For Such A Time as This – April 21, 2021 – Denise Kettering Lane

 To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,
 
Joys and Concerns
If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text, or email it to me.  If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with Pastor Bill that week by Thursday evening. 
 
A Concern
Mary Zellers was admitted to HMC on Friday with blood clots in her lungs.  Please keep Mary in your thoughts and prayers as she continues her recovery now from home. 
 
Some Joys
Today is Administrative Professionals Day - The Pastoral Relations Team is grateful for the efficient, cheerful, and faithful ministry of Gail Wagner, our Office Administrator. Thank you, Gail!
 
Congratulations to Jeff Clouser!  Jeff has received the May Schwarz Award in Church Music from Trinity Lutheran Seminary.  This award is given to “a graduating student who shows outstanding potential for and commitment to the church’s music ministry.”
 
See this Saturday’s “Weekly Update” email for any new prayer concerns.
 
Thank You:
To all who call others to check in on them and to share our emails and devotions.
 
Today’s Devotion:
“Compelling Vision” is our denomination's effort to identify a shared vision that can foster unity in the midst of great diversity and dividing differences.  A thirteen session Bible Study has been developed to undergird this statement.  We are using pieces of the Bible Study in our weekly devotion email.
 
Today’s reflection was written Denise Kettering Lane, the Associate Professor of Brethren Studies and Director of the MA Program at Bethany Seminary. She is a graduate of Ashland University, Candler School of Theology, and The University of Iowa. She also serves on the Brethren Historical Committee and is the editor of Brethren Life and Thought.
 
Shalom,
Dennis

Compelling Visions Statement
Together, as the Church of the Brethren, we will passionately live and share the radical transformation and holistic peace of Jesus Christ through relationship-based neighborhood engagement. To move us forward, we will develop a culture of calling and equipping disciples who are innovative, adaptable, and fearless.
 
Session 3 – Who Are We?
How does scripture and tradition inform our current denominational identity?
 
Scriptures
Matthew 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
 
Supplemental texts: Matthew 5-7, Matthew 25:31-45, Matthew 28:16-20, John 13:1-17, John 17:20-26, Matthew 18:15-22 (35)
 
Reflection – Denise Kettering Lane
The words “For the Glory of God and Our Neighbor’s Good” reportedly hung on the wall in Christopher Sauer’s colonial American printing shop in Germantown, Pennsylvania. While Sauer himself was not Brethren, his close ties to the early Brethren allowed the phrase to become ingrained in our hearts, minds, and communities. At graduations from Bethany Theological Seminary, this phrase is a part of the charge that the president gives as students receive diplomas. The phrase also frequently appears in our periodicals and history books, a constant reminder of our core values as Brethren.
 
At its root, this phrase that encompasses so much of Brethren tradition and identity reflects the scripture passage from Matthew 22:34-40. In this passage, the Pharisees are once again questioning Jesus, continuing a pattern throughout Matthew’s gospel. The Pharisees often appear in Matthew as Jesus’ fiercest critics, who challenge him on many points of the law. This particular text falls within a series of debates Jesus was having with religious leaders, Pharisees and Sadducees, around common issues of the day. Here, one of the Pharisees questions Jesus about which commandment is the greatest. This question was not unusual in Jesus’ time as there was much debate around the significance and importance of different parts of the law. By asking Jesus this question, the Pharisees invite him to engage in an ongoing debate. Jesus responds by citing Deuteronomy 6:5 or the command to love God with one’s whole being. When questioned about the second greatest command, he responds by citing Leviticus 19:18 about love of neighbor. According to Rick Gardner in his Matthew commentary, Jesus linked these two passages together in a way that was unique in first-century Judaism (329). Jesus emphasizes that everything in the law and prophets that corresponds with these two commands is valid.
 
At the heart of these texts is the notion of obedience. Loving God with one’s whole being creates a desire to obey God’s commandments. Loving God with one’s whole being leads to loving our neighbor more fully. However, this does beg the question, how do we know what loving God looks like? And, of course, there is the critical question of who exactly is our neighbor?
 
Brethren have typically interpreted love of God and neighbor through reading the teachings of Jesus found in other Gospel texts. These teachings give indications of what living out love of God and neighbor look like in the world. Brethren have used other scripture to interpret and enliven this key passage about the two great commandments. Primary among these texts has been Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. These texts, full of ethical teachings, have served as guiding texts for Brethren positions on peace and discipleship. Matthew 25:31-45 has likewise informed Brethren attitudes towards mutual aid and service in its encouragement to feed the hungry, take care of the sick, visit the imprisoned, and welcome the stranger. Matthew 18:15-22 has provided a way to deal with conflict among neighbors all with the aim of trying to achieve the unity that Jesus prays for in John 17:20-26. These texts have formed a backbone of belief and practice for Brethren, who have sought to live in obedience to these commandments.
 
Matthew 22:34-40 provides a framework for Brethren belief and practice that remains critical to denominational identity today. The question that remains for congregations and the denomination is how our worship and ministry live out the commandments for the glory of God and our neighbor’s good.
 
Sending
You are invited to pray the words of this hymn, #512 in our hymnal:
 
If All You Want, Lord
words by Thomas H. Troeger, 1987
 
If all you want, Lord, is my heart, my heart is yours alone
Providing I may set apart my mind to be my own.
 
If all you want, Lord, is my mind, my mind belongs to you,
But let my heart remain inclined to do what it would do.
 
If heart and mind would both suffice, while I kept strength and soul,
At least I would not sacrifice completely my control.
 
But since, O Lord, you want them all to shape with your own hand,
I pray for grace to heed your call to live your first command.