February 5, 2020

Friends and fellow disciples,

Serving those in need - feeding and clothing and helping find housing - is absolutely at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. If we are not putting our faith to work to care for people in concrete ways, we might as well pack it in, and shut down the church because then we'd be little more than a social club with a veneer of spirituality.

God calls us all, every single one of us, to risk following Jesus out into the world, beyond our comfortable neighborhoods, to places where people are hungry and hurting. While we might offer some concrete assistance, fundamentally we go as people looking to be a part of work that God is already doing. We go to listen and to learn and to form surprising friendships with people we might not meet otherwise. We go because we want to be a part of the ways that God is transforming all creation into a place where all can truly be fed.

But we get busy, life catches up with us, and we make excuses...sometimes pretty good ones. But we also step back from that call. We feel the absence, but we aren’t sure what to do.

This Sunday is an opportunity to remember the work that is a central part of that call. I challenge you to be here on Sunday morning, for Church School and for worship. See below the wonderful work the Deacons have done for Mission Day. This is an opportunity to learn from talented and committed people from many of our partner agencies that are doing essential work in our community. Please get here; please get your children here. I very much look forward to spending the morning with you.

See you Sunday!