God is the creator of the world; the giver of life; the source of wholeness, healing and forgiveness; the champion of the poor and oppressed; the power of new life and resurrection. God creates, redeems and sustains all of creation. Christians know God as the Holy Trinity — one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Christians, we believe all people are created in God’s image and loved by God. We know about God thanks to the witness of the Scriptures and especially through Jesus Christ, who embodied God’s love for humanity. God’s grace is a gift, given through Christ and received by faith. There is nothing we can do on our own to earn this gift. We call this “good news” or the “gospel.” Through this gift of God, we are led by the Holy Spirit to love all neighbors by working for justice and peace.

God is with us — always. God’s love for us is limitless and persistent. God’s goodness and mercy prevail. In Scripture we read that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). We know that God is present in every aspect of life. God, through Jesus, knows pain and suffering and death. But through Jesus, we know resurrection. It can be difficult to see, but this faith helps us find that God is with us — even in oppression and injustice, even in the greatest pain and loss.

You might be surprised to learn that Christians today talk about heaven and hell much more than the Bible does. It is understandable to try and determine what will happen to us and our loved ones after death. What is heaven? Is hell real? Who is “in” and who is “out”? The answers to these questions are in God’s hands, not ours. Theologians have grappled with these questions for centuries and have arrived at various interpretations and insights. Many leaders in our church point out that we do not need to speculate about the afterlife. We do know that it is not our job to divide, sort or draw the lines by which we, or others, will be judged. We are free to focus on serving one another following Jesus’ example of abundance, justice and peace.

Suffering is part of the human experience — bad things happen. As we move through life, we encounter injustice, loss, fear and pain. It is a fact that humans make choices that cause each other troubles and sorrows. But there are also natural disasters and tragedies. The question of why bad things happen is honest and real. The ELCA doesn’t pretend to have easy answers, but God is with us through all of it. The resurrection of Jesus teaches us hope, and when we turn to God, we experience God’s grace in times of need.