“People of Faith” 2 Peter 1:1-11 Matt 13:44-46

 Friends, we have made it! For the last year we have been journeying together and now, here we are one year later and I’ve been appointed for a second year to be your pastor. As I was thinking about how I wanted to celebrate this year together and look forward to the year to come I came up with one thing - you guessed it - homework. 

This morning as you entered worship you were given a small card with a verse on it from 2 Peter. A verse that I want us to take time to think about, dwell in, and live into in our United Methodist year to come. 

But I wouldn’t want to send us out to have a year verse without unpacking it together first. 

When you think about what you need in this life - what comes to mind? A good place to start would be with the basics - food, shelter, water, clothing. But once we get past the basics what do you really need? 

This past week I read a book entitled Growing Young, which said that what really keeps us healthy is relationships. In the book there was a story told about a town right here in Pennsylvania that became known to researches through a family doctor in the mid-1900s. See that family doctor saw just about every single person in the town and over time he realized something odd - he wasn’t seeing a whole lot of folks with heart issues. That certainly wasn’t the national trend. So he started to dig in a little deeper and found out that it wasn’t what they ate - the liked their sweets. It wasn’t that they exercised more - they had a moderate amount of time outdoors. It wasn’t even that they watched their weight or were intentional about their heart health. No, it was because they were so deeply connected in relationships. 

They lived in multi-generational homes. Everyone knew everyone else. They would stop by to just be with each other, because folks not just considered everyone to be family - they lived like it. 

But then something happened. People gave into the American dream. Young people started to move away for better jobs. The people that stayed wanted bigger, single-family homes, with lots of space in between. And all of a sudden, that anomaly of good heart health, went away. 

We are made for relationships - you and I. We are made for relationships with one another and a relationship with God.

But just because we are made for relationship does not mean that it is always easy to live into. Peter is writing to folks who needed to be reminded about what their true purpose, their true calling was. He is also writing to help them focus on who they belong to and represent in the world. 

If you think that you can get by in this world on your own - think again stays Peter at the beginning of this letter. It is the power of God that has created us and the power of God that holds us and gives us purpose. In fact, we are called by the glory and goodness of God.

Let that sink in for a moment, Church. It is so easy to nod our heads and say “of course, of course”, but what Peter is wiring about here is so contrary to the entire message we receive from the world. We are not self-made. We cannot be sustained alone. And we don’t define who we are by our own power and achievements. We are God’s and God’s alone. 

But what we can do is focus on having our heart so deeply focused on desiring God and recognizing that God is our source and strength, that we become intentional about growing closer to him. 

For the last year we have been focusing a lot on discipleship here at Juniata. We have launched our discipleship pathways. Some of you have had conversations with me about where God may be nudging you next in your walk with Christ. Others of you have taken part of the Younique cirriculum, with a focus on who God has created you to be. And through that all we have been asking you the question - what is your next step. What is the one next step of faith that Christ is calling you to take. 

Peter, in his writing, lays out some next right steps. Asking folks to make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

Why?

Because they reflect the heart of God. And the more we desire God, the more we want to grow closer to him and reflect him in this world. 

The Gospel Matthew talks about this desire to seek after God first as treasure hidden in a field. When folks find they treasure it becomes the totality of their reality. They are willing to give up everything else because that treasure is their joy. 

A few months ago, I was at a conference where the pastor leading asked a really important question - what is your passion? Not what is your job. Not what is on your to-do list. But what is your passion. 

If we asked that collectively today, friends, would we say that our passion as Juniata United Methodist Church is to love God? 

Because in our passion we find our purpose. We live into our calling. So what if for the next year, we made living into this verse from 2 Peter our passion? What if we sought after writing it on our hearts - not because I stood up this morning and gave you homework, but because we so deeply desire God that we want him to be our focus and the joy of our heart. 

Another way to look at this would be to ask -  if we asked those who weren’t part of this congregation what they thought our passion was - what would they say?

When someone is really passionate about someone or something - you know it. It spills out of them into the world. Are we sharing that type of passion, Church, about our relationship with God that we are allowing it to shape our relationship with others?

I want to close this morning by asking each of you to pull out the card you were given on the way in this morning. Would you join me in reading this verse as we seek to make it the center of our hearts, lives, and community in the coming year. Amen.