“In the Beginning was the word…”

-The Gospel of John, Chapter 1, verse 1

Say the word and you'll be free
Say the word and be like me
Say the word I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
It's so fine, It's sunshine
It's the word, love

-The Word, Lennon/McCartney

Dear Friends,

There is a little song I learned back in the 90’s that brings the Gospel of John together with the Beatles’ song, The Word:

Love, Love, Love, Love,

The Gospel in One Word is Love,

Love your Neighbor as Yourself,

Love, Love, Love

And that’s it. As human beings we are called by the Gospel, the Good News. Leaving all belief aside, the gospel in one word is love. Love calls us into prayer – a closer communion with what is present in our lives, a closer communion with God. Love calls us into service. In Love we sense our kinship with all humanity, seeing how no one is left out of the equation. With a deep empathy we reach out.

The Good News, the Gospel in one Word is Love. This Good News Word found expression in Christ, and seeks expression in us each moment of the day.

Two significant things are happening this month at our church: February 14, Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday and Feb. 17 is the beginning of Lent.

I hope you will make every attempt to be in church on February 14. We will be having a Love Fest and a Love Feast. In morning worship we will sing Love songs, sacred and secular. We will read love chapters from the Bible and poems from some of our greatest poets. It will be a delicious worship service. And following 10:30 worship there will be a delicious meal served in Friendship Hall, the Love Feast. This will be a tremendous morning AND a great way to bring a friend (someone you love) to church. All church guests will eat free! I look forward to greeting you on St. Valentine’s Day, February 14.

We begin the season of Lent on Weds., February 17, with two Ash Weds. Observances – the first will be after Bible Study, 11:30 am. The second will be at 7 pm during our Meditation time. That is Weds, Feb. 17. See more about Lent in this Newsletter.

The last verse of the Beatles’ song goes:

Give the word a chance to say
That the word is just the way
It's the word I'm thinking of
And the only word is love
It's so fine, It's sunshine
It's the word, love

Love,

David

Love is our Mission -- Martin the Cobbler

We fear Leo Tolstoy, or at least his masterwork, War and Peace. While known as the author of that epic novel, Tolstoy also wrote short stories the most famous of which is Martin the Cobbler, also known as Where There is Love, God will be there Too. The story begins with Martin whose wife has died and left him with one living son. Through a series of unfortunate events his only son dies and Martin is beside himself with grief, seeing no way out of his unhappiness. He is visited by an old friend of his who is a monk. The monk counsels his friend to read the Bible in order to find a new foundation for his life. Martin follows his friend’s advice.

One night as Martin is reading he hears someone call his name, “Martin, Martin, look out onto the street tomorrow for I will come to visit you.” Martin sleeps and the next day it is all Martin can do to keep to his work cobbling shoes: his gaze is out onto the street watching people pass by. There are a series of people who come by Martin’s window. There is Stephen, the old man indentured to the man across the street shoveling snow. Next a young woman with a baby who is cold and in need of food walks by the window. Finally, he sees an altercation between an old woman street merchant and a young street urchin stealing her apples. In each instance Martin addresses the needs of the folks in front of his window. Still, he wonders, “Where is the Lord?”

Martin continues his reading of scripture when he senses people in the room with him. They are the people Martin helped that day; Stephen, the woman and her baby, the merchant woman and the street urchin. They each disappear as he notices them. Turning to the scripture, Martin reads, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. As Martin read down the page, he came upon this: “When you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.”

Tolstoy concludes, “And Avdeich understood that he was not deceived, that it was as though his Savior had come to him on that day, and just as though he had received Him.”

The story of Martin the Cobbler is worth spending time with. You can find it here: http://www1.umn.edu/lol-russ/PopLit/where_love_is,_there_is_god_also.htm

This Sunday we will be celebrating our Mission Sunday. We will have a special speaker, John Records, the founder and director for the Committee on the Shelterless (COTS). Also, representatives of the various local missions which we support will be present during coffee hour ready to address your questions and offer you opportunities for service. Ten organizations will be present.

For our Mission we remember, “That where love is, there is God also.”

Blessings,

David