It’s time to talk about what matters most.
But first of all: thank you! Thank you for your incredibly warm welcome of me and of my family. For the Mardis-LeCroy family 2021 has been a blur of packing, moving, unpacking, organizing and settling in –all while caring for a newborn (Calvin will be four months old on Groundhog Day!) and coping with a pandemic.
It is so strange to start pastoring a church without face-to-face interaction. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to shake your hand after worship, to meet you for a cup of coffee, to pray with you in a hospital room. And I may not have that opportunity for a while. It is strange to miss people I have never met, but that is what I am feeling these days.
Despite these challenges, the people of this church have been so incredibly gracious. We feel very warmly welcomed, and I am grateful for that. Better yet, I feel like I have partners—lots and lots of partners—to share in this work.
So now I think it is time to talk about what matters most.
We live in a season of interlocking crises: not only the pandemic, but also the deep dysfunction in our politics, persistent racial injustice and so much more. But I believe we are best by a more profound problem; one that undergirds and exacerbates the others.
I think we are confused about God.
The Bible does not spend a lot of time and energy trying to prove that God exists. The Bible does, however, devote a great deal of attention to the question of who God is. What is God like? What is God’s character? What kind of a God is God? The Hebrew Bible’s critique of idolatry reminds us of the persistent human tendency to create God in our own image and end up the victims of our own bright ideas.
If we get God wrong, we cannot hope to get anything else right.
So how do we get God right? For Christians, Jesus is the very best clue we have to the character of God. And, for Jesus, the cross is the one event that shapes his entire existence.
We know God in and through the cross of Christ.
Maybe that sounds simple and even predictable –a pious piece of boilerplate, the kind of thing that preachers always say. But I want to suggest that it is anything but simple and miles away from predictable. If we really allow the cross of Christ to shape our understanding of God—if we are rigorous in filtering all of our beliefs about God through the image of Christ crucified—I believe we will come to some surprising conclusions about what God is like, what God wants from each one of us and what God intends for our world.
So... we are going to talk about it. And I really hope you will take part. Beginning on Transfiguration Sunday (February 17) and continuing right through the end of May, our worship will focus on a series of biblical texts that invite us to see God (and ourselves) in the light of Christ’s cross.
In this season of crisis, we get to focus on what matters most.
Better yet: we get to do it together.
See you in church?
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Matt
But first of all: thank you! Thank you for your incredibly warm welcome of me and of my family. For the Mardis-LeCroy family 2021 has been a blur of packing, moving, unpacking, organizing and settling in –all while caring for a newborn (Calvin will be four months old on Groundhog Day!) and coping with a pandemic.
It is so strange to start pastoring a church without face-to-face interaction. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to shake your hand after worship, to meet you for a cup of coffee, to pray with you in a hospital room. And I may not have that opportunity for a while. It is strange to miss people I have never met, but that is what I am feeling these days.
Despite these challenges, the people of this church have been so incredibly gracious. We feel very warmly welcomed, and I am grateful for that. Better yet, I feel like I have partners—lots and lots of partners—to share in this work.
So now I think it is time to talk about what matters most.
We live in a season of interlocking crises: not only the pandemic, but also the deep dysfunction in our politics, persistent racial injustice and so much more. But I believe we are best by a more profound problem; one that undergirds and exacerbates the others.
I think we are confused about God.
The Bible does not spend a lot of time and energy trying to prove that God exists. The Bible does, however, devote a great deal of attention to the question of who God is. What is God like? What is God’s character? What kind of a God is God? The Hebrew Bible’s critique of idolatry reminds us of the persistent human tendency to create God in our own image and end up the victims of our own bright ideas.
If we get God wrong, we cannot hope to get anything else right.
So how do we get God right? For Christians, Jesus is the very best clue we have to the character of God. And, for Jesus, the cross is the one event that shapes his entire existence.
We know God in and through the cross of Christ.
Maybe that sounds simple and even predictable –a pious piece of boilerplate, the kind of thing that preachers always say. But I want to suggest that it is anything but simple and miles away from predictable. If we really allow the cross of Christ to shape our understanding of God—if we are rigorous in filtering all of our beliefs about God through the image of Christ crucified—I believe we will come to some surprising conclusions about what God is like, what God wants from each one of us and what God intends for our world.
So... we are going to talk about it. And I really hope you will take part. Beginning on Transfiguration Sunday (February 17) and continuing right through the end of May, our worship will focus on a series of biblical texts that invite us to see God (and ourselves) in the light of Christ’s cross.
In this season of crisis, we get to focus on what matters most.
Better yet: we get to do it together.
See you in church?
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Matt