Today’s author is Interim Pastor Walter Still.
Grace and peace be with you.
It has been a great blessing to serve as the Interim Lead Pastor while Pr Peter has been on sabbatical. In the first part of our time together in April/May, I focused in these devotions on “sabbatical” and its many dimensions for Pr Peter and the congregation. My prayer is that the sabbatical experience has been a time for prayer, study, recreation, and fun for Pr Peter. I also encouraged everyone to create a sense of sabbath when you can disconnect from the busyness of life and let God renew the bond of love with you. Sabbath/sabbaticals are a blessing!
In the second part of our time together in July/August, we have dug deep into the Book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible. I feel that it has been a significant encounter with the prophecy of John of Patmos from his world in the First Century to our world today. I find the following from Dr Craig Koester Revelation and the End of All Things (2nd ed) an important message to conclude our study:
Revelation confronts readers with an astonishing range of visions that threaten and encourage them. Those who recognize the integrity of the book must come to terms with both. Many readers have had difficulty with the threating side of the book. Repulsed by those who intimidate people with Revelation’s warnings of fiery judgment or who turn its visions of conflict into a script for World War III, many Christians relegate Revelation to the margins of their lives…Revelations images are designed to disturb readers in order to bring them to renewed lives of faith and faithfulness.
Koester, 200-201
My hope is that our time together has been an opportunity to provide the pastor of PoP a time of renewal and the Spirit has renewed each of us in our pilgrimage of faith. I have so appreciated your wearing of nametags, the leaders and staff, hospitality and your hard work of ministry and mission as I have been blessed to serve as Interim Lead Pastor.
Pr Walter
Let us pray: Draw your church together, O God, into one great company of disciples, together following our teacher Jesus Christ into every walk of life, together serving in Christ’s mission to the world, and together witnessing to your love wherever you will send us; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (ELW, 75)