“a living stone” - 1 Peter 2:4

Stones figure prominently throughout the narrative of the Bible.  Noah, Abraham and Moses each build stone altars to God to commemorate God’s calling and deliverance.  Jacob erects stones to mark the place of God’s revelation and in witness to God’s covenant.  The torah – the wisdom and teachings of God – are inscribed on stone tablets; “chipped in stone,” forever.  Moses strikes a rock in the desert and life-giving water gushes forth.  Joshua calls the people to gather stones into a cairn to mark the crossing into the land of God’s promise.  A stone sits at the epicenter of both holiness and bitter conflict between the three monotheisms of the world.  Beneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple mount in Jerusalem sits an expanse of stone … the rock upon which tradition holds Abraham prepared to slay Isaac; the rock from which Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven; the place where the people believed God dwelt among them … the “Holy of Holies.”  The confession of Peter (petros = “rock”) is the foundation upon which Jesus will gather God’s church.  It is a stone, rolled away, that marks the threshold between death and life.  The Bible is full of stones.

In the Gospels, Jesus refers to himself as a stone:  one that the “builders rejected,” but which becomes the cornerstone – the foundation on which all else is aligned – or the keystone – the pinnacle that holds everything together (Matthew 21:42).  And we, too, are invited to understand ourselves a stones – “living stones,” Peter says – “built into a spiritual house.”

We have embarked on a mission:  Creating Space for Grace … in our church, in our world and in our own lives.  The image of stones provides a wonderful metaphor and emblem for our shared ministry.  Stones signify the revelation of God in Christ that invites us to live as Kingdom people in the midst of the world.  Stones mark the passage as we grow in faith.  Stones form the altar upon which we offer our gifts for the sake of the world.  And the grace of God is both the keystone which binds us together in love and the cornerstone which aligns our lives with God’s vision of unity.  Our traditional hymn affirms us as “God’s house of living stones, built for God’s own habitation.”  May God’s presence, in each of us and at the center of our community, inspire us to live boldly into this calling, to live sacrificially for the sake of justice and equality, and to live generously in serving and reaching out to a needful world.

Yours in God’s grace,

- Pastor Brad

 

“establish the work of our hands …” - Psalm 90:17

I have a lot of big ideas about Abiding Love.  I know you do, too.  It’s kind of automatic.  You look around at this community, the people, the resources, the talents and gifts and energy God has gathered together in this place and it’s like, “There’s nothing we can’t do.”  There are so many ways we can invite people to grow deeper spiritually in discipleship and service, together.  There are so many ways we can reach out to the surrounding community and the wider world, sharing God’s love as we work for the well-being of people, especially the most needful among us.

 

God has blessed this community extraordinarily with the clear expectation that blessings will flow forth from here in God’s great work of transforming the world. 

 

That’s not grand talk; that’s precisely what is happening.  And it’s extraordinary because it’s not characteristic of a lot of churches to think of themselves in these terms, even Lutheran churches, and even some of our neighbors.  It is certainly no cause for boasting.  Rather, it underscores a sacred responsibility.  “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48)  Every blessing from God is a trust, invested in us SO THAT it might be shared with the world. 

 

So where do we go next?  What’s the next “big idea” for Abiding Love as a new chapter in our shared life is even now beginning?  It is the place of discernment we are in right now as an ecclesia, the church, the “called ones” of God.  This is a season for prayer and reflection.  It’s a time for dreaming and possibility thinking.  We pray, like the psalmist, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.”  It is at once a prayer for God’s goodness and grace to guide our life of work and worship, as well as a prayer for that work to bear fruit in the world.  We want to be about what God is about; not for God to bless what we are doing, but for us to do what God is blessing!

 

In her book, The Future Starts Now, Kelly Fryer shares a very simple maxim as a guide to congregations in mission:  “Be who you are, see what you have, and do what matters to God.”   Simple, yet profound.  Simple, but not easy.  Let’s pray and dream together.  Let’s look honestly and authentically at who we are as a unique expression of God’s grace here at Abiding Love.  Let’s look at the amazing confluence of blessings and gifts that are gathered here.  And then let’s look at how we join God in transforming work that is already in progress, simply awaiting our heads and hearts and hands to make the dream come true.

 

- Pastor Brad Highum

 

"As you go ..." - Matthew 28:-20

I think that’s a better translation.  Often times we hear Jesus’ command at the end of Matthew’s Gospel – his Great Commission to all who will obey and follow – as a highly directed order.  I know it’s translated “Go ye, therefore …”  But some really good work has been done on the root Greek text, poreuomai, which favors a different expression.  This same word is used everywhere else to describe “making your way,” journeying, making the passage. “He went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). “And all journeyed to their own towns to be registered” (Luke 2:3).  It’s a subtle difference, but an important one.  What we hear Jesus saying is not “set out on a mission of conversion,” to win souls for the Lord.  It’s been heard and engaged that way a lot throughout history; often with brutal and tragic effect.  What I believe we hear Jesus saying is “make your way.”  Make the passage, make the journey of life, from now on, following in the way and the truth of God that I have revealed to you.  And as you go, invite others into that way and that truth that has transformed your life.  As you make your way, encourage others to make the passage with you.

