Mar 22, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
We are living through another unique season in our lives and in the history of our country. Many of us are weary. With romantic recall, we wish to go back to simpler days when civility was the norm, public decorum was valued, and our nation aspired to be as President Reagan said, a “shining city upon a hill.” We long to return to a time when a mighty woman with a torch, the mother of exiles, welcomed our ancestors to the shores of America.
Of course, there has never been a time when life in this great country has been uneventful, a time when the citizens of this land have not faced trials and tribulations. Our history is littered with war, scandal, recessions and depressions. The more things change, the more things stay the same. As the storm clouds of division build and we find ourselves adrift in uncharted waters, as we are greeted each day by a new series of distressing headlines, I thought it might be helpful to revisit the foundational truths of our lives. The North Stars of our faith and our service to country.
We begin where we should begin, with the words of Jesus as he simplified the tenants of religious life:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
Here we have the call and the challenge of Christian discipleship. Somehow, we must learn to love God and to love ourselves. If we can do that, and it is not a given, then we will be able to love our neighbors. And who are our neighbors? They all are. Every tax collector and leper, every Muslim and Jew, every Republican and Democrat, every immigrant and minority.
We move now to the foundational truths that ungirded the founding of the United States of America. From the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
In all honesty, our forefathers often failed in the execution of this foundational truth. Missing the mark on equality should not deter us from the goal. Long after the founding of our nation, and after a brutal Civil War had torn us apart, these aspirations were still present in the words of the Pledge of Allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Liberty and Justice for all. The question of who would be included in “all” brought our nation to the verge of Civil War as a new President was about to take the oath of office. Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address sought to avert war by reminding our citizens of their shared history. On March 4, 1861, Lincoln appealed to his constituents, seeking unity in the midst of division:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Four years later, on the 4th day of March 1865, 36 days before Lee would surrender the Army of Virginia to General Grant, Lincoln would again address the country seeking charity and unity. Lincoln understood that the pathway to healing would be paved by compassion not retribution. In that speech, just 41 days before his assassination, Lincoln stood on the Capitol steps reminding the citizens of the North and South of the common foundational truths of our nation:
“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ~ that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”
“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Dear friends, in these uncertain times when many of the basic tenants of our faith and our nation are being challenged, may we be encouraged and emboldened by the teachings of Jesus and the aspirational voices from our rich national history. Let us not be paralyzed by fear, rather let us embrace the better angels of our nature for liberty and justice for all.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Mar 14, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim
On the 15th day of March 2025 there is considerable anxiety in our community. Our country and our world seem unstable, unhinged, and the nightly news offers little comfort.
Five years ago on this date, we were entering into a season of isolation, uncertainty and death. Each day we were faced with a changing landscape, images of overcrowded hospitals and a new set of pandemic medical directives.
Do you remember waiting in line at Payless, outside in the cold, the essential workers inside, keeping their distance from each other and from their customers? The CDC had determined a reasonable pandemic capacity for the grocery store. Was the number correct? Were we safe? We really did not know. But there we were, masked islanders exposed to the elements, silently waiting to enter the store, hoping that there would still be some toilet paper.
This morning, I decided to run the daily word that was published on this date five years ago. Perhaps it will offer us perspective and hope as we once again face the uncertain days ahead. Reflecting on our 35 years together, it is striking what we have been through, the storms we have weathered, social unrest, war, terrorism, cultural change and financial downturn. Every season brings challenges, both personal challenges and societal challenges.
But the seasons always change, summer always gives way to fall, and in time the worries of today will slip silently into the pages of history. Think of where we were five years ago today. My friends, we will get through this time together. As we did five years ago, we will support, love and care for each other. Together we will weather the storms that greet us, knowing that God is with us.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find toilet paper, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Perspective from the pages of history:
March 15, 2020
Sunday Morning at TLC
Love Looks Like an Empty Church
There is not a single person here on this Sunday morning. I did not even make coffee. The church is totally quiet. Of course, it is not just churches that are empty. We ordered out from a local restaurant last night. When I picked up our dinner, the restaurant was eerily quiet. Empty restaurants on a Saturday night. Theaters, sports venues, schools all sit empty. Our lives have changed so dramatically in the past month.
How will we make it through this? What will we learn from this ordeal? “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. Love never ends. Now faith, hope and love abide these three and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13
Together, we will make it through this crisis. God is love, and we must let love be our guide as we make our way through the Corona darkness. But what will love look like in our community?
Scripture reminds us that our goal should be to work for the Common Good. The Common Good of our neighbor and our community. If we tend to the Common Good, then all can experience abundant life. Conversely, if we care only for ourselves, if we horde, if we let fear keep us from loving, then we will suffer with a community that suffers.
The Common Good is the goal. What will love look like as we seek the Common Good?
