Rev. Gale Watkins, Pastor

Scripture and sermon for Sunday, February 22, 206

Matthew 4:1-11 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.

Do you believe that?

Didn’t he have a way out, a get-out-of-jail free card, because, after all, he is the Son of God?

Doesn’t he avoid all the trouble that comes our way?

The Bible says plainly that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are.

Every way!

The temptation was real. 

He felt the pull to abandon the will of God.

In his case, he was tempted to be a different kind of Messiah. 

He knew the path he was given to follow.

The devil wanted Jesus to abandon his vocation.

Or rather, to take some shortcut, to do the right thing in the wrong way.

So it was that each of those three temptations had a certain appeal.

Each appeared to be a viable way to do good.

Food for the people!

We all need food in order to live.

Jesus was hungry. 

Everyone gets hungry.

We all need bread.

So Jesus, if you’ll just use your power to feed yourself and the multitudes, if you satisfy them, you’ll win them over.

It sounds like a good plan.

That first temptation was mighty powerful.

Now none of us is called to do exactly what Jesus was called to do.

He is the only Messiah there is.

But we each have a vocation that comes from God.

We’re all called to love the Lord with heart, mind, soul, and strength.

We’re all called to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

But every one of us feels the strong pull away from that vocation, those two great commandments. 

As it was for Jesus, we too feel the pull away from faithfulness.

We have all followed the path that Adam and Eve chose rather than the path that Jesus trod.

Jesus, though he was truly tempted, remained faithful to his calling.

He rejected the alternate path that the devil dangled before him.

In each of the three temptations, he resisted what the tempter was offering with a saying from Scripture.

On the matter of turning stones into bread, Jesus drew on a statement that Moses made long ago to the people of God.

This statement concerns bread, but it pertains to every temptation that comes our way.

One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

We do need bread, but we don’t live by bread alone.

Food and other material goods are necessary for life, but they are not the whole story.

We have other needs as well.

Along with food, we need another kind of bread too, the bread that God provides.

There is this other bread, also necessary for life, not the bread that we bake or buy at the store, but the bread that God imparts to us.

When Jesus repeats the saying that is found in the book of Deuteronomy, he’s saying that the Lord God is a generous giver.

The Lord knows that we need this other kind of bread, and graciously provides it for us.

It’s the word that comes from God, and it’s readily available to us too.

Jesus was able stay on track when the devil made that seductive suggestion because he had read and internalized that biblical saying before he was led into the wilderness.

If we are people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the One we follow, we will aim to be people who, like Jesus, are shaped by Scripture.

In preparing today’s sermon, I consulted a book by Howard Rice called Reformed Spirituality. 

He writes about the way that Christians in our family have lived over the years. 

He has a a chapter on how important the Word of God has been in our part of the larger Christian family. 

In our tradition, knowing that we do not live by bread alone, we have drawn on God’s Word in public worship and in private devotion.

It’s not one or the other, but both/and.

Christians who hear the Word of God and inhabit Scripture over the course of their lives will be equipped to do what Jesus did when the devil suggested an easier way to go. 

It would be wrong to say that you can avoid temptation altogether.

If our Lord was tempted, and if we’re following him, there is no avoiding the strong pull away from our vocation.

We will be tempted.

But if we follow his lead, if we are people who are shaped by the Word that comes from God, that other kind of bread that we need in order to live, we will be stronger when temptation comes our way. 

So let’s do what Jesus did.

Let’s hear the Word that comes from God.

Let’s allow it to shape our thinking and our living.

Then, when we feel that pull away from our vocation to love the Lord and our neighbor, we we will be able to say No! I will serve the Lord.

----------

Scripture and sermon for February 15, 2026 (Transfiguration of the Lord)

Matthew 17:1-8 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

One thing we all have in common is fear.

Fear is part of life.

If you’re sane, you know what it is to be afraid.

There are many sources of fear and many degrees of fear.

When there is a big thunderstorm, you’re afraid, but not for long.

But when you have one medical test after another, knowing that it could be a deadly disease, you’ll have a greater degree of fear.

Have you ever been so afraid that you couldn’t even stand up?

Such was the fear that came upon three men who were with Jesus.

They had bet everything on him.

They were convinced that he was the One.

They were, as we say, all in.

Even if you’re all in, sometimes you get more than you bargained for.

What these three men saw with their own eyes, and then heard with their own ears, was like an electrical charge that overloads the circuit.

So down they went, so great was their fear.

These three men were Jews. 

They had read stories in the Bible about people’s close encounters with God that were fatal.

And now it seemed that they were victims of higher voltage than human beings can handle.

We say that we want to have a life with God.

Maybe we do want to have God alongside us, but is it possible to have too much divine power, more than we can handle, something that could kill us?

Here, then, are three grown men overcome with fear.

I wonder what they were thinking while they were in the prone position, if they were able to think at all.

I can imagine one of them saying to himself, Getting mixed up with Jesus was a big mistake!

Fishing has its risks, but nothing like this!

What took place on the mountain happened suddenly. 

They weren’t briefed ahead of time on what to expect.

They knew Jesus well enough. 

Over time, they’d heard a lot of things and seen a lot of things that were out of the ordinary, but nothing like this.

On this occasion, Jesus was transfigured.

There was a noticeable change. 

His face shone like the sun. 

Even his clothes were glowing. 

Then, as if that were not enough, two great heroes from ages past showed up, Moses and Elijah. 

Then, when Peter ventured an idea on something constructive they could do, they were addressed by a voice from a bright cloud, This is my Son. 

There is only one answer to the question of whose voice it was. 

None other than God was speaking directly to them.

You’ve probably heard someone remark on how great it would be to hear the voice of God. 

Be careful what you ask for!

That voice spoke from the cloud, at which point Peter and James and John found themselves sprawled out prostrate on the ground. How did we get here? Not only were they hugging the earth. They were overcome by fear. Overcome. Not a mild case of fear that you’re used to managing because unexpected things do happen every day, and life goes on. This was different. This was the sort of fear that trips all the circuit breakers. These three had no control over what was happening to them. 

I suspect that they were even wondering whether or not they would live through this experience.

This is a story that we call the Transfiguration of the Lord. Those three companions of Jesus couldn’t stay on their feet. They lost their footing.

They were afraid, not slightly fearful, but scared out of their wits.

We’re in no position to judge them. 

Had we been there, we too would be flat on the ground wondering, Is this the end?

What is the Gospel of Matthew telling us? 

Matthew knows that we Christians all too often find ourselves paralyzed, unable to get up because we’re so afraid. In our case, it’s something less spectacular that paralyzes us. But we can appreciate the view from the ground because we’ve been there too.

Notice what Jesus does for those three fearful disciples. 

He manages to get them back on their feet again, which is no small thing!

Jesus takes time for them, even though we could make the case that it would be a higher priority to keep conferring with his two honored guests, Moses and Elijah.

Matthew tells us, Jesus came and touched them. He didn’t have to touch them. 

He could have settled for yelling at them to get up and get going.

But he touched them. Isn’t that just like Jesus?

In his study of the Gospel of Matthew, Dale Bruner makes much of this small detail. He writes, Touch and Word are combined here, and together they put us back on our feet again. The word on that occasion is the heavenly voice that told them who Jesus really is and then summoned them to listen to him. The touch that follows is just that, a hand on the shoulder to encourage them or a light tug to pull them up from the ground. There are times when a touch is life-giving. This was one of those times. 

There is one more thing that Jesus does for them. 

Jesus gives them a message. Get up and do not be afraid.

So this scene ends with them back on their feet, no longer cowering in fear.

This strange story of the Transfiguration of the Lord brings out the importance of humility in Christian life. We need to allow the Lord to touch us and to get us back on our feet.

In the case of Peter, James, and John, they were prostrate on the ground due to a close encounter with the majesty of the Lord. That can and does happen, but more often we’re brought down for other reasons. 

Knowing what we do about Jesus, I think it’s safe to say that he’ll come to us as he came to those three no matter how we came to be on the ground cowering in fear. 

We too can hear him say to us, Get up and do not be afraid.

Today, we don’t see exactly what those three saw that day on the mountain.

However, we now know more than they knew at the time.

We know that Jesus has been raised, has ascended, and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.

The Transfiguration was a preview of what would happen in the future.

Though we don’t experience exactly what those three experienced, we do know the same Jesus Christ.

When we are so overwhelmed by our fear that we are flat on the ground, the same Jesus touches us, and gets us up again, so that we can serve him in the world.

------------

Scripture and sermon for February 1, 2026

Isaiah 49:13-16 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;     break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people     and will have compassion on his suffering ones.

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;     my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 Can a woman forget her nursing child     or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these might forget,     yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;     your walls are continually before me.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Today I want speak with you about two things, the Lord’s Supper and memory.

I aim to show you the connection between these two.

From the beginning, Christians have celebrated the Lord’s Supper.

Our congregation is no exception.

The Lord’s Supper, known also as communion or the eucharist, is important for many reasons.

One of those reasons is that our Lord told us to keep doing this.

It’s his commandment, and the church has sought to do what he commanded.

Early on, the apostle Paul instructed one of his churches, the Corinthian church, concerning the Lord’s Supper.

In this congregation, what they were doing was so far off that Paul said that they were actually doing more harm than good.

To help them get back on track, Paul takes them back to the foundation, the Lord’s own instruction to his disciples at the Last Supper.

The Lord told them, concerning their eating the bread and drinking from the cup, Do this in remembrance of me. 

Paul is telling the Corinthians, and us, Remember that this meal is about the Lord.

Remember me, Jesus told his disciples at the beginning.

Memory is a great gift.

We’re always making memories.

When you complete a trip, that’s what you have when it’s over, memories.

The ability to remember is a vital part of being human.

Because it’s so important, one of the most disturbing things that can happen is memory loss.

When we can’t remember as we used to, it’s unsettling for ourselves and for the people who care about us.

The Bible makes much of our memory.

The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is basically a call for the people of God to remember.

Remember the Lord. 

Remember what the Lord has done to make you a people.

For Christians, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we are remembering the Lord Jesus Christ.

But even when the memory centers of our brains are intact, we are still forgetful people.

Thus, we need to be prompted to remember the Lord, especially when we come to the Table.

In the Bible, memory is more than merely recalling bis of information.

When we remember, we being enfolded into large story of what the Lord has done for us.

Our identity as God’s people is affirmed and strengthened when we remember.

Remembering is crucial in Christian life.

That book of Deuteronomy is saying, over and over, Remember.

If the people of God don’t remember, they are doomed.

If they do remember, they will have life.

When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we’re invited and summoned to remember.

Do this, the Lord says, in remembrance of me.

But there is more going on in the Lord’s Supper than anything we do.

In this meal, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is present.

He is here to feed his people.

This is the reason that this sacrament is called a means of grace.

We are forgetful people, though.

It’s good that it doesn’t depend entirely on us.

The Bible calls us to remember.

The Bible also tells us that, even if our memory is not what it used to be, even if we’re forgetful disciples, God has a very good memory.

The book of Exodus tells us that when things were at their worst for God’s people, the Lord remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Exodus 2:24)

God’s memory leads to action, the dramatic deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

Years later, though, in another dark time, God’s people weren’t so sure about God’s memory. 

They said, in their despair, the Lord has forgotten us.

That’s a terrifying thought.

But the Lord told them, in no uncertain terms, I will not forget you, not ever.

It’s as though the Lord inscribes their names on his hands with indelible ink.

No way will they ever be forgotten by the Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples to eat and drink in remembrance of him.

What good news it is that while we have trouble remembering the Lord because we are so forgetful, the Lord has no trouble remembering us.

You might even say that we are able to remember the Lord only because the Lord remembers us.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, the risen Lord, has a very good memory. 

He will never forget us.

So then, let’s eat and drink, remembering the Lord who remembers us.

-------

Scripture and sermon from January 18, 2026

Isaiah 49:1-7 (Revised Standard Version)

Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.

And he said to me, “You are my servant,

    Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.”

And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him,

for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—

he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

    to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel;

I will give you as a light to the nations,

    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,

    the servant of rulers:

“Kings shall see and arise;

    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

John 1:29-34 (Revised Standard Version)

            The next day [John] he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

The nations. The end of the earth. The world, the whole world! You get the idea.

Did you know that God is determined to work on such a large scale, the largest scale you can imagine?

Long ago, centuries before the arrival of John the Baptist, or Jesus, God’s ultimate purpose was unveiled.

That purpose reaches out toward the nations, not only a few near neighbors, but to the end of the earth.

Did you realize that God thinks like that? 

The Bible tells us how God’s salvation reaches to the end of the earth.

It tells how the Lord’s way in the world is to send a human being.

We meet a striking figure in the book of Isaiah, the servant of the Lord.

The Lord will touch the people of distant lands through this servant.

This servant has been set aside for a great purpose even before he was born. 

Sometimes you’ll run into a man or a woman who is highly skilled in some challenging field, who takes great pleasure in doing that work. Such a person will tell you, with enthusiasm, “I was born for this!” 

It’s a rare thing to have such a strong sense of purpose, but it does happen.

That’s how it is with the servant of the Lord.

He’s been formed over a long period time, so that he will be able to accomplish his mission.

He can even say, The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

Then this servant of the Lord looks outward, at first to his own nation, the tribes of Jacob.

That will give him plenty to do. The tribes of Jacob could easily occupy him for a lifetime.

But the Lord says, That’s just the beginning. I have my eyes on the nations.

So we hear the Lord telling his servant,

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. 

The end of the earth? Really?

This message was hard for God’s people to take in. 

Can it be that God cares about all those other peoples too?

To many, it was just too much to take in.

It’s one thing to be God’s chosen people, God’s peculiar possession.

It’s another thing to be the means that God uses to move out into the wider world with his salvation.

It’s tempting to enjoy God’s blessings and to hold them tightly, to hoard them for ourselves.

We find the same wide reach when we shift our attention from the Old Testament book of Isaiah to the Gospel of John, the story of John the Baptist and Jesus.

When John the Baptist sees Jesus coming his way, he speaks up as a witness.

In the Gospel of John, that’s what we find the Baptist doing.

Above all, John is a faithful witness to Jesus.

We see him pointing his finger in the direction of Jesus.

He points and he speaks.

He tells his disciples something of utmost importance. He tells them who Jesus really is.

One day he blurted out this amazing introduction to Jesus, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

The sin of the world?

That’s a staggering thing to imagine.

It’s as breathtaking as Isaiah’s message about the Lord’s salvation reaching all the way to the end of the earth.

The sin of the whole world taken away?

Can you believe that?

We know our own sin firsthand. That alone is a heavy burden, too much for any of us to carry, impossible to remove.

Now multiply that weight millions of times over.

Ponder the vastness of the sin of the world.

Not merely a sin here or there, or even a large number of sins.

Not even the sins of one group, even a large group.

But the sin of the world, in its entirety.

That, according to John the Baptist, is what Jesus is able to remove. 

How, then, is the sin of the world taken away?

Is it blasted away with brute force?

Here is one of the great surprises of Christianity.

It’s so unexpected that a lot of people don’t think that it could ever work.

But John the Baptist tells those around him that it’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus comes as the servant of the Lord, the very one we meet in the book of Isaiah.

But John the Baptist adds something new, something unexpected.

Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, is also the Lamb of God.

The Servant of the Lord is lamb-like.

He completes his mission through suffering, his own suffering.

In the days of John the Baptist, people were expecting the coming one to do something about the sin of the world. 

They were right, but they imagined someone coming in with powerful weapons. 

He would blast the sin of the world away. 

It would be dramatic, forceful, and violent.

But what is this? The Lamb of God? Nobody saw that coming.

Here is the great surprise at the heart of the Christian faith. 

The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, all of it, by absorbing the full force of evil upon himself.

Here is something, the greatest thing imaginable, that we didn’t see coming.

On the cross, the Lamb of God does what must be done to take away the sin of the whole world.

If it’s true, it changes everything. 

It means that there really is good news, and it’s not limited to a few of us.

It’s good news for the whole world.

God’s salvation really does reach to the end of the earth, because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

If it is true, what shall we do?

Here are two things for us to do.

First, we will receive the saving work of the Lamb of God for ourselves.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, is still taking away human sin, the sin of the world, ours included.

We will gladly welcome the forgiveness and the freedom that come through his death on the cross.

We benefit from what the Lord has done by placing our faith in him.

We agree with John the Baptist that this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We trust him to do this very thing in our lives.

Then the second way for us to respond is to embrace the Lord’s heart for the world.

The Lamb of God is given as a light to the nations. 

We will share God’s desire for salvation to reach to the end of earth.  

We will pray and do what we can because Jesus is good news for the whole world!

