"Without a Doubt" - February 28th, 2021

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And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you forever.

1 Peter 5:10

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Message of Stewardship

from Herb Gore

One of my favorite jokes that I've heard year in and year out, but it never gets old,

is there are two problems with getting old. The first is your memory begins to go and the second is…I forget. The reason it's funny because because it's so true.

Memory is a funny thing, however. If you ever talked with close childhood friends, or siblings, or classmates about something that happened in your growing up years and they remember it very differently than you do. It's a shame they don't have the good memory that you do. But that's very typical.

I have found out from some reading that many times it's not so much what happened, but what happens to us and how we choose to remember something. You can see this in cases where it's fairly recent, if you've ever been on a jury and had to listen to testimony from witnesses about an accident or something. They were both there but both saw things very differently.

Our memory, as much as we would like to believe we have it together, really isn't always there. That's why we sort of look forward to touchstones in life and for me one of those is music. I can hear a song from my childhood, a popular song, or a hymn from church and they can transport me back to a different time. A happy time. Perhaps a sad time.

One of the things in our religious life that is so important is the music that we hear. There's an old Ethiopian proverb that says God hears me when I pray, but he loves me when I sing.

People have told of elderly people who are in the last stages of dementia who could not communicate, they could not remember anyone, but if you began playing a song, or singing something to them they would be able to sing along or hum along. There's something that's uplifting and I find that music is one of those gifts that God has given to all of us, even those of us who can't sing.

I believe that our church is truly blessed to have an outstanding music ministry. One that continues even during the pandemic. And I for one am looking forward to being able to hear it again in person in not too many months ahead. Let's make sure that our church is able to open the doors in the very distant future.

You can help to make that happen by contributing to the ongoing ministry of our church. You can drop the money off to the offering box at Little Brown Church. You can mail a check to COV. Or you can contribute online through PayPal at covtoday.org.

Let's go this day with a song in our heart. Even if it doesn't sound that great when we let it out.

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Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at the disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.”

Mark 8:31-33

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Pastor Michael's Sermon - February 28th, 2021

When I was a child, I participated in the Boy Scouts. I believe I've told you this before. As you know, there are many aspects to scouting. One of them involves going to camp! And one of the camps that I went to as a Boy Scout was Camp Cherry Valley on Catalina Island. I’m sure we've all been to Camp Cherry Valley.

This particular camp was one I only went to one time one summer and I believe it was for one week. We did a whole lot of activities throughout our time there including, I remember, doing work towards earning our swimming badge, which involved swimming in the ocean at seven o'clock in the morning. Oh and by the way, if you didn't jump off the deck right when they wanted you to, they would count to three and push you in and it was cold. And you had to do this while you were still wearing your pants because once you are in the ocean and you are treading water, you had to take off your pants, you had to tie the legs together,

and then you had to wave your pants over your head and fill them with air, and use your pants as a flotation device.

This is something that as I've grown older I have found I have absolutely no use for. At least so far.

Anyway, another thing we did almost every day was to take hikes. We took hikes all over the island. They were basically long walks except for this one particular hike. At one point in the week, we took the highly talked about ten-mile hike. It was 5 miles walking to and then going up a hill and five miles back. And what was interesting about this hike was that all the kids who had never been to this camp and who had never taken this hike we're complaining about it from day one.

Ten miles! I don't want to walk 10 miles! What good is it going to do for us to walk 10 miles?

On the other hand all the kids who had been to the camp before we're very excited. They couldn't wait for the day of the hike to arrive so they could do the 10-mile hike again. Every time our counselor, Garth, would mention the hike they would cheer.

Well, the day of the hike finally arrived and like everything else that seemed to happen at this camp, the hike began very early in the morning. We were supposed to meet at a particular meeting point. It was a trash can, it was right in the middle of the camp. which was suspended in the air between a tripod to keep it up so that the wild boar couldn't get to it.

Now, of course the boys who had been on the hike before, arrived very early, very excited. Us newbies on the other hand, well we were a little late. And as soon as we had all arrived, we began the hike. I remember that most of the hike felt like we were walking straight uphill. The trail was dirt and rocks and because of that, most of the time we were slipping on the rocks and having dirt kicked in our face from the campers who were walking ahead of us. There were prickly plants that were scraping our arms and our legs. There was poison ivy to avoid. And as the day went on it just kept getting hotter and hotter.

So all the new kids, including myself, spent a lot of time complaining.

When are we going to get to wherever it is that we're going? How much longer? I want to go back!

But the boys who had been on the hike before, they were having a great time! As they walked along, Garth was leading them in a chorus of left, left, left, right, left. We kept hiking for I don't know how long! And right when the trail seemed to be about a steep as it could get one of the cheerful hikers suddenly motioned head and said, “There it is! There's the Five Mile point!”

And the rest of us not so cheery hikers, we also got a little excited because we had heard that at the five-mile point, we could take a bit of a rest before heading back.

So we kept walking towards the Five Mile Point. Getting closer and closer.

And then finally we passed through some trees.

And there we were, on top of the hill, and in front of us was a huge meadow. And we all stood together in the middle of this meadow at the top of the hill and we had a 360 degree view of the island and the Pacific Ocean all around us. It was pretty amazing. As we stood and looked at the view I suddenly realized that the campers who had been there before weren't bothered by the long walk and the rocks and the dirt and the prickly plants because they knew what was ahead. They knew that at the end of the trail. There was a remarkable place.

It was a place they couldn't wait to get to a place of beauty and peace.

When I read today's scripture, it reminded me of this story about the hike. Not that I'm comparing the sufferings of our ten mile walk to the sufferings of Christ. But the story of the hike is a reminder that very often, no matter what we're going through, we need to keep our eyes and our hearts on what is to come. And that day on Catalina Island, the hikers who had taken the walk before look forward to it because they knew what was ahead and that's what they concentrated on.

In today's scripture, Christ accuses Peter of not keeping his eyes and heart focused on what is ahead, but rather says that Peter is fixated on Earthly, human things. You know when we read this, it can be easy for us to say, "Oh, that Peter! What is wrong with him? Doesn't he know what's important?"

We can be a little judgmental of Peter. But the truth is most of us are guilty of this. Pobably more often than we would like to admit, our world and our lives are filled with things that we don't or can't understand and we spend so much time trying to make everything in the world, everything in our lives, into a perfect package of the way we know things to be or the way we want things to be.

It is human for us to experience trouble in our lives.

It is human for us to experience loss.

It is human for us to come up against burdens, obstacles, trials.

And it is human for us to place much of our focus on what it is in this life that isn't the way that we would like it to be.

In today's scripture, Christ reminds Peter and in doing so reminds us that although these are human traits, this is not where we should be setting our minds. Of course, there are things that come up in our lives to which our attention needs to be drawn. But where our minds should ultimately be set, what our minds should be unyieldingly locked into, is that which is divine.

Our minds can visit and tend to that which is human. But at no time must we let go of that which is divine. This is our faith. As Christians, this is the foundation of who we are. Our continuing walk with Christ, the eternal presence of God and the life that has been promised to us beyond our time on this Earth. This is our faith.

Let us not be distracted by Earthly things. Now again, that's not to say that we shouldn't be affected by sadness or tragedy or burdens in our world and in our lives. It's not to say that trials and loss shouldn't trouble us. It's just that during any time, especially during times of darkness, we must never lose focus of divine things. We must never lose focus of the promises that we've been given and we must never lose focus of the eternal life that awaits us on the horizon.

There's a song that some of you know has become very important to me and special to me lately. It's a song that we've sung a lot in this church, especially at the five o'clock service. Many of you know it. It's called Sweet, Sweet Spirit.

The lyrics of the song are simple and beautiful and sweet. But probably the most important lyrics are the ones that end the songs refrain.

Without a doubt we'll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place.

And the three most important words within those words? Without a doubt.

Because when we move through this world absolutely sure without a doubt that there is eternal life, that we will one day walk on God's celestial shore, we will unquestionably walk through this life mindful of divine things.

Let us pray.

Holy God, keep our minds and our hearts directed towards you. Remind us that you are ever present. That Christ walks with us always. And because we live the word, our life is eternal. It's in your son's name we pray.

Amen.

"St. Valentine's Day" - February 14th, 2021

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"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love."

1 John 4:7-8

Message of Stewardship

from Linda Kerns

One of the first things that struck me about COV and Little Brown Church when I started attending back in the early 90s was the church community’s social conscience.

Those of you who are old enough will recall with sorrow the AIDS epidemic that was so deadly at the time. I had lost a great number of friends to that horrible disease. And the first thing I did when I started coming to church here was to attend the newly formed AIDS support group, which later became the Dana Landers AIDS support group, so named after the passing of one of the leaders and founders of the group.

The group was formed not only for those living with AIDS but also for their friends and families. I didn't know how much I needed that group in my life. It gave me the opportunity to help some of the others who needed aid, but also to be served by the compassion and loving hearts of others in the group.

Currently COV and LBC serve the community in many other ways. The Tijuana Home Build, the Green Team, the Fetty Food Pantry, and the children's programming and much, much more. While some of our ministries have had to be put on hold due to the Covid restrictions, we continue our commitment to Sunday worship services, our music program, and our children's program by taking all of these online.

If you would like to contribute to our ministries, there are three ways to do that.

Drop off a check in the box that Little Brown Church, bring or mail your check to the COV office, or you can use PayPal here on our website.

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Pastor Michael's Sermon - February 14th, 2021

History.com is a source of interesting facts about figures from the past, and one of those figures is Saint Valentine. In one article, we're told six surprising facts about Saint Valentine.

First of all, did you know that Valentine's Day may have come about because of two different men? Traditionally we think of St. Valentine as a man who died in the year 270, but today there are many who doubt that he was the Saint Valentine on which today's holiday is based.

Some people believe that Valentine was a temple priest who was beheaded in the 1400s for helping Christians to be married. And others believe that Valentine was the Bishop of Terni.

Another fun fact, did you know that the Catholic Church recognizes about a dozen St. Valentines? Apparently that was a very popular name and there was even a Pope that was named Saint Valentine, but he only served for about 40 days in the year 800.

The Saint Valentine that we celebrate today is called by the Catholic Church St. Valentine of Rome to set him apart from all the other St. Valentines.

Another fact! Valentine is the Patron Saint of beekeepers, epilepsy, the plague, fainting, traveling, and two that might make more sense, engaged couples and happy marriages.

Fact number four! St. Valentine's skull is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome. Other parts of his skeleton can be found in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, England, and France. The man really got around!

Did you know that the poet Geoffrey Chaucer may have been the one to actually invent Valentine's Day? He wrote a poem in 1375 that linked for the first time romantic love with a celebration of St. Valentine’s Feast Day. The poem referred to February 14th, the day that birds and humans come together to find a mate.

And today's final fact about Valentine's Day. Because of the many different St. Valentine's, this holiday can actually be celebrated many different times in the year. You can celebrate Saint Valentine of Viterbo on November 3rd, or Saint Valentine of Raetia on January 7th, or you can celebrate the only female Saint Valentine on July 25th. So many choices, so much chocolate!

Well, that's a lot to take in about Valentine's Day, but there's one thing that we can be sure of. Regardless of who St. Valentine was, or how many of them there were,

or when the holiday came about, or how it came about, or when we can celebrate it, the one thing we know for sure is that Valentine's Day is about love.

The scriptures talk a lot about love. Some of the greatest and most well-known of the passages in the Bible are of course about love, including God so loved the world! But among all of the discussion that we find about love, one of my favorites is today's scripture. I'm drawn to it because of its richness in describing love and how it draws an illustration uniting love with God.

It starts out with a charge. With a calling.

“Beloved, let us love one another.”

How wonderful that it begins referring to those that John is addressing as beloved. In doing so he reminds us that we are already loved. And then he goes on to say, “Let us love one another.” In other words you who are already loved by God, now pass that love onto others.

And then he explains why. “Because love is from God.” He says, “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

When we practice love, we are acknowledging God. We are lifting up God. Then he follows this up by pointing out that whoever does not love, does not know God. And this makes so much sense. This makes sense because if we do not love, then we must be unaware of the overwhelming abundance of God's love that envelops each of us. Because if we can feel the existence of even a fraction of that love it's almost impossible that we are unable to share that love.

The only way to be unaware of how much we are loved is to truly not know God.

And that is a choice that is made. To not know God is a choice and a wall that is personally built. A mighty wall that is able to sadly block out even the greatest presence, even the greatest love.

And then John ends with simply saying, “for God is love.” Love is not only something that God shares, but when God shares love, God is sharing of God’s self. When we feel the love of God around us, we are actually feeling God around us. God shares God's self in the form of love, therefore when we share love with one another, we share God with one another.

No matter what kind of love it is. Romantic, love of family, friends, love of humanity. All love is the presence of God.

So when John tells us to love one another or for that matter when Christ tells us to love one another, we are being called to experience God within one another and to share God between one another.

In 1938, some researchers from Harvard University decided to try to find the answer to a very profound question. They wanted to know what habits lead to a fulfilling life. So they gathered 268 people and for the next 75 years they studied these people. The researchers looked at characteristic surrounding psychology, physical traits, economy, and spirituality. The experiment was called the Grant Study and it became the longest-running study of human development.

Finally in 2012, with many of the participants well into their 90s, the study came to a close. And George Vaillant, who was at the time the director of the study, published a book called Triumphs of Experience, and in the book he wrote about the results of the study regarding the habits that lead to a fulfilling life. And after all of these years of research what they found was that there are several things that somewhat contribute.

They include education, stable marriage, healthy lifestyle choices, several things that you might expect. But the study also also showed something else. Although other factors contributed to a vibrant life, the only factor that really matters and that is absolutely necessary is love. The study concluded that the capacity to love and to be loved is the point of our human existence. George found that they wrote the only thing that really matters in life is your relation to other people.

Part of me is really glad they did this study. Another part of me thinks, you needed a study to come up with this conclusion? And this is something that Christ has been telling us since he walked on this Earth, but I guess sometimes humans just need to prove things for themselves.

Love is so important to each of us as a humanity because love is the presence of God. Love is the sharing of God. On this day as we celebrate love let us be reminded to allow ourselves to experience the warmth of God's love. Let us take a moment and stop and really feel God's presence in, around, and through us. That indescribable love that is within all of us. Let us experience that love. Appreciate it and live within it and then allow it to pour forth from us, filling the hearts of those around us, allowing all to feel the presence of God. Allowing all to understand that truly God is love.

Let's pray.

Holy God, we thank you for your son who taught us to love. Remind us to continue

to share that love and in doing so we share you. It's in your son's name we pray.

Amen.

"God Given Gifts" - February 7th, 2021

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"But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you."

1st Peter 3:15

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Message of Stewardship

from Jeanette Onorati

Jesus said it's better to give than to receive and we've all heard that before, but without being able to meet in person, we don't have the guilt, the uncomfortableness, that normally comes with the Christians that we see in church sometimes.

We've all heard that church lady come up to us and say, “We haven't seen you in a couple of services. Is everything okay?” So we know that that guilt doesn't need to be there! What we need to do, we know in our hearts.

This is a chance to give silently, like God tells us to do, because we don't have to show everybody what we're giving. We know we can't at this particular point in time, but God knows. He listens in the silence and hears what our gift is. And it'll come back to us a hundred fold. Your gifts build houses for the homeless in Tijuana. They feed the people in our neighborhood. Our preschool? They keep it going! And it gives us a church where each and every one of us are fed and strengthened by the services that we get to attend virtually.

So give silently and give generously. And whatever you do, God will bless you.

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In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”

Mark 1:35-38

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Pastor Michael's Sermon - February 7th, 2021

I once read a story about two brothers. One of the brothers was a concert violinist and the other brother made his living as a bricklayer. One day a woman who was an acquaintance of the bricklayer was speaking to him and she said, “Oh, it must be wonderful to have a brother that's a concert violinist! So much wonderful music!”

But then the woman realized that she might have misspoken. She was afraid that she might have insulted the bricklayer by praising his brother. The woman didn't want to make him feel bad so she quickly added, “Oh, of course, we don't all have the same talents and even in families, some just seem to have more talents than others.”

The bricklayer quickly agreed with her. He said, “Boy, are you telling me! That violin playing brother of mine doesn't know anything about laying bricks! If it wasn't for me, he’d have to pay for all of his brickwork.”

You know, this story reminds us that each ability, each talent serves its purpose.

Each talent is needed for specific tasks. And I believe that we're given our special abilities so that we will use them. Our special abilities show us what we have been called to do.

In today's scripture, Jesus says, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”

Jesus knew that his job while he was here on Earth was to go out and to proclaim the message. That's what he came to do. His proclaiming of the word was what he was called to do. And the reason his work needed to be done was for the expansion of the realm of God. Not just to make the realm bigger, but also to make the faithful community richer, closer, and stronger.

We too are a part of the enrichment of God's realm and we do it with our talents. We do it by doing what we have been called to do. Now, I would say that all of us are multi-talented. What I mean is there are many things that we do well and even some things that we might even do better than others.

Some people might say that they are not multi-talented. That they feel that they don't have any talents at all or maybe just a few. I would wholeheartedly disagree with that.

Sometimes it's difficult for us to see where we have a talent. One reason is because maybe our talent has always been something that came naturally to us. So we really don't think much about it. For some people, being a good conversationalist comes very easily. Some people have no problem having a rich conversation, even with strangers! And they don't think much about it because it comes so naturally.

On the other hand, for others, meeting people can bring on terrible anxiety and they can become very awkward.

Another reason that we have difficulty seeing our own talents is because the grass is always greener. By that I mean that we envy the talents of others, that we put them on a higher plane than we do our own.

Sometimes I like to draw. When I was younger, I used to draw all the time. As a matter of fact, I actually thought about becoming a commercial artist. Anyway, as an adult I still sometimes draw and when Pastor Bill used to see me drawing, he was fascinated by it.

He would just stare and he'd always say something like, “I don't know how you can look at something and then replicate it on a piece of paper!”

And to that I would always laugh and say, “You've got to be kidding! You can hear a piece of music on television that you've never heard before and go to the piano and play it full-out note for note! That's amazing!”

My point is we all have many, many talents that we might not not even think of as talents, and honestly I believe we were given these talents to use these talents.

They represent what we are supposed to do and as people of faith we have been called to use our talents to enrich the realm of God. That's what we're supposed to do. Now some of us hear this and our first thought might be that we're supposed to use our gifts within the life of the church community. Okay, that's one way of doing it!

When we were back in person worshipping together, there are many places that our talents can be used. We need Sunday school teachers. We need ushers, deacons, board members, people to prepare meals, to do building maintenance, committee members, and so much more.

And of course our talents can also be used in the many ministries of our church. Working in the food pantry, helping to build homes in Mexico, helping out at Hope of the Valley, tending to the community garden, or working with church leaders to create new ministries.

Even now during Covid, you can use your talents singing in the virtual choir, volunteering in the food pantry, doing work around the church, helping out with worship videos, using social media to help us all stay connected.

Our talents are always needed within our church community!

The tasks that go along with the talents are what we are supposed to do. But using our gifts to better the realm of God goes beyond the doors of our church buildings and the ministries of our church community.

We have been called to use our gifts as we walk through our lives, enriching this world to enrich the realm of God. If we have a talent that can help the work of a charitable group, then we can use our gifts there.

We can use our talents for a cause whether its political or social, something that we believe is calling for a change. If our gift is being in a financial situation that

allows us to contribute funds, we can do so to both charitable groups and to groups working for a cause. What we need to do is to think about what means something to us and how we believe a change could strengthen and empower God's world and God's realm. And then we ask ourselves, what gifts have I been given that can benefit that change?

Again the tasks that go along with our talents are what we are supposed to do.

There are many other ways that we can use our gifts to strengthen the realm of God. The talents that we give can go way beyond things like singing, or building, or teaching, or organizing. Some of our gifts seem very simple, but they can make a huge impact.

For instance the gift of being able to listen to people. I mean really listen to people! If you are someone who can really listen then you are someone who can make people feel heard and that is really important because for some people feeling heard is what they want most.

I think it's actually more than just some people. Even just listening is caring for others and that strengthens the realm of God.

There are so many ways that we can use our gifts. I encourage you this week to really think about what it is that God has given to you. What God has gifted to you! And then think about how that gift, those gifts, can be used.

We cannot waste the talents that God has bestowed upon us. They are what we are supposed to do. God has gifted us and what we do with those gifts to make God's world a better place is how we gift God in return.

Let's pray.

Holy God, allow us to realize what you have given to us and allow us to use these strengths to glorify your name. It's in your son's name we pray.

Amen.