What We Believe

Spirituality is written about a lot these days.  We've tried to cut through the clutter a little by describing God's relationship with us through these four symbols.  We believe that these symbols help us to tell the story of God as God has revealed it to us.  This is the story we find ourselves in...

The Trinity

We've either been taught to picture God with a big white beard sitting on a cloud, weighing the evidence for or against us on His Godly scale of justice; or we picture God as a spiritual connection between things, kind of like the Force in Star Wars.

 Looking at the Biblical picture of God, we believe that God exists in community - Father, Son, and Spirit.  This community is so close that it functions as one being, or the Triune God - 3 in 1.  The community of God (the Trinity) is defined by an all encompassing love.  This love is so pervasive, so rooted in giving, that God decided out of God's own goodness to share it.  We'll talk about that a little more down below when we discuss creation.  For now, however, we'll just say that God has an agenda.  God's mission is to make our broken relationships (with God, ourselves, and each other) look like the loving relationship that exists inside the Trinity.  As a church, that is why we believe that community matters. 

Grace

As Lutheran Christians, we always start and end with God's grace.  We believe that GOD ALWAYS COMES DOWN.  That is what grace is all about.  God came down in creation.  God came down to set slaves free in the Exodus.  God came down again to provide a way for us to live life forever through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Our culture today has gotten its arrow turned around.  We keep trying to earn our way to God.  The truth is, God has already come to us.  When we get our arrow pointed in the right direction, we are then free to live the life to which God has called us.  We no longer try to earn God's love - we walk in it, live in it, and our relationships naturally flow from the relationship we first have with God.

 Life doesn't turn around (nor does our arrow) all at once.  Over time, as we become more certain of God's goodness and less confident in our ability and desire to earn our way to God, our lives start to be transformed.

Creation

Grace first appeared in creation.  God made EVERYTHING, and then declared that "it was good". 

We value all of God's creation.  We believe that while all of creation is valuable to God, and that we should treat the things God makes with respect, there is something special about people.

We are made in God's image.  We are, in the Greek, "eikons"(pronounced "icons"); tiny yet brilliant reflections of God himself.  That means that each person matters.

The hard part is that our enemies are also "eikons", and Jesus made it clear that there is nothing special about loving the people who are nice to you - even tyrants and politicians do that.  Real connection with God is shown in the way we treat our enemies, and the people that most people consider unlovable.

We value creativity, because at its best, it reveals God's nature; God creates.  When we create, we are using our God-given gifts.  Art is the apex of creativity, so we are open to the art in our culture:  Movies, TV, radio, podcasts, the internet...  We don't bless or condone everything we see or hear, but we do try to see it through the lens of our faith, as part of God's story.  And God's story is one of redemption.

We believe that we live in a God-bathed world, but that the world is also profoundly broken.  We have strayed from God's intentions...

Redemption

There will be a day when God will re-claim all of creation.  The Biblical description of that day is beautiful; the Lion will lie down with the Lamb, our weapons will be transformed into tools that sustain life, there will be no more tears, justice will flow like a river...  A great deal of the Bible is actually devoted to describing God's intention to make all things new. 

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the bridge between the old world that is decaying, and the new world that is even now coming into existence.  The gospels are really clear about this:  God's kingdom (God's reign) has come near.  Everything that is against God (materialism, injustice, war, famine, poverty, selfishness...) is coming to an end, and God is in the process of redeeming all of creation.  On our best day, it is our goal to see where God is moving in the world, and to get on board with God's mission of redemption.  This happens as we pray, worship, study the scriptures, serve the poor, celebrate the sacraments, and live our lives in relationship with God and each other.