New Things

This weekend we will begin a new mini-sermon-series as our year with the Gospel of Matthew comes to a close. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at some of Jesus’ sayings in the final few days of his life on earth.

Liturgy nerds call this period before Christ the King “baby Advent.” The wise people putting together the biblical passages we use each week decided it would be fun to put in a whole bunch of ominous verses right at the end of the church year. They start the slow build to turn our eyes toward the Bethlehem sky, just as our culture is already turning our heads towards the North Pole.

This weekend’s passage looks at the importance of the old saying “walk the talk.” That’s all I’ll say for now.

In addition to our new sermon series, we are going to begin a season of prayer as a church family. There are so many places within our world that need God’s love, God’s presence, God’s justice, God’s healing.

We are going to engage in a prayer ribbon ministry for the remainder of this month – ribbons filled with our prayers that will adorn our ancient lampposts. It is a practice being used by churches around the country to make visibly present our prayers to God in our community.

We will provide the ribbons and markers for you to write your prayers down and then we will also make sure the ribbons take their place on Walnut Street. We hope that everyone will join in this opportunity to pray for our church family, our community, our country, and our world.

As we head into the weekend, let me say this: deep breaths. Hold tight. Be safe. Be well. And remember, God is here.

Blessings, Pastor Janie