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Nikos | Pastoral Prayer (August 13) Athens First UMC

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[At first, Sunday’s opening hymn during our worship service seemed out of place in light of the previous day’s tragic and racist events in Charlottesville, Virginia. How can we “come with joy” when we have such heavy hearts? Verse 3 of this hymn reminds us. “As Christ breaks bread and bids us share, each proud division ends. The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends, and strangers now are friends.” The good news of our faith is that God’s love can overcome any proud division and strangers can become friends. That’s why we can “come with joy” even with heavy hearts.]

Loving God, thank you that there is always room at your table for sinners and saints alike. Thank you for being a gracious God who welcomes all to your bountiful feast.
On this Sunday that we focus on Joseph and his brothers, we lift up to you relationships that have experienced strain and brokenness. We confess the times when we have been careless and uncaring in our relationships. Where possible and when given the opportunity, prompt us to be instruments of your healing love with those we have wronged and those who have wronged us.

For those relationships that have deep hurts, wounds, and painful memories, grant us patience as we trust in you to bring healing and wholeness in your good time. Grant us your peace to accept the situations in our lives that we cannot change and help us to move into the new future that you have in store for us.

But on this Sunday that we focus on relationships, we are especially aware of the broken relationships between countries and world leaders. And so, we especially pray for peace to prevail throughout the world. We pray for world leaders to exercise wise judgment and seek diplomatic solutions with those nations that would threaten world peace.

O God, hold the tyrants of this world accountable for their lust for power and dominance, and for their disregard of human life. In this time of global uncertainty, remind us that you are the true ruler of this world and you rule with peace and righteousness.

And Lord, we pray for our country, so filled with hate speech and racist attitudes and actions. Forgive us for not being the land of liberty and justice for all that you have called us to be.

As we prepare to ask you to “forgive us our trespasses,” help us to equally take to heart what comes next in that prayer… “forgive us our trespasses, AS we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”

And so, as your people who need forgiveness, and who need to offer forgiveness, teach us to pray together the prayer you taught your disciples,

“Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Nikos | Sermon (August 13) by Rev. Robert McDowell "The Story of Joseph: Part I"

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     When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, my best friend, Danny who was like a brother to me came over to my house to hang-out as we so often did that summer together.

     During that particular summer, we were really into building clubhouses.  I lived on a farm and we had plenty of places to build clubhouses.

     My favorite clubhouse was one that we built in a large maple tree in my front yard.  This tree had really big limbs to allow us to build a small floor, four walls and a roof.  It wasn’t fancy, but it served us well.

     On one day that summer, we had built a clubhouse in the middle of our large meadow.  We didn’t do a very good job in building it but it did take us a full day to complete it.

     The day after we had built this clubhouse, Danny came over.  And I can’t recall all of the details of what exactly happened, but my friend Danny and I got into an argument about something.

     And Danny decided to tear down the clubhouse we had just built the day before.  When I saw Danny knocking down the walls of this clubhouse, it was like I became a different person.  Anger set in and I ran toward Danny and pushed him over.

     He pushed me back and before too long, we were in a fight.  Here I was fighting my best friend.   And we were bruising and scratching each other.

     That little incident taught me at an early age of how fragile relationships can be, even the relationship of best friends.

     This morning, we begin a two-part sermon series on Joseph and his brothers as part of our summer long focus on stories from the Book of Genesis.

     Our scripture reading this morning shows us how not to do relationships.  It’s a painful verse by verse scripture reading on the lessons of how to have a dysfunctional family.
     One of the reasons why I am convinced that the Bible is true and can be trusted as the inspired Word of God is because it is not afraid to reveal the character flaws of the patriarchs and the matriarchs of our faith.  One would expect these very obvious flaws to be swept under the rug by our holy book. 

     Instead, the dirty laundry of our biblical heroes of faith are hung out on the line for all to see.

     I mean, what kind of patriarch is Jacob in this story?  “Parenting for Dummies,” he did not read.  No.  Instead, he just does what feels natural to him.  If you’re drawn to one of your kids more than with the others, just favor that one over the others.
     As I read this scripture I just wish an angel would send Dr. Phil to Jacob and ask him his famous question – “And how’s that working for you?“  Or wouldn’t you just love to hear Dr. Phil say to him, “What were you thinking?”

      We are told up front that we’re going to have major problems.  All you have to do is read verse 3.  “Now Israel, (which was the new name for Jacob) now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his children” (keep in mind that he has 12 children total) and it goes on to say that he loved Joseph more because Joseph was his youngest.  Actually, Joseph wasn’t the youngest, Benjamin was.  But still, Joseph was very special to his dad.

     Now I’m the youngest of four in my family, and whenever we get together, my two sisters and brother love to remind me of just how much I was spoiled simply because I was the youngest.

     And it’s true.  The rules were much more lax for me.  I think my parents were just plain tired of parenting after raising the first three.

     For example, they weren’t as strict with me about getting good grades.  I guess it was about six years ago now, I went back home to see my mom who has since died, and I ended up rummaging through some of my things that were still in the attic.   And one of the things I found was my elementary grade school cards.  I couldn’t believe that these were still saved in pristine condition and tucked away in a shoe box.
     Just to show you what kind of student I was, here is what my first grade teacher, Mrs. Maddox wrote about me on the grade card.  She used the sandwich approach.  You know what that is right?  You begin and end with something positive and stick the negative part in the middle.  Here’s what she wrote – “Robert is working nicely. He is easily confused on new materials but is not timid about asking about things he does not understand.”  Is that me or what?

     And here’s what my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Umberger wrote about me on a different grade card.  And she did not use the sandwich approach.  She got straight to the point. “Robert’s grade is low because he gets very low grades on his workbook.  He doesn’t take time to read directions carefully.” That is so me even to this day!

     Every so often, my dad would simply tell me his oft quoted line, “Son – you better buckle down.”  And that was all he said to me.  No repercussions.  No extra chores.  Just – “Robert.  You better buckle down.”  I never understood what he meant by that.  Were my pants too loose?  “You better buckle down.”

     This was my dad’s way of reminding me to study a little harder, but he was still a lot softer on me than he was on my sisters and brother.

     I’ve always been able to relate to this story of Joseph because as the youngest, I guess you could say that I enjoyed my share of privileges.

     I am told by a very trusted authority (namely my wife) that the psychological reason for this family dynamic is because parents don’t want their little baby to grow up.  The others grew up so fast and they want to keep the youngest a baby forever.

     And so, right off the bat, we know that trouble is brewing in the Jacob household.

     To make matters worse, Jacob has Joseph wear this pretentious coat of many colors.  And did you catch the little detail that this coat had sleeves?  In Bible times, you were somebody special and set apart if you had sleeves. 
     It was understood back then that anyone with long sleeves would not be expected to do manual labor.  Now, here’s where Jacob and my father were very different.  I was expected to bail hay, mow the grass, and work at a factory over the holidays and during the summer months.

     Even though I may have been spoiled and got away with a lot, my dad never gave me a robe with sleeves.

     You want to talk about a recipe for disaster.  Picture Joseph’s brothers sweating and dirty out in the fields and watching Joseph all clean and fresh coming toward them in his fancy “daddy loves me more than you” robe. 

     Which is exactly the scene we have in our scripture reading this morning.  And as Joseph approaches his brothers from a distance, the brothers are fuming. 

     One of them sarcastically says, “Here comes this dreamer.”  If you recall, Joseph had told his brothers about two dreams in which his brothers had bowed down to him.  Not surprisingly, this did not go over very well with the brothers.

     So as Joseph walks toward his hard working brothers, one of them says, “Hey, guys, this is our chance to kill Mr. Dreamer.”

     And this story goes from bad to worse.  There’s a glimmer of hope when Reuben begs his brothers to not kill Joseph but to just throw him in a cistern that doesn’t have any water. 

     They strip Joseph of his long sleeved robe and they throw him into a pit.  And how they managed to eat lunch after this I will never know, but while the brothers were eating, they noticed a caravan of people on their way to Egypt.

     That’s when they decide to sell Joseph to this traveling group for twenty pieces of silver.  So Joseph officially becomes a slave and is sent off to Egypt.

      The brothers grab the robe, dip it into some blood of a goat, and make up a story that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. 

     Their father is devastated upon hearing this news and grieves the loss of his youngest son, Joseph.  Meanwhile, the band of travelers arrives in Egypt and Joseph is sold to one of Pharoah’s officials.

     Let’s stop here for just a moment.  This story of Jacob and his dysfunctional family is just one of many dysfunctional stories that we find in this first book of the Bible.  Welcome to the wild and whacky world of the Book of Genesis!

     You would think that these kinds of crazy stories would be few and far between among God’s people.  Sometimes the community of faith doesn’t look all that different from the Kardashians. Actually, the Kardashians are much more functional that Joseph’s family.

