Snow Hill News Blog

What Is God to do?

From Pastor Todd's weekly email,

Finally, the Hosea passage gives us a glimpse of a conversation God has with himself. You may take this as odd, but if you have been a parent or responsible for younger siblings at any point in your life then you know why you may be found talking to yourself.  Despite your best attempts to tend and care for those children it seems they are always looking for a way out from under that influence. Even more they tend to walk away from rather than be drawn by our cords of love. What is a parent to do? What is a God to do?  Show mercy. Gather the people together again. In our lives may we exhibit that same trait. Ready to show mercy when the impulse is anger and wrath. If God who is often right to be angry over our dismissal of his love shows mercy, how important would it be for people who claim his name and live in a relationship of love with him to follow that example?

You may listen to more thoughts on the texts for this coming Sunday by clicking here.

Looking forward to sharing life and faith with you this Sunday. See you on The Hill!

Pastor Todd began his weekly email about the texts for the coming week this way,

Chuck Berryhill and me traded emails earlier this week. We acknowledged both the reality of busy schedules and evidence that despite busy schedules people will do what they want to do. The email conversation reminded me of something I recently read.

 

It seems that the seventeenth century French mathematician turned philosopher/theologian, Blaise Paschal, had some thoughts about why people fill their lives with busyness. He wrote in his famous work, Pensees,

 

I have often said that the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

Paschal has much to say about this thought. At its core, he suggests people live into, even create, distractions so as to avoid the hole in our lives that may only be filled by God. It terrifies us to think of our own mortality, limitations, and failures. He continues, 

Despite [his] afflictions man wants to be happy, only wants to be happy, and cannot help wanting to be happy. But how shall he go about it? The best thing would be to make himself immortal, but as he cannot do that, he has decided to stop thinking about it.

The way to avoid thinking about it is to fill our lives with distractions intended to make us happy. We spend a great deal of time before we learn these externals really do not make us happy. But, we tend to continue to fill our time with whatever distractions may keep us from thinking about what it means to be a human being.

 You may read the entire piece here. If you would like to receive this email weekly, you may sign-up in the right sidebar.

And, Pastor Todd posted some audio reflections centered around the Scriptures for this coming Sunday here.

Shaping Us Toward Sunday ... Texts for the Week

From Pastor Todd's Weekly Email ...

I was sharing a conversation recently where it was remarked, "Can you believe how fast the year is going by?" We all agreed that at some point our parents or grandparents often made this remark while we felt like life dragged on slowly. Then we all acknowledged just how fast time does go by. Sometimes it goes by so fast we forget just how we are to make use of our time. Jesus remarked about time and the need to make the most of the "day" and the Apostle Paul notes that we must "redeem the time." If we are not about things that give preference to the mission of God in the world we are forgetting the "day" Jesus described and we fail to bring to bear any kind of "redeeming" of the time in which we live.

 

Our texts for this week challenge us in a variety of ways. Last year I had the privilege of sharing a small collection of pastor's talking about preaching with musical artist Michael Card. At the time Card was working on a book on the Gospel of Luke. One theme he replayed over and over was, "the people who should 'get' Jesus don't and the people who shouldn't get Jesus do.' That could easily describe some of the setting for the Old Testament text for this week. You would think the King of Israel would get it when an opportunity to point to the work of Israel's God comes along he would seize it. Instead he responds out of feat, if not mis-perceiving the ways of God.

Pastor Todd's Weekly Email and Podcast are Now Available

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Unfortunately the story of Jesus gets obscured by our cultural calendars. It is not that we are not glad for our Mother's and Fathers. We should honor those who have served our Country faithfully. Celebrating the Independence of our Country warrants fireworks. But, above these cultural stories that comprise what it means to live in the United States should never over-rule and out-run the story that shapes our identity in Christ. It is that story, the story of the person of Jesus, that constitutes who we are together as the people of God.

 

You may have plans this weekend. As we continue to press  the importance of the story of God in Jesus, we hope that one day Pentecost Sunday will rival all but Easter in our celebrations. For were it not for the enlivening work o the Spirit given on that day, our stories would be vastly different.

You may subscribe to Snow Hill's weekly email by signing up in the right sidebar.

Pastor Todd also has posted his reflections from a couple of the texts for this Sunday. You may listen by going here.

Don't forget our men are cooking for our ladies' tomorrow morning. Breakfast begins at 8 a.m. See you there.

Pastor Todd's Audio Reflection for Sunday's Scriptures

Facing his own fears as he followed the lead of the Spirit to visit Cornelius he had to know that no one, even Gentiles, were outside of the love of God if he himself could be reconciled.

The story behind the events of Peter's words in Acts 11 reveal personal discovery and a means to mature to a new place of following Jesus. Here is a link to Pastor Todd's audio reflection on the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.

Pastor Todd hopes you will add these reflections to your preparation for worship, fellowship and participating in the sermon from week to week. Leave your thoughts here in the comment section or over at Pastor Todd's website.

You may listen by going here. Click on the "play now" or "download" for listening later.

