Claude King's blog

This week, our Lenten focus is on gaining reconciliation and relationship through the healing of those suffering from the "isms" and illnesses of life, that are unable to be fed and cared for at our tables of faith and fellowship.

Our Lenten theme is "Building Relationships through Reconciliation." We know Lent is a season of living a more sacrificial lifestyle that promotes a closer relationship with God. We practice giving something up for Lent, but for what purpose exactly? Everyone doesn't really know why we practice giving things up during Lent.

A great part of reading the Bible is that we are brought into  close relationship with God's desire for the best life for all of humanity. Jesus is the greatest proclaimer and manifestation of God's sincerest will and deep love for us. However, we who read the words of Jesus and seek to follow them may often find them difficult to attain, but when we understand the extensive relationship that God wants to establish with us it becomes much easier.

Salt and light are part of the physical and visual elements that we all need to live well. Simply put, salt enhances food and light illuminates the world around us but each one does much more than that respectively. Normally, we eat large amounts of salt for taste, actually too much of it; but we require certain amounts of a variety of salts to maintain overall good health in moderation. 

"The Beloved Community" is a term that was first coined in the early days of the 20th century by the philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, who founded the Fellowship of Reconciliation. However, it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who popularized the term and invested it with a deeper meaning which has captured the imagination of people of good will all over the world.

The ritual of the sacrament of Holy Baptism symbolizes the  washing away of our sins, the beginning of a new and transformed life in Christ's love and the entry into the church, the body of all believers in God through Jesus our Savior. A baptismal candidate can go through the ritual of Holy Baptism either by being totally immersed in a pool of water and quickly brought back up, by pouring water over the head of the baptismal candidate, or by applying water by hand onto the head of the baptismal candidate. The candidate can be of any age from an infant to a senior citizen.