FOCUS: Our Faith is Personal and a Choice We Make
Psalm 119: 101-106
MATTHEW 7: 13-20 & 24-27
SEPTEMBER 20, 2026
The devices that in my youth might have been science fiction fantasies and what you might call alarm clocks did their due diligence this morning … two of them on the small table next to my bed. ALEXA is always first for some reason followed usually about 5 minutes later by Google although ALEXA usually is successful in stirring me from my sleep unless my watch chooses to vibrate minutes before my scheduled wake up time.
It wasn’t that many years ago that the thought of a watch offering me the chance to communicate with a friend was the thing of Dick Tracy’s Chester Gould’s fictional mind. Back in the 1960’s or the 1970’s if you are of my age now … were you thinking that one day you’d have artificial intelligence devices telling you when to wake up, telling you jokes and addressing you by name? If I could go back in time … oh my … if I could go back in time, what might I think … what might I say … how might I live?
Do you choose to use an alarm clock? Do you enjoy EGGO waffles with peanut butter and banana to begin your Sunday? Was a cup of hot coffee an absolute must this morning? Did you take your pills … the medicine you need? And, did you begin the day focused on who you might smile at, whose sadness you might choose to help reduce with a kind word or two, and were you considering your relationship with God once again?
When you were younger did you memorize the words, you heard read this morning … “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path?” Did you ever know the words that followed … I don’t think I did but truthfully God’s Word is about context not mere cherry picking … God’s Word is our connection to God through the centuries … God’s Word offers us light into God’s expectations and we are the ones … as individuals who can include a FOCUS on FAITH as part of our life’s journey or not. It’s a choice! Frankly a choice we have to make … “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it. That I will keep thy righteous judgments.” Personal … and a choice … I WILL or I won’t.
Each of us who has chosen to worship with St. Paul’s United Methodist Church today either in person or online has made a choice of a time investment. Some of you worshiping online are watching a recording of our service from the morning of September 20th in the year of our Lord 2026 because you were otherwise occupied at approximately 9:30 am eastern time. We each have made this choice for a personal reason … for some this is the church you and your family have always gone to so it’s a habit of time usage. Others have discovered friends to treasure … friends who offer love and even are islands of peace in a chaotic and brutal world … some of you know that when you enter the doors somehow God’s Holy Spirit lifts you up and you know how essential the time is … and people like Bela and I get paid to come here.
I have been thinking about choices for some time … perhaps it was my deep dive into Matthew’s Gospel earlier this summer when I came across the moment of Matthew’s calling. “As Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom (That means he was a tax collector.); and He saith until him, “Follow me. And Matthew arose and followed Him.” It was the next few verses that really struck home and after some of the rhetoric of the world lately this recorded history from Matthew’s Gospel AFTER Matthew stood up, leaving behind his lucrative tax collecting business and made the person choice to follow Jesus the Gospel reminded me of who God is … who our Savior is and how the world’s powerful attempt to destroy the Good News both then and now … how the world attempts to blot out the Light of Christ to protect the powerful and their wealth.
“As Jesus sat down to eat in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus didn’t reject those society hated … in fact, Jesus made them His disciples. Jesus didn’t bow down to those who used religion to gain power and wealth … he demonstrated mercy and love. Jesus told the Pharisees that he had come to share mercy and righteousness.
As we move into autumn, I am going to attempt to provide some connection for all of you with the roots of the United Methodist Church. St. Paul’s has been a superb example of what it means to follow in the Wesleyan traditions of the Christian church. Those traditions of faith are connected to the faithful sharing God’s love directly related to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Having a personal faith that is always focused on caring for the poor, the sick and the marginalized, and growing in faith through the sacraments, prayer, scripture, and being part of a church family.
Now, some of you know the names … John Wesley and Charles Wesley and some may even know their mother, Susanna. Here in New Jersey Francis Asbury’s name is celebrated with a city’s name and an avenue in Ocean City. But for me … I chose to return to the faith denomination in which I was baptized as a child because I found the theology … the essential concept of how a church denomination connects with Scripture and therefore with God to exist in Methodism, which does not mean I dismiss my friends who find God in their denominations. I do know and often laugh about it … most people who attend church in churches with a wide variety of denominational names do not know what the theology of their denomination is nor its history. Presbyterians don’t understand Calvin … Lutherans at least carry Martin Luther’s name, and Episcopalians don’t always connect the dots to the Anglican movement in England.
John Wesley in a journal entry from the year 1736 offers a very telling account of a conversation he had with a man named, Mr. Spangenberg. Wesley asked for advice and according to Wesley Spangenberg asked a series of questions that I suggest are questions relevant to our lives today. He looked John Wesley in the eyes and asked, “Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit, that you are a child of God?” Wesley wrote that he did not know how to answer this question.
Spangenberg followed this up with a more probing question, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” Wesley writes that he was surprised not knowing how to answer but that he said, “I know He is the Savior of the world.” Spangenberg continued, “Do you know he has saved you? Do you know yourself?” Wesley writes that he said he did but that in truth they were vain words.
You see church … God’s reality … Christ’s coming to rescue the world and God’s Holy Spirit, the Triune God those of us who have taken theology courses might say … are realities that God wants us all to embrace, to accept, and then to include in our life’s journey. The psalmist declares, “You have searched me, Lord and you know me. For you created my inner most being.”
How would you have answered Mr. Spangenberg’s questions? John Wesley obviously took his answers and chose to grow in faith, grow in his relationship with God, and to live a life dedicated to actively living as Christ taught not as the world expected.
I often wonder why God called me to be a pastor. I have such a laundry list of faults and sins. Yes, those of you who know about my call know that it can only be explained as having come from God. If you would have told me when I was 18 or 25 or 40 that three strangers would come to me delivering the same challenge to become a pastor, I would have laughed. I was a good church attender but as a pastor I struggle because I ache when I realize that in the short time I have been given to take on this role in the Wesleyan tradition in the United Methodist Church I have watched a disconnect with Jesus Christ grow in the communities I live in not shrink – because people reject the Good News out of convenience … the very concept of loving all of one’s neighbors that is in every message I preach is condemned by many because they want to pick and choose and hate and divide making their personal choice a choice to go against the teaching of Jesus Christ. And, even as this church still has our doors open and has vibrant ministry, I don’t sense growth coming and I wonder what I could have done better.
All I can do … all any of us can do … is to embrace Christ. I keep copies of this book in several places because its lessons are reflective of Scripture but also, it reminds me of why I am a United Methodist … why being a pastor is an ongoing challenge but a reminder that I need. It essentially brings together the responsibilities of faith that John Wesley discovered in God’s Word … DO NO HARM … avoid evil and refrain from hurting others … DO GOOD …. Act with kindness, charity and justice for everyone …. STAY IN LOVE WITH GOD … maintain faith through prayer, worship and spiritual practices.
Those are not easy tasks in today’s world … they are choices we can make or reject. Truthfully, life is made up of choices now I will admit that somethings we have no control over and certain events and health realities can dramatically impact our daily moments … believe me I know this all too well but how we align ourselves out in the world away from church … choices.
Last Sunday after church Howard and Kathy Plasket came to my office to say goodbye. They are moving to Malaga in retirement, which makes the Sunday morning drive here rather inconvenient. Howard had recently retired as a pastor and if they had their choice, they would have stayed closer to West Deptford and been regulars here. In talking about Malaga … memories of my younger days came to mind.
In my early twenties, my roommate, Kevin Portz, and I had two of our favorite weekend hangouts in Malaga. One a hard rock club just off the main highway and the other the Liberty Bell where we heard a variety of acts. We were two young men starting out life working for the Social Security Administration. We both would move up to higher positions with the government … living out life. Back in those days we chose to go to church even after a Saturday night of partying. Both of us far from perfect … just two guys. Around the turn of this century God called me … to be a pastor. Then God called Kevin to be a deacon in the Episcopal church where Kevin also sings in the choir. But God wasn’t done with Kevin Portz … God has called Kevin to be a priest or what we would call a pastor and at 71 years of age Kevin is now in seminary. He graduates in two years and then he will get his first church. Who would have guessed but I will be there for him … who would have known … our faith is personal and a choice we have to make.
And, if you hear someone attack United Methodists remember our essence is: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.” Someone who attacks those concepts of alignment with Jesus Christ fits right in with the Pharisees. AMEN