Tag: Pastor Chris

Into the Mess

I have spent much of the summer reading a book entitled “Into the Mess & Other Jesus Stories.”

The introduction to the book begins like this: “I don’t like messes, in life or in faith. I doubt I’m alone; no one chooses Christianity because they crave unruliness or disruption. In fact, many of us embrace religious faith for the opposite reason; we assume – and our churches encourage us to believe – that our spiritual commitments will keep life neat and orderly. At the same time, many of us twenty-first century believers are tired of religious language and imagery that skirt the messiness of our lived lives. We’re weary of platitudes, easy answers, and quick “fixes” that fix nothing. We might want tidiness, but we also want a faith with hard edges – a robust and relevant faith that integrates the hard stuff of our days and still makes possible transcendence and joy.” And that was enough to capture my wondering. Few of us enter into a new day wondering what mess we can find ourselves in by the end of the day. More often than not, the messes come to us not the other way around. Which led me to the road I have walked more than once – mess or method, interruption or invitation.

In his book “Life Together,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks. . . It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s ‘crooked yet straight path.’”

I know some of you are probably tired of stories from the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering, but I am afraid there will be a few more along the way this fall. For all of the organizing, coordinating, planning, preparing, contracting, praying, celebrating – I am ALWAYS glad when it comes to an end. It is a mountaintop moment that cannot last and I am convinced I do not want it to last beyond the five days of the event. It is glorious in almost every way, and yet, returning to life in Wisconsin, prepping for the fall at Ascension, dreaming about what is next for this community of faith I deeply love – those moments are just as important, and I miss this place when I am away too long. Prepping for the fall; dreaming about ministry; celebrating 75 years of ministry; collaborating on our 2035 Strategic Plan can all be moments of messiness and at the same time little mountaintop moments to lift our eyes to the hills and to the glory of God as the psalmist says.

One might believe that the work of the Youth Gathering can be exhausting. Of course. And also, the work inspires me to return to my call at Ascension to live, to lead, to discern, and to dream alongside you. Fall programming is always exciting. What will work for us? What will fail? What are we hungry for? What will spark interest for people outside our doors? How will new members enter into our patterns of life and ministry? Who believes they are ready to grow in their faith in a new way? Yes, it gets messy AND even the mess can be a mountaintop moment when we trust that our God leads us into the mess and up to the mountaintop and promises to stay with us all along the way.

So my friends, welcome to the mess that is life and ministry and new chapters of new school years, new chapters of empty nesting, new chapters of ministry for our community of Ascension and for each of us to the glory of God. Holy God, bring on the mess, it is where we are able to see your hand leading us most clearly into the future you have planned for each of us.

See you in church…

Pastor Chris

Pastor Chris: 1984

What do you remember most about 1984?

Ronald Reagan was president.
George Bush was vice-president.
The cost of a new home was $97,600
A first-class stamp would run you about $0.20.
Gas for your car would cost you $1.20.
A dozen eggs would set you back $1.01.
A gallon of milk would cost you $2.26.
Ascension was celebrating its 35th anniversary in 1984.

The community of Ascension was worshipping in our former sanctuary, what we now call East Hall (where our Spanish language members worship at 10:45.) A gifted young woman entered the doors of Ascension and began sharing her talents at the organ bench as a substitute organist and accompanying the choir on occasion.

In 2024, we are celebrating 40 years of ministry for that same woman. What a joy it is to call Vicki Taylor, Director of Music Ministries, our colleague and friend, as she continues to glorify God through her gifts of music and choral and handbell direction. Over the years, Vicki has worn many hats here at Ascension and continues to have something magical up her sleeve to offer to the worship life of our congregation. She brings energy, joy, passion, dedication, and a deeply faithful heart to the ministry she provides to and through this community of faith.

It is pure joy to continue to partner with Vicki in ministry to the glory of God as we imagine the ways in which our worship inspires, comforts, challenges, and brings praise to our God. Please take a moment to speak a word of thanks to Vicki for the many years of ministry and celebrate her for her continued commitment to “make a joyful noise to the Lord.” We are grateful for all that the Lord has done with and through her gifts and we are excited for what is to come in the years ahead.

We will celebrate Vicki at our 8:30 a.m. worship service on Sunday, June 2, and honor her continued ministry with a reception between services.

Thanks be to God!

Pastor Chris

Music Ministry organ project Pastor Chris Vicki Taylor Anniversary

Easter Reflections

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We are just a little past the midway point in our Easter celebrations. It has been a glorious season. From lilies and trumpets and music to lead us in praise of our God to baptisms, baptisms, baptisms. A ministry fair and pupusas to purchase and a final trip to New Orleans before the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering this summer. There is a lot going on and I, for one, am wondering when I can step down from the merry-go-round for a moment.

The school year is quickly coming to an end, which means a graduation to prepare for in our house. Fourteen years ago, when I arrived at Ascension, my oldest child was four years old and now he looks to a new chapter at University of Wisconsin at Madison. This is my moment to say thank you to all of you for helping to shape my son; for providing a place of welcome and hospitality and for allowing him to become his own person in your midst. Sometimes the children of the pastors must deal with a good deal of judgment and pillar balancing. I am grateful that you have allowed my oldest to be himself and know this faith community as a place of welcome and love for most of his life. All that being said, this pastor/dad is learning to balance all the pieces that come with preparing for the first of his children to make his way in the world. I confess, I am not sure how I feel about it. There are a lot of unknowns and several of you have already offered advice and honestly, thank you. Some of it makes me laugh and some of the advice is pure gold and somehow, it will all work itself out.

That is exactly how I am feeling about this summer and preparing to welcome 15,000 high school students – all of them for the very first time – to New Orleans and the Youth Gathering. In some ways, I have it easy this time around. It is my job to entertain and teach faith formation for about 3 and ½ hours each night of the event and make sure closing worship goes off without a hitch and everybody gets communion. Pastor Tony has to keep everyone safe. I think I will stick with my job, thank you very much! As I fly home from New Orleans, I am reflecting on all the work that has been done and the work still to do. Work, I can do because of your support and willingness to allow me to serve the national church in this way. It is no small task, and I am only able to balance the youth gathering and the ministry of Ascension with the partnership of Pastor Tony and Pastor Edwin and the amazing people who I work alongside each day. Amy, Ben, Sarah, Tamie, and Vicki tend to so many moments of ministry alongside the pastors – please thank them when you see them. Ascension runs as smoothly and provides so much to so many because of their dedication.

And then there is this incredible community of people. All of you who show up, step up, and stand up when there is a call to serve in some way to share in the ministry of this community of faith allowing all of us to grow and flourish. It is because of your commitment and faithfulness to the story of God’s love and your willingness to give of yourselves in leadership and love and in sweat and tears and laughter all along the way walking your individual journeys of faith as well, that Ascension becomes more and more of who God is inviting and leading and pushing us to be. Who we are, as the community of Ascension, a place of welcome and multi-cultural ministry, is because of who you are as God blesses you and invites you to share in the story and ministry of this community of faith.

In the season of Easter, as much I want to celebrate the resurrection and give praise to God alone, I am also filled with deep gratitude for the ways in which God inspires you to serve; to care for the other; to walk alongside each other and serve the world around us all to the glory of God. I am humbled to serve as one of your pastors and grateful for the ministry we share.

See you in church.

Pastor Chris

Easter Pastor Chris

Christ Is Risen!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

I never get tired of hearing those words. They offer praise. Bring peace. Extend comfort. Reassure troubled hearts. And even raise the dead. Okay, maybe not in the literal sense, but for many of us who know someone who is in a season of their life that is painful, difficult, hopeless – these words of resurrection joy can lift someone from their suffering, if only for a momentary glimpse of the Kingdom of God and the joy to be found there.

I have often wondered why our funeral liturgy does not include this resurrection announcement. I imagine the mood would change for those who gather to remember a loved one, if the first words they heard and said included: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

I am all for:

John 14 – Let not your hearts be troubled;
Psalm 23 – The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want;
Matthew 11 – Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens;
John 11 – I am the resurrection and the life.
Romans 8 – What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?
Job 19 – I know that my redeemer lives.
Psalm 118 – Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them;

