Happy Black History Month!! This Sunday we kick off our new series, Making a Way. Considering the popular African American saying, “making a way out of no way”, we will study the lives of some of the Black heroes of the faith who inspire us with their holy resilience, creativity, and witness. We will particularly consider Black Methodists who often called the church to its best ideals, and trusted God’s justice making love, even when there seemed to be no way forward. We hope to see you in-person or online!

Kindred in Christ,

I once had a therapist that was an ex-nun. While no longer part of a religious order, she was still a spiritually profound person. She considered mental health her current ministry. I greatly appreciated her on many levels.

One of the valuable things I learned from her was the importance of remembrance—both in my actions and prayer life. She suggested that when I felt anxious, I should think back to a time when I felt similarly, and ask myself, “Did things turn out as bad as I had feared?” Usually the answer was “no.” Moreover, she invited me to reflect upon what had helped me in those past situations. It usually involved turning to spiritual practices and reaching out to others. Remembering how God and my community had showed up in the past empowered me to turn to them in the present and caused me to be hopeful about the future.

As we join our nation in remembering the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the many ways God used him to help bring about greater racial equity, may we connect it to the many ways God is still calling us to advance the work of justice and liberation today. While the problems and injustices we face in the present are daunting and at times disheartening, may we remember that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Change takes a long time, but it does happen with the help of our faithfulness and participation.

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and continue in our series The Epiphanies of Epiphany. We will explore how not to remain frozen by our fears, but to respond to the Gospel’s invitation to “come and see” what is possible with God and community in the way of Jesus (John 1:35-46).

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

I am excited to begin our new series, The Epiphanies of Epiphany: A Series About Finding God in the Ordinary. Epiphany comes to us from the Greek word “epiphaneia,” meaning “appearance” or “manifestation,” and refers to the ways we encounter the divine in our ordinary human lives.

For most of us the beginning of a new year tends to focus our attention on the future. For some of us that focus is expressed in our New Year’s resolutions, the intentions we have for our life, and the plans we make. Others of us may not make resolutions but we still have hopes and wishes for the coming year, and we consider the possibilities of what the year might hold for us. Some of us simply want a clean slate, a fresh start, a new beginning.

In whatever ways this gets expressed or experienced, it touches a common longing or desire within us. We seek something we don’t have. We want something different. We are aware of an absence.

You might be wondering what absence has to do with epiphany. At first, they might sound mutually exclusive. But what if the experience of absence and the accompanying longings and desires are the beginning of an epiphany for you?

Maybe epiphanies are the means by which God expresses God’s longing and desire for each of us. Maybe they are God calling and guiding us into deeper communion with each other and Godself. Maybe an epiphany is not so much an “Aha, I got it” kind of moment as it is an “Aha, it’s got me” kind of moment. It’s a moment that awakens us to the deep desires of our hearts, touches the longings of our life, and fills the absence in such a way that we get up and leave transformed and equipped to transform the world.

Join us this Sunday as we explore this theme deeper and consider the Baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:1-17). Hope to see you in-person or online.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Christmas celebrations have been canceled in Bethlehem this year. There is no Christmas tree lighting in the Manger Square nor festivities along the cobble-stone streets that normally are bustling with foreign tourists this time of year. There are no holiday decorations to be seen in the city that is synonymous with the birth of Jesus, located in the Israeli-occupied West bank.

Above is the icon, “Christ in the Rubble,” by Kelly Latimore. It is inspired by the witness of Palestinian pastor and theologian, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac. This year, he and his congregation in Bethlehem placed Christ under the rubble in the nativity of their church. And when asked where God is as Gaza is being bombed, Isaac replied, “God is under the rubble.”

Join us this Sunday morning, as well as for Christmas Eve, as we further reflect on the God that takes on flesh and enters our war-torn world, in order to bring peace and liberation. And how this peace can be born through us today.

In the meantime, if you would like to donate to organizations that are working for peace and humanitarian relief in Gaza, click HERE. The first 500 donations made over $100 will receive a free signed print of “Christ in the Rubble” icon by Kelly Latimore.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz