May 2026 Newsletter Pastor’s Page
Greetings church family,
As April gives way to May, cool mornings and spring rains remind us how creation is dynamic. Spring is a season of renewal and rebirth. Flowers and trees blossom. Animals emerge early each day, trekking and tweeting their way into the world. It is simply beautiful. The season of Easter carries with it those same dynamics – renewal, rebirth, resurrection.
In a recent opinion Q&A, author Marilynne Robinson reveals her curiosities and conclusions about beauty, theology, writing, and her experience of God and faith in Jesus. Marilynne is a Pulitzer Prize winner and was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She is well known for novels “Gilead” and “Housekeeping” and non-fiction commentary “Reading Genesis.”
In her interview, Marilynne argues that the word “beautiful” seems to have passed out of our parlance of culture. She believes we tend to the functionalism of a thing or person. She says, “The idea of the beautiful is a signature of God….This distillation of the joy, the sensory joy, of being among things in the world.” (https://www.nytimes.com – search for interview). For Marilynne, Creation and theology help point to God because God’s fingerprints are on everything.
Are we willing to embrace creation and one another with patience and love, beholding the beauty in one another? So often our culture looks for the utility in one another – what can I get out of my neighbor for me? What can I get out of creation for me? As spring unfolds, perhaps we can gaze at its beauty, and be reminded how each of us hold similar beauty within, a fingerprint of God’s presence, grace, and love.
I’m looking forward to beholding the beauty of creation and others as I head to our Montana District gathering this weekend. I will gather with clergy and lay people from the state in our annual meeting. We will worship together, learn together, and build one another up. We will be joined by our bishop, Bishop Stoneking. We will also be joined by a dear friend of my, Rev. Dr. Darren Crotts, who is coming from the North Carolina Rural Center to help launch our annual conference’s grant program for rural church development entitled “Connect Church.” Please pray for us as we travel near and far to gather.
Spring blessings,
Pastor Jared