By Pastor Tracey Leslie
Scripture:  Luke 10:25-37

It may not surprise you to know that this pandemic has caused me to reflect quite a lot on what are the essential activities of the church and its people.  Our morning worship used to average in the low 90’s.  Now, in the midst of this pandemic, it averages in the 30’s.  Some who are quarantining tune in to the Sunday morning Zoom… which is also a time of worship.  But, many more simply go online to view the sermon each week.  I certainly don’t want to discourage any of that.  I want to encourage us.  But still, I feel as if the church – as the Body of Christ – is a bit dismembered.  Even for those of us here in the sanctuary, it’s not the same.  We don’t sing congregational hymns.  We don’t join in unison prayers or pass the offering plate.  We don’t have our time of greeting with hand shaking and hugs.  And, when we commune, it is no longer from a common loaf and common cup.
So, what is essential to the experience of church?  

By Pastor Tracey Leslie
Scripture:  Genesis 12:1-4a

​In July of 2008 my father-in-law became ill.  Britt traveled to Cincinnati to accompany his dad to the doctor, at Lloyd’s request.  Just three short days later, Britt called me to confirm our worst fears:  a glioblastoma brain tumor.  Because of Lloyd’s medications, they weren’t able to biopsy until later that week.  The area of the brain affected by the tumor controlled Lloyd’s emotions and judgments.  My once nearly stoic father-in-law became, overnight, an emotional wreck.  His speech, incessant, was a jumbled mess of anxieties, frustrations and obsessions.  The afternoon of the biopsy, his pastor came to pray with us.  After the prayer, Britt and the pastor walked out to the lounge area to talk together.  I stayed with Lloyd and endured that constant painful loop of anxieties, frustrations and obsessions.  I tried to listen, but not take to heart, what was being said.  But one thing touched me deeply.  Lloyd tearfully said to me, “I promised Pat [Britt’s mother who was already deceased] I’d get Britt through.  I’d see him through his Ph.D.”  Britt’s mom loved scripture.  She wrote her own bible study curriculum and her adult Sunday School Classes at the Bethel UMC were standing room only.  So you can imagine her excitement and delight that her only son was going to be a bible scholar.  I think, for her, it was the best blessing a parent could receive.  And so that day in the hospital, for as poorly as Lloyd’s brain was working, he was still able to recall and be pained by the promise he had made – “I promised Pat I’d get Britt through his Ph.D.” – a promise he would now break.
There is great power in promises.  Perhaps someone once made a promise to you that placed a blessing within your grasp.  Perhaps you once made a promise that powerful to someone else.  Or perhaps you have been on the receiving end of a broken promise, a lost blessing, that caused you to doubt and question everything you ever believed and trusted in.

By Pastor Tracey Leslie
Scripture:  Matthew 18:15-20

​What good is the Church to the world?
What can the Church offer the world?
A young father, studying the Jewish Torah, was making every effort to raise his child in the faith, yet meeting with little success.  He went to his rabbi:  “Rabbi, what am I to do?  I love my child.  But, he’s disobedient and surly.  He’s rebellious and he violates some of the laws in the Torah, the Talmud and our tradition.  He even does just stupid things.  He disagrees with what I say and he does what he knows will annoy me or hurt me.  He spends time with people I abhor and evil-doers.  What can I do?”
The rabbi looked at him with great compassion and said, “Love him more!”[i]
What good is the Church to the world?  What can the Church offer the world? 


[i] Story found in Matthew: the Book of Mercy by Megan McKenna; New City Press; 2007; p. 98