April 2018
Friends:
As I write this there are snow showers coming down but still I know that spring is close. The blossoms in the trees are still hidden but eventually bring the promise of life and beauty in what for so long seemed asleep and lifeless. The sun and the rain join together bringing the promise of what is to come: warmth and lush greenery. This is the time when we welcome in spring. And this is the season when we welcome Easter.
I love this time of year, it’s like we can hear the earth joining our cries of hallelujah on Easter. After death comes life, out of darkness comes light, out of hopelessness comes hope. We see this truth played out in the earth around us as we prepare to hear the holy stories once again.
N.T. Wright reminds us that Easter is always something that plays out in the earth around us, not in some other distant world or in some far-removed heaven. He writes, “Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
At Easter we don’t just celebrate our hope for life after death, we celebrate our hope for life now, for new life filled with the hope and love of heaven now. We celebrate our hope for change and transformation. At Easter we are surprised by hope, surprised by God’s insistence that nothing, not even death itself, can quash our hope for newness and for tastes of heaven here and now. Every time we pray “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven” we voice that Easter hope for touching heaven and changing earth.
Where do you need some hope? What feels like a tomb in your life, like a tree in winter seemingly lifeless and asleep? We lift those places up to God with prayers that remember God’s faithfulness.
Where do you see hope? Where do you see signs of God’s newness, signs of love, signs of heaven here and now? We hold those places in our heart knowing that there was a cross and now there is an empty tomb.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Deb
Looking Ahead
Bible class presentation May 6
Confirmation May 20
UMC MN Annual Conference May 30 – June 1
2018 Summer Academy Fellows Program at Gustavus Adolphus College
As an Academy Fellow, students will join with other outstanding students to grow in knowledge, develop leadership skills, and clarify your sense of purpose.
2018 Summer Academy Fellows Program: July 14-20, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter. Full tuition scholarships are available for 9th-, 10th-, or 11th-grade students who love science, want to attend this program, and need financial assistance! The theme this year is Land and Identity: How our Food and Microbiomes Change Who We Are. Applications are accepted until program is full.
Cost:
Tuition is $300 for the week of the Summer Academy at Gustavus, but full tuition scholarships are available for anyone who needs them!
Contact: Rev. Siri C. Erickson
Address: 800 West College Ave. St. Peter MN 65082
Phone: 507-933-7277