Fresh Wind
Read more...
Ordinary Time
May 18, 2023
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Ps 90: 12
How much longer?
Three Sundays away is Trinity Sunday and then—Ordinary Time begins!
In other words, we are counting days until the next holy day (holiday). People look forward to soul-refreshing moments. Perhaps we need to pay attention to soul-sucking lifestyles that make us look for something better, and anxious to get away from our ordinary lives. Imagine if everyday was a holiday. Imagine creating a life to which every morning was a breath of fresh air and you couldn’t wait to start the day. Imagine opening your eyes excited about the adventure ahead, the possibility that something wonder-full was about to happen.
I’ve been thinking about two aspects of churchy life. One is the soul-draining busy-ness of church. Planning, meetings, leading, fixing, recruiting, meetings, promoting, administering, did I mention meetings? Business as usual. And that doesn’t take into account the upkeep of property.
Within this administration is ministry. When a person is working within their spiritual gifts, business to one becomes purpose to another. As a pastor I have enjoyed a great sense of purpose. I have also had days when I wondered if what I was doing makes any difference. In my work, I have discovered that everyone I meet has that spiritual quest in common. We all want to know our own lives mattered and made a difference, to someone, to anyone. We want purpose.
Burned out or Breathing?
Sabbath. During that time, patiently, prayerfully, joyfully, studiously, honestly ask, “what’s the point and where do I fit best?” Allow yourself time in your ordinary day, the counting down time, to think about the coming of the holy moments when you have said, “this was worth it.” And whatever you do, breathe. “Breathe in peace. Breathe out love.” (song here)
Read more...
Changing Earth Changing Ourselves
May 11, 2023
Change
the Earth Changed.” Our world came to life when human beings went into hibernation during the 2020 lockdown. People in India saw the Himalayas from their homes hundreds of miles away for the first time. Whales fished in community while their calves were safe in the distance, because “mom” could hear them if needed. The same was true for Cheetahs who could hunt and then call their cubs from hiding more safely. Penguins survived in Cape Town because they could fish and feed more than once a day. Turtles survived in record numbers because beaches were deserted. New ways to manage food harvests were developed in lands where elephants needed management, increasing the human harvest and feeding the animals. This real time event demonstrated the devastating impact human choices have made on our environment.It also showed us, especially Christians who believe we are meant to care for creation, that whatever we can do to make a positive impact we are called to do for the glory of God.
Maybe you are like me. A lot of good intentions and some labor towards change. Recycling. Trying to eliminate plastic. Reusable shopping bags and, from time to time, I even remember to take my dishes to restaurants for my leftovers to keep from bringing home another Styrofoam box. I have a confession. I’m not very good at earth stewardship.
Fair Trade
https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/compassion-peace-justice/hunger/enough/fair-trade/
SAPC is committed to a number of hunger ministry opportunities. We also contribute to the One Great Hour of Sharing, which supports reducing hunger. Fair Trade is part of the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
Practicing Peace and Love
We can have the same impact if we ask our stores about fair trade products.
We can have a positive impact if we served Fair Trade coffee and tea here at church and home.
This week I invite you to learn more about Fair Trade products and let’s strive together to do one thing this month to support Fair Trade. In this way we may,
Read more...
Names Matter
What’s in a name?
“So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi.” (Gen 16: 13)
Hagar, an enslaved woman, impregnated by her mistress’s husband and then cast out and abandoned, is met in the wilderness by God. She is the first in the Scripture to name God: El-roi—God who sees.
Generations later, another enslaved person, Moses, encounters El-roi in the wilderness, in the apparition of a burning bush. But he does not know this name and says to the enlightened one, “If they ask, ‘what is his name, what shall I say to them?’” The name offered is not fully translatable but is considered to mean, “I am,” or “I will be who I will be.” It is considered so holy that Jews do not speak the name.
God names some of the people in Scripture: Abram becomes Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sarah, and Jacob becomes Israel. John the baptizer, and Jesus both received their names from God.
Naming matters.
Jesus once asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am.” He was asking about how his life and ministry was understood by them. He was asking whether the witness he offered to the people was helping them understand the relationship God wanted with them.
Names matter. Have you had your name mispronounced? Or been confused with another? Or been forgotten? Have you had nicknames you loved, given by people you cared about? Or names you wanted to get rid of but couldn’t?
Imagine for a moment spending your entire life being called by the wrong name? Imagine not being able to convince people to use your proper name? Such disrespect is almost inconceivable. Yet, across our county and nation, lawmakers are prohibiting people from naming themselves, and choosing pronouns that match their name. “Who do you say that I am,” our trans neighbors want to know. Their teachers are being forbidden, or freed from being required, to call students by their chosen names.
St. Andrew is a beacon of peace and love where everybody belongs for such a time as this!
Really, it is that simple. Even Shakespeare got it, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Read more...
