During this season of Epiphany, we've been exploring Biblical stories of God's call.  

We started with Jesus' call and baptism - and reflected on our invitation to participate in the sacraments of Baptism and Communion.   We heard the story of young Samuel, and reflected on his mother Hannah's faith-filled decision to remember that we all belong to God.   With Isaiah, we visited a heavenly throne room and remembered that all are called to serve, that "somebody" probably means "me" instead of "somebody else."   We heard about Jesus' invitation to a group of fishermen by the sea of Galilee to become "fishers of people."

Twice, we shared entire books of the Bible - Jonah and Esther - which are not often addressed in worship.  Instead of writing a sermon on those weeks, I had the privilege of putting on my storyteller's hat and sharing scripture in a bit more dramatic fashion than we usually do.   We interspersed sections of the story with prayer and singing which illuminated similar themes.   Normally, our scripture readings only take a minute or two, and we move on to other elements of worship.  But on those Sundays, we let the grand story unfold in a longer format.  We shook up the usual order of worship.   We immersed ourselves in the world of the book, and let it speak to us. 

What we find in the Bible are our stories.  When we read the Bible in a very "official" way, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that it contains unlikely events and outrageous promises.  The Bible contains origin stories, love stories, war stories, songs, poems and wisdom.  There's more than a little humor, drama, emotion, and propaganda to be found in its pages.    When we read the Bible in small, 10 verse snippets, it's like a scripture snack.  It fills you up for a bit.  But in the long run, what you need to sustain you is a full meal.   So from time to time, we take on a longer passage or an entire book, making a substantial, multi-course meal.   Something you can sink your teeth into.  Something that will stick with you for a little longer. 

In the 6th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, it is written, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your might. These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up." 

Reading scripture is a little bit like being fed.   I encourage you make it more than a Sunday-morning thing.   We don't feed our bodies only once a week, and expect it to last.  The same goes for our souls.   Back up that Sunday morning scripture snack with a daily meal.   Need help remembering?  Find a website, or a social media page, or a book that feeds you scripture throughout the week.  Chew on it.  How does it taste?  How does it sit with you? 

There's a lot more Bible than we can tackle during 52 Sunday morning readings.  It might seem daunting to start at the beginning and read through to the end - daunting enough to keep you from picking it up in the first place.  Why not start small?   During Lent, our Confirmation Class is reading the Gospel of Mark in its entirety.   I invite you to join them.  It's the shortest Gospel, only 16 chapters.  It covers Jesus' adulthood, ministry and mission, from baptism to the cross, tomb, and resurrection.  We have 7 weeks until Holy Week.  A little more than a couple of chapters a week will see you finished by Easter.   If you're looking for a spiritual practice for Lent (instead of giving up Facebook, or chocolate, for instance), consider reading scripture.

These are our stories, and God's stories.  We share them in church all the time.   Take them home and let them feed your soul.

*Eugene Peterson has a book by that title, which I had forgotten about.   If you're looking for some more in-depth ideas about ways to study your Bible, it's well worth reading.

Our most recent Sunday School hour covered the stories of Jesus' baptism, and the Last Supper, as told by the Gospel of Mark (Mark 1 and Mark 14, if you want to check them out for yourself).   An intimate circle sat around a table with coffee and tea and 3 or 4 different Bible translations among us, and explored what these holy stories have to say to us today.    Our discussion covered the basic (Why was John wearing those weird clothes?)  and the complex (Why so judgmental in this story, Jesus?).   Did you know that the Last Supper was a Passover meal?  What is Passover all about anyway?   Did you know that baptism was fairly common in those days?  What made this baptism so special?   Why does Mark keep saying "Immediately"?  Why use this word and not that word?  How do the other Gospels tell it?

It is good to read and reflect and pray about the Bible ourselves.  It is also good to dig into our Holy Book together.   Sometimes we get into the nitty gritty of word choice and word meanings.  Sometimes we connect with current events.  Sometimes we have long silences while people reflect, and sometimes we have excited conversation with everyone jumping in.   Studying together, we can surface details that we would miss, reading individually. 

It's not only about the study.  We also build relationships as we discuss together.   Our church covenant says, "we propose to walk together in the ways of the Lord."   Not merely arriving in the same place at the same time to worship as individuals, but walking together as a community.   Shared worship, shared meals, shared study, shared service, shared resources make us a community in the model of the early church.   What small step can you take toward the sharing that was such an important part of Christ's original community of followers?

The name of our Sunday School hour is "Growing in Faith Together."   Not an unimportant detail - together includes you!   I invite you to rise a few minutes early on Sunday morning, and bring your wake-up beverage of choice to church.  Join us around the table at 9 am every Sunday for fellowship and conversation about the scriptures for the day.  All are welcome.

Dear God,  

Inviting us to make a home for you.  Really?  That’s how you save the world?  Isn’t there some other way?  It all seems so intimate.  I’m not sure I’m ready for God in <here>.  An arms-length relationship seems much safer.  Much more reasonable.  Much less of a commitment. 

The angel says, “God is with you.”  Perplexed by these words, we ponder what sort of greeting this might be.  How can God be with me?  I’m not holy enough.  I’m too much of a heathen.  I’m far from perfect.   I could work out more often.  Eat better.  Be more generous, more hospitable, more forgiving.   And if you want someone sitting in holy contemplation and prayer, I’m not necessarily your go-to gal.  But you persist. You send angels who point to a fallible, frail, all-too-human being and say, “here.” 

“Favored one?”  Who am I?  I’m an ordinary person from a small town far from the seats of power.  In all these Christmas specials, I’m more like the anonymous townsperson in the crowd, not a main character. How can I be an adequate vessel?  Isn’t there someone else?  Somebody more holy?  More special?  Somebody with a little more free time?

The words are hanging in the air:  “Holy Spirit…power of the Most High…Nothing will be impossible with God.” 

I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t think I’m the only one.  Greatly perplexed.   Questioning, “how can this be?”   Thinking, “I’ve got enough things to worry about.  I have other commitments.  Maybe I’m mistaken.  The angel could be here for someone else.” 

But we look around, and realize that the angel is indeed talking to us.  “Hail, O favored one!  The Lord is with you.  Do not be afraid.” 

It’s hard to know what to say in such a moment.  It doesn’t last long. 

We don’t have a ready-made script like Mary does.  But when we’re lucky, the stars align over our heads and we can manage to stammer a complicated, “yes.” 

Dear God, let that be enough.

Love, us.

PS:  Merry Christmas.

On Sunday, October 2, we remembered God's creatures in worship.  This was the last Sunday of a 5-week series on creation.  Many people chose to bring their furry friends to worship for a special blessing. 

We've been doing a lot of blessing lately.   We bless bread and grape juice every communion Sunday.  During children's time on a recent Sunday, we learned to pray St. Patrick's Breastplate, an ancient prayer, to remember that God is all around us, and blesses us wherever we are, whatever we are doing.  We blessed bicycles and riders and volunteers in worship on July 31.  On August 28, we're blessing backpacks and school supplies, students and teachers.  On October 2nd, we'll be blessing animals. 

Why bless?  Cultures throughout the ages, and all around the world, have found blessing to be a meaningful practice.  Many ancient cultures have specific blessings said at certain times of the day, or when undertaking certain activities.  Blessing something invokes our sense of God's presence in that place, and offers reassurance to the one prayed for that God is indeed present.  Rachel Naomi Remen writes, "When we bless others, we offer them refuge from an indifferent world."  Blessing is doing the work of Christ, making God's presence real for one another, and declaring to our neighbor that they are loved.  

Our blessings have been specific.  We seek blessings because of the relationship between us, because we have care and compassion for one another.  Want to learn more?  Frederick and MaryAnn Brussat, on their website, Spirituality & Practice, offer a "Month of Blessings"  a month-long devotional with prayers and quotes and other food for thought.  Even though we're a few days into August, you may want to explore, or use this site for your own prayer time. 

Remember, we don't have to have any special qualifications to bless one another.  Our Reformation forebears reminded us that we are all priests; we are all holy; we are not only empowered to be in direct relationship with the Holy, but also have the privilege and responsibility of doing so. Take a minute today to bless those around you.  People, animals, things...  As Barbara Brown Taylor tells us, "Celebrate your own priesthood"!

If you missed worship on July 17, you missed some exciting news about our youth ministry!

• Our Bible story was from Genesis 28, Jacob's Dream at Bethel.  Youth assisted in setting the tone for our worship service.  Thank you to Maddie Loss, who spoke our opening words this week, and to the many other youth who helped build a pile of stones, reminding us of Jacob's words, "Surely the Lord is in this place..."

• Thank yous were offered to Sara Zoran, Jackie Ruggles, Anne Gerke, and Gregg Krattiger, who are shepherding our youth group this year.  We are restarting our youth ministry    (SLY, pronounced, "silly"), with more regular activities and a mixture of service, fellowship and fun.  Fall events have already been posted.  See our events calendar at mcfarlanducc.org/calendar and save the dates!  Look for updates about a mission trip later this year.

• Dedicated space:  The church council voted unanimously this spring that our church library will be converted to a designated youth room.  A renovation/redesign project, led by our youth, will begin this fall.

• One of our members made a gift of $3000 in seed money.  These funds will help us as we build the capacity of our church to support youth ministry.

You never know exactly you'll hear in worship.  But you can be pretty sure that it will be Good News!

Our faith family tree in book of Genesis gets a little messy.  Like any married couple, Isaac and Rebekah didn't always see eye-to-eye.  They were married a long time before they were able to have children.  Twin brothers Jacob and Esau fought before they were even born.  Jacob scams his brother out of his inheritance, the whole situation blows up, and family members do not speak to one another for years.  Things don't necessarily improve in the next generation, as Jacob plays favorites with his sons, and daddy's favorite, Joseph, is sold into slavery by his own brothers.  And you thought your family was complicated!

While these are ancient stories, they are also relevant today.  Join us for worship this summer as we take these biblical characters off their pedestal, and see where they show up in more recent times. 

While our time at General Synod is filled with inspiring worship, networking, and education, an essential reason for gathering every two years is to accomplish the business of the church.  Monday and Tuesday are days in which we elect officers, adopt budgets, make governance changes, and consider resolutions of witness relating to social justice matters. 

On the slate for this Synod were two major internal issues:  the frequency of Synod, and the streamlining of governance at the national level. 

• If you are a governance geek, you can get all the education you want here. Each of our major ministry areas (Local Church Ministries, Wider Church Ministries, Justice & Witness Ministries, etc.) has been separately incorporated, with its own board of directors and budget.  As you can imagine, having 5 distinct boards makes decision-making laborious and time-consuming.  Mandates for representation had evolved to the point where we had more people involved in governance than we had national staff!  A proposal for "Unified Governance" passed last night with 78% in favor.  This will reduce the size of our boards significantly, allow for better collaboration, and help the church focus on one shared mission.
• A motion to change the frequency of Synod failed by a notable margin.  We currently meet nationally as a church every two years, but there has been some question of gathering less frequently in order to conserve resources.  However, one delegate spoke compellingly about the woman who used expensive ointment to anoint Jesus.  "Yes, Synod is expensive," he said, "but it is an expensive ointment with which we anoint our youth (among others)."  The sense was that electronic communication and social networking can help us with many things, but there are essential reasons to gather on a regular basis.

Most of the resolutions relating to social justice are on Tuesday's agenda.  None of them seem to be controversial.  So far, all except one have passed.  That one related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and it was tabled because it did not move significantly beyond prior resolutions.  I'll provide an update on these in a final Synod report when I return home.

As I mentioned in a previous update, a resolution on common language relating to baptism also passed.  This resolution will allow Catholics, Presbyterians, and other ecumenical partners to accept baptisms conducted in UCC churches as valid in their own tradition.

Tuesday is the last day of General Synod - wrapping up business, thanking the committees, and an invitation to the 29th General Synod. 

Peace and blessings from Tampa!

Sunday is the day of General Synod in which business begins to move forward.  Even though delegates were in caucuses or committee meetings all morning, there were still plenty of things happening.   For instance... a flash mob!   A group of younger UCC clergy pulled off a flash communion shortly before noon, surprising everyone in the convention center lobby by suddenly breaking into song and inviting people to the table.  A video has already been posted to the UCC website.  You can see the results of our efforts here.  You could feel the Spirit's presence in heartfelt singing, joyful smiles, and the connections among us.


You may ask - what about a more "official" worship service?  It was Sunday morning, after all.   The day's worship service was held at 3 pm, so we could invite our sisters and brothers from local UCC churches, and the general public, to join us.  Worship services at Synod offer a blend of traditional, contemporary, and emerging worship elements.  The same worship service included the hymn 'Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You" accompanied by organ, desert stories from scripture, a prayer offered by liturgical dancers, new words to familiar hymn tunes, and a song of laughter.  Our preacher, Rev. Dr. Laurinda Haffner, based her message on the story of God's providing water to Hagar and Ishmael in the desert (Genesis 21:8-21).  Thanks to the joy of technology, you can still catch this service!  It's available online (along with many other video clips) at the UCC's Synod page, http://ucc.org/synod/.

In the evening, I attended a question and answer session with Rev. J. Bennett Guess, nominee for Executive Minister of Local Church Ministries.  In both his main speech and this question and answer session, he has offered a compelling vision of a more united United Church of Christ, one that works across internal divisions and silos, and connects people throughout our churches to accomplish mission.  What might that look like?  Take a look at Mission 1, a UCC-wide undertaking scheduled for this November.  (You'll be hearing more about 'Mission 1' in worship next Sunday.). 

I leave you with lyrics to one of yesterday's hymns (sung to the tune of "The Church's One Foundation")



Monday:  Synod really gets down to business...committee action moves to the floor.  Budget, resolutions on governance, ecumenical relations, social witness.

Peace and blessings from Tampa!