I think it’s the right translation because it’s what I see Jesus doing.  As Jesus makes his way through the world, in everything he says and does he shows the love of God.  Whether it is embracing the untouchable, the outcast, the “other,” or confronting the abuse of power, refusing to back down, calling for repentance …a turning toward the truth:  he is always “discipling” the people around him.  After all, the disciple – mathetes – is the one who “lives into the teachings of the master.”   Jesus’ call to “evangelism” in the Gospel, is primarily to share the Good News of a loving and gracious God by living, loving and serving just as we have seen Jesus do, and inviting others to do likewise, as we make our way together.

We almost hesitate to use the word “evangelism” anymore because it’s so loaded with baggage.  But Jesus’ direction to us is not “if we have time,” or if we feel like it; it IS a commission.  But it’s a loving commission, an invitation to us to share the blessing of faith in the God who is saving the whole world in love.  It’s a simple request, but far from easy.  And I’ll take all the help and encouragement I can get in reaching out to a world that operates according to its own rules and reward systems. 

 

Our Evangelism Board has tackled this challenge in putting together an education and preparation program to help us fulfill Christ’s commission, God’s call upon our lives.  We’ll be offering it at the church for the first time July13-14 (a Friday evening and Saturday gathering).  Anyone who wants to join us is welcome.  You won’t be drilled in conversion tactics.  Rather, we’ll explore the power of our own faith stories and discipleship to be an encouragement to others.  We hope you’ll join us!

 

- Pastor Brad Highum

"Turning the world upside down." - Acts 17:6

The thing that is most striking to me about the early followers of Jesus is that they have the audacity to believe the world – their world – can be different.  For the people of first-century Palestine, spiritual life is dominated by leaders of an antiquated and corrupted religious institution. Slavery is endemic; the plight of the vast majority.  Fundamental divisions between Jews – the “people of God” – and Gentiles – everyone else – are irreconcilable, even “divinely ordained.”    Prejudice and intolerance are harsh realities. Affliction is a sign and consequence of impurity.  People are grist for the mills of empire building.  Oppression in all its forms – economic, military, political – is inevitable, inescapable.

Change itself would seem impossible. There are powerful forces at work that have made things as they are, as they have been; forces and agents who benefit from the status quo and vigorously, even violently, resist change.

Yet right in the middle of it all, a movement begins among common people who simply live differently.  They are called “The Way,” following One who shows them a way, and a truth, that leads to life – real life – in unity with God, now and forever. This One says that the last will be first; that any who would lead must be the servants of all. They live not by a rule of law, but of love. They reject the tyranny of power and fear and embrace different values and priorities. They are filled not with the spirit of the age, but the Spirit of God. They live into a vision not of earthly empire, but of the Kingdom of God – on earth as in heaven – where all people have worth and dignity, where none are excluded, where all are equal and resources are gifts to be shared. They speak truth to power and call the wrong-headed to repentance, undeterred by consequence.  They counter violence with peaceful resistance.  They understand themselves to be vitally connected to each other, to all people, to all creation, as though all are parts of one living body. They believe where one  suffers, all suffer.  In a world of domination, oppression and enslavement, they are free.

They believe God calls them to witness to the brokenness of the world by being the change they long to see, the change that must come. In the midst of the world, they live in God’s Kingdom.  It is not ideology, or religious doctrine, or social theory. It is active, kinetic, incarnational.  It is living as Christ for the sake of the world.

In their time – as in ours – all creation groaned, as in labor, awaiting the change they could bring … all creation waited in eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.  (Romans 8:19-22)

A Future with Hope ...

I received a lovely coffee mug, one of a number of gifts from people of this community, as I joined you in ministry last month.  It struck me particularly because the message printed on it was the same message I had received on a card from my mother, celebrating my Installation at Abiding Love. God says, “I have plans for you.  Plans for a future with hope.”  It’s from the prophecy of Jeremiah …

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).  

What a beautiful affirmation as we begin to walk this pathway together!  Nance and I and our family have never been as warmly welcomed, anywhere, as we have been by the people of Abiding Love.  It says so much about the character of this community – so much that is hopeful about prospects for shared ministry and service in the time to come.

Jeremiah is addressing a people separated from God, exiled and grieving, seeking a way back.  This is certainly not the context of Abiding Love, but it is the situation of many, many people around us, whether or not they’re even aware of it.  And I do know that Abiding Love has gone through some powerful transitions and met some significant challenges in recent years.  The good thing about wilderness experiences is that they invariably bring us to new places, of new possibility; stronger, deeper, wiser for having made the journey.

I believe we are in just such a place.  I see it in the spirit and the ministries already flourishing here.  I feel it in the energy, the optimism, the hope of everyone I meet here.  I see it in the work of Food Pantry volunteers and in the service of your kids, feeding homeless people downtown at 5:00 in the morning. I see it in people gathering in worship and for challenging studies of Scripture, wanting to engage God’s Word and wisdom for living.  It is the best hope of Jeremiah’s prophetic encouragement.  Most importantly, it is the very heart and mind-set through which God can work. 

God is already at work in the wider community we’re called to serve.  And God is looking for those who will join in that work. Joining with God in new, creative ways – reaching out in love to a world increasingly estranged from God – will be the thing that takes Abiding Love to the next level.

God’s promise through the prophet is to honor that willingness to welcome and embrace God’s priorities and purposes as our own.  As Jeremiah continues, “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

What a blessing to make our way together!

- Pastor Brad