Hearing the Word of the Lord for Sunday, September 13, 2026: 2 Timothy 3

https://youtu.be/7_OeBy-rscQ 

The letters to Timothy are different from the other letters in the New Testament.  Instead of being written to a church in a certain place, they are written to an individual, in the next generation of Christian leadership.  It is a time when we are moving beyond the lifespans of those who were the eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ. It is a time when disciples are navigating an ever expanding set of possibilities of faith.

And the world is pushing back on the work of the church.  So how do we, as disciples, live in a world of ever more intense pushback not only from outside the church, but from within the wide community called 'the church', with messages that claim the authority of Jesus but have little to no relation to anything Jesus actually taught?

The world described in our passage today is not so different from the world we live in now.  Nor is how we ought to reply.

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/7_OeBy-rscQ

Hebrews 10: 11-25 A Closer Look

To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                 

Our Scripture for this week is Hebrews 10: 11-25:

¹¹And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. ¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” ¹³and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” ¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, ¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,” ¹⁷he also adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” ¹⁸Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

¹⁹Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Worship in the Old Testament came out of a practical working of obligation.  The High Priest stood in the role of the highest religious worker in the land, his job to be intercessor through the continuous offering of animal sacrifices to the Lord.  It was a process of atoning continually for ones sin’s.  I would invite you to look to the first seven chapters of Leviticus to see how wide ranging the sacrificial system was for the nation of Israel.

Then came Jesus.  He did not replace what came before, but fulfilled the law of Moses.  The book of Hebrews is rather unique in the New Testament because it focuses on this fulfillment, on what came before and how it exists now in Christ Jesus. 

In the process of worship, what came before was a High Priest who serves as the CSO (the Chief Spiritual Officer) of Judaism.  He is the spiritual intercessor.  But he is also a sinner, and sacrifice must be offered on his behalf as well.  Until Jesus. 

Worship then was also a system of obligation, ongoing animal sacrifice to seek atonement for the sins committed by the people.  Until Jesus.  He is the One Sacrifice that is once for all effective for all the Children of God.

This is laid out in verses 11-18.

Jesus flipped the system.  Instead of God accepting our sacrifices, we are called upon to accept God’s sacrifice, in Jesus Christ.  Worship is not a fear/threat response to being punished by an angry God.  It is rather a forgiveness/hope response from a loving God.   

In Jesus, salvation is a gift that is given to all the Children of God.  God has done everything and it is only for we, God’s Children, to accept the love that God offers. Verses 19-25 offer us a foundation for the power of real, loving, thankful worship for those who accept God’s gift.

One thing has not changed about worshipping God before and after Jesus.  It is the attitude that we bring.  Hosea is clear that God seeks mercy and not sacrifice.  True worship is not about going through the motions for the audience of our peers.  It is a true response of love in community to what God has done for us.

For worship, true worship, is a practice of discipleship in which we can experience the promise of God changing ordinary living into abundant life.  It is one of the keystone practices that our church has identified as we are sent out by Jesus into the world. 

Pastor Pete

 

How Do We, FPC Merchantville, Do Discipleship? Creatively, Wholistically, and Together

 

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?  Well, for the Named Twelve and the Rest who gathered around Jesus, it was a specific call and a process of transformation.  A disciple (which means follower) worked toward becoming an apostle (one who serves). 

But that is a really boring academic description of the MOST beautiful thing that could ever happen in our lives. 

So, to deconstruct the boredom, to catch the energy and the grace of being a disciple, how about this:

        GOD CHANGES ORDINARY LIVING INTO ABUNDANT LIFE THROUGH OUR PARTICIPATION IN WORSHIP, CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, FELLOWSHIP, AND SERVICE.

 Where does it mention the word ‘disciple’ in that statement?  In the actions of God.  “God changes ordinary living to abundant life.”  That’s what it means to be a disciple. 

But this is not a POOF BOOM moment.  It is a creative process.  The Named Twelve and the Rest followed Jesus for three years.  Three years in the presence of THE Rabbi.  For the rest of us, how about a lifetime?

Discipleship, following Jesus, not just a creative process, it is a wholistic process.  Looking into our life as a congregation, FPC Merchantville has identified four threads to be woven together into the process called discipleship.

Worship

Christian Education

Fellowship

Service

It is not just a creative process.  It is not just a wholistic process, it is a group process.  We are a worshipping community, a learning community, a fellowshipping community, a serving community.

Over the summer, we walked through our understanding of the individual Christian.  Our call is simple, Love God and Love Neighbor.  With Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength.  Being a Mystic, a Contemplative, a Steward, a Theologian, a Pastor, and a Social Worker.  But all from the heart of the law, Jesus’ death and resurrection for all of us.

But Jesus did not give us the gift of salvation to hold and nurture and change us as individuals.  Yes we are Saved, but we are also Sent.

Jesus sent out the disciples, that first bunch and every bunch to this day and this church.  Yes, God changes ordinary living into abundant life.  It is how we open our lives to allow God to do this work within us.

This Sunday, we talk worship. 

Pastor Pete

Hearing the Word of the Lord for Sunday, September 6, 2026: Hebrews 10: 11-25

 https://youtu.be/dSwoPqFlSV8

Our Scripture for Sunday, Sept. 6 is from the letter to the Hebrews.  In this passage, we move from how things were done in the time of the Old Testament to how Jesus, as both Sacrifice and High Priest, has once for all brought salvation and forgiveness to humanity.  

We move from how worship was offered to the Lord-by sacrifices to seek the Lord's favor; to how worship is offered to the Lord, in joyful gratitude for what Jesus has done for us.

In Jesus, there is one, forever sacrifice by which all humanity, all the Children of God, are saved.  The gift stands as an offering for all of us to reach out and accept what God has done on our behalf.

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/dSwoPqFlSV8

Hearing the Word of the Lord for Sunday, August 30, 2026: John 2: 1-12

https://youtu.be/Q2qoCLV3eVM 

Our Scripture Lesson for this coming Sunday is the story of Jesus turning the water into wine.  We read it in anticipation of considering what it is that we are called to, as Jesus' disciples, in carrying out our love for Neighbor with all our strength.

The question this passage raises for me is this, "How far does the work we do for our neighbors, does the love of neighbor, extend?"  Never really considered Jesus to be a Sommelier, but, never know where we might be called.

Peace,

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/Q2qoCLV3eVM

Hearing the Word of the Lord for the Lord's Day, Aug. 23, 2026: Luke 13: 10-17

 https://youtu.be/3yRjn2SlHac

Our Scripture Lesson today is the story of Jesus healing a woman crippled and bent over by arthritis for eighteen years.  He does so on the Sabbath.  When Jesus is called out for His behavior, apparently breaking Sabbath law, Jesus' response is swift and overwhelming.

Luke 13: 10-17 shall be the passage for our healing service this coming Sunday, where we remember again that healing is the ministry of Christ Jesus, and for us.

Peace be with you.

Pastor pete

https://youtu.be/3yRjn2SlHac

Looking At Sunday's Scripture: Luke 6: 17-36

To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                

Our Scripture for this week, August 16, 2026 is Luke 6: 17-36:

¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ²⁶ “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

²⁷ “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; ²⁸ bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. ³⁵ Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

          We are saved by Jesus, saved from our sins, gifted with eternal life, restored fully as Children of God.  We are called upon to love God as the first and greatest commandment because God first loved us.  Our salvation is the expression of that love, love from God’s heart, love we return with all our heart. 

          The second commandment like unto it is to love our neighbors.  That love begins from the heart, from the center of God’s being to the center of our being in the grace given in Jesus.  It is that same love we are called upon to share with our neighbors.  How we show that love reflects then from how we love our neighbor with all our soul.

          We love God with all our soul by basking in the joy of our salvation.  We love our neighbor with all our soul by deciding how then we will share that joy.  How shall we take God’s love to them?  How will Love decide and guide our actions?  What is right and what is wrong in our outreach to our neighbors?  What does Jesus teach us, and through the lens of Jesus, what does the Bible teach in how we shall love our neighbors?

