Do you remember your long lost friend silence? How long has it been since you two got together? While the school year for many people is filled with the mayhem and chaos of busy schedules, often times, we also book our summers up with camps, trips, yard work and work work and well, I bet you could fill in the blank too! So, what ends up happening, is a busy time that… never… stops. We are a year-round busy season kind of people aren’t we? Always planning and doing, especially with our kids.

But there is good news for us all. Our God created a time for us to meet with that long lost friend of ours called silence and participate in the activity called nothing. You all know, of course, the Sabbath! God not only created it for us, but God took a Sabbath, as on the seventh day, even God rested! Then on top of that, God calls us through the commandments to keep the Sabbath holy. This is such an important command/responsibility for the people of God, that God calls us to keep the Sabbath as one of the first three! So knowing that we understand its importance for all of us, including the God of all creation, shouldn’t we be spending a bit more time doing it?

Through scripture we understand quite a bit about Sabbath – often understood as a day, sundown on Saturday until sundown on Sunday. And during Lent we catch a specific glimpse of that as we are encouraged to take a Sabbath from our Lenten discipline during that time. But with 24/7 Wal-Mart’s and McDonalds that never close, how do we understand Sabbath today? In a world where the expectation for our children and our families, is “You snooze, you lose”, how do we live out our calling to take a Sabbath?

When I was growing up we had some friends down the street that were not allowed to leave the house on the Sabbath, and yet I have known a relative recently to say she practices her Sabbath by shopping. There was even another person I met who talked about Sabbath as a daily activity, taking time each day to do nothing and to enjoy silence. So what really is a Sabbath your life? And for that matter, when did Sabbath become a noun only? Is it just a day or a specific time in the week? How might we live Sabbath as a verb, perhaps even throughout our entire day?

So, what it Sabbath for you or for your family? Can you share your tips with us? How do you practice Sabbath? We will have this posted on the pastor’s blog section of the faithloves.org, so please come and tell us how you do it! As we gather together through the ‘magic’ of the Internet, may we all be encouraged to help each other learn more about how to Sabbath. Let’s all take the time to meet up with silence and do nothing soon. It’s time to make Sabbath a verb again.

Keep up the great work!

While we certainly need to get a pat on the back, the time is now to continue those behaviors that encourage such growth. May we all be reminded that our most important call is to love: love beyond borders, skin color, socioeconomic background, and beyond those notions that exist in our minds. Love reaches beyond all that and into this world, which so desperately needs to hear good news.

So we are invited to look around to our neighbors here at Faith, and get to know all the new people in our midst. The absolute hardest part of bringing new members into the church is getting them to breach the front doors. Once they do, the battle is almost won. When someone new comes to visit Faith, we MUST care for them like the family they are. We have to introduce ourselves to them, remember their names, and make sure that they feel love from us. Farragut often times gets a stigma of not welcoming people, but Faith Lutheran Church can change that.

We CAN change the world one moment at a time. Believe it, it’s the truth. We only have to step out in faith. The Spirit will do the rest. So here are a couple questions that I welcome your response to through the Pastor’s Blog section of our
website, www.faithloves.org.

1. How did you feel when you entered these doors for the first time?

2. What made you come back? OR
What makes you not want to come back?

3. Why do you spend your Sunday at church? OR
Why don’t you?

Grace and peace,
Pastor Matt

Going to church is easy, but being the church is hard.

For us, as the body of Christ sent forth to the world, what does it mean for us to really BE the body of Christ FOR the world (see ELW p 111 communion liturgy). It means simply that being a Christian person doesn’t cure life’s ills. It doesn’t make life easier, much more, it makes life harder. Because when we remember what the church is for, EVERYTHING looks different. Every conversation, every relationship, every movement we make looks and feels different. Different - because we know the good news, and when we do, our life changes. We are more forgiving, loving, and grace filled when we remind ourselves daily what the church is for. And if the church isn’t making a difference in people’s lives, what good are we?

And as we remember from Pentecost, the church is given a mission - a mission to all people, to all of creation. Without mission there is no church. A congregation without mission, one that feels like they’ve ‘paid their dues’ and needs not worry about carrying the message out, is not the church. Rather, that’s a country club, a place where you pay dues and receive a service. So, here at Faith, we are practicing BEING the church. Its not the building, the land, the style of worship, anything at all BUT the people. The church IS the people, called, gathered, enlightened, sanctified and sent out with a mission, God’s mission to all of creation.

Several weeks ago, we read the Scripture about the stoning of Stephen Acts 7:55-60 (the whole story begins in Acts 6). As Stephen is dying, while being pelted with rocks by the very people he intends to serve and love, he pleads to God. Not for forgiveness, or safety, or rescue though… Stephen pleads for the forgiveness of his murderers. WHAT!! Are you kidding me? What an amazing account of God’s love lived out.

Knowing the good news, that God loves us beyond measure, that God has rescued us from the bonds of sin and death and that God will come again and God’s Kingdom will have no end, knowing that Jesus Christ died on the cross, taking our sin and brokenness upon himself and was raised on the third day, knowing that God sent the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate to hold us up each day when the world throws all it has at us, WE REMEMBER that our call is to go and tell the whole world how much God loves them!

If we are called to be the church, and to be the church means we carry, tell, and live out the message of the good news that changes lives, perhaps we should expect the world to throw stones at us. And when they do, our call is to love them even as they reach for stones. And if the world isn’t ready to throw stones at us when we carry that good news out the church building doors, are we really making a difference?

Grace and peace. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Pastor Matt

Pastor Matt