March 2022 Pastor’s Letter

From the Desk of Pastor Melissa

Dear Friends,

The season of Lent is a time of turning our focus upon Jesus. We pause as individuals and as a community of faith to wonder at the love and grace freely given to us by a loving God.

Lent has traditionally been kept through restraint, confession, fasting and acts of personal piety. Lent had its beginning in rituals that prepared people for baptism and a new way of living. Disciples of Jesus stepped away from the bustle, corruption, power, fears, scarcity mindset, and empty rituals we engage in to allow a more expansive life in Christ. The abundant life that God would have us live.

The last few years of disease, polarization, scarcity, and fear have left us feeling deflated, defeated, and worn out.

This Lent, through the parables of Jesus and stories of God’s expansive love, we will find ourselves, “Full to the Brim” with God’s love and grace.

We will not deny sin or suffering.

We will not look away from wrong doing.

We will not remove accountability.

We will also embrace the truth that God in Christ loves us completely with a love that bubbles up like a spring and washes over us in refreshing waves of grace, peace, and joy. May we trust in the promises made to us in our baptism. God has claimed us as his own! Nothing can change or erase this truth!

When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills over. It reaches beyond ourselves; like water, it rushes and flows, touching everything in its path bringing hope and life.

If love is our beginning, how can we live our lives led by love’s promises?

This Lent, may we trust fully that we belong to God. Let us increase our capacity to receive and give grace. Let us discover the expansive life God dreams for us. May we find ourselves, “Full to the Brim.”

Pastor Melissa