Newsletter April 6th, 2025

Dear Friends,

Sunday is the Fifth Sunday in Lent and our continuation of our theme: life in the extremes. So far, we’ve explored: intention & action; stranger & neighbor; faith & works; rest & growth and lost & found. This week’s words are righteousness & mercy.

I have mixed feelings about the word righteousness. Yeah, biblically it means “to be in a right relationship with God.” What does it mean to be in a right relationship with God? To be in this right relationship is not something that we can do on our own. But we sure try sometimes! Maybe we stray into self-righteousness when we think that we’ve got it all figured out. We may also stray into this danger area when we look at others with our own assurance that they are clearly not in a right relationship with God. Yeah, righteousness is tricky! Thankfully we have that other word, mercy.

This weekend we’ll explore these words, righteous and mercy in the story of Zaccheus. It’s a wonderful story of an outsider wanting to see Jesus so badly he climbed a tree to get a better look.

Hmmm… what would you do to get a better look? I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday.

Here is a repeat from last week:

Over the past few months, members of the ALC Transition Team and the Church Council have been working to discern the vision and mission for our congregation. We are ready to share it with you now, and in God’s timing, our gospel lesson for Sunday touches on it.

As you read this, we invite you to pray about it, and to offer any comments to me or Ric by Sunday April 6. We will then share your comments with the council at their meeting on April 8. We hope to adopt it and begin using it on Easter.

Propose vision (who we believe God is calling us to be):

We are called to be a nurturing community practicing acceptance, hope, love, and service.

Proposed mission (how God is calling us to do ministry):

We follow Jesus’ action to be a shepherding force by accepting, embracing, and nurturing all of creation.

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Nancy