St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 1601 Mary Drive, Pleasant Hill, CA (2026)

11/27/2024

Oh So Good
Psalm 29:11 May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!

Psalm 29 is fairly brief as psalms go. And it is highly focused. God’s strength and power are expressed through the extraordinarily creative voice we first hear of in Genesis chapter 1. Right from the opening of the bible, we find the power of God’s voice – “let there be”, and then, day by day, there was! Psalm 29 concludes with today’s verse asking for some of that God strength, and the blessing of peace that God-sourced strength brings. No obstacles can ultimately prevail over strength like that; our deepest peace in Him is secure.

For readers of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, that God-sourced strength may come to mind from the scene where two of the children are discussing Aslan the Lion, who throughout these fantasy books represents Jesus, Messiah. We read: “Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr. Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” Oh so good – be at peace!
Pastor Bill

11/26/2024

PEACE
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

How does the "world" give peace? If history is any guide, it usually gives very temporarily. Every kind of natural peace seems to have a shelf life - from cessation of wartime hostilities, to lawsuits to arbitration, counseling, revision of contractual agreements, maybe a hug or handshake after dustups of whatever kinds. Much, maybe even most, of such natural peace is like a bandage to enable surface healing without necessarily dealing with root causes. And so, another round, and another, is often the pattern. Peace with God, by contrast, is permanent. Nothing we might do can make God stop loving us. And nothing we can do can make God love us any the more. In Christ Jesus we have that deep, highest commitment level of peace from the One who is always with us and for us and is the very shalom of God, the prince of Peace.
Pastor Bill

11/25/2024

IMMANUEL
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

Ever present - Immanuel, God with us. No, never alone! No matter what's going on - in, with or around us.

Pastor Bill

11/23/2024

Hopeful Spirit
Romans 8:24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Hope is always beyond the horizon. Our hope is not in what is seen but that which is not yet seen - and yet, God has firmly planted a vision of it in our hearts and minds. This may be the most distinguishing point of difference between the way of the world and the way of the Spirit that St Paul talks about a few chapters further on - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect." A more colloquial translation of that first bold print part says "don't let the world squeeze you into its own mold". Hope is the way, not of the world, but of the Spirit.
Pastor Bill

11/22/2024

WE ARE LEAKY PEOPLE
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I pushed the button on the spritzer part of my windshield wiper control and nothing happened. I had just filled its' reservoir a week before, hardly even used it. I guess it leaked. We too develop leaks - sometimes our positive outlook darkens for no apparent reason. Our hope may fade, faith weaken, joy evaporates. Difficult circumstances, bodily dysfunctions, stressful conversations, are all regular suspects. Often, we don't even have a clue as to "why". St Paul today implies that we have leaked and need to be refilled - these are all back to God moments. No, neither we nor God have moved away from one another - but I, you, have been hijacked by the things and feelings of the present moment and need to refocus our gaze away from the present moment and back onto the eternal truths of God's love, God's adequacy, our security in Christ, the presence of God's Spirit in our hearts and lives. When the going gets tough, the tough turn back to the God who showed us at Easter that love is stronger than anything. So, let's go back and reread today's passage - and repeat as needed. Re-fill us again Lord!
Pastor Bill

11/21/2024

GO, Bless

Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

“Blessed to be a blessing” God tells Abraham that he will be blessed so that he can be a blessing to all. This is the beginning of a bigger blessing that will be to all humanity. We see the full expression of this blessing in the person of Jesus Christ. Let's take note and challenge that God's first word in this quote of God to Abraham is GO. GO is also the first word in Mark's last quote of Jesus before His ascension. It's always good to invite people to COME to our church. That invitation will always carry a lot more weight and power, though, if we first somehow GO out of our way, to or for, our invitees to "bless" them in some great or simple way. It's like the principle embedded in the old folk saying, "people don't care what you know until they know that you care."
Pastor Bill

11/20/2024

MAN OF CONSTANT SORROWS
Lamentations 3
19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!
20 My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

Ah, Jeremiah's lament - he was a man of constant sorrow – he had forty years of preaching warnings to God’s unfaithful people with little positive response. Lamentations is his book of those people, and chapter 3 is his personalized experience of the failures and banishment into Babylonian captivity. He had seen trouble all his days– right from verse 1, every verse leads to today’s passage showing NOTHING to be thankful for, and yet, here in today’s passage, he maintains hope in God’s ultimate mercy and rescue. Thank you for your faithfulness O Lord. The song, I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW, is probably a couple of hundred years old, and over at least one hundred years in traceable American versions – I’m guessing its roots were an old hymn about God’s blessing and rescue finally showing up after a long wait – maybe straight from old Jeremiah’s experience. Hold on, don’t lose heart. Hard times don’t come no more. There’s a great secularized version of such stories on youtube. Many singers have put new and varied lyrics to "Man of Constant Sorrows. Most versions have the singer riding a train, fleeing trouble, regretting not seeing his old love, and contemplating his future death, with the promise that he will meet his friends or lover again on the beautiful or golden shore. Jesus too was a man of sorrows according to Isaiah's chapter 53 - but that ended gloriously - in resurrection, and to fullness of life for all who follow Him. / Pastor Bill

