Dear PCM Family,
This Sunday, our fall worship series, Love Your Neighbor, continues. We’ll explore Chapter 2 of The Letter of James, which teaches us, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well.” Before and after worship we invite you to stop by the table in the narthex to write a description of just who qualifies as a neighbor. We are writing these descriptive words on translucent paper and posting them on the partition between the sanctuary and the narthex. It’s looking really cool so far… and it’s interesting to see the words that people are coming up with!
Speaking of the time before worship… I want to invite you to this Sunday’s gathering of Doughnuts and Theology. Audrey and I will constitute a two-person panel, moderated by elder Rich Schwartz, called: What Does the Lord Require of Us? The Challenge of Being Christians During the 2024 Elections. It should be an engaging and (dare I say?) fun conversation to give us some theological grounding during these last few weeks of the election cycle.
Finally, I want to say thank you – both to those who have made individual donations and to our Outreach Committee at PCM – for your financial contributions to hurricane relief efforts in the southeast. Even as we are learning today of the horrible impact of Hurricane Milton in Florida, the rebuilding and recovery continues in North Carolina and elsewhere. I’m so grateful that PCM is supporting Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in their efforts to provide help. Please read about how you can donate by clicking here.
In the meantime, I want to share these words from my friend Mary Katherine’s sermon last Sunday. She serves as the pastor of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, right in the heart of the devastation outside Asheville, North Carolina:
There are truly no words to describe the horror, the terror of what has occurred over the past twelve days. We have seen the power of our natural world unleash her mighty waters upon our Swannanoa valley with an unrestrained force and relentless beating. The shock, the loss of lives which still go unaccounted for, the smell of death and mold settling in, the despair… this all leaves me speechless.
What I have seen in response to this pain, tragedy, loss, and grief has been beauty: the absolute beauty and resilience of God’s creation. Neighbors helping neighbors, animals providing comfort and love to those hurting and in need of a furry hug, the courage and finest bravery of our first responders in this community, the outpouring of love from our oldest to our youngest, the nourishing food strangers who now are friends have cooked…
… It is truly the beauty of the human spirit which leaves me the most speechless. We will rebuild. We will repair. We will persevere. We will hope. We will love the world God so desperately loves.
We will love the world God so desperately loves… May it be so.
In Christ’s love,
Daniel
