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Tidings The United Methodist Church of New City Worship and Church School 10:00 a.m. |
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Volume 30, No. 2 |
845-634-1758 |
www.newcityumc.org |
Email: richardaw@verizon.net |
February, 2005 |
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Dear Members and Friends, In reflecting on Lent for this year, I've been thinking of Jesus' parable of the leaven or yeast in the loaf. [Matt 13:33] The parable contains very good news for us and an invitation. The good news for us for Lent is that the leaven, the grace of God, the power of God is present in us, the dough. We are more than muscle and bones and neurons and organs. God is always present to raise up our faith, our hope, our knowledge and our ability to live lives of meaning and purpose and wholeness and joy. God the leaven is with us, God's good dough. Yet, very often, nothing much seems to happen . . . no growth; no expansion of faith, truth or knowledge; not much sense of deeper meaning or wholeness or joy. What does that mean? Just like leaven or yeast works best in an environment of some warmth, so does God's grace. That warmth is something to which we can expose ourselves. It's found in worship, in prayer, in forgiveness, in acts of compassion, and in other places, such as those Lenten Disciplines described on page 3 inside this Tidings. It is also found among small groups of Christians studying and questioning together such as in our "Living the Questions" series. You can learn more about this group now forming on page 8 inside. I hope you'll join us. Lent is a time to intentionally move near some warmth to help create the best environment for the leaven to do its work in us. We can't tell just how we will rise, but it will be a blessing and it will give us Easter joy. Keep Lent with some specific faithful choices . Cooperate with God's
efforts to raise us up. May this Lent be a great blessing to us all. Richard A. Wittig, |
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