instructions or questions?”

“No,” he said, “I think that about covers it.”

“Oh, does it?” She fumed. “In case you’re interested, I’m at the hospital with five broken ribs.”

Certainly we don’t have any husbands in our congregation who are like that! Christians are people who build people up. Christians are people who are sensitive to the needs of other people and seek to lift them to a higher plane of life. Christians are people who recognize that everyone needs encouragement in order to be all they can be.We all need encouragement, don’t we? And so do the people we live with, the people we work with, the people we meet each day.

My great prayer for this church is that we will continue being an encouraging church.

Little people tear others down. Little people abuse others and take advantage of them. I pray that as a congregation we will continue in our resolve to be a place where people find positive affirmations.

Several years ago Eric “The Swimmer” Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea was an unlikely hero of the Sydney Olympic Games. The 22 year old African had only learned to swim the January before. He had only practiced in a 20 meter pool without lane markers, and had never raced more than 50 meters. By special invitation of the International Olympic Committee, under a special program that permits poorer countries to participate even though their athletes don’t meet customary standards, he had been entered in the 100 meter men’s freestyle.

When the other two swimmers in his heat were disqualified because of false starts, Moussambani was forced to swim alone.

Eric Moussambani was, to use the words of an Associated Press story about his race, “charmingly inept.” He never put his head under the water’s surface and flailed wildly to stay afloat. With ten meters left to the wall, he virtually came to a stop. Some spectators thought he might drown! Even though his time was over a minute slower than what he would need to qualify for the next level of competition, the capacity crowd at the Olympic Aquatic Center stood to their feet and cheered Eric on.

After what seemed like an eternity, this young African athlete reached the wall and hung on for dear life. When he had caught his breath and regained his composure, the French speaking Moussambani said through an interpreter, “I want to send hugs and kisses to the crowd. It was their cheering that kept me going.”

I like that. It was the cheering of the crowd that kept him going.

Wouldn’t it be nice if one of our children could say late in life, “It was the cheering of my church that kept me going?”

Wouldn’t it be great if a person who has been through a terrible illness could report later, “It was the cheering of my church that kept me going?”

Would you pardon me if I say in all humility to you, that when my term as your pastor is finished, I would like to be able to say, “It was the cheering of my church that kept me going?”

Knowledge puffs up, but loves builds up. We have many smart, well-educated people in our congregation and we’re thankful for that.

Knowledge is much to be preferred over ignorance. But that will not make us a great church. What will make us a great church is being a church of encouragers, building one another up with the love of Christ.

An upbeat word for a downbeat world.

Amen

AT PILGRIM THE WEEK OF JANUARY 23, 2011

CALENDAR FOR THIS WEEK
Monday, Jan. 24th 8:00 AM ... Make Chicken Pies
Tuesday, Jan 25th 8::30 AM ... Make chicken pies & Pick up chicken pies
7:00 PM ...Bible Study
Thursday, Jan 27th 7:00 PM ... Choir Practice
Sunday, Jan 30 th All Day...STUFF THE TRUCK
9:15 ...Sunday School Assembly
9:30... Sunday School
10:00 ... Worship Service


Birthdays this week
Monday, Jan 24th ... Vivian Hege & Terri Ward
Tuesday, Jan 25th ... James Neese Jr.
Thursday, Jan 26th ...Joe Hege
Sunday, Jan 30th ... Scott Everhart


THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

We sometimes seem to attempt to live our lives outside of, and apart from, God’s will. I suspect that we think that God won’t really notice some of the little things we do, things that we know are not what he would have us do. Perhaps we think he is so busy with the larger concerns that plague our planet that surely he hasn’t got time to notice us. Sometimes we even dare to believe that he doesn’t really care about us.

If we are really honest with ourselves though, we either know or are pretty sure what God expects of us. This thought leaped right out at me in a passage from this week’s bible reading from Genesis 44:30b. In this passage Joseph’s brothers were fearful of returning to their father with out the youngest brother, Benjamin so they cried out piteously “Our father’s life is bound up in the boy’s life.”

Our hearts go out to these brothers whose concern for their father is so great. One even offered to remain as Joseph’s slave in his brother’s place. “Our father’s life is bound up in this boy’s life.”
But, we often under estimate just how much our heavenly Father’s life is bound up in our lives. We forget that we don’t walk alone, unseen by a loving Father.

Our Father’s life is inexorably bound up in the life of each and every one of his children. The question that we must resolve is this; just how much do we feel bound up in our Father. The term “bound up” if taken literally, indicates that we are actually tied together, as if one.

How then can we expect to go separate ways? How can we get up each morning without feeling God’s presence, and perhaps, more importantly, seeking his guidance? Each morning we face a day no one has traveled before. There are no landmarks to guide us through the uncharted hours that lay before us. All we have is our heavenly Father who is bound up in our life, and we are wise, indeed, if we bind him up in ours.


Sermon for Sunday, January 23, 2011

FINDING SOMETHING AMAZING TO LIVE FOR
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #4
Sermon Text: Mark 1:14 –20
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

On January 1, 2002, John Guth, 32, and Jeff Teiten, 24, set up camp outside the Cinerama theater in Seattle. They announced they intended to await the public sale of tickets for Star Wars Episode I; Attack of the Clones, scheduled for release May 16, 2002.

Teiten said he was actually doing an art project which involved “waiting for something.” He was keeping a log of his experience and originally wanted to await the film for two years. “I’m becoming very aware just how long an hour is,” he said, and “what happens in an hour.”

