Invest In Each Other

KEEP INVESTING IN EACH OTHER

By Fred Wurtzel

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are
Doing.
-- 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (New International Version)

Invest -- To devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit:

Invest -- To endow with an enveloping or pervasive quality: "A charm invests a face/Imperfectly
beheld" (Emily Dickinson).


The Sun is warm on my face; the breeze keeps me comfortable, no not comfortable, in a state of heightened awareness and contemplation as I float over Lansing in the basket of my hot air balloon. Below are a large church with a lot of flags moving lazily in the breeze, to the left is the Lansing Mall and the Meijer store and all those strip malls and chain restaurants. There is another very small church with an empty parking lot and a neatly trimmed lawn near Waverly High School down there on West Michigan. Further to the right there is a very large sprawling church to the South.

The downtown capitol Mall with the Modern Hall of Justice building as a reflection of the 19h century Capitol building to the East, each standing as monuments to hope and faith from their respective centuries. Just to the North of the Capitol are many older churches varying in size from demi-cathedral to cozy. The Grand River sparkles as it meanders through town. Eastern High School and Pattengil Middle School bookend Lansing Catholic highs cool creating an architectural, philosophical and educational timeline from the early 20th Century to the early 21st.

Through my binoculars I finally locate one of my favorite spots. First Christian Church on 1001 Chester Road. There are people on the green area to the West of the church apparently harvesting vegetables from the garden. Kids scurry about brandishing carrots and others carefully and lovingly place firm, plump bright red tomatoes into containers and put them on a scale. The scene is so vivid: I can almost hear the laughter of the children, smell the pungency of the tomato vines, feel the rich nourishing garden soil between my fingers and taste the cool goodness of a purloined baby cucumber plucked from a vine. It is suddenly clear that what I am seeing is a microcosm or fractal of all the sites I have just passed over. A community of various generations playing and working together for a purpose. Eager impatience along with patient understanding, learning and reflecting, racing ahead and cooling down after a long effort in the good race. It is all there before me a dazzling lesson from God about His will for His work on His Earth.

During this year our members have sold hot dogs, tended a Parade of Homes site in Okemos, raised a community garden and provided fresh food to our community, invited people into our church for a flea market and barbecue, among all the many events and activities here at 1001 Chester. Life is never a straight line between the beginning and end, the hope and fulfillment of a dream, or the Cross and His Return. We are challenged daily to hear God’s will for each of us, meet the challenges of doing His will while living a reverent, thankful and fulfilling life as part of a Christian community of believers such as First Christian Church.

Your Stewardship Committee is calling on you, our membership, to invest in each other. Investments are future oriented endowed with hope and promise. In financial terms our Church has a legacy of investment. Those who came before us invested their money, their dreams and their faith in our church. We must now continue their efforts. Our pledge campaign will begin this weekend with a Potluck after church. Our committee will ask you to join with us to gather ideas for investing in each other through our mutual efforts to increase revenues to support our many projects and programs. What ideas do you have to create a cohesive Jesus centered group of believers who truly want to invest in our congregation and our community. We want to reach out to individuals and families to share God’s promise and encouragement.

For those of you who are statistically minded, we are collecting more than 107% of what you pledged. This is wonderful and please feel free to take a bow. Unfortunately, the cost of running our Church is nearly $20,000 more than what is being pledged. We have cut staff and staff hours. We have decided to turn off the heat in the West wing during the week. We have installed energy saving equipment as we can do so. We have had fundraisers such as the Parade of Homes, Lugnuts Concessions, the Heere Piggy, Piggy Barbecue (approximately $100 profit), a community flea market and other similar events.

Please pray, pray with your spouse, consider the value of our congregation in your life and our community, then, complete a pledge form and turn it in by placing it in the box in the narthex. Pledges are strictly confidential, not I, nor Pastor Rick nor anyone except Penny Ascroft knows anyone’s pledge. We guard this information carefully.

So, fix a dish, come to the potluck, pray, complete a pledge form and bring your ideas to invest in each other. With God’s grace, along with your time, talent and treasure, we will be a light for Jesus in Lansing.

Easter

It appears that I gave up blogging for Lent. Though this is not technically true, it is clearly what happened, no matter the cause. I will consciously redidicate myself to improvement on this endeavor.

It is difficult to come up with anything new to say about Easter. It is renewal.Of course, we talk about the "new covenant," as opposed to the old covenant after the flood symbolized by the rainbow.

When i think about the new covenant, I almost have a feeling of relief. I am not good with rules, routine or consistency. Anyone who knows me is sometimes painfully aware of this character trait of mine. Some of my more disciplined brothers and sisters have difficulty understanding my lapses. There have been many difficult and turbulant experiences in my life due to my personality. It seems simple to people who are disciplined to simply do stuff. They do not understand that if I could change this I would, or at least reduce its occurances to those with less gravity and effect on others. This sounds like rationalization, who knows? I just know I struggle with circumstances, a lot. So, when Jesus came to die for me and I learn from Him that I cannot "earn" my way into Heaven, I am relieved. If it depended on me, I might as well break out the hotdogs and marshmallows and get ready for the great, long barbeque.

Fortunately, for me, jesus is here for me. not just me, of course, but for me personally, not my family, not our congregation, not americans, for me personally. This is profound. It is, to me, the most profound of all truth.

If I did nothing but sit in my new La-Z-Boy for the rest of my life, this truth would still apply. If I sold all my possessions and made a promise of poverty and found a cave and spent my days in solomn prayer, this truth would apply. If I moved to some remote area where no one had heard of jesus and converted everyone to Christianity and gained millions of followers for the Lord, the same truth would apply.

So, what is the incentive? Why should I write this blog entry? Why should i wake up and go to church? Why serve in leadership in our church? After all, the result is the same. Jesus came to save me and his position as the Son of God, who came here and died and rose from the dead, gives me the ticket.

My favorite Bible passages are the 23rd Psalm and Mathew . I am reassured. Also, I learn that sin is sin. My sins are like everyone's sins. i cannot do anything to make up for my sinfulness. I also learn that I have the power to do all that jesus did and more. now that is something to contemplate. i am told not to worry, since the birds and flowers are taken care of and so why won't the Lord take care of me? Now that is an insurance policy!

So, how does and Elder respond to Easter? My first reaction is gratitude. I am so grateful that my salvation and relationship with Jesus is not dependent on me. To become the change we want to see, I need to react in kind. Not to secure salvation, but because of gratitude. I need to give back. understand, this is my response to Easter. Another person's response is between them and jesus. Though I will fail and struggle, I will continue to try. I will get out of the recliner and walk over to church. I will talk to my brothers and sisters and work to be of service. I will listen to find opportunities to teach the story of our Lord and his mercy.

I hope members of our church call upon me to be of service. I can be a little dense, sometimes. it is good to spell things out to me in plain words.

So my renewal is to rededicate myself to doing good, praying, loving the Lord, listening to the Holy Spirit and trying to pick up on the cues and follow the path which jesus has blazed for me, personally.