Blog Archives

3/25/2021 0 Comments

Spend some time reading through Psalm 118

Beloved of God,

I want to make sure that you have marked down our Good Friday service on your calendars. We will be meeting together on Friday, April 2 at 6:45 pm for a service of reflection and Scripture reading as we head into Easter weekend. If you have young children, I hope you’ll reach out to Haley to find out about an opportunity for formation she is working on for them at that same time. If you would like to read scripture in the Good Friday service, please get in touch with me. I am still looking for a few more readers to help lead that service.
    As we approach Easter, I hope you will consider ways that you might help support North American Missions through the Annie Armstrong Easter offering. You may also decide to give directly to any of our supported missionaries or through another agency we partner with, but I hope that you will prayerfully consider making a contribution to the good work of Mission and missionaries in this Easter season.
    On Easter Sunday, we will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. If you are planning on joining us from home, I hope you’ll come by the church from 10 am to 12 pm on Saturday, April 3 to receive the elements to observe with us. There will also be an opportunity for you to flower the cross if you would like.
    As we approach Palm Sunday, I find myself looking back over the 118th Psalm. It’s hard not to equate this Psalm with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. After all, the people in that procession were quoting it, perhaps even singing bits of it: “Lord, save us! (Hosanna in Hebrew)...Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” As you look through Psalm 118, you’ll read several things that sound very much like Jesus. You’ll also read things that sound very much like what his neighbors wanted Him to be. And they’re right there, side by side, in Holy Scripture.
    One of the things Palm Sunday asks of us, is that we come again into the presence of this Jesus, and be really honest with Him and ourselves about who He is and who we want Him to be. Do we find Him too stern? Too merciful? Too divine to have compassion or understanding? Too human to have power and authority over our lives? Does Jesus either bless the poor, or the poor in spirit, but never both?
    Spend some time reading through Psalm 118, and then be praying through the rest of the week that Jesus will show you more clearly who He really is. Pray that you come to know Him deeply and truly. We are disciples after all, and disciples must know their master intimately.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Christians around the world as they begin to celebrate Holy Week.
Those we know and love who are in need of healing, help, and special care.
Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics and others who are working hard to keep us all well.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
Safety for those in our community who will be traveling for Spring Break.
In praise for the arrival of Spring, and in thanks for the ways that God gives us signs of care and providence through creation.
Those who are mourning loved ones they have lost to violence or disease.
Students, teachers, administrators and others as they prepare to go back into the classroom in the coming weeks.
One another (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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3/18/2021 0 Comments

Practice the disciplines deliberately.

Beloved of God,

    As we continue to move through Lent and toward Easter, I hope you are having moments where you are able to pray more deeply and deliberately, to study Scripture more carefully, and to understand your discipleship more fully if you are engaging in a spiritual discipline or practice for the season.
    And all of that is good. It is good to pray, study Scripture, and practice the disciplines more deliberately. It is so often the most important thing we can do. But the full force of that importance should also be held together with the long view of what God is doing among us, and where this journey ends. Jeremiah 31:31-34 gives us a picture of what it looks like when we become most fully aware of who God is. We become people whose minds and hearts and words and deeds are shaped by love of and obedience to our God.
    Right now many of us are paying attention to the ways that this isn’t the case, and working toward a truer discipleship that really does move and act in concert with God’s Holy Spirit in us. We may even find ourselves frustrated at how undisciplined in thought, word or deed that we really are. And we ought to take a hard look at that, because knowing that about ourselves is important. But it is also the case that this passage ends with a word of forgiveness. The ways that we may fail don’t cancel out the moments when we are faithful, and there is always forgiveness enough to repent, take up the good work of following Christ, and continue on. The world needs people who know and love God fully. The world needs those people even if they aren’t perfect. The world needs us to keep at it even when we realize we’re flawed disciples.
    Press on. You will come to know and love God more fully, even if you lose the story line from time to time. Though you might stumble you will not fall headlong, for the Lord holds you by the hand.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic
Wisdom as this congregation takes up a wide range of considerations from our foundational documents, to personnel policies, to the possibility of new ministries and/or new ministers.
Those among us who are suffering from sickness; that there will be great healing and abundant peace.
Our students, teachers, administrators and others doing the good work of education in these crazy days.
In praise for little moments of joy that we so often find day by day, week by week.
For those facing moments of political unrest, or danger on top of the pandemic, especially our Christian brothers and sisters in Myanmar.
Those who will be marking the anniversary in the coming days of a loved one lost to COVID, even as a threat remains.
One another (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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3/11/2021 0 Comments

