We are blessed people. Today our lives hit a wrinkle (Pastor Joe and Pastor Patricia). We made a choice to go on a continuing Education adventure to see the Holy Land! And, we are presently stuck in Istanbul on a 7 hour delay. Well, darn. But we have food, and water, and wifi (!) so maybe we should suck it up and make the best of it.
But today I write to my friends out there enduring change, and worry, and also, imagining new things, and dreaming of possibilities for ministry. Because the Annual Meeting is at hand, and I will miss it!
And Holy Cross, my beloved church, has so many possibilites ahead. We have been imagining Latino ministry for some time now, and It looks like that dream may become a reality in the near future. That’s exciting. And, of course, we are also struggling with finances. Which is hard, and painful, and makes us examine each choice through the lens of cost/benefit. My years as an accountant before seminary make me mindful of each of these nodes in our life as church.
If you’re not one of the Holy Cross flock, reading this blog, bless you. Because the kind of things I am talking about happen to all of us. We all yearn for God’s call to show us how we can ‘ be the change’ and ‘make a difference’. We really do. I don’t believe you curmudgens in the bunch who just shook your head. But change is work.
We are blessed, though, and it has nothing to do with earning it! “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it” (the Unforgiven – Clint Eastwood). God loves us and Loved us from the beginning because of God’s nature, not ours. So, that spark that we feel to make the world better – its not a by product of trying to earn our way into God’s good graces. Because you can’t. You are already in God’s good graces. Because of God’s nature, not yours.
https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/198069 Yesterday at the Israel museum in Jerusalem I saw these amazing tablets from the 6th century BC – engraved with the words from Number 6:24-26.
It’s a blessing – the most famous one – the Aaronic blessing. We are blessed by God, but being people, weak and jaded, we need to be reminded. That’s why we need priests. And pastors. To remind us.
So, as my dear friends at Holy Cross in Salem Oregon meet to talk about change, and the future, and finances, it is my wish that they see me standing before them, with my right hand raised, blessing them. In the name of God. And, as my dear readers around the world read this blog, I hope you can picture me too. blessing you. With God’s blessing. So you’ll remember, and feel it. Go, and be blessed people. – Pastor Patricia+