Beloved Friends,
Shalom! Peace to you my dear ones.
As we move further into this season of Eastertide- these 50 days after the Resurrection, our community will gather both through Trinity@Home (on-line) and with Trinity@316 (in-person) this Sunday and hear a familiar story to many of us. Jesus will join two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. I call it a familiar story, not because of our knowledge of scripture necessarily, but because what happens in the story parallels our very own stories so much of the time. Individually and collectively we too are on the road to Emmaus every day. It is the metaphor of a journey in which we think we are secure in our knowledge or experience and then, without warning, something changes. And what we are able to see and know along the way at any given time has everything to do with our willingness to be open and move beyond our certainties, doubts and fears. It also has everything to do with our ability to pay attention to everything around and inside of us.
As I write this post I am miles away from you, attending a weeklong clergy wellness conference for LGBTQIA clergy. I am spending time reflecting on the gift of ministry in our context at Trinity and feeling so grateful for the road we are walking together. We are noticing many things together and learning to respond to the ministry God has placed in our midst. Together, we are attending to the needs in our surrounding community as we continue to expand how we serve those in need, as well as attending to a number of building projects. We are also expanding who and how we define community at Trinity welcoming new members and developing new ways to invite others in to use our space. It is exciting and gives me great joy to tell our stories and share the Good News of what we are finding in Toledo as we walk with Jesus down this Emmaus road.
So come home this Sunday and hold that space together as the Body of Christ. We are so very blessed that our Trinity member and retired priest Fr. Robert Gahler is willing and able to serve this Sunday, and that Trinity’s Director of Community Engagement, George Benson will be preaching. It will be another beautiful time to be the “church”- a community engaged and committed to embracing and then sharing God’s love in the world.
I send you into the weekend with one of my favorite Eastertide poems. Written by Presbyterian minister and prolific author Ted Loder it captures what I pray we find as we continue walking this road.
May you never forget that you are loved.
Lisa
I Praise you for this Resurrection Madness (by Ted Loder)
Lord of such amazing surprises as put a catch in my breath
and wings on my heart.
I praise you for this joy, too great for words,
but not for tears and songs and sharing, for mercy
that blots out my betrayals and bids me begin again,
and to limp on, to hop-skip-and-jump on.
To mend what is broken in and around me
and to forgive the breakers; for this YES
to life and laughter, to love and lovers,
and to my unwinding self; for this Kingdom
unleashed in me and I in it forever.
And no dead ends to growing, to choices, to chances,
to calls to be just.
No dead ends to living, to making peace, to dreaming dreams,
to being glad of heart.
For this resurrection madness which is wiser than I
and in which I see how great you are, how full of grace,
Alleluia!