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SERMONS:
Pastor Peg posts her sermons from our most recent sermon series on this page. If you are interested in reading more of her sermons you can go to pastorpeg.wordpress.com. Our last series examined the baggage that we carry in life and how it hinders us. Our current series Explores Ordinary People in the Bible and how they related to God and how God related to them. Enjoy.
Hannah
October 25, 2026 22nd Sunday of Pentecost
1 Samuel 1:1-20 1 Samuel 1:24-28
I'm giving you fair warning: This sermon is going to have a feminist bent to it because we are going to be talking about Hannah; a woman who is trying to fit into her world and her relationship with God in the best way she can. And that’s going to involve some female thinking and reflection.
Hannah is an ordinary housewife of her time. The scriptures do not say that she comes from an aristocratic family; nor is she descendant from the priesthood. Her husband, Elkhana, is from the hill country of Ephraim, so he was probably a farmer. I like to think that he had a good size holding and was able to take care of his family. But the one thing that stands out in scripture is that he loves Hannah; that she is his favorite wife.
And yes, he has two wives. Hannah has not given him any children, so it is quite possible that even though he loves her, his family has pressured him into marrying another woman so that he will have children to carry on the family line. Now polygamy was not common in Jewish culture. It was only accepted in certain specific instance as a necessity, such as if your first wife didn't have children. The taking on of a second wife for that purpose was excused and allowed.
I want you to think of the dynamics of Hannah’s family. She’s the first wife, so she is, by custom, the female head of the household. She is the one who gets to decide how the work is parceled out; how the food is managed; what the textiles are used for; and she’s responsible for the servant’s wages. She has power, but no children.
Peninnah is the one who has children, but no power. Her sons will inherit the land, but she doesn't have power in the running of the household. And you can imagine that this sets up a dynamic of tension and resentment. Hannah, while she loves her husband and is his right hand in the managing of his affairs, feels incomplete as a wife and woman because she isn't able to have children. Plus, she is constantly reminded that she has not fulfilled the primary duty of a wife in the Jewish culture, which is to continue the line, because there is another woman in this household who has given her husband children.
Peninnah, on the other hand, is the one who has the social status of fertility but has no power in the social structure of the household. She is second to Hannah and is expected by society to follow her orders. I can see that she might resent that, especially if she feels that Elkanah loves Hannah more than her. So, it is no wonder that Peninnah is a little bit of a (and I’m going to use this word) bitch to Hannah and constantly flaunts her childbearing status.
I think the only thing that kept Hannah going was the fact that her husband did show her that he loved her and would say to her, “Am I not worth more than ten sons to you?” He loved her even though she didn't give him children. And in this story Elkanah is an example to other husbands to love your wife, even if they’re not perfect according to social norms. To not cast them off and treat them as less. Elkanah accepted Hannah for who she was as a loving, caring person, and I think that must have kept her going.
But finally, one year it's just all too much for her. After years of taking care of her husband's house as best she could, while enduring snide abuse from the second wife, and probably a lot of continual pity from society because she wasn't a complete, fertile woman, she breaks down. It's all just too much.
But Hannah doesn't go into her room and cry. She has faith. So instead, she takes her petition to God when the family is camped at Shiloh.
Now remember this is pre-Jerusalem and pre-temple. The Ark of the Covenant was on a wagon which traveled from town to town with Eli, the high priest. When they came to a town, a tent would be set up around the Ark with an altar in front. People would bring their prayers and sacrifices to the altar, but only the priest could go inside the tent because that is a very holy place of great power. Ordinary people were not allowed inside, but you could stand at the entrance and look in, to the Ark.
Hannah rises early and goes and stands at the entrance and prays. She is praying with her whole heart, and mind, and soul. She’s distressed and all that emotion is coming out of her and she’s weeping bitterly. She’s praying quietly through the sobs and asking God for a son. And she tells God that if she does have a son that she will dedicate him to the Lord.
That's very important because that is her sacrifice. She knows that her husband has sons by his second wife who will inherit. That's not what she wants or what is important to her. She feels broken and incomplete. She wants to have a part of her heart and spirit restored to her and to be made whole. And if that wholeness is restored to her then she will gladly give up her son to become a servant of God.
I find this sacrifice of Hannah to be very inspiring. It’s so easy for a parent to get caught up in what you think your child should be or what you think they should become. And Hannah is willing to let her son leave her and her house, and become a priest, if that his calling. We might think that this is like a modern-day mother who tells her kid that they’re going to be a doctor or lawyer. But a Jewish person would read this and realize that Hannah is giving him to be educated but ultimately, he will or will not be called to God by God, and it’s his decision to become a priest or not. She is saying to God that she won’t stand in her son’s way if he wants to serve. She knows there are certain obligations the priests had to go through that separated them from their families. And remember the family structure was the bedrock of the Hebrew culture. People without families had a really tough time.
But Hannah is willing to let go of her expectations and her ego so that her son can be what he is meant to be according to God and God's plan. She trusts that God will take care of her child and find a way forward for him.
But while Hannah is praying in a very distressful manner, it's interesting that Eli the priest sees this woman and what's the first thing he thinks of? She's drunk. Well, it's good to know that even back in biblical times there were some men who were highly insensitive to women and their feelings. But I'll give Eli credit; once Hannah explains to him what's going on he's on her side and he comforts her and assures her that God has heard her prayers.
