The Destructive Power of Sin vs. The Healing Power of Confession, Repentance and Restoration
Dear Pali Pres Family,
Last week I was fortunate enough to take a vacation and spend some time with Mary and the boys in Canada. We had a lovely time with Mary’s family, enjoying the beautiful countryside of our neighbor to the north.
My trip happened to coincide with Pope Frances’ visit to Canada, which made major headlines (his visit, not mine, of course). Not being from Canada, I had a lot to learn about the historic nature of the Pope’s visit and what it meant for a nation still trying to heal from some very painful wounds—painful wounds that are all too familiar to us here in the US as well.
For those who don’t know the sad history, from the 19th century until the 1990s more than 150,000 Indigenous children were obliged to attend state-funded schools in an effort to forcibly assimilate them into Canadian society. More than half of those schools were run by the Catholic church. The children in these schools were often subject to terrible living conditions, including disease and hunger. Survivors have also described physical and sexual abuse, often at the hands of priests and Catholic laypeople.
In 2006 the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) was established with the aim of bringing a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools. However, a great deal of pain remains among former students and Indigenous communities.
During his visit, Pope Francis apologized for the role the Catholic church played in the residential school system and begged for forgiveness:
“I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.”
As I educate myself on the history of Canada and the injustices of the residential schools, I am filled with sadness over the destructive power of sin. At the same time, I am moved by the healing power of confession, repentance, and restoration. Pope Francis’ visit to Canada and humble message to its people is a powerful reminder of the incredible need for healing and reconciliation in our world. As Christians we are called by our Savior to live not perfect, sin-free lives, but lives of honesty, truth, forgiveness, and justice. May we each reflect on what this means in our relationships with one another and God’s call on our lives.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Matt
PS—if you would like to read more about the residential schools, the IRSSA, and the Pope’s recent visit, you can do so by visiting here, here, and here.
Be Bold In Your Prayer
Dear Beloveds,
Have you ever prayed for something for a long time?
Has there been something or someone you have prayed over for weeks, months, or years? Many of us can understand this question. Many of us have prayed for healing, prayed for a loved one, or prayed for an answer that we need so badly.
Perhaps you are not so bold as to call it a prayer. Perhaps to you it is a wish, a desire, or a longing. I sincerely believe that these thoughts, when we point them in the direction of God, are considered prayer.
I encourage you to be bold in your prayers, to be bold in the things that you ask of God, and to know in confidence that God is hearing all the longing, worry, and hopes in your heart.
We are called if we seek God in our lives to be in constant communication with God, recognizing that all things begin and end with our Creator and Redeemer. The book of Lamentations tells us “…pour out your heart like water before God…” (2:19)
I hope that you can engage in the act of pouring out your heart to God, to see that God is there, waiting, wanting to be in communication with the one God loves---you. If we can try to engage in the daily act of communication and connecting with God, we can then build a closeness and intimacy with someone who desires so much to be in conversation with us.
Our conversations may be pleading, complaining, times in which we seek grace and forgiveness, or even just relief. But whatever it is that we need, God can provide.
There is no special language, posture, or eloquence that is needed to talk to God. There is no special state of heart or mind where we must enter. Only the simple desire to connect.
If you have not been in the habit of talking to God, at first, it may seem awkward, like a first date, or an interview.
That’s ok.
Just talk.
Because God is listening.
With great love for you,
Pastor Grace
Look Toward Heaven and Count the Stars
Dear Pali Pres Members and Friends,
I cannot tell you how mesmerized I have been by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Since its first images were released on June 11, I have been soaking up all the information I can about the JWST, how it came to be developed, and what these new images are revealing. Granted I am understanding only about 10% of what I am reading and seeing, but even that 10% is absolutely blowing my mind.
Perhaps most astonishing to me is what JWST’s first “deep field image” is telling us about how BIG the universe is. The image (copied below) identifies thousands of beautiful galaxies, with each galaxy estimated to contain 300 million to 10 billion Earth-like planets. Crazy! And that is just from one image which (get this) covers an area of the sky that you can blot out by holding a grain of sand at arm's length. I just cannot wrap my brain around that!
