How do you like your French fries? Hot and fresh, right? Sure! But you better eat them fast because it only takes a few minutes for those fresh fries to get soggy and absolutely inedible! This week at Cold Spring Church, we will discover that the only thing more challenging than delivering hot, fresh fries is delivering fresh expressions about Jesus (our mission). Pastor Kevin will introduce us to the challenges facing today’s on-demand services like Grubhub and Uber Eats in this week’s message titled: “Expressing the Good News…Soggy or Fresh?” from Acts 10:34-43. We’ll find out what Thomas Jefferson, drive-thru’s, and Grubhub have in common with our mission to deliver fresh expressions of the Gospel so that our neighbors get it’s spiritual nourishment hot and fresh!
In 1802, the first batch of French fries were made in America for Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. He discovered the French way of deep frying cut, raw, potatoes when he was a diplomat to France years earlier. French fries remained an uncommon chef’s delicacy for a hundred years until drive-ins introduced the easy to handle French fries became a staple of the growing mobile lifestyle in the 1930’s. By the 1950’s perfectly hot, fresh French fries were enjoyed by families dining-in or in their car. Today’s drive-thru’s deliver fries fast enough to gobble down in minutes. Your Grubhub delivery guy may take upwards of 30 minutes to arrive at your house, and by that time, your French fries have morphed from super fresh to soggy! And there’s no more challenging food to deliver hot and fresh than humble French fries.
Of all the great things we do, there is something that we have that will never run out. What is that? It’s you! Your presence. Participation. Engagement. When you set your devices down for a minute and look up, the person you’re with is the most important person in the world…to you! Being with others is a fantastic way to learn, grow, and serve. Sure, we can do lots of things solo. But when we are together, spending time with God, reading the Bible, working on a project, sharing our thoughts and feelings, can create amazing memories that are shared, and shared again, and on and one. Let’s be brave this year and remember we are sharable’s!
How many times already this year (or Decade! Wow, can you believe it?!) have you shared good wishes of 
When the Wise men visited Jesus they brought gifts worth giving: Gold, frankincense and myrrh. As cool as those gifts were, they aren’t nearly as important as the individuals themselves. Each of us have value way beyond what we do. Exceeding things we give. Just you being you. Whoa! What a gift! You are the gift worth giving! We can learn a lot from the wise men who knew Jesus was the King! Let’s give gifts like the wise men today. Would you help me give away some real frankincense and myrrh this morning? Great. Here, take some for yourselves and meet me as people are sent out today! Thank you for being amazing gifts!
In the United States, a nation of immigrants, still swell with people from other countries, many fleeing persecution, fear, and poverty. Even in Cape May County we meet them in shops and restaurants, and welcome them to our communities and neighborhoods. Most of our families have immigrant stories, and our cemetery represents amazing immigrant stories of international travelers who came to the “new world” in search of freedom and to work and worship as they chose. This week, Pastor Kevin’s message continues the story of Jesus on the move as an infant from Matthew 2:13-23. Jesus was born in a borrowed Bethlehem barn in Asia and became an African refugee in Egypt, so the Christmas story is about an international migrant. Furthermore, a whole village full of baby boys died for Jesus before he had the opportunity to die for them on the cross. Surely this Jesus understands the pain of children who suffer and die for the sins of adults in our our communities. This week’s Gospel resonates loudly for our times and will equip and inspire us to participate in the transforming inbreaking of the divine that comes with the birth of Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. Joy to your world can be realized for you and our entire community because if Jesus is not for everyone, he’s not for anyone. Jesus is for all of us!