You know Bible characters aren’t perfect; they’re human like we are. And sometimes they do something and we think: Whoa dude, what are you thinking? When that happens, we’re being given an example of how not to act. I think that this reflects Eli’s assumptions of Hannah. If people are distressed, don’t assume they’re drunk or crazy. Don’t minimalize their feelings. Find out what’s wrong with them and see if you can help.
God does give Hannah a son and she explains to her husband what she promised God. Now here we have another good example from Elkanah. Does he say, “This is my son and I will decide what to do with him?” No, he sees the sacrifice that Hannah is making to become whole and he honors her promise and supports her decision.
She gives Samuel up when he is weaned, which is not when he stops breastfeeding, but when he is about five or six years old, the age at which sons would start to be taught by their fathers. But she does continue to visit him and take him presents as he grows.
Hannah shows us that no matter who with are, with whatever perceived social deficits we have, God still loves us. We are his children and he will listen to us. Today we wouldn’t blame Hannah for not being able to have children. (Elkanah was a man very ahead of his time; he never blamed her.) But society still puts expectations on us as to what makes a good and complete person. Does a high-school or college diploma make you a complete person? Does a husband or wife make you a complete person? Does owning a house makes you a complete person? Society puts on us many expectations, big or small, and we cannot live up to them all. But in the end, they don’t really matter to God.
What matters is loving God, ourselves, and each other by doing acts of generosity and compassion every day. Being a compassionate human being who loves kindness, does justice, and walks humbly with God is the only expectation that God has of us. So when you don’t feel whole because society says you’re not, go to God for your healing. And he will show you your true worth, and put you on a path that will lead you to joy.
Gideon
October 18, 2026 21st Sunday of Pentecost Laity Sunday
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Judges 6:11-16
I think it's really cool that we're starting this new sermon series which focuses on some very ordinary people in our Bible history and how with the help of God they did extraordinary things. I think it's also very cool that we’re starting this series on Laity Sunday. And since it is Laity Sunday, I would like to read the thank you note that I included in the scripture insert.
Laity Sunday is observed each year on the third Sunday of October. It recognizes the people who carry out the church’s ministry every day: Teaching classes, leading committees, organizing events, feeding neighbors, visiting the homebound, serving on mission teams, and so much more.
I would like to thank each and every one of my congregants who help to make our church a place of vitality and peace. No matter what you do, whether it be serving on committees, helping out with events, participating in worship, attending Bible Study, visiting people, it contributes to building the Kingdom. Every brick, big or small, is important.
Thank you for these four years that I have served with you. Your kindness, patience, and dedication have sustained myself and Michael. I literally could not have done this calling and job without all of you. And I pray that I can continue to serve you well into the future.
Now let's talk about Gideon who is from the Book of Judges. (Please note that Judges weren’t kings – they were people you went to, to settle disputes.) You know, if you want to read a pretty terrifying historic novel read this book. It's kind of like reading about the lawless Wild West in America. It takes place over a 410 year period, from about 1,400 BCE to 1,000 BCE; after the Hebrews entered into the promised land until the appointment of Saul as king. In the book there’s tribal fighting between the tribes of Abraham and tribal fighting between other tribes and religions that live in the region. The book ends in a civil war in which the tribe of Benjamin is very nearly wiped out. In fact, the last line of the book of Judges says: In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
So, who is Gideon? Most scholars agree that he was alive during 1180 BCE. He was a member of the tribe of Manasseh, which is one of the smaller Hebrew tribes. The Bible narrative tells us that for about 40 years, after Barak and Deborah’s victory, the Hebrews had peace with their neighbors. But they also started to become interested in the other gods of the region and started to worship them as well. This is a bad thing. Part of the first commandment is that you’re only supposed to worship God and not put any other gods before Him. So, God allowed the Midianites to take over Jewish territories.
When we meet Gideon, he’s pounding his wheat in a wine vat. If you look at your bulletin you will see that the vat was a stone pit, that you would place the grapes in, then crush them, cover the vat, and then let the juice ferment. Once the wine was fermented you would take it out of the vat, drain it, and put it into jugs to age. You would then clean out the vat, making it ready for the next year’s harvest.
The vats were usually about three to four feet deep, and Gideon is in this vat beating out the grain from the wheat because he’s hiding the harvest results from the local Midian raiders. This shows us that the Jewish people were living in a state of fear. An angel comes to Gideon and tells him that he is the person who is going to save his people from this oppression.
Gideon doesn’t believe him at first. In fact, he asks God for several tests to prove that He IS the almighty God and will stand by his side. The most famous one is when he asks God to keep a fleece dry during a wet night and wet during a dry night, and God provides.
You might ask: Why would you want to test God before going out and doing something that He asks of you? Well, Gideon is a man of faith, which is why God chooses him, but he’s also surrounded by these strange gods and spirits that stand against God and his people. And Gideon is probably worried that one of those other gods or spirits is going to play a trick on him and cause his people to be wiped out if they go to war with the Midianites. So, he’s being cautious.
Gideon is an important character for us because he shows us that it’s okay to question and maybe even test God when you feel that He wants you to do something. Especially something important or life changing. And God is okay with that. He understands that Gideon needs some proof. If you feel that you need some confirmation that you’re doing the right thing or taking the right stand you can say: Hey, God. I need a little proof that I am doing the right thing, and my actions are what you want me to do. In fact, the origin of the phrase putting out a fleece, which we don't use so much anymore, is a reference to Gideon and means: To look for a sign from God before undertaking some action or carrying out some plan.
