Dear Friends,
It is hard to believe that we are already in the middle of 2018. Our long cold winter and our reluctant spring are suddenly behind us and we find ourselves in the hot hazy days of summer. Many are planning vacations, times to get away, to be refreshed, and invigorated. Some are making lists of books for leisurely summer reading. For myself I have found the best of summers combine both relaxation and opportunities to learn about something of which I had little or no previous knowledge. Difficult to do in the busier months of the year and so far this year life at First Pres has been busy.
The PNC, the Pastor Nominating Committee, has completed significant tasks, The Property Committee has been hard at work with ongoing projects. You wrapped up two successful ministries to the greater community with your Pancake Breakfasts and your Rummage Sale, and Ann Slowik is making her vision for Shared Blessings a reality (see article on page 3). You spent time at the Annual Picnic sharing your broad visions for the future. You are thinking “outside the box” as you become aware of the need in the wider community. Could we say any ideas were unrealistic, or even crazy?
In our reading of Mark a couple of weeks ago we heard the critics of Jesus say he was out of his mind as he performed miracles and healed the sick. Crazy is what they were saying. Michael Curry, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, believes that in this time in history we need more crazy Christians.
Christians crazy enough “to follow the radical way of the gospel. Crazy enough to believe that the love of God is greater than all the powers of evil and death. Crazy enough to believe, as Dr. Martin Luther King often said, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
We need some Christians crazy enough to believe that children don’t have to go to bed hungry; that the world doesn’t have to be the way it often seems to be; that there is a way to lay down our swords and shields, and crazy enough to believe that every human being has been created in the image of God, and we are all equally children of God and meant to be treated as such. *
I challenge you to continue to be just a little crazy as you envision our church’s future and what it means to be a Christian in the world today. And I recommend that you add Michael Curry’s book, Crazy Christians A Call to Follow Jesus, to your summer reading list.
It could also be the topic for a summer Study group. Let me know if you are interested.
Happy Summer!
Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Beth
*From a sermon by Michael B. Curry, We Need Some Crazy Christians
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