Dear Glen Mar friends,

I hope you are finding ways to keep cool in this summer heat! We are getting ready for the end of summer push and plans for fall! We are collecting non-perishable food items for Ames Memorial UMC to distribute in Sandtown Baltimore, through August 6 and I just found out of a need for backpacks and school supplies for similar distribution. We’ll collect notebook paper, crayons, colored pencils, pens and pencils, markers, highlighters and composition books through August 10. Bring your purchases to church and we’ll take it from there.

This week in worship, we will look at some more parables about what the Kingdom of God is like. The answer is, the Kingdom of God is unexpected and surprising and comes about in often small ways. It’s like a tiny microscopic seed that grows a shrub (not much to look at on the surface). It’s like a treasure buried in a junkyard. We have to be able to look twice to see it. I was reading up on my NT Wright this week, and came across this quote: “When God wants to sort out the world, as the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount make clear, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the meek, the broken, the justice-hungry, the peacemakers and the pure-hearted.”

God does big things in seemingly small packages. Like sending the Son as a baby. I hope you’ll join us for worship and invite friends!

See you in Church,

Pastor Mandy