Have you had a chance to Make Your Mark in our sanctuary yet? As part of our Share the Light sanctuary renewal project, we are inviting you to write your favorite Bible verse, message of support, or prayer on our bare sanctuary floor before the new carpet is installed. These kind words will ground us as God calls us to move into new opportunities to be His hands and feet and voice in the world.
I love to walk through the space every few days and see what has been added. The outpouring of faith and love is inspiring. Someone stenciled our mission statement across the front of the altar area. One child wrote, “I love this church.” Another wrote, “Yes I will be God’s servant.” Someone offered the prayer “Lord, help me help others in this place.”
I wrote on the sanctuary floor, close to the spot where I normally sit during worship, and included one of my favorite Bible verses, Micah 6:8: “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” Is that your favorite, too? No worries; there’s plenty of space for you to write it again. It’s a message that bears repeating.
I also included the phrase “Show Up.” Show Up is the evocative title of a work shared by poet and educator Joe Davis during our recent journey with Next Faithful Move. You may remember from Pastor Lowell’s blog post a few weeks ago that a group of us have been educating ourselves about racial issues. Most recently, Joe Davis and Dave Scherer led us on a powerful journey through our own racial histories to gain insights and tools with Next Faithful Move. As a capstone to our time together, Joe shared his work “Show Up.” I strongly encourage you to experience it for yourself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXC4EKKD0ko).
The Micah passage provides me with active verbs that propel me to grow in my life of faith. Show Up exhorts me to bring my whole self to the process, asserting that only by bringing my genuine, complete self will I be able to contribute fully in my role in the body of Christ. As we continue to move through PRIDE month, we affirm the idea of whole self with regard to sexuality and gender expression. Yes! Lord of Life wants our LGBTQIA+ siblings in Christ to live, share, and celebrate with us just as they are. Show Up encourages us to move beyond all of the ways we limit our participation with the world and each other. We are all both wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and broken (Romans 3:23). We all have tremendous gifts and talents, but it is often our experiences of brokenness that give us the empathy to reach out, comfort others, and solve problems.
There’s still time to make your mark. Show up.
Showing up for you,
Cara