Category: News

¹See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?  For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; ³ he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.  Malachi 3:1-4

Having worked in a metals testing laboratory, one had to understand the entire manufacturing process of steel; from smelting the ore in a blast furnace which created rods and ingots of iron and steel, to the heat treating of the materials to provide stability but also strength, to the roll-lines which created formed parts, and to the presses and dies which created the finished product.  The entire process involves some intense heat, intense pressure, and intense labor to take iron ore and transform it into a steel product for use. 

Just as you can form and shape metal, the Prophet Malachi, speaks about how God will form and shape the descendants of Levi, the priesthood, until they perform their functions more responsibly.  Just as ore is smelted removing impurities and concentrating the metal, the priests needed to have their sins removed to present worthwhile prayers and sacrifices for the people.  Then the people could worship as they once did in the days of old and as in former years.

God does the same with us.  God forms and shapes us like the refiner shapes dirt into metal.  The intense furnaces of trials and temptations melt and break us refining our character instead of steel.  The pounding from hammers of experience and the forging of hardship, molds and shapes us into the image of Christ.  The carrying of burdens and shouldering of responsibilities tempers our endurance and fortitude as sure as an oven will temper steel with strength and edge.  The blast furnaces, the forges and presses of life in the hands of God shape and form us into the creatures bearing the image of God.

Take faith for example.  How does God shape or form faith in people?  Faith is formed in the furnaces of doubt and overwhelming difficulties.  Greater situations of doubt and confusion create opportunities for people to have more and more faith.  Faith does not remove doubt, but in pushing through doubt greater faith is won.  In experiences of overwhelming problems, these create spaces for us to surrender these “big” problems to our “bigger” God.  Faith does not overcome every problem but surrenders control to our God who is mighty enough to solve every problem.  This is the place where God is forging faith.

We could talk about hope.  God uses sadness and despair to shape hope in the embodied souls of people.  Greater situations of sadness, like the dreaded diagnosis of a terminal illness, or the loss of a job, the grief of a divorce or a death, the house fire which destroys, the war that displaces, the parents that traumatize.  These moments are filled with much pathos and emotion which need validated and acknowledged, but they are also the anvil on which God creates Hope.  Hope in the life without end, Hope in true purpose as God’s church, Hope in perfect relationships in God’s family, Hope in a house not built with human hands, Hope in a promised land no thief nor army can take and a Hope in a Heavenly Parent with love and healing.  Lights in the dark places, opportunities for hope amid places of sadness and despair.  This is the place where God is forging hope.

Most importantly, we can talk about love.  God uses the most profound moments of hate and isolation to refine love and acceptance.  When the world is bombarded by the hate of race, gender, sexuality, politics, religion, or economics, we are refined into a people that are neither Jew nor Greek, Male nor Female, Slave nor Free, just people.  When the world could become a united world but instead breaks into factions and tribes of uniform appearance and belief, that is when God creates spaces to form unity amid our diversity.  Spaces for love to work against hate, openings for unity and acceptance amid voices for bigotry and exclusion.   This is the place where God is forging love.

But the forges are hot.  Forging and beating is painful. Rolling and pressing are costly. Smelting and refining requires surrender instead of control.  Refining and being refined means our crucifixion; and here we pause if not halt.  Our culture wants to avoid pain and suffering, but that is how we are shaped and formed, how character and virtue are formed.  Could the lack of basic respect and virtue in our culture and society be from the pursuit of ease and comfort in our goals and lifestyles?  No furnace, no metal.  No trial, no faith?  No crisis, no hope?  No pain, no love?  What if we have removed the pain and suffering from our lives and we have removed the very means God uses to refine character and virtue?  No crucifixion, no resurrection!

I will be the first to reject the furnace that melts me, or the hammer that breaks me, or the forge that shapes me, or the press that bends me.  But in rejecting the trials, the experiences, the moments of sadness and despair, the times of anxiety and fear, and the spaces of cultures and peoples that are different, what if I lose the very means of having more of and a better quality of faith, hope, courage, and love?  What if by wanting a life of ease and comfort we lose the world of faith, hope, courage, and love, God wants to shape as the refiner shapes his people?  What if discipleship stays in the furnace and we grow?  What if discipleship lives through the lion’s den and we change?  What if discipleship remains present in a diverse and different world and we are shaped into the body of Jesus Christ across all barriers?  We cannot lose our crucifixion and expect our resurrection, we must stay in one, to possess one day the other.  Discipleship means being crucified with Christ to be in the Kingdom of God raised with Christ.  Let us, with God’s help, follow Christ, through furnace, anvil, and forge, and be shaped into faithful, hopeful, and loving Children of God.  Amen. 

⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:7-8

Americans love their crime shows.  We have watched Law and Order and we have watched shows about true cases and true criminals.  We love to watch the witnesses give testimony and lawyers argue the merits of a case.  We love to watch the guilty be held accountable and we love to watch Matlock defend the innocent.  But America loves to watch the spectacle of justice and the justice system, whether real or fictional.

Perhaps then we can understand what Jesus was speaking about moments before leaving his disciples after his crucifixion and resurrection.  He informs them you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  Witnesses are those people who have watched what happened and then testify to others about what they have seen.  The disciples saw Jesus, dead and then alive.  The disciples saw the descent of the Holy Spirit and the daily work of the Spirit creating communities of faith, building up the people, calling to repentance and conversion, forgiving sins, and making all things new.  The disciples saw these things and testified to others throughout the world about what they saw and what they were seeing.

