Sermon (October 30/Reformation Sunday) by Rev. Robert McDowell

     

     Today is Reformation Sunday, a day on the church calendar in which we remember when Martin Luther who lived in the 16th century ignited the Protestant Reformation. This is why our opening hymn this morning was, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

     Martin Luther wrote the words and the music of that hymn in 1529, twelve years after he had nailed 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church to protest the theology and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. 

     He did this on October 31st which was All-Hallow’s Eve, the day before All-Saints Day because he knew that there would be a big crowd in worship that next day and people would see these protests attached to the door. 

     If social media or digital signs would have been available in Luther’s day, he probably would have chosen that method of posting his complaints about the church, but in that time, the way you got the word out was by nailing a document to a wooden door in a public space for all to see.

     At the heart of Martin Luther’s protest was his push back against the church’s teaching at that time that we become saved by doing good works rather than by God’s grace alone. Luther was also pushing back against the sale of indulgences which was the practice of giving money to the church in exchange for helping someone who was in purgatory to make it into heaven.

     The church of his time was also encouraging people to earn salvation by making a spiritual pilgrimage or by doing other acts of piety and devotion.

     In order to reform the church of his day, Martin Luther emphasized four foundational components that would shape the Protestant Reformation that continues to this day. The four components are 1) faith alone, 2) scripture alone, 3) Christ alone, and 4) grace alone.

     Martin Luther’s most famous point of emphasis was the phrase, “justification by faith.” This is the theological view based on the Apostle Paul’s writings, that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn our salvation. All that we can do is receive God’s gift of salvation by faith.

     This is why some people will share a testimony and can tell you the year and the day when they received Jesus into their lives. In one of the churches I served, an elderly man in the congregation came up to me before the beginning of worship one year and said to me, “Pastor, today is my spiritual birthday.”

     By that, he meant that it was the birthday of when he accepted Jesus into his life when he was a little boy. He told me that it was in April of 1947 when he accepted Jesus into his life. He was in his late teens at the time.     

     Every once in a while, somebody on Facebook will post that it’s their spiritual birthday that day. Or as Martin Luther would say, when “they were justified by faith alone.” That’s a very Protestant thing to say. This gets emphasized again and again throughout our Protestant tradition.

     Now, if you’re sitting there wondering why you might not have a spiritual birthday where you can recite the exact year, month, day, and time when you received Jesus into your life, if it helps any, I can’t either. Even though I can’t share my spiritual birthday with you, I do believe that I have been justified by faith and I have received Jesus into my life, but I don’t remember the first time that I consciously made that decision. 

     I’ve shared this with you before, but asking me when I first received Jesus into my life or when my spiritual birthday is, is like asking me when I first knew that my parents loved me. I can’t point to that first moment because I was blessed to have very loving parents. And because I grew up in a very loving church who shared the love of Jesus with me in so many numerous ways, I can’t point to that first time when it suddenly dawned on me that Jesus loved me.

     I kind of feel left out, but it’s OK because the really important thing in all of this is that having Jesus in my life has given me joy, purpose, hope, peace, and an assurance that has carried me throughout my life. I can’t even begin to imagine what life would be like if Jesus wasn’t in it. That’s a great question to ponder. What would my life be like without Jesus?

     This is why our appointed Gospel reading is so important today especially on this Reformation Sunday. This is a justification by faith story where somebody was saved by faith, by saying “yes to Jesus.” I’m talking about Zaccheus.

     

     Anybody here know the old Zaccheus song that talks about this story here in Luke 19? Let’s sing this old classic together!

     Zacchaeus was a wee little man, And a wee little man was he, He climbed up in a sycamore tree, For the Lord he wanted to see,

     And when the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree, And he said, 'Zacchaeus, you come down! For I'm going to your house today! For I'm going to your house today!'

     Isn’t that a great song?? If you knew that song by heart, I’m guessing that you attended children’s Sunday School or Vacation Bible School back in the day!

     So that’s the story that we find here in the Gospel of Luke. And by the way, Luke is the only one of the four gospels that includes this story of Zacchaeus meeting Jesus. And the reason for this is because out of the four gospels, Luke is the one who is most known for how Jesus went beyond the boundaries of his day in reaching out to people who were seen as outside of God’s circle. 

     Luke is especially known for telling these stories where God’s love and acceptance is extended to people who were often ignored during that time including women, children, the poor, sinners and outcasts, and in this case, Zacchaeus, a despised tax collector.

     In Jesus’ day, tax collectors were Jews that Rome had appointed to collect hefty taxes from their own people, the Jewish people. And not only did they collect these high taxes from their own people, they charged them even more than what was required to make an even higher profit for themselves. 

    They got extremely rich at the expense of their own people. They were seen as traitors and definitely outside of God’s circle.

     So no wonder in this Gospel reading, we have Zacchaeus not in the front of the crowd to get a glimpse of Jesus, but he had been pushed to the very back of the crowd. There’s more going on in this story than Zacchaeus being too short to see Jesus. It was really because he was seen as unworthy and outside the reach of God’s grace.

     And this exchange between Jesus and Zacchaeus is priceless. Jesus looks up and spots Zacchaeus and tells him to come down from that tree because he wants to go to his house, yes to this despised tax collector’s house.

     And the amazing thing about this story is that Zacchaeus hurries down and was so happy to welcome Jesus. The better translation of Zacchaeus’ reaction is that Zacchaeus was “joyful” when Jesus wanted to spend time with him. Joyful and rejoicing are the better words in translating this verse.

     And this is an important distinction because joyful and rejoicing are words that are to remind us how Jesus began his ministry earlier in the Gospel of Luke. 