------------------

Scripture and sermon for Sunday, December 21, 2025

Isaiah 7:10-14 (New International Version)

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Matthew 1:18-25 (New International Version)

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). This one word, Immanuel, sums up our whole celebration. But we have heard this word a hundred times. It’s familiar, but maybe we haven’t taken the time to ponder it. You’ll see it here and there, perhaps in an ad or on a Christmas card. This one word, Immanuel, tells us about Jesus, it tells us about ourselves, and it tells us about God. Immanuel embodies the good news we celebrate when Christmas rolls around.

Matthew, in his account of the birth of Jesus, tells us that people will call him Immanuel. It’s not a new word. It’s a very old one. Matthew found it in the book of Isaiah. There, Isaiah is telling a skeptical king named Ahaz that there will be a birth. This birth will be a sign. The sign will be found in the child’s name itself, Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

This name means, literally, with us God. Good news: God is with us. It was quite a message for that skeptical king to take in. It was a word of assurance. The name of that newborn child would be a sign, telling of God’s commitment to the people. No matter what, God will be with them.

Centuries later, Matthew comes along, and he says that the promise given to king Ahaz is now fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. He will be called Immanuel. He will be God-with-us. I like Dale Bruner’s translation of this word: “the with-us God.” 

This word, then, tells us something important about what God is like. God is “the with-us God.” God has come truly near in Jesus Christ. God has not stood far off, uninvolved with us. God is not aloof. Rather, God has drawn near to us in a new way. 

I’m with you all the way! This is what we tell each other. Even if we are sincere, we can’t always be literally with one another. When your friend goes into surgery, you say, I’ll be with you! But are you really there? No, because you’re not the one under anesthesia and you’re not being cut open either! You’re in the waiting room reading a magazine! So we sometimes say, I’ll be with you in spirit. That’s better than nothing, I suppose.

When we say that God is with us, what does that actually mean? Are we saying that God is present in the same way that we’re with that friend undergoing surgery? Is God present only down the hall, as it were, hoping for the best? Or is God fully present, with us quite literally?

If Jesus is truly God with us, then he is the agent of God’s salvation. Even more, Jesus is God come in person. In Jesus, we have to do with God. As the Nicene Creed puts it, he is true God from true God. 

God is with us. That’s what we mean when we say Immanuel. God has personally drawn near. God is accessible. But there is more. God is with us, that is, God stands with us, God takes our side. God is for us. God is in favor of us. God loves us. Jesus Christ is literally God with us. He is one of us. He is fully human. He stands where we stand. He acts on our behalf.

But this is too much! There are countless people who don’t buy this word, Immanuel. They can’t believe that Jesus is God-with-us. As far as they are concerned, God is remote. God isn’t really involved in our world. God, if there is a God, is impersonal and unconcerned about us. God may have created the world, but after that, let it go off on its own. 

With all the suffering that we see, and the apparent randomness of the natural world, you can see how people conclude that God is not with us. For a lot of people, Immanuel is a nice word to include on a Christmas card, but it isn’t reality.

Today, I’m asking, what if it’s more than a nice slogan? What if it’s true that Jesus Christ really is the with-us God? If it is true, that will make all the difference in the world. 

If God is with us, then we aren’t alone. We aren’t abandoned by the Creator. We have been visited by the God who loves us. 

We Christians believe that God is great. God is the Creator of all things. God is not limited in the ways that we’re limited. We also say that the great God has become small. God, we say, is so great that he has “belittled” himself in becoming one of us.

This word, Immanuel, speaks of the greatness of God. But it is not the greatness we expect. It is the greatness of One who loves us so much that he became small.

You see, this word, Immanuel, tells us about the love of God. God is with us to save us. In Matthew’s story of the birth of Jesus, Joseph is commanded to name the child Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus comes from a word that means save. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. But he is with us for the purpose of saving us. He saves us from our own sins. He saves us by coming close, by entering our world, by becoming one of us. 

So it is that Immanuel is the whole Christmas story in a single word. It tells us about ourselves, that we are not abandoned. We are loved. We need saving, and in God’s judgment, we are worth saving. This word also tells us about Jesus, that he is God come in the flesh. He came on a mission to rescue us. And this word tells us what God is really like. Not only is God great and powerful. God is also the “with-us God,” whom we come to know as Immanuel. Immanuel. God with us.

-----------

November 16, 2025 Scripture and sermon  

Revelation 2:1-7 (New International Version)

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Long ago, there were seven churches that got mail.

They all received letters from the same person.

These were not ordinary letters.

These were letters that came from the Lord of the church himself, the risen and reigning Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord sent letters to these seven churches, a unique letter for each of them, conveyed through their pastoral leader, John.

They would be all ears when the Lord’s letter was read to their assembly.

What a joy to hear the Lord tell them, I know what is going on in your congregation.

I know what you’re up against.

Even better to hear his commendation for a job well done.

Here is a church in a great city, Ephesus, the leading city in their part of the world.

The Lord has good things to say to them.

He has noticed all the great accomplishments of their congregation.

This is a hard-working church that loves the truth.

They are tenacious in their embrace of the gospel.

They are well-taught, enough to make them capable of sniffing out false teaching when it comes to town.

When members of a dangerous group called the Nicolaitans show up, this congregation doesn’t fall for their schemes, not for a moment.

All is good, except for one thing.

This one thing is something that threatens to overshadow all of those great things that the Lord has noticed.

What could be such a threat?

It is this: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

They’ve never wavered in their love for the truth.

The church in Ephesus still loves the truth very much.

But while they love the truth, they have slipped in their love for people and even in their love for the Lord.

For the Lord Jesus, this is no small matter.

Even if you are a great defender of the truth, when you abandon the love you had at first, you are in grave danger. 

Jesus, in this letter, goes so far as to threaten them with removal!

What has happened in this impressive congregation?

Perhaps they’ve gotten tired.

Caring for hurting people takes a lot of energy.

Today we use the term compassion fatigue.

Thus, in Ephesus, their customary acts of love have gone by the wayside.

I doubt that it was anything they changed deliberately.

It could have happened gradually without anyone noticing.

In his letter, Jesus uses extremely strong language to get their attention.

You have abandoned the love you had at first.

That will shock them, forcing them to look in the mirror.

What if he’s right?

In the Bible, we’re called to a life of love.

The two great commandments that Jesus affirms are to love God and to love our neighbor.

These two are so closely intertwined that you can’t break them apart.

You could say that when the church in Ephesus abandons one, it is abandoning both. 

Nothing could be more deadly for a church.

Even if they are tenacious in their commitment to the truth, when their love for the Lord and for people fades over time, their very existence as a church is at stake.

The risen and reigning Lord of the church talks about removing their lampstand, which is as serious as it can get.

In the Lord’s letter to the church in Ephesus, the bad news is really bad, but this is not the end of the story.

It’s late, but not too late. 

The Lord holds the door open.

Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

It’s as serious as can be, but it’s not too late.

A church such as the church in Ephesus can return to what they used to do.

We know that the early church grew because of their love, not only for one another but for their non-Christian neighbors.

They engaged in acts of love, lots of them.

But this particular congregation in the great city of Ephesus has stopped doing what they used to do.

Their love for the Lord and their love for other people have cooled down.

It’s late, but it’s not too late.

It’s hard to go back to doing what you used to do because the excitement is not there as it was formerly.

The Lord doesn’t seem to care about that.

Regardless of how they’re feeling, he says, Repent, and do the works you did at first.

You may not feel like it at the moment, but if you start doing the things you still know how to do, the feelings just might come along in due time.

Today, we have gotten to read a letter that was not addressed to us.

This letter, and the letters to the other six churches in the same region, have been passed along to us.

The great value of these letters is that from them we can learn what the Lord of the church cares about.

After all, his opinion is the one that counts.

His opinion is that, in the church, love matters greatly, our love for the Lord and our love for one another. 

No matter how far short we’ve fallen, it’s not too late. 

Even when our love has grown cold over time, that loss can be remedied.

Practical deeds of love can be our way of life. 

So then, let’s hear, and heed, this message from the Lord of the church.

--------------------------------------------------------

October 26 Scripture and sermon

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)

Believe the good news. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!

We hear these words every Sunday.

And every time, it is truly good news.

The promise found in the book of Jeremiah, I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sins no more, has been fulfilled.

Forgiven!

This is the gospel.

In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. 

We haven’t earned it.

We don’t make payments on our debt until we finally pay off the balance.

Still, God says to sinners, Forgiven!

This is good news, the best news ever.

However, forgiven sinners are still sinners.

Forgiven sinners fall short, over and over.

What then?

