Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Our God, the “Contrarian” 

Pastor Sherry’s message for March 15, 2026

1 Sam 16:1-13; Ps 23; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41

What is a “contrarian”? Have you ever been accused of being one?According to a number of excellent dictionaries, it means essentially,

“1.One who takes a contrary view or action, especially an investor who makes decisions that contradict prevailing wisdom, as in buying securities that are unpopular at the time.

“2. A person who habitually takes a view opposite to that held by the majority.

“The contrarians in the stock market prefer to sell when most analysts advise us to buy.”

“3. A person who expresses a contradicting viewpoint, especially one who denounces the majority persuasion.”

  1. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, as shared on Google.com)

In other words, a Contrarian” is someone who has opinions that differ from those of the majority of folks on certain issues. We tend to think of a contrarian as someone who is rebellious. Perhaps it could be said to describe you at times. I’m sure my ex-husband, and several bosses for whom I once worked said it of me. But, you know, it puts us in good company because it can also be said of both Jesus and of God the Father. We don’t want to be intentionally disagreeable—that would be neither Christian nor reasonable. Nevertheless, as one of my favorite Bible commentators, Rev. John Fairless (of “Two Bubbas and a Bible” fame) puts it:

“We don’t like it when God gets contrary, do we? We like God to color between the lines, to follow the speed limit and to stay in the right lane. And the Bible shows us a God who likes to speed, who can sometimes barely keep it between the ditches, who not only does not color between the lines; it sometimes appears that God doesn’t even know that the lines are there.”

(John Fairless and Delmer Chilton, The Lectionary Lab Commentarty, Year A,, 2013, p.91)

Fairless has exaggerated for effect, but he is saying that we tend to expect God to behave according to what we think is the one right and only way (usually our own opinion). But God is God and so what He or Jesus does is the true, right, and best way—even if it might not initially look that way to us.

This is clearly illustrated in our Old Testament and Gospel readings today:

A. In 1 Samuel 16:1-13, the prophet Samuel is tasked by God with anointing the continuously disobedient King Saul’s replacement. We learn that Samuel is reluctant to do so. He really loves Saul, despite Saul’s rebelliousness toward God. And he worries that if Saul gets wind of what he is doing in Bethlehem, the King will have him assassinated.

Despite his fears, Samuel gathers Jesse and his sons, under the guise of an impromptu worship service, and looks the seven sons over. He’s impressed with the eldest, Eliab, but God says, “NO, he’s not My choice. You are responding to what you see of his outward appearance”—the problem the people had when they selected Saul, who was tall and good looking. So, God redirects him by saying (v.7, NLT)…Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

He then asks Jesse if he has additional sons. It’s as though the youngest is so insignificant to his father that he has forgotten David. Jesse had other shepherds who could have tended the flock. However, he says in verse 11-→There is still the youngest, but he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats. David’s father had not planned for him to attend the worship service or the banquet to follow. But David, at 16, the youngest of 8, is the one God wants. And when Samuel anoints him as the next King of Israel, the Holy Spirit falls upon him, marking him as God’s choice.

How surprised—and perhaps how envious—the older brothers must have been! Instead of choosing the eldest brother, God–as we saw Him do with Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—chooses the youngest. This flies in the face of human expectations! We think that the baby son has the least experience and may be spoiled or entitled, having an underdeveloped character. But our “contrarian” God sees things in these younger sons that we might miss. God knows what trials they will face; and He also anticipates the character they will develop. Remember, despite his sins, King David proved himself to be (unlike King Saul) a man after God’s own heart!

B. Our Gospel lesson, John 9:1-41, relates the events surrounding Jesus’ healing of the man blind from birth.

First Jesus addresses the faulty but prevalent belief of the time that if you were somehow physically disabled, it was because you or your folks had seriously sinned. Being blind from birth was not his fate, or his karma–Christians do not believe in either. His condition was meant to provide the opportunity for God to prove that Jesus could heal a never-sighted person (v.3)-→This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.

Then He heals him. Here’s where the questions, the doubt, and the fun begin: The neighbors question whether or not this newly sighted guy is truly the blind guy they known for years. He insists he is and that his healing is real, but they don’t believe him. How frustrating for him that he cannot convince them.

My question is “Why is no one rejoicing with him?”  This has never happened before, it’s a miracle. Why are the people who are acquainted with him not rejoicing?!!

Instead, the neighbors take him to the Pharisees. The Pharisees can’t rejoice in his new eyesight either because they get tangled up in the fact that Jesus healed (or did work) on the Sabbath! The Pharisees then argue over whether or not Jesus is from God or is a blatant sinner. They ask the man and he insists that Jesus must be a man of God, a prophet. But, because the whole enterprise contradicts their belief system—their narrative—they discount the man’s testimony and search out his parents. He’s a grown man! Lord have mercy!

They locate his parents and demand to know if the man was truly born blind. The parents have heard the Pharisees are throwing Jesus’ followers out of the Synagogue—the center of Jewish community in that day–so they are cagey with their response. Interestingly, even they don’t celebrate his healing. This makes me wonder if they were already missing the money he made from begging. If you truly loved your child, would you not be thrilled that he was now able to see?!! They wisely, and probably cheekily, tell the Pharisees to ask him for themselves.

The Pharisees call the man back in, saying (v.24)-→God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner. The man honestly states (v.24)-→I don’t know whether He is a sinner…but I know this: I was blind but now I can see! Can’t you just hear his frustration?

No doubt he is thinking, “I’ve never been able to see, but now I can, due to this man you call Jesus. Can’t you just celebrate with me?” So he tells the Pharisees (v.27)-→Look!…I told you once. Didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become His disciples, too? The Pharisees are frustrated too. Their perspective is that Jesus is a sinner, no one with Godly authority. So they curse this man whose only misstep was to have been healed by our Lord! They place their faith in Moses because they don’t trust in Jesus’ origins or His power. The healed man, probably inspired by the Holy Spirit, then takes them to school (vv.30-33)–> Why, that is very strange! He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where He comes from? We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but He is ready to hear those who worship Him and do His will. Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, He couldn’t have done it. (He reminds me, in his “moxie” of the Samaritan woman at the well.) The Pharisees, however, are outraged—their pride is offended—so they do expel him from the Synagogue.

Jesus comes to his rescue again. He reveals Himself to the man as the long-awaited Messiah. He says He came to give sight to the blind, which He has done for this fortunate fellow (as per Isaiah 63:1); and to try to convince those who are spiritually blind that they do not see. Overhearing, the Pharisees get involved again and ask (v.40)-→Are you saying we’re blind? Now who is the contrarian? Jesus says, If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty [you’d have an excuse]. But you remain guilty because you claim you can see. The short answer is “Yes.” They are able to see physically but not spiritually; whereas the blind man was physically blind, prior to Jesus, but now sees spiritually, and with much more accurate perception than the religious leaders and teachers of his day.

So what might we learn from this? We have learned that life is not fair, and sometimes our God may not seem fair, as judged from our perspective. We say or think that He doesn’t do the things we think He should do, or that He doesn’t do them the way or the time we think they should be done. YIKES! We want to think that through carefully. We are not God and we are not privy to all that He knows and plans for us. If we can trust in His nature, we know He is the Good Shepherd as Psalm 23 tells us: He provides for us, protects us, and blesses us. St. Paul exhorts us (Ephesians 5:8-14) to live as people of the Light. Christ’s light shines out only what is good and right and true. This kind of behavior differs from secular wisdom and contemporary woke expectations. If we don’t see the evidence of God’s blessings in our lives today, we need to trust in His nature and wait—with hope and faith—for what He does in our future.

We have learned that God’s purposes are right and good. The Pharisees misjudged Jesus because He did not present Himself in ways that fit their expectations, their system, their narrative. If we are offended because our God often appears to be a contrarian, we need to remember He is God and we are not.  As a result, we should each probably ask ourselves, “What truth about God or Christ have I missed because it did not fit my view of how things should turn out?”

Just as King David’s family, the prophet Samuel, and the Blind man’s parents and his neighbors, we need to be willing to put our human assumptions aside and look to see what “opposite world” thing our God is doing. Jesus came to save the lost. We are lost—and inaccurate– if we insist that all things should go our way. But we worship a Jesus who is never lost, and who—as the Son of Man, the Christ, the Messiah, the Living Water, the Light of the World—came to show us the unerring way to the Father’s heart.

Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Passing God’s Tests

Pastor Sherry’s message for March 8, 2026

Scriptures: Ex 17:1-7; Ps 95; Ro 5:1-11; Jn 4:5-42

There is an anonymous story told of an Ohio State University student who was academically competent but tended to need time to complete assignments (he was smart but not speedy). He was troubled by a Calculus class he needed to pass—and wasn’t—taught by an annoying professor. The guy seemed to delight in frustrating his already discouraged students (You know the type. They seem to dislike students and should never be allowed to have authority over them.) During exams, he would walk around, watching them like a hawk, hoping to discover someone cheating; and he would frequently announce the amount of time left just to interrupt their trains of thought and to agitate everyone. In a class of 1,000 students, the slow-but-steady young man was the only one not to turn in his exam when time was called. The prof waited impatiently and then, an hour later, when the young man finally finished his test, the prof asked him what he thought he was doing. The young man answered, “Turning in my exam.” The prof replied, “Your exam is an hour late. Congratulations! You’ve failed it. So, I will see you next term when you repeat my class.” 

The student smiled and asked, “Do you know my name?” The professor replied gruffly, “What?” The student rephrased his question, “Do you know what my name is?” With irritation, the prof replied, “There are 1,000 students in this class. What makes you think I would know your name?” The student then smiled, and, lifting up a tall stack of test booklets, placed his completed test in the middle of the pile and casually exited the huge lecture hall.

Life sometimes presents us with tests–and authority figures– like that one. We may think our prospects are slim and we don’t have much of a chance at succeeding. The truth is that if we have a relationship with the Lord, we can make it through about any trial that might come. Let’s see what light our passages today have to shed on this issue: 

A. Our OT lesson comes from Exodus 17:1-7. The context is that God is leading His people from the Wilderness of Sin—and doesn’t sin truly place us in a wilderness?–to a placed called Rephidim. The Children of Israel have already experienced God’s miraculous deliverance of them from Pharaoh’s Chariots at the parting of the Red Sea. Three days into the desert, they come across a pond of bad water which the lord empowers Moses to turn good. He then leads them to an oasis with 12 delicious fresh water springs, so they can load up their water skins. By the 15th day out of Egypt, they have run out of food (except for their herds), but God supernaturally supplies them with manna. Now they find themselves at Rephidim where there is no water.

Having apparently learned little about trusting in the Lord for His provision, they fail to pray and ask for His assistance. Instead, they turn on Moses. It’s a test which they flunk. God has provided for them already, at least 3-4 times! Psychology tells us the best single predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Jehovah Jirah truly is our provider. By now, they should have trusted in the Lord and sought Him out in prayer. Moses, afraid for his life, pleads with God to intervene. And God uses him to lead them to the Rock at Horeb, at the base of Mt. Sinai (where they will soon receive the Ten Commandments).

There God makes water rush out from the rock, enough to satisfy 2 million people and only Heaven knows how many animals. Moses names the place Massah—which means testing—and Meribah—which means quarreling. It becomes a monument to their lack of faith in God.

It is also a testimony to their rebellion, their hard hearts, their ingratitude, and their self-pity. Many centuries later, Paul will write 1 Corinthians10:1-4-→I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. And he followed up in verses 9-10-→Do not…put Christ to the test, as some of them did and… don’t grumble as some of them did….Because Massah and Meribah is also a reminder of God’s gracious and abundant provision—in spite of His peoples’ attitudes and behavior! Unlike the calculus professor at Ohio State, God is for us, not against us. Our Lord tests us to help deepen our faith and trust in Him.

B. Psalm 95 picks up the same theme! This is one of the psalms that memorializes the Israelites’ rebellious lack of faith. Verses 8-10 state (NLT)-→The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried My patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts turn away from Me. They refuse to do what I tell them.” Other psalms say essentially the same thing: Psalm 81:7-→You cried to Me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Psalm 105:40-41(NIV)-→They asked and He brought them quail and satisfied them with the bread of Heaven. He opened the rock and water gushed out; like a river it flowed in the desert. Psalm 106:13 (NLT)-→Yet how quickly they forgot what He had done! They wouldn’t wait for His counsel!  In the desert their desires ran wild, testing God’s patience in that wasteland.

You see, our God tests our faith in Him. As we develop in our spiritual walk, He tests us to discover whether we love Him for what He does for us or because of Who He is. As Paul reminds us in Romans 5:3-5-→We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know they they help us develop endurance [patience, persistence]. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

Returning to Psalm 95, God provided for that generation, but—because they repeatedly failed His tests, (v.11)—So in My anger I took an oath: They will never enter my place of rest [the Promised Land]. He did not detest them, but He was angry and grieved with and disappointed in them. They wandered in the wilderness because they did not trust God. He waited for the last of that adult generation to die before leading the people into the Promised Land. 

C. Our Gospel lesson (John 4:5-42) relates Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman around her need for living water. First, we note that He had to go through Samaria. Jews normally avoided traveling through Samaria.

The Samaritans had intermarried with non-Jewish northern people after 721BC, and were considered mongrels by their Jewish kin in Judea. Nevertheless, Jesus stopped there to fulfill a divine appointment with this woman. (Never believe that women are second class citizens in God’s eyes! Jesus, the King of Glory, went into Samaria precisely because the Father told Him to meet with this woman.)

She comes looking for water at noon, a time when other women would have been elsewhere. No doubt she hoped to avoid them, and their “snarky” comments. Additionally, she was probably lonely, discouraged, and feeling empty and weary.

She encounters Jesus, the Word Made Flesh, the Living Water. He engages her first, thus overcoming barriers of gender, race, religion, religious practice, and morality. He meets her where she is, with compassion and love. He steps into her reality, promising her water that…becomes a spring gushing up to eternal life. She is curious and asks Him to give her this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. But one thing stands in her way: her sinful lifestyle. Unlike the student from Ohio State, she is known to Christ. He knows her sinful history of 5 husbands and a 6th paramour. When He calls her out on her sins, she believes He is a prophet. But He reveals Himself to her as the promised Messiah. Thrilled, she abandons her water jugs and brings her whole village to Him. She and they all partake of the true Living Water, the Word of God, Jesus Christ. She and they—considered by the Jews to be no better than feral dogs—are transformed and saved!

We need to be aware that God will test our faith. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we should expect the testing to begin and not be surprised. Further, we don’t want to be stubborn and stiff-necked like the ancient Israelites, repeatedly failing God’s tests. No, we want to be like this Samaritan woman, realizing we are lost, unfulfilled, and desperate without Jesus. We want to learn from the tests to deepen our faith. We want the Holy Spirit to develop in us endurance and patience; to mold and shape our characters to look more and more like that of Jesus; to transform our attitudes and behaviors; to increase our hope; and to discover if we can continue to love Him even when He doesn’t give us what we want.

So the question really is, Will we pass God’s tests? When we experience deprivation, loss, a heart-breaking health diagnosis, or some trauma, will we doubt God’s presence and His provision, like the ancient Israelites? Or will we like Moses, go to Him in prayer for help, trusting in Him to rescue us? Or will we, like the Samaritan Woman, open ourselves to His loving correction and transforming power?

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams  

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Forgiving the Unforgivable

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 22, 2026

Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35

Yesterday and the day before that, I led a women’s retreat on forgiveness. In three talks, I focused on “Forgiving Others,” Forgiving Self,” and “Forgiving God.” All of human forgiveness takes its cue from our God who sacrificially forgave us through the atoning death of His Only Son on the Cross. I’m not going to recapitulate for you what I had to say during the 2-day retreat. However, I do want to bring to your attention the documentary film work of Laura Waters Hinson. Back in 2006, she debuted her 53 minute, masters thesis film, called “As We Forgive,” a treatment of the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I was present at a church conference where her film debuted and was amazed at the story she had to tell.

Perhaps you are familiar already with the genocide. The Hutu tribe—mostly farm workers—had gained power over the wealthy, landowning, and cattle breeding, but smaller tribe of Tutsi. The Hutu waged a campaign of hatred against the Tutsi, first dehumanizing them, then urging disaffected Hutu to search out and kill them. They had been neighbors for years, living together peacefully in the same villages. But in 100 days, the Hutu killed over a million Tutsi’s, mostly hacking them to death with machetes. Twelve years later, the Rwandan government decided to let the over 40,000 incarcerated, men who had murdered their countrymen and women, go free. Many were very worried about what would happen when convicted murderers returned home to their villages. 

At this point, several Christian Churches stepped in. They trained men as reconciliation counselors to meet with victims of the massacre, as well as with perpetrators of the violence. In Hinson’s documentary, she traces the stories of two women: (1) Rosario, a woman of faith, who had lost her husband and 4 children. She had been pregnant when the murderers found her family. They macheted her left shoulder, stabbed her in her left thigh, rammed her chest with rifle butts, and left her for dead. 6 months later, she gave birth to her daughter and named her the Rwandan word for “gift.” It is clear that her faith helped her cope with the heinous tragedy. She was going about life and seemed at peace. (2) The other woman in the film was Chantele. Her father had been ambushed and killed, by 3 men, two years before the genocide. During the genocide her husband and 28 members of her family were killed. She felt God had failed her, left the Church, and appeared to be embittered and depressed. 

