MMC: Transfiguration

Good Morning Bethlehem

I hope you all are enjoying this rainy last day of February as we look forward to the transition into spring.  In the church we are beginning to transition towards Easter as we start looking to Lent. 

• This coming Sunday, March 6 at 9am will be an intergenerational Sunday School where we will learn about Ash Wednesday and Lent.  We will also be burning the palms from last year's Palm Sunday in order to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday.  
• Ash Wednesday Worship is at 7:30pm on Wednesday March 9th.  If you are not able to attend that service but would like to receive the ashes, please let me know and we can arrange a time to meet individually at another time that day.
• There is no Worship Together this Saturday, March 5.
• The Giving Basket is collecting cleaning supplies throughout March.  All cleaning supplies, both household and personal, will be donated to Redding Social Services.

Book of Faith Puzzler

Last week's question was: In last Sunday’s gospel reading, Jesus tells us to “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.”  In what Gospel(s) does Jesus tell us to “love your neighbor as yourself’?  In Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31 Jesus says “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  However in Luke 10:27-28, a lawyer says in answering Jesus “you shall love…your neighbor as yourself” and Jesus tells him he is right.  So Jesus tells us to do so in Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Congratulations to Nancy B. for winning the puzzler.  

This week's question is: How many years did it take Solomon to build the temple? A) 1, B) 3 C) 7 D)40 E) 70.  

If you know the answer (or think you know the answer), email me by noon on Wednesday to be entered into this week's drawing.  I was recently gifted a starter of Amish Friendship Bread that will be ready for baking on Saturday.  So I get the feeling that this week's winner will get a loaf of that sweet goodness.

Yesterday's Sermon

If you would like to read it, the sermon can be found here.  At the end of the sermon I gave everyone some homework to bring in pictures and stories of where you see God's love and God's abundance.  Start emailing and bring in those pictures and stories.  The bulletin board in the community room has been redone in order to make plenty of room to post those items.  I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing where you see God's love and abundance.  

Also I told a story of when I stopped worry and God then provided.  When have you stopped worrying about something and God then provided what you needed?    

Sunday's Text

This Sunday is the Sunday of the Transfiguration, the time when Jesus went to the mountain with a few disciples and Moses and Elijah appeared to them; this happened shortly before Jesus entered Jerusalem and began his journey towards the cross. 

The first lesson is Exodus 24:12-18.  Moses goes up Mount Sinai to receive the commandments where a cloud covered the mountain and the Lord's appearance is described as like "a devouring fire."  Have you experienced God this way?  How have you experienced God?  Moses then stayed on the mountain for forty days.  As we enter the 40 day journey of Lent, how do you hope to experience God as we journey towards Easter?

The second lesson is 2 Peter 1:16-21.  The author states "we had been eyewitness of [Jesus Christ's] majesty"  and "we ourselves heard [God's] voice come from heaven".  How have you been an eyewitness to Christ's majesty and have heard God's voice?  The author goes on to say that no prophecy ever came by human will but by the Holy Spirit working through people.  How is the Holy Spirit working through you to prophecy?  What does prophecy mean to you?

The gospel is Matthew 17:1-9.  The gospel says Jesus was "transfigured" before the disciples.  What does it mean to be "transfigured" to you?  Have you ever seen anyone change before your eyes?  Peter wanted to stay up on the mountain and make dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.  How is this inward/worried/scarcity focused thinking? A voice from heaven came and told the disciples the same words that were spoken at Jesus baptism in Matthew  3:17"This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased" and the voice ends with the command "listen to him."  How did the disciples listen to him and not listen to him as Jesus traveled to Jerusalem and the cross?  How do you listen and not listen to Jesus in your life?  

This Sunday's Worship

The following people are signed up to help serve this coming week.  

Worship Assistant: Mark H.

Reader: Cheryl M.

Communion Assistant: Tori M.

Usher: Tori M. & Matt M.

Coffee Hour: none

Preparing meals: none

If you are willing to host coffee hour or prepare a meal for those who would appreciate a meal this week, please let me know.  

Have a blessed week!

Pastor Becca

Do Not Worry, God is Here!

I don't think it is any secret that Bethlehem is not in the best position financially.  Like almost every other congregation, Bethlehem has had some active members who have been laid off in recent years which has effected giving.  Compound this with the fact that Bethlehem is a small congregation, finances are an issue.  So when I was preparing for this sermon, with the gospel text of Matthew 6: 24-34, when Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about what they will eat, what they will drink and what they will wear, I naturally progressed to Jesus telling a modern audience not to worry about finances.  


