An excerpt from March 2025 newsletter Dear friends in Christ,
I hope this letter finds you well. As I write I have been putting the final touches on our Lenten Theme for 2025. Everything starts on Ash Wednesday March 5th with a meal at Immanuel followed by worship. Please double check the calendar for the Lenten worship rotation as we will be at all 3 congregations through the season. For the theme we will be using the book “Lent in Plain Sight, A Devotion Through Ordinary Objects” by Jill J. Duffield.
For a preview I would like to share the intro: “God works through the ordinary. Ordinary people, everyday objects, things we bump up against moment by moment. From burning bushes to talking donkeys to a booming voice from heaven, God goes to great lengths to communicate with people, sending Jesus Christ, Gods only Son, to unmistakably tell human beings about salvation, grace and reconciliation. People of faith report epiphanies, revelations of Gods word to them, sometimes by way of miraculous interventions or otherwise inexplicable happenings, but often and also through the mundane made holy due to timing and perception. The note from a friend arrived with the right words, just when encouragement seemed utterly absent. A deer appeared as if out of nowhere, after a voiced prayer for a sign.
Often it is in hindsight that God's providence becomes recognizable and events previously considered mundane become evidence of God's presence and work in our lives. The question for us becomes: Do we have the eyes to see God's near presence? Do we have ears to hear the word of the Lord, spoken in a multitude of ways and languages? Will we open ourselves to the holy not only I heaven but also on earth and right in front of us? Can everyday objects remind us to stay awake and pay attention?
This Lenten devotional invites readers to open themselves to the kingdom of God, which is close at hand and in our midst. These forty days beckon people of faith to a nearer following of Jesus and an awakening to the work of the Spirit in their lives and in the world. Each week of this book highlights an object, something we encounter in our daily living- things like coins, shoes, and crosses and asks readers to consider through these objects the possibility, the promise, that God is present, speaking, seeking to be in relationship with them.
I hope this book opens our eyes and ears to the certain providence and power of God, allowing us to lower our anxiety about the future, lessen our burdens about the past, and free us to follow Jesus in faith right here and now. Perhaps if we truly trust that Emmanuel, God with us, never abandons us, we will worry less and risk more for the sake of the gospel. Perhaps when we see a stone or hold coins in our hands or pour out oil into a pan, we will remember that God loves and leads, transforms and heals, guides and intervenes in ways that offer us abundant life, an abundant life we are called to share with others. Perhaps contemplating these objects will enable us to see God everywhere, in all things, all creation, not just during these forty days of Lent but every single day of the year, honing our sense of the holy to the point we feel God's presence every single moment and act accordingly.”
Looking forward to our journey together! I hope to see you starting on Ash Wednesday at Immanuel.
In Christ, Pastor Jonathan
Pastor Jonathan shares his adventures while showing the three churches are within "walking distance" of each other.