June Trinity Lutheran Epistle Column

Dear Friends in Christ, 

Writing is usually my natural and easy medium of communication, but it seems like a ridiculous exercise to try to sum up all my love and gratitude and hopes for our congregation in one simple column for the Epistle. I hope as you read this, you remember all of my other words written in this space, prayed at bedsides, shared in meetings, spoken from the pulpit: words of encouragement, compassion, wonder, inquiry, and thanksgiving. As I said in my sermon after the bishop’s election, I am so grateful to our congregation for giving me all the opportunities that helped me become the person the synod assembly elected/called to the office of bishop. There is something else I want to express my gratitude for—for helping me love and believe in the power of the good news again and again. All the ways I have grown in leadership could have led me to go run a nonprofit, which might have been fun. But I still find the good news of Jesus Christ compelling, still find the abundant love of God a message the community needs to hear, still think the story of God’s redeeming love is a story worth sharing. More than anything else, your collective willingness to keep engaging with the story of God’s love has spurred me on. For every Confirmation youth, new member class, midwinter movie participant, Monday study group student, and coffee conversation partner who wrestled with scripture, faith, discipleship in the 21^stcentury, I am so incredibly grateful. And it is the God of this same story, the God who we have worshiped together, prayed to, and even cried out to in pain or anger, who will accompany us in the months and years ahead. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26) 

Pastor Meggan