Peace and Blessings to you, Beloved Church.

Beloved Church, Have you felt the energy in the air at Messiah these days? The Resurrection of Christ is springing up all around us and I am so thankful for the new life God brings to the world! I am especially thankful for our shared celebration of Earth Day this year that we marked as a congregation on the Second Sunday of Easter. Between worship, coffee hour, and the Sunday School projects afterwards, it was a wonderfully cohesive and inspiring day that I will be reflecting on for some time to come.

One of the things we talked about in worship was drawing our attention to God’s good creation, and how we together are called to take care of this gift we have been given. In my study and preparation for the day, I was deeply inspired by the theological work of my (long ago) predecessor at Messiah, Pastor Joseph Sittler, and his reminder that we all are part of the created world that God is working to heal from human destruction. But his work was not the only profound inspiration for the day. Indeed, Messiah member Drinda Kiner shared important words of her own calling us to pay attention to what the created world needs. You can find her poem, “Fragility of Nature”, later in this newsletter. I encourage you to reflect on its words as we together work to repair this hurting planet.

c/o PASTOR PAUL