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7/21/2023 0 Comments

Parable of the wheat and tares

Beloved of God,

Over the past several weeks I’ve had a chance to do something I rarely get to do. I’ve been able to be, consistently, a regular student in several of our classes and studies through the week. It has reminded me how many fine and faithful teachers we have who are serving in those groups, and guiding God’s people into study and discipleship. I hope if that is not part of your regular rhythm that you will consider joining one of those groups. There are no disciples who do not need to study, and those who fail to study are not fully practicing their discipleship. I’m convinced that this happens most fully, faithfully, and carefully in the context of a local church. I’m also so grateful to folks like Steve Nolen, Caroline Sunderland, Chuck McCullough, and Kyle Hughes who are offering us opportunities to do just that.

Our Scripture reading for Sunday is a collection of parables, but one in particular gets attention and discussion within the passage. It’s the parable of the wheat and the tares, one of those stories that relies on most of us having more familiarity with ancient cereal farming than we do. It’s a parable about faithfulness and patience coinciding; staying involved in discipleship and bearing up in and among those who don’t know Jesus. This passage doesn’t give room for smug certainty. It’s not about the weeds you know on sight. It’s about a plant that looks like, grows apace with, and is easily confused with wheat right up until the head of the grain pops out. It’s only then that you know what the plant really is. You find out what the seed is really like right at the end.
I wonder if in telling this parable Jesus is asking us to be more concerned to grow up into faithfulness than to crusade against the faithlessness we’re convinced is all around us. A day of judgment will come no matter what, but until then maybe it’s our job to mind what we’re growing into rather than planning to uproot those we know (know?) to be weeds.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Wisdom.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team.
Those among us who are traveling.
Loved ones and neighbors who are injured, sick, or recovering from difficult procedures.
The young people in our church.
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 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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5/18/2023 0 Comments

Highs and lows

Beloved of God,

   This is one of those weeks when we get to walk together in highs and lows because that’s what Jesus did and still does.
   On Sunday we’ll have a chance to give thanks and pray for our graduating seniors as they brace for new adventures. If you know of a High School Senior who would like to participate, but who I have not yet contacted, I hope they will email me directly as soon as possible. It’s a joy and an honor to walk with young people as they grow up in this church.
   If you would like to register a child for VBS or if you would like to serve our young people as they learn about Jesus, you may do so by following this link. Vacation Bible School is always a valuable opportunity to pour into young people in our community, and perhaps even gently guide them into faith in Christ. I hope you’ll join us!
   This week the McCumber family faced the sudden loss of their youngest, Andrew. I hope that you will make time to celebrate his life and grieve his loss with them on Sunday, 1 pm at Fuller Lodge. The family has asked that photos, videos, and written memories be collected for them, and you may do so at this link.

   We know the details in Scripture are important, but that doesn’t make it any easier to pay attention. Our Reading from Acts 1:6-14 this week has an awful lot going on, and between the final earthly words of Jesus, His ascension, and an angelic appearance, you may have read through so quickly that you don’t realize where you are. Where is this? Where are the disciples standing as they watch him go?
   To be fair, Luke buries the lead until Acts 1:12. He gives you all the exciting details before he tells you where it has been taking place. The disciples walk back into town from the Mount of Olives of all places. A place that just 40 days ago had seen Jesus weeping, praying, asking for a different way, yet committing to God’s will…while they slept.
   Almost scrawled in the margins here is something stunning. This place marked by so much passion and sorrow is the very place Jesus chooses to seal his victory and promise his return. He has his disciples walk back down into Jerusalem without him, but this time under very different circumstances; this time with the promise that they will be changed, and so will the world, and Jesus will come back.
   Why God chooses to do this sort of thing I don’t know. I don’t know why God sometimes calls us into places and moments we remember as hard, dark, difficult, only to transform them, but He does. I suppose it’s yet one more way to teach us or remind us, that God’s mercy and power extend even that far. And they do. And we need to remember that they do. The scene of Christ’s prayerful agony is the scene of Christ’s glorious ascension. What hard places and hard moments will he not dare to redeem in you?

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those of us who are mourning.
Those of us who are sick, hurt, or convalescing.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team.
Graduating seniors and their families.
Teachers and students on the cusp of Summer.
Those who are traveling this week and next.
Those 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.
Family, friends, and neighbors who face struggles in their 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

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5/11/2023 0 Comments

A little bit of news

Beloved of God,

   There are a few events coming up that I want to make sure you have clocked and calendared.
   Our last Sunday School class for the Spring will be on May 21st. I want to say a special thank you to the folks who have put in so much good work to teach class throughout the year. I am so grateful that we get to study, pray, and grow together on Sunday mornings. Stay tuned for some special opportunities this summer, and new classes in the fall.
   Vacation Bible School is fast approaching, and registration is currently open for WRBC families and volunteers. You can register to do both here.

   Next Friday, we are having a church-wide birthday bash. “Who’s birthday is it?” you may be asking. The answer: anybody in the church with a birthday, which is everybody in the church! Come hang out with us at 6 pm for cake, classic birthday fun, and fellowship with other folks who also have birthdays.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are injured, sick, or hurting.
Those among us facing big changes, big challenges, or big choices.
Students, teachers, and parents approaching the end of a long school year.
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.
Young people in our community who we may get to minister to through the summer.
Wisdom.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to the prayer list).

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

Marshall

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5/4/2023 0 Comments

I am the way

Beloved of God,

On Sunday, our kids will be leading us in worship. This will include song, prayer, and reading Scripture, but be on the lookout for kiddos serving in other ways as well. I’m grateful for our kiddos to get a chance to learn all the ways that our good work can be offered to God as worship. Please be praying for them as they take the lead on Sunday morning, and be praying that God will use them and they will notice it.

This Sunday we are also having a potluck fellowship after church. The theme for the meal is “Mom’s Favorite”.. Make something that your mother loves, or that makes you think of one of the moms in your life. We’ll tuck in shortly after the Sunday School hour. If you can help set up, please contact Scotta Latka.

Our Scripture reading this week is from John 14:1-14, which is marked so deeply by Jesus’ faithful relationship to his disciples. It’s worth reading through just to remind ourselves of the flow of this passage. Here’s some of what I notice here:

Jesus promises to come and get his own; He prepares a place for his disciples.
“I am the way…” is the answer to Thomas’ question. “How can we know the way to where you are?” Thomas asks. “Because the way is me,” answers Jesus.
When we look at Jesus, we find out what God is really like. “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me,” says Jesus.
Jesus has big plans for those who follow him. “...whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these…” Jesus comes to save the world in John’s Gospel (John 3:17), and we get to be involved in that too!

To call Jesus “friend” can bother me sometimes. I think it bothers me because I feel like it’s a demotion. Jesus is Lord; friendship with me and you might seem minuscule in comparison. But a more accurate framing is that in choosing to relate freely and lovingly with His creatures, God has re-ordered and re-invigorated friendship itself. This is not a relationship like friends who meet for coffee. This is a relationship like a raindrop finding its way into the sea. It’s the difference between the knowledge that God is constantly, perfectly aware of you, and finding that God is captivated, invested, and enamored of you. I would not have guessed at that or expected it, but here is Jesus relating in just such a way to his friends.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Students and teachers who are trying to finish the term well.
Young people among us, and the immense delight and responsibility they represent. (Pray for them by name if you can!)
Wisdom.
Patience.
Our associate pastor search team.
The person who will sense God’s call to serve with this congregation.
In praise for rain, snow, and God’s attention to the needs of our home.
Those among us who are tired, hurt, sick, or heartsick.
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 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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4/14/2023 0 Comments

Salvation arrived.

Beloved of God,
Members of this church should plan to attend a congregational meeting this Sunday. We’ll be taking up some important matters including affirming folks to steward our Missions and Outreach team and filling vacancies within the council. I believe we make these decisions more wisely when there are many of us listening for the Holy Spirit together. We’ll meet after the Sunday School hour, which concludes at 11:30 am.

As we approach the summer, we’ve had several students who have either worshipped with us or connected with our community ask for assistance finding housing. If you have space that might be open to house a student this summer please contact the office at 505.672.9764 or email [email protected]. We would like to help coordinate this for members who can host a student in need.

The Scripture reading this week comes from 1 Peter 1:3-9, and it’s a short passage that places us right in the middle of both the challenges and joys of living the promise of the resurrection right now. The Christians who first read this lived in one of the hardest places in the Roman empire to be a Christian. Asia Minor in modern Turkey was the place where early Christianity met both flourishing and persecution in the greatest measure. Living into the living hope and inheritance mentioned here was not a simple matter. Faith for these Christians did mean that they might “have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
But the comfort on offer here is that while resurrection in its fullness was still off in the distance, salvation itself had already arrived:
1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
There was room for joy even as suffering loomed. They, like us, love a living Jesus even if we do not see him just yet. They are, and we are, already receiving the end result of our faith right now. We are saved and safe inside Christ’s resurrection life no matter what. There are places where our brothers and sisters in the Lord are facing danger precisely because they follow Jesus. We might not expect their lives to be marked by joy, but so often that is exactly the case. We have much to learn from our broader Christian family about how to bear with patience real danger knowing we are already safe and saved in Jesus. Inheritance must wait, and resurrection is on the way, but salvation is right here right now.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Wisdom.
Our Associate Pastor Search Team:
- Tim
- Claudia
- K.T.
- Kristine
- Pete
Parents and kiddos looking to end the academic year well.
Teachers who are laboring on behalf of those same families.
In thanksgiving for safe travels and safe returns through Spring Break in our community.
Folks who are lonely, angry, and afraid.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Students who are planning to spend the summer in our community; for their physical and spiritual needs.
Those who respond to emergencies on our roads, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Our Deacons.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).