The First Nations Version of the Bible is unique because it is a translation of the New Testament into English. And yet it is a translation done by representatives from the indigenous peoples of North America, for native peoples whose native languages have been all but replaced and forgotten. And so, the First Nations Version seeks to render the biblical text in the cultural logic and forms of meaning that resonate deeply with native peoples. The result, for both native and non-native readers—and I say this as a person who has tried to do my regular Bible reading out of this version for the last month—is illuminating, thought provoking, and moving. (The best way to become aware of your own cultural lenses is to look through someone else’s lens.)

Try reading a new translation this year:

LUKE 2   HUMBLE BIRTH

1-2When the time drew close for Bitter Tears (Mary) to have her child, the government of the People of Iron (Romans) ordered that the people be numbered and put on government rolls. This happened during the time that Powerful Protector (Quirinius) was the governor of Bright Sun (Syria). 3All the Tribal Members were required to travel to their own ancestral village to register. 
4-5He Gives Sons (Joseph) and Bitter Tears (Mary) set out on a long journey from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth) in Circle of Nations (Galilee), to House of Bread (Bethlehem) in the Land of Promise (Judea), the village of their ancestor, the great chief Much Loved One (David).
The journey took several long days and cold nights as they traveled over high hills and through the dry desert. When they arrived, tired and weary, they entered the crowded village. 
6The time for Bitter Tears (Mary) to have her child was upon her! 7But no place could be found in the lodging house, so He Gives Sons (Joseph) found a sheep cave where it was warm and dry. There she gave birth to her son. They wrapped him in a soft, warm blanket and laid him on a baby board. Then they placed him on a bed of straw in a feeding trough. 
8That night, in the fields nearby, shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep. 9Suddenly a great light from above was shining all around them. A spirit-messenger from Creator appeared to them. They shook with fear and trembled 10as the messenger said to them, “Do not fear! I bring you the good story that will be told to all nations. 11Today in the village of Much Loved One (David) an Honored Chief has been born who will set his people free. He is the Chosen One!” 
12The spirit-messenger continued, “This is how you will know him—you will find the child wrapped in a blanket and lying in a feeding trough.”
13Suddenly, next to the messenger, a great number of spirit-warriors from the spirit-world above appeared giving thanks to Creator, saying, 14“All honor to the One Above Us All, and let peace and good will follow all who walk upon the earth.” 
15When the messengers returned to the spirit-world above, the shepherds said to each other, “Let us go and see this great thing Creator has told to us.” 16So they hurried to the village of Chief Much Loved One (David) and found Bitter Tears (Mary), He Gives Sons (Joseph), and the child, who, just as they were told, was lying in a feeding trough! 
17The shepherds began to tell everyone what they had seen and heard about this child, 18and all who heard their story were amazed. 

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Into this world, this demented inn
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.

But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it,
His place is with the others for whom
there is no room.

His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power, because
they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied status of persons,
who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.

With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world.

Thomas Merton

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

The fullness of time has come. The long-awaited King of heaven is coming to earth. All of creation has been aching for this moment. The promised Messiah Israel has been waiting for is coming as a tiny babe named “Jehovah is salvation.” Gabriel arrives to announce this great mystery.
            The infinite will grow in a finite space.
            Power will be wrapped up in weakness.
            The eternal will step into time.
            The invisible will become visible.
            Heaven will collide with earth in Mary’s womb.
            There are lots of ways God could have chosen to come and dwell among us. But we learn a lot about who he is and what he is like by how he comes into the world. The Lord of heaven and earth doesn’t appear in fire and earthquakes and a booming voice that echoes throughout the world saying, “Here I am! Worship me!’ The King of kings doesn’t arrive with fanfare, trumpets, and a rolled-out red carpet. He is so set on drawing near to us that he constrains himself within the most vulnerable dwelling we have ever called home— the womb…
 
            God is so bent on loving us that he became helpless. He so desires to empathize with us that he refuses the comforts and expanse of heaven to experience the pain and limits of our humanity. He leans in. He bends low. He gets close…
            (But) when we follow Jesus, we forsake the upward ascent because love calls us downward. Love bends low. It leans in. It gets close. Love calls us to descend into our own vulnerability to love the most vulnerable.
            And when we descend into human weakness, suffering, and powerlessness to love others, we will be awed by the glory of God that is revealed there. We will be filled with wonder at the paradox of how humans so limited and vulnerable can be so filled with the divine. 

 Bette Dickinson, Making Room in Advent

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

There’s something appealing about the idea of losing ourselves in the cozy joy and tinsel that this season offers instead of dwelling on the death, injustice, and division that has pervaded our nation and world.

But I’m also poignantly aware that being on a steady drip of holiday cheer will only temporarily mute the pain and fear that has built up over the past months. So, while we can still plan to embrace the lights and the cookies and the gatherings and the presents, I want to encourage us to lean into the tension that is so beautifully laid out in the Christmas carol “O Holy Night”:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
 
Twenty twenty-three has felt like a vortex of sin and errors. But God promises the dawn of a world made new by His coming. During Advent, we get to remember that He did it once when Jesus was born and we are reminded that He will do it again. We may be wary, but we can still rejoice in the waiting.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Brother David Steindl-Rast — 97 year-old author, scholar, and Benedictine monk from Austria — is beloved the world over for his enduring message about gratefulness as the true source of lasting happiness. Known to many as the “grandfather of gratitude,” Br. David has been a source of inspiration and spiritual friendship to countless leaders and luminaries around the world including Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, and more. 
 
