A Message from Pastor Rachel

"Did you watch Chris Pratt's Generation Award speech at the MTV Movie Awards this week?!" ...is a sentence that I never thought I'd say. But here we are. Pratt (character-actor-turned-super-star) won something called the "Generation Award" this week. His speech was disarming, charming, heart-felt and faithful. He used his four minutes and his influence to inspire viewers. You can watch it here. [Fair warning, the speech isn't overly crude, but I would rate it PG.]

Recently the country has had to deal with more than its share of death, suicide, depression, and trauma. This week, Latesha, Pastor Chris and I have heard more than a few people saying, "I'm tired," "I don't want to be here anymore," "I want to give up," "I just don't know the point," "It doesn't make any difference." I suffer from depression and anxiety ("brain allergies" as my kids call them!), and I know what it feels like to just want to give up. There are times when our human limitations are painfully apparent, and during these times the church is more important than ever. We support and we are supported by our brothers and sisters in our community. 

In his speech, Pratt said, "If you're strong, be a protector and if you're smart be a humble influencer." I was encouraged by Sunday's witness to our church's decades-long commitment to refugees. I've read articles by members and friends of GPC urging justice and prudence and compassion; I've followed the demonstrations and rulings at our denomination's General Assembly; I've prayed alongside fellow religious leaders and GPC members. As Christians we use our influence to point towards our gracious savior. As children of the promise, we can proclaim that the suffering of this world is unacceptable, and that evil and death will not have the last word. Scripture reminds us that nothing--not even death--can separate us from the love of Christ. And that is something worth talking about. 

World Refugee Sunday Reflection from Mark

In December, 2016, the GPC staff took a field trip to visit the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was a deeply moving experience for all of us. The museum is organized chronologically with the beginnings of the slave industry in the basement, to the top floor featuring exhibits displaying the cultural, political, and societal achievements of African Americans in modern times. I was particularly impacted by that top floor. Out of the historic ingredients of injustice, inequality and persecution displayed on the floors below should have come something equally ugly. Ugly in, ugly out, right? Instead, exactly the opposite is true. The contributions on display represent the defining examples of beauty and joy that our country has produced. This Sunday, for World Refugee Sunday, one of the GPC choir baritones, Jim Williams, will sing two African American Spirituals. As with the top floor of the NMAAHC, the Spirituals are the logic defying results of profound meaning and beauty emerging from the horrific ingredients of slavery. The slaves were the ultimate example of a dispossessed people. From their circumstances we would not have expected musical beauty to arise and yet it did.

Life is challenging for all of us, in different ways. I pray that, from my own life’s struggles, I can follow in the example of those who wrought beauty and joy from unspeakable cruelty and hatred.

2018 Leadership Intensive Remarks from Pastor Chris

This week marked the final week of the 2018 Leadership Intensive. Pastor Rachel has been leading this class along with Pastor Camille, myself, and others for three years now, and each year I end the six week intensive with a renewed sense of hope. We study prayer, Bible study, conflict management, pastoral care, and beyond, and each year I leave reminded that our church is in many, many good hands.

I was struck this year by an attitude this year that was shared throughout the participants. During the six weeks, we have all run into areas of Christian discipleship that feel more difficult than others, whether it's prayer, engaging conflict, or visiting a hospital room. But instead of shying away from those things, I noticed that everybody was moving towards the things that made them uncomfortable. Instead of maintaining the safety of comfort, I saw people engaging where it's difficult.

Perhaps that is the lesson of Christian discipleship that I, and perhaps you, need to hear today. That Jesus calls us to where we feel less safe, but that undoubtedly, Jesus has already gone there ahead of us, and will continue to walk with us. Jesus is with us on the growing edge.

Peace,

CCS

Pastor Camille's Sabbatical Farewell

The familiar psalm paints a beautiful image of sabbath rest.  He (the Good Shepherd) makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.  

Today marks the beginning of my summer sabbatical, a gift of time set aside for rest and restoration of the body and soul.  I am truly grateful for the opportunity to seek out green pastures and find some still waters.  

Jesus says, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again."  For me, it is time to return to the well.  I hope the summer will give you the opportunity to do the same, even if in smaller doses.  

 

Blessings upon you and your summer seasons.  I will hold you in prayer and I welcome your prayers.  See you in September!

 

In Christ,

CCM

New Staff Structure - from Pastor Camille

We have been incredibly blessed in the last few years for growth across our church.  We are grateful to God for the gifts of new members, increased levels of giving, and expanding ministries!  Our role as pastors and officers has been discerning how best to support and sustain this growth.  

 

To that end, last Sunday at our congregational meeting, we announced exciting changes to the staff design at GPC.  Three significant changes were announced, which will compliment the growing ministries of our church. First, Rev. Chris will permanently move to a full time position as Associate Pastor for Mission and Young Adults.  Second, we will hire a part time (8 hours per week) Children's Ministries Director.  Rev. Rachel will supervise this position and still have oversight for all education at GPC.  The new position will free Rachel to expand her role and focus on leadership development and community engagement.  To that end, the final changes is a new title for Rev. Rachel, Associate Pastor for Discipleship.  These three changes, along with changes made in the last year to other positions, will all help the church to keep pace with the ministries of the church.  The session has enthusiastically approved these changes.  

 

It is an exciting and fruitful time at the church.  We are blessed by the generosity and faithfulness of so many who make this all come together.  Please join me in congratulating Chris and Rachel on their new positions!  If you have questions about the changes, we invite you to ask the session members or the pastors, and we would be happy to speak with you.

 

Peace,

CCM

A Message from Mark

For the last couple of months, I’ve been struggling to learn a dense and challenging piece of organ music. Every bar brings new questions. What fingers to use here, what rubato there, what expression to bring out the meaning of the underlying program of the piece? I want a guide, a teacher who can give me the answers, but I know from past experience that the best teachers don’t give concrete answers to difficult questions. They open the door to more questions. It reminds me of a story, probably apocryphal, about a young composer who asked Mozart how to get started writing symphonies. Mozart answered that a symphony was a very complex musical form and it would be better to start with something simpler, a concerto perhaps. “But Mozart” the young man responded “you were writing symphonies when you were eight years old.” “Yes I was” Mozart replied, “but I never asked anyone how.” Not particularly satisfying. On Sunday we will examine the story of Nicodemus who was grappling with some tricky questions of his own. He likely expected a simple answer, but Jesus’ reference to a second birth only created another, broader question for Nicodemus: “how can these things be?” Those who have wrestled with challenging questions can relate to Nicodemus. Just when you thought you might find the answer, another question. Not particularly satisfying. This week raised many troubling and challenging questions and I wished for a Mozart or Jesus level guru to answer my questions, even as I concede that their answers would not likely satisfy my questions. If there is a silver lining in difficult and troubling questions, perhaps it is the motivation they give us to struggle to expand our view of the world and to seek community and fellowship while we explore the questions. When we want concrete answers to difficult questions, this is not particularly satisfying.

 

Peace, MAW

A message from Mark

This Sunday, at the beginning of our worship service, we’ll sing the tune “Old Hundredth” composed by Louis Bourgeois (c. 1512-1560), who, in the middle of the 14th century found himself at the center of a heated controversy we’ll call Psaltergate. The trouble started when, in 1550 Bourgeois took it upon himself to ‘improve’ the psalm tunes for some of the more well-known psalms in use in Geneva at the time, having these published in the annual printing of the Psalter for that year. In doing so, he ran afoul of the law for having, without a license, ‘changed the tunes of some printed psalms.’ While this may sound trivial today, it was taken very seriously in 14th century Geneva and Louis was sent to prison. If only Twitter had been invented 500 years earlier. “@realJohnCalvin “Bourgeois better think twice next time he changes a hymn tune” #don’tmesswiththePsalter.” After a day in jail, Calvin himself intervened and Bourgeois was released, but Psaltergate had permanently damaged his reputation in Geneva and the next year Bourgeois relocated to Lyon, eventually resettling in Paris where he took to writing secular songs and seems to have even converted to Catholicism! Now, 466 years later, the travails of Bourgeois can seem quaint and not a little absurd, but to the actors involved, the issues were quite serious. Recently I was counseling a neighbor who has become so upset at what he reads in the news that his physical and mental health are suffering, but he can’t stop reading. He’s caught in a loop. There are indeed serious issues, those involving human suffering, but there is a healthy helping of the absurd and getting mired in it can drain our energy for the important work we can do to make the world around us a better place.

On Sunday, to Bourgeois’ tune, we’ll sing “For why? The Lord our God is good; his is forever sure; his truth at all times firmly stood, and shall from age to age endure.” I promise not to change the tune.

-MAW

GPC Covenant--Youth Group

Please check out this post for updates throughout the season!(Updates will be posted at the top, with older information at the bottom.)

UPDATE OCTOBER 1, 2016

October Retreat sign-up form

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 Covenant Brochure

UPDATE JULY 27, 2016 MANDATORY PARENTS MEETING SEPTEMBER 11th There are many new families eligible for youth group this year (rising 6th-12th grade), and our kick-off meeting will be filled with information just for you. The kids will head to Thomas Sweet for ice cream while the adults meet in the Washington Room after church with Rev. Vaagenes.

Fall 2016 CALENDAR (subject to change)

This year our youth group theme is COVENANT, an idea that will weave throughout each week, retreat, lesson, and game.

*New this year is our monthly Adults Raising Teens Group, or ART. Parents/guardians support one another when juggling jobs, aging parents, college and high school applications, and going to so many soccer games. Led by the pastors.

