October 2025

Last month I touched on belonging to the body of Christ. To continue with the next B, we must discuss believing.

Unfortunately, every time I start a sentence with “do you believe” my brain starts singing the song by Cher. Neither helpful nor very theological. Especially as someone who believes so deeply in the steadfast and unending love of God. There is no life after love because God’s love never ends.

But asking what it means to believe is another story. You can feel it deep in your gut, you can logic your way to it, you can be overwhelmed by the emotions related to it… but to believe in something? What does that take?

Good question. Not sure if I have a single, good, clear answer. It does seem to me as if believing is tied to faith. And to have faith can be understood as living as if God’s promises have, are, and will come true. It means trusting in God’s promises as real.

An example of this might be in regard to the promises about the Holy Spirit. The incarnate Christ promised the disciples that someone was coming to be with them. To guide, to lead, to show them how to continue on in the way. Do you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit? Do you have to see or feel that presence to know it is real? We’re supposed to believe without proof. Huh. Tricky stuff. Trusting in God does come with prior knowledge and evidence that God’s love, presence, and salvation are real. So does believing ask us to continue to trust in God no matter what happens? For now at least, I think so.

September 2025

What does it mean to you to belong to the body of Christ? There’s at least one Scripture that lists out several different body parts and seems to give them a hierarchy. Feet are lower than hands (both literally and figuratively) while ears are lower than eyes. Though perhaps most importantly, it is the ears and feet that deem themselves less important, not the body.

Belonging to a group can be complicated. We often want to feel useful and purposeful. To contribute in some meaningful way to what is happening. There’s been a trend online recently of literary and film analysis that asks the question of “is the story the same if this character does not exist?” In short, does removing this person from the story create an irreparable plot hole or are they so pivotal that even suggesting to remove them completely destroys the story?

The incarnate Christ is the central figure in the gospel. Our lives, our faith, our belief is not the same without Christ. But you also need Judas, Mary, the gentile woman, and others for the gospel to be a complete telling of what it means to be in the body of Christ. Each of us has a call in our lives from God. Responding to that call helps us fulfill our vital and pivotal role in the grand scheme of what God imagines for our world. If we want to be a part of the kingdom, to live as the body of Christ, each of us will have some different things to do. What is God calling you to do? Where are you being led? It doesn’t have to be grandiose or immense to be meaningful and important.

-Rev. Beate

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

August 2025

Do you have a favorite animal? Not everyone has a favorite animal, but mine is penguins. Penguins are not mentioned by name or general description in Scripture and cannot be included in birds of the air. Thankfully, penguins aren’t the only animal that I like and collect. I also collect bees in various forms almost exclusively because of my name. This month I found myself asking the question… are there bees in the Bible? Did apiary arts exist in Jesus’ world? Would there have been beehives dotting the landscape of first century Judea?

Then I kicked myself for asking. You can’t have a land flowing with milk and honey if there are no bees! Bees are found throughout Scripture, but especially in the Old Testament. Honey is more frequent than bees and usually represents God’s abundant blessings. It’s mentioned all throughout the book of Proverbs and in several psalms as being sweet. But as Scripture goes on, the metaphor seems to disappear. During the incarnation, honey gets a few minor mentions in relation to John the Baptist’s wild ways and eating habits. Honeycomb is mentioned, once. It’s like the people stop seeing the abundant blessings of God in the world around them and only focus on the gifts associated with the incarnate Christ. I get the feeling we do the same thing as life gets and stays busy.

Are you spiritually in the wilderness, wandering, feeling lost and alone? Or are you in the promised land, a place flowing with milk and honey? What are some of God’s blessings in your life?

-Rev. Beate