The Healing Power of Touch

Disciple Simon told Jesus his mother in law was burning up with fever - a potentially dangerous condition in that time.  Jesus went to her, took her hand, and raised her up.  Next thing we know she is serving up the hospitality for which she is known.  Read Mark 1: 29-39 for this story of healing to wellbeing.

When was the last time someone "touched" you in some way and you experienced healing?  When was the last time you reached out to someone and she experienced a lessening of her pain, a dispelling of his fear, a decrease in her anxiety, or a sense of hope emerging out of darkness?  There are so many ways we are called to "touch" another and God uses our hands/feet/hearts/skills/caring to effect healing.  A touch on the shoulder to show we care.  A hug of comfort.  A massage of those tense shoulder muscles.  Our hands stirring nutritious chicken soup.  Our feet to serve at the soup kitchen.  Our minds to fight for justice for oppressed.  Our strength to build a home with Habitat.  Our lips to be a conversation partner at VIDA.  Our faith to plead with God in intercessory prayer.

Just as Jesus determines to heal, move on, and reach out to other villages, so we are called to move out of our places of comfort and confront the needs for healing all around us.  God uses our feeble efforts to do the impossible.  When we are weary or rationalize that we have no power for healing, prophet Isaiah reminds us (Isaiah 40: 21-31):  "Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  God does not faint or grow weary; God's understanding is unsearchable.  God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

It is our Lord's power and Christ's love that enables us to enflesh the healing - the wholeness and wellbeing - the shalom - that God intends for all humankind.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Are you ready for some football worship?! The Triniteens are proud to present the first ever Welch’s Grape Juice Worship Bowl, featuring some excellent play-by-play commentary on the game of worship, as well as rising stars and excellent coaches. What pushes us to victory? Scripture does –particularly 1 Timothy 4:12.

Paul writes to encourage Timothy to not let his youth get in the way of his ministry. In a world where we can tend to infantilize teenagers, in a world where no realistic, meaningful full-time employment is offered to teenagers, in a world where young people are made to stay inside a room for eight hours a day, in a world where teenagers are seen as objects to manipulate and to persuade, the church can be a breath of fresh air. The church can provide a place where youth can join as equal members before they can drive, vote, or drink. The church can provide a place where their voice is heard – where their voice is valued – where their time and talents can be put to the task of glorifying God. The church can provide a place where they can be told they are leaders of the church today, not leaders of some ambiguous future time.

Regardless of whether you currently have kids or grandkids in the youth group, you have a responsibility to the Triniteens. You are part of a church that made them a promise when many of them didn’t even know their own names. You promised that you would encourage and nurture them in their Christian walk. You promised that you would not discount their voices and their opinions because they are young. Paul goes beyond our typical roles for youth today; Paul, in fact, goes on to instruct young Timothy (and young people today) to “teach believers with their lives” – as the Message paraphrase reads - by their words, by their demeanor, by their love, by their faith, by their integrity. The youth are to be examples of faith and to lead us in our faith journeys. Of course, it comes full circle – for the youth develop their words, their demeanor, their love, their faith, their integrity by watching our words, our demeanor, our love, our faith, our integrity. They learn how to lead Christian lives from our Sunday School teachers, our pastors, parents, mentors. You have a part to play in that.

And our great Coach is calling you to come play your part on Sunday, by worshipping with Trinity as the youth lead us to victory in the Welch’s Worship Bowl.

Grace and peace, Pastor Kate

Come and See. Go and Tell.

Jonah is the perfect poster boy for trying to flee God and God's call.  Read Jonah 3: 1-10 to see just how persistent God can be.  After Jonah is dumped overboard from a ship and swallowed by a big fish and then vomited out of the fish through God's creative and saving grace, God comes to Jonah a second time:  "Get up and go to Ninevah to proclaim my message of repentance."  Finally convinced that he can't escape God's call, Jonah does the minimum preaching possible - only to attain maximum results!  Jonah is outraged.

How do we all try to dodge God's call sending us out into the world by diving into our busy calendars, locking ourselves into the demands of work and family, insisting that we have minimum time for service to others?  How do we rationalize that our meager efforts won't make much of a difference in bringing in the kingdom of God anyway?  How do we minimize God with such rationalizations?

In contrast Jesus shows up in Galilee proclaiming the good news (Mark 1: 14-20):  "the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news."  In contrast to Jonah's flight in the opposite direction, Simon, his brother Andrew, James, and his brother John, drop their nets - drop everything - to follow Jesus out into the world.  We might ask, "Did it really happen immediately?"  (Mark writes a fast paced gospel with his favorite being "immediately.")  "Or were they discouraged with their fishing careers and were ready for a new direction?"  "What happened to their families as they left town?"

Perhaps Jesus' presence was compelling enough that they not only followed, but they were changed in the course of following.  Being called to come and see - and then commissioned to go and tell - meant that the 4 new disciples were irrevocably changed forever.  Bowing down before Jesus in worship and then proclaiming by word or action what we believe about the presence of the kingdom in Jesus gives us a new identity.

Going and telling is an act of faithful followership.  It's scary and exciting and compelling and a game changer.  It's how we carry our worship out into the world.

Proclaiming the Word of God

When was the last time you heard something that made your ears tingle? Something that made your ears perk up? Was it someone calling your name, shouting the score of the latest bowl game, or whispering a funny joke?

Our Scripture this week comes from John 1:43-51 and 1 Samuel 3:1-11.

I wonder how Eli must have felt at the beginning of this passage, since he certainly wasn't hearing anything that made his ears tingle. Did he feel like a failure? He had failed as a parent - his sons (the leaders of Israel) were corrupt, using sacrifices for their own personal gain and exploiting women. He had failed as a priest - the word of God was rare, a complete communications shutdown between the people and God. Even his own body was failing him – he was pretty much blind, dependent on others to help him do his work and his mundane tasks. I imagine him crying out, “Lord, speak to me! Speak to me that I may speak! Lead me so I can lead! Teach me so I can teach! Use me, use even frail, broken, old me!” And he heard nothing in return.

It’s in the middle of this despair that he is called to care for a young boy, Samuel. In the middle of this hopelessness, he is called to care for the hope of a new life. In the middle of feeling like a failure, he is called to help a new young boy succeed. In the middle of the night, God calls by name, and calls Samuel to proclaim the Word of God.

Have you ever felt broken, like a failure, completely useless? Have you ever felt that nothing was going your way, that there was nothing left for you? The Good News is that it is not the end. The Good News, as we see in the Gospel reading as well, is that God uses us and knows us, despite our skepticism, despite our own feelings. The Good News is that we are all called to proclaim the Word of God, whether we are old or young or somewhere in between.

Samuel could not have responded and grown in his faith without Eli. Nathanael could not have known Jesus without the invitation of Philip. The kingdom of God calls for collaboration, the kingdom of God begins with an invitation, begins with an epiphany as God reaches into our hearts and begins a transformation.

It is never too late to embrace your call as a proclaimer of the Word of God. The Lord calls you by name – how will you respond? Are your ears open, ready to tingle?

Grace and peace, Pastor Kate

Sacraments as Acts of God's Power

Presbyterians refer to our two sacraments of baptism and communion (Eucharist; Lord's Supper) as visible marks of God's invisible grace.  I refer to both sacraments as holy mysteries infinite beyond my comprehension.  Experiencing them and growing into these mysteries will be a lifelong quest I embrace with passion.  By trying to explain them in only rational ways ends up underestimating God's power and the presence of the Holy Spirit operating through these sacraments.  They are symbols of both God's almighty transcendence and Christ's intimate nearness to us as we open ourselves to the Spirit at work in them.  Both sacraments offer us a human-divine encounter as we are sprinkled/dipped/or drowned in the waters of baptism and as we receive a taste of the promised kingdom in bread and grape juice/wine.  We use such ordinary things as water, font, table, chunks of bread, and a chalice of juice to open ourselves to God's grace at work in our daily lives.

In Acts 19: 1-7, author Luke says "If you've been baptized in John's baptism [of repentance], you're ready now for the real thing, for Jesus." (E Peterson, "The Message," Acts 19: 4b)  The real thing is the power of the Holy Spirit.  In Mark 1: 4-11, we read of Jesus' baptism as the new baptism available to us.  The waters of the Jordan River and the presence of John baptizing Jesus were real and visible.  But who of us in our baptism experience the skies split and torn open?  Who of us is dive-bombed by a dove (the presence of the Holy Spirit) in our baptisms?  Who of us hears God's voice thundering down, "You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life"?

When we are Christ followers baptized in Jesus' name, we can claim this same Holy Spirit and adoption as God's children into God's family.  We can claim God's grace and mercy.  We can regularly celebrate our union with Christ by sitting at table where he is the host.  But it's up to us to experience the power of the Holy Spirit with expectancy and openness to the regular God-sightings available if we but see and hear and look with our hearts.  While the power of the Holy Spirit can be thunderous and mighty and miraculous, this same power and presence can be quiet and profound - as Mother Teresa says:  "We can do no great things - only small things with great love."  To practice our faith as daily small things with great love is effected through the power of the Spirit at work in our lives.

May both sacraments remind you to respond to God with small acts of great love,
Pastor Shelley