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Listen to Bishop G. Marsh of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
from the Week of Prayer service, hosted by the Waterford Ministerial Assoc.
The Pulpit
Rev. Jim Kellermann
Dear Central Family and Friends:
Sacred People long ago began to understand that they were being invited into a relationship with God that felt so intimate and complete that they imagined it as home and family. Abraham and Sarah leave their own family home and travel to a new place that God shows them and which will be the home of their family for generations to come. It gave a population of enslaved Hebrews a courage to wander in the wilderness because they knew that God was leading them home. Isaiah and other prophets spoke about homecoming for those who felt desolate and exiled. Jesus spoke strongly in parables of home and family life, and the welcoming God has for us when we arrive as sheep or as children. There is a place for us.
The Lenten season often feels like we are out wandering again and looking for that home port. Our old confirmation image spoke of the journey being our home. When we journey with Christ we are being led to the Cross Roads and beyond to our home with God. This is our Lenten discipline and focus: CROSS ROADS: OUR PATHS HOME.
Building on this pattern, the Wednesday Evening Lenten experiences will be shaped by our image of home. A light dinner will be shared, life about our communities of ministries shared and a brief worship offered that will expose us to different dimensions of prayer each week. We believe that such an experience will bring us to the Easter for which our hearts long, and the church needs. A list of these and other Lent, Holy Week and Easter opportunities for moving along our journey toward God’s home are included.
Also included in this letter is an envelope that invites you share in an offering of thanksgiving to share in a home warming gift that supports Central Church, the home center out of which our shared ministries and mission begin.
Come, rise up and begin your journey through the CROSS ROADS along the PATHS HOME.
On the CROSS ROADS with Christ, - Jim Kellermann
