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Pastor's Ponderings
Things have changed. 2024 has given way to 2025. School starts back up for children in Ankeny on the day you will receive the newsletter. In the next few days our Christmas decorations will come down as we observe Epiphany on Monday – the day that signals the end of the Christmas Season and the day we share the story of the Magi visiting Jesus and his family. Epiphany signals the beginning of ‘green’ time in the church.
There are two seasons of the church year associated with the color green. They are the “ordinary” time between Epiphany and Lent, and the ordinary time between Pentecost and Advent. This is not to mean ‘ordinary’ in the sense of “ho-hum” (Every Sunday is a mini-Easter and therefore a moment of praise and excitement!) but referring to ordinal numbers – a way of counting, i.e. first Sunday after Epiphany, second Sunday after Epiphany, etc.
In these green seasons we reflect on growth. The first growth period in the church, the time between Epiphany and Lent, is focused on our own growth as disciples of Jesus Christ.
I think that makes a lot of sense, given that it is at the beginning of the year, a time when we in some sense ‘start over’. We make resolutions about the ways we want to be in the new year. Why not focus in some way about how we, you and I individually, might strengthen our faith as followers of Jesus.
I remember while I was picking up my middle son at gymnastics one day a long time ago, he got in the car saying, “I really need to work on my arm strength!” What an odd thing for a seven year old to say! I am sure it was a repetition of something one of his coaches said…still, it was odd.
Later that month there was an in-house gymnastics meet where we got to go see what he had been working on over the past several months. It was while he was doing the rings that it became clear what he had been talking about. Every time he tried to pull himself up, he would have to strain and would go crooked. One arm was stronger than the other and it was the only thing that caused him struggle.
To develop his needed strength he had to exercise his arms. What was interesting to watch was the way that his exercise became quite natural to him. He would constantly push up with his arms wherever we went…on counters, in queues at fast food restaurants, basically where ever he was he found some place to exercise his arms quite out of habit (often to the sound of his parents saying, “get down!”). The exercise became a part of him, a part of his life and his play.
Strengthening something takes work, it takes effort. The thing is that doing that work can also become a part of us in such a way that we do it quite naturally, so that it becomes part of us and perhaps even less like work and more like play.
I want to invite you, along with me, to make a commitment to work on strengthening something about your faith. For my part, I am going to make it my practice to pause at the end of the day and think about the places I have seen God at work and to journal something about that experience. It is an exercise I have done before, and it always helps me to be more aware of God’s presence all around me. It also opens me up to opportunities to join God in God’s work in the world.
I hope that in the coming year you will find opportunities to strengthen your faith in such a way that they become naturally a part of who you are. May you and your faith grow in 2025!
Shalom,
Pastor Owen
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