by Bishop Bill Gohl
And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples. - Acts 14:27-28
This was my chapel meditation for the week after I returned from the ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston. +bg
This was my chapel meditation for the week after I returned from the ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston. +bg
The scriptures amaze me with the candor and honesty with which they speak to our human condition. As a guest at the ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston this summer, I was a bit skeptical about the breadth of topics that the speakers would engage with our young people, and how we would process those significant forays into culture and personal identity, gender and race, disease and recovery, hopelessness and hope; grounded in the indelible identity we share as baptized children of God, marked with the cross of Christ forever. Each speaker stood beside the running waters of the baptismal font, one even stepping into the waters to illustrate the life-giving nature of our baptismal identity, and claimed their belovedness given by the sure promise of Jesus.