The best-laid plans of mice and men...
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who entered our world and enters our lives, so that we can know what God is like.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men, often go awry…”
It’s fitting that this poem comes to mind today, since it was written by Scotland’s most important poet, Robert Burns. Shelley and I were supposed to be flying to Scotland today to begin a pilgrimage walk from Edinburgh to St Andrews, visiting old Christian sites and shrines along the way. (You’ll read more about it in the Kirk!)
But that plan went awry last week when I came down with the flu.
In itself, this flu isn’t dangerous for me. I’ve had a headache and fever and a pretty bad cough, and I’ve been pretty much on my back since Friday. I’m already feeling better, but the timing of it couldn’t have been worse. I wouldn’t be pleasant to fly right now, and I don’t think a 75-mile walk would be a good idea for me in my present state! I’d be fine to fly with a few extra days, but not today, and so the whole trip had to be scrubbed.
My mom is the queen of looking on the bright side, so I’ll share a few good things that I’ve seen or learned in the last week.
First, my reconstructed heart was fine while I was sick, and kept doing its job as I’ve gotten better. That may seem like a given, but the last year has taught me to notice things that I used to take for granted.
Second, when your body needs you to shut down, there’s no arguing with it. I’ve worked through colds and fevers before, and when I was playing sports I was almost always playing through some kind of pain. But sometimes the only thing you can do is stop and let your body heal. Personally, I think I’ve had quite enough of that lesson this year, but apparently that’s not for me to decide.
But the best thing I got to experience through this brief illness was on Sunday morning. My wife Shelley had been down in LA for the weekend—we’d agreed that she should stay an extra night to minimize exposure to me. Right up until early Sunday morning I was planning on coming to church, wearing a mask and keeping my distance. At 6am, though, it was pretty clear that I couldn’t make it, and I started calling people to take parts of the service. Without being asked, Shelley had already started driving at 5:30am, just in case she was needed to fill in. She got home and got ready, read the sermon for the first time at about 8:30, then went and led the service at First Pres.
Over the last few years I’ve watched Shelley work so hard to study and prepare and live into her calling as a pastor. On Sunday we all saw just how completely ready she is for whatever God has in store for her next. What a gift that was, not just for me but for our whole church family.
So…I’ll be back at church on Sunday. Shelley and I will figure out some time to get away over the next few weeks, but for the most part we’ll be around.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men, often go awry…”
And sometimes, when they go awry, we get to learn new things and find new things to celebrate. That’s the best “bright side” thinking I can muster as I’m cooped up in my house. I think my mom would be proud.
Blessings to you,
Pastor John
PS: The preaching text this week is the story contained in Judges 4 and 5.
The day I learned to read again
Scripture is a text that needs to be practiced and rehearsed. Scripture is meant to be studied and examined but also encountered. We do this work best when we do it together. Rehearsing is a way of encountering. It helps us find the script in scripture - our script. And those encounters are meant to be shared.
How can we encourage each other to read and rehearse Scripture and show one another when we found something true? How can we rehearse Scripture in community to discover God’s word?
I think by offering space to rehearse and encounter the Scripture is a great start. I invite you to read Scripture in some new ways. Not alone but together. Not once but over and over. Not to explain the text in some definitive way, but to find something true, for you, and discover new versions of that truth, for you and perhaps those around you. A space to ask questions and struggle. A space to share and be ok with admitting we don’t know. A space to be troubled and rejoice in what we’ve encountered.
Something I’ve learned - People who disagree with one another can gather around Scripture in this way and enjoy doing it. We can disagree about what the text means and listen to it and to one another. We can find something true before we decide what’s right. And the best outcome is when we discover people whose views we never dreamed we might respect or value turn out to have perspective on the text that we then come to treasure.
The world around us is loud and full of conflict. Rehearsing Scripture might be the start of changing our community. The good news about rehearsing Scripture is that it doesn’t require any special skills. It just takes a group of people who are eager to discover God’s word and are up for an adventure. Reading and rehearsing Scripture really can change things. Discovering God’s word in community is one of the best adventures you’ll ever have.
So, what are you waiting for? If you are already in a Bible in Community group - maybe rethink how you approach your time together. If you are not currently in a group, maybe take the time to find one or start one. If you are eager to encounter and engage in Scripture - I encourage you to do that in community, as well as on your own. Many of us have doubts and crave wisdom that can guide us and build community that will stay with us along the way.
What made me write this and think this way … The Village People. I just love our Fridays together. They have taught me to read and study differently. To not dig into Scripture just for myself but for them as well. So that we can rehearse Scripture together and be there for each other wherever that journey may take us.
Blessings while you read, study and rehearse Scripture, in community. Enjoy engaging in what Scripture means for us today.
Jen Rabenaldt CRE
Telling the good news
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who came and offered us strength for our journeys, and rest for our weariness.
I definitely feel that weariness right now.
All this year I’ve been praying for peace and unity in our political life as we move through this election year. It’s such a hard time of division and friction and disappointment—never was that more true than last Saturday, when a troubled young man tried to kill a former president of the United States. Another man—a husband and father of two—was killed in the crossfire, adding to our feelings of sadness and confusion.
I definitely feel that weariness right now. How about you?
There isn’t any magic solution to all of this. The life of faith isn’t about quick and easy answers—there are no words that will make these feelings disappear. The events on Saturday make us swim in the deep end of reflection on our shared faith. Where was God in all of this?
It’s wrong to proclaim that the failure of the assassination attempt was some kind of miracle. If that were true, what good news would we have to share with the family who lost a devoted husband and father? No, the hard lesson here is that awful things happen sometimes, and that the same God who calls us to live in faith and obedience, remains with us when everything seems to be going wrong. The same freedom that allows us to live and love and serve God, also allows for our brokenness to interrupt God’s good purposes. In the midst of those interruptions, we’re still called to represent the God we know wants the best for all people.
Telling the good news of who God is, even when we suffer, is called theodicy. Literally, theodicy is speaking for God—remembering and sharing the love of God in a broken and wounded world. David Bentley Hart is a theologian who writes about these things. There is honest comfort in these hard words he wrote in the aftermath of a different disaster:
“Ours is, after all, a religion of salvation. Our faith is in a God who has come to rescue his creation from the absurdity of sin, the emptiness and waste of death, the forces—whether calculating malevolence or imbecile chance—that shatter living souls; and so we are permitted to hate these things with a perfect hatred.”
We’re allowed to hate the forces that “shatter living souls”—the crimes and disasters and accidents that steal lives from their place in the world, and from the people who love them. Those forces—not the people who are controlled by them—those forces are the enemies of the life that God wants for every single person. It is our calling to get in front of those enemies and prevent them from stealing more of the preciousness that God has made.
This is a time for all of us, not just the specialists, to open our hearts and represent the real God as we have come to know him through Jesus. As Jen said in her message on Sunday, all of us have a part to play in the living and sharing of God’s love. All of us have that much calling on our lives, and all of us are needed to stand against the forces of hate and oppression and death.
Join me in praying for our country and its leaders, for our church and its place in this community, and for each precious individual person. Life is hard, but it’s not pointless. It’s up to the people of God to remember that, and to share it with a weary world.
Blessings to you,
Pastor John
Christian faith and American patriotism
(The Midweek Reflection is long this week, but you have the holiday break to find some time to read it! A version of this was originally published on a blog 15 years ago, when I still lived in London. Some of it feels a little quaint, given the events of the last 10 years or so, while small bits of it seem prophetic. It resonates still as a message for Christians on Independence Day, especially in this time of division and frustration.)
Christians and Independence Day
What follows is a bit of a rant about the relationship between Christian faith and American patriotism. That may seem like old news or a closed topic to some of you, but I’m getting the feeling that it’s about to make a comeback. I write this as someone with ties to both camps, as an American and a Christian, and also as an historian of the relationship between the two. Mark Noll introduced one of his books about American Christianity by saying that he was writing as a ‘wounded lover,’ and I think I’m beginning to understand what he meant. With that said, here goes.
I love the country that gave me birth and provided a place where I could meet Jesus freely and without fear of persecution. I love the ideas that illuminated the Founders and drove them to the truly audacious conclusions that became our Constitution. I love the size and diversity and complexity of the place, and the way that, at its best, it welcomes newcomers eagerly and with the expectation that they will bring some new and necessary ingredient to the table. I’m proud, hopefully in an appropriate way, to be an American.
Now that doesn’t mean I think the place is perfect or above criticism…far from it. The resources and ingenuity and freedoms of this country mean that we may have even more of a responsibility to be just, generous and humble. It’s on these items that we might be judged most harshly; it’s in these precise areas that we fail most often.
Being a Christian and an American is a difficult dance sometimes. Some of my friends think it’s impossible to be both, that the exploitive and violent acts in our history mean that the nation’s legacy has to be abandoned along the way to mature discipleship. Others see the same events and practices and arrive at the opposite conclusion. ‘America is God’s chosen and ordained nation,’ they say, ‘the greatest force for good in the history of the world.’ To be an American, they might say, necessarily includes being a Christian.
The choices appear to be to see America as the pinnacle of God’s work among the nations, tied inextricably to his plan for the world, or to dismiss the nation as so bloated and sinful and deviated from holy purposes as to be beyond the pale. Hmmm…
I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to disassociate from both of these positions.
Instead I talk a lot to Christians about balancing our responsibilities as citizens with our deeper identities as followers of Jesus. I was raised to be proud of my country, and when I was old enough to choose for myself I found that didn’t change. As a historian I know that there are episodes in our past that erode our image and faithfulness to our values, but unlike stone, that erosion is repaired quickly by the generosity and courage of other Americans. For every injustice there are multiple examples of people who work for fairness and the marginalization of tyranny. For every corrupt politician whose indiscretions dominate the news, there are hundreds of public servants who do the right thing…even if they could earn far more in the private sector.
I suppose the point here is that I have been reminded lately that the idea of America is a living thing—it heals its own wounds and renews its own depleted energies through the commitment and creativity of its citizens. Completely apart from religious belief, there is something unique and special about the inception and development—and even the future prospects—of the United States.
What really matters about America is the network of new ideas that formed its foundation. Bernard Bailyn, one of the great historians of American history, said this about the creators of the American Constitution in a series of lectures that later became the book, To Begin the World Anew (2003).
“We know for certain, what they could only experimentally and prayerfully propose, that formal, written constitutions, upheld by judicial bodies, can effectively constrain the tyrannies of both executive force and populist majorities…We casually assume, because they were somehow able to imagine, that the exercise of power is no natural birthright but must be a gift of those who are subject to it…And we know, what Jefferson so imaginatively perceived and brilliantly expressed, that religion—religion of any kind, secular or revealed—in the hands of power can be the worst kind of tyranny…”
All of that is great. I loved re-reading it and writing it for you because I believe it and hope to pass it on to my son as he develops his own ideas of what it means to be an American. But the awareness and careful stewardship of my American-ness has to be balanced—overshadowed, even—by my core identity as a follower of Jesus Christ. I think I should say that in a more declarative way.
My identity as an American resides as a distant second to my standing as a redeemed child of the living God.
Why go into all of that?
Because some of my American Christian friends are starting to sound a bit shrill in their complaints about the direction of their country. They picture themselves as patriot-heroes, but in reality they’re (mostly) middle-aged, middle-class professionals dreaming of a new Revolutionary War. Each new edition of the Drudge Report sends them to new levels of panic and anger.
Taxes? Too damned high.
Gun control? Some gibberish about their ‘cold, dead fingers.’
Cooperation with other nations? No! Only America’s interests matter!
Uh-oh.
They talk about intrusive government and the gay lobby, and they rail about Communism just like their dads did. I’ve heard some talk about panic in the streets and a brewing revolution in ways that used to be caricatured in films and TV shows about skinheads and other crazy radical groups. Some worry constantly that between homosexuality, Islam, and Barack Obama, America is going to hell in a handcart.
What calms me is the reminder from Dr. Bailyn that the idea of America is based on restraint and the rule of law. The idea of America—which is really its core essence—will survive the attempts of the good and the not-so-good to steer it off its path.
What gives me a sense of peace is the more important reminder that my identity as an American resides as a distant second to my standing as a redeemed child of the living God.
What is sad to me, though, is that some of the people most likely to affirm that last statement are also among the most likely to be threatened by what it means.
Because if we’re honest and faithful (in addition to being historically and biblically accurate), then our allegiance to Christ subsumes or even replaces all other allegiances, including the one we used to pledge every morning at school. Throwing our eternal weight on the one who made us, redeemed us and sustains us is a higher, bigger and more important thing than any earthly citizenship. To believe differently is to miss the point not only of the Christian faith, but also of what it means to be American.
The strong link between Christian faith and American political life left us with a generation, oddly enough, of conservative American Christians so dependent on their influence in politics that they ended up (get this) too lazy to compete in their own religious free market. What a shame.
Now they perceive a new president’s liberal vision as being imposed on them from the outside, when the fact is that all partisanship should have been seen that way. As Christians we should hold all political and national loyalties lightly, not least to prevent us from mistaking them for the one loyalty we should hold above all others. The complaints I’m hearing about the threat to Americanism are sadly much louder and heartfelt than any complaints I’ve heard about the nation’s treatment of the poor, or the lack of biblical literacy among many Christian adults and children, or for any unrepentant sinner who hasn’t yet heard a credible expression of the gospel.
For Christ’s sake—seriously—for Christ’s sake! How can any Christian complain, say, about the loss of the freedom to own an assault rifle when people are living lives apart from the good news of Jesus Christ. Just what, exactly, is so Christian about that?
Bernard Bailyn was right when he talked about religion in the hands of the powerful as “the worst kind of tyranny.” That makes the shrill complaints of today’s frightened American evangelicals even more hollow. It’s not really tyranny that they fear, but rather, in too many cases, the loss of their own leadership role in that tyranny.
It should concern us that in discussions about God’s standards for his American faithful, some evangelicals seem more comfortable quoting John Winthrop’s sermon than the Sermon on the Mount. Winthrop, in a 1630 sermon given to his shipmates on the Arbella, said this:
“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken… we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God… We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are a-going.”
That ‘city upon a hill’ line is from another, far more important sermon—a sermon for all people, not just Americans. In its original context Jesus said:
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)
Oops.
Not much there to support the idea of American or any other kind of national exceptionalism. Not much there to indicate that Jesus was saying: ‘Wait about 1600 years, when my true followers get their country started, and you’ll see how this is really supposed to look.’
Later in the same sermon Jesus clarifies where our true allegiances should be:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
(Matthew 6:19-24)
When American Christians (of whom I count myself one) realize that the faith they have inherited, when joined with the resources they control, could be a force for good and freedom that would exceed even that of the entire nation, then we’ll see a real revolution that matters.
But as long as there are those among us who would serve two masters, who would trade the redemption of the world for nationalist glory or financial security, we’re going to continue on as if paralyzed somehow.
Patriotism that isn’t shaped and informed and fully yielded to Jesus Christ and him only is doomed to be the very problem it seeks to remedy. Without that crucial level of submission we won’t get any farther, or accomplish anything greater, than a dog chasing its own tail. What a shame.
for word to spread
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Greetings to you, and grace and peace in the name of the one who came to set us all free.
Sometimes it takes a while for word to spread. Our modern communications and 24-hour news cycle can make us forget that not all that long ago, news traveled very slowly. When the Civil War ended it took two weeks for the news to arrive in Europe. Just 18 years later, in 1883, the massive eruption of a volcano on Krakatoa (in Indonesia) was in European and American newspapers the same day.
When the American Civil War ended on April 9th in 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation was finally settled law in every state in the Union. Still, that news took more than two months to reach slaveholders in Texas—whether it was poor technology or intentional disobedience is a question for another day.
The news of the war’s end and the final freeing of all slaves reached Galveston, Texas on June 19th in 1865. “Juneteenth,” as it has come to be called, is a celebration of that date of liberation, when the owning of human beings as property was officially abolished. Here’s how the Union general, who brought troops to enforce the law, made the announcement:
"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
Like I said, this was more than two months after the end of the war. Sometimes it takes a while for word to spread.
Juneteenth is both a celebration and a reminder. We celebrate today because after 300 years of slavery and a bloody Civil War, America finally took a major step toward living into the promise of its founding leaders. It’s a reminder, too, that the job isn’t finished yet. Seeing other people as worthless (and worth less) is a sin that denies our central belief that every person is created in the image of God. Juneteenth can look back at a glorious moment in history, but it also forces us to see the job that remains to be done.
We all know, if we pay any attention to the news at all, that slavery and the oppression of people still happens in our country. It can’t be a problem of technology—no way anyone could use that as an excuse. Racism isn’t genetic, it’s a choice. The people who use and abuse and imprison people are fully aware of what they’re doing, they just choose to continue in that wickedness.
Jesus tasked his followers with spreading his message of love and grace and forgiveness to the very ends of the earth (that’s poetry there—Jesus knew the earth was round). They started in Jerusalem and spread north to Samaria, and then over into Asia and beyond. The sharing of the gospel that started 2000 years ago is what brought each of us to the faith—you’re reading this because of what those first apostles and followers did. Isn’t that amazing?
Part of that message was that every single person has value—every human being is meant to live and thrive in peace, free from the fear of being enslaved by another person.
Jesus tasks us with pressing that message in the places where it needs to be heard. There are times when it takes longer in some places than in others, but the calling is still the same. Sometimes it takes a while for word to spread, but that doesn’t mean that we stop trying.
Let this Juneteenth be a reminder that God sent his son with a message of reconciliation and liberation.
Let this Juneteenth also be a reminder that now it’s our job to spread that word, even when it takes a little extra time.
Blessings to you and yours, and to those who still live in any kind of bondage.
Pastor John
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Upcoming Preaching Texts
June
23 Luke 5:1-11 “Fishing and Other Sports”
30 John 21:15-19 “When We Screw It Up”
July
7 Second Kings 22:1-2 and 11-13 “Institutional Memory Loss”
14 Ruth 1:15-18 “Burning Bridges, Building a Life”
21 Mark 1:21-26 “An Unlikely Messenger”
28 Amos 7:7-17 “Bad News Bearer”
A journey of a thousand miles begins….
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Messiah, the one who walks alongside us even in our most difficult times.
For a while now I’ve been staring at a stack of books to read. Some are for sermon and teaching prep, a few more are to help me understand the rise of nationalism in our country, and others are just for pleasure reading. What they all have in common is this:
I don’t seem to be able to find the time to read any of them.
There are a handful of reasons for that, I suppose. Life has been busy lately—in addition to my regular work, we went on our honeymoon for a few weeks, and then my son got married. It’s been a challenge to find the time and focus that a good book demands.
A lot of life is like that, right? We have important things that we need to do, whether it’s jobs or relationships or something else. But sometimes it’s hard to give them the attention they need. That attention starts with, well, starting. What’s the saying? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Maybe that’s some helpful advice today—I know it is for me.
Maybe if I zeroed in on starting a few of these books, instead of getting them finished—maybe then I might actually learn some of the things I need to know. It’s worth a try.
I have so much to learn, and so much that I want to understand better. My pile of unread books is reminding me of that today. Might be time to start one of them, even if it will be a struggle to get it finished.
How about you?
Blessings to you as you enter into this month of June.
Pastor John
Reminder: Our Grief Support Group will meet tomorrow (Thursday) at 2pm at the church.
Grief Support Group Meeting June 6 at 2 p.m. in Wilson Hall
We don’t have to walk alone. Our goal is to provide a space where we can reach out to each other with love, understanding and hope. If you are navigating feelings of grief in your life, we invite you to come—to share and to listen—as we move through this season together.
Psalm 77
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who promises to be with us now and forever.
I’ve been looking forward to this week for a while now. My son is getting married to a wonderful woman on Sunday, and I’m filled with all kinds of memories and stories and emotions. Family milestones are important—they mark the best of the passage of time, and they give us chances to pass the baton to a new generation.
These milestones remind us of wounds, too. As much as I loved being a dad, I can always find things I wish I’d done better. The low end of this week has me dwelling on those.
But overwhelmingly, I find myself so happy—for my son, for the life that looks so bright as they start their married life together, and for the ways I see him doing better than I did, even as I tried to do better than my dad. It’s that kind of week.
In the first few verses of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he says: “I thank my God every time I remember you.” That’s how I’m feeling about my son these days. I learned a lot from being his dad—probably more than I taught him. I gave him some skills and shared some interests with him, and now I see those lessons flourishing in his life and work. I really do thank God when I think of him.
How about you? Do you have people or places that fill you with gratitude when you think of them? It’s worth finding those memories and holding them close. They can sustain us through hard and painful times.
I’ll leave you with these verses from Psalm 77:
11I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will consider all your works
and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
13 Your ways, God, are holy.
What god is as great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Take a little time this week and meditate on the words of the Psalmist, given in praise of Yahweh. It’s good to remember who God is, and what God has done for us.
Blessings to you and yours,
Pastor John
Open minds lead to open hearts
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of the One who calls us—who blesses us and asks that we share that blessing with all the people in the world.
If you’ve been around First Pres lately you’ll recognize that line above as the One Great Calling of the Bible, that we respond to God’s blessings by sharing them with others. That’s an important reminder any day, but today in particular.
May 15th is a day of sorrow for the Palestinian people—they call it the Nakba.
May 14th is one of the most joyful days for the citizens of Israel.
What gives? As with most things, some history will help.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust in WWII, Jews in Europe and all over the world wanted a homeland where they could be safe from slaughter and persecution. In 1947 the United Nations carved out and delivered the territory we now know as Israel, and by the following year the land was settled by Jews from the region and Jewish refugees from all over the world.
But the land that was given to Israel wasn’t empty. Palestinian Arabs had lived in that region for centuries, mostly peacefully, side-by-side with their Jewish neighbors. More than 900,000 Palestinians were either killed or driven from their homes and shops and farms in 1947-48, and those properties were taken over by Jewish citizens of the new State of Israel.
Some Palestinians left forever, settling in Europe and the US and all over the world. Many stayed, but as refugees in their own country or in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon. There are refugee camps within Israel filled with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who have been told that if they leave they would lose any claim on the lands that were taken from them. But there is no real mechanism for taking those claims to court, and so they have continued to live in these makeshift cities—for five generations or more.
Maybe the most basic part of the story that doesn’t get told is this:
When Israel was given a homeland so that they could be safe after the horrors of the Holocaust, the land they were given already had people in it. Those people are the Palestinians, and they have a complaint that the world has mostly ignored for more than 75 years.
Israel needed a homeland.
That homeland was taken away from someone else, the Palestinians.
Both of these stories are true.
Both sides experience the same set of facts differently.
Maybe the clearest way we can understand this idea is this:
On May 14th every year, Israelis celebrate their Independence Day. It’s a joyful day, like our own 4th of July, remembering their escape from the horrors of the Holocaust and the establishment of a nation where they can control their own security.
On May 15th every year, Palestinians have a different kind of holiday. It’s a sad day, full of weeping and mourning. It’s known as the Nakba, which is Arabic for “catastrophe.”
Two people groups, remembering the same events and facts, and experiencing them in very different ways. No wonder the rest of us throw up our hands and say “it’s too complicated.”
As the war between Israel and Hamas continues to cause death and destruction, overwhelmingly affecting innocent Palestinian civilians, it’s good for us to be more aware of the history behind the conflict. We owe everyone that, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Open minds lead to open hearts, and that’s likely to do more to bring peace to Israel-Palestine than anything else.
Blessings to you this week, and I look forward to seeing you on Pentecost Sunday,
Pastor John
Ascension Day
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who came and loved and died and rose again, then left so we could become his reflection here on earth.
It’s that leaving that we reflect on today. Tomorrow is Ascension Day, a little known and largely ignored date in the Christian calendar. Ascension Day commemorates the way Jesus left the earth, and it marks a crucial shift in the way God interacts with Creation. Up until the Ascension of Jesus, the Bible’s narrative is focused on “place”—literally, on where God lives and where the people of God reside. A garden, an Ark, the Promised Land, the Temple—you get the idea. Jerusalem becomes the central place in the story of God’s love for humanity…that is, until the Ascension.
