Weekly Update

If we have a hope in Christ only in this life, then we deserve to be pitied more than anyone else. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. – 1 Corinthians 15:19-20

Dear Gatherers,

As many of you know, I keep my rent paid doing communications consulting, with a special emphasis in oncology and infectious disease treatment. Over the years I’ve had the honor of meeting dozens of individuals who are living examples of resurrection. Coming out of cancer, HIV/AIDS, hep C, and other deadly diseases is neither a simple nor painless process. Even with medical advances, mortal combat in one’s own body requires stamina, stubbornness, and—above all else—hope. When I speak with survivors, they often discuss a hope-filled transformative process of resurrection. The side effects may be brutal. But it will be worth it. The complications may be many. But it will be worth it. The demands may be grueling. But it will be worth it. Anticipation drives everything.

When we reduce Easter to a one-off event—a mystical moment when a left-for-dead human opens his eyes to discover he’s been completely transformed to live forever—we miss what resurrection’s purpose is. The prospect of defying death amplifies hope that keeps us alive. Maybe that’s why nobody knows what happens after we cross die; not knowing empowers each of us to shape our own hope with imagination that compels us to push ahead. As Paul says, if all we’re looking at is what we’ve got, we don’t have much. But as so many cancer and infectious disease survivors have taught me, hope keeps us alive if we don’t lose sight of what’s on the other side. Hope makes “living in the moment” possible because it’s never just this moment. It’s also, always what’s next.

This Sunday, we finish our Resurrection People conversation with a focus on hope. Come ready to sing and rejoice and fellowship together. (And bring a mom along; moms know a whole lot about hope!)

Peace, with much love,

Pastor Tim

The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory).  It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead. – 1 Corinthians 15:41-42

Dear Gatherers,

The Early Church’s biggest theological puzzle emerged when figuring out how to make meaning of resurrection. Atonement? Nothing new there. It was an ancient idea played out in ritual sacrifices around the known world. Messiah? The countryside crawled with messianic movements. But resurrection? That was new. And it threw Christians for a loop.

What did it mean? How did it work? When does it happen? Perhaps one of the greatest joys of early Christian literature comes from our ancestors wrestle with these questions. Paul regularly attempts to meet the challenge in his letters—to varying degrees of theological success. But often in his strain he scales poetic heights, as when he explains resurrection’s meaning in First Corinthians. The ultimate hope, Paul says, is a kind of glory that embodies all the stardust we’re made of.

We’re not returned to life to be like everybody else, Paul says. Instead, resurrection empowers each of us to live fully into our divinely created singularity. Unlike earthbound stardom conforming to a “type,” in resurrected stardom, every person shines on their own, holds their own unique place in the universe, doesn’t hesitate to let their light shine.

Resurrected life means full life that Jesus explicitly promised. Everything God placed in you—as well as all the ways your life veered left and right to complete your making—needs to explode and radiate. Rise to this occasion! Be the star God has resurrected you to be!

Peace, with much love,

Pastor Tim

Giving News

Our giving has been solid and we’re grateful for those helping take Gather to its next stage of growth. Throughout May, give thought to a regular tithe or pledge that will enable us to expand our monthly capacity as we plan our move into a settled space. How much can you offer? At our upcoming anniversary, we’ll invite everyone to submit their pledges and tithing commitments. Plan now to be one of our regular givers!

Volunteers

The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part. – Ephesians 4:16

Dear Gatherers,

It’s spring and in our apartment that means indoor gardening. Living in a high-rise apartment, Walt and I don’t have any yard to worry about. But we do have big windows, which means from April until October, our house is a lush lab of fabulous herbs growing on windowsills and bookshelves. It’s something we take very seriously because it gives us so much joy.

As I’ve pulled together our indoor garden this year, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about how Gather is growing. I’ve also thought about how being ecstatically inclusive is a lot like growing a widely varied herb garden. And then I’ve considered how building a healthy, productive community can’t be the work of a select few. It needs to belong to all of us, who put our roots into the rich soil of faith and love, not only tending to our own growth, but working hard to enable others to grow.

I’ve never known a group of folks who better fits Ephesians’ description of a “body [that] makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.” At the same time, I trust we are reaching an awareness that more is being asked of us now than what we literally phoned in during the pandemic. There are physical tasks that must be undertaken. Pulling equipment out of storage. Chairs put into place. Tables stacked with visitors’ cards. Potluck dishes set out. Cleaning up to do. All of which means we need volunteers.

