On Sunday, September 28, 2025 Pastor Stephanie reflected on the text from 1 Timothy 6:6-11, NRSVUE. Below is a excerpt:
“My search for letters, inspired by our epistle today, is what helped me find my 24 year old journal and it is what gave me the idea to write my own letter to a generation to come. And I want to invite you into this same practice. Write a letter to a generation that is to come, about what we are enduring and enjoying with God today.
Here is mine:
Dear Beloveds of the Future,
I write this to you in the year of our Lord 2025, on the 27th of September, from occupied Washington D.C.
In the nation’s capital, the federal government has deployed the national guard to our streets as a way to keep us under thumb, while they legislatively strip fundamental rights away from immigrants, women, Black, brown, and indigenous peoples, the poor, and the lgbtqia+ communities alike. We need a free DC and a truly free America, where all can pursue a thriving life, with dignity-giving and equitable support for one another. And while much seems hopeless, I have faith in a God that is consistently working for the good of God’s people, so, I hope you are reading this in liberation.
The world is a scary place. People are more eager to be right than to be just or even kind, and it breaks my heart. It is an especially sharp pain when that mentality makes its way into the church and the hearts of God’s people. It is happening in our own backyards and around the world. We are watching a genocide take place on the home soil of Jesus, wiping out generations that were and were to come. This war is of man, not God, but the loss of life feels like a sacred tug to weep. Each image of loss hits me like a splashing of ice cold water on a hot temper, calling me to pay attention and do my part. I hear God through scripture demanding that I use my privileges, of which I have many, to seek and secure a future for all.
For the olives, the children, and the doves alike. I’m doing my best for you. I hope it works.
This week the autistic and birthing communities came under attack by the ignorance of leaders rooted in hate not science. Though, I found hope when I saw a video of a young autistic man wearing a shirt that said, “don’t hear what I didn’t say.” I thought it was an especially pertinent message for a world who currently loves to hear what we want. One of the great social tragedies we are experiencing right now, is our inability to be curious when someone says something that hurts our feelings or we don’t agree with. I can say I hope our community gains a new understanding of God this year, and some people will instead hear with anger, “She thinks how I experience God isn’t good enough.” I hope your world is filled with more curiosity.
Curiosity is never a wasted moment, I hope you slow down in grace, and give your curiosity time to wander. If we all stuck our feet in the grass and let our curious minds journey with the clouds, I think we would all be a lot better at being community.
Because, curiosity is the holy pursuit of liberation in action. It is sacred work. My prayer is that what I am doing to build the Kindom of God now, reaches your path in a time not too distant from today and on a road not too far off the same path we are called to walk together.
For the sake of my soul, I am working on ridding myself of certainty. But I do know three things to be true and in this closing, I want to leave them with you, in hopes they offer you a space of comfort, company, and yes, curiosity.
The first is this: God is good all the time and all the time God is good. It’s why we get the grace to rebuild and become anew.
The second, is that the pursuit of love in the name of Jesus, that is the rebuilding of the Kindom of God on earth as it is in Heaven is the true sacred call of humanity. It does not and cannot move forward if we only speak loudly from behind the safety of a screen but are silent in the physical and relational spaces of one another. A Facetime can’t replace a Face-to-Face and a post isn’t a protest. Don’t be afraid of showing the dust of your journey. From dust you came, to dust you shall return. Make the dust count.
And finally, the third thing I know to be true is this, (and it may be the most important thing that I know), we need each other.
In Christ’s great justice and joy,
The Rev. Stephanie Kendell”