April 2022
Hi Everyone,
Here is the next issue of the monthly newsletter for the Jennersville Church of the Brethren. If
you would like to receive this via e-mail, just send an e-mail to Brian at
bdberkey@comcast.net.
Status of Services – We have started back toward some semblance of normalcy with the following:
- Per CDC guidelines we will not require fully Covid vaccinated members to wear a mask. If you are not vaccinated, please wear one. If you are vaccinated but feel uncomfortable you are welcome to wear a mask.
- Please continue to bring your offerings to the plates at the front of the sanctuary.
- We still need to be careful with greeting one another.
- We will go back to having a bulletin for the services.
The preaching schedule for the next few weeks is:
- April 17 – Brian
- April 24 – Rita
- May 1 – Karen
- May 8 – Brian
- May 15 – Rita
Announcements and Prayer Requests – Please call or e-mail any of us with any prayer requests or announcements that you may have so that we can then share through this letter.
- We will be handing out information slips for you to fill out. We need to update the Church Directory. Please add you and family members names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses. Please place the slips in the offering plate after they are filled out. If you have any other information, you feel needs to be added to the directory, please contact Lynn or Erin. Thank you!
- Easter Services – We will be back to having our Sunrise Service at 8 AM on Easter Sunday(April 17), followed by our Easter Service at 10:30 AM.
Scripture – Matthew 24:36-44
Devotional – (from Brian) The Time Is Now
Procrastination discussion – How many of you tend to procrastinate about getting some things done? Especially if you know there is not a specific schedule or timetable for doing whatever the task may be. I know that I tend to work better under pressure much of the time. Sometimes it is just easier to focus on doing something if you know that there is a deadline involved. My wife was paging through a Marshall Field catalog yesterday and came across a gift item that was a paperweight inscribed with the words “The ultimate inspiration is the deadline”. In the business world today, if there is no timetable for an action item, it will never get done. The closer the deadline, the more focused we tend to be. Sometimes things just seem pretty far away in terms of time and we may not pay as much attention to them.
As I right this on Palm Sunday, we are approaching Easter and the celebration of the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. There are many things and traditions that we do for Easter and I am sure that many of us are into the preparations in your own ways and looking forward to the traditions, such as our Easter Breakfast here at the Jennersville Church of the Brethren.
The end result is that, we tend to do a pretty good job of preparing for Easter, even if some things get done at the last minute. We know the timing and the schedule for all of our activities and those deadlines drive us to get everything done. However, how good of a job are we doing to prepare for Christ? We are ready for Easter, are we ready for Christ?
We know about the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, but do we approach this event with the same sense of expectation and preparation as we apply to our traditions and activities? Or have we come to look at all of this as a routine thing, something that happens every year and is somewhat taken for granted. Perhaps we should be doing something more to prepare for his return.
Part of the problem here is that our society does not like to wait very much today. Not only do we work better with deadlines, we compound the problem with an impatience that is born of our instant society. When we decide that we want something we want to get it now, not later, we at least want to know the precise schedule for something. When we order something on line today, we get tracking numbers that allow us to follow our package across the country and we can know exactly where it is and when it will be delivered.
Perhaps we could learn a lesson about waiting from a guy by the name of Walter Shane. Walter Shane lives in Alaska, specifically on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. When they get the urge for a pizza, Walter calls in their order and patiently waits . . . three days. The "fast" food is flown to them via a Reeve Aleutian Airways flight from Anchorage. It costs them the price of the pizza plus $23 for shipping. And, unless the weather is bad or a flight is canceled, it usually takes only three days to arrive. Some things may seem awfully slow until you talk with Walter!
Jesus talks about preparing for his return in the scripture passage from Matthew 24. I think that it speaks to us about things we need to consider as we prepare for Easter. This scripture really goes against our modern day tendencies of this deadly combination of procrastination and impatience.
