Kindred in Christ,

As we enter into Holy Week, we are reminded that with Jesus things are never as we would anticipate, and that to be open to God requires us to be open to the unexpected. Regarding Palm Sunday and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, author and activist, Shane Claiborne writes, “As Jesus rode a donkey into Passover, it was a lampoon of power, political parody at its best. Kings didn’t ride donkeys. They rode war horses with an entourage of soldiers. It would have been like the president riding a unicycle to their inauguration.”

I hope you will join us for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, as we attempt to follow the one who rides into our world through vulnerability and love and calls us to follow in his way.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

It has been a gift to reflect with you and journey inward together this Lenten season. With the help of the Enneagram, we have connected in new ways though a small group and a worship series that will conclude this Sunday. As we have mentioned throughout the last several weeks, the Enneagram, while not perfect, is an ancient personality typing tool that helps us explore the ways we tend to get in our own way, and how to return to our rest in God. Along with mapping out the different personality types we tend to be dominant in, and the Passions we tend to lose ourselves by, it also maps out the Virtues we tend toward when we are healthy (see above). For example, as a TWO or The Advocate, I tend to lose myself through the Passion of Pride (chasing flattery). However, when I am healthy, I lean into the virtue of humility and experience the freedom to care for others out of pure love for God and neighbor.

Perhaps the greatest gift of the Enneagram is the reminder that the Passions and Virtues are not things that define us but rather spectrums within us. This helps us move away from the false certainty of categorizing people (including ourselves) as either good or bad, in or out. Rather, we are always ambiguously in-between. Indeed, this is why we need spiritual practices and the season of Lent which help us slow down, listen to the Holy Spirit, and reflect where we are at a given moment.

Join us this Sunday as we explore how to live in the ambiguity of life between Passion and Virtue, and how this ambiguity is a crack in the systems of certainty that allow the light of Christ to come in.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Emmanuel Garibay, an artist from the Philippines, who happens to be Methodist, depicts the moment when the prodigal son returns home and is embraced by his loving father (Luke 15:11-32). I love this painting for many reasons. The tender expressions of their faces, the generous embrace of the parent, and the rest of the child captures well the experience of when we find our rest in God after losing ourselves for a time. Garibay titles this piece, Pagbabbalik Loob, which translates to “Conversion” or “inner change.” This is a reminder that conversion from sin (aka the way we tend to lose ourselves) is not about doing right or believing right (these are just the byproducts), but about allowing ourselves to be embraced and finding our rest in God once again.

Christopher Heuertz, author of the Sacred Enneagram suggests that inner healing or inner change feels less like doing “right actions” and more like “returning home.” With the help of the Enneagram, this Lenten season, we have been exploring together the different ways we tend to lose ourselves, and the power of self-reflection to help bring inner healing. This week, we will explore what it looks and feels like to undergo the grace of God, which returns us home.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

The Lenten season invites us to reflect on the sin that still secretly lurks in our hearts, which is anything within us that seeks to resist God’s love and justice for us or for others. And one of my favorite thinkers on this topic is the English novelist Francis Spufford who suggests that sin is our human propensity to f**k things up. (Read more of his reflection HERE.)

After making a regrettable decision or acting in ways that we know go against God’s coming kin-dom of peace, you too may have found yourself saying, “I do not understand what I do! For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:14-21). It is likely that we have all resonated with the Apostle Paul’s words at one point or another as we reflect on our human propensity to mess things up.

The personality typing tool of the Enneagram offers us a way to reflect on this propensity and map out a way to return to our rest in God. As we have mentioned throughout our series, the Enneagram is influenced by the ancient church’s concept of the 7 deadly sins (two more were added so nobody is left out). See below:

In the above graphic, as well as in the book The Sacred Enneagram, Christopher Heuertz writes that it is better to think of these as Passions rather than strictly “sins.” While each Passion can certainly lead to sin, in the original Latin, passion means “suffering” or “enduring.” The Enneagram suggests that under stress or unresolved trauma or other issues, we each decelerate into our passions even to the point of losing ourselves—thus becoming sin.

Heuertz suggests that when we are going on our journey to find ourselves back into our rest in God, it is like fumbling in the dark. It is hard. We cannot find our way. And he says, when we start to recognize the “whys,” when we ask why we have these passions and why are we acting on these passions to unhealthy degrees, then the “why” becomes a flashlight back to our true selves.

Join us this Sunday as we reflect further on our propensity to mess things up, and how we can journey back toward personal and collective healing.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz