Experiencing An Unexplainable God

Water, ice, steam

A braided rope

A triangle

So many weak attempts to explain the Trinity.

The truth is that we cannot explain God. Oh, we continue to try. For centuries we have tried — and for centuries we have fallen short.

Thanks be to God that God is not an equation to be mastered.

Thanks be to God that God is not a puzzle to be solved.

God is the “I AM” God has been, God is, and God will be.

God created and God creates

God spoke and God speaks

God comforted and God comforts

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit

God the Creator God the Redeemer God the Sustainer.

We still aren’t quite sure how to label God and even though our attempts to explain and label fall short, many would rather fight over explaining and labeling God instead of following and growing in God’s ways.

Creator: How are we allowing God to create within us? How are we allowing God to create through us--paths for peace comfort, paths for healing and new ideas?

Redeemer: How are we allowing God to redeem within us? How are we allowing God to redeem through us so that we can live in freedom and free others from standards and expectations that are not healthy?

Sustainer: How are we allowing God to sustain us? How are we allowing God to use us in sustaining? In supporting? In offering relief?

How will you choose to see God today?

Pastor Jo

June 5, 2023

How Do We Prepare for Pentecost?

Last week I was reminded of a quote from Richard Rohr, “Humans often end up doing evil by thinking we can and must eliminate all evil, instead of holding it, suffering it ourselves, and learning from it, as Jesus does on the cross.”

As I ponder this thought I find myself curious about the 50 days between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost. Did I, as a pastor, guide us “through” Eastertide in a way that truly prepares us for the outpouring of God’s Spirit in our lives? In our church?

Then, again, how does one fully prepare for such an outpouring?

I wonder if these 50 days went by as quickly for the disciples in the 1st Century as they have for us.

I wonder if they totally missed this time because the grief and splendor of death and resurrection were too much to comprehend and process in such a short period of time.

Can one truly prepare for such a day as Pentecost?

Ironically, Pentecost was a day they knew quite well. They prepared for it every year since the days of Moses. How amazing that the Breath of God would exhale something new and powerful into such a familiar space so that each could understand in a personal and familiar way the power of God’s love.

So maybe, just maybe, we eliminate evil, not by predicting and plotting, but by suffering and learning, and by allowing the Spirit of God to exhale something new and powerful into a day like today.

Pastor Jo

May 22, 2023

Milestones...

This past Sunday we shared in the confirmation of 5 youth. We also renewed our commitment and reaffirmed our faith. As we prepare for “Senior Sunday” we will celebrate another milestone in the lives of our graduating seniors.

What do these milestones mean to us as a community? After the birthday, the anniversary, the confirmation, the graduation — do we simply pack it all away as a memory? Is it meant to be more?

Milestone. What an interesting word! According the Webster a milestone is best seen as a milepost. A post set along the way to designate distance in miles.

For most of us milestones are events that have happened. But dare we look ahead at the markers that are ahead of us? Considering the next marker on our journey, what do we hope to gain? Who do we hope to become when we reach the next milestone?

As we prepare to gather this Sunday, Ephesians 1:17-8 stands out.

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you”

May we continue the journey celebrating what has been and what is yet to be, with the “eyes of our hearts enlightened.”

Blessings,

Pastor Jo