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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. For the season of Epiphany we preached about Our Spiritual Gifts: How we can recognize them and use them in our lives for Christ. Our current series is called BESIDES JESUS and will examine some people who walked besides Jesus and helped him in his ministry of Grace. Enjoy.
John the Baptist
February 26, 2026 1st Sunday in Lent
Matthew 3:1-12 Matthew 14:1-13a
Today we're going to begin a new sermon series for Lent called Besides Jesus. Besides has two meanings. First of all, because the people we will talk about, at some point in the Gospel story, walked beside Jesus. Second is that these people, other than Jesus, are examples or reflections of Jesus’ ministry of Grace.
The first person we're going to talk about is John the Baptist. Usually, we tell the story of John the Baptist at the beginning of Epiphany on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The first Sunday of Lent we usually examine Jesus’ 40 day fast in the wilderness and his temptation by the devil. But John the Baptist is often mentioned as a second scripture because Jesus is baptized right before he goes into the wilderness.
Let's start out by saying that John the Baptist didn't invent baptism. Washing your sins away is a standard ritual in the Jewish religion to become pure before God. The practice is mentioned in Leviticus, so we know that centuries before Jesus was born, people were purifying themselves for holy days or because they had done something unclean like touch a dead body.
In Jesus's day we know that there were specific pools built into the Temple and local synagogues to fulfill this purity obligation. But before that, it was traditional to immerse yourself in a natural water course. So, you see, John is harkening back to an older time and tradition by having people come to the river Jordan to be baptized there.
Besides the regular routine of becoming ritually pure, in the ancient Jewish culture, someone who wanted to do a holy discipline would often go and get cleansed at the Temple or their local synagogue before they started a period of fasting and praying. You could fast and pray in the Temple or synagogue, or pick a spot in the wilderness. The forty days reflected the forty years of the Israelis wandering in the wilderness until they entered the promised land by crossing the River Jordon. To fast for 40 days and nights was a standard rite of passage, and someone wouldn't be considered to be a holy man unless they had done this ritual.
To get to the River Jordon you have to leave the fertile land and enter an area of desert wilderness. Most of the people who John was baptizing were ordinary people and probably wouldn't go out into the wilderness to do forty days of fasting afterward. Still, since they had to go into the wilderness to get to John and the Jordon, they were symbolically recreating the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness. And by being emersed in the Jordan for their baptism, they were connecting with the experience of the Israelis crossing into the promised land.
But why would Jesus go to John if he could just cleanse himself at the synagogue in Nazareth and then pick a local spot for his fasting? Forty days and nights is a long time to be fasting and praying outside; no one would have disputed that Jesus hadn’t done the ritual.
First of all, remember that John and Jesus were basically the same age although John was the older cousin. Jesus had been raised in a normal Jewish household; his father was a carpenter, and his mother was a housewife. But John's parents were members of the priesthood. His father had after all gotten the message from God that his son was going to be born while he was doing his rotation at the Temple in Jerusalem. His mother was also descendant from a family of priests. So John had been set aside from an early age to be a priest. And remember that you weren't considered qualified or of age to be a holy man until you turn thirty. By the time John turned thirty he had been prepared and probably already had a reputation for holiness. So he carried some legitimacy when he started to preach in the wilderness. And I think that since people were waiting for a Messiah, and believing the possibilities in the possibility that a Messiah could come, people would listen to John.
Of course, people are looking for a Messiah and they actually asked John: Are you the Messiah? But John knows that his younger cousin Jesus is on his way in a few months. So he prepares the way of the Lord, and he encourages people to think about their lives and tells them that they can change their hearts and minds to be ready for Jesus when he begins his ministry. The ordinary people would accept John’s holiness as an authority who could give Jesus’ a baptism, but also as someone who stood outside the corrupt system. Standing outside the system is something that Jesus did during his ministry.
But there's a hidden story in the Bible about John. It’s a story that's implied but not written out for us to read. The only interaction that we see between Jesus and John is when John baptizes Jesus. But think about who they are. Think about the fact that they grew up in the same family. They were cousins; they were the same age. Their parents knew what their destinies were, and although I don't think they burdened the two boys with their destinies when they were younger, I'm sure that they encourage friendship between the two boys.
This is pure supposition on my part, but I am sure that those two kids played together; ate meals together; stayed in each other's houses; learned stuff from their respective uncles together; wandered around the countryside together; and talked through a lot of stuff together. You know, just the general meaning-of-life conversations that friends have with each other when they're trying to figure out what's happening around them. I really believe that there was a bond between them and that they supported each other in their ministries. After all once Jesus appeared on the scene John didn't pack up and go home. He kept on baptizing people. He kept on preaching against injustice and a corrupt political system to the point where he was finally arrested by Herod Antipas. And eventually he was executed.
I can't imagine how John's death made Jesus feel. He had lost his childhood friend who knew him the best and who he probably considered to be his equal. John wasn’t his disciple; he was the one who could support Jesus and say: I got you and you can do this. It says in our scripture that when John died, Jesus retreated and went away to a deserted place by himself. Jesus was grieving. That little line is the proof positive that Jesus knows our griefs; that he has lost people he loved just as we have. Jesus knows that when we lose someone, we need to take time to grieve for them.
I think sometimes that Americans are a bit two independent. Independence after all is part of our heritage. We started our country with a Declaration of Independence. Our culture teaches us that we all need to develop our independence and stand on our own two feet. And I think on some levels that it’s a very important to be able to take care of yourself.
But on the other hand, as a species we are meant to be and work together. We cannot survive effectively and efficiently completely alone in the world. We are meant to be a family helping each other; we are meant to be a tribe or community helping each other; we are meant to be a village helping each other. We are meant to be a culture that supports each other and gives strength to a nation. And that support begins with one-on-one with friendship towards each other.
During Lent we often hear John's fiery rhetoric of repentance, and then we’re supposed to look at what is we're doing wrong in life and work on trying to make it right. That’s a good thing to do. But I think during this time we can also lift up John's support of Jesus by reconnecting with and lifting up our own friendships that maybe we've been neglecting. I can think of a few people that come to my mind that I haven't talked to or checked in with for a while. After all I've been busy. But thinking about it, I can take a little bit of time to reconnect with them and just see how they're doing. And I know that like Jesus, if I suddenly was to learn that they were gone from my life there would be a big hole in my heart and I would have to go retreat a little until I had acknowledged and come to terms with their passing. If I connect with them, I’ll probably avoid the regret of not connecting with them before it’s too late.
So, this week I'm going to challenge you to think about someone who you haven't talked to for a while and connect to them. Just see how they're doing; listen to what they're going through; and if they're in difficulty encourage them and help them out. Say to them: I've got you and you can do this. In that little act of friendship, you will be living the love that Jesus had for John. And any time we connect to someone we are living in the love of Christ. So, take some time to nurture your friendships and you’ll feel God’s love and some of the healing power of Lent.
The Gift of Service
February 26, 2026 6th Sunday of Epiphany
Joshua 1:1-9 John 13:12-17
The gift of service is something that every Christian can do. It doesn't require resources like giving, or a head for logistics like administration. You don't need to be a great teacher, or know how to preach, or have the gift of the prophetic voice. All service requires it's the desire to help people out and then to go out and help them.
When we hear the word service our thoughts first go to assisting someone with a task. Kids can help their parents get dinner ready by setting the table. Students can help each other do their homework or study for a test. Coworkers can help each other out with various tasks that need to be done at work. Friends can drive each other to doctor's appointments or the store.
But what separates helping someone out from engaging in a gift of Christian service?
The first thing that comes to my mind is an attitude of care for the other person. We don't just help each other out transactionally; the idea that you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. We assist someone because we truly care about their well-being, and we don't necessarily look for payback. Now there's nothing wrong with getting something down the line because of our generosity. But Christian service is more of the attitude that bread on the water will always come back. The idea that if you do something good for someone that something good will come back to you. Our service is a blessing that we put out into the universe that will come back to us someday. Maybe not in direct relationship to the person or event we've helped, but it's going to come back somehow or another. We’re not supposed to worry about it or expect it. You just know that somewhere down the line it's going to happen, and when it does you give thanks to God for the blessing.
Hmm – there’s an interesting thought – maybe all of our blessings are a ripple out and a ripple back from when we gave service at one point. So, let’s keep giving thanks for those blessings.
The second thing to understand is that service is an integral part of whatever it is you are working on or doing in your life. When I was teaching in Japan, I started out by teaching children. A lot of fellow teachers said to me: I don't know how you have the patience to teach children. I just couldn't do it. Well, I understand that teaching kids does require a certain patience, but I told people that I wasn't just teaching kids English. I knew that I was probably the first foreign person they had ever come in contact with. And in many ways how they interacted with me and viewed me was the basis of how they were going to view foreigners in the future. So really, I was teaching them how to get along with people from other countries and religions; that was the ultimate service that I was doing in that job. As an ESL teacher my taskwas to teach English, but my service was to promote goodwill and international understanding between people.
A Christian always recognizes that no matter what their job is, or what their task is, or where they are, or who they're interacting with, that they are always an ambassador for Christ. That’s built into every act of kindness or assistance that we give to people.
In our gospel reading Jesus washed the feet of all his disciples as an act of service. I’m sure that a lot of the disciples were uncomfortable with that action. Usually, the washing of feet was done by the lowest ranking servant or slave in the household. It wasn’t something that the host did, much less a revered holy man. This was because the feet were considered to be the most unclean part of the body. So you can see where the uncomfort of this action came from.
We know that Peter certainly felt uncomfortable because he told Jesus that he wouldn’t allow him to wash his feet. But Jesus insisted and told Peter that he couldn’t follow Jesus unless he submitted to the foot washing. Peter was so distraught at the idea of not being allowed to be with Jesus that he consented. I’ve heard sermons that talk about Peter’s “lack of obedience,” but I actually think that Peter, as head of the disciples, was expressing what a lot of the disciples were feeling, but were too shy or uncertain to say. So in a way he was performing a service for them.
Jesus says at the end: So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.
Two points here. First, we are all equal to each other in the sight of God. One of the lessons that Jesus stressed all through his ministry was that everyone was worthy of help. Poor people, rich people, people who were sick and crippled, people who had horrid diseases like leprosy. Jewish and Gentile, men, women, and children. People who were accepted by society and people who weren’t, like prostitutes and tax-collectors. Jesus preached to them, healed them, answered their questions and took the time to be with all of them. So, when someone needs our help let’s view them as a child of God and a sibling in Christ, not as someone who’s different than us who we might not want to get involved with.
The second lesson of the foot washing is that is even if it means that we have to do a job that might be a little humbling or beneath us, we need to take a breath and get doing it. Now I admit that somethings we might not be good at. I know that I am not going to be helpful riding on a cattle drive. My horse-riding skills are limited, and I know nothing about herding cattle. I leave that to the experts. But I can make a really great chili to feed the riders before or after. We all have our talents, gifts, and graces, and when we see a task that we can apply them to, even if it’s difficult, we should jump in and serve.
