Saint Matthew United Methodist Church

Author: Max Brennan

  • Max’s Corner

    Max Brennan
    Categories:

    FOR SUNDAY, AUGUST 6
    COMMUNION AGAIN!
    Sermon: “Two Words to Live By”
    Scripture: Matthew 6:34

    NOTES

    Special service last week. Mary had a fine sermon and Shannon’s dad, and two uncles, lifted us up.

    If you missed it—just don’t do it again.

    Did you get to breakfast?

    You must have.

    All the donuts were gone by the time I got there.

    Every week before worship. Don’t forget it! Good food and a bit of fellowship.

    I wrote about the Shroud in Friday’s Word because there are too many people who run from reality. All the evidence is on the side of Jesus.

    And in the sermon this Sunday, we will meet the God Jesus told us about—the God who knows what we are going through and who seeks to lift our burdens and assure us that things will be OK.

    (Yes, we will open with a song our trio sang last week— “Blessed Assurance.”)

    I love the story I will share with you this Sunday.

    It has lifted me.

    I think Blake is still traveling in Europe.

    Shannon will be back, I believe.

    What about you?

    Come to worship.

    If you haven’t been for a while—surprise me!

    I look forward to seeing you.

  • Friday’s Word

    Max Brennan
    Categories:

    Houston Smith, who died in 2016 at ninety-seven, was a great scholar of world religions. He was a Christian.

    But as a young man, he was attracted to some of the Eastern faiths.

    He could not abide by the Christian teachings of hell.

    On a retreat, he met a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was fascinated by him. He talked to him and missed other retreat activities.

    He told the priest he could not settle on the Christian faith because of eternal punishment in hell.

    The priest said, “Listen, you know that story where Paul was taken up to heaven?”

    He meant Paul’s NDE, his near-death experience. (II Cor. 12)

    Paul was so reluctant to share the story he put it in the third person. But it is clear Paul was talking about himself.

    Paul said he was told in heaven things he could not repeat.

    “I know what he was told,” said the priest to Houston Smith. “He was told that all people will be saved.”

    That did it for the young man who would become the great scholar. He then felt free to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

    And Paul did let the secret out. He said in Romans 11:25 that “the full number of Gentiles” would be brought to faith and then “all Israel will be saved.”

    Well—that’s everybody.

    Is there a hell?

    Of course, there is. There must be a place for evil people when they die.

    Hell is in eternity— another dimension. But hell is not forever.

    There is no limit on God’s forgiveness nor on God’s saving power.

    Through Christ, the world is reconciled.

    We are all loved.

    We are all forgiven.

  • Max’s Corner

    Max Brennan
    Categories:

    FOR SUNDAY, JULY 30

    Mary returns and Mary preaches.
    Blake is still in England.

    NOTES

    Rev. Bob and Mary Weathers are on vacation several hundred miles away. They will be back after one more week.

    Blake is in England—singing. I think.

    We will find out all about it when he gets back.

    My sister, Jackie, will start her study of interesting NDEs in a few weeks. She has to get through kidney stone removal first. (That day surgery is coming soon.)

    Madelyn Gonzalez will celebrate her “Fifteenth” in a service at St. Matthew this Saturday, followed by a celebration in our fellowship hall. Madelyn is the daughter of Laura Lopez and granddaughter of Jose and Liz Lopez, long-time members of St. Matthew. I will lead the service. We pray that this will be a great day for Madelyn.

    I have a friend of over 50 years who is seriously ill and not expected to live. Thomas Coker is a former student, a former member of a youth group I worked with, and a beloved friend. He is in my prayers.

    FOOD AND FLOWERS

    We are enjoying breakfast every Sunday—thanks to Winston Detrick-Kirkpatric—and the beautiful flowers on the altar each week. This Sunday, there will be a donation box for breakfast. (My idea.) No one has to put anything in, but some of us will do so to help fund the project. It is really great to have breakfast waiting for us at church.

    Starting soon, we will have a Flower Calendar out so that any who want to can “sponsor” the flowers for a given Sunday in memory or in honor of someone we love—perhaps on a birthday or as a memorial of someone’s passing. We will have a card in the pews for folks to fill out to reserve a Sunday. We can give a gift of any size to cover the flowers for that day.

    See you at breakfast.

    GOD BLESS — MB

  • Friday’s Word

    Max Brennan
    Categories:

    An e-mail:

    Rev. Max—We may at times get direction from God, but I am leery of the kind of ‘encounters with God’ you speak of. They may come from other sources, our imaginations, psychosis, even from the adversary himself.

    Tom

    Tom, Paul’s Road-to-Damascus experience was not a psychotic event, nor did it come from the Devil.

    His NDE described in II Cor. 12 was not imagined.

    Peter’s vision in Acts 10:9-16 did not reflect a deranged mind.

    Conservative Christians are scared of religious experiences. They know people of all faiths can have them.

    And the God we meet in experience is one who loves all people equally and unconditionally.

    In other words, we meet in experience the God we know in Jesus Christ. We do not meet the angry and vengeful God of right-wing Christianity.

    Why?

    Because that God does not exist.

    But let’s not let liberal Christianity off the hook. Liberal Christians often propose a useless God who does absolutely nothing.

    That God does not exist either.

    The God I know through both Jesus Christ and experience is one who is invested personally in our lives.

    “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28.) And this God is available to us and accessible to us through experience.

    So, as a Christian, I am not liberal nor am I conservative. What am I?

    I am a person committed to the evidence.

    I don’t just believe.

    I know.

    And you can, too.+++

    The July concert was a triumph. Don’t miss the one in August.

  • Max’s Corner

    Max Brennan
    Categories:

    IT WAS A TRIUMPH

    The Blake and Shannon concert of Broadway numbers was shockingly good. You seldom hear music done more beautifully or more professionally. There are no stars on TV or silver screen who could have done it better. (I am serious about that.)

    We need to set a predictable time for our concerts. Let’s call them our “Second Saturday Concerts.” This would put the August concert on August 12. (That date may or may not work). The September concert would be on the 9th. We are not yet certain about the August concert, but on Sept 9th I will do a one-man show: “God, Grace and Gooseberry—The Musical.” I may offer this concert to other churches as a fundraiser for St. Matthew. I will be singing some of my favorite songs and telling some favorite stories.

    ONE MORE ME AND THEN MARY

    I have a few more sermons in this series—which is really about who we are and why we are here in the world. I’ll preach the third sermon this Sunday then Mary will be up for a couple of weeks. After that I will take up where I left off.

    I feel that things are getting exciting around St. Matthew. I do. I feel it.

    Get in on it. See you Sunday.

    GOD BLESS—-MB