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10/13/2023 0 Comments

Find Unity

Beloved of God,

The two big things I want to make sure you know about are…

We have a congregational meeting this Sunday, 10/15, following the Sunday School hour. We’ll benefit greatly from the presence of as many of our members as possible.
There is still time to sign up for our 1st annual Non-Retreat on the weekend of 10/20-10/21. If you can’t come to everything, I hope you’ll still plan on making it a part of your weekend.

Our Scripture reading this week comes from the last chapter of Philippians, and of all things starts with Paul addressing two beloved sisters who have gotten themselves in a bit of a spat. He pleads with them to be of “one mind in the Lord.” It’s an image of humility about which he’s already written in this same letter. He goes on to point to other folks in the community who he expects to love both of these sisters to come to a common cause and reconciliation.
Paul never names the substance of the disagreement. It could have been as petty as the ones that can crop up among churches today. It might have been philosophical. One of them may have in fact been clearly in the right. Paul doesn’t seem to care enough about the fine points to either address them or even pick a side. Instead, it seems that he’s confident that they should find union with each other and that there are people of goodwill around who can help them do it.
It can be gratifying to be right, can’t it? But I suspect that more often the well-being of Christ’s body, and the pursuit of our mission in the world, depends on whether or not we know how to exhibit the mind of Christ toward one another. It depends on whether we have learned the disciplines of humility, joy, gentleness, and gratitude that Paul writes about in the final part of this letter. I’m still learning that. I’m grateful that we get to do so together.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are traveling.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team.
Several among us facing moments of uncertainty; for guidance, wisdom, and peace.
Those suffering violence in and around Gaza and Southern Israel.
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.
For humility, concord, and common cause under the lordship of Christ.
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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9/21/2023 0 Comments

Justice and mercy

Beloved of God,

I mentioned in last week’s letter that we have an opportunity to support our friends at the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home by stocking their pantry. They asked for:

BBQ Sauce
Peanut Butter
Jelly/Jam
Pancake Box Mix
Cereal (except Cheerios)
Spaghetti
Cooking Oils
Toilet Paper
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Kleenex
Windex

You can also make monetary donations here. We plan to take the food items to our associational meeting this Sunday, so please bring them to the church house by Sunday morning.

   This week, our Scripture reading is from the very last part of Jonah. In it, God has witnessed the repentance of the Ninevites and decided to spare them. And Jonah is not happy about it. He is not happy about it at all. When God relents, there is a moment where Jonah angrily accuses God of acting…like God. “I knew,” he says, “ that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” Jonah is quoting almost directly from Exodus 34:6, with one minor exception. There’s no mention in that verse of calamity whether coming about or being withheld.
   It is almost as if Jonah, who faced a storm for his own disobedience, wants something at least that dramatic for these wicked, gentile oppressors (and they really were!).
   More often than I would like to admit, I’ve pondered how satisfying it would be to see all the people I think of as wicked meeting God’s justice. It escapes my thoughts entirely that they might meet with his mercy instead. The end of Jonah asks us to consider how we might respond if God’s mercy was made plain where one could have rightly expected God’s wrath. How would we react? And maybe more provocatively than that: would we dare to despise God’s mercy to others?
   The book ends with Jonah lamenting bitterly the death of a small shady plant, but having no regard for the lives, both human and animal, that would have been swept away by God’s wrath. It closes with a question from God to Jonah, “Should I be concerned for these lives?”
   It is a great mercy of God that sinners like you and me are not in any position to decide what the appropriate bounds of God’s concern are. It is a good and beautiful thing that God can and does choose to be interested in, invested in, and concerned over any number of people that we might dismiss out of hand. I’m so grateful that our good and gracious God makes those decisions and not me.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are sick.
Folks who are facing griefs and hurts that we may have failed to notice; pray that these folks have all they need and that we learn to pay attention.
Our young people who will be participating in homecoming festivities. May God shield the joyful and protect them from harm.
Our associate pastor search team.
Those who may be sensing a call to serve on one of the annually appointed committees in our church.
Those who are stressed by their work as the end of the fiscal year looms.
The folks who respond to emergencies in our wildlands, on our roadways, 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 list).

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

Marshall

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8/31/2023 0 Comments

Living at peace with all people? What about me?

Beloved of God,

   This Sunday, we will not be having our regular Sunday School classes. What we will be having is breakfast food! If you are going to be with us as we worship this week, plan on sticking around for a potluck brunch at 10:30 a.m. Bring a pile of bacon. Bring a casserole. Bring hasbrowns that have been covered, peppered, and chunked. If you forget to make something, pick up apple fritters on the way. Or just show up knowing that a 9” x 13” pan is more than enough monkey bread for almost anybody and you won’t go hungry.

   Our Scripture reading this week follows hot on the heels of our sermon text from last week. It picks in Romans 12:9 and goes on through the chapter. Sometimes I wonder if we miss how demanding this passage is because it sounds so gentle. Folk, I’m not always loving or lovable. My spiritual zeal sometimes fizzles. I often fail to inhabit joys with the joyful, and sorrow with the mourning. Forgoing the repayment of evil? Doing what is right in the eyes of everyone? Living at peace with all people? What about me? Where does living this way get me? What about my rights, my proper respect, my convictions?

   Beloved, if we would follow Jesus it might mean placing even our moral outrage on the altar. It might mean taking up a cross made not of wood but of unanswered wrongs and even enemies who have been fed at our table. It may be a matter of soul searching for us whether we really believe that by doing such things we overcome evil with good.
   But if Jesus Christ conquered sin and death through a cross and a grave, isn’t it likely that our own victory may have a similar shape? If we are people of wonderful gifts and renewed minds, it’s so that we can live a different kind of life altogether. There are purported Christians with large platforms who simply will not seek to live this kind of life and who are leading others away from it. They are in love with power and revenge. And I don’t know if I completely blame them, because living the way we’re instructed here in Romans 12 is hard. It is too hard for them to live out.
   But it is the way of Jesus. It’s the path of our master and Lord. And because he is alive, even this path of forgiveness, gentleness, and quiet righteousness is a path to true victory in and by Him.

   Please join me this week in praying for:

Those who are traveling this weekend.
Our neighbors suffering loss in Florida and South Carolina.
Those who are grieving.
Your enemies; people who do not love you or treat you lovingly.
Our associate pastor search team.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Those who respond to emergencies in our wildlands, on our roadways, 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)

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

Marshall

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8/23/2023 0 Comments

Maybe a psalm of escape?

Beloved of God,

   On Sunday I mentioned that we have not had anyone commit to teaching our first and second grade class this fall. I continue to hope that someone will feel a strong and clear leading to spend that hour with them on Sunday mornings. As I teach our Middle Schoolers, what I find so very often is that I’m beckoned back into Scripture with fresh eyes and ears. They’re not quite calculated enough to do anything other than to bring honest questions and concerns to their Bible reading. And if I were wiser, and if I’d taken Jesus’ teaching seriously, I might do the same thing. Teaching these classes is so often not just a duty, but a valuable redirection of our discipleship. If you want to talk about this further, please contact Megan.

   This week’s Scripture reading is from Psalm 124. It’s one of our “psalms of ascent,” but to me, it really feels like a psalm of escape. I know some of you have powerful stories of rescue and escape; moments where you are deeply aware that if God had not been present and moving in power you would not have survived. Those stories are powerful testimonies, and it’s a huge grace that you share them with us.
   But I do wonder how often it is the case that we are rescued from something and never notice. I wonder if we’re not all that different sometimes from that old cartoon, Mr. Magoo, moving through life with danger and trouble missing us by inches. A psalm like this might be especially valuable because it reminds us how constantly God has moved to protect us in moments we don’t even notice.
   Perhaps it would be worthwhile to read this psalm slowly, and then to thank God for all the moments that we know we’ve been rescued or preserved. Maybe that’s especially important if haven't really noticed them in the first place. What a joy to know how constant God’s care and defense are for us. Somebody ought to write a song about that.

Please join me this week in praying for:

That we would be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team.
Students, teachers, coaches, staff, and many others involved in the good work of guiding our young people as they learn and grow.
Coaches, directors, athletes, and artists and for their safety this year as they travel for extra-curricular activities
Our countrymen in Hawaii who have suffered the loss of life, home, and treasured heritage.
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.
Each other (please contact [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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8/10/2023 0 Comments

Intentions and Outcomes

Beloved of God,
    This Sunday, during the Sunday School hour, everyone is invited to an exposition of our various church ministries. No church functions well unless they can have “all hands on deck”. Each of us must be willing to find ways to serve and ways to grow within a gathered body of disciples. I sure hope you’ll stay after the service, and explore some ways you might do both.
    Please make sure that you who are members have planned to attend our upcoming congregational meeting on August 20th. I believe that we make wiser decisions as a congregation when we have the benefit of each other’s council. There will be several important matters to consider, and I hope you’ll be there to help us consider them.
     Our Scripture reading this week is from Genesis 37:12-28. It’s early on in the story of Joseph, where his older brothers hatch a plan first to kill him, and then to sell him. Of course, this almost never happened at all. Joseph arrives in Shechem looking for his brothers but does not find them. He only knows where they are because of the intervention of a stranger. It’s the first in a series of events that play out on a very thin margin. Had the brothers killed Joseph as they initially intended, he’d never have wound up in Egypt. Had Reuben rescued him from the cistern, Joseph would not have made his way to Egypt either.
    One of the lessons of the Joseph story is about the gap between our intentions and the result of our actions, especially when God is involved. It reminds us that we’re not quite as powerful as we’d like, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Recognizing the gap between what we intend and what we’re able to do can help us to focus on what is more important for disciples than results: being faithful.
    Effectiveness is a bad measure of discipleship. It can de-center God from a story in which we play a meaningful but contingent part. Joseph lives a whole life where intentions and outcomes don’t always match up. And yet, God is faithful to him. If we want to be like Jesus, maybe learning to be faithful is more important than our own intentions and outcomes as well. Surely God can take care of the rest.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Teachers, students, and staff at our local schools as they begin a new year.
Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team.
Those who are facing grief and loss.
Those in need of healing and help.
In praise for recent rainfall.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Friends and neighbors, who Jesus loves, but have yet to love him back.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list)