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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. Currently we are examining the I AM statements of Jesus. Enjoy.
I Am the Light of the World
September 14, 2025 14th Sunday of Pentecost
Psalm 119: 105-112 John 8:12-19
This has been a difficult week for me to write a sermon. First of all, it’s the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I understand that for some people, the effect of that might not be so immediate. But for me 9/11 is personal because my father’s office was in the Twin Towers. By the most bizarre set of circumstances, he wasn’t in the building when the planes hit, but I didn’t know that as I was watching the attack live on television in Japan, and none of my family in America did either. It wasn’t until 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when he was finally able to get to a working phone that my family knew he was okay, and it was about 3 am, my time when I found out.
I read a commentary this week of stories from people, like my father, who were somehow delayed that morning and therefore never made it to work. Someone’s child was sick, and they had to stay home. Someone met a friend they hadn’t seen for a while and stopped to catch up. The author was one of those people who was delayed, and she said, “Now when my schedule gets disrupted, or I get rerouted in my travels, or something happens that I have to change my plans, I don’t stress about it anymore. Instead, I think, maybe this is to keep me safe and out of harm’s way.”
I think that’s a good attitude to take, but at the same time there were over 3,000 people, civilians and first responders, who showed up to work and who didn’t make it out alive. And what do you say about them? I would like to think that all of them were just as worthy of living as all those who were delayed.
It’s very wrong of us when we split survival and demise between those who live as being worthy or being rewarded with life, and those who died as being unworthy or being punished with death. I will never forget the government official who, after hurricane Katrina, said, “New Orleans was hit with this disaster because it is an ungodly city.” I refuse to believe that New Orleans does not have good people in it. And I do not think that any of us can presume to define how God’s judgement works. That is not our bailiwick.
This has also been a very difficult week because of the Charles Kirk shooting. Besides the fact that, like 9/11, it was a horrible act to witness, it is also an action of extreme reaction to someone who was controversial. And it strikes at a core of our American beliefs of freedom of speech. Okay, maybe you don’t like what someone’s opinions or beliefs. Disagree with them or keep silent and walk away. Either is fine, depending on the room you’re reading, but I don’t believe that you should shoot someone for simply having different opinions.
Unfortunately, this has happened all through history, all throughout the world. In the United States we have had innumerable assassination attempts against presidents of both parties; four of which succeeded. This is not the first time that our country has gone through a period of political unrest, ideological uncertainties, and disagreements. So far, the United States has managed to work our values and feelings out after each of these periods, and has come to a better place on the other side.
But it’s not fun to live through those times. I think that the events of this week have emphasized the uncertainty that we’re living in, and it can cause us to really question where we stand with our feelings and our faith, and how we put our feelings and faith into practice.
And I have to be honest with you – there were a few times this week that I just wanted to wrap myself in a cozy blanket, and go to bed with my cats and a light-hearted novel, that would tell a story that was nothing like what’s happening in the world right now. And if any of you have felt that way this week – I don’t blame you, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed, because sometimes this world does feel incredibly overwhelming, and we don’t know what to do with it.
And then on top of all this stuff – I’m supposed to preach on Jesus as the light of the world. How do I preach on that? How do I find Jesus as my light in all this darkness? How do I keep darkness from overwhelming me so that I don’t end up in that blanket with a book and my cats? Okay Jesus where are you? Where is this light of yours that we so desperately need?
One thought that hit me when I was wrestling with this was: Jesus didn’t live in certain or stress-free times. Sometimes the Gospels give us the impression that he and his band of merry disciples were traveling from town to town, and people were happy to see Jesus preach, and everyone welcomed them and loved them right away.
But Israel was occupied by the Roman Army, which had the right to conscript anyone at a moments notice. Soldiers could go into a town and round up a bunch of young men to work on building projects when they were billeted in an area. If a person gave offense to a Roman, they could be crucified or flogged to death. Eighty percent of the population were living in poverty and large number of the poor were tenement farmers or merchants who had to pay their landlords with their produce along with three different taxes. Most of them were left with just living rations. Very often children were sold into slavery to pay off debts. The Jewish poor were often looked down upon by religious authorities because they couldn’t follow the religious laws as strictly as they should. Jesus was in the middle of all that and often when he came to town the local Rabbis and Pharisees would challenge his ideas because he didn’t preach what they thought was the right way to think about and worship God.
In the middle of all of this Jesus declares: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Most of Jesus’ followers were the meek – those who had no political or social power. Jesus was giving hope to people by showing them how to live in an oppressive and uncertain society, by living in their faith. When we find the center of our faith, and we know how to live in it, we also find freedom and certainty within the chaos of the world, instead of conforming to the chaos of the world.
So what did Jesus teach us that we can hold onto that will give us light?
For me the first thing that I think of is to be kind and respectful of everyone. Jesus was willing to engage with people who had different ideas than he did. There were times when he came down hard on some Pharisees but that was because they weren’t respecting others or putting the law above helping people. But for the most part he treated all people equally - even those people who were socially considered to be beneath him. He spoke with and treated with kindness Samaritans, impure women, lepers and other unclean people, Greeks, foreign women and men, and children. He listened to them and really tried to understand their circumstances and their needs. I don’t agree with a lot of the political opinions out there, but they come from people who have needs and are working on their own fears and frustrations. Jesus reinforced by his actions the commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Can we spread some of his light by demonstrating our attempt to understand others?
Second, Jesus told us that everyone is loved by God and is worthy of God’s Kingdom. In Jesus’s age you had to be someone very holy or heroic to earn your place in heaven. Jesus gave eternal life to everyone. This doesn’t mean that we all get a free ride. It does mean that in God’s eyes we all have a chance of living within His Glory if we are willing to open up our hearts and connect with him. During difficult times I think that we should fortify our souls by working on our own spirituality through prayer and study. When we do this, we set our minds and hearts on ways to solve problems through peace, not violence.
Third, Jesus practiced love through forgiveness. We need to work on defusing the world’s craziness by forgiving others and ourselves, not by seeking to shame and dominate others. Forgive yourself for being afraid of the madness. Forgive yourself when you don’t feel like you’re doing enough. Forgive others for their meanness and meet their meanness with kindness.
When the world seems to be cruel and overwhelming do an act of kindness for someone. Reach out to someone who needs a phone call; help out a friend in need; or listen to someone in difficulty. Every act of kindness brings a little bit of light into someone’s world. You don’t need to fix the whole world, just a little part of where you live. Each act of kindness is a brick in God’s kingdom, and keeps the light of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit glowing in our beings and in our world.
I Am the Bread of Life
Sept 7, 2025 13th Sunday in Pentecost
John 6:22-29 John 6:30-40
We’re going to be looking at the I AM statements of Jesus for our next sermon series. In the Hebrew religion God is named The Great I AM. When Moses was compelled to follow a light up to the mountain, he found a burning bush which the voice of God emanated from. God told Moses that he was to go into Egypt and free the enslaved Hebrews. Moses then said to God: But they won't believe me unless I tell them your name and who sent me. God replies: I am that I am so tell them that I AM sent thee.
Since I AM is the name of God, when Jesus says: I am the bread of life; I am the light of the world; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the vine; I am the way the truth and the life, it’s a way of connecting himself with God. But publicly he doesn’t come right out and say that he’s divine. That would have been considered to be blasphemy, which he could have been put to death for. Jesus is very careful as to how, to who, and when he divulges his divine nature and his relationship to God.
Today we're going to start with I am the bread of life. Bread is an amazing sustenance. We usually think of bread as being made from wheat but in Jesus’s day there were four main grains – wheat, barely, millet, and spelt – that were combined to give food different flavors and textures.
Wheat has 12 gr of protein and a range of other nutrients. Barley has 2 gr. of protein but it has a lot more vitamins and minerals than wheat – so they balance each other out when combined. Barley can grow in nearly any climate, and in a greater variety of soils; wheat is a little more finicky about where it can grow. Barley was also used medicinally and is also the first energy drink. In Asia people drink still barley water to help lower fevers and to hydrate effectively. Having lived in Japen I can attest that it works on both accounts.
Millet is a small round grain that’s very drought resistant. It has about 10 gr of protein, is not that high in minerals, but does have a lot of calcium. When wheat or barley crops failed people could fall back on millet to see them through, so it was always cultivated.
Spelt is a sub species of wheat that doesn’t yield as much but it grows in places that are hard for wheat to grow in. It has the highest protein yield at 14 grams, and also it has the highest concentrate of manganese which is an essential mineral for bone formation, enzyme function, our immune system, and brain function. Bread that has spelt will help to boost your health!
Now of course people in Jesus’ day didn’t have access to nutritional science, but they knew that if they combined grains that their meals would taste better, have more variety, and be more filling. Unlike seasonal vegetables and meat, which was only a treat for most people, grain could be stored and eaten all year long, and bread was the easiest way of cooking grain for the most volume. Bread was the basic nutrition for many people for centuries. You can live for a long time on only bread and water. And if you mixed your grains, you would have a fairly balanced diet. Plus, unlike a grain porridge, you could take bread with you wherever you went.
It’s not surprising that the people followed Jesus after he has feed the 5,000 with unlimited bread, and that they wanted more. But Jesus tells them that they are looking for more than just physical nutrition. People also need spiritual nutrition. Moses told the Israeli people that God gave them manna in the wilderness not just to feed them but to show them that they were being nurtured by God spiritually. This reference is made again when the people want to know what signs they can expect from Jesus. You would think that feeding 5000 people would be enough of a sign for them.
Jesus is trying to get people to see that there is more to this life than just our physical bodies. Yes, we need to eat in order to function in this world, but humans are hungry for more than just food.
We have hungers of the mind and our heart for things that that will make us feel good, and purposeful, and connected to others. If we don’t feel good about ourselves, we won’t be good to other people and we end up hurting them. If we don’t have purpose in our lives, then we think and feel that our time is wasted, and our efforts are meaningless. If we aren’t connected to other people in positive fellowship, then we become lonely, which leads to unhappiness and depression.
A drawback with living in this very physical world is that we often think of taking care of our bodily hunger first; and then we concentrate on our emotional and mental needs in order to feel good about ourselves. But Jesus wants us to see that to truly be satisfied with our lives that we should put our spiritual needs first.
And just as we combine different types of wheat to make bread more nutritious, we should also combine spiritual practices to balance out our spiritual needs. But the first action that Jesus says we need to do to is to believe that God exists, because when we believe that God exists then we can open our hearts to the lessons that Jesus teaches us to live a spiritual life.
Jesus came to earth to teach us how to satisfy the hungers of our minds and hearts through spiritual practices and mental attitudes that help us get closer to God. When we read the Bible, or a book that will help us understand Christianity, we’re feeding our minds and developing attitudes of love and understanding. When we give service and help other people we’re feeding our need to live purposely. When we connect with God in prayer and meditation we’re nurturing our connection to the Divine. When we love our neighbors and practice forgiveness we’re nurturing our connections of the heart. When we practice forgiveness on ourselves and take care of ourselves, we are nurturing our own love for who we are and are realizing our gifts and strengths and how we can use them in the world.
This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life. Jesus says that if we accept him and God that we will know that we don’t need to fear what happens in this world. Instead, we will know that although this life is temporary that our lives with God are eternal. Once we believe in God and His connection to us, we have the Blessed Assurance that God does not desert us and is with us always.
I admit that eating spiritually takes practice, and just like there is a lot of junk food out there that tempts us from a healthy diet, there is a lot of junk food in our culture that keeps us from putting our spiritual connection with God first. A lot of our culture is centered on fulfilling needs of feeling good, having purpose, and connecting with people by getting or doing temporary stuff. We’re told to by new clothes and cars because it will make us feel attractive and people will notice us. We’re told to do things for ourselves that have meaning for us, like hobbies or sports. We’re told that we can be connected to people on social media and that it’s just as deep a friendship as being face to face.
Look I have nothing against new clothes, hobbies or sports, and social media has its uses, but none of these are going to give you a lasting purpose. Those experiences are fleeting. But an enduring feeling that makes us feel good, gives us purpose, and connects us to people is building God’s Kingdom. And that is what Jesus came to teach us how to do. To make ourselves better and more loving people, so that we could build around us a better and more loving community, that supports each other with dedication and love.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. Don’t give up your nutritious breakfast, because we all need to take care of these bodies that God has given us. But add something each day that feeds you soul, connects you to God, and helps to guide you to, and in, your life’s purpose. If we do, we will always be feasting at the table of God