If you are familiar with this video, enjoy it again as you cultivate thanksgiving all weekend long. If he is new to you, be blessed by his gentle voice and eyes to see…
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSt7k_q_qRU&t=85s
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

"The church is not the building, it's the people."

 
Those words are a truth which, if pushed too far, lose their grip on the truth they affirm. A church is a people being formed in community, gathered and scattered and gathered again for worship.
 
A church building is a place where prayer and praise, baptism and communion, year after year, are offered. 
 
The building is not sacred; yet what is done there, like slow falling rain, soaks the nutrients of holiness into the soul. 
 
In this building, over a century, souls have prayed, and holiness has taken root in their lives. Thanks be to God for this church!
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Do you know some lovely human beings? I hope you do, because I just spent a few days with a handful of them, and they are restorative and inspiring.

I go back a few years with this group, and the thing about staying with folks for a decade or more is that you begin to see the facets of their loveliness, and how it deepens over time.

I have a friend who is a lovely human being whose thin layer of snark has melted over the years and now all you see is holy contentment and gratitude. Another friend, also a lovely human being, has persisted over the years despite some wrenching slings and arrows and has emerged not victorious, but even more kind and gracious. One such lovely is going through an unasked-for and undeserved hard time and it flattened me to see the care that surrounded her in the midst of all of it.

“Loveliness” is akin to “loveable” but they are not synonymous. It’s a noun of the adjective lovely, which might mean pleasing to the senses in some way; lovely human beings are pleasing to the senses. We like to see the way their eyes crinkle when you know they’re thinking of something hilarious but don’t want to say what it is. We like to hear the sound of their laugh; to feel their embrace. But their loveliness goes beyond the senses and into the heart and maybe even the gut. When you are with lovely people, you feel safe. You know they will respect your pain, and make light of your failures, and rejoice with you as the situation calls for.

So, I hope you have at least a few but better, many lovely human beings in your life, and more than that, I hope you get to be with them occasionally.

And if so, remember that one of the things that makes them lovely is your love.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Jesus said 2.0

Jesus said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Mercy. That mixture of compassion, generosity, welcome and inconvenience that makes one human being help another. For Christians, to love others as God loves us, for Jesus’ sake. Jesus told a story about that. It involved a Samaritan, “the one who showed mercy”—same word in both texts. So, go and do likewise!

Jesus said: “Not just seven times, but as many as seventy times seven.”

Yes, he’s talking about forgiveness, answering Peter’s question about how many times a person should be forgiven by us. If you’re still counting, then you’re not forgiving. The benchmark for comparisons isn’t a number, but the vast incalculable debt God has forgiven us. There’s no comparison between what any of us have to forgive, and what we have been forgiven. Just remember the Cross which makes forgiveness possible as gift and grace. Lord give us a forgiving disposition.

Jesus said: “Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3.20-21)

What we do when no one sees us is a good clue to who we really are. When someone is caught out doing something shameful or hurtful or dishonest these days, the ready-made excuse is an apology and statement, “That’s not who I am.” Well, unfortunately, yes it is. Truth is fundamental to good character. Transparency is like a window; light shines through it, and we can see through it. Everything we do is in the sight of God; live, said Jesus, in such a way that people can see through you, and see a life of love for God and neighbor!
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

For Christians, perhaps two of the most pay attention words we can hear are, "Jesus said..." And the distilled essence of Jesus' teaching begins with, "And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying..."

Jesus said:  “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25.31-46)

To see the presence of Jesus in the face of those who are vulnerable, powerless and in need of support, is a fundamental principle in following and serving Jesus. Full stop.

Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22.37-38)

We don’t need detailed rules. Just two barcodes of discipleship – Love God with everything we are and have and love our neighbor no less than we love ourselves. Simple. But not cheap. Costly love never is. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands…”

Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Luke 9.23-24)

Daily. Luke is the Evangelist who remembers that word. Discipleship is an everyday commitment. That’s good news for when we fail, make mistakes or want to start again. Life isn’t something we cling to, but something we give ourselves to—the best deal in town is to give ourselves in service to God and neighbor.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

The holding cross in the photo is made of olive wood and was given to me as a gift at a time when peace was hard to come by. 

 Holding it this morning and praying for the peace of Jerusalem and Gaza, I'm aware of the contested soil on which this wood was grown, and long ago, the soil on which stood that one cross amongst the countless thousands Rome manufactured and utilized as instruments of terror, oppression and control.

Over the years the cross has shaped itself to my hand, or perhaps my hand has simply become familiar with its shape, weight and texture. Either way the cruciform shape, gripped in praying hands, is an acknowledgement of the world's anguish and the pain of God in Christ. 

 "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1.19-20)

 May it be so!

 Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation