High school youth will meet via Zoom at 3:30 pm on Sunday, February 21. Middle school youth will meet via Zoom at 3:30 pm on Sunday, February 21. The Zoom link will be emailed out on Saturday. See you then!
• Sunday, March 7: Meet at Shawnee Mission Park to help assemble Spring Break kits for teachers. More information to come.
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, our thoughts turn to the importance of relationships, especially those we love.
I’ve done a lot of pre-marital counseling over the years, including administering the PREPARE-ENRICH Inventory that many pastors and professional counselors use. I won’t go into details here, but I’ve found its various categories in examining relationships very helpful. It registers both strengths and weaknesses (we all have both no matter how briefly or long we’ve known someone) for couples so they can affirm their positives while identifying areas they need to work on. PREPARE-ENRICH also helps couples learn what they already know, but didn’t know they knew, about their relationship. It draws on their best intuitions.
And yet, the strange thing I’ve discovered is how unprepared we all are in understanding relationships. Many couples and families only talk about their relationship to each other in times of trouble, if then. Often those conversations only pass along misguided wives’ tales, which turn out to be little or no help at all. Or they’ll pass their child’s question on: “Talk to your mother about that!” because their question hits a nerve.
One common mistake I’ve often seen with couples and have fallen into myself is when I think of my own marriage as a zero-sum game; in other words, where there always has to be a winner and a loser. If René gets her way, maybe I won’t get my way or vice-versa. It’s easy to thoughtlessly operate like this in a competitive, sports-oriented society like ours. We see in politics too, where neither side wants to budge, when bipartisanship would best serve both sides.
Yet, couples and families get it right when they replace zero-sum thinking and behaving with a “Win-Win” approach to their relationship. Yeah, this often means that each party or partner may have to compromise a little, but the outcome is far more satisfying.
And this is true not only for couples but for all relationships. For us men it often means we may have to be more flexible and not so rigid in our thinking. For women it often means not storing every mistake their husband makes in a gunnysack to club them with later. And this isn’t just true of cis-gendered relationships but in gay and lesbian relationships too. Conflict can happen in every kind of relationship, including at work or with an adversary. Life wins when everyone wins, even if everybody has to eat some crow and lose a little too.
Much too much is made of winning at others’ expense. Losing also has its benefits! In fact, I have found the scriptures more engaging and easier to preach when I identify not with the heroes, the winners in a story, but with the chumps, the losers, the sinners.
I’ll never forget the first time I beat my father in chess. I was recently out of Divinity School; but with all that education I still couldn’t beat my dad at chess, and we had played chess for most of my life. He had learned the game from the Iowa State Champion when he was young and was really good; I mean really, really good. He didn’t feel he was doing me any favor by “letting me win” as some false triumph.
But you know what happened after I beat him the first time? I discovered I didn’t want to play him anymore because it was too painful for me to realize I’d caught up with him. He was such a hero to me I just couldn’t accept the idea of beating him. I found in that moment how glorious it is not to always have to be successful, always have to win. Ironically, I came to appreciate him even more as a fellow human being, a fellow life traveler of mine in this all-too-short life.
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” Unlike Santa we aren’t to keep a naughty list against those who irk us or even hurt us. Yet, this is often only possible when we own those things we’ve done to hurt others, especially those we most love.
So, may we mark this Sunday’s Valentine’s Day with the understanding that our destinies are tied together and that when our loved ones win, we also win and when they lose we also lose. It’s the only workable solution to finding the love we give requited and peace in our heart; unless of course, we only care about ourselves and have a special affection for nastiness and chaos.
Love conquers all!
Rick
Ash Wednesday is the traditional beginning of the season of Lent. This year Ash Wednesday falls on February 17. We will celebrate the service via Zoom. The service invites us to a time of reflection and contemplation. Music will be by noted Disciple composer and musician Andra Moran and liturgy by Disciple pastor Suzanne Castle.
A Zoom link will be emailed to you. If you have not already done so, you will need to download the Zoom program to your computer, phone, or tablet. Using Zoom will enable us to see each other’s faces and offer words of greeting to one another.
Join us for this ancient service in this very 21st century format!
Our worship series for Lent is The Last Week. Based on the book The Last Week by noted biblical scholars Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan, the series will trace the events of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. The authors note that the central message of Jesus’ ministry was the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, peace, and economic justice, a kingdom where God’s will is indeed done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus, both by what he said and what he did, offered a direct threat to the ruling authorities of first century Jerusalem, a threat which led to his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
Our worship series will trace Jesus’ last week, and the larger meanings behind what Jesus said and did.
February 21
Sunday: The Triumphal Entry
Mark 11:1-8
February 28
Monday: The Cleansing of the Temple
Mark 11:12-19
March 7
Tuesday: Controversy with Religious Leaders
Mark 12:13-17
March 14
Wednesday: The Woman Anoints Jesus
Mark 14:1-11
March 21
Thursday: Gethsemane
Mark 14:32-42
Looking for a way to get connected? Small groups are meeting weekly via Zoom. In a small group you will find people who will support and encourage you, pray for you and help you grow in your faith.
Men’s Group: The men’s group meets on Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm. If you are interested in joining, email Rick Jensen at rpmcycler@gmail.com.
Women’s Group: The women’s group meets on Wednesday evenings at 8:00 pm. If you are interested in joining, email Rene Jensen at revrenejensen@gmail.com.
Thursday Morning Group (Big Biscuit Group): The Thursday morning group meets on Thursdays at 9:30 am. If you are interested in joining, email Annette Hollingsworth at mackh@kc.rr.com.
Spanish-born, American philosopher George Santayana gifted us with the well-known remark, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Mark Twain added,
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” History has a lot to teach us if we pay attention. The life of Christians and the church are often deeply affected.
Whether we prefer the idea of history repeating itself or rhyming, though, we are living in a not-altogether unprecedented crisis of 2 kinds; one: political, social and historical, the other: economic.
The first kind of crises have occurred approximately every 80 to 100 years throughout American history. Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe call these recurring crises “Fourth Turnings.” Fourth Turnings, often called “Winters,” are not inevitable acts of fate; but every time they occur, they instill much public apprehension and anxiety, not to mention division. They are always marked by either global or national unrest, and sometimes both: The last three Fourth Turnings in American history occurred with World War II 80 years ago, the Civil War 80 years before that, and the Revolutionary War 80 years before that.
But there is also good news with Fourth Turnings; viz., they are followed by much calmer First Turning Highs: 1950’s “Happy Days,” 1870’s Reconstruction, and 1790’s Constitutional Founding of the United States. Good things can happen during Fourth Turnings best exemplified in the end of Fascism in Europe and Asia and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Bad things can happen during First Turnings: Carpetbaggers in the South after the Civil War and the extension of Jim Crow practices after WWII. All Turnings wear a Janis Face.
Fourth Turnings, last approximately 18-22 years. The present 4th Turning probably began between the time of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Great Recession in 2008. The present 4th Turning will likely conclude in the second half of this decade, if not sooner.
Along with these 80 to 100-year cycles ending in 4th Turnings, the United States also undergoes a major economic crisis approximately every 50 years. The last major economic shift occurred in 1980 with President Reagan’s repudiation of the New Deal. The New Deal began during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The “Roaring ‘20’s” actually looked similar to today’s economy: with high rolling financial speculation that led to the Crash, low taxation and low regulation. This was the Gilded Era.
Fifty years before the Crash in 1873 the United States suffered a terrible depression. For a while the First Christian Church René and I served in Omaha, obviously much later, closed temporarily while the nation’s economy tanked. Around that same time in the 1870’s grasshoppers literally ate Nebraska and were so numerous they could darken a brilliant blue sky and blot out the sun. Plagues and pandemics come in many forms.
These economic shifts—often with political implications—swing between Keynesian economic theory of high taxation and high government regulation (the New Deal and Jacksonian populism in the 1820’s) and folks called Monetarists like Nobel Prize winner, Milton Friedman who affirmed low taxes on the nation’s wealthiest (“trickle-down economics”) and low government regulation. President Reagan instituted Friedman’s theories. But just as Keynesian economics faltered in the 1970’s in the overwhelming defeat of George McGovern, trickle-down economics is flagging here in the early 2020’s. The trickle is too little to sustain the health of our society when today 1 out of every 7 Americans is going hungry and unemployment figures are the highest since the Great Depression.
What makes this period we’re living through especially trying, besides with the pandemic, is that we may well be experiencing a confluence of a Fourth Turning political, social, and religious (faith) crisis at the same time we are undergoing an economic crisis. No arena of human activity has gone unscathed. Normally during Fourth Turnings, conservative churches experience decline, as people begin to start questioning their religious assumptions, which they may have mindlessly taken for granted but went unchallenged before hard times came along.
The likelihood is we will soon witness a major political realignment along with a similar shift in economic thinking. Fourth Turnings combined with every-50th-year economic shifts like we are in, perhaps for the first time in American history may have temporary unsettling consequences, which are not altogether predictable. The likelihood is that, if previous economic shifts are any indication, the United States could be watching another 50-year shift toward higher taxes and more government regulations than in the immediate past 50 years when the reverse was true. Politically, socially, and historically Fourth Turnings usually come with a major political realignment. Current events in the aftermath of the insurrection at the Capitol Building suggest that political styles, values, and even organization are in deep flux.
I think we can assert Twain and Santayana are both right. We can also assert that cycles and pendulums in human events are normal not exceptional. Fourth Turning Crises are dangerous Winters. First Turning Highs are glorious Springs.
But we Christians do not limit our perspectives on current events and history to a humorist or a philosopher or to nature’s rhythms. We take our cue from the preacher Koheleth in the Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, who implies life cycles and regular swings from one extreme to another are normative in nature.
There’s a season for everything
and a time for every matter under the heavens:
a time for giving birth and a time for dying,
a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted,
a time for tearing down and a time for building up,
a time for crying and a time for laughing,
a time for mourning and a time for dancing,
a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces,
a time for searching and a time for losing,
a time for keeping and a time for throwing away,
a time for tearing and a time for repairing,
a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking,
a time for loving and a time for hating,
a time for war and a time for peace.
God has made everything fitting for its time.
A few weeks ago, I told a story about “This too shall pass.” (I won’t repeat it here. Go to the Facebook tape for January 10th to listen it.) But this Fourth Turning and this economic extremity will also pass, along with the pandemic. Given more time, we will see better times ahead.
My hope is we are all learning something new and wonderful about what God wants for us through this hard time. My hope is we will all have rediscovered how deeply God loves us. Because, as the prophet Jeremiah reports from God at a time of disaster for Israel, “I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord, they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.”
Hope on, friends! Hope on!
P.S. If you have questions or want to comment or dialogue about what you’ve read here, I’m always open to discussion. Contact me at 402-301-3279 or rpmcycler@gmail.com.
Looking for a way to get connected? Small groups are meeting weekly via Zoom. In a small group you will find people who will support and encourage you, pray for you and help you grow in your faith.
Men’s Group: The men’s group meets on Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm. If you are interested in joining, email Rick Jensen at rpmcycler@gmail.com.
Women’s Group: The women’s group meets on Wednesday evenings at 8:00 pm. If you are interested in joining, email Rene Jensen at revrenejensen@gmail.com.
Thursday Morning Group (Big Biscuit Group): The Thursday morning group meets on Thursdays at 9:30 am. If you are interested in joining, email Annette Hollingsworth at mackh@kc.rr.com.
Greetings! As a representative of the SCCC Senior Pastor Search Committee, I wanted to pass along an update to the congregation about what we’ve been doing and where we are in the search process. The seven of us have been meeting for about two months to start determining the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of our community as we consider a new Pastor. To this end, we have been focusing on two primary tasks. Firstly, we are meeting with leaders within our church and learning from their perspective as to what their teams see as priorities. Secondly, we are compiling a survey that will be sent out to our members soon to ask you what you’re looking for out of Shawnee Community. This survey will ask you to let us know what your priorities are in our mission, outreach and message, and help us make a choice that will most closely align with what makes this such a great community to be a part of. It will also ask questions that will be used to compile demographic information that is being requested by Disciples of Christ Leadership to help match us with prospective pastors around the country. We ask that you keep an eye out for this survey and return it as soon as you reasonably can.
In this year of uncertainty and change, we are striving to provide stability for the church as best we can. We are eager to move along in this process, and we understand that many of you would feel comforted if we could tell you exactly when we’ll be hiring a new Senior Pastor. Unfortunately, the Pandemic has taken a financial toll on our Congregation, as many of you know. The uncertainty around the budget makes it exceedingly difficult to move much further in the process. Therefore, we are asking for everyone who is called to do so, and is able to do so, to please plan and pledge your giving. With pledging to giving, we can more accurately predict our budget, and put us in a position to extend an offer when we find the perfect candidate. We know that we have a lot of members who do give regularly, but don’t make a formal pledge. Formalizing that giving will help us a great deal in this crazy time.
Go to https://shawneecommunity.org/giving/ to fill out an online pledge form, or to set up a recurring gift.
Thank you,
Andy Petrowsky, Chairperson
Senior Pastor Search Committee
