Fairhaven UMC

2415 Saw Mill Run Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
Sunday 9:30am Worship

    • Announcements 8-4-2024

      Upcoming Events

      Vacation Bible School Registration:

      • Event: Camp Firelight
      • Location: Hill Top
      • Time: Evenings this week
      • Details: Kids going into grades K-6 can be signed up by calling or emailing the office at Spencer, or through the link on the Partnership website at shpumc.org.

      Volunteer Opportunities

      Hill Top Sunday School Assistants Needed:

      • Location: Hill Top United Methodist Church
      • Time: Sundays during worship
      • Details: Please consider whether you can take a Sunday (or even choose a regular Sunday each month) to help Jan teach our kids during worship.

      Spencer Serving at Daily Bread:

      • Event: Volunteer service opportunity
      • Location: Daily Bread on the North Side
      • Time: Next Sunday August 11th
      • Details: If you’d like to participate, get in touch with Jayme Graham.

      Special Events

      Hill Top’s Back to School $1 Sale:

      • Event: Back to School $1 Sale
      • Location: Hill Top United Methodist Church
      • Time: Saturday, August 17th, 9am
      • Details: Be sure to let anyone know who could use a little help with back-to-school shopping.

    • Fairhaven Sermon 7-21-2024

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      Fairhaven Sermon 7 21 2024
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      In this week’s service, Rev. Dylan Parson explores the story of King Herod and John the Baptist from Mark 6:14-29. He draws parallels between the role of a court jester in medieval Europe and ancient China, who was allowed to speak truth to power, and the prophet John the Baptist, who spoke out against Herod’s marriage and warned of his impending judgment.

      Herod, like many rulers throughout history, is tempted by his own desires and the voices of those around him. He elevates these voices above the voice of God, spoken through John the Baptist. Despite knowing better, he ultimately decides to have John killed, demonstrating that sin can sneak up on us even when we know it’s wrong.

      Rev. Parson emphasizes that Herod had a conscience and was aware of his wrongdoing, but chose to ignore it. He notes that this is a common experience for all of us, as we are all drawn to goodness and holiness by the prevenient grace of God. However, we often prioritize our own desires and the opinions of others over doing what is right.

      The story of Herod serves as a warning about the dangers of ignoring the truth and the importance of being willing to hear it spoken by God or other people. By silencing John’s voice, Herod cut off any hope of redemption and set himself up for disaster. Rev. Parson encourages his congregation to be open to hearing the truth and to prioritize doing what is right, even when it is difficult.

      Transcript

      In medieval Europe, as well as ancient China, the Aztecs had this too. A king or other aristocrat in a royal court would have a jester, oftentimes, which is also known as a fool. You’re familiar with the concept of a jester, I’m sure. It was an early type of clown or comedian, and they almost always wore a special costume.

      Whatever culture they were in, they had a special costume. In Europe, that consisted of the pointed cap with the bells on the side of it, and they had this stick that was known as a marote. It was something like a staff or a scepter with a clown’s face on it, like a weird, creepy little puppet. Their whole appearance, in some ways, was meant to be kind of a shadow of the king’s.

      They had the cap and bells as their crown, they had the marote as their royal scepter, and jesters would sing, they would dance, they would tell rude jokes, and so on. They were one-man shows to entertain the royal court, like a dinner theater sort of thing. But they were more than just pure entertainment. Many historians argue that the court jester played an important political role too, not unlike the king’s advisors and that kind of thing.

      They didn’t have any power, but they had an important role. So jesters, unlike peasants, unlike any other servant of the king, had a special kind of freedom that was known as jester’s privilege. And what that means, basically, is that they were allowed to ridicule the king, they were allowed to make jokes about his family or his appearance or his decisions without getting beheaded. That’s what they wanted to say.