     Back in chapter 4, Jesus is in a synagogue where he reads from the Prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recover of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

     That phrase, “the year of the Lord’s favor” is referring to the Old Testament commandment for Israel to celebrate the Year of Jubilee. This was to happen every 50 years where people’s debts were forgiven, where slaves were freed, and where wealth was reallocated so that everyone would be able to start over again.

 

     When Jesus announces that he has come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, he is referring to this Year of Jubilee. In other words, Jesus has come to liberate us from our sins, our systems of economic exploitation, and the many injustices that are in our world. 

     And this is what we get throughout Luke’s Gospel where Jesus is announcing this good news of liberation especially to those who have been forgotten and brushed aside. The Year of the Lord’s Favor which is referring to this the Year of Jubilee is the good news that Jesus was announcing throughout the Gospel of Luke.

     So notice what Zacchaeus does after Jesus spends time with him in his home. This despised tax collector who was seen as unworthy of God’s grace let alone of Jesus’ willingness to spend time with him, ends up receiving God’s gift of grace and salvation. Zaccheus is so filled with joy that he even tells Jesus that he will share half of his wealth with the poor and pay back anybody he has defrauded.

     Zacchaeus is a living example of the Year of Jubilee. He becomes a changed man not because of his worthiness but because it was grace alone that saved him. And this leads Jesus to say, “Salvation has come to this house!” 

     I can imagine Jesus smiling when he said this since everybody knew that this isn’t something you see everyday when a greedy tax collector says, “I don’t want the money. I found something so much better, and I’m going to make things right.”

     How often do you see something like this in our everyday world, where someone is awakened in a moment to a whole new way of living that fills them with so much joy and then leads them to make such a radical change in how they live to reflect that change? It is a beautiful thing!

     I guess that’s why they call it the Reformation. The church is called to be continually reformed into the joy-filled and loving people God has called us to be. And like Zaachaeus, we are continually invited to come down out of that tree, receive Jesus into our lives by faith, and live in such a way that reflects that change.

     We are called to live a life of jubilee where our new found joy in Christ can’t help but lead us to be the change that God wants to see in the world, 

     A world where children feel safe going to school; where the hungry are fed, where the lonely and grieving are comforted; where greed is transformed into generosity; where racism is replaced with understanding; where nations don’t invade other nations; where unjust systems are replaced with opportunities for all; where those who are in danger find refuge, where the hopeless have hope; where the oppressed go free; and where we proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

     I love how Jesus says, “Today, salvation has come to this house.” 

     My niece recently bought a new house and she sent us this picture. I love the sign that the realtor put in front of it. “Celebration in progress.” 

     There was definitely a celebration, a jubiliee in Zacchaeus’s house that day.

     May salvation come to our house and to our world this day, just as it did for Zaachaeus. 

     

     Let the jubilee begin!

Let the Jubilee Begin!

Sermon Discussion Questions

Luke 19:1-10

October 30, 2022

The last Sunday of October is known as “Reformation Sunday” because it was on October 31st (All Hallow’s Eve) in 1517 when a Catholic Priest, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany protesting practices of the Catholic Church. These practices included the sale of indulgences (paying money to the church to free someone to enter heaven from purgatory) and the theological emphasis that we are saved by our good works rather than by grace. This protest ended up starting what we know today as “The Protestant Reformation” in which we now have several Christian denominations and not just one Catholic Church.

What are your thoughts about being saved by grace alone rather than by good works? If we are saved by grace alone as Martin Luther emphasized, what role do our good works have in living out our faith? 

One of the features of the Reformation has been how people refer to their “spiritual birthday,” the day when they received Jesus into their lives. If you don’t have a “spiritual birthday” to point to, that’s OK! Some people have more of a gradual acceptance of God’s grace and they can’t point to just one moment in time.

Do you have more of a gradual acceptance of Jesus into your life or can you point to a specific time when you accepted Jesus for the first time?

In our Gospel reading for this Reformation Sunday, we have the story of Zacchaeus who was a tax collector. In Jesus’ day, the Roman Empire appointed certain Jewish people to collect taxes from their own people. These tax collectors were known to collect more money than what was required to line their own pockets and get rich! They would have been seen as outside of God’s grace because of being seen as traitors. As Jesus walks through the crowd he spots Zacchaeus and invites him to come down from the tree because he wanted to go to his house and spend time with him. This is an example of how Luke, the Gospel writer shows Jesus going beyond the boundaries of his day to extend God’s grace to all people, including greedy traitors like Zacchaeus!

What classifications of people today are seen as outsiders and not worthy to be included and accepted? What helps you to remember to extend God’s grace to all people?

The best part of the Zacchaeus story is that Zacchaeus becomes a changed man because of Jesus. He announces that he will give half of his wealth back to the people. We are told that Zaccaeus was joyful and was rejoicing because of his encounter with Jesus that day. These words are deliberate because Luke, the Gospel writer wants us to refer back to Luke, chapter 4 where Jesus announces that he has come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The phrase, “The year of the Lord’s favor” is a reference to the Old Testament commandment for there to be a “Year of Jubilee” every 50 years where wealth gets redistributed amount the people, slaves are set free, and people get a second chance! For Luke, Zacchaeus embodies the “Year of Jubilee” for which Jesus came. 

In what ways, is our world in need of a “Year of Jubilee” in which people can receive a new start and be freed from socio/economic injustices and exploitation? In what ways has Jesus freed you from your sins and brokenness leading you to rejoice?

Offer this prayer of jubilee from Sunday’s worship service:

O God, we stand before you in need of your grace. We are unable to be made righteous on our own merits. Our sins overwhelm us. It feels like there is a great chasm between who we are and who we hope to become. If you come by our way, will you notice us in the crowd? Just say our name and we will know that you really have come to seek out and save the lost. Come to our house today and lead us to share in the joy of your salvation. Amen.

Special Announcement from Pastor Robert (10-30-22)

Special Announcement 

from Pastor Robert 

October 30, 2022

Online Worship (October 30/Reformation Sunday) Athens First UMC

Welcome to our 

October 30/Reformation Sunday

online worship service!

Athens First UMC

2 S. College St., Athens, OH 45701

[Live-Stream Begins @ 10:25 AM]

Holy Hump Day (October 26) with Pastor Robert

Today’s Focus:

All Hallows’ Eve &

All Saints’ Day

Online Worship (October 23) Athens First UMC

Welcome to our 

October 23

online worship service!

Athens First UMC

2 S. College St., Athens, OH 45701

[Live-Stream Begins @ 10:25 AM]

Holy Hump Day (October 19) with Pastor Robert

Today’s Focus:

The Importance of

Spiritual Mentoring

Sermon (October 16) by Rev. Robert McDowell

    Today is the 6th part of a 7 week series on instructions Paul is giving to Timothy, who was a young pastor serving a church in the region of Ephesus. Actually, Timothy had spent a lot of time with Paul during his missionary journey and now Paul is giving Timothy some helpful information in what it means to be a pastoral leader of a church. 

     For the first Sunday of our Dear Timothy series, the pastoral advice was for Timothy to set a culture where God’s overflowing love and grace welcomes all people. For the second Sunday, the pastoral advice was to emphasize the importance of prayer which includes praying for our needs, the needs of others, and offering prayers of thanksgiving. Paul wants Timothy to have a praying church.

     For the 3rd Sunday, Paul’s spiritual advice to Timothy was for him to continue to pursue a godly life, a life that Paul describes as filled with faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Paul also refers to pursing a life in which we take hold of the life that really is life. 

     Those first three Sundays were based on our appointed readings from Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy. For the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy. 

     Paul’s 1st pastoral tip in this 2nd letter was for Timothy to rekindle the gift of God that was already in him thanks to his mother, his grandmother, and through Paul himself when he commissioned him to be a pastor. 

     And last Sunday, Paul’s instructions to Timothy was to always remember Jesus. We get this in chapter 2, verse 8 where Paul writes, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendent of David.”

     Paul is telling Timothy this but he is also instructing him to do the same with the church he is pastoring. “Remind them of this,” Paul says in verse 14.

 

     For this 6th week of our Dear Timothy series, Paul’s instruction to Timothy is, “Proclaim the Message.” Proclaim the message.

     Now, of all of the pastoral instructions Paul has been offering Timothy, this one might be the one that Timothy has been waiting to hear the most. I mean, what preacher doesn’t want to hear someone say to them, “proclaim the message!”

     There’s a reason that pastors are also referred to as preachers. We love to preach. And specifically, we love to preach the good news of Jesus Christ in the most creative, thoughtful, and engaging way that we possibly can. 

    Maybe you have heard this old joke where a young boy told the pastor, “When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money.” The pastor said, “Thank you, but why would you do that?” And the little boy said, “Because my dad says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had.”

     In all my years of pastoral ministry, I have yet to preach the perfect sermon but I sure do love the challenge! The rule of thumb in preaching is that the pastor should spend 15 to 20 hours per week in preparing sermons. And you might wonder why that much time is needed to prepare a sermon but there’s a lot that goes into it.

     First, you pray for God to open your mind and heart to what God is wanting to say through you in the upcoming sermon. Then you read the appointed scriptures several times to become familiar with them, catching anything that stands out in those readings. 

     Then you think about the context of that scripture like who wrote it, to whom it was first written, when was it first shared, what comes before and after that scripture passage, and how does it connect with the the rest of the Bible. 

     All of this work takes time because we don’t want to assume that we already understand the meaning of that scripture passage. Often times we discover something new about that text that we never saw before and that new understanding can take us down an entirely different path than what we were expecting.

     And after this first part of the sermon process, you start thinking about what God is wanting to say to to us through that scripture. And that’s the really challenging part. The bible was written 2 to 3 thousand years ago and over a period of several centuries to people who lived in a very different culture and historical time period than we do. How does this ancient book speak to us today?

     I believe the reason that the Apostle Paul is encouraging Timothy to proclaim the message is because he knows it’s not an easy task but it’s one that as he writes, can both challenge and encourage us to be the people God has called us to be. “Convince, rebuke, and encourage,” Paul tells Timothy.

     I think most preachers know that it’s probably not a good idea to do a lot of rebuking in the first sermon they preach at their new church. Preachers need to be aware of when it’s appropriate to rebuke and when encouragement is the order for the day. As I’ve said to people, you can’t preach about cute puppies and butterflies every single Sunday. Sometimes, the preacher will step on some toes that challenge our long held beliefs or may sound too political. 

     I remember soon after 9/11, I preached a sermon about the difference between Muslim terrorists who hate America and Muslims in general who deeply love God and respect people who have different faiths and beliefs. Yeah, there were some people who didn’t really like that sermon. 

     There were churches in that same community who were fanning the flames of anti-Muslim rhetoric in their sermons and I just felt that God wanted to speak a different truth through me that Sunday.

     There was another time when someone came to see me because they were upset with something I said in a sermon and I said, “You know, I’m not asking you to agree with everything I say in my sermons. Maybe I could have said something in a more helpful way but here’s the wonderful thing about sermons. You’ll get a new one the next Sunday, and a new one after that. My assurance to you is that given enough time, this preacher will eventually share a word or two that will fall deep within your soul and you will leave here saying, ‘I think God spoke to me today.’”

