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Brothers and sisters,

Last Friday, Taylor Swift released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. Since the album’s release, the internet has been ablaze with reviews and hot takes. The album has already set multiple records—most Single-Week Vinyl Sales, most Single-Day Spotify Album Streams, most Single-Day Spotify Song Streams, and more. By just about every metric out there, Taylor Swift and The Tortured Poets Department are winning.

The thing is, this album is raw. Swift writes about heartbreak, shattered dreams, and mistakes. She also sings about the ways the music industry hurts those in it. So far, one of my favorite songs has been, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” The song tells the story of Swift’s ability to compartmentalize her emotions, pushing through the real pain she’s going through to be the persona of “Taylor Swift—Pop Star” the people want to see. The song starts with Swift singing in slow, breathy tones about how she wants people to perceive her “having the time of her life/There in her glittering prime,” but she admits that the persona is a lie. Then, with a quick “one, two, three” the chorus intrudes on Swift, demanding the persona come out to sing. Somehow both peppy and melancholy, you can hear her singing the lyrics with a practiced smile, “Breaking down, I hit the floor/All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, ‘More’/I was grinning like I’m winning, I was hitting my marks/’Cause I can do it with a broken heart.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s a lot of that happening these days—folks grinning like they’re winning, hitting their marks, all to conceal broken hearts. And while I understand that part of life is learning how to function even when going through difficult times, it seems to me that church ought to be a place where folks can find rest. Church ought to be a place where we can genuinely say to people, “There are no marks to hit here. If you want to celebrate, we’ll celebrate; but if that’s not where you are right now, that’s fine too. There’s still a place for you here.” At its best, the church can be a place of healing where people are told that they are beloved by God and by God’s people, no matter what. But there’s one final layer to the song I want to briefly touch on.

At the very end, the chorus is done. Swift is coming off stage and she speaks to the listener, but her tone is uneven. She sounds like she’s losing it. The practiced smile is cracking. She says, “You know you’re good, I’m good/’Cause I’m miserable/And no one even knows!” But then her voice snaps into an exhausted, but threatening tone as she says, “Try to come for my job.” She recognizes that this back and forth, between her real pain and the persona she’s made for herself, is hurting her. But she can’t let it go. It’s how she’s learned to deal with the world. In her mind, if she loses the persona (even though it’s killing her), she loses every-thing. So just try to take this from her. It’s a real feeling. It is a raw depiction of what can happen when reality and expectations clash.

At its best, the church can be a place that says to people struggling with these kinds of internal struggles, “You don’t need to put on a persona here. You can be you. All that we ask is that you bring your authentic self.” God has made each of us to be wonderfully, uniquely ourselves. The only expectation God places on us is that we love one another. No personas. No crowds cheering on breakdowns. Just a community of believers.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

In just about ten days, our church is going to begin a week-long commitment to missions in our community. That commitment is know as “Operation Inasmuch,” taking its name from the story of the sheep and the goats in Mat-thew’s gospel. When Jesus told the sheep that they had helped him in so many ways, they asked, “Lord, when did we see you this way? When did we do these things for you?” And Jesus replied to them, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40; KJV). Thus, we are going to be giving back to our community in several different ways during the week from April 21st through April 27th.

On Sunday, the 21st, the children of our church will be decorating and assembling bags of treats and goodies for the bus drivers at Parkwood Elementary School to show our appreciation for all they do. Those bags will be delivered on Friday of that week so that the bus drivers get to start their weekend knowing that there are some in their community who love and appreciate them.

On Wednesday, April 24th, at 6:30 PM during our usual Bible Study time, the adults of our church will also be assembling bags, but these will be different. These will be bags filled with useful items to give to folks experiencing homelessness in our community. Basically, these bags will be filled with some basic supplies that people who spend all day in the elements may need: bottled water, band aids, sunscreen, ponchos—as well as some snacks. Once those bags are assembled, we will make them available for folks to be able to pick them up and carry in their car. You’ll be encouraged, then, to give out those bags to anyone you see in Durham who needs a blessing. As part of that, we are asking folks to bring in supplies for those bags—the list of needed items is printed in the Operation Inasmuch announcement in this newsletter. So, if you can come out on Wednesday the 24th and pack bags, we’d love to see you! If you aren’t able to help pack bags, you can bring in items that will go into those bags!

Then, on Saturday, April 27th, we are planning to have volunteers go to the home of one of our church members and do some yard work and light repairs. If you are interested in helping with that, please be sure to sign up in the vestibule. If there is a specific type of yard work you’d be willing to do or a specific tool you can bring to help, you can list that next to your name as well. Once I’ve got an idea of who all can help, we’ll coordinate a time with the church member we’re helping and finalize what we’ll be doing that day.

Also, starting Sunday morning, April 28th, we will begin a month-long collection drive for supplies for our Hope House. There are several needed items listed in the Operation Inasmuch announcement in this newsletter. This collection will run through the month of May.

To top it all off, on Sunday, April 28th at 5:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall, we will be having an Ice Cream and Dessert Social with a missionary in India whom our church helps sponsor.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Obviously, this Sunday is kind of a big deal for us Christians. This Sunday, March 31st is Easter Sunday, the day on which we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. It is the day on which we celebrate the fact that the tomb was empty because the one in it had triumphed over death. Easter is arguably the biggest Sunday of the year for churches, with only the Sunday before Christmas coming close to it.

In many Christian traditions, Easter Sunday is not the end of the celebration of Easter. Many other traditions and denominations celebrate what’s known as Eastertide. Basically, Eastertide refers to the seven weeks between East-er Sunday and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the twelve disciples. It is a time of celebration as we remember the days that the resurrected Jesus spent with his disciples before ascending into heaven.

Here at Hope Valley, we celebrate Eastertide to a certain extent—keeping the paraments white in the sanctuary, singing Easter-inspired hymns through those seven weeks, and singing “Alleluia” in our offertory response each week. But this year, I wanted to emphasize the idea that Easter Sunday was not the first miraculous day in Jesus’ ministry. Too often, we Christians skip from Jesus’ birth to his death and resurrection, leaving out huge chunks of his life and ministry along the way.

This year, I want us to spend Eastertide looking at many of the other miracles Jesus performed during his life. Each of the miracles we’ll look at point toward the incredible nature of the resurrection. They help to predict it and pre-pare the people and the reader for what will happen at the end of Jesus’ life. So, over the next seven weeks, we’re going to take a look at these miracles and see just how they inform our understanding of the resurrection. We’ll see what Jesus was preparing us all for in this, “Season of Miracles.”

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben