Many Bright Lights Shining from Bethlehem

It was one of those amazing weekends when people of Bethlehem reflected the light of Christ in so many ways!

• Parents gathered on Saturday to prepare for baptism and consider the promises they are making to raise their children to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
• On a retreat at St. John’s on this gorgeous Saturday, twenty-six 10th graders and adult leaders prepared for “Affirmation of Baptism” living out their discipleship in the future.
• Second Grade children and their families came together for a workshop on Saturday to prepare for their very special Milestone of receiving their own Bible on Sunday.
• During the Sunday learning time, BeFrienders shared information about this caring ministry of reaching out with God’s love, and families came together to learn how to have fun & meaningful devotions at home.
• The Bikers of Bethlehem had a fantastic ride on a beautiful afternoon, and raised $448.00 for the food shelf!
• Over 200 Sunday School children came to learn of Jesus’ love for them; during worship we prayed God’s blessing upon their teachers, assistants, and leaders, and the Confirmation Guides.
• In the afternoon, 30 people came together to have a conversation about how people of faith can bridge the gaps between life as God envisions it for people, and the realities that people experience every day.
• Young Adults gathered in the evening for a Bible Study at Caribou.
• High School students created their own “Starlite” Coffee House right here.
• And over the course of 5 worship services ( Sat. 5 pm, Sun. 8,9,11, and 12:30 in Nuer language) 729 people gathered together for worship!

If anybody asks me what God is up to around here, I’ll just point to sightings like these! Thanks be to God!

“From the rising of the sun to its going down let the name of the Lord be praised.” -Psalm 133:3

Jesus, thank you for bringing the light of your presence into so many lives. Use us to shine for you today. Amen.

"Under Construction"

The road to Bethlehem is open (from the west, anyway), but it’s kind of hard to get here right now! The County is working to put in traffic lights at the four-way stop east of the bridge, and to align our driveway with Dublin Drive. All of it eventually will make the drive to and from Bethlehem a whole lot safer than it has been in the past, so it will be well worth the temporary challenges!

From where I sit, I’ve been able to watch the deconstruction and construction in progress as the heavy equipment moves earth, and it’s been pretty interesting. When our son was young, he and his friends were fascinated by “diggers.” The heavy equipment would come in to start digging the foundation for a new home in the area, the boys would climb on their bikes and ride to the vicinity, and then put down the bikes and just sit there on the grass and watch – transfixed – by the size of the equipment and the hole it would dig.
Through my office window, this week I’ve been able to watch those giant claws digging nearby, as though they’re looking for something deep in the earth.

During the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of construction going on at Bethlehem as we put in place the infrastructure that helps to make disciples. The fall worship and learning schedule has resumed, and I have been awestruck by the building that God is doing in the hearts of Bethlehem people these days.
People are coming back after the summer: some who go to cabins every weekend, some who just take couple of months to breathe, and kids who grow, I declare, 4 inches over the summertime.

• Preschool is off and running, and oh how wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of young children, so filled with eagerness for the things before them in every new day.
  
• Parents are stepping up to the plate to teach Sunday School and serve as Guides for Confirmation (but yes, we are seeking more teachers and assistants for young and middle-school aged children!!). There’s a real sense of joy filling our classrooms.
  
• I can see the delight of people who are re-connecting with old friends and others beginning to make new friends and build relationships that I hope will last a lifetime.
  

People come to church seeking a living relationship with the living God; some stay away from church because that isn’t what the church has given them in the past. Often the road they have to follow is as complicated and winding as the roads to Bethlehem right now. But somehow through the Holy Spirit, and maybe through you, God is calling them. One of my seminary teachers, the late Dr. Gerhard Forde, I believe, once interpreted the Gospel for Sunday as God relentlessly seeking, searching, digging, for each person, thinking and whispering and repeating over and over, “The one: gotta find the one, gotta find the one, gotta find the one.” What Good News when you know you have been found by God! What a great calling to be sent to tell and show somebody else that God has found them, God is with them. Jesus says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my one that was lost.”

Dear God, seek out your children and send us to search. Amen.

--Pastor Dee Pederson

Cometary!

Good morning! Or maybe it’s, Good Day! Or even, Good Night! Maybe the sun is just rising or stands high in the sky. Maybe the moon and stars have begun to shine overhead. Or perhaps you’re up in the middle of the night and caught a glimpse of something amazing in the night sky. Regardless of when you read this reflection, I hope that you know the grace of God shining through today. “Through” as in permeating into your heart and mind, and “through” as in being reflected out in the things you say and do.

I’m starting this blog as a means of consolidating and communicating reflections from Sunday, the Lord’s Day. I have the privilege of sitting in a place where I get to see so many of the ways God’s work among us shines with such brilliance. I’ve long wished that there were a way for more of you to be able to see the way the light of Christ is shining around here - and out there. But there hasn’t been a quick way to share these insights, until now. Enter: the blog.

Some days I might share a reflection from Sunday’s worship: an awesome sight, a moment from a song, an amazing thing that my colleague preachers shared, part of a reading, or a wonderful thing that happened at Sunday School. Some days I might comment on something I read or saw or heard about. Often there will be a phrase from one of the week’s texts and a brief prayer. And usually, it will be shorter than this!

Text: Psalm 112:4 – “Light shines in the darkness for the upright; the righteous are merciful and full of compassion.”

Prayer: O God, the light of your love constantly shines into our lives, and some days your brilliance surprises us and takes our breath away. Use us to today to reflect the light of your mercy and compassion to someone else. Send us to shine for you, and open our eyes to behold your presence in someone else, for the sake of the world. Amen.

--Pastor Dee Pederson