Once Gideon is convinced that God is who He is, who will be on the side of the Hebrews, he raises an army, defeats the Midianites – even though they have vastly superior numbers – gives God the glory for the victory; throws down the altars of the local gods, and restores peace to the region while reigning as a Judge for 40 years.
Besides showing us that you can question God and ask for proof, Gideon is also an example of someone who carries out God’s purpose, even though the odds of completing the mission are overwhelmingly against making that purpose come true.
How many of us give up on something or don’t even start something because we feel that the task or project is just too impossible? I remember when I was presented with the idea of going to Japan, something in me aligned and felt right about doing it. But it was such a big idea that it didn’t seem to be possible to do. And there were also several nay-sayers in my life who told me that it was just too big a thing and wouldn’t work. But I remember saying to myself: If God wants me to do this, He will show me how to do this. So, God show me how to do this. I then started to meet people, who led me to information, and gradually it all came together. I cannot tell you how many times that has happened to me in my life.
I can also tell you that I have NOT done things because things did not line up. And I really think that God was blocking me from doing something that I shouldn’t do. And when that happened it always seems that something else came along that I was meant to do.
That is living in faith. Do I do it all the time? No. I have not lived in faith as often as I could have. But I will say that God sometimes whacks me on the head and gets me back in line. But part of living in faith is that you’ve got to pay attention, and be open to communicating with God, like Gideon did.
You’ve all heard of the Gideon’s Bible? The Gideon’s International is the organization that’s responsible for leaving Bibles in hotel rooms. But it’s primary purpose is to be a spiritual organization dedicated to helping people live in their faith, using Gideon as their example. The organization states: Gideon was a man who was willing to do exactly what God wanted him to do regardless of his own judgment, as to the plans or the results. Humility, faith, and obedience were his great elements of character. This is the standard we try to establish an all our members. Each person to be ready to do God's will at any time, at any place, and in any way that the Holy Spirit lead us.
Getting back to Laity Sunday. As a minister I can do nothing without God, but I also can do nothing without all of you. This church is here because you all have faith. It is my job to encourage and help you grow that faith, and to help you figure out how live it. This is your platform, your safe space to try out ideas, to confront difficulties, and to test out how you want to express that faith to the world.
Once Gideon was sure that God was working with him he was bold because of his faith, so be bold in living out your faith like Gideon. And as we live boldly in our faith may we find and live our purpose in God.
The Flow of Grace
October 4, 2026 World Communion Sunday
Ephesians 3:5-12 Luke 10:25-37
We don't realize in our current age how radical Jesus' message of the parable of the Good Samaritan was.
Back in the 1st century, Israel was occupied by the Romans and was Rome’s vassal state. Anything foreign was considered to be suspect. It was thought that different cultural ideas and practices would undermine and destroy the religion and traditions of the Hebrew people.
Maybe this sounds a little paranoid but there was a lot of history behind this. Before 1,000 BCE The Hebrews were a collection of tribes living in scattered territories with Canaan tribes. Then under the rulers of Saul and David they became strong enough to claim the territory of Israel as their own and they created a Jewish Kingdom with a central capital and a central place of worship in Jerusalem. This only lasted for two generations and then David's grandson, Rehoboem, was such a bad ruler that he ended up splitting the Kingdom into Israel in the north and Judah in the South. But those two countries still functioned as Jewish nations for several hundred years, until Israel got run over by the Assyrians, in 732 BCE, and then Judea by the Babylonians, in 586 BCE.
When the Assyrians and Babylonian conquered those nations, they moved Jewish people over into the Assyrian and Babylonian territories and moved Assyrians and Babylonians into the Jewish territories. In the old world this was a way of forcibly assimilating people. It was believed that the mingling of the different cultures would eventually produce a single coherent population. It didn't work. The Jewish people maintained their identity and then during the reign of Cyrus, the first Persian emperor, they were allowed to go back to Israel and rebuild their temple.
They were still a vassal state, but they had maintained their Jewish identity and traditions. This worked for a while until Alexander the Great conquered the territory. After the Greeks came the Romans, who weren’t interested in allowing the Jewish people to be independent and kept the Jewish people as second class citizens in their own country.
When a culture is oppressed, you hold on to your identity by trying to keep it pure. So, the idea of considering anyone, other than a Jewish person, to be your neighbor is the beginning of a slippery slope to losing your identity.
Jesus deliberately uses the Samaritan in this story because the Samaritans were the Hebrews who had remained in the Israel territory and had intermarried with people from Assyria and Babylon all those years ago. To the Jews who had stayed “pure” in exile and then returned they thought that the Samaritans had abandoned the purity of the Jewish race, by accepting outsiders and their influence, even though Samaritans were still Jewish. They prayed Jewish prayers, they spoke Hebrew, they followed Jewish holidays and customs. Maybe they did it a little differently, because people develop their own traditions to reflect where they are at that time, but they considered themselves to be Jewish
Samaritans represented the start of outsiders coming into the Jewish hearth and home, and causing things to be divergent from what true Judaism was.
