Some of my fondest childhood memories were watching my Grandparents look through their jars and envelopes of seeds on cold winter evenings. Looking at tomato, lettuce, cucumber, and watermelon seeds seemed to create a sense of hope on long winter nights. I remember both the joy of feeling the dirt in our hands each spring as we planted those same seeds in the garden, and the anticipation of the vegetables breaking through the dirt.
My grandfather and I would play pirates as we dug for the potatoes, finding buried treasures. We would share wonderful conversations as we hulled the peas, and snapped the green beans. They are all rich, wonderful memories, and all are connected to life in the garden.
Someone asked me recently how many times garden is mentioned in the Bible, and the answer is 52. It seems only proper to have a garden for each week of the year. The gardens range from Eden, to Gethesemene, to the resurrection. God is actively working through gardens that are planted throughout the Bible.
In April we are going to do a three week sermon series on Life in the Garden. Each week we will explore a part of the garden and how it impacts our lives with God and each other. I invite you to come and roll up your sleeves, dig in, and see what amazing fruit God can grow in your life as you putter around in your spiritual garden. The series will culminate in an Earth Day celebration on April 25.
Happy digging!
~Pastor Kathleen
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Sharing Time with Sharon: Hope
April 2010
“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:5
I went walking in Lafayette Square last week. As I write this, we are just on the cusp of spring, and there is more brown than green showing in the park. So I was encouraged by the bits of green shyly peeking out from under a sheaf of dead leaves. This green was slender new reeds of grass poking out of the earth; they looked far too delicate to push through the heavy mass of leaf matter that laid like a heavy blanket upon them.
Yet, these determined little green needles were coming up anyway. This week, they had pushed through the brown blanket, and were standing rather proudly, I mussed, above the dank darkness, reveling in, and being filled by, the warm sunshine.
Hope is like that. It starts as just a tiny seed that, nurtured just a bit by God’s breath, breaks open and begins growing, imperceptivly at first. The darkness actually provides a place where it can be nurtured, until the day it punches through into the light, and God’s presence working in our lives becomes visible to us and others.
The tomb where Jesus was laid was dark. No light reached him. Yet, like tender green shoots of spring, hope was born in the darkness and began to stir. The Apostle Paul declared “hope does not disappoint us”. That is a stubborn and glorious truth of God’s presence in our lives; Hope, planted within us and nurtured by God’s breath, triumphs over darkness. God’s light can permeate any heavy mass under which we have become buried, calling forth something new, resilient, and beautiful to unfold. God’s breath…God’s holy spirit is working within us.
Is there a place of darkness in your life? Invite God’s spirit to permeate it, soak through it, and use it to nurture hope. Because hope will not disappoint. Hope triumphs over darkness. Let this be our prayer as we await for hope to burst into the sunshine.
Grace and peace+
~Pastor Sharon
“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:5
I went walking in Lafayette Square last week. As I write this, we are just on the cusp of spring, and there is more brown than green showing in the park. So I was encouraged by the bits of green shyly peeking out from under a sheaf of dead leaves. This green was slender new reeds of grass poking out of the earth; they looked far too delicate to push through the heavy mass of leaf matter that laid like a heavy blanket upon them.
Yet, these determined little green needles were coming up anyway. This week, they had pushed through the brown blanket, and were standing rather proudly, I mussed, above the dank darkness, reveling in, and being filled by, the warm sunshine.
Hope is like that. It starts as just a tiny seed that, nurtured just a bit by God’s breath, breaks open and begins growing, imperceptivly at first. The darkness actually provides a place where it can be nurtured, until the day it punches through into the light, and God’s presence working in our lives becomes visible to us and others.
The tomb where Jesus was laid was dark. No light reached him. Yet, like tender green shoots of spring, hope was born in the darkness and began to stir. The Apostle Paul declared “hope does not disappoint us”. That is a stubborn and glorious truth of God’s presence in our lives; Hope, planted within us and nurtured by God’s breath, triumphs over darkness. God’s light can permeate any heavy mass under which we have become buried, calling forth something new, resilient, and beautiful to unfold. God’s breath…God’s holy spirit is working within us.
Is there a place of darkness in your life? Invite God’s spirit to permeate it, soak through it, and use it to nurture hope. Because hope will not disappoint. Hope triumphs over darkness. Let this be our prayer as we await for hope to burst into the sunshine.
Grace and peace+
~Pastor Sharon
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wilder View - March 2010
Putting God First Update!
In January’s newsletter we told you that as a faithful congregation, we are putting God First in every part of our daily church life. Thus, we have faithfully written a tithe check each week to ministry beyond our church. As of February 28, 2010 we have contributed $2,973.00. This completes our commitment to World Service. World Service funds a large number of ministries; theological education in Africa, age level programs, camps and retreats, Christian education, colleges and universities, media, global mission, as well as peace and justice issues to name a few.