      They were allowed to tell the truth when no one else was, to say the things that the king’s advisors couldn’t even say for fear of the consequences of what would happen if they said it. One historian says that it went even further than that. She says the jester’s political role was crucial for the king’s own good. Having a designated mocker, someone whose job it is to make fun of the king, helped keep the king grounded in a way that was easy to not be grounded.

      It helped the king remember that he was human and that he was fallible, that he made mistakes despite almost always being surrounded by yes men who would flatter him, who would affirm him all the time no matter what he did. So when you believe that you’re a king who’s been put on the throne by God himself, you can get a little overconfident. But the jester, by mocking him, by joking, was able to draw the king’s attention to potential stupid decisions before he could make them. And that would prevent him from doing harm to the kingdom through pride, through arrogance, just by getting too big for his head here.

      In all of this, only the jester was allowed to do, which obviously meant that kings thought it was an important role. All these kings kept the jester. They preserved it. They protected that role.

      And the jester’s comedy became something like a safety net for all the people. They prevented a king from getting too big a head, causing his kingdom to get wiped out in some foolish war that they couldn’t actually win. The jester would help prevent the king from oppressing his people until there was a bloody uprising. Now the jester just kept things in check by saying, Look, this is dumb.

      Don’t do it. I’ll make fun of you. It helped. The ruler of Galilee in Jesus’ time, King Herod Antipas, does not have a court jester as far as I know.

      I don’t think we see those in the Old Testament. But what he does have is a prophet, which is a similar kind of role in more ways than you would think. Herod has a very unexpected relationship with John the Baptist. John prophesied the coming judgment of God over the people.

      He called everyone to repent of their sins. He attracted huge numbers of people to hear him in the wilderness of the Jordan Valley on the fringes of Herod’s kingdom. And as you might guess, kings usually like things pretty well the way that they are right now. So hearing someone proclaim the arrival of a new kingdom, God’s kingdom, the Messiah coming, that isn’t often well received by kings.

      But Herod, interestingly, Herod really likes John. He can’t help himself. He might not love the content of John’s message due to his own self-interest, but what he recognizes, I think, is that John is telling the truth for his own good, for everyone else’s own good, just like a court jester. What he’s saying might be annoying, but Herod knows he should listen to it.

      But Herod gets caught in kind of a sticky conflict here. I’ll try to make this as clear as possible because the way that Mark tells this story is a little bit confusing, especially the characters. But the Herod in our story is properly known as Herod Antipas. He has a brother, Philip, who is confusingly also known as Herod II, and both of them are sons of Herod the Great.

      So at least Mark called him Philip. And Philip, King Herod’s brother, divorces his wife Herodias, whom Herod then marries. Does that make sense? So biblically speaking, and in Jewish law, marrying a divorced person is considered adultery so long as the former spouse is alive. And Herod makes this even worse.

      He adds this double layer of scandal to it by marrying his brother’s ex-wife. So two layers of scandal here. And Herodias has a daughter from her marriage to Philip, and this is now Herod’s stepdaughter. Mark also calls her Herodias, the same as her mother, but we know her elsewhere as Salome.

      The daughter is known as Salome, which makes things a little clearer. So here’s the situation, right? First, Herod’s wife hates John the Baptist. John is, after all, a notorious truth-teller. He doesn’t soften his words for anyone to hear, and he has condemned Herod and Herodias’s marriage as adulterous and wrong.

      As the Common English Bible translation puts it, she had it in for John. She wants John gone. Which is also really interesting, I think. Hearing the truth about themselves, a condemnation of their sin, which they’re fully aware of.

      This is not a surprise to them. They know they’re not supposed to do this. This affects Herod and Herodias in very different ways. I’m sure Herod doesn’t like it.

      No one likes to hear about what they’re doing wrong. But Herodias wants John silenced immediately. Herod’s listening. Herodias wants it to stop.

