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Sunday March 31st at 10:00 am.
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How do you walk?
How do you walk?
Not too long ago during coffee hour after church someone remarked to me how little Johnny sure walked like his dad (who walks like his dad …J). I look at my daughters and they, they walk like Tim – their longtime Sunday School teacher, and inspire in all things good (and occasional mischief). They even wear the same shoes! It makes me smile to walk behind them and see their “Tim walk” and think of all the good connections they’ve had from their relationship there and from all their church family.
How do you and the people you love and care about walk? Have you ever thought about it? We learn our “walk” from the people who surround us.
Not only do we have a physical walk to consider – we all have a spiritual “walk”. What does your spiritual walk look like? Is it filled with love and hope? Is it a source of kindness and joy? Do you feel forgiveness and comfort and have forgiveness and comfort to offer? Or does it feel burdened, heavy with judgment, and gloom? Do you still struggle with fears? About yourself and others? Or inspired by Jesus’ walk of kindness and care are you finding ways to make your spiritual walk a walk of peace?
Our “walk” resembles the walk of those who have great influence on us, it may be fun to think about who you “physically” walk like – or who those you love “walk” like but it is so important to be intentional about what our spiritual walk will be like – there you have a choice and you can change it up – that’s the salvation, the good news, the abundant life Jesus offers – Come and see, he invited those around him. See how I walk in the world, walk with others, walk with God – See the love, see the kindness, see the peace, see the hope and see if this isn’t a way you want to walk as well!
See you as you walk into church!
Pastor Susan Howe from years past
Leaving with a good feeling
If you find yourself leaving someplace or some situation with less than a good feeling, look back and reflect on what you personally could have done or thought differently. Were you being judgmental when you shouldn’t have? Could you have been more accepting or understanding of the situation or others. What would Jesus do?
A relevant story was aired on NPR. The interview took place in March of 2008:
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,'” Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?'”
Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.
Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.
“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi,” Diaz says. “The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'”
“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz says he told the teen. “He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.'”
Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”
“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “He just had almost a sad face,” Diaz says.
The teen couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”
The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet, Diaz says. “I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”
Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”
“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”
Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.
Erik Cline, Moderator Plymouth Congregational Church
How’s your rhythm?
How’s your rhythm?
Rhythm is a part of God’s creation…a part of how God designed the universe.
Day and night. Sun and moon. I love to go for a walk and see the signs of changing of seasons
These natural changes help us remember and help us have time and space in our daily routine to rest, reflect, listen, rejoice and worship God. They show us how we are a part of, how we fit in to something bigger – the world around us and the plans God has for us.
Unfortunately with our 24-7 world, with our lives jammed with technology we find our connection with the created world, and often the Creator who made it, shrinking.
We expect to be able to shop, eat out, see movies whenever we want.
We don’t expect to rest ….so we don’t. Full calendars equal success and REST, REFLECTION, One-on-One time with those we love often takes a back seat to busyness
As we begin these days of Advent, even as calendars fill up with more concerts and more activities, I invite you to open your heart to God’s rhythm. A rhythm filled with rest, quiet time with those whom you love, time to appreciate the beauty God has put in the world, ways God enables you to share with another.
What could you do? You might try taking a WALK. Alone or with friends, or family. Take your dog. Go as far as is comfortable. What if you made a goal to walk a little each of these days? To open your eyes for what we call in camp language a “God Sighting.” To feel your muscles work. To make it a time of prayer. Or a time to have a good talk.
You might give yourself permission to take a NAP. Yes, take a NAP. There is biblical evidence that Jesus took naps (even in the midst of a storm) and we know God took a whole day off to nap. Even though it feels like it sometimes, everything does not rest on your shoulders. To nap can be a prayer, allowing God to hold your concerns so that you can rest.
You can LIGHT a candle. Many of us have advent wreaths with a candle to be lit for each Sunday of this time. How about lighting a candle each evening as you eat or clean up the kitchen or sit for a moment? Light a candle to send your prayers for those all around the world whose lives are filled with difficulties and challenges. Light a candle for peace. Light a candle of hope and love – and joy. Light a candle this advent.
I have to admit, sometimes rhythm and I are not friends. I can have a hard time catching the beat. The best way I’ve found to find the rhythm is to surround myself with a good group. This Advent let’s travel together as that group feeling the rhythm of Advent that God has set out for us.
Where do you look?
I look to the mountains, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord. Ps121
The end of this summer caught all of us looking not to the mountains but to the sun as New Plymouth sat in the path of the total eclipse. Out of town when this momentous event occurred, Jeff and I stopped at a roadside rest area on a New York Interstate. There, along with all sort of travelers, truckers and families, bikers and couples, we shared glasses and a moment of awe. Jeff shared his eclipse glasses with a French speaking family from Quebec. I shared mine with an older Orthodox Jew dressed in his long black coat and hat. This was a big event. I am still getting magazines with pictures of groups of people in their glasses looking up. Scientists will be looking at data from this day for some time.
Here in New Plymouth, Jeannette Davidson Mayer held down the home front, welcoming visitors who had come (some from great distances) to watch the eclipse. Opening the church for travelers, she carried on that ministry of hospitality giving folks an opportunity to be inspired by our church as well as the sky above. While the eclipse was special, our faithful church has been looked to for much over the years. Built when the town had no gathering place and the school no gymnasium, it was the place where both town meetings and school basketball games were held. The first county fair happened on its grounds. Plymouth Church was instrumental in the founding of Pilgrim Cove Camp and camp is still an important place for us to find renewal with God. Feeding kids every Friday, you know that is just what Jesus would do. There is so much more to say, but all this is to get to the Psalmist who challenges us to think about where we are looking.
So where are you looking?
It’s easy these days to get so busy that you think you have no time to be looking for anything more than making it through another day.
Or it’s easy these days to look and see only the chaos and the crisis. There is plenty of that. What is going wrong abounds and you can fill yourself to overflowing on what is wrong and who is wrong and why all is wrong.
Or you can just look for escape – which given the above makes perfect sense.
But stay with the psalmist, he looks to the mountains – and then he looks further, deeper, harder. He is in search of a richer experience. Look beyond whatever the mountains are in your life, piles of work, new worries, old fears, even the fun stuff. The Israelites knew God, as the God of their ancestors Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, as the God who freed them from slavery and saw them safely through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. They knew God as one who was with them where they had been, where they were and where they were going. This understanding of God who walked beside them, who lived in their heart, who gave them courage to act with love made them a special people. Their God was large and not limited. God was in the mighty mountain but also in the tiny hand of a small child. Their God was full of help and hope.
So you found out with the eclipse, it makes a difference where you look, when you look, how you look. The same goes for your spiritual outlook on life. It makes a difference. May you look and see God around you and in others. And may others look at you and see the Lord.
I’ll be looking for you at church!
How do you walk?
How do you walk?
Not too long ago during coffee hour after church someone remarked to me how “little Johnny sure walks like his dad” (who walks like his dad …). I look at my daughters and they, they walk like Tim – their longtime Sunday School teacher, and inspirer of good deeds. They even wear the same shoes! It makes me smile to walk behind them and see their “Tim walk” and think of all the good connections they’ve had from their relationship with him and from all their church family.
How do you and the people you love and care about walk? Have you ever thought about it? We learn our “walk” from the people who surround us.
Not only do we have a physical walk to consider – we all have a spiritual “walk”.
What does your spiritual walk look like? Is it filled with love and hope? Is it a source of kindness and joy? Do you feel forgiveness and comfort and have forgiveness and comfort to offer? Or does it feel burdened, heavy with judgment, and gloom? Do you still struggle with fears? About yourself and others? Or, inspired by Jesus’ walk of kindness and care are you finding ways to make your spiritual walk a walk of peace?
Our “walk” resembles the walk of those who have great influence on us. It may be fun to think about who you “physically” walk like – or who those you love “walk” like. But it is so important to be intentional about what our spiritual walk will be like. – Here you have a choice and you can change it up – In fact, doing so – that’s the salvation, the good news, the abundant life Jesus offers. – “Come and see,” he invites those around him. See how I walk in the world, walk with others, walk with God – See the love, see the kindness, see the peace, see the hope and see if this isn’t a way you want to walk as well!
Why You Go …
Why do you go to church?
What do you say when you tell someone that you’re heading to church – or when you reflect on how you spent your morning?
Someone told me the other day, “I just had to come to church today because I was thankful.”
Wow. What a powerful comment! Not only about God acting in their life, but just as importantly, how that person was aware of where they were in life and took action.
Why do you go to church?
Of course there are reasons why we go to church like, “I have to see this person” or because someone wants you to go with them
But stop for a moment and consider the bigger picture of your life
Are you thankful?
Is there deeper need in your life?
Do you go because you feel joyous, or prayerful? Lonely or hurting?
Perhaps something you saw or did moved you and you felt you needed a way to lift that
Rob Bell, in his book “What We Talk About When We Talk About God,” tells the story of a well-known person who publicly became Christian. When an interviewer asked why she found herself drawn to faith after many years of that not being important to her, her answer was, “I could feel reverence humming in me.”
Think about when you feel “reverence humming in you.” It’s when love sparkles in big ways or small and catches your eye. It’s when you have the sense of that “something more” in life, that “something bigger” that connects us. It is the moment when your heart tells you, you are thankful.
That humming in your life it stirs you to connect with God, doesn’t it? So we worship. We hear God in the silence and the music. We see God in the stillness and in the person sitting in the next pew over. We find that sound of “something more” that drew us opening our hearts, touching our spirits and giving energy to our hum.
Think about it – Pray about it – there are lots of reasons why to go to church.
Fill in the blank for yourself, “I went to church today because __________________.”
And, the next time you feel thankful – when you sense reverence humming in you, I hope to see you in church!
The Stuff We Do
In life these days, it seems like so much is done for us – food, cleaning, paperwork, you name it. Daily someone is coming up with something that is designed to save people time and energy. They are even working on cars that drive without our help. If we aren’t taking advantage of some of these services we wish we could. There is a good reason all these things and services are flourishing. We feel so overwhelmingly busy. We may check one thing off our “to do” list but we add two or three more.
There is another way to beat that “overwhelmingly busy” feeling. It is to find a quiet center. Something only you can do for yourself. The psalmist said it best, “be still and know that I am God”(Ps.46:10). When we can return to an inner stillness, our ears, and heart, and mind is open to hear that often still small voice of God. A voice that leads us on the paths we need to be on. Centered in God, the world’s busyness, even our own, is put into perspective and we have a direction to handle all that we must.
There are some things that no one else can do for us.
Thinking for ourselves is one. King Solomon wanted to outfit David in his most state-of-the-art armor when he heard the little David would fight the giant Goliath. But David thought for himself about what he needed and knew that the skills God had given him would be enough. In today’s world there much out there that wants to do our thinking. And in light of all there is to think about, it may not feel like a bad thing. But God lovingly created each of us with an amazing mind that has the capability to learn and develop its own ideas. Biblical stories like David’s show us the importance of trusting what we know.
Worship is another activity that calls for us to be personally involved. We live in a society that rates everything by its entertainment value. Worship is not the same thing as entertainment. Each person must engage in worship to truly be returning thanks, offering prayers, receiving forgiveness, praising God. If we simply feel or don’t feel entertained by a worship service, it may be that we aren’t participating. Greeting another, silently talking with God, seeking forgiveness, letting our spirits be uplifted with music, learning about God- God’s care for the world and plan for you. -These are the actions of worship. Involving yourself in any one of those shapes you, your interactions with the world, and your relationship with the Holy.
Sometimes it is nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the things and services that can be done for us. But the wisdom for living comes in sorting out just what those are and what we must decide and do for ourselves. I read these words recently, “Wherever we go, if we’re looking for God, there is a pretty good chance we will see God.” No one or thing can do that seeing for you!
May you find your quiet center and feel yourself renewed.
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