New Year, New Every Morning!

Happy New Year! It is hard to imagine we are in 2023! Tuesday in our weekly staff meeting, we reflected on 2022. What a year it was! Medical Crises for Pastor Maria and the Fernandez family, Pastor Joanna’s travel to be with family while her mom was dying, our Transforming Inside and Out Campaign. It seems like we have been planning and preparing for this building project for years but it hasn’t even been one year since our campaign began officially! 2022 was a big year of transition and growth for so many of us. And I am sure as each of you remember what your last year has been you could add to our list of things both good and not so good, challenging and less so. All in all, we have been through so much together in the last year. 

The Bible includes many stories that invite us as the people of God to remember. Remember the promise God made to Noah and Abraham. Remember how God delivered us from the hands of slavery Egypt into the promised land. Even at the last supper, Jesus reminds his disciples as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, do this in remembrance of me. God reminds us to remember where we have been and also calls us forth reminding us that God is always doing a new thing! While reflecting on our past year as a staff, we also remembered the beginning of the Gospel of Mark and Matthew where each reminds us of the Good News: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Another word for repent is change. How uncomfortable change can be and yet change is our only constant. From our first steps to kindergarten to first grade and so on and so forth we must adapt and change as the world around us changes! God the creator of the universe is in, under, and throughout all of that change! When I look forward to all that God has in store for us this year, I pray that there are changes, changes that bring us closer together, changes that help us to grow, changes that fulfill our mission and values that together we might accept others, care compassionately, deepen connections, and share God’s love! Sometimes these changes will make us uncomfortable, we may have more questions than answers, but I pray through it all we might be able to proclaim together the Kingdom of God is HERE! Lamentations reminds us: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!” Remember who you are, whose you are, and all God has delivered you from. Change as God’s word and God’s world change you, in order that we all might experience God’s grace -new every morning! 

Thanks be to God, 

Pastor Maria Markman