So, it is with me.  I have been graciously blessed to watch over the last year what the Holy Spirit is doing among our communities.  I have watched how God has merged two faith communities into one.  I have watched how new excitement and passion has been turned loose upon these congregations.  I have watched how these two communities have found a new sense of call, new people to lead and contribute, the growth of those leaders who have been leading for years and new connections we never noticed were always there.  I have watched and I have been floored in wonder and awe at the new things the Spirit of God is creating.  I have watched and I am humbled that God would do such mighty and loving things among and to us.

Take for example our engagement with our communities.  I have seen you embrace the work of ministering to victims of domestic violence with fundraising baskets.  I have seen you gather blankets and sheets, bags of food and hats and gloves.  I have seen you adopt children in Ashtabula and around the world for Christmas.  I have seen you purchase beds and clothes for foster children.  I have seen you give resources to needy families to have holiday meals.  I have seen you buy appliances and food for complete strangers.  I have seen you connect with homeless people through the blessing box and people in the neighborhood adjacent to the garden.  I have seen you bake pies and sell rummage.  I have seen the love of God given to you and you have given it to others and for that I am in wonder and gratitude that I should be able to witness such things.

But it isn’t just our work that God is creating but also our worship.  I have seen you find a new way to sing together and to play instruments together for the glory of God.  I have seen you step out into the uncomfortable and different sanctuaries.  I have seen you wrestling with what is truly important about worship and what can be accommodated.  I have watched you find the joy and community behind worship again instead of the drudgery and isolation of times past.  I have watched you embrace roles of leadership and care for one another and perhaps even connections with other communities that the body of Christ is.  I have seen the timid find their voices.  I have seen the guilty find forgiveness.  I have seen the scared find courage.  I have seen the love you have rediscovered for God and for that I am in wonder and gratitude that I should be able to witness such things. 

Friends, I have watched the last year with a sense of awe and gratitude, that I should be a witness to the work which God is doing among Trinity and Eastside.  I hope you can begin to see all that God is doing and that you would share in the wonder and gratitude also.  I also hope that you can see the major and minor changes that have already happened and see that we have not only survived, but we have prospered and grown because of God.  Celebrate with me all that God has done, all that God has changed, and all that God has blessed us with.  Rejoice with me and let this year be more.  Amen. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  John 1:1-14

A little light makes all the difference in the world.  Every young boy wants to be a helper to his dad.  I was no different, and my job as my dad’s helper was to hold the flashlight on what he was working on.  Whether the job was repairing the car or the furnace, I was responsible for holding the flashlight on what he was doing.  Sometimes, I would get distracted and the light would wander away from the project unto the wall and he was unable to turn the wrench or the screwdriver simply because he couldn’t see it.  So, a little light on the project makes all the difference in the world.

So too is it with us; a little light makes all the difference in the world.  Just as a little light makes all the difference when one is attempting to turn a bolt or screw in the dark; a little light makes all the difference in the world when one is coping with all the difficult burdens of life.  Light brings clarity in a time of confusion or uncertainty.  Light brings hope in a time of sadness or despair.  Light brings truth in a time of error or ignorance.  Light brings compassion in a time of need or want.  Having to live in a world of darkness, a little light makes all the difference in the world.

The good news for us is that as the man Jesus of Nazareth, the light of God has come into the world to enlighten the dark times and places.  In the prologue to John’s Gospel, the author speaks of how the very Word of God which created and sustains all of creation was coming into the world to bring life and light to the world full of death and darkness.  As the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Word was made flesh and lived among us full of Grace and Truth.  As Jesus Christ, the Light of God shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  The good news for us is that God gives of himself to make all the difference in the world.  

Which of us during the course of our lives doesn’t find ourselves in dark times and in dark places?   Most certainly, we all have been and will be in times of confusion and uncertainty needing clarity.  We all have been and will be in times of sadness and despair needing hope.  We all have been and will be in times of error or ignorance needing truth.  We all have been and will be in times of need and want needing compassion.  We all have been and will be in times and places of great darkness.  The good news for us is that God does not leave us there.  As the man Jesus of Nazareth, the light of God enters into our dark times and places, to bring clarity, hope, truth, and compassion to us.  The good news for us is that as Jesus Christ, God finds us wherever we are and in whatever condition we are in to bring light and love to our darkness.  Such is the love and care of God for us.

If this be the love and care of God for us, then perhaps now is the time and here is the place for us to admit to ourselves that we are in darkness needing light?  If this be the love and care of God for us, then perhaps now is the time and here is the place for us to acknowledge to ourselves that we are creatures living in darkness needing the Creator’s light?  If this be the love and care of God for us, then perhaps now is the time and here is the place for us to recognize our deficiencies needing the Maker’s filling?  If this be the work and will of God the Father for us that the Word would become flesh to enlighten the ones living in darkness; then maybe now is the time and here is the place for us to tell ourselves we need to be found by this God, in faith?

Since a little light makes all the difference in the world, let us remember the good news whenever we find ourselves in those dark times and dark places, as we surely will and maybe are right now.  As the man Jesus Christ, the Light of God came into the world to enlighten the ones living in that darkness.  Since this is the love and care of God for us, let us put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be found by the Light and Life of God.  On behalf of everyone associated with Trinity and Eastside Presbyterian Churches in Ashtabula, Ohio, I pray the Light of God finds you and your family this Christmas season and every time you find yourselves in those dark times and dark places of life.