Dear Caldwell,
As we travel from Sunday to Sunday this week, I am relishing several great phrases and ideas from Lia Benton’s fine sermon Sunday, not to forget about Noah’s moving Faith Statement (see below, in his own handwriting) and baptism.
Don’t ever forget, Lia said as she preached about Ruth, that “we are a we.” We are community, a family of faith, not just a group of individuals trying to make it through this life alone. As Lia said about Ruth, “we signed up for hard things,” this business of bearing witness to God’s love and justice in the face a seemingly indifferent culture. But, as a “we,” we are able to “be vulnerable and brave” to do those hard things because we do them together.
I mentioned Sunday that one of the hardest things about this pandemic is that we are not able to serve our neighbors together in a hands-on way. That has always been a way to build and deepen community here, and I miss it deeply.
That said, there are things we can do. For our tragedy-torn siblings in Haiti, the Presbytery is offering a way to send relief in the form of clean-up buckets as they carry on with the awful task of recovering from an earthquake, followed by a tropical storm. Read here all about the shopping list and where to drop it off. But we just learned about this, so you will have to act fast. The deadline to drop buckets off at the Presbytery office on Amity Road is Friday noon.
Hearth Dreams
Another thing Caldwell has always loved to do is share the God-given resources we have, including our campus. Thanks to all who participated in two brainstorming sessions this month when we reviewed the floor plans of the new community hall and tossed out ideas for how we can use the space, for ourselves and, more important, for our city. As always, you had lots of ideas – and we know that God will present us with many more once we get the keys to the new hall. I am grateful to Marilyn Marks for taking notes on your ideas and you can see those notes here. Let’s keep dreaming and taking holy risks.
Gifts for Noah
Finally, thanks be to God for the gift of Noah’s presence and witness in our lives these last three years. He was deeply moved by Sunday’s baptism and your embrace afterward. We are still awaiting word on when he will go to Texas to be reunited with family there, but we know it’s soon and will be fast. If you would like to contribute to a fund for his future, feel free to send a check to the church with “Noah” in the notation line. Justin, Jessica and the church will consider the most responsible ways we can provide for Noah as he moves and/or any future undertakings that may require financial support.
Let me close by bringing your attention back to some important updates shared in Caldwell This Week. One is from our Safe Return team and the other was a session update that included news about Home, Hearth and Hope (scroll down a bit). All of these ways to give and serve remind us of our opportunity and calling to live generously, in response to God’s grace in Christ. On Sunday, I will preach on Jesus’ words about that very idea, from Matthew 6:22: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole
body will be full of light.”
Seeing and living generously, Jesus told his followers, is central to our discipleship. On Sunday, Lia used the ancient Hebrew word for the same idea, chessed, meaning “loving kindness.” Thanks be to God that you, as a community of faith, a holy “we” as Lia said it, walks that walk in so many ways and that our Lord gives us so many more.
In Christ,
John