Kindred in Christ,

This Sunday we will do worship a little differently. In lieu of a of a full sermon, we will take time to reflect on the church we are becoming and discuss with one another what it means to be on a journey of faith into the unknown. This will lead into a presentation and update from our New Building Search Team (see team members and more info below), and an opportunity for us to vote on the building needs that will guide the search for our new temporary home in the U District. A timeline will also be shared.

It is appropriate that this will conclude our series, Roots: (Re)discovering the Methodist Revival Movement. As we will also explore this Sunday, the early Methodist revival was less concerned about preserving a particular shape and more about continuing an intentional direction. Join the conversation on the direction we are headed as we seek to remain open to the future shapes we will take.

In the meantime, I offer you a prayer by one of my heroes in the faith, Thomas Merton (pictured above). It is an appropriate prayer for a life of faith as individuals and as a collective community:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

This week we are starting a new worship series titled, Roots. We will explore what it means to be Methodist, which refers to the denomination we are affiliated with. We are going to look at some of the early “roots” that began the growth that is still blooming though us today in new ways.

I believe that to guarantee forward progress; we often must let go of our grip of the past. If we cling too tightly to the past, then we end up dwelling and becoming stuck and ultimately resist God’s forward movement. However, to guarantee the integrity of that forward progress, we also must look at the roots from which we stem. Examining our roots is different from holding on to our past.

As we will explore together, deep within our Methodist roots is an early revival movement, which inspired people to rethink church in their time by prioritizing people over any church model or structure, and to dynamically hold together things like piety (personal faith) and social action.

Whether you are a life-long Methodist, have connected with this tradition more recently (like me!), or are brand new to U Gathering and do not know what “Methodist” even is, I invite you to join us as we (re)discover this early revival movement and what it might means for us today. Along with the sermon series, we will also gather before worship online at 9AM during Enrichment Hour (Zoom link below). There, we will go deeper as I lead us in discussion and exploration on the rise of the early Methodist movement. This is a passion project for me, which I have been dreaming of for some time. And I am excited and grateful to finally dive in deep with each of you!

Alongside You,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Last week we began our worship series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount titled Blessed. We considered how after Jesus lists his counter-cultural blessings, he concludes the opening section of his discourse by proclaiming over the gathered congregation, “You are the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world,” and a “city on a hill” (Matt 5:1-15). Too often churches become synonymous with being boring or committed to the status quo. And while we have many lovely traditions, there is often a need to reimagine them and do something new. Jesus invites his followers to not be bland or flavorless. Instead, we are called to be zesty and spicey! He challenges us to stand out and to do something noticeable that draws others in—like a city on a hill.

This past week I also joined seven recent members of our congregation in hosting our latest printmaking pop-up on the lawn of University Heights (see above). And while we began with the concern of getting rained out, the rain cleared, and we ended up hosting our biggest pop-up event yet! We created art with over 50 people and blew bubbles and played with even more families and kids. Some people recognized us and mentioned being happy to see us back. Others asked who we were and wanted to learn more about our church. And, as always, we had a couple sign up for a pastoral meet up over coffee sometime in the next few weeks. We did something interesting that drew people in and created community!

I am excited to continue to find ways of doing church that are zesty and interesting. And I look forward to continuing to explore Jesus’ vision of transformation and discipleship in the Sermon on the Mount over the next few weeks.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred In Christ,

Join us as we begin our new series, Blessed. We will spend five weeks studying Jesus’ central teachings, which are often referred to as The Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5-7. In these chapters we hear Jesus’ manifesto of the kin-dom of God, which he begins by insisting that it is the outcast and the rejected who are blessed. During this series we will ask, what if Jesus really meant all the radical things he said? And we will consider how Jesus’ counter-cultural vision and call to discipleship goes beyond expecting us to merely “believe correct things” or simply “be good people.” But rather invites us all to undergo divine transformation in all aspects of our lives—interior, personal, and societal. We hope to see you in-person or online as we seek to go deeper in discipleship and experience the liberating transformation of God in our lives.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

I remember being 10 years old and being babysat for a day by a woman from my church that was known for being a phenomenal baker. After a couple of hours of playing with her dog, she could tell I was beginning to get bored and asked if I wanted to bake something with her.

“Bread!” I said excitedly. I love bread. I aways have, and always will. “We can do that,” she replied. Apparently, bread only takes four ingredients: flour, yeast, water, and maybe salt. Who knew it was so simple? I didn’t until then!

So, we began to clear the counter tops, we got the bowls and ingredients, and I start to feel one part homie-old-fashioned, and one part food network. And I liked that feeling!

She instructed me to get out her cookbook. And I when turned to the bread section, I realized that the bread recipe was a lot longer than I thought. It’s just four ingredients, but it’s paragraphs of instructions! First you levin the yeast, then mix it all together, knead the dough, set it aside in a special towel covered bowl, and then you must wait for it to rise. Afterwards, you divide the dough and put more flour, and then wait some more for it to rise before you can do some actual baking.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed I asked, “How long will this all take?! My sitter responded, “About four hours.”  Feeling dismayed I said, “I was hoping we could eat something in about 20 minutes or less.”

“Honey, that’s not how bread works,” She replied. So, in the end, we made chocolate chip cookies instead. It wasn’t for another several years after that I would come to learn the deep and warm joy of committing to the process of baking fresh bread for myself and loved ones.

Worthwhile things often take time, and they take the right ingredients. Baking bread, growing a community, and revitalizing a church, all take time, and the right mixture of our patience and participation. Our personal Christian spiritual lives are also this way.

Join us this Sunday, as we conclude our series Depth of Grace. In past weeks we have considered three aspects to the Christian Spiritual life (see below), and this week we will conclude with “floating” in God’s grace—the need to sometimes rest or wait in God and trust the unfolding process of God in our lives. We also hope you will remain after worship for an update from our building committee on the unfolding process of our future building plan, which has been a holy work of patience, participation, and trusting in God.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz