Life at Church: Midweek Edition

            Tis the season of holidays.  People slipping in and out for vacation, for visits, for enjoying/beating the heat.  It has been my privilege to come back from ten days in Maine.  It is nice to be a place where 85 degrees constitutes a ‘heatwave’.

            The summer season has also turned into the season of training and prepping.  We have a few things coming down the pike.

            We praise the Lord for our coming confirmation class.  We have the net stretched wide and for the next four Sundays, we will be gathered each Sunday afternoon and evening to prepare our up and coming generation, apparently Gen Zish according to the culture that likes to name these things (I am speaking with the natural skepticism of a Gen X).  The summer season provides the time away from the overloaded schedule of a school year to gather. 

            We praise the Lord for our first Officer Training.  We are offering THE SAME training twice this summer, set for the third Mondays of July and August (July 20 and Aug. 17) running from 6:30 to 8pm.  It is for all Elders and Deacons, newly minted, currently serving, renewing their presence.  It is a very basic overview of our presence and plans for the coming year. 

            We praise the Lord for the coming Sermon Series.  The foundational text for our Sending Statement is a challenge made to Jesus to name the most important commandment.  This Sunday is Mark’s accounting of this.  It is that God is one, which calls for the response of loving God with Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

            So…how do we actually do that in life?  Well, that’s what we intend to explore.

            As I reread this post, I find myself questioning my choice to begin each bit of church business by praising the Lord.  We want to praise the Lord for classes and training and sermons?  There is a voice that sneaks in that whispers boring…. at such possibilities.  That’s a personal bit of spiritual warfare that is endemic for me.  The consistent voice that whispers that the church and the world find me and the work of Jesus to be empty and boring.

            However, the reality is that this summer is all about bringing our faith to life in the real and actual practice of our phenomenal faith in Christ Jesus. 

            So, here we go!

Pastor pete

Preparing for Worship: Hearing God's Word from Mark 12: 28-34 in Preparation for the Lord's Day, July 19, 2026.

 https://youtu.be/11xTl1c517E

Our Scripture Lesson for this coming Lord's Day is the question posed to Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment?"  In the following conversation, Jesus stumped them all into silence, taking the practice of the Law of Moses, and setting it aside for something far more important: To recognize God is one, to love God, and to love Neighbor.

Pastor pete

https://youtu.be/11xTl1c517E

The Reading of Our Scripture Lesson, Revelations 21:22-22-6 from our YouTube Channel

https://youtu.be/lhgWpyRb5aI 

We share our Scripture Lesson, Rev. 21:22-22-6, from the King James, the Pirate, the New Revised Standard Version, and the Message, the Bible in Contemporary English in preparation for our Worship Service on Sunday, June 28, 2026.

You are invited to join us at 10am at FPC Merchantville in person or you can tune in on YouTube @FPCMerchantville.

https://youtu.be/lhgWpyRb5aI

Some Thoughts on Rev. 21:22-22:6, Our Scripture Passage for Worship on Sunday, June 28, 2026

 To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                             

 This Sunday, our Scripture passage is from the Book of Revelations, verses from Chapter 21 and 22:

 ²² I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. ²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵ Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. ²⁶ People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷ But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴ they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

⁶ And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

   In the leadup to our passage, the New Jerusalem is described as a cube, with each length some 12,000 stadia.  That means, according to a rough estimate on my GPS, that one edge of the New Jerusalem would run from our church to Dallas, Texas. 

The angels are showing this to John.  It is beyond creation itself.  No day or night, because God’s glory is the light, and the Lamb (Jesus) is the lamp that bears that light.  No temple or church or anything because God is there.  The one connection point to the creation story is the Tree of Life to be found in the City.

The Tree of Life was planted in the Garden of Eden, and to take of its fruit was to live forever.  When humanity fell into sin, we were separated from the Tree.  But now, it is not just a Tree, but twelve, with 12 different types of fruit, one for each month, bordering the river that runs down the main drag in the New Jerusalem.

That’s the final Neighborhood that is the Kingdom of God.  The descriptions are angel-driven, but its place is firmly established.  Humanity and God are brought together.  As it says in Chapter 21:4, a verse I remember in the King James, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things have passed away.”

This Neighborhood, the New Jerusalem, it stands before us as the latter things, that which comes after Jesus returns to us.  We continue to live in the time of ‘former things’.  But within these former things, we share our service of healing, a foreshadowing of that which is to come in Jesus, as described here in the book of Revelations.

It is the model, it is the blueprint, it is the revelation by the angels to John of what is to come.  It is what we are working for as we seek to build our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.  Here, John tells us that it is going to work, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

Our place, our work, our church, these all serve to bring forward God’s love as a bridge from where we are to what is to come.  We have the beginnings, a taste of God’s healing now.  Then, we shall live in it completely and eternally.

 

Pastor pete

Following the Lead of Jesus in the Neighborhood of God.

 To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                              June 16, 2026

 This Sunday, our Scripture passage is from the Gospel of Matthew,  Matthew 9: 35-10: 8.   

³⁵ Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

10 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. ² These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, ⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 

Jesus taught, He proclaimed, He healed and cured, He did all this in company with His disciples who He was training up to take up His mantle when He returned to heaven.

 When we read about what Jesus has done, when we absorb it into our church community, our souls and psyche, our hearts and minds, when we seek actively to live into Jesus’ statement, “As My Father sent me, so I send you”, what do we see God doing?

We see that God changes ordinary life into abundant living.  But not in the abstract for ‘somebody’ out there, but for us.  And we recognize how Jesus accomplishes it.  These are the ‘how-to’s’, participating in worship, Christian Education, fellowship and service. 

We recognize that the means by which God changes ordinary living into abundant life comes in the creation of communities within our Neighborhood, communities of worship, of learning, of fellowship, and of service.  This pillars, these investments of our Time into the work and worship of the church, these are the ways in which Jesus acted and led His first batch of disciples.

He sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven (of which we are a Neighborhood), the proclamation which is at the heart of our services of worship to this day.  He was teaching in the synagogues, while also teaching the disciples in all He did.  He set them up to serve, giving them power to cure all diseases and illnesses (we have healing in our midst, but not usually to THAT scale).  All that was then bound together with the ‘simple’ act of fellowship, simply being with His disciples, being with us, that we may know Him and trust Him and call Him friend (how simple, yet how completing).

As we are Jesus’ disciples in this, our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of Heaven, these ‘how-to’s’ serve us coming and going.  They serve us coming into God’s presence, that we may know our God, in our Lord Jesus Christ, ever more personally and deeply.  They serve us going as well when we dare to be Christ’s witnesses to the world in need.

I always have a hard time believing a famous person who is being employed to be a spokesman for some commercial product or other.  But when someone shares the reality of what has changed their life for the better, when I can see it and experience the change it has made, that’s the hook that draws me in. 

Jesus does not want disciples to ‘sell’ the faith.  He wants disciples to live it, that others will know the blessings we have received, that there is True Love in creation, that there is the Way, the Truth, and the Life to be found in Christ Jesus.

 

Pastor Pete

For the Lord's Day: The Reading of God's Holy Word for Sunday, June 21, 2026

https://youtu.be/a7jDfW0Q2L0 

Our Scripture for this Sunday is Matthew 9:35-10:8.  Jesus is sending out his disciples for their first foray into carrying forth the Word of the Lord in their turn.

This Sunday is our Family Service and we shall be sharing this lesson for our Young People and families to hear together, to know what we too are called to do in the Name of Jesus.

Peace,
Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/a7jDfW0Q2L0

Some Hints of What Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God Could Be

Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God is an earthly beginning to the perfect Kingdom completed at Jesus' return.  But what does it look like in earthly terms? 

Because attempts to portray the 'ideal' Neighborhood are made in the popular culture and media.  It is all over Children's programming.  The one that set the pattern for me growing us was Sesame Street. I will confess that I am not of the "Elmo" generation and never really got the popularity of "Elmo's World" (but for some reason, I love the extended "Noodle" family).

I grew up when Mr. Hooper was the shopkeeper.  And it still brings a hollowness of heart to me in remembering how they had to share the news of Mr. Hooper's death with Big Bird.  But that was what the Neighborhood was about, people caring for one another in community.  It was done in a way that sought to protect kids growing up in a dangerous world.  Monsters weren't bad, people cooperated with each other.  Cookie Monster was my favorite.  Grover was my voice.

Not all children's programming is this way.  Most "children's" programming is not for children except to turn them into consumers.  How many shows are just there to sell the merchandise?  Even Sesame Street has its share of that.  "Tickle Me Elmo" comes to mind (and not as a fond recollection).  

It is even proper to be looking into the world for hints of the Kingdom of God?  I think it is more than proper, it is necessary.  But with discernment.  God is the Creator of all.  The good things of faith, love and grace and caring, they continue to exist in the world, all tangled up with sin and evil and greed.  

Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God also exists in the World.  We are not called upon to withdraw to a mountain stronghold and defend Jesus against all comers.  It is just the opposite, in the Name of Jesus, we are called to invite the world in.  It is a line that we, as a church, have sought to discern since the first disciples of Jesus, how do we live "in" the world while seeking not to be "of" the sinfulness of the world?  

The good things of God continue to exist in the world, even in the presence of sin that, if it cannot undermine them, will twist and tweak them.  We know this is the same for the Church.  The good things of God exist in the church, but even here, the presence of sin seeks to undermine and to tweak and to twist what is good.

This is God's world.  We know God is here for us.  We know God is here for the world, despite sin.  So, all around us there are hints and clues of what our Neighborhood could be, should be in our world.

Pastor Pete