This is something I think’s easy for us to forget. In all the worthwhile work it takes in keeping a place like this going, it’s so easy for us to forget why in the first place. Speaking as someone who walked in to a church for the first time a decade ago. We so easily forget that the most attractive thing about us, or a community like ours isn’t the tasks we need done, or the bills we need paying. It’s not the roof that’s being fixed, and it’s not the seats on committees. These are all good things. Necessary things. But they aren’t the inheritance we’ve been given to pass on. Those things are all here to help us pass on our inheritance, what we have to give.
Read MoreYou see, Elijah thought he was finished. He was no longer the person he once was. But God sustained him long enough to bring him in to his presence, and then to give him a whole new commission. He’s no longer fighting kings, no. That life is behind him permanently. Now he’s called to anointing new ones .He has a new vocation. Because God isn’t finished with him yet. Because when one chapter in our lives ends, God always has more in store.
Read MoreYahweh’s blaze of fire was impressive, for sure. But that’s not the real miracle. The real miracle here comes after. The real miracle is the end of the drought. After the fall of the prophets of Ba’al, Elijah confronts the king again. This time, it’s not with judgment. But with good news. With grace.
Read MoreAnd, despite the differences between us in time and space, I believe the community-creating Spirit of God is very much at work drawing us together today. Mysteriously, relentlessly. Past boundaries we once thought were impenetrable. And drawing us in to a story greater than ourselves. Even in a disconnected world like ours. Maybe perhaps especially in a disconnected world like ours.
Read MoreWhen we are tempted to focus our lives on the future, to keep our eyes fixed on the clouds, Christ and his heavenly messengers always drag our eyes back down to earth. To focus our eyes to the world in front of us, so we can watch and for God’s Spirit through all the earth. That same Spirit that empowers us to be witnesses, so people can begin to see that Christ is not somewhere off in the clouds, but he is alive in us.
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