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June 2023 Pastor’s Corner – Always Only Jesus
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Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. — Hebrews 1:1–4
I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago about faith and spirituality. He was sharing with me the story of his own faith journey and how he’d come to believe in the divine spirit, that sense of love, peace and acceptance that is so essential to human existence. It was an impersonal spirit that accepts no matter who we are, loves no matter what we’ve done, is always present no matter how far we run. It was an interesting conversation because it was so full of half truths, while missing some of the most important truths of all. It’s actually kind of marvelous, because you get all the benefits of a personal relationship with God, without any of the pesky things that come along with a God that is actually intimately, personally present in our lives and actually expects anything of us.
We live in a time where “spirituality” is perhaps more important to people now than ever before. It’s a somewhat unexpected development, given modernity’s efforts to eradicate the spiritual from all areas of life. Where many feared what postmodernism might do to matters of faith, it turns out that the door has been opened in many unexpected ways. The door hasn’t just been opened, it’s actually been flung wide, so that it’s almost an “anything goes” spirituality. When people talk about their faith and spiritual journey, like my friend above, it’s almost always a belief in a non-specific, impersonal “deity” that only loves and never rebukes, always accepts and never holds accountable. If we’re honest, many of us have allowed these kinds of ideas to get woven into the fabric of our faith as well. While we say it’s “always only Jesus,” in practice our faith is a lot of “Jesus and…”
That’s why the Letter to the Hebrews was written. As Eugene Peterson writes,
In the letter, it is Jesus and angels, or Jesus and Moses, or Jesus and priesthood. In our time it is more likely to be Jesus and politics, or Jesus and education, or even Jesus and Buddha. This letter deletes the hyphens, the add-ons. The focus becomes clear and sharp again. God’s action in Jesus. And we are free once more for the acts of faith, the one human action in which we don’t get in the way but on the Way.
This summer, we’re going to get back to Always Only Jesus, with the book of Hebrews as our guide. We’ve all added on to our faith, probably without even realizing it. Let’s shed the extra baggage and get back to living the free and light life of faith Jesus died to bring us. We look forward to worshipping with you.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
— Hebrews 13:20-21
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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March 2023 Pastor’s Corner — Stay Thirsty
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“As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?”
— Psalm 42:1–2
As many of you know, I am an avid coffee drinker. While medical tests have never proved it, there have been times I’ve been pretty sure there’s more coffee running through my veins than blood. It’s not so much about the caffeine (caffeine doesn’t really wake me up, it just keeps me from going to sleep), I just simply love the taste and the smell.
For no particular reason a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t drink any coffee for three or four days and instead drank several glasses of water. Just water, with nothing added. A few days later, I noticed that my quality of sleep had significantly improved and that some of the aches and pains that come with middle age had lessened. The only thing I had changed was decreasing the amount of coffee consumed each day. It’s not that I had been dehydrated; I was definitely getting plenty of fluids. There’s simply no substitute for a nice, cool glass of perfectly mixed dihydrogen monoxide.
I’ve often said that going to church for Christians is the air we breathe. I think that was the wrong analogy, because you can only go without air for a few minutes. However, one can live and exist just fine without water. As long as you’re still getting fluids (coffee, tea, your carbonated beverage of choice, so on and so forth), your body will continue to function, and probably fairly decently. But if you want your body to be at its best, then we need water. You don’t need water in order to be human (most any fluid will suffice), but the human body can’t be at its best without water. For the Christian, going to church isn’t the air we breathe, it’s the water we drink. Going to church won’t make you a Christian, but I don’t know how to be a Christian without going to church.
In the Psalm at the beginning, the psalmist is in exile in a far off land. He is unable to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem; he hasn’t been able to go to church for a very, very long time. As a result, his soul is drying up. Three times in the Psalm he says his soul is “cast down within me.” In addition to sleeping better and the aches and pains lessening as I drank more water, my mind also seems a bit sharper and clearer. Who knew that sometimes depression can be eased by drinking water? The same is true spiritually. We were created to worship God, together, with the other saints, on a regular basis. We need water daily. Our spirit needs corporate worship at least weekly.
