blog - St. Andrew Presbyterian Church

Great is God’s Faithfulness

Posted on Apr 13, 2023 by Bev Friedlander in BLOG | Tags: #happyeaster, #nowwhat, #resurrection

April 13, 2023

Happy Easter!

Great is God’s faithfulness! Oh-you thought that was over and done? This is actually a “season,” as in “Jesus is the reason for the season.” I should say, the risen Christ is the reason we celebrate resurrection every Sunday on “the Lord’s Day,” and the immediate experience of resurrection for the disciples from now through the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Too much churchy stuff to keep reading?

Consider this. Yesterday was a good day in some ways and a lousy day in others. For you, it may have been great all day long and another minute or hour in bed to savor the memory is not long enough. Or it might, for you, have been a terrible, awful, no good day and the sooner it ended, the better. Then, the sun came up this morning.

Whatever happened yesterday, today is new. Today is a day to enjoy the hope of resurrection. Resurrection is not a theology about life after death.

In its fullest form, resurrection is a gift for living life after life. It is the gift of everyday’s new beginning.

I awoke this morning thinking, “If today was the last day of my life….”

I’m here now, at my life, in all its routine, watching for surprises, waiting for the other shoe to drop, creating the moments of joy and possibility, and going through the motions, all of it–with resurrection in mind. Whatever comes, for good or ill, resurrection gives me hope that I can endure with patience and hope, enjoy with celebration, and confidence, that with my next breath, life is everlasting. Even if mine is not here, I can leave rejoicing in the wonder of new life every morning for you and yours.

Great is the faithfulness of God! Morning by morning, new mercies to see….

Peace be with you!

Rev Bev

photo credit:

Ikonact – Own work Bulgarian orthodox Easter Eggs CC BY-SA 3.0

The Meaning of the Cross

Posted on Apr 6, 2023 by Bev Friedlander in BLOG | Tags: #easter, #goodfriday, #meaningofthecross, #newlife

Good Friday is not “good.”

Jesus died. We barely study Friday and Saturday of holy week. We focus on Easter. We want parades that ignore the suffering of the cheering crowd who gathered to protest evil’s oppression. We want life without punishment, without the silence that follows a beloved child’s plea for his father to show his face. Perhaps we have heard a message of the cross that is too difficult to digest, even with a bite of bread and a sip of wine.

Traditional language calls Jesus’ death on a cross a “sacrifice,” “substitute,” and claims Jesus “paid the penalty” for our wayward lives. This state execution, encouraged and supported by local religious co-conspirators, is described as a tool in the hands of an angry God. God exacted punishment for crimes against humanity from his own kid, who did nothing wrong. Who wants to be friends with that?

Is there an alternative?

I believe these unstudied words miss the point and lead us to abuse our power with the illusion of redemptive violence. Death on the cross was a sinful action of sinful human beings. I believe God chose to unite with us so thoroughly (incarnation) that it meant God, in Jesus, would die a human, mortal death, like we do, and then ended up enduring injustice, like many of us do. In the case of Jesus, his “crime,” was showing evidence that we could live together in peace.

Jesus died on a cross, not to please God, but to keep people in positions of authority and wealth and perceived safety.

Christ’s life, offered to us, demonstrates a new way of being human.

Justice invites us to equitable sharing of power, of resources, it provides shared access to healing, shared economic wealth so everyone has enough to eat. Kindness asks us to pray for our enemies. This new life trusts God is doing a new thing that refutes violence, even the possibility of redemptive violence.

Easter is the answer

That new thing, God’s answer to the cross and our wayward way of living, was always going to culminate in resurrection. Without fear of death as final, we can brave the life we are living on new terms.

Let us be resurrected, transformed, through Christ’s courageous and healing work of reconciliation, even if it leads us to pick up a cross ourselves.

Happy Easter, happy life! Peace,

Rev Bev

Credit: Awake My Soul,Mike Moyers, httpsdigliblibraryvanderbilteduactimagelinkplRC57138-retrieved-January-28-2023-.jpg

It’s been a week…

Posted on Mar 30, 2023 by Bev Friedlander in BLOG | Tags: #comeandsee, #seeking, #silenced, #whataweek, #whereareyouheading

Friends:
It’s been a week. No, several. It’s been a month of …days when all hell has been breaking loose and ripping apart neighborhoods, schools, families, nations, lives.

