November 29, 2024

Perspective

There was a period of time, between the writing of the texts that now comprise our New Testament and the final determination of what first century writings would be in the New Testament. In this season of about three centuries the churches were learning how to communicate the gospel to those outside the church and how to teach the baptized how to live out their new-found faith. What we now call “spirituality” was understood then as growing in one’s understanding of living a life in the Spirit to become more like Christ. Many of those writings have been preserved and are available today. These were writings that addressed how to live out one’s Christian faith in difficult times. What many of these writings focused on was how to put one’s life in a new, Christian perspective.

One of the resources used in this process of reorientation was the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10). Christians considered how to live their lives as those who are to be “blessed.” This Advent I invite you to join me to reflection on the Beatitudes each Monday night in Advent at 7pm. (There is nothing you need to do to prepare beyond being open to considering how you might change your perspective on your life and life of faith in our world today in light of God’s Word. I hope these will be conversations where we can learn from the text and each other as we grow in our life in the Spirit.

We are entering a season which, as usual, is very busy, but this year this season is also very uncertain. I invite you to take break each Monday and see if we together might find new perspectives on the Advent and Christmas seasons, on the world today, and on our life of faith in the world into which the Son of God came.

With audacious hope,

~ Pastor Todd