Becoming A People

This Sunday is our first in Ordinary Time. Don’t cringe. Really, Ordinary Time is a great season with the beautiful, lush color GREEN as its theme color. 

 

Green is so good. It means go (so I remind drivers every day). It’s the color of life. As I look out my office window, my soul is eased by the verdant view despite the untimely yet sweltering heat of late May. Green will go with us this season, and we’ll experience that slow, subtle growth that green reminds us of.

 

And this Ordinary Time is not ordinary at all for us at St. Bartholomew’s. We’re in the final days of becoming. We’re becoming a people and learning what it means to be our own church. We'll have increased responsibility and increased joy as we continue to expand in mission and ministry. We’ll continue to welcome the stranger, the newcomer, the seeker and the friend to enter into life with us at St. Bartholomew’s.

 

And the lectionary will have us in a saga of becoming. For the next 10 weeks we’ll be in 1 and 2 Samuel. Seeing Israel’s monarchy established, watching Saul be anointed and ultimately fall because of jealous, rebellion, and disobedience, we’ll move through David’s reign the victory of his triumph, God’s unfailing, covenant love promised to him and his descendants, and the chaos that falls upon his kingdom and his family after his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah. 

 

We’re becoming a people, and God is presiding over the entire process: the good, the beautiful, and the messy. He’s trustworthy and has a beautiful plan for St. Bartholomew’s that is beyond ordinary. I can’t wait to embark on it with you.

- Jay+

As we behold the face of God in the face of Christ, we are transformed into his image. This is what it means to be fully human—to become like Jesus, the truly human one, and to grow more and more in the freedom of the children of God.