334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

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Unworthy, unworthy!  I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16  NRSV) My weekly ‘epistles’ are posted on the Tecumseh UMC website. Basically I have always assumed that the articles are just out there, hanging around, doing little good other than taking up important cyber space. (There is a limited amount of that space, right?) A recent trip took me to Denver, to participate in a concert with my brother Rene. He and his wife Lynne are both violinists. One of the members of the orchestra my brother conducts was curious about me, and so he ‘googled’ me. Now don’t get all upset by this – it’s really not a nasty word, as I used to think. He simply went on the internet to find out more about me, and where does his search take him – to the website of Tecumseh UMC, where he reads several of those little articles that were just hanging around in space. He proceeds to impress my brother with assorted bits of trivia about me, about family matters revealed in my articles, things my brother did not know. When all of this was reported back to me, for just a brief moment, I felt really important!  Almost worthy, if you know what I mean. We spend a lot of energy – many of us do, that is – worrying about the things we’re incapable of doing. Wanted to be a soccer star – couldn’t do it, unworthy. Be a famous director, couldn’t do it, unworthy. A renowned professor, couldn’t do it, unworthy. I once was jealous of Kit Bond, a senator in his early 30’s, and me at that age? – a student, unworthy. Know what I mean? Have you done some of that? Now I think I understand what John the Baptist is saying when he identifies himself as being unworthy to even untie the thong of Jesus’ sandals. If we measure our ‘worth’ by comparing ourselves to Jesus – well then, we’re all going to fall very, very short indeed. At the same time, isn’t it also the same Jesus who preaches about the worth and the worthiness of God’s people?  My ‘worth’ is not measured by who does or does not read these articles, listen to my sermons, attend my plays, etc. Neither is your worth measured by the worldly yardsticks which we’re prone to apply. Seems to me that Jesus came to remind all of us just how worthy we are, by God’s measure. Including John the Baptist, definitely a worthy mortal, preparing the way of the Lord. - Pastor Piet - January 7, 2007