Emptiness Full of Promise

          This week, I saw a great article by recording artist Carolyn Arends.  She shared a unique quote she heard from her pastor who said in a sermon:

“The world offers promises full of emptiness.  But Easter offers emptiness full of promise.”

          All of us have experienced those empty promises.  We have lived with good intentions that didn’t deliver.  We have lived in a world of smoke and mirrors and things that talk big but just don’t have what it takes to bring it upon the reality of the challenges we face every day.

          But ironically, Easter offers emptiness that is full of promise.  There is an empty cross, an empty tomb, empty grave clothes. 

          There is hope there, because all too often, our lives are simply empty.  Oh sure, we are busy, probably too busy.  Our lives seem very full in many ways, but at the end of the day, when we put our heads to the pillow, all that fullness proves not filling but exhausting and dare we say, empty.

          But Easter offers emptiness full of promise.  Jesus can redeem emptiness.  Like God, he can create something out of nothing.  He can create light out of darkness, and hope out of hopelessness. 

          This Easter weekend, I hope you will join us at one of our Easter services.  The tomb is empty, but our prayer is that our church will be full of those seeking hope, and more importantly the presence of a very real and living Jesus who can still redeem those empty spaces in our lives and world.  See you there, 

Pastor Pete 

How Not to Follow the Crowd

How Not to Follow the Crowd

            Most of us are accustomed to the typical characters in the story of Jesus’ last week.  We see the donkey bringing in Jesus, the disciples at the last supper.  There is Judas betraying him with a kiss in the garden.  We remember Pilate and the religious leaders at the trial of Jesus. 

            But Matthew brings in an additional character to the story.  In fact, this character has been a part of his whole Gospel.  The character was there when he taught the Sermon on the Mount, there when he fed the five thousand, and there in a multitude of other places. 

            Matthew simply calls this character “the crowd” and it takes on a personality all its own.  Jesus never trusted this character.  Though he served them he never gave himself fully to them.  This weekend, “the crowd” shows up again.  They are there, welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem.  They are appropriately shouting words of praise and thanksgiving, cutting branches and putting cloaks in the road to welcome the king.  It is a scene of joy and praise.

            And yet in a foreboding way, for the rest of the week the crowd is silent, that is until Jesus is on trial.  Then, manipulated by the powers that be, they are yelling “Crucify him!” 

            How can this be?  How can a crowd be so excited about Jesus and his coming and then something like seven days later, yell “crucify”?  What is even more disconcerting is the recognition, that this could easily be us.  Every one of us has at one point or another felt that powerful force of the crowd pressing in on us.  The pressure so often turns into a stampede and it feels safer to run with the crowd than to try to step out, stop it, or slow it down.

            But this weekend, we will be reminded that it doesn’t have to be that way.  There are things we can do to avoid this predictable pattern.  Come join us in worship and we will talk more about it.  See you there!

In Christ,

Pastor Pete 

     I remember a time, many years ago when several of my friends and I were frustrated.  We all flew for the Navy, and had just returned home from a very long and hard cruise.  During those days, we did many challenging things; things that were new and hard and had never been done before.  We had all become accustomed to flying on and off aircraft carriers.  The challenging became the norm.  To top it all off, we did it well.  We had a perfect saftey record.  No one had been hurt in those months at sea.

     Our Commanding Officer was very proud of that record, and he was being replaced in two months.  As a result, he was determined to maintain that record.  So, we just didn't fly.  The airplanes which we had flown so intensely for seven months, now just sat in the hangar, and so did we.  Morale sank.  We were miserable, the men working on the planes were miserable, and we just ended up fussing about it all, enduring the days until we had a new Commanding Officer, who would get those planes out of the hangar and into the air where they and we were designed to be.

     This weekend in worshp, we are going to be reminded how this is a fitting illustration of our lives as disciples of Jesus.  We are simply not designed to live life in the hangar.  God has designed us, saved us, and sent us to fly.  When we don't stay active in our primary task, when we become safely moderate instead of boldy serving, we find ourselves frustrated and fussing at one another.  We were never meant to be safe in the spiritual hangar.  Our faith is designed to give us wings.

     I would like to invite all of you to join us in worship this weekend as we listen to the story of Esther.  She did what so many of us yearn to do.  She started as a nominal person of faith, in fact, hiding her faith from all those around her.  But then, something happened that changed her into a woman that not only saved her people but also changed the world.  In this day and age, where we tend to so naturally put a bushel over our lights, we need to hear her story and once again find our faith wings.  Come join us as we talk about this some more!

See you there,
Pastor Pete

Do We Have “B.F.F.s” or “K.O.F’s”?

Do We Have “B.F.F.s” or “K.O.F’s”?

This weekend, we are going to be continuing our “One Month to Live” sermon series and will be speaking to our relationships.  Most of us, if we really had 30 days to live, would want to spend more time with family and close friends.  When push comes to shove, people are what really matter.

            But in our time, this is also a challenge.  According to a recent article in the New York Times, our circle of close friends is getting smaller. Over the past twenty years, the number of people we can discuss "matters important to us" dropped nearly a third. The number of people who said they had no one to talk to about important matters more than doubled, to nearly 25 percent.

The Times article added that this scarcity of close friends has especially impacted mid-lifers:

 “In your 30s and 40s, plenty of new people enter your life, through work, children's play dates and, of course, Facebook. But actual close friends—the kind you make in college, the kind you call in a crisis—those are in shorter supply. As people approach midlife, the days of youthful exploration, when life felt like one big blind date, are fading. Schedules compress, priorities change and people often become pickier in what they want in their friends. No matter how many friends you make, a sense of fatalism can creep in: the period for making B.F.F.'s [best friends forever], the way you did in your teens or early 20s, is pretty much over. It's time to resign yourself to situational friends: K.O.F.'s (kind of friends)—for now.” (Alex Williams, "Friends of a Certain Age," The New York Times, 7-13-12)

            The article says this is just the way it is.  As we get older, we simply are going to have fewer close friends and relationships.  But in contrast, this weekend, we are going to look at the beautiful story of Ruth.  She tells us that it doesn’t have to be this way.  She found strength, hope and power in God and in the people around her.  As all of us strive to “love completely” Ruth can show all of us, including mid-lifers the way.  Come and join us.  You can even bring your “K.O.F”!

See you in worship,

Pastor Pete