Monthly Message | February

Grace and peace to you!

When someone mentions Peter the apostle and follower of Jesus, what first comes to your mind?

Do you think of Peter’s denying knowing Jesus three times following Jesus’s arrest? How about Peter’s walking on water to Jesus, only to start drowning when he looked away from Jesus? What about Jesus’s blessing Peter for Peter’s proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah? Of course, that is followed by Jesus’s yelling at Peter to “get behind me Satan!” after Peter criticizes Jesus for saying that Jesus will suffer, die, and be raised from the dead three days later.

Simon Peter holds a special place in the gospel writers accounts of Jesus’s ministry. He seems to be in the middle of many of the major moments of Jesus’s ministry that are recorded in the gospels. He is one of only three disciples whom Jesus invites to witness the Transfiguration moment when Jesus is with Moses and Elijah (Transfiguration Sunday this year is February 11).

Because so much is written about Peter, I think many of us can identify with him and some of what he does. If you are following a man whom you believe is the Messiah and He says He’s going to suffer and die, who of us wouldn’t be shocked by that and try to stop it from happening? Do we ever feel like we are drowning when storms come our way? Do we hear Jesus’s blessing for us?

This Lent, I invite you to walk with Peter. For our midweek worship during Lent we are doing a series, “Wandering Heart: Figuring Out Faith with Peter.” The services are based on a series developed by A Sanctified Art. We gather 6:30pm each Wednesday, starting February 21, on Zoom and Facebook Live. We will read and hear parts of Peter’s journey each week as well as spend time in prayer. More information can be found on page 3 of this month’s newsletter.

If being a part of midweek worship isn’t something you’ve done in the past, this Lent is a good time to maybe try and take a little time to do so. The services are about 30 minutes and, I pray, offer you some peace and quiet from your week to worship God, sit in prayer, hear God’s Word, reflect on what God may be trying to say to you in that Word, and do all of that from your home and within a community with others who join on Zoom or watch on Facebook Live. 

The season of Lent offers other worship opportunities. The Nittany Valley Fellowship will hold Sunday evening services at various churches within the fellowship. See page 5 for more information and a schedule. Note that St. Mark is hosting the service on March 3.

These additional worship services may offer a chance to show our love for God, but, ultimately, they are a reminder of God’s incredible love for each of us — and the depths to which that love goes: to the cross and walking out of a tomb.

Go in peace. Jesus loves you!

Pastor David