I'm Diving In

Last week, Scott and I were headed somewhere in his truck, and he had on a Pandora music station that he likes that plays early 2000’s contemporary Christian music (don’t be a hater – that Jars of Clay is good stuff!) and a song came on that I haven’t heard in almost 20 years! The song is called “Dive” by Stephen Curtis Chapman, and while I know I’m dating myself, hang in there with me – there is a point here.

The chorus of the song says, “I’m diving in, I’m going deep, in over my head I want to be – Caught in the rush, lost in the flow, in over my head I want to go – The river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive – So sink or swim, I’m diving in.”

As I listened to the song, I realized that it describes how I feel about this new year. I have such a sense of hope, joy, and expectation over what God will do in and through all of us this year. I’m ready to dive in – to deeper discipleship, to deeper relationship, to deeper faith and trust in the power of God at work in me and here at Suntree UMC.

Of course, this song also speaks to the power of baptism to renew us and fill us with grace. Another verse says, “There is supernatural power in this mighty river’s flow - it can bring the dead to life, and it can fill an empty soul.” That is the power of the grace we find at the river with Jesus in the waters of baptism.

This Sunday, we will do so by reflecting on the immense love that God has for us as we study the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15:11-24. While we often refer to it as the parable of the prodigal son, the truth is that the story teaches us even more about the extravagant love of the Father who is always waiting to welcome us home. It is a picture of God’s love and grace that is so radical and shocking that we can never fully comprehend it. So, we keep telling the story and keep proclaiming its truth: we are loved with immeasurable love. We are always welcomed home no matter how far or often we wander.

We also see that truth is embodied in the baptism of Jesus and our baptism. So, this Sunday, you will have the opportunity to reaffirm your baptismal vows, to dive into the waters of grace, and be renewed and refreshed through the water. If you have never been baptized, you may hear God calling you to “dive in,” surrendering to the loving embrace of God, our loving Father. For those who have already been baptized, this is an opportunity to be renewed in that grace and renew our commitment to living as followers of Jesus.

All of this is the prelude to our next message series, “Follow Me” which we will say more about next week. But we hope that for the next six months, we will “dive in deeper” as a faith community and as individual followers of Jesus. Together we will be exploring who Jesus is as seen through the gospel of Luke and what it means for us to “follow” him in word and deed.

We hope you will join us for worship on Sunday, either in person or online. If you are worshipping online, prepare your home altar with a small container of water to join in the baptismal renewal.

The river of grace is indeed deep and wide. I pray we will all have the faith and trust in God’s amazing love to dive in deeply to that grace!

Grace and Peace,
Annette Stiles Pendergrass

Year-End Finance Update – Praise God! Through your faithful generosity and the amazing power of God to provide, we have ended the year after paying all our bills, including 100% of our connectional giving obligations, with a positive cash flow of $18,829.02. Yay God! And thank you, thank you to everyone who gave so generously and faithfully through this last year. Suntree UMC is a faithful, grateful, and generous church and every gift helped us accomplish this important milestone. Thank you!!

The Precipice of Another Year

Happy New Year's Eve!

It is my earnest prayer for you that you have spent the past week of Christmas-tide reflecting, eating Christmas cookies and snacks to your heart's content, and enjoying the people and the things you love. The days feel fuzzy, the moments feel long and soft, and I hope you’re enjoying some true self and soul care in this pause.

This moment, as we stand on the precipice of another year, is always a moment for clear-headed reflection in my life. It inspires a taking stock, a “searching and fearless moral inventory,” of my year and my behavior. Sometimes, as I come out of my cookie-induced-coma, I am unhappily greeted with the sobering realization that I have not been whom I wanted to be, that I have not loved or lived in a manner that’s worthy of the leading of Jesus in my life. I am accosted by the number on the scale, the apology tour I must take, and the gap that stands between myself and the ideal. Luckily enough, the world joins me in this reflection. And, each New Year's Eve, we as a society toast with sparkling something and watch the ball drop and decide that we may be better again. New Year's Eve is an opportunity after a moment of extravagant indulgence to put ourselves on the right path and to re-engage with our discipleship, our health, and our relationships.

As we said on Christmas Eve, some of us did “declutter our Christmas,” but some of us just… didn’t. We may have tried, but found ourselves overwhelmed by the swell of Christmas obligation and emotion. The New Year again offers us an opportunity, though less religious, to reset our lives and to let Jesus be the Lord of them. I’m not sure what that means for you: more regular participation in worship, deepening devotional and scripture-reading practice, joining a class online or in person, re-engaging your children in Kid’s Ministry, or serving in a new way in the life of the church, but we at Suntree are committed to joining you and engaging the opportunity to be a people of Extraordinary Love.

This Sunday, we’ll hear the story of Epiphany as these ordinary, secular Wise Men are given the revelation of Jesus’s lordship. They follow the bright light of the star to encounter the light of Christ, and the politics, power, prestige stop mattering to them as they see this vulnerable babe in the manger. They see themselves, the gap in whom they’ve said they’ll be, and they go home a different way.

I hope as you re-emerge from the fuzziness of this in-between week, you’ll see your own opportunity to follow the light of Christ in your life. You are invited to join us as we seek to love our neighbors and our world well in this new year. In that, I hope that you, too, feel the extraordinary power of Emmanuel, God with us, at work in you, too.

See you Sunday,
Allee Willcox