This Sunday, after our monthly YouTube service, we’re going to scoot over to a Zoom meeting to get organized. We’ll ask folks to sign up for specific tasks for the live and online services. We’re going to make the ground of Gather rich for new plants and comfortable for everybody who comes to us looking for growth. It will take all of us. Plan NOW to be with us THIS SUNDAY, at 5pm CDT for worship, with a brief (<30 minute) meeting to follow.

We’re doing church unlike anybody we know. Let’s do it right and do it together. See you on Sunday!

Peace, with much love,
Pastor Tim

CLICK HERE TO BE PART OF SUNDAY’S VOLUNTEER MEETING

Talk to earth, and it will teach you – Job 12:8

Dear Gatherers,

Daniel Cooperrider is a United Church of Christ pastor who grew up in the North Woods of Wisconsin and now lives near Madison. Although I’ve never met him, it feels like he’s become a good friend through his wonderful book Speak to the Earth and It Will Teach You: A Field Guide to the Bible. It appears he’s always been fascinated with nature. As the young pastor of a church in Vermont’, he began connecting the dots between natural scenes in scripture and what those texts may be saying about God and us.

Especially at this time of year, with nature waking up from winter rest, his book is a gift of joy. Rev. Cooperrider reminds us many rivers flow through biblical narratives. Mountains loom large in the story. Winds and clouds, weather and wonder alert our senses to God’s voice, God’s face, God’s breath.

I can think of no finer conversation for this springtime than talking about how God may be seen, imagined, and understood apart from us trifling humans. The earth will teach us if we turn off our phones, leave our cars, move out of our boxed-in spaces to listen. The great American writer Norman Maclean famously said, “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” I share Rev. Cooperrider’s conviction that God is the “one” that results when everything flows together. And the river’s run is God’s life, the river’s music is God’s voice.

Join us on Thursdays at 7:30CDT for conversations about the earth and how we can see God’s image in places we may have overlooked.

Peace, with much love,

Pastor Tim

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in God’s holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false and do not swear deceitfully. – Psalm 24:3-4

Dear Gatherers,

I’m what they call a “manuscript preacher.” I write my sermons word-for-word. At the same time, there are moments when I go “off-book,” as happened last Sunday during our YouTube worship. I found myself comparing Psalm 130’s “song of ascents”—which ancient Israel sang as it climbed the Temple Mount for festival worship—to our own Lenten ascent to Calvary.

The parallels never occurred to me before, although I suspect I’m hardly the first person to make the connection. If you’ve not yet caught up with Sunday’s worship, you should, and I’ll take care to avoid any spoilers here. But ever since that moment during the sermon, I’ve been thinking of Lent as less of a desert crossing (everyone’s favorite metaphor) than a hillside pilgrimage. Around the world, millions of believers are making their way to the mountain, getting closer every day, uniting in one final ascent to marvel at the unfathomable love of God made real on the cross of Jesus.

In ancient Judaism, a song of ascents anticipated the joy to come when God’s people arose in praise. That’s where we get poetry like “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.” More often an ascending song focused on what got left behind to enter God’s presence. Faith in God’s forgiveness enables us to climb this final ascent of Lent with clean hands, pure hearts, self-honesty, and truth-talk. As we move through this week connecting Lent’s climb to Holy Week’s struggles, let’s off-load unnecessary baggage and unhealthy thoughts. There is a hilltop before us, where hatred seeks ruin, but fails spectacularly when Love reigns supreme.

Blessings,

Pastor Tim

Giving News

Have you tried out Givelify yet? It is a wonderful and easy stewardship app that enables you to set a monthly or weekly donation, keep track of your giving, do special one-off contributions. Use the QR code above to get yourself set up so you’ll be able to give every time the Spirit moves you!

I cry out to you from the depths, Lord—my Lord, listen to my voice! – Psalm 130:1

Dear Gatherers,

While we’ve spent Lent in the Psalms, I’ve been preaching for a Disciples of Christ church on Chicago’s North Shore. They’ve been in John’s Gospel, working through very complicated narratives like the Samaritan woman and the man born blind. It’s not surprising that the Psalms and Gospels comment on one another. And digging into these passages has been a special blessing to me.

The Gospel stories are all about transformation. The woman at the well is transformed when Jesus gives her living water. The man born blind is transformed when Jesus gives him new sight. In the background to both stories, we find a grumpy group of Pharisees who seem always upset about something Jesus has done.

