Written in our hearts

It was great to have Bishop Sally Dyck with us last Sunday! Her sermon truly uplifted us, as she encouraged us to "lift up our eyes" to the big picture of how God is calling us to live in the midst of today's circumstances.

The whole weekend was filled with special moments of being the Church together. As I walked through the church building Saturday morning, it was almost like hearing a symphony of inviting sounds -

• the songs and teaching of the Brazilian congregation worshiping in the Chapel;
• the eager voices of members of a community group who had asked to use part of our space for a registration time;
• the shouts and jokes of a volleyball game going on in the gym;
• the conversations of a group of men from our church who were meeting for a Lenten Bible study;
• the yawning and stretching of high school youth who were fasting while attending the overnight Lock-In at church, part of the educational and fund-raising effort to fight world hunger;
• the laughter and planning of the S.O.S. volunteer work crew as they gathered for breakfast before tackling that month's projects.

And that was just Saturday morning!

On Sunday afternoon, a good crowd of us returned to church to sing - to join together in favorite hymns picked out by the congregation - and, in good United Methodist style, to eat together at a potluck. I went home filled - not just with the delightful food, but with all the gifts of that weekend - and the goodness of being God's people together - ever growing, and stretching, and journeying on, learning to walk in the path of God's love in Christ.

This Sunday, we'll hear remarkable words from the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34), about God's hope that we would be people of a "new covenant," written in our hearts, and made possible by God's unwavering presence and forgiveness.