HELLO!

Last night, before bedtime (2 am) I received several emails from those who receive my daily blogs, asking if church would be canceled on Sunday. The forecast was not encouraging, ice pellets beginning at 7 am, freezing rain until later in the morning. Bethe and I, along with Keith, stayed in touch. We felt it was worth it to go forward. We are so pleased we did, as there were many more people who came than we expected. I suspect many watched the service online. If you missed it, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlkPpFlbRTA I will tell you the highlight was the Children’s Time with Bethe, you can find it as the 26:30 mark. If you watch nothing else, make sure you listen to this segment.

The theme of the service was Jesus’ baptism. When I once taught a preaching elective at AST, I looked back at sermons from yesteryear. One topic preachers from the early part of the 20^th century would address, that you rarely hear about today, was “Why would the perfect Jesus need to be baptized?” Jesus’ humanity was a scandal then, if you look at Sunday School materials, stained glass windows, visual representations of the Christ, he would appear as deity, a halo would surround his head, in many cases, Jesus would glow with the Divine. Preaching now tends to focus on his humanity, his connection with our brokenness.

Today’s service had two themes, I hope they meshed together. One came from Bethe, that all humanity, all Creation, is embedded with the spark of the Divine, we are indeed, beloved, known, cherished, by God. And the other, we accumulate layers of baggage, barriers, worldly temptation and distraction, based on the need to prove ourselves to God, to each other, to ourselves. Am I smart enough, attractive enough, successful enough, wealthy enough, popular enough, to merit God’s love, to be loved. Our foolish quest to manipulate these outcomes results in layers and layers of crusty presentation, that obscure God’s presence.

I shared a story you have heard me reference in the past. The need to sand this doorway to the soul, takes time, work, intention, support, and an assurance of love. The result is a friend like Brian, who takes photos of places where God’s light shines, places we walk by without notice, because the context is unfamiliar, not pretty by conventional definitions, an offering by God with mysterious and transformative possibility.

Peace, Kevin