      And so Herod, the husband that he is, and the diplomat that he is, decides to compromise. He’s not going to kill John, but he’ll at least lock him up in prison to make his wife feel a little bit better, to stop him from talking bad about them in public. Mark says that Herod protects John from his wife, puts him in prison as kind of a protective measure. And Herod figures that she should be grateful that at least he’s done something about it.

      He’s not bothering you anymore. It’s fine, right? But Herodias is still not happy about the situation. So one night, an opportunity arises for Herodias to get what she wants finally. So Herod, this great king, this powerful king, has done what royalty does, and he throws himself this grand party for his birthday.

      And all of his generals are there, all of his officials, all the businessmen, the big names and important guys, all of them are men here, of the Galilean court. And of course he wants to impress them, which is the entire point of big royal gatherings like this. In the middle of the banquet, the entertainment here, not a prophet, not a jester, Herodias’ daughter, Herod’s own stepdaughter, comes and dances for the crowd, thrilling them, the CEB tells us. She danced and it thrilled them.

      Biblical scholars debate on this, what the kind of implication is here, but there seems to be an obvious sexual undertone, right? All these men are fawning over the dancing of this young woman. And Herod basically is exploiting his own stepdaughter for the entertainment of his creepy old friends. That’s what’s happening in this scene. They love looking at her.

      And so carried away, Herod swears to his stepdaughter that he’ll give her whatever she wants, even half his kingdom because of her dancing, because she did such a good job. And so Herodias, Salome, goes to Herodias, her mother, to think about what she should ask for. And naturally we know what Herodias thinks she should ask for. She wants John the Baptist killed and she wants his head.

      None of this putting him away in prison where I can’t see him. Give me his head so I know he’s gone. And so her daughter goes back and tells Herod. And Herod is extremely distressed when he receives this request.

      The CEB says that he was upset whenever he heard from his stepdaughter, but the word that’s used here is much more intense than that. It’s perilupos in Greek. The only other place that this word for upset shows up is in Mark’s gospel, is whenever Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood about his crucifixion coming up. He’s upset, awaiting arrest and execution.

      Herod is as upset as Jesus preparing for the crucifixion. It’s very intense. Herod is miserable. He knows that this is wrong.

      He knows that he shouldn’t do it, but he promised her, right? In front of all these big, important people. He doesn’t want to embarrass himself. He promised that he’d give her whatever she asked for and this is what she asked for. Nothing big, really.

      And so his conscience takes a backseat to his other commitments. It’s very clear in here that Herod knows better and he has John killed anyway. He knows, but he still doesn’t. And we see here in Mark’s gospel that there is no excuse for what Herod does.

      He sucked up into this whirlpool of temptation around power and popularity and prestige and sex until he finds that his foot has been caught in a trap. But he does it eyes wide open. He knows what he’s doing. He heard the voice of God through John and at least to some degree, he kind of understood that.

      But he elevated the voices of his own desires and others’ desires above that voice of God. Herod loved to listen to John. Mark tells us that it confused him what John was saying, but he got it. And so the fallout of his sin comes calling really fast.

      When it comes, it surprises, it terrorizes him. He’s so upset. It’s as if he’s being threatened with death. This is how sin works.

      No one, not even King Herod, wakes up in the morning, maniacally laughing, eager for the opportunity to do something wrong. Nobody who’s sinning thinks they’re a bad person, eager to go do bad stuff. That’s a really immature understanding of sin. It’s a lot sneakier than that.

      It sneaks up in the guise of pleasant things, power, wealth, security, pleasure, all this stuff that Herod is trying to build up around himself. Herod’s situation is so fascinating and so tragic because he actually has a conscience. He’s not a caricature. He’s not this cartoon evil person.

      He has a conscience. And the reality is that we all do. The prevenient grace of God calls us to goodness and to holiness. It tugs on our hearts.

      John Wesley said that every person is born with an understanding of basic moral law written on our hearts. He says that’s the unchangeable law of love, the holy love of God and our neighbor. We know how to do right by people. We know that’s what we’re supposed to do whether we’re Christians or not.

      Even before knowing Jesus, we have the basic sense of right and wrong that ends up drawing us to Jesus, whom we can then draw towards further or walk away from. And this is exactly what we see with Herod, this historically evil person in the Bible. We see Herod was sympathetic to John, who was a prophet, proceeding and proclaiming the coming of Jesus. Herod heard that and was compelled by it.

      He was listening. Something powerful is churning in Herod’s heart. I think that he really has the opportunity in this moment to turn, to make a very different choice than he does. He could have chosen to listen to John.

      But instead, he sells out John because of this careless promise for a couple minutes of entertainment that impresses his friends and exploits his stepdaughter. When we see how upset Herod is at being asked to kill John, which he follows through with immediately, I think the reason for that is that he has this sense of being cornered or trapped that he has no other way to go. That might be familiar. I think it is familiar to all of us.

      This notion that sometimes we’re just not able to do the right thing, to make the Christ-like choice because the situation, our situation is special. It’s too hard. It’s too complicated. It’s too sticky, too difficult.

      There’s no real good choice here. But the truth is that we are never really trapped. Herod could have said no. He would have faced the consequences.

      They would have been bad. He would have faced the consequences. But he could have said no. He knew the right thing.

      He could have done it. God was speaking to him. He heard it. He could have done it.

      But instead, he ends up capitulating to his darkest impulses. His darkest impulses, his wife’s, the crowds. The crowds can often be just as strong as whatever’s coming from within. He hears the truth.

      He even recognizes the truth and he silences it anyway. He cuts off the prophet’s head and with that, any hope of redemption that was offered to him through John. Wise kings have always known that shutting up the jester doesn’t make the truth go away. Just makes it harder to hear.

      It’s extremely important that we are willing and able to hear the truth spoken by God, spoken by other people, or we are setting ourselves up for disaster. The word of God for us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

    • Announcements 7-21-2024

      Upcoming Events

      Livingstone’s Foot Meal:

      • Event: Community meal
      • Location: Fairhaven United Methodist Church
      • Time: Next Sunday, July 28, 2024, 4:30 PM

      Bible Study Field Trip:

      • Event: Craig Davis performance at Rodeo Shalom Synagogue
      • Location: Rodeo Shalom Synagogue (Shadyside)
      • Time: This Wednesday, July 24, 2024 (evening)
      • Details: Bible study group attending as a field trip
      • Contact: Talk to Dave for carpool arrangements

      Vacation Bible School – Camp Firelight:

      • Event: Evening Vacation Bible School
      • Location: Hill Top
      • Time: August 5-9, 2024, evenings
      • Details: For children entering grades K-6
      • Contact: Call or email the office at Spencer, or use the link on the Partnership website at shpumc.org

      Volunteer Opportunities

      Sunday School Assistants Needed:

      • Event: Volunteer opportunity to assist with Sunday School
      • Location: Hill Top
      • Time: Sundays during worship
      • Details: Consider taking one Sunday or choosing a regular Sunday each month to assist Jan in teaching our kids
      • Contact: Church office

      Schedule Changes

      Bible Study Cancellation:

      • Event: Regular Bible study canceled for this week
      • Location: Fairhaven United Methodist Church
      • Time: Wednesday, July 24, 2024
      • Details: Canceled due to field trip. Normal schedule is Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. Will resume regular schedule the following week

    • Fairhaven Sermon 7-14-2-24

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      Fairhaven Sermon 7 14 2024
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      Summary

      In this week’s service at Fairhaven United Methodist Church, Rev. Peg Bowman delivered a sermon focusing on the concept of citizenship in God’s kingdom and how it relates to earthly citizenship. She began by acknowledging recent tragic events in Butler, PA, and emphasized that while our earthly citizenship is important, our primary allegiance is to the kingdom of heaven. Rev. Bowman explored this theme through readings about King David and the Apostle Paul, drawing parallels between David’s journey to kingship and Jesus’ role as the ultimate king.

