Greetings!

As we move into October, we are settling into the rhythms of the church program year. That means there are a lot of ways for you to get connected to community at SVPC!

October is also the time when we think about stewardship at the church. Stewardship is the term we use to talk about managing and sharing our resources to empower Christ’s ministry. And that stewardship month starts with the celebration of World Communion Sunday on October 5. This convergence encourages us to think about how our local mission is a part of the bigger picture of what is happening in the world.

And yet…that bigger picture can be sobering, can’t it? I think people in our faith tradition have often struggled to stay present to the troubles of the wider world. So, we’re in good company. We’ll take a look at one of those folks – the psalmist – and how they spoke about faith and commitment in a troubled world as we worship this Sunday. I hope you’ll join us!

Faithfully,

Hardy

Please join us immediately following the Sunday service for our Coffee Hour (in-person in Trinity Court or online via Zoom).

bit.ly/SVPCCoffeeHour

Theme for Sunday

“I think that serious religious use of the complain psalms has been minimal because we have believed that faith does not mean to acknowledge and embrace negativity. We have thought that acknowledgment of negativity was somehow an act of unfaith, as though the very speech about it conceded too much about God’s ‘loss of control.’”

Walter Brueggemann, The Spirituality of the Psalms

Questions for Reflection

• Do you every pray to God about what’s happening in the world? When you do, do you usually focus on good or bad things? Are they mostly connected to you and your personal life or do your reflections connect with the rest of the world?

• How do you think God feels about the state of the world now?

Psalm 73:1-28

Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;

my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant;

I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pain;

their bodies are sound and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not plagued like other people.

Therefore pride is their necklace;

violence covers them like a garment.

Their eyes swell out with fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

They scoff and speak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against heaven,

and their tongues range over the earth.

Therefore the people turn and praise them

and find no fault in them.

And they say, “How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

Such are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches.

All in vain I have kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

For all day long I have been plagued

and am punished every morning.

If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”

I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I perceived their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

They are like a dream when one awakes;

on awaking you despise their phantoms.

When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

I was stupid and ignorant;

I was like a brute beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me with honor.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;

you put an end to those who are false to you.

But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

to tell of all your works.