December 22, 2024

In the Second Hour Sunday elective group that is studying the book, Divine Gravity, by Meghan Larissa Good, she makes two really important assertions: First, she writes, “Jesus is the authoritative lens through which God is seen and the Bible is interpreted (p.47).” Wonderful! I agree completely! The challenge then, of course, is actually to do the work of reading and interpreting the scripture. Pastor Meghan reflects on how the Reformation of the 1500s was an attempt to recenter authority in the scriptures, and she goes on to write (still on p. 47), “A reformation that centers on Scripture perhaps inevitably leads to a reformation that centers on Jesus…”

This is precisely why we have said that one of our three discipleship values at Blooming Glen is: “We rely on the Bible as our guide for faith and life.” Without the Bible, we don’t know much of anything about Jesus. Imagining a Christianity without scripture is a little bit like imagining Harry Potter without the seven books JK Rowling wrote. Our faith without our Bible is like trying to imagine Aslan without the writings of C.S. Lewis or being on the journey with Frodo Baggins without the writings of JRR Tolkien. Without our paying deep attention to the narrative story contained in the Bible, we Christians are not much more than your local service club – maybe we can do some good in the world, but there won’t be any real transformation.

Pastor Meghan also challenges us when she claims that the Jesus we know through scripture is authoritative in our life. To say this, is, in my opinion, to tackle our time’s two great ideologies. Individualism – which suggests that we are each the moral center and pinnacle of our own universe without ultimate accountability to any other authority structure but ourselves and concerned solely with one’s own interests. The second ideology of our era, collectivism, suggests that all social behavior ought to be and is ultimately dependent on some sort of group solidarity. To say the Jesus we know through scripture is authoritative in life is to radically cut through the noise made by every stripe of politician, economist, and social critic.

And the only way to challenge the ideologies (and idolatries) of our strange, new world is to rely on the Bible…because it is the only tool in our faith that points us to Jesus, our ever-present Savior, Teacher, Friend, and Lord.

So, let’s go, church (reading and relying on the Bible as the ultimate story of God’s amazing grace through Jesus)!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. Monday, December 23 is the final listening breakfast at A&N for 2024. We’ll resume meeting for breakfast on January 6 at 7:30am. Our next Friday afternoon coffee and conversation will be Friday, January 3, at 3:30pm, at the Broad Street Grind. Lord willing, see you there!

December 15, 2024

Dear Church:

I recently ran across a quote that floored me:

“The preservation of the community is best assured through a process of continual change.”

This quote, from Nicholas von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), one the leaders of the Pietist movement, is important for us today for three reasons. First, Christian community is worth preservation. Our history as Anabaptist-Mennonites has often been to lean into schism. In our eagerness to “agree to disagree” we find it easy to fracture. But perhaps, there is third way between ignoring our differences and fracturing over them. As we place Jesus, and our desire to follow Jesus daily at the center of our life together, we may still disagree, but we do so as we care deeply, while challenging directly, and we do so, not to sever relationships, but to stay together. We come to realize that authentic, genuine Christian community in the Way of Jesus is a truer marker of faithful discipleship than our self-conceived doctrinal purity.

Second, Christian community is a process. So is making scrapple. Neither one is pretty to watch. Christian community calls us to hard work – peaceful practices that give us the spiritual insight to care deeply and challenge directly. If you want to know what those spiritual practices are, Mennonite Central Committee has developed a curriculum for use by churches (https://mcc.org/resources/peaceful-practices-guide-healthy-communication-conflict). These eight qualities give one an ability to authentically care for those with whom they disagree, and it provides ways to lovingly challenge those with whom we disagree.

Finally, Christian community adapts. Change is the essence of community. We no longer wear plain dress, or have the ordinal read annually, or sit in gendered-separated worship services. We change. We adapt. Or we die.

We are inheriting a world that requires deep change on our part. Deep change that is built not on schism or cheap grace, but on the adaptive power of the Holy Spirit.

So, let’s go, church (and change with the Holy Spirit’s guiding)!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. Monday, December 16 at the A&N Diner (7:30-8:45am), and December 20 at the Broad Street Grind (3:30-4:45pm) are times set aside for me to listen to whatever is on your heart. See you there!