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Walk to THE Cross

3/28/2024

For this Good Friday 2024, Cathy and I would like to invite you to share the Walk to the Cross experience our church hosts. While it is best to do the Walk in person, we've made a video and a handout we hope might help you experience what Jesus did for you and all of us on Good Friday.

The Walk to the Cross Experience video linked in green allows you to see and experience the stations we have at our church. The video is 7 minutes, but please pause it as you would like.

We also provided a handout for people in our congregation who can't make it in person. The handout provides instructions, reflections, actions, and prayers for each of the stations. Walk to the Cross Handout 2024. Click to download.

Cathy and I pray you have a meaningful and blessed Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday!

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Help Yourself?

3/22/2024

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Cathy likes avoiding controversy when she can, but in Sunday’s message she decided to jump into a heated debate. She didn’t address politics or sex or even religion. She took on the issue of stores using self-service registers rather than cashiers. There are strong feelings on this topic! After the service people let us know their opinions! One of the women in our church mentioned her job is to help people with problems in the self-checkout lanes at her store.

A variety of memes like this have popped up around the issue.

Some people love self-service. Cathy is good at self-service checkout. She quickly types in produce codes, and she uses her own bags. She likes not bringing home 20 plastic bags when she buys 20 items. Self-serve is often quicker. Introverted people can get in and out without having to make small talk with anyone.

Some people hate those self-service registers. It isn’t always faster to use them, and they make mistakes too. Half the time I use a self-checkout register I need to get an employee’s help anyway! Some people like the personal contact and help a cashier provides. Even though I am introverted, I have come to enjoy talking with “my” regular cashiers as I check out. When our local Aldi’s put in self-serve kiosks, I was concerned they would take jobs from some great people.

Research shows that while self-service gas pumps are preferred by a great majority of people, grocery store self-service registers are not as universally appreciated. For this and other reasons, stores like Walmart are going back to having more human cashiers.
Cathy raised the self-service register debate in order to bring up a broader question. Is it better to be served or to serve ourselves?

Clearly Jesus taught us to serve others. On Sunday our scripture read “For even the Son of Man (that is, Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). When we celebrate the Last Supper during Holy Week, we remember the story of Jesus washing the dirty feet of His disciples before they ate together. It was a clear example Jesus gave of the importance of serving others.

But Jesus wasn’t opposed to being served. Jesus had His disciples arrange the meal they had together. After they ate Jesus asked His friends to be with Him as He prayed in the garden before He left to give His life for them and us.

Is it better to take care of ourselves or want others to help us? One of my favorite memes is a response to an either/or question. It shows a little girl's answer when asked if the family should have hard or soft taco shells. Then it shows the family's response. In our family the question would be if we should have cookies or cake for dessert. My response is the same as her family's!

So, should we help ourselves or should we get help from others?

Why not both? I am sure you know people who depend on others to do things they could do for themselves. It’s usually not good for either side. I also know people who won’t ask for help when it would be best for them and even though others would love to serve them. If we want to know the blessing of serving other people then we have to let others have the blessing of helping us too. Jesus came to serve us, but we have to be willing to accept His help. Jesus scolded Peter for being too proud to let Jesus wash his dirty feet.

It is nice to be able to take care of ourselves. But it is even better for us to know the blessing of taking care of each other.

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Masterpiece

3/13/2024

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On Sunday I asked our church what makes a piece of art valuable? I learned the 10 most expensive paintings are valued from $168 million to more than $450 million! What could make a piece of canvas and paint worth so much?

One of the top 10 paintings most valuable paintings is Paul Cezanne’s masterpiece “The Card Players.” It is worth $250-300 million. On the right is Rembrandt’s “The Standard Bearer.” It was listed at $198 million.

Below is another in the top 10. It is a Jackson Pollock work titled “Number 17A.” I used to have my elementary students do splatter art like this painting! Pollock’s is worth $200 million! I don’t see it, but Cathy “gets it” and sees a beautiful work of art.

These very different paintings are all extremely valuable! So, what makes a work of art a masterpiece worth hundreds of millions of dollars?

Here are some of the things I learned in reading about famous paintings.

1. The creator of the masterpiece makes a huge difference in what it is worth! Masterpiece creators like Cezanne, Rembrandt, and Pollack have great skill, technique, and their works have a reputation of excellence.

2. The history of the masterpiece can add to its value. Often masterpieces are discovered as hidden treasures. Many have survived wars and other disasters. What a painting has experienced in its lifetime makes for a better story and can add to its value.

3. The way the masterpiece captures and uses light. Great art is really all about the light reflecting off it. I don’t want to get too geeky in this blog, but the impact of a painting is determined by how our brains interpret the light our eyes receive from the painting.

Honestly, even before I studied what makes a painting valuable, I knew the most important factor in determining whose work made the top 10 list of most valuable pieces of art. What is it?

4. The highest price someone was willing to pay for it!

The price someone paid for each painting set its value on the 10 on the list.

The main point from my message Sunday?

You were created to be God’s masterpiece.
Ephesians 2:10

I wanted everyone in our church to know they were created by God to be His masterpiece. I want you to know the same is true for you. We are more important to God than any painting on the top 10 list. Even though they are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, God cares more about you and me.

Cathy and I started blogging for Lent. Why is Lent important? Why are Holy Week and Easter so important? Because it is a time to remember that God sent His Son Jesus to pay the ultimate price for you, for me, and for the whole world. If the value of something is decided by how much someone is willing to pay, God thinks you are very valuable.

 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

That is the good news of the gospel.

But it is not the end of the gospel story. We are saved for a purpose. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10)

God created us as His handiwork to be shared with others. He created us to share His goodness and beauty with others.

I asked people as they left Sunday to remember they were God’s masterpiece and to go out into the world and look and do good for Him. I also told them not to get a fat head! Paul reminds us that it is the artwork’s creator who deserves the credit, not the painting.

This picture shows the most valuable painting in the world being displayed.
I found its subject fascinating, so I thought I’d share it.

This Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece is titled Salvator Mundi. The subject of the most valuable piece of art in the world is Jesus, the Savior of the World.

You were created by God to be a masterpiece. You are more valuable than any manmade art, even this $450,300,000 masterpiece. Lent is a great time to remember why that is true.

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On Closer Examination

3/6/2024

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Most mornings Cathy and I walk together in the countryside or I go on a run. The weather is not always great, but the countryside is beautiful. Here are pictures of Rose Road near our house in the last 10 days.

When spring comes and the snow melts, if you start looking at the grass beside the road this is what you see.

Soon after moving to our rural town of Tyner I got upset because people use the beautiful countryside as a place to toss their garbage. I wrote a blog on my gratitude for the people who help deal with other people’s “trash”, and not just the litter variety. I also recognized that in my lifetime people have had to deal with my garbage too.

I’ve started my spring cleanup “trash runs” in the countryside, and it hit me how nice the scenery looks until you start seeing the trash. This made me think of the Christian practice of the Daily Examen. The Daily Examen is a popular Lenten spiritual discipline. It is usually done at night as we prayerful examine our hearts and reflect on the events of the day in order to discern God’s presence and his direction for us. Psalm 139:23-24 is often prayed.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

In other words, as part of the Examen we ask God to help us look for any trash He might want us to clean up in our lives. We admit our hearts and thoughts aren’t as pretty as they may appear to others, and even to ourselves. We seek to clean things up before the trash starts accumulating. Eventually what is in our hearts will become visible in our attitudes, words, and actions.

One of the most important steps in the Daily Examen is repenting, and with God’s help and grace, getting rid of the "trash". It is seeing any garbage in our lives for what it is and asking God to help haul it away.

I’ve still got more trash to find and get rid of in my life. And there is still more to clean up on Rose Road. I’ve already taken a couple trash runs this year, and I have more planned. It always feels good to dump a load of garbage after a trash run. And cleaning up the trash makes it so much easier to look for the beauty that was always there.

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Walk to THE Cross

Help Yourself?

Masterpiece

On Closer Examination

Jeff Stueve

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