Pastor's Message
October 2009
Greetings Children of God:
" ... Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me. Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."
-- God, “The Shack” by William P. Young, p.185
I recently read a book from which the above quote is taken. I was very skeptical of reading it because I thought it would be one of those little stories that everybody loves without much substance. It would have little theological substance and be another new age, postmodern smuck writing. I then heard it promoted by no one other than the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Church in America. I read it and found that I was blessed in reading it.
Admittedly, it does have a kind of happy ending that lets one rest in it. The ending is more than happy. It carries with it a sense of joy ascribed to our Christian understanding of biblical joy. This is a joy that goes deeper and beyond happiness. Such joy can rest within our lives even when we have little to be happy about as our world trembles in fear.
The book seeks to reveal the resurrecting love of God in the midst of a very tragic event in the lives of Mackenzie Allen Phillips and his family. It made me think of many of you who are going through difficult and trying times. The fact is that the stresses and pressures of an uncertain economy and life work upon you physically, spiritually, and mentally. No one in a family is exempt from these stresses and pressures. They work their way into our entire being and even into our faith community. We can withdraw from others and isolate ourselves trying to protect our fragile being form the pain and fear waging war upon us and in us. Faith, joy, hope and love can seem far removed from our reality.
God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.
....[W]hat do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us -- who was raised to life for us! -- is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture ... (The Message - Romans 8: 26b, 31-39)
This is Emmanuel in which God is with us. When doubt and fear seek to separate us from God and each other, this is exactly the time we need to gather for worship and share in word and sacrament. God will stand with us even if we cannot feel such a presence. Look around you on a Sunday morning and you may catch a glimpse of God.
One of Christ’s servants,
Pastor Dave-Child of God