Category: Children’s Sermon

Lighting the baptismal font

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And let’s all gather around the baptismal font. So what do you see? We have this sort of pillar like thing that is white and has a metal bowl inside. The metal bowl is typically empty but on special days it might be filled with a liquid like water. We call it a font – which is like fountain – because water can be found here. But even though the water just sits here, we imagine that it’s flowing like water in a fountain – special because it’s connected to the God who is all around us. What we do at the font is take a little water, offer some prayers, and use it to announce that you are a beloved child of God. The creator of everything declares that you are necessary for what God wants done in this world and that you – right now – can love, care, and make a difference in the world. 

Now some of us were baptized as babies while some of us were older. But it’s the water and the prayers and gathering together in Jesus’ name that makes this promise public and real. God does love you and values you – but when we baptize here – we let the entire world know that you matter even if others say you don’t. I think that’s pretty neat. It makes me feel a little warm, a little inspired, a little in awe that the God of everything cared about you – and cares about me – that much. Yet – once we’re baptized – what happens next? How do we remember or trust or feel connected to that grace from God? Well – that’s where the Hoky Spirit comes in. 

The Holy Spirit is hard to describe since I don’t really see it as a physical thing. It’s more an energy, a force, a presence in the world that moves. The Holy Spirit is how God’s love comes into being in the world and it’s what comes into us so we can be kind and patient and even trust that God really is with us. Since the Holy Spirit is sort of mystical and hard to describe, we can wonder where it is. When do we feel it? When does it show up? And where has it been in our life? 

That isn’t always easy to answer. But I promise you that the Holy Spirit was here when you were baptized. It was present when God said you matter in the world. And the promises made to you by God, the community, and your parents are how the Holy Spirit shows up in our lives. The holy spirit is the power, the energy, the fuel that makes love known. And since the Holy Spirit can be like a burning thing that give us energy, that’s one of the reasons why – as we’ll hear in our reading from the books of Acts today – the Spirit could be defined like a fire burning bright. So as a reminder that the Holy Spirit is here – the Holy Spirit has been in your life – and that the Spirit is the fuel, energy, and light that makes love – real love – the love that chooses kindness rather than anger, the love that stands up to bullies rather than becomes one, the love that welcomes rather than excludes, the love that heals rather than divides – we’re going to remember that this Spirit is with us by lighting the baptism font on fire. 

And may the light we see, the heat we feel, and the energy we experience remind us that we have the Spirit and the responsibility to always love. 

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to talk a little bit about what Jesus says today (7th Sunday of Easter, Year C, John 17:20-26). We’re going to hear Jesus do something the Bible tells us he does a lot – but doesn’t always gives us the words Jesus used. Jesus is going to pray. He is going to do what we do in church – use words to express his hopes, needs, dreams, and awe to God, the father. This is an opportunity, I think, for us to not only listen to Jesus pray but to also ask ourselves – what do we pray for? 

So we have a tradition in my family to, every night, say our prayers together. I first invite my kids by saying “how do we start our prayers?” and then they all say “Dear God.” We then go around sharing two things we’re thankful for – such as having fun in school, doing well on a test, or maybe we’re grateful for coming back from vacation safely. There’s actually a lot of things we can be thankful for – even those things we don’t really imagine we need to say we’re thankful. We can be thankful for our family, for the food we eat, for the roof over our head, for even the opportunity to go to school – even when school gives us a bunch of tests. We get to be grateful for the ways we get to be ourselves – and all the ways God helps us grow, and reveal to others, who we get to be too. It takes time learning what we can be grateful for so if it’s difficult at first, that’s fine. But over time, you’ll start to notice all the small blessings that are really big blessings that God surrounds you with. I wonder what things Jesus could say in his own prayers that he’d be thankful for.  

The next thing we do is then name 2 things we want to pray for. We pray to do well on a test tomorrow or maybe do well at a game. We pray that we’ll be safe while we travel or even that we’ll have a good night’s sleep if that’s something we’ve been struggling with. We’ll also pray for specific people who need our prayers and also in generalities – praying for those who are scared, those who might not have a home, and those who are bullied. God invites us to be honest, to admit the truth about who we are, and to hold close to God even when everything feels hard. I wonder what things Jesus prayed for too. 