Turquoise Level

Beloved of God,

I’ve found myself thinking more and more about what might be the best way for us to mark a return to normalcy around here. I think that kicked into high gear with the news that we have moved into the turquoise bracket in Los Alamos county. I am more and more optimistic and less and less anxious all the time. In my mind I’ve already planned out big congregational barbecues, and dreamed about busy hallways and empty coffee pots all through the building. I’m feeling encouraged, though I know how important it will be to remain wise and cautious.
I want you to be aware that our services are going to look a little bit different over the next few weeks. Our Worship Team has done such commendable work to make sure that we are able to worship together online and in person through the duration of this pandemic. They all deserve deep gratitude for that good work in an exceptional time. But doing so has come with some cost, and many of those folks are in need of a few Sundays where they can be loved on and poured into as faithfully as they have poured out of themselves through this season.
I say that to let you know that there will be very little musical presence in our worship this coming Sunday. It will likely feel very different, but God will be praised and will be faithful to join us as we pray, read Scripture, and meditate on God’s Word together. I would also very much like to invite you to share your own gifts with us as Sundays like this intermittently occur. If you have a talent for writing responsive readings, if you have a testimony that you could offer, or if you would like to bless us in another form of worship, I hope you’ll get in touch with me so that we can find a way to make use of those gifts.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Doctors, nurses, paramedics, PA’s and others who are working to keep us all well.
Those of us who are in need of medical care in these difficult days, and for those who will be treating them.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
For those seeking a vaccine or receiving one; that they may be able to get the protection from COVID that they need.
Students, teachers, administrators and others working toward the goal of education in strange circumstances.
Those who are lonely, worried, or afraid right now.
In praise for the good work of medical scientists who have developed these vaccines, and for those in the public health field working to make it safely available.
Eyes to see those of our neighbors who are not the same person they were last year, and who may be ready to meet Christ and join Him and us in His Kingdom.
Fruitful moments of study, discipline, fasting and stewardship for us and other Christians in this Lenten season.
In thanks for the gift of children in our midst, and for the grace and wisdom to guide them into the Kingdom of God.
For 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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3/4/2021 0 Comments

Community is essential...

Beloved of God,

I’m spending a good bit of time in Exodus this week since that’s what I’m preaching from on Sunday. I’m always intrigued by the way that early on in the story Moses relies so heavily on Aaron. You’ll notice that through so much of the first several chapters, it is Aaron who does the talking, who even will perform the signs God gave to Moses. None of this seems to be because Aaron had great ambition, but simply because he was being faithful to God and to Moses.
The whole Exodus story carries the assumption of a deep interdependence marked by caring for each other, forgiving each other, and holding each other to account. It’s not hard to imagine that there may have been some lone Israelite who got sick of doing circles in the desert for 40 years and wandered off on their own, but you and I have never heard of them. They didn’t have any effect on their community, or for that matter the story of God’s work in the world. It would seem that God’s interest was in shaping that community no matter what.
I’m thinking about some of this because I want us to remember that Christianity is not an independent experience. The movement of Christian hermits who wandered out into the desert in the 5th century to grow in prayer and holiness died out because there was something essential missing. Jesus didn’t leave behind a book, or simply pick one guy to carry on the Christian movement when he had died, risen, and ascended. Instead he chose 12 people. Jesus left behind a community. Community is native and essential to everything we are seeking to do as a church.
It will be important for us to bear this in mind over the next several months as we continue to negotiate (hopefully) the reopening of many of our regular ministries, the conduct of our congregational business, and whatever unexpected challenges await us beyond these things. I think it would be a wonderful thing if we all commit to doing these things graciously and wisely, and I expect that we will.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Doctors, nurses, PA’s and paramedics as they work to keep us all well.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
Those who are seeking medical treatment, and for those who are looking after them.
Those for whom 28 days wasn’t enough time to make the money needed to pay the bills.
Students, teachers, administrators and others who are trying to pursue the worthy work of education in these strange days.
Folks who are lonely, or frustrated, or worried about the future.
Wisdom, as we seek to meet the challenges this moment presents to this congregation.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).