The 3rd to the Last Word from Our Interim Pastor

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

God’s story has embraced you and writes meaning making significance into your existence. And you in turn are a meaning maker to and with others. Trevor Hart in Making Good makes this connection that our partnership with God for making good is both eucharistic and eschatological. That is, our co-creating meaning with God is about the Table and the fulfillment of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, because it is rooted in “…the vicarious self-substitution of Christ for us, and opened out by the work of the Spirit of Christ in and through you in the direction of that New Creation.”

Beginnings and arrivals. We all were born. We all will die. At birth we began a journey of many beginnings and arrivals over the course of our lives. Death happens. We experience arrival with the One who knows us the best and loves us the most. him the best. A new beginning occurred. And eternal life continues the journey of beginnings and arrivals.

God’s unconditional love beckons you to allow God to serve you, and you, in turn, to serve others. John Stott, citing the Lausanne Covenant in Christian Mission in the Modern World, writes,

…We affirm that God is both Creator and the Judge of all men [people]. We therefore should share his [God’s] concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men [all people] from every kind of oppression. Because humankind is made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he [they] should be respected and served, not exploited….the salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities.

Be embraced by and embrace God’s unconditional love. Jesus will live his life through you. God’s mission of inclusion well-being of is a journey of beginnings and arrivals.

Experience and appreciate the beginnings and arrivals on the journey.

On this transition journey with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh, Interim Pastor

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A Word from Our Interim Pastor – The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Who do you say Jesus is? Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant made with Abraham that God had chosen a people to be a blessing to all nations. In and through Jesus Christ, we become connected to and participants in that covenant.

Who do you say Jesus is? Jesus is the face of the loving, judging, and forgiving Father. Experiencing God’s love in Jesus Christ means experiencing that one has been unreservedly accepted, approved, and infinitely loved, that one can accept oneself and one’s neighbor.

What about compassion? To some extent, to be compassionate is dependent upon our ability to feel the common humanity of ourselves and others. To be compassionate toward others, we must be able to put ourselves in their place and see that we are not all that different from them. Compassion is an essential aspect of loving others.

What a wonderful blessing to have called the Rev. Kevin Ireland to be our next Pastor/Head of Staff. Kevin is gifted, and we will see Jesus in his face, words, and behaviors. Kevin starts with us the first week in September and will lead us in worship and preach on Sunday, September 7.

Come face to face with Jesus. Let Jesus change you, free you, and enable you to become the person the Father wants you to become. Face to face with Jesus. Come closer. Be changed. That is the relationship.

On this transition journey with you, I remain faithfully yours,

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh, Interim Pastor

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A Word from Our Interim Pastor – The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Who do you say Jesus is? The Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, center on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The Gospels are all about Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the covenant made with Abraham that God had chosen a people to be a blessing to all nations. In and through Jesus Christ, we become connected to and participants in that covenant.

Who do you say Jesus is? The orthodox, historic and apostolic Christian faith teaches that Jesus is fully God and fully man. The apostle John, also known as the evangelist, expounds eloquently on the divine character of the eternal Logos (Word) who was manifested on earth in Jesus Christ. John sets his face uncompromisingly against Docetism, the heretical teaching that Jesus was not really man. John does not say that the Logos assumed manhood. He affirms that the Logos “became flesh” (John 1:14).

So essential, indeed, is Jesus’ true manhood to the gospel that in John’s first epistle the confession of this is a criterion of membership in the family of God (1 John 4:2; 5:1), while its denial is a mark of the spirit of the antichrist (1 John 4:3; 2 John 7). The gospel of our salvation depends upon the genuineness of our Lord’s humanity and deity. Only as Jesus presents himself to us as perfect man and perfect deity, can we be encouraged to grow up, not only individually but corporately, “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Who do you say Jesus is? Be careful. Your answer really matters.

On this transition journey with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

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A Word from Our Interim Pastor – The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Happy Fourth of July 2025. This past week, I was in California visiting my Dad, having several doctor appointments, and spending time with the first pastor I sat under and served with as a colleague in my first call after leaving Princeton Theological Seminary.

The Rev. Bob Schwenck shaped me as a human and pastor. I have had no greater mentor than Bob. But I have six others who have also invested in me over the decades.

So much of my social justice commitment began to be uncovered and nurtured with Bob. I’m sharing a section of a recent blog I received, following the recent death of his beloved wife, Bernie.

“Many years ago, Bernie and I visited our nation’s capital. My desire was to spend time in the national museums, especially the museum of art. But as it turned out the biggest impression that stayed with us was Arlington National Cemetery. I wept as we stood on the hill overlooking the rows and rows of crosses that curved with the hills as far we could see. I became more aware of the sacrifices that so many have made for my freedom and security.

I am not naive about every person killed in battle knowing exactly what they were fighting for or that our government’s motives were pure as the driven snow. But I am profoundly thankful that these men and women, whose lives were cut short, gave me and my family and all of us the safety and opportunity that we have had and hopefully will continue to have.

Bernie and I took in an abundance of beauty from our visit to Washington, and there was a sweet aroma from this experience in Arlington. It made our love for one another and deep thankfulness to God more rich and spiritually meaningful. We felt like an angel had brought us more light and insight into the instinctual, strong, and spiritual desire in the United States to be standing for what is right for all peoples. And that we as a nation were willing to sacrifice and even die to keep ours and other’s freedom safe.

However, I am afraid that this pride in our national agenda is waning in these last few years for me. I pray that what will continue to make us great again and again is our compassion and our valuing of all people whom God loves so deeply.

‘Lord, help the church remind all of us of the calling we have to be Christ’s servants in world history even if it means sacrifice.’”

On our Interim Pastor journey with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

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A Word from Our Interim Pastor

The Church is to be a sending agency, sending transformed people into the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ to a hurting and lost world. The Church is a gathering of people to worship God and a gathering of people to go into the world and witness to others about the good news of Jesus Christ.

A definition of and for the Church that I coined over a decade ago is this: “The Church through its worship, service, and giving is to be a place that equips, empowers, nurtures, and disciples women, men, girls, and boys through the teaching and preaching of the Gospel to be God’s loving witnesses, through word and deed, in the world.” The official beginning of the Church, as we know it, happened at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on all humanity.

In The Confession of 1967 this statement is made about the mission of the church. “To be reconciled to God is to be sent into the world as his reconciling community. This community, the church universal, is entrusted with God’s message of reconciliation and shares his labor of healing the enmities which separate women and men from God and from each other. Christ has called the church to this message and given it the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In the Great Commission, Jesus tells his followers to go into the world to make disciples by teaching them all that he had taught them. Jesus tells us to go and do as he did, calling people to faith and obedience to him as Savior and Lord. Jesus sends us into the world to bring about reconciliation as was his purpose. Jesus tells us that he will be with us in all circumstances and in all ways. “I am with you always to the end of the age.”

The Church is to be the reconciling presence of God in the world. Because God loves creation, we are commanded to go into the world and love it. The Church is to be the worshiping presence of God on earth. The Church is to be the serving presence of God on the earth. The Church is to be God’s equipping and empowering presence on earth. The Church is to be God’s discipling presence on the earth.

Pentecost is the reminder to each one of us that if we claim to be saved by Jesus Christ and be a follower, then we are implicated to be sent into the world in order to be the best Jesus someone will see. May we be a gathered body of Christian believers during this Season of Pentecost who are sent into the world to be change agents in the world.

On our Interim Pastor journey with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

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