Resurrection

Remembering that we worship a God of life, the image of resurrection is a good reminder for our church as we face present challenges. I don’t need to rehash the lower attendance and diminishing resources. You know them too well.

But with challenge comes opportunity. Our church has this moment to re-cast itself, not according to institutional expectations weighted in memory and nostalgia, but from a leap into the life that is unfolding from a vision of God’s preferred future.

This means that we can stop looking at where we have failed or continuing to grieve over what we have lost, but can look at where we have given life, where life is being created all around us, where life grows and thrives within our community and wider world, where resurrection emerges from the ground of a past that has died.

It’s hard to see what the next few years will bring. But God has given us this moment, because God trusts that we will know what to do with it. God has gifted us to navigate the waters of uncertainty, because we confess, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” (Nicene Creed).

Living God, guide us by your Spirit into an unknown future. Amen. — KP