Last year one of our 8th grade confirmands requested that a class be offered about the Holy Trinity. Well, this was a request that we pastors answered with excitement! How many fourteen year olds are genuinely asking questions about the triune nature of God? As I prepared to teach the class, I noticed that one of my messages is that the doctrine of the Trinity may or may not be helpful to you. I also noticed that I am not terribly interested in ‘defending’ this doctrine as though it is the only way to describe and experience God. Personally, I find it helpful and I taught in such a way that shared the Church’s experience of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But the goal of the class was not to have 15 young people robotically leaving the classroom regurgitating the Nicene Creed. Why not? What is the goal of Christian education nowadays if not to explain truths we all are supposed to share? At one point, a young woman in my class asked, “Is there anything Lutherans can disagree with about faith that gets them kicked out?” To be clear to anyone reading this, yes there are extreme things one could believe and/or do that would suspend a person’s access to Holy Communion or get them forced to leave our membership. But what she was asking was this: do Lutherans all have to agree on church doctrines like the Trinity that feel really complicated?... or controversial? She was echoing Pilate’s response to Jesus in John 18 when he asked, “What is truth?

There has been a sense of anticipation in the air here at First. Six hundred of us have in some way contributed to The Plan over the past year. The staff has been planning for the “Year of Service and Fellowship” all summer and pulling together powerful visuals to help us consider our life as servants. The days of summer seem to be waning and the days of blue sky and cool pools are yielding to beautifully colored trees and picking apples. Anticipation is in the air and we are excited about what is coming down the road. By now, you have had the opportunity to read the strategic plan and participate in a cottage meeting, you have noticed our guiding visual as you walk into the church and if you are anything like me, you have been doing some baking with apples. Here we are, the place we have been waiting to be at. How’s it going for you?

Have you ever received a gift and you were not really excited or even thankful for it. But soon after receiving the gift you realized it was what you needed. I know that has happened to me. One Christmas my mother-in-law gave us a cooking pot with a lid, just one mind you and we had a set already. I thanked her for all the gifts, but was thinking in the back of my mind, “what will I do with this one pot and lid.” That summer that pot and lid came in very handy....