The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat. (Mark 6:31, The Message)

Recently I made the choice to leave all social media platforms, at least for now and maybe for good. I am encouraging you to do the same for this season of our collective cultural communal life. I love the words of Jesus hear to his disciples as The Message translation gives them: “Let’s take a break and get a little rest.” We might call it a self-imposed time out. Seems like a healthy step for us.

I love all the good things that facebook, instagram, and all the rest of the social media sites have to offer us — friend and family updates with pictures, sharing of life experiences, turbo birthday greetings, wonderful personal reflections and fruitful and constructive dialog around complex issues to name just a few.

But increasingly I sense that what sociological researchers have long been warning us about is coming to bear — that social media is making us more angry and that the echo chambers we find and groove with only make us more dangerously angry. It seems that every almost-daily act of mass violence and increasing acts of domestic terror are fueled by a hatred that social media finds a way of fanning into flame. Research consistently and definitively shows that rates of anxiety, depression, and addiction have increased exponentially for those who are regular social media users. And I am inundated by pastoral conversations with friends who have or are losing primary relationships largely because of hurtful communications on social media.

As I reflected above, there are wonderful blessings that social media offers us. And one thing is for sure, that social media is here to stay, and so we have to find ways to use this resource wisely and for good.

But for now, it seems to me like it would be a good spiritual discipline for us collectively to “take a little break and rest awhile.” Would you consider joining me in this, and maybe consider what else we might give our time and energy to? Acts of service, compassion, and kindness like warm cookies for a neighbor’s door, stocking shelves at the friendship center, or driving a senior in need to doctor appointments? Increased times of reading and quiet reflection outside our echo chamber, especially devotional in nature? More periodic moments for prayer? And a commitment to move toward our opposite, literally committing ourselves to face to face conversations over coffee or while breaking bread together?

One more word. For those of you who are not social media users, you also have a step to take. How about a time out from whatever is your preferred TV news channel that represents your own echo chamber? How about taking in no more than an hour of local and national news and instead going for a walk or a bike ride, working a puzzle or having brunch with a friend?

Think and pray about it. I’d love to share a conversation if you’d like. Let’s take a little break and get some rest.

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

Rummage — an unsytematic and untidy search through a mass or receptacle.

Well, here we are. It’s rummage sale week! The evidence is that between yesterday noon and my arrival this morning it’s not only the gym that’s filled, but now the hallways and the narthex too! The tentacled creep of our stuff seems officially out of control.

I’m not down about it. Not at all! It’s a wonderful chaos, and a minor miracle to watch how we come together to get from here to 8 a.m. Saturday morning when we open the gym doors and the line stretching out to the parking lot rushes in. You should be here then. It’s quite a wild and wonderful moment.

I’m thinking about three things just now.

The first is, of course, our belongings. Clothes, dishes, end tables, Christmas ornaments, books, golf clubs and mostly expired electronics. We might think most of what we see borders on a word that begins with “J”, but if we think a bit more, we might reflect on how everything we bring comes with a story, a history, many holy moments. Who was sitting around the table and eating off these plates when life decisions were made? That Christmas ornament, whose hands placed it on the tree who is no longer with us at Yuletide? And whose hands gripped these clubs, and what legendary (and appropriately embellished) shot came from them? As we rifle through our clutter and make decisions about what to bring, what to let go of, all kinds of memories and experiences come alive again.

The second is who will come and rummage through all that we organize, and find what they feel are new treasures to travel through life with them. These things we gather together and bring will be on the move to dorm rooms and crawl spaces and new dinner tables and golf fairways and christmas trees. What are the stories of those who will soon stand in line, the hopes and sorrows that those who come through the doors bring with them?

Finally, For all the exhaustion that the rummage sale brings, it is beautiful to watch the way we come together as a community to see it through, surely more than at any other time during the year. In this sense, it’s a holy week all its own, as we encourage, and strengthen each other and work together in mission.

Don’t miss it! Come this week sometime, morning, noon or night, and meet some new friends, and fold some clothes or price some wares. And come on Saturday as we welcome friends from the community who are searching for all kinds of things. Let’s meet them, and welcome them into our community.

Rummage sale week reminds us of all that is holy that is at work in all that is mundane. Isn’t it true?

Love from here!

Peter Hawkinson

Here is a QR code you can access to sign up and volunteer.

As another program year at church begins (my fourth with all of you, I’m so grateful), youth group is back & so is one of the most essential parts of it… youth group games! 

I think youth group games are largely misunderstood– sometimes by students themselves, but more often maybe by the wider Church who may view this time spent at youth group as just a ploy to make sure that kids want to come back, so that they’ll invite friends, or so that they’ll burn some energy before we get to the “important”  part of the night: the lesson. And while those reasons I just mentioned are perhaps a part of the equation, they are miniscule in comparison to the real reason which is, we all need to play! 

The fun, silly, creative, and free parts of all of us suddenly become unlocked when we allow ourselves time to play, and often even more so, when we get a chance to have fun & laugh together. I believe wholeheartedly that God has instilled a need and desire for play and for fun in all of us. It is extremely honoring to God then, to engage with and not deny that part of ourselves that really could use a good laugh, a game, and some silly energy expressed. This is why we play games at youth group, so that our students know there are many ways to bring praise to God, including playing, being our whole selves, being who God made us to be, and encouraging that in one another too. The cherry on top is, when our need to play and have fun is met, I think we are all then open enough to interact with other more honest and alive parts of ourselves, often prerequisites to truly engaging deeply with God. 

So this year, I’m so excited to play some youth group games– from empire to globular to trashketball to goo. And while if you’re reading this you’re most likely not a youth group student, I’m wondering if you might feel invited to engage in regular rhythms of play too, much like we do each week together at youth group. Whether it’s doing a puzzle, playing a board game with your family or friends, dusting off that hobby, reconnecting with something you used to love to do as a kid (that spoiler, you likely still love to do!), or joining us at church for our Wednesday game nights once a month, or volleyball on Mondays, or basketball on Tuesdays. Play is a spiritual discipline and we are never going to grow out of needing it. 

Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for every activity under heaven… a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to grieve and a time to dance. So would you make time to play this season? And would you be open to how God might just meet you there? 

With love,

Pastor Lynnea

I’m thinking today, as I do from time to time, about my childhood home’s telephone. It hung on the wall in the central hallway of our Chicago apartment, had an exceedingly long cord, was banana yellow in color, and when it rang someone had to come running. I can still see the sticky note pad where the “call so and so” messages were left on the wall. There were between 4 and 6 of us in the house through all my growing up years, and we managed just fine with that one phone, though nowadays I get a bit nervous just thinking about it. No caller ID? No Voicemail? No texts, and no smart qualities? No privacy for a conversation? How in the world did we survive?

Yet I must admit that I have nostalgic, almost romantic notions too about that hallway phone and the way our communications worked back then. Sometimes it became easier to just walk down the street and knock on someone’s door than wait for them to call back. Letter writing was still an art. Time had a much more expansive quality to it than now it does when instant availability and quick response is a cultural expectation. You know all the challenges of the smartphones we have and use these days, that come along with the many positives.

I find that I respond to the dings and the pings that come like a Pavlovian dog salivating at the sound of the bell associated with food. A good friend recently pointed this out to me, and it was something I needed to hear even though I didn’t want to. It’s such a tricky wicket, because with a smartphone comes this expectation that we are always on call, ever available, and so it becomes necessary to multi-task constantly, rendering us unable to be fully present wherever we are, whatever we’re doing. What to do?

This all comes to mind for me — the old yellow hallway phone and the one in my pocket now — and all our human progress, for better and for worse — and it’s affect on our souls, because on my way to the office this morning for some reason the simple invitation that Jesus gave to his disciples came into my mind:

“Come off by yourselves. Let’s take a break and get a little rest.” (Mark 6:31, the Message)

For Jesus and the disciples, the heat is on. Foreboding news of the beheading of John the Baptist has come. Who will be next? And there’s a crowd of 5000 sitting on the hillside, waiting for Jesus to say something, and the hour is getting late, toward supper time.

“For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat.” (Mark 6:32)

Hence the dilemma. I wonder to what degree I/we need our sabbath rest now more than ever, and how do I/we work at that when the phone keeps chirping and social media is calling us and we know that maybe not 5000, but 4 or 5 folks at least are waiting for our response? I have heard somewhere that there’s a movement back toward corded phones, and I wonder if this is an attempt to re-order life’s rhythm to some degree.

I have no easy answer to all of this, and I love life as it is these busy days! The blessings and the challenges of life always go together. What do you think?

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

(Full disclosure, during the writing of this blog I heard from and responded to 5 emails and 4 text messages, got three advertisements and checked the cubs schedule. Just sayin!)

