01/25/2026

    I would like to take a moment this week to express my deep appreciation for the extended time away that the congregation was willing to offer me following the death of my grandmother, which allowed me to travel down to Virginia for her funeral. Many thanks to Jaye Lee and John for delivering the messages on Sundays I was absent, and to all of the members of the congregation who sent cards and texts and prayers. All the support you have shown during this difficult time of grieving has been a meaningful demonstration of support.

    As we begin to enter the next phase of getting to know each other, please know that I am greatly looking forward to learning about each of you as individuals, and to learning about the hopes you have for the future of this congregation and the challenges you perceive the church is facing. Over the coming months, I would ask each member of the congregation to reflect on how they would answer the following questions:

    1. What do you love about the Anderson Church of the Brethren?

    2. What are the values of the Anderson congregation? (How would you describe the congregation to your neighbor on an airplane?)

    3. If you were granted one wish and could change anything about the congregation, what would you do with that wish?

    As we move forward together in discernment for what God may be calling Anderson to next, may we do so with open hearts and listening ears, knowing that God walks with us.

01/18/2026

~ PARISHONER’S NOTE ~

Provided by Jaye Rogers

Mary Oliver (1935-2019), during her lifetime, was the best-selling poet in the United States. Her poems combine her deep and welcoming faith with nature, where she found beauty in all of God's creation. 

"Making the House Ready

for the Lord"

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but

still nothing is as shining as it should be

for you. Under the sink, for example, is an

uproar of mice -- it is the season of their

many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves and through the walls the squirrels

have gnawed their ragged entrances -- but it is the season when they need shelter,

so what shall I do? And

the raccoon limps into the kitchen

and opens the cupboard

while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;

what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling in the yard,

and the fox who is staring boldly

up the path, to the door. And still I believe

you will come, Lord:   

you will, when I speak to the fox,

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering

sea-goose, know

that really I am speaking to you

whenever I say,

as I do all morning and afternoon:

Come in, Come in.

01/11/2026

~ PARISHONER’S NOTE ~

Mary Oliver (1935-2019), during her lifetime, was the best-selling poet in the United States. Her poems combine her deep and welcoming faith with nature, where she found beauty in all of God's creation. 

"Making the House Ready

for the Lord"

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but

still nothing is as shining as it should be

for you. Under the sink, for example, is an

uproar of mice -- it is the season of their

many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves and through the walls the squirrels

have gnawed their ragged entrances -- but it is the season when they need shelter,

so what shall I do? And

the raccoon limps into the kitchen

and opens the cupboard

while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;

what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling in the yard,

and the fox who is staring boldly

up the path, to the door. And still I believe

you will come, Lord:   

you will, when I speak to the fox,

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering

sea-goose, know

that really I am speaking to you

whenever I say,

as I do all morning and afternoon:

Come in, Come in.

01/04/2026

The Magi              by Malcolm Guite

It might have been just someone else's story;

Some chosen people get a special king,

We leave them to their own peculiar glory, 

We don't belong, it doesn't mean a thing.

But when these three arrive

they bring us with them,

Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours; 

A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,

A pilgrim's eye that sees beyond the stars.

They did not know his name

but still they sought him

They came from otherwhere

but still they found;

In palaces they found those

who sold and bought him,

But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.

Their courage gives our

questing hearts a voice

To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.

It could have so easily been a gift for a chosen few, the wondrous gift of God’s embodied self. Only for a select group of people, the VIPs. However, the love of God turned out to be far more radical than that. It included everyone, even the people we’d rather it didn’t, and most shockingly it included us. In the magi we can see ourselves, in our own long and often unexpected search for God. It is not surprising to us that we are forever reaching out toward God, but every year, every week, every hour, this very moment, I continue to be blown away by the fact that God is reaching out to us, too.

Happy Epiphany Everyone!

12/28/2025

A New Year's Prayer  by Joyce Rupp

God, surprise us again.

When we miss the beauty and the joy of earth's goodness.
When we grow too accustomed to life's busyness.
When the goodness of others gets lost in the rush.
When our frailty outruns our strength.
When the hope in our heart fades away.
When the call to serve others loses its flavor.
When we search for the way home to you.
When loneliness pursues us.
When it seems the darkness will never give way to

the light.

 
When the ache of the world wears our compassion thin. 

When the troubles of others seem more than we can carry.       

When even you seem far away from us. 

Walk closely with us, God.
As we strive to live our lives well.
As we enjoy the treasures we've found in the field

of faith.  

As we continue to surrender ourselves to you.
As we journey into the unknown territory of a new year.
As we hurt in the process of loving our enemies.
As we learn to accept our weaknesses and our strengths.
As we open our hearts to the messengers you

send to us.

1As we give ourselves to the poor and the powerless.
As we keep searching for the truth.
As we try to live in the heart of the scriptures.
As we accept your constant love for us. seeks us out no matter where we are, how prepared we are, and what kind of headspace we are in. Merry Christmas!

12/21/2025

Sometimes, the Advent & Christmas season arrives with joy and singing. We feel prepared and are excited about the prospect of seeing family and spending time with friends. Our homes look festive and welcoming, and our hearts are open and ready to receive all the blessing this season has to offer us. Other times, though, we arrive at this season with little enthusiasm. We are frustrated by the holiday disruptions to the regular patterns of our lives, knowing by the end of it all we will be even more behind on things than we were before. All we can see before us is endless to-do lists and the overwhelming crush of expectations we can never live up to.

    The flawless image of the nativity scene at the center of our imaginations is often where we go wrong in our expectant thinking. That perfect image of a calm and bright Christmas. It sounds great on the page and in our imaginations, but let’s be honest, Christ’s arrival was pure chaos. A dung-smelling, filthy birthing room after an exhausting journey to a place Joseph and Mary were forced by governmental decree to go to, followed by playing host to strangers arriving with tales of terrifying angels and thrusting expectations on a child only hours old. There was no order, limited preparedness, and everybody was just doing the best they could with what was in front of them.

    And yet, the in-breaking of God’s love arrived anyway, just as it does today. A love that doesn’t wait for the perfect time and setting. A love that seeks us out no matter where we are, how prepared we are, and what kind of headspace we are in. Merry Christmas!

12/14/2025

After Annunciation 

by Madeleine L’Engle

“This is the irrational season
when love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
there’d have been no room for the child.”

    Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us, was not a rational solution to the world’s problems in the 1st century Roman empire. Today, in our own time of struggles for power and crushing inequity, it is just as irrational. Everything about God’s love for us and this world defies all rationality. We cannot comprehend such a love. We fail at every attempt to wrap our minds around it, and in our clumsy efforts to do so, we often find ourselves trying to make it smaller than it really is. We want to define it, to categorize it, to place boundaries on it so that it won’t expand beyond the grasp of our understanding or the limits of our comfort concerning who we think should receive it. 

    But Mary recognized God’s love for exactly what it was. Why else would she risk such scandal as a teenage woman, in a time when it would likely have cost her own life? It seems to be the irrationality and joy of deep faith rather than the rationality of a “what might this cost me” mindset. Mary seems to understand L’Engle’s poem. She understands about love blooming “bright and wild.” And so she makes room for God’s wild and uncontainable love, no matter the risk. 

    How will you risk being the bearer of God’s wild, irrational love this week?

12/07/2025

Remembering the Sacred Presence of

the One Who Dwells Among Us

by Joyce Rupp

May we look for your goodness in people who seem least likely to carry your love.

May we behold your radiance in ones we quickly pass by at home or work.

May we discover your love in our deeper self when we feel unloving and irritable.

May we embrace you in the persons whose faithfulness we take for granted.

May we see your empathy and those serving the wounded of the world.

May we recognize your courage in the valiant people who speak out for justice. 

May we notice your non-judgmental acceptance of those who keep an open mind.

May we search for your gentleness when it is covered with harshness in another.

