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February 2023 Pastor’s Corner — Winter Growth
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” — Mark 4:26–29
It’s usually right about this time of year that most of us are getting tired of winter. I say “usually” because we haven’t really had much of “winter” this year. Other than the cold snap in late December, we’ve pretty much just had a long, protracted fall. But whether it’s snowed or not, or if it’s been as cold as we expect, everything else is pretty much the same. The ground is a bland brown, the trees are bare, and even on sunny days everything just looks kind of dead.
However, underneath that bland brown ground, inside those bare, grey trees, there are a lot of things happening. What seems dead on the surface is full of life underneath. Roots are spreading, seeds are sprouting, water is being absorbed, nutrients are being processed, new life is preparing to burst forth. It looks like very little is happening right now, but in a few months our yards, gardens and trees will burst forth with new life.
Sometimes we feel like there’s nothing happening in our lives, our souls or in our community. We might feel as dead or bland as the trees and ground in late January and early February. In the midst of the cold days and long nights, we wonder if God has given up on us. We look for evidence of spiritual growth in or around us, but can’t find anything at all.
Just like the flowers and grass in the winter time, just because you can’t see any evidence of God at work in your life, doesn’t mean He isn’t at work. Sometimes, the work the Holy Spirit is doing is happening under the surface, behind the scenes of our heart and soul. It’s necessary work that has to happen in order for the new spiritual growth to spring forth in the next season of life.
I think something very similar is happening in the life of Northminster right now. Sometimes we look around and struggle to see evidence that God is still at work. It’s easier to find things that look like death rather than life. But just because we can’t see what’s going on doesn’t mean nothing is happening. God is moving and working behind the scenes, working under the surface to prepare each of us individually and us as a community of faith for a new season of growth and life.
Each spring, we take time to prepare our yards for the new growth that’s about to come. We should be intentional about doing the same thing spiritually. If God is in fact preparing a new season of spiritual growth and life, we should be preparing ourselves for it — as individuals and as a community of faith. Let’s intentionally spend time in prayer and in God’s word, asking the Holy Spirit to prepare us for the work He is already doing in and around us.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. — 1 Cor. 3:6–9
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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January 2023 Pastor’s Corner — Liminal Spaces
…but [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. — Hebrews 7:24–25
Liminal is from the Latin word limen, which means threshold. A liminal space is the time between ‘what was’ and ‘next.’ We see and experience liminal spaces in all sorts of ways, some more obvious than others. Examples of liminal spaces include turning the calendar to a new month or year, the solstices and equinoxes, sunsets and sunrises, the shore (being the threshold between sea and land). The picture above captures several liminal spaces at once — the beach at the transition from low to high tide at sunset. Many religions, such as the druidic religions of medieval England, make a big deal about these liminal spaces, believing that they are places and times where the veil between heaven and earth is particularly thin, thus allowing better access to the gods and the afterlife.
The idea of liminal spaces is something that we recognize intuitively, if not consciously. We are drawn to liminal spaces like the beach, because something about it makes us feel closer to God. We make new years resolutions each year because we see the start of the year as an opportunity for a “new beginning.” We try to take advantage of these times and spaces because we hope they will enable us to reconnect with, draw near to, or simply grow deeper in our relationship with God. But what we learn from Jesus Christ and Scripture takes the idea of liminal spaces and simultaneously transforms it and deconstructs it.
Jesus Christ has transformed liminal spaces by making our entire faith, at least at this time, a prolonged spiritual liminal space. When Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, He inaugurated the Kingdom of God. However, the Kingdom of God will not be fully consummated until Christ returns at the end of the age. Until then, we live on the “threshold” of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is already here, but it is not yet here. Martin Luther speaks of our walk with God as a liminal space when he says that we are at once justified and yet still sinful; we are both sinner and saint. Paul describes this tension so well in Romans 7:7-25. The life of faith itself is a liminal space, between what was and what is next.
However, Jesus Christ has also deconstructed liminal spaces and times. We don’t need to find liminal spaces and times in order to draw near to God. When Jesus died on the cross, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” (Matt. 27:51) The curtain in the temple separated the Holy of Holies, the place where heaven touched earth and the high priest would commune with God. It was a liminal space. Because of Jesus Christ, the barrier between us and God has been removed. Thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need liminal spaces or times in order to draw near to God because God is always near to us and with us. That is the promise of Emmanuel, “God with us.”
This year is a little bit unique. On January 1, we not only start a new year and a new month, but also a new week. It’s quite natural to want to take advantage of this particular liminal time to commit to some changes. There’s certainly nothing wrong with making new years resolutions. However, don’t forget that, as our Scripture above reminds us, we do not need liminal times and spaces in order to draw near to God, because Jesus Christ has already done everything needed for us to do so. We are able to draw near to God any time, any where, because He has already drawn near to us.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. — James 4:7–8
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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December 2022 Pastor’s Corner — Christmas Tradition
“The tradition I handed on to you in the first place, a tradition which I had myself received…”
— 1 Cor. 15:3
Of all of the seasons of our lives, the one most rooted and grounded in tradition is Christmastime. Every family does the Christmas season differently, and every family is convinced their way is the right way! There’s the right time to put the tree up, the right way to do the decorations, the right way to hang the lights, the proper time for Christmas dinner, and, of course, the correct way to open the stockings and the presents. For many of us, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas unless the traditions are maintained and practiced correctly. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!
In fact, “tradition” plays an important role in our lives, beyond just Christmas. Traditions help ground us in our lives; they provide a way to make sense of how the world works and where we fit into the world. Sociologists call this a metanarrative, a “big story.” That “big story” becomes explicit during the holidays, but is always there, whether we’re intentionally thinking about it or not. In fact, the Bible is very clear that the traditions of our faith are very important tools for helping us understand our faith, how to live out our faith, and how to pass our faith to others. The traditions aren’t the end in and of themselves. They are there to help us see the deeper life of faith to which Christ is inviting and calling us, signposts that remind us of what God has done in the past, is doing in the present and what He has yet to do in the future.
Over the course of Advent this year, we’ll be looking at the various parts of our Christmas Tradition. While the details are different for everyone, in general we all have particular traditions to help us prepare for the season, to get into the spirit of the season, lights that brighten the season for us, songs that carry the season into our hearts, ways of celebrating and rejoicing in the season, and the joy of presents given and received. All of these traditions help us delight in all that Christmas offers, but are also meant to point us past the holiday itself in order to remind us that, just as Jesus Christ took on human flesh 2,000 years ago in his First Advent, He will just as surely return for his Second. Celebrate how the world and history changed 2,000 years ago. But don’t lose sight of that for which we all deeply long: His imminent and certain return.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. — Rev. 22:16–17
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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November 2022 Pastor’s Corner — The God Who Sees You
So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.’
— Genesis 16:13
The story of Abram, Sarai and Hagar in Genesis 16 isn’t one we talk about very often, and when we do, it’s usually to make the point that we shouldn’t rush God’s plans or the consequences that come when we take matters into our own hands (which are very valid applications of the story). But if we only focus on that part of the story, we miss something beautiful that happens.
If you don’t remember the story, let me recap briefly: God has promised the childless Abram and Sarai more descendants than there are stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5-6). But they are very old (86, in fact – Genesis 16:16) and are getting past childbearing years. So Sarai gives her servant Hagar to Abram (a culturally acceptable but very bad idea), and she becomes pregnant. Shockingly, Hagar starts to get a little “uppity” with her mistress (Genesis 16:4). Sarai starts abusing Hagar, so Hagar runs away, deciding it’s better to risk crossing the Sinai desert in order to go home to Egypt than stay. Alone, pregnant, with little to no supplies, what must Hagar had been thinking and feeling during those hot days and cold nights? The story doesn’t tell us.
But this is what the story does tell us: Hagar is an Egyptian and not a Hebrew. She never once prays to God. As far as we know, she has no faith in the Lord and the thought of appealing to the God of Abram never crosses her mind. She doesn’t even appeal to the pagan gods of her ancestors. And yet, “The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.” (Gen. 16:7) The angel of the Lord tells her to go back and submit to Sarai, but then promises, basically, that the promises made to Abram for his son (who hasn’t yet been born or conceived) will be given to Hagar’s son’s descendants. Her response to this is the verse at the top of the article. Nothing has changed regarding her circumstances, but Hagar is filled with hope and praise.
Why? Because now she knows that she has been seen by the Lord. In the midst of her distress and fear, she realizes that she is not alone. Where she has feared for her future, she realizes that God has been and will continue to look after her. Let me emphasize this again: God does nothing to change her situation, in fact He sends her back to Sarai. And it’s likely that Ishmael didn’t experience the promised blessings himself (Genesis 16:12), but his descendants would be princes! “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
Many times we feel the same as Hagar. Lost in our afflictions, our sufferings, our struggles. We are sure that God does not see or hear us in our distress, and we wonder if He even cares. But if God saw Hagar, lost in the wilderness, then God sees you as well. God is looking after you, even if you don’t see it. And while your circumstances may not change (I pray they do!), His promises are still true and sure. He is the God who sees, He is the One who looks after you. Know that you are not alone or forsaken. He is with you, even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 8:38–39
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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October 2022 Pastor’s Corner – Answering Before We Even Ask
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7–8)
Last month, I wrote about how frustrating it can be when God doesn’t answer our prayers as quickly as we like. This month, I’d like to remind us that more often than not, it’s actually the other way around — God is often answering our prayers before we even ask. I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, as Hurricane Ian is about to make landfall in Florida as an almost category 5 hurricane. By the time you read this, the storm will no longer exist as a named storm and the damage will be done. Take a moment with me to go back to just a day or two before the hurricane’s landfall.
Yesterday, I was driving up the 29N Bypass to pick my daughter up from school, and I saw at least a dozen utility trucks heading south. As you know, Rt. 29 isn’t really a major N/S artery in Virginia – that’s I-81 and I-95. It struck me that if there were that many trucks passing our neck of the woods, how many more are on the interstates, also heading south?
Hundreds of thousands of people have evacuated Florida, which given the size and scope of this storm is a very wise decision. But thousands will stay behind for a wide variety of reasons. Given what Ian did to Cuba, and what Puerto Rico experienced last week, we need to be praying for God’s mercy and protection for those in the path of this storm. This is going to be bad.
But this is what I saw yesterday: God was already answering those prayers. He was already moving into place the people and resources folks along the Gulf Coast are going to need to recover from this storm. God was already in the process of answering prayers that had already been lifted up, and anticipating the prayers that were yet to come. Thousands upon thousands were fleeing the storm, while hundreds were heading toward it. Utility companies from around the country and disaster relief organizations were marshaling their resources and coming together, ready to spring to action the moment the storm passes.
Our God is an awesome, and a very, very good, God. I’m reminded of Psalm 18. I don’t have the space to quote it here, so I encourage you to go read it. As you do, keep this in mind: When the storms of life (both literal and metaphorical) threaten God’s children and we cry out to Him, He springs to action on a storm of his own. Amen, and amen again.
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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