Our Thanksgiving Story. . . .

A few days ago, Bethesda came together and we cared for our community. One of the major opportunities that we have to care for our community in this current situation revolves around food. I am excited to see how often 'food' becomes something that links us together as the Body of Christ with our neighbors and friends. 

Long before I came to Bethesda I read an article that talked about how churches who regularly come together and ate were more welcoming and more creative. These churches who gathered around tables for meals were relationally closer. They listened better and, ultimately, they discerned the will of God more faithfully. 

The more opportunities that we have here at Bethesda to gather around food, the more I see this conclusion being proven true. 

For the last month, Bethesda gathered resources, cans of food, boxed food, money to purchase frozen food. We planned and we got excited. Then it was time. The tables went into the parking lot; the tent went up. And as soon as we took our supplies out into the parking lot, our community members were lining up so that we could care for them. One by one we listened to their stories. And we did our best to care for them. 

No one was turned away. Frozen meat. Frozen fruit. Bags of groceries were handed out at a consistent pace to all. My Apple Watch recorded that I walked about 14,000 steps that night yet it felt like I barely took 1 step. 

We listened to everyone and we cared as God calls us to. Hugs were given out. Blessings were offered. Prayers said together. And none of that was possible without the Body of Christ wondering: what is possible in Christ? 

Now I know there is a great deal more need out there than we can handle. We did not feed everyone that night. Within a week the food that we gave out. . . well, it ran out. Families that we helped were only provided for in a short term sense. Yet, for that one night, for that weekend, this church was able to stand before the world and say, 'we are here, and we care for them. They matter to us for they are God's children.' 

I know that you who reading this, you cannot fix all of the problems that you see and that read about. I know that you will get discouraged as easily as I do by the reports that you hear. But let our little story encourage you. Let it invite you to wonder: where could God be at work? 

The King is Coming. Jeremiah 23:1-6. Sermon preached on Christ the King Sunday.

            Perhaps you know what it feels like to be “scattered. . . driven away. . . not attended to?” For the last few weeks, I have talked about these ideas, concepts, feelings. At the end of the liturgical church calendar, we meet them again. Together we lived through these experiences as a church. On Christ the King Sunday, they surface in our text causing us to wonder.  

These are the words and feelings that Jeremiah writes about in chapter 23 to the leaders of Judah living in the Babylonian captivity. They are so far from home—regardless of how ‘home’ is defined by the hearer. 

Jeremiah’s message is written to the failed kings and to the failed religions leaders (both formally and informally placed leaders) of his day. They are also the words written to anyone who falls prey to the temptation of the office of false prophet—anyone who sees what is happening in our world and does not tell the confused, seeking, to “return to the Lord humbly and fully. Seek, and return, to Christ the King.”

            The weeping prophet reminds his audience that when you feel this way, as we have here, God sends someone… someone from the line of David, the righteous Branch, for you. God cares for us in ways that this world cannot.

            On Christ the King Sunday, I want to share with you the words of the 11^th Century Eastern Orthodox Theologian and writer: St. Symeon. He writes these words for us: 

We awaken in Christ’s body

As Christ awakens our bodies, . . . 

For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ's body

where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.[1]

 

As I read those words, I hear Jeremiah 23. I hear that someone is coming. . . Someone who has seen us suffer. Someone who has watched all that we have been through in our past, and in our struggles today. 

            Someone who has heard us offer justifications for our positions and the rationalizations for our personal beliefs. Someone is coming to redeem us. 

The one who knows how we feel when we are scattered. . . driven away. . . and not attended to. And as we have these feelings, and even when we are guilty of these acts, this person comes to reconcile and to save us. 

            So today, as this Table is set before us. As the bread will be broken and the cup poured soon for you, let us celebrate and honor the One who gathers us, reunites us. Let us be mindful of Christ the King together. 

Move 1- the warning.

            But be warned… This text begins with a word that should bring a practice of introspection to your hearts and lives before I invite you to join me at the Table and celebrate the victory won at this Table. 

            Yes, it is good to know that God will bring us home because Christ the King invites us here. But before we come to the Table, each of us should pause and consider how we are guilty of verse 2. Not just in a general sense, but truly pause and deeply wonder, in a very personal sense:

            What does it look like to personally scatter? Jeremiah here is speaking about the idea of forced, purposeful dispersion—like global repopulation after the Flood. The verb occurred in that place also. Where has that happened in your life? What does it feel like if it has happened to you? 

What about to drive away? To take someone, or a group, and divide them away from the rest of the community when they normally might belong to that same community? For each member of the Body of Christ knows something about the choice and action necessary to drive someone away. 

The final sin in verse 2 is the most painful to consider: to not attend to… In this case the verb is always used to speak in a covenantal way between God and humanity. But as Jeremiah employs it, there is a NOT here. So, in this case Jeremiah invites us to look at ourselves and ask: where have we a broken covenant between the church and… someone else? 

Heavy stuff to consider on Christ the King Sunday. But it is necessary work for us to begin with, and we gaze toward the Table which is set here. 

            This is also what Paul tells us to consider before we come to this very table. It was part of his communion liturgy in 1 Corinthians 11. And as I have said already, the people who heard Jeremiah 23 read to them by the mouthpiece of Jeremiah, they were instructed to wonder about this themselves. 

Move 2- the fold

            After we take a moment to think about the places and the instances where we are guilty of these self-centered choices, we should look at how the fold is better because each of us is here. We should recall the truth that the fold, the church, is better for we are and as we come together, even in our poor choices, Christ the King is working to restore His church. 

            For the fold, together as it is now under, and with, Christ the King, multiplies and does good work in the name of the Lord. Even if the fold, as it was in Jeremiah 23, lives in exile. For in this confessional moment, we grow stronger because the bond of confession unites us together. Christ the King, unifies us as the Church together. It is His good work that we participate in. 

That good work refers to the testimonial words that St. Symeon spoke about earlier—testimonial of how Christ is in all of us—not in some of us. 

Healing us. Partnering with. Calling us onward. It is the testimonial that Christ took what is broken in each of us, painful as it is to see, Christ took all the hurt and all the separation and he restored us by placing us in his very self. He took us by the hand and brought us into wholeness with God. Christ the King, took us, even when we felt like exiles, and brought us home again. 

            The shepherd cared for the flock—just as Jeremiah 23 illustrates in verse 3. The flock grows; it multiplies, it prospers in Christ because that is God’s will for His flock. 

Move 3- 

            This affirmation, and the confessional act before that, lead us to the truth that Christ the King is coming to continue to heal and restore us when we find ourselves scattering, dividing, and not attending to others who are around us. 

Christ the King comes if we are also the ones who have felt the effects of this division happening in our lives as well. 

For He is here. And as he is here, Jesus deals fairly and justly with us. He strengthens us and makes us whole in ways that we do not always see as they prepare to happen and take shape. Because we are honest and open with God and each other, space is created where we God operate around us. 

Conclusion 

            So now we come to the Table of the Lord let us bring all that we are all to God. Let us come acknowledging all that we have dealt with, and where we have been. And in doing so, let us also affirm that Christ the King is with us always. 

 

DM

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[1] https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/S/SymeontheNew/Weawakenin/index.html  accessed on November 18, 2025. 

 

A Promise Coming- Isaiah 65:17-25. Sermon preached on November 16, 2025

            “Unlimited or misplaced vengeance pervades our societies. . .  and [it] always has.”[1] This has been the same daily story, the same lived experience, that we deal with since the beginning of our story as a people. When we have the option to locate, or create, a different story, we do not easily do so. We would often prefer something different, but today’s text asks us to think differently.  

            This choice, the choice of vengeance upon other which leads to a personal type of suffering, is also the story that God’s children lived with, and lived through, since the time of Abraham.

It is the story of the Israelites during the time where Isaiah wrote to the exiles as he concludes his book. 

And it is also our story today as we move closer to Advent and the celebratory work of the incarnation—even if our hearts are fresh off the work of memory as the Body of Christ. 

            So, I wonder, what is there each day that we can take hold of to find hope? To locate hope? 

            Isaiah 65 has that word for us. And rather than offer this word just as something ‘out there’ or even in Advent, which comes sooner than we think. Perhaps this hope is a thing that we can reach out towards and grasp. A lived change that no one might see coming, but a change that will lead us toward Christ the King? 

            The word that Isaiah has for us begins powerfully with something that only God can do. This passage begins where everything began… Creative Creation. 

Move 1- Creative work

            The creative work begins with the Lord first. And in this affirmation, we instance where God encourages us to find, and practice, hope.

            Historically the exiles who read Isaiah’s words have been through a great deal and so any practice where hope is called out, or called forth, would be challenging. Just as it would be for us. Yet the prophet asks them to put their faith into practice in spite of what they are dealing with on a daily basis and believe. 

Isaiah accesses the people’s hope in the same way that God draws us towards himself in relationship… in creation.

            The creative work here from the prophet is attributed to the voice of the Lord solely and totally. God does this work. Only God creates in this way. The word that captures this is “bara.” It is the word that opens the Holy Scriptures. And while human authors will write it, no human can create like this. For “in the beginning God created…” Again only God creates in this way. 

            Unlike ‘asah’ (to make or do) or ‘yatsar’ (to form… like the potter who works the clay and forms something from the clay), ‘bara’ never takes a human subject. ‘Bara’ is not our word. You and I cannot ‘bara’ anything. It is God’s word only and always. This is God’s work, as it is God’s word alone. God’s prerogative. Rooting all subsequent anthropology, morality, and stewardship in God’s authorship—not ours.[2]

            “Bara” does not, for instance, take a few eggs, maybe a bit of milk, some cheese and ham, maybe a nice pepper or two, and then make a nice omelete for breakfast as you and I might have done this morning. That is not an act of ‘bara.’

“Bara” takes nothing and out of nothing… ‘behold, I create new heavens a new earth’ says the Lord.  

Creation taking place. A place where there was weeping and mourning because the exiles had been through so much. Lost so much. Suffered so much. Relationally doubted that God was ever going to hear their prayers. Care for them. Provide for them. Come back to them. This was the place where that was natural, expected, anticipated, the place where these people (much like you or I could dwell and live each day) and it becomes a place of rejoicing. Something new coming back to them… to us. 

            Creative acts. From places where nothing existed before. Not creation as transformation. Like eggs becoming breakfast. 

            This is how our text began and God says, ‘I am doing something new, different, exciting. Transformational. Because this is what I do because you and I are in relationship and I will not leave you, even if the evidence that you see each day makes you think that I am gone or a long way off.’ 

            God wishes to create something new, and in fact IS, creating something new for us that will bless and bring us home.  

Move 2- 

            And you can see how this creative place, this place where God uses, ‘bara,’ this becomes the place, the moment, where in verse 25 something that is not natural, something that is not possible under normal circumstances becomes possible. This is the place, and the moment, where we see the promise of Christ presented yet again in the words of Isaiah. 

The wolf and the lamb together. The lion and the ox eating together. The dust being the serpent’s food. Normally these things are not possible; unexpected. But in the new place that God creates for us and with us… it is possible. For with God all things are possible—even if we think we dwell in a place of exile and suffering. Even as we think that God no longer listens and vengeance and separation are the order of the day. 

God has chosen not to leave us alone.  

For as chapter 65 began, God wonders if His people will choose to dwell close by Him? Will they remain close enough so that he can transform them yet again? 

God states that He is here. It is the reverse of the call of Isaiah from chapter 6 where God wonders who will go for Him. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? At that time Isaiah said, ‘I am here send me.”

Now God is saying I am here, who will return to me and find that I have not moved. For God is faithful. God is steadfast. And in both God’s faithfulness and steadfastness, we once again find a reason and place to hope and trust in Him.  

We are being asked to come home to God. Return to the creative place that God makes for us. 

            This is where the prophet, as the mouthpiece of God, gives us the messianic word in our text. A word that we will consider and remember in a few short weeks. 

For where else could this creative work take shape outside of God and God’s creative acts and movements? Where else do we find hope like this outside of God and God’s presence? 

Where else but in God do we find reconciliation and hope taking shape when so much of the discourse, and so much of the daily experience that we live with is vengeance, pain, suffering? Where else expect in, and with, the creative God who is at work all around us in places and moments where the worldly evidence suggests that this is not so. 

            In those moments and places God says, ‘I am creating something new for you where you will find space to rejoice and believe yet again that I am with you preparing to do something that will heal and restore you for that is my nature and that is the nature of our relationship. 

Move 3- Banah

            And this creative work, though, does not stop with God… it extends into partnership with us. 

            For two verses of this text stand out as partnering verses in this work: verses 21 & 22. The wording that sticks out is: “to build.”

            On the surface the wording of these two verses could sound like the opposite of what Babylon did to the Israelite people. For at a first glace the verse seems to state that we going to spread out and build and build and get bigger and bigger. But when we look deeply at what God says through Isaiah’s words, we once again find a far richer idea that links back up with the creative acts of God that are taking place. 

            The people hearing Isaiah 65, like you and I today, we are not only going to physically build these things (vineyards & houses), but this word underscores a sense of care and concern that is much deeper and longer lasting. When used in other places in God’s word, this idea underscores a sense child rearing and building and watching over a family. Lovingly. Deeply. Compassionately. 

            Not hording fruit—to use Isaiahs’ imagery. 

            Not building a house bigger than my neighbors so they might become envious of me or being to think that I look better than them. 

            Instead, once again this is building as an act of creative, but this time the creative act is one of caring. 

            So yet again, the care of God, the creative care of God, the promise of God care for us, leads back into nature and presence of one who is coming in a few short weeks for us. Even through all we deal with and all we struggle against; God is with us. 

Conclusion 

            God keeps his promises to us. As the Lord did in the life of the Israelites. While the children of Israel may have wondered for a great while if God was indeed going to be faithful and care for them, that did not stop the Lord from creatively working in their lives when they wondered if God was still present or active. 

            And so, as we continue to care for our community, and wonder about our choices of faithfulness in this community, the question comes for us: can we see the promise of God coming? The promise is creative. And the promise calls us to be partner with him in the work.  

 

DM

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[1] Marylynne Robinson. 

 

[2] All exegetical work came from www.biblehub.com. 

Won't you be my neighbor?

When I was part of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a formative time of my academic year, I always had my eye on graduation. Not terribly surprising I am sure. Every student looks forward to the time when their classwork is done and the move to the part of the work. Well, as that time came closer and closer I learned that each graduating class selects their own commencement speaker.  

My class wanted to aim high; aim as high as we could. And so as I came to the meetings, I was surprised to hear how high we sought to go...  

We first wondered who was the highest ranking Presbyterian in our government. At the time it was Condoleezza Rice, who served as 66th Secretary of State. Her father was a Presbyterian Minister from Alabama. Doubting she would be accessible or able to speak to our class during commencement, we looked elsewhere.  

The next person in line was a famous alumni of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and on National Cardigan Day, I have been thinking about him a lot: Fred Rogers. I enjoyed his television show as a boy with my family. 

Mr. Rogers was often the selection to speak at PTS graduations. I do not know how often he was to speak to the graduates based on his work with PBS. But his influence on my life, and on the life of an entire generation, cannot be denied. 

As Bethesda prepares to handout turkeys again this next week I was reminded of something that Mr. Rogers once said in the face of a hard world: "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." 

These words came from Fred's mother as young Fred watched the news and was afraid of what he saw and heard reported by the anchors. Her wise words spoke to him about how to change his perspective and look for something positive when everyone around him saw only the negative and the deficit. This was a lesson that he would seek to pass on to generations of children who watched his show and saw those cardigans zipped up each day and a new song was sung to them.  

This is also the challenge that the church should be seeking to adopt as well. 

Find the helpers. Be the helpers. And together we can help move the change the world out into the community where God sends us. It is not always easy but as Mr. Rogers reminds us, if we look, we can see people who are helping. And I wonder, if we might join in the work of helping in this community?  

Inheritance--Ephesians 1:11-23. Sermon preached on November 9th, 2025 as we honored All Saints Day

             In a few minutes we will once again participate in the work of memory. . . memory on multiple levels. 

            Every Sunday as we come together in the larger context and shape of worship, we are remembering important teachings from Jesus, and we also remembering how they shape our relationship with God. Memory is behind much of what we do in worship—we remember where God has taken us from and where God carries us to and towards. 

            Yet today we are also remembering the table which is set before us. 

These elements of bread and the cup, they also bring to mind the sacrifice of our Savior in vivid details. In themselves, the bread and the cup, they tell us the story of his love and of his suffering, death, and resurrection. These simple elements also whisper to us about our hope for our future. They speak about God’s reconciliatory work that is accomplished in Christ Jesus. 

            But they are not the only symbols which sit before us. 

For we are also here to remember something/someone else. 

