Dear Friends,
The call and response in Suzanne’s sermon last Sunday, “I am somebody”, has been echoing on my lips and in my heart this week. And this Sunday, we’ll hear the familiar story of Nicodemus. He’s someone also trying to figure out who he is and whose he is, as he quizzically asks Jesus, “how can anyone be born again?” It’s an iconic question that has been answered in ways both thoughtful and hurtful by theologians and preachers over the years.
Jesus and Nicodemus engage in some humorous and confounding conversation, and two things always strike me when I read this text. Jesus’s call to us to change our hearts, to trust in the movement of the Spirit is grounded in God’s love for the whole world – for each and every one of us – and the invitation to turn toward God is infinite and eternal. Lent is a time to remember that we can always turn back and in our journey God will meet us in our turning, awaiting us, embracing us. I have a postcard on my desk that says “turn this way.” In this Lenten season it’s a good reminder to always turn towards God. God’s beauty God’s, love God’s justice: for God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus.
See you in church!
All my best,
Courtney+