How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in truth and action.

                                                            1 John 3:17-18

Dear brothers and sisters in the Gospel,

            A professor of homiletics many years ago gave a group of aspiring preachers a bit of sage advice, though at the time we didn't take it well. "Never preach a sermon on love," he said. The admonition came as a great disappointment to us, since every preacher knows that whatever great theological issue we're dealing with, "love" is the simplest resolution of the sermon. In his 1926 novel, Elmer Gantry, author Sinclair Lewis put on the lips of his corrupt preacher the words, "What is love? It is the morning and the evening star." Lewis understood the soothing cynicism of those who used love as a rhetorical device.

            For the author of First John, love is not a word or an attitude or a pleasing emotion expressed in speech. It is an active confrontation against complacency in a time of great injustice. Truthful love, he thought, was always expressed in action and characterized by the sacrifice demanded of those who see a neighbor's need. In a society characterized by economic inequality and many forms of discrimination, love insists upon searching out the truth, especially when we find ourselves embarrassed by our own advantage and complicity within it. When truth of that kind impels us to action, that's Gospel and genuine love.

            Many people in our congregations are having hard conversations these days. Many are learning uncomfortable facts on the evening news. In many places, our complacency as a society is being questioned. For some, it is a time to recall a "simpler" past that may never have really been. But many are also discovering the Gospel and understanding for the first time the depths of its truth. Perhaps that's the great hopeful sign of the coming age.

            Blessings on all your works of love.

Randy Schwentker, a member of St. Peter's UCC, New Haven, Missouri, has been collecting petrified wood for years. Walking the river and creek banks by himself or with others, Randy has collected these fragments of the past as a way to get out and enjoy God's gift of nature. The problem was that he had no idea what he was going to do with what he had found. He figured that these fragments would probably sit in the closet with other hobbies long forgotten. The more he looked at the most recent finds, he really started to appreciate the simple beauty of these rocks because they retained the texture and color of the wood they once were. There had to be something he could do with what he had found. Then one Sunday morning while sitting in church before the 10 o'clock service, he was looking at the large brass cross on the alter and suddenly it came to him. The idea of a mosaic made from these various pieces of decorative rock that were once living trees in the time of Jesus and then forming them into the shape of a cross seemed like an appropriate way to give something personal to the church and to share with his church family especially at Easter.

At first he was at a loss for words on what could be written on the wooden base but a number of Pastor David Poe's recent sermons became the inspiration as the plaque indicates: "Like Jesus Christ's broken body on the cross, these broken fragments like ourselves, will become whole and new again in Christ. This cross honors our Lord Jesus Christ with the beauty and simplicity of one of the many splendors of Creation. God is our rock and salvation. This sculpture consists of a stainless steel frame and mesh structure with the fragments of petrified wood secured with mortar and is mounted on an oak base. Randy would like to thank Jim Eggers of New Haven, MO who created the actual wood base and to God for guiding him in finding the fragments and also giving him the desire to continue this as an outreach to others.

The cross was dedicated at the 8 & 10 am worship services on Easter Sunday 2015. St. Peter's UCC, New Haven would like to thank Randy Schwentker for this wonderful piece of art that now serves as a source of spiritual inspiration to guests as they enter the church's sanctuary.  

-submitted by Rev. David Poe, St. Peter's UCC, New Haven 

Blue Springs Terrace Open House    

Have you heard of Blue Springs Terrace?  Did you know it is a non-profit retirement community for United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) clergy?  Have you ever wondered what life on the Terrace was like?   

The Terrace Board of Directors and Capital Campaign Task Force invite you to have all your questions answered.  Join us for a weekend of tours, refreshments, and an opportunity to explore Blue Springs Terrace at an Open House:

• Saturday, April 25, 10 am-4 pm
• Sunday, April 26, 1-5pm

All authorized clergy, both active and retired, within the Missouri Mid-South Conference should have received their 2014 Information Review form and Minister Code via email or snail mail on March 2.  The forms were to be returned to our Conference office by Friday, April 10.  If you have not yet completed your IR form, please do so as soon as possible. 

• Eastern Association
• St. Louis Association
• Western Association

Below are the Minister Codes for your review:

• Commissioned
• Licensed
• Ordained