The story of the Ascension of Jesus in Acts 1 is one of my favorite. There is a line where the angels have appeared alongside the disciples who have watched Jesus ascend and they ask "Why are you standing looking toward heaven?" Basically, it is a reminder to the disciples they have been given a new mission and need to allow the Holy Spirit to work within them to transform them into what they need for their mission to go out to the world. I think we sometimes stand looking toward heaven too when we need to be looking for what God is up to next.

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In Acts 17, Paul encounters an altar to an unknown god in Athens. He then goes on to talk about the God he knows. The God Paul speaks of cannot be confined to temples or altars, his God is bigger and more mysterious and unknown, yet at the same time, God is closer than our breath.

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Psalm 23 is a familiar passage for many. It is a reminder that we are tended by the Great Shepherd. What does it look like to allow ourselves to be tended? To be led and restored. To know we do not walk through darkness alone, but that God is always with us? Let yourself be tended this week so that you may tend to others as well.

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Happy Easter! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

And pastors everywhere are tired. Many services but a good tired. The joy of Easter is that love triumphs. The women found the empty tomb and in their fear they were also overjoyed. May we go tell others that Jesus has risen and may we let love win!

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As we enter Holy Week, many churches were filled with shouts of Hosanna! and people waved palm branches. Some churches also read the passion story of Jesus before Pilot. And while some churches will observe Holy Week and hold services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to remember the upper room and washing of feet as well as the crucifixion and the denial of Peter, some will not. Some churches will celebrate the Great Vigil of Easter and tell the stories of salvation as they wait for Easter to arrive. It is a reminder that not everything in the story of Holy Week is a celebratory moment, but that we must go through all the emotions of the week to arrive at Hallelujah!

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In her book "The Soul's Slow Ripening" Christine Valters Paintner talks about the practice of Three Essential Things. Finding those values that speak to who we are called to be in a particular season of life. Those things may change as we move from season to season or period of time in our life. What is essential for us in our 20's may change in our 60's and it is ours to seek what is essential that we may seek to live out the soul's deepest calling.

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Do you remember memorizing things when you were growing up? Poems, Bible verses, songs? There is a difference when we memorize things and when we learn them by heart. To learn something by heart, we let it become a part of who we are, we know it deeply and it shapes how we respond in the world What are verses, phrases, or stories that you know by heart? How does that help in your daily life?

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Sorry about last week. But honestly, it felt garbled and haywire. This week has not been much better. The war, the rising cost of things, the human lives lost. We are not yet in the Kingdom of God. We are not yet to the fulfillment of the promises of God, but we are called to keep working for justice and mercy. To do the small everyday acts to bring about goodness in a world where there is lots of darkness.

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