Does it ever feel to you as if identifying yourself as a Christian sets you up for being judged by a higher standard? Do people ever expect you to be better, more righteous, or even just to have things a little more under control? Maybe you were even taught to have those expectations of yourself, on account of your faith. 

If any of this is true for you, then these past few months might have felt even a bit more challenging. We’re supposed to have faith, right? Our relationship with God means we shouldn't be falling apart with worry or overwhelmed by our worldly circumstances. 

Well, let’s step back a bit from these sorts of assumptions and offer ourselves a chance to accept our humanity. On Sunday we’ll look at another story of how God’s people complained in the face of difficulty. And I think we’ll find some comfort in the way that God responded to their “failure” to trust. 

Faithfully, 

Hardy

P.S. We will be receiving our Peace & Global Witness Offering this Sunday. If you would like to contribute, you can do so from the church website.

Join us immediately following worship this Sunday for Coffee Hour

After the service is over, log on to our Zoom coffee time at:

“If it is true that God exceeds all our efforts to contain God, then is it too big a stretch to declare that dumbfoundedness is what all Christians have most in common? Or that coming together to confess all that we do now know is at least as sacred an activity as declaring what we think we do know?”

—Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”