We will share the Lord's Supper/Communion during worship this Sunday.

Scriptures for the Week

Sunday Pastor Todd noted that at Babel God scattered and in Jesus he gathers. We battle our own culture with its inherent segregating of people - ethnically, socially, economically, along the lines of success and failure. We long for something new.

Our texts for this week describe occasions where something is new - something constructive. Skeptics express a wariness that anything can bring about the kind of radical new-ness Jesus lays claim to. Cynics distrust any assertion offering a way forward in virtue that does not have a material expression.

The passage from Acts notes a material shift in the way in which Jews and Gentiles related to one another in Jesus. No longer at odds because of the differing ethic and cultural distinctions, Peter relayed the very way God had prompted repentance in him - a change of mind that produced a material difference in how he would engage people different than himself.

The Gospel passage considers the new-ness brought by Jesus to constitute a new way of being with others - love for one another. More than just a "principled approach" which often remains that, just a principle. Jesus indicates the material shift would be evident and apparent by those who noted the differing way in which those who followed him would relate to others.

Finally, the Revelation passage once again portrays the theme of new-ness with the coming "new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem." Those aspects of the material creation that were once at bay would be brought together where John from Patmos describes the dwelling of God would be with people. This new constructive way for people to be together rests on the reconciling work of Jesus, the Christ. He brings those which have been at odds together. Here the vision is one wherein the once far off God is now the very near God who dwells with people. The result is a new-ness that many long for today.

We may present to them this new-ness with the hope we have in the final fulfillment of that picture with the second Advent of Jesus. Remember, we continue to celebrate the realities of the Resurrection by living into these new constructive ways of being people made in the image of God who live reconciled lives in love with others.

Scriptures for the Week - Second Sunday in Eastertide

For the next six weeks we continue celebrating Easter and the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus. In the same way we prefer not to zip past Christmas and into the New Year, we choose instead to linger awhile at the empty tomb with many in the wider Church.

Here at Snow Hill we believe the story of God in Jesus Christ does not prompt us to pour all our resources into one day, but every day. And as the church we understand the Resurrection has implications far and wide - well beyond Easter Sunday Morning. We applaud the many who view this as their one time to pull out all the stops. We want to pull out the stops every day in our living our the Resurrection in our own lives.

Sharing the next six weeks of Eastertide may help move us to see the beauty of living Resurrected lives for the glory of God and the blessing of the world. So, put away your Easter duds and put on your living clothes and let's consider the ongoing implications of the Resurrection where you find yourself living every day.

Our Scriptures for this week are found in the right sidebar. Read them. Meditate on them. Share a thought about what you have read. How does it point us to living Resurrected lives? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Lent Reflections from The Hill - 24

Are You In the Way?

Philippians 2:5-11

Patty and I recently took a trip. We joined some family and attended First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks. How the church took that name is for another reflection to be sure. We sat in a large auditorium with two very large screens to project those leading on the stage. I prefer to see the person on the stage rather from the screen. I know, it is likely my age and personal sensibility. For me it is like reading a book. I think there are reasons I would like an e-book reader but nothing compares to holding the book in your hand. These mediums sometimes get the way. Not to mention I sat behind a very tall fellow which at times forced me to watch the screen rather than see the pastor. Yes, his head was in the way.

Generally when we refer to something being in the way we describe an impediment, hindrance, or obstacle. Children leave toys out in the way. Sometimes we feel another driver is in the way.

One of the earliest descriptions of those who were disciples of Jesus in the book of acts were referred to people who were in “The Way.”

Lent Reflections from The Hill - 23

From Palms to Cross

Luke 22:14-23:56

This Sunday has been Palm Sunday, but this account in the Gospel of Luke of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem has no palms, and no hosannas either, two of the most familiar details of this story in the other three Gospels. It's kind of hard to imagine Palm Sunday without them. Yes, there are the cloaks laid out to make his ride easier, as in the other accounts, but no mention of palms and no hosannas, and the praises are sung not by a fickle crowd that will change its mind in a few days and call for Jesus' death. No, these praises burst forth from Jesus' own disciples, a whole multitude of them, who have been following him throughout his ministry. They may run and hide when things get rough in a few days, but they never call for Jesus' crucifixion.

These are, after all, people who have seen such great things, who have been so profoundly moved by Jesus' words and his deeds of power that they can't help but sing out today, as Jesus enters triumphantly into their holy city, Jerusalem. Jesus is the hope of a people who long for deliverance from the powers that crush them and hold them down.

Lent Reflections from The Hill - 22

Hearts of Servants

Psalms 31:9-16

    It is easy to recognize the great distress and hardship the Psalmist is undergoing. The description of suffering is detailed in its poetic nature. The lament cries out to God for comfort and help. But even in the suffering and distress the Psalmist understands where hope comes from and whose love is unfailing. Verses 14-16 offer declaration of dependence and trust in God.
    Many times in our lives it seems as though God is absent in our hardship, and there is nowhere to turn. Life often wears us down with stress, loss, and brokenness.