What makes Jesus’ words today a little different though is that Jesus prays for you. Even though this story takes place nearly 2000 years ago while Jesus was having his last meal with his friends before he was arrested and headed to the Cross – Jesus knows that his story isn’t only for those immediately around him. God’s love, God’s grace, God’s hope, and God’s mercy is meant for them and for all who come after them – which includes you. Jesus wants you to know that you are loved; that you have value; and that you are part of something so much bigger than yourselves. And that when things are hard, Jesus will be right there alongside you in ways you don’t even realize. You are a beloved child of God and Jesus prays that you will always remember that no matter what life throws your way. 

Bring a $1 US Dollar.

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to talk a little bit about what we’re going to hear Jesus say. To do that, though, I brought with me a $1 bill. I’ll admit that I don’t use paper money very much anymore. I often use my credit card or electronic forms of money to take what’s in my bank account and exchange with others for goods or services. But every once in a while, paper money works for me and it’s kind of amazing how detailed our paper bills are. You’ll notice the front has a picture of George Washington and a lot of words. It includes which country this kind of money is from, what its called, what it can be used for, a serial number making it unique, and roughly when it was made. It also has a lot of designs and webbing on it. The front tells us what this piece of special paper is – it’s a dollar bill – that we give value too. 

But on the back, we get a lot more images and pictures. And a lot of these images are various symbols and metaphors that people imagine for the Unite States. We have a pyramid with an eye, a lot of words in latin, and a bunch of the numbers “1” showing how much it’s worth. But over here, we have a picture of the American Eagle holding a shield – with a bunch of arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. I wonder – what do you think those might represent? Arrows – war. Olive branch – peace. The arrows represent war and what that takes. It involves armies and technology and soldiers and violence and bravery and all the things that happen during war. Wars can feel – and are – very big since they involve a lot of work, effort, resources, words, and power to move an entire nation to fight. Wars can be fought to make people safer and able to embrace the future God wants for us all. Or wars can be used to cause pain and suffering only for the sake of power and greed. It can be easy to glorify war – especially if the only experiences we have with it aren’t real – mostly just from books, movies, or whatever we see on our screen. Yet wars involve real people whose lives are abruptly changed. It’s why, I think, we as a nation will take a moment tomorrow – Memorial Day – to remember the real people who died while in service of the American Union. And as much as we hope the wars we fight will bring about peace so all can live, love, and grow in amazing ways – we also live in a world where wars continue to happen since we’re not always very good at living in the way God wants us to. 

So in our words we’ll hear today from Jesus, he’ll talk about the kind of peace God wants in the world. But it’s not a peace that was practiced by the Roman Empire during his time – when they used violence to force others to do what they wanted. It’s a different kind of peace – a peace that God invites us into that is modeled in what Jesus does. It’s a peace of welcome, of support, of care, of making sacrifices so our neighbors can thrive. It’s a peace that Jesus invites us to live into even when it’s hard. And while that doesn’t mean wars will end since we are human, we can glorify peace rather than pretending that strength and might is manifested by who can inflict their wills on over. And one way we do that is by remembering which way the eagle on the $1 is facing. It’s not looking towards the arrows but to the olive branch which symbolizes peace. 

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to talk to all of God’s children. And I brought with me a few books I read with my kids. It’s a popular series that you might know too and it’s all about a pigeon who can be a little much. The series is by Mo Williams and started with a pigeon begging us to drive the bus. The series has grown to include books like “the pigeon has to go to school,” “don’t let the pigeon drive the sleigh,” “the pigeon needs a bath,” and “the duckling gets a cookie.” Open a book As we can see, this pigeon can be a lot. The pigeon complains. The pigeon whines. The pigeon has big dreams, big emotions, and shouts all the time. And as we see when the pigeon finally agrees to do what it should do – like take a bath – it delays delays delays, arguing that the water is too cold, too hot, too cold, too hot, too wet, too reflective, not enough toys, and too many toys. This pigeon is up and down and all around. And while this pigeon can be pretty funny, this pigeon is also pretty exhausting. And when we get to the end of each book, the pigeon usually discovers that what it was afraid of, what it was worried about, and all the energy it spent avoiding the good thing it could do wasn’t necessary in the first place. 

