Dear Church,
As we close out October, leaving the beauty of our Pumpkin Patch and our Stewardship emphasis behind us, I always begin with gratitude:
- for the hours of volunteer effort you put in to work our patch, greeting neighbors, and being a sparkle of beauty to our neighborhood
- for your generosity as you commit to financially supporting our congregation as we prepare prayerfully for another calendar year of mission together
- for your love for each other through acts of kindness, phone calls, and connection.
It’s not easy being a church in our present day, when a lot of people are cynical about faith, feeling divided by politics, wary of churches, and anxious about the state of our world. We have so many pressures, but I am humbled that you continue to be open to dreaming about our future through our Epiphany process. Our next retreat is November 8 & 9, and you are invited to be a part of it.
But again, thank you! Thank you for answering the call time and time again. You answer the call by showing up, being together, and living out the love you hold deep within you, a love that reflects God’s compassion.
The world needs more of that kind of love!
In November, we begin to prepare ourselves for Advent and Christmas, one of our favorite times of the year. But before we get to Christmas trees and twinkling lights, we will start unusually with a visit to four prophets, all saints of our faith who answered the call from God to be an agent of change. Prophets are a strange role to pin down in the Bible. They do not tell the future, even though the way prophecy has been used in our culture suggests that prophets predict what is going to happen. Prophets are also not preachers or pastors, though they do a lot of public pronouncements and acts of imagination. Rather, prophets serve as the consciousness of society, representing God’s voice calling the rulers and the people back to the core values of justice, mercy, and holiness.
I’m calling the series Meet the Prophets, because I think these four individuals – Elijah, Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah – turn out to be extraordinary and quite ordinary. We deserve to meet them, and in their own ways, they will begin to help us understand who Jesus is and why so many people rejected Jesus.
Prophets also give us permission to find our prophetic voices in times like this, when the powerful do not seem concerned for the plight of the poor, when neighbors choose hateful words, when justice seems rare.
Can our voices matter? Can God use a regular person like me to make a difference? How do we find the courage even when it is not popular to stand up for what we believe? Are we listening and dreaming of another future that God desires for our world?
Our worship through this series is the perfect chance to invite someone you know who may be angry and upset about the state of our world. We may not give them all the tools they need, but I hope we can find some commonality and hope in the strength, courage, and humanness of these prophets as we discover words we can share to support our neighbors. Especially in a time when the government shutdown means food benefits are drying up and inflation is on the rise, the prophets offer us wisdom to speak truth to power and care for the vulnerable.
See you on Sunday, November 2 as we start this journey together.
— Rev. Nathan Hill