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Brothers and sisters,

That’s not a typo. Have you ever “fallen down a rabbit hole” on the Internet? What I mean by that is, have you ever
been on the Internet—reading an article, a story, or watching a video—and you get really interested in it, so you keep clicking more and more links related to it? Eventually, you look
up and an hour or two has gone by and you think, “How on earth did I get here? And where did the time go?!”

I recently “fell down a rabbit hole” while on Google Maps. The thing that prompted it was a very simple question, “Where do people actually live in Greenland?” A whop-
ping 75% of the country’s land mass is covered by a think sheet of ice. The only habitable places are along the coastlines. Even there, life is harsh for most of the year. Because
of that harsh climate, there aren’t many people living in Greenland. Nuuk, the nation’s capital and most populated city, has only 19,872 people, but that makes up a third of the
entire country’s population. Their most populated city has fewer people than Elizabeth City, NC. Chapel Hill has more people than all of Greenland!

But that’s not what I wanted to write about this week. See, if you take some time to browse the Street View images in some of the little villages on the western coast of Greenland, you will see some stunning images. Greenland is a
harsh climate, yes, but my goodness is it beautiful! You can actually get a “Street View” from a boat that has motored out into the bay near the town of Kangerluk, allowing you to see snowcapped mountains all around. Or, if you go to the town of Qaanaaq, you can plop the little Google Maps guy on the beachfront and look out over a bay of glaciers.

Qaanaaq, by the way, holds the distinction of being the northernmost “major town” in Greenland—a bustling metropolis of 646 people. It is the fifth northernmost “public settlement” in the world. Most of the folks in the
town make their living either through hunting or fishing (narwhals, walruses, seals, etc.), with Qaanaaq being so isolated the people have to use every part of any animal they kill. They also deal with “midnight suns”—that is, twenty-
four hours of sunlight—from the middle of April until the end of August. And their average temperature for the entire year is 16 degrees!

In going down this “rabbit hole,” I kept thinking to myself, “My goodness, this is just a whole other world! It’s beautiful but it seems so unforgiving.” And I sat back and marveled at how different life must be in a place like Qaanaaq. I marveled at the creativity of God, the beauty of everything I saw. But, I felt so disconnected—until…

If you go to Google Maps and you go to Qaanaaq, you’ll see that there’s one supermarket in town. If you click on that supermarket’s name, Google will offer to show you sixteen pictures of the inside of the market. If you do that, you can see what they sell. And would you like to know what hot sauce the Qaanaaq Supermarket sells? The pride of North Carolina—Texas Pete! Y’all, we are far more connected than we could ever imagine. The people of Qaanaaq, Greenland live very different lives from you and me. Yet, the same God created them. The same God loves them. And I hope that the next time you reach for some Texas Pete to spice up your dinner, you’ll remember your brothers and sisters in Qaanaaq and the God that connects us all.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Last night (Monday), I watched the second half of Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Celtics. And, to be honest, it was not a particularly compelling half of basketball. To be even more honest, these Finals were not particularly compelling. Boston quickly took a 3-0 lead in the series (you have to win 4 games to win the Finals), with Dallas avoiding the sweep by winning Game 4 in Dallas. But teams that fall down 0-3 in a seven-game series in the NBA are now 0-157. Boston’s victory was never really in doubt

The part of the series that was more compelling came in the world of sports media. See, Boston has two high-level superstars that sports talk show hosts love to pit against each other. They are Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The narrative you usually hear is something like, “Tatum is obviously the best scorer and the overall best player, but Brown is the leader and on any given night, he can be Boston’s best.” If Tatum has a great game, you’ll hear breathless segments about how that affects Brown’s overall value to the Celtics. Or if Brown has a great streak of games, hosts will ask questions like, “Does this negatively impact Tatum’s basketball legacy?”

Well, last night, a tremendous amount of fuel was about to be added to the fire. During the Finals, an award is given out for “Finals MVP”—the most valuable player in the Finals. Finals MVPs are a big deal and so players really do want to win it. Leading up to last night’s game, pundits were arguing over who should win it—Brown or Tatum. They were arguing over whether or not this would cause a rift in Boston. Should Jaylen Brown get it because he’s been better in the Finals or should Tatum get it because he’s been better throughout the season? They were ready, regardless of who won, to use it as a talking point come Tuesday morning.

Jaylen Brown won Finals MVP. And when he won, he smiled a moment, looked over at Jayson Tatum, and, when given a microphone, immediately said, “It was a full team effort and I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime, Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way, we share this [award] together.” Brown knew what others would do with his award—use it against his teammate—if he didn’t nip it in the bud.

It honestly reminded me of the many times that Paul counseled early churches that the only ways they should be competing with each other was in building each other up. He despised the way the Corinthians tried to weaponize the name of the person who had baptized them, as if Christians are divided into teams. He pushed back hard against Peter’s hypocrisy when Peter was willing to eat with one group of Galatians until a different group showed up. Paul understood that the mission of God’s church is accomplished when everyone works together. It was never about which disciple gained more glory. It was always meant to be about people hearing that God loved them. That’s it. Church is meant to be a full team effort, shared by brothers and sisters in Christ who are with each other the whole way.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Last Saturday, May 18th, our church hosted a community yard sale. The preparation took months as folks brought in gently used items to sell. Over the last two months in particular, Robin and I would get at least one phone call per week letting us know that someone was coming with a trunk full of stuff for the yard sale and asking if we’d help them unload it. We always did and I appreciated the time it gave us to get to talk with you all and hear the stories behind some of the items you donated.

In addition to those months of build-up, the week before the yard sale was itself a busy, but good time of fellowship. The Wednesday and Thursday before the sale were particularly fun days to be at the church because there was so much buzz, so much energy surrounding what was going to happen on Saturday. And so much good, faithful work was done by all the volunteers who came out those days—moving, sorting, organizing, and pricing every single item that had been donated.

In addition to the yard sale itself, we had a bake sale that benefitted Hope House. So many people in our congregation baked so many wonderful treats and sweets for that sale, which ended up bringing in $300 to continue to support refugees and their families. People also chipped in with snacks and finger foods for the volunteers so that we never had to worry about breakfast or lunch—the church had us covered!

At the yard sale itself, I saw so many people getting excited for the things they had found. Children were walking out the door with stacks of children’s books, along with some toys. Parents were walking out with armfuls of clothes for themselves or their kids. Place settings, picture frames, furniture, and the sorts of random things one only finds at a yard sale walked out as well.

I also saw church members enjoying being around each other and being around the community. We ran into people we knew from previous ministries we’d worked on together. We connected with people over shared interests and the items that go along with those interests. And I saw church members reconnecting with each other after not seeing each other for a while.

And, once the sale was over and the boxes had been packed, a local non-profit organization in need of items for their own clothing closets and community centers came in and took everything away in order to keep blessing our community. That connection was made simply because one of their leaders saw our sign on Thursday and had the initiative to come and ask if we could work together on this.

In the end, the yard sale raised about $1,800 for our church’s capital campaign fund. That in and of itself is wonderful! But I’m also still buzzing over what an overall good day it was. Good work was done in a faithful way to bless our community. That good work brought us all together with friends old and new and connected us with other brothers and sisters in Christ working on behalf of our community. God is good, y’all. All the time, God is good.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben