From The Pastor's Pen
Monthly Reflections from Our Pastor
Welcome to From the Pastor’s Pen, a monthly blog where our pastor shares thoughtful reflections, spiritual insights, and timely messages for our church family and beyond. Whether drawing from Scripture, current events, or life within our congregation, each post is written to inspire, encourage, and deepen your walk of faith.
Check back each month for a new message—rooted in tradition, guided by grace, and written straight from the heart.
We are in a season of transformation.
Dear Saints of God,
We are in a season of transformation. Remember those brutally cold arctic temperatures? Well, the earth is once again being transformed. Water and sunlight nourish the plants. We see the crocuses pushing their way through the once frozen ground. Tulips and Easter lilies prepare to bloom, announcing God’s glorious creation. Hope and joy fill our hearts as we await the first fruits of our sprouting seedlings. The warmth of the sun streaming through the windows, the lengthening of the days, the sweetness that fills the air all reveal God’s great love for us through creation. Though predictable, it nonetheless touches us deeply and reminds us of the beauty in this gift of love.
What was not predictable, nor even imaginable, was God’s greatest gift to us. The promise of an alternate reality where death does not have the final say; God’s love, justice, and mercy does. We proclaim this alternate reality present and available when we celebrate our resurrection story. A story made even more poignant during Holy Week when we witness injustice, political violence, and betrayal. It is a story that repeats itself all too often. We witness it throughout history, in an unending cycle of intolerance, bigotry, ignorance, misinformation, and power plays.
God gifts us a way of stepping out of the unending cycle. Throughout Lent, we dig deep in unflinching courage seeking to uncover our part in the unending cycle. We do so, knowing that our God yearns for us to stand in our truth and promises mercy and forgiveness through Christ. As we name and repent of those thoughts, words, and deeds, we carry our cross and walk alongside Jesus. Jesus willingly, lovingly takes our cross from us, liberates and guides us to a better way. Christ’s resurrection transforms and transcends our limits and offers a way from the darkness of our past into a new and blessed life. This is God’s off ramp to the endless cycle.
This, the Church proclaims on Easter morning. In him, we are saved from death to new life, for life eternal with our infinitely just, merciful, and loving Creator. This is the Good News, that through Christ we live again. Therefore, let us shout for joy, Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Blessings,
Rev. Russ Goliger