Morton Presbyterian Church

Imagine the people of God practicing the Great Commandment of love.  Imagine the people of God showing the whole world how to do this.

We are called to treasure wholeheartedly the kingdom of the One who treasures us wholeheartedly.

Our life-giving Shepherd is with us even when we travel through the darkest valleys.

The risen Christ makes his loving presence known among ordinary people in ordinary situations, like walking and talking together, and sitting down to a meal.

To move into the future with Jesus it is critical to ask probing questions.

No barrier can stop the risen Christ.  He comes wherever fearful, overwhelmed people are and gives them the peace of his presence, the breath of new life, and the call to continue his life and work.

While it is still dark God is already up and doing the work of resurrection.

This pandemic season is a wilderness journey of uncertain duration, and our fears are many: fear about the sickness itself, fear for loved ones, fear that there won’t be enough of needed resources, financial fears, and more.   As they struggled with thirst in the wilderness, the Israelites cried out, “Is God with us or not?”  God invited them to trust, and God provided what they needed from an unexpected source: water from a rock.  Even now God is working to provide for us, and to deliver the world, and it may happen in ways as creative, unexpected, and seemingly impossible as squeezing water from a rock.

 When the church seeks the power of the state to accomplish its goals, however good they may be, the church is in danger of making deals with the devil.  Because they appeared to offer expedient ways to accomplish good, the devil’s deals were appealing.  Through prayerful discernment of God’s will, Jesus said “No deal!”  Jesus continued to choose the more difficult way of the cross.

Thanks be to God for those precious times when heaven and earth touch, and we glimpse God’s big picture in the shining face of Christ.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus sets before us the less-traveled way of God.  We must choose whether or not to walk in it.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream.  He is the connecting point between heaven and earth.  He is the place where time and eternity intersect.

Inviting others to come and see Jesus is simply about telling what we have seen.  Our stories do not have to be dramatic to be helpful to others.

Christ is the Passover Lamb whose life, death, and resurrection delivers liberation to the cosmos.  The Lamb sets us free from every form of death, sin included.

Jesus models the way to invite people into his company.  Prepared to listen to them, Jesus asks people what they are looking for, invites them to come and see, and a relationship is born in the conversation.  Jesus calls us who follow him to approach others first of all with listening ears, and to open ourselves to real involvement and real friendships with them.  In real presence with each other we can experience the presence of Jesus.

The vision of the dragon in Revelation 12 points to the shadow in the Christmas story: evil operating through agents like Herod, aiming to destroy the child and the child's siblings.  Its agents are still at work, but Christ's people take the way of the wise ones in Matthew 2. They don't cooperate with Herod, and they don't bow before the emperor.

Jesus' first act of ministry was to go down to the river where the sinners were, and get in the water with them.  Christ continues to pursue justice and righteousness in the gentle, yet persistent way of the servant in Isaiah 42.

Jeremiah bought a field that he would never be able to use as a sign of hope.  It was an investment in God’s future.

God called the exiles to put down roots and seek the wellbeing of Babylon.  God calls us to seek the wellbeing of the communities in which God has placed us.

Just as God saw the misery of the Israelite slaves and was determined to do something about it, Jesus saw the bent over woman in the synagogue and was determined to do something about it.  God sees and knows what is going on with all who are bowed down.  God is going to do something about it, and so are those who follow God.