Matthew Chapter 1

My family started reading Matthew for Lent last night.

While dinner was finishing cooking we sat down at the table and took turns reading the first chapter.  Lots of funny names in Jesus' family tree that we struggled through.

We wondered - are our names as funny to others as those are to us?  Why care about who is in Jesus' family tree?  Why weren't many girls listed?  

We recognized some names like David (no mention of Goliath).

We talked about how some of the names remind us of good stories like David beating Goliath.  But other names like Uriah's wife (Bathsheba) reminds us that people in Jesus' family made mistakes too.  We have people in our family that we aren't always happy with but they are still a part of the family.  Jesus came from an imperfect family and makes us a part of his family, which is good cause we are imperfect too.

When is your daily Bible reading time?  in the morning, afternoon or evening?  

Do you have a special place to read?

What did you wonder about or learn from Matthew this week?

Keep plugging into God!

Reading Matthew for Lent

Reading your Bible for yourself is a gift and a privilege that we take for granted far too often.  In this world where we have all the information of the ages on our cell phones, we neglect the wisdom of God assuming it will be there when we "really need it".  But God doesn't want to be a wallflower waiting for us to get done with something else.  God wants to be first in our hearts and minds.  Reading God's word and reflecting on how God speaks to us through the life of Jesus is one of the first ways we can connect with God.

I'm challenging you to forget about giving up chocolate or other silly Lenten promise - take up something important instead.  Take up the practice of spending a little time everyday in God's word.

Each week I will be reflecting on my reading of Matthew and you can add your thoughts or questions in the comments section.  Lets do this together and grow in Christ!




Here is a suggested plan:

The Book of Matthew for Lent

28 chapters in 6 weeks. 

Focus on creating a daily ritual of reading your Bible & praying for yourself and others. 

Read about a chapter each day.  

The last day or two go back and reflect on what you read  - underline or highlight verses that have special meaning to you.

Week 1

Chapter 1 - the ancestors of Jesus, recognize any of those names? & birth of Jesus

Chapter 2 - Wise Men & evil of Herod

Chapter 3 - John the Baptist (Jesus' cousin) and Jesus' baptism

Chapter 4 - Jesus is tempted then begins his public ministry

Chapter 5 & 6 - The Sermon on the Mount

Most of these are familiar stories - what surprised you this week?

Week 2

Chapter 7 - Continuing  Sermon on the Mount

Chapter 8 - Healings & storms stilled

Chapter 9 - Healings and calling of Matthew

Chapter 10 - The twelve apostles

Chapter 11 - Praise for John the Baptist

Lots of healing & calling of followers this week - how has Jesus healed you? How is he calling you?
Week 3

Chapter 12 - Lord of the Sabbath

Chapter 13 - Jesus' Parables

Chapter 14 - Death of John - walking on water

Chapter 15 - what defiles? feeding of 4,000

Chapter 16 - who do you say that I am?

Jesus tells lots of parables this week - any that were new to you?  Think about the question "who do you say that I am?" from 16: 15.  Who do you think Jesus was & is?

Week 4

Chapter 17 - Jesus is Transfigured

Chapter 18 - Greatness, sin & forgiveness

Chapter 19 - divorce & money

Chapter 20 - the last will be first

Jesus surprises a lot of people this week with his transfiguration, his teaching and his parables.  What surprised you this week?

Week 5

Chapter 21 - the story of Palm Sunday

Chapter 22 - parable of the Wedding feast

Chapter 23 - denouncing scribes & Pharisees

Chapter 24 -  foretelling the destruction of the Temple & persecutions

Chapter 23 has lots of "woe to you"s in it - who do you think Jesus would say "woe to you"  to today?

Week 6

Chapter 25 - be prepare, judgment day is coming

Chapter 26 - the Passover becomes the Lord's supper

Chapter 27 - Jesus is put on trial and executed

Chapter 28 - Jesus is resurrected from the dead

Reflect on Jesus' trial and execution.  How does it read compared with how you have imagined it in the past? 

Having spent 6 weeks with Jesus in Matthew, what have you learned?  What questions do you have?  

Lenten Season

Lent is one of two preparation seasons of the Christian year.   Preparation of our spirits to connect deeply with what God has done and is doing.  Preparation by mulling over the past to get rid of the excess baggage and clear the way for light and life that God brings.  Lent is preparing us for Easter - the resurrection of Christ that gives us life now and forever.   By spending time preparing our hearts, minds and spirits during Lent we make room for Easter joy & peace.

The other season of preparation is Advent - the 4 weeks before Christmas which as we all know have become full to the brim with so many activities and to do lists that very little of our time becomes about preparation of our hearts and spirits.  So Lent has become so much more important.  Its the spring cleaning of our being.  It is the season of mucking out so that newness can come in.

There are many ways to prepare during Lent.  I enjoyed this article on On Being.

The Induced Meandering of the Lenten Season

Of course we have opportunities at Calvary for your Lenten journey.  Bible Study on Monday Nights at 7:30 PM is one opportunity.

Happy Lent!

Ash Wednesday

*hack*Hack*hack* Thanks!

Urgh,  Isaac, Catherine, and I have each come down with pneumonia -- we'll see if Sampson remains unscathed.   I hate being sick on the weekend and missing worship.  Especially the being sick rather than on vacation somewhere part.  It also puts extra pressure on church members to come up with something for worship and I am so thankful that we have such great leaders at Calvary that just pitched in and took over with very little notice.
Thank you secretary Lynne & SPRC Chair Rick who connived that their pastor was not going to make it no matter what she thought and got all the pieces put together -- you take good care of me!
Thank you Betty  who pulled off a total Saturday Night Worship service on her own -- you rock!
Thank you Cheryl for taking over the Sunday Morning worship even though she had company on Saturday night -- you are awesome!  
Thank you Sue for pitching in on music.   and Thank you to everyone else who came and focused on God and worshipping together, worship isn't about the leader but the community of faith.
Thanks for your prayers of healing and your support!

"To change the community you have to change the composition of the soil. . ."

"Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city - plus you get strawberries."

Love this guy.  He sees gardens as his art in South Central LA.  He is turning a food desert into a garden oasis, one vacant lot at a time.  Awesome story.  The Iowa Board of Church & Society is working to bring him to Iowa for a presentation.  I'll post details as they come.

the Pastor's bookshelf

Ok, I confess (because confession is good for the soul)  that I haven't made great strides in my no Hulu/read a book from the pile goal.   But on my trip to Casper, WY last week I read two books from the pile!
 Three Methodist women writers, Two books, One topic!

A Hopeful Earth: Faith, Science, and the Message of Jesus by Bishop Sally Dyck and Sarah Ehrman
Green Church: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Rejoice! by Rebekah Simon-Peter

Both books take on the seriousness of our climate crisis and how the Christian community can respond to bring transformation in the name of Jesus.   Both books are great resources for people/communities of faith who need a Biblical/theological basis for talking about the environment and our call to care for the earth.

Bishop Dyck writes A Hopeful Earth with her niece Sarah Ehrman who is a science teacher.  Their book takes on the science vs faith debate head on and is filled with in-depth Bible study that relates to what science is telling us about our over-consumption.   The book starts with a very broad view of the climate crisis looking at some of the most troubling areas of concern and how readers of the Bible can see that Jesus/God cares about creation and wants us to care for it as well.  For two chapters, they look at "the love of stuff" and how it is making "hell all around us".  I felt like these two chapters in particular made the problems so overwhelming that seeing how one person or one church could make a difference was near impossible.  The biggest drawback that I saw to this book was the lack of solutions.  They take one chapter to look just at water-related issues and how lack of water is a leading cause of war in our world.  They also spend a chapter on food, its production and its connection to environmental damage.  If I were using this book to lead a Bible Study or a local church book club, I think that the enormity of the problems would overwhelm persons who had not yet looked at or considered the climate crisis.  While each chapter ends with "A Commitment" (suggestions on what to do this week about the problems raised in the chapter), they weren't very practical suggestions.  They seemed tacked on thoughts that really left you feeling like there wasn't much you as an individual or your church could do to meet the needs.


Rebekah Simon-Peter (an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church) writes a very practical approach to the climate change crisis.   Her chapters are action words: Repent, Reclaim, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rejoice.  Like Bishop Dyck, Simon-Peter also has great Bible study that shows God's love for creation and humanity's role in caring for the earth as well as solid science on the harm being done to the earth by our lack of concern.   What impressed me the most about Green Church  is that is framed around what we can do to bring change.  Her use of the action words for each chapter highlighted that we can do something about this situation - I got the message that we are God's people, we are powerful, and there is much we can do.

It was fun for me to read two such similar books in a short amount of time (on plane rides).  They use some of the same scripture and even examples in their writing.  Yet there are some important differences.   Bishop Dyck's book speaks more to the enormity of the issue, I felt physically sick about the damage we have done the earth reading the many, many examples of destruction she gave.  Simon-Peter's book was far more hope-full and made me feel empowered to take some concrete steps to care for the earth.  I would really recommend that for local churches doing a book study start with Simon-Peter's book Green Church.  And if you want to go further or want more details on the damage done to the earth by humanity then pick up A Hopeful Earth.