At the time of the report on this pair of young Star War devotees, the film’s distributors had not even confirmed that the film would be shown at the Cinerama.
My first reaction to this story was that these young men badly needed to get a life. Surely there is something more profitable they can do with their time than waiting in line for five months to get tickets for a movie. But maybe neither one of them had anything better to do. That really is a scary thought.

It’s like a PEANUTS comic strip by Charles Schultz. Snoopy the dog is typing out his latest attempt at great literature. He wraps up his story like this: “And so our hero’s life ended as it had begun … a disaster. ‘I never got any breaks,’ he had always complained. He had wanted to be rich. He died poor. He wanted friends. He died friendless. He wanted to be loved. He died unloved. He wanted laughter. He found only tears. He wanted answers. He found only questions.”

At this point, Snoopy with an exasperated look thinks to himself, “I’m having a hard time ending this . . . ” Like many would-be writers, he had dug a hole he couldn’t get out of.

There are people who are dissatisfied with their lives. That’s what we need to see. There are people who are unhappy with their situations. Maybe you are one of them. If so, you are not alone.

In 1957, when writer/historian John Galbraith was about to describe us as “the affluent society,” our per person income, expressed in today’s dollars, was less than $10,000. In 2009, the last year I could find a statistic , it was $31,000 making us The More Than Triply Affluent Society. Our highways are crowded with private cars, we have digital HDTVs, satellite dishes, cell phones that do everything but flush the toilet and we spend billions of dollars a year on brand name athletic shoes. So are we happier than forty five years ago? We are not.

In 1957 thirty five percent of Americans told “The National Opinion Research Center” they were very happy. By 1991, our per capita income had already doubled and yet only thirty one percent said they were very happy. And the trends continue. It seems the more we have the less we are happy.

The National Opinion Research Center says that “Judged by soaring rates of depression, the quintupling of the violent crime rate, the doubling of the divorce rate, the decline in marital happiness among the marital survivors, and the tripling of the teen suicide rate we are richer and unhappier.”

Many people are dissatisfied with their lives but, this does not mean they are bad people. Many of them are very good people. They just don’t have what we sometimes call “a fulfilling life.”

Most of us have all the material necessities, and a respectable job, we have people who love us, but we still feel something is missing in their lives. Many of us look at other people who live more glamorous lives and think, “If I had what they have, then I would be happy.” But close examination shows them to be no more fulfilled than we are.

We look at someone like Cher, the actress and pop singer, who seemingly has it all. Wealth, fame, physical attractiveness. And yet here is how Cher, herself, described her life a few years ago:

“I’m growing older. I hate my 50s. I never felt older until I hit 50. When you turn this age possibilities are fewer. You’ve been there, done that. You’ve bought the t-shirt. You’ve bought the poster. You’ve been the poster. And then you have to figure new creative ways to stay vital and interesting and have new dreams. Maybe next time I’ll come back as a cowboy. Next time I’ll do better.” Cher has it all except, seemingly, that which she needs most.

Maybe those first disciples of Jesus were dissatisfied with their lives. Think about it.

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
As Jesus walked beside the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
“At once,” says the Gospel of Mark, “they left their nets and followed him.” Doesn’t that seem a bit abrupt to you? They’re working at their nets and a stranger comes by, and he says, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” And they drop their nets and immediately they follow.

Jesus goes a little farther and he sees James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he calls them, and they leave their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and follow him.

What, no discussion? No “Let me think about this and I will get back to you in the morning” hesitation.

We don’t know about the others but we know that Simon was married. Didn’t he at least try to phone home? Didn’t he feel he needed to discuss this with his wife? I mean this is a major decision. Leave your job? Leave the only life you know and follow an itinerant preacher around the countryside? What got into these men?

Maybe they were tired of fishing for fish. That’s hard for some of us to imagine, but it’s possible. Even fishing would get old if you had to do it day in and day out.

I’ll bet that there are professional football players who dream of having a Sunday afternoon off in the fall so that they can rake their leaves or, better yet, go fishing. It’s possible. Anything you get paid to do, that demands you show up for a certain number of hours each week, could get old even if it is something other people do for recreation.

But it strikes me that these men were somewhat dissatisfied with their lives or they would not have been so quick to jump at this stranger’s invitation. They certainly were not bad men or irresponsible men. They just had an itch that nothing in their present situation could scratch. They wanted something more out of their lives--something that could fill a void that nothing else could fill.

Listen. This is how you and I would be if we did not have Christ. This is the universal human condition, permanently restless until we find our rest in God.

Life today is so stressful. There are so many demands on us. It’s like an American racing enthusiast who entered his horse in Britain’s famous Epsom Downs Steeplechase.

Just before the race began, he slipped his horse a white pellet. The Duke of Marlboro, who was serving as steward, caught the owner in the act and objected. “I say, old man, really you can’t do that sort of thing over here!”

“Just a harmless sugar lump,” the American assured him. He gulped one down himself. “Here, try one,” he said. The Duke took a pill, swallowed it, and seemed satisfied.

As the jockey mounted the American horse, its owner whispered in his ear, “Son, keep that horse on the outside and stay out of trouble, because once he starts running, there ain’t nothing that can catch him . . . except me and the Duke of Marlboro!”

That’s how many of us feel. Run, run, run. We need that sugar pill just to meet our responsibilities. And then one day we open our hearts to Christ and he comes into our lives and helps us reorder our priorities.

These disciples were dissatisfied with their lives. So when Christ showed them something better when he offered to give them a dynamic new purpose for their lives they did not hesitate.They dropped everything and followed him.

