It begins with God.

That is true of the great story: “In the beginning, God …”  It is true of the gospel: “For God so loved …”  It begins with God choosing to reveal God’s self through creation’s signs, in the stories of the scriptures, and most wondrously in the flesh-and-blood words and actions of Jesus, who is “God with us.” 

It begins with the Holy Spirit moving among us, calling, nudging, pushing, pulling, whispering a truth beyond words.  The Spirit is at work in us before we can name it, naming FOR us the love and grace for which we were created.

And then it begins when you and I heed the nudge of the Spirit and put our trust in the grace of God in Christ.  It begins when we come to believe that God’s love is greater than all our mess-ups, that there is truth, profound and eternal, revealed in Christ’s words and being, and that somehow, amazingly, all things are made new in his acceptance of us and in his mercy.  It begins when we step into the new beginning that is life in Christ.

It begins when we come to see that life in Christ is a shared life.  It begins when we come together in the church, fellow searchers, fellow travelers, fellow workers, fellow sinners and saints.  It begins when we move beyond self and toward others.

And then it begins with the Holy Spirit working in and through all of us together.  The love and grace of God become flesh and blood here and now through our acts of mercy and compassion, through our advocacy for justice and truth, through our words of forgiveness and love, through the care we show one another.  It begins when, by the power of that Holy Spirit, we become together the Body of Christ in the world.

And then it begins.  Together in Christ, you and I, called and set apart by God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, proclaim a message that changes everything.  We offer Christ.  We share what we have found.  We proclaim in worship and world the truth of all truths: It all begins, and ends, with God.

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