Sidney UMC - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - 08/01/21 - Sermon - “Feed People and Feed People!” (“Feeding the Body and the Soul” - Series: Part 1 of 5)

                                 Sunday 08/01/21 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title:          “Feed People and Feed People!”

             (“Feeding the Body and the Soul” - Series: Part 1 of 5)

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 51:1-12                                     

New Testament Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16

Gospel Lesson: John 6:24-35

          This morning in our gospel of John reading that I just read, it says once again in John 6:26-27:

“²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷ Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”                     (John 6:-26-27, NRSV)

          Jesus is saying in this scripture that people not only need physical food, but also spiritual food. For example, Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew 25:35-40:

³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,  you did it to me.’              (Mt. 25:35-40, NRSV).

          So, what are we supposed to do then friends? Are we to be focused on feeding bodies or feeding souls? The biblical answer is both. For these reasons, and because of our Gospel of John readings for the next five weeks, I will be preaching a sermon series called “Feeding the Body and the Soul”. In this sermon series, I will talk about the Christian call to feed people physically, but also the call from Christ to be feed spiritually. I am proud to pastor a church that takes both physical and spiritual food seriously.

          This is why my first part of this sermon series is called “Feed People and Feed People”! You know, I have been to churches where it seemed clear from the pastor and the church that the only focus was spiritually feeding people. Don’t get me wrong, the primary mission of the Christian Church is to bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ. Yet, there is more in addition to bringing people to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why our Sidney UMC mission statement is:

“Is to bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ, and equip them to transform the world”.

          We want all people to repent of there sins, come to Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, be filled by the Holy Spirit, and be transformed. Beyond this primary and central mission of our church, the rest of our mission here at Sidney UMC is:

 “and equip them to transform the world”.

          This mission statement is the mission statement of the United Methodist Church, with some modifications. Some of this transformation as I just stated though, is Christ working in me and you so that we can serve and love others in new and amazing ways. This transformation has led to this church housing the largest foodbank in Delaware County, hosting Share the Bounty dinners for years, Sauce and Cross dinners, and etc. If someone comes to this church hungry, we will get them something to eat, something to drink, etc., but the church of Jesus Christ is called to “Feed People and Feed People!”. Well, what do I mean by this once again? We are called to help take care of people’s physical needs, while addressing their spiritual needs.

          Of all the Wesleyan of Methodist traditions of Christianity, I have to say that in my opinion the denomination that does this the best is the Salvation Army. They preach the full life saving gospel of Jesus Christ, and people’s physical needs are also met. The gospel, the bible calls us to do both. We are to “Feed People and Feed People”. Our hope should be that in the process of caring for people’s physical needs, that they see the great love and the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Not only will their bodies be feed, but so will their souls. We are called to “Feed People and Feed People!”

While I have seen churches that only seemed focused on bringing people to Christ and not caring for their physical needs, I have also seen churches that seemed only concerned with people’s physical needs, and not bringing them to Christ. Yet we are called to do both. We are called to “Feed People and Feed People!”

          Some people might say though that what Jesus said this morning in John 6:26-27 was harsh. You see, Jesus had just performed the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread, and two fish. This miracle was about much more than just the physical food though. Jesus wanted these people to believe in him, and to live for him. Where the rub comes in is when some of the people that Jesus feed catch up with him on the other side of the sea. Once again, as I read, as it says in the top of the inside of our bulletin for this morning, Jesus says in 6:26-27:

“²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷ Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”            (John 6:-26-27, NRSV)

          Some might say, “Well jeez Pastor Paul, that is harsh. Doesn’t Jesus want to give them more physical food for their bodies?” Everything Jesus did on this earth, was so that people would have faith in God through him. It’s not that Jesus did not want to love, heal, feed, and forgive, for this was and is who Jesus is. Yet Jesus’ primary mission on earth was die for our sins on the cross and have us follow him as our savior and Lord. The problem in John 6:26-27 then isn’t that Jesus feed people physically. Instead, the problem was that the people didn’t seem to care about who Jesus was spiritually. Let me say this again, the problem in John 6:26-27 then isn’t that Jesus feed people physically. Instead, the problem was that the people didn’t seem to care about who Jesus was spiritually. So many churches are good at feeding people’s physical needs, yet are we allowing God to use us to lead people to Christ?

