From the Pastors

Dear faith family,

It seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them (Luke 24). This is the reaction of the apostles to the women’s words on the first Easter: their report of an empty tomb, their story that Jesus was improbably, impossibly alive.

Who can blame the men? Dead bodies stay dead. In the end, life is a predictable affair, with a predictable end. Anything else is just too good to be true - wishful thinking, pie-in-the-sky…an idle tale.

There’s no way to prove that this isn’t so. There is only the testimony of Christ-followers through the centuries that the last word is not death, after all; the last word is life, a life that is full and abundant and rich, a life that is connected to the energizing, life-giving power that is found in Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter of Galilee, at once a very human being and our Lord and Savior.

All the things a church does - singing praise, teaching children, reaching out to the hungry and homeless, sharing fellowship, etc. etc. etc. - they’re all grounded in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, the living God who calls us to truly live - now, in this world, as well as in the next.

Easter is not just a day, it’s a season, and so at WPC we’ll be preaching and singing about the new life to which God calls us all through April and May. We’ll be looking into the future with phase one of our capital campaign, and with Youth Sunday (May 9) and confirmation (May 23). We’ll be thinking about a new global mission project and moving into a new staff configuration as Kathy (Bostrom) moves from a half-time position to quarter time. We’ll be planning Bible School and summer camp and mission trips and new opportunities for adults. And if you trace any and all of that back to its roots…you’ll find the resurrection power of God, which calls us into a new future where death has no final power, where life is the last and best gift that God gives us all.

Grace and peace,
Greg and Kathy

We write these words just a few days after the earthquake in Haiti. The devastation is impossible to fully comprehend, and the extent of suffering to come is equally unfathomable.

At such times one wonders…why? There is no answer to that, of course, and if there was an answer, it would not be good enough, not nearly good enough. The truth is that nature is indifferent to us: regularly beautiful, sometimes terrible, but always indifferent.

The good news of the gospel is that God is not indifferent. The Christmas message is that the God who created all things becomes part of his creation and shares life as we know it. The Lenten story, which we are about to rehearse once more, tells how God’s own self experiences the suffering and sorrow that afflicts all of his creatures at one time or another. God is not indifferent to human suffering; in the cross of Christ we see that God shares it. Our faith is not a “pie in the sky,” naive affirmation that all is well; at a time like this, our faith gives us hope in the midst of tragedy because we trust that God is not indifferent to us.

Princeton Seminary student Amy Julia Becker tells the moving story of the death of her mother-in-law in her book, Penelope Ayers. In “First Things” (November 2009) she writes that “in the midst of Penny’s illness, I read that the word “hope” in Hebrew is similar to the word for spider’s silk. I also read that spider’s silk is stronger than steel, that researchers are hoping to use spider’s silk to make lightweight bulletproof vests. I’m not sure the Hebrew etymological connection was intentional, but it provided me with a helpful image: hope as a strand of spider’s silk. stretched tight between the pain of the present moment and the promise of a future reunion. Hope is the place between. It is remembering the pain of the cross and anticipating the reality of the resurrection. It is an awareness that the world is not yet what it should be, even as God is already at work. Hope is as strong as steel and as fragile as thread.”

This month we will share our prayers and our dollars with the people of Haiti. And we will continue to live the life of faith in our churches. We will worship; we will teach our children; we will care for hurting friends; we will reach out to those in need in our own community. We will begin the holy season of Lent. All these are linked by our “mission from God,” our common calling to be an outpost of hope in the world: hope fragile as thread, but strong as steel.

Grace and peace…and hope,

Greg and Kathy

We are living in an Advent world. With an economy that can at best be described
as uncertain, with wars whose length can only be described as indefinite, in times
that must be described as anxious… the world just may be open to the Advent
message. Just maybe, the words of a prophet, the voice of an angel, the cry of a
newborn child, have a chance to get through.

In an Advent world, people know that the way things are is not the way things
should be. In an Advent world, people are searching for something more, more
than just the return of consumer confidence or a rejuvenated job market, important
as those will be. In an Advent world, people wonder if there really is a Purpose
that comes to us from beyond our own desires, if there really is a Presence that
empowers us to live, if there really is a Love that enfolds us when times are tough.
In an Advent world, people are looking for hope.

When times are tough and people turn to the living God, hope is exactly what
they find. Not easy answers for complex questions, not short-term fixes for deep-rooted
problems, not band-aids for the wounds of the soul… instead they find hope:
the sure and certain promise that God is at work, within us and among us, guiding
paths, strengthening resolve, encouraging justice, lifting burdens, wiping tears,
healing hearts, empowering lives, right up until our last breath when we return to
our eternal home.

We teach our kids that “it’s more blessed to give than to receive,” and in our
consumer culture, celebrating the joy of giving is surely a virtue. But somewhere
in the midst of this Advent, stop…pause… and remember that Christmas is also
about receiving. It’s about receiving the gift that God offers each and every
Christmas, if we will only take it. The gift is hope, and the package has your name
on it. Sometime in this holy season, make sure to open it.

Grace and peace,
Greg and Kathy