We Hate Change
Change is Inevitable
Change is one of those things that is inevitable. People hating change is also inevitable. Sometimes I wonder how we can get through life without hating everything but then I remind myself that some people actually go through life hating everything. I try not to be that person, but I’m not always successful. I worked with a guy who loved to say growing things change. He wasn’t wrong, a tree that’s growing is going to change size and shape as it grows, but the snarky version of me that others rarely see would always think “dying things change too, and this change is going to kill us”.
Even trying to find some sort of constant is almost impossible. The ocean is in a constant state of motion, eroding shores, water levels rising, even the tides change all the time. Mountains are about as close as I can come to thinking as constant but given enough time earthquakes and rain will even change how the mountain looks. Everything changes whether we like it or not.
The Railroad
In the early 1900’s the transportation industry was ruled by trains. Railroad tycoons almost monopolized the whole industry and it looked like nothing was going to beat trains. That is until cars came along, and then a few years later planes took off (I couldn’t help myself there). The train industry hit it’s peak in 1916, and then slowly faded to a mere shadow of it’s former glory. New companies emerged like Ford and Boeing that revolutionized and changed the face of transportation in America.
What would have happened though if those original railroad companies would have remembered why they existed? Well, their business was to move people and products from point A to point B, but somewhere along the line they got in the business of running a railroad company. I might have lost you there, I know it sounds like the I just said the same thing but there is a fundamental difference between trying to move things from point A to point B and running a railroad company. The first one is what we would call the mission, the second one is what we would call the method. If the early railroad companies would have always tried to move things efficiently we would now have car and airline companies called Amtrak and Union Pacific because those modes of transportation are more effective in most situations. Instead, they did their absolute best to manage the railroad company that they had built. But with a decreasing demand for trains, increased regulations, they went from a $6.3 billion industry in 1929 to a $3.1 billion in 1932.
Church's Mission
The mission of the church has always been to go and make disciples. Sometimes in the midst of all the changes we try to cling or hold on to the ways that we have made disciples in the past. I remember open air tabernacle meetings and week long revivals. There were the campus crusades with the Billy Graham movement. In medieval times there were just crusades trying to make sure the Christian sites remained Christian and not Islamic. Now we have digital Bibles, we can watch youtube sermons and listen to podcasts, or even listen to our churches sermons online.
Our methods have changed a lot over the years. The people who are leading have changed. And at moments like this it is really easy to try to hold onto the past and do what we can to maintain our church. But unless we focus on the mission of the church, unless we continue to put our focus on making disciples, we are trying to run a business and not living out the Gospel. Change is hard. We don’t like change, but when you have an encounter with God you are forever changed and we want to see people’s lives changed. If we ask them to change everything to follow God, we have to start getting a little more comfortable with our own changes.
Nathan Persell serves as our Youth Director. When he's not leading devotions and playing basketball with teenagers, he enjoys disc golf and bike riding. Learn more about Nathan here.
Revolution
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:3–5 (NRSV)
This Sunday is Easter, or as I prefer to call it, Resurrection Sunday. Many people will flock to churches all over the world who have not been in church for quite some time. There is something special about the day that even entices nominal or cultural Christians to make an effort to attend.
If you are looking for the most important day to celebrate as a Christian, this would be it. Notice, that the Apostle Paul says that the fact Jesus’ resurrection is of “first importance,” and he is correct.
In the remaining verses of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells us why Jesus’ resurrection is of first importance; if it didn’t happen then our faith in Christ makes no sense. Without the resurrection, our faith is a fairy tale or worse a hoax.
In the opening verses of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul says that Jesus was, “descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power… by resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:2–4). Jesus’ resurrection was God’s stamp of approval on all that Jesus said and did.
The Resurrection
The resurrection also demonstrates that God did something important in Jesus’ death on the cross. By taking upon himself the penalty of the sin of the world, Jesus released us to be who God created us to be all along.
It is very significant that Jesus was crucified on Passover rather than the Day of Atonement. These two Jewish holy days are important, but for different reasons. The Day of Atonement emphasizes forgiveness; the Passover emphasizes the Jews’ release from slavery to be God’s ambassadors in the world.
Easter is about atonement in a sense, but it is more about freeing us from the bondage of sin so we can be God’s ambassadors in the world – that is the Revolution! On the cross, God inaugurated a plan for the rescue of the world and the establishment of the kingdom of God. The Revolution continues when we personally join in and become God’s co-workers in the restoration of the world.
Blessings,
Alan
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Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
Dying Well
“Do you never think about [death]? Why do you not? Are you never to die? Nay, it is appointed for all men to die. And what comes after? Only heaven or hell. Will the not thinking of death, put it farther off? No; not a day; not one hour.”
This might seem to be a strange post for Holy Week but I think it's a perfect one, because the reason we, as Methodist, die well, is because of Christ's death and resurrection. Let me back up and explain.
Living Like You're Dying
The early methodists were known as people who died well. They had grace and assurance of God's love and forgiveness for them, so they did not fear death. Furthermore, John Wesley (the founder of Methodism), made it a point to share the stories of those who died and went on to glory. Wesley knew that if we are going to die well, then we must live well. We must live every day honoring God so that we are ok if it is our last.
The country song "Live Like you are Dying" has it right in the title, but wrong in the words. It's not about taking extra vacations (although you should spend plenty of time with your family). We should live every day in a way that if we were to die, we would be proud of the lives we lived when we stood before God.
Lent and Easter
If you read my post on Lent, then you know that Lent is really about a time for us to mourn Christ's death. If you go to an Ash Wednesday service, you'll hear something like, "From ashes you came, and to ashes you will return. Repent and you will be forgiven." The point of this is to remember that we all will die one day.
When Holy Week comes (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday), we really crank things up. On Maundy Thursday, we relive Christ's last supper in different ways, then on Good Friday, many people go into mourning on an extreme level. Many churches cover the cross in their sanctuaries. The Catholic church always cover's the crucifix and it's the one time the Christ candle is burned out and the tabernacle is emptied. Christ has left the building.
But then, on Easter morning, Christ overcomes death and returns to life! For us as Christians, this is our reminder every year that when we die, our death isn't permanent. One day, we will be physically resurrected and rejoined with everyone we love in the life everlasting.
Ushering into Glory
A couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure to usher a young girl, just a few years younger than me, into glory with her family. I always consider this to be one of the most unique honors I have as a pastor because it's a living testimony of this girl's life. I get to listen to her family share of the life she lived for God and we get to ask God to welcome her into his loving arms. In the end, we pray that he will care for her until we all get to meet her again one day.
This is the hope of our faith. It's the most beautiful thing to watch people, who in their grief, still see God at work. I want to live my life in a way that people will look back on it and know that I spent every day dedicated to God. This was one of the things Wesley wrote in his death accounts, and I hope someone can say it about me when the Lord takes me home:
“She was a woman of faith and prayer; in life and death adorning the doctrine of God her Saviour.”
Blessings,
Faith
Read more: http://www.seedbed.com/dying-well-according-to-john-wesley/
Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.
Rescue: Justified
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7
What is Justification?
Justification is one of those old Bible words and most of us read over, but only have a vague idea of what it means. The word comes from the Roman law courts and means the be declared not guilty, to be acquitted. If two people come before the court with a dispute, the one who the court agrees with is the one who is justified. This justification says nothing about the person’s character or morals, but that just in that specific case the court has sided with them.
Another closely related word in the New Testament is the word righteousness. Again, it is a standing in the law courts. The person’s case that prevails in court is said to be righteous in the case before the court.
As is often the case, words take on additional nuances when used by the biblical writers; especially because they are writing from a Hebrew perspective. To be just or righteous in a biblical sense is to be in right standing with God; to be a member in good standing in the covenant.
It is wonderful to know that when we place our trust in God and the work God did in and through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God declares us “not guilty” of all our past sins! We are freed from the burden and guilt of those behaviors and are acquitted. That is true freedom indeed.
But we are also placed in a new relationship with God and in that relationship, we have benefits and responsibilities. The benefits are numerous: forgiveness, continued grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit, to name just a few.
But we also have responsibilities, namely to live in a way that demonstrates our new relationship. Just before the verses I cited above, Paul tells Titus some of those responsibilities: we are to submit to the authorities over us, do good works, avoid quarrels and evil speaking, and be gracious toward everyone.
Why are we to do these things? He goes on to say that because we used to be different people with different motivation, God has done something very real in our lives and now everything has changed.
As we gather for worship this Sunday, let’s celebrate our justification, our rescue and determine to live as justified people.
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Alan Cassady serves as Senior Pastor at Navarre UMC, and has been at the church since 2011. When he's not preaching and teaching, he enjoys sci-fi movies and FSU Football. Read more about Alan here.
Rescue: Citizens
He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:17-22, NLT
Immigrants and Refugees
Something that's been on our minds a lot recently and in the news even more is refugees and immigrants. We talk about illegal immigrants, keeping them out or letting them in, legal immigrants and helping them stay in our country and then refugees and how much time is appropriate to spend making them wait to get to safety while vetting them.
Something that an immigrant and refugee has in common is they are a stranger and a foreigner in someone else's country. That's a feeling that most of us really don't appreciate. Sure, many of us have traveled to another country before, or gone on a cruise, but we've never had to leave our country because of poverty, our lives, or the safety of our families.
The Jews were Refugees
This was a feeling that the Jewish people knew well, and still know today. When I was in seminary, I took a course on other religions. In that course, we watched a series of videos that took us into a Hasidism Jewish community in Europe. What stroke me about one of the videos was a man who was a butcher. He was from a long line of butchers.
He said that his father told him (I'm paraphrasing), "We're butchers, because in the case that we become displaced again and have to leave this place, we will know that we will always be able to feed our families in the ways that God calls us according to our laws. It's not a glorious job, but it's honorable."
It struck me because it's been so long since the Jews were persecuted in a way that they had to leave their homes, yet they still carried this with them generation after generation. This is something that we, as American Christians, will never understand.
Equal in God's eyes
The first century Gentiles were often treated as second class Christians by the Jewish Christians, so Paul writes that we are all equal in God's eyes. This Sunday we will be looking more into the idea of what it means to be a Citizen of Heaven and be a part of God's family and household.
Blessings,
Faith
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Faith Parry serves as our Associate Pastor, and has been at the church since 2015. When she's not preaching and teaching, she enjoys documentaries and TV. Read more about Faith here.