And yet, none of those words fill me with the power of belief like, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Who among us has not known the sting of death or felt the bitter wind at graveside? Even in the warmth of the summer sun, to stand at the edge of the grave of someone we love, there is a known sense of loneliness, regardless of the gathered crowd around you. So again, I ask, why do we not include the resurrection announcement at the beginning and end of every funeral we attend? For that matter, why is the story of resurrected Savior and empty tomb not reminded to us again and again at the entrance to the sanctuary and the gate of the cemetery? It is as if the celebration of Easter is not enough for us. AND YET THIS EASTER NEWS IS ENOUGH! It is all we need. If we had no other words of Scripture but this story of resurrection of the Son of God, it is enough.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

I invite you to carry the story and these words of resurrection joy and promise with you into each new day – long past these 50 days of Easter celebration. Carry this resurrection joy deep within you, write it on your heart, and speak it in greeting to remind yourself and others of the good news of our God. “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

May the joy of Easter carry you into each new day.

Pastor Chris

Easter Jesus Pastor Chris resurrection

Welcome to the Season of Lent

It feels as if we are constantly playing catch-up with the season of Lent. The calendar did not help this year. In only seven weeks we went from the celebrations of Christmas to reminder of our mortality on Ash Wednesday. Some years we have as many as 10 weeks to make the transition. As I have entered into conversations with members of the church, I am struck by the fact that I am not the only one who feels rushed this year into the season of Lent.

On the first Sunday in Lent, I invited people at worship to write down the name of someone in their life who is in need of prayer…for whatever reason. My accepted “extra” in Lent has been to pray over these names each week. It is a daunting pile on my desk. Prayer cards stacked some two and three inches high with the first names of people who are loved, considered, remembered by many of you in your own daily prayers. It is humbling to be entrusted with those names. There are names that give me pause because I know the story behind the name. On some cards, people feel the need to offer explanation, which can be helpful but not necessary. And there are always a few cards with not just one name but three and four names. Just so you know – I stop and pray for each name – not just the first one at the top. What grounds me in the season of Lent, as we wander in the wilderness for a time, is the opportunity to settle into my prayers. Each prayer card offers me a little extra moment of time to speak the name and ask God to tend this loved one in some way. There is a meme running around the internet that says:

It is a solid reminder for my own prayer life. Of course, right after I saw that reminder meme, I saw this one:

And that brought me right back to why sometimes my life is messier than it should be. It is no surprise. My faith life ebbs and flows like everything else that clamors for time in my life. Depending on which guilt lever gets pulled can often determine the next task to tackle. Reading with my youngest child – yes, important. Checking in on my dad, my sister – yes, important. Date night with my wife – yes, SO IMPORTANT (if she is reading this)! Reconnecting with an old friend – yes, important. Visiting someone who is sick or feeling lonely – yes, important. Getting this newsletter article done – yes, important. All the things that beg for attention are almost always important enough to be listed. It amuses me that right after I typed the list above I realized that I left off “tending my relationship with God.” How did I miss that in the season of Lent? It happens.

The gift of this season of Lent is that we have the opportunity for just a little extra opportunity to tend our relationship with our God. Sunday worship, The Chosen Video series, midweek soup supper and worship, and Holy Week events to name a few “extra” opportunities. The Soup Suppers are always a gift to be in relationship with other members of the body of Christ in simple ways around a simple meal and a new recipe. You still have three more opportunities to join us on Wednesday nights. Before we know it, Holy Week will be upon us.

See you in church,

Pastor Chris

Easter Lent 2024 Pastor Chris

What the Holy One Can Do With Dust

“All those days you felt like dirt, as if all you had to do was turn your face toward the wind and be scattered to the four corners or swept away by the smallest breath as insubstantial –did you not know what the Holy One can do with dust?” (Jan Richardson, Blessing the Dust)

Already we find ourselves on our way to the story of Lent. Jesus climbs a mountain and shines like the sun enjoying the presence of friends and the strength of spirit that comes with hearing the voice of God share God’s desire, “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him.” Only to be driven into the wilderness days later to face the temptations of the devil. What we know so well is that the mountaintop moments in our lives do not last nearly as long as the wilderness wanderings. Why is that exactly?

