Pastor Brian's Blog

After Easter, I will lead a new series called “Second Chances: Stories of Redemption.”   Nobody is perfect.  We make mistakes.  People let us down.  We hurt ourselves and others.  Sometimes our life feels like a broken ceramic dish — fragmented, wrecked, or useless.  A Japanese aesthetic called wabi-sabi involves seeing the beauty in aging and imperfection.  Using a technique called kintsugi (“gold joinery”), a ceramic dish repaired with a precious metal can become even more beautiful than it was before it was broken.  To apply the concept of wabi-sabi to our spiritual life, all we need is for someone to see our potential and give us a second chance.   Jesus does that for us.  The gospel message is that no matter who we are or what we have done, God sees beyond our imperfections, loves us, forgives us, and offers us a new life. April 23 Forgiven Luke 7:36-39 April 30 – Rutter Requiem Dispossessed Luk...

Dear Friends in Christ, “Love each other just as I have loved you” (John 15:12, CEB) .   Jesus offers these words as a new commandment to his disciples.  A beautiful example of Jesus’ love for his disciples is his washing of their feet.  Although Peter objects, Jesus uses the deed as an object lesson.  The Master acts as a servant to demonstrate how we are to love each other.  This year during worship on Maundy Thursday, you will have the option of participating in the act of footwashing.  First, someone washes your feet.  Then, you turn and wash someone else’s feet.  When I have participated in footwashing, I have been touched by the tenderness and humility of this simple act.  It turns love from invisible emotion into visible action.  As usual, Jesus leads us by example.  He models a life of serving others so that we can know what love looks like.  Through the act of footwashing, we participate in a hum...