     But none of this should surprise us, right?  I mean, the first few pages of the Book of Genesis tell us the story of how sin entered the world.  It was when we disobeyed God and ate from the tree of good and evil even though we were clearly told not to do so.  Even though we got to live in the beautiful and amazing Garden of Eden and had everything we wanted, we still chose to do what God had told us not to do.

     Theologians call this decision to disobey God, original sin.  And it’s something we struggle with throughout our life – the temptation to do the wrong thing because of a desire for greed, or pleasure, or power, or to take the easy way out. 

      Leonard Sweet is Christian speaker and author. He put it so well when he wrote, “The only thing original about me is original sin.”  Is it any wonder then, when new members join the church that they respond to this very heavy question?  And the question is, “Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world and repent of your sin?” 

     Because of original sin, we always face the temptation, just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to disobey God.  That’s why Israel often strayed away from God.  And the same is true of the church.

      Some people look long and hard for the perfect church where there is no gossip, no jealousy, and where differences of opinions are always handled in loving and mature ways. 

     The story of Joseph is a story of how God’s own people struggle in being the community of faith that God has called us to be.  I wonder if the reason the bible is willing to air all of this dirty laundry is to help us come face to face with our own pettiness and hurtful actions toward each other.

     While I was serving as pastor of one of my previous churches, I was having lunch with a couple of parishioners in a local restaurant.  One of the members of our church was also eating in that same restaurant and she came up to our table to say “Hi.”

     And she said to everyone at our table, “Isn’t it great that we voted down the proposal?  That would have been a big mistake if we would have passed it.”

     She was referring to a very controversial vote that our church had recently made at a special Church Conference.

     What this church member who had come to our table didn’t know was that the people sitting with me voted in favor of the proposal.  Her words hurt them deeply.  She had assumed that they voted the same way that she had voted.

     It was an awkward moment and I don’t think she ever realized how hurtful that comment was to her fellow parishioners.

     Sometimes, we needlessly hurt one another in the Body of Christ.

     Even though I am not naïve enough to believe that a church can be perfect, I still am amazed at how flippantly we can say things to brothers and sisters in Christ without thinking.  And often, it’s not so much the opinions we share because I think we all realize that we are a church of diverse opinions and thoughts.  The problem is in the way we share them.

     If the church isn’t perfect, that what is it?

     Christian blogger, Rachel Held Evans, in her book “Searching for Sundays” talks about a radio station that interviewed her. They asked her why she chooses to participate in the church even though much of her writing denounces the hypocrisy and judgmental attitude that is often associated with many churches.

     She writes, “I talked about Jesus—his life, teachings, death, resurrection, and presence in my life and in the world. I talked about how faith is always a risk and how the story of Jesus is a story I’m willing to risk being wrong about. And then I said something that surprised me a little, even as the words left my mouth.

     “I’m a Christian,” I said, “because Christianity names and addresses sin. It acknowledges the reality that the evil we observe in the world is also present within ourselves. It tells the truth about the human condition—that “we’re not okay.”

     “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed,” instructed James, the brother of Jesus. At its best, the church functions much like a recovery group, a safe place where a bunch of struggling, imperfect people come together to speak difficult truths to one another. Sometimes the truth is we have sinned as individuals. Sometimes the truth is we have sinned corporately, as a people. Sometimes the truth is we’re hurting because of another person’s sin or as a result of forces beyond our control. Sometimes the truth is we’re just hurting, and we’re not even sure why.

     The practice of confession gives us the chance to admit to one another that we’re not okay, and then to seek healing and reconciliation together, in community.”

     Rachel Held Evans speaks truth, does she not?

     Naming and confessing our sins both individually and collectively is how God helps us to have a world where brothers and sisters in Christ find unity in the midst of our many political and theological differences of opinion. It helps us to have a world that seeks peace rather than war. It’s also how we can have a world where all races live in harmony and where the Statue of Liberty torch is raised higher than the torches carried by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

     Naming and confessing our sins is what the story of Joseph and his brothers has to offer us in our broken, hurting, and dysfunctional world that God created and seeks to make new.
     And so maybe we shouldn’t be all that surprised that the Bible didn’t edit out the dysfunctional stories of our matriarchs and patriarchs of faith.  These dirty laundry stories aren’t only found in the Book of Genesis. In the New Testament we read of Peter and Paul, two giants of the faith, two pillars of the church, sparring at one another over a delicate issue which the early church was facing at the time.

     And what about those twelve discples who were around a table with Jesus at the Last Supper.  Twelve men.  Not brothers in the biological sense of the word.  But brothers in Christ.

     One of those brothers left the table to proceed with his plans to betray Christ in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.  Joseph’s brothers got 20 pieces of silver for their betrayal.

     Another brother who was sitting around that table would end up denying Jesus three times.  And at one time or another, all of these brothers would forsake Jesus during a time when he needed them the most.

     The soldiers stripped Jesus of his robe before crucifying him.  Joseph was also stripped of his robe.
     Fortunately, the story doesn’t end with Joseph being sold into slavery.  And the story of Jesus doesn’t end with him on the cross.


     Today, we, the brothers and sisters in Christ, gather around the Lord’s table to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion, to receive forgiveness for how we have intentionally or unintentionally hurt one another.

     It’s ironic that we who have broken Christ’s body because of our hurtful words, our jealousies, and our unloving ways, are the same people who will also be reminded in just a few moments of Christ’s words to us when he said, “This is my body broken for you.”


The Story of Joseph: Part I
Small Group Questions

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
August 13, 2017

The stories from the Book of Genesis that we’ve been looking at this summer, especially today’s story of Jacob’s dysfunctional family reminds us of how the bible isn’t afraid of airing the dirty laundry of the matriarchs and patriarchs of our faith. Jacob favors Joseph over his other sons. Joseph flaunts his favoritism. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and lie to their father, Jacob about what happened to him. Dr. Phil would have loved to interview these biblical characters!

If you were Dr. Phil, what question would you like to ask Joseph’s family?

Christian author, Rachel Held Evans claims that what makes Christianity special for her is that we don’t need to pretend that we don’t struggle with sin. Our faith invites us to share our struggles with each other, especially in a small group where we accept each other for who we are.

How has your small group helped you to feel free to confess your struggles and sins with each other?

Pastor Robert referred to the recent events of the white supremacy march in Charlottesville, Virginia as well as the threat of war with North Korea as examples of how our world is broken and dysfunctional in so many ways.

As a small group, offer this prayer together for world peace and mutual understanding:

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In his sermon on Joseph, Pastor Robert listed parallels with Joseph and his brothers and the story of Christ and the disciples. For example, Jacob had twelve sons and Jesus had twelve disciples, Joseph’s brothers sold Joseph into slavery for twenty pieces of silver and one of the disciples betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver, Joseph’s brother stripped Joseph of his robe and Jesus’ robe was stripped from his when he was crucified. The good news is that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection three days later opened the way for us to be forgiven for our sins and our dysfunctional ways.

Share a time when you felt forgiven and loved by Christ.

Nikos | Pastoral Prayer (August 6) Athens First UMC

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[Above is a picture of our Athens First Saturday outreach this past weekend. We had teams working on several projects to bless our community through several acts of kindness. The photo below is our mission team who arrived safely in Honduras on the same day we were serving here in our Athens community. They will be sharing God’s love with the people they serve this week. Thanks to our Athens First Saturday outreach and our Honduras mission team, we are living out our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community AND our world. Way to go, church!]


O God, thank you for your promise to always stand by us, especially when we find ourselves in wrestling matches over our identity, our priorities, our stewardship, and our legacy. When life seems to have us pinned down, may we always turn to you for strength to be the people you have called us to be.

O God, thank you for these stories of faith from the Book of Genesis. Thank you for these summer Sundays as we see how you were able to fulfill the covenant that you made to Abraham to form a new people through him, a people who would not only love and worship you, but who would also be a blessing to the world.

O God, thank you for reminding us that we are part of this biblical story. You are calling each and every one of us to claim our identity in being your people. Thank you for all of the ways that we were able to be your people in our community through yesterday’s First Saturday outreach. O God, we wouldn’t have been able to do all that we did without each other.

Even as we seek to bless this community through your loving presence, we lift up to you our Honduras mission’s team as they bless the people they serve in that area of the world this week. O God, in this one weekend, we can see how we are living out the mission you have given us to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and our world.

O God, on this Sunday, we especially lift up to you our youth as we begin planning for a new year of youth ministry. And we pray for the many ministries of our church that are starting again in the next several weeks like our music ministry, our new day and time for our Worship U service, our Sunday School classes, our Growing Tree pre-school, our outreach to college students, and so many other ministries that help us to have a loving faith, a learning faith, and a living faith.

We offer to you our individual prayers as well; for those who our on our hearts and minds this morning who are grieving; who are facing medical challenges; who are lonely; who are feeling relational or financial stress; and those who are anxious about their future. O God, like Jacob, may we yield to you, and be the people you have called us to be. We pray this in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray together saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Sermon (August 6) by Rev. Robert McDowell "Life’s Wrestling Matches"

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     My brother who still lives in the school district where we went to school in south central Pennsylvania, likes to keep me updated on the sports teams of the High School we attended.  A few years ago, he told me the incredible story about one of the high school wrestlers who was making national news.

     He told me that this wrestler was 170 pounds and he had these incredibly thick wrists and legs built like telephone poles. During his high school career, he won four consecutive state titles and finished his High School career with an undefeated record of 166 wins and no losses. Since he was in the eighth grade, national journalists referred to him as the LeBron James of wrestling.

     I wonder if this is the kind of wrestler that Jacob faced in our scripture reading from the Book of Genesis. Up to this point in the story, Jacob has proven to be an excellent wrestler.

     He was able to wrestle away the family birthright and blessing from his brother, Esau and his father, Isaac. With the help of his mother, Rebecca he flees for his life and stays with his Uncle Laban.

     After many years, he decided to return home, but not after wrestling away the best of Laban’s flocks and resources. He will be using these gifts that he took from Laban as a peace offering to give to his brother, Esau.



     On his way to meet his brother, Jacob even sends his family ahead of him while he spends the night by himself. What happened to Jacob that night, gives new meaning to the phrase, “restless night.” It was more of a “wrestling night.” Jacob ends up wrestling with an unidentified man the whole night until daybreak.

     This mysterious wrestler is unable to pin Jacob down. He is no match for Jacob who has learned from his birth how to wrestle away whatever he wants and from whomever he wants. Sometimes our greatest strength can also be our greatest weakness if not used in the right way.

     Jacob may know how to get what he wants, but he has yet to learn what it means to get what God wants. God wants Jacob to continue to live out the faith that began with his grandfather, Abraham and continued with his father, Isaac.

     Jacob just isn’t there yet. He still sees himself as the man who can fool just about anyone, but he can’t fool God.

     Much is at stake at this point of the biblical story, because God does not have a plan “B.” God’s covenant to rescue the world from sin and death is dependent upon Jacob getting his act together. Jacob has only been thinking about himself. At this point, we’re left wondering if Jacob will ever quit tricking people and start trusting God.

     The all night wrestling match between this mysterious being and Jacob, interestingly enough takes place at Jabbok, which is located just across the border from the Promised Land and the place where God would establish his people. In addition to its geographical significance, the words, “Jabbok” and “Jacob” are very similar in sound. They both mean, “to wrestle.” It’s a play on words by the biblical author. A lot is at stake at this place called, Jabbok.

     This wrestling match lasted through the night and into the morning hours. I don’t think Jacob was expecting it to last so long. Rob Strauss, a professional wrestler said that the sport of wrestling is “a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired – you quit when the gorilla is tired.”  Jacob’s opponent just would not quit. He gave Jacob everything he could handle and then some.

    Jacob eventually wins the wrestling match but not without paying a price. Jacob’s opponent ends up striking him on the hip socket and putting his hip out of joint. Even in pain, Jacob doesn’t let go of him. Jacob will not leave from this match without a prize. But unknown to him at the time, the prize will be something that will change the course of his life.

     Jacob’s prize was a new name. Instead of “Jacob, the wrestler” he will be known as “Israel,” the name that would one day refer to God’s chosen people. As a new day was beginning, Jacob received a new beginning as well. Instead of striving for his own benefit, he would now be striving for God and God’s people. Our story ends with Jacob limping away because of his wrestling injury.

     Now, we might not be a championship wrestler like the high school wrestler who ended up winning four state titles, but all of us experience life’s wrestling matches.  From time to time, all of us wrestle with who we are and who God is calling us to be.

     Marcus Aurelius, the ancient Roman emperor once said, “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”  I think he was right. We live our lives more on a wrestling mat than we do on the dance floor.  What are some of life’s wrestling matches that we face in our everyday lives and how can our faith help us?

     Here’s the first wrestling match we all face from time to time. It relates to our identity. Jacob was given a new name at the end of his wrestling match. From that point on, he was known as Israel. Jacob went from being known as the one who tricked people to get his way, to one of the leading patriarchs of our faith.

     There’s a wonderful tradition in the church to help us remember our identity. Whenever someone is baptized, we don’t use their last name, only their first and middle names. The reason for this is that it reminds us that our new name is “Christian.”

     When we are baptized, Christ gives us a new name. We become known as a child of God. We belong to Christ. That’s why we can call each other brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s because we all have the same last name. We are family. We are children of God.

     The good news of our faith is that we don’t have to figure out who we are. We already know who we are. We are God’s people. We belong to Christ. That’s our identity.

     Up until this point, Jacob was trying to be somebody that he wasn’t. Jacob thought that his true identity was related to the order of when he was born and he spent the first part of his life trying to be his older brother rather than Jacob. God wants us to be who we were created to be.

     What a freeing thought to know that we don’t need to try to be somebody other than who God created us to be. Jacob needed to be the best Jacob that he was created to be.




     We used to own three white West Highland terrier dogs before we moved here to Athens. We still have one of those three. Since we’ve moved to Athens, we’ve added another westie so now we have two of them.

     But when we had those three westies, people could never tell them apart because they looked so much alike. We could easily tell them apart even though they had subtle differences. We could tell them apart by how curly their hair was, by the sound of their bark, and by the way they walked.

     When God created us, he made each one of us unique. We each have a unique blending of personalities, interests, spiritual gifts, and passions. We don’t need to be somebody else because we already have everything we need.     

     There will be times when we will forget who we are, so let’s remind each other of our identity.


     Another wrestling match that we face in life is related to our priorities. It’s pretty clear that Jacob’s priority was to do whatever he needed to get ahead. His priority was not to live out who God called him to be.

     Sometimes, we get our priorities out of order. We forget what is most important in our lives.

     Keeping our priorities in the right order is often a wrestling match especially since there is so much competition for our time and attention. We want to do what is most important but so many things can come at us at the same time.

     I remember trying to use a numbering system to help me prioritize my responsibilities. Even though I had good intentions, I discovered that most of the time I was responding to the urgent rather than working on what was most important. It seemed like I rarely had enough time to focus on what I believed to be the most important things in my life.

     What are those important things in your life? Your relationship with God? Quality time with family and friends? Making a difference in our community and world?

     Remember to put first things first.


     A third wrestling match that we face in life is related to our stewardship. Stewardship involves how we manage our resources. Up to this point in the story, Jacob used his resources for his own benefit, rather than for how he could be a blessing to others.

     I was having breakfast with a friend this past fall. Somehow, we got on the discussion of giving to the church. He said that early in his marriage, he and his wife wrestled over the decision on how much of their income they should give to the church. Their ultimate goal was to begin tithing and giving 10 percent of their income to Christ and his church, but that just seemed like a lot of money.

     He said how they were at a standstill so they decided to pray about it. Soon after they prayed about what to do, they went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to get a license plate for their car.

     You can’t make this up folks. Here is the license plate the BMV randomly gave to them for their car. He actually sent me this picture of it because he and his wife couldn’t believe their eyes. 





    It says, “GIV-010.”

     Friends, this wasn’t even someone else’s vanity plate even though that’s what it looks like. This was just the next number for them to take. Now, that’s amazing! This is what we have been calling a “Thin Place Moment,” a God moment like no other.

     Well, needless to say, they saw this license plate as God’s answer to their prayer about giving. Give 10%.

     And that’s what they started to do.  And after all of these years of marriage now with children and now grandchildren, they continue to give 10% toward the work of Christ and his church. And they continue to tell this story of how God answered their prayer.

     How we manage our money and resources is something that we wrestle with all of the time. How much should we spend and save for ourselves?  How much should we give away to be a blessing to God and the church? Jacob’s wrestling match led to a change in his life. Instead of using his resources for his own end, he began to offer what he had for God’s purposes.

     God calls us to be generous in our giving.


     This brings us to the fourth wrestling match that we face in life. This is related to our legacy and what do we want to leave behind. If Jacob wouldn’t have turned toward God, we would probably only remember him as someone who tricked others to get his way.

     Thankfully, we also remember Jacob as the one who became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. It was through Jacob that God’s covenant to rescue the world from sin and death was able to continue. Jacob was able to live out what began with his grandfather, Abraham and his father, Isaac.

     How do you want to be remembered? We won’t be here forever but our legacy will live on. The decisions we make today add up to the legacy that we will leave behind.

