Eden Prairie UMC has been what our denomination, (United Methodist) calls a Reconciling Congregation for over a decade. Being a Reconciling Congregation can mean different things to different people. For most of us at EPUMC, it means that we value the great diversity of God’s creation and want to be clear that we believe the LGBTQ+ community is a vital part of our humanity.
This Sunday we will celebrate our 2nd “Reconciling Sunday.” Our rainbow will be up in the sanctuary. We will rededicate our Rainbow flag. And if you ordered a reconciling tee shirt, I want to invite you to wear it to church; I will be wearing mine.
Putting a particular name on a given Sunday is a tricky business for me. Every Sunday in worship is meant to be a recognition and a celebration of the new life God has promised us in the scriptures through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we designate a Sunday for any other purpose, even the most important and relevant, we can also be tempted to leave Jesus out of it.
This is why our worship design team does its very best to begin our worship planning in scripture. This coming Sunday is a good example. We recognize that the place of the LGBTQ+ folks is very visible at EPUMC by the “Rainbow” flag we fly out front and the “Rainbow” that will hang in our sanctuary all summer. So of course the first scripture a lot of us think about is the story from Genesis of Noah and the Rainbow. (I’ve just read of a new “pride’ flag that looks a little different and has a few more colors, but if you can give me this one today, I’d appreciate it.)
In that scripture, after causing a great flood that almost wipes out all creation and all humanity along with it, God promises Noah, one of the few human beings left, that he will never do anything like that again, no matter how much humanity upsets him. And so God, to both remind herself and humanity of this promise, creates a rainbow.
In our scriptures the rainbow is a subtle and complex image. It asks some interesting questions about the nature of God and our relationship with God. This scripture invites us to consider that what God intended us to be as human beings is a work in progress. It also says that no matter how wrong we human beings might be about working our humanness, God is not going to give up on us.
On Sunday we are going to recognize that standing together with our brothers and sisters of the GLBTQ+ community, loving and accepting people for who they are, understanding our humanity’s need for each other, is -- we believe -- working with God to bring all creation to the place God intended, the new life God showed us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor DanP.S.
Our Stewardship/Finance team has extended the time for you to give $200 or more on line to help us meet a matching challenge of up to $5,000. It looks like now we will end up generating around $8,000 through this emphasis
This Sunday we will celebrate our 2nd “Reconciling Sunday.” Our rainbow will be up in the sanctuary. We will rededicate our Rainbow flag. And if you ordered a reconciling tee shirt, I want to invite you to wear it to church; I will be wearing mine.
Putting a particular name on a given Sunday is a tricky business for me. Every Sunday in worship is meant to be a recognition and a celebration of the new life God has promised us in the scriptures through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we designate a Sunday for any other purpose, even the most important and relevant, we can also be tempted to leave Jesus out of it.
This is why our worship design team does its very best to begin our worship planning in scripture. This coming Sunday is a good example. We recognize that the place of the LGBTQ+ folks is very visible at EPUMC by the “Rainbow” flag we fly out front and the “Rainbow” that will hang in our sanctuary all summer. So of course the first scripture a lot of us think about is the story from Genesis of Noah and the Rainbow. (I’ve just read of a new “pride’ flag that looks a little different and has a few more colors, but if you can give me this one today, I’d appreciate it.)
In that scripture, after causing a great flood that almost wipes out all creation and all humanity along with it, God promises Noah, one of the few human beings left, that he will never do anything like that again, no matter how much humanity upsets him. And so God, to both remind herself and humanity of this promise, creates a rainbow.
In our scriptures the rainbow is a subtle and complex image. It asks some interesting questions about the nature of God and our relationship with God. This scripture invites us to consider that what God intended us to be as human beings is a work in progress. It also says that no matter how wrong we human beings might be about working our humanness, God is not going to give up on us.
On Sunday we are going to recognize that standing together with our brothers and sisters of the GLBTQ+ community, loving and accepting people for who they are, understanding our humanity’s need for each other, is -- we believe -- working with God to bring all creation to the place God intended, the new life God showed us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor DanP.S.
Our Stewardship/Finance team has extended the time for you to give $200 or more on line to help us meet a matching challenge of up to $5,000. It looks like now we will end up generating around $8,000 through this emphasis
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