          Jesus is saying then that it is about more than just the food from the foodbank. It is about more than just a free community dinner or a dinner and worship. The physical food is important, but the real food, the spiritual food, is Jesus Christ.

          In fact, Jesus ends this gospel of John reading for this morning, once again, with one of his “I Am” statements, which we will hear again next Sunday, as well. Jesus says in John 6:35 once again:

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (Jn. 6:35, NRSV).

          The primary mission of the church is to bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Someone might say, “So you don’t care that there are hungry people Pastor Paul?”. No, I care a lot, but as much as I care about people’s physical bodies, I also care about people’s eternal bodies and their enteral life. We are called to “Feed People and Feed People!”

          In our reading this morning from Ephesians 4:1-16, hear about the various gifts and callings that people have. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:11-13:

¹¹ The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.            (Eph. 4:11-13, NRSV).

          God gives all of us different gifts and graces so that we might “Feed People and Feed People”! In doing this, God will use us to lead people to the head of the church, Jesus Christ. God will also use us in various ways to transform Sidney and world.

          Part of my role as a pastor is not only bringing people to faith in Christ through God, but also to help those people to discover or strengthen their gifts and graces. I don’t want everyone here to do what I think you should do. I want everyone hear to be unleashed in the ministries that God has called you to, so that we might fulfill the mission of this church, which is:

“Is to bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ, and equip them to transform the world”.

          How do we do this as Sidney UMC? We do this by what our church vision is:

1. Love God

2. Serve Others

3. Transform the World

          Through doing this, God will bring people to Christ, we will find or further develop our gifts and graces, and we will serve others and pursue the ministries that God has called us to. We will do all this to transform Sidney and the world.

          Since I have the privilege of having my father Ken and my stepmother Jan from Illinois with us today, I want to tell a story about my father. As you might have heard me say, my late Grandpa Winkelman grew up during the Great Depression. As a result, my grandma and grandma, and my father and stepmother have pantries. Maybe it’s more of a mid-west thing, but you stock up on food and store it in a room. You can, you jar, etc., because if you grew up in the great depression like my Grandpa Winkelman did, you know what it is like to not have a lot of money.

          For a number of years, the Winkelman men and other family would take annual summer fishing trips. Sometimes Grandpa Winkelman would cook a meal. It was not uncommon for Grandma Winkelman to make a ten-pound bag of potatoes and expect that we eat it all in one meal. If we didn’t though, it would come back for lunch, for dinner, and so on and so forth. My grandpa and grandma never wasted food. To this day, I hate throwing out or wasting food. Anyone else feel the same way?

          I remember when I was a kid eating dinner at my dad and stepmother’s table. Here was the deal at that table, you could put as much food on your plate as you wanted. Yet, the deal was also that we must finish everything on our plates before we were excused from dinner. A couple of times when I was kid, I thought this clear your plate thing was a bluff. After a few minutes or several hours at the dinner table however, I learned that I was going to finish the food I put on my plate.

          In the process of learning the value and the blessing of physical food, I also received spiritual food. The lessons I learned and the things that I was taught were more than just the food I was physically eating. We all did and do need to eat physical food, but families, and church families can also share spiritual food. That spiritual food is Jesus Christ. I learned about physical food growing up, but I was also offered spiritual food.

          As a church, our faith teaches us to “Feed People and Feed People!” It is right and

 

proper to feed people’s bodies, but may we also feed people’s souls so that they may be

led to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sidney UMC - Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - 07/25/21 - Sermon - “Fools Say In Their Hearts"

Sunday 07/25/21 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title:          “Fools Say In Their Hearts”

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 14                                         

New Testament Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

 Gospel Lesson: John 6:1-21

          At different times in my life, I have meet people who were people of faith, people who believed in God, who loved Jesus, but for different reasons stopped believing or stopped having faith. Sometimes, unfortunately, some people lose faith, they reject God, and yes, they even reject Jesus Christ.

          The question to ask ourselves however, is why? As per my sermon title for this morning quoting Psalm 14:1a, it says once again:

“Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God” (Ps. 14:1a, NRSV).

          The Psalmist is saying to us this morning, once again, that if you reject God, and if you say in your heart that there is no God at all, then you are a fool. The Psalmist does not say that you are making a bad decision, but the Psalmist says that you are fool. Pretty harsh!

          What I want to talk about a little this morning though, is common reasons that people lose their Christian faith, and how we can reconcile these realities to our belief in God.

          This morning, I want to discuss five common reasons that people reject God and reject the Christian faith. Let us go through these five one by one.

1.    Suffering:

Some people have lost a child, have a family member, have gotten cancer, have lived through a war, have become disabled, have went through a crushing divorce, have lost a job, etc. Some here, and many others have endured incredible suffering in their lives, and I have around this so many times, “Pastor Paul, if there really was a loving God, then why did God allow fill the blank to happen?”

Among the many reasons that “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God” is suffering. Reconciling our suffering to a loving God can be challenging for those people who have a shallow view and understanding of God and Christianity. Most of human suffering I am convinced is our fault, not God’s fault. Someone might ask me, “Pastor Paul, why did God allow my brother to get killed by a drunk driver?” I could then ask in reply, “Why would someone get that drunk and then so recklessly drive home?”

Sometimes our expectation is that we can control God, and that God will give us anything we want, anytime we want it. Do I still believe that God performs miracles? Absolutely, but I think most often God uses us to be the light, the love, and the life of Christ in this world. To reject God, to reject Christ, is to then say that we have a better chance in the life apart from God, apart from Christ, and all on our own. To love God and to follow Christ is to live differently, and sometimes when we suffer it is in part because of what we have done or because of what others have done to us.

Things like cancer and diseases are tough, and I do not have all the answers friends, but we live in a broken and a sinful world. Much of human suffering happens because of us. Abandoning your faith in God, and your faith in Christ, will then mean that you will replace Christ with someone else or something else. Even when we suffer, God is with us, and Jesus still died for us. The church exists so that we can be together, love each other, proclaim the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ, and lift each other up.

          I truly believe as crushing as the loses that many of us have had, if we have loving church families, then the last thing we would consider would be to abandon our faith and to abandon Christ. We do not have all the answers, sometimes God performs miracles, and sometimes people go to be with God. This being said though, God is always with us spiritually, even if we do not fully understand his plan on this side of heaven.

2.    Natural Disasters:

I remember when I was a young kid, and maybe this is still true, if a car or a house was damaged in a storm, or by tornado, or a broken tree branch, insurance companies would call this an “Act of God”. Natural disasters a tricky one. Tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fire, storms, earthquakes. The responses that I have heard from those that have lost so much is, “How can a loving God allow natural disasters”? Again, I do not have all the answers, but it seems that some expect this broken and sinful world to be perfect in every way. Yet God made us with free will. We get to choose every day how we live. Do we cause natural disasters? No, not necessarily, but some scientists think that human behavior can contribute to them.

We all want a life free of pain, free of suffering, and free of natural disasters, yet this is not why Christ came to this earth. Christ came to this earth to reconcile our human brokenness to God. This means that through Christ and his death on the cross, we can be forgiven of our shame and guilt and live differently. This world though is still very broken, still filled with violence, and still has a lot of suffering. To an extent then, it can be easy for someone to sit on there couch in there living room and proclaim, “Well if there is a God, why doesn’t he fix all of this?” The answer is, Jesus did not just come to earth only to die for us, because he trained his disciples to build his church. We are supposed to live in community, to love and care for each other, and to be with each other through the best and the worst of times. Maybe we have a friend or a relative that died in natural disaster. This does not mean that there is no God, just because we do not fully understand everything. I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I felt God move in me and in the community of faith. Just because I do not everything does not mean that there is no God. So, some people because of natural disasters “say in their hearts, “There is no God”.

3.    Hypocrisy:

One the large reasons that “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God” is because of hypocrisy. I know some Roman Catholics that have left their churches over the clergy child molestation scandals. I know people who have left their churches because the pastor was having an affair, stealing from the church, or telling people at the pulpit to live and love like Jesus, while doing as little as possible to actually serve the church and the community they were in. I know people that abandoned their faith because some TV preachers are flying in private jets, wearing $3,000 suites, and living lifestyles that are beyond comprehension. I am not talking about wealth earned or inherited outside of ministry, but the amazingly insane amounts of wealth that some clergy gain while in ministry. Living like a king, while many of your people barely get by.

     I have heard people say, “Well if the pastor or the priest cannot be trusted, then why should be part of the church at all?” These fair questions, I think. I agree with these arguments to. Pastors and priests are not perfect, but we are held to a higher standard, and we are expected to do our best, with God’s help, to live and model the Christian faith. When we fail to do this, or when the church itself fails to love like the church that Christ has called us to live like, the world can see us as hypocrites. On some level we are all hypocrites. There is nothing wrong being successful in life, as long as we realize that we have been entrusted with what God has allowed to have. If we have been given much, much is expected.

     What I am driving at here, is that the church, the clergy, and all of us, as much as we will fail at times, really needs to try to live all of this out. When we live all of this out well, the hypocrisy will decrease, and people will see a community of Christians that are not perfect but are following a perfect savior. People will see a community of people that includes rich, poor, and everything in between, but are all broken people redeemed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

     As your pastor, I am not perfect. I have and I will likely make more mistakes. I love God, I believe in Jesus, and everyday I try to serve and love like Jesus for the right reasons. May we all strive to live and love like Jesus.

4.    Misunderstanding who God is:

As a Baptist seminary classmate of mine said, “God is not a cosmic butler, and he does not just bring us everything we always want”. Some “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God” because they expect God to do anything they want any time they want it. It is amazing how some people start praying when a crisis hits their lives and they ask God to help them, especially when they have not talked to God in years. Friends, we have to own our own brokenness. We cannot blame everything on God. God is not a vending machine that just dispenses everything we want. Further, when we think this, we remove our personal responsibility. If a man is drunk driving at 100 miles per hour, and the police pull him over, does he really expect that God will get him out of it? I mean really. Could God do this? Yes, of course God could, but God is not a rich uncle that bails out every time we are in trouble. God is our creator, his son is our savior, and his Holy Spirit fills and guides us. Just because we know God does not mean that everything, we think we want will become a reality, but rather to know Christ is a spiritual relationship. Christ changes us, so that we can change Sidney and the world.

If you read the Book of Job in the Old Testament for example, Job suffered, but God was with him. The Apostle Paul had a thorn in his flesh, and every time he asked God to take it from him, God said, “my grace is sufficient for thee”. Knowing God does not mean that we will not suffer or that we will always get everything we want, but it does mean what Psalm 23:1 says:

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4, NRSV).

We all have, will, or are suffering, but brothers and sisters, as a loving family of faith, we laugh, we cry, and we suffer together. Christianity and our faith are not just about getting what we want, it is also about who we are and how we live. Our faith is our words, our beliefs, and our behaviors and our actions.

5.    Human Sin:

A fifth reason that “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God” is because of how broken and sinful humanity is. Some might say, “If there is really loving God, why would God allow so much violence and brokenness in the world?” God could have not given us free will, but then we would be little more than robots. For example, would you rather have your kids, your family, and your friends chose to love you, or to be forced to love you? Have or were you always obedient to your parents?

God created us with free will so that we would daily choose him and live and love like Jesus. This is why I preach the gospel, this is why I believe that the gospel is the hope of the world. Through Jesus we can be forgiven, become a new creation and we can live for God and for others. We need to be forgiven, and we need to choose to live like Jesus. We all have sin, and we cannot pretend it is not there. We also cannot pawn off our sin onto others. Humanity is broken brothers and sisters, and the answer is Jesus Christ.

          While there are many more than five reasons that some Christians leave the church, stop believing in God, and stop following Christ, these are five very common ones. Yet, many people still believe in God, and many people still love Jesus. Some have been hurt by the church, some have seen the hypocrisy of some churches, and some just cannot reconcile their pain and their suffering with God. The reality though, is that God is with us, no matter what comes our way in this life.

          In fact, in our reading from Ephesians 3:14-21 for this morning, it says once again in 3:16-19:

“¹⁶ I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ¹⁸ I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”      (Eph. 3:16-19, NRSV).

          The Apostle Paul is talking about asking God to strengthen our inner being, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts. The Apostle Paul says we should pray and ask God to fill us, so that we may be grounded in love, and so that we may know the amazing love of God through Jesus Christ.

          Things do not always go our way, nor do we always get everything that we think we want. Jesus did not come to earth so that we would never suffer, instead he came to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. Jesus came to restore us, to change us, so that no matter what happens, we can share his love, his hope, and his grace, so that we can live this life of faith out together as a church.

