Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.         Eph. 6:23 

Peace, faith and love, but the greatest of these is love. Three times Paul emphasizes the relation of love to faith, and of grace to loving trust. We love because he first loved us, and Paul prays for grace to fall upon all those who pledge and intend to live a life of undying love for Christ. Of course, we fail and fall, our love is inconstant and the rhythm of sin and forgiveness, complacency and passion, wrong desire and right desire, is real enough for each of us. Hence Paul’s prayer, which we can take as a personal benediction tumbling down the centuries from Paul to us, here and now:

“Grace also to me, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, so that I too may go on loving our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Amen.
 
Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

In our Pathway to Unity that the Leadership Team introduced to the congregation last December at our congregational meeting, why did we start with Table Talks first, for practicing listening to each other share stories, rather than a forum or presentation on Biblical interpretation of Scripture? By building our skills through listening to, understanding, and identifying with the experiences of others, people begin to build bridges across differences and they learn about themselves in the process. 
 
Having opportunities to listen and be listened to can be transformative. We can decenter our own experience and step into others’ shoes, cultivating empathy and compassion. It’s rare that we get opportunities to intentionally grow in attunement. Simply receiving whatever other participants choose to share is a sacred act of trust and sets a foundation for gracious conversations to come.
 
It also breaks the ice and softens our hearts at the entrance to taking up the challenging LGBTQ+ conversation in the next step of the pathway. Our Table Talks will likely run through April and May, and we will come back this fall to a forum discussion of Biblical interpretation and practice generous listening and responses. Please don’t miss the opportunity to sign up for a Table Talk gathering—remember it is just a single session, two hours, with trusted facilitators in a home setting. We’d love everyone to have a chance to listen well this spring.  

Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

With you it is never "more or less"

We will be your faithful people -

                                   more or less

We will love you with all our hearts -

                                   perhaps

We will love our neighbor as ourselves -

                                   maybe.

We are grateful that with you it is

                                  never "more or less"

                                  "perhaps" or

                                  "maybe."

With you it is never "yes and no,"

                  but always "yes" - clear, direct,

                  unambiguous, trustworthy.

We thank you for your "yes"

                 come flesh among us. Amen

From Walter Brueggemann  Awed to heaven - Rooted to Earth

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation

 Lenten prayer

You who are over us,
You who are one of us,
You who are also within us,
May all see you-in me also.
May I prepare the way for you,
May I thank you for all
that shall fall to my lot,
May I also not forget the needs of others.
Give me a pure heart-that I may see you.
A humble heart-that I may hear you,
A heart of love-that I may serve you,
A heart of faith-that I may abide in you. Amen.
 
Dag Hammarskjold, Markings.
Swedish economist and Secretary General of the United Natios

Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Matthew 6.17 “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to anyone else that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is unseen; and your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

God of justice and grace, unseen yet seeing everything. Teach us the blessing of a true fast is to refrain from self-praise and practice generosity; to do good in secret, to be kind to strangers, to use our words, our money and our actions to break yokes that burden and crush others. Father in heaven, we can’t fix everything, but may we be faithful, persistent and caring in all our efforts to repair what we can, making space within us to be attentive to your call and receptive of your grace. Amen.

Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Blessing the Dust

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made,
and the stars that blaze
in our bones,
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.
 
Jan Richardson
 
Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

“The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.”
                                    Psalm 145:14

Throughout the first half of Psalm 145 the power of God is described and affirmed. It is power on behalf of those who trust God. The second half of the psalm describes the results of such powerful, compassionate love. Like a parent picking up a child who falls, or a friend helping to carry a heavy load – God is the Uplifter of those bowed down by sorrow, anxiety, overwork, unfair expectations, and whatever else drains us of energy, joy and a sense of our own worth.

“The Lord upholds…lifts up.” May you know this is your inmost being this week.

Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

It's Ash Wednesday on February 14th. Next week! Once again the annual give-upfest comes around. Need to eat less. Do more exercise. Reduce caffeine. Refuse chocolate. Prohibit clicking the Amazon shopping basket. Stop cheating in speed limits. Walk more and drive less. Keep tabs on food waste. Keep tabs on my own waist. Detox from the Internet.  I've just written a Lenten Decalogue. Ten new commandments to make life, me, the world, a little more this, a little less that.

I'm not going to try to keep any of them. Each one is valid, valuable and salutary. These I should be doing whether it's Lent or not. The fact I can so easily compile such a personally relevant checklist of virtues or their absence is evidence enough of my need for improvement. 

And yet. Somehow this year I feel less interested in pulling out a few weeds, and more interested in replenishing the soil. Not so much interested in dealing with this or that bad habit, more challenged by the issue of the kind of person whose habits they are.

Which brings me to Jesus. Matthew 12:35-37 tends not to be among the more comforting words Jesus ever spoke.  My guess is we interpret them as hyperbole, a good natured warning phrased strongly for rhetorical effect. That is a category mistake. These words are spoken with an exacting exactness —Jesus means what he says. Seriously, Jesus is being serious.

 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

So this Lent I am giving up words. Well at least giving up, so far as prayerfulness and carefulness allow, empty words.

As a Lenten discipline, what might it look like to cultivate a stewardship of words, develop a discipline of language, practice a care for speech as therapeutic? And perhaps above all, a recovery of the eloquence of silence, out of which come our deepest thoughts and those words that have a lasting worth and legacy in the enriched lives of others. 

Grace and peace, 

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Written by British New Zealander Richard Gillard in 1977, “The Servant Song” is such a beautiful expression of the Christian call to community and friendship, marked by selfless service, a walking alongside, and the bearing of one another’s joys, sorrows, and fears. 

Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I may have the grace
To let you be my servant too
We are pilgrims on a journey
Fellow travelers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load
I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the nighttime of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the peace you long to hear
I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we’ve seen this journey through
When we sing to God in heaven
We will find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony
Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I may have the grace
To let you be my servant too

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iu_T_FRvbY&t=112s

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Prayer Matters!

John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.”

It’s well worth remembering that before we utter a word of prayer, we have already been prayed for by the One to whom we pray. What’s more, the crucified and risen Lord “is at the right hand of God and ever lives to make intercession for us.” Every day, every breath and heartbeat, we are held in the heart of Eternal Love, drawn into the inner life of the Triune God. The Spirit prays within us, and Christ intercedes for us, at the right hand of the Father. We pray as those continually prayed for!
 
Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

These three things are connected in the spiritual life. Joy isn’t an occasional emotional high, it’s the underlying confidence of faith, trustfulness in God who is the God of hope. Patience in affliction is easier said than done, but it’s often in the hard times, even the hardest times, that strength comes to us from beyond us, from God. Faithfulness in prayer is that persistent leaning on God, in whose hands we are held, and in whose loving purposes our daily lives are woven in mercy and grace.
 
2 Corinthians 1.10-11a “God has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.”

This verse is one good reason we pray for each other, and for those going through difficult times and valleys of darkness. We have no idea what difference our prayers make to how people’s lives turn out. We do know that people are helped by knowing they are being prayed for. What we don’t know is how God answers not only our prayers, but the deepest needs of those he loves. God uses our faithful prayers in ways we can’t begin to imagine in bringing blessing to others. You know you’re doing this prayer thing right when someone says, “you help us by your prayers.”

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation