Sunday (November 30/Advent) Pastoral Prayer

November 30, 2025 (Advent)

Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC

Lord, thank you for this new season of Advent to help us wait patiently for the coming of Jesus into the world. When we are feeling anxious or even fearful about what the future holds, remind us of today’s first Advent candle that offers us the light of hope.

 

Your light of hope shines brightly through the Christmas lights that are already up in our neighborhoods. Your light of hope shines brightly through an encouraging word that someone shares with us at just the right time. Your light of hope shines brightly through a bible verse that sounded like it was meant just for us. Your light of hope shines brightly through this morning’s worship and the singing of hymns. And the good news of our faith is that your light of hope will only grow brighter as we draw closer to the birth of Christ.

 

We pray for those who are on our hearts and minds this morning who are in need of your light of hope as well as the people on our church’s prayer list. May this Advent Season be a time for all of us to experience your healing, guiding, protecting, comforting, and saving presence.

 

As the Apostle Paul reminded us in our first scripture reading this morning, lead us in this holy season to put on the armor of light, an armor that is able to overcome any darkness, an armor that helps us to wait patiently for our prayers to be answered, an armor that helps us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can possibly be, an armor that helps us to become more like you; holy, faithful, patient, hope-filled, and loving.

 

Come, thou long expected Jesus even as we pray that prayer that you taught us to say together…

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Sermon (November 23) “The Thanksgiving Challenge” by Rev. Robert McDowell

November 23, 2025

Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC

     The thanksgiving holiday is pretty simple and straightforward. It’s a time for us to be thankful. I’ve always approached thanksgiving as a time to make a personal list of the many blessings in my life which are many.

     When families gather around the thanksgiving table, there’s a tradition to go around the table and share something for which they are thankful. If we would each share all of our blessings, the food would get too cold. I think the listing of our blessings is the easy part of Thanksgiving because there are just so many for us to name.

     So, it’s no wonder that our Thanksgiving reading from the Book of Deuteronomy begins with a long list of reasons for the people of Israel to be thankful. At the top of that thanksgiving list was that God was leading them to their new home in the Promised Land.

     Just listen to this long thanksgiving list that involves the land they are about to enter. A wonderful land, streams of water, springs, wells that gush up in the valleys and the hills, a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, honey, no shortage of food, stones, copper and plenty of stones for building.  What a list!

     If this was scripture was written today rather than thousands of years ago, maybe this is how it would read. “Because the Lord your God is bringing you to a wonderful land, a land with well-maintained parks, hospitals, gyms, an awesome zoo, 4 lane highways, and plenty of restaurant choices, you will eat and be satisfied, and you will bless the Lord in the wonderful land that he’s given you.”

     Whether it’s the 21st century or during ancient times, coming up with a thanksgiving list is the easy part. Just take a few minutes to think about your blessings, and I’m sure you’ll come up with a really long list.

     Every morning during my prayer time, I end my prayer by listing and thanking God for the many blessings in my life. A lot of times, I list the same things, but sometimes there will be other blessings that will come to mind, and I will name those instead.

     I have a friend who would often remind me, “our health is our wealth.” I’ve heard him say that enough times, that I now will often include this in my list of thanksgivings. “Thank you, God for my health, for being able to have a doctor, and for health insurance.”

     Thanks to my friend, this particular blessing of health will often now be near the top of my list when I name God’s blessings in my life.

     A friend who likes golf told me that even when he is having an awful round of golf where he’s hitting every other shot in the woods or into the water, he’ll simply say to himself, “But it’s still a nice day.” “But it’s still a nice day.”

     I like that! Even if things do not go our way, what a difference it can make when we remind ourselves, “But it’s still a nice day.”

     Sometimes, I’ll remember to simply say to God something like, “You know, God, it’s been a while since I have remembered to simply thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins and for being such an awesome source of hope and comfort in my life. Thank you so much for not only saving me, but for also being present in my life to strengthen and guide me. Like, I can’t imagine what it would be like if you weren’t in my life. Thank you! I should tell you that more often!”

     So, in any given moment, we can always be thankful because our blessings are more than we can even count. The challenge isn’t in coming up with a list of blessings in our lives. The real challenge is in not taking these bessings for granted. That’s the challenge.

    Our scripture reading even offers us this warning: “But watch yourself! Don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t become arrogant, forgetting the Lord your God.”

     We forget the Lord our God whenever we forget that we live in a world were many people go without the basic necessities of life. We forget the Lord whenever we forget that the blessings we have are in some measure due to other people who have helped us to get to where we are in life.

     I think of a successful farmer who started with little more than a mule and a small piece of land. He plows the fields, endures droughts and floods, and enjoys abundant harvests and prosperity. At the end of a long workday, he drinks a cold beverage on his beautiful front porch that he had built with his own hands. He thinks about his wealth and how far he has come in life.

     In Bolivia, a similar aged farmer who has worked just as hard as the first farmer is still poor because he hasn’t had adequate roads to transport his produce to the market. He also lives in an area where there are inadequate schools, a lack of opportunities for success, and poor health care. And yet, the first farmer believes that the only reason people are poor is because they just don’t work hard enough.  

     I remember my first impression of Guatemala when I went there on a mission trip several years ago. Our Guatemalan mission team leader had picked us up at the airport and drove us to the place where we would be working for the week.

     As I looked out the window of the van during our hour-long trip to our mission site, I took notice of the many Guatemalans who were working out in the coffee bean fields under the extremely hot sun. In addition to the men, I saw many women and children working in the fields.

     I tried to think how different my life would be if I was forced to work in the hot sun like that every single day. Even before I arrived at the place we would be staying for the week, God had already opened my eyes to how so many people live throughout our world.

     Our job was to dig a long water trench from a lake to a tiny village so that the people of that community wouldn’t have to walk everyday to get their water. I tried to imagine what it would be like to live in a tiny shack where there was no water.

     The Guatemalans of that village worked side by side with us and together we dug a long trench in the hot sun that week. They taught us to pace ourselves and drink plenty of water as we swung pix axes and shoveled the dirt.

     Thanks to that mission trip, I have a renewed appreciation for the cup of coffee I buy at the coffee shop. Somebody worked long hours in a hot field for very little pay so that I could go through a drive-thru and have that grande size speciality coffee.

     The challenge of Thanksgiving isn’t so much to come up with a list of our many blessings as important as that may be. The real challenge is to not forget those who struggle every single day just to make ends meet. This is the real Thanksgiving challenge.

     It’s not surprising then, that just a few chapters later following our Deuteronomy scripture reading we hear that we are to open our hands to the poor and to the needy. The sheer abundance of the land means that their wealth is to be shared, not hoarded.

     What helps you to not forget those who struggle to make a living?

     I think of waiters and waitresses who are on their feet all day and who get very little pay. The Thanksgiving challenge is to be thankful for their service and if they don’t remember to give me a refill, to offer them some grace. That’s not the easiest job especially when they’re waiting on several tables at the same time.

     When I focus only on my blessings and forget about the many people who are struggling and lonely, then I miss out on the true meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.

     I remember a time when I conducted a graveside funeral service for a church member. After the service, I was to ride back with the Funeral Director.

     Before we left the cemetery, this funeral director made it a point to call the cemetery office that was in charge of the cemetery to let them know what a wonderful job their workers did to prepare the grave for the service. After he got off his cell phone, I told him that this was a really nice thing for him to do for those workers.

     He said that even though he thanked the cemetery workers in person, he knew that if he would also call their manager, that they would probably say something nice to those workers as well. This funeral director was living out the Thanksgiving challenge. He was thinking of the people who often receive little or no appreciation.

     As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday this week, let’s remember this Deuteronomy scripture reading and prepare two thanksgiving lists, one that lists our many blessings, and one that will remind us of those who are in need and ways that we can be a blessing to others.

     May all of us accept this Thanksgiving challenge because it will help us to be God’s thankful people.

Sunday (November 23) Pastoral Prayer

November 23, 2025

Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC

Gracious God, during this week of Thanksgiving, we are especially thankful for your countless gifts of love. There are just too many to name, and we confess that there are many blessings that we take for granted like the very breath that we are taking in this moment. 

We also think of the blessings that we have due to the people who helped to make those blessings possible. Many of these blessings are out of sight out of mind, like workers out in hot fields harvesting the crops that will eventually make it into our grocery stores, scientists working long days in labs developing new life saving medicines, artists and composers working on new projects that will one day inspire and lift the spirits of many.

 

Thank you for all of these countless gifts of love whether they be the gifts we are conscious about or those that are beyond our awareness but are just as important. May we always be up to the challenge in being thankful for all of these blessings in our lives.

 

Even during this time of prayer, we are mindful of one of the greatest gifts of love that you have given us, the gift of prayer in which we can listen to your voice and express to you our deepest longings. Thank you for this incredible gift you have given to us. And so, we lift up to you the people on our church’s prayer list as well as others who are on our hearts and minds this day.

 

And thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus who lived, who died, and who rose again and who taught us to pray together these words…

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Sermon (November 16) “Living in Two Worlds” by Rev. Robert McDowell

November 16, 2025

Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC

     With the increased number of people who are now working remotely, one of the challenges they face is while living in one world, they are working in another. One of our neighbors has to live and work out of state during the workweek and then comes back home to be with his family for the weekends.  

     I’m thinking about this because our scripture readings this morning offer two very different worlds in which we are called to live everyday. On one hand, there’s the beautiful world described so poetically by the prophet Isaiah in which there is nothing but gladness, rejoicing, hope, and new life.

     And on the other hand, there’s the broken and hurting world as described so forcefully by Jesus in our Gospel reading where there is the reality of violence, war, natural calamities, and persecution.

     If I asked you which world sounds more appealing, I would guess that you would be like me and choose the world described by Isaiah, the world that is completely filled with joy and gladness. But the reality is we live in both. We only need to hear the latest breaking news to be reminded that Jesus’ description of the world is all too true, sadly.

     This dichotomy of two worlds is also evident for those who like to travel. Tourist and vacation spots are often located in the wealthier areas of a community, but just across the bridge or across the tracks from where you’re staying, we would find unbelievable poverty and hopelessness.

     In one of the churches I served, we would send a mission team to serve in the Bahamas each year. What can I say, except that we felt “called” to serve in a place which just so happens to have the most beautiful beaches in the world.

 

     But all joking aside, Eleuthera Island where we sent our team each year not only has beautiful beaches but also very severe and unbelievable poverty. It’s an island that contains two very different worlds where the rich and famous live and where the poor and forgotten live side by side.

     Whenever people from our missions team would return from one of our trips, they didn’t focus on how blue the ocean was or how the Caribbean Sea was a welcome relief from the cold and gray winters of Ohio. Instead, they shared about the beautiful people they met in some of the most impoverished villages they had ever visited in their lifetimes.

     During one of our mission trips to the island, our guide took us to the Glass Window Bridge which is known as the narrowest land mass in the world. Only one hundred feet separate the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean on one side with the calmer waves of the Caribbean Sea on the other.

     Tim, who was one of the people who went on these mission trips to the Bahamas said to me as we were walking across that bridge, "Robert, I see a future sermon illustration with this bridge. Sometimes our faith and life can feel turbulent like this Atlantic side and other times it can feel peaceful like the Caribbean side."

     Tim’s insightful observation was a wonderful metaphor in describing the worlds we were experiencing during that mission trip on Eleuthera Island. We saw beauty and desperation side by side.

     But we don’t need to go to Eleuthera Island to live in two worlds. We live in two worlds right here where we live. Every town seems to have the rich neighborhood here and the poor neighborhood on the other side of the tracks.

 

     It’s not easy to live in two worlds simultaneously. And I think this is why we have these two very contrasting scripture images of the world next to each other in our scripture readings this morning. On one hand, we have Isaiah who paints this beautiful picture of how the world is meant to be where there is joy, and rejoicing, and abundance for all. That’s the calm and tranquil Caribbean side to borrow Tim’s metaphor.

     And on the other hand, we have Jesus’ passage from Luke’s Gospel where there is destruction, brokenness, violence, and pain which is the turbulent and wave crashing Atlantic side to complete his metaphor. The truth is that we live to varying degrees in both worlds all of the time.

     From beginning to end, the Bible is constantly reminding us of these two worlds. The beauty that is all around us coupled with the hope and promise that one day God will make all things new runs alongside of the painful reality that this world often times feels like it’s going to hell in a hand basket. And depending on which side of the bed you wake up in the morning, you’ll end up seeing one more than the other.

     And so, what do we do with this dilemma of having to live in two very different worlds? How do you NOT become extremely negative and cynical in this world but at the same time, not become naïve and reality denying.

     The scriptures are really, really awesome at keeping us grounded in both worlds.

     And so, if you are one who tends to only see the world in rose colored glasses where we ignore the cries of the hungry, and the tears of the oppressed, and those who are marginalized, and those who are excluded in subtle and not so subtle ways based on age, race, gender, or fill in whatever other categories come to mind, maybe Jesus’ words from our Gospel lesson are what we need to hear the most this morning.

     Jesus is reminding us that working for peace and justice is unbelievably hard and excruciatingly painful. It’s not easy taking on the shape of someone else’s pain.

     But take heart, because Jesus says that if we take seriously the pain and brokenness of our world, God will be by our side as we suffer on behalf of others. Jesus is saying that even though there will be those who will not support you in making this world a better place for all and not just for a privileged few, that not even a hair of your head will perish. Please don’t take that literally because just look at my hairline.

     Or conversely if you are one who tends to see the world only through doom and gloom lenses where there is no beauty anywhere to be seen, then maybe Isaiah’s words from our Old Testament reading need to take more prominence.

     Look for the beauty. Open your eyes to the possibilities. See God’s presence at work in the world. It’s there. You just have to be alert to see it. Be joyful, be glad! And without a doubt, in these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, be thankful. Be grateful. Be aware of the blessings that are all around us.

     Don’t miss the rainbow after the storm. Listen to that song that makes you cry tears of joy every single time you hear it. Don’t miss God’s presence in the everyday moments of your life. Seek to bless others knowing that you are an important part of the building of God’s kingdom here on earth.

     This is where our II Thessalonians scripture reading says to us, “Don’t forget about me, because I have something to add to what the preacher is saying this morning. And it’s short and sweet. ‘Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.’”

     II Thessalonians is saying, that as we live in these two worlds every single day, don’t grow weary. See the good. See what needs to be changed and contribute to that change to help make this world a better place.

     Great words for us as we live between these contrasting worlds described by Isaiah and Jesus. “Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.”

     God knows it’s not easy to live in two these two overlapping worlds: the calm Caribbean side of tranquility, peace, justice, equality, and harmony, contrasted by the Atlantic side of chaos, violence, destruction, oppression and death. We live in both. That’s just the way it is. It’s not easy, but God promises to be with us as we live in both these worlds.

     I think a friend of mine who is a High School teacher said it best in a Facebook post she made before the new school year when she offered these words,

     “I enjoyed my last weekday run this morning before my school year begins this Wednesday. As I was running, I thought about "place" and how we each are called to or at least find ourselves living in a particular place on this big Earth. I thought of the people in the village of La Boca in Honduras, where my church mission team visited this summer and last summer.  These lovely people love their families, raise their children, keep their modest homes as nice as possible, give thanks to their God and others, show hospitality to visitors, and work toward a bettering their village and their school for the present and the next generation. Each of them probably (although I didn't see it) also bickers with others at times and has their share of dark moments...hopefully followed by new beginnings. They enjoy the beauty of the sunrise and sunset from their slice of the Earth.  I don't know that there's any better way to live, no matter our financial status, job status, level of education, or geographical location.”

     My friend’s insightful words remind us that it is possible to live in these two worlds at the same time as difficult as it may seem. And what gives me hope in this crazy, hurting, confused and often violent world, comes from the very first verse that was read to us this morning from Isaiah, one that is meant to sustain us every single morning when we wake up to begin a new day.

 

     He offers us this word of hope and I encourage us to memorize it. Meditate on it. Hold on to these words for dear life, friends, because at some point, we’re going to need them.

     When you feel that all hope is lost, more than anything, remember this…

     God is creating new heavens and a new earth. Thanks be to God!