Verona United Methodist Church

SERMON SERIES:  JOURNEY WITH JESUS, PART 1 Challenged from the Start:  Bethlehem to the Wilderness This morning's sermon challenged us to rethink the first stages in the life of Jesus from the Gospel according to Matthew. Here's a summary of Matthew 1-4: 1) Jesus is born in squalor and scandal; 2) Jesus' birth so disturbs Herod the Great that he attempts an assassination of Jesus by massacre; 3) To escape Herod, Jesus and his parents become refugees in Eqypt; 4) Jesus is baptized by his cousin John, a wilderness prophet strongly critical of the religious establishment who would later be beheaded; 5) Jesus encounters and overcomes the trials of the Tempter in a cruel wilderness experience. QUESTIONS: What does it mean that God chose this particular time and place for the birth of Jesus? What do the stories of Matt. 1-4 mean to the modern church and contemporary followers of Jesus? Are we too concerned with respectability and propriety - and not enough with the poor, the outcast, the lost? Have we allowed our culture and church to so soften the story of Jesus that we have lost a realistic sense of its transforming power?

While Pastor Bob is in Hampton for the Virginia UMC's Annual Conference, VUMC's own Shawna Hiner shares an experience at the well with Jesus in this moving personal testimony of grace and redemption. Shawna is a life-long VUMC member and has served for many years as our Administrative Assistant. Her Scripture:  John 4:1-26