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NOVEMBER, 2001

A sermon preached on October 7th on the occasion of the

baptisms of Eddie and Cassie Cogan and based on 2Timothy 1:1-14 and Luke 17:5-10 entitled “Finding Courage”.

Probably the most popular American movie ever made was “The Wizard of Oz.”  In one way or another we all can identify with Dorothy and her companions on their quest for something within themselves that they feel is missing.  Perhaps in this particular age, the character we most identify with is the cowardly lion who joins the quest to see the wizard because he is convinced he has no courage, hoping the wizard will give him some.

The cowardly lion suffers under the common misconception about what courage is:  He thinks that courage is the absence of fear; that the brave person is the one who feels (like the popular slogan says) “No Fear.”  The truth of the matter is that there are plenty of things in this world that it makes good sense to be afraid of, and to feel no fear in regard to these things is not courage, but rather, as somebody said, “mental illness”.

Courage is what we have when, in the presence of fear -- in spite of our fears -- we go ahead and do what needs to be done.  Courage is where your knees are knocking and you would like to go run and hide but you don’t -- you go ahead and face the boogie man. 

In “The Wizard of Oz” when the Lion finally has his “one on one” with the Wizard, the Great Oz points out to the Lion that he does already have courage within him -- that he has had moments when in spite of his many fears, he has done the gutsy thing; most specifically, when, out of his great love for Dorothy, he was willing to go into the witch’s castle to help save her.  Courage, you see, is what keeps our fears from getting in the way of putting our love into action.

And so, in the end, all the wizard really does is simply name the Lion’s courage -- acknowledge his courage -- by giving him a medal.  Which is NO SMALL THING.

A very similar thing is going on in this morning’s Gospel lesson.  The disciples are feeling quite scared and overwhelmed, and for good reason.  They are understanding more clearly what Jesus is expecting from them, which is nothing less than everything they’ve got. There is danger looming round about them -- the violence of the Romans, the violence of the religious authorities who are opposing Jesus, and it is not hard to realize where it is all headed. And so they cry out to Jesus, “Lord, increase our faith!”  (Courage and faith are closely connected.)

In response Jesus says and interesting thing:  “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

The mustard seed was the smallest of known seeds.  Jesus is saying, “You don’t need enormous faith.  Mustard seed sized faith will do.  With mustard seed sized faith you will be able to do all kinds of wonderful things for the sake of God’s kingdom.  And you already have that much faith.  It is inside you. Just put it to use.” 

Now the thing about a seed is that it can lie in the earth for a very long time -- I’m told in some instances for years in fact -- not doing anything, until finally, because, perhaps a draught finally ends and rain finally come and the hard outer shell cracks open and the seed begins to sprout and grow. 

In other words, a seed can lie dormant, inactive for a very long time, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. When the right moment comes, the seed will do its thing. 

And so it is with faith and courage. 

Faith is really more of a verb than a noun.  We can have faith in the same way, for instance, a person might have the ability to play the trombone.  Instead of actually playing a tune on her trombone, however, the person keeps her trombone stored away in the closet.  But she still knows how to play.

When Jesus spoke of faith, most often it was when he saw it being lived out.  In every instance it involved some kind of risk-taking -- somebody reaching beyond his or her comfort zones.  For instance, there is that story of the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years.  She lived under the same kind of oppression that women today in Afghanistan live under as a result of the Taliban’s rule.  She wasn’t supposed to be out in public with men.  When, however, she heard about Jesus she sensed God inviting her to take a risk -- to reach out to touch the hem of his garment for the sake of her own healing.  “Your faith has made you well,” Jesus said, “Go in peace.”

Faith is courage reaching out in alignment with God’s will, trusting that God will bless our reaching out. 

In this morning’s epistle lesson Paul is writing to a young Timothy.  He affirms the presence of sincere faith in Timothy’s heart, but speaks of the need to “fan into flame the gift of God”.  The implication is that faith is present inside of Timothy like embers that are in need of being fanned with oxygen in order to blaze into a full fire.  Paul reminds Timothy that faith involves courage:  “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 

In order to help fan the flame of Timothy’s faith, Paul reminds Timothy of the example of faith given to him by his grandmother, Lois and his mother, Eunice.

You and I have courage living within us, but we need to fan the flame of that courage, and one way to do that is by looking to the examples of courage that are round about us. 

This past month we have heard countless stories of extraordinary courage arising out of the terror of September 11th.   If  firemen can rush into burning buildings to rescue people they don’t know, then you and I can exercise courage in our own lives. 

Closer at hand, we have examples of courage in this congregation: 

If Art and Marion Gibson, despite Marion’s physical frailty, can open hearts and their small home to so many disabled children over the years, then, by God, you and I can show a little courage in the challenges of our lives.

If Myra and Hank Heitschel can keep the faith with one another through the scary times of Myra losing her legs ten years ago and now with Myra going on dialysis, then by God, you and I can show a little courage in our lives as well.

If Alison and Justin can bring into their home a foster baby named Eddie, opening their hearts to him, come what may, and if Alison and Justin can take the further step of bringing baby Cassie into this world with all the frightening things there are for parents to worry over, then, by God, you and I can show a little courage in our lives as well.

As the community of faith in which Eddie and Cassie will grow up, they will need us to give them examples of love and courage.

As Christians, our primary example of courage is Jesus himself.  He died not just for some people, he died for ALL people.  As I have said before, the crisis of this age carries the danger that we will destroy ourselves with violence; but there is also an opportunity -- that we would learn to reach out to overcome all the barriers of race, nationality, and religion that have led the human race to be so violently divided.

So let us fan the flame of our faith!

In the kindness of Jesus,

Pastor Jeff

Our annual Church Conference will be held on Wednesday, November 14th at 8 p.m. at our church.  Our district superintendent, Rev. Galen Goodwin will be on hand as we elect officers, review the past year, and set goals for the coming years.  All members are encouraged to attend. 

Looking back….the Harvest Dinner was a Culinary success, and Marian Coates’ presentation was very interesting and her quilts beautiful.

All women are invited to join us

FYI – Gift exchange for Christmas meeting will be angels – made of anything – and you will, as usual, pray for the person who’s angel you receive.

Nov. 6 – Election Day

Nov. 12 – Veteran’s Day

Nov. 22 - Thanksgiving

GET WELL WISHES to those of you who are ill, and....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to those of you celebrating this month with Trudy Hunt and Carol Haeussler.

                                                                        God Bless,

                                                                                    Doris Bradley

Prov. 17:17 “A friend loves at all times.”

New members will be received on Sunday, November 11th.  If you would like to take the vows of membership, and be a part of our mission to be the kindness of God, please speak to Pastor Jeff.   A new members class will be held at a time convenient to all interested persons.

Our congregation will be hosting a Community Thanksgiving Eve service on Wednesday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m. Our friends from St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, Temple Beth Am, and St. Andrew Lutheran Church will be on hand as we give our thanks to God for our blessings.  Since September 11th we all feel a particularly poignant gratitude for the gift of our lives and the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, as a well as a desire to join together with persons of other faiths from our community.  Please join us!  The combined choirs of our congregations will sing.

On Thursday, November 29th at 7:30 p.m. our congregation will co-sponsor a World AIDS Day Community Service at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church at 490 South Beverwyck Road.   The combined choirs will perform as we pray for blessing and healing for everyone in our world suffering from this epidemic.

Mothers’ Group:  Every Monday at 10 a.m. mothers of infants and young children gather for sharing and spiritual support, led by Eunice Vega-Perez.  All mothers are welcome.  Bring the children along.  The life of a mother can be very isolating and we need to be together. 

The Building Committee is selling Food Certificates for Pathmark and ShopRite as an ongoing Fund Raiser.  The Building Fund will receive 5% of all purchases. Certificates are available in $5, $10, and $20 denominations.  Please see Betty Polen at the beginning of Coffee Hour if you would like to purchase Food Certificates.  Checks should be made payable to The United Methodist Church of Parsippany.