Are the mountaintop moments so focused, so blindingly glorious that we cannot bear them for too long a time? Consider some of the mountaintop celebrations in this life: a wedding, the birth of a child, the miracle of healing, a long night of conversation with old friends, a seven-course dinner that excites all your senses to name a few mountaintop moments. Yes, we want them to go on forever and if our hearts could be any fuller, they might explode from the overwhelming feelings of joy. But in the wilderness, we can wander amidst one distraction after another: a career change, a relationship ending, the death of someone we love, a question of which path to choose, the diagnosis, the untold story, and even the secrets we keep which we believe make us unworthy of love or peace or joy or God’s forgiveness. Yes, the wilderness offers us many distractions which can keep our eyes, our hearts, our minds, and our ears distracted from all that God wants for us. Welcome to the story of Lent. All those days you felt like dirt…but do you not know what the Holy One can do with dust?

As much as the journey of Lent leads us into the wilderness, God promises to be present for every mountaintop and valley, twist and turn, of this wilderness journey. While Jesus enters the wilderness alone, God promises that we are never alone. While Jesus suffers the temptations of the devil, God stands as a shield against all that would harm us. Even in our struggles, when we believe God has abandoned us or does not listen to our prayers, God is more present than we can imagine. The journey of Lent is our reminder that we do not wander alone in this wilderness. God is present with us – always, everywhere – that is God’s promise to us. Lent may call us to turn our hearts back to God, but God has never turned God’s face from us. And that my friends should bring us joy, no matter how deep the valley we travel in the wilderness moments of our lives.

“Let us be marked not for sorrow. And let us be marked not for shame. Let us be marked not for false humility or for thinking we are less than we are, but for claiming what God can do within the dust, within the dirt, within the stuff of which the world is made and stars that blaze in our bones and the galaxies that spiral inside their smudge we bear.” I am grateful to the author of these words. Jan helps me remember that God offers us so much more than the world, or we, can possibly imagine.

You are invited – join us on the journey of Lent. Start with Ash Wednesday on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 12 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Receive the smudge of ash on your forehead and be reminded what the Holy One can do with dust. To the great glory of God.

Peace be with you.

Pastor Chris

Ashes Lent Pastor Chris

Merry Christmas!

“Still in these first days of this new year we hear the words, Merry Christmas as the church celebrates the season of Christmas through January 6^th when the feast of Epiphany arrives, and the Magi arrive at the manger. It is an awfully full schedule–from the travel arrangements to Bethlehem to lost hotel reservations and a stay in a manger to a birthing room without medical insurance or assistance to early visitors smelling of sheep. Finally, just as we expect Mary and Joseph to take some time to rest from their journey—the Magi knock on the door. “More visitors,” shouts Joseph. Mary pulls herself together one more time and pastes on a plastic smile to greet the visitors from the East. The Magi come bearing gifts, but more importantly, they arrive with stories of a star in the sky that appears around the time of the birth of Mary’s son. A star that shines brighter than the rest and calls the Magi to follow. It is the same star that calls us to follow. Once again, we have followed the star to the manger. Once again, we pray for the hope of God to overwhelm us. Epiphany is the season of light. And after 2016, I am in desperate need for the light of God’s promise to continue to call us and the rest of the world—first, to the manger and then to go into the world to tell the story of God’s love and promise.

I find it amusing that the words above were written to you in the first days of 2017. It is amusing that I would easily write these same words to you in these first days of 2024. Apparently, I am still in desperate need for the light of God’s promise to overwhelm us. Some things change. Some things never change. Maybe what is needed to change is me. In that spirit, I offer you this prayer for the new year. No resolutions to promise and break. No, this year, a prayer to “make something new in me, in this year, for God.”

From Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder …

Patient God, the clock struck midnight and I partied with a strange sadness in my heart, confusion in my mind.

Now, I ask you to gather me, for I realize the storms of time have scattered me, the furies of the year past have driven me, many sorrows have scarred me, many accomplishments have disappointed me, much activity has wearied me, and fear has spooked me into a hundred hiding places, once is which is pretended joy.

I am sick of a string of “have-a-nice-days.” What I ant is passionate days, wondrous days, dangerous days, surprising days. What I want is you!

Patient God, the day teeters on the edge of waiting and things seem to slip away from me, as though everything were only memory and memory is capricious. Help me not to let my life slip away from me. O God, I hold up my life to you now, as much as I can, as high as I can, in this mysterious reach called prayer. Come close, lest I wobble and fall short. It is not days or years I seek from you, not infinity and enormity, but small things and moments and awareness, awareness that you are in what I am and in what I have been indifferent to. It is not new time, but new eyes, new heart I seek, and you.

