Weekly Update

Yesterday was the feast of All Saints. The lectionary texts for the day remind us that although are goal is Christ those who are there to encourage us and spur us on to the goal are those who have gone before us and have by the grace of God exhibited the great things and great witness that can be achieved by people of faith. Hebrews 13:32-12:1, of course is refering to Old Testament saints, yet how much more true of those who have seen what the Old Testament saints only hoped for. I wonder if one of the effects of divisions between Christians is the deadening of this awareness of the cloud of witnesses, and thus a sense of isolation in our spiritual lives. If I really believe Hebrews then those who have gone before, two thousand years worth of saints, are a source of real strenght and encouragement. Yet we tend to emphasize only those who have gone before in our own tradition along with a sprinkling of saints from earlier centuries. I wonder if we had this heavenly vission of the one people of God, how long we could in fact persist in our divisions. The feast day of All Saints reminds me that my vision is too narrow, and that I have tuned out those who have gone before. and that if I can see that there is in fact that great cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on I have a contiual source of encouragement.
As a small congregation keeping in mind this grander vision is perhaps particularly important. If we are not making connections with the wider church and the world we risk becoming insular and forgetting the goal, and thus losing the energy to do what God has called us to do.
This week we are back in our space at Immanuel Lutheran Church. Continue to pray that we may know how best to take advantage of where we are both the particular space and the surrounding neighborhoods. Also, continue to keep in your prayers our conversations with our respective denominational bodies, a great deal of encouragement came from our October 15th consultation, especially from the Central Conference of the Covenant Church, but we are still waiting to see where things will go. There are also hurdles as we seek affiliation with the three denominations.
We are nearing our 1st year aniversary, may we continue to be open to God's leading and continue to seek God.