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Dear Spirit-filled people,

The Christ who has come, the Christ who is coming, and the Christ who will come again is wise (Isaiah 9:6), asks fresh questions and invites us to reconsider our most cherished assumptions. 

Advent, Christmas and Epiphany are three seasons celebrating the coming and the revealing of Christ as our Ultimate Ruler. 

As we move from 2021 into 2022 and prepare for the transition from interim pastor to settled pastor, let’s prepare to share our faith in the One the Spirit is sending to us: 

1. When in the past did Jesus feel most alive and real to you?

2. Where are you seeing Jesus at work in your neighborhood in the present, giving you hope? 

3. How do you imagine we will treat one another and God’s good creation after the future Ultimate Arrival of Jesus? 

In the name of the One who is always coming into our lives, Jesus, +.

Pastor Tim

3131Pastor@gmail.com

There will be two worship services on Christmas Eve, one at 6:00 pm and the other at 9:00 pm. Both services will include the service of Word and

Sacrament. The services will conclude with the singing of Silent Night outside under the canopy. The choir and the bell choir will provide special music at the 9:00 pm service. We look forward to seeing you at one or both of these special services.

Call Committee Update

The Call Committee is in the confidential interviewing process. Continue to pray for the committee and the candidates.

School Age Sunday School

Pre-K through 6^th grade will meet in the Spirit Center following worship each week.

Confirmation Youth and Adult Christian Education

We will meet in the nave following worship each week. This series will cover Church history, Apostles creed and the Lord’s prayer.

Dear Spirit brothers and sisters,

A few of my favorite saints were born in November– Martin Luther, Martin of Tours, and Julian of Norwich. The woman we know as “Julian” was born on November 8, 1342. When she was thirty years old she suffered a traumatic,     near-death event in which she received a series of revelations.

Following this time at the border between life and death, she composed the earliest known book to be published by a woman in the English language. 

Her book’s most famous quote is, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” 

While this might sound like a “positive attitude” quote, it is not, because Julian’s medieval world was filled with wars, famines, plagues, terrorism, and thousands of people living in abject poverty. To Jesus she once protested, “Why didn’t God create us to be pure and holy to spare us all this trouble!” Then she received this insight from Jesus:

1. Sin is necessary for you to learn your limitations as human beings. 

2. To learn your limitations means you will fail. 

3. Failure means you will sin. 

4. Sin reveals your need for God’s grace. 

5. In order for you to  relax and trust God amidst life’s many troubles and traumas, you must learn to rely upon God’s goodness instead of your own goodness. 

6. When you discover this, by God’s grace,  then you will realize: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

Last month, the Courier cover featured this Julian of Norwich quote, “God loved us because he made us. And this love has never diminished and never shall.” 

One morning I was surprised to receive an email with this painted icon from one of your previous interim ministers, Pastor Julia Hart (who sends you her greetings.)

Holy Spirit church, you all have experienced the pandemic, a recent fire, the retirement of a faithful pastor, and you look forward to calling your next settled pastor. With the universal church, we will soon begin the season of Advent, the time when we practice faithful waiting, living in the knowledge that because of the God we know in Jesus Christ, “All shall be well!”

May we relax into the always arriving goodness of God in Christ,

Pastor Tim