Dreisbach United Church of Christ

06/15/2026

"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, 'I am in the light,' while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness."
1 John 2:7-11

The author of First John reminds his readers that if we are to be people of faith we need to go back to the very beginning of God's relationship with God's people. That is, God established a relationship with God's people by the way of love, God's love for us and for God's whole creation. In turn, we as God's people are to also love God and one another in the same manner.

How do you experience God's love in your life?And how is that love expressed in your thoughts and actions towards other people? Are they able to see God's light working in and through you? Is God's love the primary way that moves you in your daily life? If so, how does God's love working in you guide and help you to deal with all the darkness and hate found in our world?

Are you able to provide examples of the way that God's love has an active presence in our church? Do you voice these examples as we address ways to follow Jesus in our ministry and mission?Do you feel God's love in worship? In our conversations with others in church and social gatherings? Does God's love working in and through you move you to share this love with those outside the church?

As we approach a future that can only come about by God's love, in what ways do you seek to be a part of this future? What will your 'love' contributions look like? How will you help the world to see God's love in ways that will promote the commandments of love of God and love for one another, commandments that are old but forever true?
Peace and grace, Pastor John

06/14/2026

Here is the link for part of our service today.
https://youtu.be/JhRyx27q26w. It will be available later today.

Music Used by PermissionCCLI #919815

06/14/2026

Music Used by permission
CCLI #919815

06/13/2026

Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, 'I have come to know him,' but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, 'I abide in him,' ought to walk just as he walked."
1 John 2:3-6

What do we say that we know and believe about God? What do we really know about ourselves? And what do we believe about the church, our place in the church, and what we hope to happeno as the church as the community of faith brought together by God? These are the questions that the author of First John addresses. They were important for his congregation, and they are important for us to hear today.

Certainly, as the author of First John notes, God is known as a God who gives instructions to God's people. God has expectations for the manner in which God's people are to live. And God knows that God's people will often fall short of these expectations. Yet such falling short does not define God's nature nor preclude how God will respond to the entirety of the human condition. God continues to have expectations of how we are to live before him and one another, and those expectations are grounded in God's love. It is from this love that we can be a church, a community of faith.

To obey God's commandments is to place oneself in the reach of God's love. To obey finds its grounding in knowing who God really is, a God who loves us and chooses to be in an everlasting relationship with us. Knowing God therefore helps us to know who we really are in God's eyes and before one another. And such knowing enables us to walk with Jesus, to walk as he walked. This is where the perfection of love is to be found; not in not ever making mistakes but feeling the love of God in every aspect of our lives and knowing that Jesus is right there with us. Grace and peace, Pastor John

06/11/2026

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."
1 John 1:8-2:2

In Vacation Bible School this week we have been singing, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands." If the author of First John new this song he would have encouraged his congregation to sing it. He's got all of us in his hands. Because God is faithful ( to his creation and to his promises for creation) and just( working that which is according to his will), God will not let the reality of human sin be a relationship-breaker between God and humanity.

God knows that sin, the attitude and the behavior of all humans who at times believe that all things in life can be handled apart from God's direction and guidance, has been and has continued to be present in and throughout the world. But because God's got the whole world in his hands, the reality of sin will not sever our relationship with God. And we know this in and through the living presence of Jesus Christ. Therefore we do not have to fool ourselves into thinking that we do not sin or to believe that we can navigate ourselves through life without a need for God.

We are to confess our sin before God, not that God needs our confession before granting us awareness of God's continuing care for us including the forgiveness of all sin, but because confession enables us to be honest about ourselves before God and one another. So the "if" in this passage is not so much a necessary condition in order for God to react or respond, but a reality-check that enables us to rightly become aware of God's faithfulness in and through Jesus Christ. And to understand Jesus as atoning sacrifice is to acknowledge that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus fully brings all of us into a right relationship with God including forgiveness attached to the whole world as well as helping us to be fully aware that we do not have to sin, meaning that we no longer have to be fooled into thinking that we can get through this life without our collective need for God and God's daily guidance.

Therefore, we can sing, He's got you and me, brother in his hands. He's got you and me, sister, in his hands. Forgiven and loved, we are sisters and brothers in Christ, our forever Advocate.
Peace and grace, Pastor John

06/10/2026

"If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
1 John 1:6-8

In the Gospel of John, Jesus states, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The church believes this, and holds to it in its relationship with God and one another. It is the message that guides and sustains the faithful as it seeks to be a community. For the church to be the church that is in continuous fellowship with God and one another, it must bear the truth and maintain itself in God's light. Anything less, and the church weaves itself into darkness, and will lie its way through its life and its relationships. The church then engages in a fellowship with the demonic, the ways that seek to diminish life and to separate the faithful from God's light and promises.

The church that loses sight of the cross, the blood of Jesus, will be a church that does not take sin seriously. In this passage, sin is both the attitude and the behavior that seeks life apart from being in fellowship with God. Sin finds a home, and not a good one at that, in deception and untruth. Therefore, the church must continuously keep its eyes on the cross so as to not veer into the darkness of deception and untruth.

The reality is that the church can abandon its fellowship with God and therefore a breakdown its its relationship with one another when it chooses to not bear constant attention on the light of God which cleanses all from sin through the blood of Jesus. First John will reveal more about how we are to understand this phrase, "the blood of Jesus." It emeges from an understanding of how God chooses to show God's love to those who have and who may be tempted to stray into darkness. Thanks be to God! Grace and Peace, Pastor John

06/09/2026

"We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all."
1 John 1:3-5

The author of First John indicates that the gathering and assembly of believers in fellowship with God and one another is a people of declaration. That is, the church communicates its message from what it has heard from before so that it is able to continue to be in fellowship with God and one another. Without such declarations, the church risks losing its connection with Scripture and the historical tradition as well as losing the 'why' and the 'how' of being in fellowship. The church is to be more than a random collection of religious individuals with little or no connection to the past or void of a shared hope for the future. As such, these connections can only be found in relationship with the incarnational human presence of the divine Son, a living presence of the light that overcomes all darkness ( see also the Gospel of John 1:4-5 and 12:35-36).

To be in fellowship with God is to live within God's light and, therefore, to be able to share that light in relationship with one another. The relationship we have with one another within God's light enables and empowers us as the church to name the darknesses that seek to surround us and embrace us with untruth, deception, and the pursuit of evil. Only in our togetherness as the church shall we be able to properly name these darknesses and not be fooled into accepting their deceptive practices and illusions.

How is God's light shining in your life? How does such light bring forth and sustain you in your shared life in the church? In what ways does our fellowship as the church today address the current avenues of darkness that seek to pe*****te its promotion of evil and untruths into our relationships with God and one another?

The church is, solely because of the light of God and its declarations need abide in such light. Our fellowship depends on this light, for if our walk together enters into darkness, untruths may seem to represent truth and deceptive practices may become normative. As the church today, are we able to experience joy and fulfillment as we walk together in God's light?
Peace and grace, Pastor John

06/08/2026

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us."
1 John 1:1-2

In our day there seem to be many models for being the church. Some emerge from Scripture while others are formed from current cultural considerations. Just maybe we can look to First John for the way we might proceed as church as the bearers and testifiers of the revealed life of Jesus Christ and what it means for us to be aligned with belief, tradition, and fellowship (koinonia).

The author of First John writes from a perspective of tradition, of those who physically witnessed "from the beginning" the revealed life of Jesus Christ. For this writer, belief and the resulting tradition are firmly connected to a proper understanding of life/ eternal life, and such understanding can only come about in the life of Jesus in the flesh and the life we share with him as well as the belief patterns and actions we share in fellowship.

To be sure, we weren't there "from the beginning," nevertheless we share in the tradition layed out by the author of First John. Therefore, if we are to be the church today, we probably should pay some attention to the ways this writer calls the church to be a community of faith and in fellowship with the life of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

So we might begin by asking a few questions. How is our belief in Jesus related to belief patterns found in Scripture, and particularly in First John? Are we concerned and connected with that which was testified about Jesus "from the beginning?" And how might we connect the meaning and purpose of life with the revealed life Jesus himself lived? And how might we share this understanding of our life in fellowship with others? Things to ponder.

More will come in reflection with First John. Stay tuned. Peace and grace to all. Pastor John

06/07/2026

Due to some storm issues. We will not be online or recording today. Our sincere apologies.

06/03/2026

"Some Pharisees and some Herodians came to Jesus and said, ' Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pau taxes to the emperor, or not?' Knowing their hypocrisy, Jesus said to them, 'Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.' And they brought one. Then Jesus said, 'Whose head is this, and whose title?' They answered, 'The emperor's.' And Jesus said, 'Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.'"
Mark 12:13-17

Jesus' response to the question posed by the Pharisees and the Herodians is as relevant for us today as it was for his initial audience. We are called today to properly discern what belongs to God and what is appropriate to the political realm. It is the proper discernment of authority and the structures of power and the appropriate distribution of goods and services. It bears proper witness to an understanding of God's involvement in our lives, particularly when a good bit of attention is given to the concepts of nationalism, patriotism, and a hierarchy of social and political classifications.

We are to see Jesus' response first in the form of warning: political leaders are not God, so be aware of those political leaders with self-driven god -complexes and those who seek and use power for purposes that are ungodly. A distinction is to be made between governments that serve all God's people with justice and opportunity for all, from those governments and leaders that use position and power in ways that are contrary to God's will, that are built upon false narratives and promote dividion and discord.

Secondly, Jesus' response directs us to challenge any notion that would fail to notice God's direct involvement in our daily lives, including that which happens in social and political discourse as well as that which is promoted by those political leaders who display the demonic motivations of self-interest and bask themselves in a god-complex. God knows the manner by which we are to take care of all of God's creation, and God knows when our leaders fall short. God is the full and final authority over all life. To deny such is to fall in the hands of despots and tyrants who presume to think that they are in control over all matters of live. They reveal their foolishness and further call upon fools to follow their path. But God is not fooled.

In Jesus' day, the emperor thought of himself as a god who had the power over life and death. And he displayed his presumed power by causing the death of those he disagreed with. His governors did as well; we know that story also. But he did not have the power or the authority of resurrection. So let us be fully aware of the limits of power to be given to those who assume the stage of political leadership. The power given to them may lead them to believe that they are a god. They may be fooled to believe such; we who are followers of Jesus should not.

"Give to the emperor that which belongs to the emperor, and give back to God that which truly belongs to God." This is not a division of labor or service; for God is the full and final word of where authority lies and how power is to be distributed and embraced within the human community. As Jesus further said, one cannot fully serve both God and mammon.
Grace and peace, Pastor John