This is a sermon that I think many of us need to hear on occasion, regardless of our financial status.  And it seems like people enjoyed it today.  So bring in your pictures and stories or email them to me so we can see God's love in this world.


Enjoy!

Do not worry!  Do not worry!  How are we not suppose to worry?  In fact I know very few people who have not worried at some point over the last 3 years about their jobs and their home.  In the midst of a recession with the highest unemployment rates during the majority of our lifetimes, we have worried that our job will be next.  As companies instituted wage freezes, furloughs and even pay cuts, we have worried if we would have enough to pay the bills in the short term, or we have worried that the next step our employer will take would be to make job cuts.  We have even seen some of our fellow congregation members directly effected by lay offs.  And Jesus is telling us not to worry.

As we have seen for sale signs go up in front of homes in our neighborhood and stay up for months later and as we have heard news on the television, radio and internet about home foreclosures, we have worried about our own property values.  And when you compound that with the fears over our jobs possibly getting cut, well then our home might be the next to be foreclosed.  And Jesus is telling us not to worry.

And as we have received our IRA and pension statements and seen the amount decrease drastically as the DOW and NASDAQ indexes dropped remarkable over a short period of time just a few years ago, we have worried about our retirement.  Will we be able to retire when we originally planned or are we going to have to work an additional 2…5…10 years in order to recoup enough money in order to survive retirement?  It is no wonder that people are now more afraid that they will outlive their money than they are in dying.  And yet Jesus is telling us not to worry.

Just hearing that we aren’t suppose to worry makes one want to worry even more. 

So what are some of the things you worry about?

We live in a world of scarcity.  There is only so much money, so much time, so much stuff that we can acquire.  And when we live a lifestyle of worry, we become obsessed with the idea of if we have enough and who has more than us.  Do we have enough money for retirement?  Are we making enough money to live a good life?  Do we have enough time to get everything done?

When we live with a mindset of scarcity not only are we worried about having enough, we are also worried about having the best.  And companies are helping us buy into this idea.  Best Buy recently launched a buy back program where they will buy back your electronics when you want to upgrade to the latest and greatest.  This isn’t for if your laptop, tv or phone dies and you need to replace it but when you want to upgrade to the newest technology, because as most people can tell you, with technology, anything over 6 months old is ancient, even if it still works properly.  This is the same idea behind leasing a car, because it is easier to upgrade. 

Yet here is Jesus telling us not to worry, to not worry about what we will wear, what we will eat, and what we will drink.   And I’m sure if he was talking to our modern society, Jesus would include that we should not worry about where we will live, where we will work, what technology we will have and how much time we will have. 

Jesus is telling us not to worry because God does provide.  Most people, if prodded, has a story about when they stopped worrying, how God then provided.  For me, one of those stories is here, this place.  After two failed attempts at being assigned to a synod so that I could start interviewing at churches, I eventually stopped worrying about it.  I realized that I had an okay job, Bob was enjoying grad school and would just wait until the next assignment date.  I wasn’t going to give up but there was nothing I could do about at the moment.  It was shortly after I came to that conclusion, that someone from the synod office called me about starting an interview process here.

See I want to make a disclaimer about what Jesus said.  Our gospel starts by saying that you can’t serve both God and money, and Jesus says not to worry.  But Jesus does not say not to plan.  And aren’t those completely different things?  And the gospel ends by Jesus telling us not to worry about tomorrow for today’s trouble is enough for today.  And yet part of today’s work is to prepare for tomorrow, everyone knows that if you do not work today, you will not eat tomorrow.

There is nothing we can do if our employer decides to lay off our entire department.  But we can be a good employee so that if we do get laid off, we have a good relationship with our past employer in order to have a good reference.  It is pointless to worry about how we did on that test, but if we studied so that we did our best, we at least know we were prepared as well as we could have been.  We may worry about paying for our retirement, but we can set aside money and invest wisely now so that we do have money later and along with that realize that we are doing what we can now, and worrying about it and checking our IRA daily is not going to do much to help us. 

As a congregation, we can worry about what money is left in the bank from the sale of the old parsonage and live in fear that we only have X amount of time left (which by the way that date changes every time I hear it).  But then we are giving into an idea of scarcity, there is only so much time left.  And we begin to become inward focused, worrying only about ourselves and the amount of time we have left.  And there will never be enough time and enough money.  I know of one congregation that has an endowment that will be able to pay for their entire annual budget for 20 years and yet they are still worried that 20 years is not long enough.

Instead Jesus is asking us to live with a different economy.  Not one based on money, but one based on God’s love.  And God’s love is abundant!  Every parent I know who has more than one child agrees that when their second came along, their love for the first child was not divide between the two, but instead they all of a sudden had more love, their love wasn’t just added but multiplied or increased exponential. This is what God’s love and an economy based on God’s love is like.  When we stop worrying and start living in an economy based in love we start realizing how much we are given and are able to do so much more than when we live lives based in scarcity and worry. 

As a congregation, we can instead look at the bottom line and think of how wonderful it is that we know we will be around for at least the next 3 to 5 years and think of all the wonderful things we can do in that time.  With God’s guidance we can do great ministry.  We can reach out to the people of this community, this country and this world to show God’s love to them.  We can plan ahead for that ministry to happen both in the next few years and beyond.  And we can stop worrying about if there will be enough time and instead realize that God will provide it. 

But it all starts with us as individuals.  First we have to realize that God’s abundant love is already at work in this world.  So let’s start by me asking, where do you see God’s abundant love in this world?

Now I have some homework for you.  Throughout Lent I’m going to ask you for pictures and stories of where you see God’s abundant love in this world.  Go out, take pictures, cut them out of the newspaper, print them off the computer, email them to me if you need to.  Write down and tell stories about how you saw God each day and bring those stories in.  And I’m going to put them up, we are going to see through each others words and eyes, where we see God and where we see God’s love.  And through these pictures and stories we will realize that we have more than enough and can stop worrying. 

MMC: God V Money

Good Morning Bethlehem

I hope you are having a wonderful President's Day and for those of you who are not working today, that you are enjoying your long weekend.  And those of you that are working, I hope your workload is light and while we celebrate our countries leaders today, you realize that behing every great leader is many hard workers.  

I'm sure many of you have received an email (or 12) at some point with church bulletin bloopers.  Well today's Pearls Before Swine takes a different take on church bulletins.  

(Disclaimer:  I'm not trying to insult anyone, especially our members with the last name Johnson.  I just thought you would get a good laugh)

Some announcements:

• The giving basket is collecting cleaning supplies throughout the rest of February and March to be donated to Redding Social Services.  Any household or personal cleaning items are greatly appreciated.
• This Sunday, February 27, our council members will officially be installed, including our new president Ellen, vice president Victor, treasurer Karin and secretary Cheryl along with our long time financial secretary Lynda. 
• The following Sunday, March 6, is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Lent.  During the education hour at 9am there will be an intergenerational Sunday School where we will learn about Lent and play with fire as we burn the palm from last years palm Sunday to make the ashes for this year's Ash Wednesday.  All are invited to learn more about the church year.  
• Ash Wednesday service is Wednesday March 9 at 7:30pm.  
• The new pictorial directories are now available in the community room.  We are asking for a minimum $6 donation per copy to help offset the printing cost.  Please let me know if you need one delivered/mailed to your home.  

Book of Faith Puzzler

Last week's question was: What book are the Ten Commandments found in?  The Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.  Congratulations to Ryan for being this week's winner!

This week's question (slightly reword for clarification from the version found in yesterday's announcement):  In today's gospel reading, Jesus tells us to "love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you." In what Gospel(s) can it be found that we are to "love your neighbor as yourself"?  A) Matthew, B) Mark, C) Luke, D) John, E) Matthew & Luke F) Matthew, Mark & Luke.  Email me by noon on Wednesday with your answer to be entered into this week's drawing.  

Yesterday's Sermon

It can be found here if you would like to read it.  In what ways do you feel pressure to be perfect?  In what ways do you have to trust that God will make you perfect?  How do you live out your God-created identity?

This week's text

The first reading is Isaiah 49:8-16a.  Isaiah is telling Israel and the whole earth to celebrate because God has comforted his people and have compassion on those who suffer.  When have you found comfort and compassion?  How have you given thanks for this, especially afterwards?

The second reading is 1 Corinthians 4:1-5.  Paul tells us that we are servants of Christ and stewards of God.  And that stewards shall be trustworthy.  How trustworthy are you with all that God has given you?  Do you use your God given gifts in ways that God would find trustworthy?  

The gospel reading is Matthew 6:24-34, a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus tells his followers that one cannot serve both God and wealth; which do you serve or in what ways do you serve wealth and in what ways do you serve God?  Jesus also says that life is more than about food and the body is more than clothing; what else is life about?  And the gospel finishes with Jesus saying not to worry about tomorrow because today's trouble is enough; what future worries are hard for you to set aside?  

Hope you all have a great week!

Pastor Becca