From the Pastor – January 2025

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20

So, the holidays have come and gone.  Now, we settle into deep winter.  This season is one of the things that makes this part of the world so remarkable.  It is as if we look at the winter weather as the great challenge that we overcome so we can do the things we want to do.

                  Here is a case in point: on one bitter cold Tuesday in January, I left the church building with a friend who was in his 90s.   The temperature was way below zero. So cold, the snow would squeak like Styrofoam under each step.  Just as we left the church building, a particularly nasty gust of wind blew so hard it felt like a hand slapping at your face. I gasped at the experience.  The old timer I was walking with smiled and chuckled to himself and said just loud enough for me to hear him, “Yeah, but no mosquitoes.”

So, we live here because we love the environment, and we learn to appreciate the seasons as they come, or at least accept the challenges of each season. In a subtle way, my friend was acting as an ambassador to me for the place that we live. He wanted me, in his own way, to learn to love the north as much as he did. And he did his job well.

The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, tells us that we too are ambassadors, but for Christ.  By our lives, we interpret Christ to our friends and neighbors. They see how we live, work, and play. How we agree, disagree, and forgive. In each of these, our loved ones look to see Christ in what we do and say.   More to Paul’s point, in our actions, they see what Christ means to us.

This makes living  the faith that much more challenging! To continually lose yourself in Christ to find yourself makes the head spin.  And, helps us depend on God’s Grace all the more. . But, it’s also the thing that brings warmth and light into the world.

This past month, we held a couple Advent chapel services. They were short affairs, a few Christmas carols, a meditation, and a prayer. But I hope it helped encourage us on the Christmas journey.  Come Lent, we are considering chapel services again. We plan for them to be only 30 minutes or so over the lunch hour.  That way we can include both those who can sneak away from work for lunch and those who prefer not to drive at night.

I invite you to come to chapel with us. It is a chance to develop your spiritual practices. As Paul says, “be reconciled to Christ.”  Diving deeper into Christ’s love for you and the world gives us both foundation and purpose.  Living into our relationship with Christ gives meaning to our lives.  And, besides, we are Christ’s ambassadors, so let us speak well of God.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jim