{"id":281,"date":"2019-07-01T09:15:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T09:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=281"},"modified":"2019-07-01T14:17:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T14:17:37","slug":"third-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/07\/01\/third-sunday-after-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21, Luke 9:51-62<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\njust seems to be in us, a part of our DNA, that when we get turned away from a\nplace or have our ideas ignored or turned down, no matter what the reason, we\nget angry, disappointed, frustrated, sometimes hurt. In today\u2019s Gospel reading\nthe Disciples were so angry, they asked Jesus if they could punish the Samaritan\nvillage for turning them away, by raining down fire upon them, so as to destroy\nthem. Even without hearing Jesus\u2019 response I would have guessed that the answer\nwould be, \u201cno\u201d; (and) it was. As a pastor, I learned very early on, that in\nministry you cannot take defeat personally, it was not the way of Jesus and it is\nnot the way for Jesus\u2019 followers. Likewise, when someone chooses to leave and go\nto another church, or chooses not to go to church at all, you cannot see it as\na personal failure. I joke sometimes, that I\u2019ve had so many people walk right\nover top of my head, that I\u2019m surprised the hair on my head hasn\u2019t been worn\noff. The fact that I still have hair, could be described as a testimony to my\nability to endure defeat. Is that a good thing? I guess, it can be, as long as\ni don\u2019t give up on what I believe to be the will of our Lord. But, all this, is\njust me and it\u2019s not about me; the fact of the matter is, that I am just a\nsmall part of the ministry of St. Peters, and a much smaller part of the ministry\nof the Body of Christ. I know for a fact, that many of you also suffer defeats\nin your attempts to make the church, what you think is best. I know because as your\npastor, I\u2019m often called upon to help reassure you, and sometimes help you over\nsome anger or hurt, smoothing ruffled feathers as they say (anger and such are\na normal response to having our ideas overruled, especially when we really\nthink that our ideas are inspired by the Holy Spirit, that they are God\u2019s will\nand they are the best thing for our congregation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nquote Mick Jagger (and I\u2019m pretty sure that doesn\u2019t happen much in church): \u201cYou can’t always get what you want\u2026. But if you try sometimes, well you might find you get what you need.\u201d Sometimes God lets us, as\nindividuals and the church, make mistakes, sometimes we misunderstand what God\nwants for us and his church, sometimes we have the right idea at the wrong time\nand sometimes I believe God feels we need a challenge and so it would be wrong for\nus to give up easily on the ideas we feel are inspired, maybe after a time the congregation\nwill be ready for them. If\nonly we knew for sure which ideas were truly inspired by the Holy Spirit, all\nof the time. I could make a\nlist of the ideas that I felt would have been good for St. Peter\u2019s that were\nturned down, and my guess is, so could all of you who have been actively\ninvolved in the decision-making process of the church. I can\u2019t say, I like it when\nmy ideas are voted down, but in truth, it is okay; St. Peter\u2019s is still\nministering to the community; being voted down is a good reminder, of just how important\nit is to trust in the Lord, a reminder that God\u2019s will, will in God\u2019s time, prevail. Again, it is not about me; it is\nnot about you; it is about Jesus and it\u2019s about the ministry that will proclaim\nJesus\u2019 love and the story of Jesus and his promises and help identify the gifts\nthe Holy Spirit has given us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raining\nfire upon our adversaries might make us feel good, but it is not what Jesus\nwants, no matter how much we may want to make it happen. Thankfully, that particular\npower or gift of God, does not seem to be among our handy selection of the\nSpirit\u2019s gifts. Thankfully (of a different nature), the gifts of reason and\npatience are among the gifts that the Spirit has made available to us. Does\nthat mean that we should not get angry and such? No, but it does mean that we\nhave the power to keep ourselves from acting in a way that might hurt those who\nhave refused to welcome us or our ideas and hurt the ministry of Jesus Christ. We\nhave a choice to retaliate, but if we trust in the Lord we don\u2019t. We either\nfollow Jesus, like his Disciples or we are left behind like those in the second\npart of today\u2019s Gospel reading. Elijah was more flexible in this respect than\nwas Jesus; Elijah let Elisha first take care of some things before following\nElijah. Jesus told those, who wished to follow him, the hard truth and some\nwere turned away. Those left behind were those who couldn\u2019t handle the\nuncertainty and who would not drop everything and follow Jesus right there and\nthen. It is not about our hurt feelings, anger or even our ego, it is all about\nJesus, about trusting Jesus. So, will you trust in the Lord, will we follow\nJesus, or will you make yourselves feel good by getting your vengeance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next\ntime your idea gets rebuffed by Church Council, by a committee or by me, how\nare you going to handle things? Are you going to get angry; are you going to\ngive up; or are you going to leave the church all together? I\u2019ve seen all of\nthese. I pray, that if you truly believe that your ideas will be good for St.\nPeter\u2019s and that they have been inspired by God, that you don\u2019t give up, maybe they\nwill be accepted at a later time; maybe the church is just not ready for them;\ncertainly your Spirit driven inspiration is needed by St. Peter\u2019s. I have a\nnumber of ideas tucked away in the back of my mind for another, maybe the right\ntime, to be reintroduced for action. The Spirit talks; I try to listen; how\nabout you, are you listening for the Spirit\u2019s wisdom and guidance? What ideas\nfor St. Peter\u2019s and for ministry have come to you? We welcomed the Wesley Bell\nRingers a couple weeks back; we are planning Christmas in July; what else could\nwe be inspired to plan, to do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21, Luke 9:51-62 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ It just seems to be in us, a part of our DNA, that when we get turned away from a place or have our ideas ignored or turned down, no matter Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}