We must act with caution. The question is not, “Is it safe for me to be around others?” The question is, “Is it safe for the community to have people who may or may not be contagious moving around as if there were no virus?”
What does love look like at this time? Love looks like an EMPTY CHURCH. Love is putting aside our own needs and sacrificing for others. Love looks like an empty church. That is why we closed our campus. The loving response to this crisis is to proceed with caution out of respect for our vulnerable neighbors.
It is time to be reminded that this journey of faith and life is not all about me. Following Jesus is not about the car that I drive, the newest technology that I can afford, or the balance in my bank account. It is time to be reminded that we are called first and foremost to contribute to the Common Good. This virus affords us the opportunity to be less self-centered and more community-centered.
God is love. Love will lead us through. Love is patient. Love is kind. What does love look like? On this Sunday morning: Love looks like an empty church.
My love to you!
Pastor Jim
Mar 8, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim
“As for mortals, their days are like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” Psalm 103
My friends, readers, sojourners on the journey of life, I have an announcement to make. It is among the most obvious of announcements and yet we spend much of our lives denying this simple truth: WE WERE BORN TO LEAVE.
Born to leave, let that sink in for a moment.
It was never a part of God’s plan that we would stay. When we were knit together in our mother’s womb, we dwelled safe, warm and secure. We were nourished and protected; we had NO concerns about tomorrow.
Our bodies were marvelously made, every detail a miracle. We were— we are—each of us, a small expression of God’s creativity, wondrously and mysteriously created in the image of the one who formed us, and it all came to us as a gift.
We did not initiate or earn the magical nine months of nirvana, floating in the still amniotic waters, an umbilical cord our only connection to an unknown world. We were gifted with this time of lightless grace, but we were destined to leave. It was never a part of God’s plan that we would stay, not there in the darkness; it was a necessary stop on the way to a new existence.
We were born to leave. We rebel against this notion, we fight with every ounce of our being to stay, to breathe, to live, to carry on in a world so beautiful and so troubled.
We desperately try to hold on to the known, not able to calm ourselves for a passage into the unknown, the mysterious next chapter that waits for us on the other side of earth’s maternal womb. We curse death as if it was an aberration, a stranger, an unexpected part of the human journey. We were born to leave. We are like a mist that appears for a little while, we are grass quickly fading, dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind.
We were born to leave. We have no “eternity” in this world, any more than we had an “eternity” in the womb. This earthly existence might be more accurately described as a tour of duty. We arrive helpless and 100% dependent upon others. Unable to survive on our own, we must look outside of ourselves. Slowly that dependence diminishes, false bravado leaves us with the illusion of independence. But it is nothing more than an illusion. Our tour of duty includes seasons in the sun, a time to run, a time to play, a time to love and be loved, years of discovery followed by a time of soul-searching reflection as our bodies display the inevitable signs of decay, and the truth becomes more difficult to ignore. We were born to leave. We are dust and to dust we shall return.
Can we make some peace with God’s plan? Can we somehow embrace the words most often spoken by God to fragile humans like us: “Do not be afraid”? Bread, wine, water: eat and bathe in a sanctuary of safety; do not be afraid. How intimately God knows us, how frail and fleeting is our existence. How childlike our fears of the dark.
Can we learn to trust in things that are beyond our control and most certainly beyond our comprehension? Can we reflect on our time in the womb, on the gift of the lightless construction site where our limbs, organs, and tiny bones came together? Can we consider the labor that brought us to this world and in doing so can we find the faith to leave this world? It was always the plan, you know. We were born to leave. Our tour of duty will end.
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” Mark Twain
May we treasure our tour of duty. May we make the best of each precious day. May we live with less fear, assured that as we arrived safely here, that we too will one day arrive in a new world. A new existence will be ours, all a part of God’s plan, a mystery beyond our understanding. We were born to leave.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your
Pastor Jim
Mar 1, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Genesis 1:1
It is the earliest confession of faith among our human ancestors. It is not a scientific explanation. It speaks of intention. God created with intention. Meaning that creation and the humans that would follow were not an accident. It is the earliest confession of faith. We are not alone. There is a higher power. In the beginning God created. We know very little about God, very little has been revealed to us. Mere creatures, we have a hard time understanding the opposite sex much less an eternal being, the Master of the Universe.
There are those who would maintain that there is no God, that this confession is without grounds, foolhardy even. In my mind it takes a lot more blind faith to believe that the diverse creation of the universe was little more than a cosmic accident.
Consider for a moment the words of perhaps the greatest mind of our time. Stephen Hawking, the British theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist and science communicator said: “If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million, million, it would have re-collapsed before it reached its present size. On the other hand, if it had been greater by a part in a million, the universe would have expanded too rapidly for the stars and planets to form.”
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It is the earliest confession of faith. This confession was never meant to be science, it was meant to inspire wonder, and to assure us that we are not alone. In your beginning God created you. God created you with intention. God created you in the image of God, unique in all of human history.
May God grant us peace, wonder, humility, and gratitude. Gratitude for each day, each breath, each sunrise and each sunset, for the privilege of this time on earth. Do not be afraid to live and do not be afraid to die. For the earliest confession of faith reminds us that we are not alone. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for thou art with me.” That is enough for me.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Feb 22, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim….
“Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” Psalm 139
When you walk into Payless what do you see? When you walk on the ferry what do you see? When you walk into TLC what do you see?
What you see are people. The people of God going about their everyday routines. They are shopping, commuting, scurrying off to the ferry, going to church or school. They are young, they are old, they are somewhere in between.
What do you see? What do you not see? What is hidden? What is behind the masks and tidy appearances?
The people of God come in all shapes and sizes, but they are much more alike than different. Peel off the skin and you will find that their operational systems are nearly identical. Take a look inside that skull and you will find the command center of the body. That command center will look the same if you are a fashion model, a movie star, a teacher or a boat builder. Hands and toes, blood cells and tissue, bones and joints, we are mostly the same. Most people are good, peaceful, and law abiding.
What do you see? What do you not see? What is hidden from your sight?
People of every land and race are biologically nearly identical. Most people are good, caring, law abiding, they long to love and to be loved. They desire to live peacefully with their families and their neighbors. They bleed when cut and cry when they are hurt. People are mostly the same.
What else? Your friends, family members, neighbors, acquaintances and strangers are all insecure, they are afraid, they are plagued by anxiety. The roots of the anxiety could be found in relationships or in the workplace, in financial fragility or in a disease process that is at work in their bodies. When you walk into Payless what do you see? You see people who are all carrying heavy burdens. Their backs may not be bowed, there may be a smile on their faces, but trust me, behind that smile they are carrying heavy burdens.
Given this reality, I hope that we can be people of grace. I hope that we can be a little more tolerant, a little more patient and kind. I hope that we can see in that neighbor or stranger the image of God. I hope that we can see our own reflection in them. That neighbor or stranger is someone’s daughter or mother.
Unlike God we cannot “discern their thoughts from afar.” However, we know enough about their journey to know that they can use a little TLC from us. As I tell our High School students, “you do not need to be everybody’s friend, but never be their enemy. Never add to the burden that they are carrying.”
Blessed to be a Blessing!
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Feb 15, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3
On Sunday, February 9th 40 couples stood before the altar at TLC and renewed their sacred marriage vows. One of our couples had been married since 1956, two couples had been married less than a year. This was no mere formality. It was a moment to look intimately into the eyes of a life mate, understanding the serious nature of the promises that were made. What does it mean to say that I will stand by your side no matter what life sends our way? What does it mean to say to promise to care for each other in sickness and in health? What does it mean to acknowledge that death will one day part us?
When these vows were exchanged the first time, decades ago in most cases, the horizon of the future seemed to be never ending. The years ahead were more a concept than a reality. The promises were nebulous to say the least, the life experiences of 20-year-olds are so limited that they offer little perspective to the serious nature of sacred vows.
The couples came forward holding each other to remain steady, canes and walkers, a slow gait, labored breathing, some well into their 9th decade of life. They had seen it all, they knew what it was to have little and plenty, they had stood at graveside to say goodbye to dear loved ones, they had raised their children and held newborn grandchildren, disease, dementia, the ravages of aging all too apparent. Given this reality and understanding the challenges that were before them they held hands, tears in their eyes, and promised once again to be faithful and true for the rest of their lives. The vows of this renewal are much more meaningful, much more real than those first vows, vows taken blindly in the naiveté of youth.
The runways of our life are getting shorter. Soon the kids will be off to college, retirement is looming, the seasons are changing. How many more Christmas’ will there be? What will I do with my time?
As a young man I spent many evenings with my father. Sitting in the living room of my childhood home we passed the hours listening to Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Trini Lopez, Dinah Washington, and Dean Martin. It is only in hindsight that I recognize the precious nature of that time. My father died shortly after retiring nearly 30 years ago. The music did not stop for me, but the seasons had undeniably changed.
“But Now the days are short, I’m in the Autumn of the year, and I look at my life as vintage wine, from fine old kegs, from the brim to the dregs it poured sweet and clear, it was a very good year.”
It is in recognizing the brevity of life that we will come to appreciate the blessing of life, the gift of each simple pleasure, of sunrises and sunsets, of tender hugs, shared meals, and the laughter of children. The seasons are changing, the runways are shorter than before, the horizon looms much closer. Make the most of this day, there is no guarantee of another, so let go of painful memories frozen in time, live with no hard feelings, keep your heart open and embrace an attitude of gratitude.
The seasons are changing. One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
Lyrics quoted from “It was a very good year.” Lyrics Ervin Drake
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
