Dear Friends,
One of my great joys in ministry is the opportunity to baptize folks, young babies who can hardly keep their eyes open for the whole service, parents, and friends who come to the Christian faith at different times in life, youth on their journey to confirmation. In baptism, I often speak of God’s amazing and immeasurable love for God’s children. Long before we are able to do anything to ask for or to earn God’s love God claims us. Long before we are able to scrounge up the right kind of successes, the perfect relationships with others, the well-crafted and purposeful life, God loves us. It is powerful to say this to the young children held in their parent's arms that without a doubt they have done nothing to earn God’s love and yet they are so deserving of God’s amazing love.
The long time pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, William Sloane Coffin said of God’s love and our value:
Of God's love, we can say two things: it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.
Indeed, because we are loved, because of God’s amazing love for us we have value.
This weekend we will read from this passage talking about the imago dei, a theological understanding that we (all of us) are created in the image of God. We, everyone one of us, are created in the image of God, loved by God, and have deep value. Which begs me to ask a few questions we will explore this Sunday: How will we understand God more deeply by knowing our neighbor? How will we talk to and treat ourselves knowing we are created in the image of God?
I look forward to being with you Sunday, it promises to be a special Sunday as we celebrate the milestone of Ready Set Worship with our children, worship with beautiful music, and gather together.
