July 30th, 2018

Sign Up for Upcoming Events

Please remember to let Linda know if you are interested in singing in a Christmas Cantata this year, let Pastor Jim know if you are interested in a class on what it means to be a United Methodist, and let Lee know if you are interested in our upcoming Paint Night on August 10th (cost of $25 due by 8/5).

​Sunday's Sermon Snippet

Clutter: Busyness (Haggai 1)
​Clutter - whether it is physical stuff, our worries, or our shame - is not something we are proud of. It is something we try our best to hide. Yet there is one kind of clutter we have that we make widely known and even take pride in - our busyness. Being busy, in our culture, is a badge of honor. It means we are important, needed, and hard-working. To not be busy invites the accusation of being lazy. Yet our Scriptures do not seem to think that being busy is an inherently good thing.
In the days of the prophet Haggai, God's people had returned from their exile in Babylon. When they came back after generations away, they found their homes, markets, walls, fields, and temple in ruin. They set about the work of rebuilding homes, markets, fields - the essentials. Yet all their work did not prosper them. So they busied themselves even more but to no avail. No matter how busy they were trying to rebuild their own lives and homes, it was never enough. God spoke through Haggai that they were missing one important thing: making room for God. The Temple still lay in ruins after many years.
Who could blame them though? Who has time for God when they are barely hanging on in life anyway? When they had barely enough food to merely survive, how could they take the time and effort to rebuild a magnificent house for God? When we are just trying to make ends meet and get everyone where they are supposed to be, where is our time for God? Yet God told them and tells us that all this busyness amounts to nothing if we do not attend to the important, life-giving relationships with God and each other.  
Our busyness is not inherently good. In fact, we forget that often the word busy is a bad thing. A busy pattern on clothing or wallpaper has a little too much going on and needs a little less - same with our lives. A busybody is worried about things that do not concern them - often true with our busyness as well. Looking back, to be busy meant to be anxious. Isn't our busyness often rooted in an anxiety to grasp control over our lives and to change how others perceive us? God made us to need relationships and rest - there is nothing wrong with engaging in these instead of keeping always busy.
How do we clean up the clutter of busyness? Just like physical stuff, we have to go through our lives and figure out what is worth keeping and what needs to go. We need to decide what we need to say "no" to so that we can create time and space for God and each other. We have to be vigilant to protect that uncluttered time, because, just like stuff, busyness has a way of filling even empty space in our lives.
This week's challenge: What things keep you busy and yet are proving fruitless? What space do you need to create for more fruitful, abundant life? What time do you need to empty so that God may fill it? Set aside time this week to do something life-giving that you had not planned to do, even if it is nothing.

Living in Community

Please be in prayer for Pastor Jim and his family
as they travel to see family in Georgia this week.

Prayers of Christian sympathy for Dorcy and Pat
on the passing of their sister-in-law, Patsy.

Upcoming Weeks at Port Church

Wednesday, August 1
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
Thursday, August 2
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
Sunday, August 5
9:30 am - Worship: "Nevertheless"
11:00 am - Sunday School
Wednesday, August 8
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
Thursday, August 9
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
Thursday, August 10
6:00 pm - Paint Night
Sunday, August 12
9:30 am - Worship: "Clutter: A New Kind of Clutter"
11:00 am - Sunday School
12:00 noon - Back-to-School Bingo

Looking Ahead

Blessing of the Backpacks - August 19
​Communion Server Training - August 26 and September 9
Wednesday at the Port - September 12 
Potato Drop to benefit local hunger ministries - September 15
225th Anniversary Celebration - September 29
Nativity Workday - October 6