Simple Gifts

Stop right now and think of the last gift that you received from God. I just got off a Zoom gathering with a group of fellow clergy where we were discussing some of the challenges we are facing as leaders in the church right now. During that conversation, I realized how grateful I am for the presence of these colleagues in my life and my ministry. They are a gift from God to me. Earlier this morning, after my prayer time, I went to take the dogs out in the backyard, and I noticed the sun’s rays emanating from behind the clouds on the horizon. It was a beautiful sight, a gift from God. A reminder of the goodness and beauty inherent in an ordinary day. What about you? What gift from God have you received over the last 24 hours?

Last night as I headed to bed, I was thinking about this E-Letter message and what I might share, and strangely enough, the words to a very old song that I sang back when I was a teenager in church youth choir popped into my head, “All good gifts around us, are sent from heaven above, So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love.” I looked up the song and it turns out it was from the musical Godspell. (I know, I’m embarrassingly aging myself!) But the age of that song doesn’t affect the truth of those words. The same truth is reflected in the words of James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” Everything we enjoy in this life is ultimately a marvelous gift from an extravagantly generous God who never stops giving.

This Sunday in worship, we will begin a new message series, “Simple Gifts”, where we will be reflecting on and giving thanks to God for all the gifts, large and small, that God pours into our lives. We will talk about how we can continue to grow in our journey of being wise and faithful stewards of those gifts. This journey is an essential part of what it means for us to follow Jesus and be shaped by his Kingdom priorities. It is a journey where we are invited to grow in reflecting the extravagantly generous heart of God in our generosity. It is a journey that invites us to discover how to live with a deep, abiding faith in the power of God to provide us with an open and generous heart and hand. It is a journey that can move us from a scarcity mentality to trusting in the sufficiency of all God’s gifts. And finally, it is a journey that leads us to deep gratitude for all the myriad gifts that God has placed at our disposal. To find joy as we discover how we can use those gifts of time, talent, and resources to bless others and make an eternal difference with them.

We begin the journey this week reflecting on Matthew 6:25-34, which invites us to discover all the ways that God has woven sufficiency into the fabric of creation. In this scripture, Jesus invites us to look around and consider the lessons that the created world can teach us about God’s provision and power to provide. In it, Jesus invites us to discover what it means to move from worry and anxiety over things, to trust and to make the reality of God’s Kingdom the center of all we think, say, and do.

I encourage you as you prepare for worship this Sunday to read and reflect on this scripture and to begin to name some of God’s gracious gifts in your life. Think about what it might mean for you to trust God more and to center your heart on the priorities of God’s Kingdom. Then begin to pray with the Psalmist, “What shall I return to the Lord, for all his bounty to me?” Psalm 116:12

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Annette

The Gift of the Sacraments: Baptism

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in worship the time in May that I spent at Ignatius House in Atlanta. I talked about the grounded place by the waterfall that I take myself to when I feel overwhelmed, or uncertain about where God might be. I close my eyes, and I can hear the bubble of the water, the chirping birds, and the wind in the trees.

The other body of water that I experienced on my retreat was the Chattahoochee River. It isn't a particularly beautiful body of water. Here’s a photo for reference.

I sat at the edge of the river many times during my retreat. During a guided walk that I took with the rest of the participants, we were invited to take as much time as we needed at each spot, including the river bank. I spent the longest moment there listening to the river rush along. I remembered that ordinary water, browned by dirt, leaves, and possibly a little pollution, was a powerful force that shaped this riverbank for hundreds of years. Many humans had stood in the spot that I did, and many more would after me. At that moment, I felt compelled to let a few things go that had been weighing on me. So, I took a piece of a tree branch and I broke it up and tossed the branch into the river, praying for God's release over the situation weighing heavily on me.

As the river powerfully rushed those pieces of branch away, I felt peace. Though the water, and the pieces of wood I tossed into the water, were very ordinary, they represented the power of God’s work in my life to let go, and be cleansed from the pain and hurt those situations had caused me.

Just as I return to the waterfall in my mind, I frequently remind myself of that release on the river. Those situations haven’t gone away. They constantly crop up, frustrating me and causing me to become unmoored from my identity in Christ. I close my eyes and remember in my body the act of throwing away the situation, and not letting it hold me any longer. I have been claimed, beloved. I belong to Christ Jesus.

I am reminded that just as the river has shaped the landscape in Georgia for thousands of years, so too I am shaped by the ordinary water of my baptism each day of my life.

This Sunday in worship, we will remind ourselves of the power of Baptism as we conclude our two-week sermon series on the sacraments. Though water is ordinary, fundamental to life, we will remember that it has the power to shape us in our identity and call throughout our lives. We’ll look at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry on the riverbank in Matthew 3, and Jesus’s commission at the end of his ministry in Matthew 28 as we bookend our theological understanding of Baptism in the United Methodist Church.

If you have been baptized, know that God desires to use that act of grace (even before we understand it!) to transform you from the inside out. If you have not been baptized, know that Christ’s invitation is for all people to experience the transformation of the water. We’d love to walk with you as you consider making that decision for yourself or your child.