Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church

07/26/2026

02/01/2026

Hey all! I miss being in worship with you. Hopefully these words will tide you over until next week.
Saturdays, for me, are mostly about getting ready for Sundays. There’s the praying and prepping for worship. Putting some finishing touches on the sermon. Making sure I know what I need to know and am more or less ready to do what I need to do. Yesterday was the Saturday before the first Sunday of the month (which is today) which means that according to the custom and tradition of our churches we are to celebrate Holy Communion. That means this particular Saturday, January 31, had the added joy of making bread for Holy Communion. It’s something I genuinely enjoy doing. I didn’t make bread yesterday. There were a few disruptions brought on by the snow, but mostly I knew we wouldn’t be in worship so I didn’t bother.
I missed the bread making.
In these first words from Matthew’s telling of the Sermon on the Mount we get a beautiful picture of who Jesus was to his disciples. He is their teacher. He is pouring his heart out to them, telling them how to live, every day, all day. He is telling them to set the example of what someone who loves the Lord their God does. He is giving them the very definition of “the way and the truth and the life.” What we call the Beatitudes are not intended to be examples of how different sort of people live and act. For the disciples then, and us today, they are statements of how we are supposed to live.
Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Making bread, I have come to learn, is about more than following the recipe. It’s about feel. It’s about understanding that the “Goldilocks Rules of Too and Just” matter. The dough can be too wet or too dry, or just right. That depends on the amount of water to flour . . . too much on one, too little of one, or just the right amount of both. The temperature of the water can be an issue . . .too hot and you kill the yeast, too cold and the yeast won’t ferment, just right and the dough rises beautifully.
So what’s the point? How do we apply the “Goldilocks Rules of ‘Too’ and ‘Just’?” Too much religion, that narrow view that our relationship to God and people is defined by a body of rules, without Jesus, can be harmful and potentially destructive. Too little religion, the notion that anything goes, allows us to lapse into apathy and indifference, or shallowness and frivolity. So what is the just right amount of religion? The beatitudes give us the answer. Be these things, Jesus tells us and we’ve got it made.
They’re deeper than they look. One example . . . the first Beatitude reads this way: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Sounds great! These words were written in Greek and Aramaic 2000 years ago. We can read what they say, but what the words mean literally gets lost in the translation. William Barclay, in his Daily Bible Study Series, which was first published in 1956, what these words actually mean. After discussing the various words in their Greek and Aramaic origins this is what the Beatitude means: “O the bliss of the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God, for thus alone he can render to God that perfect obedience which will make him a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.”
In short, Jesus is saying to the disciples then, and us today, that there can be no too much. He is telling us that too little isn’t good enough. That to be “just” with God, we have to be all in. It’s hard and we can’t do it alone. We need each other and we need the help of the Triune God. So as you eat the bread that comes with your meal and drink the drink that you pour, REMEMBER, the God who created you, the Son who died for you, and the Spirit who seeks to lead you now.

01/25/2026

A word from today's (Jan. 25th) scriptures:

When I was a school teacher, married to a school teacher, the father of school-age children, I loved snow days. They were “free” days. Free meant, the essays and tests to be graded could wait one more day. Free meant that I didn’t have to race about in the morning to get ready for work and to help get kids ready for school and to get them where they needed to be. Free meant PLAY. It meant rest and relaxation. It was in that spirit that I welcomed the weather that we have this morning on this last Sunday in January, officially the “Third Sunday after the Epiphany.” I find myself not particularly afraid of the potential harm that may come from this particular storm. I have a new generator! I have an abundance of coats and other warm clothes and blankets and food and fuel to last until the worst is over. I’m good!

And in the quiet that this day, and this weather brings, I also have these words from this week’s lectionary readings. It’s a dangerous thing to cherry pick verses like I’ve done here but they are the words that have been speaking to me. The complete passage for the three readings are in parentheses.

Psalm 27:4 (Psalm 27:1, 4-9)
One thing I asked of the Lord;
this I seek:
to live in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple.

Matthew 4:12, 17 Matthew 4:12-23)
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. . . . From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

1 Corinthians 1:10, 18 (1 Corinthians 1:10-18)
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. . . . For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Work backwards through the texts:
“For us who are being saved it (the cross) is the power of God.”
Us . . . “knit together in the same mind and purpose.”
“Repent . . .”
“(H)e withdrew to Galilee.”

Jesus needed a moment after the news of John’s arrest. He needed some Sabbath time. He needed his Father. That is the gift of a day like today . . . if we will accept the gift . . . we can spend time with God. But there’s the repentance piece that complicates things. And what do we do with the polarization that exists in this country and in our churches? What do we do with the great and weighty issues that confront us? What do we do with the people that stand before us and challenge our sense of comfort and complacency, our rush to judgment?

So in the quietness of this day, in the creature comforts that I enjoy, in the peace and calm that is my life . . . I wander through and I wonder at the world around me. We have the cross of Jesus Christ that compels us to move forward in “the way, the truth and the life” that brings about the kingdom of heaven. We have an obligation to seek justice and righteousness for ALL. In order to live the life that the Psalmist desires . . . “to live in the house of the Lord.” On days like today we can get away for a bit . . . into God’s Word. We can pray. We can take stock of what we have, what we do, how we live. Honestly! Where needed, we should repent. And we should remember, “the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Amen

01/01/2026

Happy New Year! I hope you'll join us in the 2026 Gospel Challenge. The goal is to read one chapter from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each day, starting with Matthew 1, until we get to Easter. Take as little or as much time you need each day but try to create a habit of spending some time with the Lord, reading the Word, praying and listening. We begin with Matthew 1.

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah - An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the...