Dear Church,  

First, thanks for all your prayers for Debbie.  She had two outpatient surgical procedures this week.  As part of our health insurance, those procedures took place in Baltimore, so it has been hospitalization while away from home in California, and away from home in Blooming Glen.  Your prayers sustained us this week, and I am very grateful.  She’s doing well, although it does look like someone punched her in the nose.  We return to Baltimore for post-operative assessment next Wednesday, so please keep Debbie in your prayers that she mends well. 

Mending well is the whole point of Lent.  We enter this season of reflection, repentance, and renewal in the aftermath of the joys of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.  The Christ Story of miracle and mystery lead us not into an easy life, but into a deeper exploration of all that is broken in our hearts and in the world as it is.  We live among wreck and ruin, as well as beauty and bounty.  Lent invites us to introspection as individuals and as a congregation to reframe our postures from what was to what’s next.  In the 2+ years I have been privileged to serve with you, I have seen you as a congregation begin the slow, hard work of pivoting from what was and maybe lost, to what could be, and might invite us to new possibilities.  Lent does this for us.  It takes from joy of Jesus’ birth, toward the pain of Jesus’ Cross, to the exaltation of Jesus’ resurrection. 

In short, it’s a journey.  And while, like the Exodus people of Israel, we know where the promised land is, getting there seems to be, as it was for the Exodus people, much more difficult that it should be.   

As we begin the second half of the Lenten season, my prayer for Blooming Glen Mennonite Church is that you take this season and continue to let go of what once was and reach toward the new thing God wants to do in your life.  That new thing will likely take tremendous courage on your part.  That’s why God and God’s messengers almost always begin their words to God’s people with the invitation, “Don’t be afraid.” 

Friends, God is changing things.  Don’t be afraid.  Or cynical.  Or anxious. God’s work can, at the outset, be plain incomprehensible.  But, over time, the Gospel becomes clearer.  In these next three weeks between now and the beginning of Holy Week, God is speaking to us about what’s next in our journey together with Jesus.  I pray for listening hearts, open minds, and ready hands. 

Blessings to you all in this season of Lent,
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS – Coffee and conversation at the Broad Street Grind, Friday, March 8, 3:30-4:45 pm.  Daylight Savings Time begins, 2:00 am, on Sunday, March 10.  Breakfast discussions, Monday, March 11, at the A&N Diner, 7:30-8:45 am. Finally, another round of coffee and conversation, Friday, March 15, 3:30-4:45 pm, at the Broad Street Grind … Come and share in the dialogue.

Dear Church, 

Covenant is a challenge. 

Far too often, we think of covenant as “contract.” We take a theological concept about God’s grace and turn it into a human performance.  We think of Covenant as the goodies we deserve to get if we don’t get caught doing naughty stuff. 

Abraham, the traditionally recognized founder of monotheistic faith, failed frequently at Covenant with God.  In Genesis 12, the middle-aged Abram (aka “The Exalted Father”) is promised by YHWH (“The Lord God”) blessing and personal greatness if he would uproot his family and become a wandering immigrant.  But as soon as things got tough, Abram took everything he owned, went to Egypt, and committed fraud by suggesting to Pharoah that his wife Sarai was his sister.  Then Abram’s family splits up and his nephew Lot, seeing that his uncle was a bit of a hypocrite, took his share of the family wealth, and made a beeline for Sodom. Failure #1. 

In Genesis 15, Abram and YHWH meet up again.  YHWH tells Abram not to be afraid.  Abram points out that he isn’t getting any younger, and he has no heir.  YHWH tells Abram to look into the night sky and promises more descendants than stars.  They seal the deal with an ancient Covenant ritual. Next thing you know, Sarai and Abram conspire together to make Hagar a surrogate parent to a presumptive heir.  Failure #2. 

Two Covenants – two failures.  Abram, despite God’s promises, couldn’t trust God to care for his family during a short-term food emergency, nor could Abram trust God to provide an heir to fulfill his long-term legacy.   

For twenty-four years, YHWH and Abram go back and forth, and Abram, despite worshipping God, couldn’t fully trust the audacious promises.  Abram wanted to worship God, and to be in control of how God would bless him. Covenant doesn’t work that way. 

Then, God shows up again.  In Genesis 17, El-Shaddai (“The Almighty God”) shows up and renews the Covenant yet again.  Abram, the two-time failure, can only fall to the ground in surrender and the desire to obey.  This time, just as Abram saw a different face of God, God gave Abram a new name.  No longer an exalted Father, Abram becomes Abraham, the Father of Many. Many peoples.  Many nations.  Abram’s desired legacy was to be the founder of great family.  God gave Abraham the promise of launching a great movement of many peoples.   

That great movement began with the birth of Isaac.  With laughter (Isaac, in Hebrew means, “he laughs”), God starts something new that continues to this day.  Through these many peoples, over many generations, Jesus, the son of a carpenter, was born, and became God’s ultimate redemptive portrait. 

Friends, Lent is a season that teaches us that God doesn’t give up on us.  God takes the long-term approach with us.  And God takes our dreams and enlarges them through the mystery of grace.  God has so much in store for Blooming Glen Mennonite Church … if we want to welcome God’s Covenant grace. 

• What would Blooming Glen Mennonite Church become if we were confident in the promise that God won’t abandon us when we fail?

• What would Blooming Glen Mennonite Church become if we knew that God’s plans for us would take generations yet to come to fulfill?

• What would Blooming Glen Mennonite Church become if all our tangible assets were to disappear, and all we had left as a church together was the common, ancient confession:  “Christ has Died.  Christ is Risen! Christ will come again.” 

Covenant is a challenge.  It is so implausible, so improbable, that we are often too afraid to let God be God in our midst. 

Lent is an invitation to give up fear and embrace grace.  That’s all God really wants us to do. 

Keep at it, church – God isn’t going anywhere …

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net

 PS – I’ll be at the Broad Street Grind this Friday, March 1, at 3:30 pm for caffeine and conversation.  This Monday, March 3, I’ll be away on a retreat with my Mosaic pastor colleagues.  Please feel free to meet up at A&N Diner at 7:30 am and have a good time anyway.  I’ll be back for more caffeine and conversation on Friday, March 8, 3:30-4:45 pm.