In this passage, Jesus makes clear to us that it is not for us to know the day, the hour, the time of the coming of the Son of Man. There is no timetable, there is no deadline. We cannot get on the Internet and track the delivery. Jesus uses the familiar story of Noah to illustrate his point. The people of Noah’s time kept right on doing their day-to-day things, right up to the time of the flood. Jesus also uses the example of the thief that breaks into a house. The owner of the house did not really expect such a thing to happen. If he had expected it, he would have done things differently to prepare for the coming of the thief, so that he could prevent the robbery.
This really helps to illustrate the problem that we have today. Our human tendency is that we work better if we know the schedule, the timetable for things. It is tough for us to get excited about and prepare for something when we are not sure when it is going to happen. It becomes easy for us to procrastinate about the things that are far off or perhaps uncertain to us so we focus on the things that are near at hand.
However, as Jesus points out to us in this passage, His return is not on some schedule that is known to us, it could be much nearer than anyone thinks, it could also be far off, we just don’t know. So, what can we do to get out of our procrastination mode and prepare for the return of Jesus?
One thing we can do is look at our values and priorities that govern our lives. Values are things that underlie all of our behavior and transcend any priorities of the moment. Priorities come and go depending on the issues and urgencies of the moment. Values are those things that we live by in all circumstances. This is a little like the story that is told of John Wesley when he was asked: "Suppose you knew you were to die at twelve o'clock tomorrow night, how would you employ the intervening time?" His response was "Why, just as I intend to spend it now.” His routine would not vary because it was driven by his values.
Something else we can do is to be proactive. That means taking action to act on our values in whatever way we can. As Jesus points out in this passage of Matthew 24, watchfulness is not just a passive activity, there is more to it that simply sitting around waiting. There are duties and responsibilities that we need to act on as Christians while we are waiting.
Some of you may remember from your days in school about the practice of “cramming” for an exam. I know that I did this myself on more than one occasion in my college days. Cramming is the practice of procrastinating on studies until the last possible moment. When that day of reckoning arrives, the coffee pot is stoked and we strap ourselves to the desk for an all-night journey with our books. However, as many of us may have experienced, cramming does not work very well. If you are gardening, you cannot delay all spring and summer and then expect to have a harvest. If a harvest is expected in the fall, then there are things that have to be done throughout the year. Maybe that is why Jesus used so many agricultural illustrations. Spiritual growth doesn't come like grades that are salvaged by intensive periods of last-minute cramming. Christ-likeness comes from a lifetime spent with the Savior, not a night of cramming for sainthood.
Finally, we can prepare for Christ by thinking positively. Many hymns that we sing at this season of celebrating the resurrection are full of hope and joy. This is the time to think positively and remember our source of hope and joy.
We should listen to the advice of George MacDonald: "Learn these two things: never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here, and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand. Do not be in a hurry, but be diligent. Enter into the sublime patience of the Lord. Be charitable in view of it. God can afford to wait; why cannot we, since we have Him to fall back upon? Let patience have her perfect work, and bring forth her celestial fruits. Trust to God to weave your little thread into a web, though the patterns show it not yet."
The title and the inspiration for this devotional came from a Twila Paris song called “The Time Is Now”. As we play this song today, I ask that you meditate on the words.
We close our eyes
And wonder how much longer the earth can hold the tears of all its children
We wonder what became of Eden while we live in the garden we have grown
There will be hope when we finally understand we were never meant to make it on our own.
The time is now, to hear the call, from the father of creation comes an answer for us all.
The time is here, the time for you, if you seek then you will find him and the moment that you do,
seal your heart with a sacred vow. The time is now.
We look ahead try to face the future find we have no heart for this tomorrow
There is a vision that is brighter and if we will believe it’s not too late
For every decision becomes a destination and today we face a choice that cannot wait.
Now is time and today is the day, now is the time and we cannot delay, this is the moment and this is the place for the mercy, the power, the love, and the grace
The time is now.
Amen!