For every one of us, those physically in this space, those watching at home live, and those watching at a later date, we recall those who are not with us any longer. 

This is another act of memory that is crucially important in the context of worship. Those lives speak to us, and even if they did not worship here, or directly teach us any lessons of faith that we share with our families and our children, they tell us something about the Lord and, again, his reconciliatory, healing, work in Christ Jesus. 

So, as we participate in the All-Saints memorial soon, we remember our friends, our family, our loved ones who have entered the Church Triumphant. Even if they are not on THIS year’s list. . . they are on OUR list. 

            Memory. It is something that Paul speaks about in Ephesians 1 to us and to the church in the city of Ephesus. The Apostle does this with a few key terms and phrases. I want to draw you attention to them now. 

Move 1- Inheritance. 

            The first of those terms is: Inheritance. Before he invites the church to remember Paul pulls their eyes, he draws their eyes, forward to that which God promises to give the church.  

But this is not just a promised reward that is given to the faithful people or to a faithful church only—that would be good, and I would like that. This inheritance is more than something that we can deposit or count. Only occurring in the New Testament generally in this one verse, Paul has a deeper theological understanding that he wishes to convey to the pluralistic community of Ephesus for inheritance. 

“Th[is] verb underscores the believer’s secure place in God’s redemptive purpose, portraying salvation as an “inherit[ed] appointment” accomplished in Christ.”[1]

That’s a mouthful, but it is truth that we cannot deny. 

            Because we are unified with Christ, linked with Christ in a bond at our conversion, the believer is held secure with the Lord always and forever. This has been promised upon in the Old Testament by God, taught to us in Jesus in the gospel, and as Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus, it is our source of future hope today. 

For our presence and our relationship with Christ is neither an accident nor a casual thing. We were, and we are, chosen by God. It is our inherited place that persists regardless of the daily circumstances—long after trials and struggles. We are in Christ, and we are chosen by God—as are the people who God calls you to care for, to serve, and to love. 

            We remember our inheritance as we remember the Table before us and those who are now resting, and celebrating, with the Lord. As we have this inheritance to fall back on, to rest in at a future date, it is our calling to share this good news with others and to help them learn of it, so that they can build their own relationship with Christ Jesus.  

Move 2- memory

            Inheritance is one concept that Paul spoke about in our text today and it is profound. But I want to remind you of a second one: Memory.

            Memory serves an additional purpose that helps reinforce and remind us of our inheritance that is promised and delivered upon because we are in Christ. 

Besides being theological for Paul in nature and reminding us of our union in Christ as the Church, and besides reminding us of our relationship with God that endures throughout the generations, and of the work that God did to choose, memory has an active position and purpose that we see at work here. 

            For Paul, the memory that he speaks about to the church at Ephesus is positive. 

Paul’s work of memory takes the shape and structure of positive memories when it would be possible, and perhaps permissible, to only dwell on the negative—a task and position that we see often around us. 

Paul thanks the Lord for all the good things, good moments and wonderful blessings that he has witnessed in the life of the Ephesians where ministry is being done for the glory and honor of God. This is not an easy task for Ephesus was a city where Jesus was taught but so was every other faith and religion—some to a higher level and passion than God. 

            It would be easy to let that news cause our shoulders to slump a bit; to think that this (whatever this is) that it won’t work here… in this context. But the Ephesians do not do this, and Paul thanks the Lord that he was able to witness it firsthand. 

            Dwelling on the negative, remembering the negative, that is a very 21^st century thing to do. As you know, we see this happening in so many places and with so many people. 

            Without a posture of gratefulness as a church, and as individuals in the church, we lose our way and our memory of how good God has been for us fades. 

We lose our focus, and we lose our sense of calling in the Lord. We lose our way when we are not grateful in the work of memory that we do. Memory is a crucial part of what we do today at our All-Saints Day memorial and at the Table for the two services are linked the memories that we have of Jesus breaking bread and pouring the cup.

And memory is also what we will do at Bethesda over the next 2 days as we help a pair of families remember. . . 
Conclusion

            Memory and inheritance are why we need to come time and again to moments like this as a church. I hope that as we continue, and as you hear the names, and partake of the sacrament your memories of a faithful God, a God who has given you a great inheritance, will bubble up. And as they do, perhaps this will be the time when you can that blessing with someone else. 

  

DM

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[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/2820.htm