A man named Saveri admitted in the film that he had killed 7 people. He said what he had done had “shattered his heart,” and that he was left with “terrible guilt.” When the reconciliation counselors approached him, he seemed to sincerely ready to apologize to Rosario and to do what he could to make amends to her. He, with others, helped build her a new home and joined with other villagers to harvest her sorgum crop. She was grateful to him and was able to forgive him. John was one of the men who had killed Chantele’s father. He felt very guilty and ashamed, saying he could not look her in the face, and that he was afraid to talk to her. With the assistance of a counselor, he did ask her to forgive him. She refused, adamantly, for 3 years, but was eventually convinced—perhaps by observing the difference in others who had reconciled—to grant John forgiveness. Her village friends cheered as she stated her forgiveness, and she, John, and John’s wife became friends. Her depression has lifted, her bitterness is gone, and her face seems lighter and brighter. This is demonstrated in a second short film (7 minutes long), a 3-year-later epilogue to “As We forgive.”  [I showed this epilogue in church this morning and recommend that you locate it and the longer film and watch them.] 

These Rwandans have truly forgiven the unforgivable. They have taken very seriously Jesus’ admonition in the Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor (or the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant). I am including it below in the New Living Translation:

Then Peter came to Him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” [The rabbis taught that 3 times was enough, so Peter was being generous.]

“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!” [490 times, essentially meaning an infinite number]. 

“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars [10,000 talents; scholars say the amount was worth $400,000,000 in today’s money—an inconceivable number; currently more than the Gross National Product of 80% of the countries in the world].  He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. 

“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all’ [an offer of impossible retribution; notice he did not ask for forgiveness]. Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. [So who absorbed the debt? The king did, just as Father God did through Jesus’ atoning death for our sins!]

“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars [100 denarii, about 100 days’ wages for a working man then]. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded [notice his statement is almost the same as the unforgiving debtor].. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king [like modern day whistle-blowers] and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. 

“That’s what My Heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.“

This is Jesus speaking! We will be tortured if we do not forgive. He’s not referring especially to hell, though unbelief and unforgiveness can land us there. He is implying that our own focus on what was done to us will continue to torment us unless we forgive. Remember, refusing to forgive is like drinking poison and expecting the wrong-doer to die. It is also giving them, and what they did or failed to do, space in our brains rent-free. We stay preoccupied with them and what they did to us; we ruminate over it, stay stressed, run up high levels of hydrocortisol, impair our immune system, and leave ourselves unprotected against opportunistic illnesses and diseases like flu, colds, cancer, arthritis, autoimmune disorders, etc. We unforgiving ones suffer while the wrong-doer may not care or may not even remember what they did or did not do.

The Koine Greek word Jesus uses in this parable is aphime which means—among other things—cut em loose. You see the Romans had another horrible way to exact capital punishment besides crucifixion: they would chain a cadaver to your back. It would stink and begin to break down until you became diseased and died. Imagine trying to sleep at night while attached to a cadaver. Jews in those days would be forbidden from attending synagogue (unclean due to touching something dead) and expelled from the village or town to live isolated and alone. It was a slow and horrible way to die. Jesus is saying “cut yourself free from the cadaver of offense and forgive.”

Notice, at the end of the parable, Jesus says our Heavenly Father forgives us in the measure to which we forgive others. If we fail to forgive, well we aren’t forgiven. YIKES!! No wonder those brave Rwandans cooperated with the Christians counseling them to forgive. They too wanted forgiveness. If you watch Rosario and Chantele, you can see by the end of the epilogue that they are transformed persons. So too can we be. Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Alleluia, alleluia!

(Side note: The Irish have contacted the Rwandans to learn how their two tribes came to reconciliation; so too have some other nations.)

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Closing the Loopholes

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 15, 2026

Scriptures: Deut 30:11-20; Ps 119:1-8; 1 Cor 3:1-9; Matt 5:21-37

Do you know there are entire websites devoted to reporting stories of people who located loopholes and benefited their finds?

A. In the following real life example, a daughter reports: 

  “My Dad’s Lexus was stolen right out from his carport, so he reported it as stolen to the police and insurance company. After two weeks, when the car never turned up, the insurance company paid him for the car. Another week goes by, and he gets a call from the police saying they found his car parked two towns away. There wasn’t a single scratch on it, and not a lot of miles had been put on it either. So now the insurance company owns the car, and they put it up for auction. My dad goes to the auction and bids on his car to get it back. He won the bid with $10,000 to spare. So he drove home in his car with an extra $10,000 in his pocket.”

(As shared on http://www.Buzzfeed.com, 2/12/2026)

Isn’t it just in our nature to enjoy a tale in which a “little guy,” an average citizen, outsmarts the “big guys”—in this case Corporate America/the insurance company? We think, “How clever of this dad!” But wait a minute! As Lee Corso (the college football coach and commentator) used to say, “Not so fast my friend.” That clever dad defrauded the insurance company! He should have told the company that his car was found, returned the money they paid him, and retrieved his car. This kind of behavior raises all of our insurance rates.

And aren’t there loopholes that are even more damaging? Consider the court cases in which a guilty party gets off due to a technical error on the part of the District Attorney’s office or the police. For the past two weeks, the news has been full of speculation surrounding the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie. Friday night, I heard several police and FBI experts criticize the sheriff of Tucson, Arizona, for having released the crime scene—her house–too soon. They claim that that gave the opportunity for news reporters, neighbors, and curious “lookey-loos” to contaminate evidence. Should the kidnapper be apprehended, any evidence collected from the house after the crime scene was no longer secure would be suspect, and could not be admitted into court. There is always the possibility that someone planted that evidence. This is a kind of a loophole, isn’t it? If they lack sufficient evidence to get a conviction when the crime scene was closed off, a guilty party could get off “scott-free.” There would be no justice for Nancy Guthrie nor for her family.

Several of our Scriptures passages today address God’s view of minimum standards and loopholes. Let’s take a look.

    A. In Deuteronomy 30:15-20, God Himself speaks to the Israelites, giving them two choices (He is speaking through His prophet Moses). The former Egyptian slaves are about to go into the Land of Promise without him.

He puts before them two choices: Life and prosperity/blessings, or Death and destruction. The choice God lays out is an either/or choice, with only 2 options: If they/we love God and obey Him, if we walk in His ways and keep His commands, decrees, and laws, they and we will reap blessings. If, however, they/we abandon God or are disobedient, our lives will turn out badly; we will live with regrets over lost opportunities. Notice how straight forward this is—no both/and; no loopholes.

    Then He reminds them, in v.20 , they/we want to do this because…the key to their life, as individuals and as a nation, is absolute commitment to the Lord. Or as Jesus says in John 15, …apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. There it is again, in the New Testament, choose life or choose death.

If we want to be productive, if we want to make a difference in this life, if we want to leave a meaningful legacy, we need to love God and obey Him. Again, God leaves us no loopholes. 

  B. In our Psalm, Psalm 119:1-8, the author, inspired by God, lays out what happens to the persons who make the right choice: Verses 1-2–> state that they are joyful. Verse 3–>says they do not compromise with evil, like seeking out loopholes. Instead, they walk in a way that pleases the Lord. Verses 4-5–>assert they desire to keep God’s commandments and obey His decrees. Verses 6-8-→indicate that the man or woman who pleases God has an obedient, surrendered attitude toward God and a desire live out the Lord’s will.

And, at the very end, he pleads that God not give up on him, knowing we are all unable to do all of this perfectly–knowing there are no loopholes by which we can wiggle out of being held accountable; knowing we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to live holy lives.

  C. Paul, in our 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 lesson, lectures the Church in Corinth—a true sin-city like Las Vegas or New Orleans–on having chosen Jesus but continuing to live a carnal life. They are living like “Baby Christians,” persons new to the faith, trying to live a life that reflects knowing Jesus, but also looking for loopholes that allow them to behave as they did before confessing Christ. Paul is not having it! In chapter three, he confronts them on their jealousy, their quarreling with one another, and their division into factions.

He wants them to be united in Christ, recognizing that Paul may have planted the seed—won them to Jesus—but Apollos came after to disciple them, and God has made their faith grow. Who did what is not as important as is God. In fact, Paul and Apollos are both servants of God. Back to what the Lord said in Deuteronomy: Choose life or death; no loopholes!

     D. In our Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:21-37, Jesus expands upon several of the 10 Commandments, with a view toward how we please our heavenly Father. This is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Prior to this passage, He has told us the kinds of heart attitudes that please God/result in blessedness (the right choice): (1) Humility; (2) Self-restraint and self-control because we are obedient to God; (3) Sincerity, integrity; (4) Caring deeply for the welfare of others; (5) Being merciful toward others; and (6) Living at peace with them. He has also encouraged us to be salt and light in the world.

     Today He turns His attention to what it would look like if we truly lived by Biblical principles, teaching what is at the heart of God’s commands and decrees.

In verse 21 He says, You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’…but I tell you…He is digging down into the 6th Commandment. He says, don’t allow yourself to get angry; it’s the start of an escalation that can destroy you and others. Catch anger as it intensifies. Stop yourself and back down from seeking revenge or escalating to bitterness and unforgiveness. Don’t even allow yourself to use abusive language toward another. Instead of name-calling, as much as it is dependent upon you, be reconciled to others. Forgive others before you present your worship or gifts to God.

  In verses 27-32, He deals with adultery and divorce. He is digging down into the 7th Commandment. He is holding up the marital ideal: No adultery; No divorce. He is saying we need to guard our primary relationships because they are foundational to our children’s security and to our society. He is making the point that adultery and marital unfaithfulness begin with lust. He wants us work intentionally to overcome lust–not to literally blind or maim ourselves, since a blind or lame person can still lust. Those are exaggerations for effect. God allows divorce to prevent cruelty or even murder. The Rabbis were teaching that a husband could divorce if his wife burned the dinner. Jesus is saying the grounds must be much more severe than that.

In Verses 32-37, He deals with oaths. He is addressing the 3rd & 9th Commandments He says, don’t swear on God’s name and don’t lie or bear false witness. We are to be honest in our dealings with others. If we live with integrity, there is no need for us to take oaths at all. Sister Judith, my first principal back in 1970, when I first taught high school Social Studies used to say to me, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” High School students respect that, and so do others.

Jesus sets very high standards, doesn’t He? No loopholes. In the Sermon on the mount, He spells out for us some lofty expectations about how we are to love God and love others. However, He also knows we cannot achieve living this way on our own. In our sinfulness, we will blow it. We will get angry. We may engage in lust. We might make vows and break them. We need to help of the Holy Spirit to live into these new heart-attitudes. Fortunately, we can be assured that God forgives what we confess to Him. The Apostle John writes in 1 John 1:8-9 , If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. God has so set things up that we can take any sin to Him, ask His forgiveness, and He will grant it—an infinite number of times. That is God’s grace and mercy in action. But as we continue to walk with the Lord, and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us. We learn the rough lessons from our sins that way lies pain, shame, despair, and isolation. Violating God’s laws, without confession and repentance, is spiritual (as well as emotional and even physical) death. And we also learn the wisdom of God. He desires to lift us up, out of the miry pit. He wants to heal us, to bless us

God has set out His standards for us—and they are not minimums.

He does not want us to search out loopholes. As we attempt to be salt and light, as we prepare for Lent (which starts on Wednesday), make it your goal to walk the walk. No one said it would be easy; God’s standards are high. But He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us move more and more into compliance with them. When you fall short—and we all do—ask God’s forgiveness and believe He gives it to you. AMEN!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Eye-Black as Salt and Light

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 8, 2026

Scriptures: Isa 58:1-9a; Ps 112; 1Cor 1:1-12; Matt 5:13-20

Some years back, I read Tim Tebow’s autobiographical book, Shaken (WaterBrook, 2016) which I would recommend. In it, he shares some facts that are rather astonishing: You may remember he became known for citing a Bible verse address in his eye-black. On January 8th, 2009, for the National Championship football game against Oklahoma, he put John 3:16 on his cheeks, in his eye-black. Not only did the Gators win that game, but then Coach Urban Meyer told him afterward that 94 million people watching had Googled John 3:16-→For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Tim writes (p.155), “Talk about humbling. God is so big that He used something so small, a tiny biblical reference painted under my eyes, to impact people to search His Word.” Interesting that soon afterward, the NCAA made a new rule banning players from placing messages in their eye-black. Now some 10-15 years later, players are once again placing Biblical references in their eye-black.

Nevertheless, exactly 3 years to the day later, Tim was playing for the Denver Broncos in an NFL playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now the NFL also didn’t allow players to put messages in eye-black. You may remember that Denver beat the heavily favored Steelers 29-23, in overtime in that game, with a touchdown thrown by Tebow to Demaryius Thomas. Following that astonishing win, a Bronco’s PR man told Tim (p.156), “Do you know that it was exactly 3 years since you wore John 3:16? And during this game, you threw for 316 yards. Your yards/completion were 31.6. The time of possession for Denver was 31:06. The ratings for the night were 31.6 million. And during the game ninety million people Googled John 3:16,” (based on statements by the TV commentators).

I find this astonishing! Tim says, “I was reminded that God…is always at work—with or without me. Just goes to show you that we never know what God can do with the small choices we make, with the stands we take, or with something positive we do even unintentionally.” Tim had done something small—changed the citation in his eye-black for a big game—and God kept using it for His glory 3 years later. Clearly no one can say our God isn’t concerned about details.

Most of us don’t receive the kind of attention a Tim Tebow does, but even so—as our Scriptures today demonstrate—we can make a difference in this world for our God, if we behave like salt and let our light shine:

A. In Isaiah 58:1-9, God is explaining to the Judeans that their religious words and actions are all about going through the motions. If they really want to show God they love Him, they will quit performing empty rituals and spouting off meaningless prayers. I know we have at least two parishioners who are really into movies. But do any of you remember “Clueless” from 1995? In it, Alicia Silverstone immortalized the sarcastic statement of skeptical disbelief, “As Iff….” Isaiah is making an “As iff” statement to the Israelites. “Yeah, right, you say you love God, but….” God is saying through him, “Yada, yada, yada…same ole, same ole; precise but meaningless worship. I am not impressed!”

Instead, He wants them to demonstrate their faith in Him through their actions—the way they live their lives: Free the wrongly imprisoned; Lighten the burdens of your workers; Stand up for the oppressed; Share food with the hungry; Clothe the naked; and Provide shelter for the homeless. If they (and we) do these things, God says, Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help and He will say: Here I am (vv.8-9).

The Israelites then, and we followers of Jesus Christ now, are to be light in the world. If we are making God first in our lives, and loving others as we love ourselves, our examples will both preserve and demonstrate God’s love and shine brightly in this dark world, helping others not to stumble and to see their way.  

B. Psalm 112:1-10 is the masculine equivalent of the Proverbs 31 woman, listing the characteristics of a man who “fears”/respects the Lord` Timothy Keller, in his book Forgive (Penguin Books, 2023, p60), asserts that the fear of the Lord is not the terror kind of fear, but rather a sense of being deeply affected or in awe of who God is and what He’s done. God is saying through the psalmist that He blesses those who are in right relationship with Him. The righteous man is blessed in that his children reflect well on him; he is economically and spiritually secure; he is generous and just, and cares for the poor; and he is well thought of by others. And even though the wicked are jealous of him, they cannot prevail against him. Light shines from this person, doesn’t it? Such a man (or woman) is exceptional, like a Tim Tebow. Their life and witness help others to come to Christ and to be salt and light. 

C. Our Gospel lesson is Matthew 5:13-20. It is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and occurs just after the passage containing the Beatitudes. In it, Jesus calls Israel (and us) to be salt and light. He also challenges us to live that out in our world.

Salt in the Ancient Near East was a preservative then as they lacked refrigeration. It stopped fermentation and decay of meats and other foods. 

You could say it was an early “green” or conservation method. Jesus is saying we are to live our lives in such a way as to preserve others. What we model in the way we live our lives should encourage others want to know the Jesus we know;

Because of the way we love God and others, they will come to want to function that way too.

Additionally, light banishes the darkness. It helps us to see clearly and to avoid obstacles. If I forget whether or not I have locked my front door at night, I may use a flashlight to light my way from my bedroom to the door. I see what is illuminated in that small circle of light and keep from stubbing my toes on furniture.

As Paul reminds us, in 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, we have the mind of Christ because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and reminding us of all that Jesus taught. We are clothed in His righteousness, we seek His will, and we reflect the light of His Holy Spirit from our eyes and from our spirits. So, as we go about our lives, walking in His light, reflecting His light in a dark world, people are drawn to us and to what we have in us.

In this Gospel passage, Jesus says He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. He is the only human being who has ever lived out the Law completely. This is how He fulfilled it—by being salt and light. This is also how He is able, this side of the Cross, to apply His righteousness to us.

