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12/22/2021 0 Comments

Come, thou long expected Jesus

Beloved of God,

At this time of year, I hope you are able to meditate on God’s goodness and grace fully expressed in the coming of Christ Jesus. I want to remind you that Christmas has always been a little stressful. The first one happened right in the middle of tax season! Nonetheless, it is a chance for us to hit pause and reflect on how the Giver of all good gifts has given even Himself for us and for our salvation. You, beloved of God, are the object of the greatest gift the world has ever known.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

-Charles Wesley
Merry Christmas,
Marshall

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12/16/2021 0 Comments

What God has done, He can and will do again.

Beloved of God,

    This is the last Sunday of Advent before we get to Christmas. If you are going to be in town on Christmas Eve, I hope you will plan to join us for our Christmas Eve service at 6:30 pm on December 24th. If any of you can bear to help supply some cookies or finger friendly sweets for us to share, that would be especially wonderful. You are welcome to sign up to bring goodies here. Please plan on worshipping with us that evening, and then lingering for some fellowship afterwards.
    Our Scripture reading this week is from Micah 5:2-5a, and you will notice at the end of verse five a tone shift away from our typical reading. As a matter of fact, starting this reading at Micah 5:1 puts this passage in a very different light. You will notice that this is a word of rescue imagined in the way that most folks are able to imagine: military conquest and royal rule.
    At the heart of this passage is a declaration that what God has done before, God can and will do again. Bethlehem had already given Israel one ruler: David, their primary model for righteous power. But here Micah tells them that one will come from Bethlehem whose origins are from of old, and by implication, whose power will outstrip even David. The Messiah folds Himself into a story his people already know in hopes that when He comes they will recognize him. God loves His people so much that when the eternal Word of God arrives in human history, He does so having wrapped himself in Israel’s hopes and expectations. From even the moment of Jesus’ arrival among us, he came seeking His people, his flock, who He loves. Christmas teaches us that God loves us enough to meet us where we are, and to make Himself findable in the places we are already looking. Let’s make sure we are, in fact, looking for Him.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
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.
Those among us who are travelling or will be soon.
Those among us who are walking through these holidays while facing great, even painful, changes.
The poor, the homeless; folks of modest means who can’t find a room.
People of little faith, no faith, or stalled faith who will be spending time at church and reading Scripture for the first time in a long time. Pray that Christ be present to them in a meaningful way this Christmas.
For our global faith family, especially those celebrating Christmas in places where doing so makes them a target for ridicule, persecution, or violence.
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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12/2/2021 0 Comments

How do you come to Christmas?

Beloved of God,

I hope you are making plans to join us for a couple of important dates in the coming weeks:

First, we will be having our annual Christmas party/dinner on December 10th, at 6:00pm. We will need to get a headcount for the meal, so please put your name on the signup sheet along with the number of folks you are bringing.

Sunday, December 12 will be a very full day for which I hope you make plans. We will be having a congregational meeting to set our budget for the coming year as well as to elect new members for our church council. If you are a member of this church I hope you will attend and help us as we make these important decisions.

On that same day at 6:00pm in the Great Room our children will be putting on a production of Crazy Busy Peaceful Holy Night which critics are calling an off, off, off, off, Broadway smash. These young folks have worked hard for several months, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they have prepared.

This Sunday we will be meditating on peace together, but it is a peace that is predicated on purification. We get a glimpse of this in the Scripture reading for this week from Malachi 3:1-4.
But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. Mal. 3:2

I sometimes wonder if we come to Christmas with a bunch of extra stuff mixed in. You can probably identify some of it: commercialism, business, worry, materialism. But I think there’s other “stuff” that needs to be washed out of us at Advent. Have we found ways to grow in holiness this year, or have we been content to muddle along as if our discipleship were fully formed? Have we been properly grateful about the year we are about to finish, or have we complained about it as if it were rush hour traffic rather than a precious gift?
We can’t really receive the wonder of the Christ, either in a manger or coming with the clouds, if we’re perfectly content, or perfectly miserable. The former attitude signals a misunderstanding of ourselves. The latter misunderstands the world. Advent is a time where we can deliberately seek out the great Refiner of hearts, and come to know Him more clearly.

Please join me this week in praying for:

An end to this pandemic.
Those among us confronting their own medical challenges, or challenges for those they love.
Peace, within the Church and in the world.
Folks for whom this season will be stressful, lonely, or long.
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 towns and even our homes.
The millions who will be dragged along with family into a church for the first and only time all year; that God would be present and real to them in ways they didn’t expect.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).