Thursday Thoughts

As I am traveling for the American Baptist Churches Biennial Mission Summit, I share with you these words from Walter Brueggemann.

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “know 

the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and 

remember their sin no more.

–Jeremiah 31:34

What God has forgotten we no longer need remember. Our guilt, of course, lingers and haunts us and slowly cripples us. Our sin is so serious because it violates God. Now, however, God will no longer notice or credit, and the sin will not linger or haunt or cripple. We shall be free. There are libraries that have book amnesties in which you can turn in old books without risk. There are communities with gun amnesties in which you can get rid of unlawful guns. Until the amnesty, we must hide the book or gun, and we cannot get rid of it. So it is with our bad conscience, our moral failure, our sin before God. No place to put it, no place to hide it, we cannot get rid of it. And now a general amnesty. The power of guilt, fear, and resentment evaporates, and we are free. What God has unloaded, we no longer need carry as burden.

You see, the problem is that our actions toward each other are so irreversible. We make a gesture, speak a word, take an action. We may do it maliciously or carelessly. In either case, the word or gesture or action generates misunderstanding, distrust, hostility, alienation, and we live with it forever and ever. There is no way out. Things grow more and more abrasive, until the alienations are deep and the hurt is beyond measure. I know families where a harsh word spoke forty years ago continues to alienate. Marriages stay frozen; parents and children are at deep odds. Among the nations, the great nations have so much for which to be forgiven by the little people, and the barbarity of race relations goes on and on in its poison. We ache for a chance to start again. But it costs so much–empty-handed, vulnerable, a vision of God’s ready suffering for our freedom.

Jeremiah makes us pause for a moment before the prospect of a new innocence. Things need not go on and on. The cycle can be broken. A new chance is offered. Notice well, the new chance is demanding. It takes a broken heart, an end to self-sufficiency, abandoning a pretense of being right. This invitation, however, is not just advice on acting differently. This gospel is not advice but assurance. The assurance is that what we cannot do for ourselves is given us.

Forgiving God, we fall to our knees at the thought of a truly new beginning, a fresh start. Our hearts are broken, and we offer them to you in the assurance of our undeserved grace—the power that creates in us new hearts able ?to love. Amen.

~ Walter Brueggemann, Devotions for Lent: A Way Other Than Our Own, pp. 70-71.

Comments (0)     

This week marks one year since the Chiltons arrived in town - with the dog, guinea pigs, and houseplants filling the back of the car. Last year the annual rummage sale happened within a few days of our arrival. Although most of our boxes were as of yet unpacked, we did end up coming home with a great vintage table linen. It had no stains, despite its age. In fact, I suspect it had never been used. 

This weekend is rummage sale time once again - and once again the hall is full of donations. I love thrifting - it always feels good to me to give new life to something old or passed on. I especially love it when I can find something in really good shape for a good price!

This week I have been thinking about the life of that table cloth - and how it was treasured enough by someone to live for 50 years or more without a stain or tear - but then ended up in a church rummage sale to be sold for a few dollars. Thrift stores are full of such items - china, crystal, silver, etc., that was carefully cared for and preserved for decades, only to be sold for a pittance to someone else.

Friends - wouldn’t it have been good if the original owner had used the “good stuff”? But, so often the good stuff lies tucked away for “another time,” only to never be used at all. 

John 2:1-11 tells the story of Jesus performing a miracle at his mother’s insistence. He and his disciples as well as his mother and siblings were all at a wedding when the bar went dry. One wonders - were there party crashers? Did the hosts underestimate the amount the guests would drink? Did the wine delivery not show up in time? In any case, when Jesus tells his momma that it isn’t time yet for him to do this miracle, she just goes right ahead and arranges all the things for him to do it anyway! One wonders if this is Jesus’ first miracle (which is how John tells the story), since his mother was fully convinced that he could do it. Perhaps her knowledge is based on past experience. 

In any case, he changes the water to wine and averts the disaster of a ruined wedding collation. And since it was Jesus, the wine was, obviously, far better than that which the hosts had provided! One of the servants, after tasting the wine, declared, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk [because drunk people don’t care as much?]. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Essentially, he is saying, “you should have used the good stuff first!”

As you set about your day, I encourage you to consider where you are saving the good stuff until last - and running the risk that you will never get to enjoy it. “Well, when I retire I’ll start reading fun books.” “When I have just a bit more money, then I’ll be able to relax/tithe/travel/etc.” “When Christmas comes we can use the good china.” What if you read the fun book now, relaxed/tithed/traveled now, or used the good dishes now? Wouldn’t that make each moment a little bit more full of life and reflective of our creator who has blessed us lavishly?

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it!” (Psalm 24:1). Friends, the good things that we are saving are just entrusted to us by the Lord - we are only their steward. What if instead of squirreling them away for the “then,” we use them now to brighten our lives and the lives of those around us? That water that Jesus changed was shared with those around him. 

Use the good stuff, friends! And even better - use the good stuff to make life better for our fellow human beings.

Now, does anyone want to come eat cake with me on that table cloth?

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

Comments (0)     

The Pain and the Beauty

I used to live near and often visit the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, CA. Rumor has it that the cactus garden there was the inspiration for some of Dr. Suess’s illustrations. Were you to walk those magical paths, you could easily see why. Tall, squat, or barrel shaped, mostly covered with spines ranging in size from nearly invisible to larger than a yarn needle, these plants are unexpectedly magical. During the bloom season, the cactus garden is full of pollinators buzzing from plant to plant, where some of the garden's most beautiful and delicate flowers grow on some of its most frightening looking plants. Friends, I have to stop in my tracks in awe when I see a cactus blooming. How can something that can cause so much pain also give the world such amazing beauty?

I have been struck this week at how like a cactus garden life is. Pain and beauty walk side-by-side, sometimes showing up simultaneously, like in the birth of a child. Sometimes they are like waves, threatening to drown us and always retreating and making space for what is to come next. Sometimes they surprise us, such as in the death of a loved one or a vividly painted sunset. 

I know we want beauty. Glory. Flowers.

But sometimes life gives us pain. Death. Thorns.

This thing I am sure of: God is present with us always. Hebrews 13:5 reminds us of God’s promise to Israel as they traveled to their promised home: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

In birth and in death, God is with us. In pain and in joy, God is with us. In confusion and in certainty, God is with us. In anger and in peace, God is with us. 

Friends, whatever this week holds for you - be it pain or beauty - I pray that you know God’s presence. 

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

Comments (0)     

This week our congregation said goodbye to a dear friend, whose journey earthside has finished. As our community mourns his death, I am struck by the many, many stories I have heard about how he was a friend, cheerleader, and encourager. While I need more time to process this all, I am convinced that what he modeled for us and offered to us was true Christian friendship.

In my last visit with our dear brother I asked him if he had one last sermon to send to the Phillips family. His last sermon was this: even more important than the worship services are our relationships with each other. 

Friends, I will have more to share on this later, but for now as we mourn our loss and celebrate his life, I encourage you to contemplate how you might strengthen your relationships with those around you. Hard times and easy times are better navigated and celebrated with friends. Jesus himself went through his entire ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension with friends at his side. 

This week, find a way to reach out and check on your friends, to get to know some new friends, and to strengthen the bonds that warm our hearts.

“For Friendship”

May you be blessed with good friends,

And learn to be a good friend yourself,

Journeying to that place in your soul where 

There is love, warmth, and feeling.

May this change you.

May it transfigure what is negative, distant,

Or cold within your heart.

May you be brought into real passion, kindness,

And belonging.

May you treasure your friends.

May you be good to them, be there for them

And receive all the challenges, truth, and light you 

need.

May you never be isolated but know the embrace 

Of your anam cara. 

(Anam Cara = “real true friend”)

(From John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Beginnings)

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

Comments (0)     

Friends, as we step solidly into the beautiful spring, planting and growing flowers and fruit and veggies, participating in the joy of stewarding God’s good creation, I give you this blessing for your day:

Blessed are you who are buried. You who feel stuck in the depths of despair or who sit in the pit of unknowing. You who are learning to trust the timing of a tender Gardener.

Blessed are you who are growing, you who burst with new life, fresh creativity. Who understand the pain that sometimes comes with stretching and changing, pruning and being cut back.

And blessed are you in your season of fruitfulness. You who are learning to abide in the vine, and who taste the sweetness of God’s loving-kindness. The God who was there all along  – planting, waiting, watering, pruning, delighting. The God who pays careful attention to God’s garden.* 

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

* Prayer from Kate Bowler’s and Jessica Richie’s Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a life of Imperfection, p. 232

Comments (0)