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Dear Gatherers,

No matter where the story is set and who the lead character may be—whether princess, fawn, or lion cub—the formula remains the same. Life is fine until an evil force disrupts everything. There’s usually a curse or test of some kind, a villain lurking in the shadows, a need for love to light the way. Then (very quickly, with great fanfare) the pieces come together. Things aren’t merely restored to normal; they’re even better than before! Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme…

Disney may be the happy ending’s greatest merchandizers, but they surely didn’t invent it. Research shows we’re hard-wired to expect things will end better than they started. If stories and experiences end on a sour note, we avoid returning to them no matter how much pleasure we had prior to the final turn. So, in a way, it’s understandable why the Book of Job’s editors want a happy ending. Over and over, Job insists his faithfulness has no ulterior motive. He’s not in it for the blessings. He knows he’s not being punished because he’s done no wrong. And yet, in the end, the book contrives to give him more than he started out with. His faithfulness is rewarded.

This raises some very interesting questions. Is our insistence on happy endings a biological compulsion we can’t override? Would we even be reading this story if it were left in its apparent original form—a long, unwieldy conversation about divine justice—without the riches-to-rags/rags-to-riches framework that likely was added later? Is faithfulness for its own sake even possible if we can’t help expecting a big finale?

This coming Thursday we’ll end what has been one of our most challenging and exciting series yet, looking at big questions we’ve encountered in Job. The happy ending may actually be in what we discover about our own faithful living! Join us at 7:30p CST for another great discussion.

Peace and blessings,
Pastor Tim

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Dear Gatherers,

Not long after finishing undergrad I fell into a high-school teaching job. That had not been my plan, nor had I trained for it. It began as a favor for a friend who taught at a private academy. Their English teacher had been dismissed and they just needed someone to supervise his classes until the end of term. They invited me to join the faculty fulltime, which meant I needed to become more than the guy taking attendance. I filed through memories of my favorite high school teachers. Each of them established their role as instructors and ours as learners, subtly sending the message of who was in charge. That seemed smart and it turned out to be very useful for my students and me. The lines were clear.

Last Thursday, we heard God do something very similar. In YHWH’s first speech to the despondent Job, the message is pretty plain: “I’ve got the plan and it’s bigger than you. Your comfort will come when you find your place in the bigger scheme of Creation.” To which Job—like the best kind of student—tells his teacher: “Got it.” But in this coming Thursday’s passage, Job 40-42:6, God takes things further, focusing the discussion on two mysteriously powerful, completely unmanageable creatures, Behemoth and Leviathan. Reams of paper have been spent on speculation about what exactly these beasts might be. Are they found in nature or myth? Nobody knows. But there’s an oddly comforting message underneath: We can never overpower the chaos of life. Nature alone is full of forces beyond our control. And there are situations—beasts, if you will—that we might think we can manage, only to find out they’re too much for us.

This week we wrap up God and Job’s dialogue with some big monsters and really big ideas. Join us on Thursday at 7:30p CST as we hear what God has to say about life’s chaos and how we confront it. See you then!

Peace,

Pastor Tim

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Dear Gatherers,

As most of you know, we had a real “Job moment” this week with an unexpected death in our family. While Kevin was not an active member of Gather, his mother, Marcella, has been a major contributor to life of our community and the suddenness of his passing was devastating. It also raised questions that often accompany profoundly sorrowful, life-altering events. Why did God let this happen? What could have been done to avoid this? Where was God? Where is God?

Legitimate Job questions in a legitimate Job moment.

There are no good answers to these questions—at least none that quell our confusion during times of loss and distress. And part of our struggle comes with recognizing a profound truth: God is not one of us. By virtue of God’s “higher power” and “creative right” and “sovereign governance” of time and governance, God’s perspective is uniquely God’s own. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t concerned about our emotional, spiritual, and physical welfare. But even how we view those matters is inherently—radically—different.

