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Dare to Wonder?

What an amazing Easter Sunday we had under the Oak at PPC. I would like to publicly thank all who made that amazing morning celebration happen across the board. It was a fantastic day of celebration! These types of events are an all-hands-on-deck type of gathering. Team PPC rocks is my mantra and I mean it.  So grateful for every one of you.

Immediately after Easter Sunday we will begin a series that I am thrilled about. It is called DARE TO WONDER. I like that title for a number of reasons. It is a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to stretch and consider again what we have always thought to be true about God’s way in the world. To risk being a bit elastic with ideas, theology, and how God makes a realm of God mark in the world.  The simple truth is that people change, culture shifts, technology presents us with new opportunities and risks, however, God never changes in essence.  While God does not change, God may, and often does change the way God interacts with the created order.  So, I give us all permission to accept the challenge to risk wondering how God is at work in the crazy-wild-fast-paced-ever-changing world that we live in.  I give us permission to wonder afresh and anew about everything, like my grand-daughter at play on the slide and swings and dirt on the playground. It is a sun shiny day. She is all smiles with the look of wonder breaming through her eyes and elated in her newfound joy at the park. This is theologically true in the words of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins who wrote that Christ plays in ten thousand places.

Let’s go to the playground to discover how Christ is at play in ten thousand places this summer. We will look at a variety of DARE TO WONDER (D2W) questions like: how can I be sure God is always with me? Who can I trust? What is salvation? Who am I? Where do I fit? What’s the point of my life? What exactly is the realm of God (and is it different than the church)? How can I accept myself? What am I supposed to do with my life? How can I be a hero to my children? Why do I worry so much? How can I grow older gracefully? How can I struggle to maintain my closest relationships? What happens when I die? And perhaps more if you send me your suggestions regarding what you DARE TO WONDER about.

Let’s go to the park. It is a fantastic southern California day. Christ does play in ten thousand places. Let’s discover how together.

Tobin

An Advent Message of Hope

I recently read a story that captured my imagination and emotions. I thought I would share it with you here as an advent message of faith, hope and love.

Two twenty-one-year-old art students were living the dream in a loft in Brooklyn, studying art and basking in the glow of young love. They’d met at a party only nine months before, and had what is only described as, “a moment.” The moment was more than just a thing, it was the thing.

One day on her way to class, Emilie was involved in a traffic accident—she was on her bike and hit by a huge truck. She was then in ICU, clinging to life. Alan called Emilie’s parents to hurry to the city, where all three of them kept vigil around Emilie’s bed, her parents splitting the daytime hours and Alan staying every night, all night long.

For weeks they waited for her to recover, with few signs of hope. Finally, the doctors deemed Emilie medically stable but completely unresponsive. Her parents began to make arrangements to move her to a nursing home in their hometown, where she would likely live the rest of her life.

But Alan thought there was hope—in the middle of what seemed to be complete desolation. He insisted, “She’s in there; she just can’t get out.”  “You have to give her a chance, you have to give her a chance,” he begged. Alan remembered reading something in a Helen Keller biography. In a desperate attempt to prove to her parents and the doctors that she could recover, he traced out on her arm the words “I love you.” She immediately awoke and responded.

The birth of Jesus Christ is God writing on the arm of desolate humankind “I love you!”  May we all awake to the faith of this hope.

Merry Christmas

Tobin