Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday we explore two themes – getting honest before God and experiencing forgiveness, and preparing ourselves for mission and ministry in the future. Scripture will be our guide through these themes.
First up is Psalm 32 which scholars believe is 
related to King David’s experience of forgiveness after his deplorable behavior towards Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. You might recall – he basically “takes” Bathsheba who becomes pregnant and when her husband won’t sleep with her so that the baby could be declared his, David has him killed.
The prophet Nathan calls him on this, and David confesses what he has done to Nathan and to God. He gets honest with God about what he has done and God forgives him, wiping the slate clean. Now if only David had really used that clean slate in service to God.
What do we need to ask forgiveness for individually and corporately? How would the experience of God’s forgiveness and grace free us to explore even riskier and more experimental mission and ministry. Free us to be experimental, free us to take risks.
Second up is the temptation of Jesus as expressed in Matthew 4:1-11. You might recall that immediately after his baptism and hearing the voice say: “This is my Son the beloved, in him I am well pleased,” Jesus is driven out to the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil. Now why? Will Jesus choose power and wealth for himself, or will he reject that to bring God’s message of love, grace, forgiveness, attention to the marginalized and scapegoated, and desire to bring the kingdom of heaven here to earth. What would we choose?
What if these temptations and his resistance to them are meant to prepare him for the type of ministry he is being called to as God’s son, God’s agent in the world. The risky, prophetic, breaking tradition, experimental ministry that he exhibits throughout his life.
What might this mean for us? What temptations do we face in dreaming/hoping for the mission and ministry God is calling us to that would lead us not to heed God’s call? How do we identify those temptations and keep ourselves from yielding to them?
Lots to contemplate this Sunday in worship and in our retreat time! Come and see. Come and explore.
Blessings,
Pastor Karen