(Guest blogger this week is Royce Eckhardt)

Whenever the people of faith gather in any time or place to celebrate the mighty acts of God, they invariably sing—from the OT tabernacle and temple, to the early Christians, through the Medieval monasteries, the Reformation, to this very day. St. Paul tells us that when Christians gather, they bring a lesson, a prophecy, an interpretation, a hymn (I Cor. 14:26). We sing what we believe and believe what we sing.

One who has not been in church for most of a lifetime, but who was brought up in the nurture of the church as a child will remember some hymns and songs, although everything else about church life may be forgotten.  When all the sermons, the conferences, and Bible studies had faded from memory, the hymns we have learned many, many years ago are likely still to be in our memory banks.  It goes that deep.  Faith lives in song; song nurtures faith.

The basic beliefs and doctrinal understanding of most Christians have been shaped more by the hymns they have learned than, perhaps, by the preaching they have heard or the Bible studies attended. A seminary professor recently wrote: “Music has shaped my faith in childhood songs, tunes and texts from…hymnody of every time and place…I have sung my way into faith.  The preface to the United Methodist Hymnal states, “Next to the Bible, our hymnals have been our most formative resource.

Karl Barth, the renowned Swiss theologian, stated: The praise of God [in the community]…seeks to be expressed, to well up and be sung communally.  The Christian community sings…. from inner necessity it sings.  ….The praise of God which finds its concrete culmination in the singing of the community is one of the indispensable basic forms of the ministry of the [Christian] community.

German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave us a wonderful insight into the congregational singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  He said, “It is the voice of the church that is heard in our singing. It is not you that sings, it is the church that is singing, and you, as a member . . . may share in its song. Thus all singing together that is right must serve to widen our spiritual horizon, make us see our little company as a member of the great Christian church on earth, and help us willingly and gladly to join our singing, be it feeble or good, to the song of the church.”

Hymn singing might be one of last places in our culture where people sing together, and perhaps the only place where there is intergenerational community singing.

That’s why we sing in church—it is an important part of our spiritual formation and nurture and a most significant part of our communal Christian experience.

Royce Eckhardt

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” — Matthew 7:12

It comes inconspicuously near the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount. Certainly it is among the most important of Jesus’ moral teachings, while at the same time a four year old can understand it.

We think about it and it makes most sense in terms of reciprocity. This is the principle that says, do good to others today so that they will do good to you in return. Reciprocity is the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit. I’ll scratch your back, and you scratch mine. Reciprocity is dealmaking with my own interest in mind. And there is nothing moral about that! This is not what Jesus means. He says so: “Even the tax collectors and Gentiles do the same” (Matthew 5:46-47). Reciprocity living only gets us as far as “an eye for an eye” way of living in relationships, and this is where revenge and retribution have chances to live and breathe.

Jesus is interested, says the Ethicist David Gushee, “In establishing for oneself a pattern of behavior ahead of and unrelated to the behavior of others. Act toward others today the way that you would want them to act toward you tomorrow.” (The Moral Teachings of Jesus, p. 96). This implies that the other may or may not respond as you hope. Jesus calls us to act irregardless of the responding behavior of the other, “to let God’s will rather then mere human reactivity set the agenda for our behavior.” (Gushee). In my mind gets at the great challenge of what it means to follow Jesus. This is hard!

Howard Thurman describes this process thus: “True spiritual freedom involves wrestling back inner control of our motivations and accepting divine direction of our behavior.” (Jesus and the Disinherited, 98-99).

Is this what Jesus has in mind for our human experiment, that in this little, simple-sounding command the retributive, violent, and death-dealing ways of the world can be changed?

I wonder what you think. Love from here!

Peter Hawkinson

“The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.” Psalm 121:8

It’s a first day for many of you, including my Bonnie. She was up and gone early for a new school season. As I left the house this morning, bear did not seem so pleased; after a summer of buzzing activity around the house, now we’re off into a new routine.

I always come back on the first day of school to memories of some worry about schoolwork (I was not a great student!) and social anxiety (can I find new friends?). And though we were not a daily devotional type of family, on the first day of school we’d gather in the living room, and dad would read Psalm 121 and remind us that God was going with us into everything new. I am thinking about how profoundly comforting such a comprehensive truth is, that in any and all of our coming and going we are never alone.

And as I sit here in my office space to begin another new week, I find myself praying for so many of you facing new seasons — some welcomed like good friends, others intrusive, and bringing uncertainty. So many new transitions right now. Retirement. A new diagnosis. Dorm drop offs and tender goodbyes. Surgical procedures, with treatments to follow. The end of treatments, finally. Job interviews. A new decade of life. Hospice care. Downsizing. Waiting for daily updates about a loved one in critical care. A new grade in a new school. Fresh grief, so deeply missing a departed partner.

There is no choice but to move forward. Life comes with new seasons and first days. They come often with some excitement and also apprehension. Mixed feelings hint at the unknown. What will happen today, this week, in the year ahead? And likely, true to our feelings, there will be some good and some hard days ahead.

God’s promise is to come along. What a blessing!

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, NRSV)

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in comstant touch with my own limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that , and then he told me, “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations cut me down to size — abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, The Message)

One of the many ironies of Christian faith is the call to reckon honestly and continually with our own weakness. We are told in fact that our honest assessment of our brokenness is the fertile ground for God’s grace to grow in us and through us. Make no mistake about it, ours is a faith of giving up, of letting go, of finding strength in Christ Jesus rather than trying to spend all our time and energy proving ourselves to be holy enough. This doesn’t mean we become lazy in trying to live a moral and ethical life; it’s just about where we locate our capacity to do so, and that is in the strength God’s Spirit gives us to be loving, kind, compassionate, merciful, just and righteous.

Of course, we’re fascinated by the wondering about what Paul’s thorn in the flesh, what his handicap was. An addiction maybe. Some bad relentless temptation. Certainly some deficit, some glaring weakness. The human, mortal point of course is that even St. Paul had his struggles, and so of course do you and I.

Reflecting on this sense that loving and following Jesus Christ leaves no room for pride, I wonder if Paul’s thorn in the flesh could have been his very strengths. His Charisma, his boldness, his growing fame, all contributing to his sense of self-importance. If we follow the logic, he might say that “when I am strong I am weak.” Strong, independent, self-sufficient, powerful, wealthy, successful — these are the central tenets we’re working for on our human journey. And these put our need for God’s grace on the back-burner. My wondering is if in one way or another Paul’s greatest weakness is his capacity for pride, and that he needed constantly to seek out humility which he found in his honest confession, his giving up, his giving in.

This is why we are constantly confessing our sins to God, so that we can let go, give up, give in. And always, always as we sit in our weaknesses there comes a word of mercy, of grace, of forgiveness, of God’s complete acceptance of us. And we are strengthened to begin again, with fresh experiences of being loved completely.

The way to guard yourself against selfish pride is to be honest about your own weaknesses. Every day. And then to listen for mercy, and watch for the grace of Christ to give you strength to love, to serve, to bless.

What is the handicap you have been gifted with? The thorn in the flesh that travels with you? Are you aware of and willing to share your weakness, to be vulnerable with God, who is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love? This is, after all, the way to find strength for life.

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

“Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.” Joshua 1:9, The Message

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi Berra

I would often call my folks when I was perplexed about what to do when a choice was at hand. Seeking the sage wisdom and advice of those farther down the road of life, of those who know and love me most, my dad would often respond in a way that I found unhelpful, and frankly, annoying at the time. He’d say one word, with emphasis: Proceed! Here I was, at a fork in life’s road, having to move in one direction or another, out of time, faced with a choice, which meant that I was looking for their help in nudging me in one direction or another. And all I got, essentially, was, “Well, go ahead then.” Proceed.

Looking back in my life, I wonder why I came to these moments, and come to them still with some sense that it’s a 50/50 proposition. That is, that if I choose rightly, if I can discern what God’s will is, and go in that direction or make that choice, all will be well, and I’ll get blessed. But if I make the wrong choice, that is not God’s will, then I will fail and in fact, find myself alone, without God’s guidance and blessing.

Theologically, we love to turn God into a cosmic being who’s just waiting for us to fail, or to fall. And God’s ways become daunting riddles, puzzles that if we can’t solve will find us abandoned for now, with a future much more bleak, referenced by lakes of fire. So we have to figure out our way through the gauntlet of life without a misstep. “Good luck, don’t mess up!” is what God seems to say.

This theology is rooted historically in the Church’s attempts to literally “scare the hell” out of people and get them to get saved, even back in crusade time with the tip of a sword at your throat. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all in on the need for new life in Christ! I know the blessings each day of the Holy Spirit work going on to transform my heart and mind, and the action of my hands and feet.

But It’s a God of love who we meet in the bible, and at the communion table. God who is so profoundly FOR us that God lives among us in Jesus form. God, who refuses to give up on “a stubborn and stiff necked people”, God of “Hesed”, steadfast love, God who IS love and always with us. So we don’t need to be cower in fear that one choice is right, and the other is wrong, and we’ll find out if we made the right one shortly. No, God goes with us, God is with us, wherever we go.

Which brings me back to “Proceed.” I realize with the years now that my folks were teaching me that God’s presence and blessing were not contingent on my choices, but that I couldn’t get away from the love of God in any direction, and that God has given me freedom to reflect and move forward.

This doesn’t mean every choice I’ve made has been a good one. Some, in reflecting back, were not the right one. But I’ve learned that even in those disappointments, especially in those sorrows, God’s love and grace have allowed me to learn and move forward. Like a loving parent, our heavenly Father loves us without qualification.

So whatever it might be that’s in front of you, decisions and directions big and small, just allow yourself to hear God say to your spirit, “Guess what. I will be with you wherever you go.” and then take Yogi’s advice: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Or call me up, and we can talk about it, and then I’ll say to you “well, proceed!” And we’ll laugh together.

Because God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good!

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

“Jesus answered Pilate, “My Kingdom is not from this world”…Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “you say that I am a king.” For this I was born, and for this I came into this world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18)

“Do not be conformed to this world (greek “age”), but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

“The church is a colony, an island of one culture in the middle of another. In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another, and we become, in whatever culture we find ourselves, resident aliens.” (Hauerwas and Willimon, Resident Aliens, 1989)

“We believe that the Church’s answer to the global crises of our day is, in sum, the Kingdom of God. Our working hypothesis is that the Kingdom of God is not from this world, but it is emphatically for this world.” (Wright and Bird, Jesus and the Powers, 2024)

I’m sure by now you are tiring of my favorite constant drumbeat about the Kingdom of God, and of it’s distinct difference in thought, values, and practice from from any worldly kingdom or country. I’m of the opinion this is the most important biblical/theological/Jesus truth that is being set aside anew, as it has always been when the Christian community decides it wants some of the tasty blessings that world kingdoms want to serve up. Wealth and power are always the top two.

It’s nothing new, of course. Just get to know the Jesus of the gospels. Become familiar with the forming theology of the early church. and read history. Over and over the Kingdom of God is said to be other-worldly and running contrary to what’s going on in the world, and over and over the church tries to meld them together and make them compatible, so that we can have God on our own terms. The results are disastrous — Wars, injustices of every kind fueled by hatreds of differences, exclusions galore, genocides, discriminations and slavery, corruptions always new and fresh. All of these rooted in quests for wealth and power, the very things our Lord Jesus rejected, instead offering up himself to suffer and die.

You may disagree with me — that’s allowed! But I am convinced that we are living in another fevered cultural moment, watching the Church try and meld the lines together with the political powers that be. A movement is afoot and there is great energy fueling the attempt to make our nation a “Christian” nation, but our underlying motives as the Church are anything but Christian. We are seeking after wealth and power, our old shadow companions while trying to hide our ulterior self-centered motives.

Instead, we are called to put our energy into being the Church in and for the culture. Our focus is on and in the Kingdom of God, and if we focus there it is clear that our values and practices are different because the Kingdom of God choose central values of love and mercy rather than wealth and power. We find wealth in good deeds, we are a servant people. The question of wealth, of resources, is most focused on the needs of the most vulnerable, and with the suffering and poor in mind our first impulse is not to hoard resources but share them. Love, the Kingdom of God’s core driving force, finds us tending toward including rather than excluding others. And what is just and right demands of us an honest assessment over and over again of our tendency to wander off into the allurements that wealth and power tempt us with, and to repent, to seek first the Kingdom of God instead. And all this, we believe, IS the answer to the brokenness of the world’s ways.

What I’m pleading for is for us to remember and re-commit ourselves again and again to being resident aliens in this world as those who belong to Christ and his Kingdom. As the Hebrew writer says of the ancients, “They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.” (Hebrews 11:13-14).

It’s not he job of the world around us (and especially its systems of power) to act in ways that reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. History teaches us that this will never happen! Rather, we find hope in God’s Coming Kingdom, coming through us into our world — to bring us closer to that idea God has of neighbor love that is transformational. And to resist, with the Spirit’s help, the temptations ever-before us to cozy up to empire for our own comfort and benefit.

We are resident aliens. Let’s remember that! And let’s get on with the work of God’s Kingdom.

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson