Dear Incarnation,
What did you think of our first Sunday at Drew? I'd love to hear your first impressions, tweaks, and feedback. HUGE thanks to everyone who came early to help set things up for the very first time; it was so helpful to have many hands, eyes, and ideas (and donuts!).
I enjoyed so many things about the new space: the parking, the windows, the beautiful courtyard, the wide-open gathering space outside the sanctuary. And yet I also felt a little disoriented, a little off-kilter throughout the service. Change takes time, and we'll ease into this change together. Change is also an opportunity for God to re-orient us, and that is my prayer as we settle in at Drew.
Sunday was also Trinity Sunday. This is always a challenging Sunday to preach because the Trinity is a challenging doctrine for our finite minds to grasp — the lengthy Athanasian Creed made that very clear! I hope what you heard on Sunday, however, is that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a matter of thinking our way to God, but a matter of the Triune God loving his way into all creation and restoring us to his love. This poem by Malcolm Guite captures it well:
Trinity Sunday
In the Beginning, not in time or space,
But in the quick before both space and time,
In Life, in Love, in co-inherent Grace,
In three in one and one in three, in rhyme,
In music, in the whole creation story,
In His own image, His imagination,
The Triune Poet makes us for His glory,
And makes us each the other’s inspiration.
He calls us out of darkness, chaos, chance,
To improvise a music of our own,
To sing the chord that calls us to the dance,
Three notes resounding from a single tone,
To sing the End in whom we all begin;
Our God beyond, beside us and within.
Throughout June, we'll continue to preach through the lectionary texts. Staring in July, however, we'll begin our series on "The Psalms that Shape Us." I'm really looking forward to this! I preached a mini-series on the psalms a few summers ago (there seems to be something very summery about the psalms, don't you think?). The psalter is a book of prayers, and as Eugene Peterson reminded us on Sunday: "All prayer, pursued far enough, becomes praise." I'm looking forward to gathering our prayers this summer, hearing each other's stories, and pursuing praise together.
Other happenings:
- Small groups are wrapping up, but there's time to join the summer book club, led by Kaitlin Conway! Sign up on the small groups page. The first book is Kate Bowler's Blessed for discussion on Saturday, June 24.
- Wild Wonder meets at 9:30am in the courtyard! Kids of all ages and their caregivers are welcome for this wondrous time of exploring creation together.
With love,
Amy