          It is something to struggle with.  Love your enemies is a key theme in our passage from Luke.  Let them hit you, let them take your stuff, offer them more of your stuff.  Is that love or victimhood?  It’s not a simple call to make.  Jesus says turn the other cheek.  Does that mean I should offer up my cheek to be slapped?  Go looking for trouble?  Seek to avoid trouble?  Or is this where I take my stand?  Loving our neighbors…and the ‘how’ of it.

          Life in Christ is a whole new way of being.  Different from how the world exists.  Are we ready to dig into our faith and make the decisions needed to live that new way?

Pastor Pete

   

Preparing For Worship, Hearing God's Word in Anticipation of the Lord's Day, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026 from Luke 6: 17-36

https://youtu.be/72BVzdThu20

 As we are called upon to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, so do we seek to love our neighbor with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.  As we continue our sermon series this week, we are considering the love of neighbor with all our soul.  

Leading to that, to love God with all our soul is to be overwhelmed and embraced by what has been done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We are fed from the River of Life.  New life, the glory of the Lord, total love, these are ways to try and describe what it means to be made new in Christ Jesus.  To love our Neighbor with our soul, that then demands a decision.  How will we choose to treat people in the Name of Jesus?  In the embrace of God's love and our response to loving God?

Each decision we make in the love of God (or not), every attitude we choose to take as Christians, this comes from the soul, from where we know the joy of Jesus and where we choose how we shall pass it along.

The $5 Christian word for that is "theology".  "theos-", meaning God and "-ology", meaning science.  The Science of God.  But as imposing as that sounds, of the millions of pages that have been written in theological books and tomes, at its foundation, theology is simply described as how I, as a Christian, will bring my faith into how I deal with the world and all that is therein.

For that, as with all of life, shall we let Jesus be our guide?

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/72BVzdThu20

Our Dreams as Christians

            Our present sermon series should best be entitled "Our Dreams as Christians".

These are not our dreams as a Congregation per se, except to acknowledge that our Congregation has dreams of who we hope to be in Christ Jesus.  Rather, these are our dreams as Christians, each of us a person of faith.  That is what the present sermon series is focused on.  Using the Love of God and the Love of Neighbor as our guide, interpreting each through the lens of loving with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, these are, for our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God, how we seek to come closer to Jesus.

In my mind, I was calling these our ‘aspirations’, what we aspire to be as Christians, which is fine for how far it goes.  It is better than calling these our ‘value statements’, because Value Statements, to me, are benchmarks of behavior for what is important to us.  'Aspirations', things we hope to achieve as people of faith, are better seen as hopes and goals.

Aspiring to be Mystics and Contemplatives and Stewards and Theologians and Pastors and Social Workers…sounds like we need multiple advanced degrees in multiple disciplines to get close to the Lord Jesus.  And 'aspiring' to them, sounds...well...rather highbrow if I stop to think about it.  Because the last thing I want is for these titles to devolve into some kind of sense of how many "Ph.D.’s in Jesus" we need to accumulate to be true imitators of Christ.

Having said that, there are some amazing Christians known for being Mystics and Contemplatives and Theologians and all the rest.  But none of them is a 'one trick' Christian.  Because loving God and loving neighbor with heart, soul, mind, and strength, the Dream, the Greatest Commandment Jesus has given us, that's a package deal to a ‘well rounded’ faith (Sounds like an advertisement, doesn't it?)

Maybe this is a better way to put it.  We are all called upon to be close to God, to pray to God, to give of our gifts to God.  We are all called upon to treat our neighbors in a Godly way, to care for our neighbors, to do for the world in need of justice and support and the basics of every day living.  As we dream of creating a Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God here on Earth in the pattern of the Kingdom in Heaven, these are the things we can do, the skills and attitudes we can build to get there.

God has a Dream for us, one accomplished in the work of Jesus Christ.  So too should we have a dream for God in our lives.  We are Sent, we have a clear statement about that.  As a church, how about a clear statement of who we dream to be in Christ as we are sent as well?

Peace

Pastor Pete

Our Scripture for Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026 is Matthew 10: 5-23. Going a Little Deeper...

To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                

 Our Scripture for this week is Matthew 10: 5-23:

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. ⁹ Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, ¹⁰ no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for laborers deserve their food. ¹¹ Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. ¹² As you enter the house, greet it. ¹³ If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴ If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

¹⁶ “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the gentiles. ¹⁹ When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, ²⁰ for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹ Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²² and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

          The disciples were stewards of Jesus.  They did as Jesus did. ^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.”  So, is this a matter, for us, of “go and do likewise”?  The proclamation piece most definitely.  The miracles of verse 8?  Maybe not as obviously, but how many hospitals betray their origins within the church seeking to do just that? 

          New York Presbyterian Hospital jumps to my mind.  There are Baptist and Lutheran Health networks in the nation.  Or closer to home, Our Lady of Lourdes, of Roman Catholic origins, and Jefferson Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia.

          Having said that, there is a rather significant disconnection that has taken place from the times when faith-based healing was a centerpiece of the health care industry. 

          But we are still healers.  We offer that in worship every fourth Sunday.  While the general expectation is that the pastor provides spiritual care, our Deacons are our Care Team, of whom I am privileged to be a member.  It’s the skills Jesus has invested in us that we use to work with others.  We are stewards of those skills, as surely as we are disciples of Jesus just like the Big Twelve in the Gospel. 

          It’s not just our skills-our talents that we have to offer.  We have time, we have treasures.  That is the tag line of our Stewardship Committee, the offering of time, talents, and treasures. 

          It’s not just about being Stewards, it is more than that.  It is showing our love for God with all our Strength according to our Aspirations as a Church.  But each aspiration drives something even more central, how we, by the Holy Spirit, are ever more united with Jesus Christ.  Imitation of Christ is another way the Bible puts it.  But that’s a little more “fake it till you make it” because we are on the way to becoming fully realized and renewed in and as Christ beyond sin and brokenness and death.

          And in so doing, we use our strengths to continue to build the Kingdom of God, and our Neighborhood in it, here in the world.

Pastor Pete

Preparing For Worship, Hearing God's Word in Anticipation of the Lord's Day, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026 from Matthew 10: 5-23

 https://youtu.be/blyE9zGfV1Q

This coming Sunday, we will be continuing our sermon series on what it means for a Christian to Love God and Love Neighbor "with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength".  This week, we speak of loving God with our whole strength.  

In our verses from Matthew 10, we read the story of Jesus sending His disciples out for a practice run in their own training.  They are limited in their scope, limited to the proclamation of their moment, and the miraculous healing powers that Jesus has expressed.

In their time, the disciples were given the Holy Spirit that Jesus Himself would indwell them when they stood against the world.  It was a promise given to them and one that continues to be given to us as we, too, seek to follow in their footsteps to do the work of Jesus here on the earth.

Peace,
Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/blyE9zGfV1Q

Our Sunday Scripture, John 17, a Deeper Look

To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                             

Our Scripture for this week is John 17:

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

⁶ “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, ⁸ for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. ¹¹ And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁵ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ “I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”

          This prayer is shared by Jesus just before His arrest.  In each gospel, before Jesus’ arrest, before the events of Good Friday begin to unfold, Jesus prays.  But the prayer in the Gospel of John, our reading today, is far different from the prayerful sentiments Jesus expresses in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 

          In our attempts to understand just who the unique figure of Jesus Christ is in our life and history, we have come up with descriptions like “fully human and fully God”.  What does that actually mean?  I believe it means that we are not able so much to define Jesus as to describe how He is presented to us. 

          So, in the first three gospels, the Synoptic gospels (all following more or less the same outline), Jesus is broken and on His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is the human being attempting to bear up under the weight of divine punishment for all of us.  It drives Him to His knees.  Jesus asks if this weight, if this coming death can be passed from His hands.  This is the prayer that we associate with our Tenebrae services during Holy Week.

          In our Gospel reading today, it is also Jesus, but it is written from the Godly side of Jesus. 

          It begins with “Father, the hour has come…”  But then we do not enter the anguish of Jesus, but the accomplishment.  Yes, Jesus is about to die, horribly.  But it is to achieve something larger, it is to achieve God’s plan.  Jesus will be glorified, He will be raised again.  That is the piece that we see in this prayer in John’s Gospel.

          But then Jesus elaborates.  In prayer, He takes us through the Holy History of what He has done in His ministry.  But it is not about Him.  His time is coming to a conclusion, He is passing the baton to the next generation, to the disciples whom He has called.  It is a prayer for them, to carry on the work.

          Jesus identifies their work with His own.  It is here where Jesus speaks of them being ‘in the world’ but not ‘of the world’.  That they will need protection.  That they were granted to Jesus by God in heaven.  That they will continue to do what Jesus was doing.  As workers in Jesus’ Name, the call of our Savior is not to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One who runs rampant in the world.

          Now, doubters of the Bible will look at these passages and then at us and tell us that the Word of God has a contradiction in it.  We have the tired and terrified Jesus on the one hand and the chill and confident Jesus on the other.  It’s like we are being challenged to pick one over the other. 

          I would like to suggest another possibility.  The gospels are written for us.  God inspired them to speak to us.  God chose writers who stand as unique witnesses to the plan and history of Christ.  I do not believe they even understood they were writing ‘bible’.  God brought them together, maybe especially for moments like these final hours of Jesus’ life.

          For example, the first three gospels include for us the Last Supper, and Jesus’ call and command that we do this in remembrance of Him (as we will this Sunday).  John does not include that, but assumes it, leading in with the story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.  Are they mutually exclusive?  Certainly not. They are of the same story, each told to illustrate God’s point.  Because each Gospel was inspired by God for us.

          So, perhaps a way to read this is to begin in John 14, where Jesus begins to speak of what is next, what is coming, “In my Father’s House there are many dwelling places…and I go and prepare a place for you…and I will come back…” through this prayer in John 17, where Jesus speaks to His Father, asking for the blessings and protection of God upon His disciples.

          Then, to begin chapter 18 in John, ‘after Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden…”

          If we were to pick up the account in Luke, Luke 22: 39-46, it is Luke’s account of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, perhaps the most intense of the first three gospels.  As in verse 44, “in his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.”  Other translations do not assume this is a simile, but that Jesus’ pain was so great, it was physically manifest.  And in verse 43, that God sent an angel to give Jesus strength.

          To begin in bold prayer in the power of God in John to the deeply personal prayers of a man in anguish in Luke, we are given by our Lord a masterclass of what it means to “bring it to the Lord in prayer”.  May we aspire to pray so freely and completely to our God in Heaven.

Pastor Pete

 

Our Scripture for This Coming Sunday, August 2, 2026: John 17: -26

 https://youtu.be/mfAg4xqkIbE

Our Scripture Lesson for this coming Sunday is a prayer offered by Jesus.  He is coming to the end of His ministry here, as He prepared to return to the Father.  In this prayer, this conversation, written for us, we are given the opportunity to see Jesus' expectations, of where He came from, and for those who follow in His Name.  It is not simply the disciples of that first generation, but the generations of disciples that have come down to us today.

The prayer that Jesus lays out is an aspiration, an inspiration for we who are His disciples to follow, to know that we have been given to Jesus by God above.  

https://youtu.be/mfAg4xqkIbE

Pastor Pete

Preparing for Worship: Hearing God's Word for Sunday, July 26, 2026. Mark 1: 32-39

https://youtu.be/jqRMLQKQwH0 

Our passage for this Sunday, our Monthly Healing Service, is Mark 1: 32-39

This is the link to hear our Scripture Lesson for Sunday read in the King James, the Pirate, the New Revised Standard Version, and the Message, a Contemporary version of the Scriptures.  

It seems to surprise people to hear that the passage is read "with funny voices".  Is this somehow unorthodox or, even worse, disorderly?  Maybe.  But they work.  What does that even mean?

I was a lot younger and less foolish than I am now when I stumbled on this.  I was reading the King James Version.  Someone had hooked me with a historic conspiracy that not only does this version come from the time of Shakespeare (and King James), but he-Shakespeare (not King James) actually did the translation.  Which is why the King James Version sounds like Shakespeare... (or the other way around).  

My default "British", more British Isles adjacent, accent comes from Monty Python, the 'pepperpot' accents they would do when they dressed as more mature English ladies of a certain status.  It works way too well to read the King James in that fashion.  I would commend this for you to try.  It brings together two of my favorite things, the Bible and Monty Python.

But we are Presbyterian, so after more than a few really bad attempts at an accent, I won't say that I am any good at it, but I find consistency in attempting a Scottish brogue-adjacent accent.  Thank you Sean Connery and Peter Capaldi for being my vocal inspirations.  Thank you David Tennant for being a spiritual inspiration, being the son of a Scottish clergyman to remind me that the good ones are often Presbyterian.

When I was younger, I was less foolish.  I might 'do an accent' in a moment, but never be the fool to put it up on YouTube forever.  But in our house, you will hear quotes thrown around from our favorite movies and television shows.  And it is not really the line that sticks, it is how it's said.  

I rather enjoy being a fool for Christ.  If doing a 'funny accent' helps one more bit of God's Word to stick with the listener; if simply sharing God's Word for the sake of God's Word brings a little more of the Bible into the heart and mind of the person whose given me their time in watching this bit; if a bit of humor makes God's Word more human, then I have been blessed.

https://youtu.be/jqRMLQKQwH0

Pastor Pete

A First Pass Through Our Passage for Sunday Worship: Mark 12: 28-34

To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                          

Our Scripture for this week is Mark 12: 28-34:

²⁸ One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³ and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

One God, two commands.  Our whole faith in a nutshell.  It is fascinating how Jesus cuts off the conversation, isn’t it?  “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”  Why did it shut down the conversation?  Because, in a phrase, Jesus undermined the whole religious-industrial complex of the Law of Moses.  ‘Burnt offerings and sacrifices’, that is the basis of what the Levites-the tribe of priests-do.  It is what the priests do.  It is what the temple’s function is.  It’s what everyone comes to Jerusalem to do. 

And Jesus just told the man who said, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³ and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Soooo…what we believe and NOT what we do…

So, here’s the thing, in the gospels, Jesus declares the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is near.  Then He died and rose again and arose to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and now the tagline reads, “The Kingdom of God is HERE…”  Not done yet, but begun yet.

And something has shifted from the gospel account to Sunday morning worship…we don’t do much in the way of ‘whole burnt offerings and sacrifices’.  However, we commit ourselves to one God, to loving God and to loving our neighbor.  But we also have one sacrifice we remember…

Here, we remember once a month.  Well, technically, we do this “in remembrance of Jesus”, because He told us to.  It is the sacrament of the Last Supper.  Jesus’ body broken and His blood shed for us.  Put that way, it can sound morbid to the present ear.  But it was Jesus living into ‘all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices’.  He was the final, the full, the complete, the worthy sacrifice. 

Before, the people repeatedly came to God for forgiveness and, with the sacrifice, they were forgiven, till the next time.  But, with Jesus’ sacrifice, we are forgiven.  So, when we confess our sins to the Lord, the forgiveness is taken care of.  We no longer worry about whether things are ‘okay’ with God. 

Rather, we can take everything that stands between us loving God and loving neighbor, lay it down at the cross, and work to make our lives more like that of Jesus.  We are not waiting for the Kingdom, waiting for what Jesus will do next.  We are IN the Kingdom, our Neighborhood is here.  We are free to love God and love neighbor ever more powerfully, in Him.

Pastor pete

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