COMING SOON! IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH, book five of the Pastor Maggie Series, will be available by Labor Day, 2021! Get ready for more hilarity, surprises and love as Pastor Maggie and the folks of Loving the Lord Community Church find themselves navigating through the sorrows and joys of life. 

Maggie’s faith is strong, but will she withstand the pressures of being a wife, mother, and pastor? 

With her first baby on the way, Pastor Maggie is busier than ever, but happiness turns to frustration when her trusted administrative assistant heads off on a three month Australian vacation, leaving Maggie with a troublesome new office worker who refuses to be managed. A life-threatening health crisis for more than one beloved friend, concerns for a family in the grip of a terrible secret, and weddings galore force Maggie to juggle care for her flock and family, all while preparing for her own little bundle of joy. 

Sickness and health are part of all of our lives, but Maggie must finesse her caregiving in challenging situations she never expected. Only time will tell if she is up to the task.

This book will be available from Pen-L.Com and Amazon.com

Quarantine Resurrection

 

Quarantine Resurrection

What does resurrection look like when we feel like we’ve been in a tomb for over a year?

What is new about life when four walls have shrunk down around us until we can’t breathe?

Spring flowers dance in the gentle breeze. They bob and nod together with no fear of death.

Various snowbirds are home gobbling worms and building nests. Some take flight and go to the highest branch or to the feeder prepared for them. No limits on movement. They sing full throttle.

Will the Easter Bunny wear a mask as the baskets are delivered to the children this year?

Churches questioning. Congregants taking sides. Who will be open? Who will remain closed? Who decides? Who knows for certain what is safe and what is just a longing?

Empty Easter dinner tables, or full?

Who’s vaccinated and who isn’t?

It’s our second Quarantine Resurrection.

Last year was a novelty. We thought restrictions would be lifted by Easter. We made the best of it when they weren’t.

But there is nothing novel about this second quarantine resurrection.

All the days from last Easter to this Easter have taken their toll. Too much death. Too many tombs. No stones to be rolled away, no empty tombs to discover with joy. Just death.

And yet…there have been other Easters draped in black before this year or last. History tells us of pandemics and war times and hard times when a shroud hung heavy.

Loss and pain and disruption have been visited on previous generations. We grieve for them because we can say, “We now understand some of what you have been through.”

And that is what prods us to remember this: The cross and the tomb couldn't hold Jesus.

Every year on this Great Anniversary death doesn’t get the last word.

Yes, too many people were healed into eternal life this past year. Too many people are being healed into eternal life right now as we watch infections and hospitalizations rise again.

But the tomb of Jesus Christ will still be empty this Easter morn.

The promise of eternal life is still our promise.

The hope for redemption from all the messes we have made as human beings, is more than a hope. It’s reality.

Jesus Christ lived and died and lives again. This is our glorious fate.

Yes, we will gather for worship again – all of us, not just a few. We will sing the hymns, stand for the Gospel reading, and get chills when we hear the words, “Do not be afraid…he is not here, he has been raised, as he said.”

Easter dinner tables will be heavy-laden with feasts for family and friends. And we will be able to see their faces, not just their eyes.

Spring flowers will delight us. The snowbirds will teach us to fly again.

Jesus will lead us from the dark tombs we have grieved in, and into the glorious light of his healing grace.

That’s what Jesus does year after year, and generation after generation.

It’s not novel. It’s something like a miracle.

Jesus Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Amen.

Church Keys

 

To the congregation of North Park Presbyterian Church, Grand Rapids, MI

 

Church Keys  

My new church keys are waiting on the desk. One key for the large wooden church door. One key for the administrative assistant’s office door. One key for my new office door. They are heavy keys. I slip them on to a keychain and into my bag.

I enter a new church. I have done this before, received the keys to outside doors and inside doors. But on this day in mid-February, I enter and find few people. So many are not inside these doors.

“Who,” you ask? A congregation. Grandmas and grandpas. Moms and dads. College students. High school students. Little ones. Single people. Married people. Married-more-than-once-people. Widows. Widowers. Singers. Musicians. The creative ones. The-good-with-numbers people. The cranky ones. The happy ones. The crying ones. The smiling ones. Saints. Sinners. A congregation. Not so much a congregation as a family.

My church keys get me in the church door. They get me into my new office. I can even sneak a water bottle from the admin’s office because of my church keys.

New relationships begin. I hear a few stories and learn about families. I hear about funerals of loved ones through tear-filled eyes. I learn who is a senior in high school and the strange year they’ve had with books at home, class on a computer. No in-person graduation this year (again).

I’m aware this congregation, this “family” has been separated for over a year now. Church keys have opened an empty church. No palm branches on Palm Sunday. No white lilies on Easter. No red on Pentecost. No Sunday school program. No Christmas.

Family separation is a terrible thing. The longing for one another is a never-ending ache. There is a silent sanctuary ready to be filled. Sunday school rooms longing for children. Sunday morning coffee waiting in the canister.

Of all the times I have been handed church keys, happy and curious about the future, this is the most challenging time I’ve had as a pastor. I meet a few of you with masked faces. Most of you I have only seen in the church directory.

When? When will we be pastor and congregation tethered together by the Holy Spirit? When will we gather to sing and pray and praise the God we love? It will be a glorious day, won’t it? Yes, it certainly will!

Worship on YouTube is…um…different. Preaching to absolutely no one is tricky. I need your faces. Even if you fall asleep half-way through the sermon, at least I can see you. I want to hear a baby cry in the middle of the service so I can say, “Now there’s a real preacher!” I want to know you. I want to hear your stories.

Church keys open the large wooden door. Church keys open my new office door. It’s exciting. It’s different.

But the best days will be when I have the keys to your hearts.

You already have the key to mine.

Peace and joy,

Pastor Barb