The Weekly View

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Dear St. Luke Community,

What a week. On Wednesday morning most of us woke up to an orange sky and unhealthy air quality for days to follow. Many of us are feeling the weight of everything, if not for ourselves, certainly for those most affected. Many of us have lost our rhythm, our usual ability to to move through tasks seamlessly, our usual good nights sleep, our usual, well just our usual. We are, in many ways, experiencing a kind of wilderness time, where the usual is no longer experienced and what’s to come is still unknown.

In our focus scripture for Sunday, (Exodus 14:10-31)  the Hebrew people followed Moses into the wilderness with God’s promise for the promised land. 

But as they were fleeing Egypt, the threat of the Egyptians who were on their heels, plus all the uncertainties that the wilderness brings became too much for them. And they blamed Moses for not letting them stay in Egypt, the only place they knew as home.

It seems that what was familiar, even if it was slavery, was preferred over the unknown. And what does Moses tell them to do? Well you’ll have to stay tuned and come Sunday to find out.  

But here’s a hint:

We cannot go back to the usual. And while we may never know what it means to live as slaves or to be victims of oppression, we do know what it means to travel in the metaphorical wilderness of our lives. We’ve lived wild chaotic periods of our lives personally at different points of our lives, but now we’re living it collectively: as a state on fire, as a country on the brink of a volatile election, and as a planet experiencing a global pandemic. We cannot go back to business as usual; but we can travel deep into the wilderness with God who leads us to the promise of God’s grace and mercy.

See you Sunday,

Nicole

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Dear St. Luke Community,

Commandment is an odd word. At least it is for me. Commands are something masters give their slaves or their genies who live in a bottle in their living room (if you grew up in the 70’s and watched too much TV). In other words, command is a word I’d rather find another word for. What about the word request? Too soft. How about suggested? Nope. How about required? Now we’re getting somewhere. We’re required by God to love God and love neighbor above all else. 

In Paul’s letter to the Romans (13:8-14), Paul says all the other commandments are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself” (verse 9). The idea being, that if you focus on that one command, the rest of it will take care of itself. This command presumes we love ourselves first, but it means so much more. It means this requirement will come with a sacrifice, because loving another will often require we give something of ourselves in order for God’s justice to be served (Love God).

As a culture our distaste of words like commands has grown alongside our distaste for sacrifices, being obligated or required to put others’ needs first. Serving God will often put us at odds with our own wants. And like children, we too often want what we want and are willing to ignore what’s right, decent and good to get what we want. 

If history has taught us anything time and time again, it’s that looking out for number one doesn’t work in the long run, and it’s most certainly not what we’re commanded or created to do. As Christians, we’re commanded to follow Christ's principles of love, not only on Sunday, not only when we’re thinking about personal growth, but in every aspect of our lives. Given these tumultuous times, it’s more important than ever to ask whether we’re acting out of selfishness or whether we are putting our greatest commandment to the test by looking out for (loving) others.

See you Sunday,
Nicole

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Dear St. Luke Community,

I am looking forward to being together with all of you this Sunday by Zoom. 

I’m also excited to welcome our guest preacher, Reverend Dvera Hadden, to preach the Good Word. Two years ago Rev Hadden and her family moved to Marin from Columbia, South Carolina. She and her husband have come to worship at St. Luke numerous times and Dvera has made her presence known and valued within the Presbytery. Along with occasional preaching, Dvera volunteers with local non-profit organizations. She is applying to the Diploma in Spiritual Direction program at University of Redlands Graduate School of Theology (home of former San Francisco Theological Seminary). Dvera and husband Curtis Ford, Jr live with their two high-school-age sons and three cats in Curt's childhood home in Mill Valley.  Their adult daughter lives in Chapel Hill, NC.

The scriptures that Dvera will be preaching on are two of my favorites: Exodus 3:1-15 and Romans 12:9-21. In the Exodus passage, God describes God’s self to Moses as the God of his ancestors, connecting the past to the present and the future. We know too well that none of us live in a bubble of time. Our past influences our present and our future. For example, my mother is present every time I prepare the same comfort food she prepared for me. When my children are sick they ask for the same pastina soup that my mother made for me and her mother made for her when she was sick. And while I haven’t asked, I’m willing to bet my great grandmother made the same soup for my grandmother.

God’s love is like that: connecting, nurturing and nourishing us always through all the people who have loved God before us. Those whom God entered into covenant with, all of those who have accepted the call of God, now live the message of the Gospel through love. And just in case we’re not sure how to do that, Paul’s letter to the Romans spells it out.

I am very excited to hear Dvera, to pray with all of you, to see Ben and Will get excited over the bear puppet, and more.

See you Sunday,

Nicole