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Brothers and sisters,

Have y’all ever had a musical crush? Now, let me be clear, have y’all ever had a crush on a musical artist cause they themselves are attractive? I mean, have you ever listened to a new artist’s song and thought, “Oh! I need to hear more of their stuff!”? You get a hold of their record, start listening, and realize that there’s just something about their music that makes you want to do nothing but keep listening. They can do no wrong; their music hits you in just the right way. Have y’all ever had that?

Well, of late, I’ve had a musical crush on Olivia Dean. If you’ve listened to any radio station that plays Top 40 songs, you’ve probably heard either her song, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” or “Man I Need”. Dean sings this wonderful kind of pop-jazz-soul music that is easy to listen to, but I appreciate her lyricism as well. The two songs I just mentioned are fun and flirty, with one of the lines in “So Easy” being, “There’s Heaven in my heart, and we could find you some space.” But there’s one song later in her record, The Art of Loving, with a line that has haunted me (in a good way) since I heard it.

The song is called, “A Couple Minutes,” and it’s this slow, nostalgic song about an encounter the singer has with an ex of hers. She’s surprised by some of his changes at first (“Since when are you smoking now?”), but eventually she and her ex connect over some of their shared memories, the feelings they had for each other, and it becomes clear that while the ex has moved on, the singer has not. She’s trying to, but there is a part of her that he knows and she wishes they could linger in their memories and their shared knowledge (“Back on your sofa/Of course, I still care…And although it’s over/I’ll always be there/Only have a couple minutes, then we’re going back to real life”). But the line that gets me, that prompted this article is buried in the middle of the chorus, “Love’s never wasted/When it’s shared”. The singer, despite the pain the breakup caused, is still able to look at the love the two of them had and see it as a good thing.

As a pastor, I think about that line not in the sense of a breakup, but in the sense of why the church does what it does. Why do we reach out to people and help them, knowing they can never repay us? Cause God calls us to love our neighbors and help those in need as a reflection of God’s love for us. Why do we host events and pursue mission projects even if we don’t achieve “success” as church consultants might define it? Cause God calls us to be joyful people who love others the way God loves us. And so, we reach out. We draw people in. We meet needs. We offer joy. Because God has loved us and has called us to share that love. And love is never wasted when it’s shared. It is always a good thing to love others. I think that’s an idea we could all stand to keep in mind in the days and weeks ahead. Loving our neighbors is never a waste. Loving those who are struggling is never a waste. Loving our enemies is never a waste. Cause God loves us and has never seen it as a waste. Thanks be to God!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

We are entering my favorite time of the year. Collectively known as the “-ber months” on social media, September, October, November, and December are popular with a lot of people. There are the holiday folks who look forward to the fact that three major holidays happen seem-ingly back-to-back-to-back: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. There are the cooking/baking types who look forward to the particular dishes and flavors that come in vogue during the “-ber months”: soups and stews, pies and cookies, cinnamon, ginger, clove, etc. There are also the, what I’ll call, “activity people” who love this time of year for the unique things that come around: ghost tours, hayrides, county/state fairs, caroling, etc. It seems like everyone has some special way of engaging with the “-ber months.”

The church also, obviously, has big events that hap-pen in the “-ber months”. Most churches have some sort of Fall Festival (including us—Saturday, October 31st this year) in October. A fair number will have some sort of Thanksgiving service or mission—whether they open it up to the community, partner with another church, or encourage church members to volunteer that week. And, of course, every church’s December is dominated by Advent and Christmas, for good reason! It is never a small thing to celebrate the birth of our Savior, nor is it something we should take for granted. But you’ll notice that still leaves one “-ber month.”

September has no major church holidays in it. We take a day off for Labor Day, sure, but there’s not really anything on the church calendar that demands the church’s attention. Which I think means September becomes this wonderful time of reflection and rejuvenation. Fall is not quite in full swing yet, meaning we still have longer days and higher temps that encourage us to be outside. Hallow-een is not dominating the airwaves yet, even though you can already buy Halloween candy. Children and youth are back in school, football is on again, and soon baseball will be entering its playoffs. September occupies this interest-ing space in the church calendar. It feels like a moment to breathe.

So, as our sermon series, “Come Away from Rush and Hurry,” comes to an end this
Sunday, I would encourage you all to see September as a month-long moment to catch your
breath. Take it as a time to slow down once more before the hustle and bustle of the other
three “-ber months” begins. Have a slow, easy supper on the back porch a few more times while the days are long. Watch—or go to—a football game and let that be your whole day. Let September be a month of preparation so that when October 1st comes around, you’re rested and ready!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

I joked with a couple church members this past Sunday that my sermon was nearly going to be two and a half hours long. Not because I was going to write a 50-70 page sermon, but because I was going to propose we all go to the movie theater and just watch the new Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. And while the idea of watching a movie as a sermon was a joke, the message of the new Spider-Man movie is not. I remember leaving the theater thinking, “That’ll preach.” So, without spoiling any of the movie, let me give you a brief taste of why this movie’s message is being so well-received.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place after the events of the previous Spider-Man movie, No Way Home. The incredibly short recap of that movie is this. Spider-Man’s secret identity has been outed by one of his enemies, Mysterio, meaning everyone now knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Peter’s friends and family begin to suffer because of that revelation and he tries to fix the problem by having Dr. Strange—a sorcerer—cast a spell to make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. The spell goes awry, all kinds of crazy shenanigans ensue, and at the end of the movie, reality itself is about to be torn apart. So, Peter asks Dr. Strange to cast a new spell—make everyone forget Peter Parker ever existed. Dr. Strange casts the spell, reality is saved, but now Peter is completely and totally alone. No one knows who he is—at all.

Brand New Day picks up from there. At the beginning of the movie, we get to see what Peter’s life looks like now without any of his friends or family. As Spider-Man, he spends all his time taking down villains, cracking cases for the NYPD, and generally being a force for good in NYC. But there’s a stark, sad dichotomy that the movie starts with. Spider-Man, the hero, is beloved; Peter, the person, is forgotten. Spider-Man builds connections; Peter is isolated. Spider-Man gets the key to the city; Peter gets an asbestos-laced apartment. And so, the movie wrestles with several questions.

On the one hand, it asks questions about identity. Peter must decide, “Am I Peter
Parker or am I Spider-Man?” The movie also asks questions about what truth is—who possesses it and how do you responsibly wield it? But the most persistent questions Brand New Day asks are about love and connection. What does it mean to be loved? How do our connections shape our identity? Who do we build connections with, how do you build them, and what happens when we’re disconnected? In the end, the two main assertions the movie makes are, “You don’t have to do this alone,” and “The people who love you, they love you not because you’re special. They love you because you’re you.”

These are the kinds of questions churches should be asking. These are the kinds of things churches should be asserting. We believe in the truth of a God who loves us deeply, simply because we are who we are. We believe in the truth that God is with us, even during difficult times, and has created and molded the church to be a community where people do not have to go through life alone. We should be a place, as well, where the truth is preached—that there is a God who created us all, a Savior who loves humankind so incredibly deeply, and a Holy Spirit that guides us all to live faithfully. So, yes, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will preach.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben