This Sunday is a festival Sunday in the church year known as “The Reign of Christ.” At our services this weekend we will hear the story of Christ’s crucifixion as we think about what it means for Christ to be king of our lives. We know that he reigns in heaven and on earth, but what does that actually look like in the midst of our day to day realities? That is what we are thinking about this weekend. 

 “The Reign of Christ” is also the last Sunday in the church year. It is our equivalent of New Year’s Eve. Next weekend we will be the first Sunday of Advent and a new church year will begin. As such, this is a time for us to  both look back and look ahead. We can take stock in what we have done and we resolutions about what we hope to do differently.

 Stewardship season always falls in this New Year’s time in the church when we ask you to take a look back at your financial commitment to the church in the past and prayerfully consider your commitment in the future. I hope that you will spend some time taking a look at the bar chart in the bulletin insert as a way to think about your commitment. It will take all of us offering our financial commitments to fulfill the 2020 vision. 

Now, I know that it isn’t always popular for the church to talk about money. But, Jesus talked about money a lot! In fact, over a quarter of Jesus’ parables are about money. Why? Because Jesus meant what he said when he told his followers, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)”

Jesus knew that our hearts and our bank accounts (or the first century financial equivalent) are closely connected. How we spend our money speaks volumes about who and whose we are, which brings us right back to the church year celebration of the “Reign of Christ.”

As followers of Jesus, we believe that Christ is King—of heaven and earth, of our hearts and minds, of our treasures and finances. To acknowledge Christ as King in our hearts means to do so with our financial priorities as well. The two are more closely connected than we might some days want to think.

When you come to worship this weekend, make sure you pick up the red and white stripped bag that will be waiting for you. You don’t want to leave church without it!

Inside the bag you will find the usual stewardship resources, including our “Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going” booklet, a letter from me and a Statement of Intent. Please plan to take a little time to read through the resources and prayerfully consider how God is calling you to respond. You can return your commitment for 2020 in the offering plate, by mailing it to the church office or by going online at AbidingPresence.net/soi. We’re asking for all commitments to please be turned in by December 1 in preparation for Celebration Weekend on December 7/8. (Just wait until you see what we have planned for this year’s celebration!)

The usual stewardship resources aren’t the only thing you will find in your bag this year, though. You will also find your very own personalized Abiding Presence hot chocolate kit. Now, I realize you might be wondering, “What does hot chocolate have to do with stewardship?”

Here at Abiding Presence our mission is Connecting People to Christ Through Community. More than just any community, though, we want to connect people to an authentic community in which they can be real. We follow Jesus in community not because we all know the way, but because it is easier to stumble on the path together. We don’t have all the answers, but we are willing to sit in the questions listening for God with one another. The Abiding Presence faith family reminds us of who and whose we are as beloved children of God when the world tries to tell us otherwise.

Creating this kind of intentional and authentic community is built through relationships. That’s where the hot chocolate kit comes in. We hope that you will find a way to use the kit to take step in your relationship building as we seek to invite people in to see what this faith family is like.

Maybe you can enjoy a mug of hot chocolate as a family while you sit and talk together at a time when phones are put away. Next time the grandkids (or the adult kids) come over, get it out. When they ask, “What is that?” use it plant a seed and talk for a moment about why you go to church. Put out the packets at  your book club or when a friend comes over as a conversation starter. Talk about your church, share about this community of faith and spread the word that all are welcome.

Whenever and however you use your hot chocolate kit, I hope it will be a reminder of what we are about here at Abiding Presence. This is your community and we are glad you are here.

One evening last week one of our church council members texted me to say, “I love that when mental illness support was requested on [a Facebook group], Abiding Presence was the first thing mentioned.” “Me, too!” I replied. I then went on to check out the thread. Sure enough, someone had posted in one of the local Facebook groups asking for recommendations for where to get support for themselves as they provide care for a family member with a mental illness. The first reply was to check out Abiding Presence with links to our website. The best part was that the comment came from someone who isn’t even a member of our church!

Week after week, day after day, I am privileged to see the impact Abiding Presence is making on people’s lives – both people in our congregation and people in our larger community. I hope you see it, too. The Facebook group is just one example of the how Abiding Presence has become known in the Burke community as a place where people can turn for help and support. What we do here is important and it matters.

This weekend I want to say thank you for the ways you make possible the life changing work possible we do at Abiding Presence. We are able to do what we do because of both your presence in our faith community and your financial support for our ministry. We are the church together. Thank you!

 This is also the weekend where we begin to look ahead to next year as we launch our annual stewardship campaign. Enclosed in your bulletin this weekend will be the first of four weeks of inserts that describe our vision for 2020. That vision will lead us to:

Build Sustaining Faith
Grow in Discipleship
Make Disciples
Maintain & Grow in Excellence of Ministry

Next weekend we will distribute packets to every household in the congregation as we invite you to consider your financial commitment for 2020. This packet will include our annual stewardship book that tells the story of where we have been and where we are going, a statement of intent to record your commitment for 2020 and a letter from me. Here at Abiding Presence, we think stewardship packets are pretty exciting, so you won’t want to miss the fun things that will be in your packet, too.

 As I look ahead to the coming year, I am as excited as ever to be your pastor. Abiding Presence is an amazing faith community that is changing lives, connecting people to Christ and build authentic community. Thank you for all you do to make our church the vibrant, active and Spirit-filled congregation it is.

All Saints Sunday is my favorite weekend of worship of the entire year (and not just because it always coincides with Daylight Savings Time and an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning). I countdown all year, preparing to sing with gusto the verses of “For All the Saints,” which is my favorite hymn. While I hold tight to the promise of eternal life throughout the year, on All Saints Sunday I cling to it as I am especially mindful of the saints in the great cloud of witnesses who surround us each time we gather at the Lord’s Table.

As your pastor, I find there to be something especially holy about standing at the font and the altar and naming the new saints—both naming those baptized into the living saints among us and naming those who have died into the great cloud of witnesses. Most years, I read the names through eyes blurry with tears. After nearly 10 years of ministry with you, the saints we have buried this past year people who I had come to know and love deeply. One of my greatest privileges is walking with you and sharing in your grief, too.

As I look at the pictures of all those who surround us in the great cloud of witnesses and out at all of you living saints in the congregation, the memories come flooding back of the saints in my life who have led me to this place. I remember people like Miss Betty Gerwig, the volunteer librarian at my home congregation when I was growing up who taught me how to play the game “dots” one Sunday while I waited for my parents to finish talking. I think about Mrs. Genevieve Manley, too, an older woman at the church who had no family in the area who my mom helped care for by driving her to doctors and checking in on her until her death. These two women taught be about what it meant to be a “faith family” long before I knew the phrase.

It is also the Sunday of the church year when I think about all of the children who I had the privilege to teach back when I was a teenager and sensing this call to ministry. All of those kids are now grown up. Some of them even have kids of their own. One of them, Billy, passed away in a tragic accident this year and I’ll be trusting he will be there in the great cloud of witnesses.

Finally, I call to mind the saints who taught me about generosity and faithfulness to God and the church. One of those saints is my grandfather. I was in my early 20s and visiting him one afternoon when he asked me to get his checkbook. He wanted me to write out his monthly contribution to the church for him so he could sign the check. He was homebound at the time, not getting to church and nearing death. “You are still giving to the church, Di?” I remember saying to him that afternoon. “Of course,” he explained, “you don’t stop giving to the church just because you cannot go.” It is a lesson that took me several years to learn and digest, but my faith journey has been far richer because of it.

I invite you to join me in thinking about your saints this weekend. Call to mind the people who have brought you to this place. We know and trust that they are present with us each and every time we gather at the Lord’s Table. This weekend, in particular, we will celebrate their presence as we cling to the promise of eternal life together. 

Throughout the month, we have been looking at the core value statement of our congregation:

At Abiding Presence:
All Are Welcome
We are a Faith Family, Together
We are God's Hands and Feet in the World
We See People as Christ Sees Them 

On this Reformation Sunday weekend, it is fitting for us to look at our first core value, “All are Welcome.”

So, what do we mean when we say, “All are Welcome?” First and foremost, we mean you are welcome. But we mean more than that, too. So, here’s a glimpse of what this value means to us.

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome at Abiding Presence:

· If you are young or old or somewhere in between, you are welcome
· If you have brown skin, black skin, white skin, or any color of skin, you are welcome
· If you are single, married, widowed, divorced or in a complicated relationship, you are welcome
· If you are LGBTQIA+, you are welcome
· If you are sick or well, happy or sad, you are welcome
· If you are rich or poor, powerful or weak, you are welcome
· If you believe in God some of the time, none of the time or all of the time, you are welcome

You are welcome here, so come:
· Come with your kids, your spouse, your extended family or by yourself
· Come with your gifts, pain, hope and fears
· Come with the church experiences that have helped you or hurt you or with no church experience at all
· Come with the life experiences that have shaped you and challenged you

Come and be part of the faith family of Abiding Presence where when we say “All are Welcome” we mean all and we mean you, too.

This welcome statement has been personalized for Abiding Presence, but is one many churches have adapted from Gordon Brown’s Shaping Sanctuary. Thankfully, there are many Christian churches that offer a clear welcome to all.

This past spring our church council and staff, along with input from the congregation, discerned how to put our core values as a faith family into words. The result was the following core value statement:

 At Abiding Presence:

All Are Welcome
We are a Faith Family, Together
We are God's Hands and Feet in the World
We See People as Christ Sees Them

 In my weekly newsletter messages this month, I have been exploring what each of these core values mean. This week I want us to take a look at “We See People as Christ Sees Them.” This value encompasses the idea that we both see other people as Christ sees them AND that we come to see ourselves as Christ sees us, too. They are two sides of the same coin of looking at people through the lens of Christ rather than the lens of the world.

First, let’s talk about how we see others through the lens of Christ. We know how Jesus sees people. The Bible is filled with stories of Jesus not only   noticing those who were on the margins, but also stopping to engage with them. He touched people who were considered to be unclean. He welcomed at his table those who were shunned. Over and over again, Jesus widens the  circle of who is included in the kingdom of God. No one is unworthy of Jesus’ time, attention and love.

When we look at others through the lens of Christ, we see not their sin, faults or mistakes, but instead we see that they are beloved in God’s eyes. We may not like them or their behavior. But, we are called to see them and treat them as  fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, beloved by God. That’s what we try to do here at Abiding Presence, whether the person is a fellow church member, one of our weekday community center guests or someone in the community in need of help.

I’ll be honest, some days this is harder than others. When telemarketers call the church, the last thing I want to do when I pick up the phone is to treat them as a beloved child of God. When someone throws a brick through the church    windows like happened this summer, it is really hard to stop and see them as Christ sees them. When I get cut off in traffic or hurtful by someone’s words, my go-to lens is not Christ’s. It takes practice, lots of it, to see  people first and foremost as Christ sees them.

To see others through the lens of Christ is not enough, however. We also come to see ourselves through that same lens. In my sermon last weekend I preached about being   defined by our identity as beloved children of God instead of the successes or failures the world tells us matter. As I preached last weekend, I need the voice of this faith family and of the God we proclaim to be the loudest voice in my life and in the lives of my children.

I wholeheartedly believe that this core value in our faith community has the possibility of changing our lives and the lives of others with the good news of God’s love. It’s a different way of being in the world. It is the way of Jesus. While it is far from easy, it is important.

This weekend we have the privilege of welcoming new members into our faith family. To our new members we say, “Welcome! We are glad that you are here.” We are the vibrant, Spirit-filled church we are because of new people like you who come into our midst.  

Welcoming new members is a great  opportunity for all of us to remember who we are as God’s people here at Abiding Presence. As some of you might recall, this past spring the church council and I invited the congregation to help us identify our core values. Core values serve as guiding principles that shape our life together. They reflect how we understand our call to be the Body of Christ in this time and place. 

 At Abiding Presence:

All Are Welcome
We are a Faith Family, Together
We are God's Hands and Feet in the World
We See People as Christ Sees Them

Today, I want to focus on what it means to live out our value of “We are a Faith Family Together.” As I look at it, there is a lot packed into this one phrase!

Family
As a congregation, we place a high   priority on supporting families, especially parents/caregivers and children/teens. Our worship environment is one that offers grace to adults as they teach children how to worship. We invest with time, finances and staff in our growing children, youth and family ministries. We envision new ways to connect with students, such as the Sunday night Youth Group ministry we launched this fall. We want to be a church where families/children/teens are fully integrated into all aspects of our life and ministry.

Families at Abiding Presence come in all different shapes and sizes. At any given worship service and throughout the week you will find families who are nuclear, extended, biological, adopted, blended, separated, LGTBQIA+, interfaith and not-so-sure-about-faith. Our definition of “family” is as broad as the beautiful diversity of families in our congregation and the community in which we live.

Faith Family
More than just wanting to support   families, though, we understand the church to be family. You will often here me teach, preach, write and talk using the phrase “faith family” to describe the church.

All that said, when we talk about family, we realize that it isn’t a word that creates a sense of warmth and       acceptance for everyone. For those whose prior family and/or church experiences have been less than   positive, we grieve with you and want this faith family to be a place where you find hope.

Together
At Abiding Presence, we live life together. It’s not perfect. Often times our life together is messy. Some days it involves a lot of forgiveness, grace, patience and strength. Many days, it offers great joy. We seek to be faith family that is real and authentic as we do life together.

We are a Faith Family, Together
I am grateful for each one of you and your place in this faith family. It is my privilege to walk with you in the holy space of being one of your pastors, raise my children alongside you and do life together with you.

I have been reminded recently of the opening  words of the ELCA social statement “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice,”  which say:

Christian concern for the environment is shaped by the Word of God spoken in creation, the Love of God hanging on a cross, the Breath of God daily renewing the face of the earth. We of the ELCA are deeply concerned about the environment, locally and globally, as members of this church and as members of society...we know care for the earth to be a profoundly spiritual matter.

We worship a God who is the creator of heaven and earth. This means that as people of faith and followers of Jesus, care for the earth is a spiritual matter. One of the ways we live out our faith and live in relationship with our Creator God is in the way we steward the earth. 

So, what does this mean? First and foremost, it means that I have sinned and fallen short in my care for the earth in ways too numerous to count. Maybe you have, too. I am mindful that there is much that I have done and left undone when it comes to being a good steward of God’s creation. 

Second, it means that the church has something to say to the world about what it means to care for God’s  creation. As people of faith, caring for the earth is something about which we can and should speak out.

Third, understanding that our care for the earth is connected to our lives as   followers of Jesus, we as the faith family of Abiding Presence have the chance to model what it looks like to be good stewards of God’s creation. I hope we can begin to have conversations around what this might mean moving forward. If you would like to be part of the discussion, please let me know.

As we seek to better steward God’s  creation, we are trying a few things this weekend in order to reduce the amount of paper we use in worship. These changes are experiments to see what might work (or not work) as we seek to care for the earth. I welcome your feedback as to how they go.

Here’s what we are trying:

· Having one prayer request sheet in the back of the sanctuary instead of stuffing individual sheets in each bulletin. (Reduction of 150 pieces of paper/weekend)

· Offering a small number of reusable worship outlines at the 8:45 a.m. service instead of printing a worship folder for each  person. (Reduction of 130 pieces of paper/weekend)

· Creating a worship folder for Saturdays that can be used for a few weeks in a row. (Reduction of 500 pieces of paper/month)

I look forward to continuing the  conversation as a faith family about what it means to be good stewards of God’s creation here at Abiding Presence and out in the world.