3rd Sunday after Pentecost--Proper 6B

3^rd Sunday after Pentecost--Proper 6B

June 17, 2012

        I encountered a piece of a poem from one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, this week, and I think it’s a nice compliment to this week’s gospel.  “Around me trees stir in their leaves and call out, ‘Stay awhile.’  The light flows from their branches.  And they call out again, ‘It’s simple,’ they say, ‘and you, too, have come into the world to do this, to be filled with light, and to shine.’” 

        Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how…But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come…It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 

        The Biblical scholar Bill Countryman writes of this passage:  “Jesus told a story about a farmer.  The man planted his fields and left them to time and the rains, while he went about his daily routine, day after day.  The crop sprouted and grew on its own, shooting up, flowering, setting seed.  Then the farmer started the harvest.  Living a life of faith, hope, and love is like that.  We make our contribution to it, but the ultimate power is that of God, which gives the growth.  This power works in and on us, not because we are doing anything great or wonderful or decisive—we are merely tending to our daily lives—but because it is the power of God’s love.  Yet we get to harvest the fruits.”[i]

        I almost have to stop and catch my breath at the good news of the gospel this week.  It is the gift of the knowledge from Jesus himself of the joyful inevitability of the kingdom of God!  Who ever heard of any kind of garden like he talks about?  Even I, who am horticulturally challenged and who kill just about everything I try to grow, know that there is more to it than that—weeding, watering, other stuff…But the farmer in Jesus’s parable does not have to do any work other than scattering the seed and then bringing in the harvest!  It’s ridiculous and it’s amazing and it is so very freeing to us when we can realize that the Kingdom of God will reach its natural fulfillment, and nothing that we can do or not do will get in its way!

        I’m struck by the connection in the face of these parables with the first step in AA:  “We admitted we were powerless over our addiction that our lives had become unmanageable.”  This admitting that we are powerless is also very important in the spiritual life, and it is one of the deepest gifts we are given in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ—because only in recognizing and understanding this powerlessness and its importance in our relationship to God, only in that way can we truly be free!

        Life is already so hard!  Why do we actively work to make it even harder?  We spend so much of our time and our energy allowing ourselves to be upset, anxious, angry, and stressed about things over which we are powerless and that just don’t really matter in the face of the happy inevitability of God’s kingdom. 

        Today, may we remember that the Kingdom of God, the new creation Paul writes about, will come no matter what we do or do not accomplish.  We are given the deep privilege to make our contribution to it, through the way that we live our lives, but ultimately, it is the love of God which brings all things to fruition.  May we rest in that knowledge and accept the deep joy that is offered in that gift today as we come to God’s altar.  

        “Around me trees stir in their leaves and call out, ‘Stay awhile.’  The light flows from their branches.  And they call out again, ‘It’s simple,’ they say, ‘and you, too, have come into the world to do this, to be filled with light, and to shine.’”

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[i] Countryman, William.  The Truth About Love:  Re-introducing the Good News.  London:  Triangle, 1993, p 22

The Day of Pentecost: Letter to those about to be baptized

The Day of Pentecost Year B May 27, 2012 A letter to Debbie and Austin upon the occasion of your baptisms. Dear Debbie and Austin, Today is a wonderful day to be baptized! It is the Day of Pentecost, the day that we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to all believers and through that gift, the birth of the church. In baptism, it is said that you are remembering who you already are. And on this day of Pentecost, the church shifts our awareness to remember who we already are, remembering what we proclaim and the source of that proclamation. In baptism, you are remembering that God has already created you good. God has claimed you as God’s beloved and marked you belonging to God through Jesus Christ forever. In baptism, you are saying “yes” to the truth that God has already claimed you. You are accepting this grace which cannot be earned but only given by God; grace which must be accepted by you in order to fully be received. In baptism, you are promising to follow the way of Jesus Christ, follow the way of hope, reconciliation, forgiveness, healing; and the way of death to self and resurrection to new life in Jesus Christ. In baptism, you are becoming a part of the body of Christ that is the church—both this particular church and the universal Christian church. You are accepting your own unique ministry among us, and you promise to join with us in proclaiming the good news of Jesus in your words, in your actions, in your very life. On this day in the life of the church, together we remember our story. We remember how God creates all things and all people good, but how we turn away from God to follow our own faithless hearts and desires. We remember how God calls us again and again to return to God, to put our trust in God, to have relationship with God and to once again be God’s people. And when that doesn’t work, God sends Jesus to walk beside us, with us, as one of us; to lead us along the way of being fully human and in perfect relationship with God. But we still don’t like that. We don’t like giving up our own way, and so we put him to death on the cross thinking that would be the end of him. We desert him, we who were his closest friends and followers, and we despair at what we have done. But God shows us! Because on the third day, Jesus rises from the grave and shows us that God’s love is stronger than our own wills; God’s love is stronger than our own faithless hearts; God’s love is stronger than sickness and pain and adversity; God’s love is stronger than anything, even death. And Jesus walks among us for a little longer, until he is taken up to heaven; but before he leavese, he promises that he will not leave us comfortless. He will send us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Advocate to continue to teach us and to keep us connected to God and to Jesus in a new way. And that is what we remember and celebrate today: Jesus’s gift and the fulfillment of his promise: that he does not leave us comfortless; we are not left alone again to our own devices. And so we, the church, remember today who we already are, what we proclaim, and the source of that proclamation. We proclaim the hope of the resurrection through our words and deeds and very presence. We proclaim God’s promise of comfort to the broken hearted, even when we, ourselves, are suffering with sighs to deep for words. We proclaim the continued presence of the risen Christ among his people and in our hearts and minds and bodies. We proclaim a home for all in Christ Jesus, a place where all are welcome and where all are already claimed as God’s beloved and marked as Christ own forever. We proclaim a ministry of proclaiming the gospel for all—even the littlest of children--every person a disciple—called to tell and to live the story of hope in a way that is authentic and unique to your own unique gifts and lives. We proclaim and remember this day that the Holy Spirit is even now already at work within us, helping us in our weakness, inspiring us to pray, allowing us to be known intimately by God. And finally we proclaim and remember this day the truth of that first Pentecost: that the church is those who are “called out.” We are not content to sit within our beautiful four walls, focusing on our own inner lives and our own individual relationships with God. We do come here to find rest and peace, to get reconnected with the source of our hope, and we are fed and loved and nurtured and comforted and reminded that we are God’s beloved. And then we are filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit and sent out into the world to share the good news of God’s presence-- of comfort and hope, grace and home, belovedness and belonging-- to a needy and hungry world. Austin and Debbie, we welcome you to the family; we promise to walk this way with you; and we give thanks for your presence among us. Your sister in Christ, Melanie+