September 11, 12:30pm Ice Cream Social (meet on front porch after church) Parents' meeting in the Washington Room. September 18 5-7pm Youth Group begins Adults Raising Teens (ART) group in the library. September 25, 12:30pm Picnic-youth lead picnic games! (no 5-7pm YG)

October 2 5-7 YG October 9 NO YG October 16 YG, ART October 23 YG October 28-30 Youth Retreat in Berkeley Springs, WV (tentative)

November 6 YG November 13 NO YG November 20 YG, ART November 27 NO YG

December 4 YG December 11 Youth Provide Dinner for Georgetown Sunday Dinners, 4-6:30pm (with dinner) December 18 YG, ART Dec 25 NO YG (XMAS)

Galatians Chapter Five

Galatians Chapter 5

Use two or three translations of 5:1-12 to help you answer the following questions. (You can use this, this, or this, or pick your own translation!)

Focus on v. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

So is faith just passive?

WAIT God will act to set things right in the world and to conform the favorable judgment on his people, but it will happen in his own good time.

ACT Those who have received theSpirit and who wait do so by sharing in the travail of a world looking for liberty  and fulfillment. … The same Spirit who enables them to wait patiently also creates in them a restlessness with things as they are, a longing for the ‘not yet’ of God’s plan for the world. In these words of the beatitude, they ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness.’ Matthew 5:6

“To speak of hope then, is to speak of the thin line, as one has put it, between presumptuousness that cannot wait and despair that can only wait.” -Biblical Commentator Charles Cousar

Focus on v. 6  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

So is love a prerequisite for faith??

No! Paul has just written 2.5 chapters arguing that righteousness is a result of grace. And it is unlikely that he meant that God’s righteousness is available only to folks who had previously exhibited love. It may refer to love as the expression of faith, or God’s love as the inspiration for faith.

Commentator Victor Furnish: The xn is summoned to love in a double sense: to be loved and to be loving.

Focus on v.11 But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

What is the offense of the cross?

TEXT NOTE: offense-scandal-stumbling block (greek “skandalon” = stumbling block)

Final questions: What choice do the Galatians have to make? What hard choices does the cross illuminate for our time?

Galatians Bible Study, Chapter Four

Galatians 4 brings the reader to the apex of Galatians - for freedom Christ has set us free. Paul means this both theologically and practically. Theologically that we are set free from the bonds of the Law and the sin that is made known through it, but also practically for the Galatian community. Paul’s pastoral concern is highlighted in chapter 4 as he recounts their shared ministry. His concern for the Galatians is that they will be enslaved not only to the “elemental spirits,” but specifically to these outside agitators who “make much of them[selves],” isolating the Galatians from the broader Christian community, and from Christ himself.

That Paul’s focus is pastoral is a helpful reminder as we read through this letter, which at times feels rushed and haphazard. In vv. 1-7, Paul jumps between two metaphors, first inheritance, then adoption, then back to inheritance without completing his second thought. Although it may be frustrating to track, it underscores the urgency with which Paul writes, as if hurriedly composing an email at the last minute that can’t wait to be proofread. It’s important to read Galatians not as a formal theological treatise, but as an urgent plea from a friend and teacher not to fall into a burdensome religious system that he knows the Galatian people cannot bear.

What the “elemental spirits” Paul refers to are is a topic up for debate, particularly because he doesn’t expound upon this idea. Probably he’s referring to an idea prevalent in the Galatian’s Hellenistic culture which believed there were spiritual forces, good and evil, that animated all things. Paul’s injunction to turn away from “enslavement” to these spirits is a call to turn toward the freedom of Christ, to whom we are obedient as a gracious choice. Our freedom is the freedom to choose Christ.

In order to appeal to the Galatians to return to their newfound-but-waning freedom, Paul allegorizes the story of Sarah and Hagar found in Genesis 21. His allegory is complicated, and strays from the traditional interpretation markedly. Traditionally, Sarah's son Issac passes on the promises given to Abraham, while Hagar's son Ishmael is father of the Gentiles. Paul, on the other hand, connects Hagar to the “present Jerusalem” and Sarah to the “Jerusalam above." His interpretation is a near inversion of the traditional interpretation. Layering on to this allegory is Paul’s idea that we are living in a new age of sorts in which we live according to God’s Spirit rather than the Law (see Joel 2:28-29). Nonetheless, Paul’s point is clear - Gentiles, through Christ, are heirs to the promises given to Abraham, and should stand confident in these promises, not turning to religious systems in an attempt to acquire them.

Martin Luther, in his seminal book Christian Liberty, says this: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” This intersection of freedom and obligation, empowered by the pouring out of the Spirit, is where a follower of Jesus lives. It is no longer according to human customs, but according to God’s own Spirit given to us. How, then, shall we live? That’s the next chapter.