                                                                        Thank you,

                                                                        The Building Finance SubCommittee

Construction of Our New Sanctuary: 

Our building committee met with the people who will be doing the construction on our new sanctuary – the masons, steel workers, etc.  We are looking at starting our building around the 1^st of November, or as soon as the permits are received from town hall. This is truly a dream realized!!  Thanks go especially to Hank Heitschel for all of his hard work in getting this done. Please don’t forget to keep your building pledges up to date – we will need all the monies available so we can lower our long-term cost of the project.

Birthday Dollars for the children of Afghanistan:  President Bush called for each child in America to give a dollar to help care for the children of Afghanistan, where one in three children are orphans, and half the children are in danger of starvation.  Each Sunday as children come forward for the children’s sermon, anyone (child or adult) who is so inclined is invited to come forward and honor someone’s birthday or anniversary by placing a dollar in the little church on the piano.  The dollars collected will go towards “America’s Fund for Afghan Children.” 

We have 1000 door knob fliers inviting people to come visit our church.  If you can take 50 or 100 and be responsible for placing them on local door knobs, it would be greatly appreciated.  Please speak to Pastor Jeff. 

Outreach to the Poor:    Every other Monday one or two persons from our congregation are going to Morristown at 5:45 p.m. to accompany Rev. David Turner to give out sandwiches to the homeless and poor through the Market Street Mission.  If you would like to schedule a turn please speak to Pastor Jeff.   Our dates for serving are:  October 29, November 12, 26, December 10 and 24. 

Consider becoming a part of one or more of our Musical Groups here at church:

Bell Choir – rehearses Thursdays at 6:45 p.m..  See Jim Cochrane or Tom Smith if you would like to join.

Choir – rehearses Thursdays at 7:45 p.m.  See Barb Bradley or any choir member if you would like to join.

Parsippany United Methodist Orchestra (PUMO) – Rehearses Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m.  See Jim Cochrane if you would like to join.

Reconstruction – Provides music for our once-a-month Sunday morning contemporary service as well as performing outside the church.  See Pastor Jeff or any member of the band.

  MUSIC NEWS:  Our Praise Band “RECONSTRUCTION” has been on the road lately (Cokesbury UMC and Drew University) and as Willie Nelson sings, they are “On the road again!”

On November 10, a Saturday night, they will be playing at the Film Café in the Grace Bible Church in Pompton Plains, after a movie that is shown at 7:30 p.m., at about 9:30 p.m. Directions are available – see Jo Albert. If you haven’t purchased Reconstruction’s newest CD/Cassette “Jesus In Disguise” and want to , see Jo for that too!  Any suggestions about connections to bring them further down the road, talk to, guess who??

A Men's Breakfast is held every Tuesday at 7 a.m. at the Empire Diner on Rt. 46.  It’s a relaxed time with many jokes and laughter and conversation about whatever we care to talk about, concluded with a prayer.  All are welcome.

  If you haven’t taken a look at web site recently, take a moment to check it out.  Kathy James has given it a whole new look with lots of updated information. 

http://www.geocities.com/athens/olympus/1759. 

Pastor Jeff can be reached by e-mail at Jedwards14@juno.com

If you have an e-mail address and have not yet given it to Pastor Jeff, please do so. 

Healing Prayer sessions are held on Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m. in the prayer chapel.   About 12 - 15 persons have been showing up each week for this quiet, meditative time of prayer for one another.   All are invited to come and be a part of this time of prayer -- for yourself or for others. 

  Anyone aware of a Prayer Concern is invited to contact Grace Agre at 539-3855 who will put the Prayer Chain into action.  If Grace cannot be reached, please contact Pastor Jeff.  If you would like to add your name to the people who receive the prayer chain, please speak to Kathy James.

SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR NOVEMBER

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