Dear Friends,
I want to paint my current scene for you. I am sitting on my bed, because my virtually learning children are in all the common spaces of the house. On my lap is my book for our Wednesday night study group (I am behind and am trying to catch up). Next to me is the book for book club that meets next week (I am behind in that too). Beside the book is a pile of tablets (electronic devices, not medication) ready to be loaded with this week’s worship service video for those who don’t currently have access to worship online. Just past the tablets is the stack of church calendars that have been printed and are ready for binding. Finally, my laptop is charging in the corner of the bed, tired from hosting Bible study and ready for sermon research.
I tell you all this in a way of saying this job is never boring and the ways and means in which Ministry gets done is in ordinary ways and some of the most unusual means. It is a reminder that there is not just one way to worship. Not just a single method for prayer. And not a boxed-in way of reading scripture or loving one another. In the same way, God can be found in a book, a tablet, a computer, a project, a friend, a pet, a sunset and a song.
As we approach the hat trick of holiday seasons (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) we have an opportunity to expand our understanding, celebration, and honoring of each of these days and seasons. Seeing beyond the costumes, candy, turkeys, decorated trees and wrapped presents we can open ourselves to find God in new and unexpected ways (such has been a theme of 2020). And I challenge us all to have some fun along the way, bringing joy in the midst of this trying season, remembering that laughter is the best medicine.
I look forward to seeing you online in worship, in the communion line, through Zoom for Bible study, at our Trunk or Treat, along the All Saints Prayer Walk path, and in all the ways the Spirit leads us to be together in new and different ways.
Blessings and love, Pastor Stacy