Shelby County Today

June 20, 2022 - Grace and peace from our brother and our teacher, Jesus. Amen. June 21 is the official start of summer. I think word that summer is right around the corner leaked out because it has felt like summer for a couple of weeks already. Last year we didn’t experience any temperatures over 100, but so far this year my outside thermometer has recorded 106, 107, and 103 at different times. The thermometer is located on the back porch, which gets a few degrees warmer than it really is. But still it tells us it is hot. And we don’t need a heat index to tell us it’s humid!

Our Sunday School lesson focused on Galatians 5, showing how life becomes strained when we are not willing to follow God’s Spirit. St. Paul goes through quite an extensive list of things you shouldn’t do—but then says all the Law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor as ourselves. You can’t get any simpler than that, but it still baffles us humans. We liked the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying.”

Last Sunday Paxton Methodist celebrated the idea of the Trinity by mostly ignoring it. Yes, I am a coward. I did expend some ink on the Council of Nicaea where the church fathers tried to explain the workings of the Triune God. If there are questions about this on the final exam, I am in real trouble.

Sunday was Father’s Day and I spent part of my sermon speaking of my own father. As is true of most people, I didn’t appreciate my dad as much as I should have. Sometimes we build up our fathers into something they can’t be...and then are disappointed when they’re not perfect. My dad wasn’t perfect, but he sure made plenty more right decisions than he did wrong ones. Thanks, Wayne Stanley.

One of the quotes my wife put in the bulletin was from country singer Keith Urban who said (or more accurately, sang, as it’s a lyric in one of his songs), “I only hope when I have my own family that every day I see a little more of my father in me.” On the front of the bulletin was a quote from Denzel Washington, who said, “The strongest, toughest men all have compassion. You have to be man enough to care about people and about your children.”

In the prayers of our church we continue to lift up children and innocent people who have been killed in senseless gun violence. The world is violent enough without this added burden. The poet of Psalm 96 reminds us that each day we awake, we need to sing a new song to God—a song of compassion and truth. The Gospel lesson wasn’t about a great dad but about the widow of Nain who was in the throes of grief and despair. That is a place were we all have been one time or another.

We began our music Sunday morning with “Amazing Grace.” Like most churches, this is one of our favorite hymns. We also sang “This Is My Father’s World,” celebrating Fathers’ Day. There is an accompanying version called “This Is My Mother’s World.” Our statement of faith was the 21st Century Affirmation: We leave the fourth century declaration, The Nicene Creed, until next year’s Trinity Sunday.

Tuesday, Liz and Mike celebrate their wedding anniversary, so we send our best wishes to them. We all hope Larry is enjoying the family get-together. All during June we are collecting paper towels and toilet paper for Community Christian Services. You can tell it’s nearing the end of the month, as our back pew is covered in paper products.

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, and Open Minds.” 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 your email address to the Paxton email address, and I will add you to the list. God’s Speed.

June 15, 2022 - Hillcrest Baptist Church is hosting “Spark Studios” VBS starting June 20 through June 25!

VBS is from 6pm until 7:30pm Monday through Friday with the finale celebration held Saturday, June 25 from 4pm to 7pm with water slide fun, water games, and pizza.

“For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” ~ Ephesians 2:10.

June 14, 2022 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, June 14.

In the 1700’s, Francis Hopkinson was a judge, author, musician, composer, member of the Continental Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And on June 14, 1777, his design was accepted for the flag of the United States. And you always thought it was Betsy Ross who did that!

Hopkinson’s flag looked pretty much like our present one, except for the number of stars (thirteen). I think the American flag is the most beautiful flag in the world and I fly five on my property. Today is Flag Day, so be sure to fly yours, too!

In Bible times, armies marched into battle behind flags, standards, banners. Many scriptures mention this. One memorable one is in Exodus 17. Moses has just won a great battle and builds an altar in thanks to God. He names it Jehovah-Nissi. Early Bibles translated this as “the Lord My Refuge” or “the Lord My Exaltation”. But most modern translations, like my favorite, the New International Version, use a different term.

The Lord My Banner!

Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org

June 13, 2022 - Grace and peace from our brother and our teacher, Jesus. Amen. Oh my goodness, it has turned H.O.T. in a hurry! If you didn’t know you lived in Texas, you are fixin’ to get an up-close and personal lesson. Our beautiful East Texas is still in a drought, and it doesn’t seem that we will get relief any time soon. I have a few vegetables in containers and raised beds, but they are suffering even though I water them every day. That old sun can be so brutal. A related but more hopeful tale: I was given a pumpkin at the end of last year and put it in the corner of the raised bed where I grow strawberries. The vines of that pumpkin not only have taken over the strawberry bed but also the raised beds next to it. I have a few plum trees and an apple tree that have fruit on them. My orange tree has three oranges growing. The tree has taken a hit from pesky bugs, but the small green oranges are hanging on. I also have a tree with a few limes on it.

Sue and I are going to see a couple of plays at the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore. We have gone every year for about 20 years until the pandemic hit. In 2020 the Festival was called off, and last year we just didn’t feel comfortable sitting in a crowded theater. But this year, we’re baaaack! We are going to see The Music Man, one of our favorites, and Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. I used the song, “Trouble in River City” from The Music Man as the theme of my sermon, in my cowardly stepping around the idea of the Trinity.

Sunday morning was Trinity Sunday. It is the one high holy day on the Christian calendar that doesn’t celebrate an event in the life of Jesus or the early church; instead, it celebrates a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church—The Triune God. I am not a brave person, so I pretty much ignored the idea of the Trinity and instead gave a short history lesson on the Council of Nicea: Its task, conferred by Emperor Constantine, was to formulate one way for Christians to understand God the Creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Council had little success, and the puzzling creed is still confusing today.

Our scripture for Sunday School was pretty deep. In 1 Corinthians 2: 10-16, we see the appearance of Lady Wisdom, who was also present our Gathering Words at the beginning of Worship. Wisdom was right there when God created the heavens and the earth. Paul tells the Corinthians that it is the Spirit that searches everything and everywhere, including the depth of God—and this Spirit is available to us. During Sunday School we joined in a lively debate on the pending split in the United Methodist Church. Some churches are leaving and forming the Global Methodist Church. Paxton Methodists are awaiting more information from the District and Conference.

The Gathering Words this morning were based on Proverbs 8, dealing with the call from Lady Wisdom. Our Affirmation of Faith was the statement that the Church fathers agreed to back in 325 CE, The Nicene Creed. In the Lutheran Church this creed is said almost every Sunday, but for Methodists, the usual affirmation is the Apostles’ Creed. We began our singing with “Holy, Holy, Holy,” very appropriate for Trinity Sunday. The second hymn was Fanny Crosby’s “To God Be the Glory,” which also speaks of the nature of God.

Our bulletin quotes were both chosen with an eye to the triune God. From Anne Lamott: “I didn’t need to understand the unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.” Vera Nazarian, another American writer, described it this way: “Love is made up of three unconditional properties in equal measure: acceptance, understanding, appreciation.”

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, and Open Minds.” 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 your email address to the Paxton email address, and I will add you to the list. God’s Speed.