What are you seeking? This Lenten season’s theme has asked us:

is this the fast I choose; who will you listen to; how do we begin again; will you give me a drink; who sinned; and can these bones live.

The Questions of the Week

We have been willing to confront the difficult days, challenging ideas, and looming death. Nevertheless, our world continu #silenced es to spiral in chaos. This week the question is, “Where are you headed?” I’m not sure if the question is meant for us to consider about our lives, because I have only been able to ask that question of Jesus over the last couple of weeks. I have been at a loss for words. I have felt silenced in the face of all that is so messed up.

The Way for Those Who are Seeking

Sunday I will head out with Jesus I suppose, with all my questions about where we’re going and whether we will find any peace on the way. We’ll walk the road of hosanna strewn palm branches and off into the middday sun of Christ’s passion and his descent into death. I think some, many, of us have gone ahead of him and wonder if he can find us there. We need Christ’s light. We need to be a light.

If it’s been a hard week for you, you are not alone in wondering where your life is headed or for asking, where is God. We may not have the answer but we do not need to go alone.

Come Sunday, join together at least, so that if nothing else, we are not blind and alone in the silencing powers of destruction. Maybe there is a way in the wilderness that leads to new life, if we can make it to tomorrow.

Peace,

Beverly

Dry Bones

Posted on Mar 23, 2023 by Bev Friedlander in BLOG | Tags: #cantheseboneslive, #DeltaBoys, #drybones, #skelton

March 23, 2023

I have been thinking about skeletons, nope that kind, more like the ones that come in deaths and resurrections during this season of Lent—primarily my own.

CREDO. That is the name of the educational seminar I attended a few weeks back. It is Latin for “I believe.” Yet, it can be rendered, “I give my heart to.” I have not fully absorbed the learnings of the CREDO yet. It is all still simmering. This particular event was designed for late career ministers. Yep, I am in that stage.

We created a “Rule of Life,” The rule is meant to help us live a life according to the persons or things we give our heart to. Being an end of career and into retirement centered event, you can understand why I’m thinking more about my death and resurrection than Lazarus or Jesus.

Not that either of them are not part of the contemplation. After all, I have regularly recommitted my heart to Christ. Meaning, I have regularly fallen away from being focused on the way of Jesus that leads to life, to a rule of daily experiences and actions that are worthy of a child of God.

Stockholm 2012

“Can these bones live,” God asks Ezekiel. This is our scripture for this week. I am finding a new joy in thinking about resurrection before Easter, in this season of Lent. I hope you will join this journey. Here’s something fun that made me smile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeQUXXYvK0

I hope you bring this kind of joy to the worship on Sunday, and to your life each and every day, by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
Peace,

Beverly

Photo Credits: 2020-01-19 1st run Women’s Skeleton (2020 Winter Youth Olympics) by Sandro Halank–026.jpg Creative Commons Attribution 2.0; Human skeleton remains.jpg Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Anniversary Prayers

Posted on Mar 15, 2023 by Bev Friedlander in BLOG | Tags: #anniversary, #beacon, #lent, #letyourlightshine

Anniversaries are on my mind. It so happens, a St. Andrew couple celebrated 55 years of marriage this week. Martha and I were attending a conference seventeen years ago today (3/16) when we realized that our friendship might be shifting gears to something more. Six years ago this weekend (3/18-3/19), St. Andrew Pres celebrated her 50^th anniversary.

Our History

Reading the recaps from SAPC newsletters that year (2017), I learned that the church left the sanctuary at the benediction singing and carrying candles. You were “lighting the way,” forward in ministry. That year, a lightbulb in the Narthex was lit for every $500 raised for a capital campaign. Those same bulbs were later re-lit one at a time whenever someone wrote to share a moment when St. Andrew’s members were caught letting “OUR light shine.” Anniversary memories can help us learn something about who we were and who we have become.

