Skip to main content

Pastor's Column: Year of Justice Dawns


Blessings, fellow Epworthians! 


We made it to 2021. Can you believe it? We are calling 2021 The Year of Justice. How can we be engaged with God’s plan to make the world a more Just place? What is Epworth’s place in that plan? What is your place in God’s plan?


We began the Year of Justice in worship on January 17. Our Scriptures throughout the year will explore justice. We’ll go in depth into the Older Testament book of Amos and the New Testament book of James, taking particular note how they address justice.

 

We’ve just started a Racial justice Book Club. We are reading How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. Even if you don’t join the Book Club, I’ve got copies of the book for you. I’m confident that the conversations will be rich and enlightening. I hope that we’ll come to new understanding, perhaps be transformed, and maybe even endeavor to change the world. Hopefully this will be just the first Book Club in a series, so if you didn’t join this first one, look for the next one.

 

As our nation undergoes a change in presidential administrations, there will be opportunities for us to seek justice, to work for justice, to build a more just world.

 

Lent begins soon. Ash Wednesday, marking the start of Lent, is February 17 and ends on April 3, the day before Easter.

 

We’ll need your contributions again to create a new Epworth Lenten Devotional. The deadline to submit your writings and your artworks is February 7 so we can get Devotionals to you before Ash Wednesday.

 

The COVID vaccination has arrived and is being administered, but it will probably be a while before we can worship in-person indoors again. Until we can be safe, we’ll continue streaming worship. When we can worship together again, we’ll continue streaming services as well. I like to thank you for faithfully participating in worship.

If you have ideas for our Year of Justice, want to contribute to the Lenten Booklet, or have questions, comments, or concerns, please email me  pastorsteveepworth@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook or call or text my cell phone 612-708-2466.

 

Blessings,

Pastor Steve

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The just get involved with the poor and know their issues, but the unjust cannot comprehend such concerns.~  Proverbs 29:7 (The Voice)

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winter 2021: Luminous Darkness

  Contents click the article title to read the article Nourishing Faith Boundary Reflections Christmas Eve Pastor’s Column Power of Music   Welcoming All Bag of Blessing God’s Light Enters Reading for Justice   Doing Good Creation Care Curing Cabin Fever Lefse Love   BEing Church Illume Epiphany Justice Calls Lenten Journey   Epworth Echoes  is a newsmagazine p ublished 4 times a year by   Pastor:   Steve Reiser Editorial Board:  Shirley Durr, Cynthia Lillquist, Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues, Brian Lillquist, Saundra Johnson Photographs:  Aaron Jones (cover photo) ,  Nan Rice, Nancy Meisel-Youngman, Cynthia Lillquist, Steve Reiser   Image Attributions: ·        aurora borealis photo:  (favim.com) ·        Year of Justice logo : Steve Reiser ·        Boundaries photo:  “The Beginning is Near” (imgur.com) ·      ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reflections at the boundary

imgur.com By Dennis Alexander   Facing a New Year is like coming up to a boundary or standing at the edge of new possibilities. The way things were, the past, does not have to be a forerunner of our future. If, at the boundary, we pause to reflect and act - we can "unload" things at the boundary we don't want to take with us into the new journey ahead. We can "dump the crap" and start fresh; choosing to take "the best" forward with us.   A pastor I deeply admire, Rev. Paul Engstrom often shared with me these words:  "I wish there was some wonderful place called “The Land of Beginning Again!” where all our mistakes, and all our heartaches,  could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never be put on again." That place is here and the time is now! Facing a New Year -- much like a boundary, an edge, or a bridge --  may we pause and take stock and "drop", indeed leave behind, all that holds us back from truly being the wonde...
Post a Comment
Read more

Epworth Lenten Devotional 2021: Join the wilderness journey

  By Saundra Johnson After some discussion with Epworth lay leaders, Pastor Steve proposed creating an Epworth Lenten Devotional like the ones Epworthians created in the past.    As she did for the 2019 Epworth Devotional ( Faith, Hope, Love: These Three ), Shirley Durr hopes to be involved with putting together the 2021 Devotional.   “Considering we spent most of 2020 physically apart from each other,” she said, “and the trauma of COVID in our world, political turmoil in our country, and racial unrest in our neighborhood – I think people must have lots to share.”   Pastor Steve is ready to accept whatever personal reflection people want to send for Devotional 2021 and other church leaders, like Judy Ayers, agreed.    Shirley said people were especially moved by the words and art from the children and youth that appeared in the 2019 Devotional. These received the most meaningful. attention and comment during Lenten Study time that year.   But with...
Post a Comment
Read more