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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