Just another 90’s kid who thinks every picture is better in black and white.
Welcome to my blog. I document my ministry in the church and in the world.
Hope you have a nice stay!
The skies were ripped a part, creations was re-written because you are Beloved. With no expectations and no accomplishments, just the hope that you will become fully who you are created to be, that you will love abundantly, that you will step into the work of justice and mercy, to treat your neighbor as beloved as well. In these moments the tangible and intangible, Heaven and Earth touch, the veil is thin and God comes close.
But we know Jesus, He isn’t about sound advice in the systems of the world. He’s about overturning the systems. He isn’t about telling the powerful how to gain more power but turning power on its head. So he doesn’t stop with “be humble” but invite those with the least honor, the most shame to dine at your table. The homeless, the sick, the hungry, the forgotten all of those who can offer you nothing. And those for whom it will cost you much.
Jesus’ invitation was an honor, a privilege, and was terrifying. Peter knew he was unworthy of it, unworthy of everything that would come with it. Declared himself a sinner: unworthy, unprepared, with the mouth of a sailor, and fish guts on his clothes, his hair, his face. And Jesus looked at him and said, and I paraphrase, “Come with me. I see you. You have been prepared for this. You are enough.”
And here our song reminds us that Christ is before all things, in all things, and holds the universe together and does so with love, does so with healing and compassion. And when the powerful tried to stop the Jesus and the movement he started with violence and fear and hatred, Jesus did not lose, he did not give in, he did not play their game.
We answer the call to participate in the dance by learning about our creator, by being in relationship, by reading the stories and poems of the people of God. Somme found in the Bible and some not. We spend time in prayer, speaking, listening, connecting with the Divine. We learn to see the movements of the Divine in the world around us so we can participate in the work that is already happening all around us.
We have a God of liberation. Who offers release the captive, who liberates the oppressed, who sets right what has been made wrong, who declares a time of jubilee has come, who gave the Hebrew slaves a new way of life that would honor each other, their relationship with creation, and their creator, who came and lived in the body of Jesus, to set free, liberate, release, and to show us what it is to live to call us to this life.
Every moment is an opportunity to live in the hope and love of the one who was resurrected who showed us, even in his own life, what it is to grow. To watch the mission expand beyond, to choose love again and again, and we have that example in Lydia: Who chose to grow and to learn and to develop, to listen and to welcome Paul.
My call began in the walls of my childhood church and was nurtured by my teachers and pastors. My call to work with young people and their families was developed by opportunities to lead. My call to ordained ministry was encouraged by others and gifted by God where it grew in me. My fifteen years of working in churches has continued to affirm my passion and love for the mission and ministry of the church both local and universal. During some of those years, I served six local congregations as a student and licensed pastor where my call to Word and Sacrament became rooted and intertwined into who I am. God grants new life and determined growth. This call is who I am and my God-given call cannot be removed by theology that says I’m incompatible. It has found root, and it will grow.
So we consciously and with intention curate. We make choices, every day, at least most days, like one who makes choices for a museum or library. I believe that we are creative creatures because we have a creative God. We bring and curate and create around us and so we have to ask: What brings us more joy? What brings my family, church, community more joy? What brings the world more joy? Because don’t think that it’s what we subtract from our lives but what we add to it. We learn from our story today what kinds of things we ought to add to our lives, what might bring us joy, bring our community joy, bring joy to the world.