We see the story of Christ’s Ascension in Luke 24:50-53. Some background will help here. The events of Holy Week come to their big finish with the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross. The disciples were amazed and emboldened—the same people who ran away or fell asleep when the chips were down suddenly became brave preachers and healers, even at the risk of their own lives.
The Bible tells us that after his resurrection, Jesus spent 50 days with his followers, spending virtually all of it talking about his favorite topic: the Kingdom of God. We know (because I keep going on about it) that the Kingdom of God is actually the reign of God—God’s demonstration of ongoing sovereign power over all times and places and things, even death. The values of the Kingdom are the focus of Jesus’s teaching in the parables, and they are the values we’re called to live as disciples of Jesus.
With me so far?
So why is the Ascension so important? It would have been easy to leave the risen Jesus on a throne in Jerusalem for all time. So many things would have been simpler—Jews would have come to see Jesus as their Messiah. People of other faiths might have seen how the deities of their religions point to the loving gospel of Jesus. We all would have been making peaceful pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see Jesus, because the place where he lived would be the most important place in the world. The holy land would have become The Holy Land, and everything and every person would have been focused there.
I think that’s why Jesus chose to leave the way he did.
Between the Ascension and its partner day, Pentecost, God does something dramatic—God changes the way we understand our relationship to the one who made us and loves us. After the Ascension our relationship to God is no longer rooted in a place. Once the Holy Spirit comes to empower and energize the church, the presence of God isn’t limited to a box or a Temple or a country. Each of us carries that presence with us, which is meant to be a blessing for every person and nation in the world. That has huge implications for us and for the rest of the world. Why?
Because after the Ascension and Pentecost, there isn’t any specific holy
land anymore.
After the Ascension and Pentecost, it’s all Holy Land—every beautiful, troubled, broken, glorious inch of this earth is Holy Land, rich with the presence of God because we’re in it.
How amazing is that?
The invitation to us, as we move toward the birthday of the Church at Pentecost—the invitation and challenge to us is to live our lives as if God’s presence is with us and in us. When we do that, even for brief moments, we reflect the love and reconciling mercy of God to a world that needs to see it—needs to experience it.
Make that your own prayer and action this week…and every week. Live your life in the presence of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. More than any program or event or gimmick, that’s what will grow our church. That’s what will extend the love of God to our neighbors and to each other.
May that be true for all of us. Blessings to you and yours,
Pastor John
God Calling
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of the Most High God, the one who loves us and gifted us with Creation and with a calling.
It’s good to be back! Shelley and enjoyed our honeymoon trip to Paris and then to Andalusia in Spain. We walked and talked and visited so many beautiful sites—more churches than I can accurately count. It was a time of refreshment and connection, and we’re grateful for your encouragement and support as we took this time for ourselves.
This past Sunday was such a great day at First Pres. We heard from our youth and their leaders as they talked about what it means to have a passion in life—a sense of enjoyment and fulfillment in certain hobbies or activities or expressions of faith. If you didn’t see the service, you can check it out on the church website—they made us so proud and hopeful.
Starting this week I’m beginning a series called God Calling, where we’ll look at some stories about the ways God called some of the people in the Bible. The idea of callingis an important one for the journey of faith. The description of the church in the Bible is a word that literally translates as “the called out ones.” Right from the start, being a part of the family of God is described as a response to God’s call—that’s why we’re here, in all our diverse, glorious, broken, redeemed beauty.
God calls all of us to new ways of living and loving and serving, even if some “calls” are more specialized. Each of us is called to follow Jesus in our own lives, no matter what we do for a living.
This week we’re going to look at the story of Abram in Genesis 12. God’s call of this elderly man is a reminder of a few things. First, God’s call comes in the form of a covenant, where something is promised from both sides. Second, that there’s no age limit on calling—Abram was already 75 years old when God decided to make a deal with him. And finally, the covenant God made with Abram is one that we are bound by as people of faith. This Sunday we’ll talk about what that means.
My hope is that these studies will help us all deepen our understanding of who God calls us to be, and what God calls us to do. We all might learn some new things!
Until then, blessings to you as you listen for God’s voice…and respond!
Pastor John
Upcoming Preaching Texts
May 5 Genesis 12:1-5
May 12 Luke 1:26-38
May 19 Acts 2:1-13
CHANGING
Hello Friends,
As I continue to live out my call to God and First Pres SLO I have learned that most of us have an authentic desire to live out our faith in tangible ways.
To love our neighbors
To make a difference
To embody the hands and feet of Jesus
To be braver in relationship
To practice faith, not just talk about it
To help the world be a better place
I have been reading, “Practicing, Changing Yourself to Change The World”, by Kathy Escobar, and have been motivated by her words and examples. I hope to bring that to First Pres SLO in the form of a book study. More to come on that.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Each year many join in promoting awareness, providing vital resources and education and advocating for the mental health and well being of all.
This year, Mental Health America’s theme is “Where to Start:Mental Health in a Changing World.” There is that notion again … CHANGING. Change/Changing seems to keep popping up. I believe there is something tangible to that that we can all participate in in a variety of ways.
In a world that is constantly evolving, it can be overwhelming to navigate the various challenges and changes happening around us. The pressures of work, relationships and societal factors, like politics, climate change and the economy, can impact our mental well-being. Sometimes even more than we realize.
Even though society is more comfortable discussing mental health, it is still hard to know where to start when these pressures are part of your daily life.
First Pres SLO has committed to taking action and to becoming an advocate for mental health. The goal is to let our community know this is a safe place to seek help and find resources. As we embark on this journey together I encourage you to get involved in tangible ways. Most importantly to keep this effort in your prayers. Your actions, no matter how small, contribute to our effort to create a community that values and supports mental health and wellness.
May is the month to be “seen in green”. We will have green ribbons available and other “green” offerings to share.
Watch for details and opportunities as we approach the month of May. If you have any questions or are interested in being involved please let me know. I look forward to being a part of this important outreach and would love for you to join me.