May we observe your generosity in every gift we receive, no matter how small it is.

May we reveal your mercy when we pardon someone for having turned against us.

May we welcome your joy in the delightful voices and happy play of children.

May we convey your compassion when we visit those with illness and poor health.

May we detect your patience in those who put up with our impatience and hurry.

May we unite with your peace hidden beneath the layers of the world’s disharmony.

11/30/2025

Wishing everyone a wonderful and warm Thanksgiving this week. May you and your families feel surrounded by the love of God as you gather around whatever table you find yourself a part of this year.

Blessings #29

by Sharon Bridgforth

Remember

you are not poor.

Your wealth is Infinite.

It is ever present.

It cycles and circles and ebbs and flows

and shows itself in traditions

in food

in music

in health

in relationships

in creativity

in passion

in curiosity

in laughter

in your finances

in the children

in animals

in learnings

in Spirit

in Nature

in the prayers paving the road you walk.

Relish the Journey

11/23/2025

     My life has always had a lot of transition. It’s one of the things that pastor’s kids and military kids have in common. Moving from place to place, meeting new people (and losing them too), and constantly having to learn the new procedures and expectations of new schools, neighborhoods, and even churches. As a kid, I dreamed of a day when I could grow up and choose my own home and pattern of living. I was going to buy a big house with a bunch of land in a community I loved, and I was just going to stay there forever and never move again! I just wanted to find that perfect place where I belonged. A place that God would pronounce as my forever home. However, life, as they say, is what happens when you are making other plans, and it is clear by the fact that in the last 5 years (well into my adulthood) we have moved 3 times that God had other ideas for my life. 

     Over the years, I have instead found myself learning about the practice of making home wherever I find myself. Of practicing hospitality even when I am the stranger and the newbie. It is an act of faith on my part. A faith that even as I am making a home for myself in a new place, I am also making a home for God there, too. It is a spiritual practice of attempting to embody the face of God for others who might also find themselves in a season, or lifetime, of wandering. To be the hands and feet of Christ in whatever neighborhood or community I find myself.

11/16/2025

On Dunino’s Kirk

A path leads to Dunino’s Kirk,

Overgrown with branches

       trying to pull you back,

You can travel by the main road, of course,

But it seems harder to reach the Kirk that way.

It is a wee place of piled stones

On foundations laid eight hundred years ago,

Before we were even conceived.

The stones are still older.

A Druid site was here I’m told

Before the Christians came

The Stones remember them still

Those cruel sons of nature.

Their stones stand now in the Kirk wall

Incised with Celtic crosses,

Sanctified with baptismal water,

Long since returned to the earth.

The sanctuary remembers its lost saints

With broken notches in the facing wall

Opposite the prayer desk

Knox’s faithful sons stand in inscribed rows.

Its current son goes about in kilt and sporran

With a dirk in his sock.

He is a Scot to the skin

Even under his ministerial robes.

It is now past four hundred years

Since men first drank at the Reformer’s Well.

The Kirk has stood and spoke its gospel

To those rude farmers.

It is the village Kirk.

It will not grow.

It will not die.

It is content to be faithful.

                       ~ L. Spencer Spaulding

11/09/2025

I use my various coffee mugs as memory prompts. Every morning, I choose one that brings a memory of a person, place and time, or an idea I need to reflect upon. Some are funny and cheer up my day. One reads, “Happiness is a cup of coffee and a good book”. I am looking for one that says,  
“All I need is a book and a good cup of coffee.” Silly, I know, but it makes me chuckle.

   One says, “Blessed” and another reads “Let it go.” When I first saw it, I imagined that it meant let go of things like anger, or past hurts, or revenge. I was thinking that the phrase “let it go” was about releasing all the pain and problems of the past. But lately as I have contemplated my retirement, which is fast approaching, I have thought about “Let it go” from a different vantage point. Now I know that I must let go of a role in a congregation I have come to love. My wonderful experience of working as your pastor is the opposite of any painful experience of the past. It is rather a treasured, even sacred time which is among the treasures of my life.

   The future for me and for all of you is in the loving hands of God and we can rejoice at what has been and rejoice at what will yet be.  The path of God’s blessing is still before us as it always will be.

11/02/2025

This is the month of Thanksgiving. It is Harvest-time’s end.  As the hymn, Come Ye Thankful People, Come states it, “All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin.” Many of the leaves have fallen, and the corn and grain have been harvested.  “Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.”  For some this is a time that can seem a depressing end of the year.  So a time of expressing the goodness of the preceding year and celebrating the abundance of God’s blessing with the savory and sweet tastes of that abundance is quite appropriate, even if the table is groaning from that abundance as we ourselves may also be. 

     Celebration is a gift from God which we share with each other reminding us we need not fear the winter’s blast in the warmth of the Heavenly Father’s love. It is a time of sharing, an opportunity to care for those who may be in need, and to plan to help beyond this season when the real needs may be manifest.  This year with rising cost of groceries and other necessities there will be more hungry people among us than perhaps in recent memory. The richest among us will fare alright while Jesus’ words, “the poor will always be among you,” are going to  be proven yet again. The gospel of Jesus Christ is aimed at the whole person with the goal that all persons may be fully whole.

     I am thankful when I am able to share even a cup of water in the name of Jesus. I remember, “I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.” I have never done as much of this as I should have, but every year Thanksgiving reminds me to consider deeply what I have done for others.

10/26/2025

While I was taking a break from clearing out my office at the church, I found a copy of a collection of early post-New Testament writings called The Apostolic Fathers. These are writings by largely second century followers of the first century Apostles and leaders. One of the writings was from Clement, Bishop of Rome from A.D. 92-101. It is a letter to the church in Corinth. Many years earlier, the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth to address the disunity and problems in the congregation. Apparently, they had heeded Paul’s instruction and solved the problems. The result was a very long and effective ministry with a good reputation. Unfortunately, jealousy of the leadership had again resulted in conflict and disunity. In the letter called “First Clement”, the bishop writes to help deal with the problems, reminds them of the dangers in disunity, and makes recommendations for solutions to the conflict. As I was rereading the letter, I noticed the remarkable references to scripture in both Old and New Testaments.  The tone is firm, but loving and pastoral. We have little other information about the disunity or if the bishop’s admonitions were followed, but the spirit of the letter is supportive and obviously expects a positive response. Even early on, there were difficult times for the growing church, but faithful leaders and God’s grace was present. As it was, so it still is now.

10/19/2025

    Scripture says we are to “pray without ceasing”.  I wondered for a long time how that should be understood. There are few things that I do without ceasing. My heart keeps on beating without ceasing. Even when I am sleeping, my brain keeps on working and will wake me if I stop breathing. However, I am not really conscious that these things are happening.

    Prayer would seem to involve some engagement, some thought. How can it be unceasing? Perhaps prayer is also about what direction I am facing. I am not always conscious that God is present, but I know that God is always there. If my whole life is turned in His direction, He is always present with me and I am always present with Him. It is not so much that I am conscious every moment of his closeness, but I am always connected to Him. Over short moments I can concentrate on prayer, but even in the long view my attitude and intention is prayerful.

    Perhaps praying without ceasing is not about concentrated prayer but rather an attitude that is constantly turned toward God in every moment, conscious and even unconscious. That kind of prayer I might be able to do without ceasing.

10/12/2025

Scripture says we are to “pray without ceasing”.  I wondered for a long time how that should be understood. There are few things that I do without ceasing. My heart keeps on beating without ceasing. Even when I am sleeping, my brain keeps on working and will wake me if I stop breathing. However, I am not really conscious that these things are happening.

    Prayer would seem to involve some engagement, some thought. How can it be unceasing? Perhaps prayer is also about what direction I am facing. I am not always conscious that God is present, but I know that God is always there. If my whole life is turned in His direction, He is always present with me and I am always present with Him. It is not so much that I am conscious every moment of his closeness, but I am always connected to Him. Over short moments I can concentrate on prayer, but even in the long view my attitude and intention is prayerful.

    Perhaps praying without ceasing is not about concentrated prayer but rather an attitude that is constantly turned toward God in every moment, conscious and even unconscious. That kind of prayer I might be able to do without ceasing.

10/05/2025

    Many of us have attacks of nostalgia when we remember past experiences. Sometimes our memories are a bit distorted by the passing of time. Without even meaning to do so, we may change our feelings, even about painful events. This can be an advantage when we understand a past event from a new perspective. Our earlier experience may be modified by our later insight and maturity. It can at times be the path to forgiveness when we see a past hurt in a new light.

    At other times we may cast a halo over the past that does not match its reality. The touchy grandmother may become, in our memory, the beacon of warmth and affection. Sometimes “the good ol’ days” may be more a figment of our imagination than an actual reality.

     Something similar happened to the people of Israel under Moses. God’s rescue of His people from their slavery in Egypt was a glorious tale of deliverance and joy, but those forty years of wilderness wandering caused them to look back at the time in Egypt with nostalgia. They complained to Moses remembering the leeks and garlic that they had eaten in Egypt and were dissatisfied with the ”boring manna”. They had forgotten the slavery, oppression, and horror, and dreamed of the “good ol’ days” in Egypt.  Let us not forget…their warped nostalgia cost them the Promised Land!

09/28/2025

    How does anyone remember the various passwords which current life now requires? There is a password on your TV and other ones for each TV service that is purchased. The cell phone requires a password. The bank account online requires a password. The hospital online account uses a password. Every credit card has a password. The computer requests a password. The continuous glucose monitor to check blood sugar needs a password. The minister’s registration has a password. There seems to be no end to the necessity of passwords for practically anything in American life.

    There is even an app where a person can store all their passwords, and “guess what”—it requires a password to open it when anyone has forgotten their other passwords.  Is there a password to get into heaven?  President Trump recently indicated that the Nobel Peace Prize might help him get him into heaven.

    Fortunately, there is no password for entering heaven except for the “word become flesh” Jesus Christ, as the Gospel of John states. That fact is all that is required.  If we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ we have a free pass into eternity even if we forget all those other passwords!

09/21/2025

Marking the seasons is a part of all our lives. Some sports mark the seasons: fall is football season; winter is basketball season; spring is baseball season; summer is track season. Now in the wide world of sports, there are other sports to include: soccer is year-round, it seems, as are golf and to some degree, tennis.  Winter and summer Olympics seem their own season. With the wide, online sports programs even what seem to non-fans as obscure sports are available for any avid fan.  Sports have always been a part of human life. Every culture has its own version of them, probably because humans love both competition and teamwork.  No doubt it is possible to become too obsessed with various sports to the detriment of other concerns. There are examples in scripture of various allusions to sports, even using them as metaphors for the spiritual life. We are enjoined to “run the race that is set before us.” The discipline and endurance that characterize athletic endeavors are appropriate examples for spiritual discipline and faithful endurance. Like physical exercise, spiritual exercise is better when we get up and do it, as opposed to just watching from the sidelines.

09/14/2025

For me, it is always difficult to leave a book unfinished, and I never turn to the end to find out “who done it”. I admit that some books really didn’t deserve my time.  There have been books, of course, that have so violated my moral sense that I dropped them after a few pages, but generally I slog on to the bitter end. There are a few books that I re-read on occasion. Some of that is nostalgia for the impact they made on me in their first reading. Some are so beautifully written that I never lose the pleasure of experiencing again how wonderfully-crafted they are. Others I return to because I keep gaining new insights as I read them.  Poems are like that.  For me, the Bible is especially like that.  Each time I read it new insights come to me.  I see things even in quite familiar stories and passages which I am sure I read before that I never noticed in earlier readings. Perhaps this is because every time I read the Bible I stand before it in some way as a different person than the time before. New experiences and new relationships have in some way reshaped me so that I can see and hear the story in a  new way. It makes each visit to the old book a new adventure.