Easter 6B sermon--making our homes in Christ

Easter 6B May 13, 2012 Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Our reading for today picks up immediately where our gospel reading from last week left off. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, and he says to them, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” I’ve been thinking all week about these two passages and wondering, “What does it really mean to abide in Jesus? For me, encountering a slightly different translation of these verses helped me gain some insight into this question; rather than hearing Jesus saying abide in me as I abide in you, what if we hear Jesus saying to us today, “ Make your home in me as I make my home in you.”? What a lovely image for us on this Mother’s Day! So what does it mean for Jesus to make his home in us and for us to make our home in him? We can begin to think about this understanding of abiding in Jesus, of making our homes in him by looking at what are some characteristics of home-making? What do you think? Feeding, hospitality, making things beautiful, honoring, nurturing, celebrating, a certain amount of sacrifice…these are all aspects of home-making to me…. So the question for us today is how are we called to be home-makers? To make our home in Christ as he makes his home in us, and to invite others to dwell there with us? I’ve seen so many images of those who are making their home in Christ this past week, in this church and in this community. In the women who worked to host and honor our seniors in the tea last Sunday, with such care given to beauty and detail. In the ECW who hosted the Coast clergy for lunch this past week, bringing plants from their own homes to make this place beautiful and inviting and like home. In the news story last weekend of the man who was in a boating accident with his daughter and in his last moments, he tossed the one life-jacket to her, so that she would live when he did not. All lovely and loving examples of self-giving, home-making in Jesus Christ! And in each example, the person has offering something of their own homes, of their own selves to help create home somewhere else. So we notice that there are two essential parts to Jesus’s command to his disciples: that they make their home in him as God has already made God’s home within each of them. One is a call to presence, to awareness. The other is a call to action, to sharing. Each one of us has within us a lovely home where God chooses to dwell. An important part of the call to make our home in Jesus is acknowledging and spending time in God’s home within us and offering parts of that home to those around us—bringing out those pieces of beauty and nurture that we encounter there—a rootedness in love, joy, and peace—and sharing those bits of God’s home with others. We must be at home with God before we can make a home for Jesus and offer a piece of that home to others. Each of us goes about this differently. For me, I encounter glimpses of the home where God dwells within me through silence, in prayer, and in writing. It is only in a rootedness there that I can offer pieces of that home to Jesus and to others through my actions and words. I invite you to ask yourselves this week what parts of God’s home within you are you being invited to share to make home for those around you and to make your home in Christ this week and beyond? In conclusion, I leave you with one final parable about making our homes in Christ as he makes his home in us. “There was a rabbi who wanted to see both Heaven and Hell. And God who has hidden from us the opposites and their unity, gave way to his pleading. The rabbi found himself before a door, which bore no name; he trembled as he saw it open before him. It gave into a room, and all was prepared for a feast. There was a table, and at its center a great dish of steaming food. The smell and the aroma inflamed the appetite. The diners sat around the table with great spoons in their hands, yet they were shrieking with hunger, and fainting with thirst in that terrible place. They tried to feed themselves, and gave up, cursing God the author and origin of their torment. For the spoons God had provided were so long that they could not reach their faces and get the food to their tongues. They stretched out their arms, but their mouths remained empty. So they starved because of these spoons while the dish of plenty lay amongst them. And the rabbi knew their shrieking were the cries of Hell. And as knowledge came, the door closed before him. He shut his eyes in prayer, and begged God to take him away from that terrible place. When he opened them again, he despaired, for the same door stood before him the door that bore no name. Again, it opened, and it gave unto the same room. And nothing had changed, yet everything. For with the same long spoons they reached to each other’s faces, and fed each other’s mouths. And they gave thanks to God the author and origin of their joy. And as the rabbi heard the blessings, the door closed. He bent down, and he too blessed God who had shown him the nature of Heaven and Hell, and the chasm-a hairsbreath wide—that divides them." iii Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Make your home in me, as I make my home in you.” iii Lionel Blue and June Rose, A Taste of Heaven. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1977.

