John 9:1-41By Rev. William A. Johnson

Matthew 5:13-20 The earliest followers of Jesus were not known by the name “Christian.” In fact, they were not really known by any name at all. At first, they were simply recognized as people who were following the way of Jesus. They were not all that hard to recognize; the way they treated one another, the way they loved their enemies, the way the…

Matthew 5:1-12 A recent television commercial for a battery manufacturer asks the question: would you rather have more power or longer life? The “hook” for the ad is the premise that a sudden power will give you victory in the moment, but down the road you’ll tend run out of energy sooner. That’s a playful question in the world of digital gaming, b…

By Sylvia Coussa, UMW Speaker

Isaiah 49:1-7 A Call…an invitation…a summons…an overture that demands a response. If the scriptures are clear about one thing, it is that God does not sit idly somewhere on the far side of eternity, distant and detached from creation. The witness of our scriptures is that God gets involved in the world. Suddenly, surprisingly, often startlingly, Go…

Matthew 3:13-17 This Sunday we begin a new sermon series: The Dawning Light of Christ. Into a creation shrouded in the dark gloom of Sin and scarred by evil, God sent Jesus, his only begotten Son, to be the light of the world. Wherever the light of God shines in the dark recesses of life, the darkness flees and cannot overcome the light. In mercy, …

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 The Church in Thessalonica was in crisis. They had at first joyfully embraced the Gospel of Jesus under Paul’s teaching, and were enthralled by the promise that Christ Jesus would soon return in glory. But after Paul had left them, a season of persecution and suffering had set in, a hardship that was over time was growi…

Luke 18:9-14 Who are your models? Who do you measure yourself against? If you want to become a better person or better at your job, you “compare up.” You look for someone who inspires you, someone who could teach you a thing of two—a mentor. On the other hand, the Pharisee in the story from Luke 18 wants God to see him in the best possible light an…

Luke 18:1-8 When Jesus assured the disciples that “faith the size of a mustard seed” could accomplish mighty works, he introduced a core principle of God’s Kingdom: the movement of God’s grace is from lesser things to greater things. God’s love moves us from places of sin and darkness into God’s glorious light. Through grace we go from moments of i…

Luke 17:5-10 This sermon was not supplemented with a written reflection.By Rev. William A. Johnson, Senior Pastor

Luke 16:19-31 This sermon was not supplemented with a written reflection. Blessing of the Animals 2019By Rev. William A. Johnson, Senior Pastor

Luke 14:25-33 “How much does this cost?” It’s a phrase you can hear repeated in stores and marketplaces all over the world, as buyers and sellers come to terms with one another. Some people will spend hours negotiating, haggling, offering to barter and trade, stating and restating the value of their merchandise or their hard-earned cash. In the end…

Luke 12:32-40 “Be ready,” said Jesus, “for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” We want to be faithful, but we are tempted to ask, “Who can live in such a constant state of readiness?” The short answer is, anyone who has made time and space available to welcome the Kingdom of God. Whoever is able to live in a posture of hospitality is a…

Luke 12:13-21 The journey to Jerusalem continues apace; Jesus has “set his face” to meet and fulfill his mission’s destiny. Along the way, Jesus encounters a man who is having a family dispute over the estate left by the man’s father. Believing Jesus to be a man of wisdom, voice for God’s justice and truth, he asks Jesus to settle the matter. Jesus…

Luke 11:1-13 The journey to Jerusalem was well underway. Jesus is engaging his disciples with whole new levels of mission and responsibility. The disciples sense, perhaps for the first time, the need for a whole different level of empowerment. They see Jesus finding solitude from time to time in order to pray, and notice the difference it makes in …

Luke 10:25-37 Sometimes we can be so knowledgeable about the various parts of a thing that we lose sight of how it’s actually supposed to work. Doctors become specialists in kidneys, hearts, lungs, blood, muscles, bones and brains, but sometimes forget there’s a whole patient sitting in front of them. Mechanics can tell how every part in the car wo…

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Our “summer travels with Jesus” continue this week with Jesus selecting 70 of his followers for “leadership training.” The Kingdom of God is too big a project for one person and many more laborers are needed. Jesus is sending them out to the communities within reach of his journey’s path, and as they are released to do their wor…

Luke 9:51-62 Traveling together brings a certain focus to community life. Journeying together, fellow travelers find the old, comfortable and familiar giving way to new sights, different routines, strange faces and stranger customs. Amidst the changing surroundings and experiences, the fellow pilgrims often find themselves restating values, reaffir…

Luke 8:26-39 In today’s worship we launch a new sermon series: “Summer Travels With Jesus.” When Jesus began his public ministry, it was localized in the northern region known as Galilee. As word spread about the remarkable son of Joseph and Mary—now an itinerant teacher—crowds of the curious and suspicious alike flocked to him. Before long, it was…

First United Methodist Church of Orange Sunday, June 9, 2019 Sermon given by Rev. William A. Johnson, Senior PastorBy Rev. William A. Johnson, Senior Pastor

Luke 24:44-53 There was a brief moment in time, between the earthly ministry of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when every angel in heaven must have held its breath. Jesus suddenly stood among his disciples, in yet another Easter appearance, to give them instruction, and a commission, and a promise. And then he led them out to…

Revelation 21:1-6 In today’s scripture lesson we have the start of John’s ultimate depiction of what is still to come. First there was a great and cataclysmic battle engaging rulers of this world and the spiritual powers. This was followed closely by the fall of the Great City, Babylon. And now, in the final scene of John’s vision comes the appeara…

Revelation 7:9-17 The author of Revelation gives us another picture of worship in Chapter 7, and while the setting is the heavenly throne-room of God, the context for this worship entails all that the church on earth has to endure. For we see standing before the throne a vast multitude—far more than can be counted—from every tribe and nation on ear…

Revelation 1:4-8 This sermon was not supplemented with a written reflection.By Rev. Jerry Owyang, Associate Pastor

Psalm 126 Life is filled with moments of hardship, struggle, setback, illness, frustration, sin and shame. The songs of enduring faith reflect these realities in expressions of lament, of trust, of assurance and reassurance, of confession, and of pleading for grace. When these moments are complete, however, a new song emerges: the song of shalom. “…

Psalm 32 Sin is a word that has fallen out of use lately. It’s a topic that no one seems to want to address in depth, even in churches. Especially in churches. The effects of it are everywhere and easily discerned in the world around us, but few are calling it by name. To make matters worse, sin bears its consequences terribly within individual per…

Psalm 63:1-8 People across the faith spectrum have grappled with the notion of a just and moral universe. For the Hindu people, there is karma. For the Buddhist there is the constant interplay between yin and yang, two opposing forces which balance one another and keep the universe in equilibrium. For atheists there is the scientific notion of a de…

Psalm 27 At first blush, current events in our world would seem to offer little or no reason for hope. Terrorists shock, bullies prevail, corruption and greed and deceitfulness run unchecked through all sectors of society, and those malign people who foment the trouble are the first to prosper. Add to that natural disasters and out of control envir…

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Music plays an important role in our daily lives and is woven into the fabric of society. We listen to music while alone or in company, in a dance club or at home, through simple headphones or via high-end speakers, as background or as foreground, after we get up or before we go to bed. Music accompanies us when we are traveling,…

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 51:1-17 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21By Rev. William A. Johnson, Senior Pastor

Luke 9:28-36 A ticket is presented, popcorn and a drink purchased, and the viewers sink back into a reclining chair in a darkened theater. It’s movie night, and time for the show to start. Almost. First, there are the trailers…the “preview of coming attractions.” Good movie trailers give an audience the glimpse of what is to come, but never reveal …

Luke 6:27-38 In terms of the ordinary world around us, Jesus sometimes asks too much. Take for example his teaching in today’s Gospel lesson. It is filled with wonderful, idealized thoughts about the Kingdom of God. But who really lives like that? Forgive wrongdoers? Love our enemies? Pray for the welfare of our abusers? ABUSERS? It’s all well and …

Luke 6:17-26 When Jesus proclaimed the in-breaking of God’s promised Kingdom, his words ought to have been received with joy and thanksgiving. And yet, often as not he received criticism as well as praise, and there were many who scorned his teachings. In the gospel of Luke we find reason why revealed in a single word: “reversal.” God’s kingdom rev…

Luke 5:1-11 The subject of this morning’s worship is call. The ministry of Jesus grew into what we know today as “church” because Jesus called his disciples. One by one he walked into their busy, mundane lives and disrupted them, saying “follow me.” In today’s lesson from Luke’s Gospel, there are some fishermen sitting by the lakeshore, washing the…

Luke 4:14-30 Early in his ministry Jesus made a visit to his home town of Nazareth. It should have been a story of home-town boy makes good. Jesus’ had actually started his public ministry in Capernaum, and news about the authority of his teaching and the power of his healing spread quickly throughout the region. Now he had come “home”, and the loc…

John 1:1-15, 9-13 Matthew 5:14-16By Donna Nelson, UMW Speaker

John 2:1-11 There was nothing quite like a good feast to get a celebration off to a great start. Food has always had a way of giving meaning to life! The festivities at this wedding at Cana were typical of those enjoyed by villagers who were thankful for a respite from their daily hard labors of scratching out an existence. It was an old rabbinic s…

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Today in our worship we celebrate “The Baptism of Our Lord,” remembering the time when Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. People of faith have participated in cleansing rituals for thousands of years as a symbol of washing away sin and restoring a right relationship to God. Many people had come to John in the wilderness for…

Ephesians 3:1-12 The computing power in an average teenager’s cell phone is a million times more powerful than the computer used to land a person on the moon in 1969. Log on to the World Wide Web and that same phone can retrieve nearly all of the music, art, literature, scientific discovery, and philosophy ever produced, in a matter of seconds. Yet…

Mark 12:28-34 From time to time we meet people with little or no wealth who are accomplishing incredible, transformational work for Jesus? Fueled by their love for God, moved by compassion for their neighbors, and led by the Holy Spirit, they simply pick up and do whatever their capacity and resources will allow. They never complain or apologize fo…

Mark 12:28-34 Today is All Saints Sunday—a day of remembrance for Christian people of every time and place. We celebrate the great communion of saints as we remember the dead, some known generally as members of the vast Church universal, and others whose names and cherished memories are treasured in the intimacy of our own hearts. Especially in our…

Mark 10:46-52 The subject of the day, as far as Mark’s gospel is concerned, is spiritual blindness. The healing of “Blind” Bartimaeus—an outcast beggar left at the side of the road—provides Mark’s commentary on the spiritual blindness of so many others. Religious authorities, insiders, and even the disciples were having trouble seeing and understan…

Mark 10:35-45 Jesus had a sacred mission to complete. It was a God-given mission; it was the purpose for which he was born and his destiny. It pressed in upon him, occupying his thoughts, dictating his actions, flooding his soul. He would fulfill the expectations of the prophets. He would give his life in humble obedience. He would usher in the pro…

Mark 10:17-31 The pages of history are filled with stories of the indomitable spirit of humans. There are explorers who who fearlessly set off into the unknown in order to discover new lands, chart new courses of travel, even walk on distant bodies in space. There are people who, through hard work, discipline, and determination, overcame extraordin…

Mark 10:2-16By Rev. William A. Johnson, Senior Pastor

Ephesians 6:10-20 We live in a world that places the high value on projections of power and influence. With a deep sense of awe, note is carefully taken of the tallest buildings, the largest ships, the greatest armies, the fastest aircraft, and the most sophisticated computer networks. Those who have “the goods” have the respect (and more often tha…

2 Samuel 12:1-15a Welcome to our continuing summer worship series, “Anointed.” Each week we’ll draw insight and inspiration from the lives of three figures from the Hebrew scriptures—Samuel, Saul, and David—and examine more closely the persistent love of God for an often rebellious people. David, King and Shepherd of Israel, has strayed and lost hi…

2 Samuel 11:14-27 Welcome to our continuing summer worship series, “Anointed.” Each week we’ll draw insight and inspiration from the lives of three figures from the Hebrew scriptures—Samuel, Saul, and David—and examine more closely the persistent love of God for an often rebellious people. David, a King renowned for strength and savvy in defense of…

2 Samuel 11:1-13 Welcome to our continuing summer worship series, “Anointed.” Each week we’ll draw insight and inspiration from the lives of three figures from the Hebrew scriptures—Samuel, Saul, and David—and examine more closely the persistent love of God for an often rebellious people. In this week’s reading the “holy city” Jerusalem is now stab…

1 Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15 Welcome to our continuing summer worship series, “Annointed.” Each week we’ll draw insight and inspiration from the lives of three figures from the Hebrew scriptures—Samuel, Saul, and David—and we’ll examine more closely the persistent love of God for an often rebellious people. This morning’s scripture recalls a time befo…