11/19/2024

SEEK UNDERSTANDING

John 14:5-6 Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Thomas was perhaps the most curious of the apostles. This passage was part of the conversation following the Passover dinner in the upper room where Jesus celebrated with the apostles the evening before his death. Ten days later, a week after the resurrection, this doubting Thomas would say to Jesus "my Lord and my God". Thomas, we recall. had missed the gathering in the upper room on the evening of resurrection Sunday, and when he heard of it from his friends, was unbelieving of something so extraordinarily unprecedented. His famous quote at that point was “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” So now it's a week later and Thomas is present when Jesus returns a second time to the apostles in the upper room. Jesus looks at him and invites him to take his proof - Thomas replies "my Lord and my God". Thomas it seems became the first to so clearly see Jesus in his full and true identity. An honest curiosity and insistence on verifying what he heard from others is sometimes exactly what's needed to get to the heart of important matters. As people of faith we need to ask questions, ponder implications, be aware of and respect alternative views - this is one of the strengths of the Presbyterian church throughout its history. Honest inquiry and careful investigation is an important part of growing in faith. Sometimes people like Thomas get a bad rap for their inquiring minds. To my mind, the world always needs more Thomases. Pastor Bill

11/18/2024

PRIMACY OF LOVE
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

This is quoted in two other places in the Old Testament and once each in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In each case the quote is stated slightly differently, but in all cases the call to love our God is always first from the heart. That is what most ancient peoples, including the children of Israel, understood to be the seat of our affections, the place where we feel. Soul, strength, and mind are also included in the quotes, but heart is always first. And "we love because God first loved us" according to 1 John 4:19. Sometimes we modern, educated, busy, scientific and logic oriented occupants of a world full of computer devices and apps lose awareness of the primacy of love. What a loss - the 4th chapter of 1st John is a good corrective to meditate on when you have a bit of free time soon -

Pastor Bill

11/16/2024

BEING GREEN
Psalm 96:11-13 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

One of the clear implications of this, and many other passages, is that we humans, who are created in God's own image and likeness, are part of creation. And parts are intended to fit together, working in harmony as a whole. Our part in the created order is to use it wisely, caring for it and nurture it even as it cares for and nurtures us. We get this same kind of thought in Romans chapter eight where St Paul tells us that all of creation awaits, with eager longing, to see us grow into our intended role as agents of God's restoration of the creation which God called "good", six times, as creation unfolded in Genesis 1. And we are God's green movement plan, created on the last day and appointed God's agent over it all - only then did God finally say of it all, "very good". Pastor Bill

11/14/2024

MEANING OF REPENT
Mark 1: 14 Now after John (the Baptist) was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

"Repent". Twenty five times in the gospels we hear that. It's more an announcement than a command because it's coupled with the reason for repenting. The reign, or kingdom, of God is arriving in and through this person, this Jesus, a young rabbi from Nazareth after all those long ages of Israel's waiting for the messianic reign's promise to be inaugurated. The universe starts becoming a fundamentally different place as a consequence. Learn to think in light of this transformed reality! That’s the deeper meaning of the word usually translated by “repent”. Yes, it includes turning away from sin. That's phase 1 of repentance. Phase 2 is to believe it so very deeply by faith that we start actually living into the new reality by internalizing the Godly teaching and fruitfulness implicit in the Holy Spirit's promptings towards love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. By so doing, we not only transform the quality and meaning of our own lives and circumstances, we help continue extending the reign of the love revolution that Jesus began. He has entrusted this to us, his people and his church, for the transformation of all the world, one small, faithful, believing step at a time. And then another. And another. Pastor Bill

11/13/2024

FAITH WORKS
James 2:17-18 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

Some folks think this verse contradicts the scripture's teaching that by "faith are you saved", but that point of view misunderstands that good deeds are an inevitable spiritual consequence of faith in the same way as spring's blossoming is a natural consequence of winter's rest. Let's blossom in being a blessing just as resting in Christ provides the leading and energy. Pastor Bill

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