5th Sunday of Easter--Youth Sunday, Camp Bratton Green Sunday

5th Sunday after Easter Year B Youth Sunday and Gray Center Sunday When we lived in the rectory in McComb, I had a terrible nemesis: kudzu. Now, I don’t know how many of you Coast natives know about the evils of kudzu, but it is a plant that is not native to Mississippi. (I think they brought it in from Japan for erosion control). And kudzu is a vine that just comes in and takes over. I fought it for years as it tried to devour my camellia bushes. And one of the interesting things about kudzu that I found is that the vines would grow incredibly long. As I was pulling one part of the vine off my bushes, I would discover that that single vine was stretched all the way to the other end of the flower bed, entwined with many other plants along the way. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” And I can’t help but think of kudzu when he says this—how we as the body of Christ are all inextricably connected with other parts that may be way down at the other end of the flower bed. I had an encounter with this truth a few years ago through Camp Bratton Green, our diocesan camp for young people in Central Mississippi. I had been to Bratton Green for one session as a child (5th grade), and it had been a pretty good camp experience, but I had not felt particularly plugged in to the life there. I had definitely felt like there were insiders and outsiders, and I was one of the outsiders. So I never went back, until I had just graduated from high school and decided I wanted to be a counselor. I was accepted to be on the staff of a priest I had never met, a man named Duncan M. Gray, III. And I made up my mind that as a counselor, I would actively work to make sure that every single one of the girls in my cabin felt a profound sense of belonging. I had a great week at camp that week, and it opened up a new sense of belonging for me in the life of that place. Fast forward ten years, and I had just come back to the diocese from seminary, and I was fulfilling my required two years of service on staff at Camp Bratton Green. On my first day there, one of the permanent staff (the college age kids who run the camp for the entire summer) came up to me, and she reintroduced herself and told me that I had been her camp counselor for her first session ever at Camp Bratton Green. She told me of how that beginning and that sense of belonging had opened the door for her for many happy summers spent out at Bratton Green and how she had come to be on permanent staff to help foster that sense of belonging in the children coming after her. Jesus says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” We have no way of knowing how our gifts and our offerings may affect and enrich the life of a member of the vine in another part of the flower bed. And in working with young people, especially, we never know how God will take and use the gifts that we freely offer and how God will multiply those small humble gifts into a radical abundance. But today, we are given the opportunity to do just that. This year, we are sending 10 children, students from the Arts Academy who are the cream of the crop at Pass Road Elementary school, to Camp Bratton Green for one week each of summer camp. We have no way of knowing how God will take and use that offering which we make in the life of those children, in the life of Camp Bratton Green, in the life of that school, and in the life of this community; but I believe that our small offering will be transformed by God into a radical abundance that will be beyond our wildest imaginings. We need your help to do this. If you are able to give money to the St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Camp Bratton Green scholarship fund, please do so. It costs $400 to send one child to camp. We will receive some assistance from the CBG scholarship fund and possibly some scholarships from the Okalona trust, but we still need to raise a significant amount of money to send these kids to camp. It is an ambitious endeavor on the part of this church, and any money given to this will be helpful and so appreciated. We have no way of knowing how our offering of love and support and the once in a lifetime opportunity for these children to go to camp will impact for good the lives of these children nor how it will make this world a better place. But we offer this gift to God in faith, and we trust that God will take it and multiply it in abundance. Kind of like kudzu.

4th Sunday of Easter Year B

4th Sunday of Easter Year B April 29, 2012 A letter to Lucia Clair Matheny upon the occasion of her baptism. Dear Lucia, Today is the 4th Sunday of Easter, which is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It is a beautiful day to be baptized, because we are still so close to the Day of Resurrection; our alleluias are still so fresh and joyful, are hearts are light and full. Today in your baptism, we are recognizing and celebrating the truth of who you already are—God’s beloved child. This day we celebrate that you belong to Christ and that you will be marked as his own, belonging to him, forever. This process that begins for you today will go beyond even your own death, for you will always be a sheep of Jesus’s own fold, a lamb of his own flock, a sinner of his own redeeming. You will always be someone loved so much by Jesus that he willingly lays down his life for you and for all of creation. If you hear nothing else today, I hope that you will hear and know this: God knows you altogether and God loves you altogether. Nothing you can ever do can change God’s love for you or change your place of belonging in the heart of God. You may do things that grieve God, that hurt yourself and others, but you will always have a place in the heart of God who loves you so much more than you can ever ask or imagine! The deeper you live into God’s love for you, the more you will love others and give of yourself to God and to others, and it is in this knowledge and through this practice that you will encounter the abundant life which Jesus promises and offers you. Since today is Good Shepherd Sunday, and in many of our readings we are told that we are like sheep and Jesus is the Good Shepherd, I’d like to tell you a couple of things about sheep and their relationship with their shepherd that may help you on this journey of faith which you begin today. Sheep have gotten a really bad rap. People say that sheep are stupid, silly creatures, but scientists have actually proven that sheep are much smarter than we thought. Sheep are actually intelligent animals who can recognize faces and respond to rewards. But, there are two important things that we need to know about sheep that have led to their being labeled as stupid, because these two things ring true for us as well. First, sheep are not willing to be driven along like cattle. If someone tries to drive sheep, they scatter. But sheep are more than willing to follow along behind a trusted shepherd. They follow willingly wherever the trusted shepherd leads because they know the way is safe. Second, sheep, like most people, run when they are afraid, and in their fear and in their running, they become incredibly lost. We know something of this fear, this running, and this lostness. The late psychologist Rollo May has written, “Humans are the strangest of all God’s creatures because they run fastest when they have lost their way.” We know something of this. We become afraid when our lives take a turn from what we expect or hope. We become afraid when we feel trapped, and we run. We become afraid when circumstances seem to be spiraling out of our control. We become afraid when we are forced to change in ways that we do not want to change. We become afraid, and we run, and we get lost. At some point in your life, sweet Lucia, you will probably be truly frightened—whether it is by the threat of sickness or injury, afraid for someone you love, broken hearted and lost, believing your own false heart or the false lips of those who tell you you’re not good or good enough, you’re not smart or smart enough, you’re not pretty enough, you’re not doing enough…You may believe at some point that you are truly lacking and that you are unlovable. At some point in your life, I fear, you will be afraid, you will feel lost, and you will want to run and run and run. When those times happen remember this day. Remember that you are cherished by God; remember that you will always belong to Jesus, even when you do run away. Remember that he is not only with you, but that he has gone before you, into and through death and into the fullness of the resurrection. Remember that he is your shepherd and that he leads you and all of us through death and into the abundant live of the resurrection where he invites us to dwell. Always remember that God has created you good. You are good, no matter what you do, no matter what others say. You are good; God loves you and will always love you, and God really wants to you flourish and to grow toward God. Remember that we walk this way with you, following Jesus our Good Shepherd all together, so that none of us is ever alone. You have nothing to fear and everything to gain. May you not be afraid. And may you have life and have it abundantly. Your sister in Christ, Melanie+

The Day of Resurrection: Easter Day 2012

April 8, 2012
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Today we gather for one joyful purpose, and one purpose only. Today we gather to celebrate, to remember, and to participate in resurrection!
This week, we have been talking about how we as a church gather to do the work of holy remembering. Holy remembering is so much more than an act of cognition or recall. Holy remembering is what we do together, infused by the Holy Spirit, so that in the telling of the stories of God’s love for God’s people, we are participating, in some mysterious way, in that story, and God is making present the power of those moments in the past.
So today, our joy is to remember, to participate in, to celebrate the resurrection!
How might we remember and celebrate the resurrection this day and every day?
First, let us remember and celebrate that once again, God’s love is afoot in the world! I love the way that John tells the story of the resurrection! There’s so much running around, so much urgency. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty, and she runs to tell the disciples, and then after the disciples race to the tomb, it is empty, they look around, and they just kind of wander off, leaving Mary Magdalene there alone weeping. And then, suddenly, Jesus is there, but she doesn’t recognize him. It’s almost like God is playing hide and seek with all of them; there are glimpses of the resurrection every where they look, glimpses of God’s love afoot in the world, but they do not understand it, they do not recognize it. How often is that true for us as well? Remember and celebrate that once again, God’s love is afoot in the world! Remember and celebrate resurrection!
Second, let us remember and celebrate the surprise, the shock of hearing him call you by name and recognizing him as the risen Lord! It is always so. When God acts, we are told again and again, “Do not be afraid!”, but still, we can’t help that shocked gasp of air that we suck in when we hear Jesus call our names and recognize him as the Risen Lord. Dead bodies do not get resurrected in our world, and yet, we meet him, face to face, again and again and again. And it’s always a surprise, isn’t it? No matter how many times we hear the story, when we encounter resurrection and the risen Lord, it is always a surprise. And then, when God acts, we have to reorient our assumptions, our priorities, our expectations. Remember and celebrate the surprise of God’s actions. Remember and celebrate resurrection!
Third, let us remember and celebrate that we are called to be witnesses. In the reading from Acts, Peter is talking about the joyful compulsion that he and the other disciples feel to talk about the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ. He makes a connection between those who witnessed the life and death, those who follow Jesus on his way and witnessing the resurrection. It’s too good not to share, and Peter and the others seem to be overflowing fit to burst with the good news.
I had an experience this week with strangers who witnessed to me of the good news of the resurrection. I got an email addressed to all of us that reads: “Dear Melanie and all -
We're thinking of you today. We're thinking of you and remembering a journey six years ago when we came upon the shell of St. Peter's by the Sea in Holy Week, 2006. We had landed in New Orleans to help our "assigned" congregation, St. Paul's Parish and School in the Lakeview neighborhood. We took a couple of days away to volunteer at Camp Coast Care, then drove further east to Gulfport. And then we found you and the amazing little tomb. We wept tears for you and yours that day. We're sure it's a feeling you know too well. Now we find we're weeping tears of joy to see your web site and the way you have restored that sacred, holy space which God has entrusted to your stewardship. And in doing that we're sure you have found restoration of spirit, mind and body as well. May it ever be so. …I often tell people that seeing [that] tiny, powerful expression of resurrection amidst the wreckage was the moment that Christian hope began to take shape for me. Blessings and joy to you this Easter. With love and gratitude Paul Peck and Mindy Chambers, Olympia, WA (in the Diocese of Olympia - the Episcopal Church in Western Washington State).”
What an amazing testament to the power of the risen Christ, that you could be a sign of hope to these folks in your darkest hour; and that they remember it years later, and can help us remember it too! Remember and celebrate that you, too, are witnesses to the resurrection. Remember and celebrate the resurrection!
Finally, let us remember and celebrate the new creation of which we are a part through the resurrection! The Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright says that “Our calling in the light of Easter is that we are to be advanced foretastes of the new creation begun with the resurrection. [The resurrection] is not just for us. We are not only beneficiaries of that new creation, but we are conduits of it—people through whom [resurrection and the new creation] happen. Remember, participate in and celebrate God’s new creation. Remember and celebrate the resurrection.
In closing I leave you with a quote that a friend of mine shared several weeks ago. [It is by Br. James Koester, and] it is about remembering, participating in, and celebrating resurrection every day in your own lives.
“Wherever in your life is victory, there is resurrection. Wherever in your life there is joy, there is resurrection. Wherever in your life is wonder, there is resurrection. Wherever in your life is resurrection there is Christ calling you to follow him out of death into his larger more glorious life.”
May you go forth into the world this day, and every day and may you remember, participate in, and celebrate resurrection as witnesses to the power of God’s love that is afoot in the world!

