Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Don't Worry

This is a very exciting time in my life: I'm now living in those days when I could become a mother at any moment (over about the next 4 weeks...). It's a strange expectancy, waiting for childbirth, believing it could be any moment and knowing it could be a good while.

It's not a bad metaphor for how we live our lives of faith--as if the Kingdom of God could come in its fullness in any moment. And as if it may take a while.

One of the joys of this time, as I get ready to give birth, is that I know our worship community will be well while I'm away for a bit. We have such a rich blessing of gifts and such wonderfully talented leaders who will see us through!

Many thanks to Darin, who will continue to guide, direct, shape and coordinate our worship throughout my maternity leave (as she has been doing already!).

And, many thanks to the many guest preachers who will share their insight into scripture and life with our community. It's so rad that we have a number of young folks who are called to ministry, who are willing to preach to us during these formative years in their calling. Evan, Darin, Randy and Lea will all preach during this time. And, some of my good pastor-colleagues here at First Church will get the chance to be with you all: Greg and Mary will each preach once, and Elbert will be here more often. It'll be good to hear these diverse voices and share together in worship.

This week, I hope to be present as Evan preaches. It's going to be an especially fun week, as the band is going all bluegrass on us, with Bob Enstad back as special guest.

And, the scripture is a good one: Jesus command to us, from his Sermon on the Mount, that we shouldn't worry. (This is a good message for expectant mothers and everyone else.) So, here's a song I wanted to share with you, from a project seeking to unite people through music called Playing for Change. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope to see you Sunday!

peace,
Molly

Thursday, February 17, 2011

wwjnd


As we continue our read through parts of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (from Matthew's gospel), I found this cartoon pretty on-point. Over and over, Jesus asks us to think about things in a new way, and calls us to faithfulness beyond what the world tells us...