From the Pastor

Current Message

Each year during the season of Lent, I pick one book of scripture to read a chapter from each day and I choose one book randomly to read (I pull a title out of a hat!). This year, I chose to read James, and randomly picked 2 Kings.

There is much to be learned from this letter, but two rather well-known verses have stuck with me: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror, for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”

Be doers of the Word! Do not be people who simply come to worship, hear about God’s Good news and never live out what you have heard in your daily life. Do not bask in God’s grace and forgiveness, but then go and be less than grace-full and forgiving to others. Do not come and be fed on the Word and the meal, but then go forth and not feed all those who hunger in so many ways in the world. Be doers of the word!

Do not come to worship on Easter to claim your identity as a redeemed and forgiven child of God and then go out and attack others for their sins. Do not come to share in the fellowship of a community of faith, but then go out and never ask anyone to join you to hear the Word. Be doers of the word!

We do deceive ourselves if we think hearing the Word is enough. Yes, the great stories of faith and love in the scripture do inspire us and instruct us. But they also call us to action, to be those who live and breathe the Word each and every day through everything we say and do. When the Word is that much a part of who we are, when the Gospel of our crucified and resurrected Lord is at the core of our being, we cannot help but be doers of that creative and sustaining Word.

This Easter and always, hear the Word ... savor its goodness ... bask in the promises of forgiveness, grace, and salvation. But then do not forget what you have heard when the listening is over. Do not forget what has been said and what has been offered, despite our sin and our frequent apathy and lack of gratitude. Be doers of that Word, showing it forth to all so that all may know that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In Christ,
Pastor Brenda