Traveling Together Makes All the Difference

Author: Mark Fenstermacher
September 24, 2021

We can know someone for a long time and not really know them. We can move through the same spaces and moments, and not really know one another.

We’re about to start a series of messages on the Gospel of Mark. Really, these sermons are designed to be a time and place where you can meet Jesus of Nazareth as never before. 

Here is what I have found: sharing a table with someone gives us the opportunity to know them in new ways. I remember a good man who never really knew me until we sat down for lunch one day. Max thought he knew me but the truth is he had constructed a false narrative about who I was. He assumed, because I was a son of a physician and a graduate of Duke, that I was born with a “silver spoon in my mouth.” Over lunch, though, he heard a different story. He heard a story about life on the mission field, terrible losses early in life, and how our family lived in a converted military freezer for three years in Alaska. Max became a friend and never looked at me in the same way, again.

Table moments can change everything: maybe that is one reason why the Gospel accounts of Jesus are so full of table moments. Jesus eats with the crowd on the hillside. Jesus goes to the home of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the Jericho district. Jesus stops at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus for a meal and some down time. Jesus parties in the home of a tax collector who decides to make God the center of his life rather than greed.

In the same way, traveling together can make all the difference. Years ago, I took a group of about seventeen persons to Israel for a week. That week together, including the good and the bad moments, changed how we knew one another. We returned to the States with a different kind relationship to one another. 

Knowing someone is very different than knowing about someone from a distance. This is true with Jesus. This is true with God. This is true with the Holy Spirit. 

Richard Rohr, in Immortal Diamond, talks about the difference between “fast food religion” where people talk about God and faith but never engage with God...Jesus...the Holy Spirit...the way of faith. He speaks of the “Desert of Nonparticipation” where people know about the holy but never step into the holy. In this desert people know about Jesus but never really walk the road with him, go out to a lonely place with him to pray, share the boat with him in a storm, party with rascals and losers with him, or walk the road to the cross and then the empty tomb with him.

Our “Gospel of Mark” series will be, we pray, your opportunity to not just know about Jesus but to know him in a new and deeper way. It’s one thing to know about him and quite another to respond when he says, “Come, follow me.”

I believe God is calling us to be a community where we know him and—in our own unique way—have decided to travel with the Carpenter.

See you Sunday at 8:45 or 10:45 either online or in-person for worship. Our Sanctuary service at 8:45 is traditional and meets in the Sanctuary. The Chapter 2 service is less formal, includes a praise team, allows for people to sit in chairs around tables (if they choose that option), and meets in the Fellowship Hall at 10:45. In the back of the room there is a children’s area with rockers where young children and parents may linger as we worship.

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Things to Know:

• There are three new groups for adults on Sunday mornings where you can connect and grow: Front Porch (each Sunday has a different topic - bring your coffee and drop in!); Breakfast Club (parents of young children talking about their worlds); and Cover to Cover (a book group that meets every other week).


• Our Wednesday Night Food Ministry has now given away over 10,000 meals this year. If you would like to support this ministry, we will be receiving a major offering on the first Sunday of October with our “World Communion Offering.” (Money goes to UM scholarships here and around the world, and one-half of the offering will go to our Wednesday Food Ministry.) You can also donate online right here.


• Thanks to ALL who went out to serve on our “Faith in Action” Sunday. A special thanks to Tammy for coordinating this, and for each of our work team leaders.


• Pathways to Generosity is coming next month. What would it mean for us to live lives of uncommon, joyful generosity?


• If you are a man and looking for a great group where you can connect with other men and God, join the United Methodist Men on Wednesday mornings at 7 am in the coffee area for coffee/tea, a morning snack, conversation and some amazing presentations. Come in the east doors near the church office. We’re laid back and very informal. We’d love to see you!

I am so blessed to be one of your pastors. Pastor Nikki and I are so grateful to share this journey with you! 

Have you thought about inviting a friend to join you in worship or in your small group? So many people are looking for community and connection: your invitation could mean a lot to them!

Grace and Peace,
Mark

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