northminster presbyterian church

“… So Jesus kept to out-of-the-way places, no longer able to move freely in and out of the city. But people found him, and came from all over.” – Mark 1:29-45

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When we lived in Louisiana you’d hear folks talk about “lagniappe” referring to a little something extra that you got and didn’t expect.  Today being Leap Day is like lagniappe – an extra day that only rolls around once every 4 years. An extra day to say thanks; to receive a blessing or to do a little something extra for someone not expecting it.

Scripture is full of lagniappe moments.  God surprises people with an unexpected blessing or a needed healing. It’s like what happened when Jesus touched the leper in this Chapter 1 of Mark. Jesus touched the scabby, putrid flesh of that outcast man. Jesus wanted to and did cleanse him of his disease, but Jesus also wanted him to stay quiet about it. But this miracle was too good to be true. This man who had no voice before would now be heard. This good news needed to be shared.

Jesus told his disciples that he came mainly to preach. But it turns out that a healed man preaches for him while Jesus has to find secluded places to get away from the pressing crowds.  Lagniappe – the healed hidden one preaches, the public preacher hides. It’s not what was expected, but it adds volumes to the Gospel message.

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Lagniappe Lord, your presence changes us, your touch heals, your words surprise, and your will brings about unexpected  results – a new sense of voice, a life worth living, a hope not found in anything else.  Keep us open to your grace, mercy and peace – In Christ, I pray.  Amen.

Lina Hart

1 Corinthians 1:20–31 “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters!” – 1 Cor. 1:26

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Consider your call! Consider your life! Consider your vocation! What is it that God is calling you to be and do? This is what Lent is for: to consider how you are to live the life God has given you!

This scripture passage is rich! Among other things, it declares that it is GOD who chooses. And God chooses what appears foolish to most people: what is weak and overlooked and demeaned. God chooses what is unconventional, unexpected and unwanted. I think that God knows us all too well. At times we are numbed by routine and trapped in our craving for security! And how we love to be comfortable. But God seems to have something better in mind for us than these things. And in order to get our attention, God acts “outside the box.” God often surprises us, gets us to turn aside, pause, listen, and consider afresh. Like a burning bush or water turned to wine or Jesus being raised from the dead, God acts to wake us up! Then God chooses us, changes us, and empowers us to put aside our fears and join the dance of life.

A few years ago I was taking a “sabbatical” from church. I was comfortable. I had a happy routine. But the Spirit was also nudging me. Three Easters ago, I finally followed that call and arrived at Northminster Church on a bright sunny morning. God was there. The Spirit of Christ was there. Joyful, committed people were there who welcomed me so warmly that I knew that I just had to return. And I did. I found that at NPC, God was NOT kept at a distance by a safe, guarded, but happy group wrapped up in their own little controlled world. Instead, at NPC I found an open community that accepted me as I am, who gave me time to find a niche of my own, who provided hospitality and caring that I needed more than I was willing to admit. NPC exudes welcome with acts of kindness, with goals of peace, love, justice for all. This is indeed what “the world” calls foolishness! It is my hope that during this season, each of us will take up such foolishness as proclaiming Christ’s sacrifice for all and sacrificing some of our own comfort and security so that others may know the Way of Jesus and God’s eternal love.

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Gracious, surprising God, as we awaken to your presence and the gifts that you have showered upon us, may we act in faith with love as we walk the Way of the Cross to Easter and beyond.

Rob Stewart

I lift up my eyes to the mountains– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

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When I play a board game I don’t mind losing.  I especially do not mind losing when I did something to mess it up. I do tend to get upset though when I have bad luck!  I start off a little aggravated, but as the bad luck increases so does my temper.  Then when I lose I get downright grumpy.

Sometimes in my life it feels like the bad luck from my board game goes into everything else.  Nothing seems to go right.  It could be money issues, sick kids, disagreements with coworkers, it’s just that nothing seems to work out!  At this point grumpy is not even a strong enough word!

These are the times that we can cry, we can yell, we can pray, or we can do any combination of the three.  But it is in these times that this amazing Psalm comes into my mind.  At times we cannot tell where our help will come from or if there is even help period. But as sure as there are mountains to look upon, there is also the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth who will hear our cries, our yells, and our prayers and we will receive help.

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When we feel helpless, Lord, you are our help.  When we feel the world is out to get us, Lord, you are our help.  When it is us who is to blame, Lord, you are our help. Help us to look for your help; help us to look for you.
Amen.

Bob Hill, Presbyterian Campus Minister at UTC

 “Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.” – Philippians 4:12-13

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Before and during Lent, we spend a good deal of time talking about what we will give up.  Of course, there are the usual suspects:  chocolate, caffeine, salt, meat, fast food, among others.  In my classes, I have often joked about our tendency to choose such things, saying, “That’s right, I’m participating in the suffering of Jesus by giving up chocolate.”  We talk about Lent as if we are saying with Paul, “I know what it is to have little” or “I have learned the secret . . . of going hungry.”  However, most of us have never nor will we ever experience true hunger or understand what it means to truly be in need.  For that, we should be thankful.  Giving something up for Lent is not a way to remind ourselves of what it means to suffer; instead, it is a way to remind ourselves of all we already have.  In fact, we have so much in our lives that we can give something up year after year after year.  We “know what it is to have plenty” and we “have learned the secret of being well-fed.”  Now we simply must figure out how to be content with that.

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Lord, help us find contentment not in the too much or the too little we have, but in the too much grace and love you give us.  Amen.

Kevin Brown

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. – Psalm 27:13-14
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My mother had a maid whose name was appropriately Leola Easter. I have always believed that God sent her to us. Leola’s husband was a minister, but we soon learned that she had a deep, abiding faith of her own. My mother had cancer. Since Leola had some practical nurse’s training, she was the perfect person to care for Mom. When Mom became bedridden, Leola not only took care of the house, the cooking, my mother, but also my dad. Daddy was a wonderful Christian, husband, father  , but totally lacking in household skills. This was mostly Mom’s fault, for she had spoiled him rotten. At the time, I was married, teaching school, caring for a small baby, and living about forty miles away from my parents’ home in Jackson, Mississippi. I would bring the baby and come home every weekend to take over Leola’s job. I now know that we couldn’t have kept Mom at home for as long as we did without Leola’s help. After my mother’s death, my family moved back to Jackson, where we had two other children. Leola would babysit my children on occasion. She adored them, and the feeling was mutual.

When we moved to Chattanooga, Leola would write me a letter every Christmas. She would include money for me to buy Christmas candy for the kids. At the end of every letter, she would write the two verses above from Psalm 27. These verses exemplified the way she lived. She believed that God was a loving God who knew how to give good gifts to his children, not only in the life to come, but in the here and now.

So, in this season of Lent, when we are doing some soul-searching and asking ourselves how God would have us to handle disappointments and trouble in our lives, we, like Leola, have only to look to the two verses above for our answer.

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Loving God, help us never to forget that You “hold us in the palm of Your hand”  and that You will never forsake us. Amen.

Barbara Lesley

1The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 
3Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.  Psalm 27:1-3

In 2001, Contemporary Christian R&B singer and songwriter, Nicole C Mullen, released her hit album “Talk About It.”  On the track entitled “27” Mullen simply reads the words of Psalm 27:1-3 in a tone of striking clarity, deep power, tender awareness, and firm confidence.

At the time of the album’s popular rise, I possessed quite the opposite tone due to circumstances and struggles I was facing.  My soul’s voice, crouching in fear and uncertainty, was weary and wobbly, timid and insecure.  I remember listening to the entire album on repeat over and over, letting it soothe and comfort me with hope that perhaps it really was true.  Light invading darkness, firm ground when all around seems like quicksand, inner peace possible in spite of chaos…

And now, though I may not listen to the same style of music, I still often need the reminder that I can indeed be steadfast in an awareness of God’s presence no matter who is being hurtful toward me, what is going on in my life, when I may be isolated or surrounded, where I may be headed, or how overwhelming and unpredictable circumstances may be…

Oh Lord, my hope and my light…  You are with me always – in the loud and the quiet moments, in the stillness and the whirlwinds…  in the mundane and the stressful…  in certainty and the unknown…  May my soul be confident and fear not, for You are with me…

Rachel Smith

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? -Isaiah 58:6-7

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I used to give up something for Lent every year. Sometimes it was chocolate. Sometimes it was meat. In college, I essentially lived on cereal and coffee (for most of my meals, not just breakfast). So I decided to give up both of those one year – it was not pretty, but I did it. In reflection on these times, i realize that I tended to approach these Lenten fasts more as personal challenges than as spiritual disciplines. They didn’t bring me closer to God. They didn’t help me live into my best self. They just made me really want to have chocolate, or meat, or coffee and cereal as soon as Easter arrived.

So these words from Isaiah offer some helpful grounding for me as I begin this season of Lent. Many fast during this time, but I hope we may all remember why we do it. Some might choose to fast and save the money they would have spent on that item and then give it to charity.

God does not ask for sacrifices just for the sake of denying ourselves something. Isaiah reminds us that if our fasting is only about us as individuals, we have missed the point. It is also about care and concern for all of God’s children. Lent invites us into a deeper relationship with God, with one another, with our very selves.
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God of feasts and fasts, help us to seek you in this season of Lent. May we live into your vision for us, so that we may be agents of justice and mercy and grace to others. Amen.

Laura Becker