Now one of the reasons why I think these books are so great is because we can imagine pigeons – and ourselves – being exactly like this. We don’t always want to try new things or we have big emotions that we always like to share or we don’t always know how to be flexible when things happen that we don’t expect. This pigeon is something we especially see in kids your age – but also in adults who pretend they’re not like this but they are. We are inflexible; we want what we want; and we will drag our feet when we things don’t go our way. And if we’ve ever seen a pigeon in a city – especially New York City – we notice that they act this way too. They are everywhere; they eat everything; they run into the road; they take over sidewalks; they don’t seem very clean; and they’re everything we try to avoid. We’d rather celebrate a hawk or a cardinal or a blue jay. But a pigeon is just too much – and something we want to avoid. 

Yet in today’s reading about Jesus – we’re going to hear about how, nearly 2000 years ago, the holy spirit – God’s energy – God’s force – the feeling of God’s presence in the world – showed up as a pigeon. It won’t use the word “pigeon” in our Bible – it’ll call it a DOVE. But a DOVE is just a pigeon! We just pretend that it’s not. We think of a dove as all white and graceful and peaceful and wonderful and holy and innocent. But a DOVE is a pigeon – and can act like every other pigeon too. And I wonder if that is a good reminder of what the Holy Spirit is like. The Holy Spirit is sometimes wild, unpredictable, and full of big emotion. The Holy Spirit pushes us – like it does this pigeon – into new experiences where we get to make God’s love real in the live of others. The Holy Spirit comes to transform us from being this kind of pigeon that tells God no or pretends that God doesn’t want us to be as kind or as caring or as sacrificial as God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit is a pigeon that transforms us when we are like this pigeon who doesn’t realize just how big God’s story can be. But like the pigeon in the books, what the Holy Spirit does by pushing us to be kind, to love, to serve, to form new relationships, and to not our own wants, ego, or needs get in the way of our ability to recognize everyone around us as beloved children of God – the Holy Spirit is what helps us grow fuller into the person God knows we can be. 

It’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to continue today talking about what we started a few weeks ago – a look at the Nicene Creed! We began imagining this creed as a rule – describing what we say about God, church, worship, and life in our world. The Creed came out of a conversation a bunch of people had 1700 years ago about how God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were united together. There was a time when someone thought that God the Father/Creator was on-top and with Jesus – and the Holy Spirit – below – like a ladder. But the supporters of the Creed said no –  Jesus, the Father, the Holy SPirit – all are together because there’s no part of God that hasn’t experienced what our life is like. If you look at the Creed, you’ll notice it’s split into 3 parts – just like the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We talked about the first part – God as Creator – who is always creating, involved, and being a part of our lives. The part about Jesus is long – and full of big words – but reminds us how Jesus’ story is God’s story. God experienced what we do – the need to be born, to grow up, to be cared for, and even what it’s like to feel sad, hurt, disappointed, bullied, pushed around, and what it’s like to have friends who need to be cared for too. 

And so – we’re going to wrap up out conversation on the creed by focusing on the last 3rd of the Creed. But before we do that – I want to ask you – when you’re going down the slide while on the playground, and you’re having fun, is there something that you say or do? We might laugh. We might smile. We might cheer. And we might say “weeee!” When we’re having fun, we might say weeee. I have no idea why we do that. I don’t know where it comes from. But it’s something we’ve watched our friends do – our parents do – etc. When we’re having fun, we say “wee.” 

And I’ll admit that there are times when playing or being by ourselves is fun – but I tend to have more fun when I’m with others. When I’m with my family, my wife, friends, or playing games against others – I have more fun when others are there too. It’s easier to say “weee” when there’s a “we” – when we’re with others too. Those others, though, need to be on the same page. We have to be kind to each other, helpful to each other, and take care of each other. Making fun of each other or bullying or trying to act like we’re better than others – that isn’t very fun for everyone. But when we’re all having fun, all taking care of each other, all being for each other – then we can all say “weee” in exciting ways. 

