This past week has been chock-full of reasons for gratitude at FBC:
Our dear Treasurer, Mike Henson, informed me that FBC’s giving is strong and is ahead of last year’s giving at this point. I’m grateful for the ongoing generosity of this congregation.
We hosted the wedding of Megan Smith and Marlan Golden last weekend, and FBC’s newly renovated facilities were a joy to share with several hundred guests. I’m grateful for the Facilities Improvement Team (FIT) whose faithfulness, creativity and diligence since that first meeting early in 2018 have moved this massive project forward.
Dr. Sarah Willie-LeBreton’s presence with us at FBC’s Fall Forum was pure gift. Her presentation during Faith Formation Hour, A Contemplative Approach to Conflict, had all of us taking notes for application in our own lives. And her rich, scholarly sermon in worship, My People Shall Never Be Ashamed: Abundance, Loneliness, the Finished Race and the Good Fight, left me wanting to sit with her words and absorb them into my heart and mind.
Dr. Sarah Willie-LeBreton
I asked Sarah if she would share her manuscript with us and she generously agreed. You can read her sermon here. For now, I leave you with nine questions Sarah posed on Sunday, based on the three lectionary texts, Luke 18:9-14, Joel 2:23-32 and 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18:
What if the “lion’s mouth” is a metaphor for the worst of all conflicts, and the work that we do to find a new reaction is the deliverance we’ve been seeking?
What if learning how to love each other, learning to listen to each other is actually what is meant by the good fight?
What would righteousness look like if it were truly humble?
How would we engage each other if our vats were full of wine and oil? Would we share them?
If our refrigerators were full—if they are full now—how would God know that we are generous and compassionate?
What do we do when our refrigerators are full but the air is full of locusts or Covid?
If the streets are full of Proud Boys and Oath-keepers who are terribly ashamed and for whom promises have been relentlessly broken…What do our interventions look like then?
Or when some loved ones are in the throes of addiction, or when others have died alone?
How might we each imagine a heavenly kingdom—an afterlife with less pain and more joy? The continuation of this human life for those who come after us with less pain and more joy? The life we are currently living on Earth with less pain and more joy?
Thanks be to God for the chance to hold these questions close today and to see what rises. And thanks be to God for a congregation that welcomes the deep conversations about life and faith. This pastor’s heart is full to overflowing today.