All Categories

12/15/2022 0 Comments

We need saving!

Beloved of God,

   I know many of you are about to get really busy, and then be really unplugged until the new year. It’s the way of things, but if I have your attention in the meantime I want to remind you of a few of the happenings at WRBC this month.
   Our Christmas Eve service will be in the great room at 6:30 pm. We’ll have a chance to sing together and meditate on the Christmas story.
   The following morning, Christmas day, we will have a Bible study at 10:30 am. Feel free to come in whatever is comfy and we’ll spend some time studying Scripture together.

   Our Scripture reading this week comes from Isaiah 7:10-16. Most of you will recognize verse 14 immediately from the Gospel of Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story. But in its original context, this passage is at the center of a rebuke. The Lord has told Ahaz to ask for a sign. God wants the king to know that he’s not lying about his intent to rescue His people. God wants a venue in which to prove His earnestness so that Ahaz will receive it.
   But instead, Ahaz hides behind the law and rejects God’s command. He won’t ask for a sign. He says he doesn’t want to test God, but I wonder if Ahaz didn’t want to trust God. After all, he was the king! It was his duty to lead his people through political danger. He wanted a chance to work on the problem himself. He didn’t want God’s help. He was (he thought) capable of navigating this trouble on his own.
   We love being capable. We like to know that we can face problems and navigate them through our own intelligence, strength, and perseverance. Capability is one of our most persistent idols. It’s been a pet idol for many of God’s people. People like us. People like Ahaz. Ahaz, who was too capable and too pious to ask for a sign got one anyway: a baby. A little boy, a sign of the truth that God is with us, and God is for us. He sends Ahaz a sign of a child who knows right and wrong before he can even manage solid food. And God promises that before he can move off of curds and honey, the threats Ahaz is facing will be no more.
God wasn’t asking for Ahaz’s capability. He was asking for his trust. As I read this passage I think about how often Jesus, our Immanuel, would pull children into the middle of a crowd and say “you’ve got to become like this. This is who the Kingdom belongs to!” Jesus’ whole life was both a demonstration of that kind of trust and a powerful picture of the lengths God will undergo to bring rescue to His people. He does it because He loves us. He does it because no matter how capable we are, we need saving. As we come to this last week of Advent, let’s use it as a laboratory for learning to trust that God is faithful rather than obsessing over our own capability to meet our troubles.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are traveling.
Students and teachers who are finishing academic terms.
Those who come to this season missing someone.
Those we know who are sick or hurt.
Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels, especially those assuming office for the first time.
That we might learn to trust in God’s presence and faithfulness.
That we will find peace in our relationships, in our hearts, and in our minds this season.
In thanksgiving for the Christ child, who trusted perfectly and rescued powerfully.
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

11/17/2022 0 Comments

Our life of discipleship is grounded in wisdom

Beloved of God,

I have a real soft spot for Thanksgiving, and as it approaches I want to make sure you are aware of an opportunity to celebrate together. Many of you will be traveling or spending the day with family, but for those who are not, we will have our annual Thanksgiving Potluck in the great room at 1:30 pm. There is a signup in the info center if you’d like to help us plan around the dishes that will be present, but you can surprise us if you like or even just come along at the last minute. There is always plenty to eat, and we’d love to have you with us.
We have some matters of housekeeping that I hope you’ll note:

We are still taking nominations for council members. Nominations from the congregation have been scarce, and we will do well to hear from you. Nominations from the membership can be made until Saturday. Please email the council if you would like to make a nomination.
I hope members of this church will plan to join us at our congregational meeting this Sunday, and make plans to be with us for our final meeting of the year on December 18th. We benefit greatly from the collective wisdom of the gathered body as we reason together and listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Our Scripture reading for Sunday is Colossians 1:9-20. Usually when I read through this part of Scripture, I get swept up in the grand description of Christ, the Firstborn of creation, the One who holds everything together, and the One who reconciles all things to Himself through the Cross. It’s hard not to want to move right there. It’s such an image of grandeur and power that Christ the King holds in his hands.
But this time around I found myself pondering the first part of this passage, those verses from Colossians 1:9-14. If Christ is King, what does that mean for us in the day-to-day, humdrum of our ordinary lives? I think Paul offers three things, deeply connected truths, that shape our lives under the reign of King Jesus.

Our life of discipleship is grounded in wisdom. It’s not wisdom proper to ourselves. Spiritual wisdom isn’t native to us in that way. It’s a grace, a gift of the Spirit, and discipleship that follows faithfully is grounded in the wisdom of the Spirit.
God gives us power and might, not to wield like a weapon, but so that we might become patient and enduring. This is the third part of a list of things Paul has been praying for the church at Colossae. Starting from verse 10, he prays that the Colossians will bear fruit, that they’ll grow in knowledge, and that they will be strengthened in all power and might for the sake of (literally into) endurance and patience itself.
Christ allows us to move out of the dominion of darkness, and take up residence in the kingdom of light. We can plant our lives in different soil, a kingdom ruled by the Son of God whom He loves, and live there instead. We can leave behind our squalid lives of sin, shame, and death, and make a home in a land where we have an inheritance instead.

The worth of a king can be measured by the well-being of his people. And thanks be to God, our King has won a life of peace, wisdom, fruitfulness, and endurance through his own blood. Our King has won boundless goodness for us, and that’s a King worthy of loyalty, honor, and praise.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are facing big adjustments and life changes.
Those who are coming into a long holiday season next week that will be marked by the absence of a loved one.
Children who are sick or recovering from sickness and their parents.
Children who are pondering faith, salvation, and discipleship in new and powerful ways.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels.
Those who have recently been elected to public service.
Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Family members and friends who after withdrawing from faith feel a pull toward discipleship once more.
Family members and friends who have never received salvation or taken up discipleship at all.
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

0 Comments

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

9/29/2022 0 Comments

September 29th, 2022

Beloved of God,

    This Sunday we get to come to the Lord’s Table together. I hope that you are planning to be present as we meditate on Christ’s life-giving sacrifice and reaffirm our commitment to be his disciples. I think God graciously uses this ordinance to minister to His people, and I know you will want to be with us as we practice coming to the table together.
    Please continue to prayerfully consider if you or another member of the church might be called to serve on our church council. Each year, we elect a group of members to be chief stewards of our property, our business relations, and our financial oversight. There is so much benefit to having a wide range of experiences among those called to these tasks. Prayerfully consider whether you might sense a call to that work this year.

    Our Scripture reading for this week comes from Lamentations, a book traditionally associated with the prophet Jeremiah. If you read a snippet from Lamentations 1, it’s not hard to see why folks have linked this book to the grumpy old prophet of the Exile. It sure sounds an awful lot like him: bitterness, affliction, doom, and gloom.
    But such a broad brush isn’t fair to Jeremiah, or to Lamentations either. Those who are paying attention will notice that God does not always move toward us in punishment. God’s discipline and God’s comfort are both facets of His love. In fact, if you encounter somebody who only sees God’s love in comfort, or only sees God’s love in punishment, you are likely in the presence of somebody who is only telling half the story. Even in a book of bitterness like Lamentations, we read the following:
3:22     Because of the LORD’S great love we are not consumed,
        for his compassions never fail.
23     They are new every morning…

The God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever somehow meets His people with compassions that are brand new every single day. Somewhere right there between God’s “never” and God’s “new” is everything we need. I don’t understand that, but thank God it’s true.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are sick, hurt, or in recovery.
Families facing hard moments together.
Wisdom as this congregation makes decisions about the coming year.
Those who live with great fear, great loneliness, and great anger.
Students and teachers as they come to the last weeks of the academic quarter.
Those facing danger, destruction, or loss from hurricanes and tropical storms.
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).