Dear Glen Mar friends,

This week we will be continuing our August Family Worship series with my preaching on, “I am….Very Good.” It is based on the Genesis 1 account of creation, and God’s statement that creation is “very good” when complete, with humanity added in.  We are made in God’s image, all of us, in all our diversity, so for the divine image to be fully represented, we need everyone included. We reflect the divine image when we are creative, and when we care for the natural world, and when we show the love of Jesus to one another.

“I appreciate all this ‘Very Good’ stuff…But Pastor Mandy, what about sin?” Well, we are made in the image of God, but we are not God. We are imperfect humans with the ability to make choices that miss the mark for what God wants for us.  We can proclaim that we are “very good,” not because we are perfect in every way, because we are perfectly loved with an everlasting and unconditional love that will never reject us.  We can also proclaim that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), because of our human imperfections and that human tendency to not do the thing we know we should do, and to be unable to do the thing we know we should do. (See Romans 7:15-20).

We are indeed made “very good” and are all of sacred worth. Because we are human, and because we are not God, we are subject to sin, individual and corporate. Some theologians have taught that sin makes us “worthless” but John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist Movement) talks about sin as being like dirt found on a coin. The coin still has value, and bears the image of the person stamped on it, and is indeed, very good. In the same way, we still bear the image of God in us, and have sacred worth, and we need Jesus to save us from the power of sin, to clean off the coin, so that it can most perfectly reflect God’s image.

I hope you’ll join us for worship this week, and for Lunch with the Pastors, an informal time of fellowship and sharing (12:30-1:30 pm) on Sunday in the Youth Lounge. If you are coming, let me know by Friday at 5 pm so I can order food.

I also hope you’ll come share your appreciation and love for the amazing Sean Danaher on his last Sunday with us as part of our staff.

See you in Church,

Pastor Mandy

PS I also wanted to share with the church family the details of the memorial service for our friend, Tom Campbell. Please see this link. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/columbia-md/thomas-campbell-10868911

For more information on what’s going on at Glen Mar, check out our blog “This Just In.”