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Community Thanksgiving Dinner

Nov 08
Posted by kim in Church News

Our Community Thanksgiving Dinner is fast approaching! There are several people who have already volunteered to help but we will need even more volunteers.

The dinner will take place on Thursday, Nov. 24th, from 11am – 1:30pm.  We will serve meals in our Fellowship Hall and deliver meals to people who would have difficulty getting out of their homes.

There will be opportunities to help out on that day, and before. There will be opportunities to provide some of the food, including pies. Look for the sign up sheets to show up on the bulletin boards soon. This event is sponsored by the local churches and businesses.

Please invite your neighbors and friends to our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

ALL are WELCOMED!!!!!!

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Disputes, Lawsuits, and Automobile Sales

Aug 18
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

1 Corinthians 6:4–8

4 If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, 6 but a believer goes to court against a believer — and before unbelievers at that?  7 In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud — and believers at that.

This text demonstrates how far we are from the early church, including the church at Corinth.  We are not such a close-knit community of people who would go to almost any length to settle a dispute with another person.  We can hold grudges.  Sometimes, if we have been hurt by a person, we will leave a congregation rather than seeking after reconciliation. (more…)

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Rhubarb and Deuteronomy

Feb 15
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

Deuteronomy 23:24–25

24 If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in a container.  25 If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

These two verses are actually part of the lessons assigned for today in our daily lectionary.  They describe in an interesting way the kind of community that was planned for the biblical people of God.  It was a community in which it was assumed you shared with someone in need, but that you would not steal from one another. (more…)

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God’s Law and Our Lives

Feb 03
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

1 John 5:1–5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Today’s reading is getting ready for Sunday’s gospel in which Jesus asserts his authority over the “law.”  But Jesus makes clear that he is not getting rid of the law.  The law of God is not meant to be burdensome.  If we just focus on the Ten Commandments, they are not complicated and are designed to help us get along with others in our community. (more…)

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Vision and Hope

Dec 15
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

Zechariah 8:4–8

4 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. 5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 6 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the LORD of hosts?  7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; 8 and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.

Here is a vision of the future that God was promising to ancient Israel, more than 500 years before Jesus.  They had just returned from exile in Babylon, but that did not mean that the Persians were willing to have them be a country on their own again.  There were also empires in the West that could threaten the people.  It had been a harsh existence for the people during their 40+ years in exile.  Rebuilding Jerusalem was “no picnic” either. (more…)

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Diversity in God’s People

Dec 10
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

Ruth 4:13–17

13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the LORD made her conceive, and she bore a son.  14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. 17 The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.

We rarely read this part of the story of Ruth.  We remember her loyalty to Naomi, her first mother-in-law, but we forget about why the story of Ruth is in the Bible.  It was to show that the great King David was not purely an Israelite.  His great-grandmother was from Moab, not Israel. (more…)

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Judging Others

Oct 21
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

Matthew 7:1-5

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

 1 Corinthians 6:1-3

When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels — to say nothing of ordinary matters?

How do you reconcile these two verses of scripture?  That was the question of one of the readers of these daily devotionals.  I have put in italics what I think are the two key clauses.  Are we going to be judges over the whole world, or are we commanded not to judge? (more…)

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Resolving Disputes

Oct 18
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

1 Corinthians 6:1–6

When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels — to say nothing of ordinary matters? 4If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, 6but a believer goes to court against a believer — and before unbelievers at that.

St. Paul has a variety of complaints against the Corinthian Christians.  In this text he is concerned that they cannot settle their disputes among themselves.  It frustrates him that they will go to “unbelieving” judges to resolves differences between one Christian and another. (more…)

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Wrangling over Words

Oct 15
Posted by Pastor Howard White in Devotionals

2 Timothy 2:14

Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.

I will admit it.  I like precision in words.  Often I re-write things several times to make sure that I have written exactly what I am thinking.  My hope, and it is an irrational hope, is that people are precise readers as well.  When something I have written is misinterpreted, I want to be able to go back and say, “That is not what I wrote.  See.” (more…)

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1 Corinthians 12:17-21 (NRSV)

Oct 07
Posted by kim in Devotionals

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

Did you ever have one of those days when everything that could go wrong did go wrong?  That is why I am writing this from a Caribou Coffee in Burnsville.  Here is the scenario… (more…)

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