PASTOR'S PAGE
Reverend James C. Alley
MAY 16, 2010
SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
NEW TESTAMENT: II Peter 3:3-10, 14-18; James 4:13-17
GOSPEL: Matthew 24:3-8, 32-51; Luke 12:13-20
When will the world as we know it come to an end? And if or when it does, how should we prepare for its ending?
Scientists say that changes in the sun could destroy the earth in five billion years, or that a collision with an asteroid could end it a lot sooner than that. Environmentally conscious people have warned that our carelessness could make the earth uninhabitable sooner yet. From less scientific perspectives, many have not only warned of the world’s end, but have assigned to it specific dates and times. Students of Mayan culture claim that according to the Mayan calendar, Mayans foresaw an end to the world in 2012. Over the centuries many, many people have tried to pinpoint a date for the world’s end based on their readings of the Bible: the years 1000, 1842, 1843, 1914, 1994, and - recently - May 21, 2011 - are but a few such dates.
To be sure, many passages of the Bible, including those cited above, tell us that God will call an end to the world as we know it. The earthly Jesus, his disciples, and the apostles who spread the Christian faith after the Resurrection, believed not only that God would end the world as they knew it, but that God would do so soon, probably within the lifetime of those who listened to their message. However, though they were convinced that God would some day bring an end to human history, they never attempted to assign a date to that eventuality - unlike many Christians who came after them.
Then what was - and is - the point of the Biblical passages about the end of the world?
ONE: They remind us that our earthly life and all that we are accustomed to is not destined to last forever. Human beings have a way of getting caught up in day-to-day activities and concerns, taking them as if they were all we need care about. But God intends us for eternal life and fellowship with God. If our hearts are welded to the cares of the present, the end of our world and the reckoning which will come with it will be terrible for us indeed. The fragility of our everyday existence should be already obvious. Bad news from the doctor or the end of a marriage can turn our world upside down in an instant. More drastically yet, we could absent-mindedly miss a curve on our homeward drive; we could even lie down for a nap and never wake up. At such moments the curtain may not have come down for the world as a whole; but the time has come for us, almost before we know it.
TWO: Though we cannot know when that end will come, either for us individually or for the whole world, in the meantime we have our lives, our tasks, and our responsibilities - our ministries to ourselves and those about us - right here, right NOW. It is God’s agenda and not our own which will prevail, and God in God’s sovereign pleasure will call an end to our present existence. In the meantime we are to live the lives and fulfil the responsibilities God gave us. The servant in Jesus’ parable never knew when the master was to come; but he did not have to know. What did matter in the end was that when the master did arrive, the servant was at work doing the master’s task.
And yet, daunting as it is, this message can hold great reassurances for those who take it seriously. For one thing, those of us who have had to face difficulties in our lives are reassured that God is aware of what we have undergone, and will vindicate us in the end. The very Jesus who spoke so much about judgment at the end time, is the same one who reassured many a sin-laden listener of God’s outreach and forgiveness. And finally, Jesus insisted to his followers - and to us (Matthew 28:20) - that whenever the end comes, whether in billions of years, or 2037, or 2011, or today - he will be there for us!
EASTER SEASON, 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
On Good Friday, Jesus of Nazareth died of torture at the hands of the authorities, deserted by his followers, all his work and teaching seemingly discredited and brought to nothing. On Easter Sunday, Jesus left his tomb very much alive, to show his disciples and friends, and all of us as well, that he was and is our Lord and Savior.
The facts of the empty tomb and the bodily resurrected Christ are absolutely crucial to our identity as Christians. We are not just another club of do-gooders and nice people. With Jesus’ bodily resurrection comes the assurance that all of us are offered the same salvation and resurrection. As Christians, we believe that God, in order to restore fellowship with us, felt it worth the trouble to share in Jesus our earthly lives, even the suffering and death common to fallen humanity; and that in Jesus’ resurrection God makes available to all of us today the power to lead transformed and meaning-filled lives, and face our mortality confident in God’s presence with us always.
The fact of the Easter resurrection was hard for the disciples, and is hard for us today, to grasp. Do we believe the tomb was empty? Do we believe God goes to such lengths for us as we are? Katsbaan Reformed Church was founded to share the hope and assurance which comes to us from the resurrection, with all the world about us. Through it we demonstrate among ourselves and to others the love of Christ for all of us, through our ministry and love to all.
Share it with us. This year the Saugerties Area Council of Churches continues its annual evening Lenten services at area churches. Anyone interested in the schedule can contact the church office or check in our worship bulletins. On Thursday evening April 1, at 7:30PM, Katsbaan Church hosts our annual joint Blue Mountain-Katsbaan Maundy Thursday service. The following Sunday we have our Easter service at 9:30. We welcome all of you to both services to celebrate the suffering, death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus our Savior for the sake of all of us.