The gap between God’s knowledge and what we know is so great any time we try to make allowances for it, our acknowledgments tend to sound shallow and unfeeling. For instance, saying “God knows best” to someone in deep pain is technically true. But it offers little or no consolation to the suffering person. If God really knows best, why is this happening? For that, we have no good answer because we simply don’t know. As a friend of mine often puts it, “That’s above my pay grade!”

Job has deflected his friends’ simplistic theology with questions many of us found ourselves asking over the weekend. In this week’s study, God finally shows up and the conversation is, well, a bit one-sided, as God brings Job into the divine realm of responsibility and concern. It’s not an easy read, or an easy answer. Yet I would also argue that accepting there are enormous differences between God and us enables us to recognize there’s a lot more going on than we can see or comprehend. May take our egos a few minutes to learn to live with that. But in the end, I think it helps us reach peaceful acceptance of life’s tragedies, as well as opens our eyes to many miracles we might not otherwise see.

This week we hear from God as our Job study continues. Join us this Thursday at 7:30pm CST to find out what God has to say. (For a sneak peek, read Job 38-40:5.) See you online!

Blessings,

Pastor Tim

Dear Gatherers,

It is always good to have reliable counsel—the wise aunt, the truth-telling friend, the empathetic cousin. And we should cultivate these relationships, making sure we spend time with trusted folks, not just when we need them, but also when things are good. We can learn a great deal observing wise people from a more casual perspective. When problems aren’t blocking our sight, we get a better view to notice how they do things. We catch subtleties in their responses. We admire their passions and detachment. Hard to see that when you’re preoccupied with your troubles.

When it’s always about us, it’s hard to benefit from wisdom God places around us. Maybe a little less time spent with the “fun crowd” (i.e., folks who sympathize automatically and spout off conventional guidance). Perhaps a little more time with the more difficult “wise crowd,” watching how they do, seeing how they interact, learning to appreciate the arts of balance and patience.

The tensions in Job arise from a prudence deficit. His three “consolers” spout off simplistic explanations and theories that don’t satisfy. Thankfully, a younger man shows up to offer a new perspective. He’s bold and honest, a person whose integrity and worldview jibe with Job. His passion gives weight to his words and his detachment gives them credibility. Fresh outlooks will do that. They’ll challenge our approaches and opinions, shake us where we assumed we were surest. And, in the end, they’ll hone our appreciation for wisdom and candor as we realize they’re much more healing than sympathy and sentiment.

Join us this Thursday evening as a new character comes on the scene and we get a lesson in “what good looks like.” Our conversation begins at 7:30pm CST via Zoom. See you then!

Peace and blessings,

Pastor Tim

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Dear Gatherers,

In a former life as a marketing exec, I spent a chunk of time doing pro bono work for non-profits. That put me in touch with a lot of very rich people and clogged my calendar when gala season ran full throttle. Every other week found me suiting up for another long evening of silent auctions, fancy food, and congratulatory speeches about how the charity worked wonders for folks who couldn’t possibly afford to go to these events. I began to notice, other than the speakers, nobody talked much about the plight of the poor between sips of Champagne. Guests spent their time bragging about pricey vacations, kids in private schools, high-end purchases, and so on. (It really is like in the movies, only quieter.) Then there was always the uneasy moment when someone who’d been helped by the charity spoke. The audience would well up with tears, a standing ovation would follow, and the poor person would be invited to stay for a little bit—but not too long. So often I left these shindigs with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quote in my ears: “The rich are different from you and me.”

The deeper we get into Job’s story, the easier it is to forget Job started out as a very rich man and much of what he goes through is a life of unlearning. Last week’s study pointed out how his buddies kept tossing theology at him, explaining his problem in theory, while he pushed back, saying, “That’s not how it works.” And while Job might have been a gala regular in his heyday, concrete experience has reordered his thinking. His struggle has forced him to regard the suffering of others in very real, concrete, lived-in ways.