When we are salt and light, God uses even the little things we do to bring glory to Himself. I read a story this week of a woman’s reaction to her mother’s cancer diagnosis: Her name was Emily Potter and she was disturbed ot receive a call from her sister affirming, “It’s cancer,” describing the diagnosis their mother had just gotten. “Not my mom,” thought Emily. “Please not my mom.” Cancer had already devastated their family once before, and they had lost friends to it as well.

“The only way that Emily knew how to express herself was to create something. So, she made a sweatshirt with the word “salty” sown across the front. She showed up to her mother’s first round of chemotherapy wearing the sweatshirt. And why did she choose that particular word? Emily says that being salty “means that I am extremely bitter, angry and resentful towards her cancer.” But it also sends the message that her mom is “tough and a fighter.”

“According to Emily, people with cancer are some of the toughest and most courageous people on earth. She wears her “salty” sweatshirt as a kind of armor, one that strengthens and preserves her bond with her mother. When she puts it on, she is saying, “I love you. I’m here for you. Let’s be salty. Together.””

(As shared in http://www.proclaimsermons.com; 2-4-26)

I want to invite you to look around this week and ask God to show you to whom you are to be salt and light; and then do what He prompts you to do: Pay a visit. Make a phone call. Send a card or an email. Provide a meal. Contribute to a worthy cause. We don’t have to do everything, just do what God places before you. Remember Tebow’s eye black…such a little act, with such a huge response. Paul quotes for us in 1 Corinthians 2:9–>No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him….Be willing to do something little, out of your love for God, and watch the Lord do big things with it. AMEN!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Where is Jesus in the Car of Your life?

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 1, 2026

Scriptures: Micah 6:1-8; Ps 15; 1 Cor 1:15-31; Matt 5:1-12

Years ago, when I was in seminary, my home church in Tallahassee flew me to Camp Weed (in Live Oak, Florida) to attend a women’s retreat. The speaker was a woman named Norma Dearing. She worked at the Christian Healing Ministry in Jacksonville, Florida, alongside Fr. Francis MacNutt and his wife, Judith. Norma, like the MacNutts, was able to pray for a person while hearing from the Holy Spirit exactly what they needed healing for. I remember we were all seated in rows and she came behind us, placed her hands on our shoulders, and proceeded to lift to God—without having spoken to us beforehand—exactly the issue most on each of our hearts. At first, I could hardly believe it! She had absolutely zeroed in on my needs. Then she accurately summarized those of my friends seated near me. I was so amazed—yet still skeptical—that I got up and took a seat near other friends so check to see how dead-on she would be for each of them. Wow! She blew me away! I had never heard of such a thing before. It was as though she knew us all intimately and yet she’d only just met us! I figured out that the Holy Spirit was downloading our needs into her mind as she prayed for each one of us. What a gift! 

She was also just as effective and memorable in the talks she presented. I’ll never forget that she asked us to consider where Jesus was in the “car of your life?” Is He a hood ornament? Or a bumper sticker? A decoration for show, but with no real impact on our driving. Is He in the trunk?

Perhaps we’ve taken Him in but it’s as though He’s bound and gagged–He’s along for the ride, but we don’t listen to or attend Him. Maybe He’s in the backseat, trying to direct us, but we don’t tune in or pay attention. Or is He in the passenger seat? We think of Him as our friend, but again, He has no real influence on the direction we take, the speed with which we drive, or how skillfully or carefully we manage our life. Well, the point is that Jesus should be in the driver’s seat of our lives. Occasionally you may still see a bumper sticker that says, “God is my copilot.”  But the truth is, He should be the pilot.

This is where the Beatitudes, today’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 5:1-12), clearly place Him. The first four put Him clearly behind the wheel.

We accompany Jesus where He wants to go. Our hearts are surrendered to His direction. As a result, our attitudes and behaviors are more Christ-like. The last 5 help us demonstrate Christ-like behaviors to others. Together the 9 beatitudes of Matthew constitute a road-map which directs us to a transformed and a blessed Christian life.

All nine begin with blessed-→makarioi in the Greek. It means supreme blessedness; ultimate well-being; genuinely fortunate! It can also mean jump for joy! Or Celebrate! These are Scriptural promises of both ultimate and present day blessings for persons who demonstrate these behaviors in their lives.

Let’s examine them together according to the New Living Translation (NLT):

1. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Because we know that all good things come from God, we surrender our need to control our progress. Instead, we put Jesus in the driver’s seat of our lives. We say, in our hearts, “Lord, I can’t go anywhere without YOU!” And Jesus replies, “When you let Me drive, you will journey alongside Me and toward heaven.” The reward is that God reigns in our hearts, and we experience/live out the fruit of the Spirit.

2. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Mourners care deeply. They have lost someone (or a pet, a relationship, or a job that was very dear to them. They may also be mourning their sinfulness. Sin separates us from God (leaving Jesus in the trunk or left out on the roadside.)

An ancient prayer of confession says, “…we acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness which we from time to time have grievously committed.” Mourners may also grieve the evil and sin that abounds in our world today-→abuse, betrayal, desertion, abandonment, massive fraud, acts of revenge, violence, etc. Suffering teaches us compassion and strengthens our faith. Some has said, All sunshine makes a desert, and it’s true isn’t it. We need some rain in our lives to learn to consider the needs of others. Eugene Peterson has written, “Suffering hallows out a place in us for God and His comfort which is infinite joy.”

Jesus in His grace says such mourners will be comforted. The reward for grieving is God’s comfort. In other words, we will be snuggled up with Jesus in the front seat.

3. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.  Meek does not mean weak-→Jesus says (Matt 11:29)-→for I am meek and lowly in heart. It means He has a gentle spirit, He is unassuming, unpretentious, not proud. Our Micah lesson (Micah 6:8) says,…Oh People, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  This means we are to be self-disciplined and self-controlled. This position of obedient trust and submission to God’s will puts Jesus in the drivers’ seat. Jesus in His grace says that such persons… will inherit the earth! The reward for being humble or meek is inheriting the blessings of God! These blessings include God’s peace, provision, and power.

4. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. While we may seek after food, love, money, influence, etc., this is instead a longing to be right with God and to want to see God’s righteousness prevail. St. Augustine and later, Henri Nouwen, referred to…a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill-→This is a spiritual hunger. Matthew 6:33 says, Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. Our reward is to to be filled to overflowing.

5. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Our love of self is replaced by our love of God and for others. We are kind, compassionate, forgiving. We live out the behavior of the Good Samaritan—helping a wounded enemy–and that of Jesus on the Cross—forgiving His murderers. In His grace, then, Jesus rewards us with extending grace to us.

6. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. The Hebrews believed the heart was the location of cognitions, decisions, motives, and the will. So a pure heart would be one that is sincere and truthful, whose motives are good. If we are pure in heart, we live our lives with integrity. In His grace, Jesus then rewards us with being able to discern Him in other people, and to enter into His presence through prayer and worship. Our Psalm (15) today was written by King David. In it, he maintains that only those with pure hearts or godly character can dwell in God’s presence.

7. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. Like Jesus, we have been given a ministry of reconciliation. God’s peace, His shalom means perfect welfare, serenity, prosperity, complete good. We are to wage peace with everyone-→Romans 13:18-→If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. This includes being at peace with God, with others, and even with yourself. We are not to harbor self-hate, but to cultivate a healthy self-love. In His grace, Jesus declares that such behavior labels us as sons (and daughters) of God. In other words, being a peacemaker renders us God-like!

8 & 9. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are My followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember: the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. If we are living out Christian lives, we will e persecuted. Right living convicts those not living right. Right living riles Satan. Peterson says, “To be persecuted is to be take seriously as a Christian.” Our gracious reward is that we are in great company! Romans 8:17 says, If we suffer with Christ, we shall be glorified with Him. And Paul goes on to state in 2 Timothy 2:12-→If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.

So, are you aware of where Jesus is in the car of your life? We tend to puyt ourselves in control, and may bring Jesus along somewhere. But the Beatitudes teach us to put Him formly in the driver’s seat. These Beatitudes are a road map for Christian transformation, which place us on the route to true happiness. May we each, with the help of the Holy Spirit, learn to live them out. 

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Pedaling in Tandem

Pastor Sherry’s message for January 25, 2026 

Scriptures: Amos 3:1-11; Ps 139:1-18; 1 Cor 1:10-18; Matt 4:12-23

Think about the following stories and see if you can discern the point of each:

(1) The story is told of two men riding a tandem bicycle up a steep hill. After much effort, they finally made it to the top of the hill. The front rider said, “That was a tough ride.” To which the second rider replied, “Sure was, and if I hadn’t kept the brake on we might have slipped backwards.””

Don’t you just know that the front rider was ready to scream at the guy in the back?

(2) “Intending to raise cattle, a family from New York bought a ranch out West. When their friends visited and inquired about the ranch’s name, the would be rancher replied: ‘I wanted to name it the Bar-J. My wife favored Suzy-Q, one of our sons wanted the Flying-W, and the other liked the Lazy-Y. So we’re calling it the Bar-J-Suzy-Q-Flying-W-Lazy-Y.’ ‘But where are all your cattle?’ the friends asked. ‘None survived the branding.’”

(Story sources are unknown, Ministry 127.com, 1/20/2026) 

What’s the point of both stories? It’s important to come into agreement.The ranch family needed to agree on a brief name so their cattle weren’t killed. And the tandem two needed to agree to pedal without the brake on so their friendship wasn’t destroyed.

This is where the LORD, through our readings today, is directing us as a church. We are to be a united body focused on our Lord Jesus Christ:

A. This is what Paul is saying to the Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 1:10-18), isn’t it? They are feuding over which of their leaders/teachers is the best. They have split into factions based on who they favor most. It would be the same if you compared me to the pastors who came before me, or to pastors who have a TV ministry. I am so grateful that you don’t appear to do that. I’m different from all of them—just as they differ from me–and we each have our own special giftings from the Lord. Incidentally, please pray for my continued growth and spiritual maturation.

Our LORD wants each of us to grow and mature spiritually by (1) learning to put Jesus first in all we do—a tall order; (2) learning to love others at least as well as we do ourselves—also a tall order; and (3) by following or obeying Jesus, just like James, John, Andrew, and Simon Peter. We’re not here to compete with one another—like reading faster than anyone else, singing louder, or cooking more dishes to bring to church meals. We’re here to learn a kind of self-giving cooperation not seen enough in our world today. We are to celebrate the centrality, the incomparable importance, of Jesus Christ.

B. Psalm 139:1-18 conveys such a message of reassurance, doesn’t it? It makes the point that our God is omniscient (knows everything), omnipresent (is present everywhere) and omnipotent (is all-powerful). As a result, He knows us intimately our behaviors and our thoughts—even before we speak or write them. We don’t know how He does this, but we know that He does (v.6, NLT)->Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! (Isaiah 55:8-9, in the New Living Translation, says it this way: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”) It also means there is no place we can take ourselves that is beyond God’s awareness—i.e., there is no hiding from God! Wherever we go, God’s (v.10)->hand will guide me, and [His] strength will support me. He can even see us in the dark (vv.11-12).

Next, the psalm informs us that God created our bodies. It was He who decided our gender, our nationality, even the era during which we would live. If we have always hated the size of our hips, or the color of our hair, etc., we might do better to just accept that this is how the Lord meant us to be. The psalmist, King David, writes (v.14)-.Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous. He created us and watched us develop in the womb. 

Better yet, (v.16)-→Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. This is indeed blessed assurance! None of us need ever think we were an accident or that we should never have been born! God called each one of us into being. And our lives have meaning because He had a plan and purpose for us.

C. God’s plan and purpose for James, John, Andrew and Simon Peter was that they would follow Jesus and become fishers of men. In our Gospel lesson today, Matthew 4:12-23, we note that Jesus moved his base of operations from His hometown of Nazareth to Capernaum. This move was precipitated by the fact, as Luke records it, that His hometown friends and relatives rejected His claim (from His reading of Isaiah 61:1) to be the Messiah.

However, God the Father seems to have orchestrated events so that Jesus would locate in this fishing town on the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was home to a large number of Roman citizens and folks from other countries—Gentiles all. And, since it was located on two major trade routes—one running East to West, and the other going North-South, connecting Arabia and Egypt to points north of Israel—it was large enough for Jesus to remain relatively anonymous as He interacted with many, and it fulfilled prophecies from Isaiah 9:1-2 and 42:6-7 that Jesus would be… a light to guide the [Gentile] nations.

It was here in Capernaum that He called His first 4 disciples. As He assembled and trained the 12, He cultivated deep relationships with them and sent them out to carry the light of His truth to Jews; and to rescue Gentiles from the darkness of paganism and unbelief.

D. Our Old Testament lesson from Amos 31-11 spells out two important concepts for us:

(1.) First, God is trustworthy and true. The prophet supplies 7 examples of cause and effect, including the following: Unlike the tandem bicyclers, two people who intend to walk together must be traveling in the same direction–not one braking while the other pedals as hard as he or she can. The hunting lion only roars after she has found her prey—if she roared before, the prey would be warned and run off. To trap a bird, the snare must hold some bait. The people of a city in those times realized there was danger approaching when the watchman blew the ram’s horn. The prophet is making the point that God is not capricious!If He punishes His Chosen People, He does so because they deserve it. Not only had they become idolaters, but (v.10)-→”My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.” What do you think the Lord would say today about the $9 billion Somali immigrants who have defrauded American taxpayers? Or the $23 million by the California guy who was to have used the funds to feed and house 600 homeless? Instead, one man spent $23 million on his own lavish lifestyle.

(2.) Our God is a good and righteous Father. He definitely knows who the bad actors are. He provides a just punishment for their sins, and He furnishes consequences for their selfishness. Notice, like an effective parent, He also warns them of the punishments to come if they don’t alter their behavior.

I believe the messages the LORD has for us in our Bible passages today are as follows:

We are to focus on Christ Jesus—that’s part of God’s plan for our lives—and this fact should reduce conflict between us.

We can be comforted by the knowledge that each one of us was created by God to fulfill a plan and purpose He set out for us.

It is He Who has called us to be “a light to the nations,” a witness to unbelievers.

And, though He warns us beforehand, He also disciplines those He loves who stray away from His ways.

In his book, The Pursuit of God, Christian thinker and author A.W. Tozer (a Christian Missionary Alliance pastor from the 1920’2 to the 1960’s) wrote the following:

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

This is a powerful image—100 pianos all tuned to the same tuning fork, all in tune and all sounding the same. This is what we become when we worship in unity, focusing our hearts on our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we are transformed when we pedal in tandem with Him.

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Who Led You to Jesus?

Pastor Sherry’s message for January 18, 2026

Scriptures: Ex 12:21-30; Ps 40:1-11; 1 Cor 1:1-9; Jn 1:29-42

Who is/are the person/persons who led you to Christ? At a congregational funeral here a week ago, one eulogist testified that the deceased had spoken into his life when he was in middle school, around age 12. He was from the wrong side of town and was making poor decisions for himself, when the then middle school math teacher took him aside. Due to this teacher’s concern for this boy, the young man “cleaned up his act,” was led to accept Jesus as his savior, and went on to become a pastor and an evangelist. What was particularly amazing was the fact that he then traveled all over the world, bringing others to Christ. Our dear friend influenced this man who then went on to influence many, many others.

I credit my faith to my grandmothers. My father’s mother, a Presbyterian and a high school Biology teacher, made sure I was baptized at age 3 and attended Sunday School. She convinced me that Jesus is real and that He loved me. My mother’s mother, who attended a storefront Pentecostal Holiness Church in West Seattle, made a living cleaning other peoples’ homes. She often took me with her to clean and to attend church. Her service to her church was to clean it on Saturdays. I have memories of helping her, as a 5-6 year old, dust mop under folding chairs. The minister there was a tall (to me), thin woman who wore a crown of braids on her head. I don’t remember anything about her preaching but I knew she liked me and I now wonder if she had something to do with my later call to the ministry.

Much later on, after I had been married for 18 years and divorced, I encountered a woman-friend named Cheryl. She had a Jewish mother and a Baptist father, and a deep Christian faith firmly steeped in Hebrew tradition. We worked together, in the mid-1990’s, on a mobile mental heath team that ministered to four under-served nursing homes. Traveling together by car each day, I noted she saw God’s hand in everything. If an egret flew over the road as we drove to work, she would thank God for the blessing of that simple, but beautiful sight. She would go into raptures, praising God for a field of wild-flowers we passed. When someone was kind to us or gave us a compliment at work, she would also praise God for having prompted them, and thank Him that they had been obedient to pass on that message to us. She taught me by example to look for the goodness and loving kindness of God, rather than focusing on what is wrong in the world. Like King David in today’s psalm (40:1-11), or like Paul in our 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 lesson, she praised God that He hears and answers our prayers, rescues and restores us, and is faithful, true, and trustworthy. She also taught me to pray out loud and without feeling self-conscious. My faith came alive under her tutelage and her example. Attending Cursillo (in 1990) took me from a head to a heart knowledge of Jesus, but hanging out with Cheryl helped me to recognize the hand of God in my life. When I told her one day that I felt called to ordained ministry, she replied, “I know. I have known it for some time.”

