A Message from Pastor Kaji

Dear Church:
 

What an incredible Mother’s Day we celebrated! Special thanks to our worship leaders and testimony-givers. If you missed them (or want to revisit them) I invite you to see their beautiful witness on our YouTube channel. From the jazz to the prayers to the testimonies to the flower pinning ritual, it was a Sunday to remember! So many have been, lately. Thanks to you. 

Now. It’s mid-May, 2025. And I know a lot of us have been looking around, discussing and wondering: how did we get here? 

There are many, many ways to see this, and we discuss this in church every week. Meanwhile, I read an article I invite you to read not as a detached analysis, but, perhaps, as a mirror of our traditions. Because it holds up some uncomfortable truths—not just about “them,” but about us. About church.

There’s a common assumption that our denominational traditions: the Disciples of Christ, the United Church of Christ, the mainline more broadly – are inherently “liberal.” I’ve never really believed that, though, and the data are beginning to reflect that. These assumptions drawn on political lines just don’t make sense for church. They craft a smokescreen. What I have seen is that, for decades, the mainline has played more than a major role in maintaining the status quo.

There are challenges to the data, for sure. But still, what the article points to invites us to be real about our neighbors and kin in Christ. Sometimes our people hear a Gospel so diluted that it created the perfect soil for this moment we’re in. A moment where forces that oppose God no longer whisper but rally. Someone needs to wrestle with that.

Still, God has already chosen sides in the struggles of the oppressed, as the great theologians teach. And Jesus overturns the tables of oppression. If we’re going to claim that Gospel, we need to be honest about how it’s been compromised. Meanwhile, our congregation’s mission to follow Jesus closely is more crucial now than ever. 

Turning ahead to Sunday, this week’s scripture from 1 Peter talks about a living hope. Not passive. Not polite. A hope tested and refined. A joy that holds us even when we’re empty.

We’re going to spend some time with that joy.

As you prepare for worship, I invite you to spend some time in prayer or journaling with these questions:

• What sustains me when I feel like I’ve run out of words or strength?
• What song (literal or metaphorical) rises in me when I need to remember I belong to God?
• What disciplines help me practice joy—not as a feeling, but as a way of surviving?

We’ll be in 1 Peter 1:3–9. Take a moment with it this week. And come ready to sing, reflect, and maybe even start building your own pocket of joy.

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday.

Pax Christi,

Pastor Kaji