Our blog

Children's sermon: Our spiritual home, and Pastor Paul's blog

Good Tuesday to Bethany's families. Here is Pastor Paul's children's sermon identifying things around our spiritual home:

Here is Pastor Paul's message for today:

Dear Bethanians,
The coronavirus pandemic at times seems to devolve into a numbers game.
     How many tests?
     How many cases, in WA/ U.S./globally?
     How many deaths?
     How many states are on shut-down?
     How many more days before physical schools can open?
     How much money to spend to offset the economic damages?
     How is the Dow?
     How many more days of quarantine?
     How many episodes in the latest TV drama?
     How many numbers does pastor want to cite to make his point…

This numbers game becomes a moment of confession for me, the tendency to reduce a crisis into raw numbers, running the danger of losing track of humanity in assigning numerical values.  Don’t get me wrong, such statistics are important as we seek to respond to this health crisis in a meaningful and honest way; they serve a critical purpose.  BUT, also see in every number a mother or father, a daughter or son, a sibling or friend…a child of God. Recognize in each number a neighbor, someone to love.

Stay home, stay connected, keep the faith.

Pastor Paul

Children's sermon: The pastor is sleeping! Plus, Pastor Paul's daily blog

Children, watch this video to see why Pastor Paul is sleeping.

pastor paul: my holy week walk, and how you can participate

Dear Bethanians,

On this Holy Week journey, we together take a pilgrimage to the cross, recognizing there a place of suffering, but also of deep love and hope.  In this spirit, many participate in a “Way of the Cross” walk on Good Friday, to be about active remembering, taking up our cross and following Jesus. 

I remember doing so each year in Milwaukee, where Laurie and I would go with members of our congregations to our partner congregation Reformation Lutheran Church.  In that neighborhood, we would walk, singing hymns and praying at various select locations, which would include drug houses, places where people had been murdered, counseling centers and thrift stores sponsored by social service agencies. We stopped at the local police precinct and gave thanks for the Boys and Girls Club, and we lamented the predatory lending of the check-cashing stores and rent-a-centers.

On Wednesday, I am planning on walking a Holy Week walk from Bethany to Martha and Mary, with a stop at Seekers Ministry and Poulsbo First along the way.  Depending on my energy level, I am hoping to visit the grave of Chief Sealth in Suquamish, a place for me of great inspiration, but also a place with an underlying ache. 

Along the way I will be keeping a keen eye out for places of hope and, yes, places of suffering.  The hope will for sure be the bookends of the walk, Bethany and Martha and Mary, but also the flowers and gardens, the parks and community projects, the bridge that connects us.  As I look for places of sorrow, it may be that many homes I pass may be such places, under social isolation.  Perhaps it will take the shape of a cross along the side of the road, marking a place of tragedy. 

On Wednesday, or whenever the spirit moves you, take some time and visually take that journey from Bethany to Poulsbo, and in your mind’s eye reflect on those places you might identify as places of brokenness and places of hope. Then commit these to God’s care through a prayer, as we make our pilgrimage to the cross.

Pastor Paul