Faith Presbyterian Church

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June 01, 2006

June Newsletter

Pastor's Pen

My goal in writing these monthly Pastor’s Pen is the goal of every pastor who writes such brief bits. The goal is to chip away at a “grand unified theory.” What??!!

You who are scientists are choking. The grand unified theory is a term physicists use; it is not in the domain of pastors. You who are not scientists, well, I don’t know what you think. Who can propose a theory that explains everything?

I try. Every pastor does, Sunday after Sunday. Indeed, morning after morning as I read my Bible—in fact in the languages in which it was delivered originally, and I read the latest good book that seems to offer me some clue to how to make sense of everything, I’m going after a grand unified theory. Day after day in my encounters with people of many varieties I’m listening and watching and pondering how to apply John 3: 16 that offers eternal life to “whosoever believes in Him (God’s Son).”

Eternal life explains everything. How can I help people trust in Jesus who is the key to the grand unified theory?

Eternal life encompasses all things physical and spiritual, seeable and un-seeable; everything God made has a niche in “eternal life.” It is the ultimate goal of all people, all of whom are equally made in the image of God but need eternal life. It is the ultimate God-kind-of-life of which Paul writes in Colossians that Jesus holds together. “In Him all things hold together.”

I sat with Bonnie in one of our favorite local restaurants last evening. In between moments of conversation and looking where to probe my fork to come up with a bit of terrific chicken marsala on the plate I observed the passing scene of diners and waiters and those whose job is to clear away the mess we customers make. I saw people from different races, some dressed neatly and some sitting in this nice restaurant in their grungies, some happy and talkative, others sitting barely noticing the one across the table from them.

I saw pretty young women dressed in a way suggesting they’re happy to be made as they are and I saw other folk who seemed to be to be trying to drown out how they saw themselves by eating one more full plate. I wondered if everyone could afford the meal she is buying in this moderately priced restaurant. I am sometimes tempted to ask the waiter to give me the bill of that poor-looking person in the booth across the way. Maybe they are rich, but dress to disguise it. Some folk can’t afford another item on their credit card bills, but they add one more in hopes of a good feeling, just one dinner-time’s worth of feeling good, in a life that is dreary and pointless. They do this for the same reason some people with plenty of cash buy new Mercedes Benz cars, or go skiing, or go watch the Cubs. In a horrible way suicide bombers offer themselves as the agents of “the All Merciful,” to blow up those whom they think their merciful God chooses to die violently. Those who can’t afford it and those who can; those who love and those who hate are all going after it—“good” life, indeed eternal life. Something to make everything fit together in order to make some kind of sense.

And I think of John 3: 16—“whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Eternal life can only be given by God. We who are born cannot help but die. But God can give eternal life. The Bible says that if we believe in the Son of God we’ll have eternal life. Believe? What does that mean? I think it basically means trust. God offers it. We who can’t see God trust Him for this life we thirst for that we can neither define nor manufacture.

Jesus said to His first disciples, in effect, drop everything and follow me. Where’s Jesus going now that we should still quote this verse? That’s doing a lot more than just trusting—unless we see trusting as trusting that Jesus’ command is to be obeyed. Jesus said to a rich young man, sell everything you have, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow me and you’ll get it. That’s a tad bit more than simple trust, you say. Jesus said, Do what I command you and you’re my friends. Jesus said, when you feed starving people and visit people in prison or who are sick, you’re doing these good things to me. Somehow all these deeds we do are part of the mix of trusting Jesus for eternal life.

We’ve got to love God with everything we are and we’ve got to love our neighbors as ourselves. My neighbor is whoever I encounter that has a need; even if the need is only for my time and care.

Eternal life that is all-encompassing demands everything; we’ve got to get fully into the game of life in Jesus’ way. If we succeed we make Jesus’ way very attractive and, the righteousness of God is spread from one person to another. In a way this explains everything good.

One more stab at a grand unified theory.

Pastor Stuart D. Robertson

Worship Information

June 11th – Sermon: “An Unexpected Refreshment”
OT: Genesis 29: 1 - 12
NT: John 4: 5 - 15

June 18th – Sermon: “Putting up with Nuisance Prophets”
OT: Amos 7: 10 - 17
NT: John 4: 43 - 45

June 25th – Sermon: “Believing on Time”
OT: Esther 4: 1 - 14
NT: John 4: 46 - 53

A New Wrinkle on Sunday Mornings

On Sunday, June 4th, Pentecost Sunday, we will begin our morning worship with a moment that is a mix of something new with something very old. The something new involves our young people more in morning worship. The something old is the adoption of a practice from congregations in the Church of Scotland from long standing: at the beginning of the Lord’s Day worship the open Bible is brought into the sanctuary and placed on the pulpit. The pastor and the lector of the day follow the open Bible.

