Why Do We Worship?

If you were to answer the question, "Why do you worship?" what would you say?  If you read Isaiah 61: 10 - 62: 3, you hear prophet Isaiah, answer the question with his description of his joy in God, his appreciation for God's creation, and his gratitude for God's saving grace and God's delight in him.  Isaiah says, "I sing for joy in God...[and] I can't keep my mouth shut."  (61:10; 62: 1)

Psalm 148 is one long ALLELUIA! for God.  For the psalmist, worship is praising God.

Luke 2: 22-40 is the story of senior citizens Simeon and Anna who have worshiped their whole lives while waiting for the birth of the babe.  As each takes Jesus into his/her arms, they praise God for allowing them to live long enough to realize he is their salvation and the light of the world, who will bring God's glory to God's people.

It's all about worship.  A life of faith begins and ends with worship.  Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr writes, "Every day we must make a deep choice for gratitude, abundance ("there is enough"), and appreciation, which always de-centers the self and its cravings.  It is the core meaning of worship.  Your life is pure gift, and it must be based in an attitude of gratitude" (R. Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation daily meditation, 2011).

In our January sermon series on Worship, we begin with the question about why we worship and then explore what it means to gather together as a family to worship and why one of the earliest elements of worship is to confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and celebrate with alleluias God's grace and mercy.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

What Earthly Good is Jesus?

Christmas Eve is an evening when much (but not all) of our normal day-to-day activities pause as we anticipate the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. Christmas Day is a great big celebrative time-out for most of us. But what difference does it make for our Mondays (post hoopla) when we read Luke 1: 26-38 and consider Mary and Joseph's story of giving birth in a stable (or cave) to Jesus?

1st, we can contemplate our reactions to the birth of any sweet baby.  New babies break our hearts open - usually filling us with loving feelings and thoughts.  When it's the Son of God breaking our hearts open, not only do we contemplate the world through our eyes of love; but we also often can now see the realities of the destruction we wreak on our planet and the destruction we wreak on each other through violence or abuse or broken relationships.  When our hearts are broken open, we can see more clearly - both the wonders and the woefulness of the world.

2nd, we realize that Baby Jesus is a real earthly person like each of us.  Jesus will experience childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as we do.  Jesus will experience hunger, anger, sadness, and happiness.  Jesus knows what it is like to be us, because Jesus is us in our humanness.  As a part of the trinitarian Godhead, Jesus can relate to us and our trials and tribulations as well as our triumphs.  Jesus knows us in an intimate way, unmatched by even our mother or spouse.

3rd, Jesus is God-come-to-earth.  After trying kings, judges, prophets, and all kinds of messengers, God decides to send Jesus to show us who God is.  Jesus walking/preaching/teaching/healing among us says, "Here I am.  This is what God looks like.  This is how much God loves us that God would send God's Son."  When we yearn to know God, Jesus says, "Look over here.  I Am...."

What earthly good is Jesus?  We celebrate the birth that changes the world.  The birth is the beginning of Jesus growing up and initiating God's kingdom on earth in a whole new way.  Jesus' birth matters because Jesus is one of us, living in this world in a particular time and place.  We too live in this world in a particular time and place, with specific needs and hungers haunting our lives and the lives of our community and beyond.  Because Jesus knows us so well and dwells among us, we live into the hope of the kingdom, both now and not yet, of which we can be a part beginning tomorrow and carrying us into our Mondays and beyond.
                                                                                 May your Christmas be filled with blessings,
                                                                                 Pastor Shelley

Walking, Waiting, Watching Alongside Mary

I wonder if the rhythm of riding a donkey toward Bethlehem mimicked the motion of the babe in Mary's womb or the rhythms of her labor in a stable or the rhythms of rocking Baby Jesus to sleep before placing him in the manger - a feeding trough filled with straw for the animals? Almighty God chose a young peasant woman of faith to carry God's Son - doing what is impossible for us. But in Mary, we have a very real woman giving very real birth to a very human baby. This is an experience most of us can share whether we are women who have labored toward birth or we are men standing by a woman's side in the labor room or whether we are the proud and anxious grandparent or sibling or aunt/uncle awaiting anxiously for the birth and our turn to hold the new baby.

"Carols and Lullabies" by Conrad Susa is Trinity's musical worship this Sunday focusing on Mary as a central figure in this well known Christmas story. "The Magnificat", Luke 1: 46 -55, is Mary's response to God's call to her to bear the Babe of Bethlehem. In this hymn of praise, Mary magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God's call to her, knowing that it is a significant challenge, full of unknowns. Mary recognizes that God has blessed her as a servant of God and that her holiness is dependent on God's own holiness and God's choice of her. Mary reminds us that God has a pattern of selecting the lowly ones to shame the powerful, whom God will scatter in their arrogance. Mary reminds us that God's pattern is to fill the hungry with good things and to send the rich away empty. Mary praises God for the Almighty's mercy which has been God's pattern from the time of Abraham onward.

Where and how are we challenged by this story? Are we too rich with things to be hungry enough for God to choose and challenge us? Are we so powerful in our lives that we're threatened to be the ones who are brought down from our thrones?

Where and how are we blessed by this story? Can we turn toward trusting God as fully and faithfully as Mary does? Can we be as obedient as Mary when we hear God faintly or forcefully calling us? Can we praise God loudly enough with our words and actions for our neighbors to hear?

Someone recently said to me, "Christmas is primarily for children." I disagree. The presents under our trees may be primarily for children. But the story with its challenges to us is for ALL of us. This story is full of promises for us to continue living the story with our lives.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

We Are Not the Light

Have you tried to tell someone who you are by saying who you are not? In John 1: 6-8, 19-28, John the Witness confesses to the religious authorities who grill him: No, I'm not the Messiah. No, I'm not Elijah. No, I'm not the prophet. Instead, with great understatement, John identifies himself as the one called to point us toward the coming of Jesus Christ - to witness to him. John says of himself that he cries out in the wilderness and that he's unworthy to untie the thong of the sandal of the one who is coming. Like us, John waits in the dark for the coming of the Messiah, who will bring light into the world's darkness. John's "I am not" self declarations contrast to Jesus' later "I am" statements.

John's self understanding arises out of his relationship to Jesus as the coming Messiah. Who John is and what he's called to do (witness to the coming light) depends totally on belonging to Christ. One way to think about our own relationship to Jesus is that Jesus is both sun and Son. We are the moons which circle around the sun/Son, reflecting the light of the sun/Son.

This distinction helps us understand that we're neither the Christ, nor are we God. God is Creator and we are God's creatures. Like John, our call - our work - our service - is to prepare the way so that Christ's light might shine out into the world where darkness seems to prevail.

Hebrew Bible Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 draws a powerfully poignant picture of the kingdom here on earth that will come to pass where people respond to God by:

• preaching good news to the poor
• healing the heartbroken
• proclaiming freedom to captives
• releasing prisoners
• comforting those who mourn.

Isaiah pictures the year of Jubilee in which land is returned to original owners, debts are cancelled and slaves are freed. Anticipating slates wiped clean is accomplished through the light of the world shining in the dark, never to be extinguished by the darkness. Jesus Christ is the bringer of eternal Jubilee.

While we wait, we can witness to the slivers of light and the bounteous light that we see whenever and wherever we serve in Christ's name. What good and great news this is!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Anticipation in Advent - Looking Back. Looking Forward.

Carole King wrote and Carly Simon sang: "Anticipation - Anticipation Is making me late, Is keeping me waiting." Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 40: 1-11) and Gospel writer Mark (Mark 1: 1-8) know what these feelings of anticipation mean. Isaiah was anticipating God's mighty arm to release the Hebrew people out of the wilderness of exile when he speaks for God: "Comfort, O comfort my people." (40:1) Mark narrates John the Baptist's anticipation of the birth of Jesus. John the Baptist shouts for people to repent as he prepares the way for the ministry of his cousin shouting, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals." (1: 7)

Anticipation heightens our preparations throughout Advent as we await the birth of the Babe. My questions are: What are we waiting for? How do we wait?

It is a time of uncertainty; anxiety reigns; prices are skyrocketing; turmoil is everywhere; and tensions are high. If we're describing the time of the Hebrew people in exile, Jerusalem is under siege, leaders are being assassinated, the price of olive oil has gone through the roof, and different sects fight against one another. If we're describing the time of Jesus' birth, we hear about the assassination of babies, the cruelty of Herod's reign and fears of the Roman government, leading the Jewish people to meet in houses rather than publicly for fear of persecution. If we're describing today, we read about Syria's massacre of over 200 children; we see uprisings nationally (Occupy...) and abroad (Arab Spring); we hear presidential candidates offering good news if elected; and we see a debt crisis committee fail in their efforts.

What good news are we waiting for? Isaiah paints a picture of God coming in the power and might of love - God as a shepherd who will feed the flock and gather the lambs into her arms, gently leading them. Mark anticipates our Savior who will baptize us with the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we wait through these times? One answer is frenzied waiting: shop til we drop; scour the ads for deals; schedule ourselves tightly; eat on the run. Instead of nursing our longings (as Kate preached last week), we satisfy ourselves with short term, unsatisfactory actions designed to get us through the immediacy of the moment.

Waiting and preparing for the Lord is, instead, something to savor.

Divine Absence: Longing for God’s Saving Help

As we enter the season of Advent, we’re also entering the season of advertisements – featuring Black Friday, pushing all our emotional buttons to desperately want their products. What have you longed for lately? What have you wanted more than anything else What calls to you, deep to deep? Maybe it’s the latest version of the iPad. Maybe it’s a desire for a quiet, peaceful house. Maybe it’s a desperate prayer for a sick loved one to get well. Maybe it’s for reconciliation in a relationship. Maybe it’s for something that you can’t quite put your finger on, something that is missing, a hole in your life.

Our Scriptures for the first Sunday of Advent begin with Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13:24-37.

This may seem like an odd way to begin Advent. Isaiah is declaring how God has hidden God’s face from us and that we are a sinful people. The reading from Mark looks not toward the precious warm Christmas image of the sweet baby Jesus, but with the challenging, confusing proclamation that Christ will come again, with cosmic signs and fig trees.

Both Scriptures speak to the separation between God and Her people, which is where we start with Advent. We start from a place of longing, of realizing just where we are and who we are apart from God. We start from a place of desperate need, of being in a hole with no way out. We start at the same place of John the Baptizer and our faith ancestors – in great need of a Savior, of the Messiah to arrive. But we also start from a place where we can cry out to One who cares, because we were, are, and always will be God’s people.

For Advent is not just about preparing for Christmas, shopping the great sales, or listening to all our favorite Christmas hymns. Advent is not just hanging the greens or Christmas pageants. Advent is a call to keep awake – to be alert – to make Advent a part of who we are every single day. We are called to work and to prepare for the second coming of Christ. God has sent God’s Son with all the saving help we need, and we bask in the hope that is the promise of the return of Jesus.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate

When Judgment is a Good Word

When we have our temperature taken - when we receive a report card - when we step onto the bathroom scale -when we go to our annual review - when Mom says, "Sit down, we need to talk" - we realize that life is full of times of judgment. Sometimes we learn we need some meds or more exercise or less pie. Sometimes we receive an A and sometimes a D or F. Sometimes we receive praise and sometimes criticism with suggestions for improvement.

Read Ezekiel 34: 11-16 and Matthew 25: 31-46 for two stories about the role of leadership (shepherds and kings) who are major players in our times of judgment. Whether it's God as shepherd king or Jesus as shepherd king, we answer to both when we pause at times of judgment to learn how we're doing in our discipling - in our faithful living. The Bible gives us mixed messages about the nature of their kingship.

In Ezekiel, we see God as shepherd king who provides us with protection and nuture and salvation. But God also declares that God will judge between the fat and the lean sheep - between those who butt the weak and those who don't. In Matthew, Jesus declares that he will judge whether we choose to act to grow more and more into his likeness by how we treat the lost, lame, and least of these.

Why are these two scriptures good news? First, God is among us in Jesus - in the ugly, messy parts of life, wherever the needy (you and me and the least among us) cry out. Second, Jesus' judgment comes so that we can change our priorities and our choices. Jesus' judgment gives us chance after chance - choice after choice - to become more faithful in our following by looking for the face of Jesus in those we call other.

