10/18/2020
Sermon Notes:
On Sunday, we will hear Jesus ask the people to look at what image is on the Roman coin. His interrogators are trying to put him in a corner and get him in trouble about who he serves and how he would or would not spend coin on paying taxes.
In first century Rome, it was not easy to claim you worshipped the one true God when the Roman emperor was supposed to be your god.
Jesus turns the questions around and asks them, and us, whose image is on the human being. In essence, who do you serve by the way you “spend” yourself?
You spend your days and your precious life’s time in many different ways. You do not all have the same professions, nor the same ideas about society, nor the same political views, nor the exact same theology. But you all serve God in a thousand different ways every single day because you love and worship God in your heart and soul, and you serve and glorify God by how you continue to build and serve Emmanuel, even during a global pandemic.
God is doing something amongst us and with us at EPC, even in this time of pandemic.
Since the pandemic I have had more visitors to my office and inquiries about who we are at EPC than we had in the 6 months previous to the pandemic. The pandemic has not stopped us from worshipping God. If anything, our worship and our care and service to one another has increased.
Since the pandemic, we have grown a new mission to the Oasis center and have used the blessing of our outdoor spaces to help others safely meet, mourn, and conduct small business when they would otherwise not be able to do so for fear of spreading disease. We are about to start a new ministry, thanks to Diana Braud, called Greif Share. Our Wednesday night prayer ministry has grown stronger than ever in its spirit of deep and sincere prayer for God’s people.
The pandemic has not stopped us from being a people who serve God by nurturing our community, praying, worshipping, and building up our church to be a spiritual center from which to continue doing these things, and more, in the name of Jesus Christ.
As I prepare the sermon for Sunday, reading the Bible and thinking about God’s word to us, I want to tell you how humbled I am to get to be your pastor, how proud I am and how grateful I am to serve you. No pastor is perfect for everyone. That is the nature of being a human. But in my eyes, each of you are perfect for EPC and I know you are perfect for God, because it is God’s image in which you are made and God’s image you seek to serve in all the ways you live and build up EPC. Thank you for being the shining example of God’s people that you are.
