September 18, 2017 - Sunday was the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The Gospel Lesson was Matthew 18: 21-35 and deals with God’s idea of absolute forgiveness. Jesus calls upon us to forgive others as God forgives. That task sounds impossible but each of us knows of some unbelievable story of forgiveness. St. Thomas Aquinas says that God never commands us to do impossible things—he commands us to do things that would be impossible if not for the grace of God.
PBS had a special on the life of Martin Luther. I was raised a Lutheran and I thought I knew all there was to know about Luther—how wrong I was. Toward the end of his life Luther said that two words provided him the most comfort—“God forgives.” Our Gospel Lesson tells us we must learn to forgive. I think forgiveness is one of the essentials of the Christian faith.
Our Sunday school lesson focused on the importance of the Sabbath and the need to keep it holy. It is obviously very important to the Jewish community then because it was enshrined as on of the first 10 Commandments. We got into a discussion of blue laws and the importance of carving out time to rest and reflect and to be one with God.
This past week volunteers went to Focus Care better known as Green Acres. Fannie, Minnie, Jo, Nora, and I went to visit and to sing and tell stories. We have started coming on a different day and in the morning hoping that our new day and time would be better for the residents. We only had a small handful of residents that came and though we were few in number we sang many requests and we all had a good time.
During the month of September we are collecting boxes of macaroni and cheese for Community Christian Services. In October we will collect peanut butter and jelly. Tuesday volunteers will go to Holiday Nursing Center for our program that begins at 2pm. Our Charge Conference is coming up soon and I need to get busy and fill out paperwork. Every Methodist Church small or large fills out streams of paper. When I am working on this I am thankful for the computer and I am reminded of my years as a public school principal and the endless paperwork the state wanted you to generate. In all the years in public school my biggest laugh came when the legislature passed a “paperwork reduction act.” That act generated mounds of paper to show you were in compliance.
“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 9:30am and Worship begins at 10am. 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. Godspeed.
Randy & Sue Smith
Paxton Methodist Church
