Dear Friends,
Grace and peace to you. I pray God’s blessing upon you this warm later winter day.
Our gospel text this week is the familiar lenten text dealing with the Temptation of Jesus while in the wilderness. “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” [Matt 4:1] After the temptations were over, “Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.” [v.11] I know the story between these two lines and have preached on them year after year. We think of what it means to turn bread to stone and what the view must have been like at the pinnacle or on a very high mountain. We reflect on the symbolism and theology of three temptations and Jesus’ response to each. The devil was tempting and Jesus remained steadfast and true.
As I read the passage today, the Holy Spirit nudged me about context. We look to what happened in the wilderness and the important message conveyed by how Jesus managed this conflict. It was forty days and forty nights of temptation in the wilderness: I read that as “not forever” and “not nothing.” This was a significant event in the life of Jesus and brings huge understanding to us. And yet, I continue to steer toward this – it was not forever. It was a hard time, a season of difficulty, and then it was over, and angels came and waited on him.
Surely the time is coming, for each of us and for us collectively, when angels will wait on us. Sure the time is coming, and is even now, when we are finding deep care in the midst of conflict. Surely the time is coming when covenant togetherness will prevail over that which threatens separation, conflict and divorcing.
We cannot dismiss nor ignore that some pastors and laity are in the most difficult discernment process and gut-wrenching season in which you have ever found yourselves. Some have passed through this season and are making your way out; others still anticipate the difficulty that is coming. Our context is this: Jesus is with us and we are upholding one another through this season! You are angels attending one another.
What does this look like in Harbor?
+ A remnant group finding a new church home in a neighboring congregation in need of contemporary musicians
+ Clergy seeking one another out for lunches where they can voice concerns, help one another with new strategies for ministry in this climate
+ The UMC Collective holding zooms for pastors and laity across the connection to offer support, prayer, strategy, and HOPE!
+ A remnant group (another one!) looking to launch a new church in an area where we can offer strong, vibrant UMC worship, mission and ministry
+ Congregations raising their voices to welcome displaced persons into the Lighthouse Churches across the district and conference, safe places where unity prevails and making disciples is the mission!
Thanks be to God for all of who you are leading the way in your congregations and supporting your pastors as they engage in this work! I am grateful for the ways you are committed to the mission of the United Methodist Church and are attending to one another’s care.
I recently was honored by a request to bless the marriage of one of our clergy and his spouse who were previously married in a civil union years ago. There’s a prayer in the marriage service that I managed not to notice until this week. (I guess I use Christian Marriage II; this one is in Christian Marriage I in our BOW). As I read this prayer, I found comfort in the language of covenant, of love, strength to strength, and blessing. This prayer references “them” as a couple; and perhaps it references “us” as a people. May this prayer offer you a free breath, a moment of respite, within your day. May this wedding prayer be a reminder that God’s love prevails, always.
Most gracious God,
we give you thanks for a tender love
in making us a covenant people
through our Savior Jesus Christ
and for consecrating in his name
the marriage covenant of (wife and husband).
Grant that their love for each other
may reflect the love of Christ for us
and grow from strength to strength
as they faithfully serve you in the world.
Defend them from every enemy.
Lead them into all peace.
Let their love for each other
be a seal upon their hearts,
a mantle about their shoulders,
and a crown upon their heads.
Bless them
in their work and in their companionship;
in their sleeping and in their waking;
in their joys and in their sorrows;
in their lives and in their deaths.
Finally, by your grace,
bring them and all of us to that table
where your saints feast for ever
in your heavenly home;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.