Message from the Moderator: January 2016

Our Story, Our Song: A Covenant with Our God

Throughout the Biblical Story, God repeatedly reminds the people to remember the Story. As God’s people, it is important for us to remember and tell God’s Story and to sing the songs of our faith—in good times and in bad times—so we don’t forget who we are and whose we are. When we forget who we are and whose we are, when we fail to remember and tell God’s Story and to sing the songs of our faith, we run the risk of allowing our identity and lives to be shaped by the prevailing stories of society.

So as we continue to move through this year, I invite you to join me in an ongoing exploration of the overarching Story of God and God’s people—a story that continues to unfold through us today. To provide structure for this journey of remembrance and reflection, I am drawing on God’s Story, Our Story: Getting Lost and Found in the Bible by Sean Gladding.

So grab your hymnal and your Bible and join me in exploring the Story that reminds us who we are, whose we are, and who we are called to be and become.

Sing: My Soul Proclaims with Wonder (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 181)

Read: Genesis 12-22

We pick up our story with Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah.  The sins of humanity led to catastrophic consequences: the disruption of relationship between God and humanity, between one human being and another, and between humanity and creation. Even the flood failed to change the hearts of humanity and restore right relationships.  But God wasn’t ready to give up. God’s faithfulness was, and is, unfailing. God simply adopted a new approach to work at restoration and reconciliation. God chose one family to partner with in the work of re-creation: the family of Abraham.

God’s relationship with Abram begins with a command:  “Go!” (Genesis 12:1) God calls Abram to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s house (his source of blessing). But this command comes with a promise; God promises to replace what Abram is leaving behind with a new land, a new family, and a new blessing.

Abram responded, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t stumble along the way. Like us, he experienced doubt and fear. He asked questions of God. He put Sarai in harm’s way. He accepted Sarai’s offer that Abram conceive an heir with her servant Hagar, which ultimately led to pain and heartbreak for Sarah, for Hagar, for Ishmael, and for Abraham.  Abraham’s trust in God developed over many years.

Abram and Sarai had suffered from barrenness long before God promised to make Abraham’s descendents more numerous than the stars. Their vulnerability was only magnified as they continued to suffer from barrenness for thirteen long years after God and Abram entered into a covenantal relationship. At that point, God renewed the covenant with Abram and Sarai, gave them new names—symbolizing the blessing God had promised in addition to a new land and a new family—and made an additional promise “to be God to you and to your offspring” (Genesis 17:7b). God used their barrenness, their vulnerability to create new life: in the form of Isaac and in the form of a renewed commitment to restoration, reconciliation, and re-creation.

A Side Bar: Although the covenant was ultimately fulfilled in the birth of Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac, God also promised not to forget Ishmael and to make a great nation of him as well, saving him when he might have perished in the wilderness. Our Muslim brothers and sisters—whom God promised not to forget—are descendents of that great nation—a fact we are often prone to forget when we demonize all Muslims in the wake of terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists.

But back to our story…After the birth of Isaac, Abraham and Sarah were feeling blessed indeed. But then God challenged Abraham one last time, calling him to take his son, the son he loves and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain. (Note: this is the first time the word love appears in Scripture.) When God called Abraham to leave his land, his family, his father’s house, God asked Abraham to give up his past. In calling Abraham to sacrifice his son, God asks Abraham to give up his future.  And this time offers no promises. Through Moses, God later asserts that we are first and foremost to “Love the Lord (our) God with all (our) heart, and with (all) our soul, and with all (our) might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Given the use of the word love in reference to Abraham’s relationship with Isaac, was this a test to see if Abraham genuinely loved God above all else, with heart, soul, and might?

Only after Abraham acts in obedience, does God stop him from sacrificing Isaac and reiterate the promises to bless Abraham and his descendents and to move forward with plans for reconciling the world through them.  Covenants by their very nature involve a commitment on the part of both parties. Throughout this story arc, God promises to bless Abraham and to continue the work of restoration, reconciliation, and re-creation. This last episode emphasizes Abraham’s responding commitment to partner with God in that work.

Throughout his life, God continued to call Abraham to greater and greater faithfulness—and God continues to call us to greater faithfulness: calling us to trust in God’s faithfulness, calling us to place our trust in one another in the context of community, calling us to partner in the sometimes difficult work of re-creation. Like Abraham, we will stumble along the way, but love for our God and trust in God’s love for us has the power to overcome our fear and doubt.

When have you experienced a sense of palpable barrenness and vulnerability and the accompanying fear and doubt? When have you experienced new life in the midst of barrenness, blessing in the midst of vulnerability? Do you strive for control over a life that is unpredictable and uncontrollable? Or do you surrender your life to our God who promises blessings and unfailing presence?

We are still a sent people. God doesn’t call us to huddle together in the safety and security of our homes and our church buildings. God calls us to go forth, to take up the cross and follow Christ, to carry the life-giving light of reconciliation to the world.  Who are the lost and the least, the suffering and the marginalized, the strangers and the seekers in your community that God is calling you to engage? (This is the focus for our new round of The Sending of the Seventy in the Northern Plains District.)  Abraham and Sarah responded to God’s command to “go”. Later they opened their home and welcomed strangers and in doing so, found themselves entertaining angels and receiving God’s blessing. What blessings have you received when you have responded to God’s command to “go”?

At the start of each new year, many people make New Year’s Resolutions.  As we continue to reflect on who we are, whose we are, and who we are called to be and become—as individuals, as members of the Northern Plains District and its congregations, as the people of God—may we remember and bear witness to God’s faithfulness as expressed in the song of Psalm 105, renewing our covenant with our God. To “go” and live faithfully as God’s children, holy and beloved, is the most important resolution any of us can make.

Sing: O God, Who Gives Us Life (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 483)

This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song: Looking Ahead to District Conference

As we look ahead to the Big Meeting, August 5-7, 2016, when we will gather as brothers and sisters for the 150th time, celebrating a long history of continuous ministry in the upper Midwest, the District Conference Planning Committee wants to invite all of the congregations in the district to participate in a couple projects.

150 Random Acts of Kindness
In the months leading up to District Conference, we want to challenge the congregations in the district to collectively engage in 150 random acts of kindness—or to put it another way, 150 acts of ministry—within your surrounding communities. (Just to be clear, that’s a combined 150 acts as a district, not 150 acts by each congregation?) We are celebrating a significant milestone in our life together, but we don’t want to focus solely on the past. As God’s people we are part of a continuing story. What better way to celebrate that than to actually embody our identity as a “sent people” and to reach out in service to those in need. As you engage in your random acts of kindness, take pictures of your efforts.  Send your pictures to Hannah Button-Harrison communications@nplains.org for publication in the district newsletter and possibly on the website AND bring a copy of your pictures to District Conference for inclusion in a collage that will celebrate the ways we are still engaged in vital ministry in the upper Midwest.

Symbols of Your Ministry
The District Conference Planning Committee also wants to invite each congregation to bring something that represents your congregational story to District Conference. The Northern Plains District is comprised of its congregations; without the congregations there wouldn’t be a district. We are not sure if we will be using these items as part of the worship center or as part of a different display, but we know we want to create a visual representation of the congregations that make up our district. The possibilities are endless. The item you choose to bring might be an historical artifact, it might be a piece of art, it might be a symbol of a long-time and continuous ministry in which you are engaged, it might be a symbol of new vitality.  Hopefully the selection of the item won’t be a unilateral decision made by the pastor or a small committee, but a decision made by the congregation as you reflect together about your story and the ways your story intersects with God’s story.

Moderator Visits
Just a reminder, as a transplant to this district I now call home, I have a strong desire to visit as many congregations as possible between now and District Conference. During those visits, I want to talk about the importance of remembering and faithfully living into God’s Story—in word, song, and action—and I want to listen to the ways in which your own stories have intersected with God’s Story. To schedule a visit, please contact me at 612-239-6214 or rpgingrich@yahoo.com.