Aug 27

Get Behind me, Satan!

23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.  

Matthew 16:23 NRSVUE

The above verse comes from a story in which Peter, in a flash of fear, tries to stop Jesus from going to Jerusalem and heading toward the cross. It is a human moment in which Peter simply did not want his beloved teacher and friend to suffer and their time together to end. It is something we all can relate to. Yet, Jesus knew, however difficult it was, that he could not deviate from his calling.

It was a hard lesson for Peter, and it is a hard lesson for the church. From death comes new life. This story asks many important and deep and difficult questions.

What “human things” must we let go of for new life to flourish?

What things in our lives are stumbling blocks to offering and receiving a loving openness?

We could spend a lot of time reflecting on just these two. This Sunday we’ll continue the conversation as we learn together how best to follow Jesus in our time and place.

Peace be with you.

Pastor Karsten

Jun 09

“What Does It Mean to Be a Resurrection People?”

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. 
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
(1 Corinthians 15:17, 19

Every year after Easter, I find myself returning to the same question: What does it mean to be a Resurrection People? Not just people who believe in the resurrection, or celebrate it once a year, but people whose lives are shaped by it—whose imaginations, choices, and relationships are marked by the hope that God is still bringing life out of death.

Being a Resurrection People doesn’t mean pretending everything is fine. The first disciples didn’t emerge from the empty tomb with easy answers or perfect confidence. They came with fear, confusion, wonder, and hope all tangled together. Resurrection didn’t erase their humanity—it transformed it.

To be a Resurrection People is to trust that God is not finished with us or with this world. It means believing that despair is never the final word, that injustice is not inevitable, that broken relationships can be mended, and that new beginnings are always possible. It means looking at the places where life feels stuck or heavy or uncertain and daring to imagine that God might be planting seeds we cannot yet see.

Resurrection People practice hope—not as wishful thinking, but as a way of living. We choose compassion when indifference would be easier. We choose welcome when exclusion feels safer. We choose repair when harm has been done. We choose joy, not because life is simple, but because God is faithful.

And perhaps most importantly, Resurrection People carry this hope into the world. We become signs of new life for others—through our kindness, our courage, our justice-seeking, our willingness to love.

The stone has been rolled away. The Risen Christ goes ahead of us.
Our calling is simply to follow—
with open hearts, open hands, and resurrection in our bones.

Pastor Greg

P.S.  On a Resurrection People can be an affirming people because we know God is working in each person to have them come to resurrection fullness.

May 29

“Finding Rest in a Reliable Word”

2 Timothy 3:16–17; Hebrews 4:11–13

There are seasons when our hearts feel thin.
When the noise of the world grows loud.
When our own thoughts feel scattered.
When we long—quietly, desperately—for a place to rest.

In those moments, Scripture becomes more than a book. It becomes a refuge.  And the passages before us this week remind us why.

Scripture is not merely ancient wisdom or human reflection.  It carries the breath of God itself.  Inspiration means “breathed out by God.”  God is breathing on us when we interact with the Bible.  It is something that is living, trustworthy and meant to equip us for every good work. 

Then Hebrews names the longing we all feel; the longing for rest—not just physical rest, but soul rest.  The rest that comes from knowing we are held, known, and safe. 

Some are alarmed at the depth that God knows us, “all are naked and exposed.”  We often take these words for condemnation, but the opposite is true.  God sees you fully.  This God loves you completely.  That is good news, especially to those that are judged a society that looks only on the outward.  God knows you deeper than your sexuality, identity, or your doubts.  God knows you completely and loves you as you are infinitely. 

God invites us into God’s word to take refuge.  God’s promises hold, God’s character does not shift, God’s voice does not fail, and God’s rest is real and available. 

That is why we must consider, “What am I desiring?’  Peter gives us a simple picture to encourage us in our desiring of the Word of God.  “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. “(1 Peter 2:2-3)

Pastor Greg

May 27

Why Christ Is the Hope of the World

Romans 8:18-25

Hope is a word our world uses often, but rarely understands.
We “hope” the weather cooperates.
We “hope” things get better.
We “hope” people will change.
In everyday speech, hope is little more than a wish—something fragile, uncertain, easily shaken.

But the hope we meet in Christ is something entirely different.

Romans 8 describes a world that is groaning—creation itself aching for renewal, people longing for healing, communities yearning for justice. Paul doesn’t minimize the pain. He names it. He honors it. And then he says something astonishing: God has already begun the renewal the world longs for. The resurrection of Jesus is not just a promise for souls; it is God’s declaration that suffering, injustice, and decay will not have the final word.

Christian hope is not optimism.
Optimism depends on circumstances.
Hope depends on God.

Optimism rises and falls with the news cycle.
Hope rises from the empty tomb.

Optimism says, “Maybe things will improve.”
Hope says, “God is already at work making all things new.”

In a world that misunderstands hope as wishful thinking, the Gospel gives us a hope that is active, embodied, and courageous. Christ enters the world’s groaning, bears it, transforms it, and promises a future where creation itself is set free. And through the Spirit, we begin to taste that future even now—in acts of compassion, in communities of welcome, in justice pursued, in mercy practiced.

This is why Christ is the hope of the world:
because God has not abandoned creation.
God is healing it.
And we are invited to live as signs of that hope—patient, persistent, joyful—until the day when all things are made new.

Peter’s words provide for us the fullness of this hope (1 Peter 1:3-5): 

Born Again to a Living Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Pastor Greg