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.
To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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
To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, June 16, 2026
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.
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
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
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
Our passages for this Sunday include Joshua 20 and Romans 6: 1-11. As always, we share them in the KJV, the Pirate's Bible, the NRSV, and the Message.
May the hearing of God's Word provide guidance and clarity in the week ahead.
Pastor Pete
To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Matthew 9: 9 As Jesus was walking along, he
saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to
him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
10 And as he sat at dinner in the house,
many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his
disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to
his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?” 12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who
are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go
and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come
to call the righteous but sinners.”
The
promise in Genesis is made to Abram (even before God changed his name to
Abraham). The piece we hang our presence
on is at the conclusion of verse 3, “…in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.” That is us, among
others.
Our
passage in Matthew shows Jesus doing that work.
His work began among His people, God’s Chosen. It is something that the leadership in
Jerusalem is watching. And then Jesus
makes a point.
“Tax
collectors and sinners”, Bible-speak for ‘riff-raff’, for the unwelcome, those
who have made bad life decisions, the people on the other side of the tracks, those
people who, in the eyes of the Pharisees, are unworthy.
Apparently,
theirs was an early version of “See Something, Say Something”, because these
are not the sort of people that Jesus ‘ought’ to be caught having dinner
with. They are sinners. And tax collectors (a special brand of
treacherous in occupied Israel).
Jesus’
response is cutting, to say the least. “Those
who are well have no need of a physician…”
In other words, “I am not here for YOU.”
Jesus is here for those who are not well, who, in the eyes of God, are “ill”
with sin.
But
Jesus is not done. The Pharisees, the
teachers of the Bible of Jesus (alongside Jesus), they would recognize Jesus’
work in fulfillment of the promise to Abram.
So they’d recognize Jesus’ second cut, one that runs deeper. “Go and
learn what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”
It
is from Hosea, the prophet who calls “BS” on the practices of ancient Israel when
they turned away from God for their own benefit. The second part of the verse in Hosea goes,
“(For I desire)…the knowledge of God rather than burnt sacrifices.”
Israel,
blessed by God and in a good economic situation in the time of Hosea, has
gotten very good at following the letter of the law for their own desire and
benefit. Because they forgot they needed
God, the Giver of all. They’d forgotten the spirit of that law, the knowledge
of God. What is the knowledge of
God? Most basically, that God is love.
Jesus
has not come to call the righteous, but the sinner. In speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus is not
telling them something new, but reminding them.
They are the ‘righteous’ and they should know better. More than knowing better, as leaders of the
people, as those who claim to be scholars of the bible they share with Jesus,
they should be doing this work. Most
especially INSTEAD of critiquing Jesus for it.
While
this will not endear Jesus to the leadership of the people, it is the people,
not their leadership, that Jesus has come to serve.
Pastor Pete