Seeing these amazing images and reading about the vastness of our universe has led me to ponder, once again, the mysterious and awesome nature of God. I can’t help but consider all that exists and feel incredibly small and humbled. My mind meditates on Bible verses like Psalm 139: 17-18 which says, “How incomprehensible to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand!” Indeed, God’s ways and thoughts and creative powers are beyond human comprehension.
And yet, scripture also tells us that even the number of hairs on our heads are known to God, so we need not worry about anything. How can it be both? How can our universe be so HUGE, and yet God knows and cares about each one of us in such a personal, intimate way?
Holding the paradox of feeling so small in the vastness of creation and yet so special and beloved by the Creator is a fun challenge. Trusting in both truths, at the same time, keeps us incredibly humble when it comes to our needs, problems, and fears.
And yet, it should also make us feel incredibly special. The Creator of the estimated 200 billion galaxies in our universe loves us! He loves us just as we are, unconditionally and forever. Let us all savor that bit of mind-blowing good news!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Matt
The Great Physician
Dear Pali Pres Family,
As many of you know, my family and I came down with Covid last week. And although we are all better now and have returned to normal life, the previous ten days have been somewhat, well, harrowing. While the boys never really had any symptoms, Mary and I both felt pretty darn crummy at times. Simply put, being sick is never fun. It is even less fun when you have two little kids who want to do NOTHING but play, even when you just want to rest. Also, let’s face it…being stuck in the same house with the same group of people, for multiple days on end, is a real test of patience and forbearance (no matter how much you love them!).
But as challenging as the past week and half has been at times, I also look back and feel a deep sense of gratitude. It was a real blessing to spend extra time with the people I love most in the world. While I did work during my home isolation (thank God for Zoom…I guess), there was still plenty of time to join the family in doing puzzles, playing board games, baking cookies and muffins, and just watching some fun TV together (I’ll admit, “Nailed It!” and “Floor is Lava” were among our favorites).
I also feel a sense of gratitude that our family is a part of such a loving church community. It has been wonderful for Mary and I to receive your well-wishes and know we were covered in prayer. Additionally, we feel extremely thankful for the great care and tasty meals provided by our dedicated Deacons!
In times of challenge and illness it’s not easy to feel hopeful and resilient. But through this past week I’ve been reminded that love from family and love from a faith community makes such a difference. Jesus is often referred to as the “Great Physician” (see Mark 2: 15-17) and brings us healing in body, mind, and soul. I truly believe that being encouraged with love and prayer from others is certainly a way the Great Physician works to bring about healing and wholeness in each of us.
I look forward to seeing all of you soon!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Matt
Pursuing our Ideals
Dear Pali Pres Family,
As we all know, this past week our country celebrated its birth, which took place on July 4, 1776. For nearly 250 years we as a people have worked to live up to that famous first line of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
As a nation, we continue to pursue this ideal and seek to understand and live out what it means for everyone to be “created equal” with rights that cannot be taken away. Throughout our history this pursuit has often been a struggle, but one that is no doubt worth all our efforts and prayers.
Interestingly enough, this past week also marked the birth of a great American who spent much of his life helping our nation live up to the ideals proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence—Thurgood Marshall. In the landmark 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education, Marshall made the argument that the doctrine of “separate but equal” was a contradiction in terms. “Equal,” Marshall said, “means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place.” Marshall became the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967.
As I reflect on our nation’s history and identity, I am filled with gratitude to God for our blessings and for the great people—such as Thurgood Marshall—who have come before us. I am also filled with prayer and great hope that the Lord will help our nation move into an even brighter future, one filled with equality, justice, and freedom for all.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Matt
Love and Prayer for Our Nation - What Does it Mean?
Dear Beloveds,
We hope that all of you will have a restful and reflective weekend as we celebrate July 4th on Monday. What does it mean to have love for country and to pray for our nation?
In this vein, I would like to share with you a prayer from a book, Talking to God, that I have been enjoying by the Rabbi Naomi Levy. I have used this book this past year after it was recommended to me by a friend at the Cedars-Sinai chaplaincy program.
In it, Rabbi Levy says this:
“God has endowed every single one of us with enormous power. God has entrusted us with a fragile, precious world. We have learned well how to wield our strength to cause tremendous devastation. But God is praying that we will finally learn how to utilize our strengths and to take full custody of our world; that we will learn well how to produce a time of unprecedented blessing.”
Here is an excerpt of the prayer she wrote for peace in our country:
“Let us live in peace, God… Let children live in peace… let them go to school in peace, let them play in peace… let men and women go to work in peace… God, protect us in the air, on the seas, along whatever road we take. Let nations dwell together in peace... Help us God, teach all people of all races and faiths, in all the countries all over the works, to believe that the peace that seems so far off is in fact within our reach... Amen."
With Great Love For You,
Pastor Grace
Juneteenth
Dear Beloveds,
This past week we marked an important day in the life of our nation. Juneteenth, the shortened form of June nineteenth, is also known as Freedom Day. The Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued in 1863, freed enslaved people but the news did not arrive until two years later to the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. It was on June 19th, 1865, when they finally received their freedom.
African Americans have endured deep and lasting pain from this part of our country’s history. The dignity of being human was so damaged as a result of the inhumanity of slavery and has deeply and indelibly affected our fellow humans.
This understanding and knowledge of our country’s history also must have a direct effect on us as believers, in that we must remember that all people were created in God’s image—Imago Dei— the theological understanding of Judeo-Christianity that we were all created to be in God’s likeness. Imago Dei has its roots in Genesis 1:27, and because we understand Imago Dei to be true, we see that it is foundational to seeing human rights and human dignity regardless of our class, race, or gender.
Juneteenth helps us to remember that the horrors of slavery were broken with emancipation. Furthermore, the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus makes the same promise to all of us today—He breaks us free from the shackles of our past, our present sufferings, and all future agonies.
Our God cares for everyone—the oppressed, those who are hurting, those who are without hope. We are all covered in God’s grace, and we can be sustained by the peace that Jesus offers.
Bishop Desmond Tutu once said, “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” Friends, let us remember these words from Proverbs 27:17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Let’s build one another up and see each other as Imago Dei—made in the image of God, and let us be human together.
In Christ’s service,
Pastor Grace
Father's Day and God
Dear Ones,
It was one year ago when my beloved father passed away. It was right before Father’s Day, and I had spent the week before his passing in the hospital with him, by his side, as he prepared to go Home.
In this past year, there has not been a day that has passed in which I have not thought of him, missed him, or have been reminded of him in some small way.
It has been amazing for me to see what triggers my memories of him, whether it is a comforting soup, a beautiful aria from an opera, or even a hummingbird’s eggs in a nest.
I am so thankful for the relationship that I had with my father, and when he left this world, I was utterly grateful that there wasn’t anything that had been left unsaid or undone between us.
He was an amazing and loving father, and I cherish every moment that I had with him in my 57 and his 93 years!
As Father’s Day approaches, this can be the time in which many of us have a lot of different emotions. While many of us will have had wonderful, loving relationships with our fathers, some of us may have had contentious or distanced relationships with them, or many of us might not have known our fathers at all.
Jesus called God, “Abba”, which is a term of intimacy, or sweet endearment. We all, regardless of what our relationships with our earthly fathers are like, can have this same “abba” relationship with God.
Many theologians do not believe it is completely accurate to call God either male or female. However, we can think of God as our father to help us to understand God‘s role in our life, as protector, comforter, guider, ever-loving, ever watchful for us. We can have this abundant experience of true love with God.
I pray that this Father’s Day will be a special one for you, whether it is remembering your father, or reconciling those feelings for your father, or spending the day as a father!
With great love for you,
Pastor Grace
Summer Sermon Series: The Gospel of John
Dear Pali Pres Family,
This coming Sunday we start a new Summer Sermon Series here at PPPC. Pastor Grace and I will lead the congregation through an exploration of the Gospel of John, for many of us our favorite book of the Bible.
As I will talk about more in my sermon on Sunday, the book of John offers us a unique perspective on the life and ministry of Jesus. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), John is especially known for its high Christology. This means that John is particularly focused on Jesus’ divine nature. By contrast, other Gospels (such as Mark) are commonly known for their low Christology (their emphasis on Jesus’ humanity). The result is that John paints a portrait of Jesus’ remarkable divine powers. His promises, miracles, and encounters with others make God feel all the more accessible to us.
As we explore this beloved book of the Bible, I invite you to welcome Jesus into your life in new ways. Many of the stories we will cover will be extremely familiar, while others may be less known to you. Either way, my hope is that you will find God wanting to have a personal and powerful encounter with you through his divine Son, Jesus.
Pastor Grace and I are very excited to set aside this entire summer for a study of the remarkable ministry of Jesus. We hope you will join us in worship as we learn and grow together!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Matt
Deacon Sunday at Pali Pres
Dear Pali Pres Family,
This coming Sunday is Deacon Sunday here at Pali Pres, which is a special opportunity for us to learn more about the deacons of our church and their important ministry. We will also thank them and thank God for their service to our church family.
Some people may not know that the office of deacon was established in the early church to make sure food was distributed to widows and others in need (see Acts 6:1–6). The leader of the first group of deacons was Stephen, whose witness cost him his life (Acts 7). Over time, the role of deacons has been expanded to include a whole variety of acts of service for others. As it says in the PCUSA Book of Order, deacons participate in a ministry of “compassion, witness, and service, sharing in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the lost, the friendless, the oppressed, those burdened by unjust policies or structures, or anyone in distress."
Here at PPPC, the ministry of the deacons includes (but is certainly not limited to) faithfully preparing the Communion table on the first Sunday of the month, visiting and praying for church members who are sick or bereaved, and delivering our Sunday Sanctuary flowers to a church member or friend who is experiencing a life celebration or challenge.
We are blessed as a church to have the caring hearts and arms of our deacons to spread the love and compassion of Jesus. Lord knows our world needs extra doses of love and compassion these days! I hope you will join me and Pastor Grace on Sunday as we recognize this important ministry of our church. How fitting that it is also Pentecost Sunday (remember to wear your red!). Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are all able to minister in the name of Jesus to this world that God loves so much.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Matt
Mourning the Victims in Uvalde
In the wake of the horrifying shooting in Uvalde, Texas, we petition the Lord for comfort for the victims and a future where such evil tragedies no longer exist. May the Lord have mercy upon us all, and guide us on the path of righteousness and peace.
Below is an excerpt from a prayer written by Rev. Dr. Laurie Kraus, Director of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program, following the 2018 shooting in Parkland, FL. Let us join together in prayer:
Oh Christ who said, let the children come to me and do not hinder them, comfort these lost and wounded ones, shelter them and their grieving families under the shadow of your wings. Help us to find the way to free our children from fear that hinders their ability to grow, to thrive. Walk alongside families and friends who now enter the valley of the shadow. Amen.
Coffee at Pali Pres
Dear Pali Pres Family,
I won’t deny it—I was pretty bummed when I heard the rumor. Perhaps you’ve heard it before too. I don’t know how true it is, but the word around town is that Pali Pres has the worst tasting coffee of any church in the Palisades. I know—appalling!
As a coffee lover I feel almost embarrassed. How have I not noticed this before? During our post- worship fellowship time or while at one of our many fellowship events in Janes Hall… was I just so engaged in conversation that my taste buds were completely distracted? Am I putting in so much sugar and cream that it’s masking the problem? I don’t know!
Perhaps you have no personal complaints about the quality of our coffee here at PPPC, which, if so, is great. But I’ve been losing sleep over this issue. A few of my remaining black hairs have turned grey because of this.
So, upon prayer and reflection we’ve decided to make a change here at Pali Pres. Yes, we are upping our coffee game! Starting this week we will enjoy some good coffee after church—strong, rich, aromatic, and fresh! After all, life is too short (and sermons are often too long) to drink bad coffee after church.
On a serious note, the new organic coffee we will offer (both regular and decaf) is from a company called Equal Exchange (shop.equalexchange.coop), which is the oldest and largest Fair Trade coffee company in the US. Equal Exchange is focused on supporting sustainable agricultural projects while also putting small farmers first. This is how they put it:
We partner with farmer cooperatives who are democratically organized, sharing resources and decision making among their members. Collectively, they gain crucial market access and decide how to invest fair trade and organic premiums in their communities. We now source from over 40 small farmer organizations around the world and…develop innovative programs in collaboration with the co-ops, from crop diversification to quality trainings to women's leadership development.
On top of all that, Equal Exchange has great names for their different coffees, such as “Love Buzz,” “Mind, Body, and Soul” and “Post-Church Pick Me Up” (ok, I made that last one up).
I look forward to joining all of you for a good cup of coffee soon here at Pali Pres, as we come together for fellowship and—in a small but important way—support small farmers and their communities.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Matt