Patient God, in this teetering time, this time in the balance, this time of waiting, make me aware of moments, moments of song, moments of bread and friends, moments of jokes ( some of them on me) which, for a moment, deflate my arrogance; moments of sleep and warm beds, moments of children laughing and parents bending, moments of sunsets and sparrows outspunking winter, moments when splinters shine and rocks shrink, moments when I know myself blessed, not because I am so awfully important, but because you are so awesomely God, no less of the year to come as of all the years past; no less of this moment than of all my moments; no less of those who forget you as of those who remember, as I do now, in this teetering time.

O Patient God, make something new in me, in this year, for you. Amen.

Perhaps this can be your prayer, as well, in this new year. Happy New Year People of God. Be Well!

Pastor Chris

New Year Pastor Chris

Ready for Advent

I am ready for Advent. For blue fabrics that wash over the altar and candles that are lit each week reminding us of the journey we will travel to the manger – walking with the companions of hope, peace, joy, and love. I am ready for Advent. I am ready for “Deck the Halls of Ascension” and the CRASH Progressive Dinner. I am ready for our Advent concert worship and Sunday brunch and the Children’s Christmas program and treasured carols and celebrating Las Posadas and being in the sanctuary on Christmas Eve all together hearing the Christmas story. I am ready for Advent.

Personally, it has been quite a journey these last three months. I am glad to be back in the routine of worship on Sundays and the “stuff” of ministry during the week. I want to offer my deep appreciation to you for the time and space for surgery and healing.

I am hopeful that the season of Advent will offer me the opportunity to rebalance my spiritual life. If the season of Advent offers us anything, it offers us the chance to begin again. I need that chance more this year than ever before. I wonder if you are feeling that way too.

Advent is the season of expectation. Advent is also about tending our hunger for all that God promises to make new in the birth of a Savior. If ever we have hungered for God to do a new thing it may be this year, this December, this Advent. I am hungry for God to usher in peace into our world: for an end to hostilities in Ukraine; for a ceasefire in Gaza; for tolerance between sides; for acceptance of those who are different; for joy in the midst of sorrow.

I sat with members of the church a couple of weeks ago in the ICU as we prayed around the bedside of someone we loved. It does not matter how many times I sit at the bedside of someone I know in the ICU, it never gets easier. At Waukesha Memorial, the ICU only has so many rooms. When I walk into the ICU, the memories of other bedside visits gather with me like a cloud of witnesses. Every name, every face is reminded to me – moments of laughter and tears. The ICU has become a sanctuary of holy ground. The sounds of heartbeats and heart monitors intermingle in the waiting space of the ICU. Every family walks their own journey through their days in the ICU. As always, being invited into such sacred space is more privilege than anything else.

Following in the footsteps of Mary and Joseph in these Advent days is also a privilege. One we often take lightly. A journey I wish to feel deeper this year as I reflect on the hardship of the census Mary and Joseph had to endure so close to Mary’s date of delivery. What Mary must have thought to herself about the adventure and journey God placed upon her heart and soul when the angel Gabriel visited Mary to share the news of what was about to take place.

It is my hope that these Advent days will offer you moments of reflection at the dinner table, over coffee, while washing dishes or wrapping gifts. Moments of reflection that would give you pause to remember and give thanks while also inviting you to reflect and reach out. Who do you know who would welcome a phone call, a text message, fresh baked cookies to bring a smile to their face? Especially those who are preparing to walk through their first Christmas without someone they love.

I am reminded that every one of us is on a journey in these Advent days. For some of us the journey is a choice – for others, the journey has been pressed upon us. Regardless of how we find ourselves setting out on the journey, I hope you remember that you are not alone. Thanks be to God!

May the blessings of your Advent journeys always lead you home this Christmas.

O come let us adore him! Christ the Lord. Peace and joy be yours.

Pastor Chris

Advent 2023 Christmas 2023 Pastor Chris

Rejoice Always

I will never tire of hearing the phrase “welcome back.”

On October 15^th, I think I heard that more than anything else. As I was reflecting that Sunday afternoon, I realized that I am usually the one who is saying that to one member or another who is home after vacation or an extended time away in Florida or Arizona or some other warm and toasty location without the presence of a snow shovel. The “welcome back” offered by so many of you was a tender and cherished gift to my soul. As one of your pastors, I forgot that the fabric of this community of faith is woven into my life. Don’t get me wrong, the first few weeks after surgery were all about survival. My wife asking me, begging me, to eat just a couple more bites after I had eaten two bites of the meal before me and declared I was full. Or the all-important decision to determine whether I would get out of the recliner. Do I really want to use that much strength just to get up for a drink of water? I am grateful to be at the 8-week mark of recovery as I have reclaimed strength and ownership of my body that in some ways you give away to surgical team and pain management team and allergy team and diabetes team wondering when you will be allowed to go home from the hospital.

If you are interested: Yes, I have lost weight – about 30 lbs. They say it will take about a year to begin to regain some of that weight. For the record, at week 8, I am a full diabetic on small amounts of insulin four times a day. The islet cells have until November 15^th to engraft fully into their new home in my liver. It is not expected that I will be insulin independent, but any blood sugar regulation from my remaining islet cells will be a welcome addition to the rest of my life. I have had to remind myself often that the success of the surgery was the eviction of the pancreas, and no more ER visits and hospital stays for pancreatitis. No more pancreatitis pain. Thanks be to God! The trade-off of being a diabetic was always a possible outcome. So far, the journey of diabetes has been manageable and with several members, colleagues, and friends managing their own diabetic journey – I have learned a lot and found support and strength in the living resources all around me.

As it is the middle of October, your pastors are neck deep in faith interviews with our confirmands. I am always impressed, not with the learning from Thursday nights in JOLT, but with the reflections and questions of our 9^th grade students as they begin to understand their relationship with God as their own and not through the lens and reflection of the faith of their parents. There are deep questions around one’s purpose and how one might live out their faith. So often, I am surprised at the thoughtful reflection as to the simplicity of living out our faith. It is always a surprise to me, as adults, that we often make living out our faith far more complicated than it needs to be or actually is in this life. It is the simplicity of using our hands and voices to tend someone who is suffering that brings our faith to life while deepening our relationship with God.

In my sermon on the 15^th, I shared the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” From the time it was established, the church at Philippi was healthy, strong, and generous, becoming a model church. It is no wonder that I am drawn to these words of Paul’s letter. The church I currently serve as pastor is also healthy, strong, and generous. What a gift for the people of Ascension to know their purpose so clearly as we gather to worship, share in the care of others, and provide for sisters and brothers we have not or may never meet far beyond our walls. This is who God calls to be and what God calls us to be about – sharing the love of God through worship and our actions as we grow closer together in community while reaching out beyond the walls of Ascension. The story of who we are, as people of faith, continues to be told as we welcome new friends to our worship life.

The month of November brings the gift of All Saints Day on Sunday, Nov. 5. We will gather at each of our worship services to remember the names of those who have died in this community of believers throughout the past year. We will speak names, light candles, remember, and give thanks for the faithful witness and love shared with us through these saints we will one day meet at the gates of heaven. All Saints Day is one of the most sacred days of worship for me. On almost every All Saints Day, I share with you the belief of the Celtic Christian Community that shares the news that the veil between heaven and earth is somehow thinner on this day of remembrance. Whether or not, you choose to share that belief, I am struck by the emotion of the day as memories come flooding back to me of so many, I have said goodbye to in this life. Yet more important than the memories, I think, is the revelation of God’s promise of reunion. I hold on to that promise with all my strength. It is, after all, God’s promise of resurrection joy that grounds us in this life as we look to the life to come.

Before we know it, an annual meeting on Nov. 12^th at 9:45 a.m. will see us preparing for our next year of ministry and mission to the glory of God. Finally, the end of November will bring us to welcome news of the beginning of Advent. Wednesday night, Nov. 29, at 6:30 p.m., will offer us the invitation to worship with quiet candlelight as we welcome the season of Advent. We will be surrounded in song, tended in prayer, and blessed by the light of candles as we enter into the season of darkness that prepares us for the coming of a Savior who saves us all.

What a blessing you are to me and to so many. It is so good to be with you once again.

Pastor Chris

Advent 2023 All Saints confirmation Pastor Chris