Weekly Letter, 06/12/2025
John Mark Wiggers • June 12, 2025

Friends and Neighbors, 


Our Pentecost celebration reminded me that the promised "comforter" often leads us to uncomfortable places and tasks. The comfort we have is that God goes with us as we proclaim hope to the hopeless, speak up for justice, and seek to love God and neighbor. Coming together to worship, we are reminded of God's presence with us and that we are not alone in our faith journey. We are a body that is then the Body of Christ sent out to the world. 


Our world is an anxious and disturbing place. We are seeing scapegoating and violence held up as solutions to problems. Our history tells us that violence only causes more violence to fester and eventually erupt. Our faith story shows Jesus and his followers confronting that violence with love, believing death is not the end. Even when violence scattered them (Acts 8), they continued to proclaim the Good News of Christ. 


It can be overwhelming to consider how to address the forces of evil in our world. I watch the news and wonder what I can do to make a difference. We are making a difference when we feed the hungry, advocate for justice, and meet the needs close to us. We are making a difference by being a faith community that seeks to include people who have often been told they are separated from God. Even the notion of sin is important to uphold because we also declare that repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation are possible. Our world needs that proclamation. 


We are also a community that continues to celebrate the life of the Spirit. We make beautiful music and keep our ancient practices not as a way to deny or escape the suffering of our world. We do those things because we celebrate that God came to know suffering and offered God's self for the life of the world. It is uncomfortable to see the suffering. It is hard to be kind in the face of differences. Despair sinks heavy in the belly as we see how awful we humans can be to each other. God is with us. The Spirit moves in us as we meet Christ in the suffering and share hope and healing. 


May you know that Spirit is with you as you share God's love right where God has placed you today. 


Peace, 


Fr. John Mark

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By John Mark Wiggers • May 12, 2025
Friends and Neighbors, This Sunday is Mother's Day and also Good Shepherd Sunday. Both celebrations have been shaped and changed over the years. Good Shepherd Sunday got the name as we do read the passage from John 10 about Jesus the Good Shepherd, and Mother's Day has roots going back to Mothering Sunday in England. The establishment of Mother's Day in the United States was motivated by the recognition of the work of Ann Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Anna M. Jarvis. These women worked for sanitary health care for soldiers and were advocates for peace during the Civil War. They imagined a union of mothers who would call for peace because mothers knew so deeply the loss of their children to war. Mothering and shepherding call for similar qualities of protection and care.

Weekly Letter, 05/01/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • May 12, 2025
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Weekly Letter, 04/24/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 24, 2025
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Weekly Letter, 04/17/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 17, 2025
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Weekly Letter, 04/10/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 17, 2025
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Weekly Letter, 04/03/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 17, 2025
Friends and Neighbors, The annual Nehemiah Action is this Tuesday, April 8. We gather with over 22 congregations to ask our leaders to commit to taking action on important community matters. This year, we are asking for commitments on housing instability, homelessness, and transportation. Please invite others to attend. Having a large number of people makes a difference. You can find the details in this newsletter. Your presence helps us bring more justice to our city.
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