Heading into a Year of Jubilee for Our Church! Let Us Consider the Joy and the Possibilities...

The Promised Land was given to the chosen people by God.  Each family had their land.  The surveys and land grants make up the latter part of the book of Joshua.  These grants are forward looking.  In the bible of Jesus (our Old Testament), the ultimate promise of God’s work is prophesied in Micah 4:3-4:

“God shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their of fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of armies has spoken.”

In the Law of Moses, in Leviticus 25, this promise was remembered every fifty years.  Every fifty years was a year of Jubilee, a reset of God’s gift to God’s people.  Every fifty years, every family of God’s people returned to the land given them when God led the division of the Promised Land.  The law is even written that when someone ‘buys’ someone else’s place (agricultural land-cities had different rules), it is a proportional sale, for up to fifty years.  Because, in the Jubilee, faith trumps economics.

The gift of God to the people of God, the Land, was more important than the wealth a person might seek to accumulate in real estate.    

In other words, in the year of Jubilee, everything is restored.  It is a human version of God’s ultimate restoration of peace and perfection to God’s creation.  The case has been made (and I like it) that Jesus began His ministry in a year of Jubilee. 

Fast forward to here and now.  The Year of Jubilee is the year, for FPC Merchantville, of calling people home, back to their Lord and their family in Christ Jesus and their church.  It is a Year of Jubilee.  We are kicking off that Year with a Big Day.  

Sunday, November 16, 2025, leading into Christ the King Sunday and the Season of Advent, is the day we invite every member of this church family, every generation, to come breakfast and worship, to reacquaint and fellowship.  To begin a year of celebration and renewal.

Come and worship.  Come and see.  Join us for our Year of Jubilee.

Peace,

Pastor Pete

Loving Our Neighbors when They are Capital "S" Sinners, not simply generic, everyday and all-of-us Sinners...

Our passage for Sunday is Luke 19: 1-10,

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷ All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” ⁹ Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

The “good folks” watching Jesus (like His every move?) are not happy with Him.  “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner”, they said.  Jesus went to the house of Zacchaeus, not simply a tax collector, but the chief tax collector in the Jericho district.  So, not just a sinner but a Chief sinner?

The story of Zacchaeus is well known, especially if you were raised with the Sunday School song, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he…he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see…”  We spoke Jesus' part, “Zacchaeus, come down…for we’re going to your house today…”

 It is a marvelous story of redemption, a new life in Christ Jesus; turning from a life of collaborating with the Romans and making restitution to the community.  But the watchers call him “sinner”.

In the New Testament, there are ‘s'inners’ and there are ‘S'inners’.  Zacchaeus is definitely Capital ‘S’.  Little ‘s’ sinners are everyone, as per Paul, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  It is a blessed reminder that Jesus has died for us all.  But then there is the ‘S’inner, Capital S.  Within the caste system of the time of Jesus, “Sinners” were the outcasts.

Outcasts were identified in last week's Scripture.  In Jesus’ parable, the self-righteous Pharisee prayed us a list of-who he is NOT-‘outcast’ Sinners; thieves, rogues, adulterers, and tax collectors.  The Sinners can be publicly identified, shamed, shunned, and cast out of polite society.  They are 'those people' who 'law (of Moses) abiding' folks will not cavort with.   

 The beauty of this system is that these Sinners, while still technically ‘neighbors’ who we have to love…because Jesus said so…can be under-loved…disliked…and pushed to the margins because of what they have done.  Have you heard the expression ‘love the sinner but hate the sin’?  Make it a Capital 'S' Sin and its permission to push them out.  Not in my spiritual neighborhood.  

 Jesus embraced the collaborator, the outcast, the Sinner, the tax collector.  Grace first, forgiveness first, love first.  Today, is this where we need 'all our strength' to love our neighbor?  Especially today's 'S'inners?  Love first, without screening or filtering 'in Jesus name.'  Want a look at Jesus' 'filtering system' for sin?  Check out his commentary on murder and adultery in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:21-32), see how that might apply to 'S'inners.  We are all ‘S’inners.  

We all need Jesus.  We who have Him are called to love our neighbors.  No filter, no screening, no casting out, just loving our neighbor, serving them with all our strength. 

Peace,

Pastor Pete

 

Loving My Neighbor...Okay Jesus...But Do I Have To Like Them Too?

