Pastor's Letter - November

Pastor’s Letter
November, 2019

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen!

I am sitting in our home office as I type this, looking at a picture I am quite fond of. It's one of the few cards that I have that is framed.

I bought it not so send it to anyone, but as a souvenir when Michelle, Timmy, and went to Cincinnati in August, my second trip there last summer (though the one prior was the mission trip, and definitely not a vacation!) This card depicts the lobby of the Cincinnati Museum Center at night. You see the front window lit up, showing the dark sky framed by golden window panes, and then this giant arch that comprises the front of the building. Above the arch is a giant circular golden pattern that serves as the roof of the lobby. It is quite majestic to see.

As I think of that lobby, I think of the countless people who have wandered through those doors. Before it was the Museum Center, a complex that houses three distinctly different museums, this building served as a main transportation hub. Being where Cincinnati is located, it was either someone's introduction to the American midwest or the start of their journey east. This building is epic in stature, the terminal dome at the front being the largest half-dome in the western hemisphere. At the very top of the dome is a bright spot that is meant to depict heaven, and it is lit up whether it is 12 noon or midnight (some electronic light does most of the work).

There are murals that circumnavigate the sides of the lobby, and I could get into other details that I could glean from the Museum Center's website, but the real reason I like this picture? It evokes happy memories. The last time I was there I chased Timmy around the Children's Museum, I watched him play with the construction toys they had there, and the lady behind the counter at the food stand gave Timmy an apple for free because she found him cute. Before Timmy, Michelle and I were there in 2016 and enjoyed both the Cincinnati History Museum and a wonderful IMAX Movie about the Grand Canyon narrated by Robert Redford. No free apple for us, we weren't cute enough. The image just evokes happy memories.

Maybe you have a picture like that too. A picture of a place that means something to you, a picture of family gathered around for a special memory like a vacation or a birthday. Actually, having been in many of your homes, I know many of you have a picture like that. I've seen quite a few. Some of them are recent, some are older, but all of them remind us of where we have been.

Those memories are important because they are stories of where God has taken us. As much as it would give us great comfort and joy, though, we can't stay in those pictures and in those memories. There is a world outside our windows where we are called to show others the love of God. I can't stay in the lobby of the Cincinnati Museum Center forever. Sometimes I'd like to.

But the world calls to us. A world full of people who perhaps don't have those happy memories right in front of them. People who are surrounded by sickness, decay, money problems, crumbling homes, or depression. And I know, just numbers and statistics being what they are, that some people are in that space when they receive this newsletter too. In fact, for some people, that happiness that we might have from memories might make others bitter. Misery loves company.

There's a story in scripture where Jesus comes across a woman who has been accused of being an adulterer. The scribes and Pharisees are there, and they know the law- in Moses' law, this woman should be stoned. Here is a woman whose reputation has been terrible, deserved or not. She probably doesn't have many recent happy memories. She probably feels scorned, rejected, and lost.

Jesus says, and I'm sure many know what I'm going to say, but he says, "he who is without sin can cast the first stone." Jesus then tells her that he won't condemn her and tells her to go and sin no more.

And that's it. There's a happy memory. This woman is freed from her past, publicly, by Jesus. I'm sure there were those who wouldn't forget it. But there in public, in front of the leaders of her time, Jesus has said, "this woman is okay." And in that refusal to condemn and in those words of love, she has another chance. She has freedom from those labels and that reputation that has been hung around her neck.

And you know what? We all have the ability to help people get freed from their labels and their reputations. We absolutely do. The trick is that we have to get rid of our judgment over such people first.

The last time I was in Cincinnati, there was a guy begging for money by the giant Ferris Wheel that is on the Riverfront. And I stopped and talked to him. I didn't give him any money at first. Turns out he was from Harrisburg. If what he was said was true, he's had a very hard life. When I talked to him, I found him completely depressed and full of shame that he was even there. And about ten minutes into the conversation, something changed. He looked me in the face and started to cry. And after I asked him what happened, he told me that I was the first person in a long time who had any desire to hear him, to truly hear him. I was the first person in a long time who even looked him in the face. I didn't know what to say. Shortly thereafter, our trolley came, I slipped him $10, and hopped on board. As I left, he stood there, staring at the money, and was obviously still very emotional.

I wonder about him now when I think of Cincinnati, too. What will it take for him to be freed? What will it take for us?

God wants us to be freed of all of that stuff so that we can truly live. Blessings on you this month as you give thanks for what God has given you, and may you be freed from all that might hold you back,

See you along the way,
Pastor Brian