To the Flock...

Reading the Old Testament can be difficult. The Bible is not always what we want it to be. We want it to be a book of good advice, a book of rules (maybe to get our kids, or others, to behave), a neat and orderly book of stories. But the Bible is about God, the faithfulness of God, and it is about people. It is messy—real life.
As we read through The Story or our Bibles, we encounter the God who created the universe and humanity and named them good, very good. The story quickly becomes one of human foolishness and God’s faithfulness. Humans rebel. God reconciles. Humans turn toward evil. God takes what is meant for evil and turns it for good. God chooses one man, Abraham, to create a nation through which all the world may be blessed.
In Exodus, God does not abandon humanity in their injustice and oppression. God saves one child, Moses, and calls him to be God’s mouthpiece to end the grief of God’s people. God sides with the oppressed. God confronts the oppressors. God liberates the oppressed. Once liberated, the people begin a process of being formed into God’s people to live in God’s land. God gives them ten commands to strengthen them and guide them, to liberate them from internal oppression so they can live in freedom and peace.
The Bible story is filled with battles—a little bloody for our modern sensibilities. As we read about the period of the kings, there seems to be more strife than peace, more corruption than justice, more evil than integrity or virtue. Yet, God’s messengers urge the people toward God, toward faith, toward peace, toward justice, toward blessing, toward the time of God’s kingdom.
So we read these stories. We learn about God and God’s faithfulness. It helps to see how we fit in God’s story. It helps liberate us and form our character. It helps us search for sign’s of God’s kingdom—right here, right now.
I see signs of the kingdom breaking in at Windsor. Our worship community is growing, lending new energies and ideas to our ministries. We have a wonderful new administrative assistant at the church who is learning to help keep us organized. Our church family is striving to know and do God’s will right here where God has brought us. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done....