As we conclude our "Kingdom of Heaven: Here and Now" sermon series, the judgment rendered by the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, reveals God's reign among us. As we look and listen and respond with loving, caring acts, we draw closer to recognizing the reign of Christ here and now. Recognizing and participating in the kingdom of heaven is the abundant life that is God's shalom - God's will and wish - for all of us.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Enter into the Joy of Jesus

Matthew 25: 14-30 is traditionally interpreted as a stewardship story inviting us to invest our financial gifts generously in offering ministries to the world in Jesus' name. But as our sermon series on the "Here and Now Kingdom of Heaven" draws to a close next week, the setting of this parable is informative. The three servants are given huge/gigantic/mind-blowing talents/possessions/gifts/abilities/skills/resources (any of these translations can be valid) as their Master prepares to go on a long trip. In other words the Master will be gone from them for a long time. But the story quickly jumps to the Master's return - evoking the good news/bad news of the end of time and the accounting and judgment that will accompany our Master's return.

Here's where the story gets interesting. If we depart from the traditional stewardship interpretation, let's imagine this great mind-boggling gift from our Master as the gift of Jesus Christ who comes into our lives bearing the good news of salvation, the challenges of serving the world in his name, and the joy of living in relationship to him. The question for the three servants - and for us - is: "What do we do with this gift of Jesus Christ?"

The third servant's response of fear and distrust of his Master leads him to bury this gift in the ground where it is safe and secure - hidden from the world. For those of us who play it safe by retreating from the challenges of sharing our faith with others so that they never get to know the joy of Jesus - we are rightly castigated by Jesus and cast into the outer darkness apart from his presence.

How might we instead risk ourselves, our hearts, our involvement, our vulnerabilities by shouting (or whispering at least) our joy in knowing Jesus?

Do not fear!

When I was a youth, I remember one Saturday afternoon out on a lake in TN working as a crew to my parents in a regatta. My mother, the skipper, was an intense competitor. She, Dad, and I were so focused on the race and the positions of the other boats that we didn't anticipate the sudden storm envelope us. Seemingly out of the blue, we were being pounded by heavy rain and high winds threatening to sink our 17 foot Thistle sailboat. We became disoriented as we lost all sight of shore. My dad and I alternated bailing out the boat and hiking out on the rail to keep from sinking or capsizing. My fears were swallowing me as I worked alongside them. But I was with my strong parents and trusted them.

Simon Peter is out on his fishing boat with Jesus and when he casts his nets deep and wide, a crisis strikes. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases in The Message, "It was no sooner said than done - a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch." (Luke 5: 6-7).

To catch the context and the whole story, read Luke 5: 1-11.

Have you experienced similar crises? Has your boat been so swamped with demands, you felt as if you're sinking? Have you been pressured to lie (even a little white lie) or cheat or skimp or evade the truth so that you were filled with guilt or shame? Have you lost your way so that you felt as if you were out in the middle of the ocean with no sign of the shore or another person to come on board and help? Have you ever been so tired or discouraged or filled with despair that everything looks as black as the deepest waters?

Jesus' response is: Fear not. I am with you.

Sometimes Jesus' presence is other people who will walk with us through our crises. Sometimes Jesus' presence is the calm or peace we need to breathe through our struggles. Sometimes Jesus' presence is the strength and energy we need to tackle our battles. Sometimes Jesus' presence comes in trusting that the fish we need to quench our hungers will become available if we but open our eyes and heart to see.

What Jesus does NOT say is, "Settle in and close your eyes and deny your struggles." Partnering with Jesus to bring in the kingdom here on earth is costly discipleship demanding long nights and hard labor. For as Jesus draws us closer to him, he also draws us into deeper waters where fruitfulness, blessings, and an abundance of grace await us. This is where we are freed from the nets that bind us to meaninglessness are broken. This is where life abundant resides.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Fishing in the deep deep waters

When you come home from school or work after a long day of slogging through your tasks, how often do you encounter hungry kids or a grouchy spouse or bills that add up to more than your paycheck? Well, Simon Peter has stayed out all night on his boat fishing in waters he knows well and his nets are empty. So he's wearily washing and cleaning his empty nets, probably with his stomach growling for a hot meal back at the house.

This is just when Jesus asks to borrow his boat. For the crowds are pushing in on Jesus eager to hear more of his preaching and teaching. Such a simple request, but it leads to so much more.

Read Luke 5: 1-11 to hear the story of this tired fisherman and the miracle Jesus hands him.

There is lots of drama in this story. I can envision Simon Peter sitting quietly as Jesus continues to teach. Simon may think this is all that Jesus wants from him. But oh no!

When the teaching is done, Jesus directs Simon to pull out into the deep water. It's only natural for Simon Peter to protest: "Master, (notice he acknowledges Jesus as a learned one) we've been fishing hard all night and haven't caught even a minnow." Can't you just hear the tiredness, sense of defeat, such despair in Peter's voice? But this is Jesus after all and Simon proceeds to let out his nets into the deep water. Immediately the nets are full to straining with such a huge haul of fish that Peter has to call for help from his fishing buddies so the boats won't swamp. Realizing that Jesus is more than just Master, Simon falls to his knees. Simon realizes that he's in the company of his Lord. The other disciples, James and John are also in awe with fear and trembling. And as Jesus so often does, he calms them with his words: "Do not fear."

And it's at the end of this drama that we see the REAL MIRACLE: All three men leave their most successful catch behind. On the night of their most abundant fishing, they walk away. They choose to walk with Jesus.

Questions for us are, "Are we ready or willing to see Jesus when we're at our most tired or our most despairing? What is the cost of our discipleship? What are we willing to give up or leave behind in order to walk with Jesus when Jesus calls? What has been the miracle in your life with Jesus?"

Do This and You Shall Live

The two greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Read these two commandments upon which hang all the law and all the prophets in Matthew 22: 34-40.

Just as the lawyer tests Jesus about his orthodoxy, so Jesus tests us about our commitment to being a part of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Using Eugene Peterson's paraphrase from "The Message," Jesus is telling us to love God and love others with all our passion, our prayer and our intelligence. Or as Presbyterian Teaching Elders, Ruling Elders, and Deacons vow in their ordinations, we shall serve Jesus with all our energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

No small feat - all this unconditional loving. And the phrase Jesus uses, "You shall" leaves no wiggle room - no room for for maybe, might, or "it's all just suggestions." The force and power behind these two commandments presses down on us with the impossibility of it all. Yet God loves us so much that God would send His only Son into the world that we might have eternal life - life both in the here-and-now kingdom of heaven, but also life forever with God.

