Educational Ministries and Family Life:
Rev. Tripp Hudgins

february 2012

Friends of God,

Lent approaches. I feel like we just got settled after Christmas and already I'm thinking about the long fast of Lent (February 22nd is Ash Wednesday) and the celebration of Christ's Resurrection at Easter. These series of festivals serve as touchstones for me, markers during the year when I am reminded of Who it is I hope to serve and how much God does indeed love this world.

This month we'll continue our study of Christian community with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and his book New Monasticism: What It Has To Say To Today's Church. If you recall, we spend some of January with Bonhoeffer and his Life Together. Wilson-Hartgrove is a Baptist pastor who was inspired by Bonhoeffer and others of the past (all the way back to Benedict of Nursia) who suggest that the world needs old/new ways of being faithful community if it is to witness to the Kingdom of God.

Bonhoeffer wrote, "'...the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this...' This and other such sentiments inspired Wilson- Hartgrove to found Rutba House. You can find out more about the community online at www.newmonasticism.org. I hope you'll join us February 5 and 12 for this conversation. I hope we are all asking ourselves "Who is God asking us to be?" Pastor Rick will pick up the conversation on February 19 as we dive into some more Christian spirituality this time focusing on Richard Rohr's work.

Finally, I want to thank you. It occurred to me in the hustle and bustle of our lives together that I don't thank you enough. Thank you for your ongoing kind welcome. And thank you for supporting the Children and Youth by donating to the Heifer Project. As you have heard we did raise enough money for a camel! That is great news. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Now, pray for me as the kids assume that baking cookies will be a regular part of our Sunday routine. Lord have mercy on me! Ha!

Peace and All Good Things to you,
Pastor Tripp Hudgins

Adult Education- Bonhoeffer

Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
"The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them." In Nazi Germany, in response to the failure of the state Church to stand in opposition to the political powers of the day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German pastor and several of his colleagues formed a new seminary for The Confessing Church. It was a clandestine Christian community founded on the notion that the Church necessarily stands for something other than the Powers and Principalities. To help this community live into this vision, Bonhoeffer wrote the book, Life Together. Though sometimes strange and a little anachronistic, this work still has much to offer the Church in our time. How might we Christians live together when Christendom has fallen? I hope you'll join us in the conversation on January 22 for Adult Education. We'll meet after worship in the Parlor. All are welcome.

Peace and All Good Things,
Pastor Tripp

January 2012

Life Together
‎"It is not necessary that we should discover new ideas in our meditation. It is sufficient, and far more important, if the Word, as we read and understand it, penetrates and dwells within us." from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer...Join us this Sunday, January 15 and next, in the parlor for an exploration of Bonhoeffer's spiritual classic, Life Together. Written as a guide for the community in which he lived and taught, this little book has inspired other communities as they have discerned how to live together as God's people. Perhaps it has wisdom for us as well.

Parents, if you were in church on Sunday, you were given little note cards on which to write a prayer for the congregation with your children. This is part of a project the Children and Youth are doing together. I hope you can all find some time this week to sit together and write a thoughtful and honest prayer for our congregation.

Peace and All Good Things,
Pastor Tripp

New year

We have a full winter planned, entering the New Year in a spirit of courageous discernment as a congregation. The Children and Youth will reprise their project from last year hoping that as a congregation we can all give to Heifer International. It's CamelFest 2012! More new to come...

In our adult formation group we'll read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic Life Together in January. In February we'll learn about New Monasticism (NuMonasticism), a movement among free church folk like ourselves across the globe by reading about Rutba House in Durham, California and Australia's Community of The Transfiguration. New Monasticism, we'll discover, is not so new, but as Christian communities across our country explore new ways of being Church together, these intentional communities are serving as powerful examples of what is possible.

Finally, I want to share this poem with you. It's by the French poet, Michel Quoist. His poems are about living faithfully and the challenges that come. This poem captures my own (oft muddled) feelings about what it sometimes means to follow God.

Help me to say "Yes" (from Prayers for Life)

I am afraid of saying "Yes," Lord.
Where will you take me?
I am afraid of drawing the longer straw,
I am afraid of signing my name to an unread agreement,
I am afraid of the "yes" that entails other "yeses."
And yet I am not at peace.

You pursue me, Lord, you besiege me
I seek out the din for fear of hearing
you, but in a moment of silence
you slip through.
I turn from the road,
for I have caught sight of you,
but at the end of the path
you are there awaiting me.
Where shall I hide?
I meet you everywhere.
Is it then impossible
to escape you?

But I am afraid to say "Yes," Lord.
I am afraid of putting my hand in yours,
for you hold on to it.
I am afraid of meeting your eyes,
for you can win me.
I am afraid of your demands,
for you are a jealous God.

I am hemmed in, yet I hide.
I am captured, yet I struggle,
and I fight
knowing that I am defeated.
For you are the stronger, Lord,
you own the world
and you take it from me.

When I stretch out my hand
to catch hold of people and things,
they vanish before my eyes.

It's no fun, Lord,
I can't keep anything for myself.
The flower I pick
fades in my hands.
My laugh freezes on my lips.
The waltz I dance leaves me restless
and uneasy.

Everything seems empty,
Everything seems hollow,
You have made a desert around
me.
I am hungry and thirsty,
And the whole world
cannot satisfy me.

O Lord, I am afraid of your demands,
but who can resist you?
That your Kingdom may come
and not mine,
That your will may be done
and not mine,
Help me to say "Yes."

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May God bless you in the new year. May God bless us all with the courage to say, "Yes" to God's love. Happy New Year!

Pastor Tripp Hudgins