A Message from The Pastor's Desk……

Dear friends in Christ, 

“Over 70% of U.S adults cope with fatigue” is the headline of a recent NBC news article I read. The article highlighted that the most fatigued are those 18-34, whereas the least fatigued are adults 65 and over. The article continues to say that “a majority of adults reported feeling isolated, left out and more stressed about the future than they used to be.” The report noted how incredibly busy most people are and that this has the result of many people feeling spread very thin. Another article I recently read noted a kind of crisis surrounding American dinners and the challenge of trying to fit it in amid the flurry of evening activity for a lot of families. The first article reminds us that humans are not robots and are limited in energy. Some questions the first article encourages exhausted individuals to ask of themselves are these… 

-Are you getting enough sleep? 

-Are you eating well? 

-Are you exercising?

-Are you on your screen all day? 

As we think about this issue in our time, our faith offers us some helpful perspectives. 

First, there is the concept of sabbath. We are told in Genesis that God is super busy. After all, God creates a universe with everything in it. Light, stars, sun, moon, sky, land, sea, vegetation, swarming things, creeping things, animals, and lastly, humans. Creating things is tiring, let alone creating an entire universe! And so, we are told on the seventh day, God rests. Created in the image of God, humans are commanded to rest also. Not asked. Commanded. People need to renew their strength, energy, and spirits. The old adage goes that it is hard for us to offer much of anything to anyone when we ourselves are running on empty. Regularly taking time for ourselves to rest and renew is not selfish, but rather, it is commanded by God. It is up to each of us to figure out what renewal of body, soul, and spirit will look like in our lives. There is a beautiful book by Wayne Muller called “Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives”. I commend this book to you. I believe this book speaks to the pressing issue of exhaustion in our time well, and so I will be starting a small book group on it. If you are interested in joining in please reach out to me.

Second, there is grace. This month we will celebrate “Reformation Sunday”. This is the day Lutherans remember Martin Luther posting his 95 theses, calling upon the Church to change in order to be more faithful to the gospel. For Luther, the Church had in some ways become more burdensome than freeing. It had become more exhausting than life-giving. One of Luther’s 95 theses goes like this - “Any true Christian, whether living of dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted to them, even without indulgence letters.” In many places, indulgence letters had become required for individuals to purchase from the Church in order for them to receive forgiveness of sin from God. This was a money making strategy in order for churches to fund building campaigns. However, Luther challenged this practice, calling the Church back to “sola gratia”, that is, grace alone. One does not buy forgiveness, salvation or the love of God, but rather receives all freely and unmerited as we simply trust in God’s loving kindness toward us. To celebrate Reformation this month, we will be showing the movie “Luther” on Wednesday October 21st at 645pm in Grace Hall. We’ll have some snacks. It is a 2 hour movie, so we’ll be wrapping up around 845pm. The movie is PG13, youth and adults are welcome.

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’” - Matthew 11:28

Grace and Peace to you, 

Pr. Patrick