Pastors' Blog

“Welcome home.” 

The words that were meant to convey warmth and belonging caused an eerie juxtaposition in my mind. I had heard these words many times without such a controversy in my soul. However, this time, the small expression called forth a response that I had not anticipated. 

It was 2017 and I was on an assignment for my Christian Witness & World Religions class.  We had been asked to pick a unique faith group and attend a worship service, and I had selected the closest mosque. 

Before now, I had visited several Muslim countries. I had experienced the very early morning prayer call. I had noticed the quietness of the streets on Fridays. I had stood outside the main mosque in Jordan to sketch and draw people for an art class. But I had never stepped inside a Muslim place of worship until now.

The words “welcome home” were energized with a warmth, a joy, and a sense of gravity. If I could have smelled these words, they would have been like the fresh aroma of Momma’s baked bread lingering in the air, calling me to the table to join in family fellowship. They were sprinkled and seasoned with a love that could only come from a lifelong friend, but I had never met the man.

As I had traveled to that mosque in East Lansing, I had never anticipated a welcome that would disarm me of all my prejudices. I could imagine that if I hadn’t had such a strong conviction for Adventism and a real, transformative experience with the Gospel, I might have returned one day. At the very least, the hospitable words broke through my apprehension and made me feel at peace in that place and as if I belonged during that Friday service. 

What about now?

I am new to the Berrien Springs community. Do I have that same sense of belonging when I attend Pioneer Memorial Church? Do I provide to others a sense that they are at home in my congregation?

After the Gospel presentation in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans, Paul switches from building a theological structure that lifts up Jesus and His salvation, to helping the readers apply the practical gears of the Gospel in their lives. In Romans 12, Paul gives a list of more than a dozen ways by which the Gospel should move the machinery of our hearts in order to help us live out the good news of Christ. In verse 13, Paul counsels us to “seek to show hospitality” or, in other words, to pursue the showing of love to those that we don’t know.

As I think of all the places where we should show hospitality to others, inviting them to feel at home, churches should, perhaps, be the warmest places of all—places where our welcome thermostats are turned up high. 

Let’s challenge ourselves to make steps toward a sense of belonging and to invite others to belong with us.  Let’s seek to more robustly embrace the mission of the kingdom with the active community of Christ. 

Let’s answer both calls at once and make small group ministry—in the midst of our large congregation—one means by which we can seek to show hospitality.

A Feast of Hymns turned 25 years old on Wednesday, November 20. Yes, A Feast of Hymns was born on Sabbath, November 20, 1999. 

Yet unique elements of this PMC Thanksgiving Celebration go back to at least Thanksgiving 1986, when there was a Processional Offering. And then the November 28, 1987 church bulletin acknowledges a “Notes of Thanks Offering.”

The first celebration had the heading Bring Joy! Give Thanks! A Feast of Hymns, but also had the unique additional title, "Faith Ablaze! Hymns of Heart and Heritage." On that day in 1999, Andrews University president Niels-Erik Andreasen preached on the topic, "Music, Spirituality, and Worship."

And on that day in 1999, two musical pillars were instituted.

First, "This Is a Time for Banners and Bells" was a hymn with a choir stanza, and as of this next Sabbath will have occurred in a total of 17 Feast Sabbath over the years. Second, "What Gift Can We Bring?" also was a congregational hymn, occurring as a congregational invitation to the Procession of Thanksgiving in 22 Feast Sabbaths over the years, including this next Sabbath.

Particularly with "What Gift?", Minnesota composer, Donna Kasbohm's gentle melody, using motifs found in the famous Westminster Quarters carillon pattern, has figured in various versions of the melody and a substantial number of musical arrangements in these services.

Here are some notable features of A Feast of Hymns through the years.

In every one of them, Steven Zork has served as choral conductor, the most frequent participating choir being the Andrews University Chorale. Frequently, premier presentations of new musical works and arrangements have occurred. A brass quartet or quintet has been frequent, as have been string quartets.

Retired Lead Pastor Dwight Nelson spoke the homilies in most of them. Pathfinder youth and leaders have collected and processed many thousands of food items for members of the community in association with the Procession of Thanksgiving. Thousands of notes of Thanksgiving have been written. Many prayers of joy have ascended.

Special features uniquely have included one Feast Sabbath subtitled, "Christ Comes Again!", and one commemorating 500 years from 1517, the famous Martin Luther year of the 95 theses'.

At the core of A Feast of Hymns have been the two elements of Joy and Thanksgiving: "Bring Joy! Give Thanks!" and as on November 23, 2024 choir singers will conclude with the choral response "Take Joy! Live Thanks!", we receive both encouragement and admonition to take from this celebration God’s abundant joy, and to live out a spirit of Thanksgiving!

I do not know how you slept last night, but I did not get enough sleep. And this was more than likely a phenomenon that impacted much of this country. Many stayed up late as the election results came in spits and spurts. I did not last until everything was decided, and shortly after I woke up this morning, the victor was announced.

