Help Me 211 Community Resources
Prayer Ministry
If you have a prayer request, please send it to pastordelawareheadwatersparish
SERMONS:
Pastor Peg posts her two most recent sermons on this page. If you are interested in reading more of her sermons you can go to pastorpeg.wordpress.com. For the next three weeks we are preaching about The Rested Soul. How do we stay rested and with God during the hectic times in our lives? Enjoy.
The Good Shepherd
November 16, 2025 23rd Sunday of Pentecost
Psalm 23 John 10:11-15
Over the years I’ve preached on Jesus as the good shepherd more times than I can remember. And I’m sure that over the years you’ve heard sermons about the good shepherd more times than you can remember. So, what can I add to this image that I haven’t said or that you haven’t heard?
Well, right now we’re doing our sermon series on the Rested Soul. That led me to think of the image that you often find in some classical paintings of beautiful rolling hills; adorned with fat, fuzzy sheep, who are grazing over lush green meadows; and being watched over by kindly shepherds under a blue summer sky. Now if I had one of those paintings in my home it would be a relaxing thing to look at after a stressful day. Humans have only recently had television to zone out with at the end of a tough day. Before that you had to rely on sitting on your porch and looking at nature, or looking at a nice painting that you could imagine yourself in.
But life isn’t really like that pretty picture of a calm day with sheep and shepherds lazing around. Being a shepherd was actually a really difficult job. In Israel, if you were a shepherd, you would be gone for long lengths of time from your home. Unlike our northern area here where we have an abundance of green stuff that sheep can graze on, in the Middle East the ground cover is sparser, and shepherds had to keep moving the sheep’s grazing so the ecosystem wouldn’t get destroyed. You couldn't stay more than a few days in one area. And when you stopped in an area you would probably stay in shepherd’s cots, which were little buildings along the grazing route, like a temporary lean-to that might keep out some of the weather. You were out in the wind, rain, sun, snow, heat and cold.
Shepherds would be supplied by their families occasionally, but they had to live off the land and know how to hunt their meat and cook their basic fireside bread. Plus, there were some very nasty wild animals that were still in the area during Jesus’ time. Shepherds had to protect the sheep, and themselves, from lions, bears, cheetahs, plus wolves and jackals, which hunted in packs. And did you know that crocodiles could still be found in some of the rivers? They were still being reported in Israel in the 1800’s! Even crossing a stream, you could lose a sheep or your own life.
Psalm 23 takes on new meaning when you consider all that. THE LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. The first lines kind of sound like that painting, don’t they? But that’s where the shepherd ends up with the sheep at the end of the journey. And the journey can be dangerous and scary.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me. All of us walk through dark valleys and dark times in our lives and sometimes we encounter bad situations or people who could really hurt us. But part of our relationship with God is that we trust Him to show them the way. And the rod and the staff aren’t there to hurt us – they’re there to guide us: to give us little nudges in directions that they need to go. The psalmist reminds us that God is guiding us, and that we need to listen for those nudges in our lives that will tell us the right way to go. That God is leading us through those dark times to a better place.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You know my father used to teach the first grade Sunday school in my home church, and they studied this psalm. My father put down some big pieces of paper and asked the kids to draw pictures of the “enemies.” It was really cute, because all the kids drew pictures of these big monsters like you might see in a fantasy story. They were green and purple, with fangs and big sticky up hair. But if you think about that’s how you do feel about people who are dangerous or threatening to you; they’re kind of monster like. But we’re assured that, even around the monsters that we encounter, that God is giving us strength and wisdom: you anoint my head with oil. That even during the bad times we do have blessings in our lives: my cup overflows.
So even though life isn’t going to be perfect. Even through the journey is going to go through some rough areas, and we’ll probably encounter some people who aren’t very good to us, we will still get to that place of still waters. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
That is a beautiful testimony, which was given at least 1,000 years before Jesus. But then Jesus came and told his disciples that he is the good shepherd. They would have gotten that image right away and understood that Jesus is the one who is going to lead them through difficult times. He is going to show them the way to those green fields and still waters. He loves his disciples so much that he is willing to protect them with his life. And he does fulfill that promise when he gives his life as the final sacrifice for our sins.
We don’t have sacrifice ourselves for our sins, or those we love for our sins. Think about it – when you do something wrong don’t you talk yourself down and say to yourself that you are a horrible person? And don’t we sometimes lash out at people around us when we are trying to avoid admitting that we’ve done something wrong? That’s called deflection. Jesus’ assurance is that we don’t have to live there in our guilt and shame. We can ask God for forgiveness and He’s going to help us work on getting our lives back on the right path.
Sometimes we are going to have to walk some difficult routes to get back on the path, but God and Jesus are going to be with us and guiding us every step of the way.
God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit are our shepherds. They walk with us, guide us, love us and sacrifice for us. But do we believe in that Blessed Assurance? When we’re struggling with a decision, do we turn to them? When we need rest, do we let them guide you to quiet places? Do we allow them to be our shepherds?
Life is really crazy – especially around this time of the year. And in the midst of all the doing everything we can work ourselves up into a franticness that doesn’t help our stress levels. We are supposed to be decorating; we’re supposed to be buying the right gift; we’re supposed to send our yearly greetings; we’re supposed to be planning the perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. And we’re supposed to feel merry and bright during all of that!
How many of you are exhausted after Christmas? It’s understandable.
How do we turn over to God all those things that burdened us? How to we remember that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are walking with us this time of the year, and at any other stressful times? Well, Christianity is a practice, and when things get crazy, we should practice slowing down and getting in contact with God. Let’s take some time, close our eyes, take a breath and pray what stresses us; give it to God. You’re not asking God to do it for you. You’re asking God to be with you and to give you the strength, or the time, or the wisdom, to do the job.
So right now, we’re going to do an exercise. I want everyone to think of one thing that you want to do this afternoon, or sometime during the week. We’re going to close our eyes and hold that in our thought. Then we’re going to take a deep breath and let it out but while we do that, we’re going to ask God to help us with whatever our project is. Maybe you’re going finish putting away your Halloween decorations; maybe you’re going to send a birthday card to someone; it doesn’t matter. We’re simply going to ask God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit to be with us and help us get the job done.
Are you ready? Close your eyes; hold your project in your thoughts: Breath in and breath our with your prayer.
How did that feel? When life gets hectic, we need to connect with God, remember that He’s with us and just ask for His help. Why not? God can handle it! He wants to be in contact with you. He wants to lead you through the valleys to the calm meadow and still water. He wants you to be in connection with Him in love and to be with him in a state of peace.
When we take that step and invite Him into those hectic and stressful moments in our lives, we will know that our cup runs over with blessings and that we are dwelling with our Divine Parent, our Brother Jesus, and our beloved sister the Holy Spirit, in their house now and always.
Give it to God
November 9, 2025 22nd Sunday of Pentecost
Psalm 16:5-9 Matthew 11:28-30
Charge Conferenced is over. Thank you so much for your efforts while we figured out the new system. Thank you so much for filling out all those forms – we are now officially able to continue to be a non-profit religious organization according to the laws of New York state and our federal government.
But now we have to start to think about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. And don’t get me wrong – I love all those holidays. But when I think of those holidays, they fit into this visualization that I have of the whole year as a series of hills that you climb up.
I always feel that after the holidays, that January is like a flat plain that I’m walking across. Maybe that’s because here in the Northeast it’s cold and dark, and we know that we can’t plan for much because of the weather, so we all kind of hibernate a bit. That doesn’t mean we don’t do things; it’s just that I never feel that my schedule is crammed. I can even get extra stuff done, like clean out closets.
And then Lent starts, we begin to have Bible study, soup’s on, and other church and community events, and I start to walk up the hill towards Easter. Then I get to Holy Week and Easter and I’m on the top of the hill. And I’m looking ahead and I start to walk up another hill to Pentecost. Some more Bible study, and more church and community events. And then on the top of the Pentecost hill I see the next hill, which is the end of the school year and summer stuff. And then after the summer the school year begins, and I start to climb the charge-conference-hill.
Now the last two years the charge-conference-hill has been in September and then I start climbing the hill to Halloween. This year I did the Halloween hill before the charge-conference-hill. And here I am now on top of the highest hill, and I don’t know why, but I’m not looking up. I’m looking down this really tall hill, at a plateau which is Thanksgiving, and then the hill goes down again until it ends up, at the bottom, at Christmas and New Years.
And I don’t know why – maybe because I used to ski when I was a kid – but there’s so many things that I have to do between now and the end of the year that it looks like a slalom course. And it’s probably going to start out okay, but it’s going to pick up speed as I go down, and I just hope I don’t knock over any of those flags and poles while I’m making my way to the bottom.
How many of you are exhausted after Christmas? It’s understandable. You know one year I had so much to do I forgot my birthday, which is on December 19. Literally! My mother had to remind me on the day that it was my birthday. One year I was so busy that, five days before Christmas, I looked over at Michael and I asked him, “Honey, would you mind if we didn’t have a tree this year?” He looked back and said, “Fine.” That’s how busy he was.
Some years are like that. You just can’t do everything all the time. And you know, it’s okay to let some things go when life gets a little crazy. The year without the Christmas tree I had wonderful celebrations in my churches; Michael and I still had presents; we still had a delicious Christmas dinner and watched football.
Now my vision of marching up hills is an illustration of how I view a typical year. But not all years are typical. Some years have a lot more hills than others, and some of those hills can be pretty steep. And those years are also framed inside eras or periods of time. And some of those eras are calmer or more stressful than others.
The last several years have been stressful both socially, because of the disruption of COVID, and politically because of contention. And I don’t care where you are on the political spectrum, it’s just been stressful, and I think it’s added stress to all of us.
A friend of mine used to say: Peggy, there’s good stress and bad stress. And unfortunately, I think that our society has been experiencing an insidious bad stress creep that can lead us all to feel weary and burdened in heart, mind and soul. And I really do believe that all of that does affect our physical bodies. We can feel like we don’t have a lot of energy; and we get tired and discouraged more easily.
We heard today that with Jesus we will find rest for our souls. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. God promises rest for the weary soul—but what does that look like in our daily lives? It doesn’t mean that Christians are exempt from hardship or that life will always be easy. I’m still going to have to climb those hills. But it does mean that God will be with us through it all.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
I’ve had problems over the years with the yoke image. A yoke is what you put on a steer to control it so that it will go the direction you want it to. And that image might feel uncomfortable because there’s a feeling of dominance about it. So, I looked at this idea of being yoked and I realized that historically Jesus was offering an alternative to a religious outlook and system that had become very burdensome.
Hebrew law, which the Pharisees promoted, was so strict that often poor people couldn’t follow it. So they would feel that they were living in perpetual sin. And to be in a state of sin meant that you could not be loved by God; that you weren’t worthy to be loved by God. Can you imagine how crushing that would be to someone’s spirit and psyche? Can you imagine feeling that every day of your life and not seeing a way to get to God’s love? How destroying.
And here comes Jesus who says: That is not true. You don’t have to earn God’s love. You start out in God’s love; you are loved by God. Yes, we do things that God does not approve of. We make mistakes. But if we are willing to be humble, admit that we messed-up; if we are willing to repent and make things right, and we ask for forgiveness, then God will forgive us. We will continue to be loved by God. We forget how to love God, but God never stops loving us.
Wow! That yoke is a lot lighter than the other one. Yes, God is still guiding us, but it’s not through domination, it’s with the assistance of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The scriptures promise that God walks with us, and that God gives us an easy yoke to bear because we are loved and we can give our burdens to God.
How do we turn over to God all those things that burdened us? A big step is to ask for help.
I’m a great believer in lists. I make lists and I love to cross things off my list when I’m done with it. But when I make my list – and when things get crazy, I do forget to do this – what I should do is take some time, close my eyes, take a breath and pray each one of those items. Give it to God.
Now you’re not asking God to do it for you. You’re asking God to be with you and to give you the strength, or the time, or the wisdom, to do the job.
So right now, we’re going to do an exercise. I want everyone to think of one thing that you want to do this afternoon, or sometime during the week. We’re going to close our eyes and hold that in our thought. Then we’re going to take a deep breath and let it out but while we do that, we’re going to ask God to help us with whatever our project is. Maybe you’re going to put away your Halloween decorations; maybe you’re going to send a birthday card to someone; it doesn’t matter. We’re simply going to ask God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit – whoever you feel needs to be on the job – to help us get the job done.
Are you ready? Close your eyes; hold your project in your thoughts: Breath in and breath our with your prayer.
How did that feel? When life gets hectic, we need to connect with God and just ask for His help. Why not? Do you think God can’t handle it? He wants to be in contact with you. He wants to help you slalom that course, so you don’t hit the flags and the poles. He wants you to be in connection with Him in love and to be with him in a state of peace.
And when we take that step and invite Him into those hectic and stressful moments in our lives, our hearts will be glad, and our souls will rejoice, and our bodies will also rests secure in our Divine Parent, our Brother Jesus, and our beloved Sister the Holy Spirit.