Meanwhile, the Psalms are all about forgiveness from sin—texts that the Pharisees surely knew by heart but somehow lost sight of. (Jesus actually accuses them of blindness in the healing story.) And that’s got me thinking lately about ways we may have become blind to forgiveness. What is that experience like—to be forgiven? The writer of Psalm 130 compares it to be lifted from the darkest depths to watch for morning light. That’s a magnificent image we’ll explore more deeply this Sunday on YouTube. For now, let’s take some time and work with that: God has forgiven us, is forgiving us, will always forgive us. What does that mean for us? How does it feel? Let it lift you!

See you on Sunday at 5pm on YouTube!

Peace,

Giving News
We’re grateful for everyone who faithfully offered tithes, monthly contributions, and gifts to sustain Gather’s ministry. Together we gave $5,569, enabling us to meet our expenses and put some in reserve to prepare for our move into a settled space. If you’re not a regular Gather supporter, we encourage you to join in.

If only you would listen. – Psalm 95:7

Dear Gatherers,

During this season of reflection, many of my morning devotions have me playing longtime favorite songs: Carole King’s “I Think I Can Hear You” (https://youtu.be/c49cLWnsei0) or Amy Grant’s “All I Ever Have to Be” (https://youtu.be/JWcU5t0VRw8). Aside from their greatness as musicians (and people), what I love most about Carole and Amy’s music is how honest they are. In both songs, they’re unabashed about letting God know what’s on their minds, and they sit quietly to hear God’s reply. These are not burning bush revelations. They’re not even still, small voice whisperings. What both singers discover comes from deep inside them—something they’ve probably known a long time, but haven’t taken the time or made the space to hear.

As I’ve said so many times, prayer is not a customer service line. It’s a conversation and for it to work in a meaningful way, we have to insert some silence to hear what the Spirit wants us to know. Prayer is, in every way, a mystical practice that we habitually try to normalize into something sensical. But prayer is sensory. It’s a way to examine our feelings and enable our Creator to offer truer ways of being. I don’t think either of these music icons would call herself a “prayer warrior” and yet they both have great insight into what praying is for and what it can accomplish. Click on the tunes. Sing along. Pray. Listen. Learn.

Peace,

Pastor Tim

PS: And watch for a FB link later this evening to our weekly Lenten prayer video. D’Angelo Smith will be leading us in a prayer experience that will bless us all!

Giving News

We’re grateful for everyone who faithfully offered tithes, monthly contributions, and gifts to sustain Gather’s ministry. Together we gave $5,569, enabling us to meet our expenses and put some in reserve to prepare for our move into a settled space. If you’re not a regular Gather supporter, we encourage you to join in. This is a pivotal time for us, and consistent giving will enable us to live into everything God desires for us as a community and individuals.

I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it. – Mark 10:15

Dear Gatherers,

I believe childhood is to life what spring is to the seasons—a time of warming up to the world, of fresh thoughts coming to life, new feelings and experiences taking root in one’s spirit. Once summer arrives with its heat and fall ushers in the chill, much of that freshness gets lost if we don’t protect it.

Jesus loved children because youth enabled them to see clearly. Jesus loved to learn from them because children are natural born teachers. Perhaps that’s why Jesus often speaks of repentance as a return to childhood. Repentance calls us back to the humility and joy that accompany youthfulness. Last week Angela Tarrant gathered a group of young ones for a little call-and-response prayer service. She’s sharing that with us this week as our second Lenten Prayer exercise. Let yourself repent to childhood days of singing and praying. Enjoy!

Peace,

Pastor Tim

Giving News

We’re delighted to add a new stewardship channel to Gather. We’re now on Givelify, enabling us to use a church-friendly app for easier giving. This is in response to several folks who were frustrated by not having a third option. Take a moment to scan the Q-R code and register. God is good to all of us, and it’s a blessing to share together in this work!

It is good to give thanks unto the Lord… The Lord is righteous. God is my rock. – Psalm 92

Dear Gatherers,

Moving into these first weeks of Lent feels a little like returning to school after summer break. We know the drill. We just have to get back into practice. And if we’re lucky, not only will we learn new things; we’ll acquire new and improved skills. That’s what we’re hoping for at Gather. We’re taking time to learn more about prayer from folks who know a thing or two about it.

We start with Wilbert Watkins beautifully leading us toward the prayer practice of gratitude. His thoughts on this topic are a true blessing. Carve out 15 minutes to spend with Wilbert. He’s got a special gift for us and we’re grateful that he’s shared it! Click below to access the video.

Peace, with much gratitude,

Pastor Tim

Giving News

We’re delighted to add a new stewardship channel to Gather. We’re now on Givelify, enabling us to use a church-friendly app for easier giving. This is in response to several folks who were frustrated by not having a third option. Take a moment to scan the Q-R code and register. God is good to all of us, and it’s a blessing to share together in this work!