How do we jump in? Remember I once talked about the three kinds of sin: Spontaneous, strategic, and systemic? Well, you can use those three S-words and apply them to service.
One winter, my family and community had a string of really bad events happen. My grandmother was in hospice, someone in our church had a heart attack, and a father connected to our nursery school was killed in a freak car accident. Plus, there were a couple of other not so good things going on at my school. Right before Easter there was a clearance sale of potted Easter flowers; buy one and get two free. I bought a whole bunch of them and brought them to work and distributed them around the office. I told the school manager that I needed to do something nice to counter all the BLAH that had been happening. Oddly enough things started to get better after that. I don’t think it was my spontaneous flowers, I think life just turned the corner, but it did make me and a bunch of people feel a lot better in that moment. That was spontaneous service. Any time you just jump in and do something nice or help someone solve a problem, you are living in service.
Strategic service is when you think about how you can help people and then execute the plan. When a woman I know, who had five kids, had a stroke, her church set up a make-and-deliver-a-meal service for the family. It got her through her recovery period very effectively. Someone had to plan, put the system in place, and saw that the meals got to her. That was living in strategic service.
And finally systemic service. This is a little harder, but once it’s set up it perpetuates itself. Think of the Heifer Project. A person buys a set of animals to give to a farmer in a poor country. The farmer however has to take classes on the care of the animal and has to agree to pass on his knowledge and animals that he produces to someone else. So, if a farmer receives twelve chickens he can use the eggs, but he also has to breed and provide twelve chickens to his neighbors. The Heifer Project is 79 years old and a great example of systemic service.
So how can you jump in and serve? Well, keep an eye out for those spontaneous moments when you can help someone. And maybe we should all sit down during this Lent and think of things in our community that might need our help. And then plan a strategic way to make them better. Who knows, we might set up a system that perpetuates itself and becomes a long-lasting solution and ministry.
But wherever and whenever you serve do it with God’s love in your heart, and you will be walking the path of Jesus.
The Gift of Prophecy
February 8, 2026 5th Sunday of Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-8 Jeremiah 1:4-10
This has been one of the hardest sermons for me to writte. I started over on this one three times. I don’t stay up until early Sunday morning writing sermons, but I did this time and I think the reason is because in general I do not like prophecy. I am very suspicious of people who deliver a definite summation of what God is going to do in the world. I personally do not feel that any of us have the wisdom to say how what God is going to do in the future. I know of too many times in history when prophecy has gone wrong, and I feel that to know what God is going to do in the future is above anyone's pay grade.
Now I admit that there is a lot of prophecy in the Bible. We read two scriptures today from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Plus, we have the book of Daniel and the book of Revelations, both which foretell future events. Daniel predicts the fall of the Babylonian Empire and Revelations gives us a view of how this world will fall and the Kingdom of God will come into being. But since we’re talking about prophecy I need to say a few words about Revelations.
When the council of Nicaea was deciding which books to put in the Bible and which books to leave out of the Bible, the most debated and contentious books were the letters of Timothy and The Book of Revelations. The problem with the letters of Timothy is that there’s a great deal of doubt about Paul being the actual author. But the pro-faction wanted them included because they felt that Paul might have written them.
With Revelations, the pro-faction contended that this book would prepare people for the events that they believed would lead up to the end times. The people who were against Revelations claimed that this book would encourage people to only focus on the end times and not on living a Christian life. Also, Jesus had warned that only God knows the day and hour of the kingdom; that it’s not for us to worry about. A compromise, which passed by one vote, was finally reached by agreeing to include both.
Our modern problem with Revelations is that it’s written in metaphor with set of coded imagery that we are not completely sure of the meaning. I think Revelations is a very fascinating book, but as one giant metaphor there are so many different ways you can interpret it that I don’t think we can get it right.
So if we want to stay away from prophecy and predicting the future what do we mean by a spiritual gift of prophecy? When we talk about the spiritual gift of prophecy what we are really talking about is the prophetic voice. The prophetic voice discerns how the alignment of our behavior works with what God wants us to do or behave, and how that is going to affect future outcomes.
What a person who has a prophetic voice does is, first of all, declare what the correct actions are to live a life that is in alignment with the principles of Christianity. Then they look at what a person is doing, or a group of people are doing, or a nation is doing, and they evaluate how those actions are aligning or not aligning with the ethics of God. If the actions are aligning well, they’re going to give a good evaluation and declare a good outcome down the road. If the actions are not aligning well, then they’re going to declare what is being done wrong and what the negative results of those actions will be.
The first part assumes that the person is well-aware and able to teach and preach the ethics of Christianity, and that they understand the moral responsibilities of individuals and society. The person is also dedicated to living as Christ as best they can. If you encounter a prophetic-person who is not living a Christian life take their prophecy with a huge grain of salt.
In the Bible both Isaiah and Jeremiah preached to power. They stood outside the political system and told the priests, king, or rulers what they were doing right and wrong according to the ethics of the Jewish religion. That was an important and needed position. If you go back into the Jewish books of law, you will find that it’s centered around an agrarian community. The ethics and laws really do try to promote equality between families and tribes. It’s not a democratic system, but the original tribal system really tried to give people equal voice.
But around 1,000 BCE the tribes wanted to unite into one nation, and they asked God for a king. So, on top of this agrarian-tribal-structure was created a monarchy that over the years became more powerful and took power away from the tribes and the common people. Gradually power and wealth became more concentrated into the hands of fewer people. Those people became the ruling elite who were now trying to keep their power and wealth for themselves, as opposed to using their power and their wealth for the good of the people. To correct this imbalance God sent prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah to stand outside of that system and advocate for the people who have no power.
This is the tradition of the prophetic voice. The prophetic voice is not supposed to be speaking of the end times, although they could warn where the injustices would lead. The prophetic voice is supposed to be speaking of the injustices that are being done in the world and how those injustices should be corrected so that the society becomes more equal for everyone.
Hmm – doesn’t that sound a bit political? Unfortunately, in America one of the problems that we have with the prophetic voice is that we believe that we are not supposed to preach politics in church. People have told me that it is actually illegal for me to preach politics. And that’s not true.
Yes, the constitution states that there will be a separation of church and state. But what that means is that there is no state sponsored religion like there is with the Anglican church in England. The Anglican church is subsidized by the British government and other religions are required to pay a tax in order to exist. America does not tax any religious organizations that are following the legal statutes of what a religious organization is. Also, a church is not allowed to raise or donate money to a specific political candidate or political party, nor am I allowed to tell you how to vote.
But I am allowed to point out the injustices in our society in my preaching. Many ministers in the 1800’s preached on the injustice of slavery and why it was not Christian to own another human being. Many ministers at the turn of the 20th century preached on the rights of women and other minorities to vote. Many ministers in the middle of the century preached on the civil-rights that were being denied to many people. Many ministers today are preaching on the social difficulties of the homeless or the mistreatment of immigrants.
All these issues are reflected in our political landscape. The purpose of the prophetic voice is not to tell you how to vote, or which political party to belong to. The purpose is to raise these issues and to frame them in the theological context of being a Christian. In the vernacular we say: What would Jesus do or say to this issue?
Now that in itself is sticky, because we all know that there are people out there who use Christianity to hold onto power. Just as there were people, in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah, who were using the Jewish religion to justify their holding onto power. The prophetic voice calls that out by using scripture to point out the injustice and to direct people to an outlook and attitude that is more align with living as Christ. And incidentally, the prophetic voice is not limited to ministers. All Christians are allowed to use their prophetic voice. Just be sure when you use it that you back it up with the teachings of Christ’s love.
To use the prophetic voice is a responsibility. I do want to encourage all of us to speak up against injustice and to call to account people in power when they are hurting and oppressing those who are marginalized or have no power. Homeless people, people who struggle in poverty, people who don’t have access to decent health care, and yes, immigrants, who are trying legally to be a part of this nation. All these people need a voice, and we can add our voices to theirs to give them strength.
When we do we will be using our gift to live here and now with Christ, as Christ, and for Christ, as His people in the world.
The Gift of Mercy
February 1, 2026 4th Sunday of Epiphany Communion
Matthew 9:35-38 Matthew 20: 29-34
Our spiritual gift survey defines a person who is merciful as someone who feels compassion for those who are suffering and performs deeds to reflect God’s love. They are naturally drawn to people who are hurting and are also sensitive, giving, loving and desire healing.
But mercy is a little bit bigger than that. The dictionary definition of mercy gives it two basic components.
The first is: Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. This is the part of mercy that is tied to justice and forgiveness. For instance, if a person has committed a robbery, they are given a sentence established by law. The statute will combine damage, amount stolen, and whether there was a weapon involved.
When I was in Connecticut one of my churches was broken into by some young teenagers who were bored during a snow day and wandering around town. We weren't the only place they got into mischief, and they really didn't do any lasting damage to the church. They scattered rock salt on the carpet, ate some snack food, and made a mess of the social hall. Unfortunately, part of the social hall mess entailed getting a hold of the fire extinguisher and putting out fires with it that they lit on the floor. Then they removed the fire extinguisher from the church, dumped it in a snowbank, and went on to do more mischief elsewhere. We had notice that the church door was open and called the state troopers when we saw the mess. Other people around town had also called about their messes, and the teens were charged with all the disturbances that they had caused.
Their property damage outside of the church was pretty minimal. The food they ate from our snack basket wasn't even worth $10. Spreading salt on the carpet didn't damage anything because we could brush and vacuum it up. If they had left it at that, the overall amount of property damage would have caused them a fine and maybe some public service. However, using the fire extinguisher meant that we had to have a professional company come in and clean up the toxic mess. (Stuff in extinguishers is really toxic.) That price and the price of the fire extinguisher, which they couldn't find, was added to the total amount. This pushed them into a more serious level of breaking and entering with willful damage, which could have led to juvenile detention for a couple of weeks.
Fortunately, since it was a first-time occurrence, the judge showed them mercy. The fine was larger, the community service hours were longer, and they were simply put on probation for about a year. The judge would have been within the law to send them to juvenile detention, but he showed them mercy, for which I am grateful. Because I think that when we’re young, we do stupid things and for a first-time-stupidity you don't deserve to have the maximum placed on top of you.
Mercy connected to justice is an action that removes vengeance from the equation. It’s natural for us when someone hurts us to want to hurt back, as a defense mechanism to stop the attacks. But when you consciously seek to hurt someone back – that’s revenge. And if we want to be merciful, as Jesus was merciful, we need to remove that from our psyche. Jesus replaced revenge with love, kindness, forgiveness and healing, which brings about restorative justice.
After removing revenge, mercy applies the belief that a person can repent, change their mind-set, and do better the next time. Isn't that what God's forgiveness is all about? When we apply mercy, it’s not an act of weakness. It’s an action of belief that people can learn to live their life better. This does not mean that a person gets a free ride. Those kids certainly didn't. In the word absolution rest the word solution. When you do something wrong, there is a solution to make something right. So, if you apply yourself to work through the solution that helps to repair the wrong and make it right, then you have lived your absolution. I hope that those young teens learned from that mistake, worked through the solution of the fines, community service, and the probation, and found a point where they said: I don't want to ever do that again. From now on I'm not going to mess up other people's property. The mercy they were granted also allowed them to NOT be defined by a stupid action.
The second component of mercy is: An event to be grateful for, especially because its occurrence prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering. Like the action of granting mercy during justice, this is also an action of kindness and hope. The United Methodist Committee on Relief, UMCOR, has a long-standing Health Kit ministry. These are one-gallon bags of essential toiletries that are distributed after a major natural disaster. These personal hygiene kits help people to be and feel cleaner, and therefore more dignified, and get them one step towards normalcy. This is UMCOR’s starting point for relief. From there they go on to temporary shelter, and rebuilding projects.
Any organization like CORE, Rotary, our local food banks, or Heart of the Catskills, is an organization of mercy. Anytime you donate or help them out you are participating in mercy by showing God’s love through your actions. But any time we help someone out we are providing an action of mercy. Shopping for an elderly neighbor, helping a friend out with homework, and providing a listening ear is showing mercy.
Jesus’ consistently provided mercy to people. In our Gospel lessons we heard that when Jesus would enter a town, he would do two actions: He would preach and heal. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Note the phrase he had compassion for them. Jesus didn’t heal out of a sense of obligation, or preach because he had an inflated ego. He did what he did because he cared about the well-being of the people in front of him.
That caring was both physical and spiritual. Physically he healed people. But what is the one consistent thing that happens in Jesus’ healing stories? He usually says, “You are forgiven for your sins.” Why would Jesus connect forgiveness of sins with physical healing? Well, we know that stress plays a huge part in our health. And Jesus saw that the people were harassed. Why harassed? Well, when you’re stressed you feel like so many things are coming at you all at once that you can’t control, yet they are all demanding your attention. That’s feeling harassed.
The average person living in Israel, existed in poverty and wasn’t sure if they were going to eat the next day. Most of them were tenants and could be kicked out of their houses at a moment’s notice. They had to pay a tax to Rome, a tax to the Temple, and a tax to Herod. Their kids could be conscripted by an occupying force. Plus, they had to try to obey purity laws, that had become so difficult to follow that they were constantly being put into a state of sinning. That would make anyone ill or contribute to their illness. Can you imagine what a relief it was to have someone lift the burden of feeling that you were a sinful person off of you? How much better you’d felt because of it?
And then for those who weren’t ill, Jesus told them: God loves you even if you are a sinner. And then he gave them a hope of a better life with each other through love and treating each other well, but also a chance of a better life later. You see poor people weren’t supposed to go the heaven, because they were too sinful. That’s why the story of the beggar who ended up in heaven and the rich man who ended up in hell was such a radical story – it reversed the common social order thinking.
Jesus, by giving people forgiveness, healing, and hope of a better life now and in the future, was giving people mercy.
Jesus helped people because he had compassion for us and wanted to help us. That’s a good place for us to start on our mercy journey. How can you be a person of God’s compassion in the world? How can we remove vengeance from our lives and instead give solutions that lead to absolution? Who can you help today who needs a bit of love and healing? If we lead our lives with God’s love, then we will always be living in his Grace and Mercy.
The Gift of Exhortation
January 25, 2026 3rd Sunday of Epiphany
Isaiah 40:1-5 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18
The dictionary definition of Exhortation is: An address or communication emphatically urging someone to do something.
Exhortation always makes me think of people who are standing on soapboxes or street corners and lecturing people about their faith and how they should repent or go to hell. Once, I when I was attending The University of Denver and heading to my Comparative Religion class, there was a gentleman walking around the main campus quad with the huge banner strapped to his back that said: Read the Bible or Go to Hell. He was trying to engage and argue with people about saving their souls. Our class went out to observe him. Several people in our class engaged with him and his arguments began to crumble because he was passionate about his beliefs but not cohesive about them. He hadn’t thought through a lot of his arguments, and it was easy to show him their inconsistencies.
But preaching on street corners goes back a long way. In 1st century Athens there was a place called the Areopagus, where philosophers would come and present arguments and would invite the crowd to engage with them to sharpen their theories. I want to emphasize that this wasn’t an I am right and you are wrong event. This was: I have an idea and I want you to challenge me on it to see where the flaws are. This was where the apostle Paul was was invited to present his argument about Jesus Christ and his message to the citizens of Athens. He won over a number of converts that day.
In Hyde Park, London there’s a Speaker’s Corner where people can stand on boxes and argue for various political viewpoints or social change. George Bernard Shaw used to do this regularly. Apparently, he was so good at it that he had a following of people who would wait for him to come by at his regularly scheduled time to listen to him. One time he brought forth the argument that women shouldn't have to pay to use the public lavatories. The men’s lavatories were free, but women had to pay a penny in order to use their public stalls. One man countered the argument by saying, “But Mr. Shaw, you realize that there's a fundamental anatomical difference between men and women.” Shaw pointed to him angrily and said, “You Sir, sit down too,” which caused laughter from the crowd. And the local policeman who was observing cautioned Mr. Shaw to not violate the precepts of public decency.
Today we get our street corner exhortations through social media. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is an improvement because it's easier to cover up the cracks in your arguments and to block or demonize anyone who points out to you where your argument might be wrong.
Our spiritual gifts survey says that spiritual exhortation is: You minister by giving comfort, consolation, and encouragement so people feel helped and healed. Problems are only challenges, and you are drawn to those seeking spiritual growth. You can share personal failures to prompt others to talk. Learning and teaching practical information is your desire.
What makes exhortation a spiritual gift is when your motivation is to lead people to feeling helped and healed, and to help them with their spiritual growth. The definition ends with learning and teaching practical information is your desire. Desire is connected to passion; something you feel strongly about. You know that exhortation is a gift if your passion is helping people by departing information to them that you feel they need to solve their problems or to find the right directions in their lives.
You don't have to be on a soapbox or to stand in a pulpit to do this. If I’m presenting my case to a high school student about why a certain college is the best place to study, or I'm trying to convince someone to enter rehab to help them with their addiction, both of these are exhortations. I am urging them to do something because I want them to fulfill a need in their life in the best way possible.
Our verse from Isaiah starts with the phrase: Comfort ye my people. God is acknowledging to Isaiah that the people need to hear his message, but they also need comfort because they are living in trying times. Often when we bring our advice to people we need to start out with comfort rather than information. We have to find out where people are in their lives and what the stress and uncertainties are surrounding their decisions. Often people hold off making a decision because they fear that it will be the wrong one. Our job is to find their base line and then to build from it.
One problem with exhortation is that often it can fall into simply lecturing someone on how to do something. As an English teacher I often found that when a student was struggling with a subject it was because they were lacking in some understanding, or they hadn't been integrated some very important skills. This lack would make them think that they were deficient students, even after ten years of English learning. Just lecturing them to be better students was not going to solve the problem.
One way I gave comfort was I would draw a 10 by 10 grid on the board to represent all the information they had learned in their 10 years of study. On each level I would fill in eight squares and leave 2 blank. This is because most of us only absorb about 80% of a subject. When I finished the drawing, they could see that there were a lot of holes in in the matrix; 20 of them to be precise; it looked like Swiss cheese. I would explain to them that it was my job to make sure that we would fill in those holes of knowledge so that they’d have a much more solid foundation.
During Paul's speech to the Thessalonians, he emphasizes patience when we are instructing others and trying to encourage them. He says that we must respect the labor that people are doing and to lift up the love that they have for their work. Even when people seem to be idle perhaps it's because they are faint hearted or don't know what to do. He emphasizes to not repay evil for evil: to not criticize someone who is struggling to get through something but rather to help them. And to always pray with them and give thanks for what they are able to do; not to emphasize what they can’t.
Remember that place in Athens where people debated? The idea of the debate was to sharpen the argument not to destroy it. The presenter and the audience would go back and forth with the idea and get rid of the bad inconsistent stuff and figure out the good stuff in order to make the theory or the argument more complete. That's part of exhortation. The idea is not to convince someone of what you think they should do but to rather lay out an idea that you can both examine. So, if I want someone to go to the University of Denver, I'm going to lay out the arguments why they should go, but I expect them to tell me their objections and what they see as their difficulties or problems that I haven't thought of. When this happens, we can work through the pros and cons and see if this is actually a good idea. Just because I believe it would be a good place for them to study, doesn't necessarily mean that is the best place for them to go.
The best kind of exhortation is when we get down off our soapboxes and listen to other people. We might have ideas, but other people have ideas too, as well as fears and uncertainties about how to handle difficult decisions in life. When we are willing to listen and work through the problem with them, we are truly helping them and guiding them to healing and growth. Comfort and patience, along with our expertise are the ingredients for a viable solution. We find comfort and patience when we put Christ’s love for people in front of us. That way we won’t be imposing our will on people but looking for a solution that can lead them to a better life.
When we take that approach of exhortation then everyone’s valleys will be lifted up, everyone’s hills and mountains will be climbable; uneven ground will become level, and the rough places will become plain. And we will all be living with the love and strength of the Lord.
The Gift of Teaching
January 15 & 18, 2026 2nd Sunday of Epiphany
Colossians 3:15-17 Matthew 18:12-14
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. You’ve probably heard this expression at one point or another. It’s meant to diminish teachers and teaching by suggesting that a true practitioner of a skill would be earning a living by doing the thing they do best, while the second-rate are only good enough to pass on what knowledge they have.
But did you know that this phrase actually originated with George Bernard Shaw who wrote the play Man and Superman? The character who says it is John Tanner, a ‘champagne socialist,’ who talks a good revolution but does little about it. Shaw was satirizing the kind of socialist he reviled: The one who thinks they know everything, but does nothing.
As an educator I have to say that if you don’t know how to do something, you really aren’t going to know how to explain it to others. It’s true that there might be bad teachers who don’t know their subjects, or not know enough about them, so they aren’t very good at their jobs. But for the most a part a person who teaches is a person who knows how and is able to do. And, like anything else, practice makes us get better. The more you practice and try to improve your teaching technique the better you get at it. So, the next time you hear that phrase – counter it in defense of teachers, and a teacher will love you.