      Rev. Bowman also addressed the idea of spiritual maturity and discernment, cautioning against false teachers and “super apostles” who may abuse their positions. She emphasized that true Christian leadership is characterized by humility, reliance on God’s strength, and a willingness to be vulnerable. The sermon concluded with a call for believers to recognize their weaknesses, rely on God’s power, and focus on building up others rather than seeking personal glory. Throughout, Rev. Bowman stressed the importance of living as citizens of God’s kingdom while fulfilling our responsibilities as earthly citizens.

      Transcript

      Today’s sermon was written before the tragic events in Butler, PA yesterday, and we continue to pray for the recovery of those injured and for the families who lost loved ones. These events have moved me to make a few changes to what I originally wanted to say this morning, but I think the main point is still very relevant, and that is that as Christians, we are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Our citizenship here on earth is important but secondary, but because we are Christians, it’s important for us to exercise our earthly citizenship in a way that brings honor to God. So with that as a prelude, let’s dig into these scriptures.

      This month of July has been and is a month of patriotic holidays, and we started off with the 4th of July a few weeks ago, and then a few days ago I heard from an old classmate in South Sudan that his country just celebrated their Independence Day, which was July 9th. South Sudan has now been its own country for 13 years. Can you imagine being so young? And then today our French cousins are celebrating Bastille Day. Our scripture readings from the lectionary for the past few weeks, including today’s, have had something to say about what it means to be patriotic, to be a good citizen of one’s country.

      And specifically, I see two common threads throughout these readings. The first is that there’s a focus on the kingdom of God, which is closer today than it was yesterday. And secondly, is what I call civics. Now civics is an old-fashioned word, subject that used to be taught in high schools a long time ago.

      By the time I got to high school in the mid-70s, civics was long gone. But some of you might remember it. Civics might best be defined as the study of the rights and duties of a citizen. Personally, I think it was a mistake to stop teaching this in the high schools, because I think our young people need to know what their rights are and need to know what their responsibilities are as citizens of this country.

      But for today, we look at citizenship from a different angle. Today we think about what civics means to us as citizens of the kingdom of God. What are our rights as God’s children? And what are our responsibilities as citizens of God’s kingdom? God’s kingdom is where our eternal citizenship lies. That’s where our eternal life is.

      And yet, being citizens of God’s kingdom should also make us better citizens of our earthly country. And so today’s readings help us to understand some of what this means. So I’d like to start with the Old Testament. And for the past few weeks, in fact, for the past month or so, we’ve been reading about the life of David, different episodes in the life of David.

      We started out a few weeks ago seeing David as a teenager being anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel. We saw David become famous for killing Goliath. We saw David becoming a personal servant to King Saul and the best friend to Saul’s son Jonathan. But then King Saul turned out to be unstable, and he began to mistrust the people around him, especially David.

      And David had to leave Saul’s court in order to stay alive. David gathered together a band of friends who became sort of mercenaries, making their living, protecting the farmlands and the borderlands of Israel. And then after King Saul and Jonathan, after they were killed in battle with the Philistines, David was found in the city of Hebron where he was made king. And that’s where his throne was for the first few years of his kingdom.

      But then after consulting with the leaders of Israel, particularly the military leaders, it was decided to move the capital to Jerusalem. And this made sense for a whole lot of reasons. I mean, Jerusalem is on the top of a very high mountain, so it’s easy to defend. It’s also known for its olive trees and other crops.

      Jerusalem is also where God’s tabernacle was set up. So Jerusalem becomes known as the holy city. There’s just one thing missing, and that’s the Ark of the Covenant. And that’s what we heard about today.

      The Ark of the Covenant had been captured in battle a while, a few years back. And then it was retrieved, but was never brought all the way back to Jerusalem. So in our reading today, David and his men go to the house of Abinadab where the Ark had been placed, and they bring it up to Jerusalem with great celebration, with music and dancing. And the reign of David and the reign of God are both now well-established in Jerusalem.

      Now, even though there was no separation of church and state in ancient Israel, it was clear at this point that they were not one and the same thing. David lives in a palace, and the Ark of the Covenant lives in the tabernacle. Now why David lives in a big fancy palace while the Ark of the God is still in a tent, that’s going to be a subject of another interesting conversation, probably another week or two, I would imagine. That one’s going to roll around.

      We’re not there yet. In the meantime, 2 Samuel 5:10 says that David became greater and greater for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. And as David became greater, life got better and better for the citizens of Israel. So David’s kingship is often mentioned in other books of the Bible as being foreshadowing or a prophecy of the kingdom of the Messiah, Jesus.

      Jesus is called the Son of David for many reasons. First off, Jesus was descended from David. Secondly, like David, Jesus was anointed king long before he was actually crowned. In fact, Jesus’ coronation hasn’t actually happened yet.

      And we are living in the time between his anointing and his crowning. And like David, Jesus earns a name for himself early on in life. Like David, who sets up a temporary home in Hebron, Jesus sets up a temporary home in the church. Both kingdoms still need to move to their final location, David to Jerusalem and the church into God’s eternal kingdom.

      So we’re not home yet. And I think it’s worth asking the question, why the delay? What’s taking so long? Why would God ask David to wait so long before becoming king? And why would God ask Jesus to wait so very long to be crowned king of kings and Lord of lords? And I think the reason might be the same in both cases, in order to save lives. Every person’s life is precious in God’s eyes, because we are all made in God’s image. I mean, looking at Israel’s history, if David had been crowned king by Samuel at the age of 15, while Saul was still king, it probably would have started a civil war in Israel, a war which would have cost thousands of lives.

      And if Jesus had been crowned king immediately after his resurrection, thousands and thousands of people would never have heard the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. They would never have heard, as we would never have heard, the gospel message. We would never have had the chance to become his followers. It takes time for people to share with their neighbors and people in other countries that Jesus is the son of God and has been raised from the dead, and that in him we are free from sin and death.

      Matthew 24, 14 says, The gospel of the kingdom of God will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. We haven’t reached all the nations yet, and that effort is ongoing. And by the way, some of you may have heard of an organization called the Wycliffe Bible Translators. That’s just one of the organizations I keep an eye on.

      They have offices in both the UK and the US. Their mission is to translate the Bible into all known human languages, and they estimate at this point that about 97% of all the people on the planet now have at least part of the Bible in their own language. So we’re getting there, but we’re not there yet. And Jesus is waiting until the full number of believers is in before receiving his crown.

      So in both cases, both with David and with Jesus, the coronation is delayed so that the maximum number of lives can be saved. Meanwhile, the people of God look forward to the arrival of the city of God. And as Jesus said, In my Father’s house there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.

      A place in God’s mansion is one of the things that we are promised as citizens of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is coming. As citizens of the kingdom, another one of our rights and responsibilities is to throw out lifelines to the people who still need to know Jesus. And we as a church are in the process of doing that.

      So that’s sort of where our lesson from David takes us today. In the gospel lesson from last week, Jesus came to his hometown of Nazareth and taught in the synagogue, and the people of his hometown were not happy about it. You may remember that passage from last week. And they said about Jesus, they said, Where does he get all this? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t he one of us? Isn’t this the son of Mary? And they took offense at him.

      Now calling Jesus the son of Mary might have been meant as an insult. After 2,000 years, we cannot be 100% certain of what the language, the specific use of the language. But back in those days, children were usually called by their father’s name, as in son of Joseph. So it’s possible that calling Jesus the son of Mary was a reminder that Jesus’ parentage was in question.

      Because the people that grew up with Jesus, they knew him well enough to know that Mary had been pregnant before she and Joseph were married. So they were dragging skeletons out of the closet maybe? We don’t know for sure. But the bottom line is, it would have been much more accurate to call Jesus the son of God anyway, right? But they haven’t figured that out yet. The interpretation, though, seems to fit Jesus’ reply.

      He said, Prophets are not without honor, except in their own hometown. And the people’s lack of faith in him made it impossible for Jesus to do miracles there, except for a few healings. The people of Nazareth, his hometown, were not without faith in a sense. They were members of the synagogue.

      They were devoutly Jewish. They believed in God. They just weren’t convinced yet by Jesus. They weren’t believing in the right direction, or better yet, they were not believing in the right person.

      But what we see in this passage is that God wants to partner with human beings in revealing the kingdom of God to the world. God wants to partner with us, with you and me, in making God’s salvation known. Our faith, our trust in Jesus makes a difference for every single one of us. God delights to reveal himself to humanity through us.

      So since Nazareth won’t receive Jesus, Jesus sends out the disciples with the power to preach and to heal and to cast out demons, and their message is, The kingdom is coming. The kingdom of God is here. As citizens of the kingdom, one of their responsibilities and one of ours is to share the good news, which brings us to our reading today from the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. Now this is a really odd passage.

      I hope you all were able to hear that. It’s just, What is Paul talking about here? He says there’s this person who is caught up into the third heaven and witnessed all these amazing things that defy description. What’s he going on about? What Paul is saying is this. There was a person who was caught up in the Holy Spirit into paradise, who caught a glimpse of God’s kingdom that’s coming, who witnessed the things that were absolutely beyond human imagination.

      What Paul doesn’t say is that he’s talking about himself. Paul was the person who saw these things. Now why does he not say this? Because Paul didn’t want to show off. In fact, if anything, Paul wanted the Corinthians to know about his weaknesses so that God’s strength and God’s power could shine through his weaknesses.

      Paul wanted people to hear his preaching about the cross of Christ and the sacrifice that Jesus made and its power to save and the fact that the kingdom is coming. That’s the only message that Paul is interested in. For us as citizens of the kingdom, our weaknesses give God opportunities to show the world around us God’s strength and God’s love. The other reason Paul doesn’t name himself as the person who had this vision is because at this time in the history of the church, there were false teachers around.

      We’ve probably heard about these. In the time of the New Testament, there were some people that got a little bit flaky with the message and started going off in different directions. But in this case, Paul is objecting to some false teachers who called themselves super apostles. And Paul mentions them back in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

      He says that these super apostles claimed that they had done all kinds of spiritual things and had seen miracles and visions and they bragged on themselves. They maintained flawless images in public. They said they were better than any other teacher or minister and they played one up with people of other religions and nations and ethnic backgrounds. But behind the scenes and out of the public eye, these super apostles took advantage of God’s people, lied to them, cheated them, and sometimes abused them.

      And Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that it is impossible to say Jesus is Lord and mean it and then turn around and try to control or manipulate or abuse other people because people are created in God’s own image. And Jesus gave his life to save each one of us and we belong to God, not to anyone else. Paul says God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Paul turns the boasting of these super apostles upside down.

      Paul, with his thorn in the flesh, whatever that was, we don’t know, it was given by God for this purpose. It leaves room in Paul’s life for Jesus to shine through Paul’s weaknesses. Paul rests his authority not on his own knowledge or experience, but on the power of the one who raised Jesus from the dead. Now this point is sorely tempting for me to start naming the names of modern day super apostles, but I will just say this, it is essential to be aware of what’s going on in Christian circles and movements and churches beyond the boundaries of the United Methodist Church.

      Every denomination is focused of necessity on its own plans and issues, but all of us need to be aware of each other and we need to have contacts and friends outside our own denomination with whom we can compare notes and share experiences. As Paul said, The hand can’t say to the foot, ‘I have no need of you.’ We all need each other. So if some of the super Christians out there who are in the news today or on TV or online puzzle you or trouble you, if you’re not sure where they’re coming from or what they believe in or how they justify what they say from the Bible, a Christian friend in another denomination is a good friend to compare notes with.

      Find out where these super Christians come from. Find out what their denomination is. Find out what church they belong to and find out what they teach and who taught them and compare what they say against the scriptures. Do these teachers believe what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount? Do they believe what Jesus taught about the last judgment when God will say, You gave me something to eat.

      You gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was in prison and you visited me. Do they understand what Paul says in this passage when he says that having a thorn in the flesh is better than being proud and self-justifying? Paul gave up his platform in order to serve God.

      Think about this. The Apostle Paul, originally named Saul, he had been the one up-and-coming Pharisee before he met Jesus. He was a student of Gamaliel, the greatest religious scholar of his time. He was a total purist where it came to the scriptures, so much so that he persecuted the early church, tracking down believers in Jesus from city to city to arrest them, drag them back to Jerusalem to face charges of heresy.

      But after Paul met Jesus, Paul said, I count everything as filthy rags next to the glory of knowing Jesus. Paul is happy to be seen as weak for the sake of the kingdom of God. And in this weakness, God’s power is made known. Jesus overcomes any darkness, weakness, sickness, trouble in our lives, not necessarily by removing it right away, but Jesus overcomes it to reveal God’s grace and God’s mercy and God’s compassion and God’s love.

      Real Christians do not live problem-free lives. Real Christians don’t always come out on top. And real Christians don’t grab for power. They share what they have with people who don’t have as much.

      Real Christians talk about how God has had compassion on them and has seen them through the tough times. Christian maturity comes as we recognize our weaknesses and our limitations and learn to rely on the power of Jesus living in us. And this is important because the people who don’t rely on God, the people who build themselves up instead, those are the ones who end up abusing people spiritually and otherwise. Look for people who aren’t perfect, people who, like Paul, turn the spotlight off of themselves and shine it on Jesus.

      People who are spiritually trustworthy have one source of power and authority, and that’s God. Citizens of the kingdom of God have the Holy Spirit living in them. They build others up. They grow people together instead of splintering them or excluding them or creating hierarchies of acceptability.

      Bottom line, a person who is spiritually trustworthy, a person who is a citizen of God’s kingdom knows that the kingdom of God is coming. And Jesus sits on that throne and welcomes the opportunity. This person welcomes the opportunity to lay everything at the foot of Jesus. And so we, as citizens of the kingdom, doing our civic duty, we pray, Lord, have mercy.

      Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, Lord Jesus. Amen.

    • Announcements 7-14-2024

      Upcoming Events

      Hill Top UMC: VBS Planning Meeting

      • Event: Planning meeting for Vacation Bible School
      • Location: Hill Top UMC
      • Time: Tuesday, July 16, 6 PM

      Hill Top UMC: Third Thursdays Community Event

      • Event: Family-friendly community gathering with music, food, and activities
      • Location: Hill Top UMC
      • Time: Thursday, July 18
      • Details: Family Zone with DJ, outdoor games, henna artist, and more

      Fairhaven UMC: Monthly Casual Covered Dish Luncheon

      • Event: Community meal following worship service
      • Location: Fairhaven UMC
      • Time: Sunday, July 21, immediately after worship
      • Details: Bring a dish to share, your own utensils and plates. No sign-up required.

      Hill Top UMC: Vacation Bible School – Camp Firelight

      • Event: Summer Bible School for children
      • Location: Hill Top UMC
      • Time: August 5-9, evenings
      • Details: For kids entering grades K-6
      • Contact: Call/email Spencer office or register through the Partnership website at shpumc.org

      Volunteer Opportunities

      Hill Top UMC: Sunday School Assistants Needed

      • Announcement: Volunteers needed to assist Jan in teaching Sunday School
      • Location: Hill Top UMC
      • Time: During worship service
      • Details: Consider taking one Sunday or choosing a regular Sunday each month