From Rev. Sarah Johnson: A God Who Draws Close

Dear Friends,

The Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament reveal a God who draws close to us in times of trouble and distress. In the book of Genesis, we hear the story of God, who encounters Sarah and Abraham in a season of barrenness and who meets Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness. In the book of Exodus, we learn about God hearing the cries of God’s people enslaved in the land of Egypt. In the book of Ruth, we see that God accompanies women searching for life after famine and death. Again and again, God comes alongside people in seasons of wandering when we are brought low by life. As Psalm 34:18 declares, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” Likewise, Jesus reveals God’s constant and intimate love with the poor, the brokenhearted, and the crucified of the world in his ministries of presence and healing and his death on a Roman cross.  

Therefore, part of the church’s ministry is to cultivate and make visible God’s intimacy, solidarity, and hope with all who suffer. We all continue to admire the resilient spirit of the Ukrainian people as they resist the horrors of the Russian invasion. This Sunday, we will have an opportunity to make our prayers for Ukraine visible by tying yellow and blue ribbons to the railing on the New York Avenue side of the church. We will offer our continued prayers for God’s presence and life amid war and death, even as we also remember and pray for other conflicts, those communities and neighbors suffering after natural disasters and storms, and lift up the violence in our own city and neighborhoods. 

This Sunday, we will also hear from our choir and music ministry in an expanded way as they sing selections from Faure’s Requiem as a part of our worship service. Following worship, there will be an extended time of conversation and fellowship outdoors in Triangle Park with home-baked treats and a fun planned activity sponsored by our Nurture committee. Come with a spirit of fun and a good spring jacket, and plan to join us!

And finally, I want to draw your attention to an upcoming opportunity offered by the Session over the next weeks and months to join in sharing your thoughts and experiences about our worship life. You can read more and sign up below. 

Throughout our collective life, we have the opportunity to know and experience God’s great love for us and the whole world. I hope you will join us onsite and online this Sunday, March 27, as we worship God. As one community conversation with the rich and often familiar parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:1-3;11-32b. 

(For Zoom click here or dial 1-929-436-2866 with meeting ID 150 620 342)

Grace and Peace,

Sarah 

From Rev. Sarah Johnson – Bearing Fruit

Dear Friends,

It is lovely to look around the District and see signs of spring popping up. 

Countless daffodils and tulips are blooming along my street, and elsewhere in the city, the beautiful pink magnolia and cherry blossoms are emerging. The other day, I snapped this picture of an almost budding cherry blossom along the Tidal Basin. The famous trees, a gift of Japan in 1912, signal Washington’s beginning of spring, bathing parts of the city and DMV area in a sea of pink and white blossoms. 

As a newcomer to the city, I anxiously anticipate the blooms, and it feels as if the whole city waits on hopeful tip-toes for their glorious color. This year, The National Park Service is projecting peak bloom (the day when 70% of the cherry blossoms are open) between March 22 and March 25. You can track the tree’s progress on their website or on other social media with the hashtag “bloom watch.” 

During the season of Lent in the church, we examine our lives as individuals and as communities to see if they are “blossoming” or, as scripture says, “bearing fruit” in accordance with the Way of Jesus. This Sunday, March 20, we will explore together just such a passage about bearing fruit from Luke 13:1-9. We will consider the invitation to move from productivity to planting as we continue our sermon series, Good Enough: Embracing Imperfection.

I look forward to being with you onsite and online as we worship God together (for Zoomclick here or dial 1-929-436-2866 with meeting ID 150 620 342).

A Blessing for Being Open to Change

Blessed are we, the ones who have just discovered that
others might not look at things the way we do–and
maybe they have a point. Just maybe.

Blessed are we, the newly wrong, chuckling over how
much it hurts to be chastened a little. Blessed are we
realizing that our fixes for others might actually be
mirrors to hold up first to ourselves. And blessed are we,
seeing that You, Lord, desire our good above all,
we give You our worship and praise through our
readiness to pivot according to Your direction.

Our hearts are soft, our ears are open. Speak, Lord, of the
change You desire to write into our life stories as they
unfold. For we are gently becoming aware that
knowledge will not be the basis for our understanding
of how life goes. Love will. Amen.

-Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie
Good Enough: Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

Sarah

From Rev. Sarah Johnson: Tradition and New Insights

Dear Friends,

One of the things that I have already grown to appreciate at New York Avenue is our commitment to holding the substance of our Christian tradition with new insights for how we can live out that faith together with greater inclusivity, particularly concerning those who have historically been excluded.

This commitment is mirrored in our denomination’s polity, theology, and action. In fact, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has a long history–beginning in 1971– of actively encouraging and advising congregations in our denomination to use inclusive language in their corporate worship, education, publications, and theological and biblical reflection.

The specific parameters of their recommendations have shifted over time as understanding and awareness around gender fluidity, identity, and sexuality have also grown. What remains constant is rooting their guidance in the conviction that our language for God should be as intentionally diverse and expansive as that of the Biblical and theological tradition. Rather than using only a minimal number of terms referring to God (e.g., Father, Creator, Lord, Almighty), we employ the rich reservoir of imagery found in the New and Old Testaments. For example, Psalm 91 (the basis for our prayer of confession this upcoming Sunday) describes God as “a mother hen who protects her chicks (Ps. 91:4).”

This commitment to inclusive language for God also helps acknowledge and celebrate all people and brings recognition and a sense of belonging to people who have been historically marginalized in society and the church. This is especially true for those in the LGBTQIA+ community* who have known and felt the wounds of exclusion, and long to see and hear themselves reflected in the body of Christ. I am grateful for those of you in this community of faith who have already entrusted me with your personal stories of pain, and I imagine others of you also have stories to share as well.

For this reason, I am thankful that NYAPC is also a designated More Light Congregation, a part of a coalition of churches in the PC(USA) explicitly committed to “working toward the full participation of LGBTQIA+ people in the life, ministry, and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA)–and in society.”

Therefore, when we endeavor to use inclusive language at NYAPC, we are grounding ourselves in scripture and our Reformed faith while attempting (however imperfectly) to live out our core vision and values of “expressing God’s love and engaging God’s justice.”

Worship is an important place where we can practice these commitments. One example is in how we pray the Lord’s Prayer, in which we seek to hold in tension our fulfilling of the biblical mandate from Jesus that invites us to pray as he taught his disciples to pray, with our commitment to using inclusive language, and doing so without departing from the theological meaning or changing the words of the prayer. The language printed in our worship for this Sunday attempts to embody those two commitments as clearly as possible, and provide options for people to engage as they feel led. As always, I hope you will join me in ongoing conversation and theological reflection now and in the future as we wrestle with how we worship, learn, and serve Jesus Christ together.

This Sunday, we will continue with our Lent Sermon Series, Good Enough: Embracing Imperfection. We will listen for God’s word from Luke chapter 13:31-35 and explore the invitation to move from “Controlling to Dancing.” Our community will also worship in two places: first, at the retreat center at Meadowkirk where Rev. Rachel will lead worship for those gathered there; and second, onsite and online at The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church with General Presbyter The Rev. John Molina-Moore and myself.
(for Zoom click here or dial 1-929-436-2866 with meeting ID 150 620 342)

These are continually strange and difficult days. We are overwhelmed by images of war and immense and unspeakable suffering of our neighbors in Ukraine, violence within our own city, all while carrying other heavy burdens in our personal lives. Below is a prayer practice based on Psalm 46:10 for you to carry with you today and the days ahead. May we draw close to God and to one another.

Close your eyes. Take some deep breaths. As you do, say these words . . . slowing your breath down, breathing deeper and deeper with every repetition, dropping a word with every exhale.

Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be

–from Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, Good Enough: 40ish Devotions for a Life of Imperfection

Warmly,

Sarah

From Rev. Sarah Johnson: Lent Begins

Dear Friends,

This Sunday, March 6th, marks the first Sunday in the season of Lent, the six weeks or forty days (without Sundays) from Ash Wednesday until Easter.  

Over the centuries, the season of Lent developed as a time of deepened reflection and examination. During Lent, we acknowledge our finitude, our humanity, our mortality, and acknowledge our need for God’s grace. We take stock and examine where and how our lives are growing more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ, into the people God calls us to be. 

We also live in a culture bent on telling us that the path to the “good life” is a relentless upward trajectory of self-improvement on the pathway toward perfection. We can and should be “living our best lives now.” Buy this skin cream. Lose those extra pounds. Your inbox is out of control. Get your kids into this program. Have you finished that degree? Mastered retirement? Parenthood? Everything is possible if you commit to this new series of habits, attend this seminar, work harder, or have enough faith. We are led to believe that the beautiful, joyful, effortless, totally fulfilling life, faith, or church that we have always wanted is just out of reach. We live under the exhausting weight of the perfectibility paradigm. 

And yet, Lent reminds us of our finitude, our humanity, and our need for God’s grace. As Christians, we believe that God invites us to try, and try and try again on the path toward transformation, not perfection. Jesus alone is perfect. We are required, accompanied by the grace of God, to walk toward God under the steady drumbeat of improvement.

Author and Duke Divinity School Professor Kate Bowler has co-written a new Lenten devotional titled, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Our Lenten worship will remind us of this truth: Perfection is impossible, but transformation isn’t. With this devotional as our companion, together, we will pray, immerse ourselves in the stories of Christ’s ministry, and reflect on our own lives. And in doing so, “We can begin to feel less alone, more loved, and less judged when good is… enough.”

As a recovering Perfectionist, I constantly need reminding that God has placed inside each of us all that we need to discover beauty, joy, and meaning in this life–a life that we all know is unpredictable and comes with an expiration date. And God gives us community, the gift of The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, so that we may reflect and embody together God’s abiding love, especially when it feels our lives are far from perfect. We are, indeed, good enough.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday in the Sanctuary, Livestream, and Zoom (Zoom Details: dial 1-929-436-2866 with meeting ID 150 620 342) for worship as we begin our Lenten journey together by listening for God in the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness in Luke 4:1-13.

A blessing as lent begins:

Blessed are you,
ready to open yourself to new joy,
a doorway that until now has been hidden.
in this culture of acquisition and gain,

Blessed are you who desire
fresh ears to hear what might
be a bit too loud.

Who take the next step
to turn it down a notch
and make more space for God.

Who discipline yourself,
with time, intention, and hope,
anticipating God to show up in your discomfort.
trusting that when we need God,
God promises to be there.

God, give me courage,
give me strength,
give me hunger for You.

Let this set time of less be a chance
for more of You.

Let this fast be an entrance
into the discernment I desire,
the divine presence I’m longing for,
and the hope to will what you will,
oh God, to be who
You’ve called me to be.

(By Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, “Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection”)

Grace and Peace,

Sarah