As we continue our focus for July: “Come to the Water” Pastor Stephanie reminds us of how much goes by unnoticed in our lives. Most of the people present for Jesus’ first miracle didn’t even notice, they were too busy enjoying the wedding party. Too often we are so wrapped up in our own busyness we miss the ways God is at work all round us. Pastor Stephanie invites make space, whether that’s by the water like she was doing over the Fourth or just finding a quiet corner at home or work, to slow down and take notice.

Sometimes we drop the ball, we make mistakes, we trip & fall. When it happens we want a do-over, an opportunity to prove ourselves, a second chance. But how often do we offer others a second chance? And sometimes we can’t face our own failure, deny ourselves a second chance, and look for someone or something to blame. Today’s focus text comes from the very end of the Bible; Revelation 22 offers a vision of God’s Kingdom that is built on second chances. In the beginning, Adam & Eve made a mistake eating the fruit of a tree and in Revelation it is a tree that brings healing to the nations. This vision is a reminder that following in the way God intends is built on second chances, second chances for humanity, second chances for our neighbors, second chances for our loved ones, and second chances for ourselves.

For the month of June we have been exploring Prayer. Pastor Stephanie wraps up this focus with a look at another Psalm of King David, Psalm 139. Pastor Stephanie and family were enjoying some time at Itasca State Park last weekend when she recorded this message about finding space and time to be in prayer. Psalm 139 gives us permission to be real in our prayers to God, we can be assured that no matter what we say (whisper, scream, or cuss) to God, God already knows it, and God loves us and will continue to love us because we are fearfully & wonderfully made! Pastor Stephanie encourages us all to find some time and space to reflect on the idea that we are “Fearfully & Wonderfully Made” and then have an authentic conversation with the God who made us!

For the month of June we will be exploring Prayer. This week Pastor Chad invites us to consider the prayer of Psalm 150. It is more than a Psalm of Praise, it transcends language reminding us that praising God isn’t constrained to words but we can praise God in music. And if we can praise God in music we can praise God in other things we do. Pastor Chad extends this idea to include all that we do being an opportunity to praise God. This understanding of Psalm 150 can help us break down our barriers between the Sacred and the Secular, between what we do in church and what we do out in the world, it is an invitation to view your vocation as just as holy as those of us working for the church. Psalm 150 is a prayer that reminds us that everything is sacred because God is present in everything!

For the month of June we will be exploring Prayer. This week Pastor Stephanie helps us explore Psalm 51 the text of a familiar hymn for those raised in the Lutheran tradition. It was written by King David as a prayer to God after he recognized his failings, having an affair with Bathsheba that led to the murder of her husband. David knew what he did was so terrible that God would be right to abandon him but he still prayed asking for God’s mercy. And God did have mercy on David, he remained in leadership as the King of Israel even after all he had done. It wasn’t the prayer that brought that about it was purely God’s grace, God loved David and God loves us. God’s grace is there for us, too, even when we feel like God would be right to abandon us. God is there for us and in prayer we can speak with God even when we don’t have the words to express our needs, our repentance, and our thanksgiving.

For the month of June we will be exploring Prayer. Pastor Chad invites us to consider our relationship with prayer. When thinking about what we were taught about prayer he gets some help from some friends in the Early Childhood Center. How has what we were taught held up as we got older? Then we are asked why we pray. Are we trying to bend God’s will in our favor? In this week’s text Jesus teaches the disciples, and us, how & why to pray. We pray together as part of a community that God’s vision for creation might be fulfilled on earth, we pray that we would play our role in restoring relationships and meeting the pressing needs of our neighbors.

As we wrap up our MOMENTUM theme and our final focus “Embracing Transitions” we explore the Pentecost Story. Pentecost is an interesting counterpoint to last week’s Tower of Babel story, this week different languages gather people instead of scattering them. While we may not be able to speak other languages we can still speak of God’s love through our actions and the common languages of our passions, skills, and hobbies. Finding common ground with our neighbors through a shared interest allows us to share the love of God without the barriers of speaking about faith that can separate us.

As we wrap up our MOMENTUM theme we move to our final focus “Embracing Transitions” an appropriate topic as some major life transitions occur in this season: graduations, weddings, new jobs, and new homes. This week Pastor Chad compares navigating these life transitions to navigating country roads. We spend a lot of time and effort avoiding the ditches of life (e.g. falling behind in your career advancement) that we choose to focus on and often then end up in the opposite ditch (e.g. stress, exhaustion, not having time for family). The Tower of Babel is not as much about the origin of different languages as it is about focusing on one ditch (a new technology, bricks, offering stability & security to a growing community) and ending up in the other ditch (disconnected from God). This story, like many in Genesis, is about falling out of balance focusing on the newest, best, most powerful item and losing sight of God’s dream for Creation & the role we are called to play in it! Gathering as a community of faith helps push us out of the ditches of life and back onto the road of life as God intended.

As we wrap up our MOMENTUM theme we move to our final focus “Embracing Transitions” an appropriate topic as some major life transitions occur in this season: graduations, weddings, new jobs, and new homes. This week Pastor Stephanie is working with another text from Ecclesiastes that follows a similar theme to last week’s text. If we cannot script out our lives because life is unpredictable then we should enjoy life while we can before it’s gone! That is the idea of this week’s text, we should seize the day because we don’t know when we will die. Pastor Stephanie to live into God’s intention for us by seizing the day, loving fiercely, taking chances, making mistakes, getting messy, eating, drinking, and being merry!  

As we wrap up our MOMENTUM theme we move to our final focus “Embracing Transitions” an appropriate topic as some major life transitions occur in this season: graduations, weddings, new jobs, and new homes. We like to celebrate these milestones but there’s also life transitions happening that we don’t look forward to: injuries or illness, lay-offs, divorce, and even death. Pastor Chad preaches on the focus text for this month: Ecclesiastes 8 which reminds us that there is a time & season for everything, the things we dream of and the things that we dread. During the difficult seasons of life it is easy to look to the comfort of the past or the day-dreams of a better future. Ecclesiastes reminds us that whatever season of life you find yourself in, God walks with us and calls us to walk with each other by being fully present in the struggles and the joys.