Camden First United Methodist Church

Philippians 1:3-10 "Hi, my name is....."

Love God and Love Your Neighbor

Malachi 3:1-5 Rev. Beth Waldrup's farewell sermon Sunday, June 14, 2026. We wish her well in her retirement. We will miss her dearly.  

Most of think of a broom as a tool of cleaning up our homes or our churches. Certainly the Pharisees and scribes would like to use a broom to sweep away the people with whom Jesus was keeping company. So Jesus told them three parables. Let's look at the first two and discover how Jesus uses a broom.

What is there about human beings that it always trying to compare ourselves to one another? That leads us to never ending distortion of thinking we know the limits of God's grace. We do not. I've heard tell people at a funeral that the deceased is in hell and if they do not repent, they will be there with him soon. How would he know? A grandmother came to see me one day because a group of kids tol...

In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul speaks of hope as something unseen. Today we live in a world that participates daily in the opposite of hope - cynicism. It is crushing us. But I have great hope today - hope in the cancer ward, hope in the church, and hope in our community.

All four Gospels contain a teaching section. For the Gospel of Mark, the teaching section is found betweem the healing of a blinf man in chapter eight and the healing of a blind man in chapter ten. In chapter eight, Jesus attempts to heal a man but the man cannot see clearly. He gets just enough of Jesus to change but not for the better. This coincides with the disciples knowing who Jesus is but n...

Faith is not certainty. Job was certain he was right. His friends were certain that he was wrong and was hiding a secret sin. Then Job began asking question after question and God showed up to tell him he was asking the wrong questions. And Job was never the same.

There are many books and passages in the Bible that have shaped my theology. In the closing weeks of my ministry here in Camden, I will be sharing those with you. Up first is Jonah. Jonah is the book that helps us understand the difficult role of a prophet in sharing God's radical grace with all people.

The last teaching of Jesus warns us about false prophets, false teachings, and the foundations of our faith. How do we know what we know? We should be curious about any teachings that contradict the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught a radical new way of relating to God and to each other. Over the centuries and empires, it has been watered down and even made toxic. But we can do better.

The is some form of the Golden Rule is every religion although many phrase in the negative of do not do to others what you would not want done to you. The positive phrasing is better. By age five, most of us learn to say it in Sunday School and can repeat back to parent's and friends. I do not remember anyone putting exceptions on it. There was no "except" or "only ifs". So why do we make so many...

Many non-Christians think of Christians as being overly critical and judgmental. So it is curious why the beginning of the 7th chapter of the Sermon on the Mount is missing from the Common Lectionary? We need to talk to each other about judgment versus discernment and how each bears witness to our understanding of Jesus.

The world has changed over my lifetime. Many of us are witnessing norms change and not for the good. Where is our hope? On this Easter Sunday, Jesus has given us hope.

On the Palm/Passion Sunday, we will be reflecting on Paul's letter to the church at Philippi and the importance of the second chapter to the health of the community of faith.

Do you worry? Jesus has something to say about that!

As we continue our series from the Sermon on the Mount, today we look at where we place our treasure and we question what that treasure looks like.

Jesus gives us an easy but powerful prayer to remember.

Today we start Chapter Six in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus address the three acts of piety in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is the first Sunday of Lent and we are staying with the Sermon on the Mount and its crucial teaching on discipleship. Today we will explore the last three "you have heard it said, but I say to you" teachings as Jesus tries to help us understand that God is not about do's and dont's but about love and relationship.

We welcome you to the sermon podcast of First United Methodist Church. This is the third week in the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus takes us into understanding how to study the law. It is not about do's and don'ts. It is all about how to have a relationship.

We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are called to reflect the love of God that is reflected in the laws and commandments. 

In the Gospel of John, Jesus invites those curious about his ministry to "come and see." Later, when he calls them to follow him, he is asking them to put aside all else. We should ask if wqe are still just observing or are will following Jesus.

The lectionary for this week includes the famous words from Micah 6, the Beatitudes, and the second chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth. So much of our religious fervor is focused on verifying that God loves us when we should be asking Tex Samples' question, "Can God change us?" If you want to understand the blessedness of the Beatitudes, ask how we can be changed.

John did not realize it, but when he baptized Jesus, the world changed. The Holy Spirit descended and there was a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." How do you changed the world?