From Pastor Ryan
As you know, we’ve been exploring the power of words this year. Starting with the word we received on the back of a paper star sometime in the first part of the year and continuing through our Lenten journey with The Difficult Words of Jesus, we have been wrestling with our words, growing into them, listening for God’s voice to teach us something or for the Holy Spirit to guide us through them.
While I’ve been carrying the word from my star with me (which is youth), another word has crept into my life this year and taken hold. That word is curiosity.
We are living in a culture and society that seems to be more concerned with certainty and being right rather than keeping an open mind and approaching things with a desire to learn or an openness to be changed. All around us—in our families, in the public square, in politics, and in religion/faith—we can see people who have drawn lines in the sand, planted their flag in one camp or another (you choose the metaphor). They become certain of something and close their hearts and minds to anything that might push back against the line they’ve drawn or the flag they’ve planted.
The antidote to this, I believe, is curiosity. Imagine how different our world would look if everyone approached everything with curiosity rather than certainty. Imagine if we approached all people, belief systems, cultures, history, science, and yes, Scripture, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and faith/religion with curiosity instead of assuming we’ve got it all already figured out. How different would all our interactions be? Think of how we could better connect with others, especially others who are different or believe differently from us, if we interact with them with a sense of wonder.
Imagine how Scripture could come alive in our hearts, minds, and souls if we approached every verse with a sense of curiosity rather than certainty. As a pastor, I have many conversations with people who hold a very rigid, certain view of Scripture. The fact is, Scripture is so ancient, so complex, so rich, and translated so many ways that we fool ourselves if we think we could ever
be definitively certain of the meaning of each verse. No matter how scholarly someone becomes, how well-versed in Biblical studies, there always comes a point when knowledge gives way to interpretation.
None of us was able to walk with Moses or Abraham. None of us was able to walk with Jesus and witness his ministry firsthand (not even any of the New Testament writers). We must, instead, rely on the spoken and written accounts of who did, and interpret their interpretations of what they saw. This is where the beauty of curiosity opens up. The Scriptures are living documents, speaking in new ways to new people in new times and new places. God finds ways to speak people of every time and place through the Words that have stood the test of time, and when we approach them with curiosity, we find new ways of hearing God’s voice, new ways of experiencing Jesus’ calling, and new ways of feeling the presence of the Hoy Spirit.
Here is my challenge for you. There is a difference between embedded theology (the faith/assumptions we carry with us simply because it was taught to us by our parents/grandparents or by Sunday School teachers—the kind of faith we’ve carried since childhood and never wrestled with) and deliberative theology (the kind of faith/understanding we develop through reflection and learning, always giving deep consideration to new/unexpected/unusual/uncomfortable information). Think about any assumptions you have/are making about God, Jesus, and Scripture. What assumptions do you tend to make about faith/religion? What assumptions do you make about your neighbor or a stranger? How could you further shift your life to approach everything with curiosity? In what ways may God be trying to open your heart or mind to something new?
May you be blessed with a spirit of curiosity and wonder, and may the love of God go with you today and always,
Pastor Ryan
Email Pastor Ryan: pastorryan@sotpmail.com
From Our Offering Counters
Just a reminder that in 2025 everyone will receive offering envelopes by mail quarterly. We realize that some of you in the past have opted out of receiving envelopes so before you throw these envelopes away, we encourage you to remember a couple of things related to your giving to Shepherd of the Prairie.
When the offering counters receive an envelope which has a check enclosed and the distribution is marked on the envelope, this helps our counters tremendously to quickly account for your gift. We just need to open the envelope, make sure the figures agree on the check and envelope, and put each one in separate piles to be totaled.
When a loose check is received there are several more steps to be taken in order to process each donation.
Our counters must look up the name on the check, then fill out an envelope form which is a copy of the back of the offering envelope, with the giver’s name, envelope number, and gift amount. This is then paperclipped to the check and given to the counter that is opening envelopes that day. As you can see a loose check takes our volunteers much more time to process to be sure each gift is given proper credit to donors. So far, we have processed over 180 loose checks from households that opted out of 2024 envelopes.
Please keep the 2025 envelopes to be used on special services and various things that come up during the year like the food pantry and memorials. Of course, regular giving may be done online which is also a wonderful way to easily give to the ministry we share at SOTP.
Thanks again for your ongoing support. We are surely blessed by the generosity of every gift received!
Contact: Ralph Wehnes
ralphwehnes@sbcglobal.net
Updating Pictures & Information
As you may know, we are now publishing our Member Directory with members’ photos. 
If you need to update or add your photo, please send your photo to Donna Kelly donna@sotpmail.com, or Ed Cuttle
edschn28@comcast.net and we will update or add it to the directory.
We publish an updated directory every time we receive new members, so 4 times a year. If you would like to receive the updated
directory via email, please let Michelle Rankin know, michelle@sotpmail.com or you can pick one up at the office or at the Registration Desk.
If you have any questions, contact Donna Kelly, donna@sotpmail.com or through the church office.
We Encourage You to Read This Reading for This Upcoming Weekend
Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
As soon as [Jesus and the disciples] left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Register Your Wheels Now
Summer is kicking off with an Ice Cream Social & Wheels Show.
Join us Friday, June 2nd from 6:30pm-8:30pm for the Ice Cream Social.
Sign up to bring your wheels at www.bit.ly/SOTPwheels23 . They can have 4 or 3 or 2 wheels, maybe someone even has a unicycle!?!?
The best decorated kid’s wheels will win a prize.
————————————————
We will also have games, relays, face painting, an ice cream Pinata, and lots of fun!
Let us know you’re coming – register at www.bit.ly/SOTPsocial23
Contact: Jill Gillming jill@sotpmail.com
For more information on how to donate altar flowers, go to www.bit.ly/SOTPflower
Contact: Diane Mollis dem910@outlook.com
.
By Donna Kelly
Recently, I was reading about how the word “light” is used in Scripture.
According to Genesis, the earth was “a formless void: (NRSV); “formless and empty” (NIV); “chaos and emptiness” (Inclusive Bible). Empty…formless… chaos.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes my life can feel formless, empty, chaotic. When a loved one is seriously ill or dies, when a child or grandchild is going through a difficult life experience, when financial difficulties come, when a relationship ends, when a difficult diagnosis affects our health, when age catches up with us, when one we care about no longer recognizes us due to Dementia, when the job goes away, when the hopes and dreams we have never come to pass, we can each find ourselves in a place of emptiness, voidness, chaos.
But the author of Genesis goes on to say that during this void and chaos, “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (NRSV); “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (NIV); “yet the Spirit of God was brooding over the surface of the waters” (Inclusive Bible). Wind of God swept…Spirit of God hovering… Spirit of God brooding…
I find that reassuring. Even in the face of emptiness, formlessness, chaos, God hovers over the void. God doesn’t ignore the emptiness of creation, God sweeps over, hovers, broods. God is there in the midst of the chaos and void. God is aware of what we are going through and is present. I like the way the Inclusive translation says that the earth was chaos and emptiness – yet the Spirit of God was brooding over the surface of the deep”. Things were a mess – yet God was there, hovering, brooding. Creation wasn’t alone and neither are we.
Verse 3 of the first chapter of Genesis says, “let there be light.” And light was there; filling the void, shining on the chaos. Light made it possible for all the rest of creation to take place. Without light, we can’t see the dangers, the pitfalls, or the light at the end of the tunnel.
John 1:4-5 says, “In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light – a Light shines in the darkness – a Light that the darkness has never overtaken.”
In John 8 Jesus declares, “I AM the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life”. And in Matthew 5 he says to his followers, “You are the light of the world”. I had never really connected those two things before. Jesus is the light of the world that shines in the darkness, and we are to be the light to the world. We are to continue to shine the light of Jesus into the world around us.
But then I started thinking about light and how it works. I turned off the light in the room and looked at the darkness for a moment; then I turned the light back on. I noticed that as I did, I didn’t look at the light itself but at what I could now see because of the light. I thought about how light is not so much something we see directly, but more about something by which we see the things around us. When the light came on, for just a second, I looked at the light; then I looked at what was around me. Without the light, I couldn’t see those things. But, with the light I could see them, perhaps in a new way.
Then I went back to Jesus saying he is the light of the world and that so are we the light of the world. As I pondered that, I began to realize that Jesus is the light which lights us and enables us to be the light to others. We need to look at Jesus until we can look out at the world with his kind of eyes and reflect his light to all. His light shines on those around us and all of creation so that we can see people and the cosmos from his point of view. Not ‘us and them’ or ‘those others’ or even ‘the least of these,’ but as people created and loved by God just as equally as God loves you and me. Creation becomes not just something to be used up or taken advantage of, but something God created and loves and has asked us to care for and celebrate. I hope that each time I turn on a light or wake up in the morning to the light of a new day I can remember that I can reflect and be the light of Jesus to everyone and everything.
Donna
email Donna at: donna@sotpmail.com
