Wednesday, February 10, 2021

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Edward J. Farrell writes this: “We begin, sometimes without realizing it, to worship things, to relate to them as persons. And in the process, we inevitably relate to other persons as if they were things. No wonder Jesus spoke five times as often about money and earthly possessions as about prayer. And everywhere in scripture we hear the warnings: money has power; wealth is addictive. Be careful, be on your guard… When God breaks in on a sufficiently prepared people, a new generosity emerges, one that is outgoing, joyous, spontaneous and free.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

In her book Every Bush Is Burning, Joan Puls writes this: “Spend some time with children. Count among your friends and regular associates those who are poor.  Learn from the sick and those who treat life as the gift it is.  And observe true lovers, or better, become one.  Such as these are sacraments of freedom in a world frightened by its own uncontrolled destructiveness and oppressed by its own denial of innocence and gentleness.  It was not by accident that Jesus placed a child in the midst of his adult followers… Children are obedient to their element: innocent joy, eager trust, endless inquisitiveness.”

 Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Pastor Eugene Peterson wrote this: “The opposite of foolish in Scripture is wise. Wise refers to skill in living. It does not mean, primarily, the person who knows the right answers to things, but one who has developed the right responses (relationships) to persons, to God. The wise understand how the world works; know about patience and love, listening and grace, adoration and beauty; know that other people are awesome creatures to be respected and befriended, especially the ones that I cannot get anything out of; know that the earth is a marvelously intricate gift to be cared for and enjoyed; know that God is an ever-present center, a never-diminishing reality, an all-encompassing love…”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Kallistos Ware writes this: “At some thoughts (one) stands perplexed, above all at the sight of human sin, and…wonders whether to combat it by force or by humble love. Always decide: ‘I will combat it by humble love.’ If you resolve on that once for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force: it is the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - Epiphany of the Lord

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Presbyterian pastor Lloyd John Ogilvie wrote this: “A healthy forgetter is developed by forgiveness. We cannot erase the memory cards of our failures in our brain computer until we have a profound experience of forgiveness The authentic mark of truly mature persons is the capacity to forgive themselves. But that is a rare commodity. Years of experience of seeking to be a whole person and helping others with their self-esteem has led me to the conclusion that one of the greatest miracles of life is self-forgiveness. I have never known a person who has been able to do it without a healing experience of Christ’s kindness.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Our 150th anniversary year is drawing to a close. We have been sharing a lot of memories this year so let me offer two more.

 Mary Lou Graves grew up in this church. She died not too long after I came here, but before she died she shared this story. During World War I the song “Keep the Homes Fires Burning” was popular. Mary Lou, just a young girl at the time, led the congregation in singing that song one Sunday. That night the church burned down. Mary Lou’s father kidded her that it was her fault because she sang that song with the suggestive title. That church was rebuilt, but a short time after that the congregation decided they needed more room and started work on our current church building. Once this building was finished they had a big parade from the old church to the new one.

Pearl Grabham was also a long-time, faithful member of this church. She was here every Sunday One Sunday we had an ice storm and cancelled church. We telephoned church members to let them know not to come. “Oh, I’m glad you called,” said Pearl to the person who phoned her. “I had decided it was too icy to drive to church, so I was going to walk instead!!!” Pearl was in her 80s at the time and lived about eight blocks from the church. I miss these two ladies.

Have a blessed week and Merry Christmas,
Pastor John

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Deborah Smith Douglas writes this: “From firsthand knowledge Jesus understands our inevitable times of being enclosed in imprisoning narrowness with no way out. Christ not only understands these moments because he has had his own, he also comes to share ours with us: to lighten our darkness, to love us beside us, from inside our walls of stone. This is the inestimable gift that we approach in this season of Advent: the saving gift of the love of God in the Incarnation, the unfailing presence of God-with-us in all our darkness. This Presence is so powerful and all-encompassing that absolutely nothing can divide us from it.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

Mark S. Burrows writes this: “Advent is a time of the unexpected gift, both in our remembering and in our hoping. It is a season when we recognize that God became flesh in a place emptied of comfort and privilege, a presence that took form in a forlorn crib as the start of a journey that would carry all the way to an ignominious cross. It remains a season haunted by such memories…longing as we do for some trace of the One who was among us for a season and whose coming again we await in life’s long winter.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

A mid-week message from our Pastor:

John Baillie writes this: “Accompany me today, O Spirit invisible, in all my goings, but stay with me also when I am in my own home and among my kindred. Forbid that I should fail to show to those nearest to me the sympathy and consideration which thy grace enables me to show to others with whom I have to do. Forbid that I should refuse to my own household the courtesy and politeness which I think proper to show to strangers. Let charity today begin at home.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Richard Foster, in one of his books, writes this:  “With a power given from above we shout, “No!” to him who promises the whole world if we will only worship him.  We crucify the old mechanisms of power – push, drive, climb, grasp, trample.  We turn instead to the new life of power – love, joy, peace, patience, and all the fruit of the Spirit.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Thomas à Kempis wrote this prayer: “Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know, to love what I ought to love, to praise what delights thee most, to value what is precious in thy sight, to hate what is offensive to thee…” May his prayer be our prayer.

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Mother Teresa wrote these words: “The work we do is only our love for Jesus in action. And that action is our wholehearted and free service- the gift of the poorest of the poor- to Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor. If we pray the work…

                If we do it to Jesus
                If we do it for Jesus
                If we do it with Jesus…

That’s what makes us content.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Henri Nouwen wrote this: “Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and stand up again after the storm has calmed down. Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may be easily broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of time while remaining solidly anchored to the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause them to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let’s be flexible while being deeply rooted.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

One denomination’s position paper offers this: “Hope in God and in the triumph of God’s purpose is the central thrust of biblical eschatology. Concern with the ending of history (the time, the manner) is minimal in scripture; concern with the End of history is a dominant theme. The End is God’s goal for the entire enterprise, Jesus’ term for the End was God’s reign, the kingdom of heaven. To him that reign was at hand, as near as the readiness of women and men to receive it.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Richard M. Gula writes this: “When we begin to confine God to specifically religious areas of life, we are forced to turn away from the ordinary experiences of life in order to be touched by the gracious reality of God. Yet this is not the way it was for Jesus. The fundamental message of Jesus about God is that human life is the home of God. Do not look anywhere else. All the parables of Jesus are stories about experiencing God. These stories are filled with very human characters and very human experiences. Yet none of them ever mention ‘God’ directly….For this reason, our relationship to God and our response to God cannot be relegated to special activities or special moments. Our relationship and response to God are going on all the time, whether we want them to or not.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

James C. Fenhagen wrote this: “The biblical use of the word ‘righteousness’ is the moral equivalent of what we mean when we speak of holiness. It incorporates such concerns as a passion for justice and a concern for truth along with the need to live an ethically responsible life. It involves reflecting in what we do the Christian moral vision by which we understand who we are. Righteousness is the human expression of holiness embodying a vision rooted in moral perspective.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

Here is an excerpt from a position paper from the Disciple of Christ: “As members of churches we are also members of other groups and institutions- political parties, economic organizations, regional and national associations. Each of these constituencies has its vested interests, its value systems, and its authority figures. We cannot deny our participation in these groups; in fact, it is of the utmost importance that these memberships be acknowledged, lest we become unconsciously possessed by them. But the challenge before us as followers of Jesus Christ is to make conscious decisions as Christians, honoring our commitment to him above the claims and assumptions of every other authority.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A mid-week message from the Pastor:

In his book The Quest for the Historical Jesus Albert Schweitzer wrote this: “He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake side. He came to those who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: ‘Follow me!’ and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

One spiritual writer offers this: “Consolation is a beautiful word. It means “ to be with the lonely one.” To offer consolation is one of the most important ways to care. Life is so full of pain, sadness, and loneliness that we often wonder what we can do to alleviate the immense suffering we see. We can and must offer consolation. We can and must console the mother who lost her child, the young person with AIDS, the family whose house burned down, the soldier who was wounded, the teenager who contemplates suicide, the old man who wonders why he should stay alive. To console does not mean to take away the pain but rather to be there and say, ‘You are not alone. I am with you. Together we can carry the burden. Don’t be afraid. I am here.’ That is consolation. We all need to give it as well as to receive it.”

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

A mid-week message: 

Dear Friends,

                Over the last few months the issues of racism and racial justice have become daily headlines in ways we haven’t seen for quite some time. The church has a mandate to be ministers of reconciliation. How do we speak with one another and how do we address society in times like these? That will be the subject of the sermon this Sunday, September 13. I hope you will join us for either in-person worship or on Facebook-Live. We continue to have issues with streaming the worship service and are still working on them. Thick, concrete walls aren’t very helpful with Wi-Fi signals.

Have a blessed week,
Pastor John