Our passage for Sunday is Luke 18: 9-14,

9 He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

This Sunday, we continue our sermon series on loving God and loving Neighbor with soul, mind, and strength.  We explore the cross-pollination of loving neighbor with all our mind.  We spoke of the mind already, in relation to loving God, which we call ‘prayer’.  In the work that I do, as a minister, looking to our neighbors, reaching out (my mind) from a place of believe (my soul), this work is generally referred to as ‘pastoral care’.  Being the ‘pastor’, we add that qualifier.  But while I might have specific training and focus, when it comes to our minds, to what we think and what we say, in terms of loving our neighbors, I believe we all come from a place of caring.

Jesus, in our passage today, tells us a parable of two men who went to the temple to pray.  One is very easy to care for.  There is need and there is brutal honesty as he prays desperately to heaven.  Even though he is a tax collector, a collaborator with the Roman overlords of the time, he is in need.  We can deal with all the stuff in regards to being a tax collector at another time.  Right now, he hurts, he's come to the Lord, and we are the Lord’s people who might come to a place like this to respond, to provide caring.

And then there is the other guy.

He’s a Pharisee.  And what a tagline he has, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”  What Jesus calls a man exalting himself is what might better be known as arrogance.  There are a lot of people in life like that.  Neighbors…yes, everyone is.  Someone to be loved…Jesus says so…  Likeable?  Well…maybe not…  Are these people in need?  Yah, but they don’t usually know it.

If we were to be brutally honest and open with the Lord as we seek to love God with all our mind, can you imagine praying, “Lord, you want me to love this one??”

To love our neighbor does not mean we are welcome mats to be walked all over.  God is love, and that is the measure we are called to follow.  But nobody ever walked over God, not as our Father in the Old Testament, not as Jesus in the New.  In fact, God- as Father and as Son-provides many practical examples of how we could express care even for the self-exultant. 

So we have some fun things to talk about.

 

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Has the Gift of God, the Light of Christ, Dimmed for You? Is it Time to Rekindle?

For Sunday, our passage is from 2 Timothy 1: 1-14

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

         Paul is writing to Timothy, a third generation believer in Christ Jesus; Timothy, son of Eunice, daughter of Lois.  Three generations is impressive for a church like ours with a history of 151 years.  But three generations when the WHOLE church was not even a generation old?  It can be tough enough to get our kids (of whatever age) to come, but three generations all joined at once, all, according to other references in his letters, important to Paul.  

          This passage turns on the opening sentence of the second paragraph. “For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands…”  We do this in church, the laying on of hands.  In our services of installation and ordination, the newly, or 'renewly' serving elders and deacons are gathered to the front of the church and all those previously ordained come down to lay hands upon them.

          What follows through the end of the passage is a primer and ‘explanation of expectations’, offered in brief as to what it means to serve the Lord.

          This Sunday is a worldwide event also designed to rekindle the gift of God that is within us.  We and our sister churches will join hands and hearts and faith in Christ Jesus for World Communion Sunday.  Communion is another ‘primer’, this one given to us by Jesus to remember His death and resurrection.  It is so important, it has been promoted into ‘sacramental’ status, something it shares, in our tradition, only with baptism.  Sacraments are those traditions laid down for us to do by order of Jesus Christ.

          Rekindling the gift of God within us.  It is a call for an honest reckoning as to whether that gift has lost its light in our lives.  Has church become a ritual?  Or worse, a chore?  Something that we want but… 

          You know who comes down hardest on us when that light has dimmed in our lives?  It’s not God.  It’s not even church (but there are always those people...).  It is not even our families, those closest to us.  We are hardest on ourselves.  Because no one else can hold us back from the rekindled light of Jesus Christ, except us.

          As Paul invites Timothy, if the light of Christ has grown dim within you, we invite you to let God rekindle that gift within you.  If you are able, come join us for communion, wherever in the world, for a new beginning.

Peace,
Pastor Pete

Prayer, Its Power Is In Its Brutal Honesty. We Can Engage and Know the Honesty of Forgiveness, or Not and Know the Honesty of Consequence

 For Sunday, our passage is from Luke 16: 19-31

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶ Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ ³⁰ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

           This passage may not be the first one that comes to mind when we talk about prayer.  The first thought may center around Jesus and the Lord’s Prayer.  Or it might be around one of the great prayers in the Bible, like that of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in the first book of Samuel.  This one’s not even a ‘real’ prayer, it’s a parable.  And its not addressed to God, its addressed to Father Abraham.  The conversation does not even take place on ‘this side’ of death.  And the man calling out in desperation is the villain of the piece.  He was rich, he could care less about poor, sickly Lazarus, until he died.  Then he’s desperate for relief and, not receiving that, to save his brothers from his fate.  And he’s crying out from the fiery furnaces of Hades (Hell) itself.  Can we even pray from Hell?

          That is why it is so important to understand that this is a parable.  It is a story told that the listeners would have understood, how Lazarus received hell on earth and heaven in the hereafter, while the rich man received heaven on earth and hell in the hereafter.  So how does this even intersect with prayer?  These fictional, or, perhaps more accurately, these ‘parablized’ conversations?

          To me, it is their brutal honesty.  Heck, the rich man probably went to synagogue and prayed all the ‘proper words' there.  It takes the rich man’s descent into hell to trigger the brutal honesty needed in prayer, to reach out to Father Abraham (the figure of God).  “Send me Lazarus to relieve my suffering!”  The brutal honesty is that the rich man should have done that in life, for Lazarus, but he chose not to.  “Send Lazarus to warn my brothers!”  The brutal honesty is that the brothers have Moses and the prophets (the bible of Jesus) and if they did not listen to the Word of God, they are certainly not going to listen to a voice from the dead to change their ways.

          Jesus speaks the same message as Moses and the prophets.  His is a call to truth, to honesty, a brutal honesty if we choose to ignore it.  If the rich man had prayed with such brutal honesty in life, things would have been different in death.  He would have seen the right and the wrong of how he lived with his riches and, perhaps, could have changed his ways. 

          I am reminded of a line from the song “Ghost Riders in the Sky”.  One of the ghost riders turns to say, “Cowboy, change your ways or with us you shall ride, trying to catch the devil’s herd, across these endless skies.”  Again, not a ‘God and me’ prayer, but a brutally honest message.

          Prayer is that place where our love of God intersects with our minds.  And God already knows our thoughts.  So, to truly pray is to pray the brutal honesty of our sinful lives, laying it all out before Jesus.  Because God will reply with His own honesty.  That there is no sin that cannot be forgiven, that there is no life that cannot be turned, that there is no end to the depth of loving connection we can have with Him.  Otherwise, that brutal honesty will come upon us like it did the rich man.

 

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Cranking the Jesus Factor! So Who Are The Ones Who Have Slipped Away From Life Here at FPC Merch?

             I speak of the people in our lives who have slipped away from the family of faith that is FPC Merch.  We can look back through recent history, the time between called pastors, the community numbing of the Covid pandemic, the many issues of life inside and outside the church that impact our faith journeys.  Those things that cause our journey to stall, to fizzle, to grow stale, there are many possibilities.  

            I speak of the people we care about in our lives, those folks in the circles of our families.  Yes, we have a 'general' rule to care for everyone.  Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Yes, that’s everybody.  But a wise man once said, “You can’t have everything, you’ve got no place to put it.”  I am speaking of where we start to care.

            Who do we have in the circle of people who are family, by blood or by upbringing or by grace?   Maybe they used to be part of the wider church community, maybe you wish they were, maybe you wish the church had a way of welcoming them.

            November 16 is a Sunday that we have set aside as a “Big Day”, a moment in the life of the church to be an opportunity to reach out to the ones who have slipped away.  As we prepare, I ask three things.

            First, take a moment with the Lord to consider who would be those who have ‘slipped away’.  If you get stuck on what that means, ‘slipped away’, make the broadest connection that you can.  A person you know, the church that you have, and the potential for a new or a renewed connection between them. 

            Second, take another moment with the Lord to ask God’s discernment and intervention and the gift of ‘possibility’.  What would it look like if this person were at worship?  "The Roof Would Fall In" is NOT a valid reason or excuse not to connect.  In my experience, the people who are most vehement in making this proclamation are the people most in need of connection with our Lord Jesus (and they generally know it in their soul).

            Third, take yet a third moment with the Lord to pray about that day.  Not as a one off, but daily (or more!), repeatedly, joyfully.  The prayer is this: May our worship glorify the Lord, may it bring godliness and dignity, grace and wonder, forgiveness and celebration to our hearts.  Amen.  And yes, that is a good prayer for every Sunday, but there are moments when we wish to crank up the "Jesus factor". 

            So then, somebody is probably asking in this moment, “Hey pastor, what about the people who haven’t slipped away?  The people we haven’t even met yet?”  Please, prayerfully invite them too.

            Somebody else might be asking, “Hey pastor, what about me?  I am disconnected.”  Pastor.pete.13@gmail.com is my email, reach out if you wish to arrange a time to talk.  Or, if you know somebody who is active, who is present, blow their socks off and reach out to them.  “You know, pastor posts some interesting bits in his blog…”

            As we prepare, I invite you, I ask you, I personally request that you pray for where we are going as a church, especially how November 16, 2025 will mark a Big Day on that journey.

Peace,

pastor pete

What Do We Christians Hope To Achieve With Our Faith-Based Activism?

 For Sunday, our passage is from 1 Timothy 2: 1-7:

 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. ³ This is right and acceptable before God our Savior, ⁴ who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, ⁶ who gave himself a ransom for all —this was attested at the right time. ⁷ For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.

           We love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength.  At the crossroad of loving God and our souls is the dream articulated in verse 2, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”  When I imagine that, I think of the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings.  They live comfortable lives, farming the earth without the curses God laid upon Adam in Genesis 3, comfortable and uncaring of the worries of the world surrounding them.  It would be of help to me if we could ditch the pipes they all seem to smoke, maybe find some comfy shoes…I am not a barefoot person.  It is also fiction.

          In the books, their idyllic world is invaded and redeemed.  In the movies, it is limited to a vision of what ‘might be’ if evil is to triumph.

          Paul develops "the quiet and peaceable life" in our passage.  It begins with a call to prayer for the leadership, the ones in power, those who are most able to make or break a quiet and peaceable life.  Prayer lines them up with God, where the true power is.  But Paul knows the world isn’t so utopian.  Thus we were given Jesus, that all may be saved, that all may know the truth, that all may be ransomed by He who gave His life for all.

          This is why Paul does what he does, ^{7 "}For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle, a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth."

          “A quiet and peaceable life in godliness and dignity” is the endpoint of Jesus' work.  It is the vision that is cast for us to know what Jesus has done for us.  We see it in snatches, in the beauty of creation.  Sunrise, sunset, a forest, a beach, a rainbow, snow capped mountains.  It can be encapsulated in worship space.  For me, that would be the old chapel at Camp Johnsonburg. 

          Are we not called to see the face of Jesus in everybody we meet?  As in, what in this person can lead me more deeply into my faith in Christ Jesus?  Are they a blessing?  Is there’s a need that I can serve to fill?  What grace lives in the face of every one of my neighbors (and they are all my neighbors)?  The goal of our life journey is to look into a face at peace, at rest, in comfort, blessed.  We catch glimpses of that, if we look, as into the faces of our loved ones when they are at ease and joyful. 

          Seeing through the sin of the world to the peace that lays beyond, in Jesus, to see what Jesus has done, what we, in turn, are called to do.  It is looking into the perfection of God and being lifted into joy.  Some call it mystical.  Some mystics enter deeply into this joy of being in Jesus.  I call it contemplative, a contemplation of what it means to live into godliness and dignity, to leave in quiet and peace (“peace and quiet” sounds too much like my wanting the kids to knock off the noise…this is BIGGER).

          When we get here, to heaven, to the renewed heaven and earth, we have arrived.  We’ve made it.  We have accomplished our journey in Christ Jesus.  It is what we have to look forward to, what we are working toward.  It is the peace beyond the war, the joy beyond the sorrow, the health beyond the pain.  It is a spiritual practice for each Christian, loving God in deepest being, to strive to that perfection.  It a goal of joy in a world of sin and death.  It is the love of God made most real.

          We work to achieve that reality.  This is why we share our witness of Christ.  This is why we work to address the needs of a world in pain.  This is why we worship in joy and celebration.  We know what is coming, what was done for us by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the vision we cast and we share with the world in need.

 

Peace,

Pastor Pete