Christmas Eve memories

As the #2 pastor in my church, I participate in the worship services, but I don't routinely preach the sermon on the “big” holidays. That is the job of the Senior Minister. But I did get to do just that in the 11 months that I served as solo pastor while we were seeking a new Senior Minister. In planning the Christmas Eve service, the music director and I chose scriptures to be read and music to tell the story, and I preached a short message. As we began the service, my friend John stood up to read. He reminded us that on Christmas Eve 1968 these same words from Genesis were read by the Apollo 8 astronauts as the TV audience watched the first-ever live footage of the Earth from the space capsule orbiting the moon.

Genesis 1 KJV

1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Many in the congregation that evening were old enough to remember that broadcast. Though I was in my early teens then, I was profoundly moved by the grainy images of Earth from space and the incredible beauty of the words being read. John's brief sharing of that memory was a powerful reminder of the beauty and timelessness of the Word of God.

John 1

In the beginning was the Word,  and the Word was with God,  and the Word was God.  2  He was with God in the beginning.  3  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  4  In him was life, and that life was the light  of all mankind.  5  The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Word here is Jesus. God's Son, present with God at the very beginning of time, became the living embodiment of the scriptures. These scriptures tell of God's creation, people, and love, even through the constant failings of the people!The scriptures tell of a savior, a messiah, who would redeem God's people.

At Christmas, we remember the birth of Jesus, the baby who gave up heaven to live in and with His own creation. Jesus became human to be with us as fully as possible, purely out of love. Jesus being human means that he felt hunger, thirst, fatigue. As an adult, He felt the aches and pains of a long's day's work, the struggle of a sleepless night. And He would ultimately face the worst form of execution that humanity could dole out, again purely out of love. As we celebrate this Christmas, let us remember that Love, that incomparable, nearly unfathomable love. Let us endeavor to live in that love throughout the holiday season and the coming year. Celebrate with the Bible, God's Word; and with the Living Word, Jesus Christ, always in our hearts.

Merry Christmas! 

"Earthrise" photo from the Apollo 8 mission. from Nasa.gov site.

flowers

My church has several members who love to garden and thankfully, they lend their talents to beautifying the church grounds. It's November and there are Irises blooming at the church! Irises are spring flowers; they usually bloom here in May! I am not sure why they are blooming now, they started in October. There were blossoms for a wedding in did Oct 10, and a few more for our guest speaker two weeks later. Yesterday I noticed several blooms! We have had some cold weather, even frost, but this fall has been fairly warm, so I guess the bulbs decided it's springtime. Our rose bushes have continued to bloom, and the petunias are as well! The weather is predicted to change rapidly, so the flowers won't last.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever. –Isaiah 40:8 ESV

While we know the weather will change, our flowers will soon be covered in snow, our Loving Lord is constant and unchanging. When we commit to reading God's Word and to prayer on a regular basis, we are reminded of God's perfect love and care for all of creation. Thanks be to God!  

inner self

2 Corinthians 4:16

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

A pastor often spends time with folks in either the highest or lowest moments of life. Births, weddings, illness, death. It is not always easy but it is a privilege to be with families in these moments.

Sometimes when a person has had many challenges, their faith is challenged too. We know God is love and God's promise is to be with us always. But when we've seen or experienced suffering and loss, we may feel terribly alone.

The processes of aging or illness may have us feeling that our “outer self is wasting away.”

This scripture reminds us that our “inner self is being renewed day by day.” how can this be so, when we feel so alone? One of the most effective ways is to spend time, even a few minutes a day in the God's word and prayer. Reading the Bible and prayer do not have to take a lot of time. Even ten or fifteen minutes in the morning can be the foundation for the day. Or we can have time to read and pray in the evening before bed to finish our day.

Beginning and maintaining this practice will help us get through our daily lives. And when the challenges come up, we will have a daily habit to hold us in good stead. 

