Graduating senior Hope Ingraham shares a brief message about what her time at Union Presbyterian Church has meant for her faith journey.
Persistence and Determination
The love of God.
Isn’t that why we’re here?
Because we’re convinced of it? Or we long for it? Or we fear we don’t have it? Or we’re not sure we deserve it?
Or, perhaps, because we have entered into that very human and terrifying project of parenting another generation, and, for them, we almost desperately want to wrap them in it, like the most beautiful, handcrafted crazy-quit: The love of God.
Or, perhaps, because we have reached a stage in life where we are confronted by our own physical limitations, our own mortality, and we are, almost instinctively, attuned to it: The Love of God.
The love of God...
Alive to God
It always comes back to baptism. Every time we baptize, the following words (or something like them) are said:
In baptism God claims us, and puts a sign on us to show that we belong to God. God frees us from sin and death, uniting us with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. By water and the Holy Spirit, we are made members of the church, the body of Christ, and joined to Christ’s ministry of love, peace and justice.
Sanctification is the process of growing into all these hopes and promises.
God's Love Poured Out
Throughout the letter to the Romans, Paul works diligently to help us—or, more specifically, the Gentile converts to Christianity that didn’t have the benefit of the Hebrew Scriptures for reference—to make sense of it all. What happened when Jesus died on the cross—specifically, and, globally? What difference did it make? Why do we—followers of Jesus, Christians—look upon this horrific thing, as a good thing?
Face to Face
The Good Shepherd
Become Like a Child
Resurrection Doubt
...
We walk by faith, as Paul has told us, and not by sight. So, for us, for Christians walking around in 2015, we don't receive the revelation at the tomb—we don’t walk there in the darkness, we don't get thrown to the ground by the earthquake, we don’t shield our eyes from the the snow-white, lightning bright angel rolling back the stone majestically and then plopping himself down upon it with his good-news words, "Do not be afraid." And we certainly don't get to see Jesus, dressed, perhaps, like a gardener, showing us his holy hands and side, and letting us cling to his poor battered feet....
A Particular Resurrection
Bread for the Journey: Maundy Thursday Meditation
You have eaten this meal; you have gathered around this table.
You have sat opposite the one you love, the one who loves you.
You have sat near the one with whom you are vying for position.
You have sat next to the one who betrayed you.
You have sat next to the one whom you betrayed.
You have leaned into the bosom of the one you knew
would not live to see another sunset….
and you have leaned close to the one whose parting
was an earthquake of surprise.
Do you remember?
The Rich Young Man
Jesus' Mother and Brothers
On Wisdom and Folly
... There is a wedding. This is a consistent, powerful image Jesus used often, to tell us what the kingdom of God would be like. The kingdom of heaven—not that pie in the sky, in the bye and bye heaven, but heaven as it unfolds on earth when we start to live the gospel with every breath we take. The reign of God looks like a joyful feast, a feast celebrating love, and union, and unity....