In our Gospel lesson today (John 1:29-42), we find three folks who lead others to Christ. First, we see John the Baptist. We know from our Scriptures of last week, that John the Baptists’ job was to prepare people to realize the Messiah, Jesus, was coming. They were to prepare themselves by undergoing a baptism of repentance. In doing so, he had the honor of baptizing Jesus. John tells us the very next day, John the Baptist sees Jesus walking along and says to his disciples (v.29)->…look, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world. He points or leads them to Jesus. 

Now why did he call Jesus the Lamb of God? 

(1)In Genesis 22:7-8, Abraham is obedient even to the extent of offering his long-awaited son, Isaac, to God. Isaac asks him-→”Father…the fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering”? Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” The burnt offering was an atonement for sin. A lamb, bull, goat, or pigeon was killed then burnt whole as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. It was a costly and an extravagant offering—the sinner lost economic potential, and no human was allowed to eat any of it. The life of the animal was dedicated to God in place of the life of the sinful person. 

(2) Later, in our Exodus 12:21-30 passage, the Israelite slaves were to take a 1 year old male lamb or goat, without defect. They were to kill it, drain its blood, and sprinkle that blood over their doorways, so when the angel of death swept through Egypt, claiming each first born son, those Israelites who had been obedient were spared. They had been saved by the blood of the Lamb. The Passover Festival then reminded them of when the angel of death had passed over them.

(3) The prophet Isaiah wrote, in Isaiah 53:7-→He [the Suffering servant, the Messiah, Jesus] was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. Using the prophetic tense, which treats future events as though they have already happened, he predicts how Messiah will die. The prophet refers to Messiah as a lamb.

(4) Similarly, the prophet Jeremiah speaks for Jesus in the first person, in Jeremiah 11:19->I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against Me saying, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; Let us cut Him off from the land of the living, that His name be remembered no more.” In its “nearer fulfillment,” the prophesy was about Jeremiah. His enemies plotted to take his life. But this side of the Cross, we know it also refers to Jesus. Again, there is the image of a lamb being led to slaughter.

You may wonder how John the Baptist knew so much about Jesus. They grew up at some distance from each other, but John’s father was a priest so he would have been steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). He would have known these passages. Further, both Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father from heaven had identified Jesus to him at the time of His baptism. So John the Baptist simple reiterates what he knows: This is the One we have waited for, the One Who was to come.

Next we encounter two of John the Baptist’s disciples who chose to follow after Jesus. They were sincere seekers. We are not told the identity of the second guy—though tradition tells us it was John, the author of this Gospel account—but the first was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. They ask Jesus, very respectfully, Rabbi, where are you staying? To me this is such a strange question. I’d have asked about His knowledge and His credentials: Are you indeed the Christ? May I ask you some questions? May I follow you? Instead, it’s as though they want to know His accommodations. Are you staying here in Bethsaida? In Caesarea? At the Holiday Inn, or the Marriott Courtyard? Jesus graciously replies (v.39)–>Come and you will see->an echo of Psalm 34:8-→Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. He very simply invites them. He encourages them to come and see for themselves. And they do spend the rest of the day with Him. 

At some point, or maybe that day or the next, Andrew leads Peter to Jesus. Andrew prefaces his guidance with his belief that he and John, thanks to John the Baptist, have met the one believed to be Messiah. Andrew introduces his brother to Jesus. Jesus, knowing all things and without having previously met Simon, says his name. He quotes his lineage-→You are the son of John; Simon bar Jonah. Then He proceeds to change Simon’s name to Cephas in Aramaic (a form of Rock/Stone), or Peter in Greek (also meaning Rock). Peter at that point was anything but a rock. However, Jesus is renaming him not for what he is but for what he is to become.  Isn’t that a beautiful thing? Jesus sees us not for what we are at this point in time; but rather for who He means for us to become. 

In addition, isn’t that just how it goes? One person comes to Christ and they tell what they know to another, and that person comes to Christ, and so on. Each one teaches one. The Faith spreads from person to person. This, I think, is the point of today’s Gospel. Someone, or several several someones, led you to Jesus. You respected them, you believed what they had to say, and you observed how they lived. You noted they lived differently from other people, kinder, more grace-filled, more forgiving, gentler, etc., than others in the culture. You saw that they had a personal relationship with Jesus. Because of their story (testimony) and their example, you too drew closer to Jesus. Let’s take time today to thank God for them, and to thank God for their willingness to speak into our lives. And, at this time of embarking on New Year’s Resolutions, let us resolve to be open to obeying the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit, leading us to lead someone we encounter to Jesus. Amen!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Resolve in 2026

Pastor Sherry’s message for January 4, 2026

Scriptures: Jer 31:7-14; Ps 84; Eph 1:3-14; Matt 2:1-12

Some dear members of our congregation who have a huge movie collection loaned me a video that I watched several days ago. The name of the film is Purgatory, and it was released in 1999. It featured some actors you might recognize: Sam Shepard, Randy Quaid, and Donnie Wahlberg. The premise is that some famous gunslingers from the Old West, fellows who actually had good hearts, are resurrected to live in the supernatural town of Refuge. They can advance to Heaven if they avoid violence, immoral living, and cussing/dirty language for 10 years. However, if they slip up, an old American Indian from their era collects them and throws them off a cliff into the fires of Hell. The town of “Refuge” is actually Purgatory.

Roman Catholics believe in Purgatory as a place where you burn off your sins until the prayers of your family or others get you released to heaven. This is a very comforting belief because it promises another chance after death to receive forgiveness for our sins. The problem is there is no Biblical support for this belief. In fact, in the parable of Lazarus and Dives, the Rich man vs. the Poor Beggar, Jesus makes the point that there is no coming back from Hell. We make our choice over where we spend eternity by how we choose to live our lives while we are alive.

At any rate, the famous gunslingers include Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, Jesse James, and Billy the kid. They are all doing pretty well at controlling their carnal natures until a gang of about 25 bank robbing killers enters their town.

The 4 are then faced with a terrible dilemma: (1) Strap back on their guns and save the citizens of Refuge from this murderous gang, thereby consigning themselves to Hell; or (2) maintain their good behavior record but let the violent, lawless hoodlums rape and pillage their friends and their town. Following some pretty rotten behavior on the part of the bad guys, the four “fastest guns in the West” decide to sacrifice their eternal future to save their friends. Wild Bill says he’d spent almost 10 years (and his previous lifetime) thinking only of himself, but that it was now time to think of others.

In a massive shoot out, the 4 manage to kill every last bad actor. They are sure they have thus lost their chance at Heaven, and present themselves to the old Indian. However, they are shocked and relieved to discover their sacrificial love and selfless defense of their town has saved them from Hell. 

To those of us who know the Bible, the theology of the movie is obviously faulty: This life is where we make the choice to follow Jesus and are saved—there is no purgatory. Additionally, we are not saved through our own goodness; in fact, we really cannot redeem ourselves—we need Jesus! However, what I liked about it is that they were redeemed by putting the needs of others before their own, even at such a colossal price.

On this first Sunday of 2026, I would encourage us all to resolve to love God and to love others—in ways that are self-sacrificial–before we take care of ourselves. Our Scripture passages today all speak to why this should be the case.

A. Our Old Testament lesson comes from Jeremiah 31:7-14. Speaking for God, the prophet tells the Israelites that even though Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian armies are at the gates of Jerusalem, the Lord promises to eventually bring them back. Following the 70 year penalty for their idolatry and disobedience, they will be returning to the Promised Land. The Lord promises to carefully hand deliver the most vulnerable, like the lame, the blind, children, and nursing mothers. 15 times in chapter 31, He says, I will…,” vowing to redeem them. In spite of their impending defeat and captivity, God is promising, in advance, that He will restore them because He declared, back in (v.3, NLT)-→>”I have loved you, My people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself.”

Later, in verse 9, He calls Himself the Father of Israel, the collective people, the nation. This is significant because He calls Moses (Job 1:2)–> “MY servant;” King David, too, He refers to as (Psalm 89:3)->”My servant.”

Because the nation of Israel consists of His sons and daughters, He will restore them following their discipline.

(J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Jeremiah, Thomas Nelson, 1991, pp.130-136.) 

We want to resolve in 2026 to love God more than ourselves because we, the Church, are—like Israel—His children.

B. Our psalm (84) describes how someone feels who truly loves God above all things. Verse 10, as paraphrased in Peterson’s The Message (p.1019) reads-→One day spent in Your house, this beautiful place of worship beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palaces of sin. Our worship of God is both a beautiful and a pleasing thing to God. That’s why it’s important for us to be here each Sunday. We honor our God, but we also leave feeling better, elevated, even comforted somehow.

