 Mid-Week Lenten Thoughts from Jamie
A Few More Thoughts about God One of the things I usually say about God is that God is not an old, white man. God is, especially, not Santa Claus in a robe instead of in a red suit. God is not a man or a woman, for that matter. One of the ways that we can think about God in a realistic sense is to go beyond our images of people and try to consider that God is spirit. Of course, that makes God really hard to visualize, but it also frees up our concepts of God to allow them to be bigger and deeper than what we may have considered before! God is love. Even in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament), while God is sometimes portrayed in the human style of being angry, there are plenty of references to God’s love for people. God is referred to as a shepherd, for instance; it’s one of the most endearing and attractive pictures of God in the whole Bible! The prophets, admittedly, talk about God’s anger with people’s failure to treat each other with justice, fairness and kindness, but they also portray a deity who is angry because of offered love that is rejected time and again. However, forgiveness is always possible in these depictions of God. I try to remember that God is omniscient, that God knows everything. When we pray, if we can remember that God knows what we are talking about even before we utter anything, perhaps our prayers could look more like a comfortable friendship where not many words are necessary, where just “being with God” is enough. God is more than we can imagine! Theologians have argued for centuries about whether or not God changes. I don’t see what the attraction is to a stagnant being who doesn’t ever change its mind! If God doesn’t change, why do we pray? Don’t most of us at one time or another ask God to change, to ease up on us or those we love, to bring peace to the world, to help the poor? Our understanding of God must grow with us. God is revealing things to us all the time if we are awake and aware. Go stand outside on a clear, starry night and see if you don’t experience some of the hugeness of God. Stand on a mountaintop with waves upon waves of mountains before you and realize just how big God is. Walk on a dark beach at night, with the deafening sound of waves crashing and feel what it is to be in awe of power and might. Our vision of God needs to grow and change. It’s a constant challenge in our spiritual walk. There’s so much more to say about God than you want to read here. This Lent, one thing to give up is a limited understanding of God. If God is doing a new thing, as Isaiah 43: 19 says, then possibly, that new thing is continuing. The old has passed away, St. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians. If God is doing it, we can be part of it!
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 What does being a “Green Chalice congregation” mean? And what is Green Chalice?
Green Chalice is an environmental committee made up of DOC members that works to improve their church’s environmental education, eco-friendliness, and pollution reduction. The mission of Green Chalice is to connect Christian faith, spiritual practice, and creation consciousness in order to demonstrate the fullness of God’s peace. The main goal is to have each Green Chalice DOC church be carbon neutral by 2030 and completely carbon negative by 2035. This will allow us as Christians, to better follow what the Bible says about caring for all of creation, and will also allow us as humans to ease the environmental damage that we are contributing to the Earth. Both creation care and carbon goals are very important, but why exactly are they important to others? Why do we need the whole congregation involved? Why can’t the Green Chalice chapters just handle it themselves? There’s a very simple reason. It's that we need every single FCC member to think and act on environmental matters. And that’s because it’s what God would want us to do. He would want us all to understand and solve issues that include the Earth. Because He gave humans the world to care for and do good in. As it says in Micah 6:8, we strive to “do justice” and live out our faith by caring for God’s creation. Some of the problems and questions that your Green Chalice committee here at First Christian are tackling right now are: paper use reduction, carbon footprint calculations, food waste solutions, and increasing lighting efficiency. There will be many more eco-friendly decisions to be made, and we want you to be a part of helping our church improve itself environmentally. Interested in joining or listening to a meeting? We meet every 2nd Tuesday each month at 6:30 pm, in the Fellowship hall. Here are a couple things you can do right now, to move FCC further down the path to being the best green church we can. · Use the QR bulletin scanner located in the narthex instead of a paper bulletin. This will not only save the church paper and money, but also keep more trees alive. · Place your paper bulletin in the recycle box, so we can prevent it from being thrown away after its use. Recycling keeps loads of useful materials out of landfills! · Carpool or share a ride with FCC friends to service and other church events. This will lessen both your gas usage and carbon footprint when going places! And if you’re interested in how you can help or would like to learn more about our Green Chalice Committee, contact me. My email is [email protected]. I’m happy to help and answer any questions you have! Thanks, -Roy Henderson, Green Chalice Committee chair |
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These thoughts and reflections come from our ministerial staff and congregational leaders. We hope that they provide both challenge and inspiration for your spiritual life. Categories
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A Disciples of Christ Congregation located in Eastern North Carolina
207 Tarboro Street North | Wilson, NC
Corner of Vance & Tarboro Streets
252-237-4125
Updated: March 12, 2025 | 9:45am
A Disciples of Christ Congregation located in Eastern North Carolina
207 Tarboro Street North | Wilson, NC
Corner of Vance & Tarboro Streets
252-237-4125
Updated: March 12, 2025 | 9:45am