Now, as with all spiritual gifts, not everyone has the gifts of teaching. Let’s look at our definition from the survey: You communicate the truth with obvious results. You believe your gift is foundational and work systematically and with accuracy. The first part of this is: You communicate the truth. If you're teaching any of the STEM disciplines, you can verify the truth with evidence. I’m not going to teach that 1 + 1 = 5 or that the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. Those can be verified as being false.
However, when you get to something like History the facts are based on what we know about events. New research is always happening and if we find some new evidence that shows us that what we thought was true is wrong, then it’s up to the teacher to correct the misconception and present the current truth. For instance, when I was in high-school I was taught that the Egyptian pyramids were built by slaves. That’s what we thought was true. Now we know that they were built by volunteers who were hoping to achieve a place in the afterlife through their service.
When we get into the realm of Religion and Philosophy we are stepping into a belief system. How do we acknowledge the facts of a system that is based on beliefs? They can’t be verified by science, but they can be verified by results.
I believe in the historical Jesus. There is a lot of historical evidence to say that he did exist. A movement like the one he created does not happen in a vacuum. I do believe that he was a person that was born on this earth. I believe that he lived with us, laughed with us, cried with us, was frustrated and joyous with us, and lived the entire human experience. He met people in his life, taught them his ethics, philosophy and theology and created a movement.
I also I believe that Jesus was the incarnation of God on earth. And I also believe that after he died, he was resurrected came back to his disciples and lives again. To me His incarnation and resurrection are the assurances that there is another life after this one, and that it’s there for us to access if we believe and attempt to live as best we can by the Code of Christ. And I follow that code because of how I see people and societies being shaped by it.
I see that the lessons that Jesus taught us help to shape our lives in good and positive ways. They help to become good positive people who help and give love to others. I see that when people who hold Christ's values of love, respect, justice, and grace get together, that they create a community of love, respect, justice, and grace. They create a community of people who support one another and to who try to make the world a better place for all of us to live in. Those are the obvious results of Christianity, or if you’d like, the Fruits of our Spirit.
I see those results in the historic evidence that happened after Jesus died and Christianity began to spread because of those beliefs. By following the teachings of Jesus, communities were created which supported people who otherwise didn't have support. And there was an oppression of those communities because the people in power suddenly realized that they couldn't use the tools of poverty to control people anymore. The new communities were offering a different way of being from that which was established. And that is always fearful to people in power.
When I communicate the truth of Christ, I try to emphasize these points. A community that is formed when we believe in the Glory of Christ's Blessed Assurance; the strength of God’s love and justice; and the presence of the Holy Spirit; are to me the proof positive results that Christ is worth believing in and following.
The second part of the definition is: You believe your gift is foundational and you work systematically and with accuracy. Anyone who has the gift of teaching has the gift of clear explanation, and the systematic ability to make difficult concepts simple. When I was an English teacher, I really learned how English was constructed and used when I had to take it apart and teach people the individual components. Likewise, each of us has a responsibility to ourselves to examine and understand why we believe in Christ, how we follow Christ’s teaching, and what good it does for us. When we achieve that understanding we learn how following Christ is good for us, and we can convey to others how it might be good for them.
In our scripture Paul says: Each one of you is part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace. So let the peace that comes from Christ control your thoughts.
But we all don’t suddenly learn how to live in peace. We have to practice it. If you read any of Paul’s letters to his churches, you realize that things weren’t always going smoothly, but they were using Christ and his teachings as their foundational model. From that model they were learning how to live with themselves in a new way and with each other in a new way. Christ’s teachings are supposed to bring reconciliation and peace to our thoughts, and allow us to then apply that reconciliation and peace with each other. But Paul emphasizes that it only happens when we allow Christ to control our thoughts.
One thing that really annoys and concerns me in our current society is that people seem to believe that if you feel something it must be true; if you know something it must be true; and if you're acting on that knowledge it must be justified. But a lot of times we don't understand why things are happening, or that what we think is happening is wrong. This leads us to have the incorrect emotions and reactions to what is going on around us. This leads to misunderstanding, conflict, and a breaking down of good relationships between people, and results in a lack of control for ourselves and our communities.
How do we control our thoughts? By and going back to the first part of that definition and searching for the truth of what is actually happening around us. This requires being patient and allowing ourselves time to question and understand as many facets as possible with what is happening.
So, if we can be clear about how we feel about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, then we’re doing a good job on understanding and developing your faith. If we can outline why we believe in the elements of Christianity, then we’re creating a foundation within ourselves that we can continue to build our faith on. If we can see the results of our faith in our lives and in the lives of others, then we’re practicing our faith and getting better at it.
But finally, if you can communicate clearly all of that to others, then you have the gift of teaching in Christ. As I said, not everyone has that gift, but all of us can have within ourselves all the elements that lead up to that. And if we keep on evaluating, refining our understanding, and putting into practice our Christ principles, then we will all be living in the strength of Christ.
The Gift of Administration
January 11, 2026 Baptism of the Lord
Matthew 3:1-6 Matthew 3:13-17
I’m going to take you back to 1966 when a revolutionary management book was published and became a best seller. It was The Peter Principle by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull, and was based on Peter’s very serious research on why there are incompetent managers.
The book states that in a large hierarchy a person who is competent at their job will be rewarded with a promotion to a position that requires different skills. If the person is able to adapt to the new skills, and does a good job, they will be promoted again. However, at some point they’re going to be rewarded for their competence with a new job that they won’t have the correct skills for and, for one reason or another, they won’t be able to adapt to the new position. They have, as Peter puts it, risen to their “level of incompetency.” Since the person now becomes classified as incompetent, they will not be promoted again.
Unfortunately, the rigidity of the upwards mobility of a hierarchy, which won’t allow people to be demoted back to competence, means that at any time in an organization there are any number of managers who end up in positions that they can’t be productive in. Once an organization reaches a point of having too many managers who don’t know what they’re doing, critical mass occurs and the company or organization goes downhill rapidly and often dies from built-up incompetence.
The irony of this book is that although it was based on serious research it was written as a satire. But great satire is always based on truth. After all, if we didn’t see the truth in the humor, we wouldn’t be able to laugh at it. Where is the irony? This satire actually became the book to be studied in business management courses all across America. It was handed out in boardrooms and management seminars. It was the management book that was supposed to save corporate America.
Since I was 5 in 1966, I didn't read this book until the 2000-teens but what struck me right away was that no mention was ever made of training people once they got into their new positions. Now you all know that I started out my life as an educator and anytime I was asked to teach a new subject I was always offered training for it. The book assumes that you’re never going to get any training, you’re just going to keep on being promoted until you reach a level of failure.
Well, that's a pretty grim way to run any organization. But I think we all assume that some people are just better managers than others. And that the traits needed for good management are something that you're born with, not something that you necessarily learn, so the idea of training was deemed to be not necessary.
I was talking with the youth group about spiritual gifts, and we acknowledged that some people are born with certain gifts. And those gifts might be a talent, like music; or they could be a personality trait, like kindness. I happen to be born with a good singing voice and an ear for music. However, I have a very good friend, a wonderful person who everybody loves, who literally can't sing a note. She cannot hear music. On the other hand, she’s a natural artist, and paints really well.
We also talked about how you know that something is a spiritual gift. One thing is that the gift gives you or others joy. I love singing, it makes me happy. And people have said to me over the years that when I sing for others that they find it enjoyable. We also said that your gift can help people in some way. I know that I’ve sung many babies to sleep. Apparently at that moment those babies found some comfort.
Any gift, spiritual or otherwise, is worth developing. Maybe you’re born a natural athlete, but if you don’t train yourself in your sport to be better at it, you’re not going to rise to your full potential. You can have a kind personality, but you can also learn how to be a kind person even when people are mean to you or you need to set boundaries.
Today our spiritual gift is Administration. I admit that when I first saw that on our survey I thought – What? How can administration be a spiritual trait? But then I took a moment and I realized that a gift of administration or organization is a HUGE spiritual gift. Think about how many moving parts there are to life. Any person who has the ability to organize, or help people organize, their lives or systems, is an amazing God-send to all of us. And we should all be praying for their good health at all times, because they keep things running for us.
I want you to look at the spiritual definition that was given on our survey: You lead and communicate in such a way that people work harmoniously to reach goals for God’s purpose. Our world so needs that. This is about more than keeping track of papers or filing them – the active word here is communication. All of us have given or we have received, at one time or another, really bad instructions on how to do something – and chaos has ensued. Part of being an administrator is the ability to be clear about what needs to be done.
Let’s look at the next part: You enjoy being a leader and can endure adverse reaction to get the job done. The first word that pops out at me is enjoy. Remember we said that one way to recognize a spiritual gift is that it brings us joy, or brings joy to others? People who are good administrators enjoy tackling problems and trying to figure out how to create a solution for it. When they come up against adversity or resistance to the problem they don’t see it as a threat – they see it as a challenge, something they can wrestle with and get it onto the right track, or even change the direction if necessary. And the thing I always notice about effective administrators is that they are positive about solving problems.
You enjoy seeing tasks complete; are able to set guidelines, schedules, and policies; and can delegate to get the work done. There’s that word enjoy again. But the key to that sentence is delegate to get the work done. An effective administrator knows that the decisions might have to stop with them, but that other people have gifts and talents that are just as valuable to the project that should be acknowledged and utilized. Bad administrators try to dominate, not help the project, take the credit for other’s people talents and work, and basically make the work a negative experience.
But what does all this have to do with spirituality? Well let’s go back to the beginning of the definition: You lead and communicate in such a way that people work harmoniously to reach goals for God’s purpose.
Working harmoniously to reach goals for God’s purpose. I read a small management book once in which the author said that he was very depressed with his work in a company. He was a Christian and felt that he wasn’t living as a Christian in his corporate environment. But then the question came up in his mind – Why not? Why can’t I live as a Christian and as a business manager. He realized that he had bought into the corporate myth that you had to be dog-eat-dog in order to survive in the business world. He had created a split personality for himself: The loving Christian outside of work and the corporate shark inside work, and the dichotomy was making him miserable.
So he decided to stop being the shark and be a full-time Christian, and promote Christian values of generosity, respect and renewal, compassion, caring and competence, in his workplace. He put his Christianity into practice and his entire life changed. First of all, he started to enjoy going to work and doing the work. The people under him responded with greater productivity, and the jobs got done better and faster with a higher positive outcome.
That is carrying the attitude of Christ. And looking back I realize that that was what was lacking in the Peter Principle. When we work to create an environment of dignity, respect, and compassion, rather than just work to get the job done, or to get a promotion, the environment flourishes and becomes a place where people are held in reverence and Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit are present.
We cannot all be great administrators, but we can support them in their endeavors. And we can also try to be a little more organized ourselves. So when you look around at something that you have to organize and you think – I don’t want to do this, it takes too much time – take a moment, connect with Jesus, ask him to help you out, and remember that no matter how small your job at the moment is, that tiny little bricks also build God’s kingdom.