Wake Up
April 27, 2023
Wake up.
what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor. Ps 8: 4-5
“Grooming.” “Woke.” Two words that have become politically divisive language instead of being words which describe the forces that shape our behavior and thinking in particular matters. All of us have been groomed on some level regarding sexuality and other interests. All of us have awakened on some level to disparities between the races, and genders.
Being woke allows me to recognize misogyny and racism (and other sins). Just think of clothing and the way we characterize women’s bodies based on what they wear. No one is banning “Victor, Victoria” with Julie Andrews, or complaining about women wearing business suits with pants to work, only drag shows where men and transwomen wear women’s clothes to their work as entertainers. The anti-drag movement is a statement of grooming about their (de-) valuing of women and the shaming of men and transwomen “acting” like a woman, dressing like a woman.
Being woke is what allowed me to gasp in shock earlier this week when I read that Monday was a state holiday in AL and MS to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day. Yes, they still do that.
Wake up and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard; obey it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. Rev 3: 2-3
Grooming is subtle and pervasive.
I was told he was a war veteran, got shot, hence permanent swelling in his hands, and was a POW. We honored his status as a Confederate soldier. He owned a few slaves, “but he was good and treated them well.” I lived in Stone Mountain, GA, where the granite outcropping became home of the 1915 re-birth of the KKK, and is a state park monument to the confederacy. Though acknowledging our family history, no one in the circles my family were part of ever behaved in overt racist actions, nor spoke ugly of Black people.
(Is there any way to describe racism that is glad it was only this much and not that?)
Nevertheless, from sleeping under a soldier’s watchful gaze to celebrating the completion of the carving on the mountain, I was groomed by my familial and societal experiences to know my place as a white child of the south.
Becoming woke is the arc of the moral universe–it is bending always toward justice!
Instead, LTG Arthur Gregg and LTC Charity Adams, a Black man who rose from private to 3-star general, and a Black woman who was the first Black officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and the first to lead a predominately Black unit in overseas service, will be the face of history for our current servicemembers.
Following Christ, who lived and died and rose again that the whole world might be saved, surely we are called to be woke from the sorry history (old and currently being made) that grooms us to believe powerful, white men are the one and only supreme definition of full humanity. We strive to be like Christ, who creates a new humanity, in which all people bear God’s image, and together, equally, reflect the glory of God.
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3: 27-28
Will you join St. Andrew PC as we strive to be a beacon of peace and love where everybody belongs?
Read more...
Sanctuary and Safety
April 20, 2023
“Many people think of a house of worship as a safe area where violence and emergencies cannot affect them. However, violence in houses of worship is not a new phenomenon. In addition to violent acts, fires, tornados, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and arson also affect houses of worship.” The preceding sentence comes from a PCUSA document.1 It was originally written in 2013. Does that raise your angst higher to know we have been intentionally addressing the dangers in the world, including intentional acts of violence, for years, or lessen your worry?
Sibling Rivalry
d they obey him.” (Luke 8: 22-25) He is the Prince of Peace who also reminds us to keep our swords put away lest we die by the sword, and whose ancient vision calls us to beat our swords into plowshares. (Mt 26: 52 and Isaiah 2: 4)Response-ability
Nevertheless, or because, we Presbyterians take seriously the “persistence of sin in our lives,” and the “human tendency to idolatry and tyranny,”2 we also have a response-ability to develop plans for the safety and well-being of all who are engaged in the ministries of the church.
As an interim pastor, it is one of the avenues I usually discuss with the leaders, sometimes including a practice fire-drill before the end of my time. As it happens, with a full-time childcare center here, your leaders are taking a new (old) look at our protocols and policies. The session formed a Security Task Group this month.
They have three goals:
- Implement some immediate and long-delayed changes to improve security – cost up to $5000.00 (already within 2023 budgeted funds).
- Apply for FEMA grants for ongoing projects as we develop other solutions for our safety and security.
- Design and recommend changes, policies and procedures for review and approval by the session and implement those changes as directed.
(For the exact phrasing of the motions and rationale, you can ask the clerk of session, Marcia, for a copy of the approved motions.)
The Security Task Group core members are: Ally Fetch (elder, NLC Bus. Mgr.), Josh Shields (elder elect and former trustee), Kevin Burel (elder in reserve) and Randy Dragon (trustee, elder in reserve). They have been encouraged to seek out others in the church’s membership who may have specific knowledge to be part of this work as well.
As they move forward and we adapt to new measures (yes, access codes or keyed entry may be changing), please be encouraged by this visible response of faithful care for each other. It will be a challenging balance between being an open and welcoming church where everybody belongs and a safe environment where every body is appropriately protected. Please pray for wisdom as we consider and introduce changes.
As always, may we yet shine as a beacon of peace and love, following the light of Christ.
Peace be with you,
Read more...
2022 Blog Posts are archived HERE.