Exploring the Presbyterian Church (USA)

--Worship Wednesdays beginning July 9th, 5:30pm

Everyone is welcome to join us on the journey and share your spiritual explorations.

Reflections

Caring for God's Good Creation

“Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.” --Psalm 36:5-6

On April 20, you are invited to attend a Community Celebration of Earth Day at First Presbyterian Church in Shawano. We are hosting this day in part to thank G-d for the astonishing gift of creation. We are hosting this gathering in part to help learn how we can care for G-d’s good gift. We are hosting this celebration because we believe that together as friends and neighbors we can do more to make a difference is preserving our natural resources.

Earth Day is also a great day for people of faith to celebrate. We know from Genesis that G-d has given creation into our keeping – we are to be good stewards of the earth, water, air and creatures. I know that “dominion over” is the phrase typically used to describe what G-d has given to humanity in creation, but I’m pretty clear that G-d is not saying “exploit my good creation for your own selfish ends.” In fact Scripture in other places makes it clear that creation worships G-d and, as in Psalm 36 quoted above, G-d’s salvation extends to animals, earth, sea and sky. John’s gospel describes poetically the idea of everything that exists being created through “the Word.” Christian Scriptures written by the apostle Paul make the claim that Jesus’ redemption is not only for humanity, but for all of creation (e.g. Rom 8:21). Therefore, our actions to protect and preserve the resources of creation can be understood as acts of faith which honor the Holy One. Thanks be to G-d for the gifts of creation and for the honor of tending them.

Hunger and Thirst – Satisfied!

In John, chapter 4, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water…The water that I give will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  When the disciples offer Jesus food, he responds, “I have food to eat that you do not know about…My food is to do the will of the One who sent me.”

I have been quite taken with the spiritual notions of eating and drinking in John’s gospel.  When we are surrounded by an abundance of food and an overabundance of unhealthy food, the story of holy food and drink stands in sharp contrast.  I am moved by the idea that our thirst is quenched by the gifts of God poured out.  And not only is our thirst quenched, but living water from God gushes up in us to eternal life.  Our thirst is quenched by God’s grace and spills over.  Others’ thirst can be satisfied by the grace we share.

The parallel that Jesus draws is that the food that sustains us is to do God’s will.  Jesus, in this story, is fed by his conversation and interaction with the Samaritan woman.  Her testimony, her storytelling, to her friends and neighbors about meeting Jesus, feeds her soul and those around her.  She is met graciously by Jesus and those who hear her story graciously extend hospitality to Jesus to stay on with them and he does.

So, do you recognize the thirst in your own life for God’s presence?  Sometimes we seem to feel spiritually dehydrated, but neglect to replenish ourselves with what God offers.  We can’t drink without opening our mouths.  We can’t take in holy sustenance without opening our hearts.

Opening ourselves is one of the things that happens when we gather with the community of faith.  We give ourselves over to holy time where the Spirit can move in us.  We also meet others in the community space who are in need of our service to God or from whom each of us needs care.  Church is one place today that is like the well of Jesus’ time.  This is where we meet God, in each other, in worship, in telling our faith stories, in service.  In relationship with one another we encounter the Holy and our hunger is filled and our thirst slaked.

No amount of junk food, soft drinks or info-tainment will fulfill our spiritual thirst or hunger.  We are only fulfilled by what God gives so generously to us and by how we generously live for God.

May your hunger and thirst be fulfilled on our journey through Lent and into Holy Week.  Join in this community’s sharing of spiritual gifts!

Blessings,

Pastor Susan

Temptations & Spiritual Disciplines

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.  The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God...Do not put the Lord your God to the test…Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”-- Mathew 4:1-4, 7b, 10b

It seems that modern life is full of temptations.  The world has options readily available to anyone who might be even slightly vulnerable to a suggestive offer.  Many times throughout a given day, we are approached with suggestions marketed to niches of our personal interests: online, through direct mailing, commercials, text messages.  Many of these offers or suggestions play on our weaknesses and insecurities – much the same way the devil played on Jesus’ hunger by suggesting turning stones to bread.  We know that food is necessary to sustain us.  It would be easy to explain Jesus changing rocks into life-giving sustenance.  Sometimes it seems quite easy to rationalize our choices, even when they are not faithful ones.

In Matthew’s gospel, the tempter is challenging Jesus to prove himself, or to challenge God, or to lay claim to power that some would say was already rightfully his.  But Jesus responds to the lures by maintaining his spiritual practices and by leaning on Scripture.  We can respond to the lures in our lives in the same way, if we do the work of tending our spiritual well-being.  This may be a challenge for us, but a worthy one.

 We know we should eat a healthy diet and get a decent amount of exercise.  We know that by continuing to learn and using our minds, we will stay mentally sharper longer.  Spiritual nutrition and activity is no different.  If we don’t read the Bible, the wisdom of Scriptures will not be in our hearts when we need them.  If we do not practice prayer, we will struggle in the midst of crisis because we don’t know how.  If we are not invested in a community of faith, we do not have relationships to sustain us when we are in need.

 Lent is a season of preparation – a time for learning and growing for what lies ahead.  Our season of Lent remembers Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness following his baptism – his season of preparation for the ministry ahead.  During this season, I invite you to join me on Wednesday evenings (Feb 13 – March 12) 5:30-6:00 for a time of learning about spiritual practices that may help you grow closer to God and to one another.  We will consider the practices of keeping Sabbath, prayer, fasting, biblical study and serving others.  These are but a few of the many spiritual traditions available to us.  But this is a beginning point as we prepare for the challenges of Holy Week and our everyday lives.

 This is an opportunity for us to take responsibility for our spiritual well-being.  We deserve time.  We deserve care.  We grow when we give ourselves time with the Holy.  When we are spiritually well, we are often better able to care for the other aspects of our lives.  We can respond to our temptations more faithfully.

 Some days we feel famished for God.  Some days we thirst for meaningfulness.  Some days we fall to temptations when we vulnerable.  Let us then give ourselves a bit of time to feed our souls, drink from living waters and find ourselves sustained by the presence of our living God in the midst of faithful community.

 
Blessings on the Lenten Journey,

Pastor Susan