Category: News

⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:7-8

Americans love their crime shows.  We have watched Law and Order and we have watched shows about true cases and true criminals.  We love to watch the witnesses give testimony and lawyers argue the merits of a case.  We love to watch the guilty be held accountable and we love to watch Matlock defend the innocent.  But America loves to watch the spectacle of justice and the justice system, whether real or fictional.

Perhaps then we can understand what Jesus was speaking about moments before leaving his disciples after his crucifixion and resurrection.  He informs them you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  Witnesses are those people who have watched what happened and then testify to others about what they have seen.  The disciples saw Jesus, dead and then alive.  The disciples saw the descent of the Holy Spirit and the daily work of the Spirit creating communities of faith, building up the people, calling to repentance and conversion, forgiving sins, and making all things new.  The disciples saw these things and testified to others throughout the world about what they saw and what they were seeing.

So, it is with me.  I have been graciously blessed to watch over the last year what the Holy Spirit is doing among our communities.  I have watched how God has merged two faith communities into one.  I have watched how new excitement and passion has been turned loose upon these congregations.  I have watched how these two communities have found a new sense of call, new people to lead and contribute, the growth of those leaders who have been leading for years and new connections we never noticed were always there.  I have watched and I have been floored in wonder and awe at the new things the Spirit of God is creating.  I have watched and I am humbled that God would do such mighty and loving things among and to us.

Take for example our engagement with our communities.  I have seen you embrace the work of ministering to victims of domestic violence with fundraising baskets.  I have seen you gather blankets and sheets, bags of food and hats and gloves.  I have seen you adopt children in Ashtabula and around the world for Christmas.  I have seen you purchase beds and clothes for foster children.  I have seen you give resources to needy families to have holiday meals.  I have seen you buy appliances and food for complete strangers.  I have seen you connect with homeless people through the blessing box and people in the neighborhood adjacent to the garden.  I have seen you bake pies and sell rummage.  I have seen the love of God given to you and you have given it to others and for that I am in wonder and gratitude that I should be able to witness such things.

But it isn’t just our work that God is creating but also our worship.  I have seen you find a new way to sing together and to play instruments together for the glory of God.  I have seen you step out into the uncomfortable and different sanctuaries.  I have seen you wrestling with what is truly important about worship and what can be accommodated.  I have watched you find the joy and community behind worship again instead of the drudgery and isolation of times past.  I have watched you embrace roles of leadership and care for one another and perhaps even connections with other communities that the body of Christ is.  I have seen the timid find their voices.  I have seen the guilty find forgiveness.  I have seen the scared find courage.  I have seen the love you have rediscovered for God and for that I am in wonder and gratitude that I should be able to witness such things. 

Friends, I have watched the last year with a sense of awe and gratitude, that I should be a witness to the work which God is doing among Trinity and Eastside.  I hope you can begin to see all that God is doing and that you would share in the wonder and gratitude also.  I also hope that you can see the major and minor changes that have already happened and see that we have not only survived, but we have prospered and grown because of God.  Celebrate with me all that God has done, all that God has changed, and all that God has blessed us with.  Rejoice with me and let this year be more.  Amen. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  John 1:1-14

A little light makes all the difference in the world.  Every young boy wants to be a helper to his dad.  I was no different, and my job as my dad’s helper was to hold the flashlight on what he was working on.  Whether the job was repairing the car or the furnace, I was responsible for holding the flashlight on what he was doing.  Sometimes, I would get distracted and the light would wander away from the project unto the wall and he was unable to turn the wrench or the screwdriver simply because he couldn’t see it.  So, a little light on the project makes all the difference in the world.

So too is it with us; a little light makes all the difference in the world.  Just as a little light makes all the difference when one is attempting to turn a bolt or screw in the dark; a little light makes all the difference in the world when one is coping with all the difficult burdens of life.  Light brings clarity in a time of confusion or uncertainty.  Light brings hope in a time of sadness or despair.  Light brings truth in a time of error or ignorance.  Light brings compassion in a time of need or want.  Having to live in a world of darkness, a little light makes all the difference in the world.

The good news for us is that as the man Jesus of Nazareth, the light of God has come into the world to enlighten the dark times and places.  In the prologue to John’s Gospel, the author speaks of how the very Word of God which created and sustains all of creation was coming into the world to bring life and light to the world full of death and darkness.  As the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Word was made flesh and lived among us full of Grace and Truth.  As Jesus Christ, the Light of God shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  The good news for us is that God gives of himself to make all the difference in the world.  

Which of us during the course of our lives doesn’t find ourselves in dark times and in dark places?   Most certainly, we all have been and will be in times of confusion and uncertainty needing clarity.  We all have been and will be in times of sadness and despair needing hope.  We all have been and will be in times of error or ignorance needing truth.  We all have been and will be in times of need and want needing compassion.  We all have been and will be in times and places of great darkness.  The good news for us is that God does not leave us there.  As the man Jesus of Nazareth, the light of God enters into our dark times and places, to bring clarity, hope, truth, and compassion to us.  The good news for us is that as Jesus Christ, God finds us wherever we are and in whatever condition we are in to bring light and love to our darkness.  Such is the love and care of God for us.

If this be the love and care of God for us, then perhaps now is the time and here is the place for us to admit to ourselves that we are in darkness needing light?  If this be the love and care of God for us, then perhaps now is the time and here is the place for us to acknowledge to ourselves that we are creatures living in darkness needing the Creator’s light?  If this be the love and care of God for us, then perhaps now is the time and here is the place for us to recognize our deficiencies needing the Maker’s filling?  If this be the work and will of God the Father for us that the Word would become flesh to enlighten the ones living in darkness; then maybe now is the time and here is the place for us to tell ourselves we need to be found by this God, in faith?

Since a little light makes all the difference in the world, let us remember the good news whenever we find ourselves in those dark times and dark places, as we surely will and maybe are right now.  As the man Jesus Christ, the Light of God came into the world to enlighten the ones living in that darkness.  Since this is the love and care of God for us, let us put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be found by the Light and Life of God.  On behalf of everyone associated with Trinity and Eastside Presbyterian Churches in Ashtabula, Ohio, I pray the Light of God finds you and your family this Christmas season and every time you find yourselves in those dark times and dark places of life.

A voice cries out:
     “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
          make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴   Every valley shall be lifted up,
          and every mountain and hill be made low;
     the uneven ground shall become level,
          and the rough places a plain.
⁵   Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
          and all people shall see it together,
          for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah 40:3-5

As I sit here at my dining room table looking out my windows to the foot of snow sitting on the ground, I begin to ponder the work needed to shovel my driveway.  With the depth of snow and the possible ice underneath, our cars are going to have great difficulty getting to the road.  I will have to shovel the concrete to make the driveway clear for the tires to grip and I will have to brush and scrape the cars to be able to get in them and to be able to see out of the windshield where we are going.  We are not going to be able to just hop in and drive to work or school, I have work to do before that happens.  I must prepare to drive.

Just as I must prepare the driveway and cars to drive after a blizzard, so too did Israel need to prepare for God’s return to them, in the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD.  I must shovel the snow to make a path for our cars, Israel was called by a voice in the wilderness to make a path for the LORD to return.  Being in Babylon meant that if God was to return to them, the road was through the desert or wilderness.  But the people were called to prepare the road for God’s coming, to shovel the snow so that God has a path.  Just as it is with Israel, so too is it with the church.  Advent is about shoveling the snow, or making a path, or preparing the road for God’s coming to us as Jesus of Nazareth. 

In our text from Isaiah, the two main images of roadwork the people are called to do are leveling and smoothing: every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  What are the hills and valleys in our lives that we might need to correct or to level to prepare for Jesus’ coming?  Have we been praying, studying, worshiping, and serving?  Do we have holes in our discipleship or mountains standing in the way of following Jesus’ commands?  What is rough that needs to be made smooth?  We pray but is it always?  We study but do we know more than we knew a year ago?  We worship but is it every Lord’s Day, in community, and is it every day, in our families?  We serve but is it to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or imprisoned?  The preparations we need to make for the coming of Christ are to start doing what we have not been doing and to do better what we currently are doing: to level/fill and to sand.

Here we come to our problem surrounding Christmas, we think of cookies, presents, decorations and cards as our preparations for Christmas instead of the work of repentance.  We have forgotten that Christmas is about the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.  Christmas is about the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, the Coming of God to his people.  This is what the Angels announced to shepherds in the desert with the Glory of God in the skies.  God is here among us.  This is what we truly need to prepare for and to take this as seriously if not more seriously than hams, trees, and football games: the revelation of God in glory and everyone will see it.

Are you ready?  What preparations for the coming of Christ do we need to make?  What needs leveled or filled, what needs smoothed, what needs to be prioritized to be ready for the coming of Christ?  More prayer, more study, more worship, more service?  Maybe even to start doing these things that we have never done, or begin doing them again if we stopped?  Now is the time to prepare the road for Christ’s coming, but it isn’t your driveway that needs shoveled, it is your hearts that need shoveled.  Now is the time to prepare, will you be ready?  Amen. 

In Christ, Rev. Mark

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.  Matthew 4:18-22

One of my most treasured memories as a young boy was the yearly trips to Lake Hope State Park in Southern Ohio.  We would spend a week renting a cabin, fishing in the lake and seeing the local sights.  My favorite thing to do would be fishing in the lake for bluegill and trying to catch more than my dad.  Now the difficult part about fishing for bluegill is finding where there are.  Lake Hope was pretty big and we were constantly walking around the Lake trying to find where the fish were.  Once we did we would stay there until the fish stopped biting and then we would move on to the next area.  Part of fishing is going where the fish are.

Is it not the same with us?  Jesus when calling the first disciples from the shore of Lake Gennesaret, says to Simon Peter, Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.  Not only had Jesus “caught” Simon Peter from a boat after the miracle catch of fish, Jesus calls Simon to follow him and to “catch” other people.  But Simon Peter isn’t going to catch people fishing the Lake. In order to catch people, he needs to go where the people are.  So Simon leaves everything behind and follows Jesus.

Much to Simon Peter’s surprise, Jesus once again starts fishing for people.  Jesus “catches” a leper of all people. Jesus “catches” a paralytic confined to a mat.  Jesus still fishing for people even “catches” Levi, a tax-collector, and all of Levi’s friends who Levi invites over to be “caught” by Jesus.  Jesus a “fisher” of people goes where the people are who need to be caught.

What do you think was going through the head and heart of good old Simon Peter sitting in the house of Levi, the tax-collector surrounded by all of Levi’s unsavory friends and accomplices?  His thoughts, while not written in the text, could be possibly something along the lines of this, “Why are you trying to catch these people and why did you lead us of all places here?”  “Of all the people in the countryside to “catch” why did Jesus insist on these people?”  “Why couldn’t he try and “catch” Mike the Mayor and drag us to his house for a party?”  “No, he has to drag us to the house of Levi and his sinful friends.”

Both Simon and we, both disciples of Jesus, need to be reminded of what kind of people need to be “caught” by Jesus.  Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Jesus came to catch sinners and Jesus calls his disciples to help catch sinners.  But how can we disciples catch sinners if we never go fishing for them where they are?  Can we catch people in our living rooms?  Can we catch people in the safety of our tall-steepled church buildings?  Can we catch people if the only people we are around are those previously “caught?”  A fisherman goes where the fish are, Jesus goes where the sinners are, but Today’s disciples stay at home behind the walls of their church buildings and wonder why they have no caught no people!

Rest assured each of our towns have Levi’s in them.  Rest assured each of our towns have both lepers and paralytics.  Rest assured that Jesus Christ in the power of his Spirit is also in our towns already fishing for them.  But, Jesus also wants us to be his body fishing with his Spirit to “catch” those who need him.  But the question then becomes, are we fishing where the fish are?  Are we around and with the people who need Jesus or are we somewhere else doing something else entirely?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, if we are called to fish for people, we are never going to catch anyone unless we go outside the walls and fish for them.  They are not going to jump into the boat on their own, they are not going “catch” themselves; we are the ones who must lower the nets in order to “catch” them.  Therefore let us be truly fishers of people, even if we must go where the Levi’s of the world are and eat with those people, whoever those people might be.  Rest assured, Jesus is already there “fishing,” why aren’t we?