From Our Pastor's Pen

Pastor’s Message

It’s time for me to get back to work after some time off following Christmas. I enjoyed having some time to spend with Diane during her break from Ferris. We were then joined by my sister and her husband after New Year’s Day. The four of us spent many wonderful hours hiking with our snow shoes in the Hay Marsh area, playing games and telling stories.

Here we are at the start of a new calendar year. Before I jump into it, I need to say a word of thanks to all those people who made our Advent, Christmas and Epiphany celebrations so wonderful. Special thanks to Leslie Daniels and her crew of parents and others who made the 7:00 P.M. Christmas service a memorable one.  Over forty-four young people were involved in the service in some way – singing songs, playing instruments, speaking the liturgy, and acting out the roles of various characters in the Christmas story. Thanks also, to all those people who helped to take down all the Christmas decorations on January 8th. As always I thank Jerena for leading worship on December 26th and January 9.

Our choirs -- Bell and Chancel – did their usual superb job of sharing the music of the season. Many thanks to Cate Arroe, Judy Tressler and Paul Heidemann for their leadership of our music ministry. Did you know that Paul has been the organist at The United Church for thirty years now? Happy anniversary, Paul, and thank you from all of us!

It appears that we ended up the year 2010 in good financial shape as a congregation. We were able to meet our mission goals for the various agencies we support and our agreed upon allocations to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ. You will find a list of these mission partners and the support they received elsewhere in this newsletter.  We also had a successful stewardship campaign and our anticipated income and carry-over from 2010 should enable us to meet the 2011 budget.  Thank you for your faithful support of the ministry of The United Church of Big Rapids!

One of the Scripture readings for January 9th is a reading from the book of Isaiah. The text was written sometime during the years 586-536 BCE. Cyrus of Persia was ruling over the former Babylonian empire. Cyrus was much more tolerant of foreign religions than his predecessors, and thus the Jewish people began to see a glimmer of hope that someday in the not too distant future they may be able to return to their homeland of Judah after decades of exile and captivity.  Their prophet, Isaiah, believed that God was calling him to proclaim a word of good news – that God would soon move to restore the people and send them home.

Isaiah wrote of a fast-approaching day when the captives would go home and the nations of the world would look to Israel as a beacon of light and hope. During the time Isaiah wrote these words his people were still being held captive, but hope was on its way.  Isaiah said that the redemption of Israel was one step in God’s plan of salvation for the entire world. He charged his people to be a “light unto the nations.” Notice that the charge is too huge to be carried out by an individual.  In Isaiah’s mind it takes a whole community – a nation - to live out God’s charge. 

“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” reads the text.  In The United Church of Big Rapids, we too can be a light shining into the darkness of the world. We light up when we live out our call to be compassionate, hospitable, generous, gracious, just, peaceable and inclusive. When we devote our strength to living into the possibilities of this calling, the love of God will spread to many people. 

Let this be our resolution as we move into the year of our Sovereign two thousand and eleven.

Peace be with you all!

Pastor Jon