"Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river; Gather with the saints at the river; That flows by the throne of God." (Robert Lowry, 1864) Baptisms - a sacrament in the Presbyterian church - are times when the invisible grace of God is made visible through the holy symbols of water, laying on of hands, marking foreheads with the sign of the cross, and God's Word spoken in blessing those precious ones whom God names and claims for God's own.
So Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan by his cousin, John the Baptist, should be extra special, shouldn't it? As portrayed in Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22, Jesus appears on the banks of the river among the stream of people waiting for John's words of forgiveness: "I baptize you with water." Jesus' baptism seems unremarkable - no special ritual - in Luke's gospel account: "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized..." (v 21a). It's not until AFTER the baptism, when Jesus is praying that people's attention is drawn to Jesus. For the heavens are split open and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove. As if this weren't startling enough, there comes from the heavens a voice (think Charlton Heston): "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." (v 22b)
Jesus is affirmed, named, and claimed by God - and he hasn't even begun his public ministry yet! The transition from John the Baptist's ministry of repentance is coming to an end (a horrific end) and Jesus is preparing to launch his ministry. His leadership as preacher/teacher/healer/rabbi/Savior/Lord begins with God's affirmation of a special relationship with God's Son.
Is God well pleased with us because we love and serve and do pleasing things - or - does God love and affirm us who are baptized into God's family? With such affirmation, how do we respond to God? On this week prior to President Obama's inauguration and Martin Luther King Day, Trinity also prepares to ordain and install new leadership. While doves may or may not descend from the heavens, the words "With you I am well pleased" should ring in our Elders and Deacons ears. May the Holy Spirit rest on their shoulders as they too prepare for the more public nature of their call to leadership and a ministry of presence.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Lights, Camera, Action: God as Screenwriter
What exactly do you know about the wise men from the Bible? How many of them paid homage to the Christ child? Were the wise men or kings or astrologers or scholars? Where did they come from? What were their names?
Did you find how many wise men were there? No? Did you know
that early Christians believed there were twelve wise men, traveling in a giant
caravan, with servants and supplies and all the trappings? Can you imagine
adding that to a Christmas nativity?
God as screenwriter seemingly leaves us wanting for the
details of this story – how did Herod call all the religious leaders together
so quickly? Wasn’t there animosity between them and King Herod? Where exactly
is the “East?” Whatever happened to the wise men as they traveled home? Sometimes
we feel that way about our own lives – why didn’t God stop this from happening?
Why won’t God let us in on the future plan? What details has God seemingly left
out of your story?
But when we stop worrying about what has been left out and
start looking at what is there, a whole new story opens up. A way to Jesus
appeared for a group of people who weren’t Jews, who weren’t part of the ‘in crowd.’
God sent signs for those not even expecting a Messiah, while the king of the
Jews Herod hadn’t the slightest clue. By sending the exotic foreigners to worship the Christ child, it is a signal that all are welcome into God's kingdom, that salvation through the Messiah is not limited to the Jewish people.
God acts again and again in our lives. God puts a star in
the sky, a light in our lives to show us the way, so that we can offer ourselves
to Christ. God offers us epiphanies – revelations – of God’s presence in our
lives over and over again. Are you paying attention like the wise men, looking
for direction? Are you responding to the God-actions in your life, the
God-nudges? For when God acts, God expects us to respond. And what a joyful
response we can offer, because our God loves us enough to continue writing our
story and calling “Lights, Camera, Action!”
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate
Friday, December 28, 2012
Amber Alert - Jesus Goes Missing
Isn't it every parent's worst nightmare? A child has gone missing and minutes feel like hours in the frantic search for the beloved child. And what do we do when our child rounds the corner of the backyard fence or peeks out between the clothes in the store, just as we're getting ready to call the police? Don't we hug first and then scold and discipline? We react out of love and fear, all commingled together.
When 12 year old Jesus stays behind in the Temple with the learned scholars after the Passover Festival in Jerusalem, it takes Mary and Joseph 3 days to miss him and begin their fearful search. And what do they do they find Jesus? Mary scolds him as if he were a child, missing the fact that her 12 year old Jewish son, ready for his bar mitzvah, has been about his Father's (capital "F" here) business. Luke 2: 41-52 is a heart wrenching, singular story of Jesus the boy maturing into a man.
And the literal search is not the most important part of the story. Mary and Joseph as parents are not the most important part either, even as our hearts ache with either memories or fears of such a nightmare. This is not a how-to-parent story, but a coming-of-age story as the hero Jesus begins his first step to his maturing into ministry.
If Jesus is maturing and growing into his intended ministry, how are we keeping up? How will 2013 be a time of deepening our faith? Will we grow closer to Jesus as we commit ourselves ever more deeply in relationship to other members of our family of faith? Will we follow Jesus' teaching and preaching ministries as we serve others beyond our immediate community of faith? Both challenges are intertwined as we set our faces toward 2013. As we go forth from worship on Sundays, how do we engage with each other during the week? Significant Relational Groups (SRGs) are excellent opportunities to practice our spiritual humanness together as we share passions, loves, interests. Serving in mission to those who have been left behind provide excellent opportunities to see Jesus in the "other." Topeka JUMP is a new opportunity to give voice to our concerns for social justice just as Jesus commands us to love and serve.
I wonder about God's worst nightmare as he sent his only Son, vulnerable to the ways of the world, to us to show us what God is like? Is God hunting for us, searching the highways and byways for our commitments to the kingdom? Does God grieve and groan as we go missing?
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley
When 12 year old Jesus stays behind in the Temple with the learned scholars after the Passover Festival in Jerusalem, it takes Mary and Joseph 3 days to miss him and begin their fearful search. And what do they do they find Jesus? Mary scolds him as if he were a child, missing the fact that her 12 year old Jewish son, ready for his bar mitzvah, has been about his Father's (capital "F" here) business. Luke 2: 41-52 is a heart wrenching, singular story of Jesus the boy maturing into a man.
And the literal search is not the most important part of the story. Mary and Joseph as parents are not the most important part either, even as our hearts ache with either memories or fears of such a nightmare. This is not a how-to-parent story, but a coming-of-age story as the hero Jesus begins his first step to his maturing into ministry.
If Jesus is maturing and growing into his intended ministry, how are we keeping up? How will 2013 be a time of deepening our faith? Will we grow closer to Jesus as we commit ourselves ever more deeply in relationship to other members of our family of faith? Will we follow Jesus' teaching and preaching ministries as we serve others beyond our immediate community of faith? Both challenges are intertwined as we set our faces toward 2013. As we go forth from worship on Sundays, how do we engage with each other during the week? Significant Relational Groups (SRGs) are excellent opportunities to practice our spiritual humanness together as we share passions, loves, interests. Serving in mission to those who have been left behind provide excellent opportunities to see Jesus in the "other." Topeka JUMP is a new opportunity to give voice to our concerns for social justice just as Jesus commands us to love and serve.
I wonder about God's worst nightmare as he sent his only Son, vulnerable to the ways of the world, to us to show us what God is like? Is God hunting for us, searching the highways and byways for our commitments to the kingdom? Does God grieve and groan as we go missing?
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Prepare Your Spirit
When you hear ‘spirit’ during the Advent season, what do you immediately think of? The spirits of Christmas past, present, and future? The Christmas spirit? Making spirits bright? What kind of spirits you put in your eggnog? Or maybe even the Holy Spirit and how it is moving, breathing, pushing, pulling in your life and the life of Trinity right now?
Many Christians think of Advent as a time to slow down – to catch our breath - that as the world gets busier and busier, we intentionally take time to still our hearts and prepare the way for the Lord once more. But as we prepare our spirits for the coming of the Christ child, it’s less of a “find your centering place” and more of a “Buckle your seatbelts – it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Mary’s encounter with her cousin Elizabeth takes center stage in our Scripture this week. Read Micah 5:2-5a and Luke 1:39-55.
The Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth, and the preacher’s wife became the prophet. The marginalized young unwed mother-to-be sang a revolutionary song, about God turning the world upside down, about a God of grace and mercy, about a good God who keeps promises. As Mary and Elizabeth’s spirits went on a rollercoaster ride between joy and worry and exultation and anxiety and fear that no one would believe them, they found solace and assurance in their relationship. They found that the Spirit came when they were together, those two women who carried the messenger and the Message. They found that it was easier to prepare their spirits for the coming uncertain days if they had community and connection.
So too is my wish for all of us at Trinity – that we can truly prepare the way of the Lord through community and connection, that our spirits are complete only when we are together, that we find joy and assurance in how the Holy Spirit moves in our own spirits. The Christ child comes again at Christmas to fully be in relationship with all of humanity – so prepare your Spirit as we start to live His story again. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate
Many Christians think of Advent as a time to slow down – to catch our breath - that as the world gets busier and busier, we intentionally take time to still our hearts and prepare the way for the Lord once more. But as we prepare our spirits for the coming of the Christ child, it’s less of a “find your centering place” and more of a “Buckle your seatbelts – it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Mary’s encounter with her cousin Elizabeth takes center stage in our Scripture this week. Read Micah 5:2-5a and Luke 1:39-55.
The Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth, and the preacher’s wife became the prophet. The marginalized young unwed mother-to-be sang a revolutionary song, about God turning the world upside down, about a God of grace and mercy, about a good God who keeps promises. As Mary and Elizabeth’s spirits went on a rollercoaster ride between joy and worry and exultation and anxiety and fear that no one would believe them, they found solace and assurance in their relationship. They found that the Spirit came when they were together, those two women who carried the messenger and the Message. They found that it was easier to prepare their spirits for the coming uncertain days if they had community and connection.
So too is my wish for all of us at Trinity – that we can truly prepare the way of the Lord through community and connection, that our spirits are complete only when we are together, that we find joy and assurance in how the Holy Spirit moves in our own spirits. The Christ child comes again at Christmas to fully be in relationship with all of humanity – so prepare your Spirit as we start to live His story again. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Prepare Your Home for Your Homecoming
How is your decorating coming? Do you have enough room for your Christmas tree, your wreaths and garlands and Christmas knickknacks? Or do you have to make room by moving chairs, tables, and your everyday "stuff" out of the way? Are the presents wrapped and ready to go in the mail or under the tree? How many parties involve bringing goodies? Are the stockings hung over the chimney with care?
Am I touching a nerve in your busy, perhaps frantic schedule?
These are not the most important questions of course. The bigger, more significant questions are: "Have you made room for Jesus in your days - in your space - in your schedule? Where do you squeeze him in? Will you fling wide your front door if you open it and there he stands?"
Old Testament prophets speak to us when they promise: The Lord is already in our midst (Zephaniah 3: 14-20) and the Lord will bring us back home for a great family gathering (Isaiah 12: 1-6). How do we respond to these promises? If the corners of our rooms and hearts and minds are too full, will we have to look for Jesus out back in our sheds or between the cobwebbed baskets/tools/recycle in the garage? Do we even recognize our Lord in our midst?
Our home is more than our space and the things that fill up our space, no matter the size of our spaces. Our home is where God is - wherever and whenever we continue to nurture our relationship with Jesus. So, both prophets Zephaniah and Isaiah encourage us to make room, recognize, and welcome our Lord. Because they lived before the birth of Jesus, they're projecting their hopes, which we find realized and incarnated in Jesus the Christ.
Let us join them when we sing, shout, rejoice, exult, celebrate, raise the rafters with our joy, and proclaim the Lord's name with all that we do and share and serve through this season of thanksgiving for the birth of the Babe, who enters into the very real humanity of our lives - God with us - Emmanuel.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelleyhttp://bible.oremus.org/?ql=222333236
Am I touching a nerve in your busy, perhaps frantic schedule?
These are not the most important questions of course. The bigger, more significant questions are: "Have you made room for Jesus in your days - in your space - in your schedule? Where do you squeeze him in? Will you fling wide your front door if you open it and there he stands?"
Old Testament prophets speak to us when they promise: The Lord is already in our midst (Zephaniah 3: 14-20) and the Lord will bring us back home for a great family gathering (Isaiah 12: 1-6). How do we respond to these promises? If the corners of our rooms and hearts and minds are too full, will we have to look for Jesus out back in our sheds or between the cobwebbed baskets/tools/recycle in the garage? Do we even recognize our Lord in our midst?
Our home is more than our space and the things that fill up our space, no matter the size of our spaces. Our home is where God is - wherever and whenever we continue to nurture our relationship with Jesus. So, both prophets Zephaniah and Isaiah encourage us to make room, recognize, and welcome our Lord. Because they lived before the birth of Jesus, they're projecting their hopes, which we find realized and incarnated in Jesus the Christ.
Let us join them when we sing, shout, rejoice, exult, celebrate, raise the rafters with our joy, and proclaim the Lord's name with all that we do and share and serve through this season of thanksgiving for the birth of the Babe, who enters into the very real humanity of our lives - God with us - Emmanuel.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelleyhttp://bible.oremus.org/?ql=222333236
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