     The good news is that we don’t wrestle alone. God is by our side during every match. Whenever I struggle with a decision or feel like I’m wrestling with something in my life, I think of Jesus who came to save us from our sins. Jesus learned to wrestle whenever he faced important decisions regarding his identity, his priorities, his stewardship, and his legacy.

     On the night before he died on the cross for our sins, he faced his own wrestling match as he prayed for God’s will to be done. He died on a cross, but then he rose again and offers us forgiveness, hope, and new life.

     This story reminds us that we don’t wrestle alone. The one who gave it all is right there with us and will never let us go.



Life’s Wrestling Matches
Small Group Questions
Genesis 32:22-31
August 6, 2017

Our summer long Genesis sermon series brings us to this story of when Jacob has a wrestling match with God and walks away limping, but also with God’s blessing. The wrestling match takes place as Jacob is on his way to make a peace offering with his brother, Esau who he had cheated to get the family birthright. Pastor Robert shared four wrestling matches that we often have along our faith journey that ties in with the story of Jacob. These include wrestling with our identity, our priorities, our stewardship, and our legacy.

Share when you have wrestled with God over one of these four areas of your life (identity, priorities, stewardship, & legacy.) Did it lead to a blessing? Did it leave you limping?

The story of Jacob wrestling with God concludes with an assuring word that God will always be by his side. 

When have you felt God by your side during a time of wrestling in your life?

This story of wrestling reminds us of how Jesus wrestled with his faith in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before he would go to the cross. He prayed for God that night to remove the cup of suffering that was awaiting him but he ended by saying, “not my will but thy will be done.”

As a group, share this prayer together from Sunday’s worship service:

Eternal God, in the midst of our fears and doubts, you call us home. Be with us on our journey when our faith wavers and we seek safety in our own clever schemes. Stay with us especially when we stray from you. Forgive us for our waywardness in being the people you have called us to be. When we turn away from you, show us the path that leads to life. As you did for Jacob so long ago, bless us in our struggles so that we might be a blessing to others. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Nikos | Pastoral Prayer (July 30) – Athens First UMC

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[Pictured above are some of the members of the Honduras Missions Team. Our congregation offered them our support and prayed for God’s blessings to be with them as they will be serving August 5-12. They are living out our church’s mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.]


Surely, your presence is in this place, O Lord. Your presence is here in this time of worship where we sing from hymnals and read from bulletins. But your presence isn’t confined to just one hour on Sunday mornings.

Surely, your presence was in this place earlier in the week when our Tuesday morning prayer team gathered in our Welcome Center to pray over the many prayer cards.

Surely, your presence was in this place when a college student came to receive guidance, prayer support, and just someone willing to listen.

Surely, your presence was in our Fellowship Hall this past Wednesday when we gathered for fellowship and a fun Talent Show.

Surely, your presence was with the small group of people who met in our sanctuary during the middle of the week to lift up each other and our church in prayer.

Surely, your presence is with us at all times and in all places, even when we may not even be consciously seeking you. Thank you for your presence, especially when we find ourselves tumbling down one of life’s many chutes. And thank you for providing a ladder just when we need it the most.

For those who are in need of your healing, lift us to higher ground. For a troubled country frozen by political ideologies, lift us to higher ground. For those who are in need of direction in life, lift us to higher ground. For those who are fighting the demons of addiction, lift us to higher ground. For those who are running from you, lift us to higher ground.

Like you did for Jacob, pull us up to higher ground Lord Jesus, even as we pray the words you taught your disciples, and now teach us to pray together saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Nikos | Sermon (July 30) by Rev. Robert McDowell – "Chutes & Ladders"

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     Do you remember the game, Chutes and Ladders?  It’s been a while since I’ve played this board game, but here’s a quick recap of how it works. 

     You have a game piece, spin the spinner, and hopefully you end up landing on a space that will take you up a ladder so that you can get ahead in the game.  But sometimes, you end up landing on a space that forces you down a chute which is a real bummer.  You don’t want to go backward.

     This simple child’s game encourages players to find where the ladder spaces are on the board and you hope and pray that you will land on the right space.

     It took me a while until I finally bought a ladder that was tall enough to take care of some basic household chores. Without a ladder, it’s kind of hard to get anything done around the house.

     Ladders don’t just help us with projects around the house. They can help us in our faith as well. Sometimes, instead of choosing a ladder that can lift us to heaven we choose a chute instead which ends up spiraling us downward and away from where God wants us to be.

     The story of Jacob from the Old Testament is more a story of chutes than it is of ladders.  Jacob seems to have an uncanny ability to choose chutes over ladders and here’s a quick summary of his life to help us understand the context of our Old Testament scripture for today.

     Many of us are familiar with the story of Jacob and his twin brother, Esau.  It would be an understatement to say that Jacob has been a real pain in the backside toward his own family members.

     Jacob is the guy, who when no one is looking, kicks his golf ball from out behind the tree before hitting his next shot when you’re not even playing winter rules.  Jacob is the guy who lies about his past accomplishments if it will help him get a promotion.  Jacob is the guy who sells you a car without telling you that there’s a problem with the transmission.  Jacob is the guy who stabs you in the back, if it means getting ahead.

     Jacob began his cheating ways when he was in his mother’s womb, if you can believe that.  Trying to beat his brother Esau by a few seconds so as to be the firstborn, the scriptures tell us that Jacob grabbed Esau’s heel while they were both in their mother’s womb, but to no avail.  And this is where Jacob got his name, which literally means “heel grabber.”

     And from there, he just keeps on choosing chutes over ladders.  One of the most popular stories in the Bible is the one where Jacob ends up taking advantage of Esau’s extreme hunger one day by exchanging some stew straight up for his birthright. 

     But that’s not all.  Heel grabber tricks his own father who is lying on his death bed by impersonating older brother Esau, and Jacob ends up receiving the blessing that was meant for his brother.

     Now, the problem with heel grabbers is that even though they may get what they want, they make a lot of enemies along the way.  And when Esau found out what his brother did, he set out to kill his own twin brother, Jacob. 

     Jacob’s mother, knowing that things are going to get ugly really fast, tells Jacob to run away and hide out at Uncle Laban’s house.  While on the run, Jacob stops for the night, and finding the most comfortable rock he can, he places it under his head like a pillow.  Jacob’s decisions which involved going down one chute after another, has literally led him to hit rock bottom.

     And the really sad part of it all?  I don’t think that Jacob has any clue how far he has fallen or how bad his decisions have been.  You almost get the impression as you read up to this point, that Jacob probably even thinks that rocks are meant to be pillows.

     One of the striking features of the bible is that nobody, not even people who you would think should know better, are immune from making bad decisions or from allowing themselves to drift away from God.  The bible is a frustrating book to read at times, because just when God’s people seem to be moving in the right direction, somebody messes it all up.

     It kind of reminds me of Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island.  Remember how the Skipper and his crew would be this close from being rescued, and then just before the end of the show, Gilligan would do something that caused them to stay stranded?

     But let’s not just blame Jacob.  We can find many more names of people who like Jacob, make decisions that leave us scratching our heads and shouting out, “what were you thinking?”

     And truth be told, if we really think about it, we’re just like them in many ways.  At times, we too, find ourselves drifting away from God.  Sometimes it’s due to our poor choices and sometimes it’s because…well let’s face it.  Life is hard.  And we just say, “What’s the use? I’ll take the easy way.”

     The problem is that when we choose to take one chute, it’s that much easier to take the next one and the next before we find ourselves in a free fall away from God and our faith.

     A while back, a friend of mine who’s a pastor was talking to me about the importance of taking time out of our schedules to just be with God and to find renewal in his faith.  And he said, “Every time I take time to do be with God in an intentional way, God seems to help me to get back on track again.  And I end up feeling stronger in my walk with Christ.  But for some reason, I allow myself to wander away again from the faith.”  And with a puzzled look on his face, his next words were, “It’s the strangest thing.”

     And I thought to myself, “He’s right.  It is so easy to fall away from God, even when we know what we need to do and to whom we should go.”

      A few years ago, a survey was conducted which included several churches in our country and the purpose of this survey was to determine why it is that people end up drifting away from the church.  And the number one reason it gave was that for many people, they just don’t feel challenged enough to grow in their faith.  The people who leave the church, tend to be the people who want more in their faith, but no one seems willing to help them to go to the next level. 

     And that makes sense.  If you reach one level and plateau, it gets kind of old to just stay where you are. 

     In addition to folks who stray away because they aren’t being challenged enough, there are also folks who are falling away because life has been tough on them.  They’re asking questions like, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?”  “Why are you allowing me to go through all of this suffering?” 

      And still, there are others, who like Jacob, simply make bad decisions, sending them down one chute after another until they reach a point where they have fallen almost completely out of a relationship with God.



     But here’s the good news for those of us who have gone down our fair share of chutes.  God never gives up on us.  Just like in our Old Testament reading for today.  Here Jacob is on a cold and damp ground with a rock under his head.  He’s drifting off to sleep and he begins to see something that will mark a turn around in his life.

