Dear U Park Family,
How do you know when your body is healthy? How do you tell the difference between a mild illness and a reason to go to the doctor, or even to be hospitalized? For some of us (sadly, I’m pointing to myself here), stubbornness enters the calculation. I never want to admit I’m sick. But in the end, I think most of us would point to how we feel. We know when we’re not well because we feel it in our bodies. Likewise, we have a sense of when we’re truly healthy and thriving. This isn’t always true, of course – sometimes we fear that we’re not well when our bodies are fine, or we think we’re in great shape when we’re not. But for the most part, our bodies will let us know.
At least twice in his writing, the Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of a body for the church. And each time, he tells his readers that they are the Body of Christ. This Sunday, I’ll continue my Lenten sermon series “In The Flesh” by focusing on Paul’s language and what it means to be part of “a body,” instead of “a group of believers” or “a faith community.” I hope you’ll join us in worship at 9:00 or 11:00 – or if you can’t, that you watch the 11:00 service live on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/UParkumcdenver/) or the edited version on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@UniversityParkUMCDenver), available later in the day.
This Saturday morning, we’ll undertake Phase 2 of our East Fellowship Hall kitchen cleaning, starting at 9:00. If you’d like to help, join us to work on the kitchen and get it prepared for future use – including for our Pretzel making and baking event on Palm Sunday!
As you probably know, we’ll have quite a few visitors on Easter. So our church deep cleaning day will be on Saturday, April 5. Just as we’ve done in the past, we’ll have a list of jobs and the cleaning supplies we need. Anyone is welcome to drop in between 9 and 1, claim a job from the list, and get it done. We’ll have coffee, juice, doughnuts and other pastries and snacks. So I hope we’ll have a strong turnout to this event as well – it’s always fun to get together and make the church shine as we prepare for a big holiday!
Many thanks to all who came to our Pancake Supper last week! As Lauren mentioned in worship, we raised more than $900 to help fund our youth mission trips this summer. (Plus the pancakes, syrup, chocolate chips, fruit, bacon, and all the rest of the meal were a great way to end Epiphany and start Lent.)
I hope your Lent is off to a spiritually fruitful start. I look forward to seeing you at church!
Grace and Peace,
Andy