Thanksgivings
4/25/2024
Dear St. Andrew Saints:
I’m back! Sort of. While we had the most wonderful celebration of our interim ministry together on Sunday (4/21), my last Sunday is this coming weekend. I am so delighted to have a chance to share in the ordination and installation of new officers. It feels like a hand-off in a way. One minister leaves and another steps up to the task.
Yes, minister. The doctrine is the priesthood of all believers. Elders and Ministers of Word and Sacrament are equals in the governance of the church. Both are called to preach the gospel. Both are called to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination and love. Both are called to do everything to the glory of God under the authority of Jesus Christ and according to the witness of Scripture through the Holy Spirit.
I can say without hesitation that the leaders whom God is equipping and calling in this church are more than up to the task of sharing with and equipping you for your ministry. As you will hear in worship, our baptism binds us all to the same great commission to tell the world of the wondrous love of God in Christ that they may know and love and serve the Lord in thanksgiving. You, each of you individually have a great calling and commission, and together you shine as followers of Jesus Christ! Do not hide the light that is with you and within you!
in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him
who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2: 9
I am thankful to you St. Andrew, for that light, for a wonderful couple of years, for friendships, for gifts of loving mission, for worship, for creative energy, patience when I tried new things, a willingness to try new things yourselves, your love for tradition…. Should I go on?
Right now, I am also immensely grateful for the generous spirit of love poured over Martha and me in the reception, the Purcellville gift basket, the ice cream, the amazing gift of a love offering, and flowers, and did I mention, friendships! Thank you, thank you, thanks be to God for you!
Love and peace,
Beverly
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New Commandment
3/28/24
It’s Holy Thursday.
Yet, we also sit UP and take notice of the injustice in the world and the violence done to these very same people. In these cases, overwhelmed by the task, we consider how to raise UP a voice, become an advocate, and work for justice in the world.
It is this latter work that takes us UP to the cross, to the calling that we pick up our own cross and bear it faithfully forward toward a life on earth as in heaven. With every step we are aware that this labor of love may lead to a worldly “death.”
Worship tonight
Our worship will begin and end outside. From a fireside chat and the offering of prayer, to the cross, we will seek the Lord in the passion, the suffering servant, narrative.
If you cannot attend onsite
Easter services
Easter services will begin at 7:00 a.m. onsite (no streaming) and 9:50 a.m. Sunday. Both services will include communion.
This is the good news.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
RevBev
You can listen to the music (abbreviated titles) on YouTube at these links if you want:
https://youtu.be/uAx8gjQrsOY?si=nAW68p17wAlkzZph in the Lord
https://youtu.be/yzARLyXJjec?si=vcmnCPHJRJTEfB2d my shepherd
https://youtu.be/wDQxUdHyumE?si=8Dt1RbApJUK2HsBA come to the table of grace
https://youtu.be/lsm919bwwag?si=lkQ4WKLAHg0Fb4wy bless the Lord
https://youtu.be/YvFuKdKMIDY?si=vW44D0oen_EZVYov holy lamb of God
https://youtu.be/HcTFsUeh4vE?si=uHmPYUOZJIf1FLWU amen
https://youtu.be/JubsDvFlqsE?si=68B_Z1w9mEAIh21H and the mother did weep
https://youtu.be/6yQyF8ipOKs?si=lAWf3Vaw5q7jcW-h we’ve come this far by faith
https://youtu.be/ahRyAZZ1qCQ?si=Q5aKiQq2OPITQPL2 when Jesus wept
https://youtu.be/Sbv-kYjak08?si=_lh5pQzzFPVAGGug Jesus walked this lonesome valley
https://youtu.be/y0TdIbrN14E?si=_53XHOwT9SI8LA_D Psalm 22
https://youtu.be/umLK1RgAZyg?si=Fv95uAjqOPaxUwgb Jesus remember me
https://youtu.be/3ji7eP7k8cA?si=PfYVwUxoaoGGCGYQ Were you there
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Come Sunday
And so much of it is preventable.
We pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, to save us.”
And we move on without listening for his answer. Guilty as charged. I am not immune to disaster exhaustion and a learned helplessness from our own theology of salvation.
