Kindred in Christ,

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, a.k.a. ‘the birth of the church’! We hear of rushing wind, tongues of fire, and the breaking down of social barriers. The multilingual celebration we read about in Acts 2 reminds us that God sent all humanity a gift—the Spirit, with its promise of passion, diversity, and creativity.

Yet, it is not an exclusive party. With all that wind and noise, and hazardous pyrotechnics of the Spirit, the text tells us that the Apostles were moved outdoors to begin their multi-lingual proclamation. While they began indoors, the Spirit pushes them outdoors to connect with new people in new ways. Rather than starting outdoors and being moved inside a temple, the Church is born when a group is empowered to “come out” and connect with the world in a new way.

This Sunday also kicks off our Pride Month series, God is Proud of You!  We will celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and the way the Spirit is still working to break down walls that exclude and birth new and inclusive community through us.

I hope to see you as we celebrate Pentecost and Pride in the weeks to come through worship gatherings and outreach events.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

This coming Sunday is Ascension Sunday! And while a major feast day in the church calendar, it is not accompanied by a wealth of traditions like Easter, Christmas, or even Pentecost. There are no Ascension Day cards to give to loved ones, nor any Ascension Day family dinners to attend—at least not in my family. Nor do any familiar Ascension Day hymns come to mind.

Perhaps because at first glance the story of the Ascension seems bizarre and sad—the resurrected Jesus ascends into heaven and abandons the disciples on earth (Acts 1:1-11).

Yet as much as the disciples must have wanted Jesus to just to stay put, in Jesus we do not see a God that stays put. Rather, Jesus reveals a God that transcends our assumptions and expectations, to fill all creation with divine love and bring us to a faith that is as expansive as the sky.

Christ ascends into the depth for us to find Christ everywhere, especially where the world only sees death and despair. As Lutheran theologian Vitor Whesthelle reflects, “It is from down below that he comes. Don’t look into heaven. It is from down below that glory emerges. Don’t gaze up, look down. Look down where life is broken, where creation is tortured, where nature is abused. Down there in the troubles of our days lies the glory as much as it once was found in the womb of a poor peasant maid of Galilee or lying in a manger in the midst of dung, animals, and flies. Consider then the homeless old woman in the city street and know that Christ is there and that NATO’s whole air force in all its glory is not armored as she is. So, do consider the lilies of the field, but consider as well the pollution, the waste, and the violence against which the blossoming of the most simple flower is already a triumph that beats the odds and tells a story of ascension.

May the glory down below shine through our lives in its unseemly fashion so that we might know that what God assumes God redeems and then we will also know that we don’t need to be anxious about tomorrow, for we know the places where tomorrow begins.”

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

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