[Dr. Tony Campolo]

     I heard a sermon where Christian author and speaker, Tony Campolo gave a sermon at our West Ohio Annual Conference one year. Tony stepped on a lot of toes that day by calling out people who spend more on themselves than they do on the poor, people who own luxury cars but give very little in charitable giving, teachers who look out for their own interests at the expense of the children they are teaching. He also said something about lawyers but I can’t remember what he said about them. I heard lots of ouches during worship that day.     

     And to be fair to Tony, his sermon also included some stories that reflected his own struggles in living out his faith so he was stepping on his own toes as well.

     After the service, I asked two people what they thought of the sermon. The one person said that we need to hear more sermons like that because Jesus calls us to a radically different way of living but we have become too comfortable in what it means to be followers of Jesus.

     The other person looked at me with a scowl, and he said, “Well if you want my opinion, I hope he catches an early flight out’a here.”

     Ah, the joy of preaching! Paul says to Timothy, “proclaim the message.” 

     One of my favorite preachers is Fred Craddock. During my seminary years, we used his text book on preaching. He was in Dayton, Ohio one year and I was able to meet him and I asked him to name a couple of his favorite preachers. Without even pausing, he said, “the best preachers I’ve heard are those who know their congregations extremely well.”

     When preachers know their congregations and when congregations have learned to trust their preacher, Sunday mornings become an opportunity to convince, rebuke, and encourage as Paul writes to Timothy.

     At the end of his book on preaching, Fred Craddock offers this thought on preachers who proclaim the message week in and week out. And it sounds like something Paul would say to Timothy as well. In writing about preaching with passion, Craddock writes,

     “All of this is not a call for fiery styles of preaching or a return to the ways of frantic evangelists. It is simply to say that there is a passion appropriate to the significance and urgency of the gospel, and there is no valid reason to conceal that passion.

     Restraint, yes; but to allow reaction to caricatured and exaggerated passion to determine our method is to permit the very thing to be avoided to be the primary shaper of preaching in our time. There is no thought here of manufacturing passion so that by a kind of imitative magic our listeners may catch it. There is no blindness here to the fact that one sometimes enters the pulpit with no heart a flutter, no pulse racing, no burning in the bones. 

     But passion, even then, need not be absent. The fact is, the act of preaching is itself integral to our fuller embrace of the very message we speak. It is in teaching that we learn, and it is in telling the Good News that we hear and accept it ever anew.

     All of us know that it is in being kind that we become kind and in behaving as a Christians that we become Christian. Is it unreasonable to believe, then, that it is in listening to our own sermons that we become more passionately convinced? If this is our conviction, then reexperiencing the message as we deliver it cannot fail to be a time of speaking from passion to passion.

     And who can conceive of any greater motivation for preaching our very best than this: there is at least one person in the sanctuary listening, one person who, because of this sermon, may have a clearer vision, a brighter hope, a deeper faith, a fuller love. 

     That person is the preacher.”

     Dear Timothy, proclaim the message!

Dear Timothy, Proclaim the Message!

Sermon Discussion Questions

II Timothy 3:14-4:5

October 16, 2022

We are in the 6th part of a 7-week sermon series focusing on two letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy who was one of the young pastors of the early church. In addition to these two letters to Timothy, Paul also wrote a similar letter to Titus, also a pastor at that time. These three letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus have become known as “The Pastoral Letters;” I Timothy, II Timothy, and Titus. One bible scholar states that the reason Paul wrote these letters was to instruct Timothy and Titus in providing the pastoral leadership needed to help people in the church commit their lives to Christ, serve his kingdom, and to worship God. Last Sunday’s focus was for Timothy to always remember Jesus. One of the ways that we can remember Jesus on a daily basis is by praying our 4:57 prayer, “O God, baptize us afresh in the life giving Spirit of Jesus. Amen.”

Begin this sermon discussion time by praying the 4:57 Prayer. “O God, baptize us/me afresh in the life giving Spirit of Jesus. Amen.”

For this 6th week of our Dear Timothy series, Paul’s instruction to Timothy is, “Proclaim the Message.” The Apostle Paul is primarily referring to the importance of preaching. While there is not one “style” of preaching, all sermons are meant to share the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that is engaging, contextual, and invitational. 

Why do you think that sermons should be engaging, contextual, and invitational? 

Pastor Robert shared the process in preparing to preach a sermon each week. These include 1) prayers to be open to the Holy Spirit and for the people who will be hearing the sermon 2) a careful study of the context of the scripture passage including who wrote it, to whom it was written, and for what purpose was it written 3) reflecting on the people who will be hearing the sermon and how this scripture relates to our context today 4) how the sermon should be crafted and designed that will help the people to respond to the message

Which of these 4 components in preparing a sermon stand out to you?

The type of sermon is dependent upon the scripture passage(s) and the context of the people who will be hearing the message. Some sermons are 1) pastoral in which people are comforted and assured of God’s love for them through Jesus Christ 2) prophetic in which people are challenged to change their ways or rethink their ideologies and worldviews to be in more alignment with God’s call for justice and peace through Jesus Christ.

Why are both of these types of sermons important?

For many preachers, the prophetic sermons can be very challenging because people can become offended at the message being conveyed. 

What helps you to have an open mind and heart in listening and responding to prophetic sermons that challenge your way of living, your ideologies and worldviews?  

Offer this prayer from Sunday’s worship service which emphasizes the importance of reading, studying, and being open to God’s Word and the proclamation of the message:

O God, thank you for your Word which equips us for every good work. As the psalmist says, “Oh, how we love your law. It is sweeter than honey.” If your Word is sweeter than honey than why do we neglect to read it? If your Word offers us understanding and wisdom, than why do we we turn away from listening to its truth? Grant us to read and study your Word, not so that it will provide us with easy answers but so that it will lead us into a more mature and growing faith. O God, thank you for your Word! Amen.