That’s what Sabbath is all about. Can you come to Jesus and bring your exhausted empathy and receive the promised rest? Can you come to Jesus to hear an affirmation that any guilt you feel is redeemable in the mercy and forgiveness of Christ? Can you leave the communion of Christ and others seeking rest and reconciliation with a renewed energy for fulfilling the call of a more historically and spiritually compelling theology?
Come Sunday,
If natural disasters have broken the ground you stand on;
If hungry and starving children have broken your heart;
If images of war have broken your spirit;
If hateful bullying has broken your confidence in human being’s better angels;
If politicians have broken your trust;
If religious communities have broken your faith;
If requests for more money, more anything, have broken your connections;
come Sunday and seek the light while he may be found. It really does get better.
Peace,
RevBev
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FaithWorks
Dear Friends:
Someone asked in a FB group what is the advantage of being a member of presbytery. I wonder if you are asking, “what is the advantage of being a Presbyterian?” I have been Presbyterian all my life so it is easy to forget that most people in our churches had to make a conscious choice. In fact, I did as well.
In childhood my extended family ranged from following Judaism, Southern Baptist, Episcopal, Seventh Day Adventist, and Roman Catholic. At one time or another I have visited churches in these traditions and few others. The reason I remained a Presbyterian, in the PC (USA), is our theology and practice. Not because of an advantage, but because of a charge, a purpose, a reason to be this kind of follower of Jesus. In particular visits, I sensed a great deal of isolationism, of us against them, and of judegment that they alone had the gospel of salvation, all of which disturbed my soul.
We Presbyterians don’t always get it right, but listen to what our polity (Book of Order) has to say and you will see that we intend to put our theolgoy to work in our lives, not just a sermon and prayer on Sundays. We seek the day when all God’s people will be united in Christ in fact as well as aspiration and prayer.
“Because in Christ the Church is one, it strives to be one. … Division into different denominations obscures but does not destroy unity in Christ…. [The PCUSA] is committed to the reduction of that obscurity.” (F-1..0302a)
“The unity of believers in Christ is reflected in the rich diversity of the Church’s membership…. There is therefore no place in the life of the church for discrimination against any person.” (F-1.0403)
This week, the second Sunday of Lent and the last Sunday dedicated to Black History Month, we are charged by Christ to “take up our cross.” We are invited to consider the ways our churches still represent as sorrowful era of segregation and how racism is institutionalized within the systems of our culture. We are challenged to be Christians first, and I suggest, we are challenged to be Presbyterians.
With the divisions in our society, I also lift up to you the vision of this particular church, “to be a beacon of peace and love where everybody belongs.” What specific actions can we take, concrete physical responses to the call of God to become in our daily lives, a sanctuary where anyone, and everyone, can find the peace of Christ with us?
There’s work to be done, Presbyterians. Let’s talk about it, saints. Let’s do something for the glory of God. Interrupt the silence, saints of God!
Peace, Beverly
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What R U Up 2
Dear Friends:
What R U UP 2? This Lenten theme, with the images of hot air balloons, invites us to be lifted above the fray of this earthly life into the heavens where the noisy world can recede into the silent observable creation in all its beauty.
Bits and Pieces for the Journey
DAILY JOURNAL 18a_what_r_u_up_2_-_Guided_Journal_Plain_Word_Version.docx
How about a playlist for the journey?
You Raise Me Up, Changes, The Lord’s Prayer, and another version, which we may sing during Lent.
And a few others: Love’s in Need of Love Today, Somebody Like Me More next week. See you Sunday!
RevBev
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No Shoes Sunday
What R U Up 2?
How about a No Shoes Sunday?
At a crucial moment in Jesus’s life he “runs away,” up a mountain to pray. While there, another amazing crack in the border between heaven and earth opens up. But this time, it’s not just dear old dad’s voice that reverberates through the air. And it’s not just Jesus who experiences the inbreaking of God’s kin-dom.
We call it Transfiguration Sunday.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if heaven opened to us one Sunday in worship? Like, really, broke open and shined us all up for our missionary calling? Just in case, this Sunday is a “No Shoes Sunday,” as in Exodus 3: 4-6
And while you’re here
Back to the first question
RevBev
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