Jen Rabenaldt
this Holiest of Weeks
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, in whose steps we make our own journey to the Cross this week.
And so we come to the end of this Lenten season. Over the last weeks we have been looking inward, reflecting and repenting as we prepare our hearts for the joy of Easter. Some years Lent feels longer than others, and for me this one has gone on and on…
This final week—this Holy Week—is meant to rein us in and give us focus on the last days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. This next stretch of days calls us to confront our own distance from God, and also the lengths Jesus went to in order to bring us back. The final days of Holy Week have a rhythm to them—they have a relentless feeling of knowing what’s happening next, even if it brings us pain or discomfort.
Today is Spy Wednesday, a day when we remember the betrayal of Jesus by his friend Judas. “Spy” is another way of saying “ambush,” so it points to the sneaking around that led to Jesus being arrested and taken away. Today is a day for reflecting on the ways we can betray Jesus in our own lives. It’s not an easy day. It’s not meant to be.
Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, a day that recalls Jesus’ last meal with his closest friends. Jesus washed their feet and said to them: “A new commandment I give to you, love one another.” In Latin, mandate is the word for “I command you,” and it comes down to us as “maundy.” Thursday is a day to be reminded that even as he was being betrayed, Jesus reminded us to love each other.
Good Friday is meant to be an ironic name. It’s “good” because it’s the day of the sacrifice that redeems all of creation back to God. But it’s also a day of pain and suffering and death for the one person in human history that didn’t deserve any of that. On Friday, take some time to reflect on the sacrifice Jesus offered so that we could live in shalom with God and with each other. Our Tenebrae service will be at 7pm.
Holy Saturday helps us remember the darkest day of the week—the one full day when Jesus lay dead in the tomb. Christians believe a wide range of things about what happened on that Saturday (Google the “Harrowing of Hell”), but the only truth we can wrap our heads around about that day is this: Jesus the Messiah was dead. Holy Saturday acknowledges the reality that we spend a lot of our lives in that Saturday place of loss or sadness or confusion about what God is doing.
I do like Campolo’s “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming” but the Saturday between became important to me because it’s real. It acknowledges the reality that we spend a lot of our lives in that Saturday place of loss or sadness or confusion about what God is doing. The pause of Saturday is a gift to us, it’s God acknowledging or creating space that acknowledges the reality of our earthly existence. God could have raised Jesus the very next day, but he didn’t. That pause, that waiting, has sacred purpose. We’ll remember Holy Saturday together at 10am in the Sanctuary.
Easter will come, with the joy and feasting we’re all looking forward to. Easter will come, but until then, let me invite you to walk these next few days with purpose, remembering who God is, what God accomplishes in Jesus, and who we’re called to be in our own lives.
Blessings to you as we make our way through this Holiest of Weeks,
Pastor John
little doorways into the presence of God
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who invites us to this season of reflection and repentance as we prepare our hearts for Easter.
Lent continues… We all have busy lives—our days and weeks are filled with tasks and meetings and appointments, some are pleasant, and others not so much. The kind of discipline that Lent calls us to is difficult. There’s hardly time to do all the things we’re supposed to be doing, let alone setting aside time for introspection.
This year Lent has been especially challenging for me. After the time away for heart surgery and recovery, I start most days feeling like I’m hopelessly behind in my work, like I’ll never catch up.
Then God finds a way to get ahold of me.
Sometimes it’s a memory that stops me short. Other times I see something or hear something that pierces my heart and moves me to unexpected tears. Just this week it was a song that brought back a flood of memories of my father.
In all of those there is a twinge of pain that I wish would go away. Who has time for that kind of interruption? Certainly not me, unless… What if those interruptions are the point?
Henri Nouwen writes about the usefulness of those pains and twinges in his Lent reader, “Show Me The Way.” He writes:
“The mystery of God's love is not that he takes our pains away, but that he first wants to share them with us. Out of this divine solidarity comes new life.”
So let me get this straight. God enters my pain along with me? He wants to share that pain with me? Honestly, I’ve never really thought about it that way. But what if it’s true?
What if God being willing to sit with me in my broken places leads me into a deeper connection with him, a deeper sense of divine solidarity, as Nouwen puts it. What if those cracked and dented parts of my life aren’t interruptions at all, but little doorways into the presence of God?
Isn’t that beautiful?
Lent is a season where we think about these things. In these last few days before Holy Week, let me invite you to listen for God’s voice, and to sense God’s presence in the good places, and also in the places where you might be hurting, or struggling, or grieving. These next few weeks are our time to remember all that Jesus did and suffered for us. Lean into those memories, alongside the ones that might be causing you pain.
We’re almost there, but not just yet.
Blessings to you,
Pastor John
Lent continues…
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who lived and suffered with us and for us, and who offers us rest.
Lent continues…
The world tries to convince us that everything is out of control, that we’re somehow on a runaway train that can only end in disaster. There’s plenty of evidence on its side! The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza continue; we tense up at the thought of yet another election year; we watch with resignation as the people of Haiti suffer from another collapse of their government. It would be easy to think that we live in a world guided only by chaos—a world where evil wins out over good.
And then we remember the words of a beautiful hymn…
This is my Father's world.
Oh, let me never forget,
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
The Lent disciplines of reflection and repentance aren’t designed to keep our eyes on ourselves, they’re meant to remind us of the grace and mercy and love of God. And when we encounter God in a meaningful way, we find what the Bible calls “rest”. This kind of rest is more than a power nap or a good night’s sleep. The “rest of God” is our refuge from the unrest of the world we live in. Notice that it’s not escape, but rather a sort of time-out that allows us to renew and refresh so that we can go back out and take our places as God’s image in the world.
Henri Nouwen, in his Lent reader, Show Me The Way, said this:
“The rest of God is a deep rest of the heart that can endure even as we are surrounded by the forces of death. It is the rest that offers us the hope that our hidden, often invisible existence will become fruitful even though we cannot say how and when. It is the rest of faith that allows us to live on with a peaceful and joyful heart even when things are not getting better, even when painful situations are not resolved, even when revolutions and wars continue to disrupt the rhythm of our daily lives.”
I don’t know about you, but I struggle every day to live with a “peaceful and joyful heart”. Sometimes I convince myself that it’s just not my nature, but then I remember (and Lent helps so much with this) that I am God’s child, dearly loved, and that my identity isn’t found in money or power or accomplishments or being right, but in the simple fact that God loves me and is willing to put up with my weaknesses to show what true strength really looks like.
The rhythms of our lives will always be challenged by the events around us. The invitation to all of us—the call on all of us—is to trust in the promises of God, and to live into the true rest of God. In may take me all of the Lent seasons left in my life to scratch the surface of that, but I’m grateful for the invitation to live this life of faith.
How about you?
May the remaining days of this Lenten season give you a sense of God’s presence, an awareness of your own need, and a genuine experience of God’s rest. Easter is coming, but for now we wait.
Blessings to you and yours,
Pastor John
reflecting and repenting
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Messiah, whose life of sacrifice is a model for us all.
We are deep into the season of Lent now. How is it going for you? Are you finding time and space to do a little reflecting and repenting, so that Easter can be that much more meaningful this year? I hope so, for you and for me, and I know it’s not always easy.
Some of us are reading through the little devotional called Rise, by John Pavlovitz—it’s a good and challenging guide to the season. I tend to bounce around between Henri Nouwen’s Show Me The Way, whatever the congregation is doing, and the lectionary (a daily set of readings that take us through the whole Bible over three years).
On one lectionary site I was challenged by this part of today’s Gospel reading (you can find the readings here):
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)
Here's what strikes me about this, especially during a season when we’re meant to be focusing on getting our inward lives in order:
Our values and priorities can be twisted by the demands (or temptations) of our culture.
And then we see Jesus, living and loving and serving, as he reminds his closest friends about the true meaning of greatness. You have to serve other people.
Now I can’t think of a contemporary motivational speaker who would say this. They usually focus on taking what’s yours, defeating your competition, and forgetting your past. But that’s not what the Messiah has on offer for us. That’s not the path to a meaningful Lenten season.
Even the wording of Jesus’ teaching is important. Bear with me here. Jesus says:
“Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”
Notice that it’s not: “If you want to be great among you shall be a servant;
if you wish to be first among others you shall be a slave.”
Jesus is saying that if you want to know who is really great among you, look for the servants, the generous ones, the ones who sacrifice for others. Just like Mister Rogers taught us (or our kids), “Look for the helpers.” Jesus says all of this knowing how the story will go. “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
That’s our model. That’s whose life we’re called to build our lives around.
During this season of Lent, let me invite you to do some honest reflection on what you value most. See if some internal housecleaning can help you clear out the junk and open your heart to a more meaningful experience of the Resurrection this year.
That’s my prayer, for you and for me. Blessings to you,
Pastor John
Ash Wednesday
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one whose life gives us an example and model for how to live.
It’s Ash Wednesday today, a day where we consider our life in Christ, and also mortality as human beings. Blessings to you as we enter into this season of Lent.
It won’t be a surprise to you that mortality has already been on my mind recently! Over the past three months I have had to trust people with my health and my life, and I learned that as important as that is, it ain’t easy. I’m choosing to make it a part of my own practices during this Lenten season, and my hope is that it will make it richer and more meaningful.
Lent is a part of the Church Year that invites us to reflect and repent and prepare our hearts for the joy of the Easter miracle. It’s one of the fasting seasons, a time when we intentionally go without something as a way of reminding ourselves of our need for God. For these 40 non-Sundays (we’ll get to that) between now and Easter, we devote a little time and heart-space to looking at our lives and seeing where we can do better—where we can live more faithfully, more generously, more sacrificially.
We don’t naturally reflect and repent. Our lives move so quickly and busily that we rarely have the time or make the time. Sometimes we keep busy so we don’t have to look inward—that’s certainly my ongoing temptation. But Lent invites us to do what doesn’t come naturally. Lent calls us to take an honest look at our lives and see where the dead places are. This season is about pointing to the Resurrection, and so finding our dead places becomes an act of hope.
This year during Lent we’re encouraging you all to read a small devotional called Rise, by John Pavlovitz (there are copies available at the church). For today’s reading he says this about entering Lent with an eye on Easter:
When we step into these forty days as people of faith, we do so while having the end in mind, and so the pain we encounter in the gospels is always tempered by the knowledge of the glorious morning we know is coming. It will be a path woven through doubt, grief, fear, and hopelessness, but we know how it ends, and that helps. (p.5)
And so I invite you to make this Lenten season a meaningful one. We’re all going through something—some are feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of life and health and relationships. Whatever it is, take some time to look it square in the eye, remembering that we know how it ends—let that help a little.
On Sundays we get to shake off our fasts and celebrate the gospel story we hear on all the other Sundays. But for the other six days of these coming weeks, make Lent a real and important part of your life. Easter will be that much richer.
In peace on this Ash Wednesday,
Pastor John
A healthy church is built on?
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus, the one who is faithful no matter what.
It feels so good to back with you all—back at work here at the church. I’ll stop going on about that sometime soon, for now I still think about it every day. Serving Christ and serving this church is a gift, and I’m reminded of that each time I come into the office or step up to the pulpit.
The idea of the church is an important one to me, which I think you know. I’ve said many times that local churches have almost unlimited potential to make communities better and healthier and more gracious—local churches can change the world.
Because of that, each January I start the year with a series on what it means for us to be the church. The series was delayed a bit, but we begin the 2024 edition this Sunday. Each year I invite you to memorize a sentence with me. It goes like this:
A healthy church is built on a foundation of Jesus Christ, and expressed through fellowship, worship, discipleship and mission.
Over the next four Sundays we’re going to look at each one of those expressions, so we can learn together what it means to be the Body of Christ in this community.
What does it mean to be built on a foundation of Jesus Christ? Obviously it’s a metaphor, a way of seeing the spiritual life of our church being rooted in firm and steady ground. The life of Jesus is meant to be a model for us, not just of what to believe, but of how to live—how to love and serve and even vote (now I’ve done it). It’s Jesus—his teachings and the ways he treats people—it’s Jesus who shows us how to see and how to engage. That’s what it means to be built on a foundation of Jesus Christ.