And that – I think – is what the last part of the Nicene Creed is about. It shows how God has more fun by being a community too. It wonders how does God interact with us and God does that through God’s power – God’s presence – God’s energy and vibe and force – that we call the Holy Spirit. And the core of that energy – of the Holy Spirit – is love. It’s about what God’s love does – how God’s love interacts and makes itself real in our life too. It’s about where we, right now, might notice God at work. We hear it in God’s story – recorded in the words of the prophets in our Bible and also those prophets in our here and now who remind of our responsibility to take care of the most vulnerable around us. We acknowledge how the Holy Spirit – God’s power and God’s movement and God’s energy is why we are here now – in church and connected to a faith community that connects us to all Christians, of all time. We’re always part of something bigger than ourselves. We acknowledge how we, through baptism, were proclaimed as part of God’s holy family – and how the ways we separate each other or hurt each other or even death itself – won’t keep us from our God. And we also look forward, together, for God’s continued work in our world and in our lives to make GOd’s kingdom real. God doesn’t want us to do this faith thing on our own. God knows that we need each other to become who God knows we can be. It’s why the version of the creed we share in worship begins with a “we.” It’s not focused on fun – but it is focused on how we get to pray with each other, for each other, listen to God’s story together, and grow into who God knows we can be. We need each other – and everyone out there needs your prayers and presence and care and words too. And maybe we, as we follow Jesus together, might – occasionally – have a little fun together too.

Delivered on September 8, 2024.

Bring a beach ball with words written on it

It’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to continue today talking about what we started last week – the Nicene Creed. We began two weeks ago thinking of the Nicene Creed as a rule – describing what we say about God and what we share in worship and with each other. It came out of a conversation a bunch of people had 1700 years ago about how God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were united together. There was a time when someone thought that God the Father/Creator was on-top and with Jesus – and the Holy Spirit – below – like a ladder. But the supporters of the Creed said no –  Jesus, the Father, the Holy SPirit – all are together because there’s no part of God that hasn’t experienced what our life is like. If you look at the Creed, you’ll notice it’s split into 3 parts – just like the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We talked last week about the first part – God as Creator. God is always active, creating, and being a part of our lives. Today we’ll focus on the second part this week which is all about Jesus by using this beachball.  

But this beachball looks a bit different. What do you see? Words written on it. It’s got all kinds of words on it. We have the words – begotten. Incarnate. Scriptures. Glory. Judge. Light and more. These are all words that we’ll say, together, when we recite the 2nd part of the Nicene Creed. These are words we might know – and words we might. So it’s okay to ask and wonder what these words are. 

So, for example, we have “begotten:” It’s a word that can mean brought forth – shows up – becomes real. In the creed, it doesn’t really mean born like we were born – but rather – shows how The Creator/ Jesus/ and the Holy Spirit are unique, different, but at the same level. 

Incarnate – this means born. This is the christmas story. Jesus entered the world like we do. And had to grow up like we do. And discovered what it’s like to be vulnerable and to need others to provide what he needed. Growing up is hard work – and it requires a lot of support from the people around us.

Scriptures – is a fancy word for our Bible. It’s what we will read – words that God gives us to read, ponder, and dream how God is always with us.

Glory – an invitation of seeing Jesus’ power on full display – full of special effects – so that there is no doubt in our mind who Jesus is. 

Judge – That Jesus – who is fully God but also fully human – who has experience the fullness of divinity and humanity and what that might mean – will be the One who will be given the authority to judge our actions, thoughts, experiences, and how we lived out God’s call to love and serve. 

Light – an imagine of the divine. More than a physical form. Or a human form. Or an old man in the sky or a young guy with a beard. Jesus is everything – and a very human thing – all at the same time. 

The 2nd part of the creed couldn’t put in all of Jesus’ life within it. But it focuses on Jesus being God. On Jesus choosing to be Human. On Jesus living our kind of life. And how even death won’t be what keeps us way from God’s love – and from our bonds to each other. We proclaim, confess, and trust that God knows what it’s like to be us – and that God promises to not let htis moment, this hurt, this joy, and all of this that might be hard – be the limit of what our full experience of God and Jesus will be. 

Delivered on September 1, 2024.

Nicene Creed Part 4

Bring the ingredients for slime.

It’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to continue today talking about what we started last week – the Nicene Creed. We began two weeks ago thinking of the Nicene Creed as a rule – describing what we say about God and what we share in worship and with each other. It came out of a conversation a bunch of people had 1700 years ago about how God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were united together. There was a time when someone thought that God the Father/Creator was on-top and with Jesus – and the Holy Spirit – below – like a ladder. But the supporters of the Creed said no – Jesus, the Father, the Holy SPirit – all are together because there’s no part of God that hasn’t experienced what our life is like. If you look at the Creed, you’ll notice it’s split into 3 parts – just like the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we’re going to focus on that first part this week by first making slime.

Now slime is a lot of fun. It’s gooey, oozes, and can be made into all kinds of shapes. There’s also a lot of different recipes for slime but here’s one I found and I have the ingredients laid out in front of me.

2 (4-ounce) bottles washable school glue, such as Elmer’s (see note for variations)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 to 3 tablespoons saline solution (i.e., contact lens solution), divided

So we have all the ingredients. They’re right in front of us. They’re the building blocks of slime. But do we have slime yet? Nope! No idea. We still need to mix everything together – to follow the recipe – and to get our hands dirty.

And that’s what the first part of the Nicene Creed is about. God the Father – God as Creator – is a God who creates. A God who gets involved. A God who gets God’s hands dirty, so to speak, in our lives and in our world. God isn’t far away when God creates. God is right here – right now – and God is still creating new things in our lives and in our world. We can see ourselves as part of the ingredients of what God wants the world to be like. And God promises through God’s presence, love, and grace to work in our own lives so that God’s love is made real in our world.

So let’s mix things up and remember that God isn’t far away; God isn’t done creating; and that God is active, present, and with us even now.

Pour the glue into a medium bowl.
Add the baking soda: Add the baking soda to the glue mixture and stir until smooth.
Add the contact lens solution: Pour in 2 tablespoons of the contact lens solution and stir slowly. The mixture should begin to harden, becoming stringy.
Mix until a ball forms: Continue mixing slowly until a ball of slime forms.
Knead by hand: Pick up the slime and work between your two hands, until smooth. If the slime is particularly slimy, work in another 1/2 tablespoon of contact lens solution as needed.

Delivered on August 25, 2024.

It’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to continue today talking about what we started last week – the Nicene Creed. We began two weeks ago thinking of the Nicene Creed as a rule – describing what we say about God and what we share in worship and with each other. Last week, we talked about the history of where it comes from and how, in the year 325, the Roman Emperor Constantine got a lot of people together to talk about how some of us have different thoughts when it comes to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The Creed comes out of a conversation – and we are called to live our faith out loud in a community, with others, because other people help us see how God is beyond just our own thoughts and experiences. And today, I want to talk a little bit about the main – but not the only – controversy that caused the gathering in the first place. I’ll admit that I don’t understand the nuances behind the issue 100%. Part of that is because we mostly have writings from those who eventually supported the Nicene Creed and we don’t have, in their own words, the thoughts of those who thought otherwise. Part of it is because a lot of this is heavily tied to philosophy and ways at looking at the world rooted in the language, custom, and assumptions about different schools of Greco-Roman thought. And while I consider myself a pretty smart guy, I’m not really deep into philosophy so I can’t unpack – or explain – or share the nuances that others can. My hope is to give you a big picture perspective about why this Creed seems to spend a lot of time talking about Jesus in ways that the Apostles’ Creed doesn’t. And to do that well – I want you to imagine and think about how you would draw God. 

If you needed to make a picture of God, how would you draw it? Accept answers. 

Sometimes people picture God as an old guy with a beard. Others might imagine just a bright light since how can we really picture the divine? But I’ve often expected that what we imagine God to look like impacts what we think God is. So if God is an old guy with a beard, God will do what old guys with beards do. And that became part of the situation 1700 years ago. People were trying to figure out how God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit relate to each other. During that conversation, a man named Arian put into words what a lot of people practically imagine – saying there was God, the creator, kind of at the top with Jesus and the Holy Spirit below. This meant that Arian – and others – assumed that Jesus was created by God the creator – putting distance between God and Jesus. Those who disagreed with Arian often described this thinking through the words “there was a time when Jesus was not.” That didn’t mean Jesus wasn’t present when the universe was made or anything like that. Nor did it really challenge people’s experience of Jesus in their life since it didn’t really change his story. But it did place a little gap – a little hierarchy between the God, the Son of God, and the Holy Trinity. And that gap was, for those who eventually supported the Nicene Creed, was a bit of a problem. Because that gap implied that God – all of God – all of the Trinity – didn’t experience life as we know it to be. If the Creator aspect of God was a little bit apart from Jesus, then maybe what Jesus experienced – being a baby, being vulnerable, needing to be taken care of, laughter, joy, sorrow, and even death – was something all of God didn’t experience either. And if God the Trinity didn’t experience all of what it means to be human – then what does that say about us who were made it God’s image? 

