Good afternoon Beloved,

I pray you are well and feel all the Love God has to offer. Love though is not simply a solo activity. Yes, we can love people or things without that thing or person loving us back. It happens all the time. In effect, our Love Challenge is an example of this personal reality. You love someone and have placed their picture on a heart – done. On a side note, I would like to share my deepest appreciation for everyone who has begun placing up your hearts throughout the church; for, it truly is a blessing to witness who and what you each love. I hope everyone will continue to do so throughout the year. Still, this wonderful gift is really only for each other here in our beloved fellowship.

Beyond the doors of our sanctuary, the town of Salem may not know how much we love and care for people. The person walking down the street may have no idea that they are loved and welcomed – here – no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey. The poor or hungry may not know they have a refuge within our walls; for, we have not always revealed our love of one another beyond us. 

Yet, Divine Love – the love we are called to give and receive requires mutual participation to achieve even a glimmer of the depth and breadth of God’s Love for us. Anyone who has ever been in love – loved a child – or had a pet knows a fraction of this truth. I believe God is calling us to this type of Love. Calling us to be Her hands and feet in the world. Calling us to reveal how much we love all people; so, all people may feel welcomed here in His Beloved Fellowship. Therefore, as we continue to consider what and who we love, let us also consider how we can reveal that love to another person and live into the Beloved Fellowship we are called to become.

May your week be full of God’s Divine Love, always

Your Pastor, Brian

As always please call (207-350-9561) if you need anything. Next week, my pastoral care hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 8:00– 4:00; Tuesday 10:30 – 6:30. I may be writing from home on Friday but may be at church. If I am in the office, please feel free to stop in to talk. Many blessings and Love to you all, always.

Good afternoon Beloved,

I pray all are well and in the loving hands of God. Love though, much like any other muscle is one which needs exercise. So, this year as we live into our theme of “Love One Another,” Merri and I would like to introduce a new challenge, the Love Challenge.

Much like the El Paso Challenge we did a few years back, our Love Challenge will be a series of wonderful challenges we invite all people in our fellowship to engage in throughout the year. The only difference is this challenge is for everyone – all ages. These challenges are, and will be, ways that we can all live into our faith of loving God, loving yourself, and loving one another. In other words, they are ways to exercise the muscle of love in our community. We pray you will join us on this wonderful challenge of love.

Our first challenge, begins this Rally Sunday on September 12 when we come back to worship within our sanctuary. When you arrive and receive you bulletin, there will be a heart inside. We invite you to write the name – draw a picture – add a photo of something or someone you love on the heart, however you wish. Remind us of who you are, by sharing what or who you love; but only one love per heart, please. Do not worry. If you cannot decide on which love you want to share, there will be more hearts present. You can also make your own hearts and bring them in to the church. After preparing these declarations, please hang them in the church; so, we may all see the things and people we, as a fellowship, love.

One last hint, the hearts we prepared in the church each have two holes so we can hang them from each other with ribbon. Many blessings to you all and I pray you will take up this challenge to exercise one of the most important muscles we have – our Love for one another.

Many prayers as you consider the people and things you love, (You know the reflections of God working in this world)

your pastor, Brain

As always please call (207-350-9561) if you need anything. Next week, my pastoral care hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 8:00– 4:00; Tuesday 10:30 – 6:30. I may be writing from home on Friday but may be at church. If I am in the office, please feel free to stop in to talk. This Wednesday is our last service for the summer and we are, God willing, reopening fully on September 12 for Rally Sunday. Many blessings and Love to you all, always.

Good morning Beloved,

My prayers and love go out to all of you on this blessed day. And it is a blessed day for it is a brand-new day before each and every one of us. It is a day where we each will discern, choose, and live as we are called to live. What a blessing this gift truly is for all of humanity. Therefore, let me say thank you, thank you God, for this gift that all people have been granted.

As I was considering this gift, I remembered that there are times when it does not feel like a gift. Times when free will is also a burden. Times when the people we love use their free will to make what we consider “bad” choices. And, I am sure we have all seen these instances, while raising our children, guiding our parents, or even living in the world today. “Everything seems so obvious,” we think, “why can’t these people I love just do what I know is right.” Truth be told, this reaction, beloved, is normal. We love people, love our fellowship, love our families and because of that love we do not want our loved ones harmed. So, many blessings on all of you each who love one another, especially those of you willing to go one step further and carry the burden of another person’s free will.

I thought of this idea today as my heart goes out to the unknown number of people who are abused in the world, every day. Abused physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually by people and all the harm which could be done if we took away the victims’ free will. For you see, one of the biggest commonalities amongst abuse is that the abuser does take away the victims / survivors free will – their gift – their choice. And sometimes when we go to help a victim / survivor (that person we care about) we have to watch them make the choice to return to an abusive relationship. We have to watch them because we cannot use the weapons of abuse and control to force our will on these souls already hurting. We cannot use these weapons as it will just cause more harm than good. Therefore, free will becomes a heavy burden that we must carry – the burden of supporting someone we care about even though their choice seems dangerous or deadly to us.

So, I offer each of you who have carried this burden – or carry it today when you disagree with the choices of our loved ones – yet still love them and support their choices – many blessings and gratitude. Many blessings for your support of the one you love as they use their gift from God to return to an abuser, become vaccinated, remain unvaccinated, go mask-less, wear masks, or the thousands of other discernments and choices we must each do, daily. Many blessings as you carry this burden of love.

May today be a blessing to you as you feel supported by the ones you love

Your pastor, Brian

As always please call (207-350-9561) if you need anything. Next week, my pastoral care hours are Tuesday and Wednesday 10:30 – 6:30; Thursday and Friday 8- 4. I may be writing from home on Mondays but may be at church. If I am in the office, please feel free to stop in to talk. Many blessings and Love to you all, always.

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you.I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

Isaiah 46:3-4

Good morning Beloved,

I pray you are all well and listening to God who is speaking – every day. 

I would like to begin by sharing an encounter I had recently. I met a friend of a friend and as usual when you meet new people, we began talking and listening to each other’s stories. It was quite enjoyable as we connected on so many levels. We had both worked at the same place, went to similar schools, and found calls later in life. Then I heard something wonderful as she reflected on her schooling. She said, “ I have no idea how I did it.” Those words struck me deeply because it is the same feeling I have had many times. I do not know how I worked 40 plus hours, went to school full time, and still managed to write a full-length play in two weeks. I have no idea. If I add up all the hours along with sleeping and eating, it does not seem possible. But, it happened.

Have we all not had similar experiences in life? How did you manage to work, take care of children, build a home together or alone? How do any of us manage to make it through those times of sadness when illness is affecting our loved one? When depression builds up after a loss of a loved one or not being accepted by your family? When we are putting together a wedding, and working, and watching out for the feelings of the ones we love? Good and bad times – seem to reveal something people just push away as ingenuity or drive in the individual. Something powerful within the person. However, I know that when these times came along in my life – both the bad and the good times, I did not feel powerful. I felt like I was being carried. 

“I will carry and I will save” as God promises us. She will do so from birth to when we are gray. He will carry us, help us, stand for us when the worst is before us or the best is needed to be done. This truth, Beloved, is the promise of God and one I pray you listen too as we struggle in the world today. For, we are not alone – God is here to carry us when all the world is against us – here to carry us when there is more good to do than humanly possible – here to carry us when we cannot stand by ourselves. Therefore, I pray you are listening to God speaking as we carried throughout this life.

In God’s Love

Your pastor, Brian

As always please call (207-350-9561) if you need anything. Next week, my pastoral care hours are Tuesday and Wednesday 10:30 – 6:30; Thursday 8- 4. I may be writing from home on Mondays and Fridays but may be at church. If I am in the office, please feel free to stop in to talk. Many blessings and Love to you all, always.