This past December, I heard about a young 18 year old woman from Kenya who was helped by the World Service fund. She is the oldest of three children who had lost their father to AIDS when she was 12 years old and their mother to AIDS when she was 14. World Service provided missionaries who supported her family through the loss of their parents. They taught her how to farm, raise goats, and care for her two younger brothers. This Christmas, as a result of the efforts of those World Service Missionaries, she was able to provide Christmas dinner for other AIDS orphans in her village. World Service is dramatically touching lives and changing communities. Thank you for your support of ministry around the world.
"And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, . . . They . . . pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.”--Acts 2:44-45
As of February 28, 2010 we have sent $3,402.25. for Haiti relief through UMCOR – United Methodist Committee on Relief. 100% of this money will go directly to Haiti. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of millions.
~Pastor Kathleen
In January’s newsletter we told you that as a faithful congregation, we are putting God First in every part of our daily church life. Thus, we have faithfully written a tithe check each week to ministry beyond our church. As of February 28, 2010 we have contributed $2,973.00. This completes our commitment to World Service. World Service funds a large number of ministries; theological education in Africa, age level programs, camps and retreats, Christian education, colleges and universities, media, global mission, as well as peace and justice issues to name a few.
This past December, I heard about a young 18 year old woman from Kenya who was helped by the World Service fund. She is the oldest of three children who had lost their father to AIDS when she was 12 years old and their mother to AIDS when she was 14. World Service provided missionaries who supported her family through the loss of their parents. They taught her how to farm, raise goats, and care for her two younger brothers. This Christmas, as a result of the efforts of those World Service Missionaries, she was able to provide Christmas dinner for other AIDS orphans in her village. World Service is dramatically touching lives and changing communities. Thank you for your support of ministry around the world.
"And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, . . . They . . . pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.”--Acts 2:44-45
As of February 28, 2010 we have sent $3,402.25. for Haiti relief through UMCOR – United Methodist Committee on Relief. 100% of this money will go directly to Haiti. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of millions.
~Pastor Kathleen
Sharing Time with Sharon: Making Your Pilgrimage
March 2010
During the season of Lent, the New Testament scriptures place Christians with Jesus on a path toward Jerusalem. The journey that stretches before us is meant to provoke self-reflection and deeper spiritual connection with God. It will not necessarily be an easy one. Struggle, temptation, confession, self-discovery, self-sacrifice, and love will likely be the stones paving our road, as they were for Jesus. Some may stumble and fall, only to be helped up by a fellow traveler. Others of us may need to stay penitent upon our knees for a time, while our hearts find healing.
Christian pilgrimages have always been risky. As far back as the tenth century, faithful Christians were expected to make the journey at least once in their lifetime to Jerusalem. But over time, war and politics made it too dangerous to travel to the Holy Lands. As an alternative, church leaders designed cathedral labyrinths –stone or marble paterns. built into the floor by talented masons—by which Christian pilgrims could make the journey to Jerusalem symbolically, walking the narrow path upon the floor while meditating upon scripture or offering up prayers.
Well, not everyone could travel to a cathedral either. So over the centuries, personal prayer labyrinths began sprouting up out of bricks, flowers, paper, wood, canvas, spray-painted grass, and even on computer screens. While I was in seminary, a group designed and cut a labyrinth into the grass upon the lawn of the school, under the trees. There in the quiet of the morning, with the sunshine streaming through the newly budding trees of spring, I walked the labyrinth slowly, deliberately placing heel to toe, listening for God’s small, still voice in my heart. It was a profound experience.
As with all prayer practices, the labyrinth offers a prayer path for all times in life. Yet for me, there is remarkable power in traveling the labyrinth during the introspective season of Lent. Both Lent and the prayer labyrinth is about a faith journey, with clear beginnings, centers, and endings. Both draw me into a deeper faith connection through movement and prayer. As I move toward center, I prepare myself to be opened afresh to God’s promptings, perhaps discovering a word, a thread of scripture, or a nudge to action revealed. From a cloistered center of rest, I am drawn back out again, to return to the world with my new nugget, my blessing, from God. By the time I have completed my return journey, my heart is prepared to re-enter life again, only now changed a bit by my encounter with God’s divine presence.
During this season of Lent, I invite you to make use of the labyrinth that will be lovingly created at the church, as well as the prayer centers that will be set up in the Sanctuary that will provide multi-sensory places of rest and reflection. They are provided to stimulate and enrich your pilgrimage of faith to your “Jerusalem”.
