September 10, 2019 - Love and peace from our brother, Jesus. We are still in the midst of Ordinary Time; we here in East Texas are eagerly looking forward to autumn. Football season is here, but the fall-like temperatures have yet to arrive. Hopefully, it won’t be too much longer. We actually had a brief respite Monday evening in the form of a thunderstorm; unfortunately, some of us also experienced a power outage along with the cooling rain.
I got a call from Don Dial representing the Gideon Society. The Gideons will send a speaker to Paxton Methodist on November 10th. Several past members of our church were Gideons, and our church continues to support their global mission.
Our Sunday school lesson carried on with the creation story. The focus of this lesson was on the second creation story found in the second chapter of Genesis. This story is more familiar to us: Adam falling into a deep sleep while God takes a rib and forms woman. The main idea of our lesson was God’s saying it is not good for the human to be alone. We are social animals, needing human interaction and friendships. Our author also suggests that it isn’t good for God’s purposes either if the human is alone.
Our son was in this past weekend, and next weekend our daughter is coming for a visit. Jacob came with Sue to worship time at Paxton. Most everyone at church mentioned the start of professional football—I know Larry Hume was pleased with the Chiefs’ game yesterday. The Texans play tonight, and I hope they have a good game.
The scripture for my sermon came from the Old Testament Lesson for Sunday—Jeremiah 18: 1-11. The vision that Jeremiah has in this scripture is of God as a potter and his chosen people as the clay. The young prophet is not full of good news once you get past the vision of the potter retooling and reworking his creation. In fact Jeremiah sees God as so disappointed that he contemplates walking away from the creation that he had declared “very good.” As with other the prophets in the Old Testament, Jeremiah provides a path—a way for the people to turn back to God.
This Wednesday will be September 11, which those of a certain age remember with sadness. But it has become Patriots Day, a more positive designation. I will join the VFW and other guests at this week’s commemoration at the historic Shelby County Courthouse.
Our worship time is 10:00 AM; we would love to have you come to worship with us. I know how very busy everyone is: Our early meeting time enables you to move on to family get-togethers or jobs afterward. Not to mention naps, which my wife says are best on Sunday afternoon. Whoever you are, in whatever faith you were born, whatever creed you profess; if you come to this house to find God you are welcome here.” Paxton United Methodist Church is an inviting church that takes to heart the idea of “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds.” Sunday School starts at 9:30 and Worship begins at 10:00. Our email address is paxtonumc@yahoo.com. If you would like the weekly email newsletter about Paxton Methodist you can send me your email address to the Paxton email address and I will add you to the list. God’s Speed.