And my guess is that, given the opportunity, you and I would too. Let’s face it, most of us would like to get something more out of life. We want that abundant life that Jesus promised and we’ve come to discover in our life experience that the affluent life is not the abundant life.

We thought it was, but it’s not. How we long for God to speak to our lives and give us a new understanding of life, a new ministry or mission that will fill our cup to overflowing. To say to us while we are mending our nets, “Follow me.”

At fifty two Bruce Kennedy was the chief executive officer of the highly successful Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines.

During twelve years under Kennedy’s leadership, the corporation’s revenues grew tenfold. When he took the helm the airline was floundering and nearly bankrupt. But in those twelve years he brought transformation to the organization and saw it become one of the most profitable and best run airlines in the entire world.

Then, at the peak of his success, he made a shocking decision. He stepped down from his lofty corporate position to become the board chairman of the Redlands, California based Mission Aviation Fellowship, an international Christian organization that specializes in flying missionaries to remote locations.

Kennedy’s new position has no salary at all; he is a volunteer. Though Bruce Kennedy is quick to admit that his was a scary decision, it was also a decision that was driven by a clear inner sense of calling. After twelve years as a CEO he decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing what God wanted him to do.

Here is how he explains this move: “If I say that I trust God and put my life in his hands then I shouldn’t have any reservations about proving it with my life.”

Most of us think that if we could be the CEO of a major corporation, respected by our peers, admired by our stockholders, then that would be enough.
But it’s not enough. There is something more. It is to lay our lives at the foot of the cross. It is to say to God, “Use my life, Lord. Give me something mighty that I can do for You.”

Of course, the most noble thing you can do is bring someone else to Jesus. I don’t mean you have to go door-to-door or stand on street corners asking people if they are saved.

But there is someone in your workplace, or in your family, or a neighbor who is hurting someone who needs to know that you care and who will be helped if they knew that the reason you care is because you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

What did Jesus call these first disciples to be? Fishers of men, Please don’t let the language confuse you. If they had been carpenters, he might have said, “I will make you builders of men.” If they had been educators, he might have said, “I will make you teachers of men.”
The point is that you will find your greatest fulfillment when you take the love that you have received from Christ and pass it on to someone else.

If we are dissatisfied with our lives it’s because we have been focused on the humdrum tasks of living rather than on the call of God to be God’s people.

Make the change today. You’ll find it’s truly something amazing to live for.
An upbeat word for a down beat world.
Amen

AT PILGRIM THIS WEEK

CHURCH OPPORTUNITIES THIS WEEK
Tuesday, Jan. 18th...
Bible Study @ 7:00 CANCELLED due to floor refinishing.
Thursday, Jan 29th...
Senior Adventure to Billy Graham Library. Leave church @ 9:00 AM THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR MORE PLEASE LET JULIE OR PASTOR JOHN KNOW NLT WEDNESDAY. IS YOU WISH TO GO.
Choir Practice @ 7:00 PM
Sunday, Jan 23 rd...
9:15 Sunday School Opening
9:30 Sunday School
10:00 Worship
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM All Church Ministries meet for planning. These are most important so PLEASE plan to attend if you are on one of these committees.
2:00-2:30 Cemetery, Bd. of Edu., & VBS
2:30 - 3:00 Property & Nursery
3:00-3:30 Finance, Fall Festival & Children's Church
3:30 - 4:00 Golden Age, Christmas Decor/Programs & Retreat/Conference
4:00-4:30 Pilgrim Youth & New Year's Eve
4:30- 5:00 Greeters & Easter Decor/Programs
5:00-5:30 Ushers & Office/Directory
5:30-6:00 Supper

BLOWING ROCK RETREAT WEEKEND
This will be August 12-14 this year and reservations must be made by March 6th. Please pray about going on this wonderful retreat. Margaret Truell will have more information in a few weeks.

CHURCH BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

Tuesday, Jan. 18th ... Clara Bell Yarbourough & Terry Kinley

Wednesday, Jan. 19th ... Naomi Everhart & David Johnson

Friday, Jan. 21.st ... Clint Leonard

Saturday, Jan 22nd ... Geri Leonard

Sunday, Jan 23rd... Teresa Allen

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
For the week of January 16, 2011

How often in life we are asked this question, “Please explain yourself.” It may have happened first in our lives when a parent or other adult felt we not behaving in a proper manner, which is, of course, to mean behaving in an adult manner. Remember wanting to reply, “I’m only a kid!” and then daring not to?

I remember once when I disagreed with my superior about a decision to be made and he challenged me with the words, “Explain yourself, but, remember who you’re talking to.” He was my boss, and the vice president of the company, however, the question was one that had to do with production scheduling and that was my job, so I blurted out, “Okay, but you remember why you hired me.”

Well, I didn’t get fired and I learned a good lesson. We should always be ready to “explain ourselves” and, perhaps more importantly, have a solid position from which to argue.
In our Bible readings for this week I came across the best singular response that we, as Christians, can offer when we feel the need or are asked to explain ourselves. It is Genesis 42:18 (NLT) where Joseph is talking to his brothers who have recently come to Egypt looking for food. “On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live.”

“I am a God-fearing man” was explanation enough. Because Joseph was a God-fearing man, he could be trusted, even as God is trusted. It may well be from this event (my personal guess) that we place our hand on the Bible when giving sworn testimony in court and say, “So help me God.”
But what about all the other interactions we have each day with all sorts of people, some of whom may not be very nice. Can we say that our behavior is the result of our being Christians, God-fearing people. I can’t help but wonder what a wonderful place this world could be, if every person’s action could honestly be attributed to the solid fact that he or she is a ”God-fearing” person, a follower of Jesus, a disciple of the Christ.

Sermon for Sunday, January 16, 2011

OVERCOMING OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #3
John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar grew up in Yazoo, Mississippi. Most of us might consider that a disadvantage. Not Zig. He says it’s an asset. He says you can go anywhere in the world from Yazoo, MS. Jesus was not from Yazoo, MS. He was from Nazareth in the region of Galilee. Nazareth got the same kind of respect from the rest of Israel as a small rural town in the deep South does in the U.S. But, you know what?

Jesus proved you can truly go anywhere from Nazareth. It’s not where you hail from nor even how gifted you are in the long run of life all that really matters is what you have inside. This is the third message in our series, AN UPBEAT WORD FOR A DOWNBEAT WORLD
.
Last week we saw how an African-American child, Wilma Rudolph, from a poverty-stricken family with a paralyzed left leg became an Olympic champion. We’ve noted that we live in a God-invaded world. And we reminded ourselves of the significance of our baptism. When we were baptized, we were clothed with the Spirit of Christ.

This week our theme is “overcoming our circumstances.” LIFE IS HARD. That’s where we begin.

Maybe you heard the true story about the fellow who was taking care of an errand in another town. When it was time to head home he discovered that his car wouldn’t start because it was out of gas. A passerby told him there was a service station a half mile away, so he took a gas can from the trunk and trudged the distance in the sweltering sun.

The attendant at the service station filled his two-gallon can, and he lugged it back and poured the gas into the tank. But when he tried to unlock the car door, it wouldn’t open. Just then, he noticed an identical old car parked a short distance away. That was his car. He had filled a stranger’s gas tank.

Wearily he walked back to the station. The attendant suggested helpfully, “You know, instead of walking back and forth to fill the tank from the can, you could put a couple of gallons in the tank and then drive the car here.”

People can be so helpful, can’t they? We joke about it, but life is hard. Sometimes it drives all of us to our knees.

Pastor Ed Dobson leads one of the largest churches in the U.S. In 2000, this pastor of a growing, active ministry was diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

It is a degenerative, fatal disease, and there is no cure. Pastor Dobson says that he was never angry over his diagnosis. He takes his cue from the example of a young woman in his church who was widowed twice at a young age.

The woman stated at her second husband’s funeral, “I have chosen not to ask why. I don’t want to waste what limited energy I have on a question for which I don’t think I’ll get an answer.”
That widow showed a lot of spiritual maturity. This is a hard world we live in and we don’t know why. Some day we will understand. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face…” But right now it’s a mystery. I guess people expect their pastor to tell them why pain and suffering come to our lives, but I don’t know the answer. Neither do I know why some people find healing for their sufferings and others do not.

A young woman suffering from multiple sclerosis and cancer wrote a letter to the television’s 700 Club. As many of you know, this is an upbeat show that focuses on people who have “experienced God’s blessings.” Co-host Sheila Walsh was impressed with this particular young woman’s perspective, and began a regular correspondence with her.

One letter from this young woman particularly changed Walsh’s outlook on the question of suffering. --- The young woman complained that the 700 Club always showcased people who were healed, marriages that were restored, happy stories and miracles. But that’s not always realistic, she said.

“What about people like me,” the young woman wrote, “(people) who are dying and still love God?” Yeah. What about people like that? There are more than you might imagine.

I don’t understand why some people experience devastating misfortune, but I can tell you this: The people I admire most in this world are people who learn to “play hurt.” That’s a sports term, of course. Athletes know about pain and injury.

It’s part of the business. Many of them deal courageously with their misfortunes by playing through them. They could use their injuries to slack off and take it easy, but somehow these champions refuse to do so. They “suck it up,” in sports talk, and give their best in spite of their misfortune.

Robert Conklin wrote a book more than a decade ago titled “Think Yourselves to the Riches of Life” in which he gave some sterling examples of athletes playing hurt.

One of them was Bill Emmerton, who in his late forties decided to run 125 miles through Death Valley. He started in the heat of 106 degrees, got thirty miles out, and encountered a sandstorm so severe it blew him off his feet and bounced him fifteen feet along the road. Undaunted, he kept going until he collapsed from sulfur fumes. Following him in a camper, his wife, Norma, thought, “Dear God, this is it.”

She soaked his clothes in water, massaged his legs, and three minutes later Emmerton was on his way again. The temperature reached 135 degrees. He finished with the toe of one shoe cut off to allow for the free flow of blood.

“It was like running through hell,” he exclaimed. But he finished this remarkable test of his endurance.

The reason this kind of story is important to us is that there are saints of God who play hurt every day of their lives. They could shake their fist at God. They could slough off in meeting their responsibilities. They could grow bitter and take out their misfortune on others. But they hang in there, and they trust God, even when they do not feel God’s presence. And in their struggle, they find strength they did not realize they possessed. There are some right here in Pilgrim Reformed Church.

Otto Dibelius put it this way, “God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight through hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to them than ever before.”

These people who persist despite heavy burdens are champions, heroes, and the sad thing is that we never recognize them. Life is hard. It is especially hard for some people.

Let’s face it. We do not start life equally. We are born gifted or not so gifted. We may have healthy genes or defective one. We may start off in a place called Yazoo or one called Nazareth.
You can almost hear the sarcasm in our scripture for today. A man named Philip has just encountered Christ and been won over to him.

He, in turn, reaches out to a friend, Nathanael, and tells him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth!” Nathanael asked. “Can anything good come from there?”
“Come and see,” said Philip.

Here is today’s “Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World.” It doesn’t matter where you start out. It doesn’t matter what obstacles you have to overcome. You can be a champion, a winner, a hero, by trusting God with your pain and never giving up.

A man named Pesach Krauss wrote a book titled, “Why Me: Coping With Grief, Loss, and Change.” In it, he describes the torment of his youth.

As a boy he was forced to have the lower half of his right leg amputated. This was harder on his soul than it was on his body. He felt somehow incomplete. Like any young man he desperately wanted to fit in. Thus he pushed himself to achieve. Wearing a prosthesis he participated zealously in athletics. He refused any pity. Through sheer determination, Krauss made the gymnastics team his sophomore year and earned a letter.

Later, he remembered the first day he wore the sweater to school. The kids stopped their chatter and turned to stare at him a hush came over the room. And then an amazing thing happened. In unison, all his classmates rose. They began to clap their hands and they cheered.
Pesach Krauss writes, “I’m not ashamed to tell you that on that day, standing there in front of my classmates, the tears I cried were the sweetest tears of all. For the first time I had a glimmer that I could be a whole person even if a part of me is missing.”

I have a feeling that many saints of God are going to receive that kind of reception when they enter the gates of God’s kingdom. Their wounds won’t show, then. The missing limbs will be restored.

The thread-bare clothes will have been exchanged for glorious spiritual garments. The heavy hearts will be overflowing with joy. They’ll only be recognizable because of the gold crowns on their heads.

These are Christ’s champions. Heaven’s heroes. People who have triumphed over a multitude of disadvantages, handicaps, and heartaches and have never given in or given up.
I hope you will never have to endure unimaginable suffering. But, even if you do, there is hope on the other side.

But Christ’s champions aren’t just people. Often they are his churches. Churches that go through a period when things look bleak, where there has been turmoil, yet they choose to press forward toward the goal that God has for them. Will you be counted among them? They too, choose to be counted among the champions of God. I’m convinced that Pilgrim has chosen to be such a church, a champion of God.

For the God who has invaded our world and invaded our lives at our baptism and collected you to be this church, will never forsake us.

An upbeat word for a downbeat world.

Amen

Opportunities for Worship, Service and Study the week of January 9, 2011

Sunday, Jan. 9th
Noon...Consistory Lunch
3:00 PM Property Meeting : Library
Tuesday, Jan. 11th
7:00 PM ...Bible Study
Thursday, Jan. 13th
7:00 PM ...Choir Practice
Sunday, Jan 16th
9:15 AM... Sunday School Opening
9:30 PM...Sunday School
10:30 AM Worship[ Service.

6:00 PM Youth Fellowship

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

Friday, January 14, 2011 ...Charles Ward, Jr.
Saturday, January 15th...Reggie Leonard & Samatha Black

We continue to be in prayer for the families of Don Miller and Reese Miller who passed away last week. We also ask for the continuing prayers for Robert Farabee and Jack Shaw

LOOKING AHEAD
On Thursday, January 20th we are planning a Senior Adventure trip to the Billy Graham Museum/Library in Charlotte. We will leave the church at 9:00 AM.

Also...
CHICKEN PIE SALE: Whole, unbaked pies, ready to bake or freeze will be sold on Tues, Jan. 25th. - $8.00 each. Please place orders by Jan. 16th. Proceeds will go to our History Room Fund and our Faith Promise Mission Fund.

THIS PASTOR"S VIEWPOINT

We have made it through the first full week of a brand new year all seems well. We’ve entered it, so to speak, with a clean slate. I have quietly moved the files for 2010 from my desk. Those that I need to prepare my taxes can’t really be just put aside quite yet, but soon.

As I looked at many of the rest, those papers that represent sermon and Viewpoint material, I try to evaluate what good all these papers represented to God’s kingdom here on earth. Did they represent accomplishment, building, and spiritual growth? I hope so, but only time will really tell. Now they are a part of the past and perhaps are no longer important concerns.

What is important, are those empty file folders, the ones that await action. This is true for us all as the calendar is after all, very much like my files, empty days waiting for us to fill them.

All our training and experience tells us to sit down and set some goals and do some planning. And so we do this. We do it as individuals, and as families. In our church, committees from the consistory on, are all getting down to the nitty-gritty of planning for 2011. We establish long range goals, things we wish to begin this year but will take longer than a year to come to fruition, and many short term goals which we plan to complete this year.

When we individually and collectively put our pencils down, our plans completed, we often feel good about what we have accomplished, for after all, Proverbs 16:9a (NIV) says, In his heart a man plans his course…"

I think, however, that the tragedy of much of our planning efforts lies in the fact that we see them as our plans and we tend to want to do them our way. The problem is that we haven’t paid much attention to the last part of Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) which says, …but the Lord determines his steps.

This year, let us an put an opening paragraph on all our plans that perhaps says something like this: "Lord, this is just my/our idea of what we would like to do for you, but Lord, keep our hearts open to your will and direction. Help us all to remember that it is your kingdom we are building and not ours. Guide our steps.”


Sunday's Sermon
THE UNRECOGNIZED PRESENCE
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #2
Sermon Text: Acts 19:1-7

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

We are continuing our series, An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World. We noted last week that we live in a crazy world.

A veterinarian tells about a client who brought a litter of golden retriever puppies to his veterinary clinic for inoculations and worming. As the look alike pups squirmed over and under one another in their box, the vet realized it would be difficult to tell the treated ones from the rest. So he turned on the water faucet, wet his fingers, and moistened each dog’s head when he had finished with it.

After the fourth puppy, he noticed his talkative client had grown silent. As he sprinkled the last pup’s head, the woman leaned forward and whispered, “I didn’t know they had to be baptized, too.”

