February 28, 2016
Stetson Memorial UMC
Third Sunday of
Lent
“The High Way”
Adapted Sermon
Series
by Marcia McPhee
“The Way”
All Scripture is
from the AMP Bible
Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 139: 1-18
Acts 10:9-16
“A “Higher” Calling”
Prayer for the
Spirit’s leading. . .
A
reading from the Prophet Isaiah, chapter Fifty-Five, verses one thru nine. . . listen
to the Word’s of Life from God to you and me, pilgrims on a journey. . .
Eating
for free. . . getting to drink without a cost. . . buying something for nothing.
. . why that is completely absurd. . . you can’t get something for nothing. In
the world we live. . . we tend to think that if it doesn’t cost there must be
some sort of catch. There must be some sort of hidden agenda if I am being
offered something that I need for free.
We,
as humankind, seem to think we have everything all figured out. We tend to
think that we know it all and at times just close our ears and eyes to a new
way of thinking. Remember. . . we have it
all figured out. Or do we? Is there another way that we do not perceive? Is
there a “higher calling” on our lives as Christ followers?
We
are continuing our Lenten pilgrimage to the cross. During this journey we will
bring Marcia McPhee with us as we look at her sermon series “The Way”. We are
going to be looking at the different “ways” or paths that we take in life. My
prayer is that as we journey together we will help each other and those in our
lives find “the way”.
We
began this pilgrimage on Ash Wednesday as we talked about “the way back”. . . taking a u-turn so to speak. . . back towards
God. . . back to the relationship that God intended from the very beginning. We
have talked about “the wandering way”. .
. As Marcia McPhee would put it. . . when we walk through that maze trying
to find the way to the right path instead of hitting those walls of a wrong
turn. Last week we talked about “the way around” when Erica told us about how
we need to follow God’s plan in our life and sometimes we need to make a way
around those in our lives that would try to tell us different.
So,
the question I asked was “do we as Christ followers have a higher calling in
our lives? Do we understand differently than those who are not Christ
followers? And if we have a higher calling in our lives what does that look
like?”
So.
. . how sure can we be the scripture from Isaiah I read this morning gives us
food for thought. God offers us living water when we thirst, the bread of
heaven when we hunger, and all of this for free. Well it is free because Jesus paid the price for us to come to the
table and be fed. So technically it did cost but God offers us the result of
that cost for free.
So
God offers all of this for free. . . even if we, as creation, do not understand
why the Creator would do such a thing. Now here’s the question. . . because we
follow Jesus, should we offer to others a place at the table, as we are
offered, for that same price? Does God expect us to accept the higher calling
on our lives to invite others to the table for the same price that we pay? Do
we follow the thought process of the world or the thought process of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ?
Peter,
The Rock, thought he had it all figured out. He followed the rules and
regulations of God and he did it with all that he was. But one day, he was
shown a blind side so to speak. He was living a life that had exclusion in it
even though he thought that he had it all figured out. Listen as I read Acts
ten, nine thru sixteen. This reminds us
of a high calling and thought process that we are challenged. . . commissioned
to live. . .
9 The next day, as they were on their
way and were approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof of the house about
the sixth hour (noon) to pray, 10 but he became hungry and wanted something to
eat. While the meal was being prepared he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the
sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet descending, lowered by its four
corners to the earth, 12 and it contained all kinds of four-footed animals and
crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him,
“Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “Not at all, Lord, for I have
never eaten anything that is common (unholy) and [ceremonially] unclean.” 15
And the voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed and pronounced
clean, no longer consider common (unholy).” 16 This happened three times, and
then immediately the object was taken up into heaven.
Peter
thought he had it all figured out but God had a different plan. The vision was
not so much about food as it was about exclusion. Peter followed all the rules
but he had this blind side that God needed to illuminate. He told God that he
had never broken the “rule of man” and God showed him a better way. We too at
times can be blindsided and need to have the blinders taken off to restore our
vision.
We
are taught that everything costs. But our ways are not God’s ways, praise God. It is a higher way that we
are called. We are all invited to the table of Grace without price. This is our
higher way in which we are to embody others. Hospitality is the way. Now here’s
the thought provoking, higher way thought. . . even when we do not agree on
everything, we are still one family at one table.
Is God trying to lower the
sheet before your eyes to show you something new? Is God trying to spring up a
new thing in your life but you are blinded by the way you think? Do you want to
follow the Light of the world but the world is clouding your view? Then have I
a deal for you. It costs you nothing but it will be more rewarding than all the
glitter and glimmer of the world. Taste and see that the Lord is good and He
will give you new eyes to see a higher way, a new heart that beats only for Him
and a new song in your soul. Try it. . . I assure you that you will like it. .
.
Amen
February
28, 2016
Stetson
Memorial UMC
Third
Sunday of Lent
“The
Way”
Adapted
Sermon Series
by Marcia McPhee
“The
Wandering Way”
adapted
by Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
Psalm 139:1-18
Isaiah
55:1-9
Acts
10:9-16
sermon,
“A Higher Calling”
text:
video:
by Pastor Ruth Foss
Children’s Message from Mystery Box
by Pastor Ruth Foss
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
3rd
Sunday in Lent
February
28, 2016
&
February
21, 2016
Stetson
Memorial UMC
Second
Sunday of Lent
“The
Way”
Adapted
Sermon Series
by Marcia McPhee
“The
Wandering Way”
adapted
by Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
Psalm 8:1-4
Mark 1:16-20
sermon,
“The Way Around”
text:
video:
by Erica Berberena
Children’s Message from empty Mystery Box
by Raymond A. Foss
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
2nd
Sunday in Lent
February
21, 2016
&
February
14, 2016
Stetson
Memorial UMC
First
Sunday of Lent
“The
Way”
Adapted
Sermon Series
by Marcia McPhee
“The
Wandering Way”
All
Scripture is from the AMP Bible
Luke
1:46-49
Luke
4:1-2
Luke
15:11-32
sermon,
“I Am A-Maze-D…”
text:
video:
by Pastor Ruth Foss
Children’s Message from Mystery Box
by Pastor Ruth Foss
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
1st
Sunday in Lent
February
14, 2016
&
Ash Wednesday service
Joel
2:12-17a
Matthew
6:1-6, 16-21
centering song,
“Surely the Presence”
Opening Words
Greeting
Lenten Prayer
Hymn, “In the
Garden”
Prayer of
Confession
Words of Assurance
Invitation to
Communion
Prayer after
Communion
Invitation to
receive ashes
Distribution of
Ashes
Lenten poem:
”Journeying to Jerusalem”
sermon,
“The Math of Lent 2.0”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
closing hymn,
“It
Is Well with My Soul”
Closing
Prayer
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
Ash
Wednesday
February
10, 2016
All
of my poems, photographs, and videos are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000,
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2014, 2015, 2016. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss (raymondafoss@gmail.com) for
usage. See all 41,140+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
