A Note from Pastor Bruce - September 10, 2026
Dear Church Family:
In our Bible study this morning, the topic turned quickly to this week’s anniversary of 9/11. One by one, we vividly recounted where we were on that fateful day 25 years ago. As one person put it, the events of that morning changed our country forever. Tomorrow, millions of our fellow citizens will pause to remember the horror and the great loss of life, and to give thanks for those who put themselves in harm’s way to rescue others and who protect us still from the threat of evil.
As I listened to our sobering recollections, I was reminded how Christians have endured worldly troubles and wickedness since Jesus was crucified as a threat to Israel and to Rome. For nearly 300 years, the first Christians experienced wave upon wave of rejection, threat, injustice, persecution, and sometimes violent and painful death from the world that saw them as a threat to Roman rule and “peace.” And though the circumstances changed, in every case the challenge to Jesus’ followers remained the same—to be faithful witnesses to the One who not only endured the world’s suffering for our collective sin, but through his crucifixion and resurrection achieved our salvation.
As I shared in a sermon recently, I have been reading Alan Krieder’s, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church. It is the story of the extraordinary way in which the tiny, despised, and non-violent followers of Jesus not only survived the world’s cruelties but endured and thrived, overcoming impossible odds to grow to overtake the Roman Empire with Christ-like love and truth. How did they do this? The cardinal virtue of the early church was patience. Because they believed that God had demonstrated great and merciful patience to achieve our salvation and to restore the rebellious world, first in Israel and chiefly in Messiah Jesus, they humbly submitted themselves to God’s saving ways and strove to teach and embody God’s character as they confronted the hostile world. In their Christ-centered fellowship, they showed their world God’s loving alternative to the warring madness of sinful humanity. In their Spirit-filled lives, they gave a visible example to their neighbors and co-workers of a different and better way to be human, full of unhurried compassion, mercy, and joy.
The gospel of Jesus Christ must be newly embodied in his followers in every human time, place, and trouble. As I have reflected on 9/11, it has occurred to me that evil is always in a hurry to destroy the things of God and our humanity, if possible. But the triune God of love who in Jesus endured and overcame the world’s deadly impatience, is ever working, unhurriedly, persistently, and graciously, to right our wrongs and transform us to be like Christ. The patient salvation of God overcomes the madness and evil of the world, and Christians are to be the living proof in each new age.
Those who know this not only remember the world’s evil but strive to cultivate in their lives and fellowship God’s saving alternative.
At the end of my sermon this past week, I invited all interested persons to consider participating in a “Friends in Christ” group, a modern adaptation of the early Methodist Class Meetings. As I have experienced over the past 16 years, such groups are a powerful tool of Christ-centered fellowship in which the Holy Spirit can work in each of us to bring about the slow patient ferment of God’s transforming love that makes us whole and forms us to be faithful and effective witnesses for Jesus Christ in our post-9/11 world. Seventeen persons from Pender have signed up to find out more about these groups. The sign-up sheet will remain on the black table in the narthex for another week before I schedule an introductory meeting to talk about the groups and answer your questions.
Yes, the world is in a hurry, sometimes in fretfulness, and sometimes in wickedness. But the disciples of Jesus know that God is patiently and steadily working in the lives of the faithful to remake us in love. If that is your heart’s desire, I invite you to add your name to the list as we consider the pace and purpose of God’s saving grace in remaking us to be faithful witnesses for Christ.
Pastor Bruce
From the September 10, 2026 edition of This Week at Pender newsletter
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