Blessings in Abundance: Lift Your Hands in Praise

When was the last time that you completely and wholly gave praise to God? Was it when you finished that big project at work? When one of your family members married the love of their life? Did you receive the recent rain with great thanksgiving? Have you just been grateful for being allowed to breathe the crisp air in the mornings? Have you ever felt the urge to stop what you are doing, lift your hands to the sky and give a strong ‘Praise be to You, Giver of life’?

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-12 and Psalm 65.

What about the times in your life when things aren’t so joyous? Do you take time to admire your Creator as a dear friend suffers through stage four cancer? How do you feel as your best friend struggles to find a new job after being laid off after numerous years of hard work and dedication? How about your sister who isn’t able to become pregnant? When your teenage cousin is killed in a car accident because a driver was texting, do you still raise a prayer of happiness?

As we move about through our daily lives, we take advantage of all of the blessing that are freely given to us from our Writer of life. The overflowing gifts that are offered to us on a daily basis quickly add up as the weeks and months go by. The speed of time seems to accelerate at a faster pace every time we turn around. Our Redeemer doesn’t ask for thanks or praise, but it is well deserved. We wouldn’t have the ability to overcome the difficult circumstances that we are faced with if we didn’t have those around us to support and lift us up when needed. God is often called upon in a pleading manner when we are overwhelmed with our schedules and lists of ‘to-dos’. How can we change the way that we call upon our Lord as we are challenged throughout life? In what ways can we begin to give back or share our blessing in order to honor God more for the everyday miracles that we benefit from?

Grace and peace,

Melissa Ansberry

Stewardship Chair

Blessings in Abundance: Turning Blessings into Praise

What’s the last big transition you went through in life? A job change? Divorce? Birth of your child? Consolidating and moving to a smaller house? Your child’s wedding? Death of a loved one? At Trinity, we’re currently going through a pretty big transition time – Pastor Shelley has retired, and Pastor Alex has yet to start. We are living patiently and a little anxiously through a liminal space, continuing to journey on, wondering what is on the other side.

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-12 & Luke 17:11-19. 

Jesus encounters the lepers in Luke in a liminal space – the border of Samaria and Galilee. Jesus was on His way to somewhere else, until the lepers made themselves known. After their encounter with Jesus, the lepers then also start a journey to somewhere else, and, while on their way, they are healed of their isolating disease. The healing is freely given and freely received, and the lepers can be restored to their community. 

The healing story in Luke clearly mirrors our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The ten lepers did not earn their healing in any way. Out of His goodness and compassion and love for the lepers, Jesus makes them whole once more. Out of His sacrificial love and desire for reconciliation, Jesus went to the cross and was resurrected three days later, making us whole again and again. 

The healing and the saving power of Jesus Christ are freely given blessings from God, blessings in abundance. The question that both Luke and Paul present to the reader is how will you respond to these blessings? Are you the one leper, who comes back to praise Jesus, who turns his blessing of healing into praise? Are you cheerfully sharing your abundant blessings for every good work through Trinity? Or are you hedging your bets, waiting to see what’s on the other side, waiting to see if you really want to share your blessings, waiting for this liminal space to end? 

Jesus is with us at Trinity through this liminal space, on the border between pastors. Jesus continues to pour out blessings in abundance at Trinity, regardless of our hopes and fears during this time of transition. And God continues to challenge us to share all our blessings in abundance so we may share in every good work. How can you share your time, your gifts, and your money with Trinity so that we may glorify God, share Christ’s love, and make new disciples? Through our commitment and our giving, we may show the world the gratitude we feel for the blessings we have freely received. Through our commitment and our giving, we may continue our ministry to the least of these, even in the liminal spaces. 

Grace and peace, 
Pastor Kate

Mission Possible: On a Mission From God

Last week in worship we saw through a clever video that Trinity has a mission…if we choose to accept it. But what is that mission? Who gives us the mission – and are we part of the Impossible Missions Force like in the TV series and movies Mission: Impossible? They are constantly given impossible missions, but they always find a way to make them possible. If we at Trinity accept our mission, will it actually be possible?

Read Mark 10:17-31 and 2 Corinthians 1:1-2.

Much like in the classic Blues Brothers movie, we at Trinity are on a mission from God.  

Just like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, God has given us as Christ-followers a special mission. As we look at the Gospel message today, we might get the feeling that the mission is impossible.

A rich and faithful man approaches Jesus in a respectful way with a question that is on his heart. Because Jesus loves him, Jesus gives him a mission, a way that this rich man can be a participant in the kingdom of God. Jesus knows his obedient and faithful heart to the Jewish laws – so he asks the man to sell everything he has and give it to the poor.

While Christian tradition has always assumed that the man rejected the mission from Jesus, there is nothing in any of the Gospels to suggest that. We don't really know what his future looked like. All we know is the man went away sorrowful, grieving because he loved his possessions. Maybe he was sorrowful because he loved his possessions more than he loved God. Or maybe he was sorrowful because he knew that this was going to be a big change in the way he lived – no more nice dinners at the Rowhouse, no more KU basketball season tickets, no more shopping sprees in Kansas City. Maybe he was grieving his own self-centered way of living as he was taking the first step toward the kingdom of God.

We don’t know the end to the rich man’s story. But we hear in this Gospel a call to follow Jesus, a call to remove whatever blocks us from loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength – possessions, addictions, pop culture, our busy calendar. The Good News is that Jesus loves us enough to give us a mission. The Good News is that we can choose to accept that, and will be surrounded by sisters, brothers, and Jesus along that Way. How will you respond to God’s call to mission? What will the end of your story be? The Good News is that by the grace of God, we can take baby steps in the right direction, that we can trust in a God who makes the impossible possible, who turns little into much, who restores the sick to health, and who wants us to be partners in that mission. Thanks be to God!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

No Excuses

Who's ever returned to their hometown after a big success - big job title; success on American Idol; a star out on the ball field; academic honors; all kids graduated with Ph.Ds - and faced initial acclaim and curiosity?  And then received the cynicism of jealousy or the rumors of competition or the hurt of those left behind?  Andy Griffith, who just died this week, returned to Mt Airy, North Carolina (his hometown) after the success of the movie, "No Time for Sergeants."  At the parade in his honor there were few lining the sidewalks and little acknowledgement of hometown-boy-made-good.
This is what happens to Jesus in Mark 6: 1-6a when he returns to his hometown of Nazareth where his miracle healings and deeds of power preceded him.  So there was probably a big crowd in the synagogue when he rose to speak.  But whatever he said turned the worshipers against him.  Referring to himself as prophet suggests to me that he was speaking truth to power - something that gets most people in trouble.  However he challenged the congregation, they would not listen.  Jesus responds with wisdom:  "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kind, and in their own house." (Mk 6: 4)  Amazed at their unbelief, Jesus could do no deed of power.  So he shook the dust off his sandals and went onto other villages to teach.
In vivid contrast, Jesus then calls the twelve disciples and sends them out, two by two, to heal.  With instructions to travel lightly and with authority from Jesus, the disciples cast out demons and healed the sick (Mark 6: 6-13).  Jesus shares his wisdom and experience that they should shake the dust off their feet if they are unwelcomed and unheard.  Having quite the opposite experience from Jesus in Nazareth, they are successful!
This turn of events - side by side stories of failure and success - is unexpected.  Where do we turn for understanding?  To God, of course.  God can't be heard in those with hardened hearts and closed ears.  Some explain it as "familiarity breeds contempt."  To plunge a bit deeper I also think such familiarity may be Christians who think they have Jesus all figured out.  When Jesus' words run contrary to how we think about him, we hide our eyes and turn our backs.
Remember how Mark continuously portrays the disciples (go back to last week:  Mark 5: 21-43) as clueless and slow to understand.  The ONLY way they might claim the authority to cast out demons or heal the sick is for God to work through them.  In 2 Corinthians 12: 2-10, Paul reminds us of the power of God:  "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor 12: 9)  Like the disciples we might think of ourselves as clueless or unworthy or too busy.  But like the disciples, we must first trust and take risks of faith.  No excuses if we want God to work through us!

The Family You Choose

Who is in, and who is out? Who is included, and who is rejected? Our kids have learned at VBS this week that no matter who you are, no matter where you go, no matter what happens, you can trust God. This theme comes out in our Scriptures this week as well. 

Read 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 and Mark 3:20-35.

So who is in and who is out? In Mark’s Gospel reading, Jesus rejects his family and the scribes – his family, who has known him his whole life, and the scribes, who share with Jesus their devotion to God and God’s commandments. Those who should be closest to Jesus are shown to be the farthest away.

The scribes are fearmongering and spreading gossip in order to undermine the miracles and the teachings that Jesus is doing throughout the area. His family is coming to take him away because they think he has gone out of his mind! Rather than getting defensive over the slander, or sulking about his family’s behavior, Jesus uses this opportunity as a teaching moment and as a chance to redefine what a family is - that his family is defined less by blood and more by obedience to God's will.

At Trinity, we continually add people to ‘the family you choose.’ We have embraced many children this week as our sisters and brothers at VBS, thanks to the dedication and hard work of so many volunteers. Through the Miscellaniality talent show this Sunday night at First Baptist, we are recognizing that Baptists too are our sisters and brothers, part of the family of Christ! With the addition of the Little Explorers in our space, we expanded our family and our love to include the children, their families, and the staff at TDC. It may have seemed a little ‘out of our minds’ to build a new extension in the economic recession – it may have seemed a little ‘out of our minds’ to take on this debt in order for these children to flourish and the staff to continue their joy of teaching.

As Trinity continues to seek the will of God, who will we next include in our sisters and brothers – who else will join us as we seek to follow Jesus the Christ? Are you ready to seem ‘out of your mind’ – are you ready to take a risk in order to glorify God, make new disciples, and share Christ’s love? Who in your life can you include, who else is outside that we can bring inside?

Let’s get ready to be a little crazy for God and bring more into our great, big, worldwide, family.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

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