From the Pastor

We are often tempted to think and then to act as if the right combination of vision, marketing, passion and friendliness will bring God's kingdom to the corner of Hillside and Vreeland in Nutley on Sunday morning. Our hearts and minds are lured into believing that if we could just "do it right," (whatever it may be) then all that threatens us and our community will fade away. Yet, the story of God at work in this world, the story of the Bible, tells us that God's kingdom happens not by our working to make things happen, but by God's own desire to love and bless the world. God will make things happen. God is on a mission.


"... and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" Ephesians 6:18

We are often tempted to think and then to act as if the right combination of vision, marketing, passion and friendliness will bring God's kingdom to the corner of Hillside and Vreeland in Nutley on Sunday morning. Our hearts and minds are lured into believing that if we could just "do it right," (whatever it may be) then all that threatens us and our community will fade away. Yet, the story of God at work in this world, the story of the Bible, tells us that God's kingdom happens not by our working to make things happen, but by God's own desire to love and bless the world. God will make things happen. God is on a mission.

When we begin our Lenten journey together on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 6), we will be once again reminded how Jesus came to us -- a broken and sinful people living and working and dying within a broken and sinful world -- to walk with us, to give us life and freedom, and, because God loves us so deeply, to transform us and all of God's good creation. God is on a mission.

By the grace of God given in Jesus and poured out on us in our baptism into Christ, we have been changed, transformed, forgiven, redeemed, renewed and made part of God's mission. That baptismal gifting of new life leads us into a life that is rooted and grounded in prayer. We learn from Jesus to pray for God's mission in the world, as part of God's mission in the world. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches us to ask that our heavenly Father's kingdom come. When we pray these petitions, we pray that God's kingdom happen among us, too, because when God's kingdom happens among us, the kingdom of this world is toppled. God's people and God's creation are set free. We pray. God accomplishes. God is on a mission.

St. Paul reminds us that we do not struggle against flesh and blood. Our struggle (and it's our struggle because it is God's struggle) is against spiritual forces that hold people captive in fear, hopelessness, loneliness, meaninglessness and despair. As part of God's mission to transform the world in Jesus, we are strengthened for a spiritual struggle with spiritual gifts that come to us from the Holy Spirit -- gifts given through the Word, given through the Sacraments and given within the community of the saints. All this, as we hang together in the Holy Spirit, in prayer.


Prayer strengthens our relationship with God. That is a promise. To be a people in prayer is the beginning and the end of our Christian work as disciples because the beginning and the end of the Christian life is not our doing. It's God's doing, God's mission. In prayer we confess that we and the world are broken; in prayer, the Holy Spirit gives the words and imagination to hope for a future and to trust that God will make all things new ... even us ... even this congregation.
The Lord be with you. Let us pray ...
In Christ, Pastor Jim