Matthew, Mark, Luke and Susan
We’re glad you’re here!
Welcome to the weekly blog for Burlington East Community Church.
First things first: feel free to fill in your name instead of Susan. John might already be taken.
Here, you’ll find a weekly reflection which I hope will give you an opportunity to stop for a few minutes, to see yourself in God’s story of our own lives, of the community, and of creation. We’ll be thinking about what it means to live in God’s love for each of us, to grow as disciples and to follow Christ. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at minister@burlingtoneast.net.
Looking forward to journeying with you.
Peace in Christ,
Susan
Well….
Something to think about :John 1:1-42
Let’s start with this: What’s a well?
In Jesus’ time, it was a meeting place. It’s a place where you can get what you need. A social place, for most people, but also open for those who can’t be part of the regular social circle. It’s not in a home, not a dedicated workplace, it’s a space in the community.
Often called ‘third spaces’ today, places like wells surround us. They are where we have conversations, coffee, informal gatherings. They are often the places we can ask question we can’t ask anywhere else.
Today, Jesus invites us to the well. Into a place of conversations, questions, where we all can come, where we all belong. Places where doors are open. And not only are we invited to fill our own needs (or coffee cups), but we’re also there to listen to others, to invite people into community, to follow Christ, if that’s where the conversation leads.
The woman in the story wouldn’t have had a conversation with Jesus in the middle of her town. But the well, that’s a different place. Everybody goes there. She finds her heart’s desire and answers to her questions there, and is so excited that she invites others to come and see (there’s that invitation again!).
As we follow Jesus, and we seek to share the living water that we have found, let’s think about where God has placed us and the places God has given us so that we can have those conversations. Conversations that assure those who don’t think they are part of anything that God’s plans DO include them. Conversations that share Jesus, who knows us better than anyone else and loves us for who we are. Conversations that start invitations.
Invitation, conversation, community, life and living water offered in Jesus name.
Where has God given you wells? What life-giving conversations are you having there?
Prayer: Loving God, in all places, may my heart be open to conversations with you. In all times, may I be a place of safety and safe conversations for others. Will you fill us with living water so we can nourish our communities and each other. Amen.
Photo and content © Susan Kerr 2026. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author
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I’ve got you
The next chapter
Something to get us started: John 1:1-5
It’s a few days until Christmas. It’s been a busy and really great Advent around the church, with the beautiful chaos of the Paper Bag Pageant and the quiet of Christmas Eve still to come. Then, still celebrating Jesus’ coming as the Word of God and love of God made flesh, we’ll begin 2026.
In our lives at Burlington East Community Church, that means some things are starting, some are continuing, and some have been completed for another year. I shared this article with our church newsletter, so if you are reading it twice, I hope you hear the invitation again and consider yourself doubly invited:-).
We continue to grow as a congregation here by living and sharing Jesus love, every day. Whether that’s in our service at church or in our work, with friends and supporting family, God gives us so many places to live Jesus’ love.
That choice, and that mindset, is what we’ll be concentrating on in 2026. In our worship life and Sunday School, in our Bible studies, we’ll be journeying through the gospel of John together. Come join us–it’s a great way to get to know the life of Jesus as he talks about faith with a whole lot of different people, as he faces opposition, as he heals people, as he gets asked a lot of questions.
John is a gospel for explorers who know God a little, and want to know more about how to follow Jesus in their everyday lives. It is a gospel for those who have tough questions for Jesus, and how he doesn’t run away from those conversations. It’s a gospel about invitations and imperfection, love and grace. It challenges us and consoles, sometimes in the same text.
We are all on such unique and different journeys in faith. John’s gospel embraces so much diversity, so many questions, and so many different audiences that it’s easy to find ourselves and our own ‘entrance point’ in these stories, and hear Jesus’ words to us.
Come join us. We’re invited together to deepen our faith, and to let what we learn spill out into practically and daily living Jesus love in our community, in our homes, and in ourselves.
Now that’s the way to begin a year.
Prayer: Jesus, we have no idea what this next year holds, and you and I know what the last years have held–joy, pain, hurt, learning, growing, stopping, winning, losing and sometimes all of the above. As we journey together, and read this gospel, let me see this story all over again. And as we talk and listen, may you grow in me, and I in You. Amen.
Blessings and peace,
Susan
Abolition Baby” by Nicolette Penaranda for Sanctified Art LLC sanctified art.org. Paper collage on canvas. Content © Susan Kerr 2025. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author or Sanctified Art.