Beloved of God,

    First, I am very pleased to announce that we may increase our on site worship attendance beginning this Sunday from 25% to 40%! If you have been graciously holding back to allow for others to come worship in person, now might be the time to come yourself! If you would rather join us online until things are safer still, we understand and will continue our online broadcast of the service.

    I hope you are all planning on attending/tuning in for our congregational meeting this Sunday. You will be able to virtually attend the meeting even if you are not able to be there in person. Please pray for God’s wisdom as we take up the proposals that the church council has prepared for us to consider.

    For those brave souls among you that you are continuing to read through the Psalms with us: I am maintaining a digital calendar with all the readings on it which you can access here. If you would like to have some conversation partners, or share what God is saying to you as you read, you can join our classroom page here.

    The gospel reading scheduled from the lectionary for this week is Matthew 16:21-28. It gives us an honest picture of what our discipleship looks like. It won’t be comfortable. It’s a daily choice we have to make. But there is also the promise that a life of discipleship ends in reward. The “dailiness” of it isn’t a fruitless pursuit, but dealing with the “dailiness” can be tiring. Our readings for Sunday from Psalms and from Romans are there to help us navigate the call to be disciples “daily”. At our weakest moments, the only thing that is demanded of us is to take the next good step: the next chance to be thankful, the next chance to forgive somebody even if you’re right, the next moment to live righteously even when it's harder than the alternative. God sees your good work.

In that spirit, I hope you’ll join me in praying for:
*     Our congregation as we meet this Sunday.
*     Our missionaries seeking to serve in uncertain times and with unprecedented challenge.
*     Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level.
*     Doctors, nurses, first responders and those who do essential work in harm’s way
*     Relief and release from this viral pandemic
*     Those who are lonely right now
*     Christians and their churches, near and far, seeking to live faithfully in these days
*     One another. Please contact April ([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

Beloved of God,
    
    We have been working our way through the Psalms for almost half a week now. The fun part of starting at the beginning is that you get some of the most wonderful lines in all of Psalms right here in the front end. I love the image of a person who meditates on God’s Word being like a tree planted by a stream; a picture of total contentment and stability.
    I also love Psalm 2 an awful lot, because it is so deeply messianic. It is even quoted in reference to Jesus himself in Acts 13, and again by the author of Hebrews. This Messiah was meant to come and inherit the nations, to break them with a rod of iron. And yet, here we are, the nations, having been broken only as far as we are sinful, and having been inherited and yet made joint inheritors with Christ. The Psalms lay the groundwork for surprise.
    Or Psalm 4, which opens with by giving God a command (!): “Answer me”…and by the end of it we lie down and sleep in safety, like a tired child who pitches a fit and then falls asleep in his mother’s arms.
    Of course, this is what I am hearing. The Holy Spirit may be calling your attention to very different things. I hope that as you continue to read through the Psalms you will take some notes on what you are hearing, and if you feel comfortable sharing them you can do that here.
    I also want to share with you a link to a podcast that I think might help us understand this practice. It is a full half hour, but the first five minutes or so are especially helpful. You can listen to that conversation here.
    
Please join me in praying for:
*     Those who are fighting the Medio fire, and for foresters, rangers, and firefighters
*     Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local level
*     Doctors, nurses, first responders and essential workers whose faithful work in harm’s way benefits us all
*     Our upcoming congregational meeting on 8/30
*     Students, teachers and administrators seeking to do schooling amidst unprecedented challenges
*     Parents walking this path with their children
*     Our community; that there might be opportunities to invite neighbors into the Kingdom of God
*     That we will be faithful to God’s mission locally and globally
*     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