It’s a crazy world, we concluded last week. But, it’s also a God-invaded world. When life gets crazy, when we are ready to despair that anything in life will work out, we remind ourselves with Martin Luther, “I have been baptized.” God is at work in the world. And God is present in our lives.

The Apostle Paul came upon some people who had been baptized by John the Baptist. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.

They had never heard of the Holy Spirit. So Paul explained to these disciples of John that John’s baptism was one of repentance and repentance, while it is not the total meaning of baptism is still important.

In fact, it would be good if we reminded ourselves from time to time that baptism begins with repentance.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the small town bank president who absconded with a million dollars of the bank’s assets. Two residents of the town were talking. “That was terrible,” one of them said, “about Mr. Jones stealing all that money.”

“Yes,” said the other, “and who will we get to teach his Sunday School class next Sunday?”
Baptism begins with repentance. Like it or not, you and I are held to a higher standard than those who have not been baptized. Certainly we have been saved by grace and not by works, but it is Christ’s will that we should shine a light into this world of darkness. That is why Christ came; to create a community of faith that would be his body in the world. When we who have been baptized live shoddy lives we bring dishonor on Christ’s body. Baptism begins with repentance.

But it does not end there. Or else, John the Baptist would have been sufficient for the world. We would never have needed Jesus. Paul asks these followers of John the Baptist if they received the Holy Spirit at their baptism. John’s baptism had been one of repentance.
And that was good . . . as far as it goes. Certainly we all need to repent. But repentance is just one part of the Good News.

The Good News, in all of its fullness is that when we are baptized, the Holy Spirit of God comes into our life to give us the resources we need to overcome whatever heartaches we might encounter.

We might call this resource the UNRECOGNIZED PRESENCE in many Christians’ lives. That is why many of us live lives that are so spiritually anemic. We have within us the awesome Spirit of the Almighty, and we are not even aware of it!

I fear that all too often we look upon our baptism, in most cases for us done when we were infants, as merely a ritual -- a formality -- simply a symbol of our entering the Christian community which we acknowledged upon actually joining the church.

At your baptism, the Spirit of God came into your life. Now, many Christians separate baptism and the coming of the Spirit. These Christians await a second baptism, often a dramatic experience accompanied by signs and wonders. We have no quarrel with them. We simply believe that there is no need to separate the two. Every baptized person has the Spirit of God within.

In Galatians 3: 26 and 27, Paul writes, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Scholars tell us that the word clothed referred to a robe or toga. The Romans had a practice where, when a young man reached the age of maturity, he went through a ceremony in which he was given a robe to wear, signifying that he was no longer a child, but a man with all the rights and responsibilities of man.

When you and I were baptized, we were clothed with the Spirit of Christ. His Spirit came upon us, even if we were unaware at the time.
Now, there are some misconceptions about the coming of the Spirit. For one thing, having the Spirit of God in us does not mean we become better than others. It’s sad. Many so-called spiritual people become puffed up with pride and therefore, terribly obnoxious. Is there anyone more repulsive than a self-righteous saint?

A man was talking about a married couple he knew. He said they were so spiritual that you could tell it by just by listening to them talk. The husband always speaks in King James English. He then felt compelled to add that the man’s wife doesn’t speak in King James English; she speaks in the Amplified Version.

Alistair Begg, in his book Made For His Pleasure, shares a memory from his childhood in Scotland. The church his family belonged to planned a day cruise down the river Clyde.

A great crowd boarded the steamer on the Saturday morning as they set off on their voyage “doon the water,” as they say in Glasgow. In the midst of the usual banter and high-spirited conversation, young Alistair began to pick up a negative theme. The men were quoting Deuteronomy 22:5, and the source of their agitation was a woman who had appeared on the boat wearing . . . (Are you ready for this?) . . . trousers.

Now despite the fact that the skirts of the other women were blowing in the breeze and revealing more than their ankles, this poor lady was being tried and convicted for her sensible attire. She had on pants.

No, they did not throw her overboard, but if a storm had come up Alistair Begg says he had little doubt that some would have suggested that as a possible solution perhaps like some female Jonah.

What really made Begg wonder was how the men could adopt such an inflexible position when some of their own gender were on board walking around in kilts!

What rubbish! Can we not see that if we are clothed with the Spirit of Christ we do not act like the Pharisees who put Jesus to death? Some people confuse being spiritual with being proud and self-righteous.

Other people mistake the coming of the spirit with a particular emotional experience. Emotions play a big role in our faith. No doubt about that, but the fact that you have never been bowled over by your emotions does not mean that the Spirit has somehow by-passed you. Emotional experiences are wonderful but they can be misleading.

There is a true story about a woman who spent some months serving God in South Africa. On her final visit to a remote township she attended a medical clinic.

As the Zulu women there began to sing together, she found herself deeply moved by their hauntingly beautiful harmonies. She wanted to always remember this moment and try to share it with friends when she arrived home. With tears flowing down her cheeks, she turned to her friend and asked, “Can you please tell me the translation of the words to this song?
”
Her friend looked at her and solemnly replied, “The words go something like this: ‘If you boil the water, you won’t get dysentery.’”

Thank God for our emotions but they are not always a reliable guide when it comes to matters of faith. There will be times when we do not FEEL God’s presence. But that does not mean God has forsaken us. Our faith rests not on our emotions, but on the promises of Scripture: “We are baptized.”

That means that God’s Spirit will never leave us. Paul writes, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

You may not feel Christ’s presence in your life right now, but the Word of God guarantees us that he is there. And that means your life has unimaginable potential. Never think of yourself as a loser or somehow disadvantaged. You have a power within you greater than any obstacle you may encounter.

