Faithfulness (and Doubt)

Dear MRC Family,

Pentecost blessings to you, beloved of God, in this season of Ordinary Time

Our fruit of the Spirit this week for our Summer Sermon Series is Faithfulness — The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases . . .  (Lamentations 3.19-22)

And Doubt — Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. (Voltaire, Complete Works of Voltaire)

Blessed are we who come to you in the discomfort of our doubt, for we trust that our honest unknowing is a truer and better prayer than bootstrapping efforts at certainty. Blessed are we, remembering that you hold all things together. (“For the gift of doubt,” Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have)

Faithfulness and Doubt — We simply can’t separate the two

And then there’s Love — God’s wondrous love

Come this Ninth Sunday after Pentecost as we wrestle with faithfulness, doubt, and Love. Tom will lead us in our hymns and sing the Prelude “Thanks and Praise” and the Anthem “My God Can.” I am preaching from Lamentations 3.19-24 and 1 Corinthians 16.13-14 and my sermon title is Great Is Your Faithfulness. As it is the second Sunday, we will receive our Deacons’ offering to support those in need in our church and our community.

I look forward to worshiping our faithful God with you on Sunday at 10:30AM!

Keep following and bothering Jesus, beloved.

With gratitude for the privilege of being your pastor and the holy call of loving you,

Pastor Trish