“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105, NRSV)

“By your words I see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.” (The Message)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ijbp74JOuT8595jEarE3NDTpfwGBMhHU0bO0GwMkr2E/edit?usp=sharing

Above these words is a link to a sign up list for reading the scripture on Sunday mornings. Though we may not often think so, this is our central moment in worship, as we gather to hear the scripture with an understanding that these words of life come connected to God’s Spirit in a special way!

If you sign up for a Sunday, I will be in touch with you, sending the readings along, and also the worship order, giving you time to read through the words and become familiar with their cadence and meaning.

It’s said of the early Covenanters that “they gathered around God’s Word as though it was a warm campfire on a cold winter’s night”. They were called “readers”, and it is said of them that “they did not come to the Bible because they had been convinced by theological and dogmatic discussions of its inerrancy or infallibility. They came, and continued to come, because they had found life and inspiration for themselves. They knew that speaking about food could not satisfy hunger and that speaking about thirst could not quench thirst.”

The invitations are two: First, to come hungry and thirsty for the Word of life, and second, to sign up to be a reader and help us hear it.

God bless us one and all

Peter Hawkinson

Quotes are from Images in Covenant Beginnings by Eric Hawkinson, p. 109.

During the month of September as we worship God we are are going to explore the New Testament letter of James together. I’m excited about it!

The little letter packs a punch and sparks controversy. The writer’s central summary statement that “faith without works is dead” seems to fly in the face of the early church’s pre-eminent theologian, St Paul, who maintains we are “saved by grace through faith apart from works” (Romans 3). This tension cause Martin Luther to call the letter of James “an epistle of straw”, because he felt it negated grace needing to stand alone.

But the letter is not a theological treatise as much as it is an ethical exhortation, about how we whose lives are now formed by the grace of God ought to be living. James gives us a vision of what the Christian life should look like in real time, in the real world. The letter challenges us to be persons of integrity, whose lives are consistent in all we say, believe, and do. From the first verse to the last, James calls us to behavior consistent with our convictions and inspires us to live our faith.

We really don’t know who the author is; James was a very common Jewish and Christian name — still is! Tradition attributes the letter to James the brother of Jesus and leader of the early Church in Jerusalem.

Here will be our texts and themes week by week:

September 1 — James 1:17-27. Doing the Good News — “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves….“

September 8 — James 2:1-17. No Partiality! — “Mercy triumphs over judgement”.

September 15 — James 3:1-12. Careful Words. “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire. And the tongue is a fire!“

September 22 — James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. Gentleness and peace. “Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.”

September 29 — James 5:13-20. Prayer. “Are any among you suffering? They should pray.”

Come to worship God with a hunger to grow! Looking forward to being with you.

Peter Hawkinson

“Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and brethed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

We take our breath for granted, the miracle that each one is, moment by moment. Last week I realized this in a new way, as our family vacation found us high up in the Rocky mountains. One day we made it up to the top of Pikes Peak, which sits at 14,115 feet. The rest of the week we lived in a cabin at 11,000 feet, looking up at 2 other “fourteeners” as the natives call them. There are 58 peaks over fourteen thousand feet in Colorado.

I learned some things about breathing, about oxygen, and about altitude sickness. Did you know that at 14 thousand feet you only breathe 57 percent of the oxygen you do here in the midwest at sea level? And at 11 thousand feet, only 70 percent? And did you know that this can cause you to become sick as your body struggles for the necessary breath it needs to stay vital and alive?

Let me back up a bit. The day we were leaving home for the airport I slipped on the stairs and bent my right foot backwards in all kinds of directions. By the time we made it to Colorado the bruising and swelling had taken hold, and that didn’t change throughout the week. I was wondering if the altitude situation had something to say about that. And once we arrived, without getting into all the gory details, my gastro-intestinal system went for a wild three day ride! Woah!

Thank God for google. I learned there that my body was so focused on the absolute necessity of that breath of mine, and that it would keep going, that it stopped worrying about other important functions. My body spoke. It said, “I’m gonna worry about that swollen, ligament stretched foot later, and for now your sour stomach and digestive system will just have to take a break, because right now every bit of energy needs to be focused on keeping your heart beating and your brain keeping your breathing going on. I feel threatened. Let’s focus completely on the most important thing.” And that’s indeed what my body did. And it worked, though I wasn’t very happy about it! After a while, a few days, it started to get back to multi-tasking a bit, but it wasn’t really until we got home that I could feel my body saying, “Ahh! all is well again.”

This whole journey makes me reflect on how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. Clearly its exhilarating to venture up into the heights, but we are not created to live there! I know, I know, many do, and that’s another wonder, that eventually our bodies can adapt to a new normal. Just think what a miracle it is that we feel so well so much of the time!

Mostly, though, I’m thinking about breath, and breathing, and the fragile moment-by-moment process it is from our human beginning until its end. And God has given us this breath of life! What a gift. “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.” (Psalm 150:6)

It was wonderul there, and it’s so good to be back home! Now I must go and ice my swollen foot.

Peter Hawkinson