There are so many ideas and behaviors that are being branded as Christian these days—things that have nothing to do with Christ’s life and work. It’s our job to reflect faithfully and knowledgeably so we can better separate the truth from the lies.
And so I invite you to take these next four Sundays seriously, as we reflect together what it means to be the church. For now, take a few moments to memorize this sentence:
A healthy church is built on a foundation of Jesus Christ, and expressed through fellowship, worship, discipleship and mission.
With Blessings,
Pastor John
It is so good to be back!
Dear FPCSLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the Deliverer and Prince of Peace, the one who came and loved and showed us how to do the same.
It is so good to be back! This past season has been a challenge and a lesson in patience for me. Before I say anything else, let me thank you all for your prayers and cards and words of encouragement…and also for your silence. For the first few weeks after my surgery I was really in no condition to respond to messages or deal with the duties of my job at First Pres. You all respected that (some of you understood it better and sooner than I did), and I want to thank you.
I also want to thank Jen Rabenaldt for managing the church in my absence, and for leading you all in worship and service through Advent and Christmas and into the New Year. It was a gift to know that I could trust her skills and gifts to help the church thrive in what could have been a season of disruption and weakness. Thank you, Jen!
So now we begin 2024 in a position of strength and readiness. We ended 2023 in the black financially, which is an accomplishment for any church. I’ll say that louder:
We ended 2023 in the black financially, which is an accomplishment for any church.
As we move into the coming year, we do it knowing that we can support our growing ministries, and continue to grow into our calling as First Pres SLO.
I want to add one more thought as we resume these weekly messages.
The news around the world over the past few months has been, well, pretty awful. It’s been hard not to engage the stories and comment on them—it’s been hard for a pastor to see what’s happening and not comment or teach on what they mean and how we should respond.
I’m relieved to say that that’s over now.
The continuing conflicts around the world call out for Christ-centered comments, and that’s a big part of my calling. It’s tempting to look at, say, the violence in Israel-Palestine and surrender to the complexity of it. How do we respond? We respond by humbly listening and learning to the voices of those who are living through that violence not as TV viewers, but as participants and victims.
One of the things I learned as I waited and recovered and rested and tried to be patient is this: There is nothing good or nice or polite about failing to speak out on events and issues that trouble us.
Don’t worry, I’m not getting into partisan politics (except on my own time), but I will speak when I think Jesus teaches us to do so. As Jesus did, we should all be ready to speak and act on behalf of the weak and the poor and the oppressed and marginalized. That is why we’re here.
I hope you’re still glad I came back.
We will speak and listen more on this and other issues in the year to come. It’s great to be with you again.
Blessings,
Pastor John
Where your treasure is….
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus, the one who gives, and who calls us to give.
The weather is cooling, we’re about to get the first rain of the fall, and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Sounds like the heart of Stewardship season to me!
As I say each year, I love this part of the church’s life. Pledging annual support to the church is an essential part of being a mature disciple, and so the partnerships we enter into reveal something important about our congregation. We are all in this together—financially, prayerfully, and with our time and talent.
Over these weeks in November we’re looking at things God didn’t say, and reflecting on the real messages we find in the Bible. That gives me a chance to share something that Jesus actually said. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus talked about what it means to be a person of faith, and how our faith is reflected in the way we live in the world. In Matthew 6 he says this:
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Our culture has other ways of saying the same thing. Anyone ever been told to put your money where your mouth is? We invest in what we care about—in what we believe in. We put our treasure where our heart is.
The key is to make sure our hearts are in the right place.
I love seeing the ways you all are putting your hearts into the work of this church. We are building and growing—adding new people and new ways to serve—and we’re doing it on the shoulders of the wonderful saints who came before us. The history of the First Presbyterian Church in San Luis Obispo challenges us to unleash whatever God has in store for us next.
Isn’t that something?
We’ve been hearing stories of ministries we’ve accomplished together in the last year, and also some new opportunities for the year ahead. It is your pledged giving that allows us to make wise plans, and to discern where we’re deploying support and where we’re stepping out in faith.
It’s time for us to, well, put our pledges where our hearts are—where they’re being fed and challenged and blessed. You’ve all received pledge materials in the mail and as attachments to emails. They will be conveniently placed in the bulletins this week, and also in the pews. Let me invite you to prayerfully consider an increase in your giving for 2024. We have such good work to do together!
As always, if you have questions about the church’s finances or ways to give, please let us know.
Blessings to you and yours, and may the Holy Spirit work in each one of us to make us stronger disciples and a healthier church.
Pastor John
‘Tis the season!
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Sometimes it’s good just to say that—to be reminded that the name of Jesus is a source of grace and peace for all of us.
‘Tis the season!
No, not that one, not just yet. It’s Stewardship Season, one of my favorite times of the year. It’s our chance to talk about time and money, and the ways our sharing of both will help accomplish the ministries God is calling us to do.
Think about all the things our shared giving does. It pays for the program and support staff, for the ways we reach out to kids and youth and adults, for the ministries we support in our community and around the world, and for the care and tending of our property. Our shared giving supports the work we do together in a tangible way.
But it’s not just the staff doing the work! You are the hands and feet and heart of this ministry, and so it’s important during Stewardship Season to remember that your pledges of time and talent are essential to us doing, well, anything.
Over the next weeks you’ll hear about different areas of ministry as we talk about pledges for 2023. In coming Sundays we’ll talk about adult Christian education, children and youth ministries, and our music programs. On November 19th we’ll pray over the pledges (and the pledges still to come!), and commit them to God’s service at First Pres.
I hope you’ll take some time to pray and reflect about your pledges to First Pres. I’m doing the same—it would be wrong for me to ask you all to do something that I’m not willing to do! I’m thinking about increasing my own pledge by 10% for next year, partly to deepen my commitment to our ministries, and partly to adjust for the increased cost of just about everything.
Remember that this Sunday is our Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan service, with a chance to remember the members we’ve lost in the past year. The message will be on Psalm 42.
Until then, blessings and peace to each of you!
Pastor John