     He sees a ladder set up on earth.  Not a short ladder.  But a tall ladder that reaches up to heaven.  And not only that, but he also sees angels ascending and descending on that ladder.  And as Jacob is given this unexpected glimpse of God’s presence, God speaks to him and reminds him of a promise that was made to his father Isaac, and to his grandfather, Abraham.  And the promise is that through their family, God will bless the world.

     Sometimes, when we end up going down chutes for whatever reason, we forget the bigger picture of God’s promise that one day the sin and brokenness in our world will be overturned and everything will be made new.  And the way that God is going to reclaim his creation and make everything new is through you and me. 

     So God reminds Jacob of this promise which he had forgotten.  God promises to be with Jacob and also assures him that the covenant will be fulfilled through him.

     Jacob then wakes up from his sleep and says, “Surely, the Lord is in this place.”

     In one of the churches I served, a guy in his 20s whose name was Dave, began attending worship services out of the blue.  All I knew about Dave was that he lived a couple of blocks from the church and that was about it.  So, I got to know him a little better and one day I asked him just out of curiosity, “What was it that led you to begin attending church here?”

     And he told me how he had grown up in the church but then when he got out of school, he just kind of drifted away from God and the church.  He told me how he had moved to the neighborhood because of a job transfer.  He wasn’t married and enjoyed his new home and especially liked relaxing on Sunday mornings in his closed-in porch.

     He said that since moving into his new home, he liked drinking his coffee and reading the paper on Sunday mornings.  And he said, “But every Sunday morning, I couldn’t help but listen to your church bells.  At first, I didn’t think a whole lot about it, but one Sunday morning, it was the strangest thing.  I decided to put my paper down.  I got dressed for church, and I’ve been here ever since.  I feel like I’m back home with God again,” he said with a smile.

     One of my favorite hymns is the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessings.” Robert Robinson who lived in England during the 1700’s wrote the lyrics for this hymn. One of the verses says, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.” Robinson was known to backslide in his faith which is why he included those words in this great hymn of faith.

     During one of those times when he had backslidden in his faith, Robinson was sitting next to a woman on a stage coach. This woman was quietly humming this tune. Not knowing that she was sitting next to the writer of this hymn, she asked him what he thought of this hymn.

     Robert Robinson said to her, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

     This woman responded by quoting a phrase from the first verse of that hymn. She said, “Sir, the streams of mercy are still flowing.” The woman on that stage coach ended up helping Robinson to climb back up the ladder in his faith with God.

     Let’s face it.  We are all prone to wander from our faith. All of us land on chutes at one time or another.  We fall away from God and sometimes it even feels like we’re headed the opposite direction.  But then comes along a ladder and it seems to come out of nowhere.  

     You hear those same old church bells.  You sit next to someone humming a tune.  You lay your head on that cold rock.  And guess what?  We discover that we were the ones who moved.  Not God.

     Jacob, the one who grabbed his brother’s heel, all of the sudden realizes that God has a grab of HIS heel.  And God isn’t letting go.

     This God is determined to have his way with us.  Whether we’re on the run or we have drifted away without even noticing, at the bottom of every chute is a ladder and this incredible promise:

     “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to do through you.  Through you, I am going to change the world!”

     Never expecting that God would ever catch up with you again, the only words that come to your mind are these words of praise…

     “Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place.”


Chutes & Ladders
Small Group Questions

Genesis 28:10-19a
July 30, 2017

Remember the “Chutes & Ladders” children’s board game? To win, you need to land on the ladder spaces instead of the chutes spaces. 

Share a time in your life when you felt that you landed on a “ladder” space where you were able to move forward in a good way. Share a time when you landed on a “chutes” space where you ended up going backward in a not so good way.

The story of Jacob from our Genesis scripture reading is a story of how he ended up on one chute after another which was leading him farther and farther from God. Some of the reasons we drift away from God include 1) We simply gradually drift away from God and the church almost without noticing! 2) We don’t feel challenged enough spiritually and so we plateau or slide back in our faith. 3) Sometimes, life has been tough on us and we kind of give up on God. 4) Other times, we just make really bad decisions that take us away from God and the church.

Share how you have experienced some of these reasons for drifting away from God and the church.

The good news of this story about Jacob is that God sent him a ladder to help him climb up from all of the chutes in his life. This story reminds us that God is always reaching out to us with a ladder (grace) to draw us closer to God, the church, and one another.

What ladder has got set up for your recently? Share with the group.

Nikos | Pastoral Prayer (July 23) – Athens First UMC

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[Since we have been focusing on the Book of Genesis during these summer Sundays, this hymn in the picture above seemed appropriate for us to sing. Notice how verse 3 includes the words, “…Abram’s faith and Sarah’s story formed a people bound to you…” This is really what the Book of Genesis is all about, the gradual fulfillment of God’s covenant to make of Abraham and Sarah a great nation. Yes, there are many twists and turns to this story, but through it all, God’s covenant is being fulfilled. No wonder the chorus in this hymn exclaims, “Alleluia, Alleluia!”


God of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob, thank you for these patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith. Thank you for these wonderful old bible stories that serve as our family photo album in telling us how you formed us in your image and claimed us as your own.

Every time we gather for worship, it’s like a family reunion where we retell our past stories of faith, renew our family bond, and seek to live as your people in the present time with an eye to the future when we will gather again as your people. Thank you for including each one of us in your family of faith, O God.

And as your family of faith, we rejoice whenever somebody celebrates a special blessing in life. And as your family of faith, our heart aches whenever somebody experiences pain or brokenness. This is what it means to be part of your family and this is what it means to be your people. We are blessed!

In a world that is so divided by political ideologies, strong opinions, and heated debates thank you for reminding us that we have more in common than the issues that divide us. We belong to you. You love us. We are created in your image. We are united in Christ.

As your family of faith, we offer our prayers for those who are struggling to get by. We offer our prayers for those who are tempted to make a trade that will hurt their relationship with you. We offer our prayers for those who are searching for their purpose in life and what it means to be fully human. Remind us whenever we gather as your people that we have been created in your image, to worship and serve you.

O God of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob, thank you for reminding us of our family tree, of our true identity, of the importance of Christian community, and of our need for you. Help us along life’s journey, to always be planted in the good soil of your love made known to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is in his name that we pray in unison saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Nikos | Sermon (July 23) by Rev. Robert McDowell "The Esau Principle"

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     When I was in the 1st or 2nd grade my parents gave me this really cool looking spaceship complete with action figures and light-up screens for my birthday. This spaceship could fold up like a little briefcase so that I could take it to school and play with it during recess.

     I had this spaceship for only about two weeks when I noticed that a buddy of mine had a really awesome spinning top that I had always wanted.  I think they were called wizards back then.  And I really wanted his spinning wizard top.

     And this buddy of mine, knowing that I had the coolest toy in the entire school, and knowing that I really liked his wizard top, offered a straight up trade with me.  “I’ll give you the wizard top if you give me your spaceship.”

     Not knowing the long-term ramifications of this toy exchange, I said, “Sure.”  And so I made the trade.  After just one day of this trade, I knew that I had made a terrible business decision because I ended up really missing that spaceship.  And when my parents found out what I had done, I really knew that I had made a bad trade. 

     As you can tell, I’m still not over it.  I miss that spaceship!

     Sometimes, we make bad exchanges as we go through life, don’t we? 

     Our scripture reading from the Book of Genesis is about a different kind of exchange that happened a long time ago between two brothers, Jacob and Esau, an exchange in which one of the brothers, Esau lived to regret it.

     Last Sunday, we focused on the story of Isaac and Rebekeh.  Isaac, the son of Abraham, marries Rebekeh, and Rebekeh becomes pregnant with twins.  Our hopes are raised as we come to this story of Rebekeh’s pregnancy because we see God’s promise made to Abraham being fulfilled – the promise that God made back in Genesis chapter 12, that God would make of Abraham a great nation.

     Our scripture reading this morning says that the first twin which was born had all of this red hair which is why mom and dad named him, “Harry” or actually, the Hebrew word is “Esau.”   And just a few seconds after Harry is born, out pops Jacob, which means “Heel Grabber” because he had been gripping Harry’s heel during the delivery as if he was trying to be the firstborn.

     And so we have the birth of these twins, “Jacob” and “Esau.” 

     We are told that Esau became a skillful hunter and that Jacob was more of a homebody.  And one day, Jacob was cooking one of his specialty dishes called “Red Stuff.”  At least this is what my bible translation calls this dish.

     Have you ever brought a “red stuff” casserole to a carry-in-dinner?  The NIV bible translation calls it “red stew.”  The King James Version calls it “red pottage.” 

