Every felt bent-over from your burdens, weights of life, besetting ailments, persistent distractions? Sure! We all have. This week we meet a woman who entered the synagogue and heard Jesus say, “I love you!” But that’s not all. In front of the whole assembly of neighbors, Jesus said, “I see you!” But wait, there’s more! Jesus also said, “I will make you new!” And he did. We notice people just like that woman in our sanctuary every week. Have you ever noticed:
- The elderly woman dismissed due to her age and creeping memory loss.
- The young person tolerated for their energy
- The visitor who entered the service late, sat in the back row, and left before the benediction.
- The young mother nodding off in the third pew, exhausted from working two minimum wage jobs while raising her children.
- The long-time member with stories too painful to voice.
- The vacationer who is over-burdened with life experiences
- The neighbor who struggles with addiction that takes its toll of their family
The miracle of this story is not only physical healing, it is community seeing. Jesus sees the woman, calls her, frees her of her heavy burdens and, the entire community noticed her, too. The leader of the synagogue, incensed at Jesus’ action on the Sabbath, calls to the crowd, repeatedly, “There are six days on which work ought be done; come on those days to be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” Wow. Let’s love, see, and with God’s empowerment, make all things new for everyone! Now we see those previously disregarded and stooped-over. They (and us) will no longer be ignored. Who do you notice?!
A Bible I misplaced in Newark about six years ago was returned to me this week. I was really happy about that. Take a look at the date inside the front cover of this New Testament, the love story about Jesus… 1975. That’s right. I remember the day and the place I purchased this when I was in my college bookstore. We date special items to help us remember the connection, and I have a Bible to give you today! I’ll write your name and today’s date in it to help you remember this special day. Cold Spring Church wants to help you jump into God’s story every day! Amazing days are ahead. Let’s get started!
On August 24, 2019 at 5:00pm, at Cold Spring Presbyterian Church, Rollin Wilber will give a full piano recital, where he will speak about the musical program, and perform well-known works by Mozart (Fantasy in D minor), Schubert (Impromptu in F minor), Chopin (Ballade #1 and Scherzo #2) plus some alluring piano music inspired “by the sea.”
This imaginative recital will fill our historic Red Brick Church with inspiring music, and after the recital, guests will enjoy a delightful reception in Price Hall, Cold Spring Presbyterian Church’s banquet and event facility undergoing renovation to better serve our community. Proceeds from the Summer Piano Recital will benefit the renovation project.
Purchase your tickets for this very special Summer event for the entire family. $30 in advance. $35 at the door.
ROLLIN WILBER
concert pianist
Rollin Wilber was raised in the New York area, within an extended family of professional musicians (father 1st Horn with the NY Philharmonic; mother, 1st Horn with the New York City Ballet Orchestra). He began piano studies at age eight with his grandmother (a rare female concert violinist in 1900) and began performing publicly at the age of 16. He graduated from high school one year early and received a music degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he pursued more than ten years of study withMaryan Filar, internationally acclaimed pianist and Chopin interpreter.
Rollin has been an active recitalist for the last forty years, including performing numerous concerto solos with local orchestras. He has had his own performing piano trio, teaches piano, and is a composer of piano and vocal works and music written for the theater. He created his own series of dramatic narratives within a music recital, presented as “Stories in Concert;” and developed original music educational seminars called the “Art of Listening” series, exploring the language of expression in live music, debuting it at the Chautauqua Summer Institute in the summer of 2000. This was followed with his extensive offering of new and original music performance seminars, called “For the Love of Music.”
He is a founder and artistic director of the music presenting and performing group, FINE ART MUSIC COMPANY created in 2010.Going into their tenth year, it presents seasonal offerings of highly innovative music programs and concerts, designed to create greater intimacy and involvement for their listening audiences. It is heading into its 10th season, with performances at the Philadelphia Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, and at “Ivy Hall,” an restored mansion with ballroom located on historical Lancaster Avenue in west Philadelphia.
Rollin also was responsible for restoring the grand chandelier at the Cold Spring Presbyterian Church recently, through his own antiquelighting & restoration company (THE ANTIQUE LIGHTHOUSE in Philadelphia). He created this small business in the 1990’s in order to pursue his musical life more easily. To that end, he is now able to work full-time on his composition projects and to prepare for numerous piano performances and other musical events.
For further information regarding Rollin Wilber and his Fine Art Music group, please visit: www.FineArtMusic.com
Look around you and you’ll notice that one of the fastest growing, most profitable businesses involves renting out storage units. The storage industry is bigger and more profitable than the entertainment industry in Hollywood. People spend more money on storage than on movies or entertainment.
Few people stay in one place anymore. It seems like 1 out of every 4 people you meet were born outside of Cape May. On average, people in the United States move at least eleven times during their lifetime. Sometimes the spaces are bigger; sometimes the spaces are smaller. We get new jobs, we get married, we have families, we get divorced, we become “empty nests,” we move across the country. All of these changes in lifestyle and location can involve a pressing need for storage. We just love or must store “stuff.” If we have access to “bigger barns,” we are liberated and uninhibited about amassing more stuff to fill those empty spaces. We think more “stuff” will make us feel more situated, safe, and secure. While authentic emotional attachments can be a positive influence in our lives, its just a likely that emotional attachments to things can diminish our lives, too. What to do?
Jesus’ parable in this week’s lesson from Luke 12:13-21 reminds us that the best “storage” we can have is not in storage lockers but in the hearts of those we love, the minds of our communities and our neighbors, and those in need. Who did God prioritize to be recipients of our accumulated “stuff” and “treasures”? Those who are treated unjustly, the strangers, visitors, women, children, the sick and injured, the cast-out and the left-out are the real “storage units” for any leftovers and surplus in our lives.
You may want to invite someone with you to worship this week as we talk about life’s storage lockers. (Then get ready for the new!)
Pastor Kevin
“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Last week we revisited the first moon landing on July 20, 1969. Wow. (You may listen to the message, Mary, Martha, and the Moon, just below on this page.) This week, we hear Jesus teach his followers a prayer. We refer to it as The Lord’s Prayer, but is it the “Lord’s” prayer”? Maybe it should have been called the Disciple’s Prayer, but the Prayer, whatever its title, is a common-sounding prayer. What made the Prayer unique was not it content, but to whom it was addressed. No rabbi in Jesus time, or before or since, would have started any prayer referring to God as “Daddy”! That’s right. “Our Father…” is the term “Daddy” and Jesus shocked his listeners who were not used to having such a personal relationship with the Creator! What’s more, after Jesus’ outrageous prayer lesson, he tells a few stories that encouraged the disciples to even be persistent in prayer, courageous in prayer, with God. Now that’s shocking!
Become a part of Jesus’ prayer lesson and learn about why Persistence Is Never Futile when we are connected to the Jesus Force this week the Red Brick Church. You’ll want to bring along a few friends to worship with you, too! Everyone’s welcome!
In 1800, Alessandro Volta created the first true battery. While it was large and weak compared to today’s standards it was the real beginning of stored electrical energy. Nowadays batteries are everywhere from mobile devices to vehicles and medical devices like pacemakers and prosthetics. So much of our lives are battery-powered.
Many homes around us, perhaps yours, along with Price Hall, collect solar energy to provide for our electrical needs. Our solar panels generate so much power that we earn energy credits back that can be converted into cash back. But most of the solar power collected is either used or lost. What if you could take the one area of your life where you consume the greatest amount of electricity, your home, and run it off a battery? Or if you could run your neighborhood with batteries? All of Cape May? Wow. That would be a lot of power.
Elon Musk, of Space-X, Tesla, and PayPal fame, has a new company called Tesla Energy. This new endeavor offers a suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities fostering a clean energy ecosystem and helping wean the world off fossil fuels. It’s very interesting. You can learn more at: www.teslamotors.com/powerwall.
God cares about the energy we produce, and consume! “Storehouse villages, and villages for chariots and horses. Solomon built widely and extravagantly in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and wherever he fancied” (1Kings 9:19).
Churches are storehouses. Cold Spring Church is a storehouse, and even more, a distribution point for spiritual energy on God’s spiritual network through Jesus Christ.
Notice the use of the word power in what the Apostle Paul wrote to his friends: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:18-21).
How To Replenish Spiritual Power:
Here are a few suggestions if you want to supercharge your life this August:
- Know you are loved! Remember that God in Jesus Christ loves you, forgives you, and has given you the Holy Spirit to give your life purpose and power. (John 1:14, 3:16-17)
- Read the Greatest Story ever told. The Bible may be the most widely published book, but is likely the least applied! God’s love letter is the Bible, and its written just for you! This month, pick a Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and make a commitment to not only read it, but let it read you! Let those words touch your mind, heart, and soul. Keep a journal to capture what you discover. Share what you learn. Practice what what you see in Jesus’ life. Ask God to help the Jesus Story transform your life and see what happens!
- Get connected with others. The early disciples knew that getting together was a powerful experience (Acts 2:42-27). Attending worship is not a command, and its much more than an obligation. It’s an opportunity to hang out with neighbors like you wanting that abundant life Jesus promised. Experience God’s word read and preached. Pray together. Give together. We are all seekers. We all struggle. We all want to experience God’s grace in our life. Make August a month for gratitude. Think of worship as a spiritual locker room to receive resources and training you need to fulfill your life’s mission out in the community. Watch and wonder at what God does through you!
- Receive, then give. When Jesus called you to follow him, whether thirty years ago or 3 months ago, you are on a journey with Christ that never ends. Consider the many shops and restaurants within three miles of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church. everyone of them receives and a gives something of value. What if the raw ingredients went into the restaurant, were prepared, but only the chef and staff enjoyed a meal? What if a store owner the store shelves stocked to the ceiling, but never sold anything to customers? Or what if a person studied to be a great lifeguard, but never went out on the beach to rescue people? Likewise, God has invested in you. God believes in you. You have resources, not just to store up for yourselves, but to give away, to invest in others, to serve and provide so others may be blessed. This month, for every gift, insight, blessing you receive, pass it on. After all, if your storehouse is always full, there will be no room for what’s to come!
All these activities will recharge your spiritual batteries. Consider what kind of energy you are storing? With whom do you share? Who can access it? What does it cost? And most importantly, how is is being replenished?
Cold Spring Presbyterian Church is in the spiritual energy business and all of us have time, energy, and attention (TEA) energy to share. This August, let’s figure out how to replenish our individual and congregational energy and improve the ways we deliver that energy so that everyone in our community is supercharged with God’s Spirit and experiences the abundant life!
Thank you for the positive, powerful, energy you share!
Pastor Kevin