About half of the country woke up dumbfounded this morning to see who the next president would be, while the other half woke up hopeful for the future. There were hopes and dreams on both sides. Honestly, it does not matter who won; half of the nation would have been disheartened, and half would be excited.

It's natural to look at the world’s problems and yearn for change. However, as Seventh-day Adventists, we have chosen to anchor our hope in Jesus and His imminent return. Attempting to address spiritual dilemmas through political avenues will inevitably lead to disappointment.

As a children and family pastor, I am deeply committed to nurturing the next generation. They are growing up in a nation that is increasingly divided. We must instill in them a firm faith and trust in Jesus. It may sound like a cliché, but the sin problem was so severe that the only solution was to send the Son of God.

If we want to raise a generation that places their hope in Jesus and His imminent return, then that must be modeled for them. We, as adults, have a responsibility to show them the way, to lead by example. We cannot continue promoting political parties from our churches and expect our children not to follow the lead.

This does not mean we do not engage in politics; we can participate while placing our ultimate hope in the only one who can save us. We must stick to the Gospel and proclaim it. We must make disciples of Jesus instead of political parties. We must focus on the task we have been called to; it is not merely getting people to live what we believe but knowing Who we believe. It might sound cliché, but Jesus is the answer, the source of our hope and comfort in these uncertain times!

Losing is unpleasant.

If you have been following the post-season of professional baseball you are most likely disappointed, unless you cheer for the Yankees or the Dodgers, who are set to face off in the upcoming World Series. Even then, one fan base will come away disappointed at the end of that contest. If you are following American politics, election day is just under two weeks away. Regardless of the outcome in the presidential, state, or local elections, one side will end the day in complete disappointment.

In a world where disappointments come in all shapes, sizes, and settings, losing is particularly unpleasant. Losing loudly declares that someone or something else was more desired, more loved, more equipped, more powerful, more intelligent, more… than you. Losing is unpleasant. We much prefer the powerful feeling of victory over the humiliation of defeat. Yes, we, human beings, like to win.

Yet, when I think of the cross, the gospel, and the only Messiah the world has ever known, I see a gospel of the voluntary “loser”. Matthew’s account of the crucifixion spares no detail to show the reader just how humiliating the cross was for Jesus and his followers.

Matthew 27
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The ancient viewer of the scene would stand in awe, disgust, or jeers at the purported God-Man, dressed in royalty, being mocked and put to death by the only government that generation had ever known. The casual followers of Jesus would have known the bitterness of losing. Losing their influence in a new rising kingdom, their hope in a better tomorrow, their promise of freedom, peace, and wholeness. Yes, for the followers of Jesus, the cross was the ultimate symbol of loss. Rome had won. Jesus and the kingdom had died. It wouldn’t be until the resurrection and ascension that twelve disciples would be able to reinterpret the cross, not as loss, but as the most incredible victory the world has ever known.

Writing on the crucifixion, the Christian scholar, Reinhold Neibuhr once wrote,

“The crux of the cross is its revelation of the fact that the final power of God over man is derived from the self-imposed weakness of his love. This self-imposed weakness does not [take away] from the majesty of God. His mercy is the final dimension of His majesty. This is the Christian answer to the final problem of human existence. The worship of God is reverence toward the mysterious source and end of all of life….”

Neibuhr continues,

…A truly "holy" God must be both powerful and good. Impotent or limited goodness is not divine. It can not be worshiped. Its weakness arouses pity rather than worship… …But power without goodness cannot be worshiped either. It may be feared, or possibly defied; but reverence must be withheld¹.

The Gospel of the Loser is just this. The voluntary submission of the most powerful being the universe has ever known in order to exercise the greatest power the world has ever experienced. The cross became the paradox through which the majesty of god was displayed through apparent “loss” to the empire of Rome. It was the creation of God purportedly usurping the power of God. Yet, this loss became the most powerful tool to move even the hardest of hearts into a posture of humble submission reorienting creation to the heart of the creator.

This reorientation is seen most dramatically in the words of the battle-hardened Centurion when he was moved by the selflessness of Jesus hanging on the cross.

Matthew 27:54

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Power and Weakness

Modern Christians are called to demonstrate the same weakness and power in their lives. The weakness of humility, love, and Christlikeness stands in stark contrast to the abusive, coercive use of power by which our world is run. Yet, the Christian’s humility of actions, words and example exercises the greatest power in the most unexpected ways. This power of cross-like weakness cuts through every defense put up by the most hardened of human hearts. It penetrates much deeper than any law or statute going far further than modifying behavior through threat of legal penalty. This power of cross-like weakness mingles with the divine breath of life to change its recipient from the inside out at a level that can only be described as recreation in real time.

The Gospel of the Loser

This fall regardless of what competition toward which you had staked your interest, your hopes, your desires, your reputation and your future, remember that cross-like humility, weakness, self-emptying benevolence is a more powerful change agent than any human win could ever accomplish.

^{1. Niebuhr, Reinhold. 1987. The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr : Selected Essays and
Addresses. New Haven: Yale University Press. Accessed October 21, 2024. ProQuest
Ebook Central.}