How’s your spirit?
How is it with your spirit?
Yes, because this spirit is a gift of God through Christ. This Spirit breathes life and peace where she wills and it is not up to us to direct her or harness her. This is the freedom of God at work in the world to bring the new creation.
No, because Paul also instruct disciples to learn and grow and work out our salvation. St. Andrew will begin a new again commitment to intentional spiritual formation this fall.
Church School
Please begin to pray about your spiritual development and how you want to grow. It may be in Bible study, or in topical conversations. Perhaps there are particular questions in your life that you wish you could ask—and get an answer from—God.
Now is the time to prepare the soil of your soul for the planting of new seeds of faith.
“what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Mt 13: 23
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The Joy of Summer
Ah. The joy of summer.
It’s vacation time. I confess being one of those who has to check myself when I start to become jealous of my friends travel pictures on social media. What does it mean to envy others’ joy?
Life is so full over the summer break from work and school routines. It seems light, more carefree, especially when you hear the voices of children playing in the yard. What does it mean to smile when others are enduring their first summer without someone they love, enduring a death or divorce or breakup, that has shattered their care-free serenity?
Perhaps we enjoy an overflowing meal cooked on the grill and abounding in laughter with friends, while in the very back of our minds we hear the cries of children who have no lunch or breakfast when school is out.
Everyday is full of contrasts like these.
The only answer any one of us can give comes from our own experience of divine love and goodness. I do not know how God might bring love and goodness to someone who is suffering. I can only know how God met me in my own. I then have two helpful options (at least). I can be the bringer of hope as God has been for me, or I can empathize and share the moments of hopelessness to dispel the loneliness felt in God’s apparent absence.
A Contrast Embodied
Imagine that you are God’s contrasting evidence to the belief that life is nothing but fleeting moments of captured joy and selfishly-retrieved prosperity. You are the evidence, in this amazing world you inhabit, that there is a God who loves and cares for others. You may never know who tells the story of your kindness and declares, “that was the day I knew God had not left me alone.”So, whatever today may bring, let this be a day the Lord has made! Rejoice and be glad in it!
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Tennis, Pie & Grace
Tennis, anyone?
This week was the 50th anniversary of the WTA—Womens’ Tennis Association. In a BBC interview, Billie Jean King identified three goals in creating the WTA: that any girl who was competitive, anywhere, would have a place to compete, that women and girls would be appreciated for their accomplishments, and that women could make a living doing the job they loved.
This was the first professional women’s sport to have equal payouts in the top tournaments beginning with the US Open in 1973. It took until 2007 for all the Grand Slam tournaments to accomplish this goal. When the WTA began, women could not obtain a credit card in their own name. That did not happen until 1974. The passage of Title IX, the non-discrimination act regarding educational institutions receiving federal funds, passed in 1972. The Equal Pay Act became law in 1963. Even so, today, women receive 83₵ for every $1 a man makes (FT wage/salaried positions). Appreciating and affirming the gifts, skills, and calling of women is not an accomplished feat, whether we consider payscales, opportunities, or healthcare.
It’s not pie.
This is spiritual warfare in its oldest form—pitting men and women against one another—as if we are in a winner take all tennis match. Grace is sweet but it’s not pie. Grace and love and the bearing of God’s image is not offered in small servings. There is not a limited amount that needs to be divvied up and fought over. Jesus does not dole out God’s love in measured doses based on gender identity.
When we follow Jesus, neither should we. Equality is good news in a world where the last shall be first (see Mt 19, Mt 20, Luke 13), there is no longer slave nor free, male and female, for all are one in Christ (Gal 3: 28). The good news is the victory of equality is assured. The question is whether we will be known for aligning our labors, our lives, and our love on the side of equality.
We have good news.
SAPC is in a unique position in church culture. Called to be a church where everybody belongs, the women here currently outnumber the men in elected positions of ministry. Not only do we appreciate and affirm the women of this church, we empower them. Because belonging is more than being welcome. Belonging includes shared power and privilege in leadership, in decision-making, and in the church of Jesus Christ, in proclaiming the gospel.
Because these gifts of God, and the fruit of the Spirit in each of us, is not a limited grace, we need to be very clear that women’s equality does not free men from their calling. Rather, this equality restores the beloved community to the state in which all humanity sees itself as one and each serves God more fully and capably as a whole and holy people.
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Birdsong
June 15, 2023
“Stop and smell the roses,” we are told. Summertime becomes our down time when we finally try to slow our lives a little bit and take a vacation. Yes, this is very much a privilege of economically advantaged people in our culture. Most people don’t have the opportunity to get away from it all. I have found alternatives on my back porch—birdwatching.
“You’ll never hear birds here,” my friend explained. We were looking for a new home and I had a prerequisite—birds! But the house we were considering was near the world’s busiest airport and my friend explained that flocks are a danger to airplanes and airports therefore have some mitigation to discourage their presence. The house was too right to pass up and the airport noise seemed to be white noise on all our visits. So, I gave up the birdsong.
Eventually, it, too, only disturbed restless sleep from which I probably needed waking up anyway.The good news is there were plenty of other birds, some interesting singers, some just noisemakers. I could sit all day and watch and listen to birds. It makes me feel — content, at peace. Turns out that is not just me.
The Washington Post shares news of two studies finding that birdsong has a “time-lasting link” to improved mental wellbeing. Listening to birds, and even listening to recordings of birds, for as little as six-minutes a day improves your state of mind, and reduces things like anxiety, depression effects, paranoia, and general negative moods and emotions. Perhaps the songs of nature are a gift from our God, who desires that we enjoy life, abundantly. Listen Here!
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,
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Summer Sundays Roamin’
Summer Series
Who’s here this summer? Are you on the road again? Off to the beach or mountains or grandparents? Maybe you are planning a staycation, chilling on your patio or if you’re lucky by a cool stream or pool around the neighborhood. Do you love to share vacay photos? (Read on.) Renewal is essential to healthy spiritual growth.
Wherever you are, you can take in the stillness of a summer sun and know the hug of love from God, or the loud thunder of a summer storm and read Scripture about God’s booming voice. The point is, wherever we wander, there we are found by God’s Spirit. The Lord is never absent from your presence and longs to see you enjoy the gift of Sabbath and re-creation.
Roamin’ with the Romans.
Roman roadbuilding enabled their culture, their armies, their law to spread out across the west and middle eastern nations. The same roads allowed those nations to go to Rome. Paul had dual citizenship, and his last stop in life was Rome. His letter to the new church in Rome is the first of the letters in our New Testament.
Wanna share your favorite vacation stories?
I’d love to hear your vacation stories. If you are travelling this summer and want to share a few minutes of your trip (or home vacay) and how you experience God outside the building and life of SAPC, consider sharing this good news with the church. Please email me at beverly.friedlander@standrew-pres.org or call me.
If you typically worship online, this road show will affect what you see on Sunday mornings. Likely there will be a hymn, a scripture, a devotional sharing related to the Sunday sermon, and a prayer. There may be some Sundays without a live event, only a recorded one. What would you like to see? This is your chance to shape what is most important to you for home worship.
Ready, Set, MOVE!
Oh—that just happens to be the name of VBS, which begins Monday! Let’s go!
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Songfest, Supper, Sunday Funday
June 1, 2023
Neon Music Sign
It’s a Songfest Sunday! Many church people can and do say they believe in the God of the Bible. They do not read the Bible though. They sing songs and trust that the lyrics are reliable words from the Bible.
For some of us our faith is significantly shaped by the theology of our favorite music. My 2 favorites: Go Tell It on the Mountain and I Love to Tell the Story. So, you know why I preach, since I struggle to carry a tune!
Sunday, when we honor the doctrine and God who is the Triunity (yes, that’s a word you haven’t used), we will not try to describe this 2000-year-old declaration. We will sing songs that make our hearts open to the mystery of God.
For those in the sanctuary, you will be offered the chance to request a song from the hymnbook. For those online, (or others) worshipping on Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., you are asked to email zack.henderson@standrew-pres.org with your preferred hymns.
If you need a hymnbook for home worship, please call the church office or come by to pick one up.
As we listen to the choices our friends make, we will learn more about how God is part of the lives we share in this church. We will learn more about the mystery of who God is to people at St. Andrew. And we will begin to see the doctrines that shape our faith as a group and connect with each other in new ways.
o share communion. IF that doesn’t entice you, come early and hang out after for the picnic.Rev Bev
Sing to God; sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds—
his name is the Lord—
be exultant before him. Ps 68: 4
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2022 Blog Posts are archived HERE.