October 2017
On Sunday, September 24th, I began a sermon series on our vision statement, and what it means for us as individuals and as a church. The first statement was the
topic: “We are a Christian community growing in faith and spirit…”
I connected it to Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Our faith is in the things that Jesus taught about God and about us, things that we are to receive and then to practice and live out. Three words capture the heart of this faith – first, Grace, which is love unearned and undeserved, given freely as a gift. Second is Reconciliation: God is our judge, but the judgment has already been made: that of love. This makes it possible for us to return to God again and again, and to turn towards one another again and again, in love and forgiveness. The third word is Compassion: as grace and reconciliation abound, compassion emerges. We experience God’s compassion for us, and we begin to perceive and grow in compassion towards ourselves and others, beginning the cycle again as we reach out to one another in grace. These things cannot be seen directly, but in our living, loving, and caring we can make them apparent in the world, and invite others to live in gracious, reconciling and compassionate ways made possible by the Holy Spirit.
I’m sharing the three sets of questions I posed as a result of this reflection on faith, and I invite you to read them, to ponder them, to discuss them, and to invite the Holy Spirit to be part of this growing process in individual lives and as a community.
Let’s go forth together in faith,
empowered by the spirit, to love, serve, and disclose the Kingdom of God!
Faithfully,
Rev. Mary E. Biedron
On Sunday, September 24th, I began a sermon series on our vision statement, and what it means for us as individuals and as a church. The first statement was the
topic: “We are a Christian community growing in faith and spirit…”
I connected it to Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Our faith is in the things that Jesus taught about God and about us, things that we are to receive and then to practice and live out. Three words capture the heart of this faith – first, Grace, which is love unearned and undeserved, given freely as a gift. Second is Reconciliation: God is our judge, but the judgment has already been made: that of love. This makes it possible for us to return to God again and again, and to turn towards one another again and again, in love and forgiveness. The third word is Compassion: as grace and reconciliation abound, compassion emerges. We experience God’s compassion for us, and we begin to perceive and grow in compassion towards ourselves and others, beginning the cycle again as we reach out to one another in grace. These things cannot be seen directly, but in our living, loving, and caring we can make them apparent in the world, and invite others to live in gracious, reconciling and compassionate ways made possible by the Holy Spirit.
I’m sharing the three sets of questions I posed as a result of this reflection on faith, and I invite you to read them, to ponder them, to discuss them, and to invite the Holy Spirit to be part of this growing process in individual lives and as a community.
- How does our faith call out to you, each of you? Where will you perceive and where will you show grace, reconciliation, and compassion in what you do this week?
- How you see this faith at work in THIS community, this Body of Christ that we call North Church? What can you contribute to the work of faith we do together— because we need to work together, as God has gathered us. What does our vision awake in your spirit that you can share with this fellowship?
- How might our assurance of things hoped for move us to produce, by our words and our actions, the conviction of things unseen in the wider world, as individuals and as a Christian community?
Let’s go forth together in faith,
empowered by the spirit, to love, serve, and disclose the Kingdom of God!
Faithfully,
Rev. Mary E. Biedron
