Pastor’s Corner – March 13, 2025
Dear Beloved,
This winter I've been enjoying a gratitude journey with you. A few Sundays ago when chatting with the children, I shared that I am grateful that God designed us to learn. How wonderful it is that we can learn about each other - about neighbors near and far, God's creation, ourselves, and about the nature of God - God's love, God's work in the world, God's grace, God's call on our lives our whole lives long!!! Learning with and from you are gifts for which I thank God. As we prepare to celebrate the rite of confirmation with the confirmation students and their families and mentors next month on Palm Sunday, I give special thanks for the opportunity to learn with and from these students and the confirmation experience. I would invite you to be keeping these young people in your prayers. In the United Church of Christ (the denomination that Friedens is part of), people can be baptized at any age. In the United Church of Christ, young people have an opportunity to go through the confirmation experience to consider more deeply and intentionally what they believe about God and whether they want to make a commitment to follow the Jesus way and become official members of Friedens United Church of Christ. In this next month as the rite of confirmation approaches for these young people, I’d invite you to reflect upon your understanding of who God is and what it means for you to follow in the Jesus way. Pastor Marc and I are always glad to chat with you and grow with you as we journey together as disciples of Jesus who share his unbounded love, so that all may know they are beloved and so we may all live together in shalom - the beloved community of wholeness and comprehensive well-being. May you feel uplifted and encouraged by the joy and hope of the Creator, the compassion and peace of Jesus, and the comfort and guidance of the Spirit throughout this Lenten season.
With appreciation and hope,
Sarah
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God… 1 John 4:7
