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Dear Friends,
Have you ever watched a sunset and you try to capture what you are feeling by taking out your cell phone and click? However, when you look back at it, the photo just doesn’t explain the fullness of what you were feeling?
My cell phone storage is filled with photos and videos of life at Holy Trinity. I have been trying to capture a feeling or a moment of time. There are sermons from home, children’s messages with my beloved Gus, and photos after photos of the times we are preparing to meet or are meeting in the world outside as well as inside the building. As I look at the photos, I have a longing to convey the fulness of God’s presence when we are in the midst of gathering together and the times when the building was empty because our work was to remain safe at home, work, or at school.
Let’s pause and listen to the sounds around you wherever you are at right in this very moment. What do you hear? Take notice of who is and who is not near you. Can you count your very heartbeats? Can you look at your surroundings and explain how in the world you find yourself in this very spot in this very moment both in the positive and in the challenging?
God with us. That is what we are promised. God for us is a message of hope. Our God dwelling with us in our joys and sorrows. Sometimes my heart is so full that I simply can’t put into words what it means to trust in God to encounter me and you as a creator, savior, and spirit stirring our hearts. Our God is at once simple, yet complicated. It is both amazing and perplexing.
God told us in the very beginning that there is knowledge about the fullness of God we will simply be unable to understand. Yet, in the Gospel of John 3:1-17, it says it all, for God (the fulness of God as creator, savior and spirit) so loved the world – that God saves the world through God’s gift of grace.
This Sunday is known as “Holy Trinity Sunday.” It is our namesake Sunday if you will! But Holy Trinity and the ministries within the church are not a noun. The work of the church, the passion of the ministries, the compassion and care for one another, the outpouring of ministries to walk for awareness of mental well-being, to donate the gift of life saving blood, to tie quilts, to share food and supplies, to prepare for VBS and Day Camp, to bring together yet another youth mission team all the while continuing to gather for weekly worship, the church, our beloved Holy Trinity is alive. And I’m putting it out there – that to be alive dear Holy Trinity siblings means – Holy Trinity isn’t merely a building it is - a verb – the church, you and I, our compassion for one another comes alive.
This Sunday, as you remember those who you have loved, may we intentionally gather together in worship to give our amazing, awesome, and inspiring God – our praise. Praise be our Triune God, Creator/Savior/Holy Spirit. Praise be our beloved community known as Holy Trinity. May we Come and Be Alive now and always.
See you on Sunday in-person (there is always a spot!), FB Live, or watch a recorded service later (we hope to post by noon following in-person worship).
Pastor Katie