We call talking to God prayer. God wants us to ask questions. To wonder about stuff! Do you have questions? Sure! And God listens to us. Some students gave me this talking Jesus doll a long time ago. Listen. (Bible verses spoken.) Wow. Pretty cool. But this, of course, is not really Jesus! But you can talk to the real Jesus anytime you want. By directing your inner voice to God in prayer we can have a conversation with God, and when we read the Bible, and listen to God’s Spirit, we can learn and grow, too. God loves you and wants to have a real conversation with you every day! In good times, and when things aren’t so nice. God is with you. How great is that?!
As Jesus connected with Zacchaeus, he was transformed by thankfulness for his experience of God’s love. We, too, having experienced the transformative power of meeting the Son of God, can put our thanksgiving out there through tangible expressions of loving kindness, justice, and live into a future of possibilities. We, like Zacchaeus, can choose to express the joy that comes in recognizing our mutual dependence and God-created connections in community. Gratitude fuels our mission as we invite others to participate in genuine reconciliation, restoration, and renewal.
Spiritual experiences, like religion, can be both private and communal. In Jesus’ life, you see private expressions of faith (Luke 5:16, Matthew 6:5-6), but there are decidedly more public expressions of faith, faith in action, obvious, measurable, and expressed in justice and mercy.
For many of us, calling religion private is convenient. Easy. We can put faith into a box or a small compartment in our life and no one pays attention to it. Including us. It is not challenged, exercised, or strengthened. While a solely private faith can bring personal comfort, its impact is limited. A so-called private faith can may result in unwanted behaviors like pride, hypocrisy, judgement, and a kind of spiritual phoniness that becomes boring and unremarkable. We can do better.
God created us to live an authentic, amazing life. Pastor Kevin’s message this week about Jesus and his new friend Zacchaeus describes what happen when faith becomes public, obvious, and community-facing. While everyone else saw a “sinner,” a corrupt tax collector in a tree, Jesus saw an incredible person who could experience God’s grace, give thanks, and actually do good! An entire community was transformed. That’s transformation!
We should expect others to notice our faith in action and want to join in. When we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God in obvious, public, ways, all of us can live authentic, amazing lives.
How was your Halloween?! Sure. Lots of. Let me guess… candy? Getting candy, receiving gifts, is super great. Did you happen to give any candy away this Halloween? How was you All Saints Day? The day after Halloween is special , too, like we spoke about last week. We are part of a band of believers past, present, and future who belong to God. Reminding us that we have an awesome purpose. Yesterday, Melissa and I were invited to Justin Connolly’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor. He and his family worship with us during the Summer and live in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. It was great celebrating such an important day. The Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts, are very cool organizations and share something in common with Cold Spring Church. Do you know what that is? Our purpose. Part of the Boy Scout purpose is helping others, and a core value in our church’s purpose is serving others. That’s how we follow Jesus, by serving. So this week, let’s think of one way we will serve others, give of our time, energy, and attention in ways that show of love for them, and our love for God, too. Help classmates in school. Help at home or in the community. Be kind to one another. Like Jesus, who came not to be served, but to servewe can do the same… getting is good. Giving is better. Giving because of Jesus is best of all! You Have A Purpose!
Our current political and community conversations are too often filled with criticism without grace, or accusations without evidence. Looking at others with contempt comes easy in our culture. From social media to the corner deli, judging the offenses of those around us is second nature. Why do we hold others in disdain? Our Gospel lesson this week, Jesus introduces us to two individuals at the temple. One gave thanks for not being like those despicable others. The second humbly asking God for mercy. From Despicable to Incredible is Pastor Kevin’s message about building skyscrapers and changing our “Good News” conversations to eliminate the corrosive nature of contempt, and how we can get out of the habit of expressing it, both in our personal relationships, and more broadly, as a nation.
Do you know what special day is coming up this week? Sure! Halloween! It’s great to have a costume and pretend. What will you be this year? Here are a few masks to try on. Wow! No matter what mask we wear we can tell its you! Masks can hid our face, but can’t hide our heart and spirit. Next week is also All Saints Day. We don’t follow Jesus at Cold Spring Church alone. On no! All Saints Day November 1 reminds us that millions of people just like us followed him thousands of years ago, too, and there will be countless others who follow Jesus in the future, too. We are not alone in our faith. And next week is also Reformation Day. 502 years ago a man named Martin Luther along with many friends decided to make improvements in the Church, to help all of us focus on three things, we find hope by the Bible alone, by Faith alone, and through Jesus alone. We are reforming, improving, and that’s why whatever mask we wear for Halloween, or the other masks we may put on, will not hide us from God’s love. This Halloween, remember that God loves you, stay safe, and don’t eat too much candy!
There are thousands of intersections in Cape May. What intersections are the most remarkable to you? Which is closest to where you live? Closest to where you work or go to school. What is your impression of your intersection? Is it busy with traffic? Do kids wait there for their school bus? Consider the corner of Seashore and Academy Roads, for example. For hundreds of years, our intersection has been a gathering place, a sending place, a safe place for neighbors to worship Christ, pray, and serve the community together. Intersections are crossroads of activity. This Good News message from Luke 18 about a widow and a judge. Why did she go to the judge at night? What does Jesus want us to learn from the judge’s action even though he hated God and others!? Join us at corner of Faith Avenue and Justice Street where Jesus is looking for faith in action. Invest a few minutes to listen to Pastor Kevin’s message and meet Jesus at the corner of Faith Avenue and Justice Street. What will you find there?
You being here today is an amazing thing. You have created an intersection, a meeting, and opportunity between you and Cold Spring Church. We are better because you’re here. You’re better because you’re here. You and us go together like, peanut butter and jelly. God’s love for us goes together with us perfectly too, like peanut butter and jelly. God’s love for us. Our love for others. It just goes together! Enjoy the peanut butter and jelly I have for you… and remember, God’s love for us, and our love for others goes together like… Yep. You got it!
This week, Pastor Kevin’s message starts with the disciples asking for more faith to meet a particularly thorny problem about forgiveness. But in response, Jesus says they had all the faith required, it just needed to get in motion! So its like riding a bike, because there’s a huge difference in outcomes between riding a stationary bike and a moving bicycle. We’ll learn about a Scientific American study that Steve Jobs shared many years ago. The research evaluated which species on the planet was the most efficient in locomotion. While the mighty condor was above any other species, beating even a human in an automobile, it was a human riding a bike that blew the condor away from its top spot! We will learn we don’t need more faith, in a message titled, Faith: Bicycle For the Spirit.
We also gather for Global Peace and Witness- World Communion Sunday with an opportunity to receive a special offering to help put our faith into action locally and around the world. You’re invited to join us for inspiring worship as as we gather around the Lord’s Table. All this and more this week at Cold Spring Church, your neighborhood stop for moving faith.