Throughout Lent we have been reviewing our baptism vows as a way of looking at our created purpose.

March 1: Ash Wednesday: Remember, You Are Dust

Epiphany!…Dust & Ashes are purposeful and needed and so are we. What is our created purposefulness? We seek discovery of our purposefulness through God’s mercy and guidance for this season of intensive formation and re-formation called lent.

March 5: Lent 1: Renounce

We walk the way of temptation with Jesus and learn from him what it means to continue to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin.

March 12: Lent 2: Accept

Through powerful image of new birth and the biblical story of the serpent in the wilderness, Jesus shows Nicodemus and us what it takes for us to accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

March 19: Lent 3: Confess

In an encounter with a woman at a well in Samaria, Jesus confesses he is the Messiah, and she not only embraces this, but leads others to make the same confession.

March 26: Lent 4: Nurture

The response of the crowds to Jesus’ healing of a man born blind says much about how our congregation can actively “nurture one another in the Christian faith and life, and include these persons now before you in your care,” or fail to do so.

April 2: Lent 5: Believe!

The faith we confess, and the faith that transforms us, is more than intellectual assent to a theological construct. May we join in on Martha’s confession, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into this world,” and live it!

As we make our way to Easter Sunday the questions that remains is “Do you believe? If your living is fruit of your belief, is your fruit, fruit of the spirit, fruit of discipleship, fruit of grace working in your life? Just what fruit are you producing?”

Happy Easter!

Loving God, heart, mind, soul, and strength,

Pastor LaTonya