     The Hebrew is obscure, but my guess is that it looked like and tasted a lot like Skyline Chili.
     I don’t know what exactly this dish was but it must have been really good because it ended up costing Esau his future inheritance.

     Esau comes in from his hunting trip and he is starving.  And he smells this skyline chili and he is ready to give up just about anything to have a plate of this red stuff. 

     Now here we have some suspense.  Esau is the firstborn of the twins and as firstborn, he has the birthright.  The family inheritance is his.  And Jacob, knowing that his brother is starving, makes Esau a deal right there on the spot.

     A straight up trade – A delicious serving of Jacob’s famous skyline chili for Esau’s birthright and the family inheritance.

     This is why you should never buy groceries when you’re hungry.   We will put things in that cart that we know won’t help our diet or our budget, but when you’re really hungry, the temptation can be too great to overcome.

     Esau makes the worst decision of his life in his moment of weakness – he makes a straight up trade.  The family inheritance for some red stew.  Now, even if that stew was the best tasting stew in the known world at that time, it still wasn’t worth blowing the family farm over it.
     As I think about this story of Jacob and Esau, I think of the bad trades that we sometimes make in our faith.  What looks to be a great trade at the time, ends up being something that actually moves us away in our relationship with Christ.

     This morning, I want to look at the Esau Principle.  The Esau Principle is a principle that I just made up. The Esau Principle says to never make a trade that will lead to a negative impact on your relationship with God.

     I want to quickly cover some potential bad trades that can set us back in who God is calling us to be.


Trading True Identity for a False Identity

     The first bad trade is to trade your true identity for a false identity.

     That’s essentially the trade that Esau was making to Isaac. He was giving up who he was as the first-born. By making the trade, he was making himself something other than who he truly was. He was accepting a false identity over a true identity.

     So what is your true identity? Even if I don’t know you very well, I know your true identity. You are a child of God and you were made in God’s image. That’s a very “book of Genesis kind of thing to say” since the creation story is how this first book of the bible begins.

     In the creation story, which we focused on back in the month of May, we saw how we were created in God’s image and God called us, “good.” That’s why the Bible includes the creation story because God wants us to know from the get-go what our true identity is.

     We were made in God’s image. What does that mean that we were made in God’s image? It means that God created us for purpose. We were created to live our lives in such a way that we are always reflecting God’s glory back onto God which is what worship is and we are also always reflecting God’s glory back into the world, which is what service is. The creation story wants us to know that each one of us was created for worship and service. Worship and service. Worship and service.

     Say that with me. “Worship and service.”

     Being created in the image of God means that we are meant to always be in relationship with God, to know that we are loved by God, claimed by God, and given a purpose by God. That is every human being’s true identity.

     The problem is that we sometimes forget. We’re like Esau who trades away his heavenly banquet for some leftover stew.

     Whenever we trade away our true identity as God’s image bearers, we accept a false reality of who we were created to be. We weren’t created to just live according to our instincts and our impulses.  We were created to be part of this magnificent overarching biblical purpose of being an important part of the building of God’s kingdom here on earth. How cool is that?

     It’s a game changer when we accept and live out the awesome identity of who God created us to be from the very beginning. It can be the most freeing thing we ever experience. Accepting our true identity can be a game changer.

     I remember when I was in 6th or 7th grade and I went on a church youth retreat to the beach one summer. There was just something about that week that helped me to experience God’s love in a very real way that became very personal and meaningful.

    I’m sure it had something to do with the bible discussions we had during the week. But what really did it for me was in the singing of praise songs around the campfire every night. One of those songs was a song that is now in our United Methodist hymnal, “Pass It On.”

     That song helped me to connect with God in a way where I was able see my true identity. God loved me unconditionally, pimple face and all. God loved me for who I was.

     That was a life changing event for me because I couldn’t stop singing that song days and weeks after that youth retreat. I still think back to that time of my life. I mean, I already knew that God loved me but it was the first time that I really, really experienced that love and accepted it.

     It was that chorus that I think really spoke to me. “That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it. You spread his love to everyone, you want to pass it on.”

     Thanks to that summer youth retreat, I knew what my true identity was. I was loved by God in a very real way, not just in a theoretical or theological way. God’s love was something I could experience and receive in any given moment.

     Now, it’s also true that since that time many years ago, I have needed to remind myself of my true identity over and over again, because we easily forget. It’s easy to forget who we are as people who are loved by God.

     Sometimes we accept a false identity of who we are where we never measure up to our own standards let alone the standards that others have on us. In one of my churches, I remember needing to wake up at 4:30 in the morning so that I would have time to make it to a hospital where a church member was going to have major surgery.

     The alarm went off. I got in my car and drove to the city where the hospital was located. I had timed it just right because as I got out of my car in that hospital parking garage, I was thinking how I had just enough time to see this person back in pre-op before the surgery.

     As I was scampering through that parking garage to go into the hospital, that’s when it suddenly dawned on me that I had driven to the wrong hospital. It needed to be in the other hospital that would probably be another twenty minutes away. There was no way that I was going to make it on time.

     I quickly turned around, got in my car and started driving to the other hospital. I probably drove too fast and went through some questionable yellow traffic lights to get there. I go into the hospital, rush to the pre-op area, and I am told that my church member had just been taken back for surgery.

     In that moment, my heart just sunk. I felt terrible. I said a little prayer there in the hallway, and I went out into the hospital lobby. I was already doing the negative self-talk and beating myself up over my mindless mistake.

     To my surprise, a pastor of a church near my church was in the waiting area of that same hospital during that early morning hour. He was there for a church member having an early surgery as well. When I told him about my mistake, I’ll never forget this.

     Knowing that I was upset with myself, he grabbed my arms, looked into my eyes and he said, “God loves you, Robert.” He said it again, “God loves you, Robert.”

     I needed that. I always need that reminder because I can so easily forget of this basic truth of my true identity.

     So I’m going to tell each one of you, straight up. “God loves you.” Let me say it again. “God loves you.” Don’t trade your true identity for anything less than that. That’s always a bad trade.


Trading Christian Community for Solo Christianity

     Let’s look at another potential bad trade.  Trading Christian Community for Solo Christianity. 

     We live in a culture which is trading in Christian Community for Solo Christianity.  People don’t see the need for the church if they can pray just as easily in their home.  Or maybe they see the hypocrisy of the church and they say, “I don’t need to be part of a church that gossips about each other or where the people hurt one another, sometimes even maliciously.  I’ll just live the Christian faith on my own.”

     And yet, the Bible reminds us again and again, that our faith is not meant to be lived in isolation.  Hebrews 10:25 is probably the kingpin verse for this bad trade.  “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

     When we get out of the habit of meeting together as the church for worship, fellowship, study, and service, we end up falling short of the biblical model of Christian community.  The Esau principle reminds us that even with all of the shortcomings of the church, this is a trade that we don’t want to make.

     One day, I caught up with a pastor and I asked him to share something good that was going on at his church.  And by the way, he’s not United Methodist.  That’s important to know as I share this with you.  He paused for a few seconds and then his eyes started to light up.  And he proceeded to tell me about a new small group ministry for men that had just started attending his church.

     And he said, “It’s been so great to see people in the church growing in their faith through this small group ministry.”  And then he said, “We’re using the John Wesley model (and he gave me this big smile knowing that I’m United Methodist.) “We are using the Wesley model of having members of the church participate in small groups to receive encouragement and strength through the other members of the church.”

     He said how people in these small groups are really opening up and sharing about their struggles  and how the members of the small groups are giving each other support and encouragement in dealing with these issues that all of us deal with on a day to day basis. 

     You can’t have this kind of spiritual growth without Christian Community.  Solo Christianity will take you only so far.

     The Esau principle reminds us to not trade Christian Community for Solo Christianity.  Solo Christianity can easily turn into “no Christianity.”


Trading Our Faith for a Life Without God

     Let me offer one more bad trade.  Trading our faith for a life without God.  That’s the ultimate bad trade, isn’t it?  I run into people all of the time who say that they started out in the church as a child, maybe they were baptized, their parents took them, but over the years and into adulthood, they just kind of fell away from their faith.

     And it’s not like they don’t believe in God, but they are not attending any church, they’re not reading the bible, they’re not active in a prayer life, and they’re not using their God given gifts to serve others.

     Most of the time, they don’t even realize that they made the trade.  They just gradually fell away from their faith.

     Jesus told a parable that explains how easy it can be for people to make this bad trade.  In this parable, he talks about a farmer who scatters seed with the hopes that all of the seed will eventually grow into beautiful and productive plants. 

     Some of the seeds fell on the hard path and before the seeds could take root, birds came along and snatched up those seeds.  Other seed fell on rocky ground and this produced some plants but because there wasn’t enough soil, the sun scorched them and they didn’t make it.

     Other seeds fell among thorns and those thorns ended up choking those plants.

     But then Jesus went onto say that some seed did fall on good soil and it brought forth incredible and unbelievable amounts of grain.

     The point of the parable is that seeds need to be planted in the right soil in order to grow and flourish.

     And whenever we make bad trades as Esau did in our Genesis reading, we can end up cutting ourselves off from God’s promises.

      Maybe you have heard the story of the farmer who was getting tired of farming and so he contacted a realtor to help him sell his property. And the realtor asked the farmer to describe his farm so that he would be able to put a description of the farm in the newspaper. 

     And the farmer thought a moment and he said, “Well, I have 100 beautiful acres with a fenced in meadow, a freshly painted barn with plenty of storage.  A meandering stream runs through the green meadow and there’s even a couple of acres of wooded land.”

     The realtor thanked the farmer for the information and he said, this will appear in tomorrow’s newspaper and hopefully this will catch a prospective buyer’s eye.

     Around the middle of the morning the next day, the realtor receives a phone call and it’s this farmer.  And the farmer says, “I changed my mind.  I don’t want to sell my farm.”  And the realtor said, “What caused you to change your mind?” 

     And the farmer said, “I read the description of the farm that was in the newspaper and I decided that this is just the kind of farm that I’ve always wanted to have!  I just didn’t realize until now, that this is the farm I’ve always wanted.”

     Isn’t it true that we often forget to appreciate what we have already been given by God?  Sometimes, all it takes is for us to step back and to appreciate what God has already given us. 

     I think of a dear friend of mine who passed away a couple of years ago. Even with his leukemia and blood transfusions which were every other week, it was a struggle for him to attend church but he did week after week.

     His faith remained strong to the very end. The spring before he died, we had met for lunch and he offered a prayer before our meal. As he prayed for my family, my ministry, and for me, I was reminded of just how much I had missed his prayers. Even in his failing health, he continued to inspire so many people, including me.

     Here’s a man who lived out his faith the right way.  He didn’t make trades that would lead to a compromise of his faith. He remained faithful to the Esau principle which is to never make a trade that will have a negative impact on your relationship with Christ.

     My friend is an example that if you want to stay strong in your faith, stay rooted in the good soil and don’t give away the farm.


The Esau Principle
Small Group Questions

Genesis 25:19-34 & Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
July 23, 2017

We continue our stories of the Book of Genesis this summer by focusing on the birth of Esau and Jacob, the twin sons of Rebekah and Isaac. In a moment of weakness (hunger!), Esau traded his birthright to Jacob in exchanged for some stew! Pastor Robert invites us to think about three bad trades that we may be tempted to make in life.

#1 Trading Our True Identity for a False Identity

What helps you to remember and claim your true identity as a child of God, an image bearer of a loving God who created you and called you, “good?” Why do you think we sometimes forget who our true identity is?

#2 Trading Christian Community for Solo Christianity

How have relationships with other Christians helped you to grow in your faith? Why is your small group important to you?

#3 Trading Our Faith for a Life Without Christ

What are some reasons why we might fall away in our faith? Share a time when you stopped praying, or reading your bible, or attending church. What brought you back?

List some ways that can help us to maintain a strong faith as we go through the ups and downs of life.


Nikos | Pastoral Prayer (July 16) Athens First UMC

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[Our church was blessed to have the Dalton family in worship on Sunday. They moved to New England two years ago and are back visiting. Matthew served on our Leadership Board and Laura was our Director of Communications. They enjoyed seeing our newly remodeled church facility.]


O God, thank you for giving us those special moments in life where there is so much celebration and joy…like a 65th wedding anniversary, the birth of a child, a retirement celebration, a college acceptance letter, an unexpected financial gift, good news from the doctor.

O God, thank you for all of these times of celebration and happiness. And we also thank you for the many other moments of our lives that might seem ordinary, but are nevertheless, holy moments…like that first cup of coffee, planting flowers, mowing the yard, paying a bill, buying groceries, walking the dog, writing a sermon, donating diapers and baby wipes, preparing a meal.

Living God, you are just as present in these ordinary events as you are in the more extraordinary moments of our lives, if only we take the time to notice. And so remind us during this long season of Ordinary Time, to take time to pray often and to be reminded of the purpose you have given to each and every one of us, to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world. Help us to see our daily tasks in light of this greater purpose that you have entrusted to us.

Even now, we lift up to you all of the prayer concerns that are on our hearts this morning.

Together, we pray for friends and family, for our community, for our mayor, for our law enforcement personnel, for doctors and nurses, for our hospital, for the university and its new president, Dr. Duane Nellis, for all the churches and pastors in our surrounding area, for organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Good Works Outreach, Hospice, and our own Monday Lunch as they serve the needs of our community, for a safe Brew Week here in Athens, and for so many other prayers requests that we silently lift up to you, knowing that you hear our prayers.



(Moments of Silence)

And now, we join together, in praying the words you taught your disciples to pray, and now teach us to pray…

“Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Nikos | Sermon (July 16) by Rev. Robert McDowell "Ordinary Time"

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     I’ve never really liked the name we give to this church season of the calendar.  Ordinary time.  Who thought of that title?  Ordinary time.   

     Advent is a great name for a church season.  It means to wait with expectancy and to know that something very special and wonderful is about to happen – At the end of our patient waiting, we sing “Joy to the World the Lord is come.”

     Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide.  You would expect another flashy season title to take us through these long summer months, but, no. Instead, we call this time of the church year, “Ordinary Time.”  Just that name alone can makes it tempting to skip church.

     But if we stop to think about it – where do we spend most of our time?  We spend most of our time in the ordinary every day events don’t we? 

     If you’re like me, on most days, we don’t encounter a burning bush, or have angels visit us with some profound message, or witness someone walk on water, or see a stone rolled away from a tomb.

     Not usually.  An extraordinary day for us may be a day without getting any bills in the mail.  Or gas prices go down just before we fill up the tank. Or it doesn’t rain during a family picnic. For many of us, these are the kinds of things that make for an exciting day, myself included.

     Most of our daily existence seems routine and uneventful.  Maybe this is why Ordinary Time on the church calendar is the longest season of the church year, because this is where we live and move and have our being.

     For the past several weeks, we have been in the midst of a summer sermon series on the Book of Genesis.  The stories from the Book of Genesis are exciting, gut wrenching, life changing, and thought provoking stories of faith. 

     That’s what you get with the Book of Genesis. Noah and the Ark; the calling of Abram to begin a new nation; family jealousy involving Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, & Ishmael; and perhaps the most dramatic story from the Book of Genesis which we looked at last Sunday – the story of Abraham about to sacrifice his own son Isaac.

     These are “sitting on the edge of your seat” kinds of stories.  These are blockbuster summer hits that everybody talks about with their friends.

     But then we come to our Genesis story for today – this very ordinary story of Isaac meeting Rebekah.  For the past several Sundays, we have had all of these exciting and dramatic story lines and today, we get some chick flick starring Ryan Gosling as Isaac and Emma Stone as Rebekah.

     What do we make of this very ordinary story situated in the middle of all of these other exciting stories?  Maybe this story just goes to show that what looks ordinary from the outside, is really very extraordinary on the inside.

     In a nutshell, Abraham sends his servant to find his son, Isaac a wife.  And the servant, not wanting to disappoint his master, Abraham, or fail in his mission, prays for God to bring him success in this task of finding Isaac a suitable wife.

     And this servant comes to the conclusion that the woman who offers his camels a drink will be the one whom the Lord has appointed for Isaac.  What a way to pick a spouse for someone!

     We later read that a woman named Rebekah does exactly that, and Abraham’s servant doesn’t waste anytime, because he puts a ring on her nose and bracelets on her arms and before this woman can say a word, he bows down and worships the Lord because the Lord answered his prayer and he is now off the hook.

     Now, how can she refuse this dedicated servant after all of this commotion?  

     Nevertheless, this servant briefly explains his mission to Rebekah and says to her, “So what do you say?”  Rebekah’s family jumps into the conversation and they offer their blessing for Rebekah to leave their homeland and follow Abraham’s servant to be married to Isaac.

     And when Rebekah and the servant arrive home, Isaac and Rebekah meet for the first time, and they end up getting married.

     This is one of those romantic stories with a very happy ending. 

     But it’s more than a sappy love story.  It’s a story of how God is present in our ordinary day to day living.

     For example, think about Abraham’s servant in this story.  He is given the task of finding a wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac.  He could have used all kinds of criteria in his search for the right person.  He could have said, “I’ll find the prettiest woman in town and she’ll be the one.”  Or he could have just accepted the first woman he saw.  Or he could have used the tried and true, “Eenie, meanie, minie, moe…”

     But he did none of that.  Instead, he prayed to God.  Now, the very fact that he prayed to God shows me that he knew what it meant to live in the ordinary time.  This servant knew that this task of finding a wife for Isaac was not just something to be done on his own.

     This servant knew to pray.  He prayed, “Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.”

     Prayer has a way of opening our eyes to God’s presence and guidance in our everyday tasks.  Prayer gives us God’s perspective on things.  And we find that it was this prayer that enabled the servant to find the right woman for Isaac.

     One Christian saint has said, “You should not make long prayers, for it is better to pray little but often.”  I notice that this servant said a short prayer.  I used to think that the way to pray was to say a really long prayer in the morning and then forget about God the rest of the day. 

     I’m learning the importance of saying little prayers throughout the day rather than just one long prayer.  Little prayers remind me to invite God to be part of the ordinary tasks of my day.  And so before you go into the grocery store, maybe say a little prayer thanking God for the food you are about to buy.

     Or before you go into a meeting, maybe first say a prayer for God to give you guidance and wise discernment for any decision you might need to make.

     Or when you go onto Facebook, say a little prayer for your friends who have birthdays that day.

     Of course, praying before meals is one of the ways we can stay in relationship with God throughout the day.

     I was visiting an older member of one of my churches who was confined to his apartment. His name was Chester. He didn’t have any family nearby and he was pretty much alone. During my first visit to see him he said to me, “Pastor Robert, I pray for you every day. I just want the best for you and the church.”

     I was taken aback by his comment. It was so genuine. The thought of Chester praying for me every single day meant so much to me. Every time I would visit him, I thanked him for his prayers.

     I remember leaving from his apartment that day thinking how blessed I was to have somebody who was that focused on praying for his pastor. It made me think of how important it is to pray for people on a continual basis.

     Nothing can be more ordinary than for a person confined to their modest tiny apartment praying every single day for another person.

     I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately thanks to today’s focus on the importance of daily prayer. Maybe that’s why when I’m feeling stuck in preparing a sermon, a story or a thought will come to me out of nowhere and it ends up being just what I need to include.

     Maybe that’s why when I’m faced with a difficult decision, I am reminded of a scripture or a past experience to help me make a better informed decision.

     Maybe that’s why when I’m feeling a little nervous before getting up to preach, I feel a peace which passes all understanding.

     Maybe that’s why when I’m not even thinking about the church, a thought will come to me about improving one of our ministries or maybe even starting a new ministry will come to me.

     I wonder if those things would happen as often if it wasn’t for the prayers of people like Chester and so many of you who pray for me on a daily basis. I just want you to know that I feel those prayers.

     Like I told you before, when I first came here to be your pastor, I could tell that there were many prayers being lifted for Penny and me before we even arrived here. You can sense these things. Those prayers really make a difference!

     And Lord knows, you have a pastor that needs all the prayers he can get! And I thank you for those prayers.

     There will be times when the staff will be discussing an issue that isn’t easy to resolve and someone will stop us in our tracks and say, “We need to pray.”

     It’s incredible to be part of a staff where a staff member will interrupt you and just start saying this little prayer for wisdom and guidance with whatever we may be facing.

     Thank God for the Chesters in our lives who are praying for us day in and day out.

     One of my routines in the morning is to begin my prayers by praying for Penny and our family. That leads me to then say a prayer for all of you, and specifically for our Leadership Board, our staff, our ministry leaders, and specific people in our congregation who have specific needs. I know that God knows the names of the people I am lifting up in prayer, but I like to say those names in my prayers any way.

     So, isn’t it incredible that we can learn so much about the importance of prayer from one of the most ordinary people in all of the bible, this servant of Isaac who depended on prayer to find the right person to eventually marry his master? There is so much to learn from this Old Testament story which often gets overshadowed by these other more dramatic stories from the Book of Genesis.

     This servant of Isaac reminds me a lot of Chester.

     In addition to offering these little prayers each day, having a God given purpose can help us follow God during these ordinary times.  Abraham’s servant knew his God given purpose.  On the surface, you would think that his purpose was to find a wife for Isaac.  But it was so much more than simply finding a wife.

     His purpose was to find a wife for Isaac so that God’s covenant to make of Abraham a great nation would continue to be fulfilled. 

     It was this greater purpose that this servant of Abraham was thinking about as he embarked on this task.  I am going to find a wife for Isaac so that God’s promise that was made to my Master can eventually be fulfilled – the promise of Abraham having offspring who would then have more children and they would have children until you eventually have this great nation of a people claimed by God.

     The Jewish people today can claim Abraham as their ancestral patriarch thanks in part to a servant who helped Isaac find a wife so that they could have children.  Christians who are not Jewish can also claim Abraham as our father of the faith because we have been grafted into this covenant through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

     This story of Isaac and Rebekah is our story as well. 

     Abraham’s servant had a God given purpose.  What is your God given purpose?  One of the great things about participating in the life of the church, is that all of us can have a God given purpose.  The purpose of our church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world. 

     This is what we live for and this is why we are open for business. 

     Isn’t it great to know that each one of us is given the same overarching God given purpose?  If someone would walk up to you and say, “Do you know what your purpose in life is?”   What would you say?

       Your purpose probably sounds a lot like mine – “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.”

     Let’s all practice this together.  Church – What is your God given purpose?  Say it outloud with me – “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world?”  Say it again with me!  “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.”   One more time!  “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.”

     To make disciples of who?  (Jesus Christ)  For the purpose of what? (transforming our community and world.)  Give yourselves a hand.

     People ask, “What does the church have to offer me and my family?”  One of the things the church gives us is a purpose. And it’s a grand and glorious purpose.

     If you work with children, you might specify your purpose to be “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world through the faithful teaching of my elementary Sunday School class.” 

     Or if you are an usher, maybe your purpose is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world by providing a positive first impression for people attending our church.

     My specific purpose as the Sr. Pastor goes like this – “to equip and encourage the church to effectively and enthusiastically make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.”

     It’s great to have a God given purpose.  A God given purpose reminds us of what God has called us to do and we can be part of the building of the Kingdom of God.

     We’ve already been focusing on one love story from our Genesis reading this morning, but I’d like to share with you one more love story. Sorry guys, two love stories in one worship service is almost too much to take.

     Thirty-four years ago this Fall, a college student was sitting in his dorm room at Temple University in Philadelphia when an attractive female student barged into his room. The female student apologized by saying that she thought it was the door to the stairwell and that she had made a mistake.

     As she started to walk away, the startled and very handsome young man introduced himself to her and they got to know each other a little bit. In the course of the conversation, they found out that they were both United Methodists. They would later see each other around the dorm and talk. He was really smitten by her.

     When the Christmas break came, he sent yellow roses to her house. As luck would have it, those roses were delivered at the same time that her high school boyfriend was there visiting her. That didn’t go over so well.

     When she came back to campus after the break, they spent even more time with each other. They went to church together on Sundays, ate meals together, and two years later they were married.

     After their honeymoon, they came to Ohio so that he could attend seminary and they have served churches here ever since.

     The reason I share this love story with you, is to let you know that Penny is the one who helped me realize that God was calling me to enter the ministry. If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be a pastor and I wouldn’t have the privilege of being your pastor.

     Penny helped me to discover my purpose in life. She helped me to listen to God’s voice and God’s call in my life when I wasn’t able to hear it.

     So to my wife, I say thank you for this life we share together. Thank you for these past thirty-two years and for helping me to find my purpose in life, because as you know, I would have been a terrible Physical Therapist!


Ordinary Time
Small Group Questions

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
July 16, 2017

The church is currently in the liturgical season known as “Ordinary Time.” This is the longest season on the church calendar usually beginning in June and lasting through the middle of November. The color associated with this season is green reminding us that spiritual growth takes a lot of time and patience.

In what ways do you seek to grow in your faith during this long church season of “Ordinary Time?”

We have recently begun a sermon series that focuses on the different stories in the Book of Genesis. Sunday’s scripture reading focuses on how Isaac (Abraham’s son) met his wife, Rebekah. Isaac’s servant plays an important role in this story as he prays for God to help him find the right person to become Isaac’s wife. His prayers led him to choose Rebekah.

In what ways does prayer guide your decisions and thoughts as you go through your day?

Pastor Robert shared about a church member who taught him that saying “little” prayers throughout the day is a way for us to grow in our prayer life. 

As a group, think of some ways that can help us to remember to say “little” prayers throughout the day and share with the group.

The story of Isaac and Rebekah is also a story of the importance of being aware of God’s purpose at work in our life. In order for God’s covenant with Abraham to become a great nation, Abraham’s son, Isaac needed to find a wife and eventually have offspring. Isaac’s servant was aware of this big purpose which was why he took his mission in finding a wife for Isaac so seriously.

What is the “purpose” that God has given you in how you live out your faith on day to day basis? How does your purpose help to fulfill the church’s overall purpose which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world?”
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