Listen. Observe. Notice. Be Alert. These are the doorways to ministry.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Anita
Did I offer peace today?
Did I bring
a smile to someone's face?
Did I say words of healing?
Did I love?
These are
the real questions.
Henri Nouwen
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Ephesians 3:19 “And to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
To know what surpasses knowledge, to understand the incomprehensible —that can only happen if God expands the horizons of our hearts and draws us ever more deeply into the mystery. We’ll never understand until we are in heaven. Till then we wonder at and worship the one with amazing Love!
Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”
I don’t know about you, but I can ask a lot of questions, and I have quite a lively imagination. But they are not enough to outdo the One who is able to do immeasurably more than anything I can think of. We aren’t asked to be followers of Jesus in our own strength. Yes, at times it’s hard going, and we pray for strength, faith, help with hard decisions, and help for those we love—Remember, “He can do immeasurably more, and his power is at work within us.” We’re not on our own. We are in Christ, and He is in us, and as our Risen Lord it is his power that’s at work within us, renewing and reviving.
Ephesians 3:21 “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.”
This whole passage is like an illuminated manuscript that places the love of God in Christ against a shining gold foil background. And that dazzling gold highlights who God is towards us: Love. Love beyond our grasp but within our reach. Love that baffles the mind, but which the heart recognizes. Love deeper than any needs we could ever have. Love beyond our imagination, but nearer than our own hearts.
So, we make Paul’s prayer our own: May Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, and may we be rooted and established in love, filled to the measure of the fullness of God.
(Part 3)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Ephesians 3:17 “So that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.”
By faith in Christ we are made one with the Savior, drawn into the very life of God. Christ dwells in our hearts, the risen life of Christ is within us and strengthens us in our inner being. But more than that, Christ is in us and we are in Him, so that “our lives are hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3.3) Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Ephesians 3:17-18 “And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
Rooted is about being a tree with strong anchorage and full nourishment from deep roots. Established is about foundations, straight, true, sound, solid, and our foundation is the love of Christ. You can’t ever fully grasp the depth dimensions of God’s love in Christ; as well stand beneath Niagara with a bucket, or a thimble! Just stand under the deluge!
(Part 2)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Ephesians 3:7 &14, 15 “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power…For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”
“For this reason I kneel…” What reason? Paul’s answer is the reason we all kneel before the Father – “the gift of God’s grace given us through the working of God’s power.” It’s a hard time to be a Christian in a world so broken. Yet by prayer and God’s grace we can have the same wide, generous, open-armed compassion for the world that brought Paul to his knees in prayer for the whole family of God, that is, every soul made in God’s image. By intercession we make ourselves conduits, sluices, through which God’s grace flows.
Ephesians 3:I6 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being…”
When the problems of the world, and the worries of our own lives, and the anxiety felt by whole communities of our country – when these and much more drain us of energy, joy and hope, think of what Paul prayed for, and hear him praying it for you. Then make it your own prayer, now, here: “Lord strengthen me with power through your Spirit in my inner being…”
(Part 1)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
I too have wept.
I too have lost.
I too have heard the sentence of injustice
pronounced over my head.
I too have known hunger,
and lack,
and prison.
I too have fled the cruel,
have seen friends flee,
have heard the rumors,
have been mocked.
I too have been handed over to torturers,
have seen my own
martyred lke sheep,
have felt the ship sinking under my feet.
I too have been kept from my beloved,
have seen my lover in the arms of my enemy—and enjoying it.
I too have seen the grave.
I too have lost
everything.
All this is true. I swear it by my own name.
And I am here to say two things:
It will all be made right,
and you were never alone.
Lord, you have known, through the sufferings of Christ and your people, every kind of mourning. Please grant comfort to all those who need it, for you are the God of all consolation. Thank you—thank you, thank you. Amen. (Paul J. Pastor, The Listening Day)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Seek the Lord while he may be found,
Call upon him while he is near;
Let the wicked forsake their way,
And the unrighteous their thoughts;
Let them return to the Lord, that he may have
mercy on them,
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isaiah 55:6-7
These verses are a familiar call to worship or a call to repentance, not a bad accent for Lent, which begins next week with Ash Wednesday. The passage focuses on four verbs, “seek, call, forsake, return,” good Lenten verbs. Lent is the time in the church calendar when we consider again the ways we have compromised or failed to “live a life worthy of our calling.” And when we are drawn again into the goodness and mercy of God.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Psalm 23:6
As Walter Brueggemann says, “Lent is a time to quit running, to let ourselves be caught and embraced in love, like a sheep with a safe pasture, like a traveler offered rich and unexpected food.”
Join us on Wednesday evening for a light supper of soup and bread and for fellowship and the imposition of ashes.
As we begin our churchwide prayer vigil this weekend, it seems right to acknowledge a prayer we can all pray (or sing) as we enter into a time of listening and responding to the Spirit. "Be Thou My Vision" is a hymn based on an Irish poem dating back to the eighth century, "Rob tu mo bhoile, a Comdi cride." Translated by Mary E. Byrne and versified by Eleanor Hull, the words are typically paired with the traditional Irish melody "Slane," named for the hill on which St. Patrick is said to have lit the Easter Eve fire to challenge the pagan King Loigaire. What an inspiring context for such a beloved hymn of the church!
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true word,
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, thy child shall I be,
Thou in me dwelling, and I one with Thee.
Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always;
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all. Amen
As with many hymns, the words are a prayer. May we all pray this for ourselves and for our community at Pasadena Covenant.
A Cup of Cold Water
We forget how thirsty we all are
for hope and gratitude.
Don't pass up an opportunity today
to offer a cup to one of the little ones
(who of course are angels in disguise);
to encourage, to appreciate, to give thanks
to the one checking your groceries,
or delivering your mail,
or doing their best to be a decent person.
Notice how offering a cup of grace
quenches your own longing, too.
God is thirsty for our love for each other
and every little cup is a delight
that satisfies us all.
Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple—truly, I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.
Jesus (Matthew 10:42)
Pondering this with gratitude,
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
As I was thinking about what to write this week, my eyes fell on this image of a wood carving designed to picture the Trinity. A story has been told that Augustine of Hippo was walking on the beach contemplating the mystery of the Trinity. Then he saw a boy in front of him who had dug a hole in the sand and was going out to the sea again and again and bringing some water to pour into the hole.
Augustine asked him, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to pour the entire ocean into this hole.”
“That is impossible, the whole ocean will not fit in the hole you have made” said Augustine.
The boy replied, “And you cannot fit the Trinity in your tiny little brain.”
I accept that my tiny brain, ever so much tinier than St. Augustine’s, cannot possibly absorb or explain the Trinity – I will not try to put the entire ocean in that small hole. The many analogies used to help human understanding of the Trinity are dangerously limited in scope:
vapor, water, ice
shell, yolk, albumin
height, width, depth
apple peel, flesh, core
past, present, future.
It is sufficient for me to know, as expressed by the 19th century Anglican pastor J.C. Ryle:
It was the whole Trinity, which at the beginning of creation said, “Let us make man”. It was the whole Trinity again, which at the beginning of the Gospel seemed to say, “Let us save man”.
All one, equal, harmonious, unchangeable, bound together with faith, with hope, with charity, to save us from ourselves.
I run, rise, rest in Thee, all Three.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation