Christmas Program

This week we had our Annual Christmas Program at Oxford and it was a HUGE success! McDonough's services were canceled, because your pastor is a huge wimp and apparently needs four-wheel drive, but their Christmas Program has been re-scheduled for January 4th, so be there or be square!

I'm pleased to say that despite the weather (it still wasn't great at 11:00 am) many people showed up for church in Oxford, and they were treated to the traditional Christmas story complete with Jesus, Mary and Joseph, wisemen, shepherds, angels, and a whole host of others. If you missed Oxford's program, don't fret, you can get pictures from Rich Howard, and you can go to McDonough's on the 4th of January, it also promises to be educational and a good time had by all!

On another note, our Advent Facial Hair (or other hair) seemed to be a huge success! I noticed many gentlemen in both congregations who grew some form of facial hair, and also noticed that each week a new person or two had begun to grow some facial hair. This hopefully was fun for those of you that participated and a minor curiosity to those who did not. The main goal was twofold, first to remind us all that we are in the midst of a special season (Advent) where we are to remember Christ's birth and anticipate his 2nd coming. The second goal (which those of you who participated found worked almost immediately) was to spur conversation with people who you would normally not talk to about church. Many gentlemen reported being asked questions about their facial hair and thus having an opportunity to talk to friends, co-workers, family, etc. about Advent, Jesus, God, Church, etc. I too had a conversation with my grandfather about our Advent Beards, and he was so intrigued by it that he decided he too would grow a beard. The conversation was Saturday, so he only has a few days before Christmas! But the point is, I was given an easy opportunity to talk to another person about my faith, without being pushy or intrusive.

Grace & Peace and Merry Christmas,
Pastor John

Sermon Sampler (December 14th) - Heavenly Worship

This week's text came from Revelation 4 and spoke of heavenly worship. But before we dove into the text, I mentioned that the book of Revelation is a particular type of literature (like poetry) called Apocalyptic. This type of literature (Apocalyptic) has certain rules that it follows, including using numbers, animals, and various other things to symbolically represent something else. This simply means that not everything in the book of Revelation is what it appears to be.

I mentioned that many people get excited when they find this fact out, and begin to ask questions about everything they read in the text. Some popular ones from chapter four include the 24 elders and the four living creatures. Just in case you're curious, many scholars will interpret the 24 elders as being representative of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles, therefore being symbolic for the entirety of the people of God (although the below post offers another interpretation of their meaning). The four living creatures, are said to have eyes all over them, both inside and out! For many people this is difficult to imagine (just think of a giant eyeball monster!), but the truth is much easier to grasp. Just as your mother or grandmother used to tell you she had eyes in the back of her head, and you didn't literally believe she did, so we are to understand that these four creatures are not covered in eyes, but rather see everything.

Continuing this thought process, that many things in Revelation are not necessarily what they appear, I set about trying to "unlock" the heavenly worship described in chapter four. What is described is that the four creatures utter a phrase day and night without ceasing and whenever they do, the 24 elders (representative of all people of God) respond with a phrase of their own, praising God. I must confess that one of my fears in life is getting to heaven and finding out that all we do is praise God all of the time. Imagine church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! This notion of heaven is what I was hoping to dispell in this week's sermon. But I ran into a few problems along the way.

First I couldn't for the life of me figure a way around the understanding that chapter four basically is showing worship in heaven and that it basically amounts to praising God all day and all night forever! Second I got quite sick this week. It started with a sore throat, quickly added a fever, then a sore ear and before I was done both eyes were bothering me as well. When I went to the doctor I was informed that I was running a fever of 103, I had a sinus infection, I had an ear infection, and that I had pink eye in both eyes. I was given medicine and told to go home. I spent Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and the better part of Wednesday basically in bed miserable. I was freezing cold (due to the fever) most of the time, but enjoyed brief moments where the tables would be turned and I would awake covered in sweat. I also got to experience the joys of being openly ridiculed by the few people who happened to catch me out during the week. Both at Wal-Mart and at the Post Office I was informed that I looked "terrible" and needed to get some rest.

If this wasn't bad enough, as I began to finally get back to a more normal state, our 2 year old daughter, Hannah began to show many of the same symptoms. She had a fever that we could not seem to bring down, and was complaining of a sore throat and ear. She also had trouble trying to sleep at night, with the fever and the difficulty breathing that comes along with a sinus/ear infection. On Thursday night I lay in bed listening to my little girl snort, gurgle, and struggle to breathe while she tossed and turned in bed next to me. Every time she touched her arm to mine, I was instantly reminded that she had an incredibly high fever that wouldn't go away with medicine, baths, or drinks. I lay there and found myself pleading with God, bargaining and trying to make a deal. I proposed that if God would make her better (or just take away her fever) I would gladly take on her symptoms. It was at that moment, while I was asking God to make me sick (after I had just begun to get better) so my child could be well, that I unlocked Revelation 4!

I realized that as a parent I wanted my little girl to get better, and that I was willing to endure anything myself in order to make that a reality for her. I also realized that as our Perfect Parent, God too wanted us to be well, and was willing to go to any length to ensure our wellness, including dying on a cross for our sins and for our salvation. We remember Jesus' coming as Christmas and his death and resurrection as Easter, but for me both moments were instantly transformed into a parent lying beside a sick child, willing to take away that child's sickness and suffer it himself.

It is in light of this reality that I present Revelation 4, the picture of Heavenly Worship, to you. It is a portrait of children signing praise to their loving Parent upon fully realizing what that Parent has done for them! Heavenly Worship, rightly understood is about God, whereas earthly worship (and all earthly life) is often too much about us. I invite you to take a moment to think about and realize what God has done for you. How has God taken your sin and sickness so that you might be well? Now take a moment and give thanks to God your loving Parent for what he has done for you!

Grace & Peace,
Pastor John

December 7th Sermon Capsule - Live Holy or Repent: Part 2

The final three churches, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, formed the foundation for our discussion this week. We began with Philadelphia, a small, poor city, recently destroyed by earthquakes, moved on to Sardis, a church whose reputation is greater than its reality and finished with Laodicea, the big, rich city whose lukewarm tendencies made God sick.

Philadelphia was a city that had not only recently been destroyed by a massive earthquake, but was still troubled by earthquakes to the extent that most people did not live within the city out of fear. Philadelphia was little and poor. Despite this God gives the church in Philadelphia praise for being faithful. Philadelphia is each and every one of us, when we think we have no power, when we think we are unimportant, when we think it doesn't matter if we do right or wrong, and yet we still do the right thing.

Sardis was a church with a great reputation for being alive, but they are warned that their reality is the exact opposite. I told a story about myself when I was in 6th grade. At that time I was asked to be in an advanced math class. I had a reputation among my peers for being very good at math. Unfortunately the reality was not so. In the class, we would receive our tests back in the order that we performed on them, the best in the class gettings theirs back first. I always got my tests back last. Except for one time, when my name was called first! Unfortunately, the teacher had reversed the order this week, and so again mine was the lowest score in the class. I even moved down to the regular math class, later that year, when it was clear I was not succeeding in the advanced class. My reputation was still good with my fellow classmates (those who weren't in the advanced class) and many still believed me to be good at math. I suggested that I was just "too cool" for that advanced math class, but when we received our first test back, and again mine was one of the lowest grades, I began to realize that I could not merely believe the hype, and live in the unreality that I was effortlessly good at math. I needed to take the advice God gave to the church in Sardis and remember what I received and heard; obey it and repent. Sardis is all of us when we buy into the false reputation that others give us (good or bad) and stop living in the reality of who we really are (forgiven children of the living God).

Laodicea was a rich and powerful city. One that was also destroyed by the same earthquake that destroyed Philadelphia. When the Roman government came to offer assistance in rebuilding the city, the Laodiceans rejected the help, boasting that their city was rich enough to rebuild on its own. Laodicea was also a city that attempted to have hot water brought into the city from hot springs via aqueduct. Unfortunately by the time the water reached the city, it was no longer hot, and not quite cold, but rather a tepid lukewarm. It is almost certainly this particular misshap that is being used to chastize the church in Laodicea when they are said to be lukewarm. This lukewarmness is also referencing an aspect of their spiritual lives. It could either mean that they are not passionate enough for God, or that they are guilty of worshipping other gods (hedging their bets if you will). I choose to believe the latter, and therefore see them as the "Thanksgiving Dinner" church. Think of it this way, on Thanksgiving we have so many wonderful foods, and when many of us sit down to eat it, we MUST have a little of everything. A little stuffing, a little mashed potatoes, a little squash, a little gravy, a few rolls, a little bit of the cranberry sauce, a little bit of the coleslaw, etc, etc, etc. When you get done you no longer have a little of anything, but a whole plate full of food, its only then that you realize you forgot to get a little bit of the turkey. By the time the Thanksgiving meal is over, many of us are stuffed and overstuffed! But wait, we haven't had desert yet, you must have a little apple pie, and a little pumpkin pie, and don't forget a little strawberry rubarb pie. If we aren't careful our tendency to have a little bit of everything will make us sick, and send us running to the nearest bathroom! I believe this is exactly what's going on in Laodicea. The people are worshipping this god on Monday, and this one on Wednesday, and another on Thursday, and yet another on Saturday, and their attempts to please everyone have only served to make the one true God sick to his stomach and threaten to vomit them out! Laodicea is us when we try to do too much, when we try to hedge our bets, please everyone, and in the end forget who's really important (God).

With the conclusion of the 7 letters to the 7 churches, we have been given glimpses of 7 real churches that existed nearly 2,000 years ago, and their struggles living in a world that's not always the most friendly to Christians and Christianity. At the same time we've been given glimpses into our own lives and our own struggles living in a world that still isn't always the most friendly to Christians and Christianity. The one piece of advice given throughout is to REPENT. Simply put, when we find ourselves in the midst of doing wrong, we are called to stop what we're doing, and say we're sorry (or repent).

Grace & Peace,
Pastor John

November 30th Sermon Capsule - Live Holy or Repent (Part 1)

We have now entered the season of Advent, a time of preparation and aniticipation, where we remember Christ's birth, anticipate his imminent return and prepare ourselves for something amazing to happen. In our series on Revelation, we began the messages given to the seven churches, with the second chapter of Revelation. The letters to the seven churches are words of encouragement, as well as instruction to each individual church. Some people read the letters as symbolic of different time periods throughout the history of Christianity as a whole, while others see each message as representative of different types of people, but I suggested that these letters can be understood to be different states that we all experience throughout our lives.

First we dealt with the words to the church in Smyrna, where the people were encouraged to continue in the way they were living, even in the face of persecution and death. This church was not told to change anything, but rather to stay the course. I said that this is like each one of us when we are not actively engaged in sin. When we are living holy lives. When this is the case for us (even if it only lasts mere minutes) the advice given here, is to keep up the good work!

Second we dealt with the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira. These two churches, we dealt with together, because they were being instructed about the same basic problem. In Pergamum the problem was with negative influences from without, while in Thyatira it was negative influences from within. The following story seemed to apply to both situations:

While still in high school, I had the privilege of attending Annual Conference at the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA. The final night of the conference, some friends and I decided to sneak out of our dorm late at night and see what kind of mischief we could get into. To make a long story short, we found a bench not chained down and decided to move it. In the midst of moving the bench, we were caught by a campus security guard, who instructed us to "stop right there." Naturally, I ran away. An ensuing chase followed in which the Scranton city police were involved, and several police and security vehicles. Once finally apprehended, I was threatened with jail but ultimately allowed to go back to my dorm (with some direction from the police, since I was completely lost). The whole story is very funny now, but at the time it was quite frightening.

Throughout, I was continually faced with negative influences from my friends as well as from myself. It started when we were told to "stop" and someone yelled "cops! run!" and continued everytime I found myself running without direction, knowing I was in the wrong, and yet hearing a voice within my head telling me to "keep running." That night I was my own worst enemy, and my friends certainly didn't help much. The same can be said for the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira. They were both being led astray by people whose advice and leadership were taking the churches away from God. It is for this reason that they were both instructed to repent. As an aside, to repent simply means to say your sorry and to stop doing that which you are sorry for. The same advice holds true in our own lives. When we find ourselves following bad influences and walking away from God, we merely need to repent (say we're sorry, and stop following those bad influences). God longs to forgive us when we make mistakes. God wants to be in relationship with us and have us following his lead.

The final church we dealt with was the church of Ephesus, who had lost their passion. The Ephesian Christians had resisted the teaching of false teachers, had avoided all those negative and misleading influences, but had somehow lost their passion along the way. The people in the Ephesian church were merely going through the motions. I have another story that seems to fit here:

In highschool I wrestled. My senior year I had to lose a good deal of weight (20 lbs) in order to wrestle at a weight class that I could be competitive. I ended up losing this weight in one week. That week happened to be the week of Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it wasn't the best week of my life. It was hard for me to keep the weight off, and I began to find myself hating wrestling, wishing I could just quite the team. I would go to practice, and I would compete, but my heart wasn't really in it. It seemed that somewhere along the line, wrestling had become all about winning (and therefore wrestling nearly 30 pounds below my normal weight). I went to my father and spoke with him about wanting to quit the team. After telling me about commitment and what it means to be a man of my word, he asked me why I wanted to quit. I told him my story about not enjoying it anymore, and he asked me if I ever enjoyed it. I told him "yes" and then he encouraged me to try and remember why I enjoyed it before, and to recapture that joy that I had lost.

God's advice to the church in Ephesus is the same as my father's advice to me. God points out that they no longer have passion for their faith, and then instructs them to remember their first love and repent. Again we have repentance (saying your sorry and stopping what your sorry for), but first the people are called to remember what it was that made them so passionate before. Again this instruction is not just for Christians nearly 2,000 years ago, but also for you and I. If we find ourselves losing our passion, just going through the motions, we too are encouraged to remember what it was that gave us that passion originally and to recapture it.

In all of the above churches, we should all be able to see ourselves at different times in our lives. Sometimes we are doing well, and so then we are called to keep on keepin on. Sometimes we are following bad influences, and so then we are called to repent, to turn back to God. Sometimes we find ourselves having lost our passion, merely going through the motions, and so then we are called to remember why we were passionate in the first place and to repent of our poor attitude. Next Sunday we'll continue looking at the final 3 churches and further learn how we can prepare during this season of Advent.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor John

Advent Beards

This one's for the gentlemen:

Many churches, during the season of Advent (four weeks before Christmas), do special things like light Advent wreaths, sing songs, put up banners, etc. While our congregations will be doing many of these things, we are also going to be growing "Advent Beards"!

This idea comes from hockey players growing playoff beards. The idea goes like this: when a pro hockey team reaches the playoffs, most/all of the members of the team grow beards as long as they are in the playoffs. It serves as a way to unite the players on the team, and also to be a constant reminder that they are part of something special.

For our churches this will hopefully give the men something fun (and easy) to do, as well as serve as a constant reminder to everyone that we are part of something special! Advent is a season when we look back and remember Christ's birth, as well as look ahead and anticipate his eventual return. Both events are extraordinary, and by growing "Advent Beards" we are merely giving ourselves one more way to participate in the extraordinary season of Advent.

So I'm calling all men to grow some facial hair. It can be a moustache, sideburns, a goatee, a soul patch, a fu manchu, or a full beard. If you already have a full beard, shave it off (like I did) and regrow it during these four weeks of Advent. The point is to grow some facial hair as a reminder of something special happening! So grow, grow, grow!


Grace & Peace,
Pastor John