Online Worship (October 16) Athens First UMC

Welcome to our 

October 16

online worship service!

Athens First UMC

2 S. College St., Athens, OH 45701

[Live-Stream Begins @ 10:25 AM]

Holy Hump Day (October 12) with Pastor Robert

Today’s Focus:

The Blessings of Our

Outside Prayer Cross 🙏

Sermon (October 9) by Rev. Robert McDowell

 

   Today is the 5th part of a 7 week series on instructions Paul is giving to Timothy, who was a young pastor serving a church in the region of Ephesus. Actually, Timothy had spent a lot of time with Paul during his missionary journey and now Paul is giving Timothy some helpful information in what it means to be a pastoral leader of a church. 

    I love that Paul is helping Timothy stay focused on the most important things in being a pastor rather than just on how to fill out church reports, recruit volunteers, and start new church programs. 

     For the first Sunday of our Dear Timothy series, the pastoral advice was for Timothy to set a culture where God’s overflowing love and grace welcomes all people.

     For the second Sunday, the pastoral advice was to emphasize the importance of prayer which includes praying for our needs, the needs of others, and offering prayers of thanksgiving. Paul wants Timothy to have a praying church.

     For the 3rd Sunday, Paul’s spiritual advice to Timothy was for him to continue to pursue a godly life, a life that Paul describes as filled with faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Paul also refers to pursing a life in which we take hold of the life that really is life. 

     Those first three Sundays were based on our appointed readings from Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy. Last week we began to look at Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy and Paul’s pastoral tip was for Timothy to rekindle the gift of God that was already in him thanks to his mother, his grandmother, and through Paul himself when he commissioned him to be a pastor. 

     And this leads us to today’s spiritual tip to Timothy where Paul encourages Timothy to always remember Jesus. We get this in chapter 2, verse 8 where Paul writes, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendent of David.”

     A couple verses later, Paul shares what was most likely an early creed that was circulated among the churches of Paul’s day: “The saying is sure: If we have died with him (meaning Jesus) we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.”

     And after Paul shares this short creed with Timothy, he writes in verse 14, “Remind them of this (and he was referring to Timothy’s church in Ephesus.”) Paul is telling Timothy, “remind your congregation to remember Jesus.” I like that! “Remind your congregation to remember Jesus.”

     Sometimes the church can get so busy that we forget to keep our focus on Jesus. 

     In one of the churches I served, we were having our weekly staff meeting. We had just spent 45 minutes discussing problems with the temperature of the sanctuary on Sunday mornings, issues we were having with a grease trap in the kitchen, and what news items should go into the upcoming monthly newsletter. 

     For the past couple of staff meetings, our meetings were mostly about these kinds of issues. During one of those discussions, I said to our staff, “Has anyone noticed how we’ve been talking a lot more about the boiler than about Jesus?” We all nodded in agreement.

     We had to figure out a way to safeguard our staff meetings so that our biggest focus would be in helping our congregation to grow in what it means to have a Jesus centered faith. This is what we needed to focus on the most during our staff meetings, not what color one of the church rooms should be painted.

     Paul knew that it’s not as simple as it may seem for a church to remember Jesus. We can become so distracted by a lot of things that we put Jesus at the end of our meeting agendas. 

     I love that our Leadership Board meetings here at Athens First begin with people sharing their thin place moments where they have experienced God’s presence in a very real way. By sharing these God moments, we are reminded of why we are even having the meeting in the first place, to help our church share the love of Jesus with each other and in our community.

     Our brief 4:57 daily prayer that we are encouraged to pray every day at 4:57 PM also can help us remember Jesus especially when we can get so easily distracted by so many things that come our way during the week. 

     The reason we pray it at 4:57 is for two reasons. The first reason is to remind us of the date that our church’s cornerstone was laid. Four is the month of April and fifty-seven refers to the year, 1957. The congregation had a special outside service that day and in one of the prayers used during that service is this beautiful phrase to help us remember Jesus. 

     Not only does this 4:57 prayer help us appreciate our own church’s history, it also reminds us to remember Jesus. The phrase from that prayer is, “Baptize us afresh in the life-giving Spirit of Jesus.” “Baptize us afresh in the life-giving Spirit of Jesus.”

     What a great way to live out Paul’s instruction to us today. Remember Jesus everyday by praying this simple little prayer at 4:57, “Baptize us afresh with the life-giving Spirit of Jesus.”

      Paul also knew that remembering Jesus is what gets you through the tough times. He knew first-hand about this because he was writing this 2nd letter to Timothy from a prison in Rome. He wrote this letter just a few years before he ended up dying for his faith. 

     Jesus was the reason that Paul was able to endure the suffering of confinement and loneliness. Remembering Jesus and his resurrection is what Paul was clinging to as he sat in that prison cell. Remembering Jesus is what helps us to face the challenges and problems that come our way. Remembering Jesus is what helps the church to be who God has called us to be.

      On June 1st, 1989, I received a phone call from my brother on that early Thursday morning. He was calling me with the shocking news that our dad had passed away in his sleep during the night. 

     My dad and mom had just visited Penny and me two weeks earlier here in Ohio so that they could see their new grandson and attend my seminary graduation. In another two weeks, my parents and family were going to come back out to Ohio to attend my ordination ceremony.  I was trying to absorb this terrible news and was still in disbelief. 

     Our son was born in April and my mom and dad came to visit us to see their new grandson a month later in May and attend his baptism. During that same trip, they also attended my seminary graduation. So many joyous moments happened in that one week during their visit with us.

     And then, we were making plans for them to come back to Ohio in less than a month for my ordination ceremony. “How can life be so sweet and then be so cruel? Where was God in all of this? Why was dad taken from us at only 60 years of age? Why did he die on the first day of my mom’s retirement?  Why, Oh God? Why?” All of this was swirling in my head when my brother delivered this news to me.

     But arrangements needed to be made and quickly. We booked a flight for our family. I found someone to lead worship in the church I was serving at the time. I called our Pastor/Parish chairperson to let him know the news about dad’s passing. 

     I also called my District Superintendent to inform him as well. One of the roles of District Superintendents are that they are pastors to the pastors of their district. My District Superintendent at the time had met my parents just two weeks prior when he came to my church to baptize our newborn son. That had been such a great day of celebration.

     My District Superintendent, sensing my anguish over the phone said these words to me. It was as if the Apostle Paul was on the other end of the phone line. He said, “Robert, I know this is a very difficult time for you. When you go there to be with your family, remember that Jesus is with you. And the prayers of our district will be with you.”

     God bless District Superintendents who seem to know just the right words to share to a distraught pastor. My District Superintendent would have been in his 50s at the time. This experienced pastor was able to share with this young pastor at the time, this 26 year old pastor, who was getting ready to be ordained and begin his 1st full-time pastoral appointment, “Remember that Jesus is with you.” 

     That’s all I needed to here. Jesus was with me. Jesus was with our family. And then, when we went to the viewing, I was looking at all of the flowers around the casket and noticed one arrangement in particular. They were from my church that I was serving back in Ohio. They too were reminding me that Jesus was with us.

     “Dear Timothy, Dear Robert, Remember Jesus.” Remember Jesus.

     During the funeral for my dad that was held in my home church in south central, Pennsylvania, our pastor closed the service by having us sing that great hymn of faith, “Lift High the Cross.”

     “So shall our song of triumph ever be: Praise to the Crucified for victory. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore his sacred name.”

     That hymn reminded me of my District Superintendent’s words that he shared with me when I called him about my dad’s death. That hymn reminded me of the love of my church back in Ohio. That hymn reminded me of the love of my home church where the funeral was being held and the pastor who offered spiritual comfort to us when our family needed it the most.

     And it was in that moment while we were singing that hymn, that I knew what should be on my ordination banner for the ordination ceremony. Ordination services include a processional where each person to be ordained walks forward with a large personalized banner that contains a verse or a saying that summarizes that person’s faith.

     There was no doubt what this young pastor’s banner should have. It would read, “Lift high the cross!”

     Paul’s instructions to Timothy are really simple and easy to remember but sometimes we just need to remind each other now and then. 

     Remember Jesus.

Dear Timothy, Remember Jesus!

Sermon Discussion Questions

II Timothy 2:8-15

October 9, 2022

We are in the 5th part of a 7-week sermon series focusing on two letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy who was one of the young pastors of the early church. In addition to these two letters to Timothy, Paul also wrote a similar letter to Titus, also a pastor at that time. These three letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus have become known as “The Pastoral Letters;” I Timothy, II Timothy, and Titus. One bible scholar states that the reason Paul wrote these letters was to instruct Timothy and Titus in providing the pastoral leadership needed to help people in the church commit their lives to Christ, serve his kingdom, and to worship God. Last Sunday’s focus was for Timothy to rekindle the faith that was within him.

What does it mean to rekindle our faith? Share a time when your faith was rekindled.

This week’s focus from the Apostle Paul to young Timothy is to “Remember Jesus.” Paul writes, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendent of David - that is my gospel.” - II Timothy 2:8 Some of the ways that the church helps us to remember Jesus is through weekly worship where we follow the life of Christ throughout the year from his birth to his ministry, death, and resurrection. We also offer bible studies to help us know Christ more. 

Share some other ways that the church helps us to remember Jesus.

Our 4:57 PM daily prayer is a helpful way for us to remember Jesus every day. Four stands for the month of April and 57 stands for 1957. It was in April, 1957, when our church held a cornerstone ceremony for this church building. In that ceremony, the congregation offered this prayer, “O God, baptize afresh in the life-giving Spirit of Jesus. Amen.” 

What does it mean to be baptized afresh in the life-giving Spirit of Jesus?

Pastor Robert shared a personal experience in his life where the church helped him and his family to remember Jesus. Like the Apostle Paul shared with Timothy, Pastor Robert’s District Superintendent at the time shared this comforting words, “Remember Jesus is with you and your family as you go to attend your father’s funeral and remember that the prayers of the district are with you.”

Share a time when someone comforted you by helping you to remember that Jesus was with you through whatever you were facing.

The hymn, “Lift High the Cross” is a powerful hymn that encourage us to remember Jesus. Here are the lyrics from verse 4 of that hymn:

“Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore his sacred name. So shall our song of triumph ever be: Praise to the Crucified for victory! Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore his sacred name.”

Close by offering this prayer from our Sunday worship services:

O God, just as the psalmist calls upon the people to remember your awesome deeds, we want to always be thankful for all you have done for us! We confess that we are often forgetful of your mighty acts in Jesus Christ. You sent us Jesus who lived, died, and rose again offering us abundant and eternal life. You have brought us together to be the body of Christ, your church. You have sent us your Holy Spirit, the presence of the Risen Christ to equip and empower us to be your people. You have done all of these awesome deeds for us. Help us to always remember Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Online Worship (October 9) Athens First UMC

Welcome to our 

October 9

online worship service!

Athens First UMC

2 S. College St., Athens, OH 45701

[Live-Stream Begins @ 10:25 AM]

Holy Hump Day (October 5) with Pastor Robert

Today’s Focus:

Annual Sermon Planning

Retreat Highlights!

