Happy New Year!

Confused?  It may be just September 30th to most of us, but today is also Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of a ten-day period known as the High Holy Days, or the Days of Awe, that will culminate on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  I’ve been reading about the significance of Rosh Hashanah today in the hopes of understanding its importance to God’s people, and have found much worthy of reflection.  While there are many aspects of the day that are important – from the belief that God created Adam and Eve on this day and the recognition of God as King of the universe to the certainty of future judgment as all humanity passes before God the judge – the central focus of this season is repentance.
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It’s only twelve days until the Second Annual Fido and Whiskers’ Big Day Out, an event in which our church will be partnering with Glastonbury pet businesses in order to put on a fun, free event for our community.  For those of you who weren’t around for last year’s event, I had been praying and thinking about ways to get our church out in the community, in order to meet and bless people and connect them to our church, and I thought I might do a Blessing of the Animals.  I had been to a couple of those with my beagle Otis that had been done by churches, and I always loved the simple and fun way those churches made connections with people in their community.  But as I began planning the event, I thought “why not involve some pet businesses and make it a larger scale event for families and their pets?”  And once we added in the agility course, our celebrity judge Rachel Lutzker, promotional help from The River 105.9, and lots of help from the people at NewLife, we had ourselves a great event that drew about 400 people and 200 dogs! 

   
            Eric and Sharman doing the Blessing of the Animals

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It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

Ruth Skinner died early this morning.  Her daughter, Mary Grove, has been a long time member of NewLife, and Ruth and Mary lived together for most of their life, including the last two years at Glastonbury Health Care Center.  Ruth had been suffering from cancer, and died peacefully in her sleep during the night. 

As a small and fairly young congregation, funerals tend to be pretty infrequent around our church.  I remember being a part of two during my time as youth pastor a few years ago, but I probably am involved in five weddings for every funeral.  But whenever there is a death, the first Bible verse that always comes to mind is the aforementioned verse from Ecclesiastes 7:2.  At first glance, the verse seems to paint a picture of God as the stereotypical killjoy who wants to ruin everyone’s fun and make sure no one is having a good time.  It is better to go to a funeral than to a party?  How many people do you know that plan for their weekend by browsing the obituaries for a good funeral to attend instead of looking for a good movie or concert to catch? 
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I’m currently reading through the book of Judges in the Old Testament as part of the Read Through the Bible in Two Years campaign, and I’ve found that it’s a pretty maddening read.  If you’ve ever spent time in the book, you may remember that the whole book essentially follows the same cycle seven times over a 300 year period:

1) The people of Israel drift away from God and begin to serve other gods and erect other idols
2) God removes His protection from them
3) Israel is attacked and oppressed by another people
4) In their distress, they cry out to God for help
5) God reminds them why they are in distress in the first place – their idolatry and sin
6) God raises up a leader or “judge” to rescue them
7) Israel enjoys peace and prosperity again
8) The cycle begins again…

It can be so easy to read the book and think that the people must have been either a bunch of idiots or just incurably evil.  After all, God’s law seemed so much simpler back then – do good and I’ll bless you, don’t do good and you’ll be cursed (and the answer is… Do Good!).

But of course, it’s more complicated than that.  Let me share four reasons.  Read more »