This weekend is our Annual Meeting of the Congregation. It is a time when we gather as a family of faith to reflect on all that has happened in the last year, to give thanks for the lives of all we have lost, and to pray for God’s guidance as we continue on into the year ahead.
Especially during such uncertain times as these, our annual assembly is perhaps even more important because it reminds us of this central truth: Christ has called us together for a purpose.
We are an historic church, to be sure. With quite a long narrative, reaching back to the very beginning of our nation, with roots before the founding of the city in which we are located. Yet, in the midst of such a storied life together it still remains up to each successive generation to find our own voice to add to the chronicle.
The passage we will be examining on Sunday is quite appropriate for the occasion. Though most will remember it from countless weddings, 1 Corinthians 13 was actually Paul’s great treatise on how the body of Christ was meant to live together: in love.
A Love that bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things.
The Love of God that built Christ’s church in this place, at the corner of Walnut and Penn, is one that never ends and is still at work among us. It binds us together and gives us faith beyond sight in such a tumultuous time as this.
That is the faith. That is the hope. That is the Love in which we live and move and have our very being. That is where we will find our voice. Our story. Our next steps forward.
Come to the gathering. Honor where we have been. Remember who we are. And see the next piece of our journey into God’s future.
Blessings, Pastor Janie
First Welcoming All 