Blog Archives

10/27/2022 0 Comments

Meditating on the law

Beloved of God,

    Will you who are members of this church please make an effort to join us in the congregational meeting this Sunday? We always benefit from having a broad gathered group to help listen to the Spirit and discern our call. Please plan to join us this Sunday at noon if you’re able.
    If you don’t have lunch plans for Sunday, November 6th, don’t make ‘em! The Mission and Outreach team would love to have you with them to hear about some of the good work we are supporting and ways that you can partner more directly in it. We’ll also have a chance to hear from our directly supported mission partners, the Blakes, and the Joneses. I sure hope you’ll join us that Sunday.

Our Scripture reading for Sunday morning is from Psalm 119:137-144. It comes from the longest Psalm in our Scriptures, and the focus of the subsection is righteousness. Righteousness has become a word that is used almost exclusively in churches, and that’s such a shame because it is needed so badly and so widely.
In this context, the Psalmist speaks of the law, which isn’t necessarily a trove of poetic material. But the focus of these verses is how the law interacts with righteousness. The final verse is our clue to the shape of that connection:

144     Your statutes are always righteous;
        give me understanding that I may live.

In this Psalm, meditating on God’s law, and understanding it is a path to life. The law of course carries its own force to condemn, and its wisdom always outpaces our holiness. We find salvation in Jesus, the living law. But the point of the law is not only to show us the ways we are wrongheaded and hard-hearted. Meditating on the law also helps us conform our will to God’s. They help us to know the depth of God’s righteousness even as we come face to face with our unrighteousness. Even for those of us who find salvation in Jesus, the law of God has much to teach us and valuable ways to shape us. Let’s join the Psalmist in seeking that understanding that we may live.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us, both young and old, facing sickness and recovery.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
Wisdom for those who may be called into such positions as communities cast their votes.
Children who are in a deliberate season of caring for their parents.
Parents who are in a deliberate season of caring for their children.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
This congregation as we meet together Sunday and seek the Spirit’s wisdom together.
Students among us as they manage assignments, face deadlines, and live faithfully in other commitments as well.
Young people among us who are pondering salvation, discipleship, and faith.
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

0 Comments

10/6/2022 0 Comments

Come and see what God has done

Beloved of God,

    I want to remind you that we’ll be spending some time together Sunday for lunch during our second Sunday potluck. Our theme for this month is “Stuffed Stuff”. Eggrolls, Chicken Kiev, Turducken, Jalapeno poppers…Anything with something inside another thing is welcome. We’ll plan to eat shortly after Sunday School ends at 11:45 am.

    If you own a budget line for this current year and have not yet done so, please send in your submission for FY 2023 as soon as you can. We’re trying to get a jump on this so that we can exercise wisdom and care as we finalize the budget in December.

Our Scripture reading this week is from Psalm 66, the first part of which makes some grand statements about God:
Psalm 66:4 All the earth bows down to you;
        they sing praise to you,
        they sing the praises of your name.”
5     Come and see what God has done,
        his awesome deeds for mankind!

The scope of all this is pretty grand, isn’t it? All the earth offers praise! Come see what God has done for mankind! It’s universal, even cosmic language. And then as we get to verse 6 we read this:
6     He turned the sea into dry land,
        they passed through the waters on foot--
        come, let us rejoice in him.

I love that the Psalmist is utterly unembarrassed to point out God’s cosmic power revealed in Israel’s particular story. He is determined to hold those two things together. There’s a lesson there.
We can sometimes think of God as far off, managing creation and the human order at a level so high that we’re way down the list. Other times we know God as an intimate presence who is involved in even the minutia of our lives, and are content to notice his work in the detail with less attention for the grand, sustaining providential power exercised in the very preservation of the cosmos.
I think we see God more clearly when we remember that He is not only sustaining the cosmos or tenderly watching His people, but that God is always doing both. In fact, in this Psalm, we see God’s glorious provision for humankind in the loving defense of a particular people. God’s grandeur is in the details, and God’s intimate attention is the very fabric of His cosmic providence. He is, indeed, all in all.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us facing hard moments with their parents.
Those among us who are recovering from sickness, surgery, or injury.
Any who may be traveling over a long weekend in our schools.
Friends and neighbors in a season of grief.
In thanks and praise for the good gift of rain.
fellow citizens affected by hurrican Ian.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer ministry).

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

Marshall

0 Comments