From the Pastor
I often wonder…as people of faith and people of the church, do you ever think of yourselves as living in two distinct worlds: the world of everyday life and the world of the church? As many of you know, I am an admirer of Barbara Brown Taylor. Last May, I had the opportunity to hear her lecture and preach. She spoke about the two worlds. In her words, “The church is the place of divine transformation. The church is where people say yes to God and to one another. The church is where Christ turns our water into wine. The church is where people come to die and rise again to new life.” But the church often finds itself set against “the world.” And what is this world? Says Taylor, “The world is where prodigals squander their inheritance in loose living. The world is where the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. The world is where Pilate decides who lives and who dies.”
Of course, the world is so much more. It is also a place where we are struck dumb by beauty as well as cruelty, where we are challenged and changed, even where our concepts of God are formed, reformed, destroyed and affirmed. The world is where we meet the people who love us and change us and who drive us absolutely crazy. Could it be that the world of the church is where we come and are strengthened and prepared in order that we can leave again – leave to see what God is up to in the world beyond the church and then to join God there? In the world of the church we meet a giving God who then invites us to go into the outside world and give of ourselves as God has given to us.
With Launch Sunday comes the beginning of a new church program year. As this newsletter makes clear, so much opens before us in the world of the church – our church. But in uncertain times, the path of cautious self-preservation is so very tempting. However, we serve a self-giving God who so often is anything but cautious. Let us dare to trust that this God will never leave the church without all that it needs to live and prosper.
Gene
