Claimed, gathered and sent

Over breakfast I was looking though the latest issue of The Lutheran and came across this article. Story by Glen A. Bengson 'But God can' Ash Wednesday reminds us God renews, reforms, revives our lives I had baptized 4-year-old Sarah and her brother some months before and was visiting the family to see how things were going. “Has Sarah mentioned anything about the experience?” I asked her mother. “Oh, yes,” she answered. “She said the pastor made a cross on her forehead. I told her, ‘But you can’t see it now.’ “‘But God can,’ replied Sarah.” When the ashes of Ash Wednesday welcome us into the disciplines of Lent and Christian life, we begin that 40-day journey of repentance and renewal confident that, indeed, “God can.” God can bring life out of death. God can join water and word, bread and wine, repentance and forgiveness, and cross and community to fashion a new beginning and a new people in Christ. God can renew and reform and revive my life because of Je...

Read what Internet Monk has to say about Advent our need of a savior. http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-mood-of-advent-we-all-need-a-savior

Epiphany is a time of discovery, of revelation. Saturday was the feast of the Epiphany for those who follow the western church calendar. In addition to being “an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being” [1] it is also “(1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b : a revealing scene or moment” [2] I was struck by a thought in a textbook for the Spiritual Formation course I’m taking this semester. Marcel Proust said, “the real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” [3] Isn't this what epiphany is really about? May God give us new eyes with which to see. [1] Meriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary , Online: http://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epiphany , [7 Ja...