I want to make God more alive to someone else this year.

To all the saints in Christ Jesus in Shiloh United Methodist Church:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Imagine if we were greeted that way as we began our day…as we ran into Kroger’s for last minute groceries…as we opened the door to our house.  Sounds wildly improbable, doesn’t it? Admit it, sounds kind of extreme,    doesn’t it?  Sort of like we thought we were like those New Testament people.  The ones we call saints.

Guess what?  That is what we’re called to be.  Most importantly, it’s what God gives us the power to be.  I hope you will be with us in worship with us throughout November as we celebrate the saints in our lives.  The people who “made God more alive” to you. We’ll hear stories from the heart of ways saints in this congregation have made each other’s lives richer in love, richer in meaning, richer in laughter and sorrow shared.  We’ll also hear stories of times it looked like we were the ones pouring out God’s love, only to find it flowing over into us as well.

The reality of being the church at Shiloh United Methodist, being the saints who’ve loved each other and served God, is that we promise first, our presence and prayers and then, our money and our time. When we miss coming together in worship and fellowship, we miss the vital love that the Spirit of God uses to connect us to each other.  It’s not our power that makes us saints to each other:  it’s God’s.  When we ignore the vital role that money plays in our ability to worship and minister together, we ignore the words of Jesus that where your money is, there your heart is also.

We can hold onto what we have, and find we have less.
Or we can open our hearts, our schedules and our checkbooks…
And find that the ‘someone else’ God is more alive to…is all of us.

Tallulah, my pug, was scratching around the back yard this morning, looking like her own version of Pigpen from the old Peanuts cartoon.  Her little cloud of dirt surrounded her wherever she went and that’s when I thought, “Boy, do we need rain.”  Tallulah’s my dryness barometer and reminds me each day that if my garden is going to get any water, it’ll have to be from the end of my hose.  But Tallulah also led me to think about what my spiritual ‘dry’ barometer would be if I had one.  While we’ve been talking about Soul Care in our sermon series, I’ve been mulling over dry times in our spiritual lives.  These are times when we’re too overwhelmed or distracted to care for our own souls.

What’s your barometer of dryness in your spiritual life?  Is it a cloud of cynicism like Pigpen’s cloud of dirt?  A wilting of your hope like the end of summer flowers?  A drying up of words to speak to God?  Mike Yaconelli, in a book called Messy Spirituality, wrote this about our soul life with God:

Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality, not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws, but because we let go of seeking perfection and instead seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness.

When my ‘unfixedness’ threatens to leave me in a cloud of isolation, I’ve learned to find water instead of just hoping for a cloudburst of rain.  I’ve learned to tell a close friend how I feel and ask them to pray when my words have dried up.  I’ve learned that a psalm, read over and over, in the silence of the evening, can be a long cold drink.  I’ve learned that my feelings aren’t facts and just because I feel God has left me dry doesn’t mean God has.  If God could lead the Israelites in the wilderness in a cloud of smoke and a pillar of fire, then God can lead us through the dust of long, dry days.

Those who drink the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.    John 4:14

Pastor Susan

The parsonage is quiet but for the snoring of Tallulah, my pug. The trees are turning that dark green that signals fall is coming. It’s the end of August and the kids are back in school. Now, it’s been many, many years since I began all my new school years the first Tuesday after Labor Day. Yet September is still for me a time of new beginnings. More than New Year’s, September is a time when the pages are blank, the pencils sharpened and the air full of anticipation. No matter how long ago your first day of school was, I want to ask you to consider this September and especially Sunday September 7^th as a time to start a new year at Shiloh.

Adulthood has a way of stretching on and on, with fewer and fewer milestones when we can stop and celebrate our journey so far. Adulthood has a way of stretching our emotional and financial resources beyond our comfort zone. Adulthood has a way of stretching us like one of those Mr. Gumby figures. We were made by God to make this journey with company and that company needs to be more than just our families. We need to come together to be encouraged when we are tired, entertained when we feel flat, challenged when we become complacent.

This September 7^th we begin a new worship schedule at Shiloh which allows everyone to join us at 9:45 for coffee and refreshments (cereal and milk for kids who need a little extra time to get ready!), with new Sunday School groups meeting from 10-10:45 and then worship together from 11-noon. There will be a video series on Tuesday nights and a Friday luncheon study. Later in the month we will make good use of our lovely prayer area in the sanctuary with a prayer group (time to be set).

We are at Shiloh Church to be part of God’s church where ‘everyone knows your name.’ Join us Sunday the 7^th, bring your children, bring someone who hasn’t been here before. Get your coffee and join in a new year at Shiloh. You may even get new pencils.

It’s a rather terse definition:  Stranger (noun):  neither a friend nor an acquaintance.  I assume the dictionary felt it unnecessary to add “or a relative.”  Much less “or yourself.”  Strangers.  I’ve been thinking about how we all are, to 99.999% of the people on earth, strangers.  As I’ve been visiting our homebound members these past few weeks, and heard their stories, I’ve been struck by how I’ve been a ‘stranger’ to places I drove by daily for years.  And me to them.  Skylight…Shiloh UMC…Goshen …these past few weeks all these places became populated by new faces, new stories and new friends.

And we’ve become less of strangers to each other this month,

Come and join us during the month of August as we begin a new sermon series, “The Stranger Among Us”.  We’ll explore through familiar and unfamiliar stories in Scripture how we can come to know those we don’t know in our community, families and church, through God’s eye and heart-opening Spirit.  We’ll begin where all spiritual growth begins, and that’s with ourselves.  It’s not just Billy Joel who asked if you’d ever let another see the stranger in yourselves…it’s God, too.

It may be the hot days of August, but the living water of God’s word quenches many thirsts.  Don’t just come alone…bring family or friends we may not have seen for awhile (or ever).  Here’s the schedule:

August 3rd
 “Oops, Did I Say That Out Loud?”  (the stranger in ourselves)

August 10th
“We Don’t See Each Other Much Since…” (the stranger in our family)

August 17th
 “You’re Sitting in My Pew” (the stranger in our church)

August 24th
“We Haven’t Met, But… (the stranger in our community)

My small garden banner was just visible over the stacked pots, garden hoses and Lord knows what on the parsonage patio: Bloom Where You’re Planted. That’s simple to say, but surrounded by boxes and change, and new faces (and did I mention change), it’s easy to lose sight of the simple. So as I write this today, I’m reminding myself that God promised daily bread, not a 30 day freezer full, to keep us grounded in one day. “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Ps. 118:24. As my family and I grow roots in the community of God that is Shiloh UMC, we look forward to a time when we will have shared many days together. We thank you all for the ones we have shared so far, as the parsonage was filled with fresh paint, much laughter and more than a few groans as we all reached into corners and crevices. Will now knows how to paint walls and we all feel more ‘planted’ for having done this together.

Beginning on the first Sunday in July, and for the next three Sundays, we will be inviting small groups of our new church family to come over to the parsonage in the late afternoon for supper and dessert, backyard play for the kids and fellowship for the adults. We’ll work out the details in the next few days, and until then, save us a Sunday.

We are all in this church and this community by God’s grace, and I look forward, as you do, to the unfolding of His will in our lives as we bloom where we’re planted for God’s glory.

Pastor Susan