So you see, for Jesus to make the Samaritan the hero in this story is a challenge to the Jewish lawyer and those who are listening to him preach. Think about the word neighbor. Neigh means to be near and Bor means inhabitant, so it’s the person who's inhabiting the space near you. The Levite, who is descendant from Moses brother Aaron could be neighbor, and the Priest, who is someone considered to be holy and right with God, could also be a neighbor. But the Samaritan, cannot possibly be a neighbor, or even a person, because he isn't Jewish.
Jesus was asking his people to expand the idea of who their neighbor is beyond the Jewish person living next door to anyone who we meet on the road.
It’s interesting that we don't know who the person on the road is. Jesus just tells us that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, encountered robbers who beat him and left him there. We don't know his nationality, or ethnicity, or religion. Jerusalem to Jericho was a main trade route, that connected to all over the Middle East, so this guy could have been anyone. Jesus was telling this Jewish crowd that the Samaritan is your neighbor, and by extension couldn’t the injured man be a Greek, or a Roman, or an Egyptian? Are they also your neighbors?
But it is not the “good” Levite, or the “good” Jewish Priest who goes to check on the person in the road; they actually pass on the other side. It is that not-our-neighbor-Samaritan who goes to check, who shows mercy and care. And that mercy and care extends beyond the road, even beyond when he drops him off at the inn.
You get the feeling that these guys are going to be friends in the future. Well wouldn’t you become friends in this situation?
But of course, in our 21st century we are more evolved now.
Are we? There’s a war going on in Gaza right now that could maybe use this message. We have a history of politicians that play on and use xenophobia for their own ends. The early settlers used the Native Americans. In the 1700’s the Germans were the people who were coming to ruin our way of life. Then it was the Irish, then the Italians, then the Asians, then the Mexicans, then the Haitians. Politicians have labeled groups as not our neighbors, even though they’ve lived peacefully among us for years.
Like the people that Jesus was challenging, at some point we have to decide: Who is our neighbor, and how do we treat them? With distain or with compassion?
Today is World Communion Sunday. It’s a day when we remember and celebrate the fact that we are gathered together here at the Table of Grace. But we are not just celebrating with each other in this space. We are celebrating with Christians in the next town, in the next county, in the next state, all throughout the country, all throughout our hemisphere, and all throughout the world. We acknowledge that we are all God’s creation and children, and that all of us live in, and with, God’s Grace.
How will you carry your communion with God today out into the world? Will you accept the challenge that Jesus gave to that lawyer, 2,000 years ago? Will you live the holy mystery of God and Jesus’ love that calls all of us be neighbors to each other? I hope that when we leave this place we will all agree with Jesus who said, “Go and do likewise.”
Finding Our Contentment in God
September 27, 2026 18th Sunday of Pentecost
Hebrews 13:5-6 1 Timothy 6:6-12
This week the bulletins at Hobart, Township, and Bloomville have on the cover a set of scales. On one side of the scales is a bag of money and on the other side is a heart which is lower than the bag of money, showing that the heart is stronger than money. This weighing of the heart is actually a very old image dating back to ancient Egypt.
When a person died in Egypt they went before the gods, and your heart was weighed on a scale against a feather. Now this wasn't just any feather; this was the feather of Ma’at the goddess of truth, justice, and balance or order in life. If you had lived a balanced life, attempted to speak the truth as much as you could, and treated others with fairness and justice, your heart would be lighter than this feather, and you would be judged to be a good person. If, however, your heart sank, that showed that you were a bad person and your heart would be fed to the crocodile-lion, which would effectively destroy your soul.
Most ancient cultures actually thought that the heart was more important than the brain. You thought with both your heart and mind. Logic was important, but for human interaction pure rationality was thought to be an abandoning of your human self. Because, although the brain thought, it’s in heart that we feel and value those thoughts. So, all the important memories of what you did in life was kept in the heart. And that was why it was weighed.
Judaism also has this theology. It’s said that we must write the words of God on our hearts, not just know what they are. We must connect them with our emotions; with the love that we have for God, others and ourselves, in order to make them meaningful and valuable to us. If we do this, we will act upon those values with the compassion and grace of God.
Money is often used as a symbol of the material world because that’s how our society gets stuff. It’s what we use to label the value of something. Tribal groups didn’t use money, they just bartered goods for what they needed; so many squirrel pelts for so many arrow heads. But somewhere along the line someone figured out that you could use a substitute for squirrel pelts – whether it was beads, or shells, or pieces of metal – and the concept of money was born.
Money is a convenient thing. It’s how we buy our food, clothing and houses. It’s nice to have enough money to take care of all our daily needs. And it’s understandable that we worry that we won’t have enough money for those needs. I’ve been surprised in the last few years to see ads on television targeted at 20-year-olds that offered services to help with their credit ratings and retirement funds. I don’t remember those kinds of ads targeting me when I was 20. While I don’t disagree with credit ratings and retirement this worries me because you can get so easily caught up in the stress of do-I-have-enough that your focus devolves to: How much money do I have? Do I have enough stuff? Do I have the right stuff? Is my stuff going to last?
You can spiral down into a worry that will drive you crazy. So crazy that it will be the only thing you’ll focus on, and it will become the lense through which you see the world. Do I have enough? Maybe I should work harder to the neglect of those in my life, and maybe even my own health. Do know that the Japanese have a term Karaoshi, which literally translates as “death by overwork?” In Japan, if you can prove that a person worked constantly over 65 hours a week, you can put Karaoshi down as cause of death on the death certificate.