The symbolism in this is evident. The Bible is the basis of our knowledge of God. That a child should bring in the Bible reminds us of what Jesus said about entering the Kingdom of God as a child (Luke 18: 17). I hope no young person will feel insulted in this reference to “a child,” if we ask our young folk through high school age to serve in this way. I think it reasonable for young people from grade four onwards to participate in this, though this is not an iron-clad rule.

I hope you will embrace this new wrinkle on the Lord’s Day, and that it will remind you how important it is for all the family to worship together.

Clerk's Corner

Inquirer's Class

In the early 1970's Indiana businessman Richard Dugger led a group of high school students on a visit to Haiti and was deeply moved by the plight of people in developing countries. He and others made personal commitments to share their time and resources, they prayed and dreamed of ways to help meet the needs that they had seen. Other Christian laymen and clergy from Indiana and Florida caught the dream, and ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) was born. Until 1981 ECHO worked on various projects in Haiti. ECHO's role in international agricultural development was more clearly defined with the arrival of the current director, Dr. Martin Price, in June of 1981. The work in Haiti was closed, and all of ECHO's resources were directed towards strengthening the work of other organizations. Under his direction ECHO has become an ever growing pipeline for sharing information, ideas, techniques, methods, plants, books, materials, solutions ... whatever has potential to ease world hunger.
ECHO's primary functions are providing agricultural information to overseas workers, distributing seeds for promising food plants, and offering training opportunities at the Florida farm. ECHO's role and purpose as conceived in the early 1980's endures today, and as a result, ECHO's "history" is mostly a story of the expanding ministry.
One of Dr. Price's first decisions was to select a recent college graduate with an interest in international development to serve for a year as an ECHO intern. Interns are responsible for managing the farm and seedbank, giving tours, and much more. A second intern position was added in 1985, and by the fall of 1989 a new high of six interns were on staff. Additional personnel were necessary to handle the expanded seed bank and seed requests, growing farm duties, and the increasingly popular public tours.
The first issue of ECHO's highly regarded ECHO Development Notes(EDN) was published in 1982 and mailed to 36 interested individuals. This mailing list has grown steadily over the years. The most recent edition went out to over 4500 agricultural workers in 180 countries around the world.
ECHO began using computers in 1985. Now almost all our correspondence, accounting, publishing, and record keeping are done with the help of computers. They have become an indispensable tool allowing us to work on a limited budget. The addition of e-mail and ECHO's web site greatly increased access to resources and the speed of response time to the overseas network.
During 1987 the office activities moved from a room in the lower level of the A-frame dormitory to a large rented office trailer, but by 1991 the "spacious" office trailer was badly crowded. ECHO purchased a 7 1/2 acre adjoining farm to provide housing and expansion space and the A-frame was remodeled to provide additional office space.
Most recently, in 1998 a generous gift made it possible for ECHO to construct two large buildings, a visitor reception building and a technical resource building. The addition of these beautiful buildings has allowed for an expanded bookstore, tour reception area, and an expanded library as well as elbow-room for the office staff and volunteers.
In 2001, ECHO received a grant to develop our global village and research center in which 6 separate areas of third world climates are simulated. Each of the six agricultural interns takes care of his or her own climate zone. Currently featured on the farm are tropical lowland, tropical highland, monsoon, semi-arid, rainforest clearing and urban gardening. The global village is not only a hands on training ground for those searching for help in tropical agriculture, but also an educational tool to make the public aware of hunger related issues and the answers there are to alleviate malnutrition and starvation.
Nearly every aspect of ECHO's ministry has experienced substantial growth. The permanent staff has grown to 30 members. Volunteers gave over 75,000 hours of work at ECHO last year. We now have 8 interns who reside, work and receive training for one year on the farm followed by 3 months in a Third World agricultural setting. More than 10,000 visitors toured our experimental/demonstration farm last year. Each year, agricultural development workers from around the world spend from a few days to a few months at ECHO where they use the library, attend seminars, and work alongside the interns in their projects for practical, hands-on experience. We now operate a resource center that contains over 4000 books and articles on agricultural for the Third World tropics. We also operate a edible landscape nursery focused on rare tropical plants.
In 23 years of existence ECHO has matured from an idea into reality. In the future ECHO plans to continue to help meet the overwhelming need of small farmers around the world through the resources we are able to provide.
With the congregation’s generous giving ECHO is one of many missions and missionaries Faith Presbyterian helps to support. The previous article was copied from ECHO’s web site : www.echonet.org which I would encourage anyone to check out for more information on ECHO.

Doug Jones, Board of Deacons

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Faith Presbyterian Church
Phone: 765-743-3683
E-Mail: office@faithpresbyterian.org

Pastor: Stuart D. Robertson
Parish Associate: Ralph Smith
Admin. Asst.: Stephanie Cardwell

Posted by faithpres at June 1, 2006 09:42 AM

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