          We see in our gospel of John lesson for this morning once again, the miraculous nature of Jesus Christ. This morning, Jesus feeds the five thousand. This is five thousand men, but counting the women and the children, it is much more. There is enough food for everyone, with plenty left over. Jesus then walks on water while the disciples are in the boat. The sea was rough with strong winds, and when Jesus walked on the water, the boat then safely reached the other side.

One way to interrupt Jesus’ miracles is to say that nothing bad will ever happen to us. Yet, many of Jesus’s miracles, I think, tell us that Jesus is with us, and amongst us. Jesus is not only our savior, but he has taught us a new way of being and loving. Jesus is with us, God loves, even if “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God”.

Friends, brothers, and sisters, know that God loves you and me more than we will ever know. Keep the faith, keep loving others, and know that Jesus is with us now and until the end of age. Amen.

Sidney UMC - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - 07/18/21 - Sermon - “Christ Himself As the Cornerstone"

Sunday 07/18/21 - Sidney UMC 

Sermon Title:          “Christ Jesus Himself As the Cornerstone”

Old Testament Scripture: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a                                      

New Testament Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22

Gospel Lesson: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

          When I was younger, and maybe even not so younger, my family and friends loved to play board games and other games. Sometimes we would have a family game night at my father’s house in Illinois, with friends, or even in some of the churches that I have served. We played all the classics, like Monopoly, Risk, and etc.

          One game that I particularly liked however, is a game called “Jenga”. Jenga is not a board game, even though it is made out of boards. Jenga, if you have never played it, is a game where three flat rectangular pieces of wood are stacked upon three other flat rectangular pieces of wood. There are many of these rows stacked neatly upon each other, and every other row is placed in the opposite direction. So, one row of flat rectangular pieces of wood is place front to back, and the next row is placed left to right. When all stacked up all of the flat rectangular pieces of wood sort of look like a skyscraper in New York City. The game we had also came with a plastic mold to put all of the flat rectangular pieces of wood in it and then slowly slide it out, as to not disturb the tower of pieces of wood.

          After the game of Jenga was all set up, then each person when it was there turn, would carefully pull, or push on a flat rectangular piece of wood. They would try to safely remove this piece of wood from the tower. After removing a piece of wood, you would then place that piece of wood on top of the tower and create new rows above the existing rows of wood pieces.

          As the game went on, as you can imagine, the bottom rows would begin to get a little sparse, and with stacking all those new rows on top of the tower, it put more weight on the bottom of the tower. At this point you would ever so carefully pull or push another piece of wood out. Inevitably though, eventually, the tower would crash over, sending pieces of wood all over the place. Then we would restack the tower and start all over again.

          I thought of this game Jenga that I used to play as a kid for this message this morning, because what I learned quickly about this game was that if the bottom of the wood tower, or the foundation, was compromised, then the whole tower was compromised. You see if the base of the tower was not secure, then the tower would come crashing down. We have seen these types of unfortunate circumstances, such as the collapsed surfside condominium building in Florida. When the base of the structure is compromised, then the tower or the building can collapse.

          This morning in our Old Testament reading from 2 Samuel 7:1-14a we are told that not only has God chosen the great King David to unite and lead Israel, but also that God tells David this once again:

“¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:12-13, NRSV).

          From this and other scriptures, as Christians we believe that the eternal king of Israel and the world, is Jesus Christ. Jesus is a descendent of the great King David as we know from the gospel, for he was born in the city of David, which is Bethlehem. Jesus, a descendent of the great King David, is the eternal king of Israel, the world, and the universe. Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord, and the one in which the Christian Church is built upon.

          To connect my Jenga game reference for this morning then, the Apostle Paul says once again in our reading for Ephesians 2:11-22 that Jews and Gentiles (or Non-Jews) are now both fully accepted into the church. The Apostle Paul says to the Gentiles, or the Non-Jews once again:

“¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²² in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God” (Eph. 2:19-22, NRSV).

          Like a wood tower game of Jenga, like the collapsed surfside condominium building in Florida, a strong foundation, and things like a cornerstone matter. It is possible that the support beams or the structure in a house or a building can collapse upon a strong foundation, but a strong foundation is generally vital to a house or a structure. Using this analogy of a cornerstone, the Apostle Paul is telling the Ephesians, and us that the Christian Church is built upon the Apostles of Christ, the Prophets of the Old Testament, and upon Jesus Christ himself, who is the cornerstone.

          In many buildings, perhaps you have seen a cornerstone? They are not that all that uncommon. We have special stone in fact, that is on the exterior wall of the front of this church. If you have never noticed the front of this church, you likely have seen the marquee box with my name and the service time in it, and above that box there is a special stone. This stone says, “Methodist Episcopal 1831 + Church + 1933”.

Our congregation, as some of you know, was started by Mr. and Mrs. Arvine Clarke, who hosted a Methodist Circuit Rider preacher in their own house.  A Methodist Episcopal Class meeting was organized, and the first Sidney Methodist Episcopal Church was built on Main Street in the 1830s, and the Clarke family donated a land lot and the timber to build that church. In 1933, as the stone in the front of this church says, this current church, or at least this current part of this church was built in 1933.

Above that stone outside of our church wall, is this beautiful stained-glass window. Portrayed in this beautiful stained-glass window are the two founders of this congregation, the Clarkes, and next to them is the cornerstone of our faith, Jesus Christ. The Clarke family commissioned and paid for this stained-glass window when this church was built in 1933. This is why the stone of the front of this church says, “Methodist Episcopal 1831 + Church + 1933”. This stone is also not really a corner stone, but it is certainly significant to this church.

What is a cornerstone then? How can we formally define it? Well let me tell you what www.dictionary.com says a corner stone is:

1. a stone uniting two masonry walls at an intersection.

2. a stone representing the nominal starting place in the construction of a monumental building, usually carved with the date and laid with appropriate ceremonies.

3. something that is essential, indispensable, or basic: The cornerstone of democratic government is a free press.

4. the chief foundation on which something is constructed or developed: The cornerstone of his argument was that all people are created equal.

(https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cornerstone)

          As we listen to these definitions of what a cornerstone is, it becomes extremely evident that cornerstones are vital. They unite masonry walls at an intersection, they are good places to start building a structure or a building. They can be essential, indispensable, or basic, and they can be the chief foundation by which something is constructed or developed.

          For the Apostle Paul to refer to Jesus as the cornerstone then, is to say that this church, and nearly two-thousand years of our Christian faith are built upon the cornerstone, the rock that is Jesus Christ. While the Christian church has various beliefs, holidays, and traditions, the church is solely and centrally built upon Jesus Christ. Why is this? This is because God the Father created everything, the Holy Spirit fills us and moves us, and the person of God who took on flesh, was God’s only son Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth, fully God fully human, and died for us. He shed his blood and died on a cross, so that we could be set free from sin and guilt, and so that we could be reconciled to God and live with Him, forever. Further, the gospel that Jesus taught and lived, is our blueprint of how to live and to love each other. Jesus is our savior, our Lord, and yes, our cornerstone.

          Our gospel of Mark reading for this morning once again, is two pieces of Mark 6. The first part of Mark 6 we are given once again, begins with one of the narratives of the feeding of the five thousand. Yet, the scripture Mark 6:30-34 does not get to that point in the story. The gospel of Mark reading for this morning, once again, then ends with healing of the sick in Gennesaret. So, let us look at this morning’s gospel lesson briefly again. Right after the story of the beheading of John the Baptist that pastor George preached on last Sunday, the scripture picks up saying once again:

“³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. ³² And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³ Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴ As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk. 6:30-34, NRSV).

          Jesus Christ, our Lord, our cornerstone, realized the importance of going to a quiet and deserted place to get rest. This was short lived however, as a crowd developed around Jesus and his disciples, and shortly after this in the gospel reading, Jesus performs the miracle of multiplying the loves and fishes, to feed the five thousand.

          After this and after Jesus’ walking on the water, we then close our gospel lesson for this morning with Jesus healing the sick in Gennesaret. Once again this is how this morning’s gospel lesson ends:

“⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴ When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, ⁵⁵ and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed” (Mk. 6:53-56, NRSV).

          Jesus, our savior, our Lord, our cornerstone, feeds the five thousand, walks on water, and heals countless people. Jesus is teaching us to love, to heal, and to forgive. Jesus is teaching us to live, and love like him. Jesus is teaching us to build our lives, our faith, and yes, our church upon the cornerstone, upon the rock which he is. Jesus saves us, died for us, and the whole church sits upon “Christ Jesus Himself As the Cornerstone”. Amen.