Morton Presbyterian Church

Imagine the people of God practicing the Great Commandment of love. Imagine the people of God showing the whole world how to do this.

We are called to treasure wholeheartedly the kingdom of the One who treasures us wholeheartedly.

Our life-giving Shepherd is with us even when we travel through the darkest valleys.

The risen Christ makes his loving presence known among ordinary people in ordinary situations, like walking and talking together, and sitting down to a meal.

To move into the future with Jesus it is critical to ask probing questions.

No barrier can stop the risen Christ. He comes wherever fearful, overwhelmed people are and gives them the peace of his presence, the breath of new life, and the call to continue his life and work.

While it is still dark God is already up and doing the work of resurrection.

This pandemic season is a wilderness journey of uncertain duration, and our fears are many: fear about the sickness itself, fear for loved ones, fear that there won’t be enough of needed resources, financial fears, and more. As they struggled with thirst in the wilderness, the Israelites cried out, “Is God with us or not?” God invited them to trust, and God provided what they needed from an unexpected source: water from a rock. Even now God is working to provide for us, and to deliver the world, and it may happen in ways as creative, unexpected, and seemingly impossible as squeezing water from a rock.

When the church seeks the power of the state to accomplish its goals, however good they may be, the church is in danger of making deals with the devil. Because they appeared to offer expedient ways to accomplish good, the devil’s deals were appealing. Through prayerful discernment of God’s will, Jesus said “No deal!” Jesus continued to choose the more difficult way of the cross.

Thanks be to God for those precious times when heaven and earth touch, and we glimpse God’s big picture in the shining face of Christ.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus sets before us the less-traveled way of God. We must choose whether or not to walk in it.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream. He is the connecting point between heaven and earth. He is the place where time and eternity intersect.

Inviting others to come and see Jesus is simply about telling what we have seen. Our stories do not have to be dramatic to be helpful to others.

Christ is the Passover Lamb whose life, death, and resurrection delivers liberation to the cosmos. The Lamb sets us free from every form of death, sin included.

Jesus models the way to invite people into his company. Prepared to listen to them, Jesus asks people what they are looking for, invites them to come and see, and a relationship is born in the conversation. Jesus calls us who follow him to approach others first of all with listening ears, and to open ourselves to real involvement and real friendships with them. In real presence with each other we can experience the presence of Jesus.

Jesus' first act of ministry was to go down to the river where the sinners were, and get in the water with them. Christ continues to pursue justice and righteousness in the gentle, yet persistent way of the servant in Isaiah 42.

The vision of the dragon in Revelation 12 points to the shadow in the Christmas story: evil operating through agents like Herod, aiming to destroy the child and the child's siblings. Its agents are still at work, but Christ's people take the way of the wise ones in Matthew 2. They don't cooperate with Herod, and they don't bow before the emperor.

Jeremiah bought a field that he would never be able to use as a sign of hope. It was an investment in God’s future.

God called the exiles to put down roots and seek the wellbeing of Babylon. God calls us to seek the wellbeing of the communities in which God has placed us.

Just as God saw the misery of the Israelite slaves and was determined to do something about it, Jesus saw the bent over woman in the synagogue and was determined to do something about it. God sees and knows what is going on with all who are bowed down. God is going to do something about it, and so are those who follow God.

Like Jeremiah, young folks, old folks, and everybody in between are called to take part in what God is doing. The One who calls is the One who knows you through and through, who has been with you all along, and who will be with you always. There is no one who is too young, too old, or too anything to take part in what God’s doing in this world. God supplies what is needed.

Whether we are being faithful to Jesus by serving, or by sitting at his feet, the heart of what we do is love. Both are expressions of love of God and love of neighbor. The most needful thing of all is love.

The parable of the Good Samaritan certainly challenges any attempt to put boundaries on who our neighbors are. While the story is about an emergency response, it also notes that long-term care is critical. It challenges the church to be like the inn and the innkeeper, caring for people over the long haul, and trusting Christ to provide the resources to do that.

Jesus sees a great harvest of people to be drawn into the Reign of God. He calls his followers out into the field.

Holy Communion is a sign of God’s great grace and generosity. It is a thankful celebration of God’s abundant gifts to us, and most especially the gift of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ life overflows with love for us like cups overflowing with wine, and baskets overflowing with bread.

Jesus stands against the forces of chaos in a storm at sea and in a legion of unclean spirits oppressing a man in the country of the Gerasenes. That is where he can be found today: standing against the forces of chaos in our personal storms, and in the storms of our world. We are called to put our faith in this One, and to stand with him.

When Jesus saw the grieving widow, he was touched to the core with compassion.

When the Holy Spirit of God gets into people, they start dreaming God’s dreams.

While many would have seen the face of the enemy in the Roman centurion, Jesus was amazed and appreciative of the faith and the fruits of faith that he saw in him. What if we saw through the eyes of Jesus and marveled at the gifts and goodness in people from whom we’ve been conditioned not to expect it? What if we recognized God already at work in unexpected places through unexpected people?

So that the good news of Jesus could move unhindered towards the ends of the earth, his followers needed to give up “us vs. them” thinking. God showed Peter that there are no clean or unclean people. God led Peter to a new understanding of the sacred tradition, and made it clear that God was also working among Gentiles like Cornelius and his household. What might we need to re-examine, and what practices might we need to change so that the good news can spread unhindered?

Being willing to ask questions can take us into deeper faith. In fact, they are necessary.

Jesus was raised from the dead while it was still night. God’s work of resurrection gets underway in the darkness. Even now the risen Christ is making his way towards us in the gloom, and we will hear his loving voice calling our name.

At the last supper Jesus noted that the hand of his betrayer was on the table. The hands of many who betrayed Jesus were on the table that night, and on his table now. Yet also on the table are his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. We all need to eat and drink it.

Mary of Bethany’s anointing of Jesus is a prophetic act, both comforting Jesus and pointing to the offering of his life. With thanksgiving our lives can become a fragrant offering.

Jesus’parable is a cliffhanger. How will the older brother respond? Will he join his father at the celebration and claim the younger brother as family, or will he boycott? Will he accept the situation and act on his father’s terms, or will he stand alone outside? God’s party is underway. We who have long been in God’s house must also RSVP to the invitation. Will we practice hospitality, loving in Jesus’ open-armed, open-hearted way, claiming people as our people, even when they don’t do what we think they ought to do? Or will we stand aloof, protecting ourselves from disappointment and nursing self-righteousness?

Jesus invites his hearers to turn our attention to something we can do something about: our own lives. Instead of speculating about what wrongs others may or may not have done, we are called to examine our own lives.

For the people of God there are no shortcuts to the Promised Land. Even Jesus had to discern his way forward. He rejected the tempter’s be-successful-quickly schemes and chose the narrow way that took him to the cross on the way to the resurrection. He calls his disciples to follow him as we feel our way forward.

What is repentance? Consider the case of Ebenezer Scrooge. While no Christmas ghosts may confront us to call us to repent, the Holy Spirit certainly does through the voices of the prophets Malachi and John the Baptist. This is the way to prepare to welcome Christ more fully.

When we see what is happening in the world around us, Jesus calls us to stand up. Now is the time to stand up for Jesus and with Jesus. Now is the time to stand up for what Jesus stands for, and for the people Jesus stands for.

True religion is not a matter of how pious we appear on the outside. It is what is in the heart. It is known in what comes out of the heart, and especially in compassion for the most vulnerable.

Jesus invites all is disciples to come away and rest a while. We need to do it for our own sake, for Jesus’ sake, and for the sake of the needy crowds that await us.

Although crowds of people followed Jesus at first, almost everyone left him. They didn’t understand him, and they were disappointed that he did not do what they wanted him to do. When he asked the remaining twelve, “Do you want to go away, too?” Peter answered, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” They chose to stay. In times of pain and uncertainty, when we are dismayed and disappointed with the way things are and even disappointed and angry with God, we can make the same choice: Lord, we don’t understand, but where else can we go but you? Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The power of anger transformed becomes the power of compassion, the power to act creatively and constructively, and the power to persevere in seeking justice.

The infinite love of God is the root of life itself, of our lives, of our life together, and of our faith and how we practice it. The message and manner of Mister Rogers proclaim this enormous love.

Jesus certainly does care about our need for daily Bread, but he offers us something we need even more: the bread of life, which is a connection to the living God who loves us beyond all telling.

It wasn’t just he memory of John the Baptist’s head on a platter that haunted Herod. It was the recognition that God cannot be silenced. God cannot be stopped. God is plotting resurrection.

Jesus called his disciples to follow him and engage other neighbors. That means actually talking face to face with our neighbors, much as people used to do on their front porches.

God’s Holy Spirit is the breath of life. The Spirit is the power behind hopes and dreams. By this power, dry bones and dead communities live. By this power devastated people in exile discover new hope. By this power, the tiny, traumatized community of Jesus’ disciples discovered new hope and a new call. By this power the church hopes, dreams, and lives now.

At his ascension, Christ Jesus stood on wounded feet and raised his wounded hands to bless his people. All of his human experience, scars and all, was taken up into the life of God. He has taken our life into the heart of God, and calls us to take the life of God into our hearts and live it out here. We are his body, his hands and feet here.

Jesus creates a society of friends who are connected to him and to one another through him, like a vine and branches. The society of Jesus’ friends embodies his self-giving love. Friends lay down their lives for one another. This divided, hurting world desperately needs the society of Jesus’ friends.

God is a master gardener who shapes and prunes us to bear good fruit, a life lived with great love, manifest in justice and righteousness. We can cooperate with the gardener by actively clinging to Christ the Vine, and letting Christ’s word shape us.