This week’s discussion is all about one of the age-old questions of justice: How can a loving God allow suffering? But Job complicates the issue by moving us away from an objective understanding of grief and poverty into their actualities. Are there ways we can get closer to the suffering of others? Hopefully, we’ll end our time together with a few ideas about that. Join us at 7:30p CST via Zoom by clicking the link below.

I look forward to what you all will bring to the conversation!

Peace, with gratitude,
Pastor Tim

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As we announced in last week’s newsletter and Bible study, I’m asking everyone to set aside this coming Saturday from 10a-11:30a CST for an important vision meeting. During this time, we’ll get updated on last year’s activities and business, as well as prayerfully consider what our next steps should be going forward. Obviously, the pandemic through a wrench in several projects we were just beginning to undertake. Despite that, we have been faithful and continued to grow in a variety of ways.

There are several questions before us at this juncture:

• How do we build on the community we’ve created during the pandemic to expand our reach in communities we’re called to serve?
• What kinds of relationships should we consider forging from a denominational standpoint?
• What connections have we made in social justice and activist circles and how do we strengthen or secure them?
• What kinds of additional support do we need to draw more people, talent, and resources into our community?

We also have some ideas we want to discuss about our next phases as a worshiping and learning community. How can we expand our reach, amplify our voice, and increase our frequency of engagement? What talents and ideas might you have to create new channels and outlets to help Gather usher in its new life after the pandemic? There’s plenty of room and opportunity for everyone to bring their best!

God has been so good to us. And we couldn’t have come this far without your faithful participation, creativity, prayer, and giving. It’s time to get ready for the next phase, when we throw our doors open and welcome many more into this great group of people!

I look forward to seeing you all at 10a CST on Saturday

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THIS WEEK IN JOB

Our weekly discussions from the Book of Job have been enlightening and, rather surprisingly, uplifting! This week we get to know Job’s buddies a little better—the three neighbors who drop by to console him and accompany him in his troubles. What they’ve got to say will sound very familiar to our postmodern ears, because they’re traditionalists to a fault. (One of them actually says, “You need to be more like the old folks!”) So this week, we uncover tensions between what’s always worked and what needs to work now. It’s an age-old problem in religion, where the compulsion to get things settled once and for all clashes with honest confession that sometimes long-accepted notions about God and suffering and justice don’t work. Read Job 8-17 (it flies by) and come ready to have another lively conversation this Thursday evening at 7:30 CST.

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Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand how I have gone wrong.
How forceful are honest words!
But your reproof, what does it reprove?”

Job 6:24-25

Dear Gatherers,
Every now and then I find myself working away, when for no apparent reason, I get an incomprehensible ERROR message—something like “The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code = 50).” Talk about overstating the obvious! Clearly, there’s a problem. But what have I done to cause it and how can it be fixed? That’s when things get frustrating, because now I’m searching for answers from people who clearly don’t think or talk like me. My impatience skyrockets. I feel stupid and helpless and, frankly, disrespected. If someone would simply explain what’s gone wrong in layman’s terms, I’d know how to rectify my predicament. But how do I fix my situation if I can’t make any sense of the message?
That’s where we find Job this week. After he’s lost everything except his life, three friends drop by to sit with him. They wait for him to start the conversation, which begins with something we can all relate to: I wish I’d never been born! The first of his friends, Eliphaz, jumps in, no doubt feeling good about the advice he’s offering. Yet it only frustrates Job more. All of Eliphaz’s talk about God’s supreme wisdom and power and human inadequacy doesn’t compute. It’s like those ERROR messages, only worse, because Job’s life crashed, not his laptop.
Not all God-talk is good talk. Sometimes people get so busy defending God they miss what’s really needed: a shoulder to lean on or an honest friend who says, “I don’t get it either.” This week’s look at Job’s dilemma continues with what will be a very long and complicated chat. As we eavesdrop on Job and his buddies, I believe we’ll also find tools for dealing with ERROR messages that frustrate our own faith—as well as wisdom about how to avoid the kind of God-talk that isn’t good talk.
The conversation starts this Thursday at 7:30p CST on Zoom. Click below to join in. I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Peace and blessings,
Pastor Tim

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Happy New Year Gatherers!

We start 2022 with a wallop, looking into one of the Bible’s oldest (maybe the oldest) and most difficult books—the Book of Job. Nearly everybody knows a little bit about Job. He’s the good guy who loses everything for no good reason. (Actually, he’s the unwitting pawn in a macabre wager between God and God’s adversary.) The Book of Job, then, is often characterized an ancient take on When Bad Things Happen to Good People. That’s one way of looking at it, since Job suffers unbearable hardship yet remains unable to explain why. Presumed laws of cause-and-effect don’t seem to apply here, although his friends think they know better. (Spoiler alert: they don’t.)

Still, what’s the point, if this Bible book can’t offer any real solace or solution to our quandaries about loss and grief, pain and injustice? The great Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez has a very interesting take that will serve as the starting point for our two-month study of Job. He says the book’s driving theme is something he calls “disinterested religion”—a faith that isn’t tethered to fear of retribution or hope of reward, a belief that simply stands on its own as a right and just way to be.

It’s an intriguing and timely idea at time when so much of our lives is framed by WIIFM (What’s In It for Me?), especially religion that too often coerces people into conformity through threats and promises. What would it be like to live faithful and just lives with no expectation of divine reward and completely without fear of God’s wrath? It’s hard to imagine a more liberating idea!  As we’ll see, it’s such a radical thought it challenges nearly everything we thought we knew about faith, God, life, and ourselves. (To get a head start, you should read Job chapters 1 and 2.)

Make sure you’re with us from the first discussion in Job. It’s going to be a thrilling time! We meet every Thursday evening at 7:30 CST via Zoom. Click the button below to access the study. I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Peace and blessings,

Pastor Tim

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YOUR JOB MOMENTS

During our study of Job, we want to learn how closely his story reflects our own experiences. Each week we’ll ask a question and invite you to dash off a quick reply to Chris White, who’ll facilitate a group discussion about our own Job Moments. You don’t need to be eloquent or profound. Just a few sentences he can refer to as he leads the conversation. This week’s question is (drum roll):

Have you ever felt like a pawn in a cosmic game of good and evil?

 What happened and what made you feel that way?

Email your replies to Chris White at chris.white.66@gmail.com.

Dear Gatherers,

The story of King David and Bathsheba feels like it could be a 21^st-century headline. It’s the start of a battle season—and David has sent his troops to war, while he stays back in Jerusalem, ostensibly doing all the strategic thinking. One night he’s on his palace roof, mulling things over, when he sees a beautiful woman taking her bath. David has messengers bring her to him, forces himself on her, and sends her back home to her husband.

It’s a tale as old as time—a sickening familiar example of male entitlement run amok, corrupt power, and the kind of sexual abuse that, in our time, would dominate the news for days on end. Sadly, Bathsheba in a culture where what she suffers is almost expected. The king fancies an attractive woman and takes her. Such are the ways of kings in the Bronze Age. But God sees this sin and the story of Bathsheba takes quite a few surprising twists until she becomes inscribed in David’s dynastic line, and her memory is celebrated in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus.

As the great 20^th century theologian Karl Barth famously taught, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” The story of Bathsheba gives us a #metoo story that demonstrates divine disgust with sexual violence, regardless how palatial its surroundings, as well as a call for justice that changes the course of history. This week, we’ll conclude our study of the matriarchs on Jesus’s family tree with Bathsheba. Without her, there’s no telling what Judaism or its stepchild Christianity would look like. Her role is just that significant. (For a preview, read 2 Samuel 11:1-12:24 and 1 Kings 1:1-31.)

Join us this Thursday at 7:30pm CST for the last Bible study of 2021 as we get to know this amazing woman who refused to be a victim of masculine privilege. She has plenty to teach us!

With blessings for a wonderful holiday,

Pastor Tim

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