12/01/2025
What Jacob Marley Would Do,
If He Could Do It…
I thought about using the following for a benediction—since Jacob Marley was warning Scrooge about the danger of loving money and what it could buy. Ends up with the Cantata and everything else going on, I didn’t have the time. So here is what you might have heard if the sermon itself was 5 minutes shorter!
· In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. federal government
spent about $99.8 billion on SNAP
· In 2004 SNAP served an average of 41.7 million
people (about 12.3% of the U.S. population)
· Americans are expected to spend between $1.01 trillion and $1.02 trillion on holiday retail in just the two months of
November and December 2025.
· They also estimate that the average consumer will spend about $890.49 per person over the season on gifts, food, decorations,
and other seasonal items.
If we knew now, what we will know 5, 10, or 20 years from now, will we think it’s a good idea to spend more than 129 million in two months on ourselves? That is, aside from making sure the most vulnerable around us have enough food to eat? It’s shameful that feeding the children and families who depend upon our body politic for food has become a partisan issue. And though Mary, Joseph, and Jesus didn’t get food benefits as asylum seekers in Egypt, wouldn’t it have made their lives so much easier if they did?
May we all find a way to let go of scoring political points and allow the God of Jesus Christ to work through us to do what is good and right for the last, the lost, and the least among us—remembering that once upon a time that included someone like Lazarus and knowing that once upon a time it included Jesus himself. Amen.
Archived Posts
Blessed People Bless People
But that Blessing Can Come with a Cost as Well
I’ve enclosed several insights I got while I dug into the scripture from Genesis 12 last Sunday. For you who love Bible background here’s a few thoughts to share:
Back and Forth with Chat GPT
Many of you know that I’ve found a new consultant to bounce my ideas off in regard to preaching. My good buddy Chat GPT and I sometimes disagree—often miscommunicate—but usually come up with some fruitful illustrations.
One More Thing About Becoming Wholly Human
I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
Here’s a preview of our congregation’s Core Values
In the coming weeks we will be exploring the importance of presence, prayers, gifts, service, witness, and growth in grace. These are at the heart of what we commit to when we join a Wesleyan grace-led church like ours. But we choose to broaden them out and state them in a new way…
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!