Dear Church, 

First, an explanation.  In last Sunday’s sermon, I used an image of late actor, Steve McQueen, in his 1963 role as Capt. Virgil Hilts in the movie, The Great Escape (you can watch a trailer of the movie here).  I’m not sure I rolled out the illustration as well as I could have on Sunday morning.  Allow me this elaboration: for me, the movie is an imperfect but helpful illustration of God’s redemptive work in Christ.  Humanity is like the POWs in the movie – whether we have religious language for it or not – we know sin holds us captive and we desperately want to escape our imprisonment.  And in Jesus, a way to escape the imprisonment of the soul to sin was created at tremendous cost (Grace being free, but not cheap).  Still, we must find where the walls of separation have been torn down, such as the scene where Capt. Hilts discovered a blind spot in the Stalag fences.  We must find the confidence to embrace Jesus’ escape plan for us, just as Capt. Hilts had to come to believe in the extravagant plan of the POWs to escape.  And we must redefine our essential purpose in life, as Capt. Hilts’ purpose was transformed in the movie from simply looking after his own personal well-being in escaping to working with others to seek the escape of many prisoners.   

Second, an invitation.  This Sunday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s day for all you Celtic Mennonites!) during worship, the Elders will be serving the congregation through the ministry of anointing.  Anointing is provided for those in the church who are sick (James 5.14-16).  Truth be told, we are all sick.  We are sick of the brokenness of our world.  We are sick of the brutalities, and bad manners that abound.  We are sick of violence and viciousness we see on our screens and mobile devices every day.  We are sick of the unexplainable tragedies that befall those we love.  We are sick of growing old. Even as we seek to follow Jesus daily in life, we struggle with the imperfections and miseries of life.  An anointing service is one way we as the church can acknowledge the brokenness all around us, and publicly declare our confidence in the faithful of God through Christ to ultimately bring healing and hope to us, to our families, and to our neighbors near and far.  I want to invite you to the oil of anointing this Sunday, not because you or your loved are broken, but because Christ makes all things new! 

Third, a prayer.  In this season of Lent, I have been drawn in prayer to ask God to visit us as a congregation with sufficient power from the Holy Spirit, so that we can see in Christ’s call to follow him joy rather than burden. To see, amid the swiftly changing world, the enduring joy of God’s faithfulness to us in Christ.  The words from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer provide me with a frame of reference this week: 

“Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners:
Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (1979 Book of Common Prayer, p.219, as referenced in Esau McCaulley, Lent: the Season of Repentance and Renewal, [IVP:2022], pp.69-70) 

Lent is a season to rediscover the faithfulness of Jesus in rescuing us through our own Great Escape by means of the Cross and Resurrection.  Lent is a season to acknowledge the disease all around us and declare God’s intent is to heal us and the world by means of Jesus.  Lent is a season to pray for, and with, and because of the joy that exists everyday through Jesus Christ. Certainly, Lent is also a season to reckon with the reality of our sin, but if such reckoning does not lead us to the Great Escape to Joy … well, I wonder what’s the point? 

Be joyful, church, even within the sorrow of Lent … 

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS – Coffee and conversation this Friday, March 15 (Beware the Ides of March!) and next Friday, March 22, at the Broad Street Grind, 3:30-4:45 pm.  Dialogue over Oatmeal and Omelets next Monday, March 18, at the A&N Diner, 7:30-8:45 am.  These are times for you to raise questions, engage in conversations around issues that matter to you, and make your point of view known, if you so desire.  It can also just be good coffee and good food with good friends.  I hope to see you there…

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.