The Great Vigil of Easter 2012

April 7, 2012

A letter to Heather Carnocki, Jack Vincent, and Hannah Hiett on the occasion of their baptisms.

Dear Heather, Jack, and Hannah,
We have been talking all this past week about holy remembering. How we gather together to hear and tell the stories of our faith; how this remembering is more for us than an act of recall, but that in some mysterious way, in our holy remembering, we make present the events and the power of the stories of the past. Nowhere is that more evident than in our holy remembering on this holy night.
Tonight we remember how this is a holy night. “This is the night when [God] brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea on dry land.” “This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin and are restored to grace and holiness of life.” “This is the night when Christ broke the bonds of death and rose victorious from the grave.” This is the night when you are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. This is the night when you have become an important part of the body of Christ. This is the night when we all remember who we are, from whence comes our salvation, how we are called to live our lives, and why it all matters.
This holy night is the beginning of a journey for you that you will follow into and through your own death. You will journey through valleys and over mountains; your way will be both smooth and rocky. Sometimes you will dance and rejoice along the way and at other times you will feel so weary and heartbroken that you don’t know how you can go on. During all of those different parts of your journey, my prayer for you is “May you remember.”
May you remember, during those times in your life, when darkness weighs upon you like a tomb, that the light of Christ shines within you and will light your path in the dark.
May you remember, no matter what happens, that you belong to God; that your baptism is a sign that God loves you, that God cherishes you, and that you are not alone.
May you remember the promises that we all have made to you—that we will walk with you as your sisters and brothers as you seek to follow Jesus.
May you remember, every time that you lift your shining face to God with your hands outstretched to receive the bread and the wine, that you are being fed the body and blood of Jesus who loves you, so that you may go out into the world to share that love with others.
May you remember that belief is not so much about what you think, but belief is about choosing a path and following it; belief is about how your live your life, what you give your heart fully to.
May you remember that Christ, our hope, is arisen, and he goes before you on your journey so that you may follow where he leads.
May you remember that you have been buried with Christ in his death and that you share in his resurrection, so you have absolutely nothing to lose. May you live and love with joy and abandon.
May you remember the truth of the Mystery of this holy night: “that God’s love is stronger than anything even death.”

May you always Remember.

Your sister in Christ, Melanie+