Hello, Friends!

     On Sunday, we took in some reminders from Holy Scripture, about the spiritual landscape of our human journey, and how we are called to make choices about how to navigate along the way.
     We want to reclaim our birthright of holy innocence and “get ourselves back to the garden” of centeredness in God’s love.  How can that be possible?
     We need to confront those obstacles to Grace that constitute temptations to forget our God center, and so there’s a need for time apart from the everyday, space empty of life’s usual demands and engagements – desert space.
     Reliance on God doesn’t mean reverting to infantile dependency or passive waiting.  Real, joyful life in the garden means undertaking our role as partners with God in tending the earth, caring for the tenants, sharing the fruits.
     Innocence isn’t the same thing as ignorance; we have loved, lost, and learned many things the hard way.  Yet Love persists, and Life goes on, and Grace won’t stop calling us home.  The garden is real, and available to us all.
     Confronting our demons, taking stock of our temptations, getting quiet enough to get honest with ourselves and with God can feel like a dry and dusty journey through a land barren of hope and beauty.  But it’s not – there is nowhere we can go, no way we can be outside the scope of the tender, true love of the Living God.
     The way of the cross can take us to new places of honesty, accountability, humility, and trust, if we’re willing to undertake the journey of introspection, self-giving, and prayer alone and in community.
     We’re underway here at St. Luke, and I’d love for you to join us – on Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings, and throughout all our days of being and becoming in Christ, in the power of the Spirit, for the good of creation, to the delight of the living God.
     I look forward to journeying with you on these days and all our days to come.

Shalom,

Sarah