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2/24/2022 0 Comments

We often don't choose our gifts...

Sunrise on Mt. Sinai

Beloved of God,

This Sunday, we will be having our regular monthly congregational meeting at noon following the Sunday School hour. If you are a member of the church, please plan to be present.

Next Wednesday, at 6:30 a.m., I will be leading a brief Ash Wednesday service in the great room to mark the beginning of Lent. If it would do you good to have a moment for recommitment and repentance, please consider coming.

Our Scripture reading for the week comes from Exodus 34:29-35, and has much to say about Moses’ shining face after encountering God directly early in the same chapter. It strikes me that Moses seems to be unaware that his face is shining. Aaron and the other leaders of the people know it, but Moses doesn’t catch on. When they run from him because his face shines, he has to call them back to himself.
Moses did not choose to have his face shine as a sign of having been with God. He seems unaffected by the fact that it does. But because others respond to it, he takes up the practice of using a veil. He allows his face to shine forth both when he speaks with God, and when he speaks to the people for God. It strikes me that God chose to make Moses’ face shine, but that Moses had to decide what to do about it. Moses had to choose how to shine.
In a church, our gifts and talents are not for ourselves; they are for the good of us all. It would have been wrong of Moses to withhold a sign of God’s presence and authority from the people at all times. Likewise, it would have been wrong of him to abuse that sign or profane it by always allowing his face to shine forth. He used this sign, even a sign carried on his own face, for the good of God’s people.
We often don’t choose our gifts. We may not even notice them before others do. But once we notice them, we are on the hook to use them well. How do your gifts serve those around you? Where are you in danger of withholding them? Where are you in danger of overusing them? How might God lead you to strike a balance in using what you are given?

Please join me this week in praying for:

Peace and justice in Eastern Europe.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
International leaders faced with difficult decisions.
Christians all over the world as we begin preparing our hearts and minds for Easter.
Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities and even in our homes.
Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics, and others still working to keep us all well.
In thanksgiving for the many among us celebrating birthdays this week.
Creativity, wisdom, and energy for our worship ministry.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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2/17/2022 0 Comments

Love your enemies.

    Beloved of God,

    Beginning on Saturday, February 26, April Nolen is leading a group in exploring some spiritual disciplines within the broader Christian tradition. The book is available for review in the Gathering Space, as well as a signup sheet. If you have other questions you may reach April here.

    Beginning March 2 we will once again be offering a study over N.T. Wright’s Lent for Everyone. If you would like to sign up to participate, you may do so here. There is also a copy of the book for review and a signup sheet available in the Gathering Space.

    The Scripture reading for this week picks up where we left off on Sunday in Luke 6:27-38. It is a word about loving your enemies, and treating people well regardless of how you yourself are treated. Really and truly, nobody wants to do this. It is deep within the human race to track down anybody and everybody who ever wrongs us, and reciprocate in kind. In fact, when given the opportunity we’d really like to see worse done to them than to us. Forgiveness is not a trait native to the human race. By and large we are all working with an overdeveloped sense of vengeance.
    I often wonder why Jesus would give us such a difficult set of commands. Didn’t he know that living this way would just get you rejected, beat up on, even killed? Why would he have us take up such a way of life, with seemingly no advantage at all and an awful lot of risk?
    This is one of those moments when Jesus’ divinity and humanity, the two natures in the one person, seem to crash upon those of us who follow him. Jesus is asking us to live human lives with a divine perspective; to move in the world as if even the wickedest person we encounter is a beloved creature who might be redeemed. Love your enemies? Why? Well, because that’s what Jesus does.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Courage, recovery, and peace for those among us facing medical challenges.
Our worship team; for creativity and energy in their service.
Children in our community as they navigate stressful moments, big adjustments, and difficult relationships.
Those among us who are grieving the loss of a loved one this week.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities and even our homes.
Opportunities for study and growth which will be underway in the coming month.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer ministry).

Your are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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2/10/2022 0 Comments

Resurrection is central to faith

Beloved of God,

    This Sunday, after the Sunday school hour, we are going to hold the first of many standing lunch dates to fellowship as a church family. Because it is “Souperbowl” Sunday, we are inviting you to bring a soup of your choice to share, and join us for lunch. You can spend a little quality time with your church family and still make it home with plenty of time to watch the game.
    There is still time for you to submit nominations for the Associate Pastor Assessment committee. Please email the Deacons if you know a church member who might help us think and pray over our church’s needs for (an) associate minister(s).

    Our Scripture reading for Sunday is from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, and it is very nearly the heart of our whole hope.
Through the long walk of the church down through history, the hope that has given so many disciples the courage to keep on walking is the hope that we are all walking into eternity with Jesus. For many of us, it will be hard to even imagine a Christian faith that wasn’t bound to (maybe even bound up by) this very hope. We live the lives we live, we claim the faith we claim, because we are going to one day join Christ Jesus in an eternal life through an eternal day.
    Christ was raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Paul wants the Corinthians to recognize that far from resurrection of the dead being a wild superstition, it is in fact central to faith in Christ. Jesus was raised up, and we will be also. We who are united to Christ in a death like his through baptism, will be raised into a resurrection like his as well. We’re going to live, die, and then live again. Whatever we might face in our lives, even if it kills us, there is always a further hope that we hold in Christ. Talk about good news!

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
In thanksgiving for the many people who have loved us through our lives and the many opportunities we’ve been given to love others.
Those who are missing someone who they loved very much.
Those who are wearied from serving in ministries, and in thanks for the good work God has brought forth from them thus far.
Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics, and others working to keep us all well.
Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities and even our homes.
This congregation as we explore what may be needed in an associate pastor.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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2/4/2022 0 Comments

When you are inconvenienced...

Beloved of God,

    I hope that you will plan on making time to worship with us this Saturday evening in the great room. One of my great struggles in my early days here was that we were asked to refrain from singing in worship, and I remember well when that order was rescinded and we could open our mouths and praise our God together. It is a simple thing, but it is life giving, and even if you can’t be with us the whole time, it will be worth it. We’ll have a lite dinner at 5:00pm and then spend time in worship together from 6pm on, no later than 8pm.
    Our worship team is meeting on Sunday to discuss some pressing issues that are confronting us which may affect how we worship together. Be praying for us as we meet Sunday afternoon. We will need wisdom, creativity, and perseverance.

    Our Scripture reading for this week comes from Luke 5:1-11. It’s a story that we have in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke): Jesus is walking along the sea shore when he encounters four fishermen tending to their work, and by the time the encounter is over, they have left everything to follow him.
    But Luke includes a detail that the other gospels leave out. While the fishermen are washing out their nets at the end of a night shift on the water, Jesus just goes and gets into Simon’s boat uninvited. He uses the shoreline as a sort of natural amphitheatre as he teaches, while Simon presumably sits there, maybe napping, perhaps tending to whatever fishing tack or rigging needed attention.
    And when it is over, Jesus asks him to put out into deeper water and drop the nets. “Look, boss (a word only Luke uses), we’ve been at it all night and got bupkis. But since you asked…” You know the rest. The nets are so full that they can’t be hauled in alone, and when they are there is so much bounty that the boats start to sink.
    How do we respond to Jesus when he’s inconvenient? When Jesus just arrives in our boat and starts making demands, it’s not always welcome. But those demands might lead to something that shows us who he really is, and change us forever. At the end of the day, it wasn’t about the fish. It was about Simon coming to see who Jesus really was, and deciding he wanted to be with him because of who he was. Obedience often leads to a task, but those tasks often lead us right back to Jesus.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
In praise for the gift of snow in a dry land.
Those among us who are carrying worry or grief over their parents.
Those among us who have begun new ventures professionally and scholastically.
Our worship team; for God’s guidance, wisdom, and strength.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roads, in our wildlands, in our communities and even our homes.
Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics and others working to keep us all well.
The will to be obedient when we’re tired, desperate, or afraid.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list.)

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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