Creator Blog

*And they shall know we are Christians by our love, by our love…

What a beautiful song, sung so many times by so many of us over the course of a lifetime. By word and melody we are reminded of our call to love and of the power and possibility found in our love—for others—they.

Certainly this song rings out the glorious evangelistic proclamation of what is possible when people of faith unite in the Lord and live the life of the service and witness they are called to. It is as powerful thing to think of how they will know this, they will know by our oneness in the Spirit as we work with each other and walk with each other, side-by-side and hand-in-hand.

The imagery is a wonderful combination of the actual physical truth of our life as a Parish Family and of the spiritual communion that is the result of our relationship with Christ.

“Hand-in-hand” is not an image that resonates with Americans as much as it does with our Asian and African brethren. In their traditions, hand holding is a common practice between friends and even between new acquaintances as they talk or walk. When I was in the orient and in Africa, I spent many conversations holding hands with Bishops, Priests, and all manner of companion as we discussed politics, church life or personal experience, the intimacy that we reserve for familial relationships they see as part of their common life.

Common life is what is being celebrated in this song, our common life and bond found in the joint proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is an intimacy that is celebrated as the norm, not reserved for the special few. It is a witness of love welling up from the depth of our awareness of God and a desire to share that awareness so that others may know His power to bring light into the dark and peace into the chaos.

Behind this song, as with all church music and hymnody, are the words of scripture, the contestant witness of thousands of years of God’s presence and the specific words of our Lord,

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”

John 13:35

Our life together is made up of a mixture of tasks and responsibilities, as well as the privilege to love and bear witness to God. They shall know we are Christians by our love through the manner in which we share those responsibilities and bear that witness—Hand-in-hand following Christ in all things.

*They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love written by Peter Scholtes, additional words and music by Carolyn Arends

Dearly Creator Family:

The beginning of every new year finds many people making resolutions to improve their lives. Some people make a resolution to strengthen their financial or professional standing. Others resolve to lose weight or stop a bad habit. And there are many people who express the desire to improve their relationships with their families or coworkers, to help the needy, or to pursue some other lofty goal in life. But, while such resolutions are made with conviction, usually within a few weeks such resolutions are broken or forgotten. Life returns to “normal,” to the “status quo.” During the subsequent months, little attention is paid to broken resolutions which, by the end of the year, have been thoroughly forgotten.

As Christians, the New Year event gives us all the opportunity to resolve to live according to God’s will and the example we have been given by Our Lord, Jesus Christ. This resolution is not restricted to the beginning of a new year, but faces us every day of our lives and we are continually challenged to embrace change by growing stronger in our faith, by participating more regularly in the life of the Church, and by reaching out to others with compassion and love. As we begin every new day, we pray that our repentance (turning around) will bring us into a more intense relationship with God, with others, and even with ourselves, seeking to accomplish not our own wills, but the will of God.

The beginning of the new year offers us an opportunity to make a resolution that matters, that transcends the goals inherent in so many “new year’s resolutions” and offers us a foretaste of the very Kingdom of God that, while yet to be fully revealed, is already fully present in the life of the Church. It affords us an opportunity to pursue a new beginning, to transform our commitment and words into conviction and action, and to put our spiritual households into order, not only during the coming year but for the remainder of our lives. Ultimately, making the resolution to repent is not something restricted to the beginning of a new year; rather, it is the challenge – the Gospel’s challenge – to be renewed in body and soul every day of our lives, to change our focus and direction in our pursuit of holiness rather than our own trivial pursuits.

We are blessed by God with the beginning of a new year. In thanksgiving, let us make our resolution one of repentance and interior change, aimed at “the one thing needful” – pursuing our lives in accordance with the will of God and the example of our Savior. Let us “lay aside all earth cares” – and “resolutions” – replacing them with a firm commitment to seek renewal in the Lord. And let us resolve to remain vigilant in fulfilling this resolution, especially in times of
temptation or distress – times when Our Lord is quick to hear our prayers for help, guidance, and direction. In so doing, we will discover that indeed the Lord is with us at every moment and in every circumstance, giving us the resolve to grow in and with Him now and in the days to come.

Trinity Sunday and Beyond

Merriam-Webster defines theology as “the study of God and God’s relation to the world.” This is a simple and easily understood definition that points to an action taking place in one’s life—study. We all have an opinion about God, but how are we furthering our understanding with regards to our relationship with God?

Trinity Sunday is a celebration of this truth, that God is accessible in a very real and personal way through the specific revelation of Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. To help us understand this we can delve, ever so slightly, into the school of “Trinitarian Theology” and be confronted by some bold and marvelous proclamations of our faith. Trinitarian Theology helps us to understand that the Trinity, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is the central and foundational doctrine that forms the basis for how we read the Bible and how we understand all points of theological reflection. The “how’s” and “whys” of our faith understanding and action are wrapped in the “who” of faith, “Who is the God made known in Jesus Christ, and who are we in relation to him?” Simply put, we cannot understand ourselves, God the Father, or the Holy Spirit apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Bible confronts us with a God who has chosen to make himself known and to actually be with us in person, in Jesus Christ. This means that we cannot look outside of Jesus and the specifics of biblical revelation, to understand who God is. In Jesus we meet God as God really is, and it is in Jesus that we come to understand ourselves in reflection. But as I said, this is not “Jesus Sunday,” but Trinity Sunday, so what’s all this Jesus talk about? Well that is the point, the Holy Spirit is present and active in our lives reminding and revealing to us particulars about Jesus, and Jesus told us that to see Him is to see the Father and understand the Father as well—the Trinity is celebrated as the complete revelation of God—through Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. Trinity!

Beyond this brief theological reflection we encounter our lives, dynamic and exciting, burdened and frustrating, challenging and peaceful. No matter what the day brings though, we are ever and always in relationship, and at the end of the day those relationships will have grown whether we like it or not. The example given to us by God of life in relationship is found at the beginning of how we understand God! Trinity. God is ever and always in relationship and God’s intention for us (found in the very heart of God’s being), is to consider our relationships first based on the specific revelation of Jesus Christ.

So, as we live and move and have our being in response to God, how do we rate relationships? To move beyond the theology we must apply it practically, it is not simply a theory but a process of living. In the church, in the family, in the work place, we are called to be the example of Jesus to each other and to place each other’s welfare and well being above our own. In this, the truth of the Trinity finds expression through our relationships because we model what Jesus has showed us and share it with each other.

In his Letter to the Colossians, St. Paul said that the Jewish feasts and celebrations were a “shadow of the things to come through Jesus Christ” (2:16-17), so our understanding of God’s earlier revelations will deepen our understanding of our own faith and the revelation of God through Jesus Christ.

Our celebration of Pentecost finds its roots in the Jewish Shavuot or the “Feast of Weeks”. Also known as the “Feast of Harvest” or the “Latter Firstfruits”, Shavuot is traditionally a joyous time of giving thanks and presenting offerings for the new grain of the summer wheat harvest in Israel. The name “Feast of Weeks” was given because God commanded the Jews in Leviticus 3:15-16 to count seven full weeks (or 49 days) beginning on the second day of Passover, and then present offerings of new grain to the Lord as a lasting ordinance. Additionally, Shavuot or the pentecost day (50th day) was the day that God visited His people after their exodus from Egypt and through Moses, brought the Law down from Mount Sinai.

This 50th day, this day of visitation and gifting from human kind to God in the form of first fruits, and from God to human kind in the form of the Ten Commandments, had been and should have remained a day of rejoicing. Once marking an understanding of God’s provision and then of God soverenty, this “birth day” of the people of Israel as God’s promised own, is remembered also as a witness to rebellion and betrayel as the people claimed the gift but rejected the giver. We are told, because of their “hardness of heart,” many of the people turned away from God and 3,000 die and are lost (Exodus 32:28).

In Acts 1, just before the resurrected Jesus is taken up into heaven, he tells the disciples about the Father’s promised gift of the Holy Spirit—the Counselor—who teaches them and “leads them into all truth” (John 16:13) and who will baptize them in the form of a spiritual baptism. A few days later while gathered together in one place, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). This miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit leads Peter to preach and remind the people of what God has done in Jesus Christ and, as 3000 were lost due to their hardness of heart in the time of the Exodus, 3000 are found and proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior by the powerful and illuminating indwelling of the Holy Spirit! It was the 50th day, it was Penticost!

God has revealed himself throughout the expanse of human history and has remained faithful and true. God’s presence and the pattern of God’s care is easily discernible if we only look beyond our selves to become aware of God’s miraculous purpose. The Scriptures unfold to show us how God is ever present and active in our lives and how our turning and relying on God can save us from ourselves by illuminating our past with the light of eternity.

We celebrate the Feast of Pentecost as the celebration of the Birth of the Church, but it is also our spiritual birthday through which we have been brought to this moment. Bathed in the light of Scripture, we are illumined by the Holy Spirit as we grow in the likeness of Christ! From the beginning this was God’s plan, and God spoke it even as he calls your name!