In the same way, let your light shine before others,

so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

Our Future

No one mentioned any of this history in the town halls or discernment time regarding a new vision for the church. The elders believed the Holy Spirit directed their work. The new vision statement first felt like a brand new concept. Yet, to adopt the statement that “God is calling St. Andrew to be a beacon,” is, to me, a sign that you are continuing the ministry you began, not just 6 years ago, but 56 years ago. You are meant to shine, reflecting the light of love given in Jesus Christ.

Your Past, Present and Future

Even as we celebrate joyful memories, and new beginnings, perhaps some of you are remembering, right now as you read this, difficult anniversaries. Someone’s death, an end to a relationship, a conflict that has never been resolved, moments of sorrow recalled during the cold darker days of winter’s discontent. Anniversary memories can be painful, even as they, too, help us learn who we were and who we have become. The season of Lent recalls Christianity’s darkest day in Scripture—the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

We “celebrate” this season every year. Christians do not avoid or minimize the suffering in the world, not even the suffering of God. Have you noticed we are not singing alleluias? Perhaps you noticed the color of the season, purple, signifying an extended time of expressing sorrow, regret or confessing guilt? Maybe you are planning spring break, egg hunts, new clothes and Easter family meals, skipping right on past Good Friday?

Please slow down and for these last few weeks before Easter Sunday, ask yourself, what am I seeking? How am I killing off the holy within myself just as the death of Jesus killed the disciples’ hope so long ago? Do I want to see Jesus only alive or am I willing to face the cross and my own despair about the missing holiness of the everyday life I am living? What in me needs the light of love? Can I imagine that God understands despair, hopelessness, enough to understand mine? Will I bring it to God? Will I seek Christ’s merciful gaze and offering of grace? Even as he dies on a cross?

Find Help

Our Facebook page is posting the Lenten art and questions daily. You can pick up a devotional booklet at church or log on to the daily devotional. Our website has the link for the d365 devotional which is written for teens and adults. And if you need pastoral care from the pastor or deacons, send us a note by emailing beverly.friedlander@standrew-pres.org or completing this form.

Beloved of God–May this anniversary Lenten season allow a new light to dawn on your spiritual seeking and may your light shine as you become a beacon of peace and love.

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. James 5:13, James 5:15

Intermittent Fasting–For all Embodied Souls

Posted on Mar 9, 2023 by Bev Friedlander in BLOG | Tags: #fast; #Lent

March 9, 2023

In a diet culture of striving for the perfect body, we miss the essential power of perfecting the soul. Our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 6: 19) A healthy physique, internally and externally, is only one aspect of approaching our capacity for well-being. How are you nurturing your soul?

Lent is a season to remind us of this essential component. Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines of Lent. It is not the intermittent fasting of a weight-management plan. It is an ancient practice of a burden management plan. Fasting is meant to help us release the weight of pleasures that obscure the joy of faith.

Have you created a Lenten fast? Would you for the last few weeks of Lent? A daily prayer, 20 minutes, in which you refraining from your usual routine everyday until Easter morning. Our SAPC Facebook page is providing daily reflections from A Sanctified Art, and our website has a link to a daily devotional.

There are five (5) Fridays left in the Lenten season, including Good Friday. What might you fast from beginning sundown Thursday (or bedtime) until sundown Friday (or noon as some customs suggest)? Some may choose to eat a particular way, even restricting your meals to water and limited types of food. (DO NOT risk your health by limiting your food intake if you have medical needs—and you can discuss options with your doctor.) A meal fast would be accompanied by regular prayer, and might include recitation of a scripture, such as,

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4)

Or you may limit your indulgence in using your phone, tablet, computer to do anything other than work or prayer. A scripture reference could include,

“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,

but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.” ( Heb 1: 1-2a)

Or,

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” (Isa 52: 7)

May this Lenten season provide you a path to unburdening your life of the heavy weights that keep you from attending your soul. Be freed to discover the power of daily or weekly personal worship that reveals the one thing necessary:

I keep the Lord always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;

my body also rests secure. (Ps 16: 8-9)