February, 2025

IT’S ALL JUST CHILI TO ME!

This past Sunday we enjoyed a Chili Cookoff after the 11:00 service. It was one of our fundraisers for the Regional Mission Trip to be held later this year. Special thanks to Abby Matschke for the wonderful job she did organizing the cookoff, and thanks to all of you who participated with your chili recipes. We raised over $1000 for the mission trip! Congratulations to Joann Mitchell for winning the contest with her “General’s Chili”.

I admit to being amazed by the rich variety of entries. Some were made with beef, others with sausage or chicken. Some were tomato-based while others had a white sauce. The ingredients were all over the place, with one entry containing sweet potatoes! Yet at the core of each presentation, all the entries were one hundred percent chili. I know, because I sampled each one, and some more than once!

All of which led me to think how chili is like how our faith should be. I did not hear one contestant condemn another as a false prophet of chili. I did not hear the tomato-based crowd claim to be the only authoritative interpretation of chili truth. No one dismissed another as being weak in the chili tradition. No one was chased out of the hall as a heretic. I heard none of these things. What I saw was a perfect ecumenical coming together in celebration of chili.

There just may be a lesson here. Christianity at its core is following Jesus. Jesus is the one who reveals to us God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Just as the chili participants did their best to fine tune their pot of chili, yet never compromising chili’s essential soul, so are we to serve Jesus without compromising who Jesus is. To present Jesus as the one to whom we made our simple confession of faith: “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and I accept him as my Lord and personal Savior”. At the core of our faith, is Jesus.

Just something to think about, as we warm ourselves with our favorite chili recipe, and wait for the return of Spring.

Blessings ~ Pastor Richard
February, 2025