[amc] a note from the pastor
- From: "garland robertson" <pastor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Austin Mennonite Church" <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 10:27:08 -0500
Members and Friends of Austin Mennonite Church
I pray you are finding inner consolation as we live through these days of
unrest and disorder across our world.
While away with the CPT delegation I missed the support of and engagement
with our community here. I am enriched and find nourishment from our life
together. We are blessed by the divine spirit which has gifted each of us
to contribute and participate in our covenant to be church together. Thank
you for helping me have the experience with CPT. I look forward to sharing
my observations and feelings with you in the days ahead.
On the cover of the bulletin for next Sunday there is a charge for us from
the 34th Psalm. I had hoped the wording on the bulletin cover was a
misquote, however after checking my many translations I found the rendering
in verse 15 the same there as well. Secretly I was wishing the actual
wording would have been something like, "Seek peace and overtake it." That
would have been more comforting for me. Yet this was not my discovery.
However something else leaped out to me from the Hebrew lectionary, that
dust covered volume on the shelf which intends to propose for us the most
likely meaning of the words chosen by writers of the ancient texts. Yes,
the word used in the manuscripts also means 'pursue' and not 'overtake,' yet
there is an interesting twist to the meaning apparently intended by its use
in Psalm 34. The expanded translation seems to be, "Seek peace and pursue
in order to overtake him (it)." Maybe there is enlightenment for us in this
concept associated with the pursuit of peace. Is it possible that by
actively pursuing peace in relationships we 'happen upon' peace in our own
spirit? Is this what Jesus means to say when he invites, even pleads with
us, to "eat of his flesh and drink of his blood that we might have life
inside us?" These thoughts will compose the sermon for this next Sunday,
'Peace while immersed in overwhelming distress.'
May it go well with you. Sincerely,
Garland Robertson
...always hold firmly to the thought that each one of us can do something to
bring some portion of misery to an end
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