Many of you know the story of Olympic star Wilma Rudolph. She was born in a shack in the backwoods of Tennessee. Her parents were very poor. She was prematurely born and weighed only four and one-half pounds. At age four she had double pneumonia and scarlet fever that left her with a partly paralyzed left leg. She had to wear a steel brace.

But Wilma had a mother who constantly told her that she could do whatever she wanted to do with her life, that all she needed to do was have faith and persistence and courage and a never give up spirit.

So at the age of nine Wilma did away with the brace. In four more years she finally developed a rhythmic stride that enabled her to run. At 13 she entered her first race and came in dead last. But Wilma kept running. And one day she started winning. Finally she made it to the 1960 Olympics to run the 100-meter race against the unbeaten and world record holder, Yetta Mynie from Germany.

Wilma won. She won again in the 200-meter. Finally came the 400-meter relay. She was the anchor, the last runner on the U. S. team, and her competitor was Yetta Mynie. Just as the baton was handed to Wilma she dropped it, giving Yetta the lead. Yet, somehow Wilma Rudolph caught up and won!

Wilma Rudolph, the little girl with the steel brace and a paralyzed leg became the fastest female runner in the world. You and I know that Wilma Rudolph’s accomplishments didn’t come from the outside, but from within. On the outside she had every reason to quit --- to give up in despair. But there was something within her that gave her the drive to overcome.

You and I have the Spirit of Christ within us. We have been baptized. That means more than that we are nice people. It means more than that we have repented of our sins. It means the Holy Spirit is alive and well within us --- even if we do not feel that Spirit in our present circumstances. He may be an unrecognized presence, but he is still there.

And if we will allow God’s Spirit to work through us, we will do more and be more than we ever dream possible.

It is one more upbeat word for a downbeat world.

Amen

Happenings and opportunities at Pilgrim this week

Monday, Jan. 3rd ...
6:3o PM Supper Committee in Parsonage
6:30PM Property Mtg. in Library
7:30 PM in Library
Tuesday, Jan 4th ...
7:oo Bible Study
Wednesday, Jan. 5th ...
7:00 PM Pilgrim Circle in Parsonage
Thursday, Jan 6th ...
7:00 PM Choir Practice
Sunday, Jan. 9 ...
8:00 AM Consistory in Fellowship Hall
9:15 AM Sunday School Opening
9:30 AM Sunday School
10:30 AM Worship Service
After Worship...Consistory Luncheon @ Trish's

Birthdays this week :
Tuesday, Jan. 4th ... Steve Everhart & Lori Ward
Wednesday, Jan 5th ... Rev. George Fidler
Saturday, Jan 8th Kristy Irvin

Don Miller passed away Sunday evening, January 2nd. At the time of this posting his funeral will be on Wednesday, Jan. 5th. The time has not yet been established. Please keep the family in your prayers.

THE PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
Rev. John H. Bigelow
For the week of January 2, 2011

This is the time of the year when pundits, political, social, and religious, seem to come out of the woodwork. I am always amazed that there are so many points of view on what the new year holds in store for us. There is another group (many are the same “wise” people) who explain to us what happened last year, as if we were off on some foreign planet without our cell phone.

Epiphany, the 12th day after Christmas, which is on Thursday, January 6th this year, is the day we celebrate the coming of the Magi, (the wise men) to visit Jesus. Many of our contemporary “wise men” try to sneak in on their coat tails. You’ve probably heard many of them already.

I was thinking, that since this is my Viewpoint that perhaps I could also lend my accumulated wisdom, small as it may indeed be, to the cacophony of voices telling us what to expect. After all, a viewpoint is, by definition, a place where we can get a good view of what lays before us. Often this viewpoint is a high hill or even a mountaintop where much the world is laid out before us, well, at least some of it.

Unfortunately, neither the clock nor the calendar gives us “high points” with which to see into the future. In reality, we can’t even see with much degree of assurance, the next five minutes, or seconds if you want to get picky about it. September 11, 2001 illustrated this very well, as does any terrorist attack.

What we can do, however, is look ahead through our faith and have the absolute assurance that Christ is with us, that we do not travel the uncharted road of time that lies ahead alone. If we hold to this faith, trust in Christ’s promises and God’s love, we can look ahead to this coming year secure in the knowledge that all will be well.

We may not be able to pass over or around tragedy, loss or sickness, but we can get through them. There is an “other side” to everything and the good news for the Christian is Christ’s promise in Matthew 28:20b (NIV) “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Thus we can sing with assurance that refrain, “It is well, it is well, with my soul.”


Sermon for Sunday, January 2, 2011


HOPE FOR A NEW YEAR
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #1

Sermon texts: John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

We live in a crazy world. There was an article sometime back in The Smithsonian magazine about Barbie Dolls. How many of you have ever owned a Barbie Doll? What? None of our men?
Ever since Barbie made her debut on toy store shelves, she has been accused of creating self-esteem problems in teenage girls. You might remember one cynic’s estimate that if Barbie were a real woman, she'd have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.

The male equivalent of the Barbie Doll, according to some people, is the gun-toting G.I. Joe action figure. Notice that it is an “action figure” and not a doll. Boys don’t play with dolls, do they? Now for the craziness.

In 1993, a mischievous group called the Barbie Liberation Organization decided to take revenge on these influential dolls. They bought hundreds of talking Barbie Dolls and hundreds of talking G.I. Joes.

Then, the group extracted the voice chips the things that make them talk --from all of the Barbie Dolls and they placed them in the G.I. Joes, and vice versa. Then they repackaged the figures, and replaced them in stores. Can you imagine the chaos that resulted. Can you see young girls’ reactions when their Barbie Dolls announced in a rough voice, “Eat lead, Cobra!” Or when young boys heard their G.I. Joes squeal, “Ken is such a dream.” This is a crazy world. It’s also a very stressful world.

Some years ago Astronaut Susan J. Helms spent almost six months on the International Space Station, where she became acclimated to a different way of living. In an interview after her return to earth, Helms claimed that she missed the peacefulness of living in space. There were no phones, no Internet connections, and no televisions on the International Space Station.

There were no problems with information overload. The lack of stress helped her to sleep “like a baby,” she said.

Well, Susan, I hope when you returned to the real world the world of 24 hour news and unceasing stress you were able to cope. Whether it is war in the Middle East, terrorism, corporate malfeasance, little girls abducted from their homes, snipers, some sort of virus, or whatever it may be, there is plenty in this world to keep you awake.

If you lost money in your pension fund last year in the slump of the stock market, you were probably furious at the actions of many corporate CEOs. It was bad enough that our economy took so many hits with the collapse of some major and seemingly strong companies and banks but what really galled many people was that the CEOs of many of the most culpable corporations seem unfazed by their company’s problems.

What is so galling is the number of CEO’s that left failing companies and took millions in bonuses and lived in what most of us would consider a mansion. Employees in many companies lost all their severance pay when their company went under. In the meantime, the chairman in one case was renovating his $94 million estate.

Why is all this so grievous? It is because of what these same executives did to their employees and stockholders. Do the people at the top of great corporations care at all about people at the bottom? A new term entered our vocabulary a few years back downsizing.

It means “trimming back” primarily at the expense of employees. In a long article some years ago in the Wall Street Journal, Susan Faludi recounted the toll just one downsizing exacted from 63,000 employees when Safeway supermarkets decided to get lean and mean.

Faludi recounted suicides, attempted suicides, divorces, broken families, whole towns devastated economically, children who had to drop out of college, and thousands of people left without jobs, or the hope of finding another one. On the other hand, the few executives at the top of the company shared a personal gain of $800 million after four years.

No wonder some of us have trouble sleeping at night. There’s a lot going on in this world to keep you awake. There’s a lot to both sadden us and infuriate us.

And then, just when we think there is no hope for this world into this world comes God. That’s the good news for this first Sunday in a new year. Just when humanity was on the verge of giving up and giving in, here comes God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it . . . The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God . . . the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”
AN UPBEAT WORD FOR A DOWNBEAT WORLD. That’s our theme for the months of January and February.

If you and I want to wallow in despair and gloom we will have to do it somewhere else. In C. S. Lewis’ words, we live in a God-invaded world. --- And where God is, there is hope.

This is not to ignore the realities of our world. This is not a perfect world. Far from it. For example, there is a moral and ethical crisis in our land that cannot be glossed over. It permeates our society from the corporate boardroom all the way down to the community grade school.

A Rutgers University study found that over 75% of college students cheat. And studies of college faculty show that the professors are often aware of the cheating and do nothing about it.

In fact, faculty at Columbia University and Syracuse University two highly regarded schools have published essays suggesting that students shouldn’t be held accountable for their cheating because it would hurt the student-professor relationship.

Hello! Where do these schools find professors like these. There has never been a better time to crack down on student cheating. Not because we wish these students any ill will, but because these young people need to understand what it means to be responsible members of society.

There is a moral and ethical crisis in our land. We would never deny such an obvious reality. But be careful of wringing your hands and declaring that the world is going to the dogs.

Consider another perspective on today’s young people. Did you know that according to a survey in Time magazine compared to teens twenty years ago, today’s young people are less likely to get pregnant, less likely to get an abortion, less likely to drink alcohol, less likely to commit a violent crime, and more likely to do volunteer work.

We live in a God-invaded world. We should never give in to despair and feelings of doom. “The Word has become flesh and dwelt among us . . .”

This does not mean we live in a perfect world, but it does mean that our world is never beyond hope. Where God is, there is the possibility of renewal. But where is hope to be found? Why, it is to be found right here….in this faith community.

Hope is found in the body of Christ. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Why? In order to bring into being a new community of people, the people of the Way, the people of the cross.

St. Paul writes in Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love . . .”

In other words, the reason Christ came into the world was to form us into his people, his bride, his body that we might do his work in the world. Where there are people who bow at the name of Jesus, there is hope for the world.

This is not to say that church people are always aware of their calling, of course. Some churches operate more like social clubs than organizations devoted to changing the world.

Author Leonard Sweet was looking for a good place to have lunch in the community of Cannon Beach, Oregon. He approached a quaint café and pulled on the door. It was locked. On the door was a sign: “Out to lunch. Be back at 1:30.” During the noon hour, the owner of the café had gone out to lunch.

Somehow, he didn’t get the fact that it was important for his business, a café, to also be serving lunch. So it was no surprise that under the “Out to lunch” sign was another sign reading “Store for sale.”

There are many churches today that are “out to lunch” when it comes to reaching out to change the world. But fortunately, there are many other churches like Pilgrim and many church members also like Pilgrim --- who are seeking the best they are able, to make a difference in the world.

As long as there are disciples of Christ there is hope for the world. The question you and I need to ask ourselves is, are we doing our part?

This is a crazy world, but it is also a God-invaded world. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us . . .” Christ has redeemed us that we might work in his behalf to redeem the world.

An upbeat Word for a downbeat world.

Amen