Current Newsletter

Today we continue with Jesus’ “sermon on the mount” as told by Matthew. We move forward in time, remembering a beautiful series of statements:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”

We take this awareness with us into our daily lives, and continue to listen for God’s word to us today. The passage we heard read today can be divided into three parts: salt, light, and law.

Let’s begin with a little salt— not too much, but a little. [Talk about what is does and its limitations.]

Now the image of light is used— a light set on a hill, like this church, part way up the hill, a light to the community, a light for all, not hidden under a bushel [song]. We have recently added to the brightness of our light with a new web site. People far away can now see what we are doing, and be inspired by our work. We are connecting with a much wider audience thanks to the work of Mary Lee, Susan, and many others who contribute ideas and photos toward making, modifying, and perfecting our new web site <pointrichmondmethodist.org>.

The law may be the most difficult of the images today. We know we fall short of the perfection needed here. According to our faith, Jesus is the only one who kept the law perfectly. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. But the message here is about fulfillment of the law. The promise of the law, fulfilled in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, is the law of love— the highest of all laws. When we love God and show it by loving our neighbors, we, too, fulfill the law. We are called to risk everything to do this. If we seek to save our lives, we will lose them, but if we give them away in love, we will find them. This is one of the many great paradoxes of faith. The last shall be first, and the first the last is another paradox that the choir sang a week ago.

We don’t come to God through our human intellect, by love and service to the world. In order to talk about the life of faith at all, we use the stories of scripture, we sing the songs of the faith written over many centuries, and we pray, using words and silence with humility and kindness to move the world toward God’s reign of peace and justice for all, not just for some.

In frustration we sometimes look at the world and cry out, “Why?” and “How long?” This was the cry of the psalmist centuries ago. We read the laments in the Psalms and join the cry. We’d like to wave a magic wand and fix the governments, both political and religious. But instead, we use what we have and what we are to make improvements a little at a time. We resist injustice, as Jesus did, and live our lives in love, as perfectly as we can. We sing and pray, we work and give so that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you remember the heaven within, “O best beloved?” We get there a little at a time, but it is within us all the time, in you, in me, in us.

I’d like to close today with a paragraph from the introduction to At Your Altars:

Our [faith traditions] worship styles and theologies are diverse, but they are united by love. Our cultures and languages are diverse, but the song of the heart unites us in love and truth. Our faith traditions are different at the level of doctrine, but they join in prayer and loving practice. In spite of our intellectual barriers we sing, and we are moved toward love a little at a time.

A little salt, a little light, a law of love,
with these, we make a big difference.

Let us be in prayer

Joys and Concerns