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Imagine What’s Possible. God is Still Speaking.
- Date: Fri, Jul 9, 2010
- Author: Paul Forman
The news is out! The Pastoral Search Committee and Church Council have a candidate to present to our congregation on Sunday, August 1st. What good news! Like fresh, cool water to souls parched for a long term relationship with a kind and wise pastor.
We will have two opportunities to talk with the Search Committee members and find out who the candidate is and why they are so enthusiastic about him becoming our new lead pastor. 9:30 AM, on July 18th and 11:45 AM July 25th. On Saturday morning, July 31st there will be a reception where we can meet the candidate. Then, following the 10:30 AM service of worship on Sunday, August 1st, congregation members will vote on whether or not to call him as pastor. I can tell you this, he is as anxious to be loved by us as we are to be loved by him. He is excited about who we are as a congregation. He has seen and heard about our compassionate and generous care of others. He knows about our love of music. He shares our desire for deep and meaningful, joyous and powerful worship.
The Search Committee has begun the courtship for us, but soon it will be our turn. Our new pastor needs to get to know us at our best. We need to be good listeners to his needs and dreams even as he listens to ours. We need to be patient while he learns our names and our ways. We will have much richness to learn from each other if we do not insist on always doing it our way, or the way we think we have always done it, and he, in turn, will discover our wisdom. We need to be gentle with him and his family as they will be trying to get to know not only us but everything about living in the Northwest. Coming from Arizona, he will have to learn how to survive in our climate without molding. He will need to realize that one clear, bright sunny day in Bellevue is worth months of overcast and dampness.
And he will be rewarded with a fine congregation, of fantastically able and creative folk, solidly committed to living and ministering in downtown Bellevue at a very exciting time in the history of the community as it grows into its new high rise residences.
If you are not a member of the congregation, it is not too late to join so that you can cast a vote in deciding who will be our new pastor. A membership class is scheduled for 9:30 am July 18th and members will be received during worship on July 25th.
Imagine what will now be possible for this congregation!
Faithfully yours,
These are the scripture readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for the forthcoming Sunday:
Amos 7:7-17
7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Amos Accused
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
“You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 Therefore thus says the Lord:
“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”
Psalm 82
Rescue the Weak and Needy
A Psalm of Asaph.
82:1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!
Psalm 25:1-10
Teach Me Your Paths
Of David.
25:1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.
6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Colossians 1:1-14
Greeting
1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Footnotes
[1] 7:14 Or am; twice in this verse
[2] 82:7 Or fall as one man, O princes
[3] 25:1 This psalm is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet
[4] 1:2 Or brothers and sisters. The plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) refers to siblings in a family. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, adelphoi may refer either to men or to both men and women who are siblings (brothers and sisters) in God's family, the church
[5] 1:7 Greek fellow bondservant
[6] 1:7 Some manuscripts our
[7] 1:12 Or patience, with joy giving thanks
[8] 1:12 Some manuscripts us
[9] 10:35 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer
