Odin & Shattuc UMC message draws from Psalm 121
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Led by Pastor RC Merten the Odin and Shattuc United Methodist Churches offer a traditional worship service each Sunday morning. Odin gathers at 8:30 a.m. and Shattuc at 9:45 a.m. Services are streamed live on the churches’ Facebook page. Merten’s message is titled “The One Who Neither Slumbers nor Sleeps” based on Psalm 121.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills:” “where does my help come from?” I like the King James version: “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help.” In that version, the first verse ends not with a question, but with a statement of fact. The mountains themselves are reliable symbols of the Lord’s dependable help, shared Pastor Merten. As the sun goes down, the psalmist looks up at the massive, hulking silhouettes of distant mountains and wonders what manner of evil may creep down from them in the night. “From where will my help come?” indeed.
We are children of Israel, children of Jesus, and children of our mothers and fathers in the faith. We need to look at each and every event in our lives and ask ourselves the question: ‘What is God saying to us in this? As we lift up our eyes to the hills, in what direction will we look for help? Will we look to the money we’ve invested – either by the government on our behalf, or on our own savings? Will we look to our physical health? To family and friends? To our own natural talents and abilities?
As significant as all these are, each one will fail, one day, to provide us with ultimate security. Or will we look in a different direction – outside ourselves and all that is familiar and comforting? Will we look instead to the Lord, who is our keeper, “The One Who Neither Slumbers nor Sleeps?”
The First Reading is from John 3:14-20. Holy Communion will be shared. Hymns of faith including “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “Faith of Our Fathers” and “I Know Whom I Have Believed” are accompanied by pianist Clicker Merten at Odin and organist Sherri Jett at Shattuc.
