Sunday Preview: July 31, 2022
‘Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.’ These words come towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7) and provide dynamic hope. But what happens when all the asking, seeking, and knocking doesn’t lead to what we had hoped? How do we make sense of God’s promise? Maybe we take a deeper look at Jesus’ message to unpack this meaningful passage.
July 31 is a 5th Sunday. You may contribute to our 5th Sunday fund, now or anytime, to help reduce the principal on our mortgage. Write us a check or go online. Thank you–every little bit helps!
Preview…Jason’s Jots (read more below)
The poet isn’t worried about logic and rationale. The poet isn’t asking if it all measures up and is accounted for. The poet is operating in a different realm. A space of imagination and wonder. A space of heartbreak and misery. A space where we see grasshoppers become teachers and our lives are verses in the grand play. A space where rocks cry out and death doesn’t get the last word.
Events for your Calendar
August 7 – Outdoor worship and blessing of the animals
August 13 – Good Neighbor Meal
August 14 – Communion, Summer Book Club
August 21 – Family Game Night
August 28 – Last worship experience with Dave and Cindy Tidball on staff; retirement celebration
September 4 (Labor Day weekend) – Outdoor worship
Peace is Turning 60!
The Steering Committee is looking for someone with the skill set to create a 9-10 minute video summarizing our faith community’s 60-year history. Interested volunteers, please contact Pam Jacobson at 651-214-7701. Watch for details on our celebration plans.
Prayer Requests
Please remember Tom Jacobson’s family. Tom’s brother, Jerry, who was recently diagnosed with another cancer, died at his home recently. Also, Paula Riel’s husband, Les, was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma mid-June and will start his third round of chemotherapy on August 2.
Fresh Produce Available
Pam Jacobson invites you to pick-your-own between July 10 and August 2: cherries, raspberries, peas, rhubarb, kohlrabi, and maybe lettuce and strawberries. She says it’s also OK to cut flowers or weeds! The address is 331 Lilac Street in Lino Lakes.
Family Ministry Update
Family Game Night | Sunday, August 21 | 5:30-7:30 pm | outside, weather permitting
Peace will provide hotdogs for grilling, buns, plasticware, outdoor games, and bonfire (think s’mores!). Families may bring a dish to share, friends, more games, lawn chairs and beverages.
Children’s Church | Sunday mornings 10:15-11 am for our elementary-age participants
Summer Book Club | final session on August 14 | 11:15am-12:15 pm in the Gathering Place
If you can, read Chapters 5-7 of Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly ahead of time.
Encore Group (middle-school and high school grades) will return in Fall
This summer, Pastor Jason or Amanda will be reaching out to you to get coffee and connect one-on-one.
Ringers of Peace Invitation
We invite you to join us for our 2022-23 ringing season. We promise you:
- Fun-filled Thursday evenings of creative work with friendly companions.
- Maybe even treats again during our rehearsal break time.
- A chance to contribute music to the worship life of Peace.
- A chance to take the gift of music to audiences outside our church community.
We have openings for up to four new ringers (former ringers also eagerly welcomed back if they wish to return to active ringing).
- We provide individual, customized training based on your previous musical experience.
- We rehearse on Thursday evenings from 7-8:30 pm (after you have sufficient training to feel comfortable joining the group rehearsals).
- We occasionally provide music for worship (you will know the schedule well in advance).
- We usually do one or two special programs during the year (typically in December and May).
- We ask that all ringers by fully vaccinated and boosted as regards COVID. At present, mask wearing is based on individual preference.
To get the process started, contact Dave (dave@peaceumc.com, 651-633-6697, 612-453-8636) to indicate your interest. (If you haven’t heard us ring before, check us out ringing at the beginning of the worship video for May 8th – https://peaceumc.com/staging/8882/peace-time-may-8-2022-2/)
Volunteer Opportunities
Peace is helping keep Sadie and Joe’s lawn trim and neat this summer while Joe undergoes treatment. Sign up here to help with lawn duty.
The next Good Neighbor Meals are on August 13 and 27. Sign up here to help prepare and serve.
Jason’s Jots
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “The difference between the poet and the mathematician Is that the poet tries to get his (or her or their) head into the heavens while the mathematician ties to get the heavens into his (or her or their) head.” I heard a speaker once paraphrase this quote by saying something like – The poet swims in the sea of eternity while the mathematician drowns in the ocean of infinity.
Am I putting down all the mathematicians out there or saying that the pursuit of science is a less meaningful endeavor? Absolutely not! I’ve had friends and loved ones battle cancer. I’ve injected effective and miraculous vaccinations into my body in the midst of a global pandemic. I’ve flown in an airplane at incredible speeds from one side of the world to another. Math and science are responsible for countless innovations and advancements that have made our world better and helped billions of people. Math and science are miraculous!
AND! And there is a limit to what we can know. There is always room to explore and get curious. But at the end of the day we all stand in awe like Job and say, ‘This is all too wonderful for me.’ Like the Apostle Paul, who wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, we know that on this side of death we only ‘see through a glass darkly’, we only see in part. If we try to know everything and understand everything, we will only drown in the sea of infinity.
The poet isn’t worried about logic and rationale. The poet isn’t asking if it all measures up and is accounted for. The poet is operating in a different realm. A space of imagination and wonder. A space of heartbreak and misery. A space where we see grasshoppers become teachers and our lives are verses in the grand play. A space where rocks cry out and death doesn’t get the last word.
Throughout history people have been trying to understand the unknowable and the infinite. We make lists of doctrines that can be as innocent as a simple attempt at an explanation, and as painful as a list of demands that determine belonging. If we are all logic and rationale, it seems to me that we can quickly become something that doesn’t look like love.
Maybe the trajectory of faith is to simultaneously appreciate the pursuit of knowledge and explanation, while leaning into the poetic. Maybe the trajectory is to see the poetry in the mathematics. The beauty in the mundane. The divine rhythm in the dirt of the garden.