Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I have to be honest with you, it was anticlimactic. It was nothing like the courtrooms on TV. On Monday, I did a lot of sitting around. Monday was about selecting a jury. The judge would ask for twenty people (selected randomly) and they would come and get them and they were gone. Then the next twenty were called and I was the last one of this group. I found out that the judge was asking the potential jurors questions to see if they could be impartial. Another person and I were called at the same time and we were asked the same questions. Both of us made it and we were the last two selected. In total, there were 13 people selected. One of them acted as the alternate. No one knew who it was until the closing arguments were made and we were to deliberate on the verdict. The alternate was excused.
The case went pretty quickly. One thing I learned is NEVER represent yourself. The defendant did. It didn’t work out very well for him. There were some contradictions in some of his statements.
We deliberated for about 20 minutes and the verdict was passed down. We were done by 1:30 p.m. Pretty simple.
I made a friend I think. This person was wearing a T-shirt that said Jesus is the only one who can save our country. I believe that. But as I was involved in a conversation with this person, they all of a sudden started attacking a certain group of people. That I don’t believe in. I asked her what Jesus would do? They became very quiet. I said that you need to be very careful what you say when you are wearing that shirt. It was another example of followers of Jesus Christ always witnessing. Wearing a t-shirt like this person was, makes you stand out even more. If I was exploring Christianity, I would have been turned off by what this person said. Be careful.
I was looking at this letter that you get every week and WOW, there is a lot of information. The first thing I see is the church’s Mission Statement. You hammered out this statement well before I came here. My question is, are we still living it. This statement represents St. John’s. My question is, does it. I am not looking to change it. However, if it no longer fits we should take a look at it.
Then there is the body of the letter. Someone told me a while ago that you sure do talk about what is going on in your life a lot. I didn’t take that as a negative. If I recall, this person followed it up by saying other Pastors weren’t as forthcoming. I don’t mind writing these letters. Actually, I sort of like it. To be honest, I do like it when David writes the letter after council. It gives me a little break.
If you read nothing else, read the last sentence. For instance, I think it is really important to always remember that you are dearly loved. Dearly loved by God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. Do you feel worthy? …important? God thinks you are
Then you have the readings for next week’s worship service. Some of you like to read ahead so you can be ready for worship.
Then, something very new, is our weekly journey reading the Bible in a year. How do you like the new format (Thank Patty if you do)? You’re still not even close to making this a habit yet. They say doing it at least over 70 times in a row makes it habit forming. Hang in there. Don’t beat yourself up. If you fall behind, try to catch up. I also write a little summary of what you will read.
A lot of stuff in this letter.
You are dearly loved !
Pastor Tom
815-223-1144
Readings for 18 Week after Pentecost – September 21 & 22
Jeremiah 11:18 -20 Psalm 54 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8 Mark 9:30-37
Reading the Bible in a Year- Monday, September 16 to Sunday, September 21
Day Genesis Psalms Proverbs Matthew
Monday Ch. 29 & 30 Ch 9:7-12 Ch 11:16-30
Tuesday Ch 31:1-55 Ch 9:13-20 Ch 12:1-21
Wednesday Ch 32 & 33 Ch 2:1-11 Ch 12:22-45
Thursday Ch 34 & 35 Ch 10:1-11 Ch 12:46 – 13:7
Friday Ch 36 & 37 Ch 10:12-18 Ch 13:1-35
Saturday Ch 38 & 39 Ch 11:1-7 Ch 13:36-58
Sunday Ch 40-41:40 Ch 2:12-22 Ch 14:1-21
Genesis – Like father, like son. Do you see the same mistakes going from one generation to the next? Basically, not believing that God is in charge. Both Abraham and his son Isaac seemed to marry a beautiful woman. Since they were aliens in the land and they came to the king, both of them had the same response to hide their relationship with their wives. Then we see issues with having favorites, loving one child over the other. No good comes out of this.
It may be a good idea to create a lineage map. Probably keep it simple. I would put Esau in it but since he is not a major player in our faith tradition, I would concentrate on Jacob. Notice the covenant passes down from generation to generation but the promise starts out really slow.
Psalms – I am focusing on Psalm 10 today. I have said it so many times. It is all over the Bible. Here we see this psalm. Take care of the poor and the orphans. No widow or foreigner but what replaces them are the helpless and the oppressed. That sounds about right.
The psalmist starts with asking the Lord, what is going on? Don’t you see the wicked and what they are doing? They are doing things believing that the Lord does not exist. There is evil in their hearts. Are you ever going to act? “Rise up, O Lord. If I read it right, the Lord never acts but the psalmist is positive the Lord will.
Matthew – Jesus praises John the Baptist but later on John will be put to death (sorry about that spoiler alert). Still a lot of healings in this section, of course many of them happening on the sabbath which makes the religious leaders really mad. May want to reflect what kind of fruit you are producing? Jesus begins to speak in parables. It seems that many don’t understand, including his disciples. Jesus usually takes them aside to explain the parable. In closing of this section, Jesus does some really amazing stuff.
Proverb – In this section we get the opposite of chapter 1. Here is the good news and previously we received the bad news. It actually depends on us which way we want to go.