through
the looking glass
l.l.wimmer
On the final sermon of our series exploring the
vision of our church I summarized remembering the future this way: We have a
vision. It is a vision of caring for one another. It is a vision of teaching
our children. It is a vision of reaching out to the world. It is a vision of
sacred time and sacred space, a longing for the Holy, it is a vision of family
and of doing all the good we can. It is a vision of reconciling all the broken
pieces of our common humanity in one heart of love and mercy, of bringing those
who are separated together again in all the colors of the rainbow. It is a
beautiful vision well worth living out in community, a future to hope for, a
life to be lived faithfully. I also shared that my personal dream was for a
happy church. You were given time to share your hopes and dreams for the church
as well, all of which are now part of the conversation as we go forward and you
will be hearing about them again as we become who we are becoming.
On Sunday Dave spoke about what would be nice to have
and what do we have to have. This will be the question on our hearts and minds
in this year’s pledge campaign as we consider our church. Sometimes we take for
granted what we have and forget how valuable it is. There are many things that
we can take or leave. There is so much stuff. Hopefully, when we really think
about what our church means to us in the everyday living of our lives we will
see that we really cannot do without it and will value it enough to support it
with a generous pledge of financial support. We have enjoyed a great year of
giving. You have been generous and together we have been able to be the church
in the world that we want to be. May your generosity continue in the new year
as together we realize just how much this place means to us all. Included in
this newsletter is a pledge card. Please consider prayerfully and thoughtfully
what you hope to give in 2014 and return your pledge by November 24 when we
will dedicate our gifts that give us life for another year of being the church
we love.