The Nicene Creed affirms that we experience – and God chooses to express God’s self – in three. The’s God the creator; Jesus; and the energy and activity of God that we name the Holy Spirit. And this God isn’t just there but this God chose to experience all of what we experience too. It’s a mystery why God did that. It’s a mystery even how God, the divine, could experience what we do. But when we try to hide the mystery, to make the mystery small, to fully understand God and, in the process making God small and manageable, our relationship to God becomes something other than the complete, loving, and forever thing it’s meant to be. A lot of what God does is mysterious. A lot of who Jesus is a paradox, something we can’t always figure out even if we consider ourselves pretty smart. But we should be careful to not try to explain God by making God small. We should, instead, take God as who God chooses to be. And who we believe God is – according to Christians – is revealed in Jesus; a Jesus who lived; who loved; a Jesus who died; a Jesus who rose; and a Jesus who will be with and for you – forever.

Delivered on August 18, 2024.

It’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to continue today talking about what we started last week – the Nicene Creed. I shared that the Nicene Creed serves as a kind of rule – a written explanation of what we say and teach and share. We, as followers of Jesus, talk a lot about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But for 2000 years, different people have had different emphasis or focuses on who Jesus is and what to focus on. We hear that during Jesus’ own ministry when the disciples argue with each other. We also hear it in Paul’s letters to early churches when they talk about different preachers going around sharing different things about Jesus. And we even do that today since there are many different flavors of Christianity and we, here, are Lutheran Christians. All these different flavors can make us wonder what rule – what’s the basic outline of following Jesus and who God is – that we can lean into. And so, in the year 325, in a city in what is now Modern Day Turkey, lots of people got together to craft a rule that they hoped everyone would follow. 

So I have with me an artistic rendition – an icon – a visual representation of what it might look like. And so what do you see? A bunch of old dudes in a circle, auditorium style, who are together. And that’s sort of where the Nicene Creed comes from. In the early 300s, a lot was going on in the Mediterrean area. The Roman Emperor Constantine had started to grow an Empire and, in the process, started to give Christians special support. Before this period, the Romans believed in different things and this difference in belief had led to Jesus’ death on the Cross. But as more and more people told people about Jesus, more and more people in the Roman Empire started to follow Jesus. The Roman Emperor, after a time of political divison and collapse, wanted to unify all these different people in the empire and felt like their old beliefs was driving people apart rather than bringing people together. So he decided to help Christians build new churches and grow their communities as a way to keep people working and living and supporting each other. But he also thought that all the different flavors of Christianity at the time – and there were many – would cause division rather than unity. He hoped that he could get a lot of bishops and church leaders together to talk about God, Jesus, and come to a consensus – and craft a rule – that wouldn’t answer all our questions but serve as a baseline of what it means to follow Jesus and to believe. 

We’ll talk more later about what the issues were that led to these divisions. But, today, I want to focus on just how the Creed came about because a lot of different people came together to talk. And we are called to do the same thing. We’re invite to share with each other our thoughts, experiences, and our faith. We’re invited to listen to what each other says about God and Jesus and being a Christian in the world. We won’t necessary agree on everything but when we do this work out of love and with prayer and with the help of the Holy Spirit, our lives are changed. We won’t always think the way we did and we might discover that what we thought before wasn’t right. But when we talk, together, we become more of who God wants us to be. The life of faith isn’t something we can do on our own. We need each other which is why, when we’re baptized, we’re brought into a community of faith – a body of Christ – that extends beyond all time and place. And when we receive the Creed, we remember that story, that history, and that we are part of a team – and that this team can’t be what it’s supposed to be without our thoughts, our story, and our experiences with God too.