If your spiritual life seems a bit dry lately or if you’ve found your soul “thirsting for the living God,” maybe it’s because you’ve “neglected meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25) with the saints in worship, prayer and Bible study. I didn’t realize how much my body was craving pure water until I started drinking more. Sometimes, we don’t even realize how thirsty our soul is until we gather together with other believers to worship the Lord and pray together. We drink best from the well of living water when we do so together with other believers.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” — John 4:13–14
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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December 2021 Pastor’s Corner – Heavy Holidays
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The disappointment, brokenness, suffering, and pain that characterize life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life. — Fleming Rutledge, Advent (pp. 7-8).
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” (Rev. 21:1–4)
Rev.David Garrison
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November 2021 Pastor’s Corner – Dancing With The Devil
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Tell me something, my friend. You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? — The JokerDon’t… tempt me Frodo! I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo. I would use this ring from a desire to do good… But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine. — Gandalf
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. — 1 Peter 5:8–9)
Rev. David Garrison
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September 2021 Pastor’s Corner – 18 Months
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It’s now been just about 18 months since this pandemic really started exploding across our country, and what a rollercoaster of an 18 months its been. There was the first few months of initial fear when everything shut down in March of 2020. But as we moved through the summer and the infection numbers in central Virginia stayed relatively low, we began to hope that things would return to normal by the fall, if not Christmas. With the return of school (although not “normal” school) in the fall, that hope continued to rise. But then as we moved into December and January, we saw a severe spike in infections in our area, and our hope began to fade. But then the vaccines became widely available, and numbers began to shrink again through the spring of 2021 – the end seemed to be in sight! Hope burned more brightly through this summer, as numbers in our area continued to decrease and plans to go back to “normal” school were put in place…but an anxiety lurked under the surface as news of highly contangious variants began to spread. And then school did begin, just last week (at the time I’m writing this). Now here we are today, on August 26, after only 6 schooldays, and all secondary schools in Amherst County are closed for a week and the Delta variant is running rampant in our area. Is this ever going to end? What do we do? How are we to hold on to hope in this midst of this rollercoaster of uncertainty?
Consider the wisdom of Psalm 40:
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:1-3)
Whenever I read this Psalm, I always think of the picture of the lighthouse above. Look closely. Do you see the man standing in the doorway, completely at ease as these giant waves crash around him? He is still in the midst of the storm, but God has set him securely on the rock and protected him from harm. We would all prefer that God bring an end to this pandemic, and one day He surely will. In the meantime though, He invites us to trust Him even in the midst of the storm. Whether that storm is a pandemic, the loss of a job, a crisis of health, being persecuted for your faith, or any other number of things, the counsel is still the same. Trust in the Lord. He likely won’t remove the storm, but He will hold you safe and secure in the midst of the storm.
As we all become worn out and weary, tempted to lose hope that COVID will ever go away, hold fast to the Lord. Continue to cry out to Him and trust in Him. He might not remove the storm, but He will set your feet on the Rock of Jesus Christ and secure you. As you find His peace in the midst of the storm, may you find yourself singing a new song of praise to Him.
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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July 2021 Pastor’s Corner – What If It’s Actually True?
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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. —Ephesians 1:3–8
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. — Ephesians 3:14–19
Rev. David Garrison
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Pastor’s Mid-Week Bible Study Begins This Week!
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Pastor’s Corner – February 2020
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Binge Reading…
…The Bible in 90 Days
What Bible Should You Read?
Sharing the Journey Together
Who Can Participate?
Find Out More on Sunday, February 23
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Reading the Bible as a Single Book – A February 2020 Table Talk Series
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January 2020 Pastor’s Corner – Is Anyone Listening?
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Is Anyone Listening?
Tuning In
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” (Rev. 1:10–11)
The Word That Speaks
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)
Rev. David Garrison
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