September 17, 2019 - I think most of us are ready for the first day of fall—especially if it will come with cooler temperatures. My computer isn’t acting right but being a Monday morning I might excuse it. We had a good Sunday at Paxton United Methodist Church. Our Sunday school lesson spoke of God as a great mystery. The scripture was Exodus 19: 9-25 and 20: 18-21, where the writer speaks of God in the midst of thunder and lightning. God is enthroned on the mountain; the people are ready to send Moses up to the top as long as they don’t have to deal with the ultimate mystery.
My years preaching have reinforced this idea of mystery: I often speak of the Divine as the ultimate unknown and God as incomprehensible. When someone tells me they have everything figured out, I just smile and keep on truckin’. There are questions of God’s presence and what seems to be God’s absence that have puzzled mankind since he first pondered the Divine.
In Sunday’s Gospel lesson (Luke 15: 1-10) Jesus is confronted with the religiously correct who are aghast at how easily Jesus fits in with sinners. They openly question whether he can be a true rabbi. So Jesus speaks to his understanding of God’s nature—another mystery. Jesus compares God’s eternal love to a shepherd who goes looking for one lost sheep and to the woman who searches her entire house again and again, looking for a misplaced coin. This was an unconventional way of understanding God then, but Jesus was a radical for his day and would certainly be the same in ours.
We had quite a “crowd” for worship. Lillie, Mike, and Liz were up from Houston to get work done on the farm. They are so faithful to come when they are in, and we love seeing the three of them. Last week my son was in for a visit, and this weekend my daughter had come in. She and our “grand dog” Stella headed back home right after church. Nice to see our grown-up kids.
I have been working on the Charge Conference Reports and hope to have the budget and other required reports ready for the church to approve. Our Charge Conference is the first Saturday in October. All this month we will be collecting macaroni and cheese for Community Christian Services. Tomorrow we head to Holiday Nursing Center at 2:00 for our monthly program.
“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.
