February 2024

Dear Friends of First,

I stumbled upon Daniel Bunnell’s painting a few days ago while looking for a creative way to engage the  liturgical season of Lent. Bunnell’s painting is called Lament and Celebration. Bunnell interestingly chose to paint this scene of the crucifixion on a “brown paper bag;” the paper surface is humble, modest and worldwide. This image caught my attention and spoke to me as I hear the “laments” of God’s people within our community. Therefore, during this season of Lent, we’ll explore various kinds of lament found in scripture. Each Sunday, we’ll consider what it means to sit with our lament rather than try to push it aside. We will discover that many faithful believers have wrestled with grief, sorrow, and question God about why the innocent suffer. We’ll hopefully find the answer and come to understand that our lament is one of the more faithful things we can do. When we approach God with honesty and humility, and we admit that some things are too big for our hearts to bear, we will find that God weeps with us. We will find a God who can take our laments and grief and transform them into holy joy and renewed hope. We’ll learn, ultimately, that Jesus’ death on the cross—the place to which the season of Lent leads us—is the reason we never mourn as those without hope. The 40 days of Lent begin with Ash Wednesday on February 14th. 

As you know, the season of Lent also includes a Wednesday evening gathering. We’ll begin to gather at 5pm for a simple soup supper. Then, at 6pm we’ll remain in Fellowship Hall for worship. Our worship series this year is called Wandering Heart: Figuring out faith with Peter. We’ll focus on the call, conversion, triumphs, and mistakes of the disciple Peter. 

This Lenten season, we’ll be focusing on the life and faith of one of Jesus’ most famous disciples. In Peter, we see a person who is both steadfast and unsteady, a dear friend and a betrayer, a follower and a wanderer. In Peter, we often see ourselves. By following Peter’s journey, we watch the story of Jesus unfold through the eyes of a very normal human trying to figure it all out—just like us. 

As we are studying Peter’s faith journey, may we hear the lyrics of “Come Thou Fount”...It’s as if Peter himself wrote this song. And so, for each step in Peter’s journey, we have selected a phrase from this hymn. As we follow Peter’s story, we will sing our way through Lent, binding our wandering hearts to God. We want to affirm that faith is a constant journey of steadfast pursuit, one that ebbs and flows, seeks and wanders. We want to affirm that wandering is exploration, not necessarily distance from God. We want to affirm the ways Peter keeps going: he drops his nets, he walks on water, he runs to the empty tomb, he swims to the shore to meet the risen Christ. He keeps searching and yearning and loving, even after missteps or mistakes. Ultimately, in Peter’s story, we are reminded that God loves imperfect people—in fact, time and again, that’s precisely who God claims and calls. This Lent, we will look for ourselves in the steppingstones of Peter’s story. We will reflect on the stages of our own faith journeys as well as who and what has shaped us along the way. As we wander, let us tune our hearts to sing God’s grace. May we rest in streams of mercy, never ceasing. 

I look forward to walking this journey with you.
Pastor Jim