What can God do with our love if we live by these two commandments? Love in action is a risk - a stepping out in faith. But oh.....the rewards. Psalm 90 paints a picture of what this life looks like: God, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands— O prosper the work of our hands!

Thanks be to God for God's steadfast love that we might endeavor to share with the world.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Show Me the Money!

This week, the Topeka City Council voted to remove the ordinance banning domestic violence. This was the latest move in a game of politics between the city and the county, a game of chicken back and forth with the pawns being victims of domestic violence – and it’s all over money.

The Gospel reading this week also speaks to money: Matthew 22:15-22, read with 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 in mind.

Money and politics not only dominate the headlines – they also seem to affect and dominate every move we make. As Christians, are we expected to behave differently? Are we expected to simply fall in line? Is that what "give to Caesar’s what is Caesar’s" means?

Jesus turns the political question that the Pharisees ask him into a theological challenge. The secret lies in the actual coin of the denarius. On it was not “In God We Trust”; rather, there was an inscription that asserted that the Caesar was divine – that Caesar was equal to God. The coin was literally a false idol that the Pharisees themselves were carrying around, essentially breaking the first and second commandments!

Contrast them to the Thessalonians – whose lives were proclaiming the Gospel, the Good News, the Message so loudly that people were talking about it. Their lives had turned away from dead idols – turned away from worshiping money and politics to worshiping Jesus Christ. They didn’t just mouth the words, but with their whole hearts, minds, and souls.

Jesus tells us to give the false idol what belongs to the false idol, and give to God what belongs to God – the same God who is the Creator of the universe, the Redeemer of our lives, and the Sustainer of our every breath.

The same God is God of the city and the county, money and politics, abusers and victims. All belongs to God – so how can we work to protect the weak, the oppressed, the suffering, so that everyone will know just whose we are? How can we bring the kingdom of heaven to the here and now, just like the Thessalonians?

Love, 

Pastor Kate

The Royal Banquet

Did you read the story about the young men beat up in their church parking lot…by church members? They didn’t even get through the front door before they were accosted, verbally and physically, by deacons – those charged to care for God’s children.

What sort of church is this? A church where the pastor yells “sic ‘em” and instructs deacons to beat young men up?

Does it change your view of the story if I tell you that one of the young men was the pastor’s son? Does it change your view of the story if I tell you that the young men were a couple? You can read more about this story here.

What a heartbreaking world we live in. Read Philippians 4:1-9 and Matthew 22:1-14.

Sometimes the kingdom of heaven here and now seems…not here and not now. It seems so far out of reach that there is nothing we could do. Paul commands us, as followers of Christ, to “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” None of those words describe the behavior of this pastor and his church leaders.

Matthew writes the kingdom of heaven is like a fabulous wedding party, filled with unexpected guests. Those who were supposed to show up didn’t, so the least of these, the ones not worthy enough to grace the original guest list, get all the honors and food and drink and good times at this wedding party. What an odd wedding party.

So who is at the table in the kingdom of heaven here and now? Who has RSVPed YES! to our King of Kings who calls us again and again to come to the party?

Jerry Pittman Jr. has been invited. So have many others who have been victimized, bullied, oppressed, exploited, pushed aside, and rejected. Those who have been broken down, homeless, friendless, and excluded. We know this from the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ.

But the surprising part is that the invitation is also extended to Pastor Jerry Pittman Sr. The invitation has also been extended to the deacons and the bystanders of the congregation. And to Fred Phelps and to Rick Perry. We know this from the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. For if any of those people are beyond redemption, beyond the reach of God’s love – then so are you and me. We are offered wedding robes of grace and redemption, which mean we cannot remain the same in the kingdom of heaven as we are in the kingdom of earth.

The kingdom of heaven here and now is filled with surprising guests – all here by special invitation by our King. Our king – who is unlike earthly kings – will not reject someone for lack of special clothes, or burn down cities when the king is rejected. And thanks be to God for the gracious gift of the invitation, the inclusion, and the redemption.

Love, 

Pastor Kate

The Kingdom of Heaven: Here and Now in the Vineyard with Jesus

We continue our sermon series on "The Kingdom of Heaven: Here and Now" with Matthew's parable, often referred to as the Parable of the Wicked Tenants: Matthew 21: 33-46. A supporting scripture is Isaiah 5: 1-7.

The kingdom of heaven here and now can be envisioned as a vineyard, created by God on a fertile hill and planted with choice vines. This is a kingdom vision which should yield the best grapes. But if we look around us, we see a wasteland of briers and thorns, where bloodshed dominates rather than the justice and righteousness we hope for in God's kingdom.

If we are tenants given responsibility for harvesting the vineyard/kingdom to feed the hungry, what fruits of peace and justice for all are we producing? The question from Heifer International is: If there is enough for everyone, why doesn't everyone have enough? How can we co-create with God a kingdom of shalom and wellbeing so that the kingdom of heaven becomes more and more visible?

An answer to these questions centers on Jesus Christ in Matthew 21: 42 - "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes." Through Jesus Christ we bridge the gap between the chaos/violence/oppression/lack of peace all around us and the vision of the kingdom that is realized bit by bit in faithful discipling. On this World Communion Sunday, we Christ followers recognize and celebrate that we are a part of the greater Body of Christ for whom the Easter story of this parable is our very good news. In receiving Christ's body and blood in the sacrament of communion, let us re-commit ourselves - each to our own passion about making a difference in the world as we build on the foundation Jesus has laid for us.

Yes Means Yes. No Means No.

Authority is often considered a dirty word in our vocabulary - something to be resented or ignored. "How dare she tell me what to do! Who does she think she is, anyway?" Unless it's our own personal authority or an authority that protects us or gives us our rights, we tend to react against or subtly go around any authority we don't like.

With this thought in mind, consider Christ's authority in your life as you read Matthew 21: 23-32 and Philippians 2: 1-13.

Does Jesus' authority come from God? Is it so central to your life that you listen, love, and obey? Do you ache to be more Christ-like in all you think, say, and do?

Jesus' parable of the two sons - one who says "Heck no, I won't go" to his father and then changes his mind and heads out to the vineyard and one who says dutifully but hypocritically "Yes, I'll go work as you ask, Father" and then doesn't - puts us in the catbird seat to look at our own behavior. Are we defensive and reactive and resentful when told what to do? What can change our minds after our initial negative reaction?

Or do we work the system with the "right and appropriate" words so that we appear obedient and faithful on the surface? Do we show up for worship to get credit for our presence and then ignore Jesus' call to go forth and serve and care for others for the rest of the week?

As Paul says about following Christ in Philippians: Live in responsive obedience. Redouble your efforts. Be energetic, reverent, and sensitive. (abbreviation of Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Philippians 2 in The Message). Live your lives with oneness so that your yes really means yes. Live so that your actions are in accord with your words. In this integrity of your being, you are aligned with Christ that God might transform you from within.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

It's About the Owner, Not the Laborers

I’ve been learning a lot about gardening lately, living in a home with a yard for the first time in my adult life. I’m learning the difference between trees and bushes, weeds and things you actually want there. I’m learning that it is hard work to sweat out in the sun to try and tend to all the living plants out there!

Our Scriptures for this week come from Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 and Matthew 20:1-16.

It’s with this new outlook that I read the Matthew story – I bet that vineyard work wasn’t very easy on the backs of the laborers. This isn’t a cushy office job, but a hard, sweaty, messy, exhausting job. And it’s a job for a LOT of people. It makes me wonder just how big this vineyard is! And then they get paid, whether they sweated for one hour or all day, the same amount. Immediately we want to say along with the first workers “But that’s not fair! That’s not what we deserve!”

One of the most frustrating aspects of my yard is the weeds. It’s been a jungle out there, with no one tending to it for several years. No matter how many times I cut them down or pull them from the flowerbeds, they keep appearing. They don’t work according to my plan. And fortunately for all of us, neither does God’s grace.

I figure this passage is not really about the laborers, but the employers. It’s not about how long someone works, or any other of their merits. It’s about the employers – willing to call anyone for this job, willing to pay them enough. It’s about God, a God whose grace is bigger than our narrow systems of fairness. It’s about our God whose grace is like weeds, growing wherever God intends, not me, appearing in unexpected places and showing me just how small and how feeble my plan really is.

We don’t get what we deserve. And that’s a good thing. The radical gift of free grace, a gift that makes us shout at its unfairness, is offered by God to all. And thanks be to God for that!

Love,
Pastor Kate

Dare to Remember. Dare to Forgive.

This Sunday we at Trinity, as well as people of diverse faiths, will gather to worship - many of us within the context of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We will remember where we were and what we were doing on the morning of 9/11 and what we did afterward. We'll remember how this tragedy touched our lives and how our world has changed since then. These are powerful memories and reflections.

Our lectionary scriptures speak a powerful word to us: Matthew 18: 21-35 and Genesis 50: 15-21.

Among our myriad of mixed feelings about 9/11, the theme of forgiveness has tortured many through these last 10 years. In our gospel, Jesus commands the demanding work of forgiving others 70 x 7 times - in Jesus' day this represents no end to the process of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a repeated theme throughout Jesus' ministry. Here, it's especially harsh when a wicked steward, who having just been forgiven a huge debt, chooses not to forgive a fellow slave who owes him a debt. The king then hands the wicked steward over to torture. The parable ends with Jesus' promise: "So my heavenly Father will also do to everyone of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart" (Mt 18: 35). For those who respond to 9/11 or other acts of violence or betrayal with a desire for vengeance, I find that revenge is rarely sweet nor healing. Jesus shows us a path toward healing and wholeness through forgiveness.

Most compelling to me is the reminder in our daily praying the Lord's Prayer when we plead with God to forgive us our sins/debts/trespasses as we forgive the sins/debts/trespasses of others - as if the measure of our forgiveness by God rests upon our choice to forgive others. However, Jesus reminds us that we've already been forgiven and that he, as the Son of God will be with us always, to the end of the age. Through this I realize that my response of forgiveness is a response of gratitude for the unlimited grace and mercy I've already received from God. How can I but forgive - especially as Jesus promises to walk with me through this hard work of forgiving?

In Genesis 50, when Joseph promised his brothers who had attempted to have him killed, that they had nothing to fear (Fear Not!) because God intends to bring good out of what had been intended for evil. Shalom is God's intent for all of life. How do we bring ourselves to trust in God's power to heal? Forgiveness 70x7 times is a good set of first steps.

Ten years after 9/11 as we dare to remember and dare to forgive, how can we re-commit ourselves to peace and justice? How do we create a new future out of memories, forgiveness, and coming together? Our answer lies in our commitment to God's kingdom here on earth in which our ultimate loyalty is to God's vision - God's steadfastly loving nature - God's right to judgment.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Shelley

The Labor of Living with Sinners

Jesus is at his most challenging in Matthew 18: 15-20. It would be easier if we read his Rule as a "how-to" step-by-step procedure for dealing with sinners within our community. But it's so much more than this. It's a mandate for restoring relationships with the community that we call the Body of Christ. To make our way carefully through this demanding, difficult process for confronting and addressing conflict, we first are challenged to understand Jesus' terminology and his context:

• "Member of the church" (verse 15) means that the sinner is part of our family.
• How to define "sin"? I like Rev. Richard Aguilar's broadening of sin as missing the mark: "misguided beliefs and misdirected behavior. A miss in life! Miss the boat. Miss the bus. Miss the Appointment. Miss the ball. Miss the shot. Misunderstand. Miscommunicate." ("Day One," 8/31/11).
• To confront someone as an act of discipline is not to punish a family member, but to restore that person back into the family. Discipline, correctly used, has the same root as disciple. So discipline is most productively used to teach and restore to truth with wisdom and love.
• "Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" is a phrase that has been traditionally used to cast out a sinner who rejects repentance and turning away from sin. However Jesus ate with Gentiles and tax collectors. Jesus says that those we consider last will be first in the kingdom. I believe Jesus admonishes us to try, try again to restore that one who has broken relationship back into relationship - much more demanding of our patience and perseverance, as we're reminded in the immediately following verses to forgive 77 times.
• Jesus once again uses the phrase "binding and loosing" - our authority as a community to heal and reconcile.
• And Jesus concludes with the promise of his presence "when two or three are gathered in my name." This is a powerful promise that Jesus will be with us in the midst of conflict and will be an agent of reconciliation when we include him in the process. Gathered in Jesus' name means we meet face to face, talk candidly, and listen with love because Jesus' honor and worth are involved when we invoke his name.

So what difference does it make whether we go to the trouble of reconciling ourselves with those who have offended us or have caused great pain within the community we call our church? The church is distinct from other organizations to which we belong primarily because we gather in Christ's name. Because we are together in Christ, we can expect our church to be a place of healing and a place of grace. While it is God's grace that we seek, it is our labors of love on this Labor Day weekend that facilitate the possibilities of God's grace (freely given) to weave reconciliation throughout the Body of Christ.

Why would anyone want to be a Christ-follower?

Immediately after being blessed by Jesus as the rock upon which Jesus will build his church, Simon Peter is scolded/rebuked by Jesus - "Get behind me, Satan!" Wow- what a reversal!

How and why has Peter stumbled? Read Matthew 16: 21-28. The question to us is, "How do we identify with disciple Peter with our own stumbling blocks?"

Do we struggle with pride, busy-ness, a consuming desire for financial security, the need to achieve to prove ourselves, laziness or apathy, addictions to alcohol or the internet or sex or drugs, fear of the unknown, an egotistical thirst for power or strength, fear of being vulnerable to others, a desire to avoid all suffering......the list of stumbling blocks is endless.

Jesus challenges us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus. Many interpret this as a burdensome call to martyrdom and masochism. But Jesus' way is a way of love and joy. He calls us to turn outward TOWARD the world, looking for our passions in the ways we can serve others. These stumbling blocks work as barriers, not only separating us from Jesus, but also separating us from the abundant life that accompanies those who work toward the kingdom of God being realized bit by bit here on earth. To partner with Jesus is to claim a vision of hope in the final victory which Jesus has already won. We don't have to repeat the crucifixion. We're called to trust in the resurrection.

May God give you countless opportunities to recognize the faith-filled way to love and truth in which you serve others when you counter hunger, homelessness, and hopelessness in the place you are today.

True Confessions

Who do people say that Jesus is? Who do YOU say that Jesus is? Jesus confronts us with these 2 questions in Matthew 16: 13-20. If pressed to speak other people's understandings of Jesus, do you think they might see Jesus akin to modern prophets such as Martin Luther King or Gandhi? More importantly, if you have to confess who Jesus is, would you speak from your perspective as man/woman; teacher/student; father/mother/grandparent/child; employer/employee/retiree; person of faith/person of little faith?

In our Matthew scripture, Peter moves beyond rational, intellectual, academic understandings to confess Jesus as Messiah, Son of the living God. Jesus blesses Peter as having received this revelation from God. Peter confesses who Jesus is out of his love for Jesus and his experience as a disciple walking alongside or behind Jesus.

As summer rhythms give way to fall routines, we too are challenged to answer this question as the touchstone for our faith - whether it's a strong faith or a faltering faith. When we are able to speak about Jesus and who he is in our lives, we speak genuinely and uniquely out of our experience. How we think about Jesus shapes who we are and how we make daily and more life important decisions. Rather than let others speak for us, we are invited to take responsibility for what we believe and what we value.

So...who do YOU say Jesus is?

The Response

You might have heard or read in the news about the Texas prayer rally hosted by Governor Rick Perry, held in Houston over the weekend, that attracted 22,000 people to pray for our nation and for all those “who had lost hope.” Our own Governor Brownback attended this rally, called “The Response,” and he quoted the Beatitudes to the people gathered there. An estimated 80,000 other people joined the rally via live-streaming on the Internet.

Read the Scripture from Psalm 133 and Matthew 15:21-28.

Now, you might be thinking, what an awesome display of Christian faith – all gathering together to pray! But the underreported story is that of the bigger event just a couple miles down the street at the Houston Convention Center, where 100,000 people gathered: “Some families camped out for hours to gain admittance into Houston’s first-ever, citywide back-to-school event at George R. Brown Convention Center, where free backpacks, school supplies, uniforms, haircut vouchers, immunizations, and fresh produce were provided.” (Read more here.)

Just miles between the two groups: one group proudly proclaiming their faith, as outside, thousands of people gathered to get basic needs for their family. Where do you think the church should be? With what group would Jesus be hanging out? There’s definitely a boundary in between the two.

With the Scripture today, we also have two groups: the Jewish men and the Canaanite woman. The Canaanite woman would probably be lining up at the Convention Center for basic needs. She was a triple outsider to the Jewish men because of her sex, ethnicity, and religious-cultural background. She wasn’t like them. She was different. And she crosses all those boundaries because of her faith and her love for her daughter. She doesn’t care about the social norms because she is in need of mercy. I imagine thousands of those getting school supplies and food in Houston were the same type of parents – willing to humble themselves by admitting their need in order to care for their children.

Does Jesus immediately reach out, offer healing, admire her boldness and her faith, heal her daughter, show her the mercy that she pleads for? She cries out as Peter did last week – “Lord, help me!” Jesus first ignores her. Then he calls her a dog. And then he praises her faith and declares her daughter freed from the demon.

Have you ever been called a dog? Have you ever, through your actions or thoughts, dehumanized someone and metaphorically called them a dog? Have you ever excluded someone from God’s love or God’s church? Have you ever been excluded?

As Psalm 133 exclaims, “How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!” Let’s unify thoughts and actions, prayer rallys and meeting people's real physical needs today. Let’s reach out to our sisters and brothers, no matter what social, racial, political, or socioeconomic boundaries we have to cross.

HELP!

When was the last time you asked for help? Was it for someone to mow your lawn? To pick up a book you dropped? Was it to watch your children? Or maybe you are someone’s “helper” – are you the one people go to for help? Do you ever get to ask for help yourself?

Our Scriptures this week come from Romans 10:5-15 and Matthew 14:22-33.

The Gospel is a story many people are familiar with – Jesus walking on water. A more surprising story title might be “Peter Walking on Water.” We know that Jesus is miraculous, the Son of God, the One who makes the impossible possible. But Peter? Peter denies Jesus. Peter doesn’t “get it”, time and time again. Peter makes mistakes, just like you and me. And yet Peter walks on water. Surely that is actually the miracle, that is actually the surprising and exciting part of the story!

Peter was probably feeling pretty good about himself – he escaped the terrifying boat and was doing what Jesus told him to. And then he started to slip. We’ve all been there before – tottering on a high ropes course, on the edge of getting our dream job, having a really good date, the cancer leaving. And then it just all goes wrong. We start to sink.

What do you do then? Do you cry out to Jesus for help? Do you call your mom or your son or your teacher or your pastor? Do you fake it, that everything is okay?

If you cry out, is there someone there to catch you? Is there someone there to hear your cry? Is there someone there to build you back up, to bring you back to the top of the water, to offer you salvation?

I invite you to rest in these questions the rest of this week. Do you think Trinity is a place to find salvation, help, the presence of Jesus, people to lift you back up? Do you think Trinity can be that place? How can we do better? What do we need to change?

Hope certainly lives in my heart – that salvation is near, that we can help each other, that we can respond to the call of Jesus in our lives.

Manna Alert

Next week, 11 of us from Trinity and 4 folk from First Presbyterian, Wichita will travel to San Salvador and 3 villages in El Salvador. Trinity has been in relationship with the village of Los Talpetates for 20+ years. So, even though many of our missionaries have never traveled with us to El Salvador, we return to sisters and brothers who know us well. Trinity has fostered a mutual mission relationship by sponsoring some of our El Salvador friends to travel to KS most years of this relationship.

While we are in El Salvador, we'll center our nightly debriefings on Matthew 14: 13-21 - the story in which Jesus feeds 5,000 people after teaching them all day out in the wilderness.

This is clearly a story of hospitality. While in El Salvador, we will experience generous and gracious hospitality Central American style. Our friends understand hospitality as an outpouring of all their resources upon us, overcoming language barriers with their warmth and love, and securing our safety wherever we go. I've experienced my former trips to El Salvador as a case of materially poor people with rich hearts lavishing themselves on us Americans who are materially full of abundance.

Jesus feeding the 5,000 is also a miracle story. But how do we define the miracle?

Is it a miracle in which Jesus opens people's hearts so that they share their meager bits of food with each other? Are the people so transformed by listening to Jesus that they are empowered to move beyond their own hunger to share generously? In the face of what looks like scarcity, Jesus may be the source of abundance by working through the people.

Or - perhaps it's a physical miracle in which Jesus is the source of physically multiplying what is already present as the disciples serve the people fish and bread and still have baskets of food left over.

As always, Jesus stretches our imaginations, our faith, and our responses to him. I anticipate that our mission trip will be a time of stretching for all of us in various ways. We look forward to sharing our stories with our family of faith in worship on July 31st.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Men in Ministry Sunday

This Sunday, July 24th, is Men in Ministry Sunday at Trinity. To prepare for worship led by Anton Ahrens, Jon Farrell Higgins, Greg Lee, and David Ross, read Romans 8:26-39.

Where do we find confidence to trust in God's authority and sovereignty and power so that we can believe that nothing will separate us from God's love in Christ. Perhaps we're the ones doing the separating - turning our backs on God. Perhaps we're challenged to look at our sense of independence, or our self importance, or our extensive ability to worry, or to stay so busy that we don't pay much attention to God's presence.

How can we stay connected to God so that we can believe in the promise that nothing will separate us from Christ's love? How we stay connected in our families - our personal families; our work or school families; our families of faith - may be one path of connection. Getting outside ourselves so that we actively connect by serving others is another path of connectedness.

Let us give thanks that God, in choosing us, awaits our attentiveness, holding the door open - a door that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can close in our face.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Casey Anthony, Harry Potter, and the Mixed Field

For those who had been following the Casey Anthony trial, the verdict seemed completely unexpected last week. How could she have been found not guilty? Facebook and Twitter were filled with people crying out about how wrong the jury was, how evil Casey is, and how justice did not prevail for the little girl who died.

Read this week the parable of the wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43), complimented by the story of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:10-19a).

Where is God in the face of perceived injustices? Where was justice, righteousness, or the truth? It seems as though no one will ever really know what happened with Caylee and the circumstances surrounding her death. Ms. Anthony will be released tomorrow, although where she will live or what she will do now is a mystery.

In the parable of the wheat and the weeds, we like to think that it is obvious that we are the wheat, and people like Casey Anthony or O.J. Simpson or Fred Phelps or Lord Voldemort are the weeds that have been planted in our lives by the evil enemy. We are in the right, and they are in the wrong, so why doesn’t God just pull up those weeds right now? Why doesn’t God let Her justice reign down right now? How can a good God let these things happen? Does God care about what goes on “down here”?

What we read and hear in the Genesis story is that in the most unexpected times and at the most unexpected places, surely the presence of the Lord is here. Here. Not over there, up there, or down below. Right here, right now, the presence of the Lord is here, wherever we go, wherever we are. And what that says, in the midst of our field/world of wheat and weeds, is that God does care. God is the great farmer, wiser than our impulsive and judgmental selves, taking care not to harm the wheat in order to rip out the weeds now. God knows that evil, as real as it is in our world today, is only temporary.

(image courtesy of fanpop.com)

The last Harry Potter movie ended on a note that felt like good would never triumph, that evil has all the real power, and that love was going to be defeated by hate. This Friday, when the last chapter of the Harry Potter series is released, the world will discover the true and final ending. And we as the church have our real ending as well. The real ending is the resurrection, not the crucifixion. The real ending is the promise we find in Christ – that He came, that He is in this place today, and that He will come again. Alleluia, and amen.

The Sower

This week's readings are Isaiah 55: 1, 10-13 and Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23.

Much as we'd like to examine the four soils in Jesus' parable in Matthew 13 for our receptivity and readiness to the gospel, it really isn't about us. Much as we'd like to bring our rational marketing research and preparation to how and where we share our faith with the soil of other souls, it really isn't us who do the sowing. This parable is about God. In this story Jesus speaks of a sower (God) who throws seeds out with reckless abandon - carelessly on a hardened path, wastefully on rocky ground, and haphazardly on thorny ground. This extravagantly generous God of ours also sows seeds on good soil, where the harvest is beyond imagining - and beyond any rational reckoning of a reasonably good harvest! What's with this God of ours?

God is equally extravagant and mysterious in Isaiah 55: 1: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." In today's economy we know this doesn't make much sense.

But our sovereign God, whose harvest is hundredfold, reminds us in Isaiah 55: 10-11: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

If we are able to trust that God is busy bringing in the kingdom, how do we engage in sharing our faith and our resources alongside Jesus?

We pay attention to opportunities without the need to scrutinize or anticipate every detail. We remember that God's kingdom is everywhere about us. We are as extravagant in sharing as God is in sowing.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Celebrating Wholeness as We're Yoked with Jesus

"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:15). Does the Apostle Paul speak for you here? Do you weary of a world full of complications/contradictions/compulsions that enslave you?

Read Romans 7: 15-25a and Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30.

Jesus too seems to despair of a world where children call us to dance and we don't respond - where children call us to wail and mourn and we don't hear. We react to John the Baptist as an extreme ascetic (who wants to eat locusts?) and people call Jesus a glutton who eats and drinks with sinners. We live in a world where confusion seems to reign - where the wise and the intelligent don't seem to see or hear God's wisdom and guidance. Yet the little ones (could that be us?) have the truth revealed to them through Jesus Christ.

We weary of the competing dualisms of the world: left vs right; conservative vs liberal; right vs wrong; moral vs immoral; and on and on. As we prepare to celebrate the founding of our country with patriotic celebrations and fireworks, let us remember that there have always been fireworks and fiery words in the face of conflicting dualisms. Christianity didn't spring fully formed out of the words and deeds of Jesus. Our country's founding documents didn't spring fully formed out of a unanimous consensus of our founding fathers. Today's free flow of combative speech is no different from the generations before us - although it appears to me to become increasingly uncivil.

Jesus invites us to take upon our weary backs his yoke which is easy and light. When we yoke ourselves to God's Word and to service in Christ's name, we'll continue to be challenged, but we will be yoked to our Master who will guide the way and provide the rest we need.

Hospitality for Disciples

Because I think Matthew 10: 40-42 (June 26 scripture) is confusing about who's talking & who's he talking to, I offer my adaptation of the NRSV translation: Jesus says, "Whoever welcomes you (disciples) welcomes me (Jesus), and whoever welcomes me (Jesus) welcomes the one who sent me (God). Whoever welcomes a prophet (someone who speaks God's truth) in the name of a prophet (Jesus) will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person (someone who walks with God) in the name of a righteous person (Jesus) will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones (disciples) in the name of a disciple (Jesus) - truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

After a long chapter (10) of describing the hardships of the discipling life, Jesus switches to the hospitality offered to disciples who go forth and share their faith. If we are the ones welcoming or receiving someone sharing their faith with us, how refreshing a simple cup of cold water will be in the desert tradition of hospitality. For those of us who can so easily turn a faucet for water, we mustn't take for granted the gift of cold water. For those of us who have pre-conceptions about what a visitor in Jesus' name might look like (ie. like us), we might want to be careful about those upon whom we turn our backs (the shabby, the homeless, the needy) & instead turn toward them & receive their witness - their stories.

For those of us who are being received, how wonderful it is to be received after a long day in the desert of life - a long day in the office or on the crowded highways. When we are thirsty, a cup of cold water is exactly what we need.

For all of the above, the reward offered is a place & a part to play in the kingdom of Gd.

June 19th Scripture and Reflection

If you were your class valedictorian, what would you write for your graduation speech? If you had only a few days to live, what would be the most important things you want to tell your loved ones?

Read Matthew 28: 16-20 and 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13.

In Matthew 28, appearing to his 11 disciples after his resurrection, Jesus has a few last words to say to them to propel them forward to life without him physically present. In 2 Corinthians, Paul offers his bits of wisdom as his farewell address to the contentious church in Corinth. With little time left, it's instructive to see what Jesus and Paul choose to say. They both focus on a good ending with their charge and benedictions as they send their people forth - as they "commission" them. They both essentially summarize what discipleship looks like.

Make disciples might be better phrased as "disciple others." Teach what Jesus has taught us. Put things in order. Live in peace with one another.

What does it mean to go forth without our teacher or mentor? Do we really know how to do whatever we've learned from our teachers? Are we paralyzed with our doubts?

Because some of the disciples in Matthew 28 doubt as they worship, it's helpful to note that Jesus knows his disciples haven't gotten everything figured out yet about how to disciple others. Because Paul leaves the Corinthian church still in disarray, he must count on God's grace to enable them to sort things out.

In spite of doubts and disarray, how are we too commanded to go forth? Let's remember that Jesus leaves us with the trinitarian reassurance and comfort that we are disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - and that Jesus will be with us to the end of the age.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

God's Wild, Wonderful Word is WOW for Pentecost

Acts 2: 1-21 is our Pentecost story. Open your Bible & read it. It's a story of wild rushing gale force wind; tongues of flames on the disciples' shoulders; worldwide languages spoken by Galilean peasants with no schooling in languages, but understood by all those visitors present in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks (50 days after Passover). And Peter interprets all these signs with a blockbuster sermon in which 3,000 come to believe. God will pour out God's Spirit on all people.

Sitting out on my back deck these last few weeks watching the strong winds whirl my tall mature trees reminds me of the strongest winds we've been experiencing: tornadoes & their especially destructive force in Reading, KS & Joplin, MO. Usually when we think of the Holy Spirit coming, we yearn for the peace, comfort, & healing presence that Jesus promises. I have a disconnect if I equate the Holy Spirit with tornadic winds or the devastation of forest fires, such as those currently in AZ.

Where do I see God in all this? I'm reminded that while God can certainly speak in the quiet of silence, perhaps it's appropriate to tremble when we say, "Come Holy Spirit, Come!" How might God challenge or push or pull us when the Spirit is strong enough to un-moor us from our comfortable & usual ways of doing things?

I look forward to hearing your stories of how you are called to prophesy or see visions or dream dreams.