forest hill Musings -- weekly reflections on Scripture
Musings -- weekly reflections on Scripture
I began writing these short essays for our weekly e-newsletter. They served two purposes: First, they gave me an initial run at the Scripture that I would be preaching on -- an opportunity to start thinking about the spiritual and life questions that the sermon might address. Second, they serve as advertising; an invitation to folks to join us on Sunday morning and see how my thinking has developed between the first take on my questions and the final sermon that gets delivered.
We've started collecting these at this website so that people who aren't already subscribed to our newsletter can get a sense of what's coming up in worship. Feel free to check back weekly to see the reflection for the week, or click here to subscribe to our email newsletter and have these delivered into your inbox every Friday
Rev. Stephen Fetter
June 1, 2025
Seventh Sunday of Easter
celebrating the Ascension
A New Future
The Acts of the Apostles opens with an odd story of the Risen Jesus floating away into the clouds, leaving his disciples with the promise that more would be revealed in the days to come. It’s hard to imagine what those disciples might have seen. Did he rise up like a rocket ship? Float like a balloon? Vanish like Captain Kirk in a transporter beam?
And once he was up in the clouds somewhere, where did he go? Is that where God lives? For people like the writer of Acts who trusted that God lived in the sky, this is a way of picturing Jesus moving from our Earthly realm and into God’s; but for those of us who imagine planets and stars in outer space, instead of angels and harps above the clouds, the events are harder to visualize.
What does this story mean? What is the author trying to tell us? What changes in Jesus – or in his disciples – as Jesus’ former students move through the time between the resurrection on the first Easter Sunday, and Pentecost when the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit?
May 18, 2025
Fifth Sunday of Easter
New Rules
What do you do when the Bible addresses a problem we simply don’t care about? Does that mean we should just find some other passage to ponder?
Maybe.
But maybe there’s more at stake than first appears.
This week’s reading from Acts wrestles with the question of how Jewish you have to be in order to be a Christian. That’s not a question I’ve ever lost a second of sleep about! How crazy to suggest, in our era, that people should have to eat like Jews in order to be acceptable in the church!
Of course as the gospel began to spread beyond the bounds of Jesus’ initial Jewish audience in Galilee, you can see why it might have been an issue ‘way back when. After all, just about everyone Jesus preached to was Jewish. Like him, they lived near the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Like him, they were rural, and living on the margins. Historically, you can see why folks like that would have been surprised to find non-Jews interested in what Jesus had to say. Historically, you can see why they might have expected those non-Jews to start eating kosher and worshipping at the Jerusalem Temple, just like he did. Just like they did. Historically, it’s a rather odd thing that anybody other than rural Galilean Jews would have been even interested in Jesus’ message.
May 11, 2025
Fourth Sunday of Easter
A New Way Forward
We have a “routine” healing story this week. A beloved woman gets sick and dies, only to be raised from the dead to the amazement of everyone around. There are no magic words or incantations; no potions or gestures – just simple caring and calling her name was enough. As usual, with Biblical healing stories, the response of the crowd is delight and gratitude in what God has done, and new people coming to trust in the power of the Lord.
It’s an entirely routine miracle story, except for one rather significant detail. The healer in this case isn’t Jesus, it’s Peter. The story is set in the first-generation church, a few years after the resurrection. The author of Acts, without a lot of fanfare, sets about documenting how the disciples who learned their skills while Jesus walked among them, then set about doing all the exact same things that Jesus did before he was executed. Even healing. Even raising people from the dead.
May 4, 2025
Third Sunday of Easter
A New Voice
It’s the most famous conversion story in the Bible. Anyone who’s ever thought about becoming a Christian has heard about Paul’s revelation on the Road to Damascus, and how he was transformed from an enemy to the faith into one of our greatest leaders. That flash of light which blinded him for three days changed his heart and his life, and Christianity itself has never been the same.
The drama, the suddenness, the utter change of heart, make for fabulous story-telling. Our more evangelical-minded colleagues in the faith often hold this up as an example of the sort of “come to Jesus moment” that every authentic Christian should expect.
April 27, 2025
Second Sunday of Easter
Annual Congregational Meeting
A New Presence
This week’s Scripture is “the first supper.”
I don’t hear it called by that title very much – but essentially that’s what it was. The first supper that Jesus shared with his disciples after the resurrection.
The setting is Sunday evening on the first Easter. Cleopas and an unnamed disciple (maybe his wife?) are travelling from Jerusalem to Emmaus, grieving the death of Jesus and unaware of what the women had seen at his grave earlier that day, when they encounter a stranger on the road. They end up talking together about all that happened, and inviting the stranger to stay with them for dinner. It’s only in the breaking of the bread that they recognize the stranger was, in fact, the Risen Christ himself. It’s the first of countless meals Jesus has eaten with his followers ever since.