Dear Friends,
I want to express appreciation to those delegates from our church who attended Annual Conference at the University of Redlands last week. Cheryl Allen, Randa Krakow, Stephanie Roede, Phyllis and Andy Castiglione were our elected representatives. Chad Ummel, attended as a San Diego District youth delegate. It was a productive time of planning, budgeting and celebrating the ministry of our Annual Conference. During July, we can look forward to hearing from these people as they share their experiences and impressions.
This week in worship, we will focus on the epistle lesson from Galatians 5:1, 13-25. In this passage, Paul gives a kind of commencement address to the people of Galatia. This passage comes at the end of a letter that addresses the difficulties that this church has been facing. The problems center on the fact that this church is made up of a lot of folks with strong ties to the Jewish faith. Their faith experiences – until their conversions to Christianity – had been closely tied to the Law. They had lived their lives of faith by the rules, by the book, by the Torah. They did this because they had always believed that their salvation and righteousness depended upon it. Paul’s task in this letter is to offer them a new way of living out of the blessings of God’s grace and love. One way he explains this is to share with them about the gifts of the Spirit. He lifts up a bouquet of virtues, a fruit basket of values that build character and community and speak of God’s mercy and grace.
I look forward to seeing you on Sunday,
Rev. Martha