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2/1/2024 0 Comments

God never loses sight of our way

Beloved of God,

There are still two openings on our church council that we need to fill. If you have nominations for either the Member at Large or the Vice Chair positions, please email [email protected] to let them know. If somebody suggests to you that you might do that work well, I sure hope you’ll consider it as more than a compliment!
   On Wednesday, February 7th, we’ll be starting up our weekly dinner at the church house. I hope you’ll plan on coming to eat and fellowship with others through the spring. One week after that on February 14th, we’ll begin our Lenten Study of the Gospel of Mark. We have 8 books available for use. You can keep them for a $10 offset. Please email me if you want to reserve one.

   Our Scripture reading this week is from Isaiah 40:21-31. I think I always find myself drawn to the last verse of this passage, especially when I’m feeling tired or worn down. It’s comforting to know that God is a source of strength for those who are feeling weak.
   But this time looking at this passage I was struck by how Isaiah holds in balance God’s comparative might and grandeur with his complete focus and even intimate involvement in creation. God is so deeply involved in Isaiah’s telling that the stars are called by name to shine by night.

…Why do you say, Israel,
   “My way is hidden from the LORD;
       my cause is disregarded by my God”?
   Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
   The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
It’s comforting to know that the Designer and Creator of even the ends of the earth never loses sight of our way. He offers us strength beyond our own and never treats us with disregard.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are sick.
Those among us who are grieving.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team.
Students in our community from kindergarten to graduate school.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Neighbors, especially those in need of care and the goodness of Jesus.
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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11/17/2023 0 Comments

Ruth, God's good time

Beloved of God,

   I want to remind you that if you are staying in town and looking for a great way to spend Thanksgiving with others, we’ll be hosting our annual Thanksgiving potluck at the church house beginning at 1:30 pm. Make your favorite Thanksgiving dish to share, and come spend the afternoon with some equally happy and hungry neighbors. A headcount is helpful, so if you plan to attend please contact the office or Scotta Latka.

   I get to teach Middle School Sunday School. I love it. I’m not exactly sure why, but I do. Our curriculum this fall has been an Old Testament survey in sequence, and this Sunday we’re talking about Ruth. Ruth is a bit of a folktale and depends a lot on dramatic irony. If you’ve not read it in a while you should.
   There is a moment in Ruth 2, where it becomes clear to Ruth that she’s been dealt with very kindly. It’s not the sort of thing she would expect. She was a woman in the ancient world. She was on top of that a Moabite, the ancient enemies of the people among whom she was now living. She asks Boaz why he’s been so good to her. Boaz tells her he knows of her faithfulness to her mother-in-law, and her own struggles. He tells her he’s moved by her coming to live among, “a people you did not know before.” It’s plausible. That’s a good enough reason to admire her. But it’s not in Ruth that we find out how deeply he meant this.
   We know who Boaz’s father is. It’s recorded in I Chronicles. But it’s not until Matthew that Scripture tells us who his mother is. Boaz’s mother also left behind her home to live among a people she did not know before. She also was gentile. Boaz’s mother was a prostitute from Jericho named Rahab. I have to wonder if this peculiar sympathy for Ruth didn’t come in part from being raised by someone who had lived a life with the same kind of jagged edges.
   Beloved, God does stuff like this. So very often the unexpected challenges we find in our own story turn out to be points of memory and tenderness that take effect only in God’s good time. They bear fruit sometimes among those who know us and love us. It happens often in other times and places about which we’ll never know. That doesn’t make those jagged edges any smoother, but it does show how faithful God is even with our pain. In your struggles and hurts, I always hope God gives you strength to bear it, justice when you need it, and grace to move beyond it. But I also know we serve a God who works his will through both weal and woe, even though he doesn’t have to.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Kids and parents who are sick and/or tired.
Those among us who are traveling.
Those who are entering this season with a powerful absence in their lives.
Children who are caring for their parents.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team and whoever they may call.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, our communities, and even in our homes.
Your enemies.
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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11/9/2023 0 Comments

We remember how God has moved in our lives

Beloved of God,

If you plan to join Carrie Blake and our Missions and Outreach team this Sunday, please use this link to RSVP. In addition to some time to eat and fellowship together, we’ll be hearing more about the good work Carrie and others are doing through the Remember Niger Coalition. I hope you’ll be able to join us.
In my office on my bookshelf, I have a 4” square of stage planking from the old auditorium at Baylor University. It’s just spruce treated on one side with a black surfacing. There’s nothing about it that would catch your eye except for the seal of my old college club, stenciled on in white paint. What I know about that staging is that thousands of sermons have been given on it. I know it has held up feisty amateurs and studied professionals as they gave performances that folks still talk about. A lifetime’s worth of chapel services, and concerts, and special ceremonies happened on it. But you might not know that unless I bothered to tell you.
Even extraordinary happenings have to be remembered and invoked if they are going to shape us at all. Our Scripture reading this week comes from a psalm designed to help God’s people do just that. The psalm in its entirety recounts Israel’s history; the good, bad, and ugly. But the psalm had to be sung anyway so that each succeeding generation might learn of God and not forget neither His power nor mercy.
Your own story of God’s provision, instruction, or grace only extends as far as those you share it with. It is always worthwhile to tell one another of the moments when God moved in our lives. That can be done within a Sunday service, but also in Sunday school. That story can be retold in families, but also in friendships. Knowing where God has moved and remembering it together is something that Psalm 78 can teach us to do well. Our discipleship to Jesus rests on the story of his life, death, and resurrection. But it also rests on the conviction that the Gospel story is our story. Let’s practice telling that story together. Practice especially telling about the parts nobody will know but you.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are sick or hurting.
Those who will be traveling on this holiday weekend.
Folks we know who are facing big changes or challenges. Pray God would give them courage, strength, and peace.
Those who are overscheduled, overcommitted, overtired, and underappreciated.
Our associate pastor search team.
One whom God is already calling to come and serve among His people here.
In thanksgiving for those who have served in rotating positions on the council and personnel committees. Pray that folks may sense a call to fill those open posts.
Those who out of love of for neighbor and nation took up armed service. Pray especially for those who bear wounds from that service both visible and invisible.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels. Pray especially for those who have just been called into this service for the first time.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Your enemies.
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 Cook

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11/2/2023 0 Comments

They accepted it, not as human words, but the Word of God

Beloved of God,
This Sunday we have a couple of chances to spend some meaningful time together. On Sunday after our Sunday School hour we’ll be gathering together for a potluck. Please bring whatever you like with just enough to share. In addition to taking time for fellowship, our Church Council will be handing out a budget proposal that we’ll be taking up for a vote in our December meeting. I sure hope you can make it.
In the evening, we’ll be gathering together at 6:00pm for a chance to grieve and give thanks over those who have passed away in the preceding year. If you have lost someone, please feel free to come spend that time of reflection. You may bring a small memento and if you like, you can share with us about who you are missing. This is a wonderful chance for us to mourn with each other and to affirm our gratitude to God for the important people who have crossed our paths.
Finally, I hope you’ll make plans to spend the early afternoon with us next week as we hear from Carrie Blake. Carrie will be updating us on the good and holy work she’s doing with the Remember Niger Coalition. There will be a luncheon, a brief film, and a Q&A session with her that will help us to know how we might continue to support and pray for Carrie and others as they serve these global neighbors in Jesus’ name. Your RSVP will be very helpful in knowing how to prepare.

Our Scripture reading this week comes from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church. I’ve spoken with you about how deep Paul’s affection for these folks seems to have been, but here we get a picture of what that looked like not just in writing but in person. Paul speaks of how he and Silas toiled day and night in an effort not to strain what were likely already thin resources among these people. When exactly was he preaching to them if he was busy all day at work? My deep suspicion is that the two, labor and preaching, were conjoined. Paul was speaking gospel to these folks both as he went about his labor and they went about theirs. He took the chance to “encourage, comfort and urge” them toward a godly life even as he went about his business.
There is an important but subtle difference between viewing the folks we encounter as “in the way” or “on the way”. We can come to view our interactions with others as impediments to following Jesus, or the substance of it. Surely Paul could have worked more efficiently if his attention had not been diverted by a Thessalonian convert with a question, or a struggle, or just the need for companionship. But efficiency is neither a gift of the spirit or a good of the kingdom and the more important matter was the matter of the soul in front of him.
I hope we can become people who learn to view our work as an occasion to live the life of the kingdom before our neighbors and beckon them into it rather than people who find others to be mere impediments to our own private pursuit of Jesus. May we encourage, comfort, and urge on those around us as we walk in his way.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who approach the upcoming year end holidays bearing great grief.
Those among us and in our community who are sick.
Those who are suffering and have suffered violence in Israel and Gaza.
The lonely, especially as we encounter them.
Those struggling with their faith and needing reassurance.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels. Pray especially for folks who will be called into that work for the first time.
Those who respond to emergencies in our wildlands, on our roadways, in our communities, and even in our homes.
The young people in our midst; may we be good and loving stewards of them.
Your enemies.
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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10/26/2023 0 Comments

It sounds familiar

Beloved of God,

It’s still not too late to sign up to help with our annual Trunk or Treat. This is a great way to show love and hospitality to families in our community. It’s also a great excuse to wear a costume and eat…er…hand out candy. You can email Megan if you’d like to get involved. I’m gonna be a dragon.

   Our Scripture reading this week is from Leviticus 19. If you read through it, some of the commands sound familiar. For instance, verse 11 sounds like a recap of some of the Ten Commandments. Other commands sound like something brand new:

   “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner.
Lev 19:9-10

Where did that come from? Some of these commands assume the bonds of folks living stable lives in close proximity. There’s a promise about where they are going to end up within these expectations. None of these people have planted their own crops yet, but they’re already getting instructions about how farming should look different among them.
   Another thing that’s meant to be different is so broad and demanding as to sound absurd. It’s the kind of command that makes claims on both actions and affections:
Lev. 19:18 “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
Christians have been trying to weasel out of this command for over a thousand years. It’s already inconvenient here in Leviticus, but what’s even worse is that Jesus gives it a place of prominence in his teaching. If we’re going to get around this one we’ll probably have to come up with craftier arguments than we have used.
   Or, we might simply follow it. We might trust that God’s demands upon our actions and affections are in some way good for us. Jesus said that the whole corpus of law and prophets hangs in part on this very command. We cannot really live life with God unless we live like this. If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to follow him into commands like this that he kept, taught, and expects us to keep as well.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those suffering violence in Israel and Gaza.
Joy and safety for those who are celebrating Halloween in the coming week.
Those among us and in our community who are carrying grief right now.
Youth and children in our care, especially as they navigate their own cares and worries.
Those among us who are injured or sick.
Those we know who are truly and deeply lonely.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels. Pray especially for those who are about to be called into those tasks for the first time.
Folks who respond to emergencies on our roadways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).