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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 are preaching about Our Spiritual Gifts: How we can recognize them and use them in our lives for Christ. Enjoy.
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.
The Gift of Giving
January 4, 2026 Epiphany
2 Corinthians 8:1-5 Matthew 2:1-12
Happy New Year! Have any of you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? Two of mine are to meditate once-a-day and organize my home office better. So far I’m doing really well. But one of the problems with making New Year's resolutions is that perfectionism gets in the way. The minute I skip a day of action I tend to think: I’ve blown it. And then I get discouraged, and I don't continue with those self-improvement efforts or great ideas that I had for the New Year. Because of this I have concluded that: Perfectionism is the enemy of good intentions.
Instead, what I should be thinking is: So what, you missed a day of meditation! So what, today you didn’t straighten up the office bookshelves! So what, the papers you sorted two days ago are still sitting on the dining room table! So what! Tomorrow is another day. Another chance to reset and meditate, straighten up those bookshelves, and put away paperwork. There are 365 days of the year and not all of them are going to go perfectly. Just face every day the best you can and do the best you can.
If any of us don't live up to our own expectations that's OK. God will forgive us for not being perfect. Thinking about this I’ve decided that my prayer for this year is going to be: Lord, please help me forgive myself for not being perfect. So, my first New Year's message to you is: When you're not living up to your expectations, please say: Lord, please help me forgive myself for not being perfect.
On another note, today we're going to start our new sermon series on spiritual gifts. Our first one is on giving. On your explanation sheets giving is defined as: You contribute material resources and do God's work with liberality and cheerfulness. You contribute sacrificially, motivate others, and don't shun pressure or publicity. That is a lot to unpack. But I think it fits with Epiphany because today we're celebrating the wise men who gave Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Gold symbolizes royalty but also Jesus’ incarnation here on earth since he would need to use money to live. Frankincense is associate with spirituality and was used as an incense to purify the air. It represents Jesus in his priestly role as a spiritual leader and teacher. Plus, frankincense has anti-bacterial properties. Ancient people knew to treat a wound with frankincense so it would heal with less chance of infection. So, Frankincense also represents Jesus as a healer.
Myrrh was also used as an incense and as an embalming ingredient in many cultures and is associate with preparing the body and soul for the life afterwards. It represents Jesus’ sacrifice which he gave to us when he died, to free us from sin and to prove to us that there is life after this one.
So, let's look at the gifts of the wise men and see how they line up with our definition of giving that I gave a little while ago.
The first part of the definition is: you contribute material resources. The wise men definitely contributed helpful resources to Jesus' family. I read commentaries that pointed out that the gold probably allowed Jesus’ family to flee to Egypt before Herod had Jesus killed, and it allowed them to live safely in Egypt until they could move back to Israel. Of course, the wise men didn't know that the gold was going to be used for that purpose. They gave all their gifts in faith, but any gift we give is given in faith that it will be used well. Maybe it won’t be used for what you think it will be, but once you give a gift it will be used as the person needs to use it. We have to let go of the gift once it leaves our hands.
I know people who won't donate to organizations because they believe that the money will be wasted on high salaries for their executives and it won't go to the people who really need it. That’s a valid concern because there are organizations that end up in the news with those scandals. I recommend that people give locally because usually you can see the impact of those donations. Or you can pick an organization close to your heart – for instance I used to donate to juvenile diabetes because of my nephew. Or find an organization like UMCOR that you know uses your donations wisely.
But I want to add something to this idea. We usually think of material resources as stuff like money, clothing, or food. And, in many cases, those are needed, but not all of us have the means to donate materially. But I believe that the two greatest resources that we all have are our time and our expertise. Giving your time to help is just as valuable. Places like CORE, Angels Attic, or the Christmas Feeling fund, need people who are willing to give their time to work so that they can function. Also, we all have a field that we are knowledgeable or good at. I know that so many people in our churches have donated their knowledge and abilities to make our churches and our communities better places. Time and expertise is giving on a grand scale.
The second point is that we do God's work with liberality and cheerfulness. This speaks to how we give our resources, time and expertise. However, some people give because it strokes their ego. Look at me, and all the great things I do for people or organizations (like the Pharisee who brags on himself to God in the Temple.) Then they get upset when they’re not acknowledged enough for their generosity. Unlike giving someone a few bucks and getting a candy bar, Spiritual Giving isn’t transactional. We do it because we want to give expressions of love and support; we don’t look for a payout from it. It does make us feel good which is why we’re happy to do it. If you see someone who’s cranky about giving, or you’re cranky about giving, you need to check out what’s happening. There could be something wrong with the giving situation, or there could be something wrong with the giving person’s attitude.
You contribute sacrificially. Remember it’s not just material stuff but also time and expertise. I donated to both the Hobart Inn disaster and the Stamford fire last month. Could I have used that money to buy myself something nice? Yes, but I have enough and these people needed help to recover. Every month Pastor Dawn and I preach at the nursing home, which we volunteer our time for. But I don’t mind giving up my time because it’s so much fun. That’s the cheerfulness part.
Giving also happens when you motivate others. When we set out to motivate someone, we’re helping people grow by giving them our time and expertise to mentor them. We’re showing them that we care about them and that we believe in them and their futures. And we’re passing on valuable knowledge that will help someone both in the present and in the future. The people we mentor and motivate will in turn mentor someone else down the line, especially if we encourage them to pay it forward to someone else later.
And finally, we don't shun pressure or publicity. Giving has many levels and sometimes we are asked to give some very hard things with a lot of expectations. Sometimes those expectations are private and sometimes those expectations are public, and both can come with a lot of pressure. But being under pressure is a chance to grow in our trust of God. We can pray and ask God to give us the strength to take things one step at a time.
If our intention is to help others, we will be able to make it through, because God knows we’re working on building the kingdom and will give us strength and guidance. And sometimes our public giving comes with resistance or misunderstanding about what we’re doing, like when people march for equal rights. But I believe that when we face public adversity, whether it’s police lines or opposition at a town council meeting, we recognize that this is part of our spiritual journey. When we stand up for what is the right thing to give and do in our communities, we grow in our faith.
As you can see there are a lot of ways to give. We can give big or small; locally or far away; materially or with our time and expertise; person-to-self, person-to-person, and person to community: and privately or publicly, but it is all valuable giving and will help us to grow and bring the world to a better place. So never discount your giving and always remember: That any act of well-intentioned giving is an act of love to God and connects you to His Eternal Kingdom.