Note from Lisa – How I am

Today is the second Monday of the month, and I’m sharing how my faith shapes my interaction with people and God’s creation. A good place for me to start is with the Statement of Faith that I shared with Presbytery in November. I’m sharing the entire statement of faith this week, but I will look closely at each section in future months.

STATEMENT OF FAITH
Lisa Hansen

I believe in God, the Holy Mystery, known yet beyond human knowledge and understanding, the Creator of all that is and all that will be. In love, God seeks relationship, restoring the broken and reconciling the estranged, leading creation to its final harmony with the creator. I believe that all people are created as unique individuals in the image of God. Through our individuality, we have developed different ways of comprehending who God is and speaking about God as a nurturing parent, creator, sustainer, eternal, almighty, and perfect love. Yet, no single expression from our finite realm is sufficient in and of itself to describe the infinite God.

I believe in Jesus, the Word made flesh, the model for how we are to be in relationship with God and with others. Jesus demonstrated God’s love for humankind through his death and resurrection, reconciling humankind and making all things new. Our response to the love which God expended through the salvific action of Jesus is to give of ourselves to and for God and others. Being in Christ means dying to oneself. And being raised with Christ means being for others and not solely for oneself. I believe that Jesus will come again at the final judgment to restore creation to full rightness with God; until that time, the Holy Spirit has been sent to us as our Advocate and Comforter.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, Advocate, Comforter, and Sustainer, who helps us in our weakness, leads us to deeper faith and understanding, and intercedes for us according to the will of God. The Spirit transforms our lives and is the cause of our righteous works. It is the power of the Spirit that leads us to recognize our gifts and to use them. As we lift our voices in song, prayer, and praise to God, we receive guidance and power from the Holy Spirit to be faithful witnesses to God.

I believe that we are called to be the church, one community united by the love of God, to celebrate God, to respect creation, to love and serve others, and to seek justice and resist evil. With the church through the ages, we speak of God as one and three – Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. I believe that the church is called to be a witness to God through the proclamation of the gospel message as it is revealed through the Christ, preaching the Word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit, participating with the church through the ages in practicing the sacraments, the visible signs of the promise of God; and striving to glimpses of the Kin_dom of God as we serve the world.