Pastor Stephanie encourages us to look at the signs and symbols that are all around us. Pay close attention to those that offer you hope. Our focus text this week includes a symbol of hope God offered Creation after The Flood: the rainbow. It is a reminder of the promise God made that there will be hope after the storm. Pastor Stephanie encourages you to consider two questions when you find your own sign of hope, whether it’s the Cross or the Hot Donuts Now sign at Krispy Kreme. Ask yourself: “Why does this sign bring hope?” and “Where do I see God at work in this sign?”

Pastor Chad introduces our theme for 2023-24 re:PHRASE by asking us to take a look at our music playlist. There’s a reason it (likely) doesn’t feature the Greatest Hits of 1904 like “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Sweet Adeline.” Musical tastes change over time, even Pastor Chad’s Workout Playlist of ‘90s Alt Rock gets weird looks from the Taylor Swift Fans of today. Over time and with life experience our understanding of music, art, literature changes and needs to be rephrased for today. In the focus text for this week Paul is writing to the people of Corinth reminding them that in following Jesus they have been changed, they are a new creation! You are not who you were 10 years ago, 5 years ago, or even just last Fall.  You are constantly being changed by your life experiences, good and bad, you, too, are a new creation  Wherever you find yourself right now, Paul reminds us that new creation is always taking place! With every joy and every grief that change brings into your life, the unchanging grace, love, and mercy of God will be there to support you and give you the strength that you need.

Pastor Stephanie wraps up the final week of our final Momentum focus: Renewed Spirit with a look at transitions, a very timely topic as we close the door on summer and open up into a new school year. Our Momentum theme ends at the end of the Bible, the closing chapter of Revelation. In his dream John is told Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega: the beginning and the end. Jesus was there at the beginning and will be there at the end of time, which is good news for us! God is with us when we are nervous about opening the door to a new beginning and God is with us when we grieve the closing the book at the end of this chapter and God is with us everywhere in between!

Last week Pastor Chad was talking about evangelism and how we can best motivate others to join us in this community of faith. The best way is to interact with our neighbors in a way that reflects God’s love for us all and then share our faith story. One of the worst ways is to instill a sense of obligation to follow in the traditions simply because they are tradition. This week he is looking at what motivates us, as people of faith, to follow God’s Call into the world to share the Good News. Once again doing it out of obligation is one of the worst motivations. When our motivation is an external force like money, or societal expectations, we quickly burn out because it sucks the life out of us. When we find an internal motivation it breathes life into us instead. Jesus instilled in his disciples an intrinsic motivation by showing them the hope and life to be found in living out God’s vision for Creation. That same motivation is here for us today if we chose to follow it instead of chasing the external motivators that will only leave us exhausted.

After 16 year of ministry Pastor Chad should be an expert at evangelism, bringing new people into faith, right? So why does he struggle with even the idea of evangelism? Pastor Chad like many of us has encountered evangelism strategies gone wrong, if using these strategies is what evangelism means he wants no part of it! Our focus text this week provides an alternative to those strategies, an alternative that actually models the way Christ brought people to faith through an encounter with the unexpected. The jailer expected Paul and the disciples to run away when the walls of the prison crumbled, instead they stayed and spared the life of the jailer. It was this unexpected mercy that inspired the jailer to learn more about the God Paul was praising in the open cell. Pastor Chad would much rather show God's grace, mercy, and compassion to our neighbors than stand on a street corner shouting a sales pitch based in fear & obligation to a community that does not need any more fear or obligation or a consumer grade faith.

Have you ever been labeled? A bookworm. A slob. An All-Star. A jerk. A genius. Have you ever labeled someone else? We are often quick to assign labels based on our point of view, without knowing their story. This week Pastor Stephanie continues our exploration of August’s focus: “Renewed Spirit” with a look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he reminds them that their previous labels no longer apply, their identity as beloved Child of God is the only label that matters. And with that identity we are called to see others not by the labels we assign them but as God sees them: as beloved children created in God’s image.

Kicking off our focus for August: “Renewed Spirit” Pastor Stephanie explores the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. Understanding Moses’ story helps us better understand our own reluctance to take the first step into following the calling God has given each of us. Like Moses, God doesn’t accept our excuses and instead equips us with the skills and partners needed to accomplish the tasks at hand. Moses can be an example of daring to take that first step into the unknown with a Renewed Spirit by placing our trust in God.

As we wrap up our focus for July: “Come to the Water” Pastor Chad offers a different perspective on the Story of Noah and the Flood that helps us better understand God, the stories of our faith and our place in them. If we look at the Flood without the sanitized for Sunday School depiction of a smiling Noah exiting the Ark with pairs of happy animals walking out under a cheery rainbow we can see God’s compassion. God is absent from the story for the 40 days of rain and a year of floating on lifeless waters, why? Pastor Chad shares insight from a Rabbinical Student who suggests the grief God experienced over the destruction of Creation was so great that even God couldn’t face the survivors of the Flood. After a year though, God rejoins the story and is determined never to destroy the earth again and makes a promise to all Creation to that effect, a Covenant that is sealed with the rainbow. It is in the story of Noah and the Flood that God models for us that with persistence it is possible to come back from paralyzing despair of broken relationships and grief.

As we continue our focus for July: “Come to the Water” Pastor Chad helps us understand why Jesus’s Baptism was such a big deal, especially for the people of his day. The Jewish tradition and most religious traditions of the time divided the universe into three distinct tiers: heaven, earth, and the underworld. And there were barriers that kept them separated. In Jesus’ Baptism the barrier between heaven and earth, God and humanity, is opened or in Mark’s Gospel: “Shattered.” While we have a much more complex understanding of the universe (we’ve shot beyond the heavens into space to see far off galaxies and dug deep into the earth’s crust) this is still an important moment for us. It is a reminder that God is not confined to the heavens but is here among us working to bring hope to creation. It is also in Jesus’ Baptism that we hear important words from God. Before Jesus has begun his ministry, before any miracles, before his death & resurrection God proclaims his identity as “Beloved.” We share that identity with Christ and we too are claimed by God not because of, or in spite of, anything we do but “just as we are for who we are.”

As we continue our focus for July: “Come to the Water” Pastor Stephanie reflects on the story of Peter and Jesus Walking on Water. Oftentimes we can focus on society’s push for competence in all that we do. Being vulnerable enough to admit you can’t do something & need help is seen as shameful. The story of Peter is a reminder that God is always there to grab onto when we are sinking in over our head.