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.'” He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.

• 2 Kings 4:42-44

Good morning Beloved,

I pray you are all well and in the loving faith of God. And I would like to begin today by saying thank you to the soul  who shared their faith with our community. The blessed person who quietly came and delivered  our offerings to the food pantry this month. Thank you, for this gift is a blessing of faith. Not only the gift of food, but the sharing of that gift with other people who are hungry in our world.

And there are hungry people throughout the world and in our very community of Salem. I witnessed two people this week alone with signs saying very simply, “Will work for Food.” Now of course, there are quite a few theories and questions people consider when seeing an individual without a home asking for food. Are they mentally ill; is it safe; is this a scam; are they veterans, are they just lazy? We have heard the questions by various talking heads, friends, and maybe even out of our own lips. Questions which invariably shift us from helping that person asking for food. Yet, I wonder if  we are not understanding their request: “Will work for Food.”

It seems simple enough right. These beloved souls are hungry or maybe even scamming and want food – a hand out – or whatever. But what if the food they need is not just the physical food to fill the body but also the spiritual food of a kind hand. Maybe they need a loving person to offer them a gift of fellowship? Maybe, these souls do not even know that is the hunger they feel inside, just someone to share a moment of life with – in a smile and a kind word. 

I thought of this today as there are many passages in the Bible which speak of the giving of food to the masses; and, afterwards there is always enough. The man – the disciples – Jesus always has some food which is left over. Our passage from Second Kings is one of those texts, as is the story when Jesus feeds the five thousand (Matt.14:13-21). Now, if the food here is only the physical food we consume, it says very plainly that “twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain” would not feed a hundred people. But, if the food – the giving of food or anything really – is also a giving of faith – then we would all have some left over – every time we give. And maybe – just maybe it is also the food we need, as well.

I pray you let these thoughts guide you with scripture as we boldly seek to find ways to share our faith with the hungry souls of our world.

In the Grace of God,

Your Pastor, Brian

As always please call (207-350-9561) if you need anything. For the remainder of the summer, I am shifting my pastoral care hours to Tuesday and Wednesday 10:30 – 6:30; Thursday and Friday 8- 4. I may be writing from home on Mondays but feel free to stop in to the church if the outside light is on, for I am here. Many blessings and Love, always.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

• John 15: 1-4

Good morning Beloved,

            I hope each of you can see how truly wonderful you are in my eyes; and please allow me to offer a simple gratitude for each of you. As, I truly believe each of you are wonderful and a welcomed part of our loving, caring, beloved community of faith. Now, I will admit that I had a bit of concern sharing this truth with you today. Not because of you – who I have met, but because, I have not met you all. Therefore, I wondered if the words that called to me were honest. I was concerned as to whether this statement that burns in my heart was true. Or am I leading myself astray. I entertained this conflict for a moment, then I realized the words are true: you are all wonderful; so, thank you.

Thank you because I can witness the fruits of your love all around me. I can see the compassion in your care for our lawn and for our children. I can see the fruits of love in the lay readers and the three-hour meetings on Wednesday night. I witness the fruits of your love as you gather in joy on Monday afternoons and Thursday mornings. I feel the fruits of your love for God, for our neighbors, and for ourselves which you reveal all around me – every day. So, thank you; because this fruit of love is all we need to witness that you, beloved, are one with God.

I wonder though, can people in our community of Salem see these fruits? Can they tell if we are on the vine of Jesus simply by wandering by our beautiful blue doors? Do we share our love at the grocery stores, bowling alleys, workplaces? For that is the question, right? Are we revealing the fruit of Love in everything we do and with everyone we meet? I hope you do for that is what God calls us to do – love one another and reveal this love, not for praise; but so, we can be an example of love for the world, bring greater praise to God, and be one in the Body of Christ.

I pray this week brings you one – just one – more way to reveal God’s love with our neighbors in Salem and that our whole community can witness the fruit of your love which I witness every day.

Your Pastor, Brian