We certainly welcome any special Easter donation you might wish to make to Katabaan. However, your presence at our service is itself a gift to our church. Join us as we ponder and share once again the joyful mystery of Christ’s resurrection, and God’s continuing presence in our lives.
See you in church!
Pastor James Alley
A LENTEN MEDITATION
(from the lectionary for February 21, 2010)
OLD TESTAMENT: Deuteronomy 26:1-11
NEW TESTAMENT: Romans 10:8b-13
GOSPEL: Luke 4:1-13
PSALTER: Psalm 91
The lectionary readings given above for February 21, the first Sunday in Lent, include motifs common to the observance in the Christian calendar of the season of Lent, the time of re-examination of our spiritual state and our need for the mercy of God. Deuteronomy 26:1-11 reminds us that since it is God who has brought us thus far in life, we need both to pause and reflect on God’s providence, and respond to it with a concrete gesture such as an offering out of the fruits of our prosperity. Romans 10:8-13 reminds us that God’s mercy to us is truly amazing, freely offered to anyone willing to acknowledge one’s desperate need of it and willing to ask for it. Finally, Luke 4:1-13, in its recounting of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, reminds us that if even the Son of God was not exempted from trials and temptations in this life, they must surely form a part of life for all mortals.
But I have found Psalm 91 - also part of the lectionary for that day - sometimes hard to accept, both for its apparently too rosy promises to the average worshiper, and for the fact that in the Gospel reading for that very same Sunday, the devil himself quotes part of Psalm 91 in an attempt to trick Jesus into presuming on the grace of God. Though part of Holy Scripture, Psalm 91 is clearly subject to misapplication. Some people of any age expect, like some small children, that God owes them good fortune as a reward for acceptable behavior, and their trust in God may collapse when bad things happen to them. In view of the life experience of most of us, Psalm 91 can sound at first reading just too good to be true.
One way of understanding the psalm is to notice that the devil’s version of the verses he quotes (11 and 12) is not exact. When he basically dares Jesus to jump off the temple tower, assuring him from the psalm that the angels will rescue Jesus if he does that, he omits one crucial phrase found in the original: the angels promise to guard the psalmist him not in just any foolish act, but “In all your ways.” The promise claimer must subject all his or her thoughts and actions to the sovereignty and will of God, and not try to force God’s hand in any private adventure. In other words, when we ponder Psalm 91 or any other Scripture, we must GET GOD’S WORD RIGHT.
There is also another way to understand Psalm 91. The Book of Psalms includes prayers and confessions from many different people with many different faith experiences, of which Psalm 91 is one example. Faith is a gift given to us from God in different amounts to different people. Psalm 91 is a statement of faith by someone with a simple and sincere heart, who has perhaps been given more faith than most other people, and has certainly experienced a marvelous personal deliverance. The author is not a theologian, or even someone who is sensitive to the greys of life. He (or she) is not necessarily more nor less sinful or saintly than any one of us for this reason, but merely different. Our sinfulness and saintliness are not based on what God has given us, but on what we do with what God has given us. Deeper or more philosophical treatments of evil are found in Job, or Ecclesiastes, or other psalms - not to mention the New Testament. What Psalm 91 does give all of us, especially in its last three verses, is the assurance that God is always watching over us, in mays we may not even suspect. It promises us, no matter how robust or how feeble the faith we feel we have, however hard it may be to see the hand of God in a given situation, that God does not and will not ever desert us. Ever! .
Will thousands fall around me while I am unscathed? Will I be able to walk safely on snakes and lions? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps the author of Psalm 91 had experiences like those, but I admit I do not want to put God to such testing on my behalf any more than did Jesus in the wilderness. But will God desert me in any situation, however frightening or appalling, which might befall me? Look carefully at vs 14, 15, 16 : “Those who love me, I will DELIVER... I will be WITH THEM... I will SHOW THEM MY SALVATION.” (From the NRSV version) .
If we call for help, if we look for God, God is there to work God’s will and support us, no matter what the circumstance. God will never allow those who turn toward God to drift out of reach. Let us remember this throughout Lent, in the light of Easter, and through our whole lives.
Pastor James Alley
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James Alley came to the Kingston area in 1955, when he was 7 years old. His father was a doctor in Kingston.
Jim graduated from Kingston High School in 1965, Princeton University in 1969, and Brown University in 1971, graduating with an M.A. in Medieval European History.
He traveled and did construction work through South America and Alaska from 1972-1985, returning to our area in 1986. He was a Sunday School Teacher at the Fair Street Reformed Church in Kingston, and attended Princeton Theological Seminary from 1993-1996. He was ordained at the Fair Street Church in February of 1998 and has held various area ministries from then until 2003.
Jim is married. His wife, Joan, is a librarian in the Kingston School District. They have one son, Johnnie.
On October 16, 2005 Jim was officially installed as our Pastor.
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