It’s been hot for so long that I don’t remember whining about how cold it was earlier this spring.  It’s been hot so long that I don’t care if the Japanese    beetles eat my flowers.  It’s been hot so long that I’ve fallen   back in love with  watermelon, patios at 10 at night and sprinklers.  And we’ve only just reached the official Dog Days of Summer.  Remember that phrase?  The Old Farmer’s Almanac  says they run for 40 days from July 3rd to August 11th.  Named by the ancient Romans after Sirius, the Dog Star, whose brightness coincided with this period, it is a time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies”  OK, we’re not all hysterical and frenzied, but we may be dragging a bit, both in body and soul.

These days remind me why the psalmist  wrote that the “LORD is your shade at your right hand.”  I need the cooling refreshment of God’s Word when worries and grief leave me, well, frenzied.  Perhaps you too have days where your worries mix with the heat and leave you thirsty for more than a cold drink.  Now is not the time to forget to gather together in fellowship and worship with those who care for you at Shiloh.  Now is not the time to forget to nourish your soul with the words of the psalmist who reminds us that with the Lord “the sun shall not strike you by day” (Ps 121).  Now is not the time to shut ourselves up inside our air-conditioned cocoons waiting for easier days.  Now is, instead, the time to refresh ourselves by gathering, praising and still serving our Lord.  Just be sure to bring the cold water.

Pastor Susan

Leonard Sweet tells the story of overhearing a student complaining to another about her new appointment from the bishop as unsuited to her gifts, only to hear the other student say, “You know, the world’s a    better place because Michelangelo didn’t say, ‘I don’t do ceilings.’ “   Sweet went on to say that if you and I are going to be faithful to the ministry God is calling us to, then we had better understand that, too.

 Think about how the world is a better place…

•   because a German monk named Martin Luther didn’t say, “I don’t do doors.”
•   because a cleric   named John Wesley didn’t say, “I don’t do preaching in fields.”
•   because Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do Pharaohs or mass migrations.”
•   because Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks and animals.”
•   because Rahab didn’t say, “I don’t do enemy spies.”
•   because Ruth didn’t say, “I don’t do mothers-in-law.”
•   because Samuel didn’t say, “I don’t do mornings.”
•   because David didn’t say, “I don’t do giants.”
•   because Peter didn’t say, “I don’t do Gentiles.”
•   because John didn’t say, “I don’t do deserts.”
•   because Mary didn’t say, “I don’t do virgin births.”
•   because Paul didn’t say, “I don’t do correspondence.”
•   because Mary Magdalene didn’t say, “I don’t do feet.”
•   because Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

 Lent begins on Ash Wednesday February 17th. 

Ask yourself how our church and community, our world, would be different if you and I give up the words, “I don’t do …” for Lent. 

Trite as the saying may be, it’s still true. If you don’t care where you’re going, any road will do. But how often do we truly not care where we end up? Even when we say we don’t care who picks the movie or the restaurant, just let someone suggest something and you’ll suddenly find you did care. The New Year presents all of us at Shiloh with the time to consider where it is we want to end up this year. End up individually. End up as a congregation. End up as part of the community around us. The New Year presents us with a time to decide what it is we actually care about. Then having figured out what that is, it is up to us as followers of Jesus Christ to try and discern how God would have us behave.

We begin this January building upon the momentum of our Advent and Christmas. Administrative Council will be meeting in retreat in mid-January for a training time on strengths-based leadership and communication. The entire church is invited to save Sunday evening, January 31st for a potluck dinner State of the Church gathering in which we will share our thoughts on Shiloh’s mission and ministry for 2010. Our Youth Group will continue its activities through Breath of Life, weekly gatherings and a weekend outing to the Winter Blitz 2010 at the Kentucky Convention Center. This yearly gathering of the youth of the Kentucky Conference is a loud, lively inspiring time of faith-sharing from some of the country’s leading youth speakers and musicians. Our Tuesday night small group resumes with “Bo’s Café”, a story of one man’s encounters with grace at an amazing café, published by the people who brought The Shack to publication. Our Sunday School class for adults will also begin a new study in January, “I Can’t See God Because I’m in the Way” in which we explore the possibility that God’s abundant life is present for us if we just change our spiritual perspective. Our women’s small groups on Sunday morning and Friday lunch continue meeting and will be selecting new materials later in the month.

The one thing we all know we care about is that Shiloh’s sense of family, where we know each person by name, continues to be central to our mission and ministry. Be sure to know that you will be missed if you are not with us in worship, in fellowship, in study and in ministry this January.
Pastor Susan

Fear. It doesn’t just gnaw at the hearts of 21st century men and women living in times of too fast change and too slow joys. No. Fear has stalked us since that day in the Garden when our hands were sticky with apple and we heard God calling us. The Bible uses the word fear over 400 times and describes us as fearful, fearful hearted, fearing, full of fearfulness and just plain afraid. The heart of fear never changes even if the causes come wrapped in different clothes. The big ones: death, illness, pain, abandonment. Bad enough to be afraid for ourselves. Agony to be afraid for our children and those we love. The one difference is that we have lost the illusion of times of relative safety unless we turn off CNN and Fox News and our computers which constantly remind that somewhere near us, someone just suffered a tragedy. Who wouldn’t be afraid?

This September 13th and thereafter you are invited to a ‘Fearless Fall” at Shiloh Church. We will begin a time when both in sermon and during our Tuesday evening DVD study time we challenge each other to be more fearless, less fearful. We’ll will read together Max Lucado’s new book “Fearless” and look at the different fears that leave us paralyzed, unable to enjoy and share the grace of God, robbing ourselves of the richness of life Jesus came to give each one of us. Our sermon series beginning that Sunday will be part of this church wide time in which we open ourselves to the radical message of power and hope of our faith. Mac Lucado writes this in his introduction to Fearless:

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, when you could trust more and fear less.

Can you imagine your life without fear?

You won’t want to miss our worship on the 13th as we begin our Fearless Fall…you won’t want to miss inviting friends and family in special need of these weeks of empowerment.

Let’s just say Harriet wasn’t a natural for road trips.  In fact, if you didn’t practically knock her out she wouldn’t even make it to the bridge out of Manhattan.  But she was our Harriet, even if my father did refer to as a ‘varmit dog’ (translation:  good only for chasing varmits).  So, each year  we’d give her doggie Dramamine, put her in the back set and head out of town.  About 250 miles out, we’d hear Harriet bound up in the back seat, panting enthusiastically and stick her head up front.  “Where ya been, where ya been, where ya been?” her look clearly communicated.  Where have we been?  You’re the one who’s been out like a light for 4 hours, dear.

Well, it became one of our family phrases.  “Where ya been?” we’d say on those occasions when someone missed that they were the one who’d checked out on the conversation.  It’s   often struck me that I’m the same way with God.  “Where ya been?” I keep asking when I’m the one who’s checked out in my prayer life, my listening, my willingness to act on what God has already shown me.  “Where ya been?” I ask, when I’m the one who’s been asleep in the back seat.

Pentecost is the time in the church year when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on all of Jesus’ followers, then and now.  It’s a time when we will reaffirm our baptisms in a service of music, Scripture and the water of baptism.  We will acknowledge that God has not gone anywhere since our baptisms;  it is we who may have moved away or grown discouraged.  It is we who need to wake up, shake ourselves off and welcome again the Spirit of God who has never left us. 

Join us for a celebration of our

 One God, One Faith, One Baptism

Pentecost, May 31st at 11:00 am

Wear something red !

“It just wasn’t what I had expected…” Who hasn’t murmured those words with tones of surprised delight or rueful regret. By the time we’re adults we have formed many of our expectations of the world and thereafter tend to see only what we already believe.

So why should it have been any different almost 2000 years ago: a week in Jerusalem that began with Jesus’ entry in celebration on Sunday and appeared to have ended on Friday with his crucifixion.

“It just wasn’t what I had expected…” shouted Peter as he fled into the night.

“It just wasn’t what I had expected…” murmured John as he walked Mary to her new home.

“It just wasn’t what I had expected…” cried Mary Magdalene as she woke on Saturday.

But then Sunday morning came…

“It just wasn’t what I had expected” shrieked the Adversary as Jesus Christ broke the chains of Death and walked in the garden full of the Spirit and love of our Gracious God.

Walk with Peter, John and Mary next week. Allow yourself to feel the confusion, the guilt and the pain. It’s just one week each year, but it is the week that tells the story of your life, your death and your life to come. Spend these days with a parade in Jerusalem, an evening meal, an execution. Then rise before the sun and see the dawn of life everlasting.

Easter Sunday. It’s still not what we expect.