This is why we are warned that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. What happens when you love something? When you fall in love with someone, they become your focus. That person is the one you are thinking about all the time. Even when you’re away from them you think about them, and you want to do things that will nurture your relationship with them. I have to confess that every time I go to Stuart’s for milk that I check to see if there is eggnog, because my sweetie likes eggnog. And, yes, I do buy it for him. That is focusing on love.
We do need food, clothing, and shelter in our lives; we do need money in our lives. And let’s face it most of us really do like to work. Oh, my gosh if you find your passion, if you find the job that or career that you love to do – that’s wonderful, because you are going to have a source of happiness other than just acquiring money. The money is going to be incidental to the satisfaction of your heart. Finding joy is part of fighting the good fight of our faith. But while we’re getting the stuff we need, we need to focus also on our faith.
Timothy reminds people that this world is a fleeting place. We come in without stuff and we exit without stuff. You can’t take it with you, and the person who dies with the most toys is dead. But how do we find our balance between what we actually need and what we don’t need? How much money is enough? And instead of money and the acquisition of stuff, how to we direct our focus to our faith?
Well, John Wesley had a phrase that he gave to people when they asked him these questions: Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.
Earn all you can: It’s understood that people have to earn money to live and that people like to work. Like I said before there is nothing wrong with having a job that you love which pays well. But our commandments are to love God, love our neighbors, and to love ourselves; and work shouldn’t come at the expense of those relationships. Work can be a reflection of our faith because it’s a chance to show our love to the people we work with. But don’t use work as an excuse to neglect your family and friends. We need to find the balance between our work commitments and our relationships outside of work. We need to allow ourselves to have the time to connect to God in worship. We need to understand that earning all we can doesn’t mean sacrificing our relationships to earning more money. All we can means there is a line we need to establish of how much we earn, but still have time to honor our commitments to those we love, and allows us to continue to nurture our relationships.
Save all you can: This is where you can find the balance between necessary spending and unnecessary indulgence. When you’re actively saving for something, like a car or a trip, you budget what you can spend and sacrifice unnecessary things to save your money towards that goal. You find out what you need, and don’t need to have, to get by. You become more aware of the stuff that you have, use it to your advantage, as opposed to wasteful spending and consumption. I once gave myself the challenge to NOT by any new clothing for one year, except for socks and underwear. (I deemed those to be a necessity.) This meant that I had to go through my clothing and see what I actually had to use. Which also meant that I found some clothing that I had forgotten about, and some clothing that didn’t fit anymore, or was worn out. But I didn’t buy to replace any of the stuff that I got rid of, I just learned how to more effectively mix and match the clothing that I had. Saving all you can is not just putting money in the bank – it’s learning how to efficiently use your assets and resources.
Give all you can: Since we’re talking about money, we automatically think about giving money. But although it’s nice to be able to write a check to a charity, what most local charities need is people to give their time to help them. CORE VALUES, Angel’s Attic, the Christmas Feeling Fund, the Fire Department, and our churches, are all organizations in our area that cannot function without people giving of their time and energy. And think of what happens when you do give of your time to those charities. You make friends; you connect with the community; and you know that you are helping beyond your circle of contact. You are nurturing the love and good will in your community, and anytime you give someone or something love, you are also giving love to God through His creation.
When we put our relationships as the focus of our lives; when we work for joy and connection; when we live with necessity, not the gain of surplus; and when we give what we can, when we can, to help our neighbors; then we find ourselves living a content life with and in the intentions of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And then, instead of money being our shield against the world, we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”
Living With Abundance
September 20, 2026 17th Sunday of Pentecost
Acts 11:19-30 Matthew 6:24-34
Today we're going to start a new sermon series on generosity. Being the English nerd that I am, I started with the definition of the word generous, which is: Showing a readiness to give more of something, such as time or money, than is considered to be necessary. And the word generosity is the action of being generous.
So, a person is generous when they give more than what is normally expected. I tend to be very generous when it comes to baking for bake sales. I always seem to end up making double batches of cookies, pies or cakes. Personally, I'm not sure if that's being generous or anxious, because I’m always sure that we will never have enough to sell so I end up making more than is expected of me.
But my generous-anxiety illustrates an aspect of generosity; the motivation behind our actions. We do acts of generosity for a variety of reasons. Maybe a person just likes to do something, like baking, and so they give more of their time and energy to it. Maybe a person has a certain cause or organization that speaks to their life experience, such as someone whose parents died of cancer, so they give to, or work for, a cancer research organization. Maybe a person wants to help out in their community because they know that their neighbors are in need, so they donate to the food bank or the Christmas feeling fund. Or maybe they are a person who wants to look good in society, so they give money and time to certain causes that they think will give them some status.
Some of these reasons are altruistic, some are self-serving, and some of them might be a little mercenary. But you know what? I don't think the motivations really matter, because generosity, whether it is for a belief in a cause, just wanting to help neighbors, or even seeking social status, is going to help someone. Any blessing, no matter what the motivation, is still a blessing. Let’s let God worry about people's motivations. He can handle them a lot better than we can.
But I do think that there’s a condition that exists before people can be generous. I think many of us feel that we need to have enough to take care of ourselves satisfactorily before we can be generous. And I’m not necessarily talking about having a level of stuff or money. It has to do with what you can donate of and from yourself. I volunteered at the school radio station when I was in college, and I liked it and I learned a lot, but I had to give it up because it interfered with my classes and study time. I just couldn’t be that generous with my time at the radio station.
This memory hit me when I was reading the Matthew scripture. We actually read this same scripture a few weeks ago when we were talking about worrying. At that time I said that Jesus was trying to keep his disciples from worrying about the present and future to the point that they would freeze and not do anything. And I wondered, “Why is this scripture here in a sermon series about generosity? How does this relate?”
I thought that maybe one of the beliefs of the disciples that caused them to worry, was that they were surrounded by scarcity, and they feared that they wouldn’t be able to find enough for themselves, or what they needed wouldn’t be provided for. There was a thought in the back of their minds that they didn’t have enough to get by on. Yet, they are listening to Jesus preach a gospel of generosity of spirit. Jesus said that if you have two cloaks give one to your neighbor who doesn’t have one. But I think the disciples probably only had one cloak. How can you be generous when you only have the basic necessities?
I think that besides worry, Jesus was trying to turn the disciple’s minds from an outlook of scarcity to one of abundance.
When I was living in Japan a friend gave me a collection of motivation tapes by Tony Robbins, a 90’s motivation guru. One of his comments that has really stuck with me was his claim that we are very lucky to be living in a country of abundance. He pointed out that all of us have access to many public facilities like libraries and public parks that we can enjoy for free. He encouraged people to see the abundance that they had in their lives in terms of their resources and opportunities.
Often in stress-filled times we tend to focus on what we don’t have. We say to ourselves: If only I had enough money, or enough time, or enough education, or enough tools, or enough talent, I would be better off. I would be able to fix whatever problems I have and live a more stress-free life.
Now I don’t want to belittle the fact that very often we don’t have all the resources we need to fix our problems. Sometimes we get stuck because we’re looking at what we have and not considering that there is stuff that can help us that lies beyond the little circle we’ve been staring at. One of our big resources are the people who surround us. Look around you – this includes your family, friends, and neighbors, plus the greater community of organizations, like our church, that can be utilized.
I know of one woman who was going through a rough time with cancer. She lived far from the hospital that she went to for treatment and couldn’t make the support groups that they offered. She advertised that she was going to start a cancer support group using her local church as the meeting place. She was hoping for a small number to start with, maybe 3 or 4 people. She had 24 that first meeting! Using the resources around her – beyond what her hospital offered – she started a vital program for herself and others which went on for years and helped many people, not just herself.
Abundance and generosity doesn’t have to be huge – they just have to be what we need right now, at this moment, that we can share with others. And remember that enough-list that I just gave you? The one with money, time, education, tools, and talent? We all have those things. Maybe not enough to solve our problems at this moment, but we all have enough to build a base to get more of what we need.
Jesus tells his disciples: But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? Later in Matthew he will urge his disciples to ask God for what they need because God will not deny them. I admit that sometimes I am of little faith because I have a reluctance to ask God to help me with resources that I need. My reluctance comes from an independent-streak that makes me believe that I should be able to handle everything by myself. Wrong! I have to really step on my ego when it gets like that because I KNOW that I’m not a superwoman who can do it all. Why shouldn’t I ask for help if I need it? We all need help at some point or another and there is nothing wrong with asking God! In fact, I’ve found that if I ask God for help first, it’s easier for me to ask for help from others.
If I believe that I have the necessities to live, and I practice seeing the abundance around me, then I am well on my way to having the right mind set to be generous to others. Because when we believe that we have everything we need, we also believe that we can share it with others. I can share my money, time, education, tools, and talent. Maybe not all of them at once, but the ones that are needed when they are called for.
Look for the abundance that you have around you. Go ahead and take some time to make a list of your money, time, education, tools, talent and especially our love. And don’t be afraid to ask God for more. With our little faith, our hearts in Christ, and our generosity to share our resources we can do much. All it takes is a willingness to live in abundance, not scarcity, and we’ll be living in in a world of generosity that is building the Kingdom.
Packing for the Journey
September 13, 2026 14th Sunday of Pentecost
Galatians 5:16-17, 22-26 Matthew 7:16-20
The last few weeks we've been talking about the baggage we carry; the stuff that weighs us down in life. We've talked about the worries that we have now and in the future. We’ve talk about the unforgiveness we carry, about things that have happened to us, or to people that we know, and how that can keep us from being loving people. We’ve also talked about our regrets of things that we haven't done, or things that we have done that we’re ashamed of.
Spiritual baggage burdens our lives. We all have worries, emotions from unforgiveness, and regrets that we would like to get rid of to lighten the load of our life-journey. All the negative emotions like anger and resentment, and the regrets take up real estate in our brain. Think about it – do you really want those negative tenants taking up room in your mental and emotional property? It might be healthier to just evict those nasty tenants and get a better night sleep. You’ll be making a lot more space for better thoughts and feelings.
But there's another image that baggage calls to mind when we use its synonym luggage. Luggage gives us a much more positive image, don't you think? When I say I’m getting out my luggage, it implies that I’m going to go on a journey that will take me to some place that’s exciting, or relaxing, or social. Also, we carry the luggage of positive emotions and responsibilities that we want to take on. Partners in romantic relationships take on the responsibility of caring for their significant others. Parents take on the responsibility of caring for their children. Children might take on the responsibility of taking care of parents later on in life. If you're an animal lover, you take on the responsibility of caring for your animals. Sometimes my two cats make my life a little cumbersome, but I love my fur-babies dearly and so I'm going to keep on with that loving burden.
The idea of life being a journey has been used by every religion on this planet, and Christians use the journey image and metaphor a lot. Christians say our life is a journey to God. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are walking with us, supporting us, and guiding us on our journey.
We use travel images to express the easy times and the hard times. We ask God to make the rough places plain; the crooked path straight; and we talk about the mountaintop highs and the valley lows. We say that God leads us to peaceful places beside still waters.
When I think of the Christian journey, I often picture a very long road, starting at the beginning when I'm born, and moving through an incredible series of landscapes, until I end up at the river Jordan which signifies the end of my life. And then I will cross that river, and enter into a new land. Isn’t that a nice image?
But think about when you go on a trip. We don’t just walk out the door. We pack a bag with some provisions that are going to help us along the way. Usually for a trip I bring clothes to wear – tailored for various situations – toiletries for my personal care, and often something to eat to nourish myself along the way. Think about the journey of life. We clothe ourselves with attitudes for the situations that we encounter; we have routines for our self-care; and we do things, like read books or learn new skills, to nourish our minds, hearts, and spirits so that we can become better people, which will help us to get better at traveling through life.
In our Galatians scripture, Paul is talking about our journey through life as Christians with the teachings and heart of Jesus Christ. I don’t know why this series left out a middle chunk of this scripture. Maybe because they wanted to just get to the positive parts that we needed for our journey, as opposed to the negative parts that we want to leave behind. But I'm going to give you the negative part anyway, because these are things that a Christian is supposed to leave by the side of the road. Paul calls the negative parts the works of the flesh and the positive parts the fruits of the spirit.
So, the works of the flesh are: Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Now as you can see by the ending and things like these that Paul probably had a more extensive list in mind, but these were the biggies. I don't think any of us want any one of these things in our lives at any time. This is baggage that we could definitely leave by the side of the road.
The fruits of the Spirit are: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The fruits of the spirit are the attitudes and mental states that we want to clothe ourselves in as we make our way through the world. Not only do we carry them with us, but by practicing these attitudes and mental states we produce these states of being in our lives for others.
Before I gave you the idea of a journey as a life-long image, but our journey is also made of small trips that we take. Every day you go on a small journey. Every activity that you do is a small journey. If I go to a soccer game, or visit someone, even if I am just at home working on my sermon, I am going on a journey. I’ll be meeting people and listening to their stories. Maybe I will hear about some new endeavor that they have. Maybe I’ll be offering sympathy about a problem. Maybe I’ll end up solving a problem. Maybe, even being alone and working on that sermon, I’ll come across some new information that will reveal something about myself, or the world around me.
But my attitude and mental states of mind are going to affect how I approach and process those little trips that I'm taking. If I walk into a situation burdened with anger, jealousy or suspicion, I’m not going to have a very good time or learn very much. I’m not going to see benefits for myself or others. I’m only going to see obstacles and impossibilities.
However, if I walk into a situation carrying patience, kindness and generosity, I’m probably going to have much better time with the experience and probably learn something that I can take forward into my life. I’m going to see benefits, opportunities and possibilities that I can move forward into.
As Christians we believe that our life-journey is worth it because we have been assured that there is an end that is worth it. Our faith is not nihilistic. Our faith is continuous throughout eternity. We are told that there is a place for us in God’s house. And that Jesus went before us to prepare a place for us.
Jesus tells us that we will know the good people of faith by their fruits; by the attitudes that they clothe themselves with, and by the production of loving actions in their lives. But in order to be positive people of faith we need to lay our down our negative attitudes that lead to despair and pick up the positive ones that lead to loving actions of Grace.
But laying down our burdens is tough. They WANT to live inside our heads. They want to slow us down and keep us from moving forward. And it’s hard to evict them by ourselves. But if we ask Jesus to help us get rid of them, we can find the strength and courage to stand up to those negative attitudes. We can take a stand against them and put forth the positive ones. We can counter fornication, impurity, licentiousness with respect and faithfulness. We can counter jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envy with kindness and generosity. We can counter drunkenness, carousing and strife with patience and self-control. For every bad attitude there is an equal, if not greater, positive attitude that we can call upon with our faith.
So, what are you going to pack for the journey? Baggage or Luggage? I think we should pick the one that isn’t as heavy and will make our trip a lot more enjoyable. The one that allows us to hear our travel guides, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, more clearly. The journey might be long, but we can have a wonderful time on it when we open our hearts to love.
Leaving Regret Behind
September 6, 2026 15th Sunday of Pentecost Communion
Proverbs 4:25-27 Philippians 3:12-14
I think once you get past the age of 10, you're going to start having regrets in your life. My first big regret came as a freshman in high school. There was a poetry contest for students at our local library, and I didn't enter it because I figured that there would be a lot of older students entering who were better at writing poetry. My friend did enter and actually won the contest. But here's the catch: Only two people entered the contest, so if I had also entered the contest, I would have won either first, second, or third place, along with a monetary scholarship that came with the prize.
Fast forward to the end of university and I didn’t take advantage of a special course that was offered in England at the end of my college career. I was pretty burned out on university, and I just didn't think that one more education class was going to do me any good. I should have gone anyway. After the week-long class I could have spent the rest of the summer seeing England as a tourist. Opportunity missed.
There's nothing wrong with regret because it teaches us that we should consider taking risks on new opportunities when they present themselves to us. And we will have to learn to live with the possibilities of those moments that we passed by. I'll be honest, I regret not entering that contest. I should have at least tried, even if I thought I couldn’t win. I learned: Don’t psych yourself out before you even start, because you never know what the odds are when you enter a contest, or apply to college, or apply to a job, so you might as well go for it.
And sometimes I do wonder: If I had gone to England how would my life have been different? What experiences would I have had as opposed to the experiences that I did have? But when the opportunity to go to Japan came along, I didn’t hesitate to look at my options. I eventually ended up there and I had a great time. So, I did learn something from that regret.
But these regrets are pretty benign. Nothing compared to the regrets that the disciple Paul went through.
Paul was a trained Pharisee. Now you just didn’t decide to become a Pharisee. You had to know your Jewish law and customs backwards and forwards, because your job was to instruct people in how to obey and apply the laws and the customs. You were often called upon to be a mediator in matters that affected the Jewish community. You were expected to live a life of holiness; to be a living example of a good and holy Jewish person.
Now I know that John the Baptist and Jesus both criticized Pharisees, but they were criticizing those who were taking advantage of their positions to enrich themselves and not setting a good example for their community. Remember: In every profession there are good practitioners and bad practitioners.
Paul was relatively young, and probably had a few years of experience in his job, when he came to Jerusalem to work for the Temple. When he gets to the Temple, he realizes that the big problem for those in authority is this new cult of Jews who are following the teachings of a Rabbi called Jesus. This man was crucified for sedition with the blessings of the Temple because they felt his preaching was too radical. Good heavens – Jesus’ followers are saying that he was raised from the dead, and that he made the final blood sacrifice for everyone with his death!
Now I want you to think about what those Proverb verses meant to Paul: To keep your focus on the path ahead, to not swerve to the left or right, and to keep away from evil. I can imagine that Paul, who was raised in a family of Pharisees, took that to heart when he was young. He set himself a goal to become a Pharisee, a defender of the faith. He was going to keep his eyes forward, and not look to the right or the left, as he instructed people in how to be a good Jewish person.
To Paul, these followers of Jesus were the ones who had strayed and who needed to be put on the right path, and he was going to be the one to do it. And he used some pretty ruthless methods: Imprisonment, torture, confiscation of property, and even execution, when people wouldn’t repent of following Jesus. He was so effective that people fled Jerusalem, and he followed them to Damascus, with the goal of finally putting a stop to this crazy cult.
Well, Jesus put a stop to that: Struck him down with light and blinded him for three days to give him time to think, and to make him feel as helpless as his victims had felt. During those three days I bet there was a lot of denial: I didn’t mean to cause all that pain to all those people. Anger: Why didn’t you tell me sooner that you didn’t want me to do this? Bargaining: Look, if you just give me my sight back, I’ll make it up you and everyone. And depression: Oh, my God! What I did to all those poor people in God’s name! I am such a horrible person. Finally, he gets to acceptance: Okay, Jesus, you are real. You’re everything they’ve been telling me you are. You are my Lord and savior. And God restored his sight.
Paul’s focus has now moved to Christ. Now his focus is on love, not condemnation; on mercy, not on dominance; and on evangelism, not on control.
Does Paul have regrets? I think he has huge regrets until the day he dies about what he did during the years that he was the Temple’s inquisitor and enforcer. We never truly lose the bad things that we regret in life; we carry them with us always. But Paul says to us: because Christ Jesus has made me his own . . but this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I don’t think Paul ever forgot the horrible things he did, but he didn’t let his past define his future. And he was able to do that because he put his eye directly forward on Christ.
What Christ did for Paul redefined his heart. Jesus, by stopping him and then forgiving him, gave him a mission that would be a life of atonement, in and through love. A life of showing people how they could be better through Jesus’ teachings, forgiveness, and salvation. A life that moved him through and beyond his despair and into a life of good purpose.
I’ve had a lot of regrets in my life, some of them worse than the two I shared with you today. But I have never regretted believing in Jesus. Even when I wasn’t calling myself a Christian – because I was working out what salvation meant to me – I never said that Jesus didn’t exist. I never said that his teachings were worthless. I feel that they are very good teachings to live by, and I have never regretted that life-style choice. I have never regretted being called “a goody-two-shoes.” It’s better than being called some other things. I have never regretted standing up for justice when it was called for.
My life is in Jesus Christ. And it’s because of my life in Christ that I can look back on my regrets, learn from them, and move on from them.
What do you regret in your life? We often don’t want to think about our regrets because they do weigh us down. But when you give your regrets to Jesus, he will give back to you his forgiveness and show you a way forward from them, and they will become a lighter load. The question is: Are we going to accept that forgiveness and take the gracious path that Jesus lays out for us of kindness, justice, and love?
Don’t let your regrets define you or keep you from moving forward. Every Christians goal is working toward the kingdom of God. Keep straight on that path and your way will be sure, and you will have joy on your journey.