Forgiven sinners who fall short can ask God, Forgive us our debts.

Jesus knows that we will always be debtors, that we will always be depending on God to forgive our iniquity and remember our sins no more.

This is the gospel. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

Forgiveness is a miracle that takes place in Jesus Christ. But Jesus tells us to make forgiveness a continuing prayer. In his model prayer, he invites us to ask God to forgive us our debts. We don’t justify ourselves. We don’t make excuses. We don’t make lame promises about needing just a little more time to pay off our debt. Our only hope is forgiveness, and that is what we ask of God. We ask God to release us. We’re asking God not to collect what we owe. And in Jesus Christ, God has done, and continues to do, this very thing. 

So Jesus encourages us to keep asking for forgiveness. We know Jesus but we keep coming up short. We still sin. So we always live by forgiveness. Our daily failures do not undo what Jesus has already done for us. But we keep asking for forgiveness to keep the relationship we have with God on the right track. 

In order to have a rich life, we need to know that we are forgiven. It is a terrible thing to have relationships, whether with God or with one another, in which there is no forgiveness. 

When we say, forgive us our debts, we’re admitting that we have fallen into debt again. 

Each day, we count on the miracle of forgiveness in order to have a life with God. We always live by forgiveness. 

Forgiveness is a gift, the greatest gift there is. Like many gifts, you can’t keep it for yourself. It’s a gift that, in order to enjoy, you have to share.

Forgiveness is a miracle. It is a miracle, not only because of the greatness of the debt we are forgiven. It is a miracle also because it changes us. When we receive the gift of forgiveness, we will be changed. We will become more like Jesus. We will be forgiving people. We will want to release other people from their debts to us. 

Forgiveness is releasing the other person from the debt. Forgiveness is not pretending that there is no hurt. Forgiveness is necessary because the hurt is real. Forgiveness is not excusing the other person, as if it weren’t all that important. It is important! Nor is it forgetting that it ever happened. We don’t forget the wrongs that have been done. Some of them leave lasting scars. But even in that case, forgiveness is possible. It is choosing not to collect on the debt. It is releasing the other person from that obligation. 

Forgiveness is difficult. It is difficult to forgive, and it is difficult to be forgiven. 

So Jesus invites us to pray, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. There is a close connection between being forgiven by God, and forgiving other people. When we will not forgive the person who has done wrong to us, that broken relationship will threaten our relationship with God. When we’re still trying to collect on a debt, we’re not able to receive the free gift from God. Forgiveness, in order to be enjoyed, has to be shared. And that can be very difficult. But forgiveness is a miracle, and a gift. It’s a miracle that God has forgiven us. And it’s also a miracle that God changes us, so that we too can forgive. It’s a miracle that takes place every day, when ordinary people, amazed that God has forgiven them, turn to the one who has hurt them, saying, “I forgive you.”

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Make this your prayer, and you’ll never forget what a miracle it is that we are forgiven. And you’ll discover the joy of passing along to others this greatest gift of all.

--------------------------------------------------------

October 12, 2025 Scripture and sermon

Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a prayer. We call it the Lord’s Prayer. If we let the Lord’s Prayer guide us, our prayer lives will be transformed. 

 The Lord’s Prayer prompts us to pray for God’s own concerns. The first three requests we make in this prayer lift up God’s concerns: the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of God’s kingdom, and the doing of God’s will. With all three of these requests, we’re praying for God’s interests.

 Now, there is nothing wrong with praying for our own concerns too. Indeed, Jesus includes in this model prayer the petition, give us this day our daily bread, which we will take up next time. But that petition for our daily bread comes after these three petitions that revolve about God’s concerns. Praying the Lord’s Prayer transforms us because our concerns are lifted up in the light of God’s own concerns. 

 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. The dominant theme of Jesus’ preaching was the kingdom of God. He spoke about the kingdom more often than he spoke of anything else. 

 God’s kingdom is found wherever God reigns. It isn’t limited to a certain territory. It is found wherever God is recognized as God. Dallas Willard says, “The kingdom of God is the range of his effective will.”

 The kingdom is present now. It has come near in Jesus. It is established in the midst of this fallen world. God is recognized as God in the most unlikely places. However, the kingdom is present and it is also yet to come. The New Testament tells how God’s kingdom will one day come in its fullness, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

 Whe