Good journey, my fellow travelers
- Pastor Sharon
During the season of Lent, the New Testament scriptures place Christians with Jesus on a path toward Jerusalem. The journey that stretches before us is meant to provoke self-reflection and deeper spiritual connection with God. It will not necessarily be an easy one. Struggle, temptation, confession, self-discovery, self-sacrifice, and love will likely be the stones paving our road, as they were for Jesus. Some may stumble and fall, only to be helped up by a fellow traveler. Others of us may need to stay penitent upon our knees for a time, while our hearts find healing.
Christian pilgrimages have always been risky. As far back as the tenth century, faithful Christians were expected to make the journey at least once in their lifetime to Jerusalem. But over time, war and politics made it too dangerous to travel to the Holy Lands. As an alternative, church leaders designed cathedral labyrinths –stone or marble paterns. built into the floor by talented masons—by which Christian pilgrims could make the journey to Jerusalem symbolically, walking the narrow path upon the floor while meditating upon scripture or offering up prayers.
Well, not everyone could travel to a cathedral either. So over the centuries, personal prayer labyrinths began sprouting up out of bricks, flowers, paper, wood, canvas, spray-painted grass, and even on computer screens. While I was in seminary, a group designed and cut a labyrinth into the grass upon the lawn of the school, under the trees. There in the quiet of the morning, with the sunshine streaming through the newly budding trees of spring, I walked the labyrinth slowly, deliberately placing heel to toe, listening for God’s small, still voice in my heart. It was a profound experience.
As with all prayer practices, the labyrinth offers a prayer path for all times in life. Yet for me, there is remarkable power in traveling the labyrinth during the introspective season of Lent. Both Lent and the prayer labyrinth is about a faith journey, with clear beginnings, centers, and endings. Both draw me into a deeper faith connection through movement and prayer. As I move toward center, I prepare myself to be opened afresh to God’s promptings, perhaps discovering a word, a thread of scripture, or a nudge to action revealed. From a cloistered center of rest, I am drawn back out again, to return to the world with my new nugget, my blessing, from God. By the time I have completed my return journey, my heart is prepared to re-enter life again, only now changed a bit by my encounter with God’s divine presence.
During this season of Lent, I invite you to make use of the labyrinth that will be lovingly created at the church, as well as the prayer centers that will be set up in the Sanctuary that will provide multi-sensory places of rest and reflection. They are provided to stimulate and enrich your pilgrimage of faith to your “Jerusalem”.
Good journey, my fellow travelers
- Pastor Sharon
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wilder View - January 2010
s our finance team met to plan for the New Year, the decision was made to put God First. What you may ask, does that mean? We always put God first don’t we?
In the simplest terms, for our church, it means that as a faith community we will begin by writing our tithe check of 10% of our budget gifts for God’s ministry beyond our walls (including apportionments). This check will be written first, each week, without fail. We will schedule our church building and activities with the focus of God First. Worship, faith development and small groups will be our first priorities. We will look for additional ways that we can give God the first of our time in service.
What might God First look like in our own home? Perhaps it might be that before we get out of bed we stop and give the day to God. “God, I want to put you first today. Show me ways that I can organize my time, and resources that put you first in my life. Help me to live so that others will see you active in my life.” It could be that you try a new spiritual discipline such as reading a devotional book each day, or reading a few verses of the Bible each day. It could be starting the day with a family devotion. It could also mean that when we get paid, the first check we write is for our tithe or pledge for God’s ministry.
I wonder what God First looks like in your life. I wonder what would happen if everyone in our church committed for one day, or one week, or one year in one way to put God First? Just imagine the impact we might have in our church and community.
I pray that 2010 is a great year for you. I pray that you encounter God’s presence and power in your life in dramatic and wonderful ways every day and I pray that you will join me in this adventure to put God First. God First,
Always In All Ways,
~Pastor Kathleen
In the simplest terms, for our church, it means that as a faith community we will begin by writing our tithe check of 10% of our budget gifts for God’s ministry beyond our walls (including apportionments). This check will be written first, each week, without fail. We will schedule our church building and activities with the focus of God First. Worship, faith development and small groups will be our first priorities. We will look for additional ways that we can give God the first of our time in service.
What might God First look like in our own home? Perhaps it might be that before we get out of bed we stop and give the day to God. “God, I want to put you first today. Show me ways that I can organize my time, and resources that put you first in my life. Help me to live so that others will see you active in my life.” It could be that you try a new spiritual discipline such as reading a devotional book each day, or reading a few verses of the Bible each day. It could be starting the day with a family devotion. It could also mean that when we get paid, the first check we write is for our tithe or pledge for God’s ministry.
I wonder what God First looks like in your life. I wonder what would happen if everyone in our church committed for one day, or one week, or one year in one way to put God First? Just imagine the impact we might have in our church and community.
I pray that 2010 is a great year for you. I pray that you encounter God’s presence and power in your life in dramatic and wonderful ways every day and I pray that you will join me in this adventure to put God First. God First,
Always In All Ways,
~Pastor Kathleen
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