Sermon (October 2) by Rev. Robert McDowell

    Today is the 4th part of a 7 week series on instructions Paul is giving to Timothy, who was a young pastor serving a church in the region of Ephesus. Unlike today where becoming a pastor can be a long time of preparation that includes a Master of Divinity degree, pastor’s licensing school, and a very in depth credentialing process, Timothy had to learn on the fly.

     Actually, Timothy had spent a lot of time with Paul during his missionary journey and now Paul is giving Timothy some helpful information in what it means to be a pastoral leader of a church. 

     For the first Sunday of our Dear Timothy series, the pastoral advice was for Timothy to set a culture where God’s overflowing love and grace welcomes all people. For the second Sunday, the pastoral advice was to emphasize the importance of prayer which includes praying for our needs, the needs of others, and offering prayers of thanksgiving. Paul wants Timothy to have a praying church.

     Last Sunday, Paul’s spiritual advice to Timothy was for him to continue to pursue a godly life, a life that Paul describes as filled with faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Paul also refers to pursing a life in which we take hold of the life that really is life. 

     For today, we move to Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy in which he encourages Timothy to rekindle the gift of God that is already in him. Paul knew the heart strings that he needed to pull in encouraging Timothy because he mentions Timothy’s mother and grandmother and their sincere faith.

     Actually, Paul is also pulling on my heart strings as well. This scripture passage here in II Timothy always reminds me of my mother and grandmother. My mother was a woman of sincere faith. She attended church, served through the church, read her bible every morning, taught Sunday School ,and she always had us pray before our meals. 

     My grandmother also had a sincere faith. When I was in elementary school, my grandmother who was now widowed, moved into a mobile home that was next to our farmhouse. Everyday after I got off the bus from school, I would visit my grandmother. There waiting for me would be a piece of cake and some sweet tea that had way too much sugar in it.

     But there was a catch! She also would have me read a bible lesson which included a quiz at the end of my reading. She would grade my answers and any that I got wrong, she would help me find the right answers. In addition to going to church on Sundays, this was how I was able to become familiar with a lot of the Bible stories and it provided me with a strong spiritual foundation from a very early age.

     For Timothy, it was Eunice and Lois. For me, it was Janelle and Ida. 

     I’ve had many people tell me how their faith was formed through a loving parent or grandparent or some other family member. This is the wonderful thing about our faith, that it’s not only through the church, but it’s also through the faith of family members. And ideally, our faith should begin in our families and from there extend to the church family.

     This comes up a lot when I meet with families in preparing for a funeral service. Even if family members have strayed from attending church, they will often tell me how their grandmother or their great-grandmother prayed for them or shared their favorite hymns or recited scriptures with them. 

     Paul knew what he was doing when he referred to Timothy’s mother and grandmother in helping to rekindle the gift of God that was already within him. Paul doesn’t just want Timothy to depend on his mother and grandmother’s faith. He wants Timothy to build on that sincere faith so that it’s not just a warm glow but a bright flame. 

     The best way to pay tribute to a loved one who has passed down the faith to us is to live out that same faith in our own lives. And that doesn’t mean that we live out our faith in the same exact way of those who have gone before us, but it does mean that we take what we have received and make it our own. If we don’t make the faith our own throughout our lives, then our faith can easily burn out. 

     Speaking of family and rekindling our faith, I was reading about a pastor who shares this family story from his childhood. 

     He recalls a time when he was around 7 or 8 years old and it had been snowing during the night and the living room was cold when he came downstairs that morning. He said that he can still remember shivering as he huddled on the sofa and waited for one of his parents to come downstairs to build a fire and warm up the house. 

     Before long, his father appeared and began to work on the fireplace. He twisted some newspaper, laid some fresh sticks, placed coal around the edge, and then, kneeling down, blew very gently at the base of the fire.

     His father didn’t even need to use a match because he had seen that the coal in the very bottom of the fireplace was still glowing. So all his father needed to do was to blow a little on it and sure enough, the coal began to glow brighter and brighter and then suddenly the newspaper burst into flame. Within a few minutes, the sticks were alight, the fire was going, and the room began to warm up.

     In a similar way, the Apostle Paul knew that something was already glowing deep down within Timothy, a warm faith that had begun in the life of his mother and grandmother. And all Paul is doing in this letter is to simply ignite a faith that is already there to help bring it to full flame.

     It’s important to remember that Timothy is a young leader in the church he is serving and you get the sense that he might be feeling overwhelmed with the responsibilities that are facing him. Paul understands this and he is reminding Timothy that he has everything he needs to be the pastor that God is calling him to be.

     Paul doesn’t want Timothy to be somebody that he’s not. He simply wants him to live out the same sincere faith that began with his mother and grandmother and is now at work in his life. If Paul was using the language of today, he might have added the line,  “you do you, Timothy.” “Be yourself, Timothy as you lead the church.”

     I remember when I first began the ministry, I wanted to make up for my lack of pastoral experience by attending as many church growth seminars as possible to copy what other churches were doing and bring those ideas back to the church I was serving at the time. And there’s certainly nothing wrong about learning from other churches as long as I don’t forget to simply be the pastor, the preacher, and the leader that God has called me to be.

      When I came to that realization a little over 20 years ago to focus more on being the pastor God was calling me to be rather than someone I wasn’t, I experienced a greater sense of joy and confidence in my ministry. Sometimes, we just need to remember, “You do you, and remember the faith that is already glowing deep within you and allow it to rekindle.”

     Wow, I think I’m starting to sound really old in sharing these reflections with you! I should write a book on the things I wish I could have told my younger self. But don’t we all? The good news is that we are never done rekindling our faith.

     In addition to having Timothy reflect on the sincere faith of his mother and grandmother as well as the sincere faith that he already has, Paul reminds Timothy of when he laid hands on him and commissioned him to serve as a pastoral leader in the church. The laying on of hands is what we think of today as ordination when a Bishop lays hands on someone who has been called into pastoral ministry and has fulfilled the credentialing and educational process. 

     My ordination was over 30 years ago and I still remember like it was yesterday. I don’t remember it simply because it took place in an unairconditioned auditorium while wearing a heavy clergy robe on an extremely hot and humid June day for a two hour long ordination service.    

     No, what I remember most about that day, was when Bishop Ammons placed his hands upon my head and he said, “Robert Vincent McDowell, take thou authority as an Elder to preach the Word of God, to administer the Holy Sacraments, and to order the life of the church, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

     The memory of the Bishop’s hands upon my head while saying those words was one of the most powerful moments in all of my life. My faith is always rekindled when I think back to that holy moment.

     This is what Paul is wanting Timothy to remember when he says in our scripture reading, “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.”

      In addition to the laying on of hands in the commissioning and ordination of pastors, the phrase, “the laying on of hands” can just as easily be applied to our baptism. Our denomination’s Book of Discipline says how all of the baptized are ministers of Jesus Christ. We call this “the ministry of the baptized.” 

     There are also times when we offer a blessing on those who are serving in a particular ministry of the church. Those can be powerful moments where God is present in a very real way not only for those who are being commissioned for a specific ministry, but for those who are offering the blessing.

     When we say our closing benediction together, we are receiving a blessing from Jesus to go from this place to live out our faith until we meet again. We all receive God’s blessings and we are then all sent out in Jesus’ name. If you are in need of a rekindled faith, remember that you have been commissioned and sent forth in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

     I felt my faith rekindled one summer when I was a youth. During a youth retreat, we were singing the hymn, “Pass It On” and that’s when I felt Jesus’ love for me in a very real way. I couldn’t stop singing that hymn the entire summer.

      I still think of that summer whenever we sing this hymn here in church. It brings back so many good memories.

     Kurt Kaiser wrote this hymn back in 1969 and it eventually went from being in youth group songbooks only to making it into our current church hymnal. I love the story of why Kurt Kaiser wrote this hymn which ties in with Paul’s words to Timothy.

[Kurt Kaiser]

     In Kaiser’s own words, he writes why he wrote this song, 

     “On a Sunday night I was sitting in our den by the fireplace where there were remnants of a fire, and it occurred to me that it only takes a spark to get a fire going…and the rest of that song came very quickly. My wife suggested that I should say something about shouting it from the mountain tops, and that ended up in the third verse. It only took about 20 minutes to write the lyrics. Afterwards my wife and I went for a walk, letting the song ruminate in our minds.”

     In each one of us, there is a warm glow of faith just waiting to be rekindled. Maybe that happens when you sing a hymn that takes you back to a time when you felt loved by God in a very real way and singing that hymn rekindles your faith. 

     Maybe that happens when you are reminded of a loved one who shared their faith with you at an early age and that memory rekindles your faith. Maybe that happens when years later, you can still feel the weight of the Bishop’s hand upon your head, or the words from that closing benediction, or when you came forward during a worship service to remember your baptism, and your faith is rekindled.

     Maybe what Paul was trying to Timothy and is now saying to each one of us is, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.”

Dear Timothy, Rekindle the Gift!

Sermon Discussion Questions

II Timothy 1:1-14

October 2, 2022

We are in the 4th part of a 7-week sermon series focusing on two letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy who was one of the young pastors of the early church. In addition to these two letters to Timothy, Paul also wrote a similar letter to Titus, also a pastor at that time. These three letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus have become known as “The Pastoral Letters;” I Timothy, II Timothy, and Titus. One bible scholar states that the reason Paul wrote these letters was to instruct Timothy and Titus in providing the pastoral leadership needed to help people in the church commit their lives to Christ, serve his kingdom, and to worship God. 

We are halfway through this 7-week sermon series. Which of these 3 instructions from Paul that we have covered stands out for you the most? 1) Setting a culture where God’s love and grace abounds for all 2) Being a praying church where we pray for each other, our community, and world 3) Pursuing a godly life that includes faith, love, endurance, and gentleness 

Today’s word of instruction from Paul to Timothy is to “rekindle the gift.” Paul is referring to the faith that Timothy received through his mother and grandmother.

Who are the family members and loved ones who have shared their faith with you? 

In the sermon, Pastor Robert shared this thought: “The best way to pay tribute to a loved one who has passed down the faith to us is to live out that same faith in our own lives. And that doesn’t mean that we live out our faith in the same exact way of those who have gone before us, but it does mean that we take what we have received and make it our own. If we don’t make the faith our own throughout our lives, then our faith can easily burn out.”

How do you make the faith that was shared with you “your own?” Why is it important that we make the faith that was shared with us our own? 

In addition to remembering how family members and loved ones have shared their faith with us, Paul also mentions to Timothy to not forget that he had commissioned him through the laying on of hands. We do something similar when pastoral candidates are ordained by a Bishop. Our baptism also reminds us that God has commissioned us to live out our faith through worship and service. The benediction at the end of a worship service serves as a commissioning in blessing us as we leave to be God’s people in our community and world.

When have you experiencing a “commissioning” to serve others in the name of Christ? Why is it important to remember that we are supported by others with their prayers and love?

Closing with this prayer from Sunday’s worship service:

O Lord, there are times in our lives when we join today’s psalmist in crying out, “how can we sing your song in a foreign land?” When we are far from home, our faith can grow cold. We can easily feel disconnected and alone. We forget to care for our souls. Rekindle the fire of your love in each of our hearts. Remind us that we are never far from home when we turn to you. Help us to guard the treasure that you have entrusted to each of us, your saving grace through Jesus Christ. May our hearts always be strangely warmed with an assurance that we belong to you. Amen.