The Ripple Effect: An Open Book

Oct. 20, 2013 The Ripple Effect: An Open Book Pastor Carol P. Taylor

Psalm 119:97-105 New International Version

97 Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.

105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.

John 17:13-19 Good News Translation

13 And now I am coming to you, and I say these things in the world so that they might have my joy in their hearts in all its fullness. 14 I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask you to keep them safe from the Evil One. 16 Just as I do not belong to the world, they do not belong to the world.17 Dedicate them to yourself by means of the truth; your word is truth. 18 I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. 19 And for their sake I dedicate myself to you, in order that they, too, may be truly dedicated to you.

The Ripple Effect: we never quite know what effect we may have on another person. We have all heard those stories of how one person made a difference in the life of someone, by a seemingly small thing said or done. When we live out our faith, we are causing ripples that can have quite an effect on others!

READ GOSPEL LESSON.

I am using GNT here while the NIV is up on the screen very deliberately. In Bible study, it can be very helpful to use different translations.

I love that they use the word “Dedicated” here for “Sanctified”

To be sanctified means to be set apart, separated, saved to be used for specific purpose. In the NT this word is also translated “holy”.

...sanctification is the same Greek word as holiness, meaning a separation. Separated, set apart for a purpose!

Jesus was sanctified, separated FOR US, dedicated for our use.

Just as this beautiful baby has been 'dedicated' for God, set apart so that she can make that choice one day, so we can be dedicated, set apart for God to use for God's purposes. When I say 'we' I mean each of us as individuals, because we never know what effect we may have today! But I also mean 'we' as a church, to help our members, our community (like with Hands of Faith...Trunk or Treat, visting homebound members, and so on. so we, individually and as a church can be dedicated, set apart for God to use for God's purposes.

How do we know God's purposes.....

well, they are here...in the Bible!
Well, yes ok, but the bible is hard to understand sometimes.

Though as mark twain said, it ain't the parts of the bible I don't understand that bother me, it's the ones that I DO!

Richard Foster in Life With God

Pay attention to the recurring themes of the stories of the Bible: God loves human beings; human beings always seem to want what they can't have; God is grieved and angered when human beings rebel but pursues them and forgives them anyway; God is involved not just in the lives of the chosen people, but in the lives of all peoples, and in the concerns of every living thing in creation.

why read the bible? Its confusing, it hard to understand.

yes it is, this is not the latest popular novel or biography. And you can't read it the same way you would read one of those! The Bible is a collection of books of historical events, poetry, instructions, stories that can be hard for us to relate to! Jesus talks about seeds and wheat and chaff, fish and bread as a meal. There are stories of miracles that are just unbelievable..i mean REAALLY unbelievable! And some of the prophecies, well they are scarier than a Stephen King story!
Yes! The bible is challenging! But there's a big picture here....all those events, poems, instructions, stories, and prophecies point to one theme. God is with us!

R. Foster again.....The divine assurance thundering throughout the ages is also a divine invitation: I am with you will you be with Me? This dynamic is the absolute unifying center of the Bible. Every story in the Bible, no matter its twists and turns, whether the human characters are trustworthy or untrustworthy, whether the story is sad or happy, is built on this clarion call to relationship.  {God says} “I am with you- will you be with Me?” 

The bible has survived, parts of it, for thousands of years! There must be SOME reason for that!

And yes the bible is relevant today. There is comfort in the bible, written in beautifully poetic language...to everything there is a season,

Isaiah said that God's word WILL accomplish it's purposes and on the day the mountains will sing and the trees will clap their hands! That verse right there can get you through a tough day.

So why should our bibles be open?

Because God is LOVE. And it says Life ain't about you and me.

Oh I wish it were, I think if I were in charge of the universe for a few days, I could REALLY shape up a few things! But what God is interested in is how we care for each other, how we recognize God in each other. Yes God is in every human being...sometimes we have to look pretty hard! But God is in every single person and all of creation. That's why our covenant says we seek to reach out in God's extravagant love, we affirm!

This week I was prepping for a  funeral and one of her favorite verses is Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”

and I looked in my bible..and was reminded that the verses immediately before that are " The stone  the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;   the  Lord  has done this, and it is marvelous  in our eyes."

Jesus referred to this Psalm when he was talking about going to the Cross. The stone that was rejected, was Jesus. He endured the rejection –the separation from God, that should have been ours! And became the cornerstone of faith, of the church, of our lives. This is the Day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

The Bible is a LOVE story. That's why we have it, that's why we need to read it, even when it's hard to understand, even when it bothers us, because over and over God says to us I LOVE YOU, Love me and love others!

Jesus sanctified himself for us, dedicated himself, set himself apart, for US. On the cross, He was separated in another way...separated from God, his father (whom he said, “I and the father are one”) but on the cross, covered in OUR SIN, Jesus endured the full separation from God that made him the bridge between us and our perfect Holy God. Jesus became totally separate from God, dedicated himself FOR US. For you and me, purely out of Love. We are to be set apart too. Not to isolate ourselves, but to be in relationship with other believers to carry out the work of God―to make the Kingdom happen here on earth.

Let God's love ripple through you, through your life. Allow that love to flow from you to others and see what the effect is!

Let's pray

Loving Lord God, thank you for your word that challenges, inspires, teaches, scolds, but most of all, shows us your love. Help us better grasp your love and allow it to work in us and through us to better this community and this world in Your name. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.  

Weakness

Weakness  

Sermon given at  Ecumenical Good Friday Service, River of Life UMC, Beloit.

Scriptures:

Psalm 22:1-18, 25-31 (read responsively as a Congregation)

John 19:16-22, 31-37, 38-42

also responsive reading Litany of the Seven Last Words following the sermon.

(Intro self, Licensed Minister at United Church of Beloit)

These Ecumenical services help us to enjoy different orders of worship, different speakers, worship styles. And we get to spend time together with folks from other churches and be reminded that we are all indeed ONE body of Christ!

Today of course is Good Friday. This past Sunday, we waved our palms shouting hosanna to the king! Thursday evening ws the last supper, where Jesus washed feet and began the tradition of Communion. Then his arrest, and the shouts of Hosanna, became cries of Crucify him! Today we share powerful scriptures about the crucifixion. Right now, let's consider the Psalm.

Psalm 22 was composed by David, the great king of Israel, about 1000 years before the time of Christ. The Psalms have been referred to as the Jewish hymnal and the Christian prayer book. They were composed to be sung in worship. Ps 22 is a lament...a passionate expression of grief or anguish. In the Jewish tradition this Psalm is read at Purim, {poohr-eem} the holiday devoted to the story told in the Book of Esther of the persecution of the Jewish people by Haman. Jesus and his followers were Jewish, so would have known their scriptures well! Many of the things Jesus said during the 3 years of his ministry on Earth were quotes or references to the Hebrew scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. This Psalm, when read through our modern eyes, knowing the story of the crucifixion, is certainly a foreshadowing or prophecy of what Jesus suffered. Jesus said the first line of this Psalm while on the cross, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” this was the only time in the Gospels that Jesus referred to God as anything but “My Father in heaven” or “Abba”.

How could Jesus feel so utterly separated from God? He was God, he was

with God in the beginning, according to John chapter 1. Jesus said in John chapter 14, speaking to his disciples mere hours before his arrest, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” How, HOW, could Jesus feel so utterly separate from God?

He who was without sin, took on the sins of the world. The sin of every human being. Every single thing that keeps a person separate from God, for that is the definition of sin...Jesus took on during the beatings, the flogging, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion. The One who was fully human, fully divine, who endured the worst that humankind could dole out, was perhaps never more fully human, than on that cross, covered in our disgrace.

How could he do this? Could there have been another way? Could Jesus have saved himself, could he have commanded an army of angels to come down from heaven? Of course. But Jesus came to show that God's power and might are not the same as humans envision. Jesus preached, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” God's power, God's perfect kingdom is not like an earthly kingdom. God's Kingdom, a kingdom of “Shalom”, the Hebrew word meaning peace, wholeness,

and well-being, protection for all of God's creation. Shalom is when all is right with the world. When humans are in good relationship with God and with each other, as we were created for! In the earthly world, peace is usually obtained & kept by military power. But the peace Jesus offered is a different. It is a peace obtained, not by a show of force but by what seems to be utter weakness — Jesus died on a cross like a criminal and outcast.
How could this be?
Note that the latter part of our Psalm talks about God triumphant over the anguish. Not just personally for the psalmist, but for the Great Congregation....the people of God! That all will worship and bow down, for dominion...the kingdom of Earth.. belongs to God. That all will serve and be told about the Lord and proclaim his deliverance, saying “he has done it!”
How could this be?
Could it be, that with God things are done a bit differently than to the human mind? God's ways are higher than our ways, God's thoughts higher than our thoughts. Could it be that God's power is perfected...in weakness?

God came to earth...taking on human form, becoming an infant...what is more vulnerable than a newborn baby? Jesus was born, not in a palace, not to a family known for wealth and power! No, he was born to an ordinary working class family in a non-descript town. Over and over in his ministry, people had trouble understanding what he was saying, even those closest to him! Jesus, fully human and fully divine, loved people even when they were being clods.

Brennan Manning: Weakness relates us profoundly to the people we serve; it allows us to feel with them the human condition, the human struggle and darkness and anguish that call out for salvation. Further, weakness relates us profoundly and apostolically to God because it provides the arena in which His power can move and reveal itself; His power is made manifest in weakness.

Jesus became completely weak...for us, to save us! The word in the Bible that means 'to save” is Sozo. (sode'-zo) it means to be saved for eternity, but it means more than that. Remember the languages of this time had fewer words than our modern English, so each word had more than one meaning, actually layers of meaning. So looking at the layers of meaning of these words adds tremendously to our understanding of the Bible. Sozo, this great word, means to be saved for eternity. It also means to be protected or saved from danger, to be healed, made well, to be restored to health and wholeness. Sozo brings shalom!

Jesus was King of the Jews allright, but not in the way that was expected. He was not a messiah king that the Jewish people expected, one who would overthrow the oppression of the Roman Empire.

In the remarkable book Simply Jesus, Author NT Wright says;

You see, the reason Jesus wasn’t the sort of king people had wanted in his own day is—to anticipate our conclusion—that he was the true king, but they had become used to the ordinary, shabby, second-rate sort. They were looking for a builder to construct the home they thought they wanted, but he was the architect, coming with a new plan that would give them everything they needed, but within quite a new framework. They were looking for a singer to sing the song they had been humming for a long time, but he was the composer, bringing them a new song to which the old songs they knew would form, at best, the background music.

How could this be?

Jesus was a king beyond all human comprehension! He was a king come to bring about peace and wholeness and protection. He became weak, vulnerable, in order to display God's perfect power! How? ok I am gonna reveal the end here...not that the butler did it, but that Jesus rose from that grave! Shh don't tell the others, we'll let them be surprised, ok?

So...God's power was on display! But....where IS this peace and prosperity and protection? Why didn't it happen instantly? how come everythign isn't a bed of roses? How come we still have weeds and thorns and rocks?

Couldn't God have made the world all perfect again? Why can't the poor be housed and fed and clothed? Why are there still wars and genocide and atrocities. God could snap those fingers and make it all right! Why doesn't he? Could it be that the architect of this new framework has something grander in mind?

Our Psalm says, “Posterity will serve him..” We are among the posterity! We will serve the Lord. Love inspires action...For God so LOVED the world, he GAVE his only son.....We are to love and care for others. Could it be that we –those who know Jesus as Lord are indeed to help make this world better? That we are to help bring about this kingdom?

Author Ann Spangler writes:

If God is King of the whole world, why is the world such a mess? Couldn’t an all-powerful God do something about the poverty, crime, and suffering that have been part of the world’s story from the beginning? Wouldn’t an all-loving God want to? The question nags. It’s hard to ignore. It demands our attention.... God.... decided to take the long way round, quelling the world’s rebellion not by brute force but by the power of divine love. That strategy requires restraint. It takes patience. It means justice in a final sense has to be delayed. It means evil is played out to the bitter end so that love can draw as many people as possible into the kingdom.   To say it another way, the weeds and the wheat are allowed to grow up together until the world’s last day.

Richard Foster phrases it this way:Human beings are so important to God that the divine purposes are worked out through the messiness and sprawl of human history. Apparently, it is more important to God that human beings learn his ways in freedom than it is to get things done efficiently.

We are to learn God's ways and accomplish God's will! Yes God could make the world perfect again. But in order for humans to be fully in relationship with God and each other as we are created to be, we are to learn God's ways and help achieve that Sozo, that perfect Shalom. We can only do this through the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. How can we? We who represent half dozen or so church in a non-descript town in the midwest...How can WE help make God's Shalom come to earth? We can reach out, allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to stretch out a hand, and walk alongside someone in their loneliness, their grief, their hunger, whatever. We do this in the Name of the One who loved us so much, he gave his very life for each of us.

How can we? You see as we live our lives...and we go through the hard stuff, we learn compassion. Compassion means to to suffer with...as Jesus did with his friends when Lazarus had died, Jesus wept. They were standing outside of the tomb and Jesus joined them in their grief. He took on their anguish.

We learn compassion and we learn to care for one another, to walk with our friends and strangers through this thing called life, living out the LOVE that we have found in Jesus. When we comprehend that love, how can we NOT reach out? That love, that came to earth, from a throne in heaven, to become mortal, to live in a frail human body with aches and hunger and fatigue. That love that came to earth to live and to die...to die on a cross. That love calls us to reach out!

Author Brennan Manning again:

The greatest need for our time is for the church to become what it has seldom been: the body of Christ with its face to the world, loving others regardless of religion or culture, pouring itself out in a life of service, offering hope to a frightened world, and presenting itself as a real alternative to the existing arrangement.

We who are here today represent several churches here in the Greater Beloit area. Our city has not had it easy over the years. But we have good people here with good values and a core of strength to get through what we must. When we reach out to one another in love, we will find that we are blessed beyond our expectations. Our community needs us, our community needs our churches to show what love means. Our world will be a better place when we do so!

Today, as we contemplate the incomparable love that brought God to earth as a baby who grew up to show us how to love and care for each other, how to live and how to die-- today let us pray to better live out that love. It was our sin that put Him there, it is our calling to make that love shine again in this world.

Psalm 27, Matthew 6 From Me to We

Sermon given at Ecumenical Lenten service, Wed March 28, 2012.

Psalm 27 ESV

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.

13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

This is a Psalm of David, one of the many times he was fleeing for his life. David wrote this and other Psalms as prayers, and they are intensely personal. but they were prayers to be sung! Sung in worship...in community. The Psalms have been called the Hebrew Hymn book and the Christian prayer book. As personal as the Psalms are, and if one read through them all, every emotion is there! As personal as they are, they are intended to be sung in community.

These Ecumenical Lenten services have been so good. The different types of worship, music, the various sermons, have been wonderful. And it;s so good to enjoy the hospitality and catching up with folks after the services. It's so nice to renew these connections.

After all that's what these services are about. Worshiping God of course! And renewing connections between our churches :)

and we are all connected in some way. You know there is a thing about six degrees of separation...a theory that everyone is connected to everyone else by six degrees, six other people or fewer. I think here in Beloit it's only 2 degrees!

The bible reminds us of connections too. This prayer reminds us of connections! Our Gospel lesson is one you find very familiar. You see, some time ago I heard that the best way to pray is to pray the Lord's Prayer, but take an hour to do it! Wouldn't that be ideal! Yet, to take an hour to pray...well, it's hard to admit, but I can't focus that long, can you? And the phone will ring, or the cat wants to play... but one day I managed. And it changed the way I think about prayer, especially this prayer.

Matthew 6:9-13 NRSV

‘Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.

(May the Lord add a blessing to this reading of His Holy Word)

What changed the way I think about prayer? The first word, “Our”.

prayer is personal, but the pronouns are all plural! Jesus said, pray this way....

we pray in community! And yes, Jesus taught that one should go into one's prayer closet...to pray effectively we often need to make some space, take time to breathe deeply and clear away some of the hubbub of the day. And in Bible times, you didn’t have your own office or your own room! You lived with your multi-generational family in just a few rooms! So Jesus advised to get away for prayer, because most of the time that was the ONLY way for a bit of privacy to really focus on God.

And yet, the prayer that Jesus taught is a prayer that reminds us that we are all connected, to God and to one another.

When we pray this prayer, we are praying with each other! We are praying with people of faith, of every denomination or none, everywhere- who are praying this same prayer, even at this same moment! It is Wednesday night during Lent, there are midweek services happening all over this country right now! All over the world, perhaps right at this moment, others are praying these same beautiful words –in community with us! At this moment it is morning in China, Laos, where it is not safe to proclaim Jesus Christ. But Christians there are indeed praying this prayer right now. We pray in community with them, and for them. And for all the others who are praying.

We also pray with the great cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone before, even generations before, are praying with us, cheering us on to better live God's will.

let me be clear, When we pray, “Our Father” we are not claiming ownership of God. God is infinite, and perfect, far beyond our ability to imagine or to claim! No we are saying “Our” as a recognition of God's loving claim on us, that we are chosen through Jesus, through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Henri Nouwen (if you read no other author, read anything by Nouwen!)

When we dare to trust that we are never alone but that God is always with us, always cares for us, and always speaks to us, we can gradually detach ourselves from the voices that make us feel guilty or anxious, and embrace the present moment. If we could, for a few minutes each day, just be fully where we are, we would indeed discover that we are not alone, and that the One who is with us in our hearts wants only to give us the love we need and the power to love others.

The Love we need and the power to love others....when we have the love we need, we are empowered to learn to love others well. This is why we pray in community. Why we live and worship in community. We are to love God with all our heart soul mind and strength, and love each other! When we spend time with other people of faith, like in these worship services, and talk to one another, we connect. We find that we are all connected, by our love of God, by our love of our families. we learn that we are all just regular folks, with stuff to deal with. Everyone has stuff, and once we learn that about each other, we can have compassion. Compassion of course is caring, loving concern. It is what we feel when we identify with another who is going through the SHTUFF of life.

And when we realize that we are all just trying to do the best we can in spite of what is bogging us down, our hearts soften a bit and we become more compassionate, more Christ-like. We care and we want to help.

Richard Foster Life with God

Attending to the needs of others—whether in the physical, spiritual, social, or political spheres—is as central to Christian faith as the greatest commandment: “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40)

We know what Jesus did for us. It's Lent, we are in worship on Wednesday night, that's why we are here! But how are we living out our faith outside of church? We are indeed called to live out our faith beyond our church attendance. And that is how we will again fill our churches. Because we all want to see our churches full. But folks don't go to church just because it's Sunday any more! In fact lots of people work Sundays, or nights, and going to church is something that has to be arranged, it takes commitment!

It's challenging. Because a lot of the time we have to just trust God and not see exactly what the next step is. In one of the Indiana Jones movies, Harrison Ford as Indy had to cross a huge rocky chasm. It's too far to jump and there seems to be no way across. He finally takes one step, seemingly into thin air, and a there appeared a rocky step! Each bit of the rocky bridge appears only as he just takes a step of faith.

We, as people of faith, may need to keep taking steps onto a bridge we can not see! We want to help others see Christ in us, and the best way to truly show Christ, is for us to see Christ in others. Every time we pray as Jesus taught, we pray Our Us and We, we are being stretched a bit to see Him in each other and in the rest of the world.

Francis Chan in Crazy Love How would my life change if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ-the person driving painfully slow in front of me, the checker at the grocery store who seems more interested in chatting than ringing up my items, the member of my own family with whom I can't seem to have a conversation and not get annoyed?

How indeed would our lives change?

We will only be true followers of Jesus Christ –the one who lived, suffered and died for each of us and for all of us! ..When we know that Christ is in everyone we meet, yes even THAT neighbor...and when we respond with care and compassion to each person, because Christ is within us and within them, whether or not they know it yet. How will things change when we are loving God so much that we sense God's presence inside every bit of God's creation.

And--How will our churches change? If they are filled with people who recognize Christ in each other and in the world?

Author N.T. Wright in his book Simply Christian, writes of what the church can be:

“It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for social justice. It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry out that purpose, It’s where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. No church is like that all the time. But a remarkable number of churches are partly like that for quite a lot of time.”

Our churches are partly like that, part of the time. They can be more and more like that if we make it so. We can take this renewed recognition of the Passion of our Lord and our growing com-passion, back to our churches and help others find this profound sense of community. These last 10 days or so of Lent, pray thoughtfully and think prayerfully about how we can help make our churches more like this vision.

God who is our Light and Salvation created humans, created you and me for a personal relationship with himself, and to be in compassionate community with each other. The Infinite , perfect God so LOVED the world....all of the world, that God gave his one and only son, Jesus. Jesus-the One who knew no sin- took all of our sin, our pride, our hate, greed, selfishness, everything that keeps us apart from God, Jesus took upon himself at the cross. Jesus endured the cruelest death that humankind could mete out. He did it purely from love and desire to make us one with God. In these final days of Lent, let us prayerfully remember and honor what Jesus did for us by living out that prayer He taught.

Godly Goals

On Jan. 1, as I sat down to do my Bible reading, I was thinking/praying about my New Year's resolutions. Resolutions are goals. To effectively set goals, whether personal or for a group or business, there need to be parameters. Good goals need to be specific, realistic, & measurable. And as I was pondering this, I realized that as a Christian, as one called to serve, my goals also need to be Godly! And what better way to have Godly Goals, than to use Scripture!?
So my goal of reading thru the Bible this year (which has a side benefit of being more knowledgeable about it!) is "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." So I can pray, "Lord, help me spend more time reading and pondering your word, and help it grow in me and guide me in all I do"

2010

a new year! so is it pronounced twenty-ten or two thousand ten?

Last night's New Year's Eve service and supper at church went well. and broke up earlier than usual which was good! we were home by 8:30. I went to sleep early but woke up before midnight. and the neighborhood was quieter than usual at midnight, a few firecracker volleys but that was it. I read Revelation 21 & 22, the description of the heaven..the New Jerusalem. "Behold I am coming soon!"

at the service we sang a couple songs, then i read Gen 1:1-5 and John 1:1-5 and 1:14. Talked about language, words. God merely spoke and everything was created. and His word-promises, law and covenants came to Abraham and Moses. The prophets spoke of God; then Jesus the Word, is God and is the promise of God's word. We can have The Word within us, Jesus as savior and the word of God as we read and meditate and pray on it.

and I am going to go do just that. I have a new Bible reading plan and devotions for the new year. knowing that there will be days I do not manage the 'daily readings' I am going to allot days like today, downtime, to read chunks. bliss.

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus be with us more each day in this new year! Shalom, Carol

The Word

for New Year's Eve service, I believe we will discuss The Word. Jesus, and the Bible. In the New Testament Greek the word used is Logos, which means "word", but also in Greek philosophy meant the core of one's being. Logos is used both for Word, used for Jesus in John chapter 1, and for "word of God" or "word of Christ" in Paul's epistles. "Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly..." I want us to think about concepts of language, and that words have power. Being in the Word, being in Christ, and spending time with our Bibles, has power!