Today was bittersweet for all of us.
We had the blessing of having our good friend Rev. Dr. Phil Baker preach a powerful encouragement on how Christians need to be in Community (based on today’s Lectionary readings). Christians without a community, he said, is a contradiction of terms. But, “It takes hard work to develop a deep abiding relationship,” he reminded and challenged us to consider.
In considering our family in Christ, Phil also noted that, “We did not choose our brothers and sisters in Christ” – that was God’s work! And, not only did we not choose our brothers and sisters, we also cannot love each other on our own strength, effort or power – all of that comes from God.
Even as we heard his powerful encouragement on the importance of community, we were sad to hear that this would be Phil’s last Sunday with us at BLC. After his summer break, he will be relocating to Indonesia to continue his work with the ELCA.
Thank you Phil, for sharing your life with us these past four years. We have come to love you as our very own and are not thrilled to let you go. But we know God’s Kingdom is bigger than just us and we know you will be a great blessing to our brothers and sisters in Indonesia, as you have been to us.
We love you and we’ll miss you. See you again soon – either we’ll visit you on the way to Lake Toba (as per your invitation!) or we’ll see you on your way through KL (you will always be welcome here)! Or, in the Lord’s timing, we’ll definitely see each other again when His Kingdom comes.
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