Spending time in God’s House is also safe. The psalmist mentions the sparrows and wrens that nest in the Temple. They are noisy and messy birds, but neither the Lord nor the Levite keepers of the Temple ever chased them off. God’s House is a safe place, a sanctuary.

When we truly Love God more than our own comfort, we make sure we come to worship Him. The writer to the Hebrews said (10:25)-→Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage on another. This is how we do life together. This is how we dwell in Christ.

We want to resolve in 2026 to spend time in God’s House each week as a way of showing both the Lord and our church family that we love Him and them more than we do sleeping in late—or doing all the less important things that compete for our attention here on earth.

C. Our New Testament lesson (Ephesians 1:2-14) is a true celebration of God the Father and of Jesus Christ His Son. Listen to portions of this passage as paraphrased by Peterson in The Message (p.2126)-→How blessed is God! What a blessing He is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him. Long before He laid down the earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago, He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ….Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, His blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’ re a free people … And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!…It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. It is in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it…, found yourself home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, God has adopted us through the saving work of Jesus on the Cross. Like the nation of Israel, we are now His Chosen People, His sons and daughters. Ultimately, with Jesus’ 2nd Coming, God the Father will place all things under the authority of His Son. Because we are God’s children we will be co-heirs with Jesus, sharing in His inheritance. 

We want to resolve in 2026 to love God and to love others better than we love ourselves because—just like the supernatural stagecoach coming to pick up the 4 famous gun-slingers—we want to avoid Hell and share in God’s glory in Heaven.

D. Finally, our Gospel lesson (Matthew 2:1-12) reminds us that wise persons of all times, places, ethnicity, and nationality have sought the Christ. They model for us the appropriate response to Jesus: The wise men seek Him earnestly, even at considerable time and expense to self.  When you locate Him, kneel in reverence and worship Him. Bring Him gifts of your time, talents, and finances. Be aware that there are forces at work who would try to destroy your faith. These include the world, the flesh, and the devil. Recognize and fight against the attempts of these forces to draw you away from God.

We want to resolve in 2026 to love God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ so strongly that nothing can take us away from them.                                            

In 2026, Let us resolve to love God above all things because He is our creator and redeemer. Let us resolve to spend time with the Lord each week, in His house, worshiping Him and sharing fellowship and love with other believers. Let us resolve to do all that is necessary to spend eternity with God and share in Christ’s glory and inheritance in Heaven. Let us also resolve to be watchful, guarding against all attempts of the evil one to pull us away from our Lord and Savior.

The driver of the Heaven-bound supernatural stage coach in “Purgatory” tells the four newly redeemed “The Creator may be tough, but He’s not blind.”  I take this to mean that the Lord has standards but He also is grace-filled. It makes me happy to think that Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid could be in Heaven. But it will make me even happier to arrive there one day and find each one of you there as well. Amen!

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

 Baby Jesus: The Divine Threat

Pastor Sherry’s message for December 28, 2025

Scriptures: Isaiah 63:7-9; Ps 148; Heb 2:10-18; Matt 2:13-23

We have spent the past week focused on the sweet baby Jesus.

And He no doubt was a sweet and precious infant. What we tend to forget in this assessment, though, is that He was—and still is–a serious threat to the status quo.

Consider this story told by Anglican Bishop NT Wright, a noted New Testament scholar: After he had preached at a large Christmas service in England, he was approached at the door by a famous British atheist. The man told him, “I’ve finally worked out why people like Christmas.” Wanting to know what the man had gleaned from his sermon, Bp. Wright said to him, “Really? Do tell me.” The man replied, “A baby threatens no one, so the whole thing is a happy event which threatens no one.” Recalling the man’s remarks, the Bishop later wrote:

I was dumbfounded. At the heart of the Christmas story in Matthew’s Gospel is a baby who poses such a threat to the most powerful man around [King Herod, and also Satan] that he rids a whole village full of other babies in order to try to get rid of Him. At the heart of the Christmas story in Luke, too, is a baby who, if only the Roman emperor knew it, will be Lord of the whole world. Within a generation His followers will be persecuted by the empire as “a danger to good order.” Whatever else you say about Jesus, from His birth onward, people certainly found him a threat. He upset the power-games, and suffered the usual fate of people who do that.

In fact, the shadow of the Cross falls over the story from this moment on. Jesus is born with a price on His head…in a land and at a time of trouble, tension, violence, and fear…No point in arriving in comfort, when the world is in misery; no point having an easy life, when the world suffers violence and injustice! If He is to be Emmanuel, God-with-us, He must be with us where the pain is. 

(NT Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part One, John Knox Press, 2004, pp.13-15.)

It’s true, isn’t it? Jesus was born as a tiny, helpless baby, but He also represented a divine threat.

A. The corrupt and wicked King Herod clearly perceived Baby Jesus as a threat to his reign (Matthew 2:13-23). Historians tell us that Herod, a non-Jewish political appointee of Rome, was by the time of Jesus’ birth, thoroughly paranoid. While he did maintain peace and prosperity in Judea, and engaged in ambitious building projects, he also killed anyone he thought might usurp his throne, including his 1st and 2nd wives, 3 of his sons, and his mother-in-law. He gave orders that when he died, the leading male citizens of Jericho should all be slaughtered so that people would be weeping on the day of his funeral. So it is no surprise that he would also command the deaths of any boy babies, aged 2 and under, from Bethlehem to Ramah, a radius of about 10-12 miles.

(J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary, Matthew Chapters 1-13, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.44.)

Matthew goes on in his narrative, drawing a parallel between Moses and Jesus for his Jewish audience. Just as Moses was rescued from annihilation by Pharaoh’s daughter, Jesus is similarly rescued via a dream sent to his step-father, Joseph. Joseph is told to get up immediately, and take Jesus and Mary to Egypt.

He obediently does so, and probably proceeded to practice carpentry there, as a means to make a living for the family. Jesus is thought to have been about 2 or 3YO when they returned to Israel, instructed to do so by an angel in another dream. To demonstrate again that Jesus fulfills the Jewish prophesies of the Messiah, Matthew then quotes Hosea 11:1-→>When Israel was a child, I loved Him and out of Egypt I called My Son. Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus is the new Moses, both a law-giver and a deliverer.

He will obey His Father’s directives, as Moses did; and He will lead us out of our bondage to sin and death, as Moses led the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

Jesus’ mission was huge and represented a divine threat to the status quo. Satan was eager to take Him out! King Herod was Satan’s willing tool in this heinous enterprise. But both were thwarted, praise God!

B. Our Old Testament passage, Isaiah 63:7-9, predicts that our good, loving, kind, and merciful God will send a Messiah (1) to be our Savior; (2) to suffer for our sake; and (3) to personally redeem us. No wonder the powers that be would always see Jesus as a divine threat.

C. Our Psalm (148) is a demand for the entire created order to praise the Lord! It begins in the 1st three verses with a call to all the heavenly angels and all celestial bodies—sun, moon, and stars—to praise God. Then it commands all animals and people to do the same. Verse 5 says–>Let every created thing give praise to the Lord for He issues His command and they came into being. Implicit in the psalm is the thought that we praise God both for His creation and for His redemption. John 1:1-4 tells us that Jesus spoke creation into existence. This kind of tremendous power was and is certainly a divine threat to any worldly order.

D. Finally, we have the New Testament lesson from Hebrews 2:10-18. The writer to the Hebrews wants us to realize that Jesus’s status in Heaven was higher than that of angels, but when He took on the likeness of humankind and came to earth, His status fell to lower than that of angels. Nevertheless, God sent Him to us to (v.10)–>…bring many children into glory, and to fashion Him, through His suffering, into…a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. 

Jesus became a divine threat by becoming a human (verses 14-15)–>Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die [God cannot and does not die], and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could He set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

In other words, Jesus presented a divine threat to the devil and to the evil powers and authorities of this world. He had to take on flesh so He could die in our place. As our great High Priest, He offered a once-and-for-all-perfect sacrifice, Himself, to (v.17)-→>…take away the sins of the people. And because He suffered in our place (v.18)->He is able to help us when we are being tested. The divine threat set us free from the clutches of the evil one.

The divine threat, through the power of the Holy Spirit, lives to encourage and strengthen us from His seat of intercession at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Thank God for Jesus! Thank God that He came to earth as a divine threat…intending to pay for our sins; effecting our rescue from the grasp of the evil one; and setting us free from the strangle-hold of our own sin nature.

As we look to Thursday, the 